AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ SPELLING IN WRITING AT SMA MUHAMMADIYAH 3 YOGYAKARTA

An Error Analysis on Students’ Spelling in Writing
at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education
In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Sarjana Pendidikan

Risnati
20120540068

English Education Department
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
August 2016

An Error Analysis on Students’ Spelling in Writing
at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education
In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree
Sarjana Pendidikan

Risnati
20120540068

English Education Department
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
August 2016
i

ii

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY

I am a student with the following identity:
Name

: Risnati

NIM

: 20120540068

Program Study

: English Education Department

Faculty

: Faculty of Language Education

University

: Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta

Certify that the skripsi entitled “An Error Analysis on Students’ Spelling in Writing
at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta” is definitely my own work. I am completely
responsible for the content of this skripsi. Others’ opinion or findings included in this

skripsi are quoted in accordance with ethical standard.
Yogyakarta, August 25th 2016
The researcher,

Risnati

iii

Acknowledgement
‫بسم ه الرحمن الرحيم‬
First of all, all praises be to Allah SWT who give me mercy and blessing,
health, guidance, strength, help, and love during finishing my skripsi.
I wish to express my sincere thanks to my beloved parents, Bapak Wastar, Ibu
Di’oh, who always pray for me, support and love me in my life. I dedicate this skripsi
to both of you, Bapak and Ibuk. I love you so much, may Allah SWT always bless
you. I am deeply thankful to my sweetest sisters, Kamelia Putri and Anggun
Agusthina Ramadhaniya, who always support me and love me. I am also grateful to
my beloved grandma (Tarsuni), my beloved auntie (Nuri), and all of my big family,
who always support, motivate, and love me, may Allah always bless you.
Special gratitude belongs to my beloved supervisor, Mrs. Maryam Sorohiti,

S.S., M.H.Sc., for supporting, guiding, helping and encouragement me in finishing
my skripsi. I also thank to my examiners, Mr. Puthut Ardianto, S.Pd. M.Pd., and Mrs.
Sri Sudarsi, S.S., M. InT., for all suggestions and valuable comments to improve my
skripsi. I also place my thanks to all the Lecturers of English Education Department
of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, for teaching and guiding me during my
study in EED of UMY.
My gratitude to headmaster of SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta, bapak
Herynugroho, M.Pd., who has given me permission to conduct my research in the
school. I am grateful to ibu Utami Soifah, S.Pd as the teacher of SMA

iv

Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta who has been allowing me to conduct my research in
her class. I am also grateful to all of the participants of this research, students class XI
Science Program.
Special thanks to my beloved friends “Kongkowers”, Nova, Evita, Ghaisani,
Riza, Harahap, Ana, and April who always support, motivate, and help me, and all of
my beloved friends at EED batch 2012 especially class B who cannot be mentioned
one by one. Thanks for this friendship and togetherness. I also thanks for my beloved
best friend, Ayu, Evi, Eno, A’ah, and Ukky, and for my beautiful ladies Mbak Leny,

Marimar, Adnan, and Kori who always support and motivate me. I love you all guys,
may Allah always bless you, amen.

Yogyakarta, August 2015

Risnati

v

Table of Contents

Cover .................................................................................................................... i
Approval Sheet .................................................................................................... ii
Statement of work’s originality ........................................................................... iii
Acknowledgement .............................................................................................. iv
Table of Contents ............................................................................................... vi
Abstract .............................................................................................................. ix
Chapter One ........................................................................................................ 1
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
Background ...................................................................................................... 1

Statement of the Problem ................................................................................. 4
Limitation of the Problem ................................................................................. 5
Research Question ............................................................................................ 5
The purpose of the Research ............................................................................. 6
Significance of the Research............................................................................. 6
Outline of the Research .................................................................................... 7
Chapter Two ....................................................................................................... 8

vi

Literature Review ............................................................................................... 8
Writing ............................................................................................................. 8
Spelling ............................................................................................................ 9
Error............................................................................................................... 10
Error Analysis ................................................................................................ 11
Spelling Error ................................................................................................. 12
Types of Spelling Error .................................................................................. 15
Review of Previous Studies ............................................................................ 18
Conceptual Framework .................................................................................. 19
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework.................................................................... 21

