STUDENTS’ GRAMMATICAL ERROR IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT
AND THEIR PERCEPTION ABOUT THE PROBLEM THEY HAVE
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate students
grammatical error in writing recount text and their perception about writing
problem they have. In this study, there were 12 participants, 6 male and 6
females. They are primary students in grade 5. They were students in Tunas
Bangsa School which use English as a medium of instruction. They have learnt
English since primary 1. The general nature of this study was qualitative and
quantitative in nature as essay writing test and questionnaire were implemented
for data collection. The findings revealed that grammar is the main problem for
the students. The result suggest that students need to have reinforcement for
the use of past form in their sentences.
INTRODUCTION
Writing is not only an important skill in language
learning process but also the most complicated activity. It is because in
writing the students should integrate their previous knowledge in order to
create a good composition. The same opinion mentioned by Allen & Corder,
1974) that writing is “the most difficult of the language abilities and skills
to acquire” (177). In the first language, writing skill is difficult. It is
more difficult to write in foreign language. The students not only need to know
how to generate and organize the ideas but also they have to know a great
amount of vocabulary and the grammar rules.
In addition, for making a well structured writing, the
students need to know about grammar because the use of logical order of the
sentences and appropriate transition signal contained in the paragraph will
make the paragraph writing easier to read. So, writing requires integrated
mastery of comprehension of topic and mastery of sentence structure in grammar.
The requirement of mastery of sentence structure in
making well structured paragraph writing makes the errors in students’ writing
cannot be avoided. Errors in writing is different with mistake in which that
the errors made by students because of inadequate knowledge of taget language
and make it hard for the students to correct it by themselves. On the other
hand, the mistake is made not because the students do not have competence
knowledge of target language so that they can correct it by themselves.
According to Brown mistakes refer to “a failure to utilize a known system
correctly” (1994a: 205). So, because the mistakes are recognized by the
students, they do not need speacial treatment. On the opposite, the errors need
to be given special treatment since only the teacher who are able to locate
them.
A clear distinction between errors and mistakes is made
by (Norrish, 1983) that states errors are “systematic
deviation when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it
wrong.” Because the students have not learnt the correct form, they tend to
make errors systematically. On the other hand, mistakes is defined as
“inconsistent deviation” beacuse the students inconsistently use one form that
they have learnt before.
The problem of disability to self correctness the
language errors can be solved by doing error analysis. By analysing the
students’ error in writing, the students will recognize the significance of
errors which occur in their writing and are expected to make some improvements
in their writing so that they can communicate well through written language in the future. The
error analysis is not only valuable for the students but also for the teachers.
“Errors can tell the teacher how far towards the goal the learner has
progressed and consequently, what remains for him or her to learn. So, students
errors are valuable feedbacks.” (Corder, 1974, hal. 125) . By knowing the
progress of the students’ writing, the teacher will be able to indicate the
point of weakness in students’ writing and able to make judgement whether it is
necessary for the teacher to have remedial teaching. In line with Corder, Lim
(1976) also stated that “one of the aims of error analysis is to help teachers
assess more accurately what remedial work would be necessary for English as a
Second Language (ESL) students preparing for an English Language test, so as to
help these students avoid the most common errors.”
The purpose of this study is to know students problem in
writing recount text by analysing the error they make and to examine students
perception about the writing problem they have. By analysing the errors in
their writing it is expected to give clear picture about the area of difficulty
of recount text writing. The understanding of the area of difficulty then is
supported by the perception of students about their problem in writing recount
text to give further explanation about the students’ problem.
LITERATURE
REVIEW
There are many causes and sources of errors. According to
(Richards J. C., 1974) in the paper titled “The Study of Learner
English” there are seven sources of errors. They are language transfer,
intralingual interference, sociolinguistic situation, modality, age,
successions of approximative systems, and universal hierarchy of difficulty. In
language transfer, there is influence from the language that has been acquired
before to the target language. Intralingual errors can be caused by
overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of
rules, and semantic errors such as building false concepts/systems.
