An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Written English Produced by the First Year Students of English Department

INDAH SARI Politeknik Negeri Padang, Kampus Limau Manis, Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

E-mail : indahsari.048@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The research focused on English grammatical errors in students’ writing activities. The data was collected from the first year students of English Department in Andalas University. The data were analyzed by using error analysis theory proposed by H Douglas Brown. This study found out some grammatical errors made by the students as consulted to Marcella Frank grammar book. Keywords: error, analysis, grammar, writing.

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

English is already acknowledged as the most important language in this world. Some countries such as USA, Australia, and Singapore use this language as their first language. Other countries even use it as the second language; Malaysia is one of such countries. Meanwhile, it is considered as a foreign language in Indonesia.

However, the significant role of English in international world makes Indonesian government puts English as one of the compulsory subjects in Indonesia from primary school until university. Brown (1980, p. 7) stated, “Learning a language means acquiring or getting knowledge of a language by studying or instruction.” He also claimed that unlike acquiring the first language, special instruction on the system of the language is needed in a learning process. The system is called grammar which plays important roles in speaking, writing, reading, and listening.

In Indonesia, English is mostly learned by getting the instructions in formal environments such as in a classroom. Even though this may not be the best way to learn English; it is a good way to learn its grammar. In a classroom, English is usually taught from the simplest grammatical rule in order to give the students a good basic knowledge of the language.

Furthermore, Brown (1980) also revealed that human process of learning is not free from making errors in its trial and error nature. A good example of this is error on Subject-Verb Agreement; Indonesian learners tend to make error by saying She walk. Since the subject is the first singular person, the verb must be added by –s as in She walks. This situation is often experienced by Indonesian learners due to the different grammatical rules of English and Indonesian such as in tenses and inflectional adjective. It makes the students confused, thus it leads to grammatical errors even for the basic rules.

Making errors is acceptable in language learning, yet it is expected that the students especially from English Department have acquire the basic rules of English after more than

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six years learning English. Moreover, it is assumed that English Department students have mastered the simple rules and learned more complex grammar. In other words, they are expected to be free from making basic grammatical errors.

This assumption will be proven in this research by evaluating students’ knowledge on grammar. The best media used are through their essays. Writing activity allows them to show their best performance since it gives them sufficient time to think clearly and recheck what have been written to minimize language errors. On the other hand, spoken language cannot be used as the medium in this research because it will be difficult to decide whether they produce error or just mistake. Hence, there will be more possibility it is merely just mistakes or slips of tongue due to limitation of time to think given and uncomfortable feelings such as feeling nervous or not confident. Furthermore, reading and listening skills also cannot be used as the media to see their grammar competence because they are not considered as productive language activities. By considering those factors, this research will analyze grammatical errors in written English produced by English Department students of Andalas University.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

According to Dulay, et.al (1982), “making errors is an inevitable part of learning.” It is impossible for the learners to avoid committing errors in learning a language especially if it is a foreign language. Furthermore, this study is attempted to reveal the grammatical errors with the following problems identified:

1. What are the types of grammatical errors made by the first year students of English Department students in Andalas University?

2. What are the possible causes of the errors?

THE AIMS OF THE RESEARCH Based on the topic problem, this research is conducted to evaluate the competence of the first year students of English Department. This study is designed to find out the types of grammatical errors produced by the first year students. Finally, this research also attempts to reveal the possible causes of the errors they produce.

THE LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH

According to Brown (1980), based on the level of language, errors can be classified as follows: 1) Phonological error, kinds of error dealing with pronunciation. 2) Lexical Errors, errors dealing with the choice of words which are unacceptable. 3) Grammatical errors, it is kind of error related to the structure of the sentences. 4) Discourse errors, it is related to relationship between sentences and about the styles.

From the above classification of errors, this study will focus on grammatical errors. Grammar is the main thing a learner must acquire in learning a language. This makes this type of error significant to be studied. Although this type of errors can be possibly occur both in speaking and writing, written English is more suitable as the medium of this study. The reason is to differentiate between errors and mistake because in speaking it is possible that they just make mistake, not errors.

THE METHOD OF THE RESEARCH

Library research is the first thing conducted to collect information and theory related to the subject. Furthermore, this research is conducted in the following three steps.

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COLLECTING THE DATA

The data were taken from students’ essays in composition class. The class consisted of 35 students, however only 33 students were analyzed. To make sure that they produce errors, the data were taken three times. Those students were asked to write three essays in three different times. Thus, there were three phases of collecting the data. In the first phase, the students were given three topics to be chosen: My father’s daily activities, My mother’s daily activities, and My sister/brother’s daily activities. In the second phase, they were asked to describe things. They were also given three topics to be selected: My Handphone, My computer, and My television. Finally, in the last phase, they were asked to describe place and given three topics: Minangkabau International Airport, Kinantan Zoo, and Ragunan Zoo.

