CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. Background of the study Language plays an important role in daily life.

It means that language is used by person to associate with others. Indonesia people need a foreign language to communicate with foreigners who cannot speak Indonesian language. One of the foreign languages in Indonesia is English. English is an International language. English is learned by student from Junior High School until University. Nababan (1982-1988: 13) sais that English is the first Foreign language in Indonesia so that its teaching and learning at schools have become a mandatory. As an International language, English is used in the world and has become a language of science and technology. Besides English is a top requirement of those who are seeking good jobs. English is also used in international Business or in international conference. Many scientific literatures or articles are also written in English. One needs it for access to at least a half of world Scientific work (Quirk, 1972: 4). In Indonesia, the main function of English for the students is as an instrument for mastering scientific literature, science and technology for the development of the country. Besides, English also functions as an aid to conduct international relationship with other countries and nations in the world (Depdikbud, 1987: 1). Based on the above reason, the government has included English as a compulsory subject in Junior High School and Senior High School. In Senior High School, the purpose of English lesson is to make the students have an interest and capability to master four skills in language mastery, namely reading, listening, speaking, and writing simple composition by using advanced English sentence pattern (Depdikbud, 1987: 1). Based on the purpose above, writing is one of the four English skills which must be learned by the students of Senior High School. Those who have graduate

from Senior High School are expected to have the capability to write Simple English Compositions which are grammatically correct and acceptable. However, many teachers of English and also some pieces of research prove that students or even who have graduated from Senior High Schools generally have unsatisfactory proficiency in writing. They still make many Grammatical errors. Such condition needs to be improved. One of the ways to improve their capability of writing English composition is by finding and analyzing the errors made by the students. The researcher is interested in choosing this topic for his research for a reason: that is the researcher hopes that by identifying the common errors made by students of SMA N 1 Mlati and hopefully that is finding will be usefull to teachers of English for the improvement of their teaching.

B. Identifications of The Problem. In written language, errors may occur in diction, word order (the relation among words in sentences), composition (the relation among paragraphs in a discourse), and style (the artistic relation among sentences or among paragraphs) (Abdi, 1990: 2). Errors may occur in the phonological orthographic level, grammatical level and lexicon semantic level (Corder, 1973: 278). The phonologically level includes phonetics and phonology, while the grammatical level includes morphology and syntax (Corder, 1973: 96). Talking about error analysis, there are at least two stages of activities that should be carried out. The first is identifying and describing errors in the form of catagories and in the second is interpreting the causes or sources of the errors. In classifying linguistic errors, Tarigan (1988: 276) sais that there are four taxonomies important to know, they are linguistic category taxonomy, the surface strategy taxonomy, the comparative taxonomy and the communicative effect taxonomy. Politzer and Ramirez, (1973: 41) sais that the linguistic category taxonomy classifies errors based on linguistic components, using linguistic terms. For

instance, classifying errors into morphological errors, syntactic errors, and lexical errors is divided into smaller classification. The surface strategy taxonomy classifies errors into four categories, namely omission of some required elements, misformation of elements and misordering of elements. The comparative taxonomy classifies errors into four, namely intralingual errors, interlingual errors, ambiguous errors and unique errors. Finally the communicative effect taxonomy classifies errors into global errors and local errors. In tracing the errors to their sources, there are at least two sources or causes of errors. The first is interference within the target language or the language being learned and the second is the influence of the learners native language or other language he has already acquired.

C. Limitation of the problem Considering the identification of the problem, one finds many linguistic errors. The limitation of the problem is needed in order that it has a focus of discussion. The scope of this research will be limited on the written language only. The analysis will be focused on the grammatical errors which occur in the compositions made by the third year Students of SMA N 1 Mlati, who major in IPA and
IPS.

D. Formulation of the problem The problems in this research are formulated as the following. 1. What kinds of grammatical errors occur in the compositions made by the third year students of SMA N 1 Mlati? 2. What are the causes of the grammatical errors which occur in the compositions made by the third year students of SMA N 1 Mlati?

E. Objective of the research Based on the formulation of the problems the research objectives are as follows. 1. To identify and to describe the kinds of grammatical errors which occur in the compositions made by third years Students of SMA N 1 Mlati. 2. To interpret the causes of grammatical errors which occur in the compositions made by the third year Students of SMA N 1 Mlati.

F. Significance of the research This study is hoped that the finding of the study will be beneficial to. 1. The teachers of English in improving their teaching of writing. 2. The students in realizing their weakness, so that they will use the finding of this research to learn English effectively, especially in writing compositions. 3. One who wants to conduct the other research concerning errors made by learners in the learning English.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Theoretucal Frame work 1. Definition of errors Hornby (1986: 290) states that errors are something done wrong or conditions of being wrong in belief or conduct. Linguistically, Pit Corder (1973: 259) defines errors as breaches of the code. A learner makes errors because of lack knowledge of the information rules of the language being learned. Therefore, the utterance or sentences produced are unacceptable. Some times researchers distinguish between errors caused by factors such as tiredness and inattention and errors resulting from lack of knowledge of the rules of the language (Dulay, 1982: 139). Mistakes are errors which are caused by memory lapses, physical status such as tiredness and phsychological conditions such as strong emotion, or by slips of the tongue or pens. Chomsky calls them performance errors. When a learner makes mistakes, he is usually able to correct them by himself, because he usually knows the rules he is using. Errors caused by such things are unsystematic (Jain.1969 in Richards, 1984: 206). If the learners makes errors because of the lack knowledge of the role of the language he is learning the errors are called competence errors by Chomsky. When a learner makes such errors, he will not be able to correct them quickly, and will probably make the same errors at othertime. Such errors can be corrected only when the learner is guided or helped by the target language teachers, native speakers of the target language, or any persons who have better proficiency of the target language. As mentioned above, these errors are regular and systematic and therefore, they are possible to be analyzed (Subyakto, 1988: 117).

