AN ERROR ANALYSIS IN USING SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE IN

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING OF GRADE 8F AT JUNIOR

HIGH SCHOOL OF SMPN 3 MERAUKE

ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017

COVER

THESIS

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of Requirements in Order to Acquire Bachelor

Degree in English Education Department

RAFI NURHAYADI

2012 88 203 021

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRANING AND EDUCATION

MUSAMUS UNIVERSITY

2017

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 APPROVAL PAGE

Title : An Error Analysis in Using Simple Present Tense in Descriptive

Writing of Grade 8F at Junior High School of SMPN 3

Merauke Academic Year 2016/2017

Name : Rafi Nurhayadi

SN : 2012 88 203 021

Program : English Education Department

Acknowledge by:

Name Signature Date

Advisor I

Martha Betaubun, S.Pd.,M.Hum ................................... ...................................

NIDN. 1213087703

Advisor II

Nasrawati, S.S., M.Hum ................................... ...................................

NIDN. 1208118202

Merauke,

Approved by:

Faculty of Teachers Training and Head of English Department

Education
Dean,

Yenni P. Pasaribu, S.T., M.Si. Casimirus A. Fenanlampir, S.S., M.Pd

NIP.19780929 200605 2 001 NIDN. 0018068010

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In effort of this thesis is hard enough and the researcher faces a lot of hindrances,

difficulties and challenges, but by Gods guidance who has given the researcher so

many health and patience, therefore the researcher can accomplish this thesis that

takes the title about An Error Analysis of Using Simple Present Tense in

Descriptive Writing of Grade 8F at Junior High School of SMPN 3 Merauke

Academic Year 2016/ 2017.

This thesis would not be finished without someone’s helps directly or indirectly.

Therefore, the writer wants to say thanks so much to:

1. Dr. Philipus Betaubun, ST., MT., as the Rector of Musamus University

2. Yenni. P. Pasaribu, S. T., M. Si., as the Dean of Faculty Teacher Training and

Education

3. Casimirus Andy Fenanlampir. S.S., M. Pd., as the Head of English Education

Department

4. Martha Betaubun S. Pd., M. Hum., as the First and Nasrawati S.S., M. Hum.,

as second advisor who have given the researcher some inputs and suggestion

in successing in this research

5. The lecturers that have shared their science and knowledge to the researcher

6. FKIP staffs who have helped the researcher’s fluency for the thesis process

7. N. Saragih, S. Pd., as the Headmaster of SMPN 3 Merauke for the permission,

opportunity, help and the good cooperation so this research could proceed

smoothly.

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8. D. Indah. K. S. Pd, as the English teacher of eight grade who have cooperated

with researcher so that the researcher can finish this thesis.

9. All of students of grade 8F of SMPN 3 Merauke Academic year 2016/2017 for

the assistance and cooperation

10. My beloved parents who always support the researcher in accomplishing this

thesis

11. My friends of English Education Department who always gives me a spirit to

do this thesis patiently

The researcher will say thank you so much, hopefully the God Almighty bless

their goodness. Of course, there are still a lot of mistakes in this thesis. Therefore,

the researcher hopes a lot of suggestion and input from the reader and the researcher

hopes this thesis will be useful for anyone who read it.

Merauke, 15 Mei 2017

Rafi Nurhayadi

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER ................................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................. ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................v

LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. vii

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... viii

LIST OF APPENDICES ..................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Research ................................................................................... 1

B. Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................ 4
C. Research Question .................................................................................................. 4
D. The Objectives of the Research .............................................................................. 4
E. Significance of the research .................................................................................... 5
F. Focus of the Research ............................................................................................. 6
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

A. Theoretical Review ................................................................................................. 7

B. Previous Study ...................................................................................................... 20
C. Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................... 23
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design.................................................................................................... 24
B. Time and Place of research ................................................................................... 25
C. Population and Sample.......................................................................................... 25
D. Research Instrument.............................................................................................. 25
E. Method of Data Collection.................................................................................... 26
F. Analysis and Data Validity ................................................................................... 27
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Research Finding .................................................................................................. 29

B. Discussions ........................................................................................................... 44

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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 54
B. Suggestions ........................................................................................................... 55
REFERENCE .......................................................................................................57

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 List of the Students of SMPN 3 Merauke Grade 8F 28

Table 4.2 Description of Students’ Errors 30

Table 4.3 List of the Students’ Errors 40

Table 4.4 category of addition error 44

Table 4.5 categories of omission error 45

Table 4.6 categories of misformation error 49

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. 1 Conceptual Framework 23

Figure 4. 1 Chart of Students’ Error 41

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 LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1 ................................................................................................ 59

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents some topics related to background of the research,

statement of problems, the objectives of the research, significance of the research,

and focus of the research.

A. Background of the Research

Language has significance role for human life it shown by existence as a

communication tool. Language is special skill which is complex to communicate

ideas or feelings by using signs, voices, gestures, or codes (Brown 2007: 6). Almost

all human activities require language assistance in the spoken and written language

form. With the written and the spoken language people can run their everyday

activities without encountering difficulties. Language is the human communication

system of the which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds (or Reviews

their written representation) into larger units, e.g. morphemes, words, sentences,

utterances (Richards & Schmidt, 2002: 283).

Definitely every country has their own language as their communication tool,

but besides the first language that they used, they used a foreign language as a

communication tool also. Foreign language plays a fundamental role for the life of

society. English as a foreign language takes an important place and has been used

almost in all sectors of life, included sector of education.

In Indonesia, English is taught in formal education, but it is not used as medium

of instruction in general education nor as language of communication within the

study (Kartikasari, 2011). Therefore, it is possible for Indonesian students to find

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difficulties in learning English. Moreover, there are many aspects in English

language that should be learned and mastered by the students.

In learning English, guidelines of School based Curriculum (KTSP) which is

applied for all school levels in Indonesia lead the students to have real life skills.

This implies that teaching English stated in KTSP in particular is to enable students

to master the four language skills, they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

All of these skills are expected to be mastered by the students. Reading and listening

are passive skills, it means that the students only receive the material. Whereas

speaking and writing are active skills, the students will produce something in their

learning.

In writing, the grammar still make the students confused. Basically, grammar is

the basic elements of a knowledge area or skill, or it is a set of prescriptive notions

about correct use of a language. Hyland (2003: 3 - 14) states writing is not just

arranging words into a sentence, linking the sentences into a paragraph, and

ordering the paragraphs into a text. It also requires grammatical and lexical

knowledge, understanding in applying the grammatical knowledge into different

context and purposes and knowledge of topic that are going to be written. Moreover,

in writing skill, the grammar is really needed to be learned, because the mistakes

made in writing seem so clear when someone writes it and will be read by the

reader.

The are many rules in grammar that cannot be ignored. They are articles, parts

of speech, sentence pattern, tense, etc. Part of grammar that is considered to be most

difficult to learn for Indonesian students is tenses. For the example, simple present

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tense. Simple present tense expresses daily habits or usual activities and general

statements of fact (Azar, 1992 : 3). The use of simple present tense often makes

students junior high school, include SMPN 3 Merauke confused with its

complexity. They usually have some problems in finding out the verb form of the

third singular person such as he, she, and it need suffix -s or -es for the verb. It

shows that Indonesia students do not consider that in English there are verbs formed

in singular or plural. In Indonesian language, singular or plural forms do not affect

the verb form. To understand about kind of text students must know what tenses

use in text.

One of the texts that must learned by the students in grades 8th is descriptive

text. Descriptive text is a type of text use by the writer when he/she wants to tell

how something looks, smells, feels, act, tastes, sound. Descriptive text has

communicative purpose is to describe a particular persons, places, and things. The

descriptive text has generic structure; first, identification is introducing where or

who is the subject is being describe. Second, description is part that describe

qualities and characteristic or the supporting part of the paragraph which describe

in detail to assist the reader to see and fell the subject. Descriptive text also has

language features which are focus on specific participants, adjective and compound

adjective, linking verb, and simple present tense.

