Error Analysis on the Use of In, At, On in the Writings of Students of English Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Batch 2015

Error Analysis on the Use of In, At, On in the Writings of Students of English
Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Batch 2015

A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education
In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Sarjana Pendidikan

Riza Indriyastanti
20120540069

English Education Departement
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
July 2016

Error Analysis on the Use of In, At, On in the Writings of Students of English
Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Batch 2015

A Skripsi

Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education
In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Sarjana Pendidikan

Riza Indriyastanti
20120540069

English Education Departement
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
July 2016

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Acknowledgement
Praise be to Alloh SWT who always gives blessing and mercy to me, as well
as health, strength, love and happiness.
Then, I will sincere gratitude to my family. Big thanks and love to my parents
who are always supporting me, praying for my health, my long life and my success. I
dedicate this skripsi to you, Mak and Bapak. Then, thanks for my older sisters, Mbak
Retno and Mbak Arnik who are always supporting me psychologically and
financially. In addition, thanks to Mbak Nunik alm, who always loves me, I hope you
obtained your happiness and rest in peace. Thanks to my little sisters, Fenti and
Hikmah who always cheer me up.
The next, big thanks to my beloved supervisor, Mrs. Noor Qomaria Agustina,
S.Pd., M. Hum. who is always supporting, helping, and guiding me to finish this
skripsi writing. I hope Alloh SWT always blesses you and your family. I also hope
that Alloh SWT always grants your wish. Amin. I also give my thanks to
Gendroyono, S.Pd.,M.Pd. as my first examiner and Dr. Suryanto as my second
examiner.

I give my other thanks to all of my friends who are always loving and
supporting me. Thanks to Evita who is always listening my chit chats when I talk
about skripsi. Then, thanks to Ana and Hap-hap who are always supporting me. The
next, thanks to Kos Yusa residents, Era, Nova, and Tri who are always disturbing me

v

then supporting me when I wrote this skripsi. Also, thanks to Kongkowers, Paddilah,
Ana, Risna, Appril, Evita, Hap-hap, and Gais who always make me happy.
Kongkowers, we were already through the happiness, sadness and hilarity together.
I also give my thanks to Mr. Andi who is willing to give his student’s
assignments as my research object. I’m grateful to students of EED UMY batch 2015
who give a good respond when I did member checking in this skripsi. I hope, my
skripsi is useful for the other people.

vi

Table of Contents
Cover ......................................................................................................................................... i
Approval Page ........................................................................................................................ ii

Statement of Work’s Originality ......................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgement................................................................................................................. iv
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. vi
List of Table ......................................................................................................................... viii
List of Figure.......................................................................................................................... ix
Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One ............................................................................................................................ 3
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
Background of the Research ...................................................................................... 3
Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................... 6
Limitation of the Problem ......................................................................................... 7
Question of the Research ........................................................................................... 7
Purpose of the Research ............................................................................................ 7
Significance of the Research ..................................................................................... 8
Outline of the Research ............................................................................................. 9
Chapter Two .......................................................................................................................... 10
Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 10
Error Analysis .......................................................................................................... 10
The Definition of Preposition .................................................................................. 16
The Type of Preposition .......................................................................................... 17

The Use of in, at, on ................................................................................................ 18
Software to Help the Data Analysis ........................................................................ 24
Writing ..................................................................................................................... 24
Errors on the Use of in, at, on ................................................................................. 25
Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................... 26

vii

Chapter Three ....................................................................................................................... 29
Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 29
Research Design ..................................................................................................... 29
Population and Sample ............................................................................................ 31
Data Collection Method .......................................................................................... 34
Data Analysis........................................................................................................... 35
Chapter Four ......................................................................................................................... 41
Findings and Discussion ...................................................................................................... 41
Findings ................................................................................................................... 41
The Identify and Classify of the Error ..................................................................... 41
Discussion................................................................................................................ 58
Misinformations Errors on the Use of at, on, in ...................................................... 60

Additions Errors on the Use of in, at, on ................................................................. 62
Misorderings Errors on the Use of in, at, on ........................................................... 64
Chapter Five .......................................................................................................................... 66
Conclusion and Recomendation ......................................................................................... 66
Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 66
Recomendation ........................................................................................................ 68
References ............................................................................................................................. 70
Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 73

