Subject-verb agreement errors made by students in paragraph writing class.

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SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING CLASS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali Student Number: 071214039

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING CLASS

By

Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali Student Number : 071214039

Approved by

Advisor

Date

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SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING CLASS

By

YUSTINUS CALVIN GAI MALI Student Number : 071214039

Defended before the Board of Examiners on 2 December 2011

and Declared Acceptable

Board of Examiners

Chairperson : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________ Secretary : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________ Member : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________ Member : Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum. _______________ Member : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________

Yogyakarta, 2 December 2011

Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University

Dean,

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Temukanlah tujuan hidupmu Capailah itu

dan

JANGAN PERNAH BERHENTI Sebelum kamu mencapainya...

This thesis is dedicated to my beloved mother,

MAMA LUSIA KRISTIANI

-She is my “great” mother, my “faithful” friend and my “nice”

listener-v

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, 11 November 2011

The Writer

Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali 071214039

vi ABSTRACT

Mali, Yustinus Calvin Gai. 2011. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Writing is one of the skills learnt by ELESP students. They learn how to produce English sentences which are grammatically correct. Therefore, to be able to produce the correct sentences, they need to apply the required grammatical elements in the sentences which they write correctly. One of the required grammatical elements to apply in the sentences is subject-verb agreement. Thus, they are required to master subject-verb agreement and to apply it accurately in order to enable them to always produce English sentences which are grammatically correct. Besides, they are also prepared to be future English teachers, the one who later becomes the model for his/her future students, in a real school where writing skill, involving subject-verb agreement, becomes a skill that is still taught. It is ironic if an English teacher is unable to give an example of the correct sentence. Therefore, before coming to the school and being the model for students, ELESP students have to master subject-verb agreement well and to be able to minimize the occurrence of subject-verb agreement errors. However, the writer still finds the fact that ELESP students make the errors. For that reason, it would be significant to find out the errors made by the students as well as to discover the factors behind the errors.

There were two problems to be solved in this research. Those problems are (1) What are subject-verb agreement errors that are made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP? (2) What are the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors?

To answer the first research question, the writer conducted a document analysis. The documents to analyze were the written work of students in class B of Paragraph Writing at ELESP in 2010/ 2011 academic year. Then, the errors found in the students’ written work were classified into several categories of errors based on surface structure taxonomy. Furthermore, to answer the second research question, the writer carried out an interview whose respondents were eight students of class B of Paragraph Writing who made various subject-verb agreement errors.

From the data gathered, the writer found that most of the errors belonged to misinformation category (71.4%) and were subsequently followed by omission category (17.9%) and addition category (10.7%). Then, based on the result of the interview, the writer found five (5) major factors that caused the students to make the errors, namely interlingual error, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, and carelessness. Based on the research results, the writer proposed recommendations for students, lecturers in Paragraph Writing class, and future researchers who want to follow up this research.

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ABSTRAK

Mali, Yustinus Calvin Gai. 2011. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Menulis merupakan salah satu bidang keahlian yang dipelajari oleh para mahasiwa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta. Mereka belajar bagaimana menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat Bahasa Inggris yang benar secara gramatikal. Oleh karena itu, untuk mampu menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat yang benar secara gramatikal, para mahasiswa perlu untuk mengaplikasikan secara benar elemen-elemen gramatikal yang diperlukan di dalam kalimat-kalimat yang mereka tulis tersebut. Salah satu elemen gramatikal yang diperlukan di dalam kalimat-kalimat tersebut adalah kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Jadi, para mahasiswa diwajibkan untuk menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dan diwajibkan pula untuk mengaplikasikan secara akurat kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja tersebut dengan tujuan untuk memungkinkan mereka agar selalu menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat Bahasa Inggris yang benar secara grammatikal. Selain itu, para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris juga dipersiapkan untuk menjadi seorang guru Bahasa Inggris di masa yang akan datang, yang nantinya menjadi seorang model bagi para muridnya pada masa mendatang, di sekolah dimana keahlian menulis yang melibatkan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja menjadi suatu keahlian yang masih diajarkan. Menjadi ironis jika seorang guru Bahasa Inggris tidak mampu untuk memberikan contoh tentang suatu kalimat menggunakan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dengan benar. Oleh karena itu, sebelum berada di sekolah dan menjadi model bagi para muridnya, para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris harus menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dengan baik dan harus mampu untuk memperkecil munculnya kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Akan tetapi, penulis masih menemukan fakta bahwa para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris membuat kesalahan-kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Karena itu, untuk mengetahui kesalahan-kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja yang dibuat oleh para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris dan menelusuri faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan munculnya kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut akan menjadi bermanfaat.

Ada dua permasalahan untuk dipecahkan dalam penelitian ini. Permasalahan tersebut ialah (1) Kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja apa saja yang dibuat oleh para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta? (2) Faktor-faktor apa yang menyebabkan para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta membuat kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja tersebut?

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Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama dalam penelitian ini, penulis melakukan suatu analisis dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisis ialah karya tertulis para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing B pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma angkatan 2010/ 2011. Kemudian, kesalahan-kesalahan yang ditemukan diklasifikasikan ke dalam beberapa kategori kesalahan berdasarkan surface structure taxonomy. Selanjutnya, untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua dalam penelitian ini, penulis melakukan interview yang respondennya ialah delapan mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing B yang membuat beragam kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja.

Berdasarkan data yang diperoleh, penulis menemukan bahwa sebagian besar kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut termasuk dalam kategori misinformation (71.4%) dan kemudian diikuti dengan kategori omission (17.9%) dan kategori addition (10.7%). Kemudian, berdasarkan hasil interview, penulis menemukan lima (5) faktor utama yang menyebabkan para mahasiswa membuat kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Kelima faktor tersebut adalah interlingual error, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, dan carelessness. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, penulis mengusulkan beberapa rekomendasi bagi para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing, bagi para dosen pengajar di kelas Paragraph Writing, dan bagi para peneliti di masa yang akan datang yang ingin melanjutkan penelitian ini. Kata kunci: kesalahan, kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja, kelas Paragraph Writing

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali

Nomor Mahasiswa : 071214039

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal : 14 Desember 2011 Yang menyatakan

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Initially, I would like to thank my Savior, Jesus Christ. He has given His grace and love, so I could finish this thesis. “I thank you Lord!”

Then, I would like to express my great thankfulness to my major sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., for her time, guidance, and advice given to me during the writing process of this thesis. Without her help, I would have never been able to finish this thesis.

I am also greatly indebted to the lecturer of class B of Paragraph Writing, Cristina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd. She gave me the permission to access the data I needed and to interview the students in her class.

My sincere thankfulness also goes to the respondents of my research, students in class B of Paragraph Writing of 2010/2011 academic year. I thank them very much for their written work which I used as the data of this research. I also thank them for their time and cooperation to be the respondents of the interview.

I also thank Mbak Tari and Mbak Danik. I thank them for all their precious help to me during my study at the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. Their help is precious to me.

My deepest gratitude and love go to my beloved parents, Papa Yakobus Yohanes Mali and Mama Lusia Kristiani, for their magnificent love, never-ending support, and motivation. I also thank them because they always ask me to finish my study as soon as possible. Without them, I could have never achieved this dream.

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I thank my beloved brother, Peter Chrysologus Lando Mali, S.E. I thank him so much for his worthful advice. I also thank my beloved cousin, Heronima Yustina Mina for her help and motivation.

Profound thankfulness is addressed to Florentinus Ari Mursodo. I thank him very much for his precious help. I also thank him for his valuable advice.

My special thanks go to Regina Ndiki and Theodora Dhambo, my aunts. I thank them very much for their prayers to me. Afterwards, I also thank Ir. Wawan Edi Dayanto, B.Sc. and Sony Etwan Kisworo, S.E., who supported my study.

I also express my sincere thankfulness to Jessica Christiana Pattinasarany, M.A., my aunt, for the sharing and for some references which really supported my thesis. Then, I also thank Hana Haryono and Lidya Ariyani, my other aunts, for their help and support.