Therefore, based on the explanation above, the researcher will study

grammatical especially in simple present tense error in writing description text

with the title” An Error Analysis in Using Simple Present Tense in Descriptive

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 Writing of Grade 8F at Junior High School of SMPN 3 Merauke in Academic

Year 2016/2017“.

B. Statement of the Problem

Based on the scope of problem above, this statement of the problem will be as

the following circumstances:

1. There are many students of grade 8F at junior high school of SMP N 3 Merauke

academic year 2016/ 2017 make grammatical error especially simple present

tense in writing descriptive text.

2. Most of student’s grade 8F at junior high school of SMP N 3 Merauke academic

year 2016/ 2017 often get a medium score in writing descriptive text caused by

low of grammar knowledge.

C. Research Question

Based on the background above, the researcher formulates the research

questions as follows:

1. What are the students’ errors in writing simple present tense made by the grade

8F at junior high school of SMP N 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017?

2. What are the factors cause errors in writing simple present tense made by the

grade 8F at junior high school of SMP N 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017?

D. The Objectives of the Research

The objectives of this research are:

1. To find out the students’ errors in writing simple present tense at grade 8F at

junior high school of SMP N 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017.

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2. To find out the factors cause in writing simple present tense at grade 8F at

junior high school of SMP N 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017.

E. Significance of the research

This research is expected to give theoretical and practical significance of the

research.

1. Theoretical benefit

Theoretically this research expected to give more information about the

students’ errors in writing simple present tense, solve their problem in writing

simple present tense and by showing their errors.

2. Practical research

a. For Teacher

This research is expected will provide further information for English teachers

in developing the quality of teaching and learning process.

b. For Student

This research will be able to determine any errors that often occur in the simple

present tense so that students can be known and learn, so that they could write

without the same errors.

c. For the Researcher

This research has benefit for the writer also. The writer expected to find the

problems that occur especially simple present tense at grade 8F at junior high school

of SMPN 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017. And this research is also expected

to improve the writing skills of researcher to making other research.

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F. Focus of the Research

The research deals with the error analysis. This research focuses on the error

made by students in their writing descriptive text. This research limits in using

simple present tense.

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 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter presents with Review of Related Theories, previous Study and

Conceptual Framework.

A. Theoretical Review

1. Errors and Mistakes

In order to analyze the errors in the use of simple present tense, it is necessary

to make distinction between errors and mistakes. According to Ellis, errors reflect

gaps in a learners’ knowledge; they occur because the learner doesn’t know what is

correct. While, mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur

because, in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she

knows (Ellis, 1997; 17).

The definition above shows that mistake is a fault which is made by the learner

and he or she can make correction. Meanwhile, error is a fault which is made by the

learner, and he or she is unable to make correction. Brown (1980: 163) stated that

‘a mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip in

that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. Meanwhile, error is a

noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the

interlanguage competence of the learner’.

From the definitions above, it can be said that error is a systematic and noticeable

deviation in learner language from the grammar of a native speaker which results

from lack of knowledge of the correct rule. It reflects the interlanguage competence

of a learner and consistently made by a learner who is unable to make correction.

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And mistake is a deviation in learner language which results from the failure to

perform learners’ competence and to utilize a known system correctly but they are

able to correct their fault.

2. Definition of Error Analysis

Error is a deviation that is made by the learners because they do not understand

the rules of the second language and cannot be corrected by themselves while they

are learning. While the diminishing of errors is an important criterion for increasing

language proficiency, the ultimate goals of second language learning is the

attainment of communicative fluency in a language. Error analysis is used to

analyze and classify the learners’ error from which the learners learning problem

can be inferred.

Brown (2000: 218) said that the errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified

to reveal something of the system operating within the learner, led to a surge of

study of learners’ errors, called error analysis.

Corder (1981: 23) cited in Ellis (2010) said that error analysis is the study

analysis of the errors made by the second foreign language learners to predict the

errors or the difficulties in learning foreign language. Error analysis may be carried

out in order to:

a. Find out how well someone learns a language.

b. Find out how well someone knows language, and

c. Obtain information on common difficulties in language learning.

Thus, error analysis is the study and the analysis of the errors made by language

learners which function as to give the information on how they learn a language,

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how well they know the language and what difficulties faced by them in achieving

the objective. According Dulay, Burt, & Krashen (1982: 146) In analyzing the

errors, error analysis uses four taxonomies to classify the errors.

a. Linguistic Category Taxonomy

In this taxonomy, the types of errors are grouped based on linguistic items,

include phonology, syntax, morphology, semantic, lexical, and discourse.

b. Surface Strategy Taxonomy

A surface strategy taxonomy highlights the way surface structures are altered

learners may omit necessary items or add unnecessary ones; they may misinform

items or miss-order them. Many researchers have noticed, however that the

surface elements of a language are altered in specific and systematic ways. It

shows the cognitive process that underlined the learner’s reconstruction of the

language learned. It also makes aware that learners’ errors are some logic. They

are types of this category, they are:

1) Omission

Omission error is removal of certain items of a sentence are actually needed.

Some types of morphemes are omitted more than others, they are nouns, verbs,

adjectives, and adverbs. Language learner more often omit the grammatical

morphemes than content words.

2) Addition

Addition error is the opposite of omission error that is adding the certain

elements of a sentence are not needed. There are three types of addition.

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a) Double Markings: two items rather than one are marked for the feature. For

example, “She didn’t wrote the letter”. There are two words (didn’t and wrote) that

mark the past tense.

b) Regularizations: for example, the learner uses homework to marker the plural

of homework (the correct word is homework) or putted to marker the past tense of

put (the correct word is put).

c) Simple Addition: an addition error that is not a double marking and

regularization.

3) Misformation

The characteristics of misformation is the use of the wrong form of the

morpheme or structure. There are three types of misformation, those are

regularizations, archi-forms, and alternating forms.

4) Misordering

The characteristic of this error is the incorrect placement of a morpheme of a

group of morphemes in an utterance.

c. Comparative Taxonomy

This taxonomy is classified based on comparisons between the structure of L2

(second or target language) errors and certain other types of constructions.

1) Developmental Errors

Developmental errors are similar to the errors made by children learning the

target language as their first language.

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2) Interlingual Errors

This errors are similar in structure to a semantically equivalent phrase or

sentence in the learner’s native language. It refers to second language errors that

reflect native language structure, regardless of the internal processes or external

conditions that spawned them.

3) Ambiguous Errors

This errors could be classified equally well as developmental or interlingual

because these errors reflect the learner’s native language structure and at the same

time found in the speech of children acquiring a first language.

4) Other errors

This type is the errors that are not included into developmental, interlingual, and

ambiguous error. The errors are not similar to the errors that children make during

first language development, must be unique to second language learner, and at least

some must be unique reflections of creative constructions.

d. Communicative Effect Taxonomy

Communicative effect taxonomy deals with the errors from the perspective of

their effect on the listener or reader (errors in pragmatic item). It focuses on

distinguishing the errors that cause miscommunication and those that don’t. Many

language teachers and researchers believe that students errors are significant toward

the process of learning and teaching English as a second language. The significance

of the learners in second language learning are systematic, in what ways are they

organized, and what do they suggest about teacher’s aims should be to prevent

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mistakes from occurring in the early stage while are the pupils wholly dependent

on the teacher for what they learn, it should be possible to achieve the aim.

1) Global Errors

Global errors affect overall sentence organization significantly hinder

communication. The syntactic scope of this errors is wide so it is called global error.

