The acquisition of English tag questions by Indonesian high school students : an error analysis - Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya Repository

CHAPTER V
CONCLIJSION

5 . 1 SUMMARY
E n g l i s h i s t a u g h t and l e a r n e d a s a f o r e i g n l a n g u a g e
in

Indonesia

taught
High

to

and

the

Indonesia

School.

The

basic

grammar

of

students beginning

problem

with

the

the

English

from

the

teaching

of

is

Junior
English

grammar i n I n d o n e s i a i s t h a t t h e s t u d e n t s v e r y o f t e n make
e r r o r s t h r o u g h o u t t h e l e a r n i n g p r o c e s s . T h i s is due t o t h e
f a c t t h a t t h e nature of t h e t a r g e t language is d i f f e r e n t
from

their

native

elements of

The

language.

the target

students

language t h a t

may

find

some

a r e d i f f e r e n t from

t h e i r n a t i v e language.
R e a l i z i n g t h e f a c t t h a t t h e second y e a r s t u d e n t s of
SMAK

St.

Stanislaus

difficulties

by

Kalijudan

constructing

still

Surabaya

English

Tag

had

Question

t h e writer d e c i d e d t o f i n d t h e t y p e s o f e r r o r s

correctly,
made

in

I1

the

students

in

the

learning

of

English

Tag

in

English

Tag

Questions.
After

she

Questions,

she

encountered

into

a

administered
classified
two

test

and

types,

counted

namely

:

the

errors

errors
of

the

p e r s o n a l pronouns and e r r o r s o f t h e a u x i l i a r y v e r b s .
Based

on

the

findings,

she

eauses of t h e e r r o r s a s a r e follows :

concluded

that

the

45

a . The

students

pronouns
used

of

the

question.

did
the

wrong

not

pay

attention

subjects
forms

in

of

the
the

to

the

possesive

statement part.
pronouns

in

They

the

tag

T h e s e e r r o r s m i g ~ tbe c a u s e d b y t r a n s f e r o f

training.
b.

The s t u d e n t s d i d n o t n o t i c e t h e u s e o f

The

cause

of

this

"

I am

the tag question a f t e r
error

is

"

aren't

"

in

i n the statement part.

Intralingual

transfer

in

f a l s e concept hypothesized.

c . T h e s t u d e n t s were n o t a w a r e o f t h e r u l e s o f i m p e r a t i v e
s e n t e n c e s w h i c h s h o u l d be f o l l o w e d b y
tag question.

The c a u s e o f

t r a n s f e r because of

" will +

you

"

in

t h i s error is Intralingual

t h e i r wrong s t r a t e g i e s o f l a n g u a g e

learning.
d . The s t u d e n t s o v e r g e n e r a l i z e d i m p e r a t i v e s e n t e n c e s which
s h o u l d b e followed b y pronoun
aware
with

we

of

"

the

let's

" . The

rules

of

"

you

imperative

I t .

T h e y were n o t

sentences beginning

w h i c h s h o u l d be f o l l o w e d b y " s h a l l

+

c a u s e o f t h i s err3r i s I n t r a l i n g u a l t r a n s f e r

i n over generalization.
e . The s t u d e n t s d i d n o t r e a l i z ' z t h a t s e n t e n c e s c o n t a i n i n g

n e g a t i v e words l i k e ' n o t h i n g '
b y a f f i r m a t i v e q u e s t i o n tag!;.

and 'nobody'

a r e followed

The c a u s e o f

this error

is I n t e r l i n g u a l t r a n s f e r i n language t r a n s f e r .
f.

T h e s t u d e n t s d i d n o t p a y a t t e n t i o n t h a t " t h e r e " c a n be

47

use2 a s a subject i n question tags.

The c a u s e of

this

e r r o r is intralingual transfer i n over generalization.

g.

The

students

did

not

use

the

appropriate

auxiliary

according t o the tense of the statement part.

This type

o f e r r o r s might b e c a u s e d by i n t r a l i n g u a l i n t e r f e r e n c e .
Another c a u s e of

t h i s e r r o r i s t h a t t h e s t u d e n t s were

n o t aware o f t h e e x i s t e n c e o f modal a u x i l i a r i e s i n t h e
statement part.
t h e form
marker
shall

'I

of

They h a d f a l s e c o n c e p t h y p o t h e s i s t h a t

c o u l d , would m i g h t
the

past

tense

and

were i n t e r p r e t e d a s a

"

I'

will,

can,

may

and

!' were u n d e r s t o o d t o be t h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g m a r k e r

of the present tense.
h.

