An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice Into Passive Voice

  

An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice

Into Passive Voice

  Oleh: H.AbdulQodir

  

ABSTRACT

  The aims of this writing are (1) to know the kinds of errors on changing active voice into passive voice into passive voice, and (2) to know which tense has the highest frequency of errors. The errors are identified on four categories, namely : omission, addition, misformation and misordering. Based on the type of tenses namely: Type A (the sentences using simple present tense), type A (the sentences using present continous tense). Type C [the sentences using simple past tense), type D (the sentences using future tense. Type B has the highest number of errors. So, it is better for the English teacher to give more attention in teaching grammar, aspecially passive voice.

  Key words : error analysis, error grammar.

A. The Background country to another. So, in Indone-

  We live in the age of science sia, it can not be denied to accele- and technology. As we know, the rate the mastery of the English development of science and tech- language in order to make our nology can not be separated from country not left behind from the the language because language is other countries around the world vehicle for verbalizing human in the science and technology thoughts, while the science and development. technology give new contribution For this reason, our govern-

  

to the development of a language, ment states that English should be

  It is the fact that English has learnt in Indonesia and it is given established itself as the world's great concern by putting English as

  

international language, that is the first foreign language to be

  2 jHIMMAHVol.VIINo. 18 Januari-April 2006

  language, English is different from errors that students make. Where- Indonesia language. This conditi- as, those errors will give feedback on is quite possible to make most of to the teacher in teaching gram- the Indonesia students get some mar. It will give benefit to improve difficulties in learning English. his technique of teaching grammar,

  Making errors is understan- especially passive voice. dable for the students in learning

  So, by analyzing the student's second language. By realizing this errors on changing active into errors, the learners get feedback of passive voice, the teacher will his acquisitions in learning pro- know which part of the syllabus cess. It is quite possible for us to need further attention to the text make errors in speaking, reading learning process and from those and writing English. Because the errors the students also get feed- difference between the native back in measuring how far their language and the second language profiency dealing with passive lies in pronunciation, vocabulary voice. and grammatical structure.

  In teaching grammar, passive

  B. The Limitation of the

  voice is the one of the lessons that Problems should be given more attention by It is impossible to cope with

  

the English teacher. It is important this writing or discourse with all of

  because passive voice is produced the tenses. So, this discourse limits the problems on the following from active voice, so there are terms: (1) The discourse is limited some ruler that must be explained on changing active into passive as to the analysis of error on changing active voice into passive voice. clear as possible to the student.

  On changing active voice into These errors will be analyzed

passive voice sometimes the based on surface strategy taxono-

  my. (2) The tense is limited to

  students do not understand fully

about rules of passive voice. It is simple present tense, present

  continuous tense, simple paste

  quite possible for them to make

  tense, past perfect tense and future

  errors. These errors should be

  tense in the sentences of positive,

  corrected by them to avoid the negative and interrogative.

  students from creating the same errors.

  C. The Problem

  On the other hand, the teacher To make problems clearer, the sometimes forgets to correct the

  H. Abdul Qodir | An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice ... | 3

  Allwright and Bailey [2000 : 83) say that "Contrastive analyses

  Error analyses can be useful device both at the beginning and

  and evaluation or justification of seriousness level of the errors".

  error analyses contributes an appropriate starting point for the study of learner Language and Acquisition. Ellis (1994 : 47) states "Error analyses is a procedure which is usually used by researchers and teachers which covers collection of samples, identification of errors, explanation of errors, classification of errors according to their sources

  learner's language. For this reason,

  methodology for investigate

  : 83) state, "Error Analyses differed from contrastive analyses in that it studied the errors actually made by the learners". As one of the first methods used analyze language learning, error analyses provides a

  (CA) is not an appropriate way in analyzing the errors. CA only concerns about differences and similarities". It can be said that CA has limitation on analyze error in details, therefore, error analyses can replace to describe learners errors. Allwright and Bailey (2000

  The discourse of error was car- ried by means of error analyses in the 1970 s, error analyses supplan- ted contrastive analyses, which sought to predict the errors that learners make by identifying the linguistic differences between their LI and the target language.

  problems are formulated as follows: (1) What categories of errors probably make on changing active voice into passive voice? (2) which tense has more of errors?

