CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Research

Language is one of principal tool which is consisted of symbols

that used by human in communicating and interacting. Chomsky (2002:1)

states “Language is a natural object, a component of the human mind,

phisycally represented in the brain and part of the biological endowment of

the species.” It means that language is something that occurring naturally.

Language is a system that arranged by a set of signs or symbols that formed

in human mind. The human represent the signs or the symbols in their mind

into words to convey their thoughts, messages, information, or ideas to

others. Through the language they can communicate to each other. To be able

to communicate and interact they must use and known the same language.

English is one of language that known and used by many people around this

world.

English is a language which is used by most of people in this world

as a tool of communication in their daily life. English has a crucial position

and it is important to be mastered, because in this era, English has been a key

to scientific and technical knowledge. In Indonesian, English has been taught

as a foreign language and the students are expected to be able communicate in

English correctly. To be able communicate, the students must master the

skills in English. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening

is the ability to hear and understanding the meaning of the language spoken

by another speakers. Speaking is the ability to create sounds by using our

1
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speech organs. This skill allows us to There are four skills in learning

English convey our thoughts and giving information directly in a way the

listeners able to understand. Reading is the process of gaining information

from the written form to increase our knowledge about English. The last skill

is writing. Writing is the representation of our ideas or thoughts by using a

set of sign or symbols to the written form.

Writing is one of the main skills in English. It is a productive skill.

It means that writing involves producing language rather than receiving it.

Brown (2004:218) says “The ability to write has become an indispensable

skill in our global literate community.” Writing is a essential skill that should

be master by people in this era, because writing is an effective way to convey

message, information or ideas which is necessary to be expressed in a text. To

make the text is able to understood by the reader, the writer should be

conveys it effectively by using correct structure. Structure or grammar is one

of the basic components of language that must learn by learners.

Writing is not easy to be mastered. It needs many efforts to be a

good writer because in writing activity the writer should be comprehended

and understood about the rules or arrangement in language writing.

According to Lyons (1987:1) “Writing is a form of problem solving where

writers faces two main tasks there are generating ideas in language and

composing these ideas into a written structure an adopted to the needs of the

readers and the goal of the writers.” In the same way, Heaton (1990:135)

states, “Writing skill are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring

mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also conceptual
 3

and judgmental elements.” It means that, the process of learning writing skill

is not easy to do.

In education field, students of senior high school are required to

learn how to write different text types. By learning the text types, the students

are expected to able to write well. The text types that should be mastered by

students are procedure text, narrative text, recount text, descriptive text.

However, the researcher just focuses on descriptive text.

Descriptive text is one of text genres that taught at eleventh grade

of senior high school. Descriptive text is a text which is describing a

particular object such as person, place, animal, and things. Oshima & Hogue

(2007:61) stated that descriptive writing appeals to the senses. It means that,

in writing descriptive text, the writer should be tells what actually he/she

looks, feels, smells, tastes, and/or sounds. A good description is a word

picture; the reader can imagines the object, place, or person in his or her

mind. The writer should be able to describe the object in detail to make the

reader like seeing or feeling the object directly.

Descriptive text consists of two components are generic structures

and language features. In generic structures there are introduction (the part of

paragraph that introduces the character of the object) and description (the part

of paragraph that describes the object). Another component is language

features (using simple present tense, action verbs, adjectives, relating verbs).

It is supported by Mukarto et al (2007:140) explain the two main parts in

generic structure those are identification and description. Identification

 4

introduces what is the topic of the text and what is the text about or who is the

subject is being described. While description is part that describes qualities

and characteristics or the supporting part of paragraph which describe in

detail to assists the reader to see and fell the subject such as shapes, sizes and

colour (Sudarwati & Grace 2007:144). The second component is the

lexicogrammatical/language features. That are the characteristics of language

which is used to constructs descriptive text which consists of grammar rules

and vocabulary.

Descriptive text uses simple present tense. It is used because

writing descriptive text has a lot of description about general and habitual of

thing in each paragraph itself. Simple present tense is one of important

component should be mastered by the writer when writes a descriptive text. In

which, through master the simple present tense, the writer able to make and

arrange sentences in a paragraph or text correctly.

Simple present tense is a kind of tenses that related with habitual

action, facts, and general truth. In general, the simple present tense used in

writing descriptive text, which is the descriptive text is a writing form that

aims to explain or describe something, such as person, animal, and things.

Learning writing descriptive text is important to students of senior

high school including the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk

Dalam. They are expected to be able to express their ideas and able to

describe something and represent it into written form.

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In the process of learning writing skills the students can’t separate

from the error. Error is the fault made by the writer, it is unintended deviation

from the immanent rules of a language variety made by the second language

learners. Error occurred because the students lack of knowledge about how

the correct item. Making error is a normal process when learning English as

foreign language learners. This happened because the English structures is

really different with the structures of theirs mother tongue.

However, based on the researcher’s experienced on preliminary

study at SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam during the teaching practice, the

researcher found that there were many students in a class which is consisted

of 34 students made errors in constructing simple present tense on their

descriptive text when they tried to describe something around them. In this

case, many students constructed the sentence without paying attention to the

pattern. Researcher found that mostly of the students made errors.

