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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Definition of Grammar

Every language has its own grammar. It is crucial because it is needed to help in

understanding the language. Grammar makes possible the production and comprehension of

a potentially unlimited number of utterance, because no language can exist without grammar

and none can use a language fluently without knowledge of it. Therefore, grammar plays

very important role as a bridge between speaker and listener in people communication in

both speaking or writing.

The word grammar has several meanings and there is no universally accepted

definition. Different experts define the term grammar differently. Lado (1977: 141) defines

grammar as the study of rules that are claimed, to tell the students what should and should

not say in order to speak language of the social educated class and 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 the language. Gerot and Wignell (1994: 2) state that

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

grammar is the study of the classes of words, their inflections and their functions and

relations in the sentence of a language.

Having known the definition of grammar, it is not hard to be understood 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 him how to use the language. People learn

Grammatical Error Analysis..., Meliana Laksitaningratri, FKIP UMP, 2015

how to construct a good message based on the rules they have known and try 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 it will be known because of 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 or in the form of writing.

B. Writing

1. Nature of Writing

Writing is one of the languange skills that cannot be separated from learning a

language. Through writing, the writer can inform others, carry out transaction, persuade,

infuriate, and tell what they feel. However, it is already known that writing or learning to

write especially in a second language is not simply a matter of “writing things done”. It is

one of the four basic skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) that are very complex

and difficult to learn.

Writing is a language skill which is used to communicate with other people

directly, and it does not need face to face interaction. Writing is an activity which is

productive and expressive. Through writing activities, writers have to utilize the language

structure and vocabulary because writing skills cannot be mastered without practices.

It can be concluded that writing is the act putting letters, symbols, numbers,

words on paper, or a computer screen, which is used to express and explain ideas.


Specifically, writing is an expression of language in the form of letters, symbols, or

words.

2. The Criteria of Good Writing

There are some characteristics of a good writing. According to Boardman

(2008:18-25), there are three characteristics in writing a good text or paragraph, namely:

a. Coherence

A paragraph has coherence when the supporting sentences are ordered

according to a principle. The sentences are put in order so that the reader can

understand the ideas easily. The principles for ordering depend on the types of

paragraph that written by the writer. Coherence means stick together, coherence is

basically a matter of having the part of a piece of writing in the right with the clear

process.

b. Cohesion

Another characteristic of a good paragraph is cohesion. When a paragraph has

cohesion, all the supporting sentences connect to each other in their support of the

topic sentence.

c. Unity

The final characteristic of a well-written paragraph is unity. All the supporting

sentences should relate to the topic sentence. Order in text or paragraph is like

organization, but is smaller in space so it may be simpler to consider order as

direction. Thus order chronological steps to express the idea the written form.


3. The problems in Writing

The writing ability means the ability to communicate thoughts or ideas through

written symbol. It means that writing as the written communication tools and it is hoped

that other person understand what the writer intends to.

When the students write they often confuse what they want to write, the students

are not confidence about their writing. According to Nurgiyantoro (2001: 298-299) there

are some problems in writing, such as:

a. Organizing idea

Most of the problem faced by the student in learning writing is in

organizing idea. They usually have difficulties in organize the idea into

sentences. Besides that, they usually write the content which is not suitable

with the topic. This problem probably occurs because of the students get

difficulties in developing their idea and sometimes they do not know what

they will write.

b. Lack of vocabulary

Most of the students often write sentences which are not communicative

and they usually choose incorrect words when they write something. This

problem happens because they are not mastering in vocabularies.

c. Grammatical mistake

Generally, most of beginner students do not master English grammar‟s

well, they only start to learn English so their writing skill is still weak

especially in grammar. It becomes problem when they have to make

composition which consists of sentences.


Based on the explanation, it can be concluded that grammatical mistake still

become one of big problems in student‟s writing.

C. Recount Text

1. Definition of Recount Text

The term of recount text has several meanings; many experts have proposed the

definition of recount text. According to Knapp (2005:224), recount text is written out to

make a report about an experience of a series of related event. A recount is written out to

inform an event or to entertain people. Pardiyono (2007:63) said that recount text is a

text written to retell information about past events experiences. Recount begins with

telling the reader who is involved, what happen, where this event takes place and when it

happens. The sequence of event as said by the expert above, then described in some sort

of order, for instance in a time order.

Based on the definition stated by some experts previously, it has some viewpoints

about recount text. Recount text is a text which retells past events or experiences and its

purposes is either to inform or to entertain the reader.

