Systematicity Analysis on Interview Data
R : Oo .. OK.. If you want to say so, it doesn’t need
apostrophe,but you can directly write s ... Then, it also still used present tense yes .. What ‘can’ in past tense ..?
From the interview, it showed that Subject UV added a letter ‘s’ because she wanted to show that her friend was more than one. However,
she used an ‘apostrophe’ before letter ‘s’ which caused the meaning of that word cannot be understood. Subject UV knew about the rule of plurality,
but she did not know how the correct rule in using it, and she just made her own rule. Other Subject who also made error and reasoned that could be
categorized in this systematicity process was Subject BR. 2
Analysis on Subject BR Subject BR wrote a sentence ‘it’s joyful’, but she did not know
what ‘’s’ was. Below was the transcript of a little part in interview process with Subject BR.
R : yes, very good ... How about this one ..? ‘It’s joyful time’
S : liburan yang menyenangkan ...
R : You wrote it’s, Why did you write like that?
S : I often see the word like that in story ..
R : Do you know what it is ..?
S : no, I don’t ...
She knew about that word from the story that she often read. Then, she thought that it was correct and used it for her sentence. In fact, the
structure was correct, but because it was a recount text, so it should be changed in a past form. The same thing also happened to Subject SR.
3 Analysis on Subject SR
Subject SR knew the rule of ‘I’m’ from a text that she used as a sample when she wrote her recount text. Then, she made an error in using
this rule. Below was the transcript of interview on Subject SR. R
: Oo ..OK .. Then, do you know why you wrote like this one ‘Im and my father..?
S : Mmm.. Because in Indonesia is ‘aku dan ayah’ so, I write
‘I’m’….. R
: OK.. So, it means that what you know is that the English of ‘aku’ is ‘I’m’...?
S : yes, Mam ..Because I read an example and it uses ‘I’m’.
Subject SR constructed her own rule that was whenever she said ‘aku’, she would write ‘I’m’ in English. It was shown in her writing and
implicitly, the writer concluded that it caused by a text that she reads without learning it correctly.
4.9.2 Permeability
Permeability is a process of constructing a rule that comes from the rules that constitute the learners’ knowledge that is open to evolution Selinker, 1972.
Some Subjects made errors and reasoned relevant to this process. Those Subjects were;
1 Analysis on Subject KK
Subject KK might know that if she wanted to say ‘keluar kota’ in English it should be ‘out of city’, but she made an error of this. Below was
the transcript of interview of Subject KK.
R : What is it?
S : Kota ... ‘city’
R : OK.. What about this one... The word ‘id’... Is it ‘id’ or
‘in’..? S
: I d R
: What does it mean? S
: I do not know, Mam .. R
: You do not know it? Where did you find it? S
: I look at dictionary .. Subject KK wrote a phrase ‘out id city’ and when she was asked
what the word ‘id’ was, she cannot answer it. She just had knowledge about the rule, but she cannot make it perfect. Besides Subject KK, there
was Subject MI who also made a sentence indicated permeability. 2
Analysis on Subject MI Subject MI actually knew about verb and noun. He also made a
good structure in his writing. Below was the transcript of interview with Subject MI.
R : OK... What about this, what do you want to say?
S : Mmmm ... .. ‘sehabis renang saya berganti baju’ ..
R : do you mean this our swim clothing?
S : yes ..
R : which means ‘baju’ ..?
S : Mmmm ... .. clothing ...
R : Why did you use –ing?
S : Mmm.. because it is a verb…
Subject MI made wrong order of his sentence. He might know about the structure of noun phrase and also gerund. However, he chose the
wrong word to be changed into a verb-ing. 3
Analysis on Subject AB
Subject AB had knowledge of regular and irregular verbs, he also knew about ‘to be’ but he was wrong in using it. it was shown in the
interview process like in the transcript of the interview below. R
: How about this one? What are you going to say I was broke in the beach ....
S : Saya beristirahat di pantai ...
R : ooo ... Where did you get the term was broke?
S : from the dictionary ..
R : What does the dictionary write ..? break?
S : verb break and become broke ..
R : So, you wrote it ‘I was broke’..? why did you use ‘was’..?
S : Mmm… because it is ‘to be’ and it is used for connecting
word.
Based on the transcript above, it was known that Subject AB already knew about verbs like irregular and regular, and also about ‘to be’
and its rule. However, he had not understood yet how to make it and the correct rules. He just followed what he already knew.