An error analysis of preposition of place and direction in prepositional phrases made by the second year students of SMAK St. Louis I Surabaya - Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya Repository

INTRODUCTION

1.1

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

As Buckingham said,

11

Students of English face a variety
1

of
say

problems related to the use of preposition

11

it is clear

,

that most of the problems appeared in Prepositional

to

Phrases

might be cauged by the prepositions.
In
stated

the 1984 English GBPP for Senior High School, it

that

Prepositional Phrases is one of the

is

sub-topics

of

English that the second year students should master.
Noticing
writer's

the

experience

errors' made by the

students

dealing with SMA students on

during

her

the

teaching

practice at SMAK ST. LOUIS II, she observed that so many students
still made various errors in constructing Prepositional
Some

Phrases.

English teachers, the writer contacted with, approved

these errors also happened in the previous years.
teachers'

duty

difficult

for

problem

to

overcome

these

errors.

It becomes the

However,

the SMA teachers to concentrate on

because there is no data showing what

that

it

solving

the

is
this

troublesome

element of Prepositional Phrases is.
The writer observed some reasons of the students'
errors, one of whic h is that not all of the English
prepositions,

are transferable to Indonesian
is

most

of

English

prepos itions

should

making

prepositions

the other reason
be

memorized

=~

1

Thomas Buckingham, University of Illionis at Urbana-Champaign, 11 HELPING STUDENTS USE PREWSITIQNS 11 , English Teaching Forum Volume X. November-December 1 972 . Number 6, p.19
1

'

2

as

English prepositions are patterns/ and compared to

prepositions/

English

prepositions

has more kinds of prepositions.

are

Indones ia
Engl i sh L"'

too various/

These reasons may cause the stu-

dents' difficulties in learning Prepositional Phrases. Sometimes/
students apply some prepositions together in a wrong way/ use t he
ipcorrect preposition/ or
sitions

to

the English prepositions,or at other time

prepositions altogether.
analyse

a

simply transfer the Indonesian

prepo -

omit

the

These problems encourage the writer to

the Prepositional Phrases even morel thus she

conducted

research under the topic :"AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON PREPOSITION OF

PLACE

AND DIRECTION IN PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES MADE BY THE

SECOND

YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAK ST. LOUIS I SURABAYA".

1.2

STATEMENT OF THE,PROBLEMS
In

line

with its'background , the general

problem

this study is formulated as follows: "what kind of errors do

of
the

students make in constructing the Prepositional Phrases?"
To

answer the general problem above/ the writer

speci-

fied the problem into:
II

Are errors made by the students in construc ting

Preposit i o nal

phrases mostly in misapplying the preposition?"
In

order

to make this specified problem more

opera-

tional/ the writer divided it into three sub-problems/ name l y:
a. Are e rrors made by the stude nts in

construct ing

Pre posi -

tional Phrases mostly in omitting the prepositon?
b . Are e rrors made by the students in

constructing

Pre p o si-

tional Phrases mostly in adding the preposition?

, · _·..

c. Are ·errors made by the students in

construct ing

Preposi-

tional Phrases mostly in substituting the preposition?
1.3

OBJECTIVE OF THE S TWY

This

study

objective,
students
This

i.e.
make

attempts
to

find

to

out what

in constructing

objective

is

achieve

the

specified into

to the problem: to find out

kinds

the

f ollowing

of, errors

t he

Prepositiona l

Phrases.

sub-object ive

according

whether

made
e~ros

by

the

students in constructing the Prepositional Phrases are mos t l y
in misapplying the preposition.
Furthermore,

this

sub-objective is divided

into

more'

detailed objectives, they are:
to

1.

find

out whether errors made

by

the

students

in

constructing the Prepositional Phrases are mostly in omitting
the preposition
to

2.

find

constructing

out whether errors made

by

t he

students

the Prepositional Phrases are mostly in

in

adding

the preposition
to

3.

find

constructing

out whether errors made
the

Prepositional

by

the

students

in

Phrases

are

most l y

in

substituting the preposition.
1.4

SIGNIFICANCE OF TilE S TWY

The
lish

teachers'

learning
about

result of the study is expected to arouse the
awareness toward the students'

Prepositional

Phrases.

It

difficulties

provides .. the

the errors made by the students, which then,

Engin

inf ormation
the

Eng lish

4 '.

teachers
tion,

can use to improve their ways of teaching the

especially preposition of place in Prepositional

The writer hopes,

by doing so,

preposiPhrases.

the English teachers will be

able

to help their students minimize their making errors in constructing

the Prepositional Phrases.