Viii

List of Table
Table 1. A Surface Strategy Taxonomy ..................................................................... 15
Table 2. The Use of at ................................................................................................. 21
Table 3. The Use of on ................................................................................................ 22
Table 4. The Use of in ................................................................................................. 23
Table 5. Error Identify of at for Place ......................................................................... 42
Table 6. The Types of Errors on the Use of at for Place ............................................ 44
Table 7. Error Identify of at for Time ......................................................................... 45
Table 8. The Types of Errors on the Use of at for Time............................................. 47

Table 9. Error Identify of on for Place ........................................................................ 48
Table 10. The Types of Errors on the Use of on for Place.......................................... 50
Table 11. Error Identify of on for Time ...................................................................... 51
Table 12. The Types of Errors on the Use of on for Time .......................................... 52
Table 13. Error Identify of in for Place ....................................................................... 53
Table 14. The Types of Errors on the Use of in for Place .......................................... 55
Table 15. Error Identify of in for Time ....................................................................... 56
Table 16. The Types of Errors on the Use of in for Time........................................... 57
Table 17. Amount of Words........................................................................................ 58
Table 18. General Numbers of Errors on the Use of at, on, in ................................... 59
Table 19. Misinformations Errors ............................................................................... 60
Table 20. The Sample of Misinformations Errors on the Use of at, on, in ................. 61
Table 21. Additions Errors .......................................................................................... 63
Table 22. The Sample of Additions Errors on the Use of at, on, in ............................ 63
Table 23. Misorderings Errors .................................................................................... 64
Table 24. The Sample of Misorderings Errors on the Use of at, on, in ...................... 65

ix

List of Figure

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework ................................................................................ 28
Figure 2. Transforming Word into Text...................................................................... 36
Figure 3. Display of AntConcordance ........................................................................ 37
Figure 4. Opening File of AntConcordance ................................................................ 37
Figure 5. Writing Keyword ......................................................................................... 38
Figure 6. Appearance of AntConcordance .................................................................. 38
Figure 7. The Use of in ............................................................................................... 39
Figure 8. The Process of Analyze the Data ................................................................. 40
Figure 9. The Sample of Errors Sentences on the use of at for Place ......................... 43
Figure 10. The Sample of Errors Sentences on the use of at for Time ....................... 46
Figure 11. The Sample of Errors Sentences on the use of on for Place ...................... 49
Figure 12. The Sample of Errors Sentences on the use of on for Time ...................... 51
Figure 13. The Sample of Errors Sentences on the use of in for Place ....................... 54
Figure 14. The Sample of Errors Sentences on the use of in for Time ....................... 56

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Abstract
Preposition is a word that comes before a noun or pronoun. Then preposition
is commonly used in speaking and writing. However, there are a lot of problems in
learning of preposition, so that is why the researcher interested to research about the
preposition in student’s writing. The goal of this research was to investigate the type
of errors that students of EED UMY batch 2015 made when using in, at, on in their
writing. However, the researcher only focused to research about in, at, on that are
used to address about a place and time. The data were collected from students of EED
UMY batch 2015. Then there are 140 students writing that used as the data of this
research. In this research, the researcher used error analysis as design of this research
and used document analysis as data collections method. This research also used
quantitative approach. Moreover, to help analyze the data, the researcher used
Concordance and Weft QDA. There are four types of error those are omissions,
additions, misinformations, and misorderings. However, the results of this study only
showed that there were three types of errors when students of EED UMY batch 2015
used in, at, on in their writing. They were additions, misinformations, and
misorderings. From those errors, the type of errors that occurred mostly was
misinformations, the second is additions, and the last is misorderings. From three
prepositions in, at, on, the preposition that had most misinformations errors is on both
address about a place (94%) and time (96%). Then, preposition that had most
additions error was at that used to address about a time (36%). Afterward,

prepositions that have misorderings errors were at for place (1%) and in for time
(2%).
Keywords: Error analysis, preposition, writing

Chapter One
Introduction
Background of the Research
Students who learn English should learn and understand well about
prepositions. It is because preposition is included in one of the important parts of
speech of English language. If students learn English, they cannot avoid learning part
of speech such as noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, interjection, conjunction or
preposition. In English, these parts of speech are always useful both in speaking or
writing. If students make an error when they use one of part of speech, or they use
one of part of speech incorrectly, it will impact the meaning of the sentence. Even, it
can cause misunderstanding. Moreover, there are several problems in the learning of
preposition. These problems are discussed below.
There are a lot of prepositions that may make the students hard to understand.
Besides, one preposition is not only used to explain about one thing. For the example
at. Preposition at does not only explain about place, but it also explains about time.
For instance, “Please be here at 10.00 a.m.”. In this sentence at explain about time.
Comparing to the second sentence: “John Mayor lives at 10 Dowing Street”, in this
sentence at explains about place. Those problems are supported by experts who
stated, prepositions are difficult to master by the students even for the teacher, beside
that preposition is included in one of difficult topics that hard to be mastered by the
second language learners (Arjan, Abdullah, & Roslim, 2013).