My special thanks also go to my beloved friends in PBI: Deny, Ian, Arum, Sr.Yusta, Redy, Reta, Gaby, Merici, Dian, and all friends in PROCESS 2009/2010. What we have done together is unforgettable.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all people and friends whose names I could not mention here. I thank them very much for their support and prayers. Without them all, I could have never reached this achievement. Once again, I personally thank them all!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE... i

APPROVAL PAGES... ii

DEDICATION PAGE... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... v

ABSTRACT... vi

ABSTRAK... vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS... ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... x

TABLE OF CONTENTS... xii

LIST OF TABLES... xvi

LIST OF APPENDICES... xvii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ... 1

B. Research Problem ... 6

C. Problem Limitation ... 7

D. Research Objectives ... 8

E. Research Benefits ... 8

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CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Description ... 13

1. Subject-Verb Agreement ... 13

a. Subject Verb Concord in Number ... 14

b. Subject Verb Concord in Person ... 16

2. Subjects in English ... 19

a. Noun ... 19

b. Pronoun ... 22

c. There Is and There Are ... 28

3. Verb Phrases ... 28

4. Errors ... 30

a. Definition ... 30

b. The Sources of Errors ... 31

c. Other Possible Sources of Errors ... 35

d. Types of Errors ... 38

e. The Significance of Errors ... 41

5. Error Analysis ... 42

a. Steps of Error Analysis ... 42

B. Theoretical Framework ... 44

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ... 47

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C. Research Participants... 48

D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 50

1. Human as a Research Instrument ... 50

2. Document ... 51

3. Interview ... 52

E. Data Analysis Technique ... 55

1. The Data from Students' Written Work ... 55

2. The Data from the Interview ... 57

F. Research Procedure ... 58

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS A. The Students’ Subject-Verb Agreement Errors ... 60

1. Data Presentation of the Errors Made by the Students ... 60

2. Discussion on the Errors Made by the Students ... 62

B. The Factors that Caused the Students to Make the Errors.... 70

1. Data Presentation of the Factors that Caused the Students to Make the Errors ... 70

2. Discussion on the Factors that Caused the Students to Make the Errors ... 73

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CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Conclusions ... 87

1. The Students' Subject-Verb Agreement Errors ... 87

2. The Factors that Caused the Students to Make Subject-Verb Agreement Errors ... 88

B. Recommendations ... 90

1. For Students in Paragraph Writing Class ... 91

2. For Lecturers in Paragraph Writing Class ... 91

3. For Future Researchers ... 92

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

2.1 The Forms of Be... 17

2.2 The Modal Auxiliaries... 18

2.3 List of Uncountable Nouns... 21

2.4 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns... 23

2.5 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Be... 23

2.6 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Verb... 23

2.7 Universal Indefinites... 25

2.8 Partitive Indefinites... 26

2.9 The of-partitives... 27

3.1 The Classification and the Examples of the Errors Made by the Students 56

3.2 The Number of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students... 57

4.1 The Number of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students... 61

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page

A. Surat Ijin Penelitian ... 97

B. Samples of Students’ Written Work ... 99

C. The Classification and the Examples of Errors Made by the Students ... 108

D. The Interview Blueprint ... 115

E. The Interview Guide ... 121

F. Data Classification of the Interview ... 125

G. Data Classification of the Interview (English version) ... 145

H. Samples of Interview Transcripts ... 163

 

1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter consists of six parts. They are research background, research problem, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.

A. Research Background

The English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, henceforth called ELESP, aims to prepare its students to become not only as an English language user in professional fields but also as a future English teacher. As teachers candidates who are going to be a model for their future students, ELESP students are required to learn English skills and to master the skills before they are ready to teach the skills to their future students and be a model for their future students. One of the skills that they learn is English writing. In writing an English sentence, ELESP students are required to write a subject and a verb within the sentence. Then, they also have to think about the agreement between the subject and the verb within the sentence.

It can be said that subject-verb agreement becomes one of essential aspects to learn since an agreement between a subject and a verb is required to make a sentence which is grammatically correct. Therefore, ELESP students have to learn and to master agreement between subject and verb in order to be able to apply

correct subject-verb agreement in a sentence and to teach their future students of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Otherwise, they will not be able to apply correct subject-verb agreement in a sentence. Consequently, they will not be able to teach and to guide their students to do so.

Moreover, teacher candidates are going to deal with the agreement between subject and verb when they have become a real English teacher in the classroom. It is because writing skill becomes one of the skills that is still taught to students in the school. It means that it is possible that in the real classroom especially in writing lesson, an English teacher will be asked by his or her students to give a lot of examples of English sentences whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Besides, teacher candidates are going to often deal with the subject-verb agreement when they have become a real English teacher not only in the school but also in some places where they have to teach someone, especially about writing. For example, it may happen when teacher candidates have to become private teachers for their private students who are also possible to have some lessons about subject-verb agreement. It means that teacher candidates also have to be able to be a model for their private students, especially become a model in teaching a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Therefore, learning, understanding and mastering subject-verb agreement in writing a sentence becomes an essential thing to do by ELESP students.

Nevertheless, in a learning process, learners who study English writing make errors. Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982) mention that teachers who have experienced long against their students’ language errors have come to realize that

making errors become an inevitable part of learning (p.138). However, Norrish (1983) states that in language learning, errors are important in a process of learning and the errors may actually become an essential part in learning a language (p. 6).

Considering the importance of learning, understanding and mastering agreements between a subject and a verb in a sentence and the fact that learners make errors in the process of learning, the researcher is interested to study subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP. Then, the factors that cause them to make those subject-verb agreement errors are also analyzed.

Furthermore, in this study, cluster random sampling is chosen by the researcher. Cluster random sampling can be defined as the selection which focuses on groups or clusters of subjects rather than individuals (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009, p. 95). The second semester students in a Paragraph Writing class of ELESP, who can be the representative of subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in other Paragraph Writing classes of ELESP, are chosen as the sample of the research.

The students in the selected class can be the representative of subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in other Paragraph Writing classes because the students in the selected class have the same characteristics as those of other students in the second semester in other Paragraph Writing classes. The first characteristic is all students are the second semester students, who were only equipped with the theory of writing from Basic Writing

class in semester one. Moreover, all students have to write a descriptive text, which requires them to apply Present Tense in writing the sentences, in their Progress Test II. In addition, the consideration of the accessibility to the respondents, time, and financial reasons also make the researcher choose students in a Paragraph Writing class at ELESP as the sample of this research.

Furthermore, the researcher includes students in the second semester of Paragraph Writing class because of the researcher’s assumption that they are likely to make errors, particularly, in subject-verb agreement. If the students make the subject-verb agreement errors continuously since they are in the lower semester, it will influence their writing ability, especially in producing a sentence using correct subject-verb agreement. Moreover, if the students frequently and continuously make subject-verb agreement errors in their sentence, they will find it difficult to replace the incorrect subject-verb agreement with the correct ones since the incorrect ones have been fossilized. According to Brown (1991), this fossilization can happen because learners always remember and use the incorrect form, as a result, it becomes habit in their repertoire (p. 116). Besides, the students will also put themselves in trouble if they do not master subject-verb agreement and they often make errors in subject-verb agreement. It is because in the upper semesters, they will have some other writing classes which require them to always produce sentences whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Moreover, by studying at ELESP, whose aim is to prepare its students to become a professional English teacher, the students are also required to become not only as an English language user in professional fields, but also as a model for their students

especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct when they have graduated and have become a real English teacher.

Furthermore, when ELESP students graduate, they are considered as a master of English, whose accuracy is highly required. Further, ELESP students will not be considered anymore as learners whose errors are tolerable. If they cannot write a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct, they will not be able to teach and to guide their students to do so. Therefore, students especially in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP are required and encouraged to master subject-verb agreement since they are in the beginning semester.

Actually, in year 1990, which was twenty one years ago, there was a researcher who conducted the research which was similar with this research. Nevertheless, there are some differences between the previous research and this research. The participants of the previous research were students in three Senior High Schools in Yogyakarta. Then, the previous research aimed to find out the kinds of problems which were usually faced by high school students in Indonesia in handling subject-verb concord of number and person and the underlying reasons for having such problems. In addition, the previous research used two types of tests which were completion test and two-choice test as the instruments to obtain the data. In the previous research, two-choice test was defined as a test that provides only two options for students to decide which one of the two is correct.

