4 researcher realized that there are many students of the English Language
Education Study Program who are still confused about the uses and the differences among those three prepositions. These examples has opened the
researcher’s mind to concern about the mastery of prepositions at, in, and on among the students of the English Language Education Study Program and to find
the possible factors which cause the errors in using those prepositions.
B. Problem Formulation
The research problems of this study are formulated as follows. 1.
How well have the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University mastered prepositions at, in, and on?
2. What are the possible factors which cause the students’ errors in using
prepositions at, in, and on?
C. Problem Limitation
Preposition is a word or a group of words often placed before a noun or pronoun to indicate place and time Curme, 1994: 27. Close 1962: 141 also
states that there are two kinds of commonly-used preposition, namely preposition of place and preposition of time. There are many prepositions in English which
indicate time and place, but this study focuses on the discussion about prepositions at, in, and on since the uses of those three prepositions are usually
confusing for the English learners.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5 The study is focused on two main points. The first is the fifth semester
students’ mastery on prepositions at, in, and on; and the second is the possible factors which cause the students’ errors in using prepositions at, in, and on. The
researcher thinks the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University are qualified to be the participants of
this research because they are the students who have taken some courses related to English grammar comprehension. As an example, since most of them have taken
Structure I to Structure V class, the researcher thinks that they are qualified to be assessed whether they have mastered prepositions at, in, and on.
D. Research Objectives
This research is conducted to reach the following objectives: 1.
To find out the mastery of prepositions at, in, and on among the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma
University. 2.
To find out the possible factors which cause the students’ errors in using prepositions at, in, and on.
E. Research Benefits