The other problem of preposition is, students were confused when they should
use preposition whether in writing or speaking. Students were confused because there
were a lot of prepositions that have different usage; moreover there is also one
preposition that can used in several usages. This case made students hard to
understand well about preposition. Indeed, according to Delija and Koruti (2013),
“prepositions are very tricky for students and even for EFL teacher” (p.129).
According to Sawalmeh (2013), the great majority of the participants of his
study showed confusion for the right use of preposition. For example “they have
known each other since eight years.” Preposition used in that sentence is incorrect.
That sentence should use for to replace since, so the correct sentence is “they have
known each other for eight years”.
Students are confused when they should use preposition in writing. It is
because usually some teachers only teach preposition orally (Khotaba, 2013).
Because teacher teach preposition orally, students do not have the real illustration
how to use preposition in writing and it makes students misuse preposition in writing.
Besides, students also cannot differentiate between preposition and adverb particles.
Khotaba (2013) found some teacher may teach preposition to their students orally,
this make students shock when they practice writing and get confuse and misuse
preposition with adverb particles.
Based on the small observation conducted by the researcher before the
researcher was doing this research, students of English Education Department of
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta have several problems in learning

preposition. The researcher is also one of students at EED UMY. Based on the
researcher experience as a student, students were confused when using preposition.
This was also felt by her friends. Students were sometimes confused to differentiate
between preposition and conjunction. Students did not really understand well about
how to use preposition when they want to explain the date, place, and time whether in
speaking or writing. Students were also confused when they applied in, at, on in
writing or speaking. Preposition is a simple part of English; for it some students take
easy on preposition. Then, students did not realize that they make an error when they
use preposition. For example, in this sentence: “We had dinner at a restaurant last
night”, students do not know that they use at to explain about place is correct or
incorrect. Beside that, there a lot of students who were confused to differentiate the
usage of in, at, and on.
In the process of learning English whether in writing, reading, listening and
speaking students often make a mistake. According to Edge in Harmer (2001),
mistakes are divided in to three categories; namely slips, errors, and attempts. Slip is
a mistake, which students can correct by themselves. Error is a mistake which student
cannot correct. Attempt is when students try to say something but does not yet know
the correct way of saying it.
In this research, the researcher only focused on error. It was because the
researcher analyzed the students error when use in, at, on in the writing, and that is
why the researcher choose error analysis as a method of this research. Rustipa (2011)
said, “Error analysis is the study of kind and quantity of error that occurs, particularly

in the field of applied linguistics” (p.18). Error analysis also has two benefit, they are
the benefit for students and the benefit for teacher. From error analysis, students can
know what kind of error that they made, so that in the next time are able to fix their
error. For teachers, error analysis can help them to know how is their teaching ability
is and what kind of error that their students have.
Writing is an activity to interpret our idea on the paper. According to Ridha
(2012), “Writing is a complex process which demands cognitive analysis and
linguistic synthetic” (p.22). In learning English, students often make errors. It is
because they do not know what mistakes that they made. This is also occurred when
students learn about preposition. Usually, students are confused when using
preposition whether in speaking or writing. Moreover, students do not know how to
correct themselves. Those are the reasons why the researcher was interested to
research about Error Analysis on the Use of In, At, On in the Writing of Students of
English Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Batch 2015.
Statement of the Problem
English Education Department (EED) of Universitas Muhammadiyah
Yogyakarta (UMY) is an institution that produce English teacher. It requires students
of EED UMY to be able to master all of English grammar, both about tenses and part
of speech. Preposition is one of part of speech. So, the students of EED UMY should
be able to master and understand well how to use preposition properly. In the next,
the students of EED UMY can teach well their students.

