An error analysis on research proposal of the seventh semester students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University - USD Repository

  

AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON RESEARCH PROPOSAL

OF THE SEVENTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  

By

Klara Ade Krisnawati

Student Number: 071214068

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  

AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON RESEARCH PROPOSAL

OF THE SEVENTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  

By

Klara Ade Krisnawati

Student Number: 071214068

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  When there is no turning back, we should concern ourselves only with the best way of going forward.

• Paulo Coelho- When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieved it.
• Paulo Coelho ‘the alchemist’- When there is a will...there is a way...

  I dedicate this thesis to my father Antonius Ngadikin, my mother Christina Kusumastuti, my brother Andreas Aris Ardianto, and my sister Lucia Astri Noviyanti.

  

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work

or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the

references, as a scientific paper should.

  

Yogyakarta, December 7, 2011

The Writer

Klara Ade Krisnawati

071214068

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Klara Ade Krisnawati

  Nomor Mahasiswa : 071214068

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan

Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON RESEARCH PROPOSAL

OF THE SEVENTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata

Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain,

mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan

mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis

tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya

selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal 7 Desember 2011 Yang menyatakan Klara Ade Krisnawati 071214068

  

ABSTRACT

Krisnawati, Klara Ade. (2011). An Error Analysis on Research Proposal of The

Seventh Semester Students of English Language Education Study Program of

Sanata Dharma University . Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

  As professional teacher candidates, the students of English Language

Education Study Program should be able to produce good academic writing. They

should also become good models for their students. On the seventh semester, the

English Language Education Study Program students experience to teach high

school students. It requires them to have a good ability in listening, speaking,

reading, and writing skills. One of the courses which reflects the seventh semester

students’ ability in writing is KPE 475 Thesis Writing Course. In this course, the

students produce a research proposal as the final assignment. However, there are

some errors still produced by the seventh semester students of English Language

Education Study Program academic year 2007/2008 in writing Research Proposal.

For this reason, it is beneficial to find out the errors made by students of English

Language Education Study Program and the possible sources of error in writing

Research Proposal. The research focuses on analyzing errors in Chapter I of

Research Proposal because in this part, the students have an ample opportunity to

write their opinions and ideas toward the topic of the thesis rather than in other

chapters.

  This research aimed to answer two research questions. 1) What are the

errors made by seventh semester students of English Language Education Study

Program of Sanata Dharma University in their Research Proposal of Thesis

Writing Course ? 2) What are the possible sources underlying the errors made by

seventh semester students of English Language Education Study Program of

Sanata Dharma University in writing their Research Proposal of Thesis Writing

Course ? The researcher conducted a document analysis research. As a qualitative

research, the results of the analysis were interpreted in the form of descriptive

data. Twenty five documents of Chapter I of Thesis Writing Research Proposal of

the academic year 2007/2008 students were the instruments in this research. The

documents were analyzed based on surface structure taxonomy theory from

Dulay, Burt, & Krashen.

  The results showed the type of errors were classified into omission errors

(73 errors or 42.94 %), addition errors (22 errors or 12.94 %), misinformation

errors (45 errors or 26.47 %), and misordering errors (3 errors or 1.76 %).

Besides, the researcher also found other errors (27 errors or 15.88 %). By using

Ellis’ theory of possible source of errors, there were two possible sources of errors

appeared. The first was errors which were resulted from interlingual process

(misinformation and misordering errors). The second was intralingual process (all

the types of surface structure taxonomy errors).

  The researcher hopes this research will be useful for lecturers and students

of English Language Education Study Program. The researcher also recommends

some suggestions for the further researchers to follow up this research.

