43 mind. There was an interviewee saying that sometimes the sentence structures that
she had already thought in her mind were not the same as what she spoke.
“…..Kadang grammarnya pada saat dipikir dan diomongin tu beda.” R1 ….Sometimes the sentence structures which are thought are different from
the spoken ones.
As speaking tends to be more spontaneous than writing, it gives little chance to the interviewees to be more careful in producing utterances. In writing, it is still
feasible to erase or change some words or sentences when they need correction. However, in speaking, correction may be hardly applied as it is not easy to refer to
or exactly remember what has been said. Thus, it resulted in the circumstances where the participants left their questions erroneous without any correction.
b. Nervousness
Besides focusing on fluency, the participants also conveyed that nervousness or anxiety became another cause underlying the errors. Most of them said that
they were nervous since it was their first teaching practice, as an interviewee said: “Yang pertama karena saya ngajar pertama kali ya Mbak ya di kelas. Jadi
mungkin yang pertama grogi .” R1
The first is because it was my first class teaching. So, firstly it is probably a result of nervousness.
When they practiced teaching, they were very nervous since it was their first teaching practice. Some claimed that their nervousness led to hastiness in
producing sentences. It consequently made them concentrate less on their grammatical accuracy when speaking. Thus, nervousness escorted them to
carelessness which made them produce ungrammatical sentences, particularly
44 English questions. In addition to making errors, other participants were also
observed to make a number of unnecessary pauses and a deal of hesitation in speaking when they were nervous.
Someone may become nervous when she is not accustomed to certain circumstances. In the situation faced by the participants, teaching might become
something novel for them since Microteaching class was their first subject requiring them to teach in front of a number of people. Although it was not their
first time speaking in English in front of public, it should be admitted that teaching is somewhat different from speech or any other one way communication.
It is likely to be more spontaneous as there are interactions with students which may bring about unexpected occurrences. As a result, teachers cannot rely only on
the memorization of any spoken messages that they want to convey. This new experience seemed to raise their anxiety level that they could hardly control what
they said.
c. Lack of Knowledge of English Grammar
Although it is also undeniable that if someone already knows certain grammatical rules, she does not always succeed in applying the rules, it goes
without saying that competence comes before performance. In other words, the underlying theory has to be grasped before someone is able to consciously
perform what she has already understood. When the interview took place, the writer also asked the participants to make attempts to correct their errors. On one
hand, when they were able to correct the erroneous items, it meant that their errors
45 referred to performance errors. On the other hand, their failures to correct their
errors reflected errors in their competence, which also meant that they had not grasped the underlying theory.
Those competence errors occurred as the result of their insufficient knowledge of English grammar. Even some admitted that they had to retake
Structure classes as they failed in the subject or achieved unsatisfactory grade. Hence, it becomes unquestionable enough that the participants made errors as they
had not grasped the underlying theory of English grammar well. It is universally recognized that grammar is an influential aspect in learning
languages as it becomes the basis of the four skills in second language learning, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is reflected in all utterances
that are produced by the learners and therefore grammatical accuracy can be seen as a measurement of language proficiency.
However, based on the findings obtained from the interview, the participants claimed that although they had been
studying English for semesters in the English Language Education Study Program ELESP Sanata Dharma University, their knowledge of grammar was still
inadequate due to personality factors.
“Cara nangkap per individunya itu lho kan beda.” R5 Each individual has different way to understand the material.
The interviewees said that they had different aptitudes for grasping the materials concerning English grammar which resulted in the fact that some still lacked
knowledge of English grammar.
46
C. Possible Recommendations to Improve the Production of Grammatical
