Misformation Error Found in Student’s recount text Writing
on
HUMANIS
Journal of Arts and Humanities
p-ISSN: 2528-5076, e-ISSN: 2302-920X
Terakreditasi Sinta-4, SK No: 23/E/KPT/2019
Vol 25.2 Mei 2021: 151-157
Misformation Error Found in Student’s Recount Text Writing
Yustinus Gau, Putu Devi Maharani, IGB Wahyu Nugraha
Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia Correspondence email: justingau1993@gmail.com , devmaharani86@gmail.com , wahyunugraha1980@yahoo.com
Article Info
Abstract
Submitted:13th March 2021
Revised: 1st May 2021
Accepted:10th May 2021
Keywords: Grammatical error, recount text, writing, past tense
Corresponding Author:
Yustinus Gau
Email:
DOI:
021.v25.i02.p04
This study is aimed to find out the misformation error type and causes of errors in writing recount text by the ninth-grade students of SMP Raj Yamuna Denpasar. In this study, the researcher used the theory from Dulay, Burt & Krasen (1982) about the types of error and the theory from Richards (1974) to find out the causes of errors. Based on the result of this study, there were found 36 errors of misformation in writing recount text made by the students. The factors that influence the error in writing recount text made by the students were; a succession of approximative system with the percentage of 47.6%, intralingual interference with the percentage of 35.7%, and universal hierarchy of difficulty with the percentage of 16.6%
INTRODUCTION
English nowadays is being popular in the society where it functions multiply. All the people in the world speak English (Febriyanti & Sundari, 2016). The language that is spoken by all people in the world, is used in trading, politics, and even in the work field.
For a country that considers English as the second language or foreign language, mastering the English language is a must so will impact having interaction whether with the native English speaker or in the working field life. To have good English, the second language learners need to master the language, know well the aspects and the structure or the grammar of the language.
Mastering grammar means that we master the language (Setiowaty, 2018). Grammar indeed is the basic, and the guidance in constructing the sentences. Having good grammar will help the students to master the skills in communication. Grammar is a language to talk about language to (Dhykes, 2007). Grammar and language are something that can’t be separated. Mastering the grammar is needed, it can help the students to construct the sentences (Sadiah & Royani, 2019)
In Indonesia, English is being a subject in school whether it is elementary school, high school, and university. The aspect of language that is learned in school surely regarding the four skill
such as writing, reading, speaking and listening, however tense or grammar is the basic in mastering the fourth skill mentioned. Tenses are a basic concept in English grammar, it is simply a verbbased method that is used to talk about an action in a sentence related to the time of speaking Setyowati (2018). Tenses are location expression within the set time in the grammar (Comrie, 1985)
The four skills of English are: reading writing, listening, and speaking. Among the fourth skill mentioned, writing is the skill that is the most difficult one in mastering the language. Writing is the most difficult thing in developing skills because it requires paying attention to linguistic and effective coordination of the cognitive (Westwood, 2018). The activity transferring the ideas into written forms is called writing (Budiarta, D, & Widiasmara, 2018). Writing is an activity where the skill of expressing ideas or thoughts is needed to put into written form. Writing aimed to give information to the readers, self-expressing, entertaining, and even creating a history. The written text normally can be recognized based on the content of the text whether it historical, or entertaining or it is scientific. There are many texts introduced to the students in the school such as recount text, narrative text, essay, etc.
Grammar error analysis is aimed to make the writing process more intelligible and clearer thought for the students in writing text (Ma’mun, 2016). In this study, the researcher focussed on analyzing the grammatical error in writing recount text made by the ninthgrade students of SMP Raj Yamuna Denpasar. In delivering the experience or something that happened in the past it can be in the form of spoken words and also in the form of written text. In spoken words, the ideas and experiences are delivered directly to the hearer and in
written words, they are put in the form of text to be read by the people. The text that is telling the experiences, or something that happened in the past called recount text. In the process of writing, good grammar is a must so it requires students to master the language. Students who have a better understanding of structure will be better in writing. It means that to have good writing in English, one needs to master the structure of the language.
There is a phenomenon happening in the second language learner that they have known what they should be written in the text, they have the ideas on their mind to be put in the form of text. However, the students face the difficulty of how the sentence should be structured, how the grammar should be applied to have good writing, hence many students don't want to write something caused they are afraid of making errors. Error is seen as part of the learning process where it always occurs when the students start to acquire the new system.
