CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ‘This thesis discusses errors which are found in paragraphs made by the freshmen of the English Department in academic year 2016/2017. This chapter is intended to present and discuss the background of the research, the research problem, the research significance, scope of the study, and the definition of key terms. 1.1 Background of The Research Language is a tool for people to communicate with others. Without language, people cannot express and show what they have in their mind. In using @ language, people use it for giving information about everything. People use language in the form of oral and written form. People use oral form of language in face to face conversation, long distance conversation such as calling by phone, Skype, video call etc, In using the written form of a language, people usually communicate in the form of sending short messages or emails. They use written forms of a language to give information such as in news, articles, and magazines. Writing can be categorized as a productive skill because the writer creates w in a written form. Before creating something, the writer should master something ne skill that second first about what he/she wants to write. Writing is the most important language students need to develop, and the ability to teach writing is the central to the expertise of a well-trained language teacher (Hyland, 2004).Writing is considered as a complex skill to learn among the other skills. Widiati and Cahyono (2006) stated that writing is the most complex skill compared to iculties for students is the the other skill. One of the factors that causes the di influence of the mother tongue. The influence of students’ mother tongue (L1) on the acquisition can make the learners find difficulties in using the correct structure, or forms in writing English. The different structure between Bahasa Indonesia and English may cause difficulties for learners. For example, in English there is plural suffix but not in Bahasa Indone: As foreign learners, the freshmen might get difficulties in writing. To reduce the difficulty in writing, it is important to understand first the basic system of a language. In English writing structure, this includes knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. As writing is not something easy to do, the author usually makes errors in writing. Raimes (1983) said that writing is an area in which students commit errors and it is helpful in students’ learning because of the some reasons. Nevertheless, freshmen make errors in writing because of several reasons. The reason is that it is possible if students lack of grammar understanding. Azar (1999) said that understanding and using English grammar is a developmental skill from intermediate to advance students of English as a second or foreign language. She classified grammar into several chapters such as tenses, subject-verb agreement, nouns, pronouns, modals, passive, noun clauses, adjective clauses, adverb clauses, gerunds and infinitives, coordinating conjunctions, connectives and conditional sentences. Since grammar has so many subjects to learn, it is possible thatall chapters. Besides, they are not accustomed the students feel imperfect in mastering method which emphasize on the with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) for freshmen especially using of each grammar subjects. However, it is compulsory for students of English Department to use the correct grammar in writing. ‘The next reason is that there are external factors such as the lack of reading interest. Reading can influence the freshmen ideas in writing, so that they can enhance their vocabulary mastery to help them use appropriate words in paragraph make, and vice versa. It writing. The fewer freshmen read, more mistakes they will means students will get a lot of vocabulary if they want to read more. Wilis (2008) stated that with enhanced vocabulary, students grow in skills of verbal fluency, writing and comprehension. The third reason is that a writer needs a lot of time to compose his/her idea. ‘The writers need more time to construct the word into a sentence and sentences into a paragraph. They tend to write what they have in mind without really comprehend the pattern and grammar. Students will have difficulties to compose their ideas when they were asked to write in limited time. They will feel worried if they do not finish their work on time. Moreover, if the students do not know the good technique of writing and compose the words well, the information that they want to write will not be delivered well. It is natural if freshmen make so many errors as they are foreign language learners. They might make errors in writing in terms of the foreign language rulesbecause they lack knowledge of it. Their first language also has influence in their writing. It happens when they use the pattern of their first language into the target language without comprehending it first. For example, in Bahasa Indonesia the freshmen usually write “Ani cantik sekali”, but in English they could not write “Ani beautiful very”. Transfer error, which is also called as interference is the use of native-language pattern or rule which leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language (Richards and Schmidt, 2002). Here, the freshmen of English Department have been studying for two semesters in State University of Malang. In the first semester, they get Intensive Course (IC) which is a compulsory program for them. In IC class, students are drilled to improve their grammatical competence. The general objective of Intensive Course is on the correct use of basic English structure, vocabulary, pronunciation, stress and intonation in oral communication through intensive and integrated classroom practice (Catalogue Department of English, 2016). In other words, it makes the students ready to get advanced courses for the following semester. Moreover, error in learning process is naturally for the learners. People call errors can also be seen as learning development. Students should be encouraged to experiment with language so that they can take more learning steps. Unless students make errors, they cannot work out better rules for how to express, in spoken or written form what they want to say.