For example:
Text I
Nama: Rachel A. Amazihono
Kelas: X-mipa- melati
Maple: B. inggris
My crush
I has a crush. I can not tells he name. But I want tells some of his

characteristics, he longs, he handsome, he sweet, he likes plays

football, he smart, friendly, polite and he not too close to girls. I am

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fall in love with him since we meet in extracuriculer activities but I

am feel sad because he didn’t know that I am fall in love with him.

Source: Student’s writing of descriptive text.

Text II
Nama: Agnes K. Zalukhu
Kelas: X-mipa-melati
Mapel: B.inggris
My lovely cat
I have a stray cat as my pet. He is really playful. He loved to play

with me and the new things he found. He have orange and white

fur. His fur is so soft and I likes to rubs it for him.He have long tail,

he likes to play with it. He is also always try to catch his tail

sometimes, I also likes to hold him like that he will fall asleep.

Source: Student’s writing of descriptive text.

Both of examples above show that the students made errors in

any different types, such below:

Students Errors in the use of Simple Present Tense

Example 1.1

Statements Omisso Additio Mis- misorderin Correctio

n n informatio g n
n
I has a crush ✓ I have a
crush
I can not tells ✓ ✓ I can not
he names tell his
name
I wants tell ✓ I want to
some of his tell some
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caharacteristi of his
cs characteris
ctics
He likes plays ✓ He likes to
play
I am fall in ✓ I fall in
love love
I am feel sad ✓ I feel sad
He didn’t ✓ He doesn’t
know know

Example 1.2

Statements Omission Addition Mis- misordering Correcti

information on
He loved to ✓ ✓ He loves
play to play
He found ✓ He finds
He have ✓ He has
orange and orange
white fur and
white fur
He is also ✓ ✓ He
always try always
to catch his tries to
tail catch his
tail

Based on the background explanation above, the researcher is

interesting in knowing deeply the errors made by students and wanted to

find out the causes of the errors made by the students. The researcher hoped

the result of this study will provide benefits in education field. The

researcher were conducted this research with the title “Students’ Errors in

the use of Simple Present Tense in Writing Descriptive Text at eleventh

Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam”.

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B. Focus and Sub Focus of the Research

Based on the background explanation above, the researcher

conducted the focus and sub focus of the research as follows

1. Focus of the Research

This research were focus on analyzed the students’ errors and the

causes of the errors in the use of simple present tense in writing descriptive

text at eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam.

2. Sub-focus of the Research

Based on the focus of the research above, this research has two

sub-focus, they are:

1. Types of students errors in the use of simple present tense in writing

descriptive text.

2. The causes of students errors in the use of simple present tense

writing descriptive text.

C. Formulation of the Problem

Considering background and limitation of the problem, the research is

formulated with two questions:

1. What are the erorrs made by students in the use of simple present tense

in writing descriptive text at SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam?

2. What are the causes of students’ errors in the use of simple present tense?

D. Objective of the Research

Related to the formulation of the problem above, the objectives of the

research are:
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1. To find out the types of students’ errors in the use of simple present tense

in writing descriptive text at eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk

Dalam.

2. To find out the causes of the students errors in the use of simple present

tense in writing descriptive text at eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk

Dalam.

E. Significance of the Research

This research is expected to provide useful significance both

theoretically and practically. The result of this research is used to help the

English teachers, learners and other researchers who analyze the similar topic.

Theoretically, this study is expected to gives information about students’ errors

in the use of simple present tense in writing descriptive text. This research can

be used as teaching resources for English teacher, learning resources for

students, and consideration source for the next researcher.

Practically, for the teachers, this research is expected to helps English

teacher in teaching descriptive text. By known the errors made by students

especially in constructing the simple present tense in writing descriptive text.

They might improve the method of teaching descriptive text. For the learners,

this research hoped to helps the learners who still made errors in writing

descriptive text. By provide information of their errors in writing descriptive

text, they may know their fault and try to improve their skill in writing

descriptive text. The last, for the next researcher, this research is expected to

giving useful information for the next researcher who wants to investigate the

similar problem. It can be used as consideration source and basic step in

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conducting their research about students’ errors in the use of simple present

tense in writing descriptive text.

F. Definition of Key Terms

1. Error analysis is one way to presenting the students errors to be observed,

analyzed and classifying based on relevant theory.

2. Writing is a process or activity of transferring idea, message, thought, and

information into readable form.

3. Descriptive text is kind of text that describes particular object such as

person, animal, and things.

4. Simple present tense is akind of tenses which us used to tells something that

happens in the present, facts, general truth and habitual action.

 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Conceptual Description

1. Definition of Writing

There are some definitions of writing that given by experts from

any resources. Writing is a process of expressing ideas, messages,

thoughts, or feeling into readable form. It is a representation of language

by using a set of signs or symbols into grammatical sentence. In the same

way Nunan (2003:88) states “Writing is a mental work of inventing ideas,

thinking about how to express them, and organizing them into statements

and paragraphs that will be clear to reader.” It means that writing is an

activity to expressing ideas, messages, thoughts, feeling or information

into statements or text which is in the process of writing the writer should

be written in correct and effective sentences to be able to understood by

the readers.