Unlike the previous research mentioned in the previous paragraph, the participants of this research are ELESP students, particulary those taking Paragraph Writing class. Then, this research aims to find out subject-verb

agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP and to find out the factors that cause them to make those subject-verb agreement errors. Furthermore, this research uses human as a research instrument, the document, which is students’ written work of Progress Test II, and interview as the instruments to obtain the data.

Because this research presents subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP and the factors behind it, the students are expected to see and to know the errors that they made, to realize the factors behind their errors, to learn from their errors, and then not to make the same errors in other writing classes held in upper semesters.

When the students are able to always write sentences whose subject-verb agreement is correct since they are in the lower semester, it will lead them to become a future English teacher who does really understand and master subject-verb agreement in a sentence. This condition will also lead them to become English teachers who are able to be a model for their future students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct and to teach their future students to write a sentence using correct subject-verb agreement, afterwards.

B. Research Problem

Through this study, the researcher formulates the problems which are presented into two questions. They are:

1. What are subject-verb agreement errors that are made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP?

2. What are the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors?

C. Problem Limitation

In order to make this research feasible and to make readers obtain the point of the research, the researcher limits the research to a certain area. The researcher is only concerned with subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in one Paragraph Writing class of ELESP in 2010/2011 academic year.

The grounds for the limitation are that the students in Paragraph Writing class are still at the beginning level where errors, particulary in subject-verb agreement, tend to happen. In addition, they are prepared to be English teachers who must be able to be a model for their future students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Besides, the students in one Paragraph Writing class are chosen as the participants of the study because the researcher considered them the representative of subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in other Paragraph Writing classes at ELESP.

Furthermore, in this study, the researcher does not differentiate errors and mistakes. Its underlying reason is that the researcher does not conduct further analysis in order to check whether what he finds in the students’ work is an error

or a mistake. Therefore, the researcher assumes that every incorrect subject-verb agreement in a sentence is due to the errors that students make.

D. Research Objectives

In this study, the researcher determines two objectives. They are to find out:

1. Subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP.

2. The factors that caused students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors.

E. Research Benefits

The researcher does believe that when the research has been completed, the findings of the research will be beneficial for ELESP students in writing classes because the research presents subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP and the factors behind their errors. Therefore, the researcher expects them to see and to know the errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class, to realize the factors that cause them to make the errors. They are also expected to learn from subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class. Richards (1974) states that learners can regard the making of errors as a device that they can use in order to learn (p. 25). Finally, they are also expected to be able to encourage themselves to study harder to improve their writing skills, not to commit the same errors as what

students in Paragraph Writing make, and then to be able to become not only as an English language user in professional fields but also as a language teacher who masters subject-verb agreement. Therefore, when they graduate, it will make them able to become a model for their students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct.

E. Definition of Terms

In order to make it easier for readers to follow the discussion and to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding, the researcher presents some terms that are often used in this research. They are:

1. Subject-Verb Agreement

In order to be able to give the definition of subject-verb agreement, the researcher, first, tries to define the definition of subject and verb. Langan (1996) defines that a subject is who or what the sentence speaks about (p. 297). This research agrees that subject is who or what the sentence speaks about. Then, Langan (1996) mentions that verb is what the sentence says about the subject and verb also tells people the time of an action (p. 297, p. 347). In addition, according to Ellsworth (1981), verb is a word or group of words used to tell something about the subject (p. 9). In this research, verb refers to a word or group of words used to tell something about the subject and to tell people the time of an action.

Then, after obtaining the clear definition of subject and verb, the researcher, then, tries to give the definition of subject-verb agreement. According to Wood (1981), the rule says that a verb must agree with its subject both in

number and in person (p. 12). Then, Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) mention that the subject is used to determine concord, with those parts of the verb that distinguish between singular and plural, and the selected verb depends on whether the subject is singular or plural (p. 10). In this research, subject-verb agreement can be defined as a rule which states that verb must agree with its subject, which determines concord, in number and in person.

2. Error

Ellis (2003) states that error shows gaps in knowledge that learners have; error can appear because the learners do not know what is correct (p. 17). In addition, Corder (1971) mentions that error is a failure of the rule of the code and it depends on what particular variety of the target language which is considered as the ‘code’ (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 56). In this research, error refers to a wrong or an incorrect rules of subject-verb agreement applied in a sentence by the second semester students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP. The error can appear in a sentence written by the students because the students do not know the correct rules of subject-verb agreement to apply in the sentence. Further, the term error, admitted as competence error, can be used to present any deviation from a selected norm of language performance, admitted as mistake, without considering the characteristics or causes of the deviation (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139). Its underlying reason is because the term error is not specified only to competence based deviations in order to facilitate reference to deviations that have not been classified as performance errors, which have been

called as mistake in some language literature (Corder, 1967, as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139), or competence errors. Besides, Dulay et al. (1982, p. 139), further mention that the disctinction between performance and competence error is essential, but to determine the nature of a deviation without doing careful analysis is still not easy to do. In addition, it is difficult to determine whether the wrong or the incorrect rules of subject-verb agreement applied in a sentence by the students is an error or a mistake because at that time the students were in Progress Test, where they did not have a chance to revise their written work. Therefore, in this research, the researcher assumes that every incorrect subject-verb agreement in a sentence that the students in Paragraph Writing class made is an error.

3. Paragraph Writing Course

Paragraph Writing is a writing course in the second semester at ELESP. This Paragraph Writing course is held after Basic Writing course in semester one. It means that students who enter Paragraph Writing class are those who are only equipped with the theory of writing from Basic Writing class in semester one. In addition, students who enter Paragraph Writing class are mostly new students who have just studied for two semesters at ELESP.

In this research, Paragraph Writing course means a writing course in the second semester at ELESP, held after Basic Writing course in semester one, whose students are mostly new students who have just studied for two semesters

in ELESP and are only equipped with the theory of writing from Basic Writing class in semester one.

13  

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the researcher discusses two major areas of discussion on which this research is based. The first are the theories related to the research, which are elaborated in the theoretical desccription. The second is the presentation of the theoretical framework which elaborates the framework synthesized from the discussed theories in the theoretical description.

A. Theoretical Description

This section deals with the theories to support the accomplishment of the research. This section, then, is divided into five parts, namely subject-verb agreement, subjects in English, verb phrases, error and error analysis.

1. Subject -Verb Agreement

According to Wood (1981), the rule of subject-verb agreement is that a verb must agree with its subject in number and in person (p. 12). Another point is that the subject determines concord (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973, p. 11). Besides, Leech and Svartvik (1994) add that grammatical concord means that certain grammatical items agree with each other (p. 260). Thus, concord can also be called agreement. Leech and Svartvik (1994) further mention that there are two types of concord, namely concord of number, for example, as in singular: the film

is and as in plural: the films are and concord of person, for example, as in 1st person: I am and as in 2nd person: you are (p. 260).

Furthermore, Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) state that the selected form of a verb, which permits a distinction between singular and plural, depends on whether the subject is singular as in the man makes, or plural as in the men make (p. 11). Greenbaum (1989) adds that the agreement of subject and verb is always applied whenever the verb displays disctinctions in number and in person (p. 208). Greenbaum (1989) further states that for all verbs other than be, the distinctions only happen in Present Tense, where the third person singular has the –s form and the third person plural, which is like the first and the second persons, has the base form (p. 208).

a. Subject Verb Concord in Number

According to Langan (1996), subject-verb concord in number means that a verb must agree with its subject in number (p. 338). The concord of number occurs between a subject and its finite verb. Langan (1996) states that a singular subject, which is one person or thing, takes a singular verb, while a plural subject, which is more than one person or thing, takes a plural verb (p. 338). For examples:

[1] The man buys a new car. [2] Budi is a student.

[3] The boys in our class are more numerous than girls. [4] My friends come from Solo.

The subject in sentence [1] and in sentence [2] is singular, so it should be followed by a singular verb. However, the subject in sentence [3] and in sentence [4] is plural, so a plural verb should follow the subject.

Greenbaum (1989) states that the rule of subject-verb agreement in number should also be applied to all finite clauses, whether they are main clauses or subordinate clauses (p. 209). Then, according to Langan (1996), if subjects in a sentence are joined by either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also, the verb should agree with the subject that is closer to the verb (p. 340). The examples are:

[5] Neither Desta nor my friends want to come to the room. [6] Either Agus or Tia drinks a glass of milk everyday.

