CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents background of the study,
problems of the study, objectives of the
study, significances of the study, scope and limitation, and definitions of the key terms.
1. 1 Background of the Study Errors are defined as any deviation from a
selected norm of language performance,
no matter what the characteristics or causes of the deviation might be. (Dulay, et. al. 1982:139). Errors in
constructing the target language done by students indicate their search for the target
language rules system, and their errors are
an important indicator to know the students’ progress in learning and acquiring the target language.
Students’ errors may occur in
different components of language, such as: grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Dulay
et. al, (1982:146-197) classified errors
into four types: (1) linguistic category taxonomy classifies errors according to either the language component or the
particular linguistic constituent the error affects. Language components include phonology
(pronunciation), syntax and morphology
(grammar), semantics and lexicon (meaning and vocabulary), and discourse (style). (2) Surface
strategytaxonomy highlights the ways surface structures are altered. It is classified into
four types: omission, addition, misformation,
and misordering. (3) Comparative taxonomy is based on comparisons between the structure of second
language errors and certain other types
of constructions. These comparisons have two major error categories: developmental errors and interlingual errors;
and (4) Communicative effect taxonomy
deals with errors from the perspective of their effect on the listeners or readers. It is classified into two types:
global errors and local errors.
The study of grammatical errors
has been done by several researchers.
Purwatiningsih (2004) found that
grammatical errors in tenses at the people articles of Jakarta post during the month of
October, 2003 period commonly occurred
in the simple past tense as the biggest one, past perfect tense and simple present tense as the smallest one. Further,
she explains that errors of tenses are categorized
into two types: misformation and omission. Misformatian as the biggest error is dominated by simple past
tense and past perfect tense while omission
occurred in simple present tense by omission of ending s/esand past tense by omission of –be. Subagio (1999) found
that the common grammatical errors in
speaking made by the English students at IKIP which show the highest frequency of errors are determiner. It
is followed by preposition, third person
singular verb, numbers, and main verb. The result also shows that the type of errors which reaches the highest in
frequency is misformation, followed by omission,
addition, and misordering.
Srirahayu (2000) found 334 errors
on English complex sentences made by the
third year students at IKIP . The highest number of errors is on omission which covers 53% followed by
misformation 29%, addition 15%, and misordering
3%. She finds that students’ problem in constructing sentences lay on the use of subordinators and punctuations. It
happens mostly in adverbial clauses characterized
by the addition of comma, linking word, and omission of comma, and adjective clauses characterized by
misformation of subordinator and omission of subordinator.
Based on the classification of
errors and the results of previous researchers above, this study examines errors in
linguistic category taxonomy specifically on morphological and syntactical errors.
This study continues what the
previous researchers have done in studying grammatical errors, but it has some
differences from the results of studies done by previous researchers. First, the object of
this study is English students’ thesis writing
of , which has not been researched
before. Second, this study is not
limited to any specific aspect of grammar, as some previous researchers have done. It studies the grammatical errors
on linguistic category, which composes
both on morphological and syntactical errors. It is because the object is English students’ thesis writing which truly
reflects their competency and mastery in
reconstructing English grammar.
In this study, all the English
students are assumed to have an advanced ability on mastering English grammar since
they have passed the three levels of grammar
class and they have attended the supporting classes such as introduction to linguistics, phonology, morphology, and
syntax. They are also assumed to have enough
opportunity to practice their mastery on grammar in production as they have passed the three levels of writing and
speaking class. In addition when they were
writing their thesis, they were helped by co-advisor who checked their linguistic problems.
Based on the above assumption,
this study intends to observe, identify and prove whether there are some grammatical
errors found in English students' thesis writing of . This study is important because of some
reasons. First, English students’ thesis
is a research which should be correctly written by using Standard English writing. Second, English
students’ thesis writing is the final examination
to measure their competency of acquiring English proficiency during four years they studied English and also
becomes the main requirement to pass their
study.
1.2 Problems of the Study Based on the background of the study, the
problems of the study can be formulated
as follows: 1.2.1 what types of
morphological and syntactical errors found in English students' thesis writing of ? 1.2.2
what morphological and syntactical errors are commonly found in English students' thesis writing of ? 1.3
Objectives of the Study Based on the
problems of the study, this study is intended: 1.3.1 to identify, classify, and describe the
types of morphological and syntactical errors
found in English students' thesis writing of .
1.3.2 to tabulate morphological
and syntactical errors commonly found in English students' thesis writing of .
1.4 Significances of the Study The findings of this study are hoped to give
valuable inputs for (1) English students
of who are going to write their thesis.
Hopefully, they will be aware and can
improve their proficiency in writing thesis; (2) The English lecturers, the results of this study hopefully
provide data from which part of the target
language students have most difficulty producing grammar correctly and which error types disturb most from a
learner’s ability to communicate effectively.
It also becomes a consideration and a correction in choosing a certain technique in teaching and learning process
especially in a grammar class concerning
certain topics, which are considered difficult by their students; (3) the results of this study can be used as a
consideration in choosing the area of error study in the future.
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the
Study As we know that this study is
intended to identify, classify, and analyze the grammatical errors in thesis writing made
by English students of that
count are hundreds. This study is limited on English students who were registered as students in 2002 and graduated in 2007. This
study takes seven students’ thesis
writing as the data.
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