Chapter Three ................................................................................................... 22
Methodology...................................................................................................... 22
Research Design ............................................................................................. 22
Research Setting ............................................................................................. 22
Research Participant ....................................................................................... 23
The Data Collection Method ........................................................................... 23
Data Analysis ................................................................................................. 24
Chapter Four ..................................................................................................... 25

vii

Findings And Discussion ................................................................................... 26
The type of spelling errors which occurred at students’ writing ...................... 26
The error that most frequently occurred in students’ writing ........................... 47
Chapter Five ..................................................................................................... 51
Conclusion and Suggestion ................................................................................ 51
Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 51
Suggetion ....................................................................................................... 52
References ......................................................................................................... 54
Appendix ........................................................................................................... 58

viii

Abstract
Spelling is one of the important things for students in learning writing. However, in
writings, students frequently committed errors in spelling the English words. This
research aimed to find out the types of spelling errors and the type of error that
frequently occurs in students’ writing. This research used qualitative design and the
instrument of this research was document analysis. This research conducted at SMA
Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta (senior high school). The researcher selected the
participants by using convenience sampling and took 30 students’ hortatory texts
from three classes of grade XI of Science Program. The result showed that students
class XI Science Program (IPA) at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta committed
ten categories of spelling errors. These ten categories covered omission of a letter,
addition of a letter, single letter instead of double letter, double letter instead of single
letter, substitution of one letter, interchange of two adjacent letters, involving an
apostrophe, erroneous splitting or joining of words (word segmentation error), two or
more error of the same type or of different types (multiple error), and sound based
error. Meanwhile, the most frequently error that occurred in the students’ writings
was single letter instead of double letter category.

Keywords: error analysis, writing, spelling, spelling error, type of spelling error

ix

1

Chapter One
Introduction
This chapter describes the background that presents the reason of the
researcher to choose the topic about spelling error. Besides, in this chapter, the
researcher also talks about statement of the problem, limitation of the problem,
research question, the purpose of the research, significance of the research, and the
last is the outline of the research.
Background
Writing is a difficult process even in the first language, and it is even more
complicated to write in a foreign language (Hourani, 2008). In addition, Hourani
(2008) said that there are many studies point out for the beginning EFL students,
there tends to be intervention from their first language in the process of writing in
English. According to Uusen (2012) writing has two components, there are contents
and form. Content includes thought, idea, and the purpose of writing, while form

includes handwriting, spelling, and syntax. Those are several things that students
have to master in writing, included spelling.
Spelling is combinations of letters forming whole word correctly. Spelling
becomes an important thing in writing because it can influence the meaning of word
itself. It can influence the meaning of a message because the message in writing is
delivered in a composition of words that forms a sentence, and words are form from

2

spelling letter. From those reasons, students have to master spelling well and be
careful in using spelling.
To make a good and meaningful word, language learners need to be aware
about spelling. Based on the Oxford Dictionary (2008), spelling is an act of forming
words correctly for individual letter. It is one of the things that are learned in
language lesson, especially in writing activity. Expressing words in written form
should be accurate so that the meaning of word can be accepted clearly by the reader.
To convey letter effectively, correct spelling is strongly required (Bancha, 2013).
“Spelling rules are guides that will help the writers put their ideas into writing that
can be understood by others” (Sanford, 1979, p. 436). It means spelling one of the
significant aspects in students’ writing activity.

According to Al-Jarf (2010) in his research, spelling problem can be classified
into phonological and orthographic problems. Phonological problems refer to errors
in which the misspelled word does not sound like the target word because the whole
word, consonant, vowel, syllable, prefix, suffix, grapheme cluster is not heard at all or
misheard, or added with another. Furthermore, orthographic problems refer to the
misspelled word which sounds like the written target word, but the written form or
grapheme used for the misspelled part does not correspondence with the target word
or target grapheme. In learning English, usually students find the words that contain
vowel digraphs or consonant digraphs and it becomes one of the problems that

3

students confronted, whereas in the first language, students seldom find the words
that contain vowel digraphs or consonant digraphs.
English is a unique language because sometimes English can spell one sound
in several different ways. “In a word fun, the sound of (f) is spelled with an f. In
photo, the same sound (f) is spelled with the letters ph. In the word rough, the same
sound is spelled with the letters gh” (Sanford, 1979, p. 448). Besides in English there
is a homonym word. “The words to, too, and two are homonyms because they all
sound alike but they are not spelled alike” (Sanford, 1979, p. 450).
Students face many difficulties when they write, especially in spelling (Alzouod & Kabilan, 2013). In addition, students cannot express their ideas because they
cannot spell words accurately. It means spelling can influence the student’s ideas in
their writing. If spelling can affect the idea of the students, then the students should
be mastery spelling well. As known, there are so many words in English have the
same pronunciation, but different spelling.
Similar difficulties were faced by students of SMA Muhammadiyah 3
Yogyakarta (Senior High School). Based on the researcher’s teaching practice
experience at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta, the researcher found that students
at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta sometimes misspelled some words in the
writing activity. From several cases, even students who were good in speaking still
did some spelling errors in their writing. This condition might be caused by the fact
that most of the students at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta wrote their