In sentence [5], the nearest subject, my friends, is plural, so the verb that follows the subject should be plural. However, in sentence [6], the nearest subject, Tia, is singular, so the singular verb should follow the subject.

In addition, Greenbaum (1989) mentions that if a subject in a sentence consists of two or more phrases that are linked by and, even if each subject is singular, the subject has plural meaning (p. 211). The examples are:

[7] Your bicycle, your car, and your motorcycle are expensive. [8] The book, the pen, and the pencil are new.

Besides, the subject will still be plural if and is simplified though not actually present in a sentence (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 211). Sentence [9] and sentence [10] are the examples.

[9] Your bicycle, your car, your motorcycle are expensive. [10]The book, the pen, the pencil are new.

Furthermore, Greenbaum (1989) mentions that if the noun phrases are introduced by each or every, the subject is considered singular (p. 211). For examples:

[11]Every student and every teacher has to buy the ticket. [12]Each man and each woman is given a new book.

In addition, Langan (1996) states that a verb must agree with its subject even when the verb comes before the subject (p. 339). Langan (1996) adds that words that may precede the subject include there, here and, in questions, who, which, what, and where (p. 339).

[13]There are ten students in the classroom. [14]Here is the book.

[15]Where are your pencils?

Furthermore, Langan (1996) mentions that words that come between the subject and the verb in a sentence do not change the subject-verb agreement within the sentence (p. 338).

[16]An old televsion with a round screen shows the best quality. [17]The dogs in the gardens eat a plate of rice every morning.

The subject of sentence [16], television, is singular, so the verb which follows the subject is plural. However, the subject of sentence [17], dogs, is plural. Therefore, the plural verb should follow the plural subject in sentence [17].

b. Subject Verb Concord in Person

According to Leech and Svartvik (1994), besides concord of number, there is also concord of person (p. 264). The concord of person has some rules that are

essential to explain. In the Present Tense, be has three forms, e.g., I am, He/ She / It is, We/ You / They are (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 264).

For further information, Greenbaum (1989) mentions that the verb be is used to make further distinctions in the present and to show distinctions in the past (p. 208). Table 2.1. is used to show forms of be.

Table 2.1 The Forms of Be (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 243)

Non- negative Uncontracted

negative

Contracted negative

Base Be

Present 1st person singular am, ‘m am not, ‘m not ain’t

3rd person singular is,’s is not, ‘s not isn’t

2nd person singular and all person plural

are, ‘re are not, ‘re

not

aren’t

Past 1st and 3rd person singular was was not wasn’t

2nd person singular and plural

were were not weren’t

1st and 3rd person plural were were not weren’t

Then, according to Leech and Svartvik (1994), main verbs, which can be either singular, such as call, like, try or irregular, such as buy, drink, run, have only two forms in the Present Tense (p. 264). The examples are:

[18]He/ She/ Our friend likes cooking.

[19]I/ You/ We/ They/ Our friends like cooking

Sentence [18] shows 3rd person singular, while sentence [19] does not show 3rd person singular.

In addition, Leech and Svartvik (1994) state that modal auxiliaries only have one form (p. 264). Therefore, the modal auxiliaries do not have these forms,

such as –s forms, -ing forms, or –ed participles (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 243). Furthermore, modal axuiliaries come in front of the simple form of a main verb (Azar & Hagen, 2006, p. 398). For example:

[20]I/ You/ We/ They/ He/ She/ It/ Our friend/ Our friends will cook dinner today.

Table 2.2. is used to show forms of modal auxiliaries.

Table 2.2 The Modal Auxiliaries (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 244)

Non-negative Uncontracted negative Contracted negative

can cannot, can not can’t

could could not couldn’t

may may not mayn’t

might might not mightn’t

shall shall not shan’t

should should not shouldn’t

will will not won’t

would would not wouldn’t

must must not mustn’t

ought to ought not to oughtn’t to

used to used not to didn’t use to

need need not needn’t

dare dare not daren’t

Furthermore, according to Leech and Svartvik (1994), modal auxiliary is a part of auxiliary verbs, which are a small class of words including primary auxiliaries, such as be and modal auxiliaries, such as can and will (p. 240). Then, auxiliaries do not function to make up a verb phrase on their own but it helps to make up a verb phrase in combination with a main verb (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 240). In addition, Greenbaum (1989) states that even though modal auxiliaries have a tense distinction between present and past, the past forms of modal auxiliaries are often used for present or future time (p. 114).

2. Subjects in English

Since the students might possibly use various forms of subjects when they write a sentence, in this section, the researcher presents some possible forms of a subject in English language which deal with the focus of the research as well as the information whether the subject has singular or plural meaning.

a. Noun

According to Curme (1966), a noun is the name given for a living being or lifeless thing (p. 11). Though there are various kinds of noun, in this part, the researcher only presented the various kinds of noun which deal with the focus of the research. Those kinds of nouns are:

1) Proper and Common Nouns

According to Greenbaum (1989), nouns which belong to proper nouns category are the names of specific people, places, or occasions, and they usually begin with a capital letter, such as Shakespeare, Chicago, January, Christmas (p. 107). In, addition, names sometimes may also consist of more than a word, such as The Hague, New York Times, Kennedy Airport, Captain Andrews, Mount Everest. Greenbaum (1989) futher states that proper nouns sometimes are converted into common nouns. Common nouns are nouns that are not names, such as capital in the sentence: The capital of the Netherlands is the Hague (p. 107). According to Greenbaum (1989), besides the proper nouns and common nouns, nouns can also be further subclassified in two ways, namely type of referent and grammatical form (p. 108). Type of referent consists of concrete and abstract nouns, whereas grammatical form consists of count and noncount nouns.

2) Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Greenbaum (1989) states that concrete nouns refer to people, places, or things, such as girl, kicthen, car (p. 108). Then, abstract nouns can be used to show qualities, states, or actions, such as humor, belief, action (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 108). However, some nouns may be either concrete or abstract, depending on their meaning. Some of them are:

[21]Desta can kick a football 52 yards. [22]Desta often plays football on Sundays.

The noun, a football, which shows a concrete noun, can be seen in sentence [21], while the noun, football, which functions as an abstract noun, can be seen in sentence [22]. For further information, according to Greenbaum (1989), there is a tendency that abstract nouns are considered noncount (p. 108).

3) Count and Noncount Nouns

According to Greenbaum (1989), count nouns can be said as entities that are viewed as countable (p. 108). Greenbaum (1989) adds that count nouns, therefore, may have both a singular and a plural form and they can be accompanied by determiners that refer to distinctions in number (p. 108), e.g., singular meanings: a student, one player, every teacher, plural meanings: ten students, many players, those teachers.

Then, noncount nouns can be said as entities that are viewed as a mass that cannot be counted, such as bread, furniture, music, rice, water (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 108). Greenbaum (1989) further states that noncount nouns are considered singular and can be accompanied only by determiners that do not refer to

distinctions in number (p. 108), such as much information, your information, that information. Then, in this part, the researcher presented typical lists of noncount nouns that are commonly used as noncount nouns and put it in Table 2.3.

Table 2.3 List of Uncountable Nouns (Azar, 1989, p. 206)

No Noncount Nouns Category Lists of Noncount Nouns

1 Whole groups made up of similar items

baggage, clothing, equipment, food, fruit, furniture, garbage, hardware, jewelry, junk, luggage, marchinery, mail, makeup, money/cash/change, postage, scenery, traffic.

2 Fluids water, coffee, tea, milk, oil, soup, gasoline, blood.

3 Solids ice, bread, butter, cheese, meat, gold, iron, silver, glass, paper, wood, cotton, wool.

4 Gases steam, air, oxygen, nitrogen, smoke, pollution.

5 Particles rice, chalk, corn, dirt, dust, flour, grass, hair, pepper, salt, sand, sugar, wheat.

6 Abstractions beauty, confidence, courage, education, enjoyment, fun, happiness, health, help, honesty, hospitality, importance, intelligence, justice, knowledge, laughter, luck, music, patience, peace, pride, progress, advice, information, news, evidence, proof, time, space, energy, homework, work, grammar, slang, vocabulary.

