THE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN NARATIVE TEXTS MADE BY THE

EIGHT GRADERS AT LABORATORY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

OF STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG

THESIS

BY

SYAMSUL ALAM

NIM 608221412662

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG

FACULTY OF LETTERS

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

JULY 2012

THE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN NARATIVE TEXTS MADE BY THE

EIGHT GRADERS AT LABORATORY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

OF STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG

THESIS

Presented to

State University of Malang

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for

the degree of Sarjana in English Language Teaching

by

Syamsul Alam

NIM 608221412662

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG

FACULTY OF LETTERS

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

JULY 2012

KESILAPAN TATABAHASA DALAM TEKS BERBENTUK NARASI

YANG DITULIS OLEH SISWA KELAS VIII DI SMP LABORATORIUM

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG

SKRIPSI

OLEH

SYAMSUL ALAM

NIM 608221412662

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG

FAKULTAS SASTRA

JURUSAN SASTRA INGGRIS

JULI 2012

KESILAPAN TATABAHASA DALAM TEKS BERBENTUK NARASI

YANG DITULIS OLEH SISWA KELAS VIII DI SMP LABORATORIUM

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG

SKRIPSI

Diajukan kepada

Universitas Negeri Malang

untuk memenuhi salah satu persyaratan

dalam menyelesaikan program Sarjana

oleh

Syamsul Alam

NIM 608221412662

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG

FAKULTAS SASTRA

JURUSAN SASTRA INGGRIS

JULI 2012

This is to certify that the sarjana’sthesis of Syamsul Alam has been approved by the thesis advisors for further approval by the Board of Examiners.

Malang, 2012Advisor I

Dra. Sri Widyawati, M.Ed.NIP. 19610207 198701 2 001

Malang,Advisor II

Evynurul Laily Zen, S.S., M.A.NIP. 19840514 201012 2 022

i

This is to certify that the Sarjana’s thesis of Syamsul Alam has been approved by the board of examiners as the requirement for the degree of Sarjana in English Language Education.

Drs. Fachrurrazy,M.A., Ph.D.NIP. 19490525 197502 1 001

Dra. Sri Widyawati, M.Ed.NIP. 19610207 198701 2 001

Evynurul Laily Zen, S.S., M.A.NIP. 19840514 201012 2 022

Acknowledged by

Head, English Department

Dr. Johannes A. P. M.Pd., M.Ed.NIP 1958 1028 198601 1 001

ii

Approved by

Dean, Faculty of Letters

Prof. Dr. H. Dawud, M.PdNIP. 19590610 198503 1 005

STATEMENT OF THE SARJANA’S THESIS ORIGINALITY

The undersigned, hereby:

Name : Syamsul Alam

Registration Number : 608221412662

Program : English Languange Teaching

Faculty : Faculty of Letters

declares that this present Sarjana’s thesis describes original research undertaken

for the English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Any

theories, findings, and research techniques which are not my own had been

properly acknowledged in the text. Theoretical contribution and findings in this

thesis are of my own original work and are not, either partially or entirely, copied

from theses for any degree in this or other universities. Should it reveal that my

Sarjana’s thesis contains partly or wholly plagiarized pieces of other’s intellectual

work of any kind, I shall be ready to accept the sanction upon the matter.

iii

Malang, July , 2012

The signee,

Syamsul Alam

ABSTRACT

Alam,Syamsul. 2012.The Grammatical Errors in Narative Texts Made by the Eight Graders at Laboratory Junior High School of State University of Malang. Sarjana thesis, English Language Teaching Program, Faculty of Letters, Undergraduate Program. State University of Malang. Advisors: (I) Dra. Sri Widyawati, M.Ed. (II) Evynurul Laily Zen, S.S., M.A.

Key Words: grammatical error, narrative text.

Learning English becomes more and more important nowadays since English is one of the international languages which can be used to communicate around the world. In Indonesia, English is learnt as a foreign language. Learning a different language is sometimes difficult since the target language has different elements compared to the native language. These differences sometimes cause students to make errors when using it.

In accordance with the standard competencies, one of genres of texts taught to the eighth grade students of Laboratorium junior high school is narrative text which is aimed at telling a story and, in doing so, entertains the audience. The purpose of a narrative, other than providing entertainment, can be to make the audience think about an issue, teach them a lesson, or excite their emotions. Therefore, the students of the eighth grade are expected to master this element well in order to be able to produce a piece of grammatical well-formed narrative writing. However, in learning language, the students cannot avoid themselves from making errors since it is regarded as a part of learning process.

