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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Mastering English is very useful and has a great role in many fields of life.
It is needed to make the communication process easier and it is used by many
people in this worldwide to communicate each other. Then, it is admitted to be an
international language. It has been seen in the educational books, international
meeting, international schools which used English. This facts show that English
becomes an important language facing the globalization. In Indonesia, English is
taught as a foreign language, that must be learned by the student at school.
Therefore, it is learned as a compulsory subject beginning from Junior high school
up to university level.
There are four skills in English that must be mastered by students, namely
speaking, writing, listening, and reading. Cumming and Riazi (2000:57 in Ferris
and Hedgcock, 2005:3) state that cautiously observed that the field currently lacks
a coherent understanding of "how people actually learn to write in a second
language" and of how teaching contributes to this learning. It means that writing is
one of the important skills that should be controlled by the students in all
education levels. The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill, It is
usually learned or transmitted of practices in formal instructional settings or other
environments. According to Zemach and Rumisek (2005:1), writing itself is very
important part of university study. It means that writing is a way to comprehend
masterfully English totality beside speaking.
In learning English, the students still make some errors in making the
English sentences. One of basic error that is often made by English foreign
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language learners is in syntax, especially in word order. Usually, word order


characteristics of first language influence learner to construct the phrase, clause,
and sentence in English. Therefore, it will cause error in learning and
understanding English. Consequently, the students have difficulties to mastery
English and they usually have problems to create good sentence in writing
process. It is caused by interference of first language that different with English
especially in word order that become errors made by students. This errors are
clearer when the students make a written text.
According to Ferris and Hedgcock (2005:4) however, students were
expected to master a range of schoolbased written genres (e.g., narration,
exposition, argumentation) that embedded functions such as description,
illustration, process analysis, and comparison and contrast. Based on generic
structure and language feature dominantly used, texts are divided into several
types. They are narrative, recount, descriptive, report, explanation, analytical
exposition, procedure, discussion, review, anecdote, spoof, and news item. These
variations are known as genres. In these genres, the students often make the errors
in writing a written text. And one kind of the written text is descriptive paragraph.
Writing descriptive paragraph is one of the productive skills that should be
mastered by students, especially in university level. It requires some aspects such
as widely perception to describe something (a thing, a place, or people), involving
thinking process and need good understanding in word order. In this case, the
strong foundation in word order becomes an aspect that should be comprehended
in order to make meaningful sentences in writing descriptive paragraph.

In fact, when learning writing the students sometimes feel difficult to write
well into a good order or to organize ideas in a good sentence. They are still
confused how to arrange their sentences into a good paragraph and how to express
their ideas in appropriate words. It is not easy for the students to do it although
they had learned the material previously in their lecturer, sometimes they did not
comprehend the material deeply yet. Kellog (2008:2) states that writing an
extended text at an advanced level involves not just the language system. It poses
significant challenges to our cognitive systems for memory and thinking as well.
Moreover, the students also must know about system of conventions in
arranging the elements of language. The convention of a language is created to
standardize the language usage and to connect between the content of the
language and the form of the language. In order to use language well, the students
should learn the conventions of a language to understand how to apply the system
in a sentence. Whereas, language learning is process that involves trial and error.
Thus, sometimes the students cannot avoid mistake in the study of language. By
making errors, the students will build their new knowledge to use the target
language. Making errors during studying the second language can be considered
as a means of building learners abilities because they can learn something from
making errors.
The writer chose the fourth semester students of English Education Study
Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau by considering that they had learned the
word order in the subject of Grammar in the first, second, and third semester, and
whereas about descriptive paragraph, they had learned in the subject of writing

from the first until third semester too and in the fourth semester they learned
scientific writing subject. Finally, based on these reasons, the writer was
interested in conducting the research entitled An Error Analysis of Word Order in
Writing Descriptive Paragraph Made by The Fourth Semester Students of English
Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau.

B. The Formulation of Problem


The problems of this study were formulated into the following questions:
a. What are the kinds of word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph made
by the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of STKIPPGRI Lubuklinggau?
b. What are the percentage of word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph
made by the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of
STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau?
c. What is the dominant word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph made
by the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of STKIPPGRI Lubuklinggau?

C. The Scopes of the research


The scope of the study was focused on the following points, they are:
a. This study is concerned on analyzing of word order errors made by the fourth
semester students of English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI
Lubuklinggau in the academic year of 2014/2015.

b. The component of writing that will be analyzed is word order construction and
word order distribution.
c. The material deals only with word order in writing descriptive paragraph.

D. The Objectives of the Research


Based on the formulation of the problem, the objectives of writing this
research are as follows:
a. To find out the kinds of word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph made
by the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of STKIPPGRI Lubuklinggau.
b. To find out the percentage of word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph
made by the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of
STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau.
c. To find out the dominant word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph
made by the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of
STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau.

