Analysis on Morpho-syntactical Errors in the Essays Based on Paper Assignment of

Writing III Subject Made by English Department Students of Lambung Mangkurat

University Batch 2015

Afresa Reynaldi

English Department Faculty of Teaching Training and Education,

Lambung Mangkurat University

ABSTRACT
In writing III class, students are assigned to make writing product such as essay as their paper
assignment. In English Department of FKIP ULM, students sometimes face the variety of
problems while they are writing and categorized as errors. One of the problems is in the
linguistic area especially in morpho-syntactical field. This condition guidess the researcher to
conduct a research to find out the morpho-syntactical errors in their essays based on their
paper assignment of Writing III subject at English Department of FKIP ULM batch 2015.
Descriptive qualitative research was used as the approach and method. To find out the errors,
students’ paper assignment was used as the instrument. The researcher collects all the
students’ essays from the whole Writing III classes (A1, A2, and A3) and starts to analyze the
linguistic problem. To show what are the morpho-syntactical errors based on students’ essay,
the result would be divided into two classifications (morphology and syntax errors). Based on
the finding, the students’ errors in morphology occur in affixation (181 or 73%), conversion
(18 or 7%), compound (42 or 17%) and short form / abbreviation (4 or 3%). In syntax, errors
happen in the area of using articles (70 or 55%), using correct form of tenses (32 or 25%) and
using preposition (24 or 20%). From the result of this research, it is suggested for the lecturer
to give attention regarding those problems. The lecturer can use many strategies to correct the
students’ errors such as highlight the wrong words and giving personal comments in the essay
submitted by the students. For students, it is suggested to keep practicing and read more to
increase their knowledge about linguistic especially in morphology and syntax area.

