An analysis on prepositional phrase errors made by students in paragraph writing class.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT

Utama, Antonius Yosa Prabawa. 2012. An Analysis on Prepositional Phrase Errors
Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class.Yogyakarta: English Education Study
Program, Sanata Dharma Universitity.
Writing is one of the important skills in English. As teacher candidates, the
ELESP students should have a good writing skill because later on they will teach
their students. In order to make a good written work, the student should have good
grammar proficiency. Prepositional phrase is one of grammar elements. Based on the
researcher experience, the researcher still find some errors on prepositional phrase in
his work on seventh semester. The researcher considered it would be better if the
students know their error about prepositional phrase in the earlier semesters in order
to perform the better writing in the future.
There are two problems to be solved in this research, namely are; (1) What are
the prepositional errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP and
(2) what the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP making
those prepositional errors.
In order to answer the first question, the researcher conducted a document
analysis. The analyzed documents were obtained from students’ works about

describing place paragraph on Paragraph Writing class B. In order to answer the
second question, the researcher conducted the interview. The interviewed students
were the students who made a lot and various prepositional phrase errors.
From the data gathered through document analysis, the researcher found two
of 28 errors or 7.14% of omission error, two errors or 7.14% of double marking error
and 3 errors or 10.71% of simple addition error which belongs to addition categories,
and 21 errors or 75% of archi-form error which belongs to mis-information
categories. Based on the interview the researcher found four possible factors, those
are: intralingual factor, over-generalization, carelessness and translation. Based on
this research the researcher wrote the recommendation for lecturers, students and the
future researchers who are about to follow up this research.

Keyword: error, prepositional phrase, paragraph writing class

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ABSTRAK

Utama, Antonius Yosa Prabawa. 2012. An Analysis on Prepositional Phrase Errors
Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Program Studi
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Menulis merupakan salah satu keterampilan yang penting dalam bahasa
Inggris. Sebagai calon guru, siswa PBI harus memiliki kemampuan menulis yang
baik karena nantinya mereka akan menyampaikannya kepada siswa mereka. Untuk
membuat karya tulis yang baik, siswa harus memiliki kemampuan tata bahasa yang
baik. Frasa preposisi adalah salah satu unsur tata bahasa Bahasa Inggris.
Terkadang frasa preposisi dianggap sebagai hal yang sepele. Berdasarkan
pengalaman peneliti, peneliti masih menemukan beberapa kesalahan pada frasa
preposisi dalam karyanya pada semester ketujuh. Peneliti berpikir akan lebih baik
jika siswa mengetahui kesalahan mereka tentang frasa preposisi di semester
sebelumnya agar mereka mengerjakan secara lebih baik di masa depan.
Ada dua permasalahan yang harus dipecahkan dalam penelitian ini.
Permasalahan tersebut adalah: (1) Apa saja kesalahan preposisional yang dibuat
oleh siswa di kelas Paragraph Writing ELESP dan (2) Apa saja faktor yang mungkin
menyebabkan siswa di kelas Paragraph Writing ELESP membuat kesalahankesalahan berpreposisi? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, peneliti melakukan
analisis dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisis diambil dari karya siswa tentang
paragraf deskripsi di Paragraph Writing kelas B. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan
kedua, peneliti melakukan wawancara. Siswa yang diwawancarai adalah siswa yang

membuat kesalahan frasa preposisi yang paling banyak dan bervariasi.
Dari data yang dikumpulkan melalui analisis dokumen, peneliti menemukan
dua kesalahan atau 7,14% untuk kategori Omission, dua kesalahan atau 7,14% dari
double marking dan 3 kesalahan atau 10,71% dari simple- addition yang termasuk
dalam kategori addition dan 21 kesalahan atau 75 % dari archi-form yang termasuk
dalam kategori mis-information. Berdasarkan wawancara peneliti menemukan empat
faktor yang mungkin, yaitu: faktor intralingual factor, over-generalization,
carelessness dan translation. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian peneliti menulis
rekomendasi untuk dosen, mahasiswa dan peneliti di masa depan yang ingin
melanjutkan penulisan skripsi ini.