2) Local Errors

Local errors affect single elements (constituents) in a sentence do not usually

hinder communication significantly. These include errors in noun and verb

inflections, articles, auxiliaries and the formation of quantifiers.

It is called local error because the errors are limited to a single part of the sentence.

3. The Causes of Error

Brown (2000: 224) says that the cause of errors can be devided into 2 categories,

they are:

a. Interlingual errors, that is error caused by interference of the learner’s mother

tongue. A different class of error is represented by sentences

b. Intralingual errors, that is cause of errors resulting from complicated system of

the target language itself.

Richards (1985: 47) says that the intralingual errors are divided into 4 terms,

they are:

a. Over-generalization

Over-generalization happens when a learner uses a certain structure that is over-

generalized in the target language. It is caused the learners’ basic experience of

certain structure. Generally, overgeneralization is the creation of one deviant

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structure in place of two regular structures, for example: “She can swim”. In this

case, there is an over form of a structure verb “swim” becomes “swims”. It should

be “She can swim”. Because “she” usually use verb + s. For example: She swims

b. Ignore of rule restriction

Ignore of rule restriction is failure to observe the restriction of existing

structures. That is the application of rules to context where they do not apply.

Example: the cat running was

It should be: the cat was running

c. Incomplete application of rules

Incomplete application of rules means errors are due to the occurrence of

structures whose deviancy represents the degree of development of rules required

to produce acceptable utterance. The learners fail to produce a correct sentence

according to the standards rules.

Example: I am is student

It should be: I am student

d. False Concepts Hypothesized

False concepts hypothesized means basically errors are the result from faulty

comprehension of distinction in the target language.

Example: they are not go to cinema yesterday

It should be: they did not go to cinema yesterday

4. Definition of Writing

The meaning of writing is about the way we arrange a sentence. If we can

arrange sentence well, we will be able to write down anything easily. Generally,

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EFL learners tend to write down a long and complex sentence without keeping a

clear meaning related to the sentence, even the sentence has no meaning at all

(Pratyasto, 2011: 1)

According to Patel and Jain (2008: 125), writing is a kind of linguistic behavior;

a picture is not. It presents the sounds of language through visual symbols. Writing

may be very important for one group of students but much less important for others.

They also said that writing is a skill which must be taught and practiced. Writing is

essential features of learning a language because it provides a very good means of

foxing the vocabulary, spelling, and sentence pattern. It becomes an important

aspect of students’ expression at higher stage.

Langan (2008:4) explains the important difference between reading and writing

is that in writing, any idea that you advance must be supported with specific reasons

or details. Supporting ideas can be expressed by words, phrase, sentence, or

paragraph which consists in written text.

From those definitions, it can be concluded that writing is organizing experience,

ideas or information, in the form of arranges sentences or even paragraphs. We can

also add that in order to make a good written text we have to pay attention to the

rules of writing when we are going to write a composition such as grammar,

sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, adjective, adverb and

capitalization.

5. Definition of Descriptive Writing

Wishon and Burks (1980: 379) stated that descriptive writing reproduces the

way things look, smell, taste, feel or sound; it may also include moods, such as

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happiness, loneliness, or fear. Whereas, Callaghan (1988: 138) says a

descriptive writing creates a clear and vivid impression of person, place, or

thing.

Meanwhile, McCrimmon (1984: 163) states that Description is a way to

present a verbal portrait of person, place or thing. It was meant that, descriptive

text is a type of text that has purpose to describe person place or thing clearly

and specifically. It can be concluded that writing a descriptive text should be

clear, vivid, and concrete. If a student has made a mistake in using article,

auxiliary verbs, noun and preposition, it means that they are not competent yet

in making their text. It makes the reader confused and difficult to understand

what the writer means.

Gerot and Wignell (1994: 128) say that the significant lexicogrammatical
features of descriptive writing are focus on specific participants, use of
attributive and identifying processes, frequent use of Epithets and classifiers in
nominal groups, and use of simple present tense. Through descriptive text, the
researcher would like to find out the students‘ learning problems in using simple
present tense.
6. General Concepts of Simple Present Tense

The concept of the tense of verbs found in English but is not found in any other

languages, including Indonesian. Therefore, many Indonesian learners have

difficulties with English verbs, particularly simple present tense.

Praninskas (1980:19) says that simple present tense is a verb to express repeat

actions, customary actions, and general truth. Different opinion is given by Cook

and Sutter (1980:49) that simple present tense doesn’t ordinarily refer to actions

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taking place at the moment, but it is more used to describe recurring actions or state

that occur repetitively at a period time.

This tense can be used:

a. To express a habitual action with adverbs like usually, always, often, etc.

Examples:

 I usually play badminton every week.

 He always comes to the office late.

 They often go to the library to borrow some books.

b. To state general truth

Example:

 The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

c. To express future action, especially with verbs of movement or travel such as

come, go, leave, stay, or arrive.

 He leaves on Sunday and arrives next Tuesday.

 When she comes, tell her about it.

The forms of simple present tense can be classified into:

a. The Positive/Affirmative Sentence Pattern

Subject Verb/Verb-s Complement

I/We/You/They + Verb + Complement

Example:

 I study English every day

 Nina studies hard

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 You go to school every morning.

 They usually eat breakfast.

 We always play football in the afternoon.

He/She/It + Verb/Verb-s + Complement

 Rudi comes to my house every week.

 She sometimes writes a letter.

 The cat runs quickly.

The explanation of the written verb:

1.) It has to be added ‘S’ behind the verb.

Example:

Work - He works in the office.

Write - She writes a paper.

Speak - Nita speaks loudly

2.) The ending in ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘x’, must be added with –‘es’:

Example:

Pass - He passes me quickly.

Push - She pushes him roughly.

Watch - Budi watches TV.

Fix - Tio fixes the fan.

3.) The verb ending in consonant followed by ’y’, should be changed into ‘i’ and

then it must be added ‘s’.

Example:

Study - He studies every night

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 Fly - The bird flies high.

b. The Negative Sentence Pattern

Subject Do/does not Verb Complement

I/We/You/They + Do not +Verb + complement

Example:

 They do not play chess in the evening.

 We do not go to fair.

He/She/It + Does not + Verb + complement

Example:

 He does not sleep early every night.

 She does not study hard.

c. The Question/Interrogative Sentence Pattern

Do/Does Subject Verb Complement

Do + I/You/We/They + Verb + Complement?

Example:

 Do you always come here every day?

Does + He/she/it + Verb + Complement?

 Does she usually read the story?

 Does he come to my house?

 Does it belong to you?

We need the auxiliary do/does to make the negative or interrogative sentence.

The forms of do/does can be combined with ‘not’ into construction.

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These are the forms: - do not don’t

- does not doesn’t

Based on the illustration above, it is clear that making simple present tense

correctly is very important and essential for the learners. Particularly for the

students who learn English in the writing forms.

7. Adverb of Frequency

According to Allen (1973:66) “simple present doesn’t describe present action,

but something permanent or habitual.” Because simple present tense also expresses

habitual or custom action, so that it sometimes needs adverb of frequency. Here are

the types of adverb of frequency:

a. The adverb which appear before the verb

Usually, often, sometimes, generally, never, ever, scarcely ever, hardly ever, nearly

always, seldom, rarely, occasionally, frequently, already

For example:

 We always try to work well.

 I usually travel by train.

b. Adverbs of variable position, like nearby, only, just, behave as above when

modifying the verb.

For example:

 He lends it to me only. (=not you)

 He only lends it to me. (=doesn’t give it)

c. Adverbs before auxiliaries to emphasize them.

For example:

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  Mary is late again. – Yes, she is always late.

 I never could do difficult sentences like this.

d. Adverbs before have to and used to.

For example:

 You always used to agree with me.

