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ERRORS PRODUCED
BY STUDENTS IN THEIR PERSUASIVE ESSAYS

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Chang Sese
112012076

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2017

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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other
person except where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright@ 2017. Chang Sese and Dr. Joseph Ernest Mambu.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education Program,
Faculty of Language and Arts, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Chang Sese

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL PAGE ......................................................................................................2
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .......................................................................................3
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION .....................................................4
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES .................................................................5
PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT ............................................................................6
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................7
LIST OF TABLE ..........................................................................................................9
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................10
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................10
LITERATURE REVIEW ...........................................................................................12
Error Analysis ......................................................................................................12
L1 Interference in L2 Writing ..............................................................................13
Approaches to L1 Interference Study ..................................................................15
Review of Previous Study....................................................................................15
THE STUDY ..............................................................................................................17
Methodology ........................................................................................................17

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Research Question ...............................................................................................18
Participants...........................................................................................................18
Data analysis ........................................................................................................19
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................20
Use of verbs .........................................................................................................21
Use of Article and Prepositions ...........................................................................24
Direct Translation ................................................................................................27
Word choice .........................................................................................................28
Conjunction ..........................................................................................................30
Subject-Verb Agreement .....................................................................................32
Adjectives Related Error ......................................................................................34
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................36
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................37
REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................38
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................40

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Protocol for Linguistic Analysis ...................................................................19
Table 2. The Occurrences of Errors in the Drafts ......................................................20
Table 3. Findings of Errors in the Use of Verb ..........................................................21
Table 4. Findings of Errors in the Use Article and Preposition .................................24
Table 5. Findings of Errors in Direct Translation .....................................................27
Table 6. Findings of Errors in Word Choice ..............................................................29
Table 7. Findings of Errors in Conjunction................................................................30
Table 8. Findings of Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement ............................................32
Table 9. Findings of Errors in Adjectives Related Error ............................................35

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ERRORS PRODUCED
BY STUDENTS IN THEIR PERSUASIVE ESSAYS

CHANG SESE

ABSTRACT

This paper focus on EFL learners‟ grammatical errors found in essays written in the target
language. This study was conducted in the Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Kristen
Satya Wacana, Salatiga. The data were collected from 19 drafts of students‟ persuasive essay.
The data found were classified and analyzed under Sattayatham and Honsa‟s (2007) theoretical
framework and interpreted by following the correct grammar rules in English. The use of verbs
was found as the most frequent errors occurred in students‟ final draft, followed by the use of
articles and prepositions, direct translation, word choice, conjunction, subject-verb agreement,
and adjectives related error. The study suggests that the errors made by the students might
because of students‟ L1. In transferring their idea from first language, students were might not
used to target language rules which made the idea transferred become unacceptable in target
language. The implications of this study are to find out what most frequent errors occurred by
FLA UKSW students and help the teachers to minimize students‟ errors in their writing.

Key words: L2 writing, language transfer, native language, target language, error analysis,
interlanguage

INTRODUCTION
Being an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner for 14 years and having Bahasa
Indonesia as my first language makes me think that actually my first language may affect my
foreign language acquisition, especially in writing. Some Indonesian may not be able to produce

good and correct writing form of English even when we have been taught English since we were
in Elementary school. Hoch (2003) reminded us that students‟ progress in learning another
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language depends on some variables such as background of education, mother tongue, literacy
skills in their first language, and the previous contact with the target language. Students‟ first
language may give impact on their progress of writing because Indonesian has different
grammatical structures from English.
EFL learners may find that writing in a target language is difficult as Heydari and
Bagheri (2012) stated that writing in native language is complex; writing in target language is
definitely more complex. Agreeing with them, as EFL learner, I believe that choosing some
appropriate words, producing a good sentence, or writing creative essay with appropriate
grammar in English is not an easy task to do. Missing some basic rules in English like putting an
article “the,” forming a correct word order and translating some words from Bahasa Indonesia to
English are sort of struggles that most of EFL learners found in producing writing. Moreover,
Urdaneta (2011) stated in his paper “four basic mistakes in student papers were found to be a
direct influence from L1 to L2 writing: word order, missing the verb “be”, implicit subject, and
the incorrect use of the article “the” (p.158). Maniam (2010) claimed that learners‟ first language
believed to be a negative role in influencing students‟ SLA. Based on these empirical studies, L1
interference does have a negative role and can be a troublesome for ESL learners when they are

producing writing.
Even though there have been many studies on L1 interference in L2 writing, its
pedagogical aspects, especially in L1 interference errors in learners‟ writing, have not yet been
well-explored. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore more about EFL students‟ errors
so that EFL writing teachers can pay more attention to the errors that might be influenced by
students‟ first language, especially the most frequently occurring errors produced by writing
students in the Faculty of Language and Arts in Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
There were three major themes elaborated in this study: Error Analysis, L1 interference in L2
writing and approaches in L1 Interference study.
Error Analysis
Errors are often found in the process of learning a new language. According to
Cunningworth (1987) as cited in Ridha (2012) “Errors are systematic deviations from the norms
of the language being learned.” (p.25.) Abi Samra (2003) as cited in Ridha (2012) also stated that
errors are considered as indispensable „devices‟ for students to learn in their process of learning,
somehow errors should be eradicated because it is considered as „flaws‟ in learning process.
In eradicating the errors produced by EFL learners, error analysis is used to find out what
errors that learners make. According to Hasyim (2002) as cited in Ridha (2012) error analysis is