  Key words: error, research proposal, document analysis

  

ABSTRAK

Krisnawati, Klara Ade. (2011). An Error Analysis on Research Proposal of The

Seventh Semester Students of English Language Education Study Program of

Sanata Dharma University . Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Sebagai para calon guru profesional, mahasiswa Program Studi

Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris harus mampu menghasilkan suatu tulisan akademik

yang baik. Mereka juga harus mampu menjadi contoh yang baik bagi murid-

muridnya. Di semester ketujuh, mahasiswa akan berpraktek langsung dalam

mengajar murid-murid SMA dan SMP. Hal ini mengharuskan mahasiswa

mempunyai kemampuan yang baik dalam mendengarkan, berbicara, membaca,

dan menulis. Salah satu mata kuliah yang merefleksikan kemampuan menulis

mahasiswa semester 7 adalah mata kuliah Thesis Writing. Sebagai tugas akhir

mata kuliah ini, mahasiswa diwajibkan mampu menghasilkan suatu proposal

penelitian. Namun demikian, masih terdapat banyak kesalahan yang dibuat oleh

mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris semester 7 tahun angkatan

2007/2008 dalam menulis proposal penelitian. Berdasarkan alasan tersebut,

penelitian analisa dokumen dirasa perlu dilakukan untuk mengetahui kesalahan

apa saja yang biasanya dibuat oleh mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa

Inggris dan kemungkinan penyebab dari kesalahan tersebut dalam menulis

proposal penelitian. Penelitian ini fokus menganalisa kesalahan-kesalahan yang

dibuat di Bab I sebuah proposal penelitian. Bab I dipilih karena dalam bagian ini

mahasiswa memiliki banyak kesempatan untuk menulis opini dan ide mereka

tentang topik penelitian daripada di bab-bab yang lain.

  Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjawab dua masalah. 1) Apa saja

kesalahan yang dibuat oleh mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

semester 7 di Universitas Sanata Dharma dalam penulisan proposal penelitian di

mata kuliah Thesis Writing? 2) Apa saja kemungkinan penyebab dari kesalahan-

kesalahan yang dibuat oleh mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

semester 7 di Universitas Sanata Dharma dalam penulisan proposal penelitian di

mata kuliah Thesis Writing? Peneliti melakukan penelitian dengan menganalisa

dokumen. Sebagai penelitian kualitatif, hasil data dari menganalisis dokumen

akan diinterpretasikan ke dalam bentuk data diskripsi. Instrumen dalam penelitian

ini adalah dokumen Bab I dari proposal penelitian. Peneliti mengumpulkan 25

dokumen proposal penelitian dari mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa

Inggris tahun angkatan 2007/2008. Dokumen tersebut dianalisis berdasarkan teori

surface structure taxonomy dari Dulay, Burt, dan Krashen.

  Hasil data menunjukkan jenis-jenis kesalahan yang diklasifikasikan

menjadi kesalahan omission (73 kesalahan atau 42.94 %), kesalahan addition (22

kesalahan atau 12.94 %), kesalahan misinformation (45 kesalahan atau 26.47 %),

dan kesalahan misordering (3 kesalahan atau 1.76 %). Selain itu, peneliti juga

menemukan kesalahan lain yang tidak bisa dikategorikan dalam salah satu jenis

klasifikasi berdasarkan surface structure taxonomy, yaitu sebanyak 27 kesalahan

atau 15.88 %. Dengan menggunakan teori penyebab kesalahan dari Ellis, dalam

penelitian ini terdapat dua kemungkinan penyebab kesalahan, yaitu kesalahan

  

yang dihasilkan dari proses interlingual (misinformation dan misordering), serta

kesalahan yang dihasilkan dari proses intralingual (semua jenis kesalahan dalam

surface structure taxonomy) .

  Peneliti berharap agar penelitian ini berguna bagi para dosen dan

mahasiswa di Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Peneliti juga

menyediakan beberapa saran bagi peneliti lain yang akan melanjutkan penelitian

ini.

  Kata kunci: kesalahan, proposal penelitian, analisisa dokumen

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, my greatest gratitude goes to my Lord Jesus Christ and Mother

  

Mary, who always bless my whole life and everything I do in this world. I thank

Lord for giving me so many great people who always support me and make my

life wonderful.

  I also would say my deepest gratitude to my beloved family. My parents:

Antonius Ngadikin and Christina Kusumastuti, for their eternal love, prayer,

and care. I earnestly thank to my brother, Mas Andre, and my sister, Astri, for

always loving, cheering me up, and helping me whenever I need. A big thanks

also goes to my grandparents for always praying, loving, and supporting my life.