  E. Error Analysis

  avoid creating the same errors. (3) For the writer, this discourse gives valuable experience, dealing with passive voice.

  tions for the students so they will

  study gives feedback and evalua-

  voice. (2) For the students, this

  The benefits from the result of the discourse are: (1) For the teac- her, this discourse gives input in teaching-learning process effecti- vely, especially in teaching passive

  D. The Significances of Problem

  during various stages of foreign language teaching program. Undertaken at the beginning, it can relevant to the teacher, the course designer or textbook writer the knotty areas of the language con- fronting the pupils. The frequency counts of errors, supported by the finding of contrastive linguistic can be immensely helpful in setting up teaching priorities. Teaching time

  4 | HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari -April 2006

  and afford can be allocated accor- second language learner can dingly for optimal result. often correct their own mista- Since the writer only concerns kes". with the learner's errors on chang-

  Ellis (1994 : 51) says "A mista- ing active voice into passive voice, kes occurs when learners fail to this study still uses error analyses perform their competence, as means to analyses the learner's later, while Brown (1999 :165) errors on changing active voice explains: into passive voice. Besides, consi- A mistake refers to a per- dering the aims of EA as what writ- formance error that is eit- ten by Richards (1974) as quoted her a random guess or a by Sangadah [2002 :9), EA may be "slip" in that it is failure to carried out in order to: (1) Find out utilize a known system cor- how well someone knows the rectly, meaning, the learn- language, (2) Find out how a ers have known the langu- person learns a language, (3) age rule, but they fail in

  Obtain information on common applying those rules, difficulties in language learning, as afterward, native speakers aid in teaching or in the prepara- are normally capable of tion of teaching material. recognizing and correcting suck "lapses" or mistakes.

1. Mistake and Error From the quotation above, it

  can be concluded that mistake

  a. Mistake. Allwright and Bailey differ from errors. Mistake are (2000 :80) say that "Mistake is called a performance error be- commonly caused by perfor- cause it was only a momentary mance factors, such as fatigue, lapse or slip of the tongue", excitement and inattention. while Corder (1973 : 257) b. Error. The learners sometimes states "Mistake is a random make errors when they leam performance slip caused by foreign language, like English. fatigue, excitement, etc and Then, it is important to des- cribe the definition or error. therefore can be readily selt- corrected". Corder (1973 : Brown (1999 : 166) states 257) explains "Mistake to refer "Error is noticeable deviation to memory lapse, slips of the from the adult grammar of a tongue and other instances of native speaker, reflecting the performance errors, that inter language competence of

H. Abdul Qodir | An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice .., ] 5 the learner".

  It can be said that error is rela- ted to the competence factor, it takes place when deviation arises as the result of a lack of knowledge, and the learners not correct it by themselves. They are continued and consis- tent. It means that the learners have not understood linguistic system they use. In other word, errors are resulting from lack of knowledge of the rule of the language. Mistake and error as written by Corder as quoted by Dulay et al (1982 : 139) says that "In some of the second language literature, perfor- mance errors have been called "mistakes", while term "errors" was reserved for the systematic

  deviations due to the learners

  still developing knowledge of the L2 rule system". From the discussion above, it can be concluded that mistake refers to a performance that is either random guess or slip in that it is a failure to utilize a known system coorectly but errors is competence

  This kind of taxonomy classi- fies errors according to some observable surface features of the underlying causes of sources.

  Dulay et al (1982 : 146) say that

  "The most useful and commonly used descriptive classification of errors is linguistic categories,

  comparative taxonomy, communi-

  cation effect taxonomy and surface strategy taxonomy".

  a. Linguistic Category The linguistic category classi- fies errors according to either the language component or the particular linguistic consti- tuent the error effects. Langu- age component include phono- logy (pronunciation) syntax and morphology (grammar), semantics and lexicon (mea- ning and vocabulary), and discourse (style). Following are example of errors:

  "He putted the cookie the-

  re" (error in morphology,

  addition-ed in irregular past tense).