a process to observe, analyze, and classify the product of learners which not accordance with the
target language rules. In analyzing learners‟ errors, the errors should be determined by the
sources of errors. Reid (1993) as cited in Kaweera (2013) stated that there are numerous research
about error analysis conducted in order to find out if the sources of errors found in students‟
writing was „first language interference‟ or the other factor. Brown (2000) as cited in Ridha
(2012) also stated that there are two main sources of error analysis, they are interlingual and
intralingual. Interlingual (Interference) Errors are errors which influenced by first language. This
study focused on this kind of errors.

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L1 Interference in L2 writing
Everyone‟s language is already structured by their native language (L1) since they were
first introduced or exposed to their L1. Maniam (2010) suggested that although human languages
have a great deal in common, which enables us to translate from one language to another without
much difficulty, they are also very different from one another in many aspects. In learning a new
language, students‟ reference will be their mother tongue. Transferring idea from first language
to target language is somehow difficult for students. According to Owu-Ewie & Lomotey (2016)
the result of transferring the idea of L1 to target language is most of the sentences produced were
more acceptable in students‟ native language rather than in target language since the students

seem to transfer the sentence directly. Decherts (1983) and Ellis (1997) as cited in Bhela (1999)
stated that errors from interference of first language will occur when the learners of a second
language try to rely on their mother tongue structures when they write or speak in target
language. They revealed that mother tongue is the native speakers‟ reliable linguistic resource
since it is the first language that everyone learns and knows.
As a reliable source for EFL learners, L1 might bring positive and negative impact to
learners‟ process in learning the target language. According to Ellis (1997) as cited in Sukarno
(2016), positive transfer happens if learners‟ L1 grammatical forms and the target language are
similar, if they are not, negative transfer will occur. In addition, Owu-Ewie & Lomotey (2016)
argued that when L2 learners write in the target language some of their L1 characteristics show
up in their writing. They believed that many sentences that L2 learners write are more acceptable
in their native language than in English (L2) due to direct translation from L1 into English.
Another research that supports Owu-Ewie and Lomotey statement is done by Wang and Wen
(2002), in which they analyzed 16 Chinese EFL writers‟ think-aloud protocols, revealing that
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students were more comfortable to depend on their native language in organizing their writing
and generating ideas, but in doing the task-examining and text-generating students were more
comfortable to rely on their target language. Negative transfer mostly happens to EFL learners
because they tend to rely on their first language structures which are different from their target

language structures.
Mother tongue indeed can be one of students‟ hard problems that interferes the learners‟
process of learning the target language. From the studies above, L1 interference really exist in
ESL writing fields which means that making mistakes or errors is common during the process of
learning a new thing, including learning a new language.
Approaches to L1 Interference Study
There have been numerous studies investigating L1 interference in L2 writing. In such
studies, there are four widely-used approaches which are the traditional approach Contrastive
Analysis (CA), contemporary approach Error Analysis (EA) and Interlanguage Analysis (IA) and
modern approach Contrastive Rethoric (CR) according to Latiff & Bakar, 2007 as cited in OwueEwie & Lomotey (2016).
Contrastive Analysis is chosen for this study because CA is the main approach which
compares two languages [first language and target language] in linguistic study. The other three
approaches which are Interlanguage, Error Analysis, and Contrastive Rhetoric are also used for
analyzing first language influenced in producing utterances or written essays in target language,
but CA is more appropriate for this study because in analyzing the data, the errors made in
English will be compared to Bahasa Indonesia.
Contrastive Analysis (CA)
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Bennui (2008) stated that Contrastive Analysis is the key approach to studying L1