According to Ur (1991:162), “writing is widely used in within

foreign language courses as a convenient means for engaging with aspects

of language other than be writing itself.” It means that writing is process

of arranging sign or symbols to convey ideas, thoughts, feeling or

information into a sentences, paragraph or text structurally based on

grammatical structures. Writing is not just a process of putting words

without put attention into aspect of grammar, culture and organization of

writing are needed.

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Writing is one of important skill in English that should be

mastered by the learners to be able to use English grammatically. Harmer

(2002:255) “Writing has a number of conventions which separate it out

from speaking. Apart from differences in grammar and vocabulary, there

are issues of letter, word and text formation, manifested by handwriting,

spelling, and layout and punctuation.” It means that writing skill giving

opportunities to learners to increase their vocabulary, knowledge of

grammar and develop their understanding of how to expressing things into

written form.

2. Concept of Error

a. Definition of Error Analysis

Error is the incorrect form that occur because the lack of

knowledge about something. In the process of learning, learners cannot

be separated from the errors. According to Harmer (1983:138) “ 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 re-shaped are he or she aims towards full mastery”. So, it

means that make errors in the process of learning is natural. Making

errors is the sign that students have not yet mastered the rules of the

language being learned. To cope with this problem, one of the strategies

widely used by linguist is error analysis. Brown (1980:166) stated that

error analysis is the study of students error that can be observed,

analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating

within the learners.

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Error analysis is one way to show teachers some problem

confronting the students. Error analysis help the teachers to get some

information concerning the students difficulties at different levels and

also to gain important information for the planning of courses and

strategies in teaching materials.

Error analysis is important to known by the English teacher

because it becomes a useful key to understanding the process of foreign

language acquisition. By knowing the error analysis it can help them to

planning what the best strategy that learners employ in order to master

the target language. By conducting a systematic study of error, they

may improve their teaching method and attempt to find the solutions to

solve some problems faced by the students.

Based on the definition above, the researcher conclude that

error analysis is a methodology for investigating learners’ competence

in acquiring a second language acquisition or a foreign language. It

describes learners’ interlanguage and can be used to identify the

possible mistakes or errors that made by students.

b. The Difference between Error and Mistake

Error and mistake are two different things. Theoretically, the

both occurred in different phenomena. According to Brown (2000:218-

219) “A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random

guess or a “slip” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system

correctly. An error usually a noticeable deviation from the adult

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grammar of native speaker, reflects the competence of the learner”. In

the same way, Richards (1985:95) said that, “ Mistake is made by a

learner when writing or speaking which is caused of lack of attention,

fatique, carelessness, or other aspects of performance”. It means that,

mistake related to the students’ quality performance that caused by

some factors like lack of attention, carelessness and others factors

which is it can be self –corrected because actually the students’ know

the language’s rules when they focus on their work.

c. Errors in Students Writing

Writing is the most complicated skill in English for foreign

or second language learners. Writing is an activity of someone to

expresses ideas, thought, message, and information into written form.

Writing is not only an activity of arranging words into sentences, but

it’s a process of organize idea or information sistematicallly.

As a second language learners, student cannot separated

from the errors. Error is a part of learning. Making errors is natural in

learning process. Learners can not learn language without first

systematically committing error. Errors are the result of incomplete

learning. The learners get errors in writing beacuse they have not yet

mastery the correct structure.

Talking about the errors, it relates to what is called error

analysis. In the fact, the learners cannot separated from the errors in

learning English especially in writing, and those errors can be observed,

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analyzed, and classified to reveal something of system operating within

the learner, led to surge of study of learner’s errors, called error

analysis.

d. Types of errors

Dulay (1982:150-163) defines error analysis as an analytical

tool, as are the specifications of transitional constructions, the

computation of acquisition orders and the delineation of special

utterances special. Dulay categorize errors into four types, they are:

1) Omission

Omission errors are the characterized by the absence of an item that

must appear in well-formed utterance. In this category, language

learners ommit the letter. For example: “He buy a newspaper in this

week”. It should be “ He buys a newspaper in this week”.

Although any morpheme or word in a sentence is a potential

candidate for omission, some types of morphemes are omitted more

than other. Contents morphemes carry the bulk of referential

meaning of a sentence: noun, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. For

example: “Mary is the president of the new company”. The words,

mary president, new and company are the content morphemes that

carry the burden of meaning. If one heard mary president new

company, one could deduce a meaning sentence, while if one heard

“is the of the”. one could not even begin to guess what the speaker

might have had in mind.

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Is, the, and of are grammatical morphemes are omitted more

than other, those little words that play a minor role in conveying

the meaning of a sentence. They include noun and verb inflections (

the –s in birds, the –s in mother’s, the -ed in looked, the –ing in

laughing , etc.); articles ( a, the, an, etc.); verb auxiliaries ( is, will,

can, etc.); ( it, was, am, etc.); and preposition ( in on under, etc).

when any item should be put in a sentence but it is nothing, so it’s

called omission.

