IDENTIFYING WRITTEN ERRORS IN CONCLUSION THESIS MADE BY EFL

STUDENTS OF ELESP ULM IN THEIR UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Case-based Project in Error Analysis

Course : Error Analysis

Lecturer : Elvina Arapah, M.Pd.

HEANDHYS EKA PUTRI

(1910117220040)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
LAMBUNG MANGKURAT UNIVERSITY
BANJARMASIN
2021
 IDENTIFYING WRITTEN ERRORS IN CONCLUSION THESIS MADE BY EFL
STUDENTS OF ELESP ULM IN THEIR UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

The Background of The Study

As one of the categories of higher education facilities, universities require their
students to write a final research report, which is usually called a thesis. Thesis is generally
written by students taking a particular major or postgraduate program as a condition for
completing all the selected courses and the key to graduation.
In writing a thesis, it is necessary to pay attention to the main points of scientific
writing, such as research background, research questions, and literature review, research
methodology, data analysis, findings, conclusions, and suggestions. However, the conclusion
becomes a very important part of every scientific paper. Because in this section we must be
able to package all the discussions of a scientific paper in a short, clear, and make a good
impression on the reader. USC Libraries states "a conclusion is a piece of writing designed to
help readers understand why research is important to readers after they have finished reading
your article. A conclusion is not just a summary of the main research topic discussed or a
restatement of your research problem, but also a synthesis of the points covered. the main
point". So, it is very important for us to be able to write conclusions with the correct
grammar. Especially in writing an English thesis. because if we spell it wrong, then the
meaning can be different.
English is one of the basic courses at colleges or universities in Indonesia, but
students who speak English as a foreign language are proven to keep writing the wrong form
of English, both in the form of morphology and syntax levels. Kusumawardhani (2017: 84)
found in his research that foreign learners of English still make omission errors due to lack of
knowledge of grammar.
In order to improve the quality of university graduates, especially in the fields of
research and publication of scientific works, it is necessary to analyze English grammar
errors in universities that hold undergraduate programs of English education studies.
However, there must be an appropriate analytical method to use. So, the Error Analysis (EA)
method is the answer. Error analysis aims to tell us something about the psycholinguistic
process of language learning. Gass and Selinker (2008:102) define Error Analysis as a type of
linguistic analysis that focuses on errors made by learners.
Samples
This research was conducted on the thesis of EFL ELESP ULM students. There are
345 types of undergraduate thesis for English education and I chose 3 similar students’ theses
to be the object of this research. To determine the participant of this study, we used a simple
random sampling method. Simple random sampling is a randomly selected subject of a
population. So, we randomly selected 3 theses with similar titles from 345 English theses to
be the sample of this research. The 3 sample theses that I chose are about textbook analysis in
the conclusion section. In the thesis, this part is often underestimated so that the author is less
carefull in writing it.
Data Collection Procedure
Procedure of data collection is necessary in research. According to (Gay 1992:20),
there are some methods in collecting data namely test, interview, observation and
documentation. In this research, the process of data collection used documentation. The data
were collected by reading and identifying the conclusion of textbook as the sample. Then, the
data will be analyze for writing errors, which include spelling and grammatical errors.
Data Collection
Tables below are the data display complied from the theses. It shows 3 kesimpulan skripsi
yang ditulis author berdasarkan sample.
Numb The Title of The conclusion of The Thesis
Undergraduate Thesis
1. AN ANALYSIS OF From the findings of this research, the researcher finds
ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH out that Remembering level has the highest frequency of
TEXTBOOK “WHEN activities. It is followed by Applying, Understanding,
ENGLISH RINGS A Analyzing, Creating and the least Evaluating level.
BELL” FOR THE Regarding the findings, it can be concluded that the
SEVENTH GRADE OF activities in the textbook required all cognitive level and
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL both LOTS and HOTS even though the levels were not
BASED ON COGNITIVE fairly divided. LOTS, which include Remembering,
LEVEL OF REVISED Understanding and Applying level, had 130 activities in
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY total or 90% while HOTS only has 14 activities or 10% of
the activity. Therefore, it is implied that most activities in
the textbook “When English Rings a Bell” for seventh
grade of Junior High School published by the Ministry of
Education and Culture are categorized as lower level of
thinking. The researcher also finds out that Remembering
level was the most dominant cognitive level used in
“When English Rings a Bell” textbook for seventh grade
of Junior High School. There are 85 activities of total 144
activities or 59% of the activities are categorized as
Remembering level. And, the least dominantly applied is
Evaluating level which only have 1 activity of a total 144
activities or 1%.
 2. A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY
ON TEXTBOOK
ANALYSIS FOR EIGHTH
GRADE JUNIOR HIGH
SCHOOLS OF SMPN 1
BANJARMASIN
Based on the findings that the researcher has found
during the research, the researcher can conclude: English
textbook “Bright 2” has met the criteria which are
suggested by BNSP 2013 in terms of its content. This
book contained three from four domains existed in the
2013 curriculum. Those domains are 1) affective domain,
2) cognitive domain and 3) psychomotor domain.
Therefore, this book can be used as a supplementary book
for teaching English in the classroom. The textbook had
fullfilled the criteria of good book in terms of its content
based on the checklist item of BSNP 2013. Moreover, the
book consists of materials which were suitable and
relevant for eight grade students.