This final project primarily dealt with grammatical error analysis. It described the grammatical errors on narrative texts made by the eight graders at SMP LABORATORY in the academic year of 2011/2012. The qualitative approach was used in which the data were obtained from the students’ narrative text writing. These writings were then analyzed to find the grammatical errors which finally divided into five groups. They were errors in the use of tenses, articles, noun pluralization, pronouns, and conjunctions. The result showed that the students made 729 grammatical errors which were classified into 449 errors in producing tenses, 83 errors in the use of articles 75 errors in pluralization, 69 errors in the use of pronoun, and 53 errors in the use of conjunction. It can also be found that the possible causes of errors were overgeneralization and interference. It was suggested that the students still needed more practices dealing with those five errors since they were the basic knowledge needed for telling their past experiences.

iv

ABSTRAK

Alam,Syamsul. 2012.Kesilapan Tatabahasa Dalam Teks Narasi Yang Ditulis Oleh Para Siswa Kelas VIII SMP Lab UM. Skripsi, Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Program Sarjana.University Negeri Malang.Pembimbing: (I) Dra. Sri Widyawati, M.Ed. (II) Evynurul Laily Zen, S.S., M.A.

Key Words: kesilapan tatabahasa, teks berbentuk narasi.

Mempelajari bahasa Inggris menjadi semakin penting dimasa kini karena kita tahu bahwa bahasa Inggris adalah salah satu bahasa Internasional yang dapat digunakan untuk berkomunikasi di penjuru dunia. Di Indonesia, bahasa Inggris dipelajari sebagai bahasa asing. Mempelajari sebuah bahasa yang berbeda terkadang sulit karena bahasa tersebut memiliki unsur-unsur yang berbeda dibandingkan dengan bahasa asli pembelajar. Perbedaan-perbedaan ini terkadang menyebabkan para siswa melakukan kesilapan ketika menggunakan bahasa tersebut.

Berdasarkan pada standar kompetensi, salah satu jenis teks yang diajarkan terhadap siswa kelas VIII SMP Lab UM adalah teks berbentuk narrative yang bertujuan untuk menggambarkan orang tertentu, benda, atau tempat. Karena teks narrative menceritakan tentang kejadian nyata, salah satu komponen bahasa yang paling sering digunakan adalah preposisi dan komponen bahasa lainnya yang digunakan dalam menulis teks narrative. Oleh karena itu, para siswa kelas VIII diharapkan mampu menguasai bahasa inggris dengan baik agar mereka mampu menulis teks narrative dengan tatabahasa yang baik. Bagaimanapun, dalam mempelajari bahasa, para siswa tidak dapat menghindari diri dari melakukan kesilapan karena itu adalah bagian dari proses belajar.

Tugas akhir ini terutama menguraikan analisis kesilapan tatabahasa. Tugas akhir ini menggambarkan kesilapan-kesilapan tatabahasa dalam teks narrative yang ditulis oleh siswa kelas VIII SMP Lab UM tahun ajaran 2011/2012. Saya menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dimana data yang diperoleh dari tulisan teks narrative para siswa. Kemudian tulisan tersebut dianalisis. Kesilapan tatabahasa diklasifikasikan menjadi lima kelompok. Diantaranya adalah errors in producing verb group, errors in using the tenses group, errors in the use of articles, errors in the use of errors in noun pluralization, errors in the use of pronouns, and errors in the use of conjunctions. Dari hasil pada bab 4, saya dapat menyimpulkan bahwa para siswa melakukan 729 kesilapan tatabahasa yang diklasifikasikan kedalam 449 errors in producing tenses groups, 83 errors in the use of article, 75 errors in pluralization, 69 errors in the use of pronoun, dan 53 errors in the use of conjunction. Dari hasil tersebut dapat disimpulkan bahwa penyebab dari kesilapan tersebut adalah overgeneralization dan interference. Disarankan siswa masih membutuhkan lebih banyak latihan yang berhubungan dengan verb formskarena itu adalah pengetahuan dasar yang diperlukan untuk menceritakan pengalaman masa lalu mereka.

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, the writer would like to praise to Allah, the Almighty, for the

blessing and mercy to the writer during his study and in completing this final

project. He would also be grateful to many people who contributed their ideas and

time to me in completing his final project. He would particularly like to express

his sincere gratitude to Dra. Sri Widyawati, M.Ed.as the first advisor for giving

his guidance and helps to finish the final project. He would like to extend his

sincere thanks to Evynurul Laily Zen, S.S., M.A., the second advisor in improving

his final project for his finalization. The writer would like to dedicate his deepest

gratitude to his father and mother who have given spirit and prayers for his

success. He is also grateful to his biggest spirit Siti Rohmatul Basyariah who has

given him big support and motivation. The writer would like to give his deepest

appreciation to all best friends for their support during his study, Syar Sky, Thono

Lee, Yuslie Pryjez, Nurhayati, Dewi, Revana, Edy Junadi,Wandy Iswandi, Ratna,

Nendek,Acil Iram, Lisa, Leni, Dita, Yusli, Nenek Paci and all people who might

not be mentioned individually here.