2). Addition

This error is the opposite of the omission. They are

characterized by the presence of an item which must not appear in a

well-formed utterance. For example, “she doesn’t knows my

name”. it should be “she doesn’t know my name”. there are three

types of addition errors have been observed in the speech of both

L1 and L2 learners. Those : double marking, regularization, and

simple addition. Double marking is one of addition errors that have

two items rather than one remarked for the same features in the

sentence. For example: “ she doesn’t eats”. It should be “ she

doesn’t eat”. Regularization errors that fall under the addition

category are those in which a marker that is typically added to a

linguistics item is errorneously added to exceptional items of the

given class that do not take a marker. For example, sheep and

putted are both regularization in which the regular plural and past

tense markers “-s” and “-ed”, respectively, have been added to

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items which do not take markers. Others such errors observed in

learner performance include deers, hitted and beated. Simple

addition is a type of addition error which it does not include in

both of double marking or regularization.

3). Miss-information

It is characterized by utilizing of the wrong from of the

morpheme or the structure. In formation errors, the learners

supplies something althought it is not correct. For example: “ this

cats” it should be “these cats”. There are three types of this errors:

Regularization errors, Achi-forms, Alternating forms.

4). Misordering

Misordering errors are categorized by the incorrect

placement of morpheme or a group of morpheme in an utterance.

This kinds of errors when learners wrongly place the sequence of

words in the sentence. For example, “ I bought a dictionary new

last week”. It should be “ I bought a new dictionary last week”.

e. The Causes of Students Errors

In learning English, there are some causes of students errors.

According to Brown (2007:263-266) there are four sources of error,

those are:

1. Interlingual transfer

Interlingual transfer is a significant source of error

for all of students. The beginning of learning second language

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are especially vulnerable to interlingual from the native

language, or inference. Before the system of the second

language is familiar, the native language is the only previous

linguistics system upon which the students can draw.

2. Intralingual transfer

Intralingual transfer is the negative transfer of item

within the target language or put another way, the incorrect

generalization rules within the target language. Intralingual

transfer is a major factorin second language learning. It has been

found that the early stages of language learning recharacterized

by a predominance of interlingual transfer but once the students

has begun to acquire parts of the new way system, intralingual

transfer generalization within the target language is manified.

3. Context of learning

Context of learning refers to social situation. For

example, in classroom with the teacher and it’s materialsin the

case of school learning or the social situation in the case of

untutored the second language learning. In classroom context

the techer or the textbook can lead the students to make faulty

hypotheses about language. Learners frequently make errors

because of misleading explanation from the teacher,

presentation of structure or a word in a textbook , or a pattern

that was rotely memorized in a drill improperly contextualized.

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4. Communication strategies

Communication strategies refers to the conscious

employment of verbal or nonverbal mechanism for

communicating an idea when precist linguist form of some

reason not readily available to the learner at a poin in

communication. Category of communication strategy overlaps

both inter and intralingual transfer and context of learning.

3. Descriptive Text

a. Definition of Descriptive

Descriptive text is one of text types that taught in senior high

school. According to Widiati, Rohmah & Furaidah (2014:55) “ A

descriptive text describes a particular object like place, thing, or

person”. It means that through writing descriptive text, the writer

describe the particular object by describing its or her/his specific

features to help readers visualize what a person, an animal, or a

thing is like.

Oshima & Hogue (2007:61) “ the readers can imagine the

object, place or person in their mind are a kind of good writing”. In

the same way Kane (2000:351) states “ description is about sensory

experience how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about

visual experience but d99escription also deals with other kinds of

perceptions”.
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Descriptive text is the text that describe something which

is the writer must able to make the readers or listeners can feel as

what the writer experienced. In describing the object, the writer

may utilize imaginative language, interesting comparisons, and

images that appeal to the senses to make the reader easily from the

object being described.

From the definition above, the researcher concluded that

descriptive text is a text that consist of the writer’s perspectives

about an object that purposed to inform or persuade the reader

about the object being described.

b. The Generic structure of Descriptive Text

Descriptive text as one of text genres has generic structure.

Generic structure is component or part of descriptive writing. It’s a

crucial thing that should to know by students when learning

descriptive text. A writer has to concerns on the generic structures

in order to make the text written well. Doddy, Sugeng, & Effendi

(2008:117) stated that the structure of descriptive text is divided

into two parts:

1. Identification

The identification is the part where writer identifies

phenomenon to be described. This part consist of general

opening statement to introduces the object being described.

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2. Description

The description is the part where the writer explain the

specific characteristics of the object being described.

Description is a series of paragraphs about the subject where

each paragraph usually begins with a topic sentence. The topic

sentence previews the details will be contained in the

remainder of the paragraph.

Moreover, each paragraph should describe one feature of

the subject and all paragraphs build the description of the

subject.

c. Grammatical Feature of Descriptive Text

Grammatical feature is important thing in writing

descriptive text that should to know by writers to help them in

making good writing. According to Knapp & Watkins (2005:98-

100), grammatical features of describing divided into below:

1) Use simple present tense

2) Relational verbs

3) Action verbs

4) Adjectives

5) Adverbs.

6) Adverbial phrases

7) Sentences and paragraphs

8) Telling particular object.

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In this research, the researcher only focuses in the use of

simple present tense.