In language learning it is normal for students to make mistakes. The mistakes made by a person in this process of constructing a new system of language need to be analyzed carefully. Sharma, in his article entitled Errors analyzing: why and how defines errors analysis as a process. Based on analysis as a process, errors analysis involve suitable and effective teaching learning strategy, and remedy is needed in certain clearly marked out areas of the foreign language. The emphasis of this definition is on the importance of errors analysis for the improvement of foreign language teaching and learning. Another definition states that error analysis is the study about analysis of errors made by the second or foreign language learners (Richards, 1985: 96 in Isnuwati, 1992: 4). According to this definition, it is known that error analysis is necessary to conduct only for the errors made by learners in learning the second language.

2. Types and causes of errors In the stage and identifying and describing the errors, in this research, the researcher will use the surface strategy taxonomy. Based on the taxonomy, errors are classified into four: a. Omission of the required element. b. Addition of the same unnecessary or incorrect element. c. Selection of analysis incorrect element. d. Missordering of elements (Corder, 1973: 277). This taxonomy is used because it is hoped to give much promise to the researcher for identifying cognitive process that underlies the learners reconstruction of the language. The taxonomy also makes us aware that learners errors are based on logic. They are not the result of laziness or sloppy thinking, but of the learners use of interim principle to produce a new language (Dulay, 1982: 150).

The first type is omission. It is characterized by the absence of one or more items that must appear in a well-formed phrase or sentence. Any morpheme or word in a sentence is a potential candidate for omission. However between content words and function words, the letters are more frequently omitted by language learners. For example, My brother is driver (omission of article) (Tarigan, 1988: 281). The second type, addition, is characterized by the presence of one or more items which must not appear in a well-formed phrase or sentence. Such error usually occurs in the latter stages of L2 acquisition, when the learner has already finished acquiring some rules of the target language. For example, when the student has recognized the pattern of future tense, it is possible that he will say He will goes to the party. The third type is missformation. It is characterized by the used of the wrong forms of elements in a phrase or sentence. In missformation errors the learners supply something although it is not true. The fourth type is missordering that is characterized by the incorrect placement of one or more elements in a phrase or sentence. The errors may be made by L1 and L2 learners when they have already acquired certain simple pattern. For example, I dont know where does she live? In the stage of interpreting the causes or sources of errors, the reasercher makes the use of the comparative taxonomy based on comparisons between the construction of L2 errors and certain other types of constructions. Considering this taxonomy, Littlewood classifies errors into two, namely interlingual errors and intralinguals errors. According Littlewood (1984: 25), Interlingual errors are errors which are caused by negative transfer on interference from the learners mother tongue. Transfer is one of the learning strategies in which the learners use his previous knowledge and experience of the mother tongue as a means of acquiring the target language, when certain systems of the learners native are similar to that

the target language. Transfer will support the learners attempt to master the target language. However when they are different and the learners use transfer, he will produce errors that are called interlingual errors. The other opinion about interlingual errors comes from Lococo. Lococo (1976. In dulay, 1982: 187) states interlingual errors occur when L1 has a rule which L2 does not has and L1 rules is applied to L2. Based on the opinions above, we can take an implication that one of the characteristics of interlingual errors is that the errors reflect the learners first language structure. The second type of errors is intralingual errors. These errors are caused by interference within the target language itself. Littlewood states that one of the interlingual errors is overgeneralization, the process of overgeneralization is as follows; in learning Eglish, the learner is given many different kinds of sentence pattern, convention and rules. But sometimes he uses them in different situations in which from some reason the rule does not apply to it, consequently he makes errors called intralingual errors. Another cause of intralingual errors is simplification by omission. Simplifications is one of the strategies of learning a second or foreign language, in which the learners eliminate many items that are redundant to conveying the intended message in their sentences.

3. Definition of English composition Writing, in Thatcher (1980: 967) means the act or art of setting down words or character on pepper or other material for the purpose of recording ideas or anything written; literary or other composition. According Heaton (1978: 172), a composition is a task which involves the students or writer to manipulating words in grammatically correct sentence.