The

students

overgeneralized

that

all

affirmative

s t a t e m e n t s h o u l d be f o l l o w e d b y n e g a t i v e t a g . T h e y u s e d
negative tag although t h e sentence c o n t a i n i n g negative
words l i k e ' n o t h i n g ' ,

'noboc.yl.

5.2 Suggestions
The

findings

of

this

s t u d y show t h a t

E n g l i s h Tag

Questions a r e still considered d i f f i c u l t t o SMA s t u d e n t s
of

S a n t o S t a n i s l a u s I1 K a l i j u d a n S u r a b a y a .

fact,

Realizing t h a t

t h e w r i t e r w o u l d l i k e t o g i v e some s u g g e s t i o n s . T h e

following a r e the suggestions:

(1) T h e t e a c h e r

s h o u l d emphasize t h e e x i s t e n c e of

a u x i l i a r y and p e r s o n a l pronoun i n c o n s t r u c t i n g E n g l i s h Tag

48
Q u e s t i o n b y o r d e r i n g s e n t e n c e s w i t h i n d r i l l s i n s u c h a way
t h a t t h e s t u d e n t s w i l l p r o v i d e p r a c t i c e i t e m s . The t e a c h e r
could d r i l l together,
'have1

or

around

a

'cant.

f o r example,

She

particular

would

sentences with

first

v e r b form

or

drill

item

the

in

'be'

or

utterances

order

to give

some c o n f i d e n c e i n m a s t e r i n g t h e E n g l i s h Tag Q u e s t i o n .
( 2 ) The

teacher

should e x p l a i n t h e v a r i a b l e forms

i n c o n s t r u c t i n g E n g l i s h Tag Q u e s t i o n . They a r e :
a. affirmative
tags

and

s t a t e m e n t s s h o t l d be f o l l o w e d b y n e g a t i v e

negative

stateme:nts

should

be

followed

by

positive tags ;
5.

the

auxiliaries

repeat

themselves

in

the

tag,

for

example, i n P r e s e n t Continous Tense, F u t u r e Tense, P a s t
C o n t i n o u s T e n s e and P r e s e n t P e r f e c t T e n s e ;

c.

'aren't'

is used i n t h e t a g question after

the statement part
d.

am

"

in

;

t h e imperative sentences should be followed by ' w i l l
you'

in

tag question

and

sentence beginning with

e.

" I

sentences
'nobody'
questions.
'nothing'

containing
should

be

The pronoun

"

+

'.shall
Let's

"

negative
followed

we'

f o r imperative

;

words
by

like

'nothing',

affirmative

tag

"it" i s used t o avoid repeating

and "they1' is u s e d f o r

'nobody'.

The pronoun

"they" is u s e d t o a v o i d r e p e z t i n g 'somebody1,
and ' e v e r y b o d y ' .

+

'someone'

49

f.

" t h e r e " c a n be u s e d a s a s u b j e c t i n t a g q u e s t i o n s .
( 3 ) The

find

the

real

teacher

shoulcl

subject

in

encourage

the

the

possessive

students

form

by

to

using

p i c t u r e s o r d i a g r a m s . I f t h e y c a n n o t g i v e t h e c o r r e c t form
of

personal

pronoun,

they

cannot master

t h e E n g l i s h Tag

Questions w e l l .
(4)

The

teacher

shouid

give

more

exercises

in

c o n s t r u c t i n g E n g l i s h Tag Q u e s t i o n s t o t h e s t u d e n t s . S i n c e
the

time

allocated

to

practice

English

Tag

Question

in

c l a s s i s l i m i t e d , it is b e n e f i c i a l f o r t h e s t u d e n t s t o g e t
homework.
(5)

This

study

should

sophisticated

instruments

determine

elements

the

which h a s been m o s t l y
I n d o n e s i a n High School.
tape-recorder

of

and

be

continued

research

E n g l i s h Tag

miscon:;tructed

using

techniques

more
to

Question patterns
by the students of

An e x c e l l e n t p r o c e d u r e i s t o u s e

a n d make e f f o r t t o h e l p t h e s t u d e n t s p r o d u c e

correct responses.

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(
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Great
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William
C o l l i n s S o n s a n d Co. L t d . , 1 9 8 1 .

2.

Bernard and T r a g e r , George. L.,
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o£
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Md., 1 9 4 2 .

Bloch,

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Walter R , and Meredith Darnien G a l l , Educational
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