 I shall never have to see his ugly face again.

e. Never is commonly used merely as reinforced form of not.

For example:

 You need never address me as “sir”.

 Well, I never did.

B. Previous Study

Ngatno Utomo (2006) “An Error Analysis on Simple Present Tense in

Descriptive Writing Made by The Eighth Year Students Of SLTP N 2 Ungaran In

The Academic Year 2005/2006”. The population of this research is the eighth year

students of SLTP N 2 Ungaran in the academic year of 2005/2006 which consisted

of seven classes The total number of the population was 276 students; out of which

35 students were chosen as the samples. The students’ errors were classified into

three categories. Those were be verb errors, non-be verb errors, and adverb of

frequency errors. Be errors were divided into 3 types of errors, they were omission

of be, wrong form of be, and double be. Non-be errors were divided into 4 types of

errors. Those were the use of auxiliary be (be before verb), the use of to before verb,

-s form errors, and other errors related to verb. Another kind of error was related to

adverb of frequency. The numbers of those errors in percentage were as follows: be

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verb errors 36.38%, non-be verb errors 48.33%, and adverb of frequency errors

15.29%.

Siti Yuliani (2012) “An Error Analysis of Descriptive Texts Written by the

Eighth Grade Students of SMP Islam Diponegoro In The Academic Year Of

2011/2012”. The result of the study showed that for the linguistic category, total

errors of each kind of errors were 49 errors or 45,37% in article errors, 38 errors or

35,19% in Auxiliary verbs errors, 10 errors or 9,26% in noun errors, and 11 errors

or 10,19% in preposition errors. For the four types of errors in linguistic category,

article errors were the highest number of errors with 49 errors or 45,37%. On the

other hand, for the surface strategy, total errors of each kind of errors were 83 errors

or 76,85% in omission errors, 11 errors or 10,19% in addition errors, 14 errors or

12,96% in misformation errors, and 0 errors or 0% in misordering errors. For the

four types of errors, omission errors were the highest number of errors with 83

errors or 76,85%.

Ima Natria (2007) “ Students’ Errors in Using Simple Present Tense in Writing

Descriptive Texts”, the population of this study was the eighth year students of SMP

N 2 Brebes in the academic year of 2006/2007 which consisted of 7 classes; they

were 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, 8E, 8F, and 8G. The total number of the population was 294

students; out of which 42 students were chosen as the samples. Cluster proportional

random sampling was used to collect the data proportionally to represent each of

the group, so that they were all well represented. The samples were taken 15% from

every class to collect the data. The instrument that was used is a written test

consisting of an outline in writing a descriptive text. In analyzing the data, error

21
analysis is used in which there are five steps; they are identifying the errors,

classifying the errors, calculating the errors, putting the result in tables and the last

step is drawing conclusion. The result of the analysis shows that there were 10 types

of errors. They are omission of be, wrong form of be, double be, wrong use of

singular and plural form, addition of be (before and after verb), omission of suffix

-s/-es, wrong use of verb, wrong form of modal auxiliary, omission of verb, and

wrong form of negative sentence. It is concluded that the dominant errors lies on

the omission of suffix –s/-es from the verb of third person singular subjects in the

students’ descriptive texts whose proportion of the errors is 24.65%.

The similarities from three previous studies above with the research that the

researcher will conducted is focus on the simple present tense contained in

descriptive text and also used Dulay et al theories as the research. While the

difference is the subject and the location studied, that is grade 8F at junior high

school of SMPN 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017.

22
C. Conceptual Framework

Based on the literature review above can be drawn the conceptual framework as

follow:

Grade 8F at Junior High School of

SMP N 3 MERAUKE Academic Year 2016/ 2017

Descriptive Writing

Simple Present tense

Error

Omission Addition Misformation Misordering

Figure 2.1 Conceptual Framework

Based on the conceptual framework above, this research starts from the Grade

8F at junior high school students of SMPN 3 Merauke academic year 2016/ 2017.

Students are asked to make a descriptive paragraph that given by the researcher.

After they finished, the text will be analyzed by the researcher to find the error made

by the students after that the researcher will get the result of errors made by the

students.

23
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter presents with research design, time and place of research, subject

of the research, research instrument, method of data collection, analysis and data

validity

A. Research Design

In this research, the researcher follows the methodology in descriptive

qualitative. It is descriptive because makes the description of event or occurrence

and this method has an intention to accumulate the basic data. According to

Creswell (2009:22) “Research designs are plans and the procedures for research

that span the decisions from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data

collection and analysis”. The selection of a research design is also based on the

nature of the research problem or issue being addressed, the researchers’ personal

experiences, and the audiences for the research. Qualitative research is meant for

exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups describe to a social

or human problem. The process of research involves emerging questions and

procedures, data typically collected in the participant’s setting, data analysis

inductively building from particulars to general themes, and the researcher making

interpretations of the meaning of the data. In this research the researcher will

analyze the errors made by the students that write descriptive writing using simple

present tense.

24
B. Time and Place of research

The research will be conducted at junior high school of SMPN 3 Merauke at

Jalan Kuprik, Merauke on February 2017.

C. Population and Sample

Population is generalization region that consists of objects or subjects that have

certain quality and characteristics that is established by researcher to be researched and

then concluded (Sugiyono, 2011: 215). The population of this research is the junior

high school students of SMPN 3 Merauke. The researcher will choose the students of

grade 8F Academic Year 2016/2017 which consists of 18 students, 4 boys and 14 girls.

In qualitative research, the most important thing in data collecting is choosing

an informant. Sampling technique used by the writer is purposive sample. Purposive

sample is a technique of decided sample by specific consideration (Sugiyono,

2011:85)

D. Research Instrument

The instrument is the important thing in the research. It influences the data which

are obtained. According to Saleh (2001:31), “the term of instrument means

equipment for collecting the data.” Based on that statement, instrument is very

significant for gathering the data accurately. The instrument of this study is a

writing test. The writer used pieces of students’ paper consisting of outlines to write

the descriptive text to treat the same theme of the students’ writing. The students

will be asked to write a descriptive text. The students will be given 50 minutes to

finish it. The descriptive texts made by the students are used as the source of the

data.

25
E. Method of Data Collection

1. Test

Brown (2004: 401) defines test as an instrument procedure designed to elicit

performance from learner with the purpose of measuring their attainment. In this

research, the researcher will conduct a test in order to know the student’s error in

writing descriptive text. The test is in the form of written test. The written test is

taken from previous study and has been modified by the researcher. They will be

asked to write descriptive text in a piece of paper. First, the researcher explains

about the rules of writing a descriptive text in 5 minutes and also suggests the

students to use simple present tense. Afterward, the researcher give the outline to

guide them in writing a descriptive text and the answer sheet for the students’

writing. The researcher will analyze the students’ works by making a list of the

students’ errors of using simple present tense in descriptive writing.

2. Interview

Interview is used when researcher want to know the things of the respondents

deeper (Sugiyono, 2011: 137). In this research, researcher uses interview to know

what are the factors cause errors in using simple present tense.

26
F. Analysis and Data Validity

The errors of text made by the students will be analyzed by researcher. In this

step, the researcher focus on omission, addition, misformation, and, misordering who

has described by Dulay et al. The numbers of errors made by the students will be

analyzed by calculating the percentage formula as follows:

F
P= × 100%
n

Where:

P : percentage

F : frequency

n : number of errors

(Hatch and Farhady 1982: 92, as cited in Adhiyatma B. et al., 2015: 5)

27
 CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The data have been obtained from the instruments in the form of test and

interview. The instruments were given to the students at junior high of SMP N 3

Merauke grade 8F Academic Year 2016/2017 as the subjects of this research that

consist of 18 students, 4 males and 14 females.