By seeing the phenomenon above, the researcher did this research to know the difficulties of the students in writing recount text. Furthermore, the Teachers may find the best way to make the students understand more about grammar and improving the student's skills in writing. In this research, there were two problems proposed, they are; 1) What are the numbers of misformation errors are made by the students in writing recount text. 2) What are the causes of misformation errors made by the students in writing recount text? The objectives of the study are; 1) To analyze the misformation error type in student's recount text writing. 2)To analyze the causes of the misformation errors found in student's recount text writing.
METHOD AND THEORY
The study focussed on analyzing misformation errors made by the ninthgrade students of SMP Raj Yamuna Denpasar. The type of method used in this study was the qualitative method. The qualitative method is an inquiry process of comprehension based on the different methodological where it explores the human problem by building the complex, analyzing word, and reporting detailed views of information (W.Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Qualitative research is describing and explaining the problems specifically and it is ended with the conclusion in the form of a general statement. The data in this research was a recount text made by the ninth-grade students of SMP Raj Yamuna Denpasar and were collected by field research which was doing the observation in the two classes of the ninth-grade students. In collecting the data, the researcher did some steps illustrated as follows:
o Asking the students to make recount text writing.
o Submitting the recount text made by the students
o Reading the texts while underlying the misformation errors.
o Giving the questioner to each student to find out the causes that influence the error.
After collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the error based on the theory stated by Dulay and Burt (1982) about the types of error and the causes of error from Richards (1974). In analyzing the data, the researcher did some steps illustrated as follows:
o Reading the recount text from the students.
o Taking note of the grammatical error in misformation type.
o Analyzing the submitted questioners to find out the causes of error.
In the writing process, there is a rule of the language that has to be followed, it is called grammar. Grammar is important to be learned because grammar generates and arranges the language. In applying the grammar to the sentence, there are many errors occurred by the second language learners, it can be said that grammar is a part of the learning process (Budiarta, Suputra, & Widiasmara, 2018). There are 4 types of error based on Dulay, Burt & Krasen (1982) are Omission, addition, misformation, and misordering.
Omissions are the absence of any items in a well-utterance that must be added. (Dulay, Burt & Krashen, 1982) Example:” Marry president new company” (Dulay and Burt,1982:156). In the example above the items missing are to be is as the verb, particle a, preposition of, and particle the. The correct sentence should be “Marry is a president of the new company”
Addition errors are adding any items in a good utterance which not supposed to be added. it is the opposite of omissions.
Example: He doesn't know my name (Dulay, Burt & Krashen, 1982)
The subject of the sentence above is he (The third singular person) which means that the auxiliary verb after the subject should be added s/es. The affix-s on the verb knows should not be appeared because it has been added in the auxiliary verb. The correct sentence should be “He doesn’t know my name”
The wrong structure in constructing the sentence called Misformation errors (Dulay, Burt & Krashen, 1982) Example: The dog ate the chicken
The verb eat is an irregular verb that cannot be added to any affixes to change into past form. The verb eat should be changed into an irregular verb ate. Hence, the correct sentence should be “The dog ate the chicken”
Misordering errors are the wrong placement of words or morphemes in constructing the sentence. Example: She all the time eats. (Dulay, Burt & Krashen, 1982). The sentence above is an error because the placement of words applied is incorrect. The correct sentence should be “She eats all the time”
Causes of the error:
a. Language Transfer
Transfer in the influence that is resulted from the difference and the similarities the language learning and the language that is known since childhood. Language transfer happened because of language learning, normally it influenced by the mother tongue carries over the language that is learning.
The factor indicates the result of the learner which is not reflected by the structure of the target language.
The sociolinguistic situation is regarding the setting where the students learning the English language. When the language is learned in a different setting, it affects the learning process.
In delivering the language it depends on the age of the speaker, normally the capacities of the child are change when they grow older. This case may affect the process of learning the language.
This factor concerns the ability of the students in acquiring the new system. The stability of the learner's approximative system is influential to the error, it normally when the system is unstable to the given individuals.
This factor concerns the learner who has inherent difficulty with the structure of certain semantic item phonological or syntax.