2. Type of Recount

According to Widodo (2009:14) there are three kinds of recount, as follows:

a. Personal Recount

Personal recount usually retell an event that the writer had been personally

involved.

b. Factual recount


Factual recount, recording the particulars of an incident, for example: police

report, news report.

c. Imaginative recount

Imaginative recount, taking on an imaginary role and giving details of events,

for example: a day in the life of pirate.

From those three kinds of recount text, it is in the form of information about

someone‟s past experience, relates to the specific participants involved in. Since there are

any three kinds of recount text, this research will only discuss about personal recount.

3. Generic Structure of Recount Text

Each text covered some generic structures. The generic structure of text is the text

organization or the text arrangement. According to Pardiyono (2007:66) the generic

structure of recount text, such as:

a. Orientation

It provides the background information needed by the reader. It introduces

the participants (who), place (where), time (when) and what the experience is.

b. Record of events

It describes series of events that happen in the past and it tells the events

chronologically.

c. Reorientation

It shows the concluding comment on the incident. It expresses the writer‟s

personal opinion regarding the events described.

4. Language Features of Recount Text


Language feature are dealing with grammar, vocabulary and connector that uses

in a text. The language features of recount text, such as:

a. Recount text is written in the past tense (I went, she listened, it blocked)

b. It uses of the temporal sequences which link event and time (on Friday, one

day, at the beginning, in the end, first, then, next, before, later, finally,

etcetera.)

c. It uses action verb/material processes (went, slept, ran, caught, arrived,

bought, looked at) e.g. He went to the museum; she was unhappy.

d. Use of personal pronouns (I, we)

e. The passive voice may be used, e.g the bottle was filled with ink.

5. Purpose of Recount Text

The purpose of recount text is to describe past experience by retelling event in the

order in which they happened (chronological order) and it is either to entertain or to

inform to the reader.

6. The example of Recount text

Below is the example of recount text, adapted from: English for SMK 1, SMK

grade X

Me and My School

Orientation

Many people said that being a student in SMU would

be an unforgettable experience in our life. It happened to

me. At that time, it was my fateful days to stand up and be

counted. Most of friend also agree that our school was the


best ever.

Series of

events

Although I realized that it‟s not as big as big schools

in Medan, but what made it special for me were its teachers,

competitions, and friendship. They were so interesting that I

would never forget it, especially my teachers. They taught

me a lot of things, most importantly, the philosophy of life,

and how to be self-standing students. Though I was not so

smart but I was more articulate than my friends. Therefore I

became so famous until they chose me be leader of OSIS.

Series of

events

Then I was busy organizing many activities at school.

I hardly could organize my time between studying and doing

extra activities after class. Undoubtedly, there were a lot

murmurs about me that I would disturb my study and

disappoint my parents for getting bad marks. They were

totally wrong. I made it! I said to myself, and it was nearly

impossible without my teachers‟ help, especially their

supports to all students to be more creative.

Series of

events

They also taught us that the sense of belonging

would be our future investment to be successful. In short,

friends helping friends succeed has been engraved in our

memory. Besides that, lots of competitions held at my

school, such as English speech contest, soccer and clean-up

campaign.

Reorientation

They were so good that many students got

involved, especially in soccer. All students enjoyed this

global game. Though we never won but at least we get many

friends from other school. Wow! “Good friends make good


neighbors,” like KGRE said.

D. Error Analysis

1. Definition of Error Analysis

Error analysis is defined as the study of linguistics ignorance, the investigation of

what people do not know and how they attempt to cope with their ignorance. Error

analysis was first introduced by Fries (1945) and Lado (1957) who have claimed that

foreign or second language learners‟ errors can be predicted on the basis of the

differences between the learners‟ native and second languages. They have also suggested

that where the aspects of the target language are similar to those of the learner‟s native

language, learning will be easy; otherwise, it will be difficult and second language

learners are expected to make errors.

Longman dictionary of Linguistic (1985: 96) defines errors analysis as “the study

and analysis errors made by the second and foreign language”. Ellis (1985: 296) defines

it as “working procedure used by researchers and language teacher to collect, identify,

explain, classify, and evaluate errors”.

Brown (2000:1) states that researchers and teacher of second languages come to

realize that the mistakes a person made in this process of constructing a new system of

language needed to be analyzed carefully, for the possibly held in some of the keys to

the understanding of the process of second language acquisition.

