Omissions Additions Misinformations A subtitution of the morpheme or Anu

19 Table 2.7: The Classification of Errors No Category Description Example

1. Omissions

The nonexistence of an item that must appear in a good utterance. 20 She eating.

2. Additions

The presence of an item that must not appear in a well-structured utterances 21 She is eats fish.

3. Misinformations A subtitution of the morpheme or

structure used in utterances 22 The plane flied to London.

4. Misorderings The

incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance 23 Why mother is crying? There are four classifications of errors in table 2.7: omission, addition, misinformation, and misordering. Omission occurs when there is a missing language item in a sentence Ellis, 1997. It is illustrated in the incomplete sentence in example 20. The sentence in the example needs a linking verb is since it is a present continuous tense sentence. The correct sentence would be she is eating. The second category is addition. Addition happens when there is a presence of language item that should not exist in a sentence. The sentence She is eats fish in example 21 shows that there an addition of linking verb is in a simple present tense sentence. She eats fish is the correct sentence. Misinformation is the third category of error. When learners committed misinformation errors, they use incorrect form of a language item in making a sentence. It is illustrated in example 22. The learner should use flew instead of flied to construct the correct sentence. 20 The fourth type of error is misordering defined by Ellis 1997 as errors that are indicated by incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morpheme. Example 23 emphasizes the misordering error. Is should be before mother. The correct form of the example is why is mother crying? 4 Explanation of Errors This step basically copes with distinguishing errors and mistakes, and explaining the process of errors. The detailed explanation of errors and mistakes, and the process of errors will be explained in two subchapters below. a Errors and Mistakes Errors and mistakes are actually two different things which are used to describe learners’ language. Ellis 1994 states that an error is a deviation of language rules made by language learners as a result from lack of knowledge about the correct form. The students do not realize that they have produced the wrong form and they cannot correct it when they are asked to. Error can be noticed from the consistency. The learners consistently perform the wrong forms if they are making errors. A mistake is a deviation of language rules which is occasional and occurs because the students fail to produce the correct form. If the students produced mistakes, 21 they have enough knowledge about the correct form. Consequently, when the students are told to correct what they have performed, they will be able to do it. In summary, learners commit an error since they lack of knowledge, but they commit mistakes since they know but somehow fail to perform the correct form. Those two things could be differentiated from the learners’ consistency and the learners’ awareness when they are told that the form is wrong. b The Process of Errors There are two kinds of error process: interlingual, and intralingual. Ellis defines “Interlingual errors are the result of mother tongue influences” Ellis, 2005: 65. Meanwhile, he describes intralingual errors as “the operation of learning strategies that are universal” Ellis, 2005: 65. There are five kinds of common intralingual errors: Table 2.8: Intralingual Errors No Kinds Example 1. False Analogy 24 ChildÆ childs 2. Misanalysis 25 For example by assuming its as plural since the letter ‘s’ 3. Incomplete rule application 26 Noone know where was Barbie 4. Exploiting redundancy 27 Martin like tennis 5. Overlooking co-occurrence restrictions 28 Fast foodÆquick food 6. System simplification 29 The use of that for relative pronoun There are five kinds of intralingual errors: false analogy, misanalysis, incomplete rule application, exploiting redundancy, and overlooking co-occurrence of restrictions. False analogy happens when the learners generalize a rule, for example, the plural form of child is childs which shows that the learners 22 generalize the rule of regular plural form to inappropriate words. The second category is misanalysis, which is a wrong assumption of a form like illustrated in example 25. The next category is incomplete rule application. It happens when the learners know the rules, but they do not really master it. As a result, they produce imperfect sentences like illustrated in example 26. The fourth category is exploiting redundancy. This error happens when the learners omit a grammatical feature that does not affect the meaning of the utterance. Example 27 shows the omission of –s for the third person. The fifth category is overlooking co-occurrence restrictions which could be defined as the substitution of the synonym of a word, yet it does not match the collocation, like quick food. The last category, system simplification, is substituting a single form where the target language can use two or more forms, for example the use of that for relative pronoun, though there are words who, when, where, etc which can be used also. 5 Error Evaluation There are some steps in error evaluation. a Choose the errors to be evaluated b Decide the criterion on which the errors are to be judged c Prepare the error instruments, namely instruction, erroneous text, and a method for evaluating d Choose at least 2 judges to evaluate errors. 23

d. Theories of Competence Representing Those of Mastery.

According to Hutchinson and Waters competence is something that enables learners to do something performance with the language. In other words, competence is what the learners know about the language and how to use it. The performance represents the competence that the learners have.

e. Competence Standard

The competence standard in the research is based on Panduan Akademik Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris 2006. Table 2.9: Competence Standard Letter Range Meaning A 80-100 Very good mastery B 70-79 Good mastery C 60-69 Sufficient D 50-59 Insufficient mastery E 50 Poor mastery