  I owe an immeasurable debt to my sponsor, Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd.,

M.A., for his care, guidance, and helps to me, as well as his support and

encouragement in finishing the thesis. I thank him for always patiently answering

my confusion and guiding me in doing this thesis.

  My great gratitude also goes to all the PBI lecturers who have guided me

along these years. I would also say thanks to Mbak Dhanik and Mbak Tari who

always help me during my study in PBI.

  I address my sincerely thanks to all of PBI students academic year

2007/2008 for the kindness in allowing me to use their research proposals as the

main source of data in this research.

  My special thanks also goes to all my beloved friends: Bertha, Oda,

Rieta, Wichan, Uni, Fendi, and also my friends in SPD’s group (Dwi, Beni,

  

Susi), PPL and KKN, “Tangled” play performance, EMC, my seniors and

juniors, and my relatives, for the support and wonderful friendship during these

whole semesters in university. I thank for all the unforgettable happy and sad

moments we shared throughout the time spent. They are really colouring my life.

  Lastly, my deepest thanks goes to Susan, Achi, Vita, Lui, Calvin, Ian,

Mas Heri, Mas Krisna, Mas Ardi, Mas Adit ‘Cool’, and Mas Daniel

‘Danconk’, and also everybody whom I cannot mention one by one, who have

supported and helped me in finishing this thesis. I thank them all for spending

their time for me, and for teaching me so many great lessons in my life.

  

Klara Ade Krisnawati

  TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

  TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………… i

APPROVAL PAGES……………………………………………………..... ii

DEDICATION PAGE……………………………………………………… iv STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY……………………………. v

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI …………………………..... vi

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………... vii ABSTRAK ....................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………….. x TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………….. xii LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………... xv LIST OF APPENDICES …………………………………………………. xvi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

  1 A. Research Background ................................................................. 1

  

B. Research Problems........................................................................ 3

  C. Problem Limitation ...................................................................... 4

  

D. Research Objectives ..................................................................... 4

  

E. Research Benefits ......................................................................... 4

  

F. Definition of Terms ....................................................................... 6

  CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ............................ 10 A. Theoretical Description ................................................................ 10

  

1. Error .......................................................................................... 10

  a. Errors and Mistakes ......................................................... 10

  b. The Nature of Errors ....................................................... 12

  2. Error Analysis ......................................................................... 12

  3. Document Analysis ................................................................ 18

  4. Thesis Writing Course............................................................ 20

  5. Review of Previous Research ................................................ 21

  B. Theoretical Framework ............................................................. 22

  

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................... 24

A. Research Method ....................................................................... 24 B. Research Setting ......................................................................... 25 C. Research Participants .................................................................. 25 D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ................................... 26 E. Data Analysis Technique ................................................................ 26 F. Research Procedure ................................................................... 27

  1. Planning the Research ............................................................. 27

  2. Reviewing Literature ............................................................... 28

  3. Finding the Participants and Data ........................................... 28

  4. Analyzing the Data ................................................................... 28

  

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS ...................... . 30

A. Research Results Presentation ..................................................... 30 B. Findings ....................................................................................... 32

  1. Types of Errors in the Research ............................................... 32

  a. Omission ........................................................................... 32

  b. Addition ........................................................................... 35

  c. Misinformation ................................................................. 37

  d. Misordering ...................................................................... 42

  e. Other Findings .................................................................. 42

  2. Source of Errors ....................................................................... 44

  a. Interlingual ....................................................................... 44

  b. Intralingual ....................................................................... 45

  c. Context of Learning ......................................................... 52

  

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION .............. 54

A. Conclusions ................................................................................. 54 B. Recommendation ......................................................................... 55

  1. Lecturers ................................................................................... 55

  2. Students ..................................................................................... 56

  3. Further Researchers ................................................................... 56

REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 58

APPENDICES .............................................................................................. 60

  

