75
The first example,Unicorn hanya ada di dongeng-dongeng
,
actually violated Indonesian grammar rules. However, it was done since the researcher intended to
give a clue for the students that the intended answer was in the form of a plural noun. It was effective for most students, yet several students may still feel
awkward with the sentence.
In overall, the students who added the for plural generic nouns might not have realized that plural nouns were not only for definite nouns. The rule that plural
words were for definite nouns in Indonesian language led the students to answer the items for plural definite nouns correctly. At the same time, it led the students
to make an error on answering the items for plural generic nouns. This could be proven from the difference of the correct answer percentage of the plural generic
nouns 58.96 and plural definite nouns 87.26.
b. The Students’ Hesitation in Choosing the Correct Article
The students’ hesitation might have led them to make an error. The hesitation explained in this subchapter was possibly caused by the students’ English and
Indonesian background knowledge. The students’ Indonesian grammar knowledge may cause confusion since in Indonesian grammar. It is discussed in the previous
subchapter that there is no plural generic noun in Indonesian language. Plural words are used to refer to definite nouns in Indonesian language.
76 Since there was no plural generic noun in Indonesian grammar, the students were
confused when they had to choose the correct articles for plural generic nouns. In the process of choosing the appropriate articles for plural generic nouns, there was
a hesitation. They would not choose a or ansince they are articles for singular noun. The correct answer was Ø, yet several students answered the. There was an
assumption that the possible cause of errors was the students’ lack of exposure of plural generic nouns and much exposure of plural definite nouns. It might be
caused by what students had read. General books used more plural definite nouns and indefinite nouns than plural generic nouns. For example, a novel generally
used indefinite nouns as to describe the story generally, and then, it used definite nouns, since it starts to tell the story specifically. In short, general books provided
more exposure to plural definite nouns than plural generic nouns, as a result the students thought that a plural noun was better to be preceded with the instead of
Ø.
In short, those who chose the instead of Ø might not have had awareness that in English language, plural nouns could be used as generic and definite nouns. The
absence of plural generic nouns in Indonesian Language led them to the confusion of choosing the correct article for plural generic nouns. They did not choose a or
an since it is an article for singular noun, and they did not choose Ø since it was unfamiliar for them as a result of their lack of exposure of generic nouns .On the
other hand, they got much exposure of definite nouns from what they read. They choose the as the article for plural generic nouns since they thought that
77 thesounded good for plural nouns, yet they did not aware that plural generic nouns
were different to plural definite nouns.
78
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter consists of two parts: conclusions and suggestions. Conclusions are the summary of the data analysis. Meanwhile, suggestions are recommendations
which are proposed for ELESP lecturers, students, and future researchers after the researcher analyzed the research result.
A. Conclusions
This research was intended to investigate the mastery of sixth semester students on the use of articles. There were three research problems proposed in this
research: 1 what concepts of articles have the students mastered? , 2 what are the errors committed by the students? , and 3 what are the possible causes of the
errors? To find out the answers of those research questions, a test was conducted. The test consisted of two parts: filling in the blanks, and translation parts. The first
part required the students to complete a sentence with an articles a, an, the, Ø. Meantime, the second part asked the students to translate nouns in provided
sentences and Indonesian context, and then add articles for the nouns. Meantime, to find out the possible causes of errors, the researcher compared Indonesian
grammar and English grammar in the part of singular plural theories, and also compared English articles theories particularly the possible theories which might
lead the students to make errors when they had to produce articles.