Kata Kunci: error, prepositional phrase, paragraph writing class

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AN ANALYSIS ON PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE 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
Antonius Yosa Prabawa Utama
Student Number: 071214091
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

AN ANALYSIS ON PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE 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
Antonius Yosa Prabawa Utama
Student Number: 071214091
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013

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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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, March 7th, 2013
The writer

Antonius Yosa Prabawa Utama
071214091

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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT

Utama, Antonius Yosa Prabawa. 2012. An Analysis on Prepositional Phrase Errors
Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class.Yogyakarta: English Education Study
Program, Sanata Dharma Universitity.
Writing is one of the important skills in English. As teacher candidates, the
ELESP students should have a good writing skill because later on they will teach
their students. In order to make a good written work, the student should have good
grammar proficiency. Prepositional phrase is one of grammar elements. Based on the
researcher experience, the researcher still find some errors on prepositional phrase in
his work on seventh semester. The researcher considered it would be better if the
students know their error about prepositional phrase in the earlier semesters in order
to perform the better writing in the future.
There are two problems to be solved in this research, namely are; (1) What are
the prepositional errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP and
(2) what the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP making
those prepositional errors.

In order to answer the first question, the researcher conducted a document
analysis. The analyzed documents were obtained from students’ works about
describing place paragraph on Paragraph Writing class B. In order to answer the
second question, the researcher conducted the interview. The interviewed students
were the students who made a lot and various prepositional phrase errors.
From the data gathered through document analysis, the researcher found two
of 28 errors or 7.14% of omission error, two errors or 7.14% of double marking error
and 3 errors or 10.71% of simple addition error which belongs to addition categories,
and 21 errors or 75% of archi-form error which belongs to mis-information
categories. Based on the interview the researcher found four possible factors, those
are: intralingual factor, over-generalization, carelessness and translation. Based on
this research the researcher wrote the recommendation for lecturers, students and the
future researchers who are about to follow up this research.

Keyword: error, prepositional phrase, paragraph writing class

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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRAK

Utama, Antonius Yosa Prabawa. 2012. An Analysis on Prepositional Phrase Errors
Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Program Studi
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Menulis merupakan salah satu keterampilan yang penting dalam bahasa
Inggris. Sebagai calon guru, siswa PBI harus memiliki kemampuan menulis yang
baik karena nantinya mereka akan menyampaikannya kepada siswa mereka. Untuk
membuat karya tulis yang baik, siswa harus memiliki kemampuan tata bahasa yang
baik. Frasa preposisi adalah salah satu unsur tata bahasa Bahasa Inggris.
Terkadang frasa preposisi dianggap sebagai hal yang sepele. Berdasarkan
pengalaman peneliti, peneliti masih menemukan beberapa kesalahan pada frasa
preposisi dalam karyanya pada semester ketujuh. Peneliti berpikir akan lebih baik
jika siswa mengetahui kesalahan mereka tentang frasa preposisi di semester
sebelumnya agar mereka mengerjakan secara lebih baik di masa depan.
Ada dua permasalahan yang harus dipecahkan dalam penelitian ini.
Permasalahan tersebut adalah: (1) Apa saja kesalahan preposisional yang dibuat
oleh siswa di kelas Paragraph Writing ELESP dan (2) Apa saja faktor yang mungkin
menyebabkan siswa di kelas Paragraph Writing ELESP membuat kesalahankesalahan berpreposisi? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, peneliti melakukan
analisis dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisis diambil dari karya siswa tentang

paragraf deskripsi di Paragraph Writing kelas B. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan
kedua, peneliti melakukan wawancara. Siswa yang diwawancarai adalah siswa yang
membuat kesalahan frasa preposisi yang paling banyak dan bervariasi.
Dari data yang dikumpulkan melalui analisis dokumen, peneliti menemukan
dua kesalahan atau 7,14% untuk kategori Omission, dua kesalahan atau 7,14% dari
double marking dan 3 kesalahan atau 10,71% dari simple- addition yang termasuk
dalam kategori addition dan 21 kesalahan atau 75 % dari archi-form yang termasuk
dalam kategori mis-information. Berdasarkan wawancara peneliti menemukan empat
faktor yang mungkin, yaitu: faktor intralingual factor, over-generalization,
carelessness dan translation. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian peneliti menulis
rekomendasi untuk dosen, mahasiswa dan peneliti di masa depan yang ingin
melanjutkan penulisan skripsi ini.