4. Simple Present Tense

a. Definition of Simple Present Tense

Tenses are systematic structure that used to describes different

forms of verbs that showed the time of action. It means that when

using verb toward what we are talking about, the writer have to

construct the time at the moment. Generally, in English, there are

three parts of time that have to be known, those are past, present

and future. The present tense is a grammatial tense that describe a

habitual action and situation or event in present time. This tense

also used to talk about things in general. It means that, the simple

present tense is the tense for the description, definition and

statements of general truth.

b. Uses of Simple Present Tense

Frank (1972:66) stated that the simple present tense

could be used:

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

or often.

2. To state a general truth.

3. To express future action.

4. commentaries on games and plays

5. In exlamations, announcements or demonstrations.

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In the same way, Azar (1989:20) stated that the simple

present tense is used to express events or situations that exist

always, usually, habitually; they exist now, have existed in the

past, and probably will exist in the future.

The simple present tense is also used to express non-

action states or condition. It may indicate an action that exist right

now at the moment of speaking (Frank 1972:69). The verbs

involves

1) Mental states: know, understand, believe, and think.

2) Emotional states: appreciate, like, hate, love.

3) Sense perceptions: see, hear, smell, feel.

4) Possession: have, own, etc.

5) Other existings states: costs, weight, contain, appear.

As a foreign learners, Indonesian students get the

difficulties in construct the simple present tense, it is caused by

some interference from their mother tongue. For example, the

addition of suffix s/es of the verb for the third person singular

subject, the auxiliary do or does in negative and interrogative

sentences, and the verb “be” in the nominal sentences that never

exist in indonesian language. Those make the Indonesian students

make errors in applying the simple present tense in sentences.

c. Form of Simple Present Tense

1. Verbal form
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The present tense of verb is formed which is for the

first person and the third person plural subject using the simple

form of verb while for the third person singular must added by

s/es in the end of the verb. In the terms of form, the simple

present divided into: positive, negative, interrogative, and

negative interrogative. The adverbs of frequency or adverbial

phrases that are often used in the simple present tense are

always, often, usually, never, occasionally, seldom, sometime,

everiday, etc.

For example: I always watch television at evening.

She always watches television at evening.

➢ Pattern of present tense form of other verb

(1) Positive form

I, We, You, They + Verb + Complement

He, She, It, + Verb + S/ES + Complement

For example: They swim at the river every weekend.

He swims at the river every weekend.

(2) Negative form

In order to make a negative sentences, we have to put do not /

does not after the subject. The pattern below:

I, We, You, They + do not + Verb + Complement

He, She, It + does not + Verb + Complement

For example: I do not take the course in this year.

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She does not take the course in this year.

(3) Interrogative form

In order to make interrogative sentence in the simple present

tense, we have to put the do or does before the subject. The

pattern below:

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

Does + He, She, It + Verb + Complement?

For example: Do you get any gifts on your birthday?

Does she get any gifts on her birthday?

2. Nominal form

a. present tense of verb be

Present tense of verb “be” is formed by put to be

am, are, is after the subject of the sentence. According to

Pransiskas (1961:2) in English, the present tense of ‘be” is used to

express this situations below:

➢ Proffesion, trade, occupation

e.g: Rita is a student of biology education.

➢ Nationalit

e.g: Sumatra is part of Indonesian.

➢ Size and shape

e.g: Mr. Bobs is tall.

➢ Age

e.g: Kevin is twenty- eight years old

➢ Characteristics
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e.g: Joe is handsome

➢ Condition

e.g; Noah is sick

➢ Place

e.g: The children at the church.

➢ Color

e.g: This blanket is soft.

• Pattern of present tense to be

S + be + a noun or a noun phrase

For example:

Lyodra is a singer.

Lyodra is a beautiful girl.

S + be + adjective or adjective phrase

For example:

Mrs. Ellish is famous.

S+ be + adverb or adverbial phrase

For example:

Billi is from the south Nias.

In negative statement with the verb be, the word not is

used after the verb.

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For example: He is not a teacher.

Meanwhile, in yes/no question, be comes before the subject.

For example: Is he a teacher?

In question word, “be” comes before the subject and after the

question word.

For example: who is he?

The verb “be” has different forms after different

subjects. The present tense forms of be ( am, is, are). Am is used

after the first person singular subject (I). are is used after the first

person plural subjects (we). After the second person singular and

plural subject (you)and the third person plural subjects (They, the

boys, cows, etc) is is used after the third person singular subjects (

he, she, it, the boy, a cow).

B. Latest Related Study

There are previous studies about the error in writing during the

learning process. The first was conducted by Vattia sahhal (2018), entitled

“Students errors in the use of simple present tense in writing descriptive text: A

study at MTS Jeumala Amal, Lueng putu. The result of the research is

researcher found some errors made by the students based on surface strategy

taxonomy with the percentages: 1). Omission: 62,92%. 2). Addition: 13,48%.

3). Misordering: 3,37%. 4). Mis-information: 20,22%. The result of the study
 28

show that the researcher found that the students got errors mostly in omission,

then addition, then misordering, and the last is mis-information.

Another study conducted by Ima Natia (2007), entitled “Students

Errors in using Simple Present tense in Writing Descriptive Texts: The case of

the Eihgt Year Students of SMP Negeri 2 Brebes in the Academic Year of

2006/2007”. In this study, researcher found there were 10 types of errors

which is the dominant errors lies on the omission of suffix form the verb,

wrong form of modal auxiliary, omission of verb and wrong form of nrgative

sentences.