There were several issues that can be researched in Prepositions. The first is
the influence of first language on the use of prepositions. The second is there are a lot
of prepositions such as in, at, on, between, among, about, above, across, after,
against, according and the others that have several usage. The third is prepositions
are always followed by noun or pronoun. Then the four, there are several prepositions
such as in, at, on that can used to address about a place and time.
Limitation of the Problem
There are a lot of prepositions such as in, at, on, between, among, about,
above, across, after, against, and the others. However, in this research the researcher
will only research about in, at, and on. The reasons why the researcher only chose to
research in, at, on are, the first, according to Khotaba (2013), most errors occurred
when students using preposition were when students use in, at, and on. Thus, the
researcher was curious if it also happened to students of EED UMY. The second
reason why the researcher only chose to research about in, at, and on was because
those prepositions were more frequently used than other prepositions.
Question of the Research
What are the type of errors made by the students of EED UMY batch 2015
when using in, at, on in their writing?
Purpose of the Research
To find the type of errors that students of EED UMY batch 2015 made when
using in, at, on in their writing.

Significance of the Research
This research have several benefits. Those benefits are for the students of
EED UMY batch 2015. The second is for the lecturer of EED UMY. The third is for
the researcher.
For the students. After knowing the types of errors made by students, it is
beneficial for the students. From this research the students can know the errors that
they made when they use in, at, on in their writing. So, in the future the students of
EED UMY batch 2015 can evaluate themselves in the use of in, at, and on. Besides,
students of EED UMY batch 2015 are student-teachers. Moreover, from this research
the students can learn more about preposition and know the usually occurred error in
using preposition in writing. Therefore, in the future they are be able to use and teach
prepositions well to their students.
For the lecturers. The result of the research might be beneficial for the
lecturers. The first, based on this research, the lecturers of EED UMY can know the
ability of their students on using in, at, and on in the writing. Second, the lecturers of
EED UMY also can evaluate their teaching, especially in teaching about prepositionwhether their teaching good enough or yet, is it needs an improvement. Then, if the
lecturers of EED UMY already know the problems, it is expected for the lecturer
themselves to try to solve it.
For the writer. From this research the writer had a chance to find the
problems that related with the topic. The second is, by doing this research, the writer

had fulfilled one of the requirements to graduate from EED of UMY. In the next,
after the writer know the type of errors made by the students of EED UMY batch
2015 on the use of in, at, on in the writing, the writer can share to EED UMY
lecturers. Therefore, the lecturer can try to find the solution for the students. The
other benefit is, the writer can give a chance to the other researcher to research deeper
about preposition or to more develop this research.
Outline of the Research
This research consists of five chapters. The first chapter is introduction that explains
background of the research, statement of the problem, aim of the research, question of
the research, significance of the research and outline of the research. The second
chapter is literature review that explains the literature theory of this research, data
collection method, and data analysis. The next chapter or fourth chapter is about
finding and discussion. This chapter explains about finding and discussion of this
research. The last chapter tells about conclusion and recommendation. This chapter
consists of conclusion of this research and the recommendation from the researcher.

Chapter Two
Literature Review
This chapter presents the definition of preposition, the type of preposition,
characteristic of the use in, at, and on, error analysis, the definition of writing,
element of the writing, and errors on the use of in, at, on. This chapter also explains
about conceptual framework.
Error Analysis
Error and mistake. To make the clear definition of error analysis, the
researcher presents the differences between error and mistake according to experts.
Edge (1989) demonstrate:
“Mistakes are divided into three those are: slips, error, and attempts. Further
explanation, Edge explain that slips are mistakes which students can correct
themselves once the mistake has been pointed out to them. Errors are
mistakes which students cannot correct themselves and need more
explanation. Attempts are when a student tries to say something but does not
yet know the correct way of saying it” (as cited in Harmer, 2001, p. 99).
Moreover, according to Brown (2000), mistake is a performance error that
students can correct themselves and be able to recognize their mistake. While error is
a performance error that students cannot correct themselves and need another people
to correct their error. Ellis (1997) stated, an error occurs because the learner does not
know what is correct, and a mistake occurs when the learners are unable to show the
knowledge that they have. Richards and Schmidt (2002) state that, error is caused by