Kata Kunci: error, prepositional phrase, paragraph writing class

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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

: Antonius Yosa Prabawa Utama

Nomor Mahasiswa

: 071214091

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
AN ANALYSIS ON PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE 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, mendistribusikannya secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet
atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin kepada saya
atau member royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai
penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya,
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 14 March 2013
Yang menyatakan

(Antonius Yosa Prabawa Utama)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Initially, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Lord Jesus
Christ for His blessing, guidance, grace and love so I can finish this thesis.
I also would like to express my sincere appreciation to Christina Kristiyani,
S.Pd., M.Pd. as my major sponsor for her guidance, precious time, advice and
encouragement during the research process until the final form of my thesis. I also
thank her as lecturer of Paragraph Writing class for the permission given to take the
research data on this thesis.
I would also deliver my deepest gratitude to Jatmiko Yuwono S.Pd.,
Alfonsus Rintardo Rinardi S.Pd., Margereta Mia Wijayanti S.Pd., Calvin Gai
Mali S.Pd. and Garry Mailangkay S.S. who had read and given valuable feedback
for this thesis. I also would show my gratitude for their guidance and suggestion of
the process of making this thesis.
I would address my special gratitude to my beloved father Antonius Slamet
Riyadi S.Pd. and my beloved mother Yakoba Kustiah S.Pd. for their never ending
support and prayer. I would also deliver my gratitude to my beloved sister Patricia
Tisa Kunanti for her support. I also address my gratitude to my beloved girlfriend
Riena Rienela for her support.
I would also give my gratitude to my English Education Study Program
friends especially Banu Prathista S.Pd. for his inspirational story and motivation
given. I would express my gratitude to my classmates Agung, Anti, Noti, Tika,
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Mita, Nissa, Triana, Fendika, Sisca, Indah, Sasongko, Rani and Mahisa and also
my friends on thesis class (Galih, Susi, Beni, Andar, Sepsi, Sely), SPD class, KKN,
PPL 2 and all of my friends who I could not mention one by one for their support on
the process of making this thesis.

Antonius Yosa Prabawa Utama

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE .............................................................................................................i
APPROVAL PAGES ................................................................................................. ii
DEDICATION PAGE................................................................................................iii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ..........................................................iv
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................v
ABSTRAK ...................................................................................................................vi
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ...............vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...........................................................................................x
LIST OF TABLES .....................................................................................................xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................xiv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
A. Research Background .....................................................................1
B. Research Problem ............................................................................3
C. Problem Limitation .........................................................................4
D. Research Objectives ........................................................................4
E. Research Benefits ............................................................................5
F. Definition of Terms .........................................................................6

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CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Theoretical Description ................................................................9
1. Error.........................................................................................9
a. Source of Error ...................................................................10
b. Other Source of Error .........................................................14
c. Types of Error ....................................................................15
2. Error Analysis..........................................................................19
a. Steps of Error Analysis .....................................................20
3. Preposition ..............................................................................21
a. Simple Preposition .............................................................22
b. Complex Preposition .........................................................23
B. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................24
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method ............................................................................29
B. Research Setting ..............................................................................30
C. Research Participants .......................................................................30
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ...................................31
1. Document ...............................................................................31
2. Human as a Research Instrument ...........................................32
3. Interview .................................................................................32
E. Data Analysis Technique .................................................................33
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1. The Data from Students' Written Work ..................................34
2. The Data from the Interview ..................................................35
F. Research Procedure .........................................................................36
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS
A. The Students’ Prepositional Phrase Errors
1. Data Presentation of the Errors Made by the Students ...........37
2. Discussion on the Errors Made by the Students .....................39
B. The Factors that Caused the Students to Make the Errors
1. Data Presentation of the Factors that Caused the Students
to Make the Errors .................................................................46
2. Discussion on the Factors that Caused the Students to
Make the Errors .....................................................................48
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Conclusions
1. The Students' Prepositional Phrase Errors .............................54
2. The Factors that Caused the Students Make
Prepositional Phrase Errors ....................................................55
B. Recommendations
1. For Students in Paragraph Writing Class ...............................56
2. For Lecturers in Paragraph Writing Class ............................... 57
3. For Future Researchers ...........................................................58
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................59
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Learner error factors in learner’samples ...................................................19
Table 2.2 Preposition Use in Contexts .......................................................................23
Table 3.1 The Classification and the Examples of the Errors Made by
the Students .........................................................................................................34
Table 3.2 The Number of Prepositional Phrase Errors Made by the Students ...................... 34

Table 4.1 The Number of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by
the Students ........................................................................................................37
Table 4.2 Summary of interview result ......................................................................46

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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix

Page

A. Sample of Students’ Written Work ....................................................................60
B.

Data Classification and Samples Error Made by Students ................................68

C.