4

assignment using laptop or computer which automatically detect and provide
correction for the errors. Besides, the students used their gadget to help them in
finishing their assignment. This condition made the students probably become less
aware of the correct spelling when they had to write without computer or in
handwriting.
Based on the reasons above, the researcher was interested in carrying out a
research on error analysis on students’ spelling in writing at SMA 3 Muhammadiyah
Yogyakarta.
Statement of the Problem
Communication can be expressed in spoken or written forms. In spoken
English communication, people probably do not really care about the right spelling of
English, whereas, in written form, incorrect letter will alter the word and the meaning
of the word itself (Perveen & Akram, 2014). In other words, spelling error can make
reader misunderstand about the meaning of the text and the misspelling will affect
more in written form rather than in spoken because the clarification of the message
conveyed, if needed, can not be done directly. Therefore, spelling should be taken
into consideration when writing.
Although spelling is significant in writing, not all students spell the words
correctly. The problem they face dealing with spelling refer to either phonological or
orthographic problems. In addition, students are used to apply automatic spelling

5

correction provided by computer. Even now students also use digital electronic, like
gadget, tablet and others to find English word easily. This might make the students
less aware of the right spelling in their writing. So, spelling errors in student’s writing
are often found.
Limitation of the Problem
In writing, there are several categories of errors. AbiSharma (2003), divided
the writing error into five categories, such as grammar (preposition, articles, and
adjective), syntactic error (coordination and structure), lexical error, semantic, and
substance/ mechanics (punctuation, capitalization, spelling). In this research, the
researcher will only focus on substance/ mechanics especially on spelling. The
researcher will focus on the spelling errors in writing hortatory text done by students
of SMA Muhammdiyah 3 Yogyakarta. The researcher will not differentiate whether
the spelling errors done by the students belong to the category of errors or mistakes
proposed by Ellis (2000). In some cases of this research, the term errors and mistakes
are used interchangeably. The researcher will focus in finding out the types of
spelling errors and the most frequently types of spelling errors in writing done by the
students of SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta.
Research Question
There are two research questions in this study. The first, what are the types of
students’ spelling errors in writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta and the

6

second, which type of the spelling error that most frequently occurs in students’
writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta.
The Purpose of the Research
The purposes of this study are to find out the types on students’ spelling error in
writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta and to find out the type of the spelling
error that most frequently occurs in students’ writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3
Yogyakarta.
Significance of the Research
This study has several advantages, such as:
For the researcher. This research can be helpful for the researcher as the
prospective teacher. From the research, the researcher will know the method or
strategy in teaching writing, especially in dealing with spelling. Besides, this research
is a requirement for the researcher to graduate.
For the learners or readers. This research also can be useful for the learners or
the readers to increase their knowledge. This research can also give the learners or
readers understanding about spelling in written form. Besides, this research can
increase the learners or the reader’s awareness about the importance of spelling in
writing activity, so that they may improve their spelling ability.
For the teacher. This research is helpful because from this research they can
evaluate their method or strategy in teaching writing, especially on spelling.

7

Outline of the Research
This research discusses the analysis of students’ misspelling in writing at
SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta students and there are five chapters in this
research. The first chapter is about introduction that includes background which
describes the reasons of choosing the topic, and then followed by statement of the
problem, limitation of the problem, research question, the purpose of the research,
significance of the research and outline of the research. The second chapter tells
about literature review and conceptual framework. The chapter explains about the
theory that is related to the topic. The theories will support the topic and theory will
be taken from trusted resources.
The next chapter, chapter three is about research methodology that explains
about research design, setting, and participants, the data collection method, and the
data analysis. The fourth chapter presents the findings of the research. The last
chapter, chapter five draws the conclusion, suggestion and recommendation. The
conclusion is summarizing the whole result of the research. Meanwhile suggestion
and recommendation offer motivation or critic that can push both of writer and reader
to be better in spelling.

8

Chapter Two
Literature Review
This chapter presents the literature review of the research. It discusses writing,
spelling, error, error analysis, spelling error, and the last is conceptual framework.
The disscusion will be based on the statement from the expert.
Writing
According to Hourani (2008), writing is a difficult process in the first
language and it is even more complicated to write in a foreign language. Writing is an
important part in the process of learning any foreign language (Perveen & Akram,
2014). Another statement states writing is an outward expression of what is going in
the writer’s mind (Hussain, Hanif, Asif, & Rehman, 2013). Writing skill in ESL is
challenging because students have to practice before and they also need to understand
about what their write. According to Hussain et al (2013) “The ability to write is not
naturally acquired skill. It is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of
practices in formal instructional setting” (p.832). In fact, students need long process
to practice for being capable in mastering writing skill.
Sattayatham & Ratanapinyowong’s (2008) study found the following:
In terms of ESL and EFL lesson, writing can help students in learning activity.
Firstly; writing consolidates the grammatical structure, idioms, and vocabulary
that they were taught to students. Secondly, when student write, they also have

