Misordering Students’ Errors in Part A

In question 7, the student seemed to be influenced by the rules of regular passive voice. This might be the cause why the students added was as the be before got . This error is also similar with the student’s answer in question 9. In the other side, the students decided to put Bruno as the subject for the passive sentence because him in the question is put after the verb that can be a sign as the object of the active sentence. The students seemed to notice the rule of regular passive voice where: one, the form of be is added before past participle of a transitive verb Zandvoort, 1969: 54; and two, the subject of a passive sentence may correspond to the direct object of active sentence Zandvoort, 1969: 56. This problem is similar with question 9 where the students contemplated need as the main verb, someone as the object, and to check out our computer for viruses as the to- infinitive clause. The omission of have in the sentence is probably because the student thought need as the main verb for the sentence. Next, the students also did some errors in changing active causative of have into passive form in modal tense. The example is in question 9. Question 9 : We need to have someone check out our computer for viruses. SA : The computer have to be checked by someone. In the example above, there are two types of error: misformation and omission. Misformation error in that answer is the change in the verb into have as modal. The reason why student omitted need to have and changed it into have modal probably was because of the meaning of need itself. Based on the meaning in Oxford Dictionary, need has the meaning of: to show what you have to do. Due to this reason, it is logical if students thought that the sentence can be changed into passive form of modal because both of need and have as modal have the same sense. Nonetheless, the answer is incorrect because the sentence should be changed into passive causative form which is: ‘We need to have our computer checked out for viruses’. The omission in the example can be seen from the absence of out and for viruses. Student’s answer above also shows misformation error of have which it should be has due to the singular subject: the computer. The last common mistake of misformation in Part B is the use of wrong subject and wrong lexical item when the students changed the sentence into passive form. Question 10 : I had to have the seller fix my camera after I dropped it in the water. SA : My seller had to fix my camera after I dropped it in the water. Question 11 : He got his sister to help his homework. SA : I get my homework done by my sister. There is omission of have as the causative verb and a change of subject in question 10. The form of have modal + to-infinitive in the question is maintained by the student. Probably, because of the repetition of have, the student decided to put fix after had modal. In order to indicate the passive form, the student tried to put the seller that heshe thought as the direct object of the question as the subject of passive form. It is clearly untrue because the seller should be the causee which is put after by- i n the end of causative phrase. Misformation error is shown by the student’s answer that maintaining the sentence in active form.