Interference. According to Richard and Schmidt (2002), Contrastive analysis is an analysis
focusing on the contrast between linguistic systems (e.g., sounds and grammar) of two
languages. They added, this type of analysis was often applied in the 1950s and 1960s as part of
structural linguistics application in language teaching based on the following deductions:
a. The interference from the first language leads to the main hindrances in learning a new
language.
b. By using contrastive analysis, one can figure out what these hindrances are.
c. Contrastive analysis can be applied to teaching materials to minimize the effect of
interference.
Richards (1979) reported that Contrastive Analysis hypothesized that children will lean
on their first language structure in producing utterance in their target language and they will mix
up when the structures are different. According to Richards and Schmidt (2002) and Fang and
Xue-mei (2007, p.10) as cited in Sompong, (2014) “CA focuses on the scientific, structural
comparison of the linguistic systems of the two languages, especially the sound and grammar
systems of L1 and L2, to predict and describe second language instruction problems as well as to
find solutions to those problems” (p.3.) Sukarno (2016) added that Contrastive analysis focuses
on the differences between the grammatical structure in target language and learners‟ first
language.
Review of Previous Studies
Four relevant studies have been conducted in Thailand, Ghana, and Indonesia related to
L1 Interference to learners‟ L2 writing. Bennui (2008) has done research in Thailand and the
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participants of this research were 28 third-year EFL students who enrolled in Basic Writing
course. The students were from three different universities and seven majors. In this study, the
researcher found that in students‟ essay, negative transfer of their L1 showed up more than the
positive transfer. It could be seen from the findings of L1 interference categories [vocabulary
use, phrases, clauses, and sentence structures, along with language style] that appear in students‟
essay.
The second research conducted in Ghana, Owu-Ewie and Lomotey (2016) analyzed 90
written Essays from 15 Junior High School Students from three different schools whose native
language is Akan-Fante. They found that errors influenced by students‟ L1 were produced in
translation, spelling errors, omission errors, wrong use of pronoun, and wrong word use. The
most frequent errors produced by Akan speaker students were transliteration; the second one is
omission errors; the third is spelling errors; the fourth is wrong use of pronouns; and the last is
wrong word use.
Then the next research was organized in Salatiga, Indonesia by Samingan (2016). The
participants were 30 students of English as Foreign Language learners who studied in Institute
for Islamic Studies (IAIN), Salatiga. The research was focused on students‟ L1 interference in
lexical [loanword, literal translation at word level, literal translation of L1 preposition, literal
translation of L1 adverb of manner, and literal translation of L1 comparative degree of adjective]
and syntactical level [the use of L1 structure in target language and English noun phrase, literal
translation in negation of verbal sentence, literal translation in negation of nominal sentence, and
literal translation in nominal sentence of affirmative form. In this study, Samingan concluded
that L1 always has a role in interfering students‟ SLA based on his findings which students of

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IAIN Salatiga made most interference in syntactical level in the case of direct translation in
nominal sentence of affirmative form.
The last research was organized in Faculty of Letters, Jember University, Indonesia by
Sukarno (2016). 30 essays by 30 students of writing classes were used for the research. 1,007
grammatical errors have been found and made by the students in terms of pluralization, subjectverb agreement, verb tense, word form, subject/verb omission, passive voice, article, preposition,
pronoun, and double negation. Students‟ errors that were produced higher than 100 times are
plural form, subject-verb-agreement, verb tense, word form, subject/verb omission, and passive
voice. Sukarno found that the reason why the students made most errors in those 6 grammatical
forms above is that the students‟ first language pattern and rules already become strong
foundations in students‟ mind to rely on.
The current study analyzed students‟ errors in 7 categories of grammatical errors such as
use of verbs, use of articles and preposition, word choice, subject-verb agreement, direct
translation, conjunction, and adjectives related error. This study will enrich the findings about
EFL learners‟ errors by using categories above and the most frequently occurred error found in
this study will be discussed in depth so the EFL/ESL teacher can understand students‟ condition
and find a method to help students face out their problems in learning their target language.
THE STUDY
Methodology
This study was done in a qualitative manner and focus on errors produced by the learners
in their final draft of Persuasive Essay. Samingan (2016) stated that qualitative research has
centered on interpretive and naturalistic approach to its subject matter. He added that research
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using qualitative method studies on problematic phenomenon brought by people in variety such
as personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, and etc. which will be interpreted by
the researcher.
Research question
This study was guided by this following research question:
What errors appear the most among EFL students‟ final persuasive writings in Argumentative
Writing class at the Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (FLA
UKSW)?
Participants
The participants of this study were students who are native speakers of Bahasa Indonesia
from FLA UKSW who have taken Argumentative Writing class in semester II/2015-2016. In the
first semester, students of FLA UKSW were required to take Integrated Course (IC) course for 8
credits of intense English basic grammar guidance. 2014 batch students were not required to take
the course unlike the older batch (2013, 2012, 2011, etc.). Students‟ errors in the drafts can be
seen clearly since their chance of making error was bigger. Therefore, students from 2014
batch‟s drafts were chosen for this study. The focus of this study is to find students‟ errors in
grammatical levels because Indonesian students may find it difficult to write in foreign language
because their first language structure is different from English.
In the Argumentative Writing class, students were required to compose two kinds of
essay. The first essay was Persuasive essay and the second one was Argumentative essay.19
products of students‟ final persuasive essays were assumed to have a lot of errors, so the essays
were chosen randomly for this study.
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Data analysis
Each error found in the sentences was counted as one error. The errors found in students‟
final drafts were classified into the grammatical errors categories. See Table 1 which sums up the
theoretical framework based on Sattayatham and Honsa (2007), as cited in Heydari and Bagheri
(2012).
Table 1
Protocol for linguistic analysis
L1 Use