9

an option to be courageous with the language, to go beyond what they have just
learned to say, and takes the risks. Thirdly, when student write, they essential
become concerned with the new language, the effort to express ideas and
constant use of eyes, hand, and brain is unique way to reinforce learning. (p.19).
Writing has two components, such as contents (composition) and form
(secretarial aspect). Content includes thoughts, idea, and the purpose of writing,
vocabulary, and clarity, while form includes handwriting, spelling, and syntax
(Uusen, 2006). Writing does not only put the words in a blank paper, but it needs
some process. According to Harmer (2007), “There are several processes in writing,
such as planning what we are going to write, drafting it, reviewing and the last is
editing what we have written and then producing a final (and satisfactory) version”
(p.113).
Spelling
Good spelling is an important thing in writing activity. Spelling is an aspect of
written language, so the teaching learning of spelling mush take place as far as
possible within the context of writing (Croft, 1983, p.9). Based on the Oxford
dictionary (2008), spelling is an act of forming words correctly from single letters.
Similarly, Perveen and Akram (2014) stated that spelling is a study of phonics as
related to the grouping of words for spelling such as an, man, can and others. This
statement explains that spelling is a group of the words. Besides, according to Alzuoud & Kabilan (2013), spelling is the learner’s ability to write a word correctly.

10

Spelling is a part of mechanical component of writing. Like the other skill,
writing has mechanical components that include handwriting, spelling, punctuation,
and the construction of well-formed sentences, paragraph, and texts (Harmer, 2004,
p.44). The other statement comes from Hall (1983, p.414). He stated that one of the
first steps in improving writing is to improve spelling. Accurate spelling in writing is
important to avoid misunderstanding. In writing activity, we need to be aware of our
spelling, so that the information can be delivered well. According to Croft (1983), the
only possible justification for learning to spell is that accurate spelling is necessary
for effective writing. If there is no need to communicate by writing, there is no need
to learn to spell (p. 9). Moreover, according to Harmer (2001),
An issue that makes spelling difficult for several students is the fact that not
all varieties of English spell the same words in the same way. Which is
correct: color or colour, and theater or theatre? How do we decide between
the use of s and z in words like apologise and customize. (p.256).
Error
Writing is a challenging skill. Students who want to master writing should be
able to spell well. In language study, not all students always use correct English.
They will make mistakes, too, when writing or speaking freely (Harmer, 2007). Error
and mistake are different. According to Edge in Perveen & Akram (2014), defines

11

error in a simple way “if student cannot self-correct a mistake in their own English,
we shall call that sort of mistake an error”. According to Harmer (2007),
Mistakes divide into 3 categories; there are slip, error, and attempts. Slips are
mistakes which students can correct themselves, once the mistake has been
pointed out them. The other way, errors are mistakes which they cannot correct
themselves-and which, therefore, need explanation. Attempts are mistakes that
students make when they try to say something but do not yet know how to say
it. (p.96).
Error and mistake are two different things. According to Ellis (2000, p.17), errors
reflect gaps in a learners knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know
what is correct. On the other hand, mistakes occur because, in a particular instance,
the learners are unable to perform what they know.
Error Analysis
Error analysis is an activity to reveal errors found in writing and speaking
(Hasyim, 2002, p.43). Similarly, Barzegar (2013) stated “error analysis is a procedure
used both researcher and teachers which involves collecting samples of learner
language, identifying the error in the sample, describing these errors, classifying them
according to their nature and causes, and evaluating their seriousness” (p. 322). The
other definition states that error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on
the errors learners make (AbiSamra, 2003, p.6).

12

The other opinion comes from Hasyim (2002) who stated that
Error analysis is advantageous for both learners and teachers. Besides, benefit
for students, error analysis is needed to show them in what aspect in grammar
which is difficult for them, while for teachers, it is required to evaluate
themselves whether they are successful or not in teaching. Thus, error analysis
should not be neglected in foreign language teaching. (p.42-43).
Thus, the definition explains that error analysis is a technique to investigate an error
word and sentence in writing or speaking form.
Spelling Error
Botley, Hakim and Dillah (2007) stated, “spelling error are highly ubiquitous
and contentious features of second language learners’ written performance” (p.75).
The other definition of spelling error is given by Al-jarf (2010); he said “Any faulty
words, faulty graphemes (single vowel, single consonant, vowel digraphs, consonant
digraphs, phonogram, suffix or prefix) within a word are counted as an error. Any
graphemes that are added, deleted, substituted by another or reversed are counted as
misspellings”. (p.9).
Spelling error usually occurs because the students cannot distinguish between
letters and sound of the word when they write. According to Perveen & Akram
(2014), “Sounds, letters, word parts, word meaning, and word history are those
elements which play the important role in learning to spell the words of English