7 Languages Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish.

8 Fields of Study chemistry, engineering, history, literature, mathematics, psychology.

9 Recreation baseball, soccer, tennis, chess, bridge, poker.

10 General Activities driving, studying, swimming, travelling, walking (and other gerunds)

11 Natural Phenomena weather, dew, fog, hail, heat, humidity, lightning, rain, sleet, snow, thunder, wind, darkness, light, sunshine, electricity, fire, gravity.

In addition, there are some nouns which are exceptional or require special comment, such as singular nouns ending in –s (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 317). According to Leech and Svartvik (1994), news has singular meaning (p. 318). It can be seen in sentence [23].

[23]That is good news.

Then, Leech and Svartvik (1994) mention that subject names in –ics are always considered singular (p. 318). They are classics, linguistics, mathematics, phonetics, statistics. The example is:

Names of games ending in –s, such as billiards, darts, dominoes have singular meaning (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 318). The example is:

[25]Billiards is my favourite game.

Besides, Leech and Svartvik (1994) state that the names of some diseases ending in –s, such as measles, mumps, rickets, shingles are usually considered singular (p. 318). In addition, there are also some nouns which occur only in the plural, such as people, police, and trousers (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 318).

[26]Many young people are not going to the cinema. [27]The police have closed the case.

In addition, Leech and Svartvik (1994) add that people is the plural form of person (p. 318).

b. Pronoun

According to Lester (1990), a pronoun means a word that is used in place of one or of more than one noun (p. 23). There are some different types of pronoun. Nevertheless, in this part, the researcher only presents those which deal with the focus of the research.

1) Personal Pronouns

Lester (1990) states that this type of pronouns has many different forms according to three factors (p. 24). The first factor is person. It can be the first person, the second person, and the third person. The first person shows the person who is speaking. They are I, we. The second person shows the person being spoken to. It is you. The third person shows somebody or something that we are

talking about. They are he, she, it, they. Then, the second factor is number. It can be either singular or plural. The researcher used Table 2.4., Table 2.5., and Table 2.6., in order to give more explanation about the second factor of personal pronouns.

Table 2.4 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns (Lester, 1990, p. 25)

Singular Plural

First Person

I we

Subject Second Person

you you

Subject Third Person

he, she, it they

Subject

Table 2.5 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Be (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p. 54)

Copula Be

Present Tense Past Tense

Person Singular Plural Singular Plural

1st I am we are Iwas we were

2nd you are you are you were you were

3rd he/ she/ it is they are he/ she/ it was they were

Table 2.6 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Verb (Marianne et al., 1999, p. 54)

Verb Walk

Present Tense Past Tense

Person Singular Plural Singular Plural

1st I walk we walk I walked we walked

2nd you walk you walk you walked you walked

3rd he/ she/ it walks they walk he/ she/ it walked they walked

The third factor is form. There are three kinds of form, namely subject, object, and possessive. Nevertheless, since this research deals with subject-verb agreement, the researcher only discussed the subject. According to Lester (1990), subject refers to pronouns, such as I, you, we, they, he, she, it, that are used as the subject of a sentence (p. 25).

2) Demonstrative Pronouns

Greenbaum (1989) mentions that there are four types of demonstrative pronouns in common use (p. 131). They are this and that, which both have singular meaning (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 131). Then, these and those, which both have plural meaning, are other forms of demonstrative pronouns (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 131). The examples are:

[28]This is my house. [29]That is my room. [30]These are his books. [31]Those are our cars.

In addition, the singular demonstratives pronouns, such as this and that can be used to show both count and noncount meanings.

[32]This room is too big. [33]This water is too cold. [34]That car is new. [35]That paper is dirty. 3) Indefinite Pronouns

The indefinite pronouns will deal with the matters, namely universal items, partitive indefinites, and the of-partitives.

a) Universal Items

The form of universal indefinites are shown together in Table 2.7. overleaf.

Table 2.7 Universal Indefinites (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 122) Number Function Count Noncount

Positive

Singular

Pronoun Everyone Everybody

Everything All

Determiner Every Each Positive Plural Pronoun All Both All Determiner All Both Negative Singular

Pronoun No one

Nobody

Nothing None

Pronoun and determiner Neither Negative Plural Pronoun None Determiner No

The compound indefinites, such as everyone, everybody, everything, no body, nothing, no one, nothing that all except no one are written as single words. In addition, Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) mention that compound indefinities can be functioned only as pronouns, and despite their entailment of plural meaning, they always take singular verb (p. 121). Sentence [36] and sentence [37] are the examples.

[36]The house was full of youngster and everyone was happy.

[37]There was an accident in that house, but no one was willing to help. Then, with none, each, and every as subjects, a singular verb should follow the subject in a sentence (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 122-123). The examples are:

[38]Every student has a book. [39]Each student gets an apple. [40]None of the students is here.

Furthermore, according to Greenbaum and Quirk (1990), a plural verb must follow the subject with both and all (p. 123). It can be seen in sentence [41] and in sentence [42].

[41]All these cars are new. [42]Both students get high score.

With neither or either as subjects, a singular verb is used (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 123). The examples are:

[43]Neither thief was arrested. [44]Either is acceptable for me. b) Partitive Indefinities

Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) convey that in dealing with the partitives, to make a primary distinction between those in assertive use and those in non-assertive use is essential to do (p. 125). The researcher presented Table 2.8. in order to give further explanation about partitive indefinites. Besides, Table 2.8 presents the information which one of the partitives which has either singular or plural meaning.

Table 2.8 Partitive Indefinites (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 125) Number Function Count Noncount

Assertive

Singular

Pronoun Someone Somebody

Something Some

Determiner a (an)

Assertive Plural Pronoun and determiner Some Some Nonassertive Singular Pronoun Anyone Anybody

Anything Any

Determiner Either Any Nonassertive Plural Pronoun and determiner Any Any

c) The Of-Partitives

Lock (1996) states that partitives are structures which consist of two nouns link by of (p. 47). Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) add that it is typical of the indefinite which have both a pronoun and a determiner role to fuse these roles in of-expressions where the final part is a personal pronoun or a noun preceded by a definite determiner (p. 125). The forms of the of-partitives are presented in Table 2.9.

Table 2.9 The of-partitives (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 125)

Singular Count Partition Plural Count Partition Noncount Partition

Each of One of Any of Either of Neither of None of All of Both of Some of Many of More of Most of few of A few of

All of Some of A great deal of Much of More of Most of Little of Less of A less of Least of Any of None of

According to Azar (1989), the verb in a sentence is determined by the noun that follows of  in most expressions of quantity (p.220). Azar (1989) mentions these patterns: some of + singular noun + singular verb and some of + plural noun + plural verb (p.220). However, Azar (1989) states that one of or each of takes singular verb and mentioned this pattern: one of/ each of + plural noun + singular verb (p. 220).

c. There Is and There Are

In speech, learners are allowed to use a singular verb after introductory there even when the subject, which follows the verb, is plural. It is because it is common to do (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 217). However, according to Greenbaum (1989), in formal writing, learners should follow the general rule (p. 217).

[45]There is somebody waiting for you. [46]There are two men waiting for you.

Azar (1989) adds that in the structure: there + be, there is called an expletive.

3. Verb Phrases

To understand verb phrases and its some different forms is also required to do. It is because the researcher discussed subject-verb agreement errors and the students might possibly use various forms of verbs when they wrote a sentence. According to Lester (1990), a verb phrase consists of a main verb together with one or more helping or auxiliary verbs (p. 98). Lester (1990) further states that tense in reference to the meaning of verb phrases is two dimensional: tense refers both to time and to aspect (p. 99).

In time dimension of tense, verbs and verbs phrase can be classified into past, present, or future (Lester, 1990, p. 99). Lester (1990) conveys that there are three time forms of the verb go, e.g., past : went, present: go/goes, future: will go (p. 99).

On the other hand, according to Lester (1990), in the aspect dimension of tense, verbs and verbs phrase can be either simple (p. 98), such as went, go/ goes,

will go, or perfect. The helping verb have is always required by a verb phrase in the perfect tense. Besides, Lester (1990) states that to classify a perfect verb phrase by time: past, present, or future, is also required to do (p. 98). There are some examples of the three verb phrase forms using the verb go (Lester, 1990, p. 99). The examples are: past perfect: had gone, present perfect: have/has gone, future perfect: will have gone. In addition, according to Lester (1990), an essential thing to consider is that the time dimension in perfect tense is indicated by the form of the helping verb have (p. 99). Lester (1990) adds that have/ has is the helping verb of the present perfect tense, whereas had is the helping verb of the past perfect tense (p. 99).

