62
Those four errors were classified into two groups based on surface taxonomy proposed by Dulay, Burt, Krashen as revealed in Ellis 2005: a the omission of a
or an, and b the addition of the. Those errors are explained in the two subchapters below.
1. The Omission of A or An
The omission of a or an was the first kind of errors identified in the students’ test results. Ellis defines an omission as an absence of a language item which should
appear in a correct utterance. In other words, the omission of a or an was the absence of a or an when it was needed in a sentence. This kind of errors was
found in three concepts of articles: 1 singular generic nouns of which first letter is spelled as a consonant, yet sounds as a vowel, 2 singular generic nouns of
which first letter is spelled and sounds as a consonant, 3 singular generic nouns of which first letter is spelled as a vowel, yet sounds as a consonant. Table 4.6
informs the errors made by the students, particularly the aor an omission in singular generic nouns.
No The Concepts
Examples Percentage of Each Answer
A An
The Ø
Ignore d
4. Plural generic
nouns 65 A uniform is a set of
standard clothes worn by Ø members of
certain organizations.
2.38 0.00 36.79 58.96 1.42
63
Table 4.6: Examples of Errors of Articles for Singular Generic Nouns
The table shows that one of the examples of the omission of an for singular generic nouns occurred when the students were asked to translateDalam sebuah
pesta, tamu kehormatan biasanya ditempatkan di baris depan. 28.30 of the
answers wasIn a party, Ø honorable guest is usually placed in the front row. The
word honorable guest was a singular noun which represented all honorable guests in the world, which meant that the noun should be preceded by a oran. Whether
the answer was a or an depended on the first letter of the word honorable. H was
No The
Concepts
Description of the
Errors
Examples of Cases Errors
Indonesian sentences
English sentences
the correct sentence
English sentences
The students
answers
1.
Singular generic nouns
of which first letter is
spelled as a consonant,
yet sounds as a vowel
An omission of
an 66 Dalam
sebuah pesta, tamu
kehormatan biasanya
ditempatka n di baris
depan. part II,
number 19
In a party, an honorable
guest is usually placed in the
front row.
In a party, Ø
honorable guest is
usually placed in
the front row.
28.30
2.
Singular generic nouns
of which first letter is
spelled and sounds as a
consonant An
omission of a
67 Sapi dipelihara
untuk diambil
susunya part II,
number 10
A cow is kept for its milk
Ø cow is kept for its
milk 45.75
3.
Singular generic nouns
of which first letter is
spelled as a vowel, yet
sounds as a consonant
An omission of
a 68 Unicorn
hanya ada di dongeng-
dongeng. part II,
number 7
A unicorn only exists in fairy
tales Ø unicorn
only exists in fairy tales
52.36
64 a consonant letter, yet it sounds as a vowel in honorable
Θν≅ρ≅βλ
. It implied that the correct answer was an.
The omission of a occurred in two concepts: 1 singular generic nouns of which first letter is spelled and sounds as a consonant, and 2 singular generic nouns of
which first letter is spelled as a vowel, yet sounds as a consonant. Those were two concepts of singular nouns of which function was to represent their own
classifications in the world. Since the first letter of those two kinds of nouns sounds as a consonant, the nouns were preceded with a. The example of the
second concept in table 4.7 occurred in the item number 10 part II, Sapi
dipelihara untuk diambil susunya. The students tended to answer Ø cow is kept for its milk, instead of answeringA cow is kept for its milk, which was the correct
answer. Errors occurred on 45.75 of the answers for this concept. Meanwhile, the omission of aalso occurred in the concept singular generic nouns of which first
letter is spelled as a vowel, yet sounds as a consonant. Table 4.6 shows that when the students were asked to translate unicorn hanya ada di dongeng-dongeng, they
tended to answer
Ø
unicorn only exists in tales. This answers covered 52.36 of all answers for this kind of concept.These errors indicated the fact that most students
failed to recognize that when a singular noun serves as a generic noun, a noun which represent it classifications, it requires either article a oran. Instead, what
happened was students think it was sufficient to use only the singular form of the noun.
65 To sum up, an omission of an ora was the common errors made by the students.
Table 4.5 illustrates that this kind of errors occurred in 3 out of 4 concepts which consist of errors. The percentage of this error in each concept is illustrated in table
4.6. The possible reasons why the students were trapped to answer Ø instead of answering aan as the correct answer will be explained in the discussion of the
possible causes of errors.
2. The Addition of The