The Writer

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL PAGES.......................................................................... i

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY.................................................... iii

ABSTRACT........................................................................................ iv

ABSTRAK.......................................................................................... v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................ vi

TABLES OF CONTENTS.................................................................. vii

LIST OF TABLES............................................................................... xi

LIST OF APPENDICES...................................................................... x

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION................................................... ... 1

1.1 Background of the Study.................................... ... 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem................................... ... 5

1.3 Delimitition of the Study.................................... ... 5

1.4 Significance of the Study.................................. ... 5

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE.................... 6

2.1 The Teaching of English at Junior High School....... 6

2.2 The Teaching of Writing........................................ 8

2.3 Text Typesin Writing........................................ .... 10

2.4 Grammar in Writing.......................................... .... 11

2.5 Errors............................................................... .... 13

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD............................................ 15

3.1 Research Design................................................ .... 15

3.2 Research instrument........................................... 15

3.3 Data Collection.................................................. .... 15

3.4 Population and Sample....................................... 16

vii

3.5 Data Analysis...................................................... .... 17

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.................................. 19

4.1 Findings............................................................. ..... 19

4.2 Discussion................................................................ 22

CHAPTER VCONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS......................... 26

5.1 Conclusions......................................................... 26

5.2 Suggestions......................................................... 27

REFERENCES......................................................................................... 28

APPENDICES.......................................................................................... 30

CURRICULUM VITAE

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table 4.1 The Result of Analysis..................................................... 21

ix

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page

Instruments of DataCollection .......................................................... 31

Students’ Narrative Texts........................................................................ 34

x

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is presented to introduce background of the study, statement

of the problem, delimitation of the study, and significance of the study.

1.1 Background of the Study

English is one of the languages used in international and global

communication. It is used mainly in Britain and its commonwealth all over the

world for instance: Singapore uses English as the second language, Australia uses

it as the first language. Therefore, it has become one of the main languages of

international communication, and even people who are not natives to English

often know English words such as television, hotel, and radio.

English has a significant role in the various fields of activities, and has

wide influences in the world. As an international language, English has been

adopted as a compulsory subject in Indonesia. The Ministry of National Education

has decided that English as the first foreign language which has to be taught in

Indonesia. It has been taught as local content subject for elementary school and as

the compulsory subject for the junior and senior high school. Junior high school as

the writer recognizes, is the time to give more understanding than an elementary

school.

1

2

In these ages, students can catch every lesson in larger amount than when

they are at elementary school. As one of the main levels of education, junior high

school must give their studentthebasic verification aboutlearning English in

special feature. They not only have to be able to mention something in indvidual

words, but also to combine words to be sentences in a good pattern.

In learning English, there are four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and

writing) and components (grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary)to support the

development of those skills. Besides the four skills, grammar as the languange

component becomes the most important element to be mastered by students,

because English is used not only in spoken forms, but also in written one, in

which students needs to combine their words to deliver their messages to the

recipient. So, although students have enough vocabularies and knowledge of

pronounciation, but they cannot combine them into well-formed sentences, the

messages or meaning cannot be delivered well. As a result, grammar is essential

in communication. Without the proper knowledge of grammar, the students will

find many problems to build up the sentences and express their idea for

communication activities, but if the grammar is good, they will be confident in

speaking English. According to Chen (2002), there is no doubt that a knowledge-

implicit of grammatical rule is essential for the mastery of language: you cannot

use words unless you know how they should be put together.

Grammar is the central part in learning English. As the writer explained

before, it is the main point to be mastered by the speaker, because grammar is the

system of a language. Grammar is essentially about the systems and patterns to be

used to select and combine words. By studying grammar speakers come to

3

recognize the structure and regularity which is the foundation of language and

they gain the tools to talk about the language system (de Silva Joyce & Burns,

1999, 4-5).

By having a good grammar language users can manage their words

perfectly. One of the four skill that needs proper grammar ability is writing.

Writing is a method of representing language in visual or tactile form. Its systems

use sets of symbols to represent the sounds of speech, and may also have symbols

for such things as punctuation and numerals. H.G. Wells argued that writing is the

ability to put agreements, laws, and commandments on record.

Writing is important for a literate society. Writing can be an act of

discovery of communication and joy. It connects people to work, culture, society,

and to the existing knowledge. Written language provides the means to convey

“their own and others” (Farman and Dahl, 2003). Writing is the learning process

of shaping experiences in text, allowing the writer to discover, develop, clarify

and communicate thoughts and feelings. Writing requires as well as supports the

development of thinking skills. Learning to write brings the learners into the

literate community as an active participant in the conversation. Writing is media

to expressideas or thoughts.

Nowadays many schools offer programs which enable students to be

competent in the four language skills ( listening, speaking, reading and writing).

Recent study by Alwasilah (in Gunawan, 2002) showed that those schools have

succeeded in producing students who are good at speaking, reading, and listening,

but unfortunately they have failed to produce students who have proficiency in

writing.

4

Dealing with student’s lack of writing skill, Alwalsilah as cited by

Gunawan(2002) pointed out that schools do not know how to teach how to write

because their English teacher fail to provide them with adequate writing skill.

Furthermore, there are other reasons why the learning is difficult for learners.

Limited knowledge of the second language may block students to write. For

instance, a learner who has little knowledge of grammar.

In composing a good writing,writers should notice some aspects. Grammar

is one important aspect that should be mastered in order to produce a well

structured writing. But, writing in different language is not always as easy as

writing in the fist language or native since there are some different rules in the

writing systems and these differences sometimes make writers produce errors.