4. The differences of the grammatical system between English and Indonesian a. Plural-singular reflection The ways to make plural forms in English are: first is by adding s or -es suffix. For example car-cars, house-houses. The second is internal change such as man-men, mouse-mice, thoot-theet, and zero modification, shuch as sheep-sheep. The third is when there is countable noun phrase in which the noun is preceded with an adverb of quantity such as some, many, three; the noun must be in plural forms, or instance many pens, some glasses, three men. On the contrary, in Indonesian, the common pattern to make plural form is by total reduplication. For example, orang-orang, mobil-mobil, rumah-rumah (Sari, 1988:96). When there is a noun phrase in which the noun is preceded by an adverb of quantity, such as para, banyak, beberapa, the noun must be in singular forms. For example, banyak buku, beberapa rumah (not banyak buku-buku, beberapa rumah-rumah). The differences above may produce errors for the Indonesian learners, for example, many book, four house. b. The existence of tenses Tenses are the different forms which a verb assumes to indicate the times of the action or state (curme, 1966:55). In English, tenses play an important role. They are always involved in speech or writing. The tenses also help listeners or readers interpret the ideas impliead in speech or writing. In Indonesian, tenses do not exist. The form of verbs in Indonesian sentences is not influenced by time. Sentence with reflects past, present or future events have the same forms of verb. Example; 1. Saya dating ke sini kemarin 2. Adikku dating ke sini tiap minggu 3. Mereka datang ke sini empat kali

Therefore, tenses are new for Indonesian students. This condition will probably cause difficulties and errors in acquiring the concept of tenses. So they probably will make errors concerning tenses. For example; 1. I come here yesterday. 2. They would came to school a week ago. c. Third person singular verb in English, the form of a verb of present tenses used in a sentence depends on the subject. When the subject is a third person singular (i.e. he, she, it) the form of the verb which is used must be verb + s/-es. However when the subject is not a third person singular (i.e., I, you, they, John and jenie), the form of the verb will be an invinitive, for instance; 1. They read the book everyday. 2. She goes to market on Monday. In Indonesian, the subject of sentence does not influence the form of the verb, for instance; 1. Dia bermain sepak bola tiap sore. 2. Mereka bermain sepak bola tiap sore. The Indonesian learners will probably make the following errors; 1. She play football every day. 2. Adi play tennis on Sunday. d. The existence of to be There are two main function of be, namely as a linking verb and as auxiliary verb. In nominal sentences, be is used to join the subjects and the complements. For example; 1. I am a student. 2. He was absent yesterday. The Indonesian word similar to linking be is adalah, ialah. It is not a necessity to use adalah or ialah in nominal sentence.

For example; 1. Saya orang Yogyakarta. 2. Teman saya sakit. The Indonesian learners will probablymake errors such as, 1. My friend sick. 2. I an villager. e. The existence of preposition A preposition is a word that connects a noun or pronoun with a verb, adjective, or another noun or pronoun by indicating a relationship between the thing in which they stand (curme, 1966: 27). There are no specific rules in using certain preposition in sentence, for instance, there is no explanation why the preposition in sentence, for instance, there is no explanation why the preposition on is used in I did not watch the match of television. Therefore the Indonesian learners will be confiused in studying preposition, the result they will used the preposition based on their feeling and they will make errors and using preposition. f. The existence of article There are two articles in English. They are a/an and the. The may be used with a singular or plural noun. A/an is generally used with singular countable noun. The function of article is to mark nouns definitor indefinite. The shows a particular person or thing that has been singled out from others, for example; The girl sitting on the chair is your sister. A shows an unspecified one such as in the sentence A policeman catches a thief In Indonesian it is not necessary to use an article. For example; 1. Ayahku guru SD. 2. Ayahku seorang guru SD.

Indonesian learners will probably make errors in using article. For example; 1. My father is teacher. 2. It is book. g. Place of modifiers in anoun phrase In an English noun phrase, modifier such as article, demonstrative pronoun, adjective, noun, and ordinal numbers are placed before the word. For example; this cheap pocket book, the second place, etc. Indonesian sentence used the DM rule (diterangkan-menerangkan). It means that modifiers follow the noun modified, for instance; tempat kedua, buku saku yang murah, etc. because of the rule, Indonesian students will make possible errors such as, the pace second, the shop book, etc. h. Order of adverb An adverb is a word that modifies a verb an adjective or an other adverb (curme, 1966:24). Based on the meaning, adverb are classified into four, namely adverb of place, adverb of manner, adverb of frequency and adverb of time. The common sequence of adverb is as follows; Subject Indefinite Frequency We Sometime Study Alone Verb Manner Place Definite frequency At home Twice Every Day She Always Cries Hard time

In Indonesian it is freer to place adverb in sentence. For example; 1. Kami selalu belajar di rumah dua kali sehari. 2. Kadang-kadang dia di rumah belajar dua kali sehari.

The Indonesian learners will probably produce errors in relation to order the adverbs. The examples bellow the mistake in ordering adverb. 1. Sometime we study at home. 2. She wait her brother always.

B. Conceptual frame work As explained in the theoretical frame work, mother tounge or other languages influence the errors made by the learners. The writer supposes that Indonesian learners of English are also influenced by Indonesian language, because there are some differences of system between Indonesian language and English language. It has been explained that some differences in the system of grammar between English and Indonesian are concerned with plural-singular