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as a source of errors 1986. Referring to the data, most of the errors made by the samples were considered being caused by interference of the mother tongue.
Based on the data analysis, each error can be caused by more than one source of errors, for example,
“Where they will go tomorrow?” That interrogative word question can be caused by three different sources of errors, such as
interference of mother tongue, lack understanding of target language, and communication strategy.
After analyzing the characteristics and patterns of each error, the researcher found that the errors made by the samples of research represented some
sources of errors proposed by James 1998 as cited in Heydari and Bagheri 2012 and Touchie 1986. In order to make the discussion of the sources of
errors clearer, the researcher preferred to make one by one discussion.
1. Interference of Mother Tongue
The most frequent errors in constructing interrogative word questions made by students of PMat 2010 were caused by interference of mother tongue.
Since the mother tongue of the samples of research is Bahasa Indonesia, they referred to the rules or patterns of interrogative word question construction in
Bahasa Indonesia when constructing English interrogative word questions. The interference of Bahasa Indonesia can be seen directly in some examples collected
from four categories of errors such as omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. They are 1
How big that stage?
2
Who was came to your
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neighbor’s house last night? 3
Who is can help me cut this paper?
4
Where they will go tomorrow?
From those examples of errors, the researcher considered that interference of mother tongue, which is Bahasa Indonesia, exactly affects the construction of
interrogative word questions in the wrong way. Why is it considered the wrong way? It is because the patterns of interrogative word questions in Bahasa
Indonesia are slightly different from the patterns of interrogative word questions in English.
In English, an interrogative word question is initialed by
wh
-word or
wh
- phrase which is called the
wh
-element. Afterwards, the
wh
-element is followed by an auxiliary as operator Svartvik Leech, 1975. Besides, according to Close
1977 as cited in Febrianti 2004, if the interrogative word question is questioning about subject, there is no operator needed. The pattern must be
“interrogative word + predicate + ?”. After those four examples were analyzed, the researcher came up with
good findings which strengthened the speculation that interference of mother tongue really affected the construction of interrogative word questions made by
students of PMat 2010. The analysis done in the first 1 interrogative word question,
which is “How big that stage?”, discovered that the first interrogative word question was the translation of
“Seberapa besar panggung itu?” It might be delivered from
“Panggung itu cukup besar”. It can be seen that the statement of “Panggung itu cukup besar” does not contain any auxiliary as operator like
is, are,
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was
or
were
. Considering that, the error makers tend to alternate between the pattern of interrogative word questions in Bahasa Indonesia and interrogative
word questions in English by avoiding the auxiliary. However, if
the statement “Panggung itu cukup besar” is translated into English, it will
be “That stage is quite big”. The auxiliary occurred in the form of “is”. In this case, the samples of research only need to move the auxiliary and add
the proper interrogative word. The correct interrogative word question must be “How big is that stage?”
The next analysis was done in the second 2 interrogative word question which was noticed being interfered by the mother tongue. The interrogative word
question “Who was came to your neighbor’s house last night?” was interfered by Bahasa Indonesia in which the word “yang” is attached in the interrogative word
question which is used to gain information about subject. If that interrogative word question is translated to Bahasa Indonesia, it
would be “Siapa yang datang ke rumah tetanggamu tadi malam?” The samples of
research seemed to determine the word “yang” as the auxiliary. Thus, they put
“was” after the
wh
- word to alternate the word “yang” in Bahasa Indonesia. In fact,
according to the pattern stated by Close 1977 as cited in Febrianti 2004, there is no auxiliary required for interrogative word question which is used to question
about subject. The pattern used to construct an interrogative word question which questions about subject
is “interrogative word + predicate + ?”, as it can be seen in figure 4.3.
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Interrogative Word Questioning about Subject
Interrogative word Predicate Who ca
me to your neighbor’s house last night ?
Figure 4.3 Interrogative Word Question Asking about Subject
Another analysis was done in the third 3 interrogative word question which is “Who is can help me cut this paper?” Almost similar to the second 2
incorrect interrogative word question, this question was interfered by the mother tongue in the case of alternating “yang” as the auxiliary. Besides, the omission of
infinitive marker “to” was found as well since the verb “help” must be followed by “to infinitive”. Therefore, the third 3 interrogative word question was
considered containing error of overgeneralization of auxiliary in an interrogative word question with modal and error of omission of infinitive marker.
In Bahasa Indonesia, it is po ssible to match the word “help”, which means
“menolong” or “membantu”, with bare verb “cut”, which means “memotong” or “menggunting”. In fact, in English the word “help” must be followed by “to
infinitive”. Thus the correct interrogative word question should be “Who can help me to cut this paper?”
The next analysis was done in the fourth 4 interrogative word question which is “Where they will go tomorrow?” This interrogative word question also
proved that there was interference of the mother tongue in English construction of interrogative word questions made by the samples of research. Actually, in
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Bahasa Indonesia there is no need to move the operator or auxiliary when a statement is inversed into question. This rule can possibly affect Indonesian
students as English foreign language learners when constructing English interrogative word questions. Referring to the fourth 4 interrogative word
question example, the samples of research were recognized having strong tendency to use the rule of interrogative word question constructions in Bahasa
Indonesia, such as avoiding the auxiliary movement, when constructing English interrogative word questions.
2. Lack Understanding of Target Language