  "He in the water" (syntax error, the omission of "to be").

  b. Comparative Category The classification of errors in comparative taxonomy is based on comparisons between of second language and certain other types of constructions. For example : if we were to use a comparative taxonomy to

2. Error Taxonomy

  HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari -April 2006

  Indonesian students' errors to categories of errors, that is, that error reported for the developmental errors made by children acquiring English as children learning the target the first language. These language as their first langu- comparisons classify two major age. For examples:

  => She not drink for She does not drink

  =^ They hungry instead of They are hungry The interlingual error is similar - English language use many in structure to a semantically people in (many people use equipment phase or sentence English), While local errors are in learner's native language. errors that affect single ele^ For example: Indonesian ments (constituents) in a sen; learning English may produce tence and do not usually hinder communication significantly. the sentence as "I not like that" since there is not to be in his For example:

  Why like we each other? In native language.

  c. Communicative effect (why we like other?) Why she wear those clothes?

  The communicative effect -

  classification deals with errors In (why does she wear those

  clothes?)

  from the perspective of their

  Surface Strategy Taxonomy effect on the listener or leader, d. A surface strategy taxonomy

  It distinguishes between errors emphasize the ways surface that to cause miscommuni-

  cation and those that don't. structure are procedure. The

  learners may omit necessary There are two kinds of errors items, add unnecessary ones, types under these categories, namely global errors and local miss-form items or miss-order them. Analyzing errors from a errors. surface strategy perspective

  Global errors are errors that concerned with identifying affected overall sentence cognitive process that under- organization significantly

  hinder communication. For line the learner's recons- truction of the new language.

  example:

  H. Abdul Qodir | An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice ... | 7

  Surface strategy taxonomy certain items which are includes errors of omission. r e q u i r e d in some Addition, miss-formation and linguistic contradic- miss-ordering, tions, but not in others.

  1) Omission Example: (1) She Omission errors are charac- didn't went/gone, (2) terized by the absence of an He doesn't eats. item that must appear in a

  

t

  well-formed utterance. Regularization Language learners omit Regularization errors are those grammatical morphemes in which a marker that is typically much more frequently than added to a linguistic item is content words. Content erroneously added to exceptional words include nouns, items of the given that do not take a

  marker. For example sheep and

  verbs, adjectives, and ad- verb. While grammatical putted are both regularization in morphemes include noun which the regular plural and past and verb inflection, artic- tense marker s and es have been

  added to items which do not

  les, verb auxiliaries and preposition. markers. Example:

• Alisha president new Simple addition company. If addition errors are n
• The correct sentence is double marking nor regulariza- Alisha is the president of tion, it is called a simple addition.

  the new company. Example:

  The fishes doesn't live in the 2) Addition

  Addition errors are the water opposite of omission. They The train is gonna broke it. are characterized by the 3) Miss-formation

  Miss-formation errors are

  presence of an item, which

  characterized by the use of must not appear in a well- the wrong form of the formed utterance. There are three types of addition morpheme or structure. errors: There are three types of

  Double marking miss-formation frequently

• It should be : What are you doing?

  uses surface strategy taxonomy. Because It highlights and gives which is altered by the learner.

  In addition, Dullay at (1982 : 171) says that "To identify an interlingual error, researchers usually translate the gramma- tical form of the learner's

  'sheep' for ship", or "the book of jack" instead 'jack's book".

  draw. For instance, learners say

  upon which the learner can

  system in previous experience

  language is the only linguistic

  a. Interlingual temsfer The b e g i n n i n g stage of learning a second language are characterized by a good deal of interlingual transfer from the native language, or inter- ference. In the early stages, before the system of the second language is familiar, the native

  (a) Interlingual transfer, (b) Intralingual transfer, (c) Context of learning, (d) Communication strategies,

  According to Brown (1999) the learner's errors aries from several possible general sources, they are:

  3. The Source of Error

  In this study, the writer

  8 | HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari -April 2006 Regularization

  (you are doing is miss- ordered) .