Key words: error analysis, morphology, syntax, essay, paper assignment

INTRODUCTION essays as their paper assignment. When the

Background of the Study
During their stay at University, students
are expected to use their writing ability to
finish a lot of paper assignments in many
subjects especially in writing subject. In
this subject, students often asked to write
students do their written production, they
sometime face a variety of problems. One
of the problems is in linguistic area. The
problems in students’ writing are what we
call as an error. According to Corder
(1973: 257), error is a failure in using the
language both orally or written form that
deviates from languages rules which may Based on Paper Assignment of Writing III
not be conscious. Many kinds of errors subject made by English Department
occur in writing for students learning Students of Lambung Mangkurat
English, such as error in grammatical and University Batch 2015”
linguistic errors. The linguistic error
including morphology errors, syntax Research Problem
errors, semantic errors, discourse errors, Based on the background of study above,
and lexical errors. For this study, the this study aims to answer the following
researcher interested to find the error in question:
linguistic area especially in morphology 1. What are morpho-syntactical errors on
and syntax errors or usually called as students’ essay in writing III subject
morpho-syntactical error made by students made by English Department students
in their essays as their paper assignment in of Lambung Mangkurat University
Writing III subject. batch 2015?
2. What is the dominant morpho-
Beside the error, the students sometime
syntactical error made by the learners?
creating a mistake. Errors are different
from mistakes. Big different from error
Scope
and mistake is that mistake can be self-
As stated in the research identification of
corrected by the students since it is only
the problem, students commit an error in
wrong in performance while error cannot
linguistic area.
be self-corrected because the students do
not have the knowledge or competence in
Significance
writing.
1. Theoretically
The way to find the morpho-syntactical
The result of this study can show what
errors made by English Department
aspect that they may be committing the
student in Lambung Mangkurat University
linguistic error in writing an essay as their
batch 2015 is to study their essay in
paper assignment. By this way, hopefully
Writing III subject. That is why this study
this research can improve the students’
has chosen to investigate and analyze the
knowledge in English and linguistic study
morphological and syntactical error on
so they could improve their writing.
essay based on their paper assignment in
college. This thesis is entitled “Analysis on
Morpho-syntactical Errors in the Essays
2. Practically
1. For the teacher of English Education
Department, help them to give the
appropriate treatment for students’ mistake
and errors in writing and start to make an
improvement in teaching writing.
2. For the students, they are expected to
increase their knowledge in writing and be
aware of the linguistic error in their
writing especially in essay they made.
3. For the next researcher who has same
interest in this field, it can be used as the
references to conduct the research wider
and deeper rather than this study.
Research Assumptions
The researcher has the assumption as
follows:
1. All subjects of the study have passed
writing I, Writing II, in their college
and able to write an essay in writing
III subject.
2. All subjects of the study know to write
an essay.
3. There are errors in their essay.
Definition of Key Terms
1. Error: is breaking the rule, a lack of
competence such as knowledge of the
language, which may not be self-
correctable. Occurs in the process of
learning foreign language.
2. Morphological errors: is put the wrong
morpheme in the wrong place or at the
wrong time or wrong in word
structure. Usually occur in subject-
verb agreement, singular or plural
marker.
3. Syntactic errors: wrong formation
because word structure has an error on
it so the syntax area affected or wrong
in word formation in sentence. Occurs
when the students put the wrong word
in sentences.
4. Essay: writing product that contains
the personal of point of view of the
author about something. Strong
writing skill is needed to write this
essay.
5. Paper assignment: written work as a
task which is assigned to someone or
students. Given to students as their
task in the process of learning English.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Definition of Error Analysis
Error analysis is a type of study that focus
on the error that commit by the learners in
learning English by observing, analyzing,
and classifying the different rules of both
first and second language. It occurs when
students apply set or rules of their first
language without knowing the structure of
foreign language. As they are lack of
competence, they tend to be not self-
correctable.
Difference between Error and Mistake
To distinguish these two things, the
researcher cites the definition from Brown
(1998: 205) who said that a mistake refers
to the performance error cause by external
factors such us feeling sick, thinking about
another problem while writing, and etc. An
error refers to competence error which
mean the students not understand the set of
rules in writing.
Types of Error
In classifying types of error in this study,
the researcher uses the linguistic category
taxonomy that described by Dullay, Burt,
and Stephen in their book (1982:146). This
study classifies errors according to the
component of the language that affected by
the errors. Language component includes
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantic,
lexicon, and discourse. In this study, the
researcher focuses on morphological and
syntactical errors.
1. Morphological Errors
Morphology is the study of the structure of
words from a semantic point of view rather
than from the viewpoint of phonology
(Kracht, 2007:79). In other word,
morphology is the study of the basic
meaningful elements of a language called
Morpheme. A morpheme is minimal
linguistic unit which has a meaning and
grammatical function. In English, for
example, the word harden consist of three
morphemes (hard plus en). En- is a
morpheme which changes from adjective
(hard) into verbs (harden).
Error in morphology occurs in many
fields, such as: all errors in affixation,
conversion, compound error, short form /
abbreviation, and the last is conversational
informal words.
2. Syntactical Errors
Syntax is the study on arranging words
into phrases, clauses, and sentences
systematically correct or with syntactical
constructions (Mu’in and Nanik, 2007:83).
Different from morphology, the smallest
units of syntax are words. Thus, when the
two or more words are arranged in certain
ways, it refers to syntactical construction.
Error in syntax means error in grammatical
construction, such as error in using
auxiliaries, articles, prepositions, correct
form of tense, and the last is error in using
conjunctions.
The Definition of Essay
Essay is piece of writing production that
consist of three parts (introduction, body
paragraph, and conclusion) Kirszner and
Stephen (2008).
The Meaning of Paper Assignment
The word paper means a written work or a
written production and the word
assignment means a task assigned to students of Lambung Mangkurat
students. University batch 2015