Writing a narrative text is one kind of writing product that is often given to

the students in junior high school as assignment. The purpose of narrative writing,

according to Wellington (1998) is to entertain, to gain, and hold reader’s interest.

Narrative sequence of people/characters in time and place but differ from recounts

in that thought sequencing, the stories set up one or more problems which must

eventually find a way to be resolved.

In the 2004 Competence-based Curriculum, narrative is taught to the

seventh year students, so the eighth year students have mastered how to write a

good narrative composition in English. They have had the basic knowledge of

making a good composition in English. Therefore, it was a good idea to observe

the grammatical errors in writing made by the eighth year students of junior high

school.

5

Based on the above points, the writer intended analyze to grammatical

errors in writing narrative text made by the eighth year students of SMP

Laboratorium UM Malang.

Referring to those descriptions, this study aimed at analyzing student’s

writing by identying and classifying the grammatical errors in writing narrative

text. It was based on the standard competence and basic competence of junior

high schools in which narrative text is taught to the eighth graders since they are

in the first and second semester.This study was very important because writing

was supposed to be the most difficult subject in teaching-process and there were

skill many students who could not avoid of making errors in the process of

writing.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Based on the research background, the writer formulated the research

problems by dividing them into general and specific problems as follows:

General problem

What kinds of grammatical errors are made by the eight grade students of SMP

Laboratorium UM Malang in writing a narrative text?

Specific problems

1. What is the possible causes of those errors?

1.3 Delimitation of the study

This research had a broad scope and it was impossible for the writer to

handle all problems. Therefore, the writer limited the scope of the study. Here the

writer focused on the grammatical error in narrative text made by eight grade

students of SMP Laboratorium UM Malang.

6

1.4 Significance of the Study

The significance of this study could be classified into two parts, for the

teachers and the students. They study provided description of kinds of errors so

that teachers could find methods to anticipate that. In addition, this study could

also become the reference for students in which they could learn a lot from the

errors in writing narrative text using past tense.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter consists of a number of sub-chapters. They are the teaching

of English at Junior high Schools, the teaching of writing, Text types in writing,

grammar in writing, and errors.

2.1 The Teaching of English at Junior High School

Junior high school students in Indonesia aging 13 till 15 still have several

of personalities and abilities. Early adolescents are in a particularly difficult state

of development. As stated in the website document, Characteristics of Young

Adolescents, “Youth between the ages of 10 to 15 are characterized by their

diversity as they move through the puberty growth cycle at varying times and

rates. Yet as a group they reflect important developmental characteristics that

have major implications for those agencies that seek to serve them.”

Middle school students are experiencing dramatic changes in physical

development, although the rate at which this development occurs varies

individually. Changes in height, weight, and in body chemistry are taking place,

along with rapid sexual development. This heightened physical growth, together

with their tendency to be very active, causes frequent fatigue in early adolescence.

Many of them find it difficult to cope with the many changes taking place in

them and compare themselves unfavorably to their peers. At the same time, they

often concerned about their ability to learn and whether or not they can meet the

expectations of parents and other adults.

6

7

7

From those characteristics, teachers have to be smart in teaching them. As

the writer knows, English has been taught since elementary school level. Some

elementary schools gave it for compulsory subject, and some other elementary

schools put English as the local content. It means that every single student that sits

in the same junior high school class have different English ability and knowledge.

In other words, the role of English teachers in class becomes the most concern.

How they teach English, deliver the lesson, and interact is a long and complex

undertaking. Total commitment, involvement, physical, intellectual, and

emotional responses are necessary to successfully send and receive messages in a

second language. Many variables are involved in the acquisition process.

Language learning is not a set of easy steps that can be programed in a quick do-

it-yourself kit. So much is at the stake that courses in foreign languages are often

inadequate training grounds, in and of themselves, for the successful learning of a

second language.

English teachers not only have to make a good preparation for teaching

junior high school students, but also have to know the characteristics of their

student well, so the goal of teaching and learning activities can be reach. As the

writer know, English has been separated in to some skills ( speaking, listening,

reading, and writing). A good teacher has to master the four skills of English first

before teaching their students in order to give them the right understanding of

English that can make it easier for the students to learn.

8

2.2 The Teaching of Writing

Writing is one of the English skills that has to be mastered by junior high

school students. Besides they have also to master speaking, reading, and listening,

but the most concern in teaching English for junior high school students is

writing. There is no particular definition about writing stated by an author or a

linguist. Strauss in Hartley, et al (1962: 66) stated that “writing might, that is to

say, be regarded as a form of artificial memory, whose development should be

accompanied by a deeper knowledge of the past and, therefore, by a greater ability

to organize the present and the future.” In fact, there are some acts of writing

which can be used as the basis for conceiving the meaning of writing. Those acts

of writing are in line with the development of learning to write through which a

student should pass. Writing involves more than just producing words and

sentences. To be able to produce a piece of writing, student should be able to write

a connected series of words and sentences which are grammatically and logically

linked, so that the purpose they have in their mind will suit to the intended

readers. In this way, it is meant that the style of language used in a piece of

writing designed for people living in the village, for example should be different

from the one designed for educated people such as students, teachers, doctors,

professors, etc. Therefore, in presenting a piece of discourse we should consider

the correctness of form, the appropriateness of style, and the unity of topic

(Harmer, 2004: 2).