incomplete knowledge of the students. Then, mistake is caused by students who lack
attention, fatigue, carelessness, and the other aspect. Ellis (1994) also stated that
errors occur because lack of knowledge and mistake occurs because the students fail
to shows their competence.
Based on the explanation above, a mistake is a performance error that students
can correct themselves, and an error is a performance error that students cannot
correct themselves; they need explanation from the other. In this research, the
researcher only researched about error. That was why the researcher chose error
analysis in this research.
The classification of error. There are several classifications of error.
According to Richard and Schmidt (2002), error is classified into five, they are error
based on the vocabulary (lexical error), pronunciation error (phonological error),
grammar (syntactic error), meaning (interpretive error), and rules of speaking
(pragmatic error).
Based on definition above, there are five error classifications; they are lexical
error, phonological error, syntactic error, interpretive error, and pragmatic error. This
research is research about prepositions in, at, on, then preposition is kind of part of
speech. Then part of speech is included in grammar, so the error classification of this
research is grammar error or syntactic error.
Sources of errors. There are several sources of errors, those are interlingual
transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning, and communication strategies
(Brown, 2000). However in this research, the researcher only explains about two

main sources of errors. They are Interlingual transfer and intralingual transfer.
Interlingual transfer is a process of transferring language between source language to
learners. In the other hand, intralingual transfer is an appearance of error that is
related with native language (Brown, 2000).
The definition of interlingual transfer, according to Brown as cited in Rejeki
(2012), “is a relation between the native language and the second language in which
both of them are interrelated” (p.8). According to Kavaliauskiene as quoted by Ridha
(2012), interlingualtransfer of error occurs because the learners do not have a lot of
knowledge in the second language. According to Richard and Schmidt (2002),
interlingual transfer is errors that occur because of language transfer, which mean it is
caused by the learner’s native language.
The summary of definition above is, interlingual transfer is errors that occur
because the learners do not have a lot of knowledge in the second language. In this
case the error also has relation with the native language. There are native speakers
who speak English and do not really pay attention to the grammar. So, if the learners
do not know the knowledge of native language, the learner will directly follow the
knowledge from the native speaker.
The other source of error is intralingual transfer. Intralingual transfer is error
that occurs because there is a problem in the learners of target language it selves, and
there is no relation with the native language. Besides that, intralingual transfers occur
as a product of learner’s effort to build concept and hypothesis about the target
language from their less experience (Keshavarz, 2003, Fang & Xue-mei, 2007,

Erdogan, 2005 as quoted in Ridha, 2012, p. 30). According to Brown as cited in
Rejeki (2012), intralingual occurs because there are problems in the second language
of learners itself. Then, according to Richard and Schmidt (2002), intralingual is
“error which results from faulty or partial learning of the target language, rather than
from language transfer” (p.267).
Based on the explanation above, intralingual is an error that is caused by the
second language learner and, in this case, there is no relation between second
language learner and the native language. Therefore, error that occurs in intralingual
is an error that is caused by the learner itself.
There are four circumstances of intralingual transfer. They are “overgeneralization, ignorance of the rule restriction, incomplete application of rule and
false concepts hypothesized” (Richards, 1974 in Rejeki, 2012, p. 10). According to
Richard as cited in Rejeki (2012), over-generalization is a situation that occurs
because the learners make errors that influence by the previous knowledge. For
example, the rule of simple present tense is used to explain about simple past tense.
Then, ignorance of the rules restriction is error that occurs because the learners
ignore the restricted rule. Next, incomplete applications of rules are errors that occur
because the learners do not use the complete rules. The last, false concept
hypothesized is error that occurs because the learners have a false concept.
From the definition above, it shows that the circumstances of intralingual
transfer are, over-generalization, ignorance of the rules restriction, incomplete

applications of rules and false concept hypothesized. Those circumstances have no
relations with the native. So it happens because the learners itself.
Types of errors. Brown stated that there are several types of errors. They are
omission, addition, selection, and ordering (as cited in Rejeki, 2012, p. 6). Further
explanation, Brown stated that omission is an error that occurs because there is an
article vanishing in the sentence whether in speaking or writing. For example he was
good boy, in this case an article should put before good boy. The second is addition
errors, addition errors means put an aspect of language that is not needed in the
sentence. Then selection error is an error that occurs when the learners select
incorrect aspect of language. For example, he have four sister, in this sentence the
learner has error selection in the use of auxiliary, it is because he should followed by
has not have. Then, the last type of error is ordering errors. Ordering error occurs
because the learner did incorrect command of part of speech in the sentence. For
example, I to the store went, in this case the learner do not know how to structuring
part of speech such as subject verb and object (as cited in Rejeki, 2012, p. 6).
Moreover Corder (1981) distinguished the types of error based on the
systematicity. Those are pre-systematic error, systematic error and post-systematic
error. Pre-systematic errors occur when the learner is unaware about particular rule of
target language. Then, systematic errors occur because, the learner knows the rules of
target language but that is wrong. The last is post-systematic error, it is errors that
occur when the learners know the correct rules of target language but they do not use
it consistently. According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen as cited in Elis (1994), to

