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have been correct. In other words, the sentence should have been formed as “I miss laughing and kidding”.
e. Demonstrative
The example taken from the descriptive text of student number 32 was Her nickname is Dila. Dila was born on 3 may 1999. Her become from Ternate.
According to Dulay et al. 1982, the learner may select one member of the personal pronouns class to function for others p.160. Through the example, it
was showed that the word “her” has previously appeared. Afterwards, the student was determined to function the same personal pronoun to be the subject of the
next sentence. The personal pronoun in the latter sentence should have been changed into “she”. Thus, the sentence should have been “Her nickname is Dila.
Dila was born on 3 May 1999. She comes from Ternate”.
4. Misordering
Misordering happens when a morpheme or a group of morphemes are misordered in a sentence. Dulay et al. 1982 state, “Misordering errors
are characterized by the incorrect placement of a morpheme or a group of morphemes
in an utterance” p.162. Based on the surface strategy taxonomy theory of Dulay et al.
1982, misordering errors are divided into three major parts. Those are auxiliary in simple question, auxiliary in embedded question, and adverb.
In this research, there were thirteen misordering errors. Auxiliary in simple question was not discovered in this research. Meanwhile the researcher discovered
two errors of auxiliary in embedded question. Moreover, adverb errors were discovered eleven times. The researcher used table 4.1.6 to display the examples
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of the misordering errors discovered. The analysis of each examples listed in table 4.1.6 would be written below the table 4.1.6.
Table 4.1.6 The Classification of Misordering
No. Misordering
Errors
1 Auxiliary in embedded question
Her song is “Bang Bang” feat Nicki Minarj and Jessie J
very nice.
2 Adverb
He is handsome a boy.
The analysis of table 4.1.6 goes as follows. a.
Auxiliary in embedded question The example taken from the descriptive text of student number 3 was Her
song is “Bang Bang” feat Nicki Minarj and Jessie J very nice. The sentence belonged to misordering error of auxiliary in embedded question because of the
incorrect placement of is. The word “is” should have been placed before “very nice”. Thus, the sentence should have been formed as “Her song “Bang Bang”
feat Nicki Minarj and Jessie J is very nice”. b.
Adverb The example taken from the descriptive text of student number 16 was
He is handsome a boy. The sentence he is handsome a boy contained a misordering error of adverb. The placement of handsome was incorrect. By
shifting the article “a” forward, the correct position would be found. Thus, the sentence should have been “He is a handsome boy”.
After knowing the particular numbers of each types of errors proposed by Dulay et al. 1982, the researcher was keen to know the most frequent errors in
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the descriptive text writings made by the tenth grade students of SMA GAMA Yogyakarta
. In order to know the most frequent errors occured, the researcher was to count the errors which had been analyzed using the surface strategy taxonomy
of Dulay et al. 1982. Firstly the researcher counted the total number of each classification of types of errors. Moreover, the researcher summed up the the
number of each errors classifications to know the number of each major types of errors. To make a better depiction, the researcher provides table 4.1.7 to present
the total numbers of errors. Table 4.1.7 Total Errors Discovered
No. Types of Errors
Numbers of Errors Total Errors
1. Omissions
a. Omission of
Content Morpheme
b. Omission of grammatical morpheme
3 132
135
2. Additions
a. Simple Additions 13
13 3.
Misformation a. Overregularization
b. ArchiAlternating forms 13
24 37
4. Misordering
a. Auxiliary in embedded question
b. Adverb 2
11 13
Table 4.1.7 described that omission errors had been the most frequent errors occured in the descriptive texts made by the tenth grade sutddents of SMA
GAMA Yogyakarta . Omissions of grammatical morphemes gave the highest
contribution to omissions type of errors. In this case, omissions of grammtical morphemes came up with one hundred and thirty two errors, whilst omissions of
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content morpheme were discovered three times. In the second place of the most frequent errors dicovered, misformations stood with thirty seven errors occured.
The detail classifications of misformation errors were thirteen errors belonged to overregularizations and twenty four errors belonged to archialternating forms.
Addition type of errors had been discovered thirteen times. All of the addition errors belonged to errors of simple addition. As the fewest errors discovered,
addition type of errors was accompanied by misordering. Misordering held firmly with thirteen errors. Those thirteen errors were classified into two errors of
auxiliary in embedded question, and eleven errors of adverb. In conclusion, the frequent error type occured was omission, whilst the two fewest error types
occured were misordering and addition.
B. The Causes of Errors in the Descriptive Text Writings of the Tenth
Grade Students of SMA GAMA Yogyakarta
The researcher employed the theory of Norrish 1983 to classify the reasons of making errors of the tenth grade students of SMA GMA Yogyakarta.
According to Norrish 1983, there are five factors causing errors. Those are carelessness, first language interference, translation, overgeneralization, and, error
as a part of language creativity. From those reasons of errors, there was no students’ statements pointing to error as a part of language creativity. Before
dealing with the classification, the researcher used interview as the instrument to find out the reasons of making errors of the tenth grade students of SMA GAMA
Yogyakarta in descriptive text writing. This interview was conducted one-by-one.
The selected students were student 1, 2, 3, 18, 20, and, 21. Those students were
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selected by way of purposive sampling. Student 1 and 21 were the students who produced errors below the average or less than other students. Student 2 and 20
were the students who made average errors or more or less the same number of errors as the other students. While student 3 and 18 were students who produced
lots of errors or above the average errors discovered. From those selected students, the researcher uses Table 4.2.1 to depict the percentage of the causes of
errors based on the students’ words during the interview. Table 4.2.1 The Percentage of The Causes of Errors
No. The Causes of Errors
Percentage
1 Carelessness
83 2.
First Language Interference 66
3. Translation
66 4.
Overgeneralization 33
5. Error as a part of language creativity
As the result of the interviews, the most popular cause of the selected students related to producing errors was carelessness. Norrish 1983 notes that,
“Carelessness is often closely related to motivation” p. 21. In this case, related to this study, the students were not going to check their writings whether or not it has
been appropriate or correct. Since the term of carelessness is too strong to apply, the researcher refers to call this kind of error cause as ignorance. It happened to
most of the students interviewed. Student 21 said that after writing the descriptive text, she did not have any intention to recheck the work, including grammar,
vocabulary, mistyping, and, punctuation. Moreover she added that she was lacking concentration in writing the descriptive text due to being in a hurry to