II. Indonesian Grammar Theory

There are also several Indonesian theories elaborated in this chapter. Those theories were selected based on their similarities to English grammar theories discussed previously. The discussed Indonesian grammar theories are: 1 theories of singular plural, 2 theories of articles, 3theories of pronominal penunjuk

a. Singular and Plural Noun Concepts

Almost all languages in the world have singular and plural concept Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo, 1988 . Thisconcept elaborates the form of singular and plural nouns. Both Indonesian and English language have singular-plural concepts. 24 Although the functions of the concepts of singular-plural noun in English and Indonesian language are similar, these concepts of the word indicating the nouns are different in terms of consistency. 1 Singular Concept Indonesian language normally use se- or suatu to indicate a singular noun. The example of a sentence containing singular nouns is that 30 Seorang murid sedang membaca sebuah buku. The sentence illustrates that there is one student who is reading a book. Se- in seorang murid refers to one student. However, the used of se- or suatu is not an obligation in Indonesian language rules. In other words, se- and suatu can be omitted. For example, in the sentence 31 Seorang murid sedang membaca sebuah buku. 32 Seorang murid sedang membaca buku. In example 31 , eventhough the word sebuah is omitted, its meaning is the same with that of example 32. Despite it no longer uses sebuah, it is understood that it is impossible for the students to read more than one book, even without witnessing the condition. 2 A Plural Concept A plural noun is normally indicated with a repeated word, kaum, and para. 33 Murid-murid sedang membaca buku. 25 Murid-murid in the sentence above means the readers are more than one student. Besides those three indicators of plural noun a repeated word , kaum , para, a word can also mean plural, for example, 34 Anjing suka tulang. The example was taken from Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo’s book. The word anjing in the sentence is more than one dog since it represents all dogs in the words. Nonetheless, it is unacceptable among Indonesian people to say anjing- anjing suka tulang-tulang. Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo, 1988 The examples in the previous discussion show that Indonesian language does not have a strict rule of singular and plural noun. Whether a noun is singular or plural depends on the meaning of a sentence.

b. Definition of articles

Like in English grammar, there is also the concept of article in Indonesian grammar. However, the functions are different. According to Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo 1988, an article means a word that limits the meaning and the amount of a noun. There are three kinds of Indonesian articles: articles for singular sense, plural sense, and neutral sense. To show the difference between Indonesian and English articles clearer, below is the explanation of Indonesian articles. 26 1 Types of articles Articles in Indonesian language are divided into three groups, for singular, plural, and generic sense. Articles sang, sri, hang, and dang are for singular sense. The only article for plural sense is para, and for neutral sense, Indonesian language has article si. 2 The Use of Articles Like English articles, Indonesian articles explain the reference of nouns, yet it is different than the use of English articles. Table 2.10 explains the use of Indonesian articles. Table 2.10: The Use of Indonesian Articles No Meaning Articles Used for Examples 1. Singular Sang respectable human or thing 35 Sang juara merobohkan lawannya. 36 Sang Merah Putih berkibar di seluruh penjuru tanah air. Sri respectable person in a kingdom or religion 37 Kedatangan Sri Baginda disambut dengan meriah. 38 Baru-baru ini Sri Paus berkunjung ke Asia. Hang respectable man 39 Segera Hang Tuah pergi merantau. Dang respectable woman 40 Dang Merdu adalah tokoh terkenal dalam hikayat sastra Melayu. 2. Plural Para group of people 41 Para guru datang ke depdiknas untuk membuat soal ujian akhir. 3. Neutral Si any people 42 Sedih aku melihat si miskin mengambil makanan dari tumpukan sampah. 43 Di mana-mana selalu si miskin yang menderita Table 2.10 explains the kinds of articles based on the sense. There are three senses of articles suggested by Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo 1988: singular, plural, neutral. The table showed that for the singular meaning, the articles are for the respectable person or thing. Meanwhile the plural meaning is for a group of 27 people, and the neutral meaning may refer to singular of generic meaning for people. Si in example42 referred to one people, yet si in example 43 refers to all poor people in the world. In other words, si in example 42 has singular meaning, yet in example 43 has generic meaning.

c. Pronomina Penunjuk

Besides articles, Indonesian language also has pronomina penunjuk which has almost the same function as articles in English grammar. Pronomina penunjuk basically refers to something which both the speaker and the listener know, yet pronominal penunjuk depends on the distance between the speaker and the thing refered, not the countability. Pronomina penunjuk in Indonesian language are ini, itu, and anu. In English grammar, pronomina penunjuk is called demonstratives pronoun. Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo 1988 explained each word of pronomina penunjuk. Table 2.11: Pronomina Penunjuk No Pronomina Penunjuk Functions Examples 1. Ini To point something which is close to the spaker of writer 44 Pohon ini ditanam olehku. 2. Itu To point something which is far from the speaker 45 Pohon itu ditanam olehku.

3. Anu

To refer to something that the speaker forgets or do not want to mention it 46 Anu menyebabkan penyakit kulit. There are three kinds of pronomina penunjuk: ini, itu, anu. Ini is to point something which is close to the speaker. On the other hand, itu is to point something which is far from the speaker. In the example 44, the tree is close 28 from the speaker, yet in example 45, the tree is far from the speaker. Meanwhile, example 46 shows that the speaker forgets what is used to cure skin disease.

B. Theoretical Framework

Articles, the main subject of this study, are classified as determiners of nouns. In order to find out students’ mastery of articles, first the researcher needs to classify different types and the rules of using articles. Basically, there are three articles in English grammar: a, an, and, the, yet this research utilizes one more article,Ø. Ø symbolizes zero article or the condition when a noun does not need any article. The symbol is suggested by Azhar 1997 to help the students visualize the condition of no article, especially for the beginners. Articles are used together with several categories of nouns divided based on a its countability, including: singular count nouns, plural count nouns, and noncount nouns, and b its reference, including: definite nouns, indefinite nouns, and generic nouns. Understanding the types and the use of articles is necessary, especially when formulating the test criteria for measuring students’ mastery of articles. Although they are not exactly the same, Indonesian people may translate as several Indonesian words. A andan are usually translated as seekor, sebuah, or other se- words which indicating singularity of noun. Meanwhile, they may translate the as tersebut or use it for noun clause with yang. However, one of the weaknesses of this research is not to use the word tersebut in translation section.