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CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter discusses the answers to the two research questions. The answers
are presented in the form of data presentation and discussion of the results. Therefore, based on the research questions, this chapter is divided into two sections: A The
prepositional verb errors and B The efforts should be done to minimize the students’ prepositional verbs errors.
A. The Prepositional Verb Errors
1. Data Presentation
In order to gather prepositional verb errors produced by Academic Essay Writing students, the writer analyzed 30 assignments submitted as the first final
project of the class. The assignments consisted of around 6 pages. However, the writer did not regard sentences which were direct quotations as data with a consideration that
prepositional verbs found in direct quotations, either they were correct or incorrect, were not produced by the students themselves.
From the assignments, the writer found 149 errors. The occurrence of the errors in each assignment varied. On average, each assignment consisted of 5 errors.
Those errors were divided based on Surface Structure Taxonomy, which classifies errors into 5 types: 1 Omission, 2 Addition, 3 Misinformation, 4 Misordering,
and 5 Blends. However, based on the analysis of the data, there were only three
types of the Surface Structure Taxonomy related to prepositional verbs found in the students’ writing assignments: 1 Omission, 2 Addition, and 3 Misinformation.
The more detailed explanation is shown in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1. The Types of Prepositional Verb Errors No.
Type of Error Frequency
Percentage Examples
1. Addition 102
68,5 Discuss about,
consider as, understand about,
study about
2. Misinformation 44
29,5 Focus in, share to,
pay attention on, pay attention in
3. Omission 3
2 Base, focus, impact
TOTAL 149 100
2. Discussion
To answer the first research question, the prepositional verb errors in the students’ Academic Essay Writing class assignments, the writer described the data
presentation. The data presentation shows that the types of prepositional verb errors found in the assignments were addition, misinformation, and omission. Based on the
research results, the most frequently occurred type of error was addition. It occurred 102 times 68,5. The example of this type which was often produced by the
students was discuss about. The examples of this erroneous prepositional verb are as follows.
1]This essay is going to discuss about extensive reading which is… 2]This essay is going to discuss about the benefits of extensive reading…
Discuss about , as seen in sentence 1] and 2], is an addition error of
prepositional verbs because the use of the preposition about is redundant. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Quirk, 2001: 384, the verb discuss does not need any prepositions. It is used to talk about something with another person
or a group in order to exchange ideas or decide something. The example of the correct usage of this verb is: Sandy won’t ever discuss money. The verb discuss could be
followed by preposition with after a noun if it means somebody discusses something to somebody. For example: I’d like to discuss my contract with you. Therefore, the
addition of preposition about after the verb creates the incorrect form of prepositional verb.
Based on this research results, among the addition types of error, preposition about
was mostly used after the verbs. Other examples are: understand about, study about, teach about, compare about, comprehend about, articulate about,
explain about, present about, and share about.
Another example of addition error is consider as. The examples of the usages of this erroneous prepositional verb are shown in sentences 3] and 4], as follows.
3]Extensive reading is considered as being reading rapidly.
4]The other reason is because Extensive Reading can be considered as a deep reading.
Sentence 3] and 4] are incorrect because the verb consider could not be followed by prepositional as. The intended meaning of the verb consider in sentence 3] and 4],
based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 2001: 286, is having an opinion. In the other meanings, the verb consider could only be followed by nouns,
verb-ing forms, or question words. For example:
1 He paused to consider his options. 2 I’m considering applying for that job.
3 We’re still considering where to move to.
In addition, consider could be optionally followed by to be if it means having an opinion. For example: A further increase is now considered to be unlikely.
The second type of the error is misinformation. It occurred 44 times 29,5 in the assignments. The writer classified misinformation error into two kinds. The first
classification of misinformation error was the misinformation in choosing the prepositions of the prepositional verbs that resulted in erroneous prepositional verbs.
The second classification was applying the correct prepositional verbs in the incorrect context of sentences.
The example of the first classification is focus in instead of focus on. It occurred in sentences 5], 6], and 7].
5]Actually not only intensive reading that is focus in vocabulary, but… 6]It is because intensive reading focuses in grammar and vocabulary.
7]It is because they focus in the meaning.
Then, the example of the second classification of misinformation error is that the students used prepositional verb look on instead of look at. Look on is a correct
prepositional verb which means “to watch something happening, without being involved in it or trying to stop it” Quirk, 2001:847. The more obvious example is
shown in the sentence: Only one man tried to help us, the rest just look on in silence. Nevertheless, students used prepositional verb look on in sentences as follows.
8]The explanation above tells that intensive reading, for it looks on the very little detail,…
9]Intensive reading, also known as slow reading, is looking on the details of the reading passage.
Prepositional verb look on in sentence 8] and 9] is more appropriate if it is replaced with prepositional verb look at, which means “to study and consider something,
especially in order to decide what to do” Quirk, 2001: 847.
The third type of the error was omission. It occurred 3 times 2 in the assignments. There were three examples of omission error of prepositional verb found
in the assignments. The verbs base, focus, and impact occurred without their prepositions which should co-occur with them.
10] They can read any kind of passage; article or books base their own choice.
11] They also will remember the grammar, although they did not focus and analyze the grammar from the text but…
12] So, extensive reading impacts writing, listening, and speaking because students know more vocabulary.
In sentence 10], the verb base should co-occur with on to create a meaning “to use particular information or facts a point from which to develop an idea, plan, etc”
Quirk, 2001: 91. In sentence 11], focus should co-occur with on to create a meaning “to pay special attention to a particular person or thing instead of others” Quirk, 2001:
544. Then, in sentence 12], impact should co-occur with on to create a meaning “to have an important or noticeable effect on someone or something” Quirk, 2001: 711.
Related to misinformation and omission errors, the types of prepositional verb error produced by the students had included type I and type II prepositional verbs.
However, most of the errors were mostly type I prepositional verbs. The more specific examples could be shown in appendix B.
B. The Efforts Should be Done to Minimize the Students’ Prepositional Verb Errors
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