13

language” (p.2605). Similarly, “A single sound (or more correctly, a single phoneme)
may have many different spelling (paw, poor, pore, pour, daughter, Sean), and the
same spelling may have many different sound (or, word, information, worry,
correspond)” (Harmer, 2001, p.256).
Spelling error still appears in large number in writing producing by learner;
even drilling and training technique did in every school or university (Botley et al,
2007). According to Benyo (2014), spelling errors are due to these sound problems.
The other statement, “One of the reasons that spelling is difficult for students of
English is that the correspondence between the sound of a word and the way it is spelt
is not always obvious (Harmer, 2001, p.271). The other statement given by Al-zuoud
& Kabilan, (2013) stated, many students produce misspelled word, which result in
disconnected sentence.
According to Benyo (2014), bad spelling is a hindrance for the reader to get
the meaning of written language. Awareness on spelling in the writing is necessary.
According to Harmer (2004), “Learning of English need to be aware about how we
use different spellings to distinguish between homophones (words that sound the
same but are spelt differently) such as threw and through” (p.53).
In relation with error, spelling error refer to phonological and orthographic
problem. Al-jarf (2010) said that,

14

Spelling problem can be classified into phonological and orthographic
problems. Phonological problems refer to errors in which the misspelled word
does not sound like the target word because the whole word, consonant,
vowel, syllable, prefix, suffix, grapheme cluster is not heard at all or
misheard, or added with another, while orthographic problem refer to those
instances in which the misspelled word sound like the written target word, but
the written form or grapheme used for the misspelled part does not
correspondence with the target word or target grapheme. (p.6-7).
According to Coltheart (1985) and Henderson (1985) as quoted by Royer, Spinelli,
and Ferrand (2005) “graphemes are commonly defined as the written representation
of phonemes”. (p.2).
Beside phonological and orthographic problems, the use of apostrophe in the
word also affects spelling error if it misplace. In learning English, students need to
understand how to use an apostrophe correctly. There are some rules in using an
apostrophe. According to Straus (2008),
When using the apostrophe with contractions, the apostrophe is always placed
at the spot where the letter (s) has been removed, for example like “don’t”,
isn’t and many others. Meanwhile, when using the apostrophe with the
possession, the place of the apostrophe is before the s to show singular
possession, for example “Mr. Chang’s house”. (p.63).

15

Besides, students’ first language (L1) usually affect in spelling. Hourani
(2008) who pointed out that there tends to be intervention from the beginning ESL
students’ first language in the process of writing in English. Whereas in Bahasa itself,
there are several word that adopt from foreign language. According to Yulianto
(2014) Indonesian language adopts element of several languages, both of local
language and foreign language, such as Sanskrit, Portuguese, Arabic, Dutch, Chinese,
and English. Those reasons above may can cause spelling error in students’ writing.
Types of Spelling Error
The errors that occur on students are divided into several categories.
According to Bestgen and Granger (2011), the variables underlying the categorization
are: the element that carries the error (letter, word, boundary, and apostrophe), and
the error type (single letter addition, omission, substitution, transposition, and
multiple errors letters). Similarly, according to Benyo (2014), many spelling errors
are due to omission, addition, substitution, and transposition of the sounds. Based on
the statement above, several types in spelling errors could happen in writing.
The other opinion comes from Elliot and Johnson (2008, p.6) who stated that
there are several types of spelling error as the following:
1. Sound- based (homophones, incorrect consonant, and e for y, vowel sound
error, and morpheme error).
2.

Rules based error (doubling/ singling, and text-speak)

16

3. Omission, commission and transposition (single or paired letters added,
omitted or transposed).
4.

Writing error (spacing, end of word missing).