of Word

Interference articles & choice
preposition

Subject

Use

Direct

verb

of

translation

agreement

verbs

Conjunction

Adjectives
related
error

Level

Word
Phrase
Sentence

Table 1 was modified because the study only focused on the seven grammatical errors
categories, so the columns of level (word, phrase, and sentence) were changed into occurrences.
When analyzing the data, two students who always got an A for their Writing Courses and
Grammar Courses were asked to be raters to make the findings more reliable. The drafts were
read and classified by the researcher and the raters together. The errors that have been classified
in the table of the modified theoretical framework were translated to Bahasa Indonesia and
discussed with correct English grammatical rules in the discussion section. Afterwards, the
results of the study were drawn in conclusion.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
After analyzing the data, 688 errors of 19 final products of Persuasive Writing students
have been found. Students‟ errors have been classified in the Table 2 based on the grammatical
types. Theoretical framework based on Sattayatham and Honsa (2007), as cited in Heydari and
Bagheri (2012) stated most of learners‟ error were in the areas of verbs (be + V for V, be
omission, -s omission, incorrect use of present perfect), prepositions (incorrect use of
prepositions, redundant prepositions), article omission of „a‟, incorrect use of „a‟, omission of
„the‟, the instead of zero), plural/singular agreement, and conjunction (incorrect use of
conjunctions, stranded/redundant conjunction).
Table 2:
The Occurrences of Errors in the Drafts
L1 Use

of Word

Interference articles & choice
preposition

Occurrences

197

78

Subject

Use

Direct

verb

of

translation

agreement

verbs

31

201

Conjunction

Adjectives
related
error

147

31

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Table 2 shows the most frequently occurred errors is the use of verbs, followed by the use
of articles and prepositions, direct translation, word choice, conjunction with the same result as
subject verb agreement and the last adjectives related error. This study used Sukarno (2016) as
model in delivering the findings. The findings were translated to Bahasa Indonesia and put in the
Table. There were also some symbols used as in Sukarno (2016) which are asterisk (*) to point

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out an incorrect sentence, bold to show the grammatical element of the errors and the
correction, and the symbol ^ indicates a missing element in the sentence.
1. Use of Verbs
Students were found to commit the most frequently occurring errors in this category.
According to Hourani (2008) errors might occurred because of the incomprehensibility of
the correct form in using the verb. The 201 errors produced by the students were due to
misuse of verbs indicating tense, missing verb (auxiliary verb) and the use of past form
after infinitive „to.‟ The errors are demonstrated in Table 3.
Table 3:
Findings in the use of verbs
No.

Data extract

Possible correction

(Bahasa Indonesia)
1.

*Always tell what does they ^ doing in school or Always tell what they are doing
something that ^ interesting in their class.

in school or something that is

(Selalu mengatakan apa yang mereka lakukan di interesting in their class.
sekolah atau sesuatu yang menarik di kelas
mereka.)
2.

*A variety of research indicated that bullying A variety of research indicated
^intense harm for a student
(Sejumlah

penelitian

that

menunjukkan

bullying

is

intensely

bahwa harmful for a student

penindasan bahaya intens untuk siswa.)
3.

*Let us make a better world where people can Let us make a better world
live happily and interact with others without ^ where people can live happily
afraid of getting bullied.

and interact with others without

(Mari kita ciptakan dunia di mana orang-oang being afraid of getting bullied.
bisa hidup dengan bahagia dan berinteraksi

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dengan orang lain tanpa takut ditindas.)
4..

*It is an example of sexual violence that happen It is an example of sexual
to her.

violence that happened to her.

(Ini adalah contoh dari kekerasan seksual yang
terjadi padanya.)
5.

*Ryan Halligan hanged himself in the family Ryan Halligan hanged himself
bathroom because he shared his embarrassing in the family bathroom because
story on the internet and he is being bullied.

he shared his embarrassing story

(Ryan Halligan gantung diri di dalam kamar on the internet and he was being
mandi keluarganya karena dia membagikan bullied.
cerita

memalukannya

diinternet

dan

dia

ditindas.)
6.

*On 15-16 years old, the children‟s knowledge On

15-16

children‟s

about everything began to expand.

years

old,

knowledge

the
about

(Di umur 15-16 tahun, pengetahuan anak-anak everything begins to expand.
tentang segalanya mulai berkembang.)
7.

*Some of our parents thought that when my Some of our parents think that
child gather with smart people they will become when my child gather with
smart.

smart people they will become

(Beberapa orang tua berfikir jika anak-anak smart.
mereka berkumpul dengan orang-orang pintar
mereka juga akan menjadi pintar.)
8.

*There is a lot of effort to prevented this There is a lot of
problem that engages student and parent.

prevent

this

effort to

problem

that

(Ada banyak cara untuk mencengah masalah engages student and parent
yang melibatkan siswa dan orang tua ini.)
9.

*Everybody should contribute to stopped sexual Everybody should contribute to
violence.
(Setiap

stopsexual violence.
orang

harus

berkontribusi

untuk

menghentikan kekerasan seksual.)