Interview Blueprint ............................................................................................71

D.

The Interview Guide ..........................................................................................73

E.

Data Classification of the Interview ...................................................................75

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This introductory chapter consists of six sections. This chapter will presents
research background, research problems, problem limitation, research objectives,
research benefits, and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) students are prepared
and expected to become teachers. As English teachers, they should master English
because later on they will deliver their knowledge about English to their students. As
stated in Panduan Akademik (2011), ELESP students should have good proficiency
in English because they should be able to design, manage and develop English
learning program (para. 2)
Grammar is one of English language elements which is important to be learnt
in learning English. ELESP students should have good grammar proficiency to
produce good written English because later on they will teach their students. For
instance, ELESP students should be able to apply the use of grammar correctly to
have a good English Writing. The researcher was interested to conduct a research on
prepositional phrase error because prepositional phrase is one of the grammar
elements which is often considered by some students (based on researcher’s
experirnce) as simple thing. Another factor why the researcher chose prepositional
phrase to be researched is the researcher’s experience. The researcher found some

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errors about prepositional phrase in researcher’s work in seventh semester which is
too late to know prepositional phrase error. The researcher thought that it would be
better for students in ELESP to know their errors about prepositional phrase in the
earlier semesters in order to avoid the error they made in future. Based on Sanata
Dharma library’s data base (last research about this topic was in 1991) the research
on this topic is rarely researched though it is significant in order to identify students’
grammar and writing mastery. According to Ellis (2003), “…errors are the flawed
side of learner speech or writing” (p. 138). Error is a kind of failure in learning
process, but as cited in Ellis and Barkhuizen, Corder (1967) also considers error as
helpful in a way of showing the teacher what learners have learnt and they have not
yet mastered, providing evidence for research about how languages are learned, and
acting device for learners can discover the rules of the target language or obtaining
feedback on their error (para. 51).
According to Larsen-Freeman (1999), English prepostional phrases have
various meanings. A single prepostion can be used to clarify information about space,
time, degree or other (idiomatic usages) (para. 409). Larsen-Freeman also mentions
that prepositional phrase error is considered as common error in written English.
In the second semester in ELESP, students learnt writing in terms of
paragraph. In the same semester they also learnt grammar in Structure II class.
Indirectly students applied their grammar proficiency because they attempted to

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produce written work in Paragraph Writing. Theories and exercises they have got in
that class then applied in Paragraph Writing class.
This research is aimed to find the kinds of errors and causative factors of
prepositional phrase in Paragraph Writing Class. In this class students would learn
and did the exercises on several types of paragraph: narrative, descriptive and
argumentative. In descriptive paragraph, especially describing places paragraph, the
writing uses prepositional phrases to build the ideas regarding the cohesive and the
coherence in writing. This research is conducted to reveal the students’ knowledge in
prepositional phrase theories and the usage in discourse context. This kind of research
belongs to error analysis and it uses qualitative approach. This research refers to a
related study conducted by Mali in 2011. This identical research had different
research object but was under the same subject (Paragraph Writing class students). In
Mali’s research the object was subject verb agreement and he found 28 errors of four
types of error. He also found five major factors that caused student in making error.
Another research was made by Kanina in 2010. Her research was about prepositional
verb errors on Academic Essay Writing class. She found some omission, addition and
misinformation errors on her research and some errors caused by ignorance of rule
restriction and carelessness.
B. Research Problem
Through this study, the researcher formulates the problems which are presented
into two questions as follows.