As Wagiman says in his article,
"
"better information on the errors a student makes will

that

help the teacher in making the decisions on the types of
ance

assist-

?
given"~.

At
Significance

the
of

other
Learners'

time, Corder in
Errors 11 says:

his

article,

"Errors provide to the

researcher evidence of how language is learned or

acquired, what
discov~

strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his
ery

of

the

....

languageN"".

Based

on

"The

this

statement,

the

writer hopes that the result of this study will help the teachers
in the field of teaching learning.

1.5

THE SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The
Prepositional

writer

in

Phrases

her
which

thesis
deal

is
with

going

to

talk

about

of

place

preposition

and direction only.
There are many'kinds of phrases,

Phrases,

infinitive

phrases,

such as Prepositional

participial phrases,

and

so

on.

=~

D.Wagiman A•• The Acquisiti on of
Past Tense by Indonesian Students: ah Error
ter Scientiae, no.12/3 Edisi 1987, p.14

English
Simpple
Analysis,
Magis-

3

Jack C.
Limited,

S.P. Corder. 11 The Significance of learners' Errors", in
Richards, ed., Error Analysis,
London,
Longman Group
1974, p.19

,·

4

However, the most commonly used phrase is Prepositional Phrases.
Prepositional Phrase can function as an adjective, an adverb or a
complement.
Warriner

To
(1958)

clarify
says,

this,

Prepositional

is a group of words

Phrases,

beginning

as

with

a

5

preposition and ending with a noun or a pronoun .
The
going

to

writer\ is

talk about, are all kinds of prepositions of place and

direction
even

preposition.of place and direction, the

whether they consist of one word only, two, three,

four words, such as : at, around, among,

beyond,

or

between,
6

near, out of, in front of, on the other side of, and so on .
In

line with the objective of the study

limited to the discussion of
in the Prepositional Phrases.
t a ke n

from

the

second

this study

preposition of place and

direction

The analysis is based on the

year s tude nt s

of

SMAK

ST.

is

data

LOUIS

I,

Su rabaya.
1. 6

ASSUMPTIONS

In

accordance with t he stateme nt of t he

wr ite r .s t a t es the f o llo wing ass umptio n s .
1.

probl e m,

It i s assume d tha t:

The s tude nt s h a v e mas t e r e d con s truc ting a sent e n ce

thi s

case ,

sent e n ces

in

all

kinds

the

of

t e n ses ,

b ase ,

in

b ecau se

prepos ition a l phrases a l ways appear in sentence s .

-----------------------4
Ma ry Le wi c k - Wa ll ace , Gr a mma r and Sent e n ce Struc ture ,
Roch ester Ins ti t u te of Techn o l ogy , McGraw- h ill , I n c ., 1 983 , p.82
5

John E. Warr i ne r, Ma ry E. Whitten,
Engli s h Grarmnar and Composi t i on , Harcourt,
Inc . , 1 958 , p.60

Fran c i s Gr i ff i t h,
Brace and Wor l d ,

6

Knud Schibsbye , A Modern Eng lish Grammar , London , Oxford
Unive r s ity Press, 1 9 70 , p .302- 38 1
-,

2.

The students have got

preposition

of

all kinds of prepositions,

especially

place and direction. As scheduled in

the

GBPP,

second year students of SMA will study this subject.
3.

The

test administered to the students is

valid

because

it

covers the materials which have been given to the students.

1. 7 . DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

As

ambiguity

of the terms used in

this

paper

might

happen, the writer needs to define the following concepts:
1.7.1.

ERROR: According to Oxford Advanced Learner's

of Current English by Hornby.

Dictionary

'ERROR' means something done wrong.

Error must be distinguished from mistake.

Mistake refers to per-

formance errors, as Brown says, " ... it is either a random guess
or

a 'slip',

in that it is a failure to utilize a

known

system

While errors themselves refer to competence

errors

7

correctly"
caused

by

rules;

they

reveal

a portion of the learner's competence in the target

lan-

guage.

Error

from

the

lack of knowledge of the

in this study refers to the

language

noticeable

deviation

a selected norm of a language performance and reflects

interlanguage

competence

of the learner because

the

the

learner's

knowledge is developing.
1. 7.2.

ANALYSIS :

as

Hornby

states, "analysis

is

separation

8

into parts possibly with comment and judgement" .

In this study,

7

F!,
Douglas Brown, "Principles of
and Teaching", Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Inc.1980,p.165

Lall.Q"UaQ"e
Prentice

LearninQ"
hall,

8

AS Hornby , "Oxford Advanced Learner's
Diet ionary
Qf Current EnQ"lish", Oxford University Press, 1987, p.29

7

analysis refers to observation, investigation and
of something into parts and finally
ERROR

1. 7.3.