[Unik ——_—_ On the other hand, errors without correction may lead into fossilization. nt incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms Fossilization is the relatively perm into a person's second language competence (Brown, 2007). Thus, the researcher is interested to find the types of error that freshmen made to avoid the fossilization. Furthermore, Dulay et al. (1982) state that studying learners errors serves two major purposes. First it provides data from which inferences about the nature of the language learning process can be made and indicates to teachers curriculum developers which part of the target language students have most difficulty producing correctly and which errors types detract most from a learners ability to communicate effectively. It means that by looking over the students errors, the lecturer will be able to know how far the students have mastered the writing and what the students” difficulties are in writing. There are some studies related to error analysis conducted by previous researchers. Rama (2015) found that the students still had some difficulties in determining the correct tense, punctuation, and word spelling. In addition, they were lacking of understanding in English structure, and mechanics. They were caused by inadequate knowledge of English. Faizin (2014) found out 426 errors in students’ writing in his thesis entitled “Grammatical Errors Made by the Eight Graders of SMP Negeri 3 Kota Malang in Writing a Recount Text”. The conclusion of his study was the students have difficulties in writing a recount text. The conclusion can be drawn from thegrammatical errors they made. The most frequent error is misformation error that - 45.5% “ cached I. appeared 194 times. The second most frequent error was omission error. Itc 10 129 times error. It came up to 129 times and reached 30.3%. Then there was addition error that came up to 76 times and reache 9 same up times and reached 17.8%. The last was misordering errors that scurred for 27 times and reac! rors mad occurred for 27 times and reached 6.4%. Mubarok (2014) found out 46 error le by 30 students. fr c ii ¥y 30 students. The most frequency errors in his study was error of omission that reached 48.9% by 229 total errors. Based on previous studies, the researcher concluded that there are still many difficulties faced by the learners in learning the target language, English, especially in written form. Therefore, the researcher identified the kinds of error made by freshmen students in English Department. Some previous researchers conducted research at school level, such as junior high schoo! but there was no other researcher who conducted error analysis research in college level in English Department Freshmen who are majoring in English Language Teaching. 1.2 Research problem Based on the background above, the research problems are formulated as follows. What are the most dominant types of grammatical errors made by English Department freshmen in writing paragraphs? What are the freshmen’s opinions about the possible causes of errors in their writing?1.3 Theoretical Framework Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing based on Dulay et al (1982). They are those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norm of mature language performance. People realize that making errors is an inevitable part of learning. They cannot learn language without committing errors. ‘The error analysis can be characterized as an attempt to account for learner errors that could not be explained or predicted by contrastive analysis or behaviorist theory, and to bring the field of applied linguistics into step with the current climate of theoretical opinion. In these respects errors analysis has been most successful. It has made a significant contribution to the theoretical consciousness-raising of applied linguistics and language practitioners. It has brought the multiple origins of learners errors for our attention. Finally, it has succeeded in elevating the status of errors from complete undesirability to the relatively special status of research object, curriculum guide, and indicator of learning stage. On other side, error analysis also has some weakness. They are (1) the confusion of error description of errors with error explanation (the process and product aspects of error analysis); (2) the lack of precision and specificity in the definition of error categories; and (3) simplistic categorization of the causes of learners errors.Error analysis is useful in second language learning because this will give information to teachers, syllabus designers and textbook writers and the problem areas. They can also use to design remedial exercises and focus more attention on the trouble spots. Corder (1974) suited that “The study of errors is part of the investigation of the process of language learning. In this respect it resembles methodologically the study of the acquisition of the mother tongue. It provides us with a picture of the linguistic development of a leaner and may give us indications as to the learning process.” A surface strategy taxonomy highlights the ways surface structures are altered. Learners may omit necessary items or add unnecessary one, they may misform items or misorder them. Analyzing errors from a surface strategy perspective holds much promise for researchers concerned with identifying cognitive process that underlie the learners reconstruction of the new language. It also makes us aware that learners’ errors are based on some logic. The researcher use surface strategy taxonomy because it commonly used by the researcher who conducted the research in error analysis. 1.4 Research Significance The finding of the study provides benefits for the lectures of English Department and future researchers. The finding of the research helped the lecturers in knowing the students difficulties in writing, so they can give more attention to thosedifficulties. Besides, the teachers have to be able to motivate and support English Department students especially the freshmen in academic year 2016/2017 to be more skillful in writing. For the future researchers, this study could be a reference for them who want to conduct a similar study. 