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 4.1 Types of Error ............................................................................... 31Table 4.2 Omission Error ............................................................................... 33Table 4.3 Addition Error ................................................................................ 35Table 4.4 Regularization of Misinformation Error ......................................... 38Table 4.5 Alternating Forms of Misinformation Error ................................... 40Table 4.6 Misordering Error ........................................................................... 42Table 4.7 Other Findings ................................................................................ 43

  LIST OF APPENDICES Page

Appendix 1. List of Errors .......................................................................... 60

  Appendix 2. The Examples of Chapter I of Students’ Research Proposals ............................................. 74

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the rationale for conducting the research. This

  

chapter includes research background, problem formulation, problem limitation,

research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms. A. Research Background As professional teacher candidates, the students of English Language

Education Study Program should be able to produce good academic writing, since

as teachers, they should become good models for their students. They will

experience teaching high school students. It requires them to have a good ability

in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. One of the courses which reflects the

seventh semester students’ ability in writing is KPE 475 Thesis Writing Course. In

this course, the students are required to produce a research proposal as the final

assignment.

  Unfortunately, the students, especially those in the seventh semester still

make some errors in producing academic writing. The researcher found some

errors when reading some of the Research Proposals of the students of Thesis

Writing Course . The error was seen in the sentence construction. For example,

there was missing subject or there was no agreement between subject and verb in

the sentence. For this reason, the researcher conducted a document analysis

  

research to examine errors produced by the seventh semester students in writing

English academic writing.

  The documents analyzed in the research were the students’ Chapter I of

Research Proposal. The research only focused on Chapter I of the proposal. In this

chapter, the students have an ample opportunity to write their opinions and ideas

toward the topic of the thesis rather than in other chapters. They have to convey

their thoughts in order to convince readers whether the research are worth

conducting or not. Besides, Chapter I is less of quotation and citation compared to

the other chapters. Chapter I is mostly containing the students own sentences. This

chapter shows the seventh semester students’ ability in producing a writing. For

that reason, it is important to conduct a document analysis research, especially in

this field, because it gives the information about errors that are usually made by

students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma

University in writing their Research Proposal of Thesis Writing Course.

  The research was conducted in English Language Education Study

Program of Sanata Dharma University. The researcher chooses the seventh

semester students as the participants of the research. Seventh semester students

have already had good English proficiency level, as the students have learned

English for more than three years in university. Moreover, most of them have

done their teaching practice in high school students.

  An error analysis research is chosen because the researcher believes that it

is helpful for teacher candidates to know the errors in their academic writing. Ellis

(2003) stated that error is reflecting gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur

  

because the learner does not know what is correct. In other words, it can be said

that the learners make errors beause they are lack of consciousness in language

knowledge. As teacher candidates, the students of English Language Education

Study Program must be able to give the correct English example or good models

of English language for their students. Since this research shows their errors in

their academic writing, it is useful for them when they become teachers later. The

research’s findings can be the references for them in teaching their students,

especially in teaching writing. They can ask their students to be more careful in

writing academic essays, especially in the parts which is leading the students to

make errors. The researcher expects that the research will uncover the students’

errors in their academic writing, as well as possible sources of the errors.

B. Research Problems

  

This research is going to answer the following research questions:

  

1. What are the errors made by the seventh semester students of English Language

Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University in their Research Proposal of Thesis Writing Course?

  

2. What are the possible sources underlying the errors made by the seventh

semester students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University in writing their Research Proposal of Thesis Writing Course ?

  C. Problem Limitation This research focused on the Research Proposal of Thesis Writing Course

of the seventh semester students of English Language Education Study Program

of Sanata Dharma University academic year 2007/2008. This research only

covered the students’ Chapter I of Research Proposal of Thesis Writing Course

that was done in semester seven. It used twenty five documents of Chapter I of

Thesis Writing Research Proposal. The participants were chosen by using

purposive sampling technique.

  D. Research Objectives The objectives of the research are to answer the two research questions.

  

The research is conducted to find out the errors of the seventh semester students

of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University

academic year 2007/2008 in writing their Chapter I of Research Proposal of

Thesis Writing Course . The research is also conducted to find out the possible

sources underlying the errors made by seventh semester students of English

Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University academic year

2007/2008 in writing their Chapter I of Research Proposal of Thesis Writing

Course .