Table 4.1 List of the Students of SMPN 3 Merauke Grade 8F

GENDER
NO NAME
MALE FEMALE
1 AY - √
2 AH - √
3 FAA - √
4 FW - √
5 GAK √ -
6 JPDP √ -
7 LDS √ -
8 MA - √
9 N - √
10 RSF - √
11 SCF - √
12 SAK √ -
13 SDM - √
14 SW - √
15 TR - √
16 TN - √
17 WYT - √
18 YP - √

28
 The process of data collection was held in April 17 and April 25, 2017 in junior

high school of SMPN 3 Kuprik at Trikora-Kuper Street, Semangga, Merauke. The

process consisted of introduction and then the researcher reminded the students

about the simple present tense forms. After that the researcher gave the test by

asking the students to make a paragraph based on the outline that the research gave.

The test results that was analyzed were in writing form. This is to facilitate

researcher in analyzing the simple present tense in their paragraph. From the test

results, researcher got the students’ errors in using simple present tense. The last

process of data collection was interview. The interview was conducted after

researcher analyzed the students’ test results. This is to know what factors cause the

students’ errors.

A. Research Finding

1. Students’ Error

The data of test results are analyzed using Dulay et al.’s theory (1982) in

classifying the errors that is Surface Strategy Taxonomy. The errors that are

analyzed was the error in simple present tense structure. Here are the description of

students’ errors based on the classification of Surface Strategy Taxonomy and

simple present tense.

29
 Table 4.2 Description of Students’ Errors

No Name Omision Addition Misformation Misordering Total

1 AY 2 - 4 1 7
2 AH 1 - - - 1
3 FAA 3 - 2 - 5
4 FW - - 2 2 4
5 GAK 2 - - 1 3
6 JPDP - 2 1 - 3
7 LDS 1 - 4 - 5
8 MA 1 - 1 - 2
9 N 4 - 2 1 7
10 RSF 2 3 - - 5
11 SCF - - 1 - 1
12 SAK 1 - 5 - 6
13 SDM 1 1 1 2 5
14 SW 1 - 1 - 2
15 TR - - 4 - 4
16 TN 3 - 3 2 8
17 WYT 2 1 4 2 9
18 YP 2 4 7 13 26
Total 26 11 42 24 103

From the table 4.2 above can be seen that students with initials YP have the test

results with the most errors. While the total of the lowest error is 1 from the test

results of 2 students with the initials AH and SCF. Although all of them have test

results with errors, but the students have been able to make 10 sentences in 1

paragraph.

The researcher will describe specifically the students’ errors based on the table

4.2 and the right correction. The errors are the errors in the structure of simple

30
present tense that had been made by the students at junior high school grade 8F

Academic Year 2016/2017.

Student AY

The students with initials AY has made the errors are in misordering, misformation,

and omission. She doesn’t have error in addition.

– Turtle have four membrane legs with shell hard (misformation auxiliary verb

‘have’, misformation conjunction ‘with’, and misordering ‘shell hard’)

“Turtle has four membrane legs and hard shell.”

– Turtle live in the beach (misformation verb ‘live’)

“Turtle lives in the beach.”

– Turtle have a lot of egg (misformation auxiliary verb ‘have’ and omission

plural marker ‘egg’)

“Turtle has a lot of eggs.”

Student AH

The student with initial AH is the one of students who has the lowest errors. She

only made 1 error in omission.

– It eats at yard my home (omission preposition ‘in’)

“It eats at yard in my home”

Student FAA

The students with initial FAA has made the errors are in misformation and

omission. She doesn’t have errors in addition and misordering.

– When penguin walk is very funny and cute (misformation verb ‘walk’, and

omission subject ‘it’)

31
 “When penguin walks, it is very funny and cute.”

– Penguin usually diving and sliding in pole (omission ‘to be’)

“Penguin is usually diving and sliding in pole”

– Penguin eat fish (misformation verb ‘eat’)

Penguin eats fish

– I wish diving in a sea (omission auxiliary verb ‘can’)

“I wish can diving in a sea”

Student FW

The students with initial FW has made the errors are in misformation, addition, and

misordering. She doesn’t have errors in omission.

– Whale live in the sea (misformation verb ‘live’)

“Whale lives in the sea”

– Whale is a mamalia large (misordering ‘mamalia large’)

“Whale is a large mammal”

– Whale have color is old blue (misformation primary auxiliary verb ‘have’,

addition ‘to be’, and misordering ‘color is old blue’)

“Whale has dark blue color”

Student GAK

The students with initial GAK has made the errors are in misordering, and omission.

He doesn’t have errors in misformation and addition.

– Lion are carnivore (omission plural marker ‘lion’)

“Lions are carnivore”

– And is usually used as animal cirkus lion. (misordering subject ’lion’)

32
 “And lion is usually used as animal circus “

Student JPDP

The students with initial JPDP has made the errors are in misformation, and

addition. He doesn’t have errors in misordering and omission.

– it survive in wild (misformation verb ‘survive’)

“it survives in wild”

– They’re usually live in jungle (addition ‘to be’)

“They usually live in jungle”

– They’re eat meat because they’re carnivora (addition ‘to be’)

“They eat meat because they’re carnivore”

Student LDS

The students with initial LDS has made the error are in misformation.. He doesn’t

have errors in misordering omission and addition.

– She have two colors, that is black and brown (misformation primary auxiliary

verb ‘have’ and to be ‘is’)

“She has two colors, that are black and brown”

– She like play (misformation verb ‘like’)

“She likes play”

– My dog outside home (omission to be ‘is’)

“My dog is outside home”

– She eat rice and meat (misformation verb ‘eat’)

“She eats rice and meat”

33
Student MA

The students with initial MA has made the error are in misformation, and omission.

She doesn’t have errors in, addition, and misordering.

– Bear eat fish in the river (misformation verb ‘eat’)

“Bear eats fish in the river”

– Bear are karnivore (omission subject ‘bear’)

“Bears are carnivore”

Student N

The students with initial N has made the errors are in misformation, omission, and

misordering. She doesn’t have errors in addition.

– Color fur various (omission ‘possessive pronoun’, misordering ‘color fur

various’, omission plural marker ‘color’)

“It has various fur colors”

– That is black, white, and yellow (misformation to be ‘is’)

“That are black, white, and yellow”

– Cat usually live in the home (misformation verb ‘live’)

“Cat usually lives in the home”

– Cat often cares fur (omission possessive pronoun ‘its’)

“Cat often cares its fur”

Student RSF

The students with initial RSF has made the errors are in addition, and omission. She

doesn’t have errors in misformation and misordering.

– I’m very like to rabbits… (Addition ‘to be’ and addition preposition ‘to’)

34
 “I very like rabbits…”

– By remember I feel happy (omission ‘subject’)

“By remember it, I feel happy”

– They like jump (omission preposition ‘to’)

“They like to jump”

– I’m think the animal is very unique (addition ‘to be’)

“I think the animal is very unique”

Student SCF

The students with initial SCF has made the error in misformation. She doesn’t have

errors in omission, addition, and misordering.

– I feel look at butterfly is beautiful (misformation verb ‘feel’)

“I think, look at butterfly is beautiful”

Student SAK

The students with initial SAK has made the errors are in misformation, and

omission. He doesn’t have errors in addition, and misordering.

– The eagle are carnivore… (misformation verb ‘eagle’)

“The eagles are carnivore…”

– The eagle have … (misformation auxiliary verb ‘have’)

“The eagle has…”

– The female eagle usually put eggs on big tree (misformation verb ‘put’)

“The female eagle usually puts eggs on big tree

– The eagle usually life … (misformation verb ‘life’)

“The eagle usually lives…”

35
– The strong claw make the eagle the strongest animal (misformation verb

‘make’ and omission ‘become’)

“The strong claw makes the eagle become the strongest animal”

Student SDM

The students with initial SDM has made the errors are in misformation, addition,

omission, and misordering.