The differences between the previous study with this research that

will be conducts with the title “ Students Errors in the use of Simple Present

Tense in Writing Descriptive text at Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1

Telukdalam”. is beside describe the students errors, the researcher will find out

the causes of the students errors.

C. Conceptual Framework

English is one of important language which mostly of human

around this world using it as a tool of communication. English is important

to be master, because in this era, English has a crucial position involve the

education field. In English, there are four important skills, they are listening,

reading, speaking and writing. Writing is the process of expressing ideas or

some messages to another person into readable form. In writing, there are

several types of text that taught to the students at school include senior high

school, those are recount text, report text, descriptive text, and another types.
 29

Descriptive text is a type of text that used to express or describe a person,

animal, place, or things that used the simple present tense in constructing the

sentences. Simple present is a kind of tenses which is used to describe the

habitual action, general truth and the fact of something. In this study, the

researcher will analyze the students errors and find out the causes of students

errors in the use of simple present tense in writing descriptive text and the

result will be presented in chapter IV, the researcher will describe and

classifying the errors made by the students and will shows the causes of the

students errors.
 30

Figure 2.1

Conceptual Framework

Language

English Skills

Listening Speaking Reading Writing

The Eleventh Grade of SMA Descriptive

Negeri 1 Telukdalam Text

Simple Present Tense

Errors Causes
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A. The Approach of Research Design

Qualitative research is a type of research that mostly based on

descriptive data. According to Bogdan and Biklen (2007:5) “qualitative

research is research that data collected take the form of words, of picture

rather than a numbers”. It means that, in this study the researcher should

presented the data into words form. It is supported by Bogdan and Taylor in

Nugrahani (2014:8) “Metode penelitian kualitatif sebagai prosedur penelitian

yang menghasilkan data deskriptif berupa kata-kata tertulis atau lisan dari

orang-orang dan perilaku yang diamati” (qualitative method of research is a

procedure of research that produce descriptive data in the form of written or

spoken words of people and behavior which is observed).

Based on the description above, it can be concluded that

qualitative research is concerned with the analyzing and interprenting texts

and interviews or phenomena through words or letter. The qualitative

descriptive method is applied in this study because the researcher wanted to

describe the students’ errors in the use of simple present tense in writing

descriptive text which is the result of this study will be presenting in words.

31
 32

B. Location and Time of the Research

This research was conducted at SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam which

is located in Pendidikan street, Teluk Dalam, South Nias Regency on 17th -24th

January 2023. The researcher chose this school as the research location

because the researcher found the problem at the school during the teaching

practice. So, the researcher had experienced and known the condition of

students in learning English.

The researcher chose the students at XI-MIA- Melati of SMA Negeri 1

Teluk Dalam. Total of participants are 34 students. The object of this research

is the type of students’ errors and the causes of students’ errors in the use of

simple present tense in writing descriptive text at Eleventh Grade of SMA

Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam.

C. The Data and Source of the Data

Data in this research were the errors made by students in the use of

simple present tense in writing descriptive text. The errors obtained from the

students writing about descriptive text that written by the students, In this case

the researcher obtained the students paper by giving assignment to the students.

Furthermore, the data of the errors causes obtained by interviewing the

students.

D. Technique of Data Collection

Technique of data collection is the way to collect the data. In this

research, researcher collected the data through documentation and interview.

There are some steps that needed in this technique. The steps are:
 33

1. First, the researcher went to SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam as the location of

the research.

2. The researcher asked permission and told about her purpose to conduct the

research to the head master of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam.

3. After getting permission, the researcher met and talked with the English

teacher who taught English in grade XI-Mia-Melati about the researcher’s

purpose.

4. Then, the researcher asked the students’ writing about descriptive text to the

English teacher.

5. After that, the researcher asked the students to make a descriptive text again

to get a valid data.

6. After getting the students’ writing in two times the researcher checked and

found the students’ errors in the use of simple present tense in their writing.

7. After getting the data of the students’ errors, the researcher interviewed the

students who mostly made errors in the use of simple present tense in

writing descriptive text to know the causes of their errors in the use of

simple present tense in writing descriptive text.

E. Technique of Data Analysis

Data analysis is the process of giving meaning of the data. This is a

essential section in scientific study to make sure that writer have all relevant

data for making contemplated comparisons and analysis. This study focused

on the students’ errors in the use of simple present tense in writing descriptive

text. Therefore, the researcher uses the error analysis method to analyze the
 34

data. According to Corder (1981), there are some steps in conducting the

error analysis, those are:

1. Identification of errors

In this step, the researcher should identify error from data

collection. In identyfing error, the researcher compared the sentence

written by students to the correct sentence in the target language.

2. Description of errors

In this step, the researcher will describing and classifying into

types of error which consist of omission, addition, misformation, and

misordering.

3. Explanation of errors

The third step is to explain why errors occurred. This explanation

concern about the sources of errors.

4. Evaluation of errors

In this step, the researcher must decide the criteria of the errors

and drawn it into table to be correct sentences.