Error analysis has stages. According to Corder (1974)
there are three stages in error analysis. They are data collection, descripton,
and explanation. At first, thecorpus language followed by the identification of
error are selected. After that, the errors are classified. Each error is
analysed grammatically and each different types of error is explained. Another
steps for error analysis are proposed by Gass & Selinker (1994, p.67) that
they are collecting data, identifying errors, classifying errors, analyzing
source of error, and remediating for errors. In collecting the data, it can be
from students compositions. Then, the errors in those compositions can be identified.
After identifying the errors, those errors can ne classified based on the types
(subject verb agreement, articles, tense, etc.)
Writing includes numerous consideration and choice to be
made regarding “higher level skills”, such as content, structure and
organization, and “lower level skills”, suh as punctuation and choice of
appropriate vocabulary items and grammatical structures, which are the term
used by (Richards, 2002) . The subjects of my study are my
students in primary five. They started to learn English from primary one.
However, they are considered as lower level skills. Because of this
consideration, I will only analyse the error in their grammatical error,
appropriate vocabulary, and punctuation.
Generaly there are some modeld of text. First is
descriptive text. It refers to passage which has intention to describe
something to the reader. Second, narrative text. It is used to entertain the
reader about th story. Third is recount text. It tells about past even or past
experience. The focus of my students
writing is recount text form because they will be easily explore the idea of
their writing.
Recount text has three main factors. They are
orientation, list of event, and re-orientation. In orientation, the students
tell about the people, the setting, and the situation so that the reader will
have awareness about what the story is about. In the lis of event, the students
describe the events that happened in the past based on the order. In
re-orientation, the students summary the story and tell about their impression
of the experience. That is why in my students writing there are only three
paragraphs writing. It because they want to complete the generic structure of
recount text.
METHODOLOGY
In order to address the research questions for this study
qualitative method was chosen to analyse the error the students made in writing
recount text. In addition, quantitative approach was also used through the
questionnaire because it was used to know students perception about writing
problems they have.
In this study, there were 12 participants, 6 male and 6
females. They are primary students in grade 5. They were students in Tunas
Bangsa School which use English as a medium of instruction. They have learnt
English since primary 1.
This study involve collecting qualitative and
quantitative data via two main methods: 1) writing test, 2) questionnaire
FINDING
AND DISCUSSION
Merriam (1998) and Marsall and Rossman (1989) contend
that data collection and analysis must be simultaneous process in qualitative
research. They claim that qualitative data analysis entails classifying things,
persons, and events and the properties that characterize them. This section
will describe how the data collected in this study are analyzed. This include
the analysis of data from writing test and questionnaire.
The main objective of this study is to analyse students’
grammatical errors. In the following section, examples of students grammatical
errors were collected for the purpose of analysis. The errors were identified
and categorized into diferent error types. The errors were counted and rated in
percentage of frequency.
1.
Verb Tense and Form
High error rates in this study occured within the error
category of verbs. This finding may explain that the use of English verbs was a
major learning difficulty for the students. The use of verb tense shows that
the students still find a difficulty when and how to use the verb tense and the
form of the verb especially past form to express past experience. There are
some verbs that misused in the sentences.
Example of errors in verb tense and form:
* ......my second brother celebrate his graduation. (celebrated)
* we stay 2 days in there (stayed)
* After that we play a kite with my brother... (played)
From he examples before, it is clear that the students do not understand
the right form of the past tense. They inserted the present simple instead of
adding past verb to tell about past experience.
* I always fall but my brother help me. (fell -
helped)
* ....and we eating at cafe and went to airport. (ate)
* .......then my grandma sit beside my right. (sat)
In this example, the students have difficulty to change
the verb into irregular verb in past form. So, instead of change the verbs into
the past form, they just write it in the present form or change it into gerund
verb ing.