10.

*Parents can remind for teens to kept their Parents can remind for teens to
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gadget and ^ responsible for their gadget.

keep

their

gadget

andbe

(Orang tua dapat mengingatkan remaja mereka responsible for their gadget.
untuk menjaga dan bertanggungjawab terhadap
gadget mereka.)

As presented in Table 3, EFL learners made such errors because Bahasa Indonesia
does not have the same patterns like English. Every sentence should have a verb in
English grammar. Students‟ errors found in Table can be seen at sentences (1), (2), and
(3) contain no auxiliary verbs. These happened because in Bahasa Indonesia, there is no
auxiliary verbs (is, am and are), therefore students omitted them. In this second category,
sentences (4), (5), (6) and (7) are examples of inappropriate use of verb tense. English
exhibits a tense system, such that past tense and present tense verbs are different. Sukarno
(2016) stated that Indonesia is one of the countries whose language lacks of tenses and
the verbs remains the same in past or non-past situation. The last is using past form of
verb after infinitive „to.‟ English grammar supports the use of base or present form of
verb after infinitive „to.‟ Unfortunately, most of students whose native language is
Bahasa Indonesia are not familiar with such rule. They tend to use the past form of verbs
without considering that infinitive „to‟ should be followed by Verb1. See sentences (8),
(9), and (10). Thus, it happened because EFL learners transferred their L1 to the target
language and the transfer occurred in this case is negative transfer.
2. Use of Article and Prepositions
The second most frequent error is the use of articles and preposition. CelceMurcia and Larsen-Freeman as cited in Hourani (2008) stated that articles (a , an, and the)
can be considered to be difficult by EFL teachers and learners. Similarly, Bilal, Tariq,
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Yaqub, and Kanwal (2013) emphasize that preposition is complex categorization and
learners often select incorrect prepositions. It can be seen from Table 4 on how EFL
learners made errors in the use of articles and prepositions.

Table 4:
Findings on the Use of Articles & Preposition
No.
11.

Data Extract
(Bahasa Indonesia)
*Controlling the act of cyberbullying is ^ must.

Possible correction
Controlling the act of cyber-

(Mengontrol tindakan cyberbullying adalah sebuah bullying is a must.
keharusan.)
12.

*If parents do not let their children to be ^ If parents do not let their
independent person,…)

children

to

be

an

(Jika orang tua tidak membiarkan anak-anak mereka independent person,…)
menjadi seorang yang mandiri,…)
13.

*At the school, possibly, students do not have a At the school, possibly,
good communication with the teachers.

students do not have good

(Di sekolah, mungkin, siswa-siswi tidak memiliki communication
sebuah komunikasi yang baik dengan para guru.)
14.

with

the

teachers.

*Hackers can still hijack your account and share Hackers can still hijack your
some false information about you on ^ internet.

account and share some

(Hacker masih dapat membajak akun Anda dan false information about you
membagikan informasi yang salah tentang Anda di on the internet.
internet.)
15.

*The school is the best place to communicate with Schools are the best place to

others,…

communicate with others,…

(Sekolah adalah tempat yang paling baik untuk
berkomunikasi dengan orang lain.)
16.

*In my opinion, the true leader is someone who can In my opinion, a true leader
bear all of consequences and fight for it.

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is someone who can bear all

(Menurut saya, seorang pemimpin sejati adalah of consequences and fight
seseorang

yang

dapat

menanggung

segala for it.

konsekuensi dan berjuang untuk itu.)
17.

*The

last

recommendation

to

punish

the The last recommendation to

cyberbullies is definitely send them to the jail.

punish the cyber-bullies is

(Rekomendasi terakhir adalah menghukum yang definitely send them to jail.
pelaku cyberbulling dengan mengirim mereka ke
penjara.)
18.

*In school area, in work place, and even in their School area, work place, and

family can put them in danger.

even their family can put

(Di area sekolah, di tempat kerja, dan bahkan di them in danger.
keluarga mereka dapat menempatkan mereka dalam
mara bahaya.)
19.

*We never know what other people think while we We never know what other
are walking in the street.

people think while we are

(Kita tidak pernah tau apa yang orang lain pikirkan walking on the street.
ketika kita sedang berjalan di jalan.)

20.

*Kids is big responsibility in school so they have to Kids are big responsibility in
care with them.

school so they have to take

(Anak-anak adalah tanggung jawab besar di care of them.
sekolah, oleh karena itu pihak sekolah harus
memperhatikan mereka.)
21.

*We need to take care of ourselves and do not We need to take care of
depent to parents anymore.

ourselves and do not depend

(Kita harus menjaga diri kita dan tidak bergantung on parents anymore
pada orang tua lagi.)
22.

*They do not want to get involved on their They do not want to get
student‟s problem.

involved in their student‟s

(Mereka tidak mau terlibat di dalam masalah problem.
siswa.)

.