3. ANALYSIS ON AN It can be concluded from the result of data analysis that

ENGLISH TEXTBOOK
FOR THE ELEVENTH
GRADE STUDENTS
ENTITLED “BAHASA
INGGRIS” USED IN SMA
NEGERI 1
BANJARMASIN
textbook for the eleventh grade students entitled “Bahasa
Inggris” is good enough to be used although the writer
categorized the textbook as “fair” because the percentage
of feasibility of the content did not reach up to 100%.
This textbook only got score 70.58%, Even though the
textbook did not get score 100%, the textbook has
fulfilled all the core and basic competence of curriculum
2013. The textbook also applied student-centered
teaching and learning method that is the main concern in
curriculum 2013. The percentage of feasibility of the
content did not reach up to 100% because it found that
the textbook is lack on listening material. There were no
materials or exercises in term of listening skill for
students to practice. Whereas it is important for the
textbook to present four skills (listening, speaking,
reading, and writing) in a balanced way. In conclusion, to
overcome the deficiencies of this textbook in aspect of
listening material, teachers should have to look the
material or exercise from other sources like internet or
cassette in order to help students to fulfill students’ needs
toward listening skill.

Data analysis
Based on the table containing the title and conclusion of the thesis, I chose the errors
that were most often made by students to be analyzed in this study. They showed that most of
the mistakes students made in writing conclusions were in grammar and punctuation. The
table below is a display of data compiled from student errors that I analyzed.
 Grammar Punctuation
Understanding and Applying level, had130 ac
it can be concluded that the activities in the te
tivities in total or 90% while HOTS only has
xtbook required all cognitive level (levels)
14 activities (90%, while)
The Ministry of Education and Culture arecat And, the least dominantly applied is Evaluatin
egorized as lower level of thinking (lower g level which only have 1 activity
levels) of a total 144 activities or 1%. (level, which)
It can be concluded from the result of data ana
And, the least dominantly applied is Evaluatin lysis that textbook for the eleventh grade stud
g level which only have 1 activity of a total ents entitled “Bahasa Inggris” is good enough 
144 activities or 1%. (only has) to be used although the writer categorized the
textbook as “fair” (used, although)
The textbook had fulfilled the criteria of good
book in terms of its content based on the
checklist item of BSNP 2013. (a good book)
because the percentage of feasibility of the
content did not reach up to 100%. (the
feasibility)
This textbook only got score 70.58%. (a
score)
because it found that the textbook is lack on li
stening material. (of)

The errors are highlighted in red, while correcting words are shown in green. For
example, in the word 'levels' in grammar, because the previous word indicates something
plural, the word that should be written is 'levels'. Next, on the word 'lower level' in the
grammar column, the correct word should be 'lower levels' because there is a confusion
between the singular and plural form of a noun. In addition, the word 'only have' is not true
because of the mismatch between the plurality of the verb and the subject, so the correct word
is 'only has'. Another word that I corrected was 'good book', in this word, the author did not
write the article 'an' at the beginning of the word. Just like the word 'feasibility' which is also
lacking in writing articles at the beginning of the word, namely 'the'. The error also still
occurs in the word 'score' which does not have the article 'an' at the beginning of the word.
The last correction in the grammar column is on the preposition 'on', the correct use of the
preposition should be 'off' because it refers as a reference to the word 'textbook'
In addition to this analysis, the writer of the English thesis also made a mistake
because it did not accompany the punctuation marks, so that it could confuse the reader with
the meaning. Just like in the grammar table, corrected words are shown in green; for example,
'Understanding and Applying level, had130 activities in total or 90% while HOTS only has
14 activities. Total or 90%, while HOTS only has 14 activities. In addition, in the sentence
'And, the least dominantly applied is Evaluating level, which only has 1 activity of a total of
144 activities or 1%. ' The author also does not add a comma (,) after the word 'level' and
highlight my word correction with green color becomes 'level, which'. The last sentence I
corrected was 'It can be concluded from the result of data analysis that textbook for the
eleventh grade students entitled “English” is good enough to be used, although the writer
categorized the textbook as “fair” ' on words with colors The red should also be marked with
a comma after the word 'used' and the corrected form should be written in green.
 In writing a thesis, in the conclusion section which only has one or two paragraphs,
the author still often makes grammatical errors and use punctuation marks, so the author
needs to study more deeply about writing to produce a good scientific paper.
Discussion
The results of the data analysis revealed that grammatical errors in writing the thesis in the
conclusion section still appeared in a fairly large number or more often than errors or lack of
use of punctuation marks. They are obtained after the data are collected and identified by
using reverse application.The category of writing errors in the conclusion of the thesis written
by ELESP ULM students was significant to reveal the cause of the errors, where all the
grammatical errors found in this data set were caused by intra-language errors. As a sign of
lack of knowledge of L2 structure, intra-language errors indicate that students writing
conclusions may not have complete knowledge of English structure and adequate ability to
apply standard English grammar.
The findings of this data reveal that in this data set, the source of errors is caused by inter-
language and intra-language errors. In other words, the grammatical errors found in this data
set are not caused solely by L1 interference. In line with these findings, research conducted
by Dinamika and Hanafiah (2019) found that the syntax errors made by students of the
English Department at Lambung Mangkurat University were also influenced by the L2
factor.
Conclusion

This study aims to find errors in the analysis of students' thesis writing errors in the
conclusion section through reading and identifying. The aim is to contribute pedagogical
knowledge to EFL learners, especially which types of errors and English writing skills need
improvement for EFL learners. The results showed that most of the students did not write
sentences correctly. Because there are still grammatical errors and lack of use of punctuation
marks.