E. The Significances of the Research


The result of this study was expected to contribute valuable information in
English teaching and learning process. This study tries to identify the students
word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph made by the fourth semester
students of English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau. It

gave advantages to the students, lecturers, the writer herself and the other
researchers. Specifically, the significances of this study are as follows:
a. For The Lecturer
The result of the study can show the students progress in learning word
order. Thus, it can be used as a reference for the lecturer about what technique or
strategy that should be applied in teaching English to improve the students ability
in writing so that the students produce a better writing.
b. For The Students
The result of this study can show to the students about the errors they
made. Thus, by reading the analysis the students can know their fault and know
the right pattern of word arrangement. It is expected that the result of the study
will be useful for the students in learning process, especially in writing a written
text. The students have to be greater motivation to write in English.
c. For The Writer
The result of this study provides evidence of how language is learned or
acquired and the strategies or procedures that used by students. By analyze the
study, the writer herself should get new experience and also can improve the
knowledge about the average of students ability in mastering English. Thus, the
writer can find the best way to teach English word order in the future.
d. To The Other Researchers
The other researchers can use this research as the reference. And then, for
further researchers would get kn. owledge of linguistics related to the errors of
word order in writing descriptive paragraph made by the fourth semester students
of English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau.
F. The Operational Definitions

To avoid misunderstanding about this topic, it is important to define


several terms used in this study. They are as follows:
a. Error
Error is any deviation from a selected norm of language performance, no
matter what the characteristic or causes of the deviation might be (error is a
mistake or inaccuracy, especially in speech or action). Errors in this study are
errors of word order in writing descriptive paragraph.
b. Error Analysis
Error analysis is the study in identifying errors made by learners in writing
composition. In this case, the way to analyze the errors is by organizing of word
order in descriptive paragraph. It means that the writer knows the error of the
students word order in writing descriptive paragraph especially in using present
tense.
c. Word Order
Word order could be defined as the syntactic arrangement of words in a
sentence, clause, or phrase. In other words, it is the order in which words occur in
sentences. Furthermore, it refers to the different ways in which languages arrange
the constituents of their sentences relative to each other. In this study, word order
that will be analyzed especially in word order construction and word order
distribution. In word order construction, the writer focuses in the order of
declarative sentences specifically for arrangement of subject, predicate and the
object of sentence. Whereas, in word order distribution, the writer wants to
analyze the distribution of words in noun phrase.
d. Writing

Writing is the process to organize sentences into paragraph, which are


combined together and organize the ideas into coherence piece of written text. In
this study, writing is process to organize the sentences and it referred to
descriptive paragraph writing.
e. Descriptive Paragraph
A descriptive text is a kind of the text to describe something (a thing),
people, place, or objects. Whereas, a paragraph is a group of sentences that are
joined together by a main point or idea.

CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Theoretical Descriptions
1) The Concept of Error
It is important to realize that error is a relative term. Therefore, when
handling teaching and instruction with respect to error, the differing theories by
expert must be kept in mind. Grammatical and surface-level errors are obviously

the most easily recognized when editing a paper but it should be kept in mind, by
both the writer and the editor/teacher that there may be errors in the content too.
In my opinion error should not be viewed as completely negative but neither
should it be dismissed. The lecturer should, however, when addressing a students
error, make sure that they explain the reason for its being considered an error.
Error occurs in the interaction of the writer, the reader, and the formulators of
handbooks.
Corder (1981:36) said that errors are described by the application of
linguistic theory to the data of erroneous utterances produced by a learner or a
group of learners. Beside that, according to Harmer (2007:100)Errors are part of
the students interlanguage, that is the version of the language which a learner has
at any one stage of development, and which is continually reshaped as he or she
aims towards full mastery. According to Richards (2010:201), errors are the use of
linguistics item in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards
as showing faulty or incomplete learning. Beside that, Brown (2000:222-223)
described a number of different categories for description of errors have been
identified in research on learner language:
a

The most generalized breakdown can be made by identifying errors of


addition,

omission,

substitution

and

ordering,

following

standard

mathematical categories.
b

Levels of language can be considered: phonology or orthography, lexicon,


grammar and discourse. It is difficult to distinguish different levels of errors.

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Errors may also be viewed as either global or local. Global errors hinder
communication, they prevent the hearer from comprehending some aspect of
the message. Local errors do not prevent the message from being heard.

Two related dimensions of error, domain and extent should be considered in


any error analysis. Domain is the rank of linguistic unit that must be taken as
context in order for the error to become apparent. Extent is the rank of
linguistic unit that would have to be deleted, replaced, supplied or reordered
in order to repair the sentence.
A foreign language learning is a process that is clearly not unlikely source

language learning in its trial-and-error nature. Inevitably, learners will make


mistakes in the process of acquisition, and that process will be impeded if they do
not commit errors and then benefit from various forms of feedback on the errors.
According to Corder (in Brown, 2000:217), a learner errors are significant in
that they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or
acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery
of the language.
2) Sources of Errors
In learning second language, the students often do the errors. According to
Brown (2000:223), the sources of errors are classified into:
a

Interlingual Transfer
Interlingual transfer is a significant source of error for all learners. The

beginning stages of learning a second language are especially vulnerable to

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interlingual transfer from the native language. The native language is the only
previous linguistic system upon which the learner can draw. That is why, the
learners errors are the result of transfer from the native language to the second
and the third language.
b

Intralingual Transfer
Intralingual transfer is a major factor in second language learning. The

learners have begun to acquire parts the new system, more and more intralingual
transfer (generalization) within the target language is manifested. The learners
previous experience and existing subsumers influence the structure of the target
language itself.
c

Context of Learning
Context of learning is the third major source of error. It refers to the

classroom with its teacher and its materials in the case of school learning or the
social situation in the case of untutored second language learning. In classroom
context, the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypothesis
about language.
d

Communication Strategies
Learners obviously use production strategies in order to enhance getting their

messages across, but at a time these techniques can themselves become a source
of error.
3) The Concept of Error Analysis
Learning foreign language is different from learning first language.
Children who learn foreign language always commit with the mistake that it