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As presented in Table 4, In English, „the‟ is used to point out specific nouns,
however „a‟ or „an‟ is used to modify non-specific nouns. Students‟ first language does
have articles, but in Bahasa Indonesia the rules for articles and prepositions are not as
complex and necessary as English. That is why students sometimes unconsciously omit
the articles in their sentences (11) and (12). The article „a‟ or ‟an‟ is also used to describe
singular nouns. In (13), the student might not be aware that uncountable nouns should not
be given an article. In using „the,‟ students also not aware of some nouns which already
known by everyone and if we refer to that general noun we should put „the‟ because
everyone already know which of noun that we refer to. Besides, students put „the‟ in their
sentence even though the nouns were not specific. See sentences (15), (16) and (17). EFL
learners made such errors because their first language‟s structure in using the articles is
not as complex as the target language.
Prepositions in English are used to show location, time, or direction. The problem
that students faced when they want to use the preposition is choosing the appropriate one.
„In‟, „on‟ and „at‟ are the prepositions which have different usage. Students can omit the
preposition rather than repeat it for three times (see sentence (18)). In sentence (19) the
correct preposition for flat surface like street should be „on.‟ There are also prepositiondependent verbs and preposition-dependent adjectives which prepositions come after
some particular verbs (e.g. laugh at, recover from, etc.) and adjectives (e.g. interested in,
related to, etc). Students committed errors, as those in sentences (20), (21), and (22).
They used care „with,‟ involved „on‟ and depend „to,‟ whereas the correct prepositions in
English should be „for/about,‟ „in‟ and „on/upon‟ respectively. Choosing appropriate

26

prepositions is not an easy task. It is very complicated because EFL learners might not be
familiar with the prepositions rules in the target language.
3. Direct translation

Students may depend on their L1 that is why when students transferring their idea
from L1 to their L2, they may unconsciously transfer the idea directly so the translation
might not be natural and acceptable in English grammar. Sunderman and Kroll (2006) as
cited in Kim and Uhm (2010) stated that “even highly proficient learners are not entirely
free from L1's influence on L2 lexical processing” (p.376.) Some errors found were
elaborated in Table 5:
Table 5:
Findings in Direct Translation
No.

Data Extract

Possible correction

(Bahasa Indonesia)
23.

24.

*Bullying, we are not strange with this word.

Bullying, we are so familiar

(Bullying, kita tidak asing dengan kata ini.)

with this word.

*But, after those beautiful creations broken, people But,

after

started to blame and feel shame with their own creations
country.

the

beautiful

broken,

people

start to blame and feel

(Tapi, setelah karya-karya yang indah itu rusak, ashamed

of

their

own

orang-orang akan mulai menyalahkan dan merasa country.
malu dengan Negara mereka sendiri.)
25.

*Especially in the urged time like you face sexual Especially in the urgent
violence.

time, like you face sexual

(Terutama di waktu mendesak seperti saat kamu violence.
menghadapi kekerasan seksual.)
26.

*Freedom of speech is yes, but use it for an excuse
27

Freedom of speech is okay,

to do a cyberbullying is a big no.

but use it for an excuse to do

(Kebebesan untuk berbicara iya, tapi untuk

a cyber-bullying is a big no.

menggunakannya sebagai alasan untuk melakukan
cyberbullying tidak.)

Larson (1984) as cited in Krisetyawati (2010) argued that direct translation
sounds nonsense. Moreover, Krisetyawati (2010) added that transferring meanings from
source language to the target language needs mastery of both languages. In students‟
drafts, some phrases in sentences (23), (24), (25), and (26) sound more like Bahasa
Indonesia. Direct translation may also change the meanings that learners want to deliver
such as in sentence (23) the phrase “we are not strange with” can be misunderstood as
“kita tidak aneh dengan” and which is not acceptable in both languages. “feel shame
with” (24) is also not acceptable in English because if want to say “merasa malu dengan”
it should be “shame of/ashamed of. On the other hand, some phrases were not found in
English. To illustrate, “urged time” (25) sound like having been translated from “waktu
mendesak.” The appropriate one is “urgent time.” The words „Freedom of speech is yes‟
in the sentence (26) sounds weird, it should be change into „Freedom of speech is okay‟
to make it better. From some of these errors, it can be assumed that students‟ L1
influences might appear when they transfer their idea to the L2 because they only
mastered their L1.

4. Word choice
The next errors found quite often in students‟ draft were inappropriate word
choices. EFL learners need to be careful in choosing the vocabulary to match the
sentence as Hourani (2008) stated “it is undeniable fact that an understanding of a
28

language grammar is essential and as it is said vocabulary is the flesh of the language and
grammar is the skeleton” (p. 34). Students were found to choose inappropriate words that
change the meaning of the sentence that they want to deliver. The errors were presented
in Table 6:

Table 6:
Findings in Word Choice
No.

Data Extract

Possible correction

(Bahasa Indonesia)
27.