The student’s difficulty in the area of grammar is
crucial because in constructing words and sentences the students need to know
the rule. The existence of grammar is very important as it can describe the
language. The structure of English language is different with the structure of
Indonesian language. There is different in combining the words and phrases.
That is why the students have to know the rules and word changes in grammar to
improve their skill in English especially writing skill.
This problem was in line with students perception of
their problem in English writing. In the statement of “I have difficulty in
memorizing irregular verbs,” 58. 33% of students agree with it. Moreover, some students said that grammar is
the most difficult problem for them. One of the students said “Grammar
difficulty is the most difficult problem because I don’t know many grammar.” Another student stated that “It is
the most difficult problem because I not undestand and not to concentrate.”
Even from their writing when they stated their reason in thinking that grammar
is difficult, it can be seen that their grammar is not really good. Another
student even cannot differentiate the use of simple present and simple past
tense in writing their reason. “It is difficult because my grammar is
sometimes was wrong.” It means that the students have problem in the
area of tense. They need to have improvement in tenses knowledge especially in
simple past tense.
* I no needed to lived in the hotel (did
not need)
* ...and no needed to spent more money. (did not need)
From the examples above, it can be seen that the students
tried to express negative sentence in simple past but then they formed it in
the wrong way by only added no and change the verb to the past form.
From the questionnaire, it was known that 50% of students
have problem in making negative sentences using appropriate tenses. But the
other 50 % also stated that they don’t have a problem to change the sentence
into negative. It means that the students also still need to have reinforcement
in changing positive sentence into negative sentence.
2.
Subject Verb Agreement
The most common type of error made by students is subject
verb agreement. In English sentences, the subject and the verb phrase shold
agree in number and person.
Example of errors in subject verb agrement:
The plural subject does not agree with singular verb.
* I and my mom, dad and my 2 brothers we was
vacation.... (were)
* Me and my family was going to Hongkong. (were)
* In there the facilities was very nice. (were)
In the case of subject verb agreement, the students still
make errors. The lack understanding of subject verb agreement. Subject and
verbs must agree with one another in number (singular or plural). That is why
in sentences, if the subject singular the verb must also be singular. If a
subjec is plural, the verb must also be plural.
For this agreement between subject and verb, the students do not pay
attention to the subject followed by the verb. They still use singular verb for
plural subject or vice versa.
In the statement of “I have difficulty in subject verb
agreement (eg. She has, she was, they have, they were, etc),” there are 58.33%
of students who agree with that statement. Only 16.67% and 25% of students
disagree and srongly disagree with that statement. Based on the calculation it
is clear that the students have problem in the area of subject verb agreement.
3.
Word Order
* I and my family went to hotel Ibis. (Ibis
Hotel)
* Mr. Edys’s family went to the apartment season city. (season city apartment)
In declarative sentence, the subject of sentence comes
directly in front of the verb. Noun phrase can contain of two elements. They
can be determiner and noun, or modifier and noun.
4.
Preposition
* At 16 June 2014 ..... (on)
* We arrived at Kuala Lumpur on 5.00 pm (at)
* Then at afternoon we.... (in)
* When I at the hotel at the Kuching... (in)
There are three types of preposition: place, time, and
movement. From the students writing, many of them used preposition of time and
place but none of them used preposition of movement. In preposition of
movement, they still have difficulty to differentiate it. It is evident that
they used inappropriate preposition of time and place in their sentences.
For the use of preposition, 75% of students admitted that
they have difficulty in using correct preposition. Only 25% stated that they
don’t think using that using preposition is difficult. From this percentage, it
can be concluded that most of students still have problem in the area of
preposition. They need to have practice in using correct preposition (place,
time, and diration) in their sentences.
5.
Article
* At 9:00
o’clock we eaten a poridge. (porridge)
* .......at the Kuching I take a rest there. (Kuching)
* Then we went zoo the transportation. (transportation)
From the first example of error in article, the student
misused article a to refer to uncountable noun of porridge. Article a or an can
only be used for singular countable noun. In another example, the article “the”
in front of name of city “Kuching” is not appropriate.