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caused by interference of native language and lack of knowledge about the target
language. Chomsky (1965) states that language that children hear is full of
confusing information, for instance false starts, incomplete sentences, slip of
tongue and it does not provide with the information they need. These incorrect
data cause the children can not understand the material and make some errors.
According to Crystal (1980:134-135), error is a term used in psycholinguistics
referring to mistakes in spontaneous speaking or writing attributable to a
malfunctioning of the neuromuscular commands from the brain. It is thus distinct
from the traditional notion of error, which was based on the language users
ability to conform a set of real or imagined standards of expression.
In other literature, Norrish (in Hasyim, 2002:45) states that error is a
systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently get
it wrong. Based on the explanation, can be concluded that error is related with the
knowledge and understanding of students about the target language. Errors show
conclusively that learners do not simply memorize target language rules and then
reproduce them in their own utterances. Richards et al (1974:173-181) divides
errors into three main categories which comprise with: interlanguage errors,
intralingual errors and developmental errors. Interlanguage errors refer to errors
which are caused by the interference of the learners mother tongue. Intralingual
errors refer to errors which reflect the general characteristics of rule learning.
In addition, developmental errors refer to errors which appear because the
learners try to build up hypotheses about the English language from his or her
limited experiences of it in the classroom or textbook. It refers to false concepts

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hypothesized which means the learner misunderstands about certain rules of


structures in the target language. For example, was may be misunderstood as a
marker of past tense and is as a marker of present tense, e.g. one day it was
happened.
To observe, analyze and classify the errors made by students, error
analysis is important to do. Richards (1974:96) says that error analysis is the study
of errors made by the second and foreign language learners. Error analysis may be
carried out in order to (a) find out how well someone knows a language, (b) find
out how a person learns a language, and (c) obtain information on common
difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or in the preparation of
teaching materials.
Beside that, Crystal (in Hasyim, 2002:47) also states that error analysis is a
technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the
unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any
of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics. Corder (1981:10)
associates errors with the failures incompetence and mistake with failures in
performance, making use Chomskys distinction. He also says that mistake are of
no significance to the process of language learning since they do not reflect a
defect in our knowledge (are not caused by incompetence) but are traceable to
performance failure. In foreign language teaching, error analysis becomes useful
device to know the ability of students in language mastery. Errors provide
feedback to teacher about the effectiveness of a teaching materials and teaching
techniques.

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According to Ellis (1999:15-20) there are procedures to analyze data in


error analysis that consist of:
a. Identification of errors
In identifying errors the sentences that produced by students are compared with
the normal and correct sentences in the target language.
b. Describing error
In this step, the errors are classified into word order categories relating to
the distribution of noun phrase in sentence or construction of sentence. Beside
that, describing error is to identify the differences of disordering of word between
students writing and the reconstructed of target language writing.
c. Explanation of errors
Explaining is a step to analyze the cause of errors. In other words, in this
step the writer tries to explain how and why a sentence called to be erroneous.
d. Evaluation of errors
Evaluation is a process to collects, clarifies and verifies relevant values
and standard. It is designed to reduce, revised and devise remedial lessons in
teaching learning process. However, in this study, the writer uses evaluating the
errors as a step that involves drawing conclusion.
4) Differences Between Error and Mistake
When learning about error, it cannot be separated from learning about
mistake. Error and mistake are different, but some people still misunderstanding
about the both. To make clear the distinction of error and mistake, Corder
(1981:280) said that refer to mistake as a performance error that is a failure to

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utilize a known system correctly by the native speakers; resulting from memory
mistakes, physical condition, such as tiredness and psychological condition, such
as strong emotion. A distinction is sometimes made between an error, which
results from incomplete knowledge, and a mistake made by a learner when
writing or speaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness,
or some other aspect of performance. Errors are sometimes classified according to
vocabulary (lexical error), pronunciation (phonological error), grammar (syntactic
error), misunderstanding of a speakers intention or meaning (inter-pretive error),
production of the wrong communicative effect, e.g. through the faulty use of a
speech act or one of the rules of speaking (pragmatic error).
In the study of second and foreign language learning, errors have been
studied to discover the processes learners make use of in learning and using a
language (Richards and Schmidt, 2010:201). Mistake is also characterized as
unsystematic deviation or inconsistent deviation. In this case the learner has been
taught the right form of the language, sometimes the students get it right but
sometimes he/she makes a mistake and uses the wrong form.
5) The Concept of Word Order
When creating a sentence, it is important to put the word in correct order.
Word order is the arrangement of words in a phrase, clause or sentence. In many
languages, including English, word order plays in important part in determining
meaning expressed by user. Therefore, understanding of rules in English syntax
becomes important thing to make a meaningful sentence.
1. Word Order in Declarative Sentence

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Declaratives (or declarative sentence) are the basic type. It correspond as


statements that are used chiefly to convey information. In English, sentence is
constructed by some elements that consist of subject, verb, object, adverb, and
complement. Gucker (1996: 3) state that the basic unit of written expression is the
sentence. A sentence is a group of words that says something, all by itself. It is
complete; it can stand alone. In addition, Greenbaum and Nelson (2002: 18) state
that a sentence or a sentence-like construction contained within a sentence is
called a clause. A sentence that does not contain another clause within it is a
simple sentence. If it contains one or more clauses, it is a multiple sentence. Here
are some more examples of multiple sentences with connecting words:
You cant insist that your children love each other.
When we returned three hours later, no wolves were in sight.
My father always hoped that I would become a doctor and that must have
been why he took me along when he visited his patients.
To create good sentences, Martin and Wren (1995:256) state that in their
book explain about the basic conventions of sentence that consist of:
a. The subject usually comes before the verb
Example: The people rang the bell for joy.
b. The object usually comes after the verb
Example: The king wears a crown.
c. When there is an indirect object and also direct object, the indirect precedes the
direct
Example: She gave me a book.