III. METHOD OF RESEARCH Validity

Research Design and Approach Validity means the test measures
In this study, researcher uses a qualitative accurately what to be measure (Brown,
approach to conduct the research. 2003). The more valid the data, the more
Qualitative research is method for acceptable to conducting this research
understanding and exploring the meaning study. In this research, the researcher uses
individuals or groups with a human or content-related validity. Content-related
social problem (Creswell, 2009:4). validity refers to the content and format of
Descriptive qualitative technique is used as the instrument. Since the purpose of this
the approach of the study. In this research, study is to analyze the student’s errors in
the data consist of entire pieces of essay in writing essays, they are asked to write
form of paper assignment. The data are essays as their paper assignments and the
collected and analyzed through researcher collect it as the instrument of
morphological analysis and syntactical this study.
analysis in form of table of classification.
Realibility
Subject of the Research The researcher chooses inter-rater
The populations of this research are 90 of reliability. Inter-rater reliability used when
English Deparment students in Lambung two or more scorers produce the same or
Mangkurat University batch 2015 who consistent result of the same test (Brown,
took Writing III subject (A1, A2, and A3 2003: 21). The considerations for second
classes) rater are someone who have passed
Writing III, Morphology, and Sintax class
Instrumentation
with good grades (B+ or A). And the
The researcher should analyze the paper
second rater for this study is Hj. Fahrina
assignments that have been done by the
who had passed Writing I with B+ score,
student in Writing III subject. To make
Writing II with B+ score, Morphology
sure that the data is reliable, the researcher
with B+ score, and Syntax with A score.
takes three assignments to be analyzed as
Another reason she was chosen that
the representative of English Department
because she has same interesting with the
researcher in linguistic study.
Data Collecting Technique 3. Classification of errors: Grouping the
The kind of data collected is errors that had been found and stating
documentation on morpho-syntactical the classes of the errors. The errors
error through students’ paper assignment. were classified based on linguistic
Arikunto, said that documentation is the category taxonomy, those include five
number of data that present a data such as types of linguistic errors according to
journals, memories and others which can Dulay, Burt, and Krashen.
be represent and responsible. In this study, 4. Calculation of the error: In this
the documentation refer to paper research, the researcher uses following
assignment. The total number of the paper mathematical formula:
assignment that has been collected by the
F
𝑃 = N ×100%
research is 90 assignments. The
assignment consists of 3 different essays P = percentage
for each student. F = frequency of wrong error
N = number of sample which is observed
Data Analysis 5. Explanation of errors: In this step, the
The researcher focused on morpho- researcher tried to explain how and
syntactical errors that was applied in why a sentence called to be error.
essays as students’ paper assignment. 6. Drawing conclusion: Drawing a
Therefore, in analyzing the data, the conclusion bades from the data
researcher used error analysis method. analyzed.
Corder as cited by Ellis (1996:51) suggests
the following steps to conduct an error
IV. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
analysis research:
Morphological Errors made by the
1. Collection of samples: refers to
Students
deciding what samples are used for the
From the data analysis, it found that
analysis and how to collect these
English Department students batch 2015
sample.
that taking Writing III subject still made
2. Identification of errors: the researcher
errors in morphology. Students made error
tried to find out errors on the essay in
in the area of affixation, conversion,
students’ paper assignments by using
compound, and short form / abbreviation.
classification of morphological and
syntactical error tables.
 Table 4.1 Morphological errors found in students’ essays Table 4.6 Syntactical errors found in students’ essays
Participant Group of Type of Total Total
No Sub-types of Total No Participants Group of errors Type of errors
s errors errors occurrences Total students occurrence
error students

Addition 17
38 0
1 Affixation 1 Error in auxiliaries
93 0
Omission 56

Error in using
Conversio 2 43 70
2 5 18 articles
n
A1, A2 and
Morpholog Error in using 11
A1, A2 9 3 A3 in Syntactical 24
ical errors prepositions
and A3 in Noun Writing III errors
17
3 Writing III Compound 12 class
25
Adjective Error in using
class
4 correct form of 27 32
tenses.