  E. Research Benefits Ellis (1997) stated the reasons of some researchers did the research on

errors, they are: (1) the researchers are conspicuous feature of learner language,

  

(2) it will be useful for teachers to know what errors learners make, and (3)

making errors may actually help learners to learn when they self-correct the errors

they make. Due to those reasons, this research hopefully can give benefits for the

readers, especially:

  1. The Lecturers of English Language Education Study Program This research will be very useful for the lecturers of English Language

Education Study Program especially the lecturers of Thesis Writing Course in

reminding their students to be more careful in writing their Thesis Writing

Research Proposal. They will find out the errors usually made by the students. It

also helps the lecturers to find out the sources underlying the errors. Therefore, the

lecturers can give or use more appropriate strategy or action to avoid the errors in

students’ Thesis Writing Research Proposal.

  2. The Students of English Language Education Study Program This research is conducted to help the students to be more careful in

writing so they do not have so many errors. This study provides several factors

that cause the students’ errors. Therefore, it can help students to be aware of those

factors and they can solve the factors that may influence the errors, and they can

do better in academic writing.

  3. The Further Researchers This research provides the results and findings about the students’ errors in

writing Thesis Writing Research Proposal. Hopefully it can help the further

researchers, especially to gain the information. It can be the inspiration in

developing the further research.

  4. Sanata Dharma University This research will be varying the research’s collection of Sanata Dharma

University’s library. It is also useful in order to help the students in find some

information or references for their study.

F. Definition of Terms

  The researcher is going to discuss some terms used in the research to avoid misinterpretation. The terms of the research are defined as follows.

  1. Error and Mistake In this research, the term error is understood as what Ellis (2003) stated

that error is reflecting gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the

learner does not know what is correct. Corder (1967) in Ellis & Barkhuizen

(2005) stated that there are three ways to signify the learner errors; they serve a

pedagogic purpose by showing teachers what learners have learned and what they

have not yet mastered, they serve a research purpose by providing evidence about

how languages are learned, and they serve a learning purpose by acting as devices

by which learners can discover the rules of the target language.

  Based on Ellis (2003), in this research, mistake is reflecting occasional

lapses in performance; they occur because, in particular instance, the learner is

unable to perform what he or she knows. Chomsky (1965) as cited by Dulay,

Burt, & Krashen (1982) states that it is important to distinguish between errors

caused by factors such as fatigue and inattention or performance error, and errors

resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language or competence error.

  

Corder (1967) as cited by Dulay et. al. (1982), states that performance error have

been called “mistake”, while “error” is reserved for the systematic deviations due

to the learner’s still developing knowledge of the second language system.

  The distinction between performance and competence errors is essential,

but it is difficult to determine the nature of a deviation without conducting a

careful analysis. Therefore, Dulay et. al. (1982) states that the term “error” can be

used to refer any deviation from a selected norm of language performance,

without considering the characteristics or causes of the deviation might be.

  2. Error Analysis According to Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005), analysis meant the process of

identifying, describing, and explaining something. Error analysis consists of a set

of procedures for identifying, describing, and explaining learner errors. Corder

(1974) in Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005) stated that there are five steps in conducting

error analysis; collecting the sample of learner language, identifying the errors,

describing the errors, explaining the errors, and evaluating the errors.

  The term error analysis in this research refers to the procedures for

identifying, describing, and explaining the errors of the seventh semester students

of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University

academic year 2007/2008 in writing their Chapter I of Thesis Writing Research

Proposal.

  In this research, the error analysis conducted in five steps. They are

collecting twenty five samples of students’ Chapter I of Thesis Writing Research

  

Proposal, identifying the errors, describing the errors, explaining the errors, and

evaluating the errors.

