caused by the transfer from their first language. Students may think that the rules of using Indonesian preposition of place is more less the same as the English
preposition of place since their meaning are almost the same. Thus, they just transfer and bring the rule and meaning from Indonesian into English. For
example, when a learner translates an Indonesian language sentence “Doni tinggal di Yogyakarta
” into English, he may translate “Doni lives at Yogyakarta”. He may think that at also means di instead of pada. In fact, his translation is incorrect; it
should be “Doni lives in Yogyakarta”. Based on the difficulties faced by the students of English Language
Education Study Program, this study is focused on measuring their proficiency of preposition of place at, in and on.
B. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Preposition is the most frequently-used word in English. It plays important roles in order to produce correct sentences. The Indonesian learner as L2 students
faced difficulties in learning the English L2 since the rules in the L2 are interfered by their mother language L1. Overlapping between rules of both
languages often occurred in their utterances. It is likely happens when they tried to learn the prepositions of place at, in
and on. The L1 rules to apply those preposition in their utterances has been set on their mind. When they are producing the L2, the L1 rules sometimes interfering
and causing difficulties to produce L2 in the correct manner.
C. PROBLEM LIMITATION
To ease this study, the writer needs to limit the area of the research to avoid the overlapping of the study. Based on Close 1963, there are two kinds of
prepositions; preposition of place and preposition of time. In this study, the writer focused on the preposition of place at, in and on.
D. PROBLEM FORMULATION
Prepositions of place at, in and on are considered essential for every English learner to master in order to be able to produce correct and understandable
sentences. The problems are formulated as follows: 1. Have the students mastered the preposition of place at, in and on?
2. What are the difficulties faced by the students in their attempt to master the preposition of place at, in and on?
3. What are the factors which may cause difficulties to the students to master preposition of place at, in and on?
E. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
The objectives of the research are decided as follows: 1. To find out the learners’ achievement in using preposition of place at, in and
on .
2. To find out the learners’ difficulties in mastering the preposition of place at, in and on.
3. To identify the possible causes of their difficulties in their attempt to master the preposition of place at, in and on.
F. BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH
