An error analysis on students` use of prepositions in teaching practice - USD Repository
AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ USE OF PREPOSITIONS IN TEACHING PRACTICE A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra
Student Number: 081214099
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2013
AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ USE OF PREPOSITIONS IN TEACHING PRACTICE A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra
Student Number: 081214099
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2013
AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ USE
OF PREPOSITIONS IN TEACHING PRACTICE
By Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra
Student Number: 081214099 Approved by
Advisor Date
Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. March 21, 2013
AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ USE OF PREPOSITIONS IN TEACHING PRACTICE
By
YOHANES WIDI ABIRAMA PUTRA
Student Number: 081214099
Defended before the Board of Examiners on April 3, 2013 and Declared Acceptable
Board Examiners
Chairperson : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. __________________ Secretary : Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. __________________ Member : Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. __________________ Member : Drs. Pius Nurwidasa Prihatin, M.Ed., Ed.D. __________________ Member : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. __________________
Yogyakarta, April 3, 2013 Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University Dean, Rohandi, Ph.D.
No matter what people say, I am what I am.
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, April 3, 2013 The Writer
Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra 081214099
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra Nomor Mahasiswa : 081214099
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ USE
OF PREPOSITIONS IN TEACHING PRACTICE
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, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 3 April 2013 Yang menyatakan, Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra
ABSTRACT
Putra, Yohanes Widi Abirama. 2013. An Error Analysis on
Students’ Use of . Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma Univesity. Prepositions in Teaching Practice
The use of proper English in the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University is a common issue. As the students are prepared to be teachers, they have to be able to use English properly with their grammar mastery so that later on they will not mislead their future students. As the students, they are expected to have sufficient knowledge in using proper language structures; including prepositions. However, preposition problems are still encountered; and it was obvious during their teaching practice in Microteaching course.
There are two problems in this research, namely: 1) What are the errors or mistakes in using prepositions which are made by the students of the Microteaching course? and 2) What are the causes of these errors or mistakes? The objectives were to find out the errors produced along with its categories and to seek for the causes of their making mistakes.
To obtain the answers to these questions, the researcher used two methodologies: content analysis and survey. The researcher analyzed some students‟ recorded teaching practices and then noted the errors generated. After that, the researcher conducted a survey by distributing a questionnaire to the corresponding students to obtain their opinions about their reason of making mistakes. After all data were gathered, the researcher correlated one result with the others, and also with the theories related to it.
The first finding shows that mistakes still appear in the teaching practices. Besides, there are several categories of the errors; and the highest rate is the c ategory „Using the wrong preposition‟. It occurs 17 (seventeen) times (43.58%). The second finding confirms that „forgetfulness‟ becomes the most common reason for the students in making errors. This fact more or less shows that the students lack of practice and experience in using English. However, the other result shows that they had strong concern about their utterances. It can be shown from the fact that only 25% respondents did not care about the proper use of prepositions. Suggestions go to the lecturers to provide more exercise and encourage the students to use English more frequently; to the students to practice independently and speak in English much of the time; and to other researchers to adapt this research for the betterment of future research.
Key words: errors, grammar mastery, causes, proper prepositions
ABSTRAK
Putra, Yohanes Widi Abirama. 2013. An Error Analysis on
Students’ Use of . Yogyakarta: Univesitas Sanata Dharma. Prepositions in Teaching Practice
Penggunaan Bahasa Inggris yang baik dan benar di Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma adalah isu yang umum. Para mahasiswa dipersiapkan untuk menjadi guru, dan diharapkan dapat memaksimalkan penguasaan berbahasa Inggris agar tidak memberikan ajaran yang salah kepada murid mereka. Mahasiswa di semester 6 dianggap telah memiliki ilmu yang cukup dalam penguasaan struktur bahasa; termasuk preposisi. Namun demikian, permasalahan masih dijumpai dan nampak dalam kelas Microteaching saat mahasiswa sedang berlatih mengajar.
Ada dua masalah yang dibahas dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: 1) Kesalahan apa saja yang dihasilkan oleh mahasiswa kelas Microteaching? dan 2) Apa saja yang menyebabkan mereka melakukan kesalahan? Tujuan dari penelitian ini yakni untuk mengetahui kesalahan-kesalahan yang dihasilkan dan untuk mencari tahu alasan di balik kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut.
Penulis menggunakan dua metode: konten analisis dan survey. Penulis menganalisa beberapa video lalu mencatat kesalahan-kesalahan yang muncul. Setelah itu, penulis melakukan survei dengan cara menyebarkan kuesioner kepada responden terkait untuk mendapatkan data berupa opini mereka tentang hal-hal yang menyebabkan mereka melakukan kesalahan. Pada akhirnya, penulis mengaitkan hasil analisa data satu dengan yang lain, serta dengan teori-teori yang berhubungan.
Temuan pertama menunjukan bahwa memang masih ada kesalahan- kesalahan yang terjadi, yang terbagi dalam beberapa kategori. Kategori yang paling sering muncul adalah „Penggunaan preposisi yang salah‟. Kategori tersebut muncul sebanyak 17 kali atau 43.58%. Temuan yang kedua menujukkan bahwa „kelupaan‟ manjadi faktor penyebab yang paling umum. Ini menunjukkan bahwa mereka mungkin jarang menggunakan Bahasa Inggris untuk berkomunikasi. Hasil yang lainnya justru menjelaskan bahwa pada dasarnya mereka peduli dengan apa yang akan mereka katakan; terlihat dari hanya dua orang (25%) yang mengaku tidak peduli. Penulis menyarankan kepada para dosen agar memberikan latihan lebih banyak lagi serta mendorong mahasiswa untuk menggunakan Bahasa Inggris secara lebih intens. Para mahasiswa pun disarankan agar dapat belajar secara mandiri di luar kelas dan agar mereka menggunakan Bahasa Inggris sesering mungkin. Bagi para peneliti, penulis berharap mereka bisa meneliti atau mengadaptasi topik ini secara lebih mendalam.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to devote my utmost and deepest gratitude to the Almighty
Jesus Christ for He has given me all the enormous blessing, love, power, and
everything that make me even stronger day by day. Without Him, I am nothing in this life.
I would like to grant my admiration and gratitude to my thesis advisor,
Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D., for spending a little of his valuable time to share
his suggestions and advice with me and also for his willingness to guide me in completing my thesis.
My gratitude sincerely goes to all of the lecturers of Microteaching course year academic 2011/2012: Agustinus Hardi Prasetya, S.Pd., MA., Caecilia
Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum., Christina
Kristyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., Gregorius Punto Aji, S.Pd., M.Hum., Made Frida
Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., and Veronika Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A. for
their permission to use several recent recordings of teaching practices. I would also thank all of my respondents: Ajeng, Anggit, Dhian, Ega, Encus, Linda,
Nana, and Nino, for their willingness to spend time filling in my questionnaire.
I would like to express my appreciation and greatest love to my parents,
Marcellus Widjananto and Yosephine Christina Budi Rahayu, for their
outstanding support, patience, encouragement, love and prayers to me. My appreciation also goes to both of my sisters, Mbak Yuna and Dina, and also Mas
Iwan for their support and prayers.
My special thankfulness goes to my beloved girlfriend, Lia Ayu
Prabandari, for being so patient to me, for being a place to share my feelings, for
her prayers, love, care, support, and for her help in guiding me to finish this thesis.My gratitude also goes to her parents, who always kindly give me their support.
I would like to thank all of my friends: Farikha, Pakdhe Ryo, Agatha,
Riska, Vinsen, Team JRS Project Sewon, JRS Country Officers, all refugees
in Rumah Dinas Sosial Sewon, and other people whose names I cannot mention one by one for making me keep my spirit on and smile only by remembering them. God always be with them and bless them in their lives.
Yohanes Widi Abirama Putra
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE ..................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE ........................................................................................... ii DEDICATION PAGE ........................................................................................ iv STATEMENT OF WORK‟S ORIGINALITY .................................................. v
PERNYATAAN PERSTUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...................................................... vi
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ vii
ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................. xiv LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... xv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 1
A. Research Background ............................................................... 1 B. Research Problems ................................................................... 4 C. Problem Limitation .................................................................. 5 D. Research Objective ................................................................... 5 E. Research Benefits ..................................................................... 5 F. Definition of Terms .................................................................. 6CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ......................... 8
A. Theoretical Description ............................................................ 8 1. Teaching Practice ................................................................ 8a.
2) General Order of Difficulty ....................................... 16
Second Language Errors ............................................ 19 B. Theoretical Framework ............................................................ 19
Foreign Language Errors ........................................... 18 2)
Foreign and Second Language Learning ........................ 18 1)
6) Error as a Part of Language Creativity ...................... 18 c.
5) Material-induced Errors ............................................. 17
4) Incomplete Application of Rules ............................... 17
3) Overgeneralization ..................................................... 16
1) Contrastive Analysis .................................................. 15
The Definition of Grammar Mastery .............................. 10 b.
Translation ................................................................. 15 b. Other Current Theories ................................................... 15
Interference of First Language ................................... 15 3)
Carelessness ............................................................... 14 2)
Popular Ideas .................................................................. 14 1)
The Use of Prepositions .................................................. 13 4. Common Errors in English .................................................. 14 a.
The Definition of Prepositions ........................................ 11 b.
The Implication to the Teaching Process ........................ 10 3. Prepositions ......................................................................... 11 a.
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY .............................................................. 21
A. Research Method ...................................................................... 21 B. Research Setting ....................................................................... 22C.
Research Participant and Research Document .......................... 23 D.
Instrument and Data Gathering Technique .............................. 23 1.
Video Analysis .................................................................... 24 2. Questionnaires ..................................................................... 24 3. Test ....................................................................................... 24 E. Data Analysis Technique ......................................................... 25 F. Research Procedure .................................................................. 26
CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ....................................... 27
A. Errors and/or Mistakes Produced by the Respondents ............. 27 1. Errors and/or Mistakes from Each Respondent ................... 27 2. The Category ....................................................................... 31 3. The Percentage of the Errors and/or Mistakes ..................... 35 4. Correct Forms ...................................................................... 36 B. Causes in Making Errors and/or Mistakes ............................... 38CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............. 51
A. Conclusions .............................................................................. 51 B. Recommendations .................................................................... 53REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 55
APPENDICES .................................................................................................. 58
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
3.5.1 Examples of the use of prepositions ........................................................ 25
4.1.1 Errors and/or Mistakes produced by the respondents .............................. 28
4.1.2 Error and/or mistakes categories .............................................................. 32
4.1.3 The percentage of occurrence of the errors and/or mistakes .................... 35
4.1.4 The correct forms ..................................................................................... 36
4.2.1 The result of the questionnaire ................................................................. 39
4.2.2 The kinds of prepositions appear in the utterances .................................. 45
4.2.3 The result of the mini test ......................................................................... 48
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
Appendix 1. Covering Letter .............................................................................. 59 Appendix 2. Video Transcriptions ..................................................................... 61 Appendix 3. Questionnaire and Test ................................................................... 98 Appendix 4. Raw Data of the Questionnaire .....................................................103
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the background of the research. It also provides the
research problems and its limitation for the research. Research objectives and research benefits will also be presented in this chapter as well as the definition of terms that become the concern in this research.
A. Research Background
English is nowadays becoming so much popular among a lot of people in almost all countries. Numbers of people start learning English since it is now seemed to be the international language in this world. In most aspects of life, English becomes one of the considerations so that people are required to be able to use English as, at least, one of the means of communication. As a result, people are racing to learn English as well as courses are racing to provide their best lessons for those who want to learn English. However, learning English is not simply learning how to read and write appropriately; it needs the learners to be able to listen to and speak in English as well.
One example of those who need to learn English is the students of the English Language Education Study Program (hereafter, ELESP) in Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. The difference is that the students of ELESP do not only learn the English language and learn about it, but they also learn how to teach English to other people
- – or simply we can say they are prepared to be
In teaching language, good communication is absolutely needed and we cannot avoid the use of it, especially orally. One of the keys in accomplishing good oral communication is being able to speak clearly, accurately, and acceptably in front of the class or students. ELESP in Sanata Dharma University offers a series of speaking courses, from semester 1 until semester 5. They are: Interactional Speech I, Interactional Speech II, Transactional Speech, Public Speaking I, and the last is Public Speaking II. Each speaking course has its own focus and goals of study, and they are ordered from the level of beginner up to advanced. The aims are to let the students to step-by-step learn and get accustomed with speaking in English.
Besides oral communication, sentence structure clarity is also essential to be considered when teaching English language. Sentences structure, or usually called grammar, of English is one of the things which are supposed to be considered when people speak or write in English. The students of ELESP are also given the complete theories on understanding the sentence structure. And just the same as speaking courses, the theories of grammar are given from the very first semester up to the fifth semester; to be exact, Structure I, Structure II, Structure III, Structure IV, and Structure V. Theories are given from the basic in order to underlie the students understanding, and gradually the difficulty is increased to the more complicating so that they can handle it easily.
When the students of ELESP have taken those subjects, both speaking and structure courses, they can apply their knowledge to be used in their teaching practices. Besides, they probably should share their knowledge with their students whenever their teaching material is speaking or grammar. In practicing their knowledge, students of ELESP must take the Microteaching course. It is a course where students are trained to be teachers
- – English teachers to be precise. All students should perform their ability to teach in front of their friends, who are supposed to be their students. When performing their teaching practice in the classroom, they are videotaped with three cameras in three points of view and observed by the lecturer and some friends behind a see-through mirror. Anyway, the fact is that Microteaching course is offered in the sixth semester, so that all students have the opportunity to take the ten courses mentioned above.
On the contrary, even though most of the students are prepared with all theories about how to speak in English fluently and about the understandings of the use of grammar appropriately, problems are still encountered. Mistakes and/or errors in applying subject verb agreement, using preposition, using tenses, and pronouncing words are still noticeable when students of ELESP practice their teaching skill. From the sharing and feedback, it is noted that the use of inappropriate prepositions is a common problem. Some prepositions have their own pairs and some others may be used with a more flexible limitation. However, the fact is that some students are still incapable to use the correct form in using prepositions.
The pink t-shirt is similar with mine is an example of common inaccuracy
in the use of prepositions. That sentence is incorrect because the word similar should be followed by to, and thus the correct sentence is The pink t-shirt is
similar to mine . There are still many other common mistakes and/or errors made
by the students in practicing their teaching. This is not a good situation because their students are assumed to imitate what have been said or taught by the teacher.
If such factual mistakes and/or errors are still observable, it can lead the students to use the wrong forms of prepositions in the future.
Regarding this case, the researcher wants to identify the common mistakes and/or errors which were made by the students in their teaching practices.
Absolutely, the participants of this research were the students of the English Language Education Study Program who have taken Microteaching course in semester six. The researcher assumes that the sixth semester students still remember the theories of grammar and speaking; and at least they have the fresh experiences in Public Speaking II and Structure V.
B. Research Problems
There are two problems that lead the researcher to conduct a research in order to find out the solutions. The problems are:
1. What are the errors or mistakes in using prepositions which are made by the students of the Microteaching course?
2. What are the causes of these errors or mistakes?
C. Problem Limitation
To limit this research, the researc her focuses the research on the students‟ use of preposition during their teaching practice. Other inaccurate grammar, mispronunciations, misspelling, and misuse of tenses will be ignored.
Another limitation is the English which is used as the standard in evaluating students‟errors and/or mistakes in the teaching practices. The Standard English will be used for this research, since Standard English is the most common English that is used for communication all over the world.
The next one is that this research will only focus on the students who have taken Microteaching course. To be exact, they are the students of batch 2009 (picked randomly) from all classes in Microteaching course who have taken Microteaching course. They are considered having enough knowledge of speaking and grammar.
D. Research Objectives
Related to the problems of the research, it is expected that after this research the researcher will find the common errors and/or mistakes in using prepositions during the teaching practices. And also, the reasons why the students still result errors and/or mistakes in that level are expected to be clear and visible.
E. Research Benefits
In conducting this research, the researcher looks forward to the benefits that may be useful for the development of English Language Education Study Program, including for the students, the lecturers, and also the developers of
1. For the Teacher-students
By knowing their weaknesses, they can afford to make improvements towards their ability in communicating in and using English appropriately. Since the students or participants are also teacher candidates, they are also projected to give appropriate examples to their further students and/or other people.
2. For the Lecturers
By knowing that their students still have weaknesses, they can evaluate more their teaching approaches, methods, or techniques so that students can study English and English Language effortlessly.
3. For the Developers of Teaching Materials
Regarding the teaching materials, this research may be useful for the syllabus designers to create better and more appropriate materials for the students of ELESP.
4. For the Readers
This research may be useful for its readers because readers could get information that the use of prepositions in fact needs more attention.
F. Definition of Terms
This research has several keywords that lead the readers to clarify the problems of the research, i.e. speaking, grammar, preposition, mistakes & errors, and students of the Microteaching course. They will be described thoroughly below.
1. Speaking
Speaking is the process of expressing thoughts, ideas, minds, or feeling for communication orally. In Microteaching class, teachers need to speak English correctly when performing the practice to give proper example for the students.
2. Grammar Grammar is the form or structure of sentences, or in this case, utterances.
There are many patterns that people should consider when expressing utterances in order to avoid miscommunication and misperception from the listeners.
3. Preposition
Preposition is the words that show link or relationship between nouns, pronouns and phrases with the other words in the sentence. Some examples of prepositions are: on, at, in, between, above, below, in addition to, due to, etc.
4. Mistakes and Errors
Mistakes “reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because the learner is unable to perform what he or she knows” (Ellis, 2003, p. 17).
Meanwhile errors, according to Ellis (2003), show the learner‟s lack of knowledge and it “occur because the learner does not know what is correct” (p. 17). In this study, both of them are associated with incorrect or inaccurate use of prepositions in practice teaching.
5. Students of Microteaching Course
To be specific, the students of the Microteaching course are those who have taken the course in semester 6. All of them should have been videotaped and passed this course to be observed.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter contains the discussion of the theories which are used as a set
of principles in the research progress. Brief clarification related to the theories needed to solve the problem questions are provided in this section. Commentary and relationship between the theories and the problem will be presented as well.
A. Theoretical Description 1. Teaching Practice
Hearing those two words for the students who are supposed to be teachers would probably result stressful feeling. For some of them, practicing teaching is one difficult thing to do even though theories about teaching are carried on before. The word teaching, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, has several meanings:
To give systematic information to a person, (about a subject or skill). To practise this professionally. To enable a person to do something by instruction and training (to swim; to dance).
To be an advocate for a moral principle (my parents taught me forgiveness). To communicate, instruct in a moral principle. To induce a person by example or punishment to do or not to do a thing (that will teach you to sit still; that will teach you not to laugh).
To make a person disinclined to do a thing (I will teach you to interfere). Teaching practice really needs a lot of preparations, mainly about the fundamental theories. Indeed, it also needs the readiness from the practice students. In short, professionalism is one entity that becomes important consideration for lecturers, teachers, and practice students (Spencer, 2011).
Spencer (2011) also states that professionalism is closely related to the roles of the practice students in the classroom, since they should give good examples to their students. In other hand, Sirajuddin Ahmad
- –a professor- in his article states that “They should teach by example and act as role models instead of giving sermons”. That is why, as teachers they have the responsibilities to: a.
Expose the organization of the learning experience and its principle.
b.
Give appropriate information, description and explanation.
c.
Provide space for the students to ask questions and to discuss about it, so that students can discover the learning experience.
(Kyriacou, 2009) Related to the research, teaching practice can be specified here as
Microteaching. Microteaching is a subject in which students of English Language Education Study Program can practice their teaching ability. In the technique concept of microteaching by Stones and Morris (1977), it is stated that microteaching is a situated teaching activity which is simplified but “allows of a greater degree of control than that normally found in classroom teaching and enable provision to be made for feedback to student teachers”. Allen and Wang (n.
d.) describe the bases of microteaching are the combination of feedback which is suggestion from the feedback at the same moment. In addition, Stones and Morris agree that this technique is even more efficient than practicing teaching in a complete class which becomes the basic of teacher training practice.