  3. Thesis Writing Course Thesis Writing Course is one of the courses in English Language

Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University which requires the

students to produce a research proposal as the final assignment. It contains the

students’ plan for their thesis. In this proposal, the students have to produce

  

Chapter I (Introduction), Chapter II (Literature Review), Chapter III (Research

Methodology), and references. Writing a proposal of research can be the most crucial and exciting step in

the research process (Ary, Jacobs, & Razavieh: 1990). In this part, the researchers

must demonstrate what they want to find through the research and they have to

persuade others that their researches are worthwhile. Research proposal must be

produced before the researchers collect data. Ary et.al. (1990) suggested a

guideline for writing a research proposal. It consist of introduction (statement of

the problem, review of the literature, and questions and/or hypotheses),

methodology (subjects, instruments, procedures), analysis of data (data

organization and statistical procedures), significance of the study (implications

and applications), and budget and time schedule (budget and time schedule).

  In this research, the researcher uses documents of Thesis Writing Research

Proposal to be analyzed. The research proposal in this research is research

proposal produced by seventh semester students of English Language Education

  

Study Program of Sanata Dharma University academic year 2007/2008 in Thesis

Writing Course . The researcher focuses on analyzing Chapter I.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter deals with some theoretical reviews used in the research. There are two main parts in this chapter, namely theoretical description and

  

theoretical framework. The theoretical description consists of theories that are

relevant to the research and provides a review of related study, while the

theoretical framework provides the theoretical answers to the research problems.

A. Theoretical Description

  In this part, the researcher provides some theories about error analysis,

Research Proposal of Thesis Writing, and document analysis that were stated by

some experts in language teaching.

1. Error

a. Errors and Mistakes Brown (2000) said that mistakes and errors are two different phenomena .

  

A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip”. It

fails to utilize a known system correctly. Error is the noticeable deviation from the

adult grammar of a native speaker, which reflects the competence of the learner.

  Ellis (1997) in Second Language Acquisition, differentiated the definition

of error and mistake. Based on Ellis, error is usually reflecting gaps in a learner’

knowledge; it occurs because the learner does not know what is correct. While,

  

mistake is reflecting occasional lapses in performance; it occurs because, in

particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she knows (p. 17).

  Brown (2000) stated that human learning is fundamentally a process that

involves the making of mistakes. From the mistakes, human can obtain the

feedbacks from the environment, and that feedbacks are used to make new

attempts that successively approximate desired goals. In other words, it can be

said that language learning is like any other human learning.

  Brown (2000) gave an illustration of the children learning their first

language making countless “mistakes” from the point of view of adult

grammatical language. The children learn how to produce the acceptable speech

in their native language from the feedbacks that they receive every time they make mistakes. Brown (2000) added that: “…second language learning is a process that is clearly not unlike first language learning in its trial-and-error nature. Inevitably learners will make mistakes in the process of acquisition, and that process will be impede if they do not commit errors and then benefit from various forms of feedback on those errors”.(p. 217) Language learning process may lead language learners to produce

mistakes. As the process goes by, the language learners will get feedback from

their environment leading them to learn from their mistakes and then know the concepts which are correct. b. The Nature of Errors Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005) stated about the nature of errors, that is the

learners sometimes produce errors and sometimes do not; in making errors, they

do not always use the same non-target form. Corder (1967), as cited in Ellis &

Barkhuizen (2005), divided the significant learner errors in three ways: (1) they

serve a pedagogic purpose by showing teachers what learners have learned and

what they have not yet mastered; (2) they serve a research purpose by providing

evidence about how languages are learned; and (3) they serve a learning purpose

by acting as devices by which learners can discover the rules of the target

language.

  Ellis (1997) stated reasons of some studies that focus on errors, they are:

(1) the studies are conspicuous feature of learner language, (2) it will be useful for

teachers to know what errors learners make, and (3) making errors may actually

help learners to learn when they self-correct the errors they make.

  2. Error Analysis Based on Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005), error analysis consists of a set of

procedures for identifying, describing, and explaining learner errors. Error

analysis is the study of the errors made by the language learners in their speech

and writing. Brown (2000) said what was called by error analysis was that the

fact where the learners did make errors, and those errors could be observed,

analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the

learner, and guide into the study of learners’ errors.