classify the errors, it should use a surface strategy taxonomy. The surface strategy
taxonomy of errors is drawn below. The categories and sample is from Dulay, Burt,
and Krashen (as cited in Ellis, 1994, p. 56).
Table 1
A surface strategy taxonomy
Category

Description

Example

Omissions

The absence of an item

She sleeping.

that must appear in a
well-formed utterance.
The presence of an item
Addition

that must not appear in

We didn’t went there.

well-formed utterances.
The use of the wrong
form of the morpheme or
Misinformation

structure.

The dog ated the
chicken.

The incorrect placement
of a morpheme or group
of morphemes in an
Misorderings

What daddy is doing?

utterance.

From definition above, there are four types of error. They are omission,
addition, selection, and ordering. It is because misinformation and misordering of the
surface strategy taxonomy are same as selection error and ordering error. Those four

types of error can perform in speaking and writing. However, according to
systematicity, there are three types of errors. They are pre-systematic errors,
systematic errors, and post-systematic errors. Moreover this research chooses strategy
taxonomy from Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (as cited in Ellis, 1994, p.56) as theory to
classify the error.
Error analysis. Error analysis deals with a process. Fang and Xue-mei (2007)
said, “Error analysis is associated with a rich and complex psycholinguistic view of
the learner” (p.13). According to Ali in Ridha (2012), error analysis is “the
examination of those errors committed by students in both the spoken and written
medium” (p.26). Besides, error analysis is a process to observe, analyzed, classified
and reveal what is error that learner made (Brown, 2000). Richard and Schmidt
(2002) explained that, error analysis is identifying process, whether identify the
strategies of learner in language learning, identify the causes of learner’s error, or
identify the common difficulties in language learning. Gass and Selinker (2001)
stated that error analysis is linguistic analysis that focuses to analyze errors that the
learners make. Elis (1994) stated, error analysis is a process of analyzing the learner’s
errors. Beside, “An error analysis is help the learners to learn an L2” (Ellis, 1997,
p.19).
Error analysis is methods to observe, analyze, and classify student’s error.
Error analysis also can focus on specific language. Error analysis is linguistic analysis
that focuses on the error that the learners make. Based on explanation about, it is clear

that error analysis is suitable with this research. It is because this research analyzes
the error on the use of in, at, on in the students writing.
The Definition of Preposition
Students who learn English language are really urged to know about
preposition. To know clearly about what is preposition, the researcher shows several
concepts of definition of preposition based on several experts.
According to Klammer and Schulz (1992),”preposition is reliable signals that
a noun is coming. Sanford (1979) found, “a preposition connects the noun or pronoun
that usually follows it to other words in a sentence” (p.54). Then, according to
Essberger (2009), preposition is a word that comes before another word, such as a
noun, noun phrase, pronoun, and gerund.
Based on the expert’s explanation above, preposition is a word that is used
before noun or pronoun. Preposition is also a signal that noun is coming. For
example, a person was trapped on the roof. In that sentence ‘on’ is a signal that noun
“roof” coming.
The Type of Preposition
According to Klammer and Schulz (1992), there are two types of prepositions.
They are simple preposition and phrasal preposition. Besides, Essberger (2009) found
two types of preposition: one-word preposition and complex-preposition. Same
definition is also given by Klegr (1997) who said that in general there are two
characteristics of preposition: simple preposition and complex preposition.