From the statements above, it can be summarized that errors is natural thing for

the learner, it is normal and inevitable features indicating the strategies that used. By


describing and classifying learners‟ errors, the teacher can know how far the learners

have learned or understood the lesson and what items remain for them. Therefore, an

errors analysis is needed in the process of language learning.

2. Types and causes of Error

Before going further, it is important to know about the types of error. According

to Tarigan (1995:85) there are general types of error:

a. Interlanguage error. This error is caused by interference of students‟ mother

tongue towards the target language being learned.

For example:

I very love Indonesia.

The sentence shows the translation from Indonesian sentence word-by-word

“saya sangat cinta Indonesia”.

b. Intralingual error. These errors are caused by the difficulties in learning the

target language itself. There is no interference of mother tongue to target

language. There are four categories of intralingua errors; those are

overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of

rules, and false concept hypothesized.

a) Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization is negative intralingua error dealing with items

that are contrasted in grammar of the languages. The learners create

deviant form in the target language in place of two regular structures.

For examples:

She will fries the chicken soon.


He can answers the question correctly.

Thus, they over generalize that the simple present tense „s‟ ending

is required by the third person singular. Whereas, the form of English

sentences are not fully the same as they expect. In addition, they may

reduce their linguistic burden. To know their mistakes in constructing

sentences, the writer also give the correct sentences are follows:

She will fry the chicken soon.

He can answer the question correctly.

b) Ignorance of rule restriction

This type of error means that the learners fail to observe the

restriction of existing structures, that is application of rules to context

where do not apply. There, error occurs when the students respond to

the English grammatical item are unfamiliar. As the result, they try to

create form based on their own analogies, which are unacceptable in

English. For example the student makes sentences:

He gave to me some money.

We saw him play football and we admired.

From the example above, the error made by the students are

“addition” and “omission” an object which is unnecessary.

In this case, they should reduce „to‟ as addition error in the

sentence “He gave to me” because it unnecessary to put “to” after verb.

So, the correct forms of the sentences above:


He gave me some money

For the second sentence, the error made by the student is

omission error. In the sentence “We saw him play football and we

admired”, the student omit the object in the second clause that should

be “We saw him play football and we admired him.”

c) Incomplete application of rules

This type occurs when a student fails to apply the rules

completely due to the stimulus sentences. For example, the teacher‟s

question is “what is she doing?”, then the students‟ response is “She

reading a novel”. In this case, the student doesn‟t apply the complete

form of the answer which should be: “She is reading a novel”.

d) False concept hypothesized

This type of error occurs when the students incorrectly

comprehend some aspects in the target language. It relates to the

students‟ comprehension to the points of learning material are not

synchronous.

In English, “was” indicates as a marker of past time, for

example the student make sentence: “it was occurred a year ago”. The

word “occurred” shows past time, so was is not used. Then, the correct

sentence is ”it occurred a year ago”. Another example, when student

make sentence: “he is plays football”, is here as understood by the

student as a marker of present tense. Meanwhile, they already write

“plays” that indicates present tense.


Since the Indonesian formed is different from English, it will make students feel

complicated when they cannot master English grammar well. One example for the

difference is Indonesian does not have tenses like English. As could be seen in the table

below:

Indonesian sentence English sentence

1. Kami sedang bermain petak

umpet sekarang.

2. Kami bermain petak umpet

kemarin.

3. Kami akan bermain petak

umpet besok.

1. We are playing hide and seek

now.

2. We played hide and seek

yesterday.

3. We are going to play hide

and seek tomorrow.

From those examples, it can be concluded that Indonesian has different pattern

from English and it can be one possible cause that make student in making error.

3. Category of Error

As cited in Tarigan (1995: 147-148) Burts and Kiparsky develop taxonomy of

linguistic category which classify errors in learning English made by the students who

learn English in foreign environment.

Linguistic Category and Type of

Errors

the Example of Error

A. Clause

1. Omission

2. Mis-ordering

Was a riot last night.

We too big for the pony.

Escaped the captain from the prison.

English use many countries.


B. Auxiliary System

1. Error in using DO.

2. Error in using HAVE and

BE.

C. Passive Voice

1. The form of passive

sentence.

2. The incorrect use of

passive.

D. Temporal Conjunction

1. Error in putting the

conjunction

2. To much THAT

E. Sentence Complement

1. Omission of subject

pronoun.

