72 The examples above show that some students properly spelled the words
they used, yet, they did not use the words in a proper way. This error needs to be taken care of because this error is quite serious. Preliminary action toward this
error is needed in order to prevent further students‟ misunderstanding.
B. Possible Causes Of Errors Made On Descriptive texts By Seventh grade
Students Of SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta
In this part, the researcher presents the causes of errors that occurred in the students‟ descriptive texts. There are many causes of errors provided by John
Norrish 1983, yet, the researcher only chose some of them which are considered relevant for explaining the stu
dents‟ errors in descriptive texts. The researcher searched the causes of errors of the students‟ descriptive texts through errors
found on students‟ descriptive texts. The researcher observed the students‟ answers from the questionnaires. The researcher concluded the possible causes of
error of SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakartaseventh grade students afterwards. The possible causes of errors for SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta are presented as
follows.
1. Basic Grammar Understanding of The Students
The students‟ basic grammar understanding is considered by the researcher as the first cause of error. The reason for that is because almost all of the students
have problems with their basic grammar understanding. It is proved by the result of students‟ descriptive texts. Most of the errors that occurred in the students‟
descriptive texts were caused by their basic grammar understanding. The students
73 did not have strong basic grammar understanding, therefore, the students made
errors mostly related to grammar.
2. Overgeneralization
Richards 1971b as cited by Ellis 1994 stated that” overgeneralization
errors arise when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the target language. It generally involves of one deviant structure in
place of two target language”. Overgeneralization occurred in the students‟ descriptive texts. Most of the students dealt with the use of verbs in simple present
tense. They over generalized that every verb of simple present tense is not added suffix
–s or –es. Overgeneralization also occurred when the students formed plural nouns. The students tended to omit suffix
–s or –es.
3. Students’ Carelessness
Norrish 1983 stated that carelessness is also a cause of error. Yet, it is not the only cause of errors. He also stated that carelessness could be happen if the
teacher‟s presentation or the text book does not suit the students. The researcher considered carelessness
as one of causes of error in the students‟ descriptive texts. Carelessness is shown from the students‟ descriptive texts. Some errors represent
students‟ carelessness in writing. Another proof for students‟ carelessness is misspelling. There were found some words which were misspelled.
4. Incomplete Application of Rules
Richards 1971b as cited by Ellis 1994 stated that “incomplete
application of rules involves a failure to fully develop a structure”. In incomplete application of rules, the students incompletely applied rules in syntax and
74 morphology. The example of incomplete application of rules is the omission of „to
be‟ is, am, are, was and were. In the students‟ descriptive texts, omission of „to be‟ contributed quite high frequency of errors. This kind of errors was discovered
in more than one student‟s descriptive text. Based on this kind of error, the
students were not aware of their omitting „to be. Besides omission of „to be‟, there
are still many students‟ errors in descriptive texts which reflect incomplete application of rules.
5. First Language Interference