6.
Plurality
* ....to
the market to buy 3 bottle of water, candy, fruit, and tooth paste.
*. ...there are so many Place I can visit.
* we buy some foods.
Students may not realize that determiners such as some
and many require plural nouns. Lack of training may be the reason the errors
still happened. Nouns form the plural by adding the suffix –s (place/places) or
–es (bus/buses). It is easy because the students only need to add –s or –es in
the verb. But, there is also an exception in the verb of have. The singular
verb of “to have” for third singular person (he/she/it) is has. There are also
irregular plural in Englis such as ox/oxen or child/children. For the irregular
plural form, cahanging the singular noun to plural noun form is not as easy as
adding –s or –es. If the students do not know the rules of plurality, they will
have difficulty in changing singular to noun form in their writing.
.More than 60 percent of students agreed that they have
difficulty in using plural nouns correctly. On the other hand, 25% and 8.33% of
students sadi that they disagree and strongly disagree with this statement.
Their statement of the difficulty in plural nouns revealed that the use of
determiner followed by plural nouns should be explained more in the classroom.
7.
Misuse of Auxiliary
* It’s like went to the ocean park, disney land, and beijing.
* It’s was the best day ever in my life
For the use of auxiliary, there was confusion in using it
since the students used double auxiliari. Auxiliary verbs are called helping
verbs. They are always associated with the verbs. Thise auxiliaries are “be”,
“have”, and “do.” If the students do not understand the principle of the use of
English auxiliary verbs, the will misapply the the function of each auxiliary
everytime they write. From above examples, the students made error by placing
verb after auxiliary verb. In the rule
of grammar, auxiliary verbs can be inserted to explain about adjective, noun,
or adverb. So, if there is a verb, auxiliary
verb can not be added in the sentence.
From the questionnaire filled by students, it was known
that the students think that English writing skill is important for them. ”I think skill of writing in English is very
important for me.” From this statement, 58.33% students agree and 41.67%
students strongly agree with it. It means that the students aware that they
really need to have skill in writing. Then, 58.33% of students agree and 25% of
students strongly agree that they need to improve their skill in English
writing. Only 8.33 students disagree with it. Eventhough they aware the
importance of English wriitng and want to be able to improve their skill, they
tend to not having a motivation on it. It was showed in the statement of “I think writing diary in English help me to be
able to write well.” Fifty percent
of students strongly disagree with this statement. Only 16. 67% of students
agree and strongly agree with this statement. So, eventhough they know that the
students do not have any interest to improve their writing skill through diary
writing. One of them even said “I think writing diary is bad for writing.”
Their lack of interest can be caused by the difficulty in
organizing ideas while writing. In the statement of “I have difficulty in organizing my ideas when I write story,” there
are 66,67% of students stated that they agreed with this statement. There are
only 33.33% of students who did not agree with this statement. One of the
student said that “Lack of ideas is the most difficult problem because difficult for the
topic and the ideas.” Another
students said that “sometimes I forgot my ideas.”
CONCLUSION
In writing recount text, he students have problems in the
area of using appropriate tenses, subject verb agreement, word order,
preposition, article, plurality, and misuse auxiliary. They have awarness of
the importance of writing skill and they also know their difficulties in
writing. But eventhough they aware of their weaknesses they tend to avoid
writing practice especially if they have to write the diary. They still do not
aware that it can help them to improve their writing skill in writing recount
text because they have to tell about their past experience. The most difficult
problem for the students is grammar. They still can not use appropriate tense
in their sentence writing of recount text. For this problem they need to have a
lot of practice to use past form in their sentences.
Bibliography
Corder, S. P. (1974). Error Analysis. In J. P. B.
Allen and S. P. Corder (eds.) Technique in Applied Lingistics(The Edinburgh
Course in Applied Linguistics: 3. London: Oxfor University Press.