  What you are doing

  Miss-ordering errors are characterized by the incor- rect placement of a morp- heme or group of morphe- mes in an utterance. For example:

  dog, that dogs.

  archiform often gives way to the free alteration of various members of a class with each other. For example in demonstrative: - those

  grammar grow the use of

  As the learner's vocabulary and

  Alternating form

  The selection of one member of a class of forms to represent other in the class. For example: a learner may temporarily select just one of the English demonstrative adjec- tive this, that, these and those to do the work for several of them: that dog, that dogs.

  runnedforrun gooses for geese Archi-form

  Regularization errors that fall under miss-formation category are those in which a regular marker is used in place of an irregular marker, such in the example below:

4) Miss-ordering

  H.Abdul Qodir|An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice ... | 9

  phrase or sentence into the complexity of English structure learner's first language to see if itself. similarities exist. For example, c. Context of Learning if the learner produced "dog A third major source of error, eat" the researcher would thought it overlaps both types translate the grammatical form of transfer, is the context of

  "The dog ate it". learning. "Context" refers for

  b. Intralingual transfer example, to the classroom with Intarlingual transfer (within its reachers and its materials in the target language is self) is a the school learning. In a major factor in second langu- classroom with its teachers or age. Overgeneralization is the the textbook can lead the negative counterpart of intra- learner to make faulty hypo- lingual transfer. Researchers thesis about the language, what it is called "false concept" have found the early stages of language learning are charac- and what it is termed "induced errors". Students often makes terized by a predominance of errors because of a misleading interference (interlingual explanation from the teacher,

  transfer), but once learners

  faulty presentation of a struc- have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and ture or word in a textbook, or even because of the pattern more intralingual transfer- generalization within the that was rotely memorized in a drill but no properly contex- target language is manifested. This of course follows logically tualized. The social context of from the tenets of learning language acquisition will theory. As learners progress in produce other types of errors. the second language, their The social linguistic context of previous experience and their natural, untutored language existing subsmers begin to acquisition which may itself be include structures within the a source of error. It is termed target language it self. idiosyncratic dialect. Negative intralingual transfer d. Communication Strategies or overgeneralization has Communication strategies are already been illustrated in such a four source of learner error. utterances as Does AH can sing? Communication strategies

10 I HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari-April 2006

  interlingual and intralingual Further more, it can be transfer and context of learn- concluded that learner's error can ing as learner tries to get a explain or give information how message across to reader. much the learner had learnt the Communication strategies language, then it also hives pertain to conscious employ- evidence for the researcher the ment of verbal or nonverbal way language was learnt by the mechanisms for communica- learner, and for learner. It can be as ting an idea when precise device as understanding the rules linguistic forms are for some of the target language. reason not available to the learner at that point of

  5. Methodology of Error

  communication. Faerch and Analysis Kasper as quoted by Brown Dealing with the learner errors,

  (1994 : 180) define communi- there are some steps in error cation strategy as "potentially analyses. As written by Corder as conscious plans for solving quoted by Ellis (1994 : 48) chat to an individual presents suggests, the following steps in EA itself as a problem in reaching a research are: particular communicative

  a. Collection of a sample of learner language goal.

  b. Identification of errors.

4. The Use of Error Analyses c. Description of errors.

  According to Corder as quoted d. Explanation of errors. by Ellis (1994 : 48) notes that

  e. Evaluation of errors this last

  errors could be significant in three step, many studies don't use

  this step because, in facts, the ways, as follows; a. They provided the researcher evaluation of learner errors with information about how usually is described in separate much learner had learnt. issue). Each step has its own

  b. They provided the researcher explanation. Ellis (1994 : 48) with evidence of how language explain as follows:

  1) Collection of sample of was learnt.

  c. They served as devices by learner language. The which the learner discovered starting point in error the rules of the target langu- analyses is deciding what samples of learner langu- age.

  H. Abdul Qodir | An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice ... J 11

  age to use for the analyses and how to collect these samples. 2) Identification of error. On- ce corpus of learner langu- age has been collected, the errors in the corpus have to be identified. It is necessary to decide, therefore, what constitives an error's and to establish a procedure fro recognizing one. 3) Description of errors invol- ves a comparison of the learner's idiosyncratic with reconstruction of those utterance in the target language. 4) Explanation of error. 5) Assuming that is possible to identity and describe errors, the next step is to try to explain their expla- nation identification con- cerned with establishing the source of the error; i.e. accounting for why it was made. 6) Evaluation of errors.