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It can identify the verb of the sentence because it changes its form or
contains auxiliaries to express differences in time (for example, past and present)
or attitude (for example, possibility, permission, and obligation). Here are some
examples with the verb predict:
predicts

predicted

is predicting

was predicting

may predict

will predict

might predict

could have predicted

should have been


predicting

Most verbs in the present have a distinctive form ending in -s when the
subject is singular and refers to something or someone other than the speaker or
the person or persons being addressed:

The older child (singular S) feeds (singular V) the younger ones.


The older children (plural S) feed (plural V) the younger ones.
The senator has a clear moral position on racial equality.
The senators have a clear moral position on racial equality.
In addition to direct objects and predicate complements, there is a

construction called the indirect object, sometimes used after action verbs. It occurs
usually in sentences which already contain a direct object (Gucker, 1996: 26). The
indirect object is usually equivalent to a phrase introduced by to or for, but that
phrase normally comes after the direct object.
He gave me a story book. / He gave a story book to me.
He will save his friend a seat. / He will save a seat for his friend.
A subject may be compound:
Basketball and football are challenging baseball as the national sport.
A predicate may be compound:
We pushed and fought our way through the crowd.

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The story begins well and continues pleasantly.


A conjunction is a word whose primary function is to join words or groups
of words.

Unlike prepositions, conjunctions are used in a great variety of

situations; in fact, an understanding of the proper uses of conjunctions can be of


great help in the writing of clear, well-constructed sentences. As the name
suggests, coordinating conjunctions are normally used to connect sentence
elements of the same grammatical class: nouns with nouns, adverbs with adverbs,
clauses with clauses:

Their only weapons were scythes and pitchforks, (nouns)


Some of them hesitated and started to retreat, (verbs)
Dorothy is often moody or irritable, (adjectives)
Slowly but steadily the speed increased, (adverbs)

2. Word Order in Noun Phrase


a. Definition of noun phrase
According to Gucker (1996: 18), A phrase may be any short group of
words. It's a convenient term in grammar. Generally, a phrase is defined as a
sequence of words that can function as a constituent in the structure of sentences
Burton and Roberts (in Djuharie, 2008: 101). A phrase is a group of two or more
grammatically linked words without a subject or predicate. Whereas, noun phrase
is defined as a phrase that consists of a pronoun or noun with any number of
associated modifiers, including adjectives (small, red, lovely), adjectives phrases,
adjectives clause, possessive adjectives (my, his, her, their), adverbs (very,
extremely, usually), articles (the, a, an), preposition phrases and other nouns in the
possessive case. Noun phrase never stand alone as sentences.

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b. The structure of the noun phrase


According to Greenbaum and Nelson (2002: 47-48), the main word in a
noun phrase is a noun or a pronoun. The structure of the typical noun phrase may
be represented schematically in the following way, where the parentheses indicate
elements of the structure that may be absent:
Table 1
The structure of noun phrase
Determiners
those
some

Pre-Modifiers
New
Popular

Noun
Books
Books

Post-Modifier
on astronomy

Determiners (words like the, a, those, some) introduce noun phrases.


Modifiers are units that are dependent on the main word and can be omitted.
Modifiers that come before the noun are pre-modifiers, and those that come after
the noun are post-modifiers. Here are examples of possible structures of noun
phrases :
All these examples can fit into the blank in this sentence :
I occasionally read .....................
a) Determiners
Determiners introduce noun phrases. Determiners are used to identify a
headword functioning deictically or simply as quantifiers, and they serve as
definite or indefinite reference or to give information about quantity and
proportion. The three classes of determiners are defined by the order in which
they come. There are three classes of determiners :
1. pre-determiners, e.g. all, both, half

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2. central determiners, e.g. a(n), the, those


3. post-determiners, e.g. other, two, first
Here are two examples with determiners from each class:
all these other works
both our two daughters
1. Pre-determiners
There can also be pre-determiners before the central determiners. These
include the multipliers (double, twice, three times, . . . ) and the fractions (half,
one-third, . . . ) :
Examples : - double her fee

- half a loaf
They also include the words all, both, such, and what:

Examples: - all the stations


- both our children
- such a joke
- what a good idea

These can also occur without a central determiner :

Examples : - all stations


- both children
- such jokes
Such is exceptional in that it can combine with other pre-determiners (all such
jokes) and can come after a central determiner (no such jokes) and even a
postdeterminer (many such jokes).
2. Central determiners

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The central determiners fall into several subclasses. There are some kinds
of determiners that consist of :
1) Definite and indefinite article: the, a, an
Example: The wombats escaped.
2) Demonstrative pronoun: this, that, these, those.
Example: That vase is valuable.
3) Possessive pronoun: my, your, our, their, his, her, and its.
Example: Her serve is powerful.
4) Possessive noun: mother, name of person, etc.
Example: Aunt Audreys dog was die.
5) Indefinite pronoun: some, any, enough, every, each, either, neither etc.
Example: Some survivors remained.
6) Interrogative : what, which, whose, etc.
Example: Whose coat are you wearing?
7) Relative: which, whose, whatever, whichever, whenever, etc.
You can use it for whatever purpose you wish. We cannot combine two or more
central determiners to introduce the same noun phrase.
3. Post-determiners
Post-determiners can come after the central determiners. They include the
cardinal numerals and the ordinal numerals:
1) Numeral: one, two, three, four, etc.
Examples: - Seven boxes fell.
- The three rooms.