The modality of production and the modality of exposure to the target language. This factor concerns the student's level of proficiency
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This research analyzed the grammatical error in structuring the sentence in English where it is focussed on the wrong structure of the sentence. According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982), this error is called misformation. And also analyzed the causes of error using the theory from Richards (1974). After analyzing the recount text made by the students, there are 36 errors found. The result of the error is shown in the table below.
Table: Number of errors
|
No Type of |
frequ |
percentag |
|
error |
ency |
e |
|
1 Misformatio n |
36 |
100% |
|
Total |
36 |
100% |
The causes of error are shown in the table below
Table: Causes of Error
|
No |
Causes of error |
frequ ency |
Percenta ge |
|
1. |
Intralingual interference |
15 |
35.7% |
|
2. |
A succession of approximative system |
20 |
47.6% |
|
3. |
Universal |
7 |
16.6% |
|
hierarchy of difficulty | |||
|
Total |
42 |
100% |
The total error cause is more than the total of misformation because one data consists of one and more causes of error. Here are the examples of misformation errors found in writing recount text made by the ninth-grade student of SMP Raj Yamuna Denpasar; I am very happy (Holiday to Jakarta: Inna). The student generalized the use of to beam into any time of speaking. To be am supposed to be changed with was. the better sentence should be I was very happy. Here, the student told about the feeling she felt when she had a holiday. However, she used to beam instead of was because she told about what happened in the past. In English, there are tenses where each of them has a rule on how to use to be in any time of speaking. Meanwhile, in Indonesian, there are no tenses so we could generalize any verb or other items in the time of speaking. Hence the interference of the rule of the target language is influential to the errors made by the student. This error also can be caused by the succession of approximative system where it concerns the stability of the students in acquiring the new system. Here the student applied the inappropriate to be because he didn't know the correct to be for the past form. There is also some error found caused by Universal Hierarchy of Difficulty as shown in these sentences
I followed my grandfather,
I assist my grandfather
I toked a bath
(Holiday at grand ma’s home: Ayu Gede Jumping)
These error sentences are clearly caused by a universal hierarchy of difficulty where the student used me as the subject instead of I. Me is an object pronoun where it should be put at the end or in the middle of the sentence.
I want to see the sunrise (Went to mount Agung: Bayu). The student was talking about their holiday climbing the mountain to see the sunrise. However, the student didn’t change the verb want into wanted as a past form because in constructing the sentence talking about past events, the verb should be in the past form. So, the better sentence should be I wanted to see the sunrise. The causes of error that affected the student are intralingual interference and succession of approximative system where the student applied the wrong verb for past form. she seemed confused about how to create sentences using past tense in English and also how the verb should be changed into past form. this case surely concerns the rule of the English language and the ability of the student to master the grammar of English itself
The other example was we see the animals in Bali zoo (The road to Bali zoo: Kadek Jessica). It has the same case and causes of the error as the previous one where the student applied the wrong verb into the sentence. The student wrote a recount text about her holiday with her family to the Bali Zoo. However, she applied inappropriate verbs. The student used see instead of saw. The better sentence should be we saw the animals in Bali zoo.
The students also applied the present continuous tense in recount text told about the holiday to the beach as shown in the sentence After that I am playing sand (Went to Amed: Ayu Sugiandnyani).
In the recount text she wrote, she told about the sequences of events she did during on the beach. The one was playing sand. The students applied the wrong pattern in constructing the sentence in English talking about past events. She applied present continuous tense I am playing sand instead of simple past tense I played sand. Intralingual interference and the ability of the student in mastering the grammar became the causes of error. the student would like to write I played sand but she failed to apply the grammar for past tense. It happens because of the different rules of the Indonesian language’s rule with English where Indonesian structure has a no different rule in each time of speaking. The student failed to master the rule caused by incapable to master the system well.
CONCLUSION
In writing recount text by the ninthgrade students of SMP Raj Yamuna Denpasar, there are 36 misformation errors found. The error in writing recount text mostly about the error in changing of the verb from the present form into past form, the student generalized the use of the verb in any time of speaking.
The causes of errors that affected the student made errors were intralingual interference with the percentage of 35.7%, a succession of approximative system with the percentage of 47.6%, and universal hierarchy of difficulty with the percentage of 16.6%. The dominant causes of error found were the succession of approximative systems, it concerns the lack of stability of the student in acquiring the language.
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