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1. What are prepositional errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class
of ELESP?
2. What are factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP
made those prepositional errors?
C. Problem Limitation
This research deals with prepositional errors made by ELESP students in
Paragraph Writing class. The prepositional phrase includes adjective phrase and
adverb phrase. This research will only find and describe prepositional phrase errors
found in progress test in Paragraph Writing class. Prepositional phrase error is
chosen because it is mostly used in describing a place.
Paragraph Writing class is chosen because this class is offered in second
semester. In the early semesters students are considered to start learning grammar
(prepositional phrase). Paragraph Writing class is one the class in which students can
apply their grammar proficiency.
This research does not differentiate between errors from mistake. This
research would not make further action to differentiate between errors from mistake.
Every incorrect prepositional phrase is considered as error in this case.
D. Research Objectives
This research is conducted to answer the question in problem formulation. This
research is aimed to find out the following things.

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1. prepositonal phrase errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class of

ELSEP
2. the factors that caused students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make

those prepositional error
E. Research Benefits
This research is expected to provide benefits to the following.
1. ELESP Students
The researcher expects ELESP students to identify and analyze the errors they
have made and factors underlying them. Later on, the students can improve their
learning based on the result presented and they can avoid any typical errors they
made. After knowing such errors, students may improve their writing abilities by
following grammatical rules. This kind of perfection is required to be a professional
English teacher.
2. Lecturer of Paragraph Writing Course
The result of this research helps the teacher to indicate the difficulty in
learning English. It also assists the students with low writing proficiency and certain
difficult material.
3. Other Researchers
The researcher expects that the result of this research will be useful for those
who are about to conduct similar research; they can use it as their references. This

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research result can be use as a comparison to see prepositional phrase error on the
similar research.
F. Definition of Terms
1. Error
According to Ellis (2003), “Error is reflecting gaps in learner’s knowledge;
they occur because the learner does not know what is correct. Mistake is reflecting
occasional lapses in performance; they occur because the learner is unable to perform
what he or she knows” (p. 17). In case of error, learners do not know what is correct.
Therefore they perform the incorrect one. They may perform the correct one if they
learn about it. In the case of mistake case the learners know the correct one but they
were unable to perform correctly. In addition, Corder’s opinion shows that error is a
systematic deviation caused by the learner still developing their knowledge (para. as
cited in Dulay, Burt and Krashen 1982, p.139). In addition, Corder states that “In
some of the second language literature, performance errors have been called
“mistakes”. Meanwhile term “errors” was reserved for the systematic deviations due
to the learner’s still developing knowledge of the L2 rule system (as cited in Dulay,
2003, p.139). In this research, error is the usage of inappropriate preposition found in
the students’ written works.

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Error Analysis
Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) state that “error Analysis (EA) is a set of
procedures for identifying, describing and explaining learner errors” (para. 51). In
error analysis procedure, identifying means finding the errors. In other words
identifying is a scanning process to point out inappropriate parts. The next procedure
is describing. This is a process which categorizes types of error. The next phase is
explaining. This process is aimed to clarify why a part is considered as error and
whay it is correct according to the related rules. Those procedures are required to
maintain an error analysis. In this research error analysis is examining students
works on descriptive paragraph to identify and classify the inappropriate part of text
in students work containing prepositional phrase error.
2. Prepositional Phrase
In this research prepositional phrase is a set of two or more words between
prepositions and noun or pronoun found in Paragraph Writing class especially in
writing descriptive type of paragraph which explains specific information of time and
degree and other usage. Lester (1990) defines,”a prepositional phrase is a group of
related words beginning with a prepositional and ending with a noun or pronoun” (p.
105). He said that prepositional phrase is different from the form of noun phrases and
verb phrases for it may have a phrase within a phrase. In a prepositional phrase there
might be another phrase.

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Paragraph Writing Class
Paragraph Writing class is a writing class which is held in the second semester
in ELESP. The class is held after Basic Writing class in the first semester. As cited in
Panduan Akademik (2011), in Paragraph Writing students learn to write a good
paragraph (para. 66).

