7 researcher also hopes that this research could inspire them to conduct further
research, which could be the enrichment of the existing research and could also be a good contribution for the English language education field.
4. Readers of this thesis
This research provides the information about the mastery of prepositions at, in, and on among the fifth semester students’ of the English Language Education
Study Program. It also elaborates information about the possible causes of the students’ errors in using those three prepositions. Besides, this research provides
more knowledge about prepositions at, in, and on indicating time and place so that the readers could enrich their knowledge about those three prepositions well.
F. Definition of Terms
The following part is the explanation of terms which are used in this study. The purpose is to avoid misunderstanding in interpreting the important terms. The
terms and their definitions are explained as follows. 1. Mastery
There are various definitions about the term “mastery”. According to Hornby 2000: 822 in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, mastery means
“great knowledge about or understanding of a particular thing.” Hagboldt 1935: 2 states that we have a mastery of a certain language when “our comprehension
by ear is spontaneous; our reading is effortless and fluent; our use of words, idioms and sentences in speech and writing habitual are skillful.” Fries 1948: 3
agrees with this definition by saying that firstly, a person has ‘learned’ a foreign
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8 language when
he has mastered the sound system, that is, when he can understand the stream of speech and achieve an understandable production of it
within a limited vocabulary. Secondly, a person has ‘learned’ a foreign language when he made the structural devices, that is, the basic arrangements of utterances
as a matter of automatic habit. From the definitions of the term “mastery” above, the researcher concludes that the word “mastery” used in this study refers to the
ability to recognize and to attach. In this study, someone is considered to have a good mastery of English prepositions at, in, and on when he or she is able to
identify the form of those prepositions to recognize and to use them correctly in the sentences to attach.
2. Preposition A preposition is a word that connects a noun or pronoun with a verb,
adjective, or another noun or pronoun by indicating a relationship between the things for which they stand Barnes Noble, 1994: 19. According to Hornby
2000: 1037, preposition means “a word or group of words that used before a noun or pronoun to show place, position, time, or method.” Curme 1966: 27 also
states that preposition is “a word or a group of words which is often placed before a noun or pronoun to indicate place and time.”
Based on the definitions of preposition above, the researcher concludes that preposition is a group of words that has a function as the connector of the noun or
pronoun by indicating a relationship between the things for which they stand. There are many English prepositions, but this research only focuses on some
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9 prepositions, which are commonly-used in learning English. Those prepositions
are at, in, and on. In this study, prepositions at, in, and on are the prepositions, which are
commonly-used to indicate time and place. Corder 1979: 107 states that to indicate place, preposition at is used to show the exact points, preposition in is
used within a larger area and is consequently used with bigger towns, valleys, and countries, whereas according to Close 1962: 150, preposition on is used to
indicate position on a surface partially or entirely. Another linguist, Murphy 2001: 240, states that to indicate time, preposition at is used to denote a point in
time or the time of day; preposition in is used for longer periods, for example months, years, and seasons; meanwhile preposition on is used for days and dates.
3. Error According to Dulay, Burt and Krashen 1982: 139, the term error means
“the flawed side of learner speech or writing. It is part of conversation or composition that deviates from some selected norm of mature language
performance.” Corder 1967 in Dulay et al. 1982: 139 states that error means systematic deviations due to learners’ still-developing knowledge of the
second language rule system…. The term of errors will refer to any deviation from a selected norm of language performance, no matter what the
characteristics or causes of the deviation might be.
In other words, it could be concluded that errors are resulting from the lack of knowledge of the rules of the target language. Error in this study refers to the
students’ incorrect answers in the test, which deviate from the rules of using prepositions at, in, and on.
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10
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
