Although there were only 2 errors of to-infinitive found in the test, students have to notice their errors and learn to-infinitive more in order not to make the same
errors.
9. That-Clause
In the test which consisted of 30 items, there was only one item, number 29, which used that-clause form. From 52 students, there were 28 errors of that-clause
7.91 found in their test. However, there was only one type of that-clause error found, which is presented below.
Example: Direct speech: Mrs. Judy said to me, ‘You should be the first.’
Reported speech: Mrs. Judy suggested me to be the first. The reported speech above is incorrect since the reporting verb suggest cannot be
followed by object and infinitive structure. Suggest can be reported with that-clause. Therefore, the correct reported speech should be Mrs. Judy suggested that I should
be the first.
c. The Types of Errors Based on the Types of Reported Speech
Not only the errors based on the surface strategy taxonomy and the grammatical changes, but also errors based on the types of reported speech were found in the test.
The number of errors is presented in the table 4.8.
Table 4.8 Reported Speech Errors Found in the Test Based on the Types of Reported Speech
Types of Errors Number of Errors
Percentage Statement
- -
Question 11
33.33 Command
17 51.51
Request -
- Suggestion and Advice
- -
Exclamation 5
15.15 61
In table 4.8, it can be seen that there were 33 errors found, 11 errors of reported question 33.33, 17 errors of reported command 51.51, and 5 errors of
reported exclamation 15.15. While, there were no error of reported statement, request, and suggestion and advice found in the test. The further discussions on
errors based on the types of reported speech are presented below.
1. Question
There were 11 errors of reported question found in the test 33.33. Below is the example with its discussion.
Example: Direct speech: He said to her, ‘Will you be here tomorrow?’
Reported speech: He asked her to be there the next day. The example above is incorrect because the speech is reported using request
form, whereas the direct speech is an ordinary question, not a request. Since it is ordinary question, the speech should be reported He asked her if she would be there
the next day . Considering this kind of error, it can be noted that students had not been
able to analyse which one was ordinary question and which one was not.
2. Command
From 52 students, it was found that there were 17 errors of reported command 51.51. Most errors indicate that students failed to convert direct command into
reported command. They often converted direct command into reported question. Example:
Direct speech: ‘You might post some letters for me,’ my boss said. Reported speech: My boss asked me if I might post some letters for him.
62 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