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2) Ordinal: first, second, third, etc.


Examples: - Second thoughts entered our mind.
- Our first apartment.

They also include many, few, and little:

Examples: - my many good friends


- the few possessions that he owned
- the little money that I have

The ordinal and cardinal numerals can co-occur:

Example: the first two weeks

The post-determiners can occur without other determiners:

Examples: - He has few vices.


- We saw two accidents on our way here.
The table below will mention every type of these determiners.
Table 1
Types of Determiner
Pre-determiner
All

Central determiner
A, an, the

Post-determiner
One, two

Both

This, those, that

First

Such

Some, any, every, each

Second, third

what

What, which

Many

Double

My, your, his

Few

Twice, three times

Who, whose, that

Much

Half

Whatever

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b) Pre-Modifier
The construction of a noun phrase is always recursive since a number of
dependents can be added to the head element. Some dependents may precede the
head and others may follow it. Dependent that precede headword, especially
modifier, called premodifier or left-handed noun phrase. A modifier is an element
that depends on the head. In pre-modifier, the modifiers that precede the head
word are determiner, adjective, verb, and noun. Beside determiners, the others
modifier that becomes important dependent to describe the head noun are
adjective, verb and noun. In pre- modifier, there are three major structural that
comprise with :
Attributive adjective : a special project
an internal memo
Participial adjective : hidden variables
detecting devices
Noun as pre-modifier : the bus strike
the police report
In other fact, pre-modifier can be multiple as like as Djuharie (2008:104) :
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Article + numeral : The two culprits


Demonstrative + N : Those metal plates
Two indefinites : Several other candidates
Numeral + indefinite : One such oddity
Article + ordinal : A second chance

Sometimes, the modifiers in a noun phrase consist of more than one adjective, so
the fixed arrangement of this order is :
Quality character+ size+ age+ participle+ shape+ color + origin+ occasion+ noun

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Example: beautiful big old neglected square red Jamaican stone.

The Order of A Noun Phrase

big

Old

Squar
e
hot

round

black

green

Classifying
Noun

Colour

beauti
ful

small New

HEAD
WORD
NOUN

Shape

Six

nice

Temperature

Age

most expen
sive

Size

Descriptive

Som
e

Ordinative.

Determiner.
The

EPITHET

Nokia

handphone

drinks

American

gardens

There are three function of pre-modifier that consist of classifying, identifying and
qualifying. These functions will be explained in the table below.
Table 2
The Function of Modifier
Determiner
This

Pre-modifier
Good

Cat

This
Identifying function

Expensive
Qualifying

Theatre
Classifying function

function
c) Post-Modifier

Head noun
Food
Ticket

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Post-modifier comprises words in the noun phrase that follow the head and
it usually called as right-handed modifier. These words usually consist of
prepositional phrases, participle, adjective, adverb, and noun. According to
Nichols (1965:64) there are some patterns of noun phrase modifier :
a. When infinitives modify noun, they regularly follow the head word.
Example: the guest to invite the guest to be invited
b. Adverbs always follow the nouns they modify.
Example: the party afterward, the table there
c. Prepositional phrases regularly follow the nouns they modify.
Example: the class on lower campus
If the phrase use of preposition, the form noun + noun is used, in this phrase and
the word before of becomes the head word.
Example: Application letter = letter of application
d. Adjectives follow the nouns they modify.
Example: something wonderful, something interesting.
c. Functions of noun phrases
1. subject
The people in the bus escaped through the emergency exit.
2. direct object
They are testing some new equipment.
3. indirect object
The bank gave David a loan.
4. subject complement

26

The performance was a test of their physical endurance.


5. object complement
Many of us consider her the best candidate.
6. complement of a preposition
The box of chocolates is intended for your children.
7. pre-modifier of a noun or noun phrase
Milk production is down this year.
He suffers from back problems.
The matter has been referred to the Academic Council Executive
Committee.
8. adverbial
The term finishes next week.
You will not succeed that way.
6) The Concept of Writing
English learners should master all skills in language. They are listening,
speaking, reading and writing. They are integrated skills. All of them are
important but writing is the skill which is the most interesting because not
everyone can write for academic. Writing is a skill that is required in many
contexts throughout life. Maroten (2011:7) said that writing is thinking and
writing is discovering what people think. It means writing is a process for
transferring idea or thought therefore it can be as communication tool.
Writing is as the process to transfer our mind. It can be done by following
some steps below (Smit, 2010) :

27

1. Decide on how teaching a specific set of writing skills can fit into and reinforce
the larger objectives for the content course.
2. Decide on a rhetorical situation and an identifiable genre used outside the
classroom that will give students practice using these skills. Such rhetorical
situations give students a potential audience, real or imagined; a genre, such as
a business letter or a report, with a set of conventions that must be modified in
each new context; and a role to play therefore they can think about matters of
style, tone, and evidence when addressing a specific audience.
3. Give students opportunities to reflect on audience, genre, and context during
the writing process. Direct their attention to how their style, organization, and
evidence should be based on the knowledge and expectations of their audience
and the conventions of the chosen genre.
4. Create one or more focused activities that require students to demonstrate the
course objectives. Put the requirements for the activity on an evaluation form
or checklist so that students can see what they must accomplish.
5. Help students through the writing process as necessary. This might involve
something as simple as checking an early plan to make sure that students are on
the right track. It might mean devoting a class period to small-group workshops
in which students read and respond to each others work. It might involve
individual conferences with students to go over early drafts.
6. Grade, evaluate, or respond to the writing by commenting on what the writer
did well and by concentrating on two or three ways that the writer could most
improve the paper. Avoid long lists of errors.