ANALYZING THE DATA

After the errors were identified, they were classified based on the types of grammar compiled by Marcella Frank. Moreover, the data were analyzed by applying theory proposed by Brown (1980). In this step, the possible causes of errors were revealed.

PRESENTING THE RESULT OF ANALYSIS

As the last step, the result of analysis would be presented on table and description. Each data will represent the students numbered from 1 until 33. The possible causes also would be discussed further. However, this study will just present the most significant data.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

REVIEW ON PREVIOUS STUDY Some studies have been conducted on error analysis proving that it is a natural thing on language learning. Brudhipraba in Richards and Sampson (1976) conducted a research on Thai learners of English. He suggested that many intra lingual errors occur in simple rules in the target language such as verbs inflection in I walk, She walks. The learners often omitted the final –s in which it should be put such as She walk.

Meanwhile, Hernandez and Chavez in Dulay et.al (1982) conducted a research on Spanish children learning English. They found out that although Spanish has similar plural markers to English, the children still committed errors by omitting the plural markers. Therefore, they concluded that the first language did not always influence the second language acquisition.

Furthermore, Felix also in Dulay et.al (1982) took German high school students as the object of the research. The students were exposed to English only during their formal ESL classes. They found out that the students always put don’t and doesn’t instead of negative morphemes no/not.

All research above is closely related to this study in terms of topic. The difference is that they focus on more specific case such as Brudhipraba specifying his study on intralingual errors while this study covers all grammatical errors which commonly occur in written English of the first year students.

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

ERRORS AND MISTAKE

Error and Mistake are closely related in which Brown (1980, p. 165) said, “an error is a noticeable deviation of adult from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the

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interlanguage competence of the learners.” In other words, he agreed that the problem lays on the competence of the learners, not in the performance, due to the learners’ lack of comprehension. Furthermore, he explained that making errors is natural. It can be observed, classified, and analysed to reveal anything related to the systems of the learners. The study of learners’ errors is called error analysis.

Sometimes, it is difficult to differentiate error from mistake. Nonetheless, they are two different things. Brown (1980) stated, “a mistake refers to a performance error that is either random guess or a “slip” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly.” Meanwhile, Dulay et.al (1982) claimed that error is a part of conversation or composition deviating from some selected norm of mature language performance, regardless the characteristic or the causes of the deviation might be. Finally, it can be seen that error indicates that there is something wrong with one’s knowledge. Mistakes are caused by the slip, while the learner actually has a good competence. If the learners make the same pattern of ungrammatical utterances consistently, it is an error. On the other hand, if the learners realize that they produce wrong grammar and can correct it themselves, it is a mistake.

SOURCES OF ERROR

Brown (1980) claimed that there are four major factors which may influence and characterize the second language learner system, they are:

1. Interlingual transfer In learning second language, the learners cannot be separated from the influence of the first language. Richards (1974) stated, “Those elements that are similar to the (learner’s) native language will be simple for him, and those areas that are different will be difficult.” This opinion is supported by Ellis (1985) in which he stated that in second language acquisition; the patterns of the learner’s mother tongue get in the way in the learning patterns of second language which is called “interference”.

2. Intralingual transfer This factor deals with the lack of knowledge about the target language. The difficulty caused by this factor can occur due to the difference of target language to native language. Consequently, the learners tend to make an over generalization based on the partial exposure to the target language. Richards (1971) found out that it is involved in the systematic intralingual errors. These errors represent the learning difficulty of simple rules in the target language such as verb inflection in I walk, She walks, etc.

3. Context of learning As a foreign language, English is mostly learned in formal environment which is in a classroom setting. This limited setting involves teachers, students, and the textbooks. Other factors such as social environment do not influence the learning process

4. Communication strategies The last major source is communication strategies broken down into several subcategories as follows.

a. Avoidance When a student does not know a specific word, he will avoid using the word and replace it with its synonym or try to explain it in other words. It also occurs when the learners find difficulty in pronouncing a word.

b. Prefabricated patterns

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When a student learns a language, he is usually taught some sentences such as sentences to introduce their selves, find information, and greet people. The students usually use the sentences without knowing the structure of the sentences. Sometimes they combine those sentences with others and it leads to error. c. Cognitive and personal style Personality styles can be sources of errors. The amount of errors produced depends on students’ personality. A person with careful person will produce fewer errors than the careless ones. On the other hand, a confident person will be brave in taking risk when speaking English even though it will lead them to some errors. d. Appeal to authority This is a common strategy used by a learner by consulting to the native speaker. When there is no native speaker around him, the learner will look up the word in a dictionary. Sometimes, they pick up the word without considering the context. e. Language switch When all other strategies do not work out, a learner usually uses language switch as the last effort. In this strategy, the students will change the language into his native language without considering whether their audience understand or not.