9

Writing should be done with the understanding from the past time in order

to inform and express what had happened. It should be well-organized in order to

be understandable for the readers (Harmer, 2004: 3). Just like speaking, writing is

a way of communicating a message to an intended audience. It is a means of

expressing thoughts, ideas, and feelings. By writing the writers may flow out a

burden occupying their mind, offer ideas and concepts to others, and share

knowledge and experiences.

Writing is more than just public communication; it is also a way of

thinking. Writing involves a range of writer’s consciousness. When writers sit

down, holding a pen and facing a piece of paper ready to write, apparently

writers are engaging in more than just one act of consciousness, such as the

contents of thoughts, the style of thoughts, the organization of thoughts, the

purpose of thought, and soon. These acts lead us to create a good and careful

thinking which is strongly needed when writers want to produce a good writing.

(Musthafa, 2001:43)

Writing as one of the four language skills, in real world contexts, is not a

solitary enterprise, it is a social act. It is not an activity in its own right but one

which serves the other skills. So, writing has a relation with grammar,

reading, listening, and speaking.

Most students find foreign language writing is difficult quoted by

Swarbrick (1994:142) that describes five stages of development which students

need to go through in acquiring competence in writing, i.e.: copying,

reproduction, recombination, guided writing, and free writing.

10

Writing involves some activities, before, whilst , and after. The activities

before writing including exploring ideas which could be building vocabulary;

interviewing discussion, meanwhile the activities while whilsting is organizing

ideas including ordering information in a paragraph, writing topic sentences,

limiting information, using a time sequence, making an idea map, categorizing

and making outline, summarizing ideas, writing titles, etc. When we write, we

should develop cohesion and style which includes connecting ideas, adding

details, selecting the correct verb tense, selecting the correct tense, and writing the

first draft.

2.3 Text Types in Writing

There are several types of writing namely descriptive, narrative,

argumentative, persuasive, and many more. Some of them have to be taught to

junior high school students as stated in the curriculum and also have been stated in

the syllabus. One of the writing types that has to be taught to junior high school

students is narrative text.

According to Douglas (2012 ;110) narrative text is a text which contains

story (fiction/non fiction/tales/folktales/fables/myths/epic) and its plot consists of

exposition, rising action falling action, and resolution climax of the story

(complication) then followed by the resolution. A narrative text is a text to amuse,

entertain and deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways. It also

deals with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind

which in turn finds a resolution.

11

The narrative text short story is telling a story or an account of a sequence

of events. Narration differs from exposition, which is also about a sequence of

events, in that narration does not need to be factual and may be written from the

perspective of a character in the text. Douglas also explains that there are the

generic structures of a narrative text by which orientation : that sets the scene and

introduces the participants, complication crisis arises, resolution which the crisis

is resolved, for the better or for the worse, Re-orientation: Optimal, and the

Evaluation that isstepping back to evaluate the difficulty.

Based on those definitions, narrative text is needed to be learnt by junior

high school students because in this time they have already got a lot of basic

knowledge of English. Thus this is the time which is exposedto skills of

combining vocabularies, grammar, particulary tenses to become good sentences

and furthermore, good paragraph.

2.4 Grammar in Writing

Leech et al (1982: 3) defines grammar as something in reference to the

mechanism according to which language works when it is used to communicate

with other people. In addition Harmer (2001: 12) defines grammar as the

description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be

combined into sentences in that language. Gerot&Wignell (1994: 2) state that

grammar is a theory of a language, of how language is put together and how it

works.

12

Having known the definition of grammar, it is not hard for us to

understand why grammar is useful and important. Without knowing the grammar

of a language, one cannot be said to have learned the language. Besides, it seems

impossible to learn a language without learning the grammar because it tells how

to use the language. People learn how to construct a good message based on the

rules they have known and tried to convey the message to the others. These rules

are termed as grammar. The mechanism of grammar cannot be seen concretely,

because it is rather abstractly represented in the human mind, but we know it is

there because it works. One way of describing this mechanism is by means of a

set of rules which allow us to put words together in certain ways which do not

allow others. The meaning of a message conveyed by language has to be

converted into words put together according to grammatical rules and these words

are then conveyed by sounds.

As the writer has stated before, the use of grammar in narrative text

become the significant thing, because the right grammar can make the reader

easily get the message of the text. Narrative text usually makes a use of the simple

past tense to show the time sequence of the story. Simple past tense is one kind of

tense showing the moment or an action that happens in the past. In other words, it

shows an action or situation that began and ended at certain time in the past (Azar,

1999: 27). In addition, Nordquist (2010) defines simple past tense as an action

that occur in the past and does not extend into the present. Simple past tense is

expressed with the past form of the verb. The past form of the verb is divided into

regular verb and irregular verb. Regular verb is marked by the ending -d, -ed, -t

while irregular verbs have a variety of endings. The use of simple past tense in

13

thenarrative form can also help the English teacher measure their student ability in

making a narrative text.