28

There is considerable evidence that teacher comments are not effective in


and of themselves. To be effective, teacher comments need to reinforce the main
focus of the instruction, providing feedback on matters that have been previously
taught or skills that have been previously practiced (Hillocks, 1986: 167-168).
In addition, Grenville (2001:1) states that all kinds of writing are different.
They all have the basic aim of getting ideas from one brain into another. Any
piece of writing will be trying to do at least one of the following things:
a. Entertainit does not necessarily make the readers laugh, but it at least
engages their feelings in some way.
b. Informit tells the reader about something.
c. Persuadeit tries to convince the reader of something.
7) The Concept of Descriptive Paragraph
Purwanti (2013:44) said that descriptive text is a text which says what a
person, animal, place or a thing is like specifically. It means that descriptive text
describes and reveal a particular person, animal, place or thing. Widarso (2013:32)
said that the successful of descriptive text is based on how the writer expresses the
describing. In this case, the writer doesnt choose text but on forming a paragraph
that consist of 5-10 sentences. The writer should understand how to describe the
person, animal, place or thing in interesting way or specifically. In descriptive
paragraph, the writer has purpose to inform the reader of the paragraph. The
reader of descriptive paragraph will get the information easily when the paragraph
is written in the right structure.

29

The generic structure of descriptive paragraph is divided into two parts,


they are identification and description. The identification part is the part where
writers of descriptive paragraph identifies phenomenon to be described. This part
can be brief explanation about the object which will be described. Therefore, The
description part describes parts, qualities, and characteristics. Description
paragraph focuses on specific participants. It normally uses simple present tense.
The paragraph can be more than one paragraph. But, here its just focuses on one
paragraph.
Example of Descriptive Paragraph :
My Hometown
My hometown is great place to live for many
Description

reasons. The people are very friendly here and they


are always ready to help their neighbours.
There are many great parks where you can go
for a walk. People can go to Victoria Park to see the

Identification

beautiful trees and wildlife. Life is also pretty quiet


here. It is peaceful and beautiful. All of these things
make my hometown a wonderful place to live.

B. Related Previous Study


The writer finds the related previous study which is written by Topi
Setiawati (2011), the student of English Education Study Program at STKIPPGRI Lubuklinggau. The title of her thesis is An Error Analysis in Writing

30

Narrative Essay Made by The Twelfth Grade Students of SMK Yadika


Lubuklinggau.
There are some similarities and differences between her thesis and writer
current study. The similarities are both of the writers use the same skill of English
is research about writing and the writers analyze errors made by students in
written production. On the other hand, the differences are the writer uses
descriptive paragraph, while in her thesis is about narrative essay. Then, Setiawati
in her thesis took the twelfth grade students of SMK Yadika Lubuklinggau and the
theme analysis written errors was about One Year Experiences Studying in
School. Meanwhile, in the writer research uses the fourth semester students of
English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau as the sample
and the students can choose one of three themes, namely are my lovely pet/my
best friend, my favourite actress/actor, and my interesting place.
In the result of Setiawatis research, she found that the majority percentage
of each kind of errors done by the students were (44,05 %) misformation errors,
(34,65 %) omission errors, (24,25 %) addition errors, and (11,38 %) misordering
errors.

31

CHAPTER III
METHOD OF RESEARCH

A. Research Design
In this research, the writer used descriptive method. According to
Anderson and Arselnaut (1998: 107), Descriptive methods are introduced here
because accurate description is fundamental to all research, although description is
not really a method by itself. Isaac and Michael (1985:46) state that the purpose of
descriptive method is to describes systematically the fact and characteristics of a
given population or area if interest factually and accurately descriptive method is
suitable for the topic. While, according to Kumar (2012:30) descriptive method
attempts to describe systematically a situation, problem, phenomenon, service or
program, or provide information about, say, the living conditions of a community,
or describes attitudes towards an issue. Descriptive method is suitable for this
topic because it supports the writer intends to describe the data systematically and
then to analyze them as accurately as possible.
In this research, the writer would take the data concerning with the fourth
semester students word order errors in writing descriptive paragraph at English
Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau. The writer would give
the test item directly and analyze the students composition, after that the writer

32

will describe the students errors of word order in writing descriptive paragraph.
The steps of doing this research are as follows:
1. Defining the objectives clearly;
2. Designing technique for collecting the data;
3. Selecting the population and sample;
4. Measuring the validity and realibility of the test items;
5. Collecting the data;
6. Analyzing the data;
7. Classifying the errors;
8. Drawing conclusion;
9. Proposing suggestions;
10. Reporting the result.
B. Population and Sample
1) Population
Arikunto (2006:107) says that population is a set or collection all elements
possessing one or more attributes of interest. In addition, Fraenkel and Wallen
(2009:105) state that the term population, as used in research, refers to all the
members of a particular group. It is the group of interest to the researcher, the
group to whom the researcher would like to generalize the results of a study.
In educational research, the population of interest is usually a group of
persons (students, teachers, or other individuals) who possess certain
characteristics. In some cases, however, the population may be defined as a group
of classrooms, schools, or even facilities. For example,