2. The wrong complement

form after AUXILIARY.

F. Psychological Predicate

1. Wrong arrangement of

subject and object.

2. Using adjective as verb.

3. Mis-ordering of using

adjective.

Never do you must spit like that.

Why we bow to each other?

We are stayed here already two

weeks.

Each cushion given by our priest.

She is not allowed to her parents to

go.

He was arrived early.

I get up after I brush my teeth.

After that I walked, we felt very

warm.

Is very hard for me to learn math.

I will enjoy to cook.

The cat is on the table, but my father

doesn‟t bother that.

It sads me in my heart to leave you.

He is easy learning mechanical

things.

Another category was presented by Politzer and Ramirez (1973) in Tarigan

(1995:147). The category as follow:


Linguistic Category and Types of Error Example

A. Morphology

1. Error of indefinite article

2. Error of possessive case

3. Error of third person singular verb

4. Error of simple past tense

5. Error of past participle

6. Error in comparative

adjective/adverb.

B. Syntax

1. Error in noun phrase

a. The ommision of article

b. Simpe verb used to replace -

ing

2. Error in verb phrase

a. Omission of main verb

b. The omission of to be

3. Error of verb-and-verb

construction.

4. Error in word order.

a. Object repetition

b. Word order.

5. Error of transformation

a. Double negation

b. The omission of there

A ant.

An little ant.

The girl feet.

The bird help the man.

He putted the cookie there.

He was call.

He got up more higher.

He no go in field.

........ by to cook it.

He (feel?) in the water.

He in the water.

I go to play. (I go and I play)

I go play.


The bird he was gonna what

that it.

I have book new.

They won‟t have no fur.

Is one bird.

The classification of the error in this research used Politzer and Ramirez‟

Linguistic Category Taxonomy as a guideline, that it is not followed strictly as it is, but

rather, modification is made to adjust to the field data. So, both of those categories are

used, combined with the quantitative information to show the frequency of occurrence of

each error type.

4. The differences between Error and Mistakes

Error is different from mistake. According to Ellis (2003:17) error reflect gaps in

learner knowledge, they occur because the learner does not know what is corect.

Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because, in particular

instance, the learner is unable to perform what he/she knows. Tarigan (1995: 74) said

that mistakes are usually caused by the factor of performance. Usualy students have

already known the systematic rule of the languange being used, but because of


something they forget about that system. Error is caused by the factor of competence. It

means that the students have not know the linguistic system of the languange being used.

Error usually occurs consistently and systematically. As distinguished by Tarigan

(1995), as follow:

Category

Point of view

Error Mistakes

1. Source

2. Characteristic

3. Duration

4. Linguistic

system

5. Result

6. Correction

Competence

Systematic

Rather long

Has not been

mastered

Deviation

Helped by the

teacher: exercise,

remedial teaching.

Performance

Not systematic

Temporary

Has been mastered

Deviation

Student them-self:

recollection.

From the explanation, it can be illustrated by example of sentence. If the students

write “my uncle was came last night., it has been known that the correct one is ”came”

not “was came”. When the student said ”he came at 07.00 pm” in the next sentence, it

can be assumed that it is a kind of mistakes. It is because the student has already known

thet came means “datang” and the students revise the mistakes in the next sentence. If

the student said “he is came at 07.00 p.m.” and he/she repeat it consistently, it indicates

that it is a kind of error.

5. Procedure of Error Analysis

Error analysis is a procedure in the research. There are some steps in error

analysis. In Tarigan (1995:170), Ellis (1968) explained that error analysis is a working


procedure, which is commonly used by the researcher and the languange teacher, which

include data colection, error identification, explanation of error in the sample,

classification of errors based on the causes, and evaluation and assessment about the

level of error seriousness.

There are some steps of error analysis according to Tarigan (1995:71):

1. Colecting Data

It is the data which contain the errors made by the student, for example;

the result of the test, students‟ writing, or students‟ dialogue.

2. Identifying or classifying error

Knowing and choosing errors based on languange category, for example,

error in spelling, word formation, word fusion and sentence arrangement.

3. Ranking the error

Arange the error based on the frequency of occurence.

4. Explaining error

Describing the place of error, the cause of error and giving example of the

correct ones.

5. Predicting the area which is risk by error.

Predicting the language area wich has potency to cause error.

6. Correcting the error

Correcting the eror and if it possible, elicit the error through compiling the

correct material, appropriate hand out, and relevant teaching technique.


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