ANALYSIS

It is

classification

comments.
the process

of

studying

the

errors in constructing Prepositional Phrases made by the students
by

identifying, analysing, and classifying them.
PREPOSITION : word or group of words [eg:

1.7.4.

in,

from,

to,

out, of, on behalf of, etc] often placed before a noun or pronoun
to indicate

place, direction, source, method,etc.

PHRASE

1.7.5.

group of words [often without

a

finite

verb]

forming part of a sentence.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE : Is a group of words

1. 7.6.

which

begins

9

with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun , examples

of

prepositional phrase are :
preposition

1.8

noun or pronoun

at

the backyard

among

the house

in front of

the building

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This

part gives an overview of the theories used as

backbone of the study. These theories are going to be
later in Chapter two. They are as follows:
1.

Contrastive Analysis

2.

Error Analysis

3.

Interlanguage

4. Prepositional Phrases

------------------------9
Warriner, Whitten and Griffith, op.cit., p.82

the

elaborated

.

8

\

1.8.1. CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
to Dulay et al.

According
takes
with

the

( 1982)

position that a learner's

~

Contrastive

first

his or her acquisition of second

language

language. 10

Analysis
interferes

Contrastive

Analysis

treatment of errors was based on a comparison

learner's

native

between

language

and

language.

errors. 11

Consequently,

behaviorist learning theory,

it

is

believed

L1

when attempting to produce the second language". 12
learners'

of
as

L2

the

that "most second language learners'

result from their automatic use of

would

the

Differences

the two were thought to account for the mayority

learners'

errors

target

of

structures

In short,

errors are mostly caused by the interferences of

L2

their

native language.
Considering
deals

with,

those

the High School students

the

can not be categorized as neither the beginners

pre-intermediatic learners,
might

be

mostly

native

language.

strong

to

level.

A6 Dulay et.

the

The

writer
nor

the writer expected that their errors

caused

by

first

interference

language

second language

al says,

the

learners

interference
at

of
is

their
still

post-intermediate

that learning is basically a

proc-

ess of forming automatic habits and that errors should therefore

-----

-~

========================
10
Heidi Dulay, Marina Burt, Stephen Krashen, Language Two,
Oxford, Osford University Press, 1982,p.97
11

Dulay et al.,
12
I bid.,

p. 118

op.cit.

,p.140

\

9

result from first language habits

interfering with the learner's
13
attempts to learn new linguistic behaviors
The elementary students make errors rely on transferring,
whereas

the

intermediate students rely to a greater

As Taylor

overgeneralization of target language rules.
says,

quoted

by

Rod Ellis ( 1986) in

his

extent

book

on

(1975)

"Understanding

Second Language Acquisition", there are quantitative

differences
14
in errors produced by elementary'and intermediate students

While

Marton's (1980) opinion on the same book says that

inter-

ference of the first language will always be present in classroom
or foreign language learning.

1.8.2.

ERROR ANALYSIS
Erro r s

no t

l earn
15
error s

a r e the unsep a r a ble pa rt o f l earning . People

l a ng uage
Errors

Th erefo r e ,

become

s y s t e ma ti cally

an importan t

aspect

second l a n guage have

to

committing

of

l earning .
the

importance of anal ys i ng the errors that t h e s.tudent s make i n

the

is

of

fir s t

reali ze

process

teachers

without

can

of acquiring the t a r get l a ng u ag e . Erro r s, in thi s

the p r ocess of second l angu age acqu i s ition.

As Dulay e t

case ,
al .

say tha t the ma j o rity of e rro r s made by second l a nguage l earne r s

------------------------------------------------13
Du lay et al. , op.cit., p.140
14
Rod

El l i s ,

Un der standing

Second

lang uag e

tion, Oxf o rd , Oxf o rd Unive r s ity Rress , 1 986 , p. 24

15

Dul ay e t al.,op.cit., p .138

Acauisi -

10
16

are developmental, and not interlingual
Error Analysis serves on two major purposes. Firstly,
is

providing data from which inferences about the nature of

language

learning

indicating

process

can

be made.

to

the teachers which part of
17
students face the most difficult
There
propotion

are

three sort of studies

studies,

quasi-propotion

Secondly,

the

in

target

analysing

studies,

and

it

it
the
is

language

errors,
occurance

studies. In propotion studies, errors in the whole body of speech
or

writing are

classified /and

counted,

which enables

researcher to state in quantitative terms the relative
of

each

error type.

analyzed

and

estimates,
of

counted,

the'

occurance

of

errors

permit

but not quantitative statements about

interlingual and developmental errors.

studies,

propotion

In quasi-propotion studies,

classified but not

are

qualitative

the

propotion

in

occurance

While,

particular

the

developmental

interlingual errors is reported, with no attempt made to

or

address'

propotion.

writer
then

To achieve the objective of this study (section 1 . 3)

the

classified,

put

them

in
18

analyzed ,counted the students'

errors

and

order. This

prefers

to

Propotion Studies

------------------------'16
Ibid.

p. 173

I

17
Ibid., p.l38
18

Ibid.