Moreover, be can also become a helping verb whose construction is called a progressive (Lester, 1990, p. 101). Lester (1990) states that there are some examples of the progressive form of the six tense follows a verb, go (p. 101). The examples are: past progressive: was/ were going, present progressive: am/ are/ is going, future progressive: will be going, past perfect progressive: had been going, present perfect progressive: have/ has been going, future perfect progressive: will have been going.

Furthermore, Azar and Hagen (2006) state that modal auxiliaries can also be used as a helping verb whose position is in front of the simple form of a main verb (p. 398). The complete form of modal auxiliaries (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 244) could be seen in Table 2.2.

4. Errors

Since this research deals with error, it is important to elaborate what error is, sources of errors, types of errors, and the significance of errors.

a. Definition

According to Ellis (2003), error shows gaps in knowledge that learners have; error can appear because the learners do not know what is correct (p. 17). In addition, Corder (1971) says that error is a failure of the rule of the code and it depends on what particular variety of the target language which is considered the code (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 56).

On the other hand, mistakes can happen because, in a particular instance, the learner is not able to perform what he or she knows (Ellis, 2003, p. 17). It can be clearly seen in a learner’s writing. For example: early in Jane’s narrative writing, she wrote: The big of them contained snake. That sentence uses the past tense of the verb contain correctly. However, in the last sentence she wrote: *The basket contain a snake (Ellis, 2003, p. 17). Jane, in this case, clearly knew what the past tense of contain was as she had already used it correctly once. Therefore, her failure to say contained in the last sentence is a mistake.

Although the differences between error and mistake have been obviously defined, Chomsky (1965) defines that it is also important to consider the term of performance error and of competence error in order to deepen the understanding on error (as cited in Dulay, Burt, and Krashen, 1982, p. 139). According to Chomsky (1965), performance error is caused by learners’ fatigue and inattention,

whereas competence error is caused by learners’ lack of knowledge of the rules of the language (as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139).

Corder (1967) further states that in some language literature, performance error have been called mistake and the term error was admitted as systematic deviations because learners still develop their knowledge of the second language rule system (as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139). However, Dulay et al. (1982, p. 139), further mention that the disctinction between performance and competence error is essential, but to determine the nature of a deviation without doing careful analysis is still not easy to do.

Therefore, the term error is not specified only to competence based deviations in order to facilitate reference to deviations that have not been classified as performance errors, which have been called as mistake in some language literature (Corder, 1967, as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139), or competence errors. Thus, the term error can be used to present any deviation from a selected norm of language performance without considering the characteristics or causes of the deviation (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139).

b. The Sources of Errors

Researchers and linguists have thought about possible causes of errors made by language learners. According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), what processes learners invoke when they do not understand the target-language form is essential to ask in order to be able to explain errors (p. 65). Then, Ellis and

Barkhuizen (2005) mention that traditionally, there are two major processes are identified: distingushing interlingual errors and intralingual errors (p. 65). 1) Interlingual Errors

Interlingual errors are the result of mother tongue influences (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 65). There is an example:

[47]*We went at Johannesburg last week (Ellis, 2003, p. 18).

The error in sentence [47] was made by speakers of Bantu languages in Southern Africa who frequently use the preposition at in order to refer to direction as well as location (Ellis, 2003, p. 18). Ellis (2003) further explains that the error in sentence [47] might happen because Bantu languages only use a single preposition to express location and direction where English has two prepositions: at and to (p.18).

2) Intralingual Errors

Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) state that intralingual errors reflect the operation of learning strategies that are universal, e.g., evident in all learners irrespective of their L1. Then, according to Richards (1974), intralingual errors reflect the general characteristics of the rule in learning, such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply (p. 174). In addition, Richards (1971 b) further states that intralingual errors are also often further subdivided into over-generalization, ignorance of rules restrictions, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized (as cited in Ellis, 1994, p. 59).

a) Over-Generalization

According to Richards (1974), over-generalization covers instances where the learner makes a deviant structure which is caused by his experience of other structures in the target language (p. 174). In addition, over-generalization generally also deals with the creation of one deviant structure in place of two regular structures. Over-generalization can also be defined as a blend of two structures in the standard version of the language (Norrish, 1983, p. 31). In addition, Norrish (1983) further states that based on learners’ experience of the language, learners may possibly construct a deviant structure (p. 31). The example is: the use of *eated in place of ate, where in this case, the learner over-generalized form that they found easy to learn and to process (Ellis, 2003, p. 19). Other examples are:

[48]The form was is generalized for all persons and both numbers in the past tense (Richards, 1974, p. 174, p. 175).

[49]*We are visit the zoo (Norrish, 1983, p. 31).

Sentence [49] shows a blending of the continuous and the simple present (Norrish, 1983, p. 31). Richards (1974) adds that over-generalization is also because the learner reduces his linguistic burden (p. 174). For example:

[50]*He come from Solo.

In sentence [50], the writer removes the necessity for concord by omitting the third person –s. This condition relieves the writer from the considerable effort to decide whether to add –s or not (Richards, 1974, p. 174).

b) Ignorance of Rule Restrictions

According to Richards (1974), ignorance of rule restrictions may happen because of the application of rules to contexts where they do not apply (p. 175). Richards (1974) adds that analogy, the learner rationalizing a deviant usage from his previous experience of English, may also cause learners to make some rule restriction errors (p. 175). For example: due to the analogy of the learner’s previous experience of subject + verb + object constructions, the learner felt that there was something incomplete to the sentence of that’s the man who I saw. Therefore, the learner decided to add an object after the verb, as the learner had been taught to do elsewhere. The sentence, thus, became *that’s the man who I saw him (Richards, 1974, p. 176). Another example is a learner used a particular preposition to one type of verb. However, he also used the same preposition to another similar verb because of his analogy in using the preposition, e.g., He showed me the pen leads to *he explained me the book (Richards, 1974, p. 175). c) Incomplete Application of Rules

According to Richards (1971b), incomplete application of rules deals with a failure to fully develop a structure (as cited in Ellis, 1994, p. 59). In addition, according to Richards (1974), incomplete application of rules involves a failure to learn more complex types of structure because the learner thinks that he is able to achieve effective communication by using relatively simple rules (as cited in Ellis, 1985, p. 53).

d) False Concepts Hypothesized

Richards (1974) states that false concepts hypothesized is caused by faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target language (p. 178). For examples:

[51]*Desta was went to Jakarta yesterday. [52]*Vincent is reads the book everyday.

In sentence [51], the form was may be interpreted as a marker of the past tense (Richards, 1974, p. 178). Then, in sentence [52], the form is may also be understood by learners to be the corresponding marker of the Present Tense (Richards, 1974, p. 178).

c. Other Possible Sources of Errors

Besides interlanguage errors and intralingual errors, there are other experts who have thought about some possible causes of errors made by learners. According to Norrish (1983), there are several possible causes of errors, namely carelessness, translation and error as a part of language creativity.

1) Carelessness

According to Norrish (1983), carelessness can happen because of learners’ lack of motivation even though it is not only learners’ fault if they lose interest (p. 21). Norrish (1983) adds that learning materials and the style of presentation that do not suit to learners can be other factors that may cause them to have lack of motivation (p. 21).

2) Translation

Norrish (1983) mentions that translating word by word of idiomatic expressions in the learner’s first language is another factor that can cause a learner to make an error in his or her writing (p. 26). It can happen in the typical situation when a learner has been asked to communicate something, in this case in writing, but he is aware that he does not know the appropriate expression or structure. In addition, the learner may even be unaware that an appropriate one exists. Therefore, as the learner wishes to communicate his or her ideas, the learner will look at the language system with which the learner is familiar, namely that of his or her mother tongue (Norrish, 1983. p. 27). The example is:

[53]*Desta love Dona.