F. The Trustworthiness of the Data

In qualitative research, the trustworthiness is the process of checking

the validity and reliability of the data. Trustworthiness of study refers to the

degree of confidence in data, interpretation, and methods used to ensure the

quality of a research. Lincoln & Guba (1985:289:131) rely on four criteria in

their approach to trustworthiness. Those are credibility, transferability,

dependability, and confirmability.

 35

1. Credibility

The credibility of data is important to increase the truth of the data

obtained. Credibility establishes that the research findings are credible or

believable and origin from the participants and the data interpreted based on

the perspectives of the participants in the research. To be reliable and

accepted as trustworthy, researcher must demonstrate that data analysis has

been conducted in a precise, consistent and exhaustive manner through the

analysis method.

2. Transferability

The transferability refers to generalizing or external validity data

in research. Transferability is needed to ensure that the research findings

could be applicable to other context, situations, times and population. The

research establishes the transferability by providing understanding

explanation and evidence to the reader.

3. Dependability

Dependability refers to the consistency and reliability of the

researcher in gather the data. The dependability establish the data over time

and over condition. Dependability is the evaluation of the quality of the

integrated processes of data collection and data analysis. The dependability

of data in qualitative research establishes by providing a detailed description

of the research methods, conducting a step by step repetition of the study to

identify similarities in result or to enhance findings.

 36

4. Confirmability

Confirmability refers to the degree to which the result could be

confirmed or corroborated by others. The researcher establishes the

confirmability of the data through documenting the procedures for checking

and rechecking the data throughout the study. To ensure the confirmability,

the researcher should be provides the evidence directly from the subject and

research context, rather than the researcher’s biases, motivations, or

perspectives.
 37

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Data Description

This research was conducted at SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam which is

located at pendididkan Street, Teluk Dalam, South Nias Regency on January

2023. The participants of this research was XI- Mipa- Melati which is

consisted of 34 students. This research was conducted after getting

permission from Lembaga Penelitiandan Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat(

LPPM) of Nias Raya University and head master of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk

Dalam.

In collecting the data, the researcher was consulted with the English

teacher and asked the students to make a descriptive text. After the data had

been collected, the researcher was analyzed by reading the students worksheet

of descriptive writing, counting the errors made, and classifying into the types

of errors. The researcher used the error analysis to process the data based on

surface strategy taxonomy theory. To find out the errors, the researcher was

checked the students’ writing and marked the sentences containing the errors.

After that, to getting the data about the causes of the students errors, the

researcher was interviewed the students who mostly made errors.

In this chapter, the researcher presents the analysis of students’

worksheet in writing descriptive text. Moreover, this chapter elaborates the

findings on the students errors in their worksheet about descriptive text and

the result of interviewed will describe the causes of errors they made. The

data presented based on the formulation of the problem as stated in chapter I;

 38

(1) What are the errors made students in the use of simple present tense in

writing descriptive text at SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam?, (2)What are the

causes of the students’ errors in the use of simple present tense?

B. Research Findings

1. Errors made by Students in Constructing Simple Present Tense in

Writing Descriptive Text.

a. Error on Omission

Omission is a kind of errors which is characterized by the

absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance.

For example:

1). Verbal form

Students sentences:

➢ She really love her children.

➢ He really like to cook and has a lot of skills that make me

jealous.

Correction:

➢ She really loves her children

➢ He really likes to cook and has a lot of skills that makes me

jealous.

The errors on the sentences above are students omit one

item that must appear in those sentences. In constructing the

simple present tense, on the third-person singular, the suffix

 39

s/es should be add after the verb. For example, on the sentences

above the students didn’t add suffix s/es after the verb love, the

sentence should be she really loves her children. And on the

second sentences the students didn’t add suffix s/es on the verb

like and make, the sentence should be he really likes to cook

and has a lot of skills that makes me jealous.

2). Nominal form

Students sentences:

➢ He from Brazil.

➢ My mother a good person.

Correction:

➢ He is from Brazil

➢ My mother is a good person.

The sentences above are incorrect, the students omit an item

that must appear in those sentences, in constructing nominal

sentence in simple present tense, the students should be put to

be (am, is, are) after the subject in the sentences. The sentences

above should be he is from Brazil and my mother is a good

person.
 40

b. Error on Addition

Addition is a kind of errors which is characterized by the

presence of an item which must not appear in a well-formed

utterance.

For example:

1). Verbal form

Students sentences:

➢ He likes to plays football.

➢ I likes panda.

Correction:

➢ He likes to play football

➢ I like panda

Those sentences are incorrect, the students add an item that

must not appear in those sentences. On the first sentence, the

students add the suffix s after to infinitive (to plays) the sentence

should be he likes to play football. And on the second sentence the

suffix s/es should not appear on the first person singular, the

sentence should be I like panda.

2). Nominal form

Students sentences:

➢ She is likes my friend.

 41

➢ I am have a dog.

Correction:

➢ She is like my friend

➢ I am have a dog.

The sentences above categorized as error of addition

because the students add an item that should not appear in those

sentences.

c. Error on Misformation

Misformation is a kind of error which is characterized by

the wrong form of the morphem or the structure. In this kind of

errors, the students supplied something but in the incorrect form.