Generally, there are two types of preposition. They are simple preposition
(one-word preposition) and phrasal preposition (complex-preposition). The examples
of simple preposition are in, at, on, after, to, before, about, above and the others.
Then, the examples of phrasal preposition are according to, ahead of, along with,
apart from and the others.
According to Sanford (1979), “a preposition always works with a following
noun, noun word group, or a pronoun to show its relationship to other words in the
sentence. The relationships can be of time, place, manner, or kind” (p.54). According
to Essberger (2009), “There are many prepositions can be adverb” (p.5). Klegr
(1997), “in keeping with semantic roles of adverbials, the phrasal preposition can be
divided into six large groups, place, time, contingency, process, respect, and degree”
(p.57). Another expert stated that there are several function of prepositions, for
example, prepositions are used to explain about time and place. Moreover, according
to Frank (1972), based on the function, prepositions are divided into three:
preposition of time, preposition of position or place, and preposition of direction.
Therefore, the summary of explanation above is, there are several types of
prepositions; those are preposition of place, time, manner and preposition of
direction. However in this research, the researcher will only research about
preposition of time and preposition of place. Then, the researcher only focus to
research about preposition in, at, on as preposition of time and place.
The Use of in, at, on

According to Eastwood (1994), usually in, at, on express about position.
Moreover, sometimes in and on can use to express the movement and sometimes the
choice of preposition depends of the meaning. In general in, at, on are used to
explain about position or place, but sometimes those preposition also can use to
explain about movement.
At. Eastwood (1994) said, “at is one dimensional, we use it when we see
something as a point in a space” (p.291). For the instance: the car was waiting at the
lights. Besides that, at is used to explain about a smaller place or specific place
(Eastwood, 1994). Boquist (2009) also has same statement that at is used to explain
about an exact place or a specific place. According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and
Svartvik, (1973) at can be used to explain about building, for example: at school, at
home. However, at refers to building in institutional or functional purpose. Moreover,
at also used to address about the name of street and the number of the house. Besides
that at also explains about the name of village, for example Bung Karno’s grave is at
Blitar (Widarso & Mariani, 1994).
Preposition at cannot only explain about place but also can explain about
time. According to Eastwood (1994), at is used to explain about a particular time or
o’clock time, or explain about holiday periods for two or three days (at the weekend,
at Christmas, at thanksgiving). Boquist (1973) also state that at is used to explain
about an exact time or specific time. Another explanation, at is used to explain about
time of the day and special expression (Praninskas, 1959). Moreover, according to
Widarso and Mariani (1994), at is used to explain about midday and night (at night,

at noon, at midnight). Murphy (1990) stated that at is used to explain about an event,
for example at the party.
On. Here, the researcher explains abut preposition on that is used to explain
about time and place. According to Eastwood (1994, p.291), on is two dimensional,
we use it for a surface. For the example: there were lots of pictures on the walls. So,
the position of the picture is on the surface of the wall. Arjan, Abdullah, and Roslim
(2013) stated that on is one dimensional (when we see something as a surface). Then,
on is used with an article and noun to show place. The next, on is used without an
article before a noun to show fix expression, for example: you will find it on page 23.
To describe the place, on is used with an article and followed by adjective before a
noun; on is used with possessive adjective, for example: on her back. According to
Riyanto (2010), on means of travelling, for example: on foot, on a ship, on the bus,
on my way home, on a journey, an exception: in the car, and in the direction of for
example: on the left, on the right.
For showing the time, on is used to explain about the single day or which day,
for example: on Tuesday, on Friday. Then, on can also mean immediately after, for
example: on his arrival the president held a press conference. Another expert said
that on is used before days of the week and dates, for example: on July 4th
(Praninskas, 1959).
In. There are several uses of preposition in. According to Eastwood (1994),
“in is three dimensional. We use in when we see something as all around” (p.291).
For the example: there was a man sitting in the waiting room. Eastwood further

explain that, for place in is used to explain about country or town. For example: in
Yogyakarta. According to Arjan, Abdullah and Roslim (2013), there are several uses
of in. First, in is three dimensional (when we see everything at once), then in explain
about something an enclosed area, for example: in the field. To show a place in is
used with an article and noun (in +article + noun). However, in a fix or special
expression in is used without an article and only in plus noun to show place, for
example in prison. Then, in is used with an article and followed by adjective before
the noun to explain about place. For the example: in the big country. The last, in is
used with possessive adjective, for example in my house. According to Kardimin
(2006), in is used to explain about general place. Then, in explains about the building
as three dimensional, for example: in the school (inside the building).
For indicating a time, in is used to explain about time with longer periods and
part of the day: in the morning, in the evening, and the others an exception at night
(Eastwood, 1994). For example: in the next view days, in the morning. Another
expert said that in is used to explain about months, year, seasons and special
expression (Praninkas, 1959). The example of special expression is: in prison.
Another expert stated that for time, in is used to explain about month and year.
Besides that, in also explains about something inside (Murphy, 1990). For example:
there is cockroach in the box, it mean the cockroach inside of the box.
Based on the explanation of the used of in, at, on, above, here are the table of the
used of in, at, on.