In sentence [53], actually, the Indonesian learner wishes to write Desta cinta Dona. Because the learner does not how to write Desta Cinta Dona, using correct expression of English language, the learner decides to write the sentence using the expression that he usually uses in his mother tongue, namely Indonesian language. 3) Error as a Part of Language Creativity

According to Norrish (1983), language creativity can be defined as the ability that learners have in order to use the parts of the language that they have learnt in order to say something that they may not have heard before (p. 35). Norrish (1983) adds that in certain condition, learners sometimes are required and asked to create new utterances, but with limited experience of the target language, they may possibly make mistake (p. 34). For example:

175   

simple present, ya taunya pas itu aja, tapi besok pas udah ganti bab lain tu kadang, suka lupa gitu lho, padahal kan bisa aja tu berhubungan satu sama lain kan..., misalnya kayak modal gitu kan misalnya bisa ada hubungannya gitu, gak cuman dari, satu...satu sub-bab itu aja, tapi kan bisa kepengaruh ke bab-bab lainnya.

I : Yang sedikit banyak mempengaruhi kamu membuat kesalahan. R11 : He em.

I : Oke, apakah kamu pernah merasa bahwa kesalahan s-v agreement waktu kamu nulis kalimat Bahasa Inggris tu, disebabkan karena kamu pernah nganggep bahwa subjek ini tu tunggal gitu lho, ya jadi harus diikuti dengan kata kerja bentuk tunggal juga, misalnya kamu nganggep bahwa

furniture itu jamak, misalnya ni, jadi ya harus jamak, padahal itu kan tunggal tu lho, jadi salah, kamu pernah ga sih mengalami seperti itu? R11 : Pernah...pernah ngalamin kayak gitu, jadi e...mungkin kadang tu bingung

juga ni tu sebenernya uncountable atau countable gitu lho, jadi kadang bingung pake...pake...apa sih ini...?

I : Kata kerjanya –s atau –s

R11 : Kata kerjanya pake –s atau gak pake –s atau pake is atau pake are gitu, kadang-kadang masih bingung juga sih, kan gak hafal semuanya itu

uncountable apa countable gitu,

I : Jadi...berarti...apakah kesalahan-kesalahan yang kayak gitu tadi, kamu salah nganggep, apa..., ini tunggal padaha harusnya jamak, itu masih sering terjadi waktu kamu nulis kalimat dalam Bahasa Inggris?

R11 : Masih...,masih sering..., dan malah kadang-kadang tu kalo pas writing

gitu, kesalahan-kesalahannya tu malah kesalahan-kesalahan yang sepele gitu lho, kayak masalah is, are, kayak gitu-gitu. Gitu...

I : Trus..Mbak kamu ngrasa ga sih kalo misalnya...,menurut kamu kesalahan-kesalahan s-v agreement ya disini bisa atau di tempat lain, itu tu disebabkan karena kamu tu sebelum nulisnya, kamu tu dah gak punya motivasi lagi tu, dah males-malesan, yang disebabkan karena ada penjelasan dosen di dalam kelas tu yang membuat kamu bingung, atau mungkin ada catetan-catetan dosen yang mbuat kamu bingung juga, menurut kamu gimana?

R11 : Iya kadang kalo,ya...,ya kayak aku ngrasain kelas writing ku yang ini sama kelas writing ku yang kemaren, kalo aku sih lebih excited ama kelas

writing ku yang kemaren daripada yang sekarang, soalnya gimana ya, penjelasan dosennya gak clear, terus kita jarang dapet feedback, trus kurang latian, trus kalo sama kelas writing ku yang kemaren tu beda banget, dosennya sering kasih feedback, trus tiap kita mau mulai pasti kita latian nulis dulu, jadi nggak kaget tu lho kalo suru nulis, nah sekarang tu lho kalo mau ujian atau tiap kali mau ngasi tugas tu, sedikit maleslah mau nulis, mau mulai dari mana gitu, tapi kalo yang dulu tu semangat, ya nilai juga jadi bagus, nah kalo sekarang gak tau ni semester 2, karena efek dosen juga sih, dosennya penjelasannya gak clear, gak pernah kasi

feedback, trus kita mau tau progress kemajuan nulis kita darimana gitu lho, gak pernah ada feedbcak dari dosen.

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I : Jadi mungkin, bisa dikatakan, kesalahan-kesalahan s-v agreement itu, ya disebabkan...,ada sedikit besar pengaruh dari dosen...?

R11 : He em..iya..dari dosen, soalnya kalo kita sering dapet feedback, misalnya salah-salah, kita salah, dikasi feedback, dikasi feedback, kan misalnya kesalahannya tu sama kan, misalnya kesalahannya kayak yang there is, there is tadi itu, kalo kita salah tapi sering dibenerin-dibenerin itu kan otomatis kita juga bakal apal sendiri. Tapi kalo dosennya sendiri, misalnya mbenerin cuman kaya dibunderin-dibunderin, gak dikasi benernya tu kayak gimana, kan kita juga gak ngerti salahnya dimana, gitu...

I : Kalo itu tadi kan karena penjelasan dosen tu Mbak, apakah kesalahan s-v agreement tu saat kamu nulis kalimat dalam Bahasa Inggris tu, disebabkan dari kamu sendiri, yang sudah tidak mempunyai motivasi untuk menulis kalimat tersebut, jadi kamu udah males-malesan lah, udahlah...seadanya aja, menurut kamu gimana?

R11 : Kalo males ga juga sih, soalnya kalo misalnya kayak buat tugas, buat apa gitu, ya berusaha untuk dikerjain sebaik-baiknyalah walaupun sebenernya males juga sih kalo suru belajar lagi, tapi ya tetep berusaha mengerjakan itu sebaik-baiknya walaupun ya gak tau ya itu dah baik apa belum.

I : Tapi menurut kamu tu, apakah kesalahan-kesalahan seperti ini tu disebabkan karena kamu kurang motivasi seperti itu?

R11 : Iya, iya...kurang motivasi

I : Oke Mbak, apakah teknik menerjemahkan kata Bahasa Indonesia kedalam Bahasa Inggris, masih sering kamu gunakan, waktu kamu nulis kalimat Bahasa Inggris?

R11 : mmm...iya sih kadang-kadang, tapi masih abis diubah gitu, tetep aku baca berkali-kali lagi gitu, ini tu kedengarannya sesuai apa enggak gitu, jadi nggak langsung..., murni langsung Bahasa Indonesia di Inggrisin gitu juga enggak, cuman kaya buat orek-orekan dulu gitu, trus ntar di cek lagi, kok ini bentuknya aneh ya kayaknya, polanya..., gitu.

I : Nah menurut kamu, apakah kesalahan-kesalahan s-v agreement kaya gini ni Mbak, atau mungkin di tempat lain, itu tu disebabkan karena waktu kamu bingung s-v agreement nya, ini tu she have apa she has, kamu tu memutuskan untuk mengartikan sendiri-sendiri itu lho, jadi saya I, mempunyai..., ya mungkin...gini ya, Calvin...Calvin, mempunyai...have, buku baru...new book, jadi ya kamu ngartiin sendiri-sendiri gitu lho, ya akibatnya kamu salah, menurut kamu apakah kesalahan s-v agreement itu disebabkan karena hal seperti itu Mbak?

R11 : Mungkin sebagian iya, sebagian anak-anak juga mungkin iya, aku juga mungkin iya, tapi kalo aku sih masih ngliat, subjeknya kaya gimana, tu kaya gimana, jadi ya nggak langsung murni bener-bener di Inggrisin, dari Bahasa Indonesia di Inggrisin gitu juga enggak sih. Tapi menurutku, ya bisa juga mereka mengartikannya tu per kata gitu, kayak terjemahan-terjemahan google kaya gitu. hehe..

I : Tapi misalnya untuk kamu sendiri mungkin, kamu lebih melihat lagi ya,

instead of misalnya menerjemahkan langsung gitu? R11 : He em...

177   

I : Gini Mbak, terus kesalahan s-v agreement waktu kamu nulis ini, apakah disebabkan karena kamu tu, tanpa mempertimbangkan terlebih dahulu ini bener apa salah, kamu tu udah ngliat aja, ni kayanya cocok ni there is

daripada there are, ini kayanya cocok people has daripada people have

gitu, nah pernah ga sih kalo kamu, kesalahan-kesalahan disebabkan karna hal kayak gitu?