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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher would present the review of theories related to
this research. This part will be divided in to two sections, theoretical description and
theoretical framework. Theoretical description will explain the theories directly
relevant to this research. In theoretical framework, the theories described will be
summarized and synthesized to help the researcher conducting the study to solve the
research problems.
A. Theoretical Description
This part is going to discuss the theories used in order to support the
accomplishment of this research. This part is divided into three parts: error, error
analysis and prepositional phrase.
1. Error
According to Dulay et al. (1982), “flawed side of learner speech or writing are
parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norm of mature
language performances” (p. 138). Therefore, making errors is an inevitable part of
learning. Dulay (2003) explains that error refes to any deviation from a selected norm
of language performance, no matter what the characteristics or cause of the deviation
might be (para. 139). Coder also says that error is a failure of the rule of the code and
it depends on the particular variety of the target language which is considered as the
code (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 56). Ellis (2003) distinguishes between
9

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error from mistake: “mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur
because, in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she
knows”, while “errors reflect gaps in learner’s knowledge; they occur because the
learner does not know what is correct” (p.17).
a. Sources of Error
This research deals with error analysis. Hence, it is also necessary to discuss
the source of error. According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), the 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). Ellis and Barkhuizen categorize two
sources of errors, namely interlingual and intralingual error.
1) Interlingual Error
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), “interlingual errors are the result of
mother tongue influences” (p. 65). The errors are made as the effect of transferring
and borrowing of mother tongue form. “Interlingual errors may occur at different
levels such as transfer of phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexicasemantic elements of the native language into the target language” (Erdogan, 2005).
The examples are as follows.
[1]“We went at Johannesburg last week* (Ellis, 2003, p. 18).”
It seems correct, but the prepositional phrase is incorrect. The error in the sentence
was made by speakers of Bantu languages in Southern Africa who frequently use the
preposition at in order to refer the direction as well as location (Ellis, 2003, p. 18).

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2) Intralingual Error
According to Richard (1997), “intralingual errors reflect the general
characteristic of rule learning such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of
rules and failure to learn condition under which rules apply” (p. 174). A similar
statement explains “similar errors found in all L2 learners regardless of their L1”
(“Types of Error”, n. d.). Richard (1997) defines four kinds of intralingual errors.
they are over-generalization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete applications of
rules and false concepts hypothesized (para. 174).
a) Over-generalization.
According to Richard (1997), “over-generalisation covers instances where the
learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structures in
target language” (p. 174). He also assumes that over-generalisation generally
involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two regular structure.
Norrish (1983) states that over-generalization can be regarded as a blend of two
structures in the ‘standard version’ of the language. He assumes that the error might
be made as a result of blending structures learnt early in the learning process (para.
31). Here are the examples of over –generalisation:
[2] We are visit the zoo.*
[3] She must goes.*
Example [2] shows a blending of the continous tense and the simple present tense in
the sentence. Example [3] shows that both the modal verb and standard third person

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singular –s suffix are used (para. 31). In addition, Ellis (2003) presents an example of
over-generalization; in use of ‘eated’in place of ‘ate’ (para. 19).
b) Ignorance of Rule Restrictions
According to Richard (1997), “Ignorance of rule restrictions closely related to
the generalization of deviant structures is failure to observe the restrictions of
exsisting structures, that is the application of rules to contexts where they do not
apply” (p. 175). Here are the examples of ignorance of rule restrictions:
[4] The man who I saw him.*
[5] I made him to do it. *
The example above indicates the ignorance of rule restrictions. Richard (1997)
explains that the first sentence violates the limitation on subjects in structures with
who. The second sentence ignores restrictions on the distribution of make (para. 175).
c) Incomplete Application of Rules
According to Richard (1977) “deviancy represents degree of development of
the rules acquired to produce acceptable utterances ...The second language learner,
interested perhaps primarily in communication can achive quite efficient
communication without the need for mastering more than the elementary rules.”
(p.177). Here are the examples presented by Richard (1977):
[6] Q: What is he doing?
A: He opening the door.*
Q: Do you read much?

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A: I read much.*
The answer of the example [6] are influenced by the question. The first answer shows
the absence of to be is, the answer should be he is opening the door. The second
example reflects an excessive answer while the common answer usually yes, I do.
d) False Concepts Hypothesized
According to Richard (1977), false concepts hypothesized derives from faulty
comprehension of distinctions in target language that sometimes caused by gradation
of teaching items. Due to contrastive analysis of english and other languages or on
contrast within English (para. 178). Here are the examples presented by Richard
(1977):
[7] One day it was happened*
[8] He is speaks French*
The first sentence the error derives from faulty comprehension. On the second
question shows an ambiguity in which in using of present tense do not need to be.
b. The Others Source of Error
Besides interlanguage errors and intralingual errors, there are other experts
who have thought about some causes of errors made by learners. According to
Norrish (1983), there are several causes of errors, namely carelessness, translation
and error as a part of language creativity.

