CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents background
of the study, problems of the study, objectives
of the study, significance of the study,scope and limitation, and definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study Communication is a means of people for
interactionwith each other. By communication,
people can exchange information or ideas between individuals.
There are two kinds of
communication that can be used; they are spoken communication and written communication. In
spoken communication, the most important
thing is the hearer can understand what the speaker means. Besides, between the speakers are also allowed to make
back-and-forth process of negotiations
meanings. According to Abisamra (2003), communication is the basis of life, it is at the heart of all human
interactions. On the other hand, writing is a complex task. It can be said as the most
difficult of the language abilities to acquire
(Allen and Corder: 1974). Because in written texts, the sense of the dialogue between the writer and the reader is
impossible to make negotiation of meanings
as in spoken conversation. The sentence iswritten and it is read.
Therefore, if the writer does not
master the targetlanguage well, the problem of misunderstandings will be often found in their
written text.
There is a different difficulty
that is faced by native and non-native speaker
when doing writing activity. As suggested by Abisarma (2003) that the level of difficulty in writing varies between
native and non-native speakers.
Native speakers think in the
language used, whereasnon-native speakers have to think about the rules that need to apply when
constructing the sentences. So that, non-native
speakers have a wider chance to make mistakes or commit errors.
As a prominent Arabic
statement ُ
which describes that all of people in
the world cannot avoid the errors and forgetfulness, and certainly everyone with no exception ever
makeserrors or mistakes. It because we
live in an imperfect world and consequently errors will always occur in spite of our best efforts (Corder, 1974:
20). Italso occurs in language learning, the learners often make errors when producing
the words both in spoken or written
communication. This problem is usually faced by the second language learners, because they are influenced by their
native language when producing the target
language. Besides, the learners' error is also influenced by the target language itself. For instance, English
language which has tenses patterns and other grammatical aspects cause confusion.
For English learners, they are expected to be
ableto use the English language not only
in spoken, but also in written communication. Since writing is one of the language skills that should be
mastered.Written language can be analyzed
by identifying the lexical items that theyapply in the sentences. It means that lexis is one of the important elements
that needs to produce and also understand
the text well.
There are two aspects that should be noticed
by the learners to build a good
sentence; they are grammatical aspects and lexical aspects. English grammar is applied to provide a general pattern of
rule in combining words to phrases, and phrases
to sentences. A good grammar will influencea good written communication, because the written text
without applying the rules will invite misinterpretations
for readers. They will not be able to read accurately. A good grammar in written text will ease the reader
to understand its content. Hence, miscommunication
sometimes happens among people because of the grammatical error. The second urgent aspect needed in
building sentences is lexical aspect. It relates to the vocabulary or words in the
dictionary. In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs make up the largest part ofthe vocabulary (Fromkin, 1997: 137).
In written communication, the learners have to
take and use the words correctly in
order that the messages that want to be delivered are understandable.
Every word is the center of a
constellation which all parts support each other (Mackey, 1984: 177). So that lexical aspect
cannot be ignored in producing sentences.
However, most English learners do not give a significant attention to the lexical aspect. They still often make
errors intheir sentences. They suppose lexical
is not a complicated problem, since it can be looked easily in dictionary.
Lexis is the basic element which is very
importantto communicate, especially in
written communication. Because an idea is impossible can be transferred without the lexis. Furthermore,
Ramli proposed in his paper (2002: 218),
that lexis is considered as a very crucial thing to be mastered in human's life
because by mastering lexis, we can understand
a text or communicate with others.
By lexis, we will also be able to
do anything such as express our feeling, share ideas, or deliver messages to others. In other
words, there is a positive correlation between
one's knowledge and lexical items comprehension. More lexical items comprehended by someone, automatically he has
a wide knowledge because he will be
easier to convey and receive information.
Lexical aspect is a very crucial thing to be
learnt and can be considered as a
complicated problem, because many English learners often make lexical errors when they produce English sentences. It is
proved by the result of a research done by
Napitupulu (2005). She investigated the lexical errors in English compositions of 25 English study program students from
language and art faculty of HKBP Nommensen
Medan University. The study finds out that there are 387 lexical errors made and the most dominant type of
lexical errors is in the category of distortion
for 220 items. In addition, the dominantcause of error is intralingual error, where the students find the difficulty
in the target language.
That research finding is supported by Akande,
Adedeji, and Okanlawon (2006) in their
research entitled Lexical Errors in the English of Technical College Students in Osun State of Nigeria. The
multiple choice test and an essay writing
exercise are administered on the students as the data sources. The results of this study show that technical college
students do not have a high competence in
the use of words, as they make mistakes resulting from overgeneralization of rules, wrong analogy, and wrong spelling. The
researchers find that the major lexical
problem that can be identified in the objectives test is wrong lexical choice.
Almost the English learners are faced by some
constraints in mastering English lexis.
As a result, it influences their competence in English. They cannot transfer the ideas or express the feelings
effectively in the English language. As Read
(2004) in Akande, Adedeji, and Okanlawon (2006) said that lexical items carry the basic information load of the
meanings they wish to comprehend and express.
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