*It only causes migrant, headache, and dark- It only causes migraine,
eyesight temporarily.

headache, and dark-eyesight

(Ini hanya menyebabkan orang pindah, sakit temporarily.
kepala dan kebutaan sementara.)
28.

*So she asked her mother to transfer to the

So she asked her mother to

Psychology department although, she resigned a

transfer to the Psychology

year.

department although, she

(Jadi dia meminta orang tuanya untuk

stop for a year.

memindahkan dia ke jurusan Psikologi meskipun
dia berhenti satu tahun.)
29.

*They will be start to make their talent because

They will start to gain their

they feel capable to do their talent

talent because they feel

(Mereka akan memulai untuk membuat talenta

capable of doing their talent.

mereka karena mereka merasa bisa untuk
melakukan talenta mereka.)
30.

*If the cyberbullyiers need to clarify and send an

If the cyber-bullies need to

apologize because of their action,…

clarify and send an apology

(Jika pelaku cyberbully butuh mengklarifikasi dan

because of their action,…

mengirim permintaan maaf karena tindakan
mereka,…)

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From Table 6, there might be some reasons why students chose inappropriate
words in making the sentences. First, in (27) the student wrote “migrant” instead of
“migraine” while in the context, they want to say “sakit kepala sebelah”. It was because
the spellings of these words are quite similar; students might mistake the word “migrant”
for what they intended. In (28) the word „resign‟ is inappropriate it is a word used if we
give up on a job. In (29) the word „make‟ is more suitable if we use „gain‟ because talent
cannot be made, it should be gained or improved. In sentence (30) the word „apologize‟ is
a verb meanwhile in the context, the student wanted to say „mengirim permintaan maaf‟
whereas the word „maaf‟ here is a noun, so it should be „apology‟. From the errors above
it can be seen that learners made errors because in making the sentences, learners were
not always aware if their sentences do not make sense. The students can choose accurate
words to make their sentence understandable by expanding their vocabulary repertoire
and understand the patterns or rules in making good sentences.

5. Conjunctions
Conjunctions are linking verbs which are used to combine two clauses. Some
errors with inaccurate used of conjunctions were found in students‟ drafts and are
presented in Table 7:
Table 7:
Findings in Conjunctions
No.

Data Extract

Possible correction

(Bahasa Indonesia)
31.

*Something that we need to understand why

Something that we need to

school make rules that organize about bullying.

understand why schools

This is because to protect yourself from

make rules that organize

30

bullying.

about bullying is to protect

(Ini adalah karena untuk melindungi dirimu dari

you from bullying.

penindasan.)
32.

*The sexual violence against young women is

The sexual violence against

one of the big problems in the world. Especially

young women is one of the

in Indonesia, The National Comission on

big problems in the world,

Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan)

especially in Indonesia.

said…

The National Comission on

(Kekerasan seksual pada wanita-wanita muda

Violence against Women

adalah satu dari masalah-masalah besar di dunia.

(Komnas Perempuan)

Terutama di Indonesia, Komnas Perempuan

said…

melaporkan…)
33.

*If you leave you let your password be visible to

*If you leave and let your

everyone, they can easily see you hidden status

password be visible to

that you hide from others.

everyone, they can easily

(Jika kamu meninggalkan kamu membiarkan

see your hidden status that

passwordmu dapat dilihat semua orang, mereka

you hide from others.

akan dengan mudah melihat status
tersembunyimu.)
34.

*There, we will be motivated to achieve the

Therefore, we will be

success in process.

motivated to achieve the

(Sana, kita juga akan termotivasi untuk meraih

success in process.

kesuksesan di dalam proses.)

According to Schatz (2002) there are three kinds of conjunction such as common
conjunction (and, so, but, and or), subordinate conjunction (because, although, as, if,
when, whenever, until, and since.), and conjunctive adverbs (therefore, thus, nevertheless,
moreover, still, accordingly, for example, however, and hence).

31

Table 7 demonstrated that students‟ errors in the use of conjunctions were about
choosing the inaccurate conjunction, omitting the conjunction, and putting the
conjunction in wrong order. Some of the errors in Table 7 were elaborated in this section.
In (31) the use of conjunction “because” in the sentence can be omitted. In (32) the
conjunction “especially” should be put after the previous clause before the full stop [.] to
make the coherence before the first and second clause. If it is put as in the sentence, the
meaning might be different. In (33), the student missed the common conjunction „and‟
while there were two verbs in the sentence which cannot stay together without something
between them. In sentence (34), the student used the word „there‟ as the conjunctive
adverb in the sentence while „there‟ is not a conjunctive. Student should use
„therefore/thereby‟ instead. Hence, from the discussion thus far it can be seen that some
of EFL learners were not familiar with the use of conjunction in English sentence and
they got confused to use or choose accurate conjunctions.

6. Subject and Verb Agreement (SVA)
The rules for SVA are: in present tense, if the subject is singular, the verb should
be added by suffix -s/-es, however in plural form, we keep the verb as it is. Besides, in
simple past tense, thing should be considered are the verbs was/were. In Bahasa
Indonesia, we do not have such rules. Some students‟ errors are presented in Table 8:
Table 8:
Findings in Subject and Verb Agreement

No.