PROCEDURES OF ERROR ANALYSIS

Brown (1980) stated that there are two steps in analysing errors, they are:

1. Identifying error The first step in the process of error analysis is the identification and description of errors. According to Corder (1971), there are two types of erroneous utterances in a second language learning, they are: a. Overtly erroneous utterances are those that are unquestionably ungrammatical. b. Covertly erroneous utterances are well formed grammar which is not

understandable within a normal context of communication.

2. Describing the error After the errors are identified, they must be described by using types of grammar.

TYPES OF GRAMMAR

Fromkin, et.al (1990) classified the types of grammar into two terms:

1. Descriptive grammar Descriptive grammar does not tell a speaker how he should speak; it just describes a speaker basic knowledge. In other words, it is an attempt to describe the language as it is being used, regardless of whether it is considered correct or not.

2. Prescriptive grammar This type of grammar prescribes the normative rules of the language. It will judge whether a language meets the standard rules or not. Based on those types of grammar,

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this research applied prescriptive grammar. It does not describe language used in students’ essay. However it will evaluate whether the students use correct or incorrect language based on the internationally standardized rules of English.

DATA ANALYSIS

IDENTIFYING THE ERRORS The first step in analysing errors according to Brown (1980) is identifying errors by consulting to grammar theory compiled by Frank (1972). Furthermore, the errors will be classified based on grammatical types.

TABLE 1. SUBJECT – VERB AGREEMENT

Data Incorrect Correct

1 He jump of bed.... He jumps of bed... After that, he get dress... After that, he gets dress.. 2 Then, my father go... Then, my father goes... 3 ...when the alarm ring... ...when the alarm rings... 4 When we goes to campus... When we go to campus... 5 I always helps her... I always help her...

The table above is the sample of errors dealing with subject-verb agreement. The problem lays on the bold verb in which the form does not agree with the subject. The second column shows the correct pattern. For instance, He jump of bed should be written He jumps of bed. There is regulation that every verb in a sentence with singular third person as a subject must be followed by –s/es. On the other hand, a sentence started with plural subject do not need followed by –s/es.

TABLE 2. PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION

Data Incorrect Correct 1 She prepares..., cooking...., and buys.. She prepares..., cooks...., and buys.. 2 She boiled... and make... She boiled... and made... 3 ...watching television or listen to radio... ...watching television or listening to radio... 4 ...checks my little sister’ homework or

accompany us... ...checks my little sister’ homework or accompanies us...

5 He arrived at home and take a bath... He arrived at home and took a bath... The above table shows the errors in parallel construction. The parallel construction is signalled by the conjunction and, or, both, etc. Words coordinated by those conjunctions must be in parallel form. A good example of this is data number 2, boiled and make are connected by and conjunction. However, both verbs take different forms; the former is in past form and the latter is in simple form. Anyhow, they should be both in past form as boiled and made.

TABLE 3. THE USE OF BE

Data Incorrect Correct 1 She always busy.. She is always busy... 2 If it finished.. If it is finished.. 3 My mother is usually get... My mother usually gets... 4 We are always share.. We always share.. 5 My mother never angry.. My mother is never angry..

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Be has function both as linking verbs and helping verbs. As a linking verb, it links the subject to the predicate in a nominal sentence. According to Frank (1972), predicating or linking verb is a verb in an incomplete predication. In this case, be may be followed by many complements. It also can occur in a verbal sentence as an auxiliary or helping verb. As proposed by its name, its function is to help the verb in a progressive sentence or passive voices. For instance, I am reading a magazine, in which am functions as the auxiliary verb.

The table also contains error in verbal sentences. Those sentences do not need auxiliary be to accompany the verb since they are not in progressive tense. However, the students give auxiliary be such in My mother is usually get.

TABLE 4. TENSE AND VERB FORM

Data Incorrect Correct 3 She goes to campus by car. Usually, she arrived in

campus at 07.00 am. She goes to campus by car. Usually, she arrives in campus at 07.00 am.

5 In the morning, my mother always prepared some food and a glass of tea..

In the morning, my mother always prepares some food and a glass of tea..