5. Multiple errors.
According to Bestgen and Granger (2011), there are 9 categories of spelling
errors. They are letter, word, boundary, apostrophe, single letter addition, omission,
substitution, transposition, and multiple errors letters as seen in the following table:
Table 1. The categories of spelling
Categories of spelling error

Example

Omission of a letter

Completly-completely
Concious-conscious
Distinc-distinct
Eople-people
Mecanisms-mechanisms
Throghout-throughout

Addition of a letter

Develope-develop
Youngs-young
Alledged-alleged
Eightheen-eighteen
Envolves-evolves
Ridicoulous-ridiculous

Single letter instead of double letter

Especialy-especially
Robed-robbed
Adicts-addicts
Carots-carrots
Ocurred-occurred

17

Occuring-occurring
Double letter instead of single letter

Appartments-apartments
Allmighty- Almighty
Detailled- Detailed
Loosing-losing
Proffessors-professors

Substitution of one letter

Lifes-lives
Dependend-dependent
Consecuently-consequently
Confortable-comfortable
Engeneering-engineering
Uncredible-incredible

Interchange of two adjacent letter

Concieved-conceived
Birht-birth
Lfie-life
Peopels-peoples
Entreprises-enterprises

Involving an apostrophe

Its-it’s
Womans-woman’s
Childrens’-children’s

Erroneous splitting or joining of words

Business_man- businessman

(word segmentation error)

Every_one-everyone
Free_time-freetime
Every_day-everyday
Air_pollution-airpollution
Even_though-eventhough

Two or more error of the same type or

Unbalance-imbalance

of different types

Politic-political

18

Payed-paid
Weter-whether
Dustbinman-dustman
Theirselves-themselves
Beggining-beginning
Configurating-configuring
Divorcion-divorce
Hitted-hit

Based on the description above, the researcher will use Bestgen and Granger’s
theory as guidance of this research.
Review of Previous Study
Sawalmeh (2013), carried out his research about error analysis of written
English at university of Ha’il (Ha’il Saudi Arabia), and he took 32 male
undergraduates as a sample. He found ten common errors that committed by student,
and including among them is spelling. From ten errors that found by Sawalmeh,
spelling is occupied in the rank four mistakes did by learners. The result percentage
shows that 11.6% of 100% is an error on spelling that committed by learners in their
written work.
Meanwhile, Hendriwanto and Sugeng (2012) found fourteen common errors
on student’s writing narrative task of their research about an analysis of the
grammatical errors in the narrative writing of the first grade students of SMA 6
Yogyakarta, and one of common errors that commit by learners are spelling. They

19

conducted their study at SMA 6 Yogyakarta, and they took 30 participants that
include of 17 female and 13 male. The age of participants was around 15 to 16 years
old and they were in the grade X.
The other research was done by AbiSarma (2003). In his research entitled
“An Analysis of Errors in Arabic Speakers’ English Writing”, he classified error in
the writing into five categories, namely grammatical, syntactic, lexical, semantic, and
substance. He collected the samples of 10 student’s written work in grade 9. The
highest numbers of errors found in substance, largely in spelling. Those previous
study shows that spelling error is the one of problem that still happen on students in
their writing activity.
Conceptual framework
Writing is one of the skills that are very important in learning English.
According to Uusen (2006) writing has two components, such as contents
(composition) and form (secretarial aspect). In this study, the researcher wants to
carry out a research about spelling as one of the component in writing in terms of
form or secretarial aspect. The researcher will only describe spelling errors in
students’ writing activity.
Spelling errors commonly happen because of the added, deleted, substituted
process in a word unintentionally. Related to error analysis, it defined as a technique
to identify, describe, and classify the error in writing or speaking. This procedure will
be applied in analysing students’ errors in writing based on Bestgen and Granger

20

(2011) who categorize nine spelling errors in writing. They are letter, word,
boundary, apostrophe, single letter addition, omission, substitution, transposition, and
multiple errors letters. The conceptual framework is presented in the following chart.

21

Figure 1: Conceptual framework

Addition of a letter

Omission of a
letter

Substitution of one
letter
Singel letter
Instead of double
Letter
Categories
Spelling error
based on Bestgen
& Granger (2011)

Double letter
instead of singel
letter
Interchange of two
adjecent letter

Error involving an
apostrophe

Word segmentation
error

Multiple errors
letters

22

Chapter Three
Research Methodology

This chapter describes the methodology of the research. It consists of four
parts, namely research design, setting and participant, data collection method, and
data analysis.
Research Design
This research applied qualitative approach. According to Bogdan and Taylor
(1975) as quoted by Moleong (2002), qualitative research is a research method that
reports descriptive data of a certain kind of written or oral form from the people as
the participants of the research. This research aimed to describe the types of spelling
error on students’ text written by students at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta, so
the qualitative design was suitable for this research. The researcher also enclosed a
calculation of the occurrence of the type of spelling errors were found from students’
hortatory text. According to Perry (2008) numbers in the form of frequencies of
certain phenomena can be used in qualitative research.
Research Setting
This research was carried out in SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. The
reason why the researcher chose SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta as the setting of
this research was because of several reasons. The first reason was the researcher