Allen and Ryan (1969) in their book entitled Microteaching propose five things related to microteaching. One of them is that microteaching is teaching in a factual situation, even though there is constructed circumstance where the teacher and pupils acted as it is a practice assembly. In addition, one of the component skills in Microteaching, as proposed by Allen and Ryan, is the completeness of communication although they do not give more detailed explanation on it.
2. Grammar Mastery
In this section, the researcher wants to discuss the definition of grammar mastery and its implication to the teaching process.
a. The Definition of Grammar Mastery
Grammar mastery, according to Purpura, can be defined based on the “accuracy, meaningfulness, appropriateness, acceptability or naturalness” (2004).
As we can see that to be able to use English language well, we should think about how accurate, meaningful, appropriate, acceptable and natural it is.
b. The Implication to the Teaching Process
In the English Language and Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University, students are taught a lot about grammar. Before the curriculum was changed in 2011, the students learned grammar from the very first semester to the fifth semester. Grammar mastery is very important for the students of the teachers they are supposed to use good and correct English. Moreover, using good English in front of the students can bring about positive thing: students learn from the trusted source. Kyriacou (2009) stat es that “the way pupils learn through teacher exposition is by listening, thinking and responding to what the teacher has to say”. Additionally, Norris (1983) affirms that the use of accurate grammar is important to avoid misperception from the listeners
- –in this case, students- in absorbing the message. The expectation from having sufficient knowledge about grammar is that teachers can let the students imitate them.
3. Prepositions
This part discusses two different parts about prepositions, which are the nature of prepositions and the use of prepositions. The first part of the discussion presents the understanding and a complete list of prepositions. Meanwhile, the second part provides the ways in using prepositions in sentences.
a. The Definition of Prepositions
Prepositions are words, usually one or two syllables, which commonly appear in a sentence. A preposition takes place in a sentence as one of the eight parts of speech in English. It functions as a connector which shows clear association between a noun or pronoun and another word in a sentence (Brown, 2002). There are more than twenty prepositions which are commonly used. Here is the list of the commonly used prepositions, as listed by Brown.
Figure 2.1. List of common prepositions according to BrownNevertheless, according to Josef Essberger (2009), there are 150 prepositions consisting of one-word prepositions and complex prepositions. In addition, Essberger states that the number of complex prepositions could increase at any time.
Sometimes prepositions come in the form of combination with other words (complex prepositions), such as: instead of, according to, based on, because of and so on. Even though it seem are not like pure prepositions, they function just like normal prepositions. Moreover, there are some words which have more than one function in parts of speech. For example, the word „outside‟ can be noun, as in He put the bench on the outside of the house; adjective, as in
Don’t worry about
the outside disturbances ; and also preposition, as in Harry is waiting outside the
office .above behind for since about below from to across beneath in toward after beside inside through against between into under along beyond like until among by near up around down of upon at during off with before except on within
b. The Use of Prepositions
Usually, a preposition exposes the associations of “direction, location, and time” but sometimes it shows other relationships (Brown, 2002). As it is obvious that prepositions do have meaning, however, they always need a set of word to be able to function in a sentence. The set of words is more familiar to mention as a prepositional phrase (Brown, 2002). Nevertheless, EFL learners have to be careful to create a combination of prepositions and noun phrase. To make this clear, the researcher provides some simple examples using a noun phrase “the room”. inside the room
- outside the room
- near the room
- since the room*
- It is shown that the prepositional phrase since the room does not make any clear meaning. The phrase will be meaningful only if we add more information, like to be since the room is too dark, but it shows that that the word since functions as conjunction and not preposition.
Based on the area of relationship, prepositions are divided into several parts, namely: prepositions of time, prepositions of place/direction, prepositions of manner, prepositions of state, prepositions of quantity, and prepositions of purpose (Murray and Rockowitz, 1999). Some examples of the prepositions for each area are listed below.