I

p.174

study,

therefore,

11

1.8.3. INTERLANGUAGE

The

concept

Richards (1972)
learning

of

Interlanguage,

according

is proposed for the analy sis of

to

Jack

seco nd

C.

lang uag e

and illustration is drawn from the processes

a f fe ct i n g

language learning such as immigrant language learning , indigenous
minority varieties of English , pidgin and creole s et tings,
19
varieties of English, and English as a foreign lang u a ge

Jwhile
processes

Selinker

suggests

that

there

are

local

fiv e central

to second language learning which exist in the

laten t

psychological structure, and establish the knowledge which under-

lies Interlanguage behavior. They are language trans fe r , transfer
of

strategies ,

training, strategies of second language learning ,

of second language communication and overgeneralizat i o n of targ et
20

l a n g u age ling ui st i c mat eri a l.

Eac h process forces

fossi li zabl e

o r e rro r ma t e ri a l upon s urface .
In the Inte r l a n g u a g e Ana lys i s , as quo t e d by Cr oft
Sridha r
n o rms
the y

say s

II

the l earne r s ' d e via tio n s

from

tar get

s hould n o t be r egarde d as undes ira ble e rro r s or
are

ine vit a ble

and
21

a

n ecessa r y

p art

?f

t he

( 1980),
langu age
mis t a kes;
lear n i ng

int e rl a nguage process .

----------------------------------------------19
Language
London , L~ngma

J ack
C. Ri c h a rd , "Soci a l Fac t o r s, Int e rlanguage,and
Error Analysis,
Lear n i ng " , in
Jack c . Ri c h ard, ed . ,
Group Li mited, 1 974, p.6 4

20
'!>arry

Se linke r, "Inte rl a n g u age " , in J ack c . Ri c h ard,
e d ., Erro r Ana lys i s, Londo n , Longman Gr oup Limited, 1974 , p. 35
21
Kenne th Cr o ft , Reading in Eng li s h as ~ Second La.n.sruue
f o r Teaching and Teach e r Tra inees, Bo sto n-Toron o t o Littl e, Br own
a nd Compa n y (Inc . ) , 1 9 8 o , p. 85

12

In this study, the writer will take Selinker's
five

centcal

students'

processes to second language learning to

errors

strategies,

of
·th~ory

such

which

were caused

as omission errors,

by

their

addition

see

wrong

the

learning

errors,

misuse

errors, and misordering errors.

1.8 .4 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Prepositional Phrases can ndt stand alone as a sentence.

A

Prepositional Phrase does not have a subject and a

verb,

and

also does not express a complete thought.
For example:
Prepositional Phrases

among the tress
under the table
du r ing the day

~he

bas i c word orde r of prepositional ph r a ses i s : Pre p os iti o n+ a

n oun

or

pron o un, a nd a pplie d t o a ll kinds of

t e n ses

a nd

v e rb

grou p s.

1. 9

Orga niz a ti o n o f the Thesi s
Thi s t hesis cons i s t s of f i ve c hapters.

the

background of t he stu dy , the s tatemen t of the proble ms ,

obj ect ive
the

Ch apt e r I present s

of the s tudy , the scop e a nd limit a ti o n o f

assumpti on s ,

the d e finiti o n o f ke y t e rms ,

the

the

s tudy ,

theor e ti cal

fra me wo rk

and the o rga niz a tio n o f the thes i s .

Ch a p te r I!

wi t h

revi ew , ofrelated literatu re whi c h

con s i st s

t he

t he

deal s
of

t he

t heory of Con tras tive Analys i s , t h e t h eor y of Error Ana l ys i s , the
theory of I n ter l a ng uage , and t he t h eor y of Prepos iti ona l Ph r a ses.

13

Methodology
covers

research will be discussed in Chapter III

the· nature of the study, the population and

instruments
and

of

sample,

of the research, procedures of collecting the

procedures of analyzing the data. Chapter IV

which
the
data,

discusses

the

data analysis and the interpretation of the findings.

Chapter

is

study

the conclusion which presents the summary of this

some suggestions concerning the study.

-----oooOooo-----

V

and