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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). In addition, Norrish (1983) adds,
“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” (p. 27). This theory might be related to Intralingual theory. The way
someone translating might be affected or influenced by his or her mother tongue.
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).
c.

Types of Error
In order to analyze the learners’ error, it is essential to classify the errors

based on the types because there are various errors that possibly found in the students

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work. The classification of the error based on its type may help the researcher
analyze the error made.
James argues, “the system categories (refered to as a taxonomy) must be
‘well-developed’ and ‘elaborated, and thus capable of describing errors with
maximum delicacy; it must also be simple and self-explanatory” (as cited in Ellis and
Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 60). The study of taxonomy can be divided into two; a linguistic
taxonomy and surface structure taxonomy.
1) Linguistic Taxonomy
Quirk et al. (1985) state that lingusitic taxonomy is related to the grammar in
the target language such as basic sentence structure, the verb phrase, verb
complementation, the noun phrase, prepositional phrase, adjuncts, coordinate and
subordinate constructions and sentence connection (para. As cited in Ellis and
Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 60)
2) Surface Structure Taxonomy
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), “the surface structure taxonomy is
guilty of the comparative fallacy, as learners obviously do not set out to modify target
language norms” (p. 61). In addition Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) state that surface
structure taxonomy is wrong learners’s assumption about learners’ fallacy
comparison (simplifying, adding, misinforming or misordering, elementsof utterance)
between first language and the second language (para. 61-62). According to Dulay et

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al.. (1982) there are four ways of learners’ target form. Those ways are omission,
addition, misinformation and misordering.
a) Omission
Omission is the absence of an item that must appear in a well–formed
utterance. For example, the omission of be in my sister very pretty.
b) Addition
Additon is the presence of an item that must not appear in well-formed
utterances. Addition can be defined in to three sub-categories; regularization, doublemarking and simple addition. Here are the explanation of the sub-categories of
addition.
(1) Regularization
Regularization deals with those in which a marker that is typically added to
linguistic item is errorneously added to exceptional items of the given class that does
not take a marker (Dulay et al.., 1982, p. 157). For examples: *womans and *putted.
Both *womans and *putted can be classified into regularization in which the regular
plural and past tense markers –s and –ed, respectively, have been added to items
which do not take markers (Dulay et al.., 1982, p. 157).
(2) Double-Marking
According to Dulay et al. (1982), double-marking error might be the result of
two items rather one which are used for the same feature (p. 156), e.g., *He didn’t

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came (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61), *Is this is a cow? (Dulay et al., 1982, p.
157), *She doesn’t brings the book.
(3) Simple Additions
This type of errors deals with other cases of addition and it does not involve
regularization and double-marking (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). In addition,
Dulay et al. (1982) also mention that if an addition error is neither a double marking
nor regularization, it can be called as a simple addition (p. 158).
c)

Misinformation
Misinformation is the use of wrong form of the morpheme or structure.

Misinformation can be divided in to three; regularization, archi-forms and alternatingforms. The explanation of sub-categories of misinformation listed as follows.
(1) Regularizations
Dulay et al. (1982) “Regularization under the misinformation category refers
to those in which a regular marker is applied in place of an irregular one“(p. 158). For
examples: *runned for ran and *gooses for geese (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 158).
(2) Archi-Forms
According to Dulay et al. (1982), archi-form can be defined as one member of
a class of forms that is used to represent others in the class selected by learners (p.
160). The learner uses me as both a subject and object pronoun: give me that, *me
hungry (Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). Another example is learners may

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temporarily select only one of the English demonstrative adjectives, such as this, that,
these, and those, to do the work for several of them. Learners, therefore, sometimes
write that dog and also write *that dogs in another time (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 160).
(3) Alternating Forms
Dulay et al. (1982) mention that alternating forms errors can happen because of
the learners’ use of archi-forms that often makes free alternation of various members
of a class with each other (p. 161), e.g., the pattern: Don’t +V and *No + V (Ellis &
Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). Another example is the use of demonstratives pronoun,
e.g., those dogs and *this cats (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 161).
d) Misordering
Misordering is the incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes
in an utterance. The example of misordering is error characterized by the incorrect
placement of morpheme or group of morpheme in an utterance as in she fights all the
time her brother.
2. Error Analysis
Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) state that “error analysis consists of procedures
for identifying, describing and explaining learner errors (p. 51)”. According to
Corder (1967), learner errors are significant in ways that they: showing the the
teacher the mastery level of student comprehension, proposing evidence for the
research about how languages are learned and playing a role as device which learners