1) Prepositions of time:
2) Prepositions of place/direction: around, at, down, from, in, inside, of, on, through, to, up
3) Prepositions of manner: by, in, like, on, with
4) Prepositions of state: at, by, in, on, as
5) Prepositions of quantity/measure: around, by, for
6) Prepositions of purpose: for, to
4. Common Errors in English
Errors, as defined by Norrish (1983), are „failure‟ and „positive aids to learning‟. As a failure, errors happen and become the students‟ responsibility which they can avoid actually. On the other hand, as positive aids to learning, errors take part in the language learning as something that is essential.
Norrish (1983) also proposes that there are several things which possibly become the causes of language learners making errors. He categorizes these possible causes into popular ideas, other current theories, and foreign & second language learning.
a. Popular Ideas 1) Carelessness
Norrish states that carelessness is associated to the lack of motivation much of the time. This lack of motivation can be as the effect of both internal and external influences. However, this term should not be perceived as an external source of the errors production (Norrish, 1983: 21).
2) Interference of first language
„Formation of habit‟ becomes one thing which is connected to language learning. In language learning, “if language is essentially a set of habits, then when we try to learn new habits the old ones will interfere with the new ones” (Norrish, 1983: 22).
3) Translation
People maybe will identify this term similar to the „first language interference‟. But, this term is quite distinctive. The difference lies on the process of the errors making; „interference‟ comes from the learners‟ unconsciousness in producing errors, while translation is something else that is used in a more technical reason (Norrish, 1983: 26-27).
Norrish says that errors which as a result of word-by-word translation tend to arise when language learners foc us more on the „message‟ (thing to express) rather than the language to use. In case of using English prepositions, Indonesians tend to say Similar with mine in expressing Sama dengan milikku. The phrase
Similar to mine (proper English preposition use) would probably sound unusual or
strange since it would be translated Sama terhadap milikku in Bahasa.b. Other Current Theories 1) Contrastive analysis
Politzer (1967) as cited by Norrish (1983) proposes a theory of the causes mother tongue and the linguistic system of the target language side-by-side, so that „areas of difficulty‟ can be foreseen, and so can the errors. „Interference‟ (stated above) has correlation with this theory. However, this theory has a shortcoming. Some „areas of difficulty‟ did not always happen to be errors, while some areas in which difficulty is not found unpredictably produced errors.
2) General order of difficulty
This term is originally founded by Richards and Sampson (1974), and known as „universal hierarchy of difficulty‟. Richards and Sampson give example that both native speakers and non-native speakers face the same difficulty in differentiating English pairs /v/ - /ð/ and /f/ -
/θ/. Norrish (1983) sees this point as a fact that order difficulty becomes the foundation for both native speakers and non-native speakers.
3) Overgeneralization
Norrish concludes some theories (from H. V. George and J. C. Richards) as „overgeneralization‟. He states that errors can emerge from native speakers‟ (learning their own language) and foreign learners‟ tendency to apply their knowledge about the language to a new situation in which the same rules should not be applied there. For example: I am go to the market.
- She can drives a car. >They go to mall yesterday.
Richards declares these kinds of deviant structure as the combination of a structure with the other struct ure in the language so that it violates the „standard version‟.
4) Incomplete application of rules
This term is more or less similar to „overgeneralization‟. Norrish implies that language learners keep producing errors or deviant structure because he/she believes that by only using certain rules, he/she is still understandable in communication.
5) Material-induced errors
Norrish suggests that „false concept‟ and „ignorance of rule restriction‟ as types of errors which are possibly arisen by the teaching materials. False concept errors can be depicted like when an English teacher uses picture series with description in present continuous tense. This kind of context would appear not natural, compared to the use of present continuous tense of a football commentary in television. In this case, the learners may have hoodwinked the anticipated manner from the teacher.
Meanwhile, error as a result of ignorance of rule restriction is maybe harder to avoid since this type of errors has something to do with „false analogies‟.
For example, a learner would always add preposition „about‟ after the word „discuss‟ (as in We discuss about the issue of global warming) because he/she links this preposition with the word „discussion‟ (as in a discussion about global
warming issue ).