18 When I still live with my mother, she always got up early than me..

When I still lived with my mother, she always got up early than me..

32 After isya, my father was watching.. After isya, my father watched.. The data contains the errors on the tenses. It is related with the inflection of verb form. The tenses in English grammatical rules require inflection of verb form. The verb will change according to the time the event takes place. Besides that, English has some tenses. The students find it difficult to choose the appropriate tenses based on their situation. Moreover, they also are confused in using the suitable verb form. Consequently, they use past form instead of simple form in simple present tense sentence and vice versa.

TABLE 5. PARTS OF SPEECH

Data Incorrect Correct 1 ...spends her time to watch TV.. ...spends her time watching TV.. 2 ..working in healthy department. ..working in health department. 3 She started to cooking... She started to cook... 4 ...then following by my father.. ...then followed by my father..

The data above show that the students make errors on the word formation. English has derivational form of word in which a word can be derived from another word. The word class will change, for examples a noun management can be derived from the verb manage. It can be seen that the students have difficulty in adding the appropriate suffix. In “..working in healthy department” sentence, it should be “..working in health department”. Healthy is an adjective. The sentence require a noun which is health.

DESCRIBING ERRORS After being identified, the errors were described in order to reveal the sources or errors.

INTERLINGUAL ERRORS

As previously stated, first language will always interfere second language learning whether by consciously or not. The influence can especially be seen in the structure of the second language. The errors caused by the interference of mother tongue are usually known as Interlingual error. In this case, the first language is Indonesian language. In addition, the the

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interference of Indonesian language can be seen on the producing of written English by the first year students of English Department.

TABLE.6 INTERLINGUAL ERROR ON THE USE OF BE

No 1 Be is omitted before Adjective She always busy, her daily activities not so different 2 Noun My father’s job as civil servants, it almost night 3 Adverb He back home 4 Prepositional

Phrase The schedule from 20.00 pm until 08.00 am

In English language, types of sentences can be distinguished into nominal and verbal sentences based on the form of its predicate. A sentence containing verb as a predicate is called verbal sentences. Meanwhile, sentence which does not contain verb as a predicate is called nominal sentence. Sentences in the table above need linking verbs to link the subject to the predicate.

According to Frank (1972), predicating or linking verb is a verb of incomplete predication. It merely announces the coming of real predicate in which one of the subdivision of linking verb is be. In this case, be may be followed by many types of complement like: adjective, adverb, noun, and prepositional phrase. Therefore, a complement cannot be placed directly after a subject. It is unacceptable to say “I sad”; it must be “I am sad”.

The table shows that the students produce the same patterns of error dealing with the use of be in nominal sentences. The students omitted be and put predicate directly after the subject. For instance, it should be she is always busy, instead of saying she always busy, because busy is an adjective that needs a linking verb.

The omission of be is influenced by Indonesian grammatical rules. Indonesian language has verbs functioning as linking verbs such as ialah, adalah, and merupakan. Nevertheless, those verbs are only used before a noun or nominal phrase in a long sentence such in Pemberhentian seorang karyawan adalah masalah biasa. In a short sentence as Dia guru saya, the use of such verbs is optional; the verbs is not required. Moreover, an adjective or adverb can be placed directly after a subject as “aku sedih”.

TABLE.7 INTERLINGUAL ERROR ON TENSE AND VERB FORMS

No 1 Simple form instead of Past participle My mother has iron; he have finish. Past tense When I still live with my mother, her first activity is.. 2 Simple present instead

of future tense And tomorrow, she do the same activity

Frank (1972) stated that verb is the most complex part of speech because it has special endings or accompanying auxiliary verbs signalling the time an event takes place which is known as tenses. Therefore, we cannot one form of verb for every sentence, the form must be employed based on the time that the action takes place. In addition, the names of the tense signal the time, such as present tense shows the action occurs in present time, past tense deals with the action occurs in the past, and future tense talks about something which happens in the future. Verb inflections based on the time can be seen as follows: I go to school every day, I went to school yesterday, and I will go to school tomorrow.

According to Moeliono (1988), verbs in Indonesian language have inflectional forms by adding the prefix such as: me-i, -kan, and me-kan. However, these inflections do not sign the time signal. Time signal is just added; it does not change the verb forms such as Saya

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pergi ke sekolah setiap hari. Saya pergi ke sekolah kemaren, and saya akan pergi ke sekolah besok. Verb pergi is not changed even though the tenses are different.

Furthermore, the data shows that the students are influenced by verbs rule in Indonesian language. For instance My mother has iron should be written My mother has ironed because it is present perfect tense that needs past participle verb.