  Where as all the preceding stages of error analyses have involved an exami- nation of errors from the point of view of the learner who makes them, error evaluation involves a consideration of the effect that errors have on the person (s) addressed.

  P. Active Voice

  Before discussing passive

  voice, firstly the writer would like

  to discuss active voice. It is important to include the discussion of active voice; because active voice is stem from which the passive voice is produced. Basically in English there are only two voices namely active voice and passive voice. The active voice of the verb simply means the form of the verb used when the subject is the doer of the action. Many active voice sentences are transitive sentences. A transitive sentence is a sentence with a subject that performs the verbal action and an objeck that receives the verbal action, e.g. (1) The boys are apple, (2) Jennifer read a book, (3) We ate dinner at seven o'clock, (4) Our waiter spoke

  Spanish, (5) My father barbecued

  beef ribs, (6) John wrote a good poem, (7) The teacher gave a good lecture, (8) The congressmen cheered the president, (9) The old lady watered her flower bed, (10)

  Wanda watched the perfect storm on TV (11) The guests drank a lot of beer at the party. Chttp://www. Isilver.netVoiceactive.htm)

  Active voices follow the tenses

  Azar (2001 : 277) in the book

12 I HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari -April 2006

  " F u n d a m e n t a l s of E n g l i s h active voices in various tenses as Grammar" gives the forms of the follows:

  Tense Active The news surprises me

  Simple Present Tense The news surprises Sum The news surprises us The secretary is copying some letters

  Present Continuous Someone is building a new hospital

  The news surprised me Simple Past Tense

  The news surprised us Bob had mailed the letter

  Past Perfect Bob had mailed the letters Bob will mail the letter

  Future Tense Bob is going to mail the letter

  From these sentences show

G. Passive Voice

  that the only verbs which take a

  1. The Form of Passive Voice The passive voice in general is direct object can be made into passive voice. Let's look again formed by putting the verbs "to be" before the main verb, and at the sentences we saw above: the main verb of the active The boy eats the apple

  Subject = boy, verb = eats, sentence must be changed into direct object = apple past participle. We can see the Mary will drive the van change of active voice into Subject = Mary, verb = will passive voice by comparing drive, direct object == van these sentences:

  We can probably identify the Active The boy eats verb easily. The subject comes the apple before (to the left of) the verb The apple was

  Passive: and the object comes after (to eaten by the the right of) the verb. boy

  2. The Rules on changing

  Active Mary will drive

  active Voice Into Passive Voice the van There are three rules we must

  The van will be Passive: be give pay attention on driven by Mary

  The passive voice is formed by taking the appropriate tense of the verb to be and adding the

  tenses as follows: Tense

  The forms of the passive voices are nearly the same with the forms given in http://webstr. comment.edu/grammar/paasi ve.htm. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design" bellow:

  I was surprised by the news We were surprised by the news The letter had been mailed by Bob The letter will be mailed by Bob The letter is going to be mailed by Bob

  Some letters are being copied by the secretary A new hospital is being built

  Sam is surprised by the news We are surprised by the news

  Active I am surprised by the news

  Simple Past Tense Past Perfect Future Tense

  Simple Present Tense Present Continuous

  "Fundamentals of English Grammar" gives the forms of the passive voices in various

  H.AbdulQodir|An Error Analysis On Changing Active Voice ... | 13

  Like an active voice, passive voice follow the tenses. Azar (1992 : 277) in the book

  3. Passive Voice in many Tenses

  Check that the verb goes with the new subject. (http:/online.ohlone.cc.ca.us/ mlieu/passive/formit.html)

  Check the verb tense, use the verb "be" in the same tense

  Meanwhile on changing the verb we must consider that it involves several rules as follows:

  Move the direct object to the subject of the sentence Move the subject to the of the sentence Change the verb

  changing sentence from active voice into passive voice, those role are:

• Change the verb into a past participle; put verb after the from of "be"

  14 | HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari -April 2006

  past participle. The verb to be

  used an auxiliary verb when

  is the most irregular verb in the forming the passive voice E n g l i s h language. It is