– I’m really like bird because bird very beautiful (addition ‘to be’ and omission

‘to be’)

“I really like bird because bird is very beautiful”

– Bird have color fur pretty (misformation auxiliary verb ‘have’ and misordering

‘color fur pretty’)

“Bird has pretty fur color”

– Birds have character special that is can fly (misordering ‘character special’)

“Birds have special character that is can fly”

Student SW

The students with initial SW has made the errors are in misformation, and omission.

She doesn’t have errors in addition, and misordering.

– They have brisk eyes and deft foot (misformation plural noun ‘foot’)

“They have brisk eyes and deft feet”

– The brisk eyes make lion easy know existence bait (omission preposition ‘to’)

“The brisk eyes make lion to know existence bait”

36
Student TR

The students with initial TR has made the error in misformation. She doesn’t have

errors in addition, omission, and misordering.

– She like to lick her tail (misformation verb ‘like’)

“She likes to lick her tail”

– Belang like to eat fish (misformation verb ‘like’)

“Belang likes to eat fish”

– She also eat tempe (misformation verb ‘eat’)

“She also eats tempe”

– When the sunset, she like to play outside the house (misformation verb ‘like’)

“When the sunset, she likes to play outside the house”

Student TN

The students with initial TN has made the errors are in misformation, misordering,

and omission. She doesn’t have errors in addition.

– They have only two color (misordering ‘have only’, and misformation plural

nouns‘color’)

“They only have two colors”

– They fur soft (misformation possessive pronoun ‘they’ and omission ‘to be’)

“Their fur is soft”

– Panda have fat body (misformation auxiliary verb ‘have’)

“Panda has fat body”

– They usually live in jungle china (misordering ‘jungle china’)

“They usually live in china jungle”

37
– They tooth is strong because they can eat bamboo (misformation possessive

pronoun ‘they’)

“Their tooth is strong because they can eat bamboo”

– This animal usually lazy (omission ‘to be’)

“This animal is usually lazy”

– They can sleep a long day (misordering ‘long day’)

“They can sleep a day long”

Student WYT

The students with initial WYT has made the errors are in misformation,

misordering, addition and omission.

– They have sircle eyes skin black (omission coordinating conjunction ‘and’ and

misordering ‘skin black’)

“They have circle eyes and black skin”

– Pandas is herbivore, they eat bamboo (misformation ‘to be’)

“Pandas are herbivore, they eat bamboo”

– Pandas is animal special from cina (misformation ‘to be’ and misordering

‘animal special’)

“Pandas are special animal from china”

– But they hard in having children. (omission ‘to be’)

“But they are hard in having children”

– With look panda I’m wish … (misformation preposition ‘with’ and addition ‘to

be’)

“By look panda I wish “

38
Student YPS

The students with initial YPS has made the errors are in misformation, misordering,

addition and omission.

– Bear honey is animal (misordering ‘bear honey’)

“Honey bear is animal”

– Bear honey have body that very big and shape face that very terrifying

(misordering ‘bear honey’ ‘body that very big’, ‘shape face’, addition pronoun

‘that’ misformation auxiliary verb ‘have’, pronoun ‘that’)

” Honey bear has very big body and face shape is very terrifying”

– Bear honey also have mane (misordering ‘bear honey’, misformation auxiliary

verb ‘have’)

“Honey bear also has mane”

– Bear honey like sleep (misordering ‘bear honey’, omission ‘preposition’, and

misordering verb ‘like’)

“Honey bear likes to sleep”

– I like bear honey because bear honey have big and have mane that very

beautiful (misordering ‘bear honey’, misformation auxiliary verb ‘have’,

misordering ‘have mane that very beautiful’, and addition ‘that’)

“I like honey bear because honey bear has big and very beautiful mane”

– Bear honey live clever in searching food (misordering ‘bear honey’, and

misformation verb ‘live’)

“Honey bear lives clever in searching food”

39
– Bear honey like eat honey (misordering ‘bear honey’, and misformation verb

‘like’)

“Honey bear likes eat honey”

– We are know that taste honey sweet (addition ‘to be’, misordering ‘taste

honey’, and omission ‘to be’)

“We know that honey taste is sweet”

– Bear honey have sharp tooth (misordering ‘bear honey’, and misformation

auxiliary ‘have’)

“Honey bear has sharp tooth”

– When I look bear honey that I become feel most strong and wild (misordering

‘bear honey’, addition pronoun ‘that’, misformation superlative degree

‘strong’)

“When I look honey bear, I become feel strongest and wild”

From all the descriptions above, here is the table of students’ errors that has been

classified based on Surface Strategy Taxonomy and their frequency and

percentages.

Table 4.3 List of the Students’ Errors

No Strategy of Taxonomy Surface Frequency Percentage (%)
1 Misformation 42 40.78
2 Omission 26 25.24
3 Misordering 24 23.30
4 Addition 11 10.68
Total 103 100

Based on the table above, can be seen that the total of students’ error in the

structure of simple present tense in descriptive writing are 103 errors. The most

errors are misformation (40.78%), and then misordering (23.30%), omission

40
(25.24%), and the last is addition (10.68%). To know more clearly the comparison

of the kinds of error, can be seen in the chart below.

Figures 4.1 Chart of the students' errors

Addition 11%

Misformation 41%
Omission 25%

Misordering 23%

Misformation Misordering Omission Addition

2. Cause of Errors

From the test results given, there are still many errors that students made.

Therefore, the researcher interviewed the students to know what factors are

causing the error. There are seven questions that are given to students. Here are

the description of the interview results.

Question no. 1

“Do you understand about simple present tense?”

This question is given to students to know how many students who understand

about simple present tense. From some students' answers, there are five students

who understand, ten students who little bit understand, and only three who do not

understand about simple present tense

41
Question no. 2

“Do you find some difficulties in learning simple present tense? If you do, what is

it?”

This question is given to students to find out the cause of errors in simple present

tense. From some students' answers, some students have difficulties because they

do not know the pattern of simple present tense sentences, there is a student

confused placement of s / es on verbs used for a single third person, and five

students who have no difficulty in learning simple present tense.

Question no. 3

“Why are you having trouble in learning simple present tense?”

This question is given to students to find out the cause of errors that have been

done by students in learning simple present tense. From the students answered,

they are do not completely understood about simple present tense, there are some

students do not pay attention to the lessons well, and there is a student who do not

like the English lesson.

Question no. 4

“Do you learn about simple present tense outside the classroom?”

This question is given to find out do the students are repeating simple present tense

lesson outside the school. From the students' answers, only five students are

repeating the material outside school. Thirteen other students did not repeat the

material.

42
Question no. 5

“What do you know about descriptive writing?”

This question is given to know their knowledge about descriptive writing. Of all

the students' answers, only the ten students who understand about descriptive

writing, five people answered with inappropriate answers, and three students who

do not understand about descriptive writing.

Question no. 6

“Do you find some difficulties when working on simple present tense in

descriptive writing? If you do, what is it?”

This question is given to find out do the students find the difficulties when writing

descriptive writing using simple present tense pattern. From whole of students'

answers, thirteen students have difficulties in writing process, almost all answered

that they have not understood the pattern of simple present tense and did not

mastered the vocabulary. While five students answered that they had no difficulty

in the process of writing.