INTRALINGUAL TRANSFER

Unlike interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer causes the errors due to the language systems. This factor is commonly known as the major factor that causes the errors in language learning. It can be caused by the lack of knowledge about the target language. Besides that, English language has different systems from Indonesian language in which the students tend to get confused because they feel that the English systems is more complex and lead to the making of errors.

TABLE. 8 INTRALINGUAL TRANSFER ON PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION

No 1 Simple form parallelism He go home and arrives, to watch and reads.. 2 Verb parallelism She reads Al-Quran and asking my father..; she prepares...,

cooking..., and buys.... 3 Simple form with suffix –

s/-es parallelism She takes and get...; she comes...., cleans...and then go...

4 Gerund parallelism ....such as washing, swept, watering, and boil....

Frank (1972) explained that all words, phrases or clauses joined by the coordinate conjunction and, or, but must have the same grammatical forms known as parallel construction. This type of construction is also required in the paired coordinate conjunction (correlative) –both..and, (n)either..(n)or, not only...but also. For instance, she does not like to get up in the morning or to go to bed at night in which the parallelism found between verb to get up and to go.

Subsequently, if there is a verb or noun before the conjunction, the word placed after the conjunction must be verb or a noun too. However, the data shows that the students do not really understand about parallel construction. Take the sentence “He arrived at home and take a bath” for example. In this sentence, arrive and take is joined by and conjunction. They should be in the same forms. However, arrived is in past form; but take is in present form. The second verb should follow the first verb form as in “He arrived at home and took a bath”. Another example is “She reads Al-Quran until 5.00 am and asking my father...” The first verb and the second joined by and are in different form. The first verb takes verb form, while the second takes gerund form. To make them parallel, the second verb must be changed from gerund to verb form “asks”. Thus, the sentence will be “She reads Al-Quran until 5.00 am and asks my father...”

TABLE.9 INTERLINGUAL ERROR ON PART OF SPEECH

No 1 Gerund instead of Noun She always busy, her daily activities not so different Verb My father’s job as civil servants, it almost night 2 Verb instead of Gerund After take, after close,... Adjective Gets relax, looks very tire.. Noun Zhuhur pray

Part of speech deals with the word class and how they are changed from one part of speech into another part of speech. Frank (1972) says that only nouns, adjectives, and adverns have

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derivational forms. These forms may express some degree of lexical meaning, or they may be little more than part of speech into another. It also may distinguish one part of speech from another by adding it to an aleardy existing word. Of course, when a part of speech is changed into another, its function will be changed too. Consequently, the derivation of a part of speech is done based on one’s need on a certain function of part of speech.

In English, one suffix may have several functions. For example suffix ed added to a erb “lock” may function as the indicator of past tense in inflectional form of verb as in “I locked the door last night” or to change the verb into adjective as in “a locked door”. On the other hand, different suffix can be added to certain word to derive new word class as “locker”. This variation is often confusing for the learners. They find it difficult to choose the appropriate suffix.

The above data shows that the students use the wrong word form due to lack knowledge about word derivation, for example: Zhuhur pray. The word pray is a verb which means mengerjakan sembahyang. To make it a noun, it needs suffix –er becoming prayer. Actually, suffix –ing also can change it into noun. However, it is not suitable because suffix –ing also has another function which is to express some of the verbal force of the word to which it is attached.

CONCLUSION

Based on the research, it is found that the students have difficulties in subject-verb agreement, part of speech, tense and verb form, the use of be, and parallel construction. Those are the basic grammatical rules which they have learned from high schools. Richards called it low level rule. Consequently, the assumption that the first year students of English Department are free from making basic grammatical errors is not proven. In other words, the students have not mastered the basic knowledge of English grammar. It is understandable since English is a foreign language and they are not well exposed to the language in their daily life. Some of the errors were caused by the interference of the native language; and some were caused by the complex grammatical rule of English language itself.

REFERENCE

Douglas, H.D. 1980. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs. Corder, S.P. 1971. Idiosyncratic Dialects and Error Analysis. IRAL, 9:147-159. Dulay, et.al. 1982. Language Two. New York: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. 1985. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxfor University Press. Frank, M. 1972. Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Fromkin, et.al. 1990. An Introduction to Language: Second Australian Edition. Sydney: H.B Jovanovich Group

(Australia) Ltd. Moeliono, et.al. 1988. Tata Bahasa Baku: Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Perum Balai Pustaka. Quirk, et.al. 1985. A comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Richards, J.C. 1974. Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman.

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