For example:

1). Verbal form

Students sentences:

➢ He have black skin but he is handsome.

➢ He have straight teeth.

Correction:

➢ He has black skin but he is handsome.

➢ He has straight teeth.

 42

On the sentences above, the students used the wrong

auxiliary verb that suitable with the subject. On the third person

singular, the auxiliary verb that used should be has. The correct

form are he has black skin but he is handsome and he has

straight teeth.

2). Nominal form

Students sentences:

➢ Wita are my best friend.

➢ Me favorite person is jeon jungkok.

Correction:

➢ Wita is my best friends

➢ My favorite person is Jeon Jungkok.

The errors on the first sentence, they used to be (are) on the

third –person singular. Meanwhile grammatically, if the subject

third- person singular the to be should be (is). The correct sentence

is wita is my best friend. and on the second sentence, me is used

when it’s function as object in the sentences, the correct pronoun

should be my, because my is used to show possession.

d. Error on Misordering

Misordering is a kind of errors which is characterized by

the incorrect placement of morpheme or group of morphemes in a

utterance.
 43

For example:

1). Verbal form

Students sentences

➢ The Moppy I get from uncle me.

➢ The cat I named cimoy.

correction:

➢ I get Moppy from my uncle.

➢ I named the cat Cimoy.

The errors in those sentences above are the sentences

structures. The students made error in put the words. In

constructing simple present tense, it begin with the subject, then

verb and complement. The sentences should be I get the moppy

from my uncle and I named the cat cimoy.

2). Nominal form

Students sentences:

➢ It place is weird.

➢ Kumbang is dog cute.

Correction:

➢ It is a weird place

➢ Kumbang is a cute dog

 44

The placement of the sentences above is wrong. The sentences

should be it’s a weird place and Kumbang is a cute dog.

2. The Causes of Students Errors

Based on the result of findings that has been

presented, It showed that students made errors in writing descriptive

text especially in constructing simple present tense. To know the

causes of the students errors in the use of simple present tense in

writing descriptive text, the researcher were conducted the interview

with some students. Based on the interviewing result, the researcher

found that there are two factors:

1. Interlingual Transfer

This kind of errors occurred when the students use

their own native language as a source in making the sentence. It

means, in constructing the sentences, the students write it first on

their native language and then they translate it to the second

language. In fact, both of Indonesian and english have differences

in any types. For example, in it’s grammar. Based on the result of

interview, the researcher found that one of the causes of students

errors is interlingual transfer. It can be seen from the students

statement “when I wrote the sentence I translated it word by word

and I wrote it based on the Indonesian form”. The students

should not follow the indonesian structure when writing an english

sentence, because the rules of english and the indonesian really

 45

different. So, the researcher conclude that the students errors

influenced by their native language.

2. Intralingual transfer

Intralingual transfer occurred when the students are

overgeneralization the rules in wrong concepts into target language

with their limited experienced about it. It can be seen from the

students statement “ I don’t know how to use pronoun correctly”

and I didn’t write it based on the grammar. Most of the students’

sentences errors happpend in constructing the grammar. The

students didn’t follow the rules of English.

C. Discussion

This section presents the discussion based on the findings of the

research. It consist about the students errors types in constructing the simple

present tense in writing descriptive text at the eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 1

Teluk Dalam.

This research was carried out to get the students’ errors in the use

of simple present tense in descriptive writing and the causes of the students

errors. In processing the data, the researcher analyzed the data to find out the

students errors and the causes of the students errors. The data analyzed based

on surface strategy taxonomy that proposed by Dulay et (1982:150-162) which

is classified errors into four types are omission, addition, misformation and

misordering. In this research, the researcher found that the students made 37%

errors of misformation, 23% errors on addition, 21 errors of misordering and

19% errors on omission. The researcher founfd that the errors most happened
 46

in constructing the grammar of simple present tense. For example, in using to

be, auxiliary verb, pronoun, suffix. The researcher also found the other form of

errors such as word order, to infinitive and articles.

From the explanation above, there are some sources of erorrs based

on Brown (2007:263-266) those are interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer,

communication strategies and context of learning. In this research, the

researcher only found two causes of errors were interlingual and intralingual

transfer.

Based on the interview result, the students made errors because

they didn’t learnt the grammar deeply or less of knowledge and also influenced

by their native language.

 47

CHAPTER V

CLOSING

A. Conclusion

The findings of this research show that most of the

students at the eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 1 Teluk Dalam made errors

in making a good sentence. They made errors in constructing the simple

present tense because the lack of knowledge about the English grammar and

also influenced by their mother tongue. There are four types of error they

made, those are misfromation, misordering, addition, and omission. There

are two causes of the students errors were interlingual and intralingual

transfer.

B. Suggestion

1. For the English teacher. The teacher should give more knowledge in

effective way about the using of simple present tense in writing

descriptive text.

2. For the students, The students should improving their skill in writing by

practice especially in constructing sentences in English correctly and

learn more about descriptive text.

3. For the next researcher, the researcher hopes the result of this study can

be reference or used as early information to conduct further research

and the next research will be more useful.

Finally, the researcher hopes this research can be useful as a

source of scientific information.

 48

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