2.5 Errors

Errors are typically produced by people who have not yet fully

commanded some institutionalized language system (Corder, 1974: 29). The

errors themselves are competence errors. According to Corder, true errors are

marker of the learners’ competence. Errors are caused by deficiency in

competence and a shortcoming in the knowledge of language learners when they

have not learnt something correctly. Error refers to the failure to use the system

correctly caused by the lack of the learners’ competence. While mistake refers to

the failures to use the language system correctly caused by some factors such as

carelessness, memory lapses, and physical condition. While error, refers

to the failure to use the system correctly caused by the lack of the learners’

competence.

According to Richards (1974:124), the sources of errors in studying a

language might be derived from the interference of the learners’ mother

tongueand the general characteristics of the rule of learning. The errors that are

caused by the general characteristics of the rule of learning are also called the

intra language errors. And the errors caused by the interference of the learners’

mother tongue are called the inter language errors.

Levenston in James (1998: 255) proposes that students’ erroneous output –

their composition errors in particular – are not one remove, but two removes from

the dictionary’s version. We are not only correcting the errors into what learners

14

want to say but also correcting the errors into what the native speakers would have

said or write.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter is aimed at describing the research method applied in

the study. It covers the research design, research instrument, data

collection, population & sample, and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

This was a descriptive qualitative study by which the researcher investigated

the most dominant errors made by the students in writing narrative texts based on

the result of percentage analysis of data in which was then presented descriptively.

3.2 Research Instrument

The instrument used in this research was a writing test. The writing test

contained question sheets and writing sheets (see Appendix 1). Each of the

question sheet consisted of an outline that guided them into writing a narrative

text and the writing sheets were for the students’ writing. In those sheets, there

were some instructions to be followed by the students.

3.3 Data Collection

To collect the data, the researcher came to Laboratorium Junior High

School of State University of Malang, got the students to write a narrative text,

collected their works, and analyzed them. The data collection was done on March

19, 2012.

15

16

In collecting the data, the researcher gave a task to the students by asking

them to write a narrative text. Before the test was conducted, the researcher firstly

explained the use of simple past tense and the rules in writing narrative text to the

students. Secondly, he held the test by preparing question sheets and answer

sheets. Each of the question sheets consisted of an outline that guided them in

writing a narrative text and the answer sheets were for students’ spaces. Thirdly,

the researcher proctoredthe test very carefully to avoid copying or cheating among

the students. Fourthly, the students were asked to submit their narrative

composition directly to the researcher. Finally, he analyzed the students’ works by

making a list of the students’ errors in using the simple past tense.

3.4 Population and Sample

The population of this study was the eighth graders of SMP Laboratorium

UM in the academic year of 2011/2012 and the samples were the students of

VIII/B.

After determining the population, the researcher chose one class for the

sampling. The researcher chose the eighth graders of SMP Lab UM in the

academic year of 2011/2012 as the population based on the fact that they have

studied the use of simple past tense and have been taught several types of text

including narrative text both in Indonesian and English since they were at the first

year. Based on this consideration, it could be assumed that the students have had

the basic knowledge of the use of simple past tense and writing a narrative text.

17

In order to get the sample, the researcher applied a purposive sampling, he

chose a large class, because it would represent the whole population. The reason

in using this kind of sampling was that the researcher did not have the control over

all the population.

There are six classes of the eighth graders of SMP Lab UM. Each of them

consisted of 32, 38, 32, 31, 33, and 18 students, and the total number of the

population was 185 students. The researcher took all students in VIII/B as the

samples from the total number of population. Those 38 students were taken as the

samples because it would save time to analyze the data and also because the

researcher could not control the whole population.

3.5 Data Analysis

In analyzing data, the researcher has done several steps:

(1) Identifying errors

In this step, the researcher studied the collected data and tried to find out

the grammatical errors by bolding the errors. The researcher tried to analyze the

data as objective as possible.

(2) Classifying errors

At this stage the researcher classified all the errors found into different

categories of errors. The researcher had not established any particular principles at

classification.

(3) Putting errors into the table

Once the errors were calculated and arranged, the researcher put the result

of the analysis in a table. This table was meant to ease the identification of the

percentage of each error.

18

Therefore, the result of the analysis of the grammatical errors in narrative made by

the students of immersion class in the eighth grade was presented in the form of a

table.

(4) drawing a conclusion

The last step was drawing a conclusion based on the result of analysis. In

this step, the researcher had to make a valid conclusion in the form of a brief

description of the errors.

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After conducting the research, the findings and its discussion are presented in

this chapter.