All fifth-grade classrooms in Delaware (the hypothesis might be that


classrooms in which teachers display a greater number and variety of

student products have higher achievement)


All high school gymnasiums in Nevada (the hypothesis might be that
schools with better physical facilities produce more winning teams)
(Fraenkel and Wallen, 2009:91)

33

The population of the research was taken from all the fourth semester
students of English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau. The
population of this study was 57 students (see table 3).
Table 3
Population of the Study
No
1
2

Semester/Class
IV.A
IV.B
Total

Students
33
24
57

(Source: English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau in


academic year 2014/2015)
2) Sample
Sugiyono (2010:118) states that sample is a group of individuals which is
part and characteristics of population. Whereas, According to Arikunto
(2006:103) sample is part of representative of population that will be investigated.
The writer will take the sample of the research by using cluster random sampling
technique.
According to Fraenkel and Wallen (2009:136) cluster random sampling
can be defined as one of the technique to choose a sample from the population
which has been given. It means that the selection of groups of individual rather
than single individual. In addition, McMillan (1992:78) states that cluster random
sampling has advantages. They are, it has low cost, requires list of elements and
efficient with large population. The strategy will begin when the writer writes
each of name of two classes, they are : IV A and IV B.

C. Technique for Collecting Data

34

In this study, the writer used a written test for collecting the data. The test
was used to know the students word order errors. Heaton (1988:8), writing ability
usually is in the form of letters, reports, memos, messages, instructions, and
accounts of past events, etc. Based on the statement above, the writer got
instruction as the suitable form of the test.
Arikunto (2006:150) said that test is a set of question or exercise or other
ways that is used to measure skills, knowledge, intelligence, ability or talent that
possessed by individual or group. In using this technique, the students wrote a
descriptive composition that has been provided by the writer. The writer asked the
students to write a descriptive paragraph 150 words in a paper with time
allocation 45 minutes. The test is used to identify the errors made by the students
in writing descriptive paragraph.
D. Technique for Analyzing the Data
In analyzing the data of the test, the writer focused on error analysis in the
usage of word order in descriptive paragraph. In order to know the individual
errors, the writer described the students errors in writing descriptive paragraph
based on the following steps:
a) Correcting the students descriptive paragraph and find out what are kinds
their errors in writing descriptive paragraph.
b) The writer classified the students word order errors in using declarative
sentence and noun phrase based on students composition. Therefore, the
data will be categorized into each kind of error.
c) Indentifying the students word order errors into declarative sentence and
noun phrase.
d) Describing the students word order errors made by the students in writing
descriptive paragraph based on kinds of error.

35

e) The writer calculate the percentage of errors that made by the students.
Based on the classifying of the errors in using declarative sentence and
noun phrase, the writer wants to percentage the students errors by using
the formula below :
P=

F
x 100
N

In which :
P
: Percentage of Students Error
F
: The Frequency of Being Sought Percentage
N
: Number of Case (Total Frequency/Total of individual)
(Sudijono, 2004:43)
In this case, P refers to the percentage of classification error. Classification
of errors is based on word order in declarative sentence and noun phrase. F refers
to the frequency of being sought percentage. It means that F is frequency of total
errors in each kind. N refers to number of case, it means that N is total of errors.
e. Accountability of the research
1) Validity
Kothari (2004: 73) state that validity is the most critical criterion and
indicates the degree to which an instrument measures what it is supposed to
measure. Validity can also be thought of as utility. According to Fraenkel and
Wallen (2009:147), validity is the most importance idea to consider when
preparing or selecting an instrument for use. More than anything else, researchers
want the information they obtain through the use of an instrument to serve their
purposes. In addition, Marcyzk, DeMatteo, Festinger (2005:106) state that the
concept of validity refers to what the test or measurement strategy measures and
how well it does so. It means that the instrument can be valid if the instrument
can measure what measured.

36

Besides, According to Heaton (1989:159), validity of a test is the extent to


which it measures what it is supposed to measure and nothing else. It means that
validity of a test is used to check valid or not a material or a test given. Hatch and
Farhady (1982:61) said that the content validity means that the extent to which a
test measures representative sample of the subject matter content. To make the test
materials have high of content validity, the writer checks the relevancy between
the test item and the curriculum.
In this research, the reability can not be formulated by a formula. It is
caused by three reason; firstly the instrument is only an instruction for the
students to write a descriptive paragraph. And secondly, the objective of the
research are to find out the kinds of word order errors in writing descriptive
paragraph will be made by students, to find out the dominant word order errors
after finding the kinds of word order errors based on two categories, to find out
the percentage of word order errors, and the last this study is qualitative research.
The test specification can be seen in the table 4 below :
Table 4
Test Specification
Objective

Material Tested

Indicator

Total
Item

Test
Type

The students
are able to
write
descriptive
paragraph.

Descriptive
paragraph: My
Lovely Pet/ My
Best Friend, My
Favourite
Actress/Actor,
My Interesting
Place

To write one
descriptive
paragraph correctly
at least in 150 words
by choosing one of
three titles.