Table 2
The use of at
Place
1. It is one dimensional. It is used when we see something as a point in a
space. For the instance: the car was waiting at the lights.
2. It is used to explain about specific place.
3. At explains about building for institutional or functional purpose. for
example: at school, at home.
4. At explains about the name of street and the number.
5. At can be used to explain about the name of village.
Time
1. It is used before the time of the day or specific time such as a clock.
Example: at 5:15.
2. It is used to explain special expression or midday and night, example: at
noon, at night.
3. It is used to explain about holiday periods two or three days. Example: at
thanks giving, at the weekend, at Christmas.
4. At is used to explain about an event, for example at the party.

Table 3
The use of on
Place
1. It is two dimensional, it is used for surface.
2. It is used with article and a noun to show place.

3. It is used with a noun without article to show place in some fixed
expression. Example: you will find it on page 23.
4. It is used with an article followed by an adjective or adjective before the
noun to explain the place. Example: he stands on a wooden chair.
5. On is used with possessive adjective. Example: on her back.
6. On is used to explain about the direction of, for example: on the left, on
the right.
7. On means of travelling, for example: on the bus, on foot, on a ship, on my
way, an exception: in the car.
8. On is also used to explain bout the edge, for example: on the river, on the
border.
Time
1. It is used to explain the single day or which day. Example: on Friday, on
Saturday.
2. It is also mean immediately after. Example: on his arrival the president
held a press conference.
3. It is used before dates or specific date of the month. Example: on July 4th.

Table 4
The use of in
Place
1. It is three dimensional; it is used to explain about something all around.
2. It is used to explain about country, town or any place, which has
boundaries or is enclosed. Example: in the field.

3. In means inside only.
4. In is used without an article to show place in fixed expression (in bed, in
prison, in hospital).
5. It is used with an article, a, an, the and a noun to show place.
6. It is used with an article followed by adjective, adjective before the noun
to describe the place.
7. In describes about general place.
8. In is used with possesive adjective (in + possesive adjective).
9. In can be used to explain about the name of street without the number, for
example: you will find lots of Batik on Malioboro Street.
Time
1. It is to explain about time with longer period, year, and seasons. For
example: in the next days, in 1992, in autumn.
2. To explain about part of the day or special expression. Example: in the
morning, and the other, an exception night (at night).

Software to Help the Data Analysis
Concordance. In this research, the researcher researched about students’
errors on the use of in, at, and on. Therefore, the researcher used concordance as a
tool to help the researcher to analyze the data. According to Seale (2004),

“concordance is a computer software which will analyze texts in number of ways,
including producing keyword lists and word frequencies, identifying main ideas,
analyzing patterns of word use, and comparing vocabulary between texts” (p.369).
Based on the explanation above, concordance is software related with
linguistic. It is because concordance is able to analyzing text, identifying main idea of
the text, analyzing pattern of word use and comparing vocabulary between texts.
After analyzing the data with concordance, the researcher used another
software to help analyze the data. That was Weft QDA. According to Fenton (2006),
Weft QDA is software to help researcher to analyze a textual data. Those samples of
textual data are interview transcripts, documents, and field note.
Based on the explanation above, Weft QDA is a software to ease analyzes the
data. The data that were analyzed with Weft QDA were interview transcript,
document, and field note.
Writing
Writing is an outward expression of what is going on in the writer’s mind
(Hussain, Hanif, Asif, and Rehman, 2013). Furthermore, according to Hussain et al
(2013), “writing is the visual medium through which graphical and grammatical
system of a language is manifested” (p.832). Another explanation, writing is a
“complex process which demands cognitive analysis and linguistic synthesis” (Ridha,
2012, p.22). Based on Kane (1988), there are three kinds of writing: writing
exposition (explain), description (deal with perception), narration (series of related
event), and persuasion (seeks to alter how readers think or believe). Based on the

explanations, writing is an activity to release an idea of the writer’s into a sheet of
paper or other. Then, generally, the kinds of writing are: exposition, description,
narration, and persuasion.
In summary, writing is an outward process of what is going on in the writer’s
mind. Besides that, writing is an activity to release the writer’s idea on piece of paper
or other media. Writing is really suitabl