23

wanted to do the research about spelling error. Based on the researcher’s observation
when conducting teaching practice at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta, the
researcher found spelling errors in students’ writing. Besides, at SMA
Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta, students were often given a task to write texts, like
genre and functional text by handwriting. Therefore, the researcher was interested in
identifying the spelling errors they made by taking this school as the setting of this
research.
Research Participants
The participants of this research were the students of Class XI, Science
Program (IPA). There were 30 students from three classes as the participants. So
there were 30 texts of hortatory exposition assignments that were be analysed. The
reason of choosing class XI Science Program as the participants was because the data
needed were only available in class XI Science Program during the data gathering
time. Other classes only provided the group writing work which was not suitable to
the researcher’s need. The 30 participants were chosen using convenience sampling
from three classes. These 30 participants were selected based on the readability of
their writing work. It means the researcher could read and understand their writing.
The Data Collection Method
According to Hasyim (2002, p.43) error analysis is an activity to reveal error
found in writing and speaking, and this research is related to error analysis in writing.
Therefore, the document analysis is suitable for the instrument of this research.
Creswell (2012) stated that documents represent a good resource for text (word) in

24

data qualitative study, and they give the advantage of being in language and words of
the participants. They also ready to analyze without the necessary transcription.
For the data collection method, the researcher collected the documentation of
student’s writing test from three classes of students XI Science Program (IPA) at
SMA Muhammadiya 3 Yogyakarta. The data were taken from hortatory exposition
text written by handwriting and there were three topics of hortatory text, namely
“Illegal Logging, Students’ Fighting, and Consuming Drugs”. There were 100-250
words in each paper. The researcher got the data with the permission from the
teacher.
Data Analysis
After collecting the data, the researcher analysed the errors on spelling in
students’ writing text by re-typing students’ hortatory text. The next step, the
researcher identified the students’ spelling errors using spelling checker, both
American and British spelling. The researcher also manually identified the error were
not identified by the spelling checker. The errors found then were classified based on
Bestgen and Granger’s category. To find out which type of error most frequently
occurred, the researcher counted the frequency of each type of errors based on the
result of the first findings. The researcher used expert judgment to ensure the validity
of the analysis and the expert judgment was the researcher’s supervisor. The data
found were consulted and discussed with the supervisor. The expert agreed the

25

analysis was validated by the supervisor; the findings were described and discussed in
the research report.

26

Chapter Four
Findings and Discussion
This chapter presents the findings of the research. It shows the answer of the
research questions of the research. There are two research questions in this research.
The first research question is “What are the types of students’ spelling errors in
writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta” and the second is “Which types of
the spelling error that frequently occur in students’ writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3
Yogyakarta”. The findings are followed by the discussion.
The findings of this research were taken from the analysis hortatory text from
30 students of class XI, Science Program (IPA) at SMA Muhammadiyah 3
Yogyakarta. There are two main categories of findings uncovered based on the
research question of the research. The first is the type of spelling errors made by the
students, and the second is the error that frequently occurs on the student’s spelling.
The type of spelling errors which occurred on students’ writing of class XI,
Science Program at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. Based on the data
analysis, the researcher found 201 spelling error in 30 students’ hortatory texts of
class XI, Science Program at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. From 201 errors,
the researcher found ten types of spelling errors. The researcher categorized the ten
errors as seen in the following table:

27

Table 2. Categories found in students’ writing
Categories of spelling error

Occurrence of error

Percentage (%)

Omission of a letter

27

13.4%

Addition of a letter

14

6.9%

Single letter instead of double letter

43

21.4%

Double letter instead of single letter

5

2.6%

Substitution of one letter

33

16.5%

Interchange two adjacent letters

13

6.6%

Error involving an apostrophe

10

4.9%

Erroneous splitting or joining of words

16

7.9%

34

16.9%

Sound based error

6

2.9%

Total errors

201

100%

(word segmentation error)
Two or more errors of the same type or
different types (multiple errors)

Based on table 2 above, there are ten categories of spelling errors. They
include omission of a letter (13.4%), addition of a letter (2.9%), single letter instead
of double letter (21.4%), double letter instead of single letter (2.6%), substitution of
one letter (16.5%), interchange two adjacent letters (6.6%), error involving an

28

apostrophe (4.9%), word segmentation error (7.9%), multiple errors (20.9%), and
sound based error (2.9%).
The researcher classified the errors based on the ten categories above, and the
researcher also involved the discussion of the finding of the research.
Omission of a Letter
Omission form is the first category of error type. It occurred when students
missed a letter of a word. From the data, it was found that the students did the
omission in their writing as seen in the table.
Table 3. The error of omission letter in the spelling
Categories of Spelling

Spelling Error

Corrected Spelling Error

Error

Identification

Omission

Participant 3

Participant 3

1. For those reasons the

1. For those reasons the

goverment should

government should

make a big forceful and

make a big forceful

strong effort to ban

and strong effort to

illegal logging.

ban illegal logging.