43
B. Discussions

1. Type of Errors

a. Addition Error

There are 11 errors made by students in their writing. The percentage of

addition error is 10,48%. In this type of error there are 3 categories of error. Here

are they:

Table 4.4 category of addition error

Categories Frequency Percentage (%)
To be 8 72,73
Pronoun 2 18,18
Unnecessary word 1 9,09
Total 11 100

1.) Addition Error of To Be

There are some students who add unnecessary to be in their sentence. In addition

error of to be, there are 8 error sentences. Here one of error sentences, ’they are

usually live in jungle’. The students put to be between subject and verb. The use

of to be in simple present tense is not justified if there a verb after the subject.

Therefore, to be in the sentence above is not needed

2.) Addition Error of Pronoun

In addition error of pronoun, there are 2 error sentences. One of that sentence

is, ‘have mane that very beautiful’. The word ‘that’ in that sentences is not needed.

The sentences better without ‘that’. As the sentence 'have mane that very beautiful'

can be changed into 'have very beautiful mane'

44
3.) Addition Error of Unnecessary Word

One of the students write a sentence with an unnecessary addition word. That

unnecessary word made the sentence sounds ambiguous. The sentence is as

follows,’ When I look bear honey that I become feel most strong and wild’. That

sentence will be better be like ‘When I look honey bear, I become feel stronger

and wild’.

b. Misordering Error

There are 24 misordering errors made by students in their writing. The

percentage of misordering error is 23,30%. In misordering error almost all errors

made by students are in the misplaced of word form, that doesn’t match with the

sentence pattern. For examples, ‘long day’ it should be ‘day long’, ‘bear honey’ it

should be ‘honey bear’, and ‘animal special’ it should be ‘special animal’

c. Omission Error

There are 26 omission errors made by students in their writing. The percentage

of omission error is 25,24%. In this type of error there are 8 categories of error.

Here are they:

Table 4.5 categories of omission error

Categories Frequency Percentage (%)
To be 8 30.77
Plural marker -s/es 5 19.23
Preposition 4 15.38
Subject 4 15.38
Auxiliary verb 2 7.69
Possessive Pronoun 1 3.85
Coordinating Conjunction 1 3.85

45
 Unnecessary word 1 3.85
Total 26 100

1.) Omission Error of To Be

Based on the rule of simple present tense, to be is needed for subject which is

followed by non-verb. The absence of to be makes the sentence incorrect. Here are

some example of omission :

 My dog … outside home

 Bird … very beautiful

 Their fur … soft

 This animal … usually lazy

The sentence ‘This animal…usually lazy’, there should be a to be after subject.

The appropriate to be for the sentence is ‘is’.

2.) Omission Error of Plural Marker -s/es

In English, nouns are divided into two types which are countable and

uncountable noun. Countable nouns are marked with -s/es suffix which are

attached to that countable noun. For example, books, tables, bicycles, etc. While

noun- countable nouns are not marked with -s/es suffix but they are usually

followed by certain determiner such as a lot of, some, less, etc.

The word, ‘It has various fur color’, is not attached with suffix -s/es for the

‘color’ word. The student put ‘various’ word in that sentence, but she doesn’t

realize that the ‘various’ word has same meaning like ‘many’. Putting the word

‘various’ to show plural nouns has to be accompanied by adding the suffix -s/es.

46
3.) Omission Error of Preposition

The occurrence of this type of errors is quite frequent. Here are the sentences

which are not provided by prepositions:

 It eats at yard … my home

 They like … jump

 Bear honey like … sleep

 The brisk eyes make lion easy … know existence

To make it grammatically correct, the sentences above need a preposition. The

sentence ‘it eats at yard…my home’ need preposition of place ‘in’ to make it well

formed sentence.

4.) Omission Error of Subject

The presence of a subject in a sentence is vital. An English sentence should

contain at least a subject and a verb. When a sentence doesn’t have a subject, the

sentence can’t be understood well. Some students omit the presence of a subject

in the sentences. For example, in this sentence ‘by remember I feel happy’ the

student doesn’t provide a subject. The best subject for that sentence is ‘it’ as the

writer describes what she wants to remember.

5.) Omission Error of Auxiliary Verb

Helping verb or auxiliary verb is needed in a sentence in order to make a

sentence clearly. The unclear sentence make a sentence error grammatically. For

example, ‘I wish diving in a sea’ that sentence is unclear without helping verb

‘can’ to describe what the writer can do.

47
6.) Omission Error of Possessive Pronoun

Possessive pronouns are pronouns that show an ownership. Possessive pronoun

is usually used to replace more than one subject in a sentence to avoid repeating

the subject word. In possessive pronoun subject ‘I’ used ‘my’, ‘she’ used ‘her’,

‘he’ used ‘his’, ‘it’ used ‘its’, ‘they’ used ‘their’, and ‘we’ used ‘our’. But in one

student make an error. She did not realized write 'Cat often cares fur' in her writing,

she did not add possessive pronoun to explain ownership of the word 'fur' in the

sentence. And the right possessive pronoun to make the sentence to be better is 'its'

to explain the ownership of the word 'fur'. And the sentence becomes 'cat often

cares its fur'.

7.) Omission Error of Coordinating Conjunction

Coordinating conjunction is a connective word that connects one sentence with

another equal sentence. This means that each sentence can be understood even if

it stands alone without a conjunctive word. Here are coordinating conjunction: for,

and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

In this sentence ‘They have circle eyes black skin’. The student forgot put

coordinating conjunction between ‘circle eyes’ and ‘black skin’. So that the

sentence to be error. The right coordinating conjunction to connect that sentence

is ‘and’. And the sentence becomes ‘they have circle eyes and black skin’.

8.) Omission error of necessary word

The sentence, ‘The strong claw makes the eagle the strongest animal’. The

sentence is less precise because no one explains who is 'the strongest animal'. The

sentence would be better if the word 'become' between ‘the eagle’ and ‘the strongest

48
animal’ And the sentence becomes 'The strong claw makes the eagle become the

strongest animal'

d. Misformation Error

Misformation error is the most frequent error on the use of simple present tense

in students’ writing. The percentage of misformation error is 40.78% of 42 errors

on the use of simple present tense. The researcher divides misformation error into

8 categories. Here are the categories of misformation errors:

Table 4.6 categories of misformation error

Categories Frequency Percentage (%)
Verb 20 47.61
Auxiliary Verb (have/has) 11 26.20
To Be 5 11.90
Possessive Pronoun 2 4.77
Conjunction 1 2.38
Plural Noun 1 2.38
Preposition 1 2.38
Superlative Degree 1 2.38
Total 42 100

1.) Misformation Error of Verb

If the students made verbs are not in accordance with the rule of simple present

tense, the sentence becomes an error. There are 20 errors in misformation error of

verb. Here are examples of misformation error of verb:

 Turtle live in the beach

 When penguin walk…

 Penguin eat fish

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  Whale live in the sea

 it survive in wild

The verb present in the simple present tense should use the suffix s/es when it

has the subject He, She, It. For example, the student has written sentence, ’penguin

eat fish’. The verb ‘eat’ in that sentence should be use suffix ‘s’ become ‘eats’.

Therefore, the correct sentence according rule of simple present tense should be

’penguin eats fish’.

2.) Misformation Error of Auxiliary Verb (have/has)

Have and has actually had the same meaning. The differences are, ‘has’ is used

to subject ‘I, you, we, they’, whereas ‘has’ only used for third singular person ‘she,

he, it.’ But here, the students often made an error sentences, they put ‘have’ in

subject third singular person and they put ‘has’ in subject ‘I, you, we, they’. Here

the example of the sentence, ’Turtle have four membrane legs…’. The student did

not realized that the sentence is error. It should be, ‘Turtle has four membrane legs’

because the ‘turtle’ is third singular person ‘it’.