R11 : Pernah sih, cuman ini kayaknya cocoknya buat ini...ini...ini...gitu, tapi ya itu karna kurang mantep, basicnya gak dapet, jadi ya di pas-pasin aja. I : Tapi pernahlah ya, gara-gara kamu anggep cocok, terus jadi salah? R11 : Hmm,pernah...

I : Menurut kamu Mbak, apakah kesalahan s-v agreement kaya gini tu, disebabkan karena waktu kamu nulis, kamu nganggep aja kalo ini tu yakin bener tu lho, walaupun sebenernya kamu tu enggak dong, nggak punya pemahaman teori tentang ini, tapi kamu nganggep aja, dah yakin, tulis..., ya akibatnya kamu salah s-v agreement nya, menurut kamu gimana Mbak? R11 : Iya..., kadang, yaudahlah...ini aja, tapi terkadang juga nulisnya tu, emm

mungkin karena dikejar waktu atau apa, jadi asal nulis aja, ngalir gitu, terus setelah dibaca lagi, oiya ya, kok gak pake ini, jadi baru inget gitu lho.., jadi sebenernya tau tapi cuman pas nulis kadang kayak, ya lupa gitu lho, o...iya ini kan it kenapa gak pake has gitu, pakeknya have gitu... I : Jadi kalo kamu, pada waktu nulis ya yakin yakin aja ya?

R11 : He e...he e...,tapi setelah dibaca lagi kok salah gitu...

I : Oke oke, 2 lagi ya Mbak..., Mbak, waktu kamu di kelas Paragraph Writing ni, apakah ada penjelasan dosen tentang teori s-v agreement, yang sebenernya tu membingungkan tu lho, tapi..., tapi kamu aplikasikan Mbak, ya akibatnya kamu salah gitu lho...,gara-gara penjelasan yang bingung itu? R11 : Pernah sih, ada penjelasan yang bingung...,entah akunya yang bingung

atau dosennya yang njelasinnya gak clear tapi aku nangkepnya gak jelas gitu, jadi ya kebawa sampe ke exercisenya, ke latiannya...

I : Jadi buat kamu salah waktu exercise... R11 : He em...

I : Nah, apakah kesalahan s-v agreement tu disebabkan karena kamu tu mbaca handout dari dosen atau mungkin buku referensi yang bingung itu lho, terus kamu aplikasikan, ya akibatnya kamu salah, menurut kamu gimana Mbak?

R11 : Iya, kadang dari blajar-blajar sendiri trus narik kesimpulan sendiri, jadi bingung sendiri...hehehe....

I : Jadi maksudnya, blajar-blajar sendiri, trus gara-gara blajar dari buku-buku yang membingungkan itu kan?

R11 : He e, buku, kan kadang, e..., beda sumber tu..., ya misalnya kaya azar

kaya ama yang dipake bapaknya tu apa tu ya Not ya..., itu tu penjelasannya sebenernya sama cuman caranya dia menuangkannya disitu tu beda-beda, nah kadang tu bikin itu tambah bingung gitu lho..., gitu..., gitu...

I : Oke terima kasih sekali Mbak... R11 : Ya, sama-sama...

vi ABSTRACT

Mali, Yustinus Calvin Gai. 2011. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Writing is one of the skills learnt by ELESP students. They learn how to produce English sentences which are grammatically correct. Therefore, to be able to produce the correct sentences, they need to apply the required grammatical elements in the sentences which they write correctly. One of the required grammatical elements to apply in the sentences is subject-verb agreement. Thus, they are required to master subject-verb agreement and to apply it accurately in order to enable them to always produce English sentences which are grammatically correct. Besides, they are also prepared to be future English teachers, the one who later becomes the model for his/her future students, in a real school where writing skill, involving subject-verb agreement, becomes a skill that is still taught. It is ironic if an English teacher is unable to give an example of the correct sentence. Therefore, before coming to the school and being the model for students, ELESP students have to master subject-verb agreement well and to be able to minimize the occurrence of subject-verb agreement errors. However, the writer still finds the fact that ELESP students make the errors. For that reason, it would be significant to find out the errors made by the students as well as to discover the factors behind the errors.

There were two problems to be solved in this research. Those problems are (1) What are subject-verb agreement errors that are made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP? (2) What are the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors?

To answer the first research question, the writer conducted a document analysis. The documents to analyze were the written work of students in class B of Paragraph Writing at ELESP in 2010/ 2011 academic year. Then, the errors found in the students’ written work were classified into several categories of errors based on surface structure taxonomy. Furthermore, to answer the second research question, the writer carried out an interview whose respondents were eight students of class B of Paragraph Writing who made various subject-verb agreement errors.

From the data gathered, the writer found that most of the errors belonged to misinformation category (71.4%) and were subsequently followed by omission category (17.9%) and addition category (10.7%). Then, based on the result of the interview, the writer found five (5) major factors that caused the students to make the errors, namely interlingual error, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, and carelessness. Based on the research results, the writer proposed recommendations for students, lecturers in Paragraph Writing class, and future researchers who want to follow up this research.

vii ABSTRAK

Mali, Yustinus Calvin Gai. 2011. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Menulis merupakan salah satu bidang keahlian yang dipelajari oleh para mahasiwa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta. Mereka belajar bagaimana menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat Bahasa Inggris yang benar secara gramatikal. Oleh karena itu, untuk mampu menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat yang benar secara gramatikal, para mahasiswa perlu untuk mengaplikasikan secara benar elemen-elemen gramatikal yang diperlukan di dalam kalimat-kalimat yang mereka tulis tersebut. Salah satu elemen gramatikal yang diperlukan di dalam kalimat-kalimat tersebut adalah kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Jadi, para mahasiswa diwajibkan untuk menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dan diwajibkan pula untuk mengaplikasikan secara akurat kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja tersebut dengan tujuan untuk memungkinkan mereka agar selalu menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat Bahasa Inggris yang benar secara grammatikal. Selain itu, para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris juga dipersiapkan untuk menjadi seorang guru Bahasa Inggris di masa yang akan datang, yang nantinya menjadi seorang model bagi para muridnya pada masa mendatang, di sekolah dimana keahlian menulis yang melibatkan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja menjadi suatu keahlian yang masih diajarkan. Menjadi ironis jika seorang guru Bahasa Inggris tidak mampu untuk memberikan contoh tentang suatu kalimat menggunakan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dengan benar. Oleh karena itu, sebelum berada di sekolah dan menjadi model bagi para muridnya, para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris harus menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dengan baik dan harus mampu untuk memperkecil munculnya kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Akan tetapi, penulis masih menemukan fakta bahwa para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris membuat kesalahan-kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Karena itu, untuk mengetahui kesalahan-kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja yang dibuat oleh para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris dan menelusuri faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan munculnya kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut akan menjadi bermanfaat.

Ada dua permasalahan untuk dipecahkan dalam penelitian ini. Permasalahan tersebut ialah (1) Kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja apa saja yang dibuat oleh para mahasiswa di kelas

Paragraph Writing pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta? (2) Faktor-faktor apa yang menyebabkan para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta membuat kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja tersebut?

viii

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama dalam penelitian ini, penulis melakukan suatu analisis dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisis ialah karya tertulis para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing B pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma angkatan 2010/ 2011. Kemudian, kesalahan-kesalahan yang ditemukan diklasifikasikan ke dalam beberapa kategori kesalahan berdasarkan surface structure taxonomy. Selanjutnya, untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua dalam penelitian ini, penulis melakukan interview yang respondennya ialah delapan mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing B yang membuat beragam kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja.

Berdasarkan data yang diperoleh, penulis menemukan bahwa sebagian besar kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut termasuk dalam kategori misinformation

(71.4%) dan kemudian diikuti dengan kategori omission (17.9%) dan kategori

addition (10.7%). Kemudian, berdasarkan hasil interview, penulis menemukan lima (5) faktor utama yang menyebabkan para mahasiswa membuat kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Kelima faktor tersebut adalah interlingual error, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, dan carelessness. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, penulis mengusulkan beberapa rekomendasi bagi para mahasiswa di kelas

Paragraph Writing, bagi para dosen pengajar di kelas Paragraph Writing, dan bagi para peneliti di masa yang akan datang yang ingin melanjutkan penelitian ini.

Kata kunci: kesalahan,kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja, kelas Paragraph Writing