Norrish, J. (1983). Language learners and their errors. London:
The Macmillan Press.
Richards, J. a. (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching: An
Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C. (1974). The Study of Learner English. In J. C
Richards (ed.) Error Analysis. Perspectives on second language acquisition.
Samples of Students’ Essay:
Sample 1
I and my mom, dad, and my 2 brother, we was vacation to Jakarta. I went to Jakarta because my second brother
celebrate his
graduation, and shopping
with my family[A1] . The first, we went to my home and went to Bogor for visited my family, and
we went to brasco for
shopping. We were
went to villa for take
a rest. We stay 2
days in there and we went to shopping again. After that we play a kite with my
brother in bogor garden
and we went to villa.
At the morning I and my family went to hotel Ibis. We stay in there 3 days
and we went to taman
Anggrek for playing ice sketing,
in there I always fall.
But my brother help
me. After
we play we went
to restaurant and I ate Sushi
and my father ate Sushi
too, my 2 brother ate sate and my mom too.[A2] We went to taman mini
and we saw all birds and the adat
home and I play a train that in
the sky. I and my 2 brother play
that and we went to hotel.
At the morning we put our T-Shirt
in our own bag and we went to Mangga dua because the ticket (was) at 1:00 o’clock, and we eating at cafe and went to airport. I stay in Jakarta (for) 6 day and we fly to Pontianak, and I
fly use garuda Indonesia airplane.
Sample 2
This was about my vacation to Singapore. I went to Singapore to visit my
dad. I went there with my mom & my grandma. I went there last holiday. I
went to Singapore twice airplane. Then we went to the waiting room.
I used Tiger airplane
& I heard from
my mom that this plane was from Singapore. My mom sat beside the windows and
sat in the middle then my grandma sit beside my
right. I and mom slept in the plane until we arrived in Singapore. I
arrived there around 2.00 used Singapore time. Then we went to hotel. I sat down and then I lait down & closed my eyes. Then we rest & 7.00 pm we will had dinner.[A3]
Then tomorrow I
went to bugis village. I bought many souvenir in that shop. Then, tomorrow I went to
Singapore zoo. I went to a place where it’s so cool inside, then I rode a hourse and gave a food to
goat. Then my mom say
that only go to
Singapore just
for giving goat eat[A4] . I was just laughting. Then we went home & I also went to
Sentosa but it’s to early so I, mom & my grandma went to mall using ARV. I
watched Minion. And then on the other day I just when to mall.
Sample 3
Me and my family was going to Hongkong. In There, There is my aunty there. I no needed to lived in the hotel and no needed to spent more money.[A5] I’m going for 2 weeks in There.
In Hongkong we Had
a very fun day. Its like went to the ocean park, disney land, and beijing. Its very nice there,
the tree was green, no pollution, and the other. But the price for your Life was hard. I went there
when I was 6th. We
also went to the highest mountain in Hongkong. We always used train as our
transportation.
In there the facilities was
very nice. I filled
I wanna stay in
there but I still needed to school. I felt so tired. Beside that I am very happy.
Sample 4
I and my family went to Puncak. We went to Jakarta and visited in hotel for
1 day. And the next day in the morning we use car for went to Puncak. At noon we arrived at Puncak. We rented a villa
at Puncak for 3 days. At
afternoon we travelling.
We went to Mountain. At 8:00 clock we eaten a chicken and rice then we went home at
10:45. We went home and sleeping.
The next day in the morning we exercise in front of the villa. At 9:00 clock we eaten a poridge. And I take a shower and we
went to the zoo. We gave a carrot to camel and see honey bear. Then, at afternoon we eaten a rice that the shape like a animals. We went to
“Toko Oleh-Oleh Khas Puncak” and we bought a t-shirt. Gantungan kunci.
This our last day in Puncak. We prepare our t-shirt and things. And we went inside the car.
