Preposition of place in is used because there were some prepositional phrases that requires preposition of place in. In the other word, those prepositional phrases make
its own collocation with prepositional of place in.
c. The Students Difficulties in Mastering Preposition of Place on
Preposition of place on contributed the lowest erroneous in the test. And yet, there were some items that made the students faced difficulties. From 400 items
tested, there were 125 erroneous items in the test part I. Sixty eight of it were replaced by preposition of place at and 57 were replaced by preposition of place in.
There were 23 erroneous items in the test part II. Three of it was replaced by the preposition on place at, and the rest 20 items was replaced by the preposition of
place in. Some of the erroneous items were listed below. 1 Item number 5 part I:
I forgot the name of the beautiful town…the east coast of England. Seventeen students answered incorrectly in this item which means there were
eight of them answered this item correctly. There were nine students used preposition of place in as the answer and eight students used preposition of place at. Preposition
of place on is used in this item because preposition of place on indicate enclosure in a geographical map, such as on the coast on a river on a road. The correct answer
should be: I forgot the name of the beautiful town on the east coast of England.
2 Item number 15 part I:
I live…the second floor of the apartment. Sixteen erroneous were made by the students in this item. Eleven students
answered by using preposition of place in and five of them used preposition of place at
to answer this item. Preposition of place on is used to indicate location on a surface two dimensions. The correct answer should be:
I live
on the second floor of the apartment.
3 Item number in 21 part I: In Britain we drive…left side.
There were thirteen students answered correctly in this item, which means twelve of them answered incorrectly. Nine of the students used preposition of place at
as the answer and three of them used preposition of place in. Preposition of place on is used in this item to create idiomatic expression.
The correct answer for this item is: In Britain we drive on the left side.
4 Item number 9 part II: Ada banyak kotoran di dinding kamarku.
Thirteen students answered this item incorrectly. From those, eleven students answered this item by using preposition of place in and two of them answered by
using preposition of place at. One of the functions of Preposition of place on is to indicate location on a surface two dimensions. So, the correct answer should be:
There was much dirt on the wall of my room.
D. The Possible Causes of the Students’ Difficulties in Mastering Preposition of
