4 or failure to perform what the students have already understood about basic noun
phrase formation. To sum up, this study focuses on errors in forming basic noun phrases
made by seventh grade students and uses the students’ descriptive texts as the analytical tool to obtain the data. This study aims to find out the errors made by
the students through the students’ descriptive writing, discover the possible causes of their errors and make suggestions to improve the students’ understanding of
basic noun phrases through an interview. Hopefully, by knowing students’ errors, both the teachers and students are able to make better adjustments of what
teachers need to develop the quality of the teaching-learning process and of what students need to improve and enrich their knowledge about basic noun phrases.
B. Problem Formulation
There are three problems that can be formulated: 1.
What are the basic noun phrase errors made by the students? 2.
What are the possible causes of the students’ basic noun phrase errors? 3.
What are suggestions to improve the students’ understanding of basic noun phrases?
C. Problem Limitation
This study focuses on basic noun phrases made by VIIF grade students. Basic noun phrases are obtained from the students’ descriptive writing. Thus, any
5 errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation of the whole paragraph of the
students’ descriptive writing were disregarded. Since the study deals with seventh grade, this study is relevant to the
School Based Curriculum or KTSP which focuses on a text type, namely a descriptive text. A descriptive text is chosen because it is closely related to the
students’ real life which is expected to be able to describe anything around them. Besides, it also uses simple English tense, namely simple present tense.
Furthermore, it also deals with numbers and nouns which describe the quantity and the quality of the things being described, so the basic noun phrases would be
easily found in the students’ descriptive writing. The researcher is interested in selecting thirty eight students of RSBI
Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf International classes or International Designated Rating Schools VIIF class of SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta in the 20112012
academic year to be the participants of the study. It is because the researcher found the problem there and hopefully this study provides feedback for them and
other classes that have the same problems forming basic noun phrases.
D. Objectives of the Study
This study is conducted in responding to the research problems formulated in the problem formulation. Thus, the objectives of the study are to find out the
errors made by the students, discover the possible causes of the students’ errors, and make several suggestions to improve students’ understanding of basic noun
phrases.
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E. Research Benefits