4 abbreviatio 2 4
n 5 Error in conjunctions 0
0

5 Conversational
informal word

Based on the table above, syntactical error

Based on the table above, it is found that
English Department students batch 2015
who took writing III subject still made an
error in their writing. Errors occur in the
area of affixation such as addition prefix,
addition suffix, omission prefix, omission
suffix, conversation,
morpheme, and short form / abbreviation.
None of students make morphological
error in conversational informal words.
Syntactical Errors made by the Students
Since errors happen in morphological area,
it is automatically affected the syntactical
area as well. The errors found in the
students’ essays are in the area of articles,
preposition, and tenses. The following
table will show the syntactical errors made
by students in their essays.
on students’ essays occurs in the area of
using articles, error in using correct form
of tenses, and error in using preposition.
None of students make errors in the area of
auxiliaries and conjunctions.
compound Discussion of the Result
In morphology, it can be seen that from
total 195 errors, 131 errors or 73% were
made by the students in affixation error
such as addition prefix, addition suffix,
omission prefix and omission suffix on the
free morpheme in the sentence. This
morphological area has the highest number
of errors. The reason why the students
made affixation errors is because the
students’ carelessness on what they write
without pay attention into another words
or morpheme in the sentences. Compound
errors take the second place after
affixation. There are 42 errors or 17%
commit by 21 learners. It shows that the
students do not have a good knowledge to
write conventions of compound words.
Conversion takes the third place of the
highest of error in morphological area with
total 18 or 7% errors from 5 students. The
cause of this type of errors is negative
transfer from Indonesia to English. The
last, short form of errors contribute 4 or
3% errors and become the lowest number
of errors found in students essays as their
paper assignment. Thus, this data can be
used to answer the research problem of
this study which is what are the
morphological errors made by the students
and what the dominant errors occur in
students essays as their paper assignment
in Writing III subject.
In syntax, from total 126 errors, there are
70 or 55% errors were made by the
students in the area of using articles. This
error has the higher number of syntactical
errors. Most of the students in secondary
schools are inappropriately using the
definite article ‘The’. In the second place,
error in using correct form of tense
contribute 27 students with total number
32 or 25% errors. Error in prepositions
contributes 24 or 20% errors and become
the lowest number of syntactical errors
found in students essay as their paper
assignment. None of students made errors
in the area of using conjunction. The
syntactical errors in students essay occurs
in the area of error is using articles, error
in using correct form of tenses and error in
using preposition. None of the students
made errors in the area of conjunction.
The limited sources and participants of this
study hold the researcher for making the
better explanation for the finding into a
larger population. After the researcher
collect the data, identify the errors, classify
the errors based on linguistic category
taxonomy and calculate the errors, this
research is done and can answer the entire
research questions. For the first question,
“what are the morpho-syntactical errors
made by English Department students
batch 2015 who taking Writing III subject
in essays?” the answer is divided into two
part; morphological and syntactical area.in
morphology, students commit errors in the
area of affixation, compound morpheme,
conversion morpheme and short form or
abbreviation. Beside, in syntax occurs in
the area of error is using articles, error in
using correct form of tenses and error in
using preposition. None of the students
made errors in the area of conjunction.
The second question, “what is the
dominant morpho-syntactical errors
commit by the learners?” the answer also
divided in to two parts. The dominant or
the frequent error that always occur in
students essay on morphological field
emerges in the area of affixation include of
additional prefix, additional suffix,
omission prefix and omission suffix with
131 or 73% from total 195 errors. For
syntactical area, error in using articles is
the major problem that always occur in the
essays with 70 or 55% error from the total
126 error made by English Department
student in Lambung Mangkurat University
batch 2015 who taking Writing III subject.
For the conclusion, English Department
student in Lambung Mangkurat University
batch 2015 who taking Writing III subject
still made an error in morpho-syntactical
area. In morphology, errors occur in the
area of affixation, conversion, compound
morpheme, and short form of errors. The
major problem in morphology is error in
the area of affixation. In syntax, errors
occur in the area of using articles, error in
preposition, and correct form of tenses.
The major problem happens in the area of
using articles. The researcher suggest the
student to study more about linguistic
especially in morphology and syntax in
order to minimalize the error in their
writing because through linguistic study
they will support their process of learning
as well as the product of learning.
V. CONCLUSION
Based on the research finding, the
researcher can conclude that:
1. By analyzing the number of students
who deal with morpho-syntactical
errors, the researcher found 4 types of
morphological errors and 3 types of
syntactical errors on students’ essay.
Morphological errors occur in the area
of affixation 73%, compound words
17%, conversion 7%, and short form /
abbreviation 3%. None of the students
could make morphological error in the
area of conversational informal words.
For syntactical area, errors occur in
the area of using article 55%, error in
using correct form of tense 25%, and
the last is errors in using preposition
20%. There is 0% errors in using
auxiliaries and conjunction words
commit by the learners.
2. The major problem on morphological
errors on the students’ writing found
in the area of affixation where they
were failed to wrote the correct free
morphemes in their essays. For minor
problem, the researcher found short
form / abbreviation since the students
still affected by spoken language on
their writing task.
3. The major problem on syntactical
errors occurs in the area of using
articles. This error contributes 55%
from the total 126 errors made by
students in their essays. Article is one
of smallest rules in English that must
be mastered by the students. In fact,
this error cannot be avoided in writing
and has a big impact to the sentences
when this error happens on students’
writing product. Besides, the minor
 problem in syntactical errors occurs in
the area of using correct form of
tenses.

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