1.5 Scope of the Study This study was conducted in the English Department of State University of Malang. It analyzed the grammatical errors found in the students paragraph writing. The subjects were the students of the English Language Teaching study program of academic year 2016/2017. The analysis attempted to view the most dominant writing errors made by the freshmen in their own paragraph writing. 1.6 Definition of Key Terms These are the following terms and definitions used in the study. Errors: Error is defined as an instance of language that deviates from standard English grammar. Errors are the flawed side of conversation or composition that deviated from selected norm of mature language performance. Dulay et al (1982)Grammar: The system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence: Grammar is one of Janguage component which really affect the delivery of an idea or information. “The technique for identifying an¢ describing errors made DY Error analysi: students systematically.CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHOD search design, subject of the apter deals with the presentation of re This chi ment, and data analysis- study, data sources, research instru 2.1 Research Design grammatical error analysis of freshmen in the ‘This study deals with the describe the finding of his students’ paragraph writing. The researcher wanted to analysis about the errors that were artment in s. The data were reported descriptively. The de priate because, the researcher cou! errors, defines made by freshmen in English Dep writing clas: sign of this study is using criptive quantitative. The design is appro nt the reentage. Then identifying the types of s into the target language des most frequent errors using pel the errors, explain them and then reconstructs the erroneou: and puts all of those data collected in a table form. USC Libraries (2017) also noted that quantitative had some characteristics the research study can usually be in the form of numbers and statistics, that the data ii arly defined research question to replicated or repeated, and the researcher has a cle: which objective answers are sought. The overarching aim of a quantitative research ount them, and construct statistical models in an attempt study is to classify features, to explain what is observed.2.2 Subjects of Study The subjects in this study were the second semester students in academic year ¥y of Malang. The students who 3016/2017 of English Department of State Universit became the subjects were 39 students from different classes. 2.3 Source of Data oduct made by The data sources of this study were the paragraphs writing pr 39 students from several classes in English Department Students of State University of Malang. The texts written by the students varied in length and quality. Subsequently, the written products were identified by the Surface Strategy Taxonomy by Dulay et al. (1982). The researcher used Surface Strategy Taxonomy because of the preciseness in terms of classification of the errors. 2.4 Research Instrument In gathering the data, the researcher used the freshmen assignment and Surface Strategy Taxonomy (see Appendix) to analyze the errors. There are four ulay (1982) in Language Two. They are omission, addition, types of error based on Di ssion error is characterized by the absence of an misformation and misordering. Omi ce. Addition error is characterized by item that must appear in a well-formed utteran' rmed utterance. Actually, the presence of an item which must not appear in a well-fotthis is the opposite of om; tem psite of omiss; r mission. If omission is identified by the absence of an item but addition is identifi the pre em rr om ° ied by the pre: * the presence of an item. Misformation e ror is "1 characterizs by the use of wre 3 ng form of morphem: in norpheme or structi lure in a sentence. Misorderin; 1g error happened when there are ate incorrect placements of a morpheme or group of morpheme in an utterance, The researcher al intervi IS0 used interview guide to collect the data related to second research problem of this i Of this study Which is to know the freshmen opinion about their writing class. The interview ouj g © interview guide which contained eight questions had been validated by th ii i y the advisors. The advisors were validated the interview guide by add and eliminate some questions, 2.5 Data Collection In collecting the data, the researcher was assisted by one lecturer because the others lecturers did not allowed the researcher to conduct research in their classes. The data were collected in March 2017. The researcher collected data from two classes of ELT in academic year 2016/2017. He chose those classes because it has the same topic and already represented the English Department population. Then he collected the students’ assignment from the lecture and scanned it because the lecture should give it back to the students.2.6 Data Analysis The data analysis in this study was done by using qualitative analysis and reported it descriptively. In this study, the researcher did several steps in analyzing the data. First, he collected the sentences that contained errors. Then he separated them manually based on the types of errors. After that, the researcher classified them into the table of Surface Strategy Taxonomy by Dulay et al. (1982). Subsequently, the researcher took one sentence as the representative of the whole error made by freshmen. In addition, the researcher revised it based on the correct grammatical rules. The researcher also used the table to present the types of error, frequency and the Percentage. 2.6.1 Identifying the Errors The researcher only focused on the grammatical errors in the freshmen graph writing. The researcher analyzed each sentence accurately and carefully. He used Understanding and Using Grammar by Azar (1999) as a guidance to determine the exact errors that were made by freshmen. 2.6.2 Classifying the Errors The next step is the errors that had been identified then classified in some categories by using Surface Strategy Taxonomy proposed by Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982: 150-163). The errors were divided into four categories which areerrors of omission, errors of addition, errors of misformation and errors of misordering. 2.6.3 Tabulating the Errors The frequency of errors of each classification is revealed by using a formula described as follows: N X=77x 100% Xx : The percentage of error type N : The number of particular types of error Nt : The total number of all types of error