Basic Forms of Indirect Speech

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D. Theoretical Framework

This research focuses on errors in forming indirect speech among the fourth semester students of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University. The first objective of the research is to find errors in forming indirect speech among the fourth semester students of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University. The second objective is to find the possible causes of errors. Error analysis is used to achieve the objectives. In conducting error analysis, Corder’s steps of error analysis are used. The steps include collecting a sample of learner language, identifying errors, describing errors, explaining errors, and evaluating errors. The first step is collecting a sample of learner language. In this step, some information about the fourth semester students of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University is collected. In this case, some factors which are presented in Table 2.1 are collected. However, the factors collected are those which are considered to give more influence to this research. The first information is the students’ first language, which will influence the analysis of the possible cause of the errors. The second factor is the students’ proficiency level. In this case, it is not determined whether the students are in intermediate or advanced level but it is in what level the fourth semester students of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University have learned direct and indirect speech. It is to make sure that the types of direct-indirect speech provided in the test have been learned by the students. The second step is identifying errors. In this step, what the learners produce and what native speakers in the same level produce are compared. Since 22 there are no native speakers as comparative, this step is substituted by comparing what the students produce in the test to the answer key from the test which has been prepared before. In the next step, describing errors, the errors which are found in the test are categorized. In this research, Chomsky’s definition of error, which states that there is no differentiation between errors and mistakes, is used. It is defined that all deviations or wrong forms were categorized as errors. This is based on the reason that the test is only conducted once. Therefore, it will be impossible to see the student’s progress, whether the deviations are made consistently or not. In categorizing the errors, surface structure taxonomy is used. Before applying surface structure taxonomy to categorize the errors, the errors are categorized based on the shifts that should be applied in transferring direct speech into indirect speech. The next step is explaining errors. In this step, there is an analysis about the errors made by the students and a categorization of the sources of errors based Brown’s theory on sources of errors. The sources of the errors are categorized into four types. They are interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning, and communication strategies. In this research, only interlingual transfer and intralingual transfer which will be used. The other two sources, context of learning and communication strategies, are considered not applicable because the students’ process of learning and the way they communicate are not investigated. The rest of the sources of errors which do not belong to Brown’s theory will be categorized into other sources of errors. 23 The last step is evaluating errors. In this step, errors which should be given instructions are chosen. The errors chosen are the errors which happen in the students answers in the test. Since the purpose of this research is to find the students’ errors and the possible causes of the errors, this step is not to design some instructions or instruments to evaluate the students’ errors. However, this step is aimed to give recommendation on which errors the lecturers and the students should pay more attention. The theory of indirect speech is used as the reference in designing the test as the instrument of the research. Indirect speech can be used in all types of sentence or utterance, like statement, question, command, and exclamation. In this research, the focus is on the students’ errors in forming indirect statement, indirect question, indirect command, and indirect exclamation. It has been mentioned in the theoretical description that there should be shifts in transferring direct speech into indirect speech. The most dominant shift is the shift of tenses, or called backshift. Generally, backshift happens when the reporting verb is in the form of past tense. In addition, there is no backshift when the reported clause in the direct speech is in the form of past tense. In detail, the backshifts are presented in Table 2.4. 24 Table 2.4: Backshifts in Tenses Direct Speech Indirect Speech Simple Present Tense Simple Past Tense Present Continuous Tense Past Continuous Tense Present Perfect Tense Past Perfect Tense Simple Past Tense Ø or Past Perfect Tense Past Continuous Tense Ø or Past Perfect Continuous Tense Past Perfect Tense Ø Simple Future Tense Conditional Sentence Future Continuous Tense Conditional Continuous Tense Future Perfect Tense Conditional Perfect Future Perfect Continuous Tense Conditional Perfect Continuous Modal Auxiliaries Present Modal Auxiliaries Past However, the kinds of shifts, which have been mentioned before, do not always happen in all types of indirect speech. The shifts which happen in indirect statements do not always happen in indirect questions, indirect commands, and indirect exclamations. For sentences using demonstratives or adverbs, the shifts should be applied. It is because the assumption is that the students, who have a role as the reporter, are in different time and context when they report the direct speech. The possible shifts happen in each type of indirect speech are summarized in Table 2.5. Table 2.5: Shifts in Different Types of Indirect Speech No. Types of IS Shifts Tense Pro- noun Demons- trative Adverb Word Order 1. Indirect Statement √ √ √ √ - 2. Indirect Question √ √ √ √ √ 3. Indirect Command √ √ √ √ - 4. Indirect Exclamation √ √ √ √ √ 25

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research methodology. It consists of six parts. They are research method, research setting, research subject, instruments and data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

The method used in this research was survey research. According to Fraenkel and Wallen 2008: 390, survey research is a research in which the information is gathered from a group of people with a purpose to obtain the description of some aspects or characteristics of the group. The information can be obtained through asking questions to a sample, not merely all members of the population. In this research, a survey, with a test as the instrument, was conducted to answer the first research question. The survey was aimed to find errors in forming indirect speech among the fourth semester students of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University. To acquire the answer to the second research question, which was aimed to find the possible causes of errors made by the students in forming indirect speech, a library study is used. It means that the researcher analyzed the errors made by students and then related the finding to some existing theories about the causes of errors.