4.1 Findings

As previously stated in Chapter I, this study was meant to explain the

grammatical errors in narrative writing made by the students of immersion class in

eight year of SMP Laboratorium Malang. After collecting and analyzing the data,

the researcher found that there were some various narrative texts. In term of the

length of the text, from the total 37 paper sheets, the longest paragraph that the

researcher found here contained twenty sentences, and the shorter paragraph only

contained six sentences. In those narrative texts, there are a lot of grammatical

errors. There were 5 classifications of the errors. Seven hundred and twenty-nine

(729) were classified as follows:

a. Errors in the use of tenses = 449

b. Errors in the use of articles = 83

c. Errors in pluralization = 75

d. Errors in the use of pronouns = 69

e. Errors in the use of conjunctions = 53

19

20

As stated in the previous chapter that in calculating the frequency of each

error, the writer employed the following formula:

P = ∑N

n 1

x 100%

in which :

P : percentage of each error

N1: total of a given error

∑ N : Total of the whole errors

The frequency calculation of each error can be described as follows:

(1) Errors in using tense.

Students made 449 errors, the total errors is 729. So, the frequency of this

error was:

∑❑ 449729

( x100 )%

P= 61, 5 %

(2) Errors in the use of articles.

Errors of article usage was 83, the total errors is 729. So, its frequency

was:

∑❑ 83729

( x 100 )%

P= 11, 3 %

(3) Errors in the use of pluralization.

20

21

The occurrence of this error was 75, the total errors was 729. So, its

frequency of this errors was:

∑❑ 75729

( x 100 )%

P= 10, 2 %

(4) Errors in the use of pronouns.

The errors in the use of pronoun was 69. So, its frequency was:

∑❑ 69729

( x 100 )%

P= 9, 4 %

(5) Errors in the use of conjunctions.

Error found in this goup was 53. So, its frequency was:

∑❑ 53729

( x 100 )%

P= 7, 2 %

The result of the analysis can be seen in below.

Table 4.1 The Percentage of Errors

No Type of error Total of error Percentage

1 Errors in the use of tenses 449 61, 5%

2 Errors in the use of articles 83 11,3%

3 Errors in pluralization 75 10,2 %

4 Errors in the use of pronouns 69 9,4 %

5 Errors in the use of 53 7,2 %

21

22

conjunctions

4.2 Discussion

The discussion presented in this subchapter related to the research findings.

The errors were be written in bold and discussed as follows:

(1) Errors in the use of tenses.

Errors in the use of tenses that occured in this type of errors were simple

past tense errors. It was the most frequent error made by the students. In using

tenses, there were some rules to be obeyed, such as: the form of the sentence. In

this case, students had to be able to use an appropriate form of the sentence

whether it is active or passive voice. In writing narrative text, past tense is usually

applied since it tells something happen in the past. These rules were complex so

that the students often make errors in this area. Some of the errors are illustrated

as follows:

a. He was fishing a rifer, and he catching a gold fish. b. The prince falling in love with she.

Here the students made errors in producing the right form of the past verb.

They failed to put the form to explain what their sentence was about. In this case,

students needed to arrange their sentence in past tense form (S + V2). In the

sentences a and b, the student failed to figure out the narrative sentences that use

past tense form.

The sentences should have been:

22

23

a. He was fishing in the river, and he caught a gold fish.

b. The prince fell in love with her.

(2) Errors in the use of articles.

The uses of article in this case become the important thing to discuss.

Students have to put the right articles in the right forms. According to Eddie

(2012, 1) an article (abbreviatedART) is a word (or prefix or suffix) that

combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun.

Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun which is in some

languages extended to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English

language are the and a/an, and (in some contexts) some. 'an' and 'a' are modern

forms of the Old English 'an', which in Anglion dialects that was the number 'one'

(compare 'on', in Saxon dialects) and survived into Modern Scots as the number

'ane'. Both 'on' (respelled 'one' by the Normans) and 'an' survived into Modern

English, with 'one' used as the number and 'an' ('a', before nouns that begin with a

consonant sound) as an indefinite article. The rules here also made it difficult for

the students and they made some errors as follows:

a. Her boy friend is monster.b. A finally, they together back.c. One upon the time, a boy named Malin Kundang.

Here, the student failed to put the right article in the right form. In

sentences a, b, and c, students arranged their sentence by putting the wrong

23

24

articles, so, the message of the sentence about cannot be delivered well. The

sentences should have been:

a. Her boyfriend is a monster

b. Finally, they are back.c. Once upon a time, there was a boy, named MalinKundang.

(3) Errors in pluralization

According to the Oxford dictionary, pluralization is a form relating to, or

constituting a class of grammatical forms usually used to denote more than one or

in some languages more than two. The use of pluralization also has certain form.

The rules of pluralization make students difficult in arranging their sentences in

the right rules. The errors were as follows:

a. A girlsalready have couples.b. Two steps sisters, and steps mother. c. She lived with an old women

To mark a plural, students cannot only directly add “s” at the end of the

nouns, but they also have to know the right rule to do. So the message can be

delivered well. The sentence a, b, and c, should have been:

a. The girl has a boyfriend.b. Two step sisters, and step mother.c. She lived with an old woman.

(4) Errors in the use of pronoun

Pronoun is a pronoun (Lat: pronomen). It is a pro-form that substitutes

for a noun (or noun phrase), such as, it that substitutes for a thing or object and

24

25

she that substitutes a femal. The replaced noun is called the antecedent of the

pronoun. The use of pronoun in some cases brings them difficulties as it was

illustrated below.

a. His mother passed away when she was a child.b. Her name is prince Yudha.c. Because she step mother forbid she to go out.