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can discover the rules of the target language (para. as cited in Ellis and Barkhuizen,
2005, p. 51).
a) Steps of Error Analysis
According to Corder (1974), the steps in conducted error analysis can be divided
in to five steps: collection of a sample of learner language, identification of errors,
description of errors, explanation of errors and error evaluation (para. as cited in Ellis
and Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 57).
1) Collection of A Sample of Learner Language
Corder (1974) assumes that, “collecting of a sample of learner language provides
the data for the error analysis,... the researcher should be aware about the nature of
the sample that is collected may influence the nature and distribution of the error
observed” (as cited in Ellis and Barkhuizen, p. 57). The following table shows the
factors affecting learner errors in sample of learner language based on Corder (1974)

Factors
A Learner
1. Proficiency level
2. Other languages
3. Languagelearning background
B Language
1. Medium
2. Genre
3. Content
C Production
1. Unplanned
2. Planned

Description
Elementary, intermediate, or advance
The learner’s L1 other L2s
Instructed, naturalistic, mixed
Oral or written
e.g. conversation, narrative, essay
the topic of the discourse
The discourse is produced spontaneusly
The discourse is produced after planning or
under conditions that allow for careful

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Description
online planing.

Table 2.1 learner error factors in learner’samples
(Corder as cited in Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 59)

2) Identification of Errors
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), Identification of errors involves a
comparison between what the learners have written in their written work and what a
native speaker counterpart would write in the same context (p. 58).
3) Description of Errors
After all the errors have been identified, the researcher can start to describe
and to classify the errors into types of errors. According to Ellis and Barkhuizen
(2005), this step deals with specifying how the forms produced by the learners differ
from those produced in the target language (p. 60).
4) Explanation of Errors
This step involves the finding the sources of errors. In this step of error
analysis, the researcher has to explain the reason or the factors why learners make the
errors (Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 62). Since the objectives of this research are to
find out the prepositional phrase errors made by students in and to find out the factors
that caused students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those prepositional
phrase errors, the researcher. Therefore, decided not to do the next step of the error

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analysis mentioned by Corder (1974), which is error evaluation (as cited in Ellis and
Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 57). It means that in this research, the researcher only did four
steps in conducting error analysis. Those four steps were collection of a sample of
learner language, identification of errors, description of errors and explanation of
errors.
3.

Preposition
This research deals with prepositional phrase. To look on it better, there is a

need to know about preposition in general. According to Lester (1990), “traditional
definition: a preposition is a word that shows the relationship of a noun or a pronoun
to some other word in the sentence” (p. 61). ”A preposition describes a relationship
between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather
meaningless and hard to define in mere words” (“Preposition: Locators in Time and
Place”, n. d.). Furthermore Yule (2004) believes that “a distinction can be drawn in
English between simple preposition and complex preposition” (p. 158)
a.

Simple Preposition
Based on Yule’ (2004) explanation, a simple preposition is a preposition

which does not contain any nouns. Simple preposition possesses grammatical and
lexical use (para. 158).

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1) Grammatical Use
According to Yule (2004a), grammatical use is a set of one syllable forms for
example for, in, on, of and to, which have very general conceptual meaning and
frequently used (para. 158).
2) Lexical Use
Furthermore, Yule (2004b) states that lexical uses usually consist of two or
more syllables for example among, before, below, beside and toward, which affects
to the meaning of the phrases in which they are used (para. 158).
b. Complex Preposition
Yule (2004c) points out that complex preposition are a preposition which
contains any nouns such as in accordance with, on account of, for the sake of and in
spite of (para. 158).
4.

Prepositional Phrase
According to Lester (1990a), “a prepositional phrase is a group of related

words beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun. The form of
noun phrase and verb phrase in one important way: a prepositional phrase can have a
phrase within a phrase” (p. 95). Lester (1990b) adds a rule about prepositional phrase
that prepositions cannot stand alone; t