  (http ://englishplus .corn/gram

  normally a linking verb mar/00000359.htm). the showing existence or condition forms of the verb to be in of the subject. It can also be English are as follows:

  Infinitive To be Present Am, is, are Past tense Was, were

  Present Participle

  Being

  Past participle Been Be

  Present Subjunctive Past Subjunctive Were Imperative Be http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000359.htm

  The subject from active change into passive voice as

  becomes the object when we follows:

  As Subject As Object Me

  I We Us You

  You Him

  He Her

  She It It They Them

  4. The Use of by Phrases From the discussion above, it

  The agent of passive voice

  can be drawn the formula of should be written if the one

  the passive voice as follows: who performs the action is Be + VIII important of specific, such as

  VIII-.Past Participle

  H.Abdu! Qodir |An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice ... | 15

  by Rina, by Delia, by Haji

  b. That sweater was made in Mansyur, by Columbus, etc. Korea (by someone)

  The "by phrase" is used in

  c. Spanish is spoken in passive sentences when it is Colombia (by people) important to know who

  d. That house was built in performs an action (Azar, 2001 1940 (by someone) :183). In a, "by my aunt" is important,

  Example: while b, e, and d, the exact person a. Columbus found America or people who performs an action

  America was found by is not known and is not important Columbus to know. So, there is no, by phrase*

  b. Rina closed the door in the passive sentences. The door was closed by Rina

  According to Azar (2001: 283)

  H. Conclusion

  "usually there is no 'by phrase" The errors in this writing are in passive sentences, the by devided into four categories, those

  

phrase" is not used when it is are omission, addition, misfor-

  known or not important to mation, and misordering. Misfor- know exactly who performs an mation is more happen errors. "action". It means that if the Errors are devied into five types of one passive voice can be tenses, namely : Type A (simple omitted, such as by him, by present tense), type B (present someone, by them, by people, contrinous tense, type C (simple etc. past tense), type D (past perfect

  Examples: tense), and type E (future tense).

  a. People speak English all The errors can be analyzed to over the world determined the teaching materials

  b. English is spoken all over which need specific explanation. It the world (by people) can also give useful information c. Someone stole my car about the types of errors, so they are aware of possibility in making My car was stolen (by some- those errors. one) The other examples are as

  I. Suggestion

  follows: The learners of English still

  a. This sweater was made by have problems in changing active my aunt voice into passive voice, so the

  16 | HIMMAH Vol. VII No. 18 Januari -April 2006

  teaching staff should give more about making errors. They should attention in specific rules in use the errors as device in order to changing active voice into passive, learn more about English grammar The learners should not worry especially passive voice.

  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Allwright, Dick and Bailey, Kathleen m. 2000. Focus on the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Azar, Betty Schrampfer. 2001. Fundamental of English Grammar. New Jeresey: Prentice Hall. Inc.

  

Brown, H. Douglas. 1999. Principles a/Language Learning and Teaching.

  New Jeresey: Prentice Hall. Inc. Corder, S. Pit. 2002. Introducing Applied Lingistic. England Pingiun Book. Dulay, H., Burt. M. & Krashen S. 1982. Language Two, Oxford : Oxford University Press.

  Ellis, Rod. 1994. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

  

Hornby, A.S. 2001. Oxford Advanced Dictionary of Current English.

  Ocford: Oxford University Press.

  Nunan, David. 2000. Research Methods in Language Learning.

  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Richards, Jack. C. 1974. Errors Analyses : Perpective on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman Group Limited. Seliger, Herbert W. & Shohamy, Elana. 1989. Second Language Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. —_——^ 2002. What is it? http//online. ohlone.cc.ca. us/ passive/formit.html.

  

H. Abdul Qodir|An Error Analysis on Changing Active Voice ... | 17

  —,2002. Active and Passive Voice, h t t p : / / e n g l i s h p l u s . c o m / grammar/00000359.htm. —, 2002. Passive and Active Voice. http://Webster.component. edu/grammar/pass ive.htm. —, 2002. Voice Active.www.silver.net/voiceactive.htm.