CHAPTER I 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study The most
important means of communication for human being is language because it is used to express ideas, sense,
thoughts, information, etc. Sapir (1921:8) says that language is purely human and
non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions, and desires by means of system of voluntarily produced symbols.
Furthermore, Wasson (1966:5) says
that language is the supreme means of formulating
and expressing thought. Human communicate by producing sounds or the combination of words which represent the
object ideas and emotions of human thought.
From the above definitions, we
may conclude that the main function of language
is to communicate to others. A good communication between someone and others can be achieved if they are able to use
the language perfectly. Otherwise, if the language, they are using is not understood by
the listeners and speakers, of course, the communication used can not reach the goal. In
the process of teaching and learning, language
plays an important role. Without a language this process can not be reached well.
We can use more than one language
if we learn other languages besides our native
language. The language that we learn first is called first language. Richards (1985:106) says that first language is a person’s
mother tongue or the language acquired
first. The first language may be used to communicate with family members, other people of the same ethnic group or it is
the language of the country where we are
living. We will find problems when we have to speak in the other languages
which are different from our first
language. Therefore, we need to learn Second language.
The word “Second’ in Second
Language Acquisition may refer to any language that is learned subsequently to the mother tongue of
first language. Our mother tongue is Indonesian
language while other language that we want to learn is called Second Language.
We can find the term “Error
Analysis” in second language Acquisition. Brown (1987) says that according to cognitive
approach the making of errors is an inevitable and necessary part of language learning. The
language of a language learner contains errors.
The errors are made by non-native learners in learning a Second Language.
There are many languages in this
world such as English, Dutch, Spain, and Japanese. English is one of international
languages. It is very important for us to learn English because we know that many countries
use this language as their introductory language
based on formal or non-formal activities. Furthermore, there are also many books, mass media, reference books and other
forms of communication written in English.
Because of its importance, Indonesian Government decided English as a formal subject. According to GBPP (Garis-Garis
Besar Program Pengajaran) the 2004
Competence-Based Curriculum (Depdiknas:2004) states that all students learn English for communicative purpose both in
written and spoken forms. As a consequence,
English has been taught as formal subject from primary school to university.
But there is a big problem;
Indonesia has Indonesian language as their native language of which structure is different from
English. Because of different structure, there might be some errors made by the students
when they speak and write.
Agnes in Webster’s New Word
Dictionary (1998:222) defines error is the state of believing what is untrue, a wrong belief,
and something incorrectly done.
Richards in Longman Dictionary of
Applied Linguistics (1985:96) defines error
analysis is the study and analysis of errors made by second and foreign
language learners. Error analysis may be
carried out in order to find out how well someone knows a language, how a person learns
language, and to obtain information on common
difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or in the preparation of teaching material.
There are probable mistakes and
errors in studying second language. Brown (1980:166) cites that learners do make errors
and these errors can be observed, analyzed
and classified to reveal something of system operating within the learner lead to a surge of study of learner’s errors
called error analysis. Tense is a grammatical category that locates a
situation in time that indicates when
the situation takes place. Tenses is a part of grammar. Mastering tenses is
very important because if we do not use
appropriate tenses, it can make misunderstanding especially in written language. Unfortunately,
students are often confused with English
tenses, even for the University students. They assume tenses as a big burden.
There is a fact that the students
always make errors in using tenses and it is a phenomenon that the writer finds. The writer
finds it after doing pilot study by distributing
questionnaire to the students. She makes an English questionnaire for third year students of SMK 7 Medan who get
first until fifth rank from three classes (Administration, Marketing and Accommodation
of Hospitality class). The writer’s purpose
why she chooses students who get first until fifth rank as her pilot subject because she thinks that those students tend to
make fewer errors than others. But the fact
is the students also make errors. These are some errors as the findings in the writer’s pilot study as the following: ` a. I goed to school yesterday.
b. She watch TV every night.
c. When the head master lose his
books? All those sentences are incorrect grammatical.
a. The first sentence’s error is called
overgeneralization. Because the students generalize all past verbs by adding –ed. While
the verb is irregular verb.
The correct sentence is I went to
school yesterday.
b. The second sentence’s error is called
omission. Because the students leave out an item that is required to be considered
grammatical. She is the person singular
subject that must be followed verb by adding –es or s.
The correct sentence is she
watches TV every night.
c. Where the headmaster lose his book last
night? The error of this sentence is called
incomplete application of rules because the students forget to put auxiliary verb after when.
The correct sentence is Where did
the headmaster lose his book last night? From those answers that the students
make, it is clear that they make errors in using tenses. The errors that the students
made are grammatical errors.
Ellis (1985:297) cites that the
first way of classifying errors is through grammatical categories. In addition, he says
that there are four kinds of errors, they are: omission, misinformation, misordering,
and overgeneralization.
Strevens (1969) in Richard
(1974:4) hypothesizes that errors should not be viewed as problems to be overcome, but rather
as normal and inevitable features indicating
the strategies that learners use. He conjectured that if a regular pattern of errors could be observed in the performance of
all learners in a given situation, and if a learner was seen to progress this pattern,
his errors could be taken as evidence not of failure but of success and achievement
learning. Errors in this case are not inhibitory, but rather evidence of one’s learning
strategies.
Based on the above explanations,
the writer is very interesting in doing a research on errors in using tenses made by the
third year students of SMK 7 Medan.
In addition, because the writer
is an English teacher in SMK 7 Medan, she wants to find out both the students’ progress and every
students ‘level in understanding tenses.
1.2 Problems of Study The
problems that writer would like to investigate are as the following: 1) What kinds of errors are usually made by the
students in using Simple Present Tense,
Present Continuous Tense, Simple Past Tense, Past Continuous Tense, and Simple Future Tense? 2) What are the percentages of errors made by
the students in using those tenses? 3) What is the nature of errors in using tenses
made by those students? 1.3 Objectives
of Study The objectives of these studies are: 1) To
classify the kinds of error made by the students in using Simple Present Tense, Present Continuous Tense, Simple Past
Tense, Past Continuous Tense, and Simple
Future Tense.
2) To count the percentage of errors made by the
students in using those tenses.
3) To get the nature of errors in using tenses
made by those students? 1.4 The Scope of the Study In this thesis the writer would like to
analyze the errors in using tenses made by
the third year students of SMK 7 Medan. Based on the syllabus in the school,
there are few tenses that the students
have learnt; they are Simple Present, Present Continuous/Progressive, Simple Past, Past
Continuous, and Simple Future although there
are 16 tenses in English language. So the writer limits her analysis only to
the tenses they have learnt.
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