Data Extract

Possible Correction

(Bahasa Indonesia)
35.

*The first one that have big opportunity to know The first one that has a big
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bullying in class is teacher itself.

opportunity to know bullying

(Yang pertama mempunyai kesempatan besar in class is the teacher.
untuk mengetahuiadanya penindasan di dalam kelas
adalah guru sendiri.)
36.

*School have to bring an action to against bullying. Schools have to bring an
(Sekolah harus membawa aksi untuk melawan

action to against bullying.

penindasan.)
37.

*Teacher think

that they don‟t have any Teachers think that they
don‟t have any responsibility

responsibility on bullying matter.

(Para guru berfikir kalau mereka tidak bertanggung on bullying matter.
jawab atas kasus penindasan.)
38.

39.

*They remains at risk of repeating the violence.

They remain at risk of

(Mereka tetap beresiko mengulang kekerasan.)

repeating the violence.

*But they also need to consider how big the effects But
of the meme or status is.

they

also

need

to

consider how big the effects

(Tapi mereka juga butuh mempertimbangkan of the meme or status are.
betapa besar efek dari meme atau status itu.)
40.

41.

*Cases of violence is increasing every year.

Cases

of

violence

(Kasus-kasus kekerasan meningkat setiap tahun.)

increasing every year.

are

*Kids is big responsibility in school so they have to Kids are big responsibility
care with them.

in school so they have to

(Anak-anak adalah tanggung jawab besar di care for them.
sekolah, oleh karena itu pihak sekolah harus
memperhatikan mereka.)

As demonstrated in Table 8, students used plural verbs while the subjects are
singular (see sentences (35), (36), and (37). On the other hand in (38), (39), (40), and (41)
singular verbs were used for plural subjects. In (35), the subject of the sentence was „the
first one‟ which referred to singular subject. If the student wants to use plural verb

33

“have”, the subject should be changed into plural. In sentences (36) and (37) the words
„school have‟ and „teacher think‟ were not using the correct rules of SVA. If the verb is in
plural form, the subject should be in too like „schools have‟ and „teachers think‟. Then, in
sentences (38) and (41), the words „they remains‟ and „kids is‟ got the same problem but
the difference is the students use plural subject while the verbs were singular. Therefore,
the verbs should also be changed into plural form. Verbs in sentences (39) and (40)
should be „are‟ not „is‟ because the subjects were plural „big effects and cases of sexual
violence.‟ These errors might occur because students were not familiar with this pattern
in the target language. It also can happen because students were not careful in choosing
the appropriate verb related to the subject, because in Bahasa Indonesia we do not add
any letters to the words to show whether the subject is singular or plural. As Soekarno
(2016) verified that Bahasa Indonesia does not consider SVA in making sentences,
therefore the students often ignore the agreement between subject and its verb.
7. Adjective Related Errors
The least occurring errors made by the students belong to this category.
Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.
Some EFL learners might not be able to use the adjectives appropriately because Bahasa
Indonesia does not have such complex rules in using them. Some of students‟ errors are
demonstrated in Table 9:

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Table 9:
Findings in Adjective Related Error
No.

Data Extract

Possible correction

(Bahasa Indonesia)
42.

*This commonly word that famous in TV or This
newspaper.

word

is

commonly

famous in TV or newspaper.

(Kata yang biasa terkenal di TV atau Koran
ini.)
43.

*Just like Tesla Manaf did until he is now

Just like Tesla Manaf did until

succeed for being a world famous guitarist from

he is now successful for being

Indonesia.

a world famous guitarist from

(Seperti yang dilakukan Tesla Manaf sampai

Indonesia.

sekarang dia sukses menjadi seorang gitaris
Indonesia yang terkenal di dunia.)
44.

*We cannot refuse a fact about Indonesian

We cannot refuse a fact about

people‟s income is not as many as in

Indonesian people‟s income is

Singapore.

not as much as Singaporean.

(Kita tidak bisa menolak fakta tentang
pendapatan masyarakat Indonesia yang tidak
sebanyak di Singapura.)

As presented in Table 9, in sentence (42), the adjectives used were not in a correct
order thus made the sentence was hard to understand. In sentence (43) the word „succeed‟
should be changed to „successful‟ because „sukses‟ in the sentence refer to adjective.
Some adjectives in English are also determined by countable and uncountable nouns. In
sentence (44), the noun „income‟ is uncountable noun, so the appropriate adjectives used
should be „much‟ rather than „many‟.

35

CONCLUSION
This study aimed to identify most frequently occurring errors produced by EFL learners
in their writing product. This study explored students‟ errors in writing class, particularly
Argumentative Writing class in FLA UKSW. Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that
688 errors appearing in 19 writing drafts of EFL students might be influence by learners‟ first
language. There were seven categories of errors, which are use of article and preposition, word
choice, direct translation, subje