Participant 17

Participant 17

2. Morover drug

2. Moreover drug

29

damaging the soul.

damaging the soul.

Participant 30

Participant 30

3. More again can make

3. More again can make

people difficultes to

people difficulties to

find water in summer.

find water in summer.

In the first sample, participant 3 wrote the word “government” incorrectly as
“goverment”, so the word “government” misses letter n. While in the second sample,
the error occurred in the word “moreover” which was incorrectly written as
“morover”. The same error was also found in the third sample. The students missed a
letter i in the word “difficulties” written incorrectly as “difficultes”.
Those findings are the reflection of the errors in omission category. It might
happen because the same English letters are not pronounced as they are written. It is
in line with Al-jarf (2010) who stated that spelling problem can be classified into
phonological problems. Phonological problems refer to errors in which the misspelled
word does not sound like the target word because the whole word, consonant, vowel,
syllable, prefix, suffix, grapheme cluster is not heard at all or misheard, or added with
another letter.

30

Addition of a Letter
The second category of error is addition form. Based on the findings, the
students committed addition form in their hortatory texts as seen in the sample below.
Table 4. The error of addition letter in the spelling
Categories of Spelling

Spelling Error

Error

Identification

Addition

Participant 20

Participant 20

1. The impact is harm

1. The impact is harm

themeselves.

Corrected Spelling Error

themselves.

Participant 22

Participant 22

2. Drug is an abbreviation

2. Drug is an

of narcotic and other

abbreviation of

dangerious medicines.

narcotic and other
dangerous medicines

The sample above shows the error. It can be seen that participant 20 added a
letter e in the word “themselves” which was incorrectly written as “themeselves”.
While, in the second sample the error occurred in the word “dangerous” which was
incorrectly written as “dangerious”.

31

Those samples are the indication of the errors in addition category. This
category occurred when students added a letter in a word. The finding above is in
conformity with Al-jarf (2010) who stated that misspellings happen when any
graphemes are added, deleted, substituted by another or reversed.
Single Letter Instead of Double Letter
Single letter instead of double letter occurs when the students miss a letter in a
word that contains double letter. Table 5 below shows several samples of error words
made by the students.
Table 5. The Error of Single letter instead of double letter in the spelling
Categories of Spelling

Spelling Error

Error

Identification

Single letter instead of

Participant 13

Participant 13

double letter

1. Drug should be stoped

1. Drug should be

of some reason.

Corrected Spelling Error

stopped of some
reason.

Participant 13

Participant 13

2. They just think about

2. They just think about

how to get much

how to get much

money to buy drug as

money to buy drug as

many as they need and

many as they need

32

they don’t think about

and they don’t think

tomorow and future.

about tomorrow and
future.

Participant 25
3. We know that illegal

Participant 25
3. We know that illegal

loging have bad effect

logging have bad

for nature.

effect for nature.

The first sentence written by participant 13 above shows, the error in the word
“stopped” which was incorrectly written as “stoped”. In that word, the student only
put single p in a word that contained double p. The same error was also found in the
second sentence, the error can be seen in the word “tomorrow” which was incorrectly
written as “tomorow”. The students only put single r in the middle of word that
contained double r. The same error also occurred in the third sample. In the third
sample, participant 25 wrote the word “logging” incorrectly as “loging”.
Those findings are the reflection of the error in single letter instead of double
letter form. Based on the researcher’s analysis, it might happen because the students
were influenced by their first language (L1) who seldom finds digraph or double
letter in Indonesian words. In the students’ L1, there is seldom found a word that
contains double letters and if any, it happens when the word is added by suffix or
prefix, for example menggunakan, menunjukkan, and others. It is in line with the

33

theory of Hourani (2008) who said there are many studies pointing out for the
beginning EFL students and there tends to be intervention from their first language in
the process of writing in English.
Double Letter Instead of Single Letter
The next category of error is double letter instead of single letter. This
category occurs when students added double letter in a word that should be single
letter. Based on the findings, there were only five errors were found by the researcher
in the students’ hortatory texts. The following table is the sample of double letter
instead of single letter category.
Table 6. The Error of Double letter instead of single letter in the spelling
Categories of Spelling

Spelling Error

Corrected Spelling Error

Error

Identification

Double letter instead of

Participant 15

Participant 15

single letter

1. Students fighting can

1. Students fighting can

make bad name or bad

make bad name or

reputation of school

bad reputation of

because students

school because

fighting beetween

students fighting

school if often the case

between school if

with school and police.

often the case with

34

school and police.
Participant 3
2. The trees in the forest

Participant 3
2. The trees in the forest

which is usually water

which is usually

absorbent to provi