In the a, b, and c, sentences showed that students failed to substitutes

nouns with the right pronouns. The wrong pronouns can make the sentence

become strange, The sentences above should have been:

a. Her mother was passed away when she was childb. His name is prince Yudha.c. Because her step mother forbids her to go out.

(5) Errors in the use of conjunction

The uses of right conjunction was the last part to discuss. Conjunctions are

used to connect words. They connect not only words, but also phrases and clauses.

The rules in using them are the same with the rules in Indonesian. Despite the

same rules, the students still make errors in this part which were as follows:

a. A prince come to snow white the prince kissed her.b. Bobowalked in the village he met a child c. Rahma is good janiis devil.

In the three sentences above, the students seem confused in recognizing

the correct form of the conjunctions. They just put conjunctions without

considering the correct form of conjunctions which were suited to the sentences.

They generalized what we do in making past verb form to what we do with

conjunctions. The sentences should have been:

25

26

a. A prince come to the snow with, and kissed her.b. Whenbobo walking in the village, he met a childc. Rahma is a good girl, butjani is a bad girl.

26

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGESTION

After doing the analysis and presenting the results, the conclusion and

suggestion of this study were presented in this last chapter.

5.1 Conclusion

According to the findings, it can be concluded that the students have not

mastered the use of tenses. It could be seen from the number of the error made.

Although they had been taught about it before, they were still confused which one

to use when arranging sentences. It could because in bahasa Indonesia they do not

have the verb conjunctions. They do not have time signaling in expressing ideas.

They are unfamiliar to this form and because English is still foreign for them.

Some errors that happen in the writing narrative text might be caused of

the students’ confusion in deciding the right tenses. Since bahasa Indonesia has no

special rules to state past time activity.

In the matter of errors in pluralization, students offten overgeneralized the

rule of plural. They just added the -s/-es without considering that there are some

irregular forms of nouns.

In the use of pronoun, students were still confused in deciding which

pronoun should be used to substitute nouns, whether it has personal, relative,

possessive, or demonstrative pronouns. The students applied rules in forming past

time verb to conjunctions. From the explanations above, the researcher can

26

27

conclude that the students were confused in dealing with English grammar

systems.

5.2 Suggestions

Based on the findings, the researcher would like to offer some suggestions

to be considered in the teaching to improve the students writing ability.

The classification of errors made by students should be used as

resources for teachers to find and apply a new methods in which he/she explain

the correct uses of the verb ( when to use past and present ) forms, gives

examples of the usage, and tests the students understanding which will assure the

teacher that the student really understand. In addition, the teacher should give

more exercises in applying grammar not only by giving the theory of grammar.

Because the student seem not quite understand how to differentiate between the

use of present form of the verbs.

Student can also take advantages of the finding of this study to learn from

authentic materials, so that they will not make similar errors in the future.

28

REFERENCES

Azar, B.S. 1999. Understanding and Using English Grammar.New York: Pearson Education.

Corder, S. 1974. Techniques in applied linguistics. In Edinburgh course in applied linguistics, 3, ed. J. P. B. Allen and S. Pit Corder. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

De Silva Joyce, H. & Burns, A. 1999. Focus on Grammar. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.  

Farman, A. & Dahl, S. 2003. Children’s Writing : Research and Practice. In Flood, J. (ed). Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts . New Jersey : Lawrence Erlbaum.

Gerot, L and P. Wignell. 1994. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney: Antipodean Educational Enterprises (ÆE).

Harmer, J. 2001.The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman Group Limited.

Harmer, J. 2004. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex: Pearson Education.

Hartley, J. and R. Male. 1962. Reading and writing. Alternate Edition. The United States of America: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Inc.

James. 1998. Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman.

Jan Wellington. 2005. "Travel Narrative" Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography. Ed. Victoria Boynton and Jo Malin. Greenwood Press.

Leech, et al. 1982.English Grammar for Today. Basingstoke /London: The Macmillan Press.

Musthafa, B. 2001. Communicative Language Teaching in Indonesia: issues of Theoretical Assumptions and Challenges in Classroom Practice. English Quarterly: A Publication of the Canadian Council of Teachers of Teaching of English Language Arts, Vol 33 Nos 1&2 (ps. 63-67). University of British Columbia: Vancouver, Canada

29

Nordquist, R. 2010. Past Tense (Simple Past).(Online), (http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pasttenseterm.htm), accessed on 12February 2012.

Richards, J. C. 1974. Error Analysis. London: Longman Group.

Richards, G. & Rodgers, J. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching.Oxford: Longman

Swarbrick, A. 1994. A la recherché du stylo perdu. In A. Swarbrick (Ed.) Teaching Modern Languages. London: The Open University.

Wellington, J. 2007. The Narrative Genre. (Online)(http://www.Wellingtonjanos.com.au/grenarrative.htm), accessed on 09 January 2012.

30