3.) Misformation Error of To Be

The students made 5 misformation errors of to be. Here they are:

 She has two colors, that is black and brown

 That is black, white, and yellow

 Pandas is herbivore, they eat bamboo

 Pandas is animal special from china

 ….shape face that very terrifying

The used of to be in the sentence, ‘She has two colors, that is black and brown’

50
is an error. Because that sentence describes plural sentence. It can be seen from the

sentence ‘two colors’ and ‘black and brown’, if the plural sentence should be used

to be ‘are’. And the correct sentence be like, ‘she has two colors, that are black and

brown’. Whereas the sentence ‘shape face that very terrifying’. The student doesn’t

release that she did not used to be in that sentence, but she used ‘that’ in that

sentence. The correct sentence is ‘face shape is very terrifying’

4.) Misformation Error of Possessive Pronoun

Possessive Pronoun is a pronoun that serves to show ownership. In a sentence,

this word can occupy a position as subject, subject complement, or direct object.

The sentence ‘they fur is soft’ the student did not used possessive pronoun in that

sentence. The sentence should be like, ’their fur is soft’ because ‘their’ Replacing

ownership of the subject.

5.) Misformation Error of Conjunction

The sentence ‘turtle have four membrane legs with shell hard’ is error. The

student did not realize that she has written the error conjunction. She wants to make

the sentence ‘kura-kura mempunyai empat kaki berselaput dengan cangkang yang

keras’. In Indonesian, the word 'dengan' as same as 'and' but in English it is wrong.

It should be used ‘and’. Therefore, the sentence should be like,‘turtle have four

membrane legs and hard shell’.

6.) Misformation Error of Plural Noun

The student has written sentence ‘They have brisk eyes and deft foot’. She did

not realize that the ‘foot’ word describes that only have one leg. Here, the students

describe lions as her favorite animal. Basically, lion have four legs. But she has

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written foot. In plural noun ‘foot’ should be ‘feet’ it cannot be ‘foots’. Therefore,

that sentence should be, ‘They have brisk eyes and deft feet’.

7.) Misformation Error of Preposition

The student make sentence ‘With looking at panda I wish …’, grammatically

that sentence is error because the use of preposition. The preposition ‘with’ is

should be use for what we use. For example, ‘she writes with her pen’. But if want

to write for what we do, should be use ‘by’. For example, ‘she picks it up by her

hand’. Therefore, the sentence should be like ‘by looking at panda, I wish…’

because the ‘looking’ word describes for what we do.

8.) Misformation Error of Superlative Degree

Superlative is a grammar used to compare three or more things (people, objects,

animals). When using superlatives, we are only talking about one person, thing, or

thing that has the "most" nature compared to the others. Superlative is the third

degree of comparison in adjective and adverb. But the student has written the error

superlative in her sentence. ‘I become feel most strong and wild’, the word ‘strong’

only has one syllable. In superlative degree, an adjective consisting of one syllable

is usually added to the -est ending. It should be ‘strongest’ not ‘most strong’.

Therefore, the sentence should be ‘I become feel strongest and wild’.

2. Source of Error

Based on the results of interview data, the lack of the students’ ability to create

a paragraph with simple present tense because the students are less understanding

about simple present tense. It can be seen from the results of questions number 1,

2 and 3 which are asking about the difficulty in writing with simple present tense.

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14 students (77.78%) stated that they do not understand about simple present tense.

And some of the 14 students answered because they paid little attention to the

material that given by the teacher. In other words, the students have been given

simple present tense material, but they pay little attention to what their teacher

have taught.

Besides the factors of learning outside the class determine the understanding

and the results of the test. This case can be seen from question number 4. 13 of the

18 students (72.22%) answered that they did not repeat the material about simple

present tense outside the classroom. It also caused them less in understand about

simple present tense.

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 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions

The research conducts a research which is analyze the students’ error on simple

present tense in descriptive writing. The research is carried out in junior high school

of SMPN 3 Merauke. The population used in this research is the eighth grade. The

researcher chooses VIII F which consist of 18 students as the sample of this

research. The writing test is used by the researcher as the data of this research. The

students have to make a descriptive paragraph using simple present tense. The

results of the analysis show a fact that the students make the errors. The researcher

categorizes the errors based on surface strategy taxonomy proposed by Dulay, Burt,

and Krashen (1982:150).

Based on research findings in chapter four, the researcher describes the

conclusions as follows:

1. Based on Dulay et al.’s theory that is Surface Strategy Taxonomy. This

taxonomy consists of four errors, those are omission, addition, misformation,

and misordering. The most of students’ errors are misformation that has 42

errors (40,78%), and then omission that is 26 errors (25,24%), misordering that

is 34 errors (23.30%), and the last is addition that has 11 errors (10,68%).

2. The largest frequency of errors come from misformation errors with the

percentage of 40,78%% or 42 errors of total 103 errors. There are eight

categories of misformation error which is misformation error of verb as the

54
 highest category of misformation error with the percentage of 47,61% or 20

errors of 42 total misformation errors.

3. According the results of test and interview data, can be conclude that cause of

errors are:

a. Students have some troubles in using the simple present tense in their writing,

such as:

1.) The students do not memorize the pattern of simple present tense

2.) The students do not understand the material

3.) Confused in distinguishing in the use of suffix -s / es on a verb of single

third person.

4.) Difficulty in using plural mark -s / es on plural noun.

5.) The students have limited vocabularies

b. The lack of students’ efforts in overcoming their troubles in using simple

present tense.

B. Suggestions

In English lessons the use of tenses is definitely required to form a correct

language. From the various kinds of tenses, simple present tense is the basic tenses

that must be mastered. But the factor about the English language is a foreign

language or a second language in Indonesia. Its very reasonable if the students in

Indonesia often make the errors in the formation of language using simple present

tense. But it doesn’t mean that this case is allowed. This becomes the one process

in learning language.

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 Therefore, it would be better if the students learning the basic materials first.

Students should pay more attention to the learning process, asking if there any

difficulty in learning, either inside or outside the classroom. To complement their

understanding, they also need to learn more about obstructing problems, such as

limited vocabulary mastery, memorize the pattern of simple present tense and other

inhibiting factors that can be learned on their own through the material that has been

taught. The students' own awareness of English as a modern language should also

be improved to encourage the quality of learning.

56
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Brown, H Douglos. 2007. Prinsip Pembelajaran dan Pengajaran Bahasa ( edisi

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Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two. New York: Oxford
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John W. Creswell-Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
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Appendix 1

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Write your name on the place given.

2. Make a descriptive paragraph by following to the outline given.

3. Use simple present tense.

4. The length of the paragraph is at least 10 sentences.

5. You may look up to your dictionaries in case there are some

vocabularies which you are not familiar with.

The time allotment is 50 minutes

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 OUTLINE

Theme : A Favorite Animal

Tenses : Simple Present Tense

Genre : Descriptive

Purpose : To describe a favorite animal and why it becomes favorite for the

students.

I. Topic Sentence

Write sentence that tells what animal you are going to describe.

II. Supporting Details

- Write sentence that describe special characteristic of the animal.

- Write sentence about where the animal usually lives.

- Write sentence about what the animal likes to eat.

- Write sentence about what the animal can do.

III. Concluding Sentence

Write a summary statement that describe your feeling about the animal

(As cited in Ngatno Utomo (2006) “An Error Analysis on Simple Present Tense in

Descriptive Writing Made by The Eighth Year Students Of SLTP N 2 Ungaran In

The Academic Year 2005/2006” modified by Rafi Nurhayadi)

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The example of paragraph

Name :

The Elephant

My favorite animal is the elephants. They have a huge body, and wide ears. Their

skin is very thick and has gray color. Both the males and females have tusks. The

tusk make elephant look really cool. They usually live in the jungle. Elephants are

herbivore, so usually they only eat fruits and herbs. With a large body makes the

elephant as one of the strongest animal. They can topple large trees with their bodies

and tusks. I really like the elephant, by remember this animal I feel stronger.

61