Essay

Total Item

37

CHAPTER IV
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
A. Findings
Chapter IV explains the analysis data and discussion of the finding of
study. This chapter aimed to answer the question of problem statement in chapter
I. In the previous chapter, the writer state that the data of the study are about the
erroneous word order committed by the fourth semester students of English
Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau. The findings of this
study deal with the result of the data analyzed. The findings of this study were
described on several points; they are (1) the kinds of word order errors in writing
descriptive paragraph, (2) the percentage of word order errors in writing

38

descriptive paragraph, (3) the dominant word order errors in writing descriptive
paragraph.
A. The kinds of word order errors made by the fourth semester students of
English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau
In this research, there were 51 students as the sample. The writer got the
data by giving written test. The data was taken by giving written test. Students
were asked to write a descriptive paragraph in 150 words about some themes that
had been provided by the writer in a paper. The writer found the kinds of word
order errors and correcting the students descriptive paragraph that students made.
And the writer classified the students word order errors based on students
composition. Therefore, the data was identified into two categorized, they are
declarative sentence and noun phrase.
Table 5
The Error Analysis of Word Order
Nu.
1.

Error Analysis of Word Order


Declarative Sentence
Noun Phrase
(Word Order
(Word Order Distribution)
Construction)
This

beach

interesting

very
beach,

because the visitors just


need 10-15 minutes to
arrive there.
2.
3.

She is girl, beautiful, cute, and sweet.


But he is far now, for continue education her but I
am stay here.
She have white skin, high body, hair straight, good
person and muslim woman.

39

I want together with my friend forever until


disaggregate death.
She has a color eyes is black.
And I most like her song is Ayat-ayat Cinta.

4.
5.

Rossa often be a judges in the sing competition


Indonesia like X-Factor Indonesia.
Fatin is one of singer the result from her alumnus.
Many playing tools there, such as flying fork and

6.

others many children or old human are love to


play there.
The parents her jobs as in wiraswasta.

7.

Her has skin black and white.


Her always motivation me about how the manner
life of kind.
Because, seafood Indonesia very easy to try.
Now, she work in Batam as staff administrative.
And campus in University Batam. Program
educational akuntansi.
Since, she is like subject akuntansi.
Her fur have 2 kind of color, in the head side the

8.

color of black and white in the bottom side nearby


her feet.
And in the special birthdays Kitty I gave her
neckless with bell in the neckless.
With the gold color of necklesss Kitty.
9.

He always be there if I

40

have difficulty and help


me.
I want to always be
10.

friend with him.


Her body is enough tall.
I think it is so incredible
because she always be
confident

with

her

brown skin.
11.
12.

I hope, she always be

He is tall and have brown eye, black short hair.

13.

my friend.
I first met him on a
school exchange trip to

14.

pasar satelit.
I asked him the to the
country library and we

15.

started talking.
He study in STKIPPGRI
fourth
now

Lubuklinggau
semester
at

right

English

Program Study.
16.
17.

Metha is good girl and beautiful.


She is very beautiful with hair of black and long.
Her skin is white, her body is slim and tall. She is

16.
17.
18.

from simple family and happy.


She is very kind, beauty, cute.
She takes faculty of medicine.
Now, she continue her study in the university in
University of Sriwijaya.
She takes the faculty of architecture.

41

2. The Description of Each Kind of Errors


In this research, the writer explain errors of word order made by the
students in writing descriptive paragraph for each kinds; they are declarative
sentence and noun phrase.
a. Declarative Sentence
1. The Subject usually Comes before the Verb
The students errors are shown in their sentence as follows;

This beach very interesting beach, because the visitors just need 10-15
minutes to arrive there.

He always be there if I have difficulty and help me.

I want to always be friend with him.

I think it is so incredible because she always be confident with her brown


skin.

I hope, she always be my friend.

2. The Object usually Comes after the Verb


Her body is enough tall.
3. When there is an indirect object and also direct object, the indirect
precedes the direct
I first met him on a school exchange trip to pasar satelit.
I asked him the to the country library and we started talking.

42

He study in STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau fourth semester right now at


English Program Study.
b. Noun Phrase

a. Descriptive + noun

She is girl, beautiful, cute, and sweet.

Metha is good girl and beautiful.

Her skin is white, her body is slim and tall. She is from simple family and
happy.

b. Shape + noun

She have white skin, high body, hair straight, good person and muslim
woman.

c. Colour + noun

She has a color eyes is black.

Her has skin black and white.

Her fur have 2 kind of color, in the head side the color of black and white
in the bottom side nearby her feet.

d. Size + colour + noun

He is tall and have brown eye, black short hair.

She is very beautiful with hair of black and long.

e. Central Determiners

But he is far now, for continue education her but I am stay here.

43

f. Post-modifier

I want together with my friend forever until disaggregate death.

g.
h.
i.

I want together with my friend forever until disaggregate death.


And I most like her song is Ayat-ayat Cinta.
Rossa often be a judges in the sing competition Indonesia like X-Factor
Indonesia.
Fatin is one of singer the result from her alumnus.
Many playing tools there, such as flying fork and others many children or old
human are love to play there.
The parents her jobs as in wiraswasta.
Her always motivation me about how the manner life of kind.
Because, seafood Indonesia very easy to try.
Now, she work in Batam as staff administrative.
And campus in University Batam. Program educational akuntansi.
Since, she is like subject akuntansi.
And in the special birthdays Kitty I gave her neckless with bell in the neckless.
With the gold color of necklesss Kitty.
She is very kind, beauty, cute.

44

She takes faculty of medicine.


Now, she continue her study in the university in University of Sriwijaya.
She takes the faculty of architecture.

Nu

Items

Percentage

.
1.

Declarative Sentence

40%

a. The Subject usually Comes

15%

before the Verb


b. The Object usually Comes after

10%

the Verb
c. When there is an indirect object
and also direct object, the indirect
precedes the direct

2.

Noun Phrase
a.
b.
c.

15%

Frequency

45

B. Discussion

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

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