After that we went to Airport from Jakarta to Pontianak.
Sample 5
At 16 June 2014 me, my parents and my friend went to China.
First we went to Supadio airport. We flew to Kuching. We had arrived at
Kuching, then we go
to Starbuck cafe for 30 minutes. After 3o minutes we flew to Kuala Lumpur. We
arrived at Kuala Lumpur on
5.00 pm, then me
and my friend parents went to shopping. After shopping we went to a hotel then
I slept. Me, my
parents and my friend woke up at 3.00 am to get ready for the flight to Cina,
Shenzen. At the airport we waited for the plane. When waiting we eat and play our ipad at the
airport. When the plane has
arrived we all flew to China, Shenzen.
In Shenzen the tourist picked us up at the airport. We would stay at
Shenzen for 4 days. The first day at Shenzen we went to a restaurant and we ate
at the restaurant. After eating at the restaurant we went to see a big statue.
Before seeing the statue we must
to walked up to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain we
took a picture with the big statue. Me and my friend Richard went down first. My parents and my
other friend were lost. So the tourist went pick them up. After picking them up we went to a
hotel and take a
rest at the hotel.
The second day I went to play coaster and other. After that I went back to
the hotel and sleep.
The next day our parents went to shopping. After shopping we went to a
restaurant. After eating at the restaurant we went back to the hotel then sleep. The next day we
went to the bus station and rode to Hongkong. In Hongkong we went to a hotel we
play games. At
night we walk at
the street, we buy
some foods. Then we
went back to the hotel. The next day we went to ocean park, we have
fun there. The next day we went to disney land we also have fun there. The end of the day we
flew back.
Sample 6
Mr. Edy and his wife were on vacation. Her daughter followed his vacation.
They went to Jakarta for 3 days. Mr. Edy bought 3 tickets from his phone. Mr.
Edy likes to have a vacation. On Friday night Mr. Edy, Mrs. Edy and his
daughter was went
to the airport. Then we went to the transportation.
His daughter waited 10 minutes, then it floated up and up. It makes her
scare, so she slept in the plane. It takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. She arrived at
12:45. Mr. Edy’s family went to the apartment season city. Then his daughter slept in one room. The
next day we went for swim then we get ready for going to the mall. After we are ready we went to
(CP) central park mall. When I arrived in that mall, I ate in The Duck King.
It’s yummy. Then I went shopping with my mom. I went to bought some choclates. Then I went to Starbucks. Then,
we went to the apartment to get ready because we went to Pontianak again. Then
we went to the airport. We gave tickets to the man. Then we went to the plane.
I felt exited and
happy when I jakarta. When I
in the plane I felt scare. It’s fun in (CP) Central Park. I wish it will be more fun.
Sample 7
A week ago I went to Kuching. I went there to go to the Doctor. But I also go to another place. When I at the hotel at the Kuching I take a rest there. At
night I went to the Food
places at there I ate chicken wing, fried filet chicken and another food. After I ate my
father bring me
to the market to buy 3 big
bottle of water, candy, fruit, and tooth paste.
I went there by using
car and I went there with my father, grand mother, and my aunt. When I went
back to hotel I watch
televition and sleep.
The second day I went to the doctor. After I went to the doctor I and my father
bring my grand
mother to the hospital. After go to hospital I went to mall. And I also had put my thing in
the hotel and I also ate. At night I sleep.
The third ay I went home. I had a lot of thing to bring it home. I like
Kuching because it is
fun at there there are
so many Place I can
visit. At there I also ever walk
at night I buy
some food when I walking
with my father. I like at Kuching.
[A1]I went to Jakarta because my second
brother celebrated his graduation. Besides, I wanted to go for shopping with my
family.
[A2]After playing, we went to restaurant. My
father and I ate Sushi. My brothers and my mom ate sate.
[A5]I didn’t need to stay in the hotel and
spent more money.
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| Primary 5 students with Dr. Rifka in discussion about reproduction |
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