ELT-Lectura: Studies and Perspectives in English Language Teaching

Volume 9 Nomor 1, February 2022

ISSN (Print): 2336-8560, ISSN (ONLINE): 2550-0724

Analysis of Generic Structure and Grammatical Problem of Students

in Writing English Paragraphs in Online Learning
Prih Febtiningsih1), Ardiya2)
12
Universitas Muhammadiyah Riau, Indonensia
1
email: prihfebtiningsih@umri.ac.id
2
email: ardiya@umri.ac.id

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to find out the generic structure and grammatical
problems encountered by the non-English students at Muhammadiyah University of Riau.
The data was obtained through students’ writing task namely writing English paragraphs of
descriptive text. The writing task was given through Learning System Management (LSM)
of the university named Sikuli. The participants of this research were the Non-English
students taking the English subject in the first semester in academic year of 2021/2022. The
samples were 4 classes taken randomly spreading in eight faculties: Computer Science
(40), Communication Science (28), Natural Science and Health (45), and Teacher Training
and Education (25). The total number of students are 138. The researchers applied the
theory of Gerot and Wignel (1994) and Halliday et al. (2014) from the perspective of
systemic functional linguistics. In generic structure, the appropriateness and
inappropriateness in formulating identification and descriptions in descriptive text were
described. In grammatical case, the writing were analyzed based on the theory proposed by
Yarber and Yarber (2010) and Dye (2005). After the data was analyzed, the results showed
that the students got serious problem on writing identification (115/83%) as one of the
generic structure in descriptive text. In addition, they also encountered grammatical
problems such as noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction,
parallelism, modifiers, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and capitalization. Based on
the numbers and the percentage of the grammatical problems above, it showed that the
students got serious problem on subject-verb agreement (129/14, 16%).

Keywords: Generic structure, Grammatical problems, Writing English paragraphs, Online

learning

1. INTRODUCTION Regarding the importance of

English which is known as an English for communication, the
international language is a very important Indonesian government has made efforts
language for communicating both in to improve the education system and
educational, social, economic, cultural, human resource development in realizing
technological, health, political and other national education goals, especially at the
aspects used by people in many countries. tertiary level. Every student from various
This means that if someone wants to study programs must take an English
communicate with other people, of course, course, namely General English as a
they must be able to master English both compulsory university course. In the
orally and in writing. Therefore, in English curriculum, students are expected
Indonesia English is a subject that must be to learn and practice fluency in English
studied starting at the elementary school both in listening, speaking, reading and
level and even up to college. writing skills. This is based on the
learning achievement of graduates in the
ELT- Lectura, Vol 9, No 1, February 2022
 90

KKNI English course, namely students involve two generic structures in writing
who are proficient in spoken and written descriptive text: identification and
English in the context of daily/general, description. Identification is to identify the
academic, and post-intermediate level phenomenon that needs to be described. In
work. formulating ideal identification in
From the expected learning descriptive text, the token (subject or
outcomes based on the KKNI above, participant) should be specific. The
proficient in written English is one of the process (verb or predicate) should be
achievements that must be met. Non- relational-identification. Gerot & Wignel
English students should be able to write (1994) state that identification must be
simple paragraphs on topics related to written with the identifying process and
everyday/general, academic, and work the participants are token and value. This
contexts. This is because writing is an is the main knowledge that must be
important skill in learning English to known by the writer. If the writer does not
express ideas, feelings, and messages. In know about these characteristics, he/she
addition, good writing skills are also very will produce incorrect identification in the
important for non-English students to descriptive text even the social function
improve their communication skills to can be achieved (Tessuto, 2015; Hyland,
enter a challenging global era such as in 2004; Zavolzi, 2021).
educational, work, and social The description is the second
environments, as well as to prepare the generic structure in descriptive text. In
skills of future students in certain this part, a writer needs to describe parts,
disciplines. It is important for lecturers to characteristics, and qualities of a
train students to write a few good particular thing. The participant or subject
paragraphs so that there will be no on the description is called carrier and
misunderstandings that occur from the token. The verb or process on the
information given in the writing. description is called relational-attributive.
In addition, during this pandemic The last part is an object called an
all learning processes are carried out attribute. The whole of them (carrier and
online. Lecturers and students interact token, relational-attributive and attribute)
through various online applications such should be written textually. It means that
as Zoom, Whatsapp, Google Meet, the writer needs to avoid general
Google Classroom, and Sikuli (Learning participant, avoid using the material,
System Management). Some lecturers mental and other processes except for
send materials and give assignments relational process. The writer needs to
through the application. Students are able apply the epithet to represent the quality
to ask questions and argue when this and use a simple present (Van den Heuvel
learning process takes place in different et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2021).
ways. They can type opinions, Besides, the students should pay
discussions, and questions through the attention to the language use in descriptive
chat and the lecturer will reply to them. text. The structure or language use has an
This means that lecturers and students can important role in writing descriptive text.
conduct online discussions like studying There are many types of words in English.
in class directly. These words are divided into eight
However, unfortunately, students categories namely The eight parts of
often get into trouble if the lecturer speech: Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb,
assigns them to write especially in writing Pronoun, Preposition, Conjunction and
descriptive text. The students should Interjection (Yarber and Yarber, 2010).

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 91

They also said that a writer should The samples of this research were 4
understand the eight parts of speech in classes consisting of a number of students
order to help write a paragraph correctly, for each class taken randomly spreading in
clearly and interestingly. Besides, Dye eight faculties. They were from Computer
(2005) also stated that there were several Science faculty (40), Communication
things that must be noticed in writing Science faculty (28), Natural Science and
paragraphs such as parallelism, modifiers, Health faculty (45), and Teacher Training
Subject-Verb agreement, punctuation, and and Education faculty (25). The total
capitalization. number of students are 138.
Even with writing simple paragraph, The students were asked to write
students often lose interest and don't finish some paragraphs of descriptive text about
it. This shows that making good writing is their family. The collected data were
considered a very difficult skill. It is analyzed by using descriptive qualitative
evident that many students still make as follows:
mistakes in their paragraphs and they are
often trapped by the problem of how to P = Ef/Ne x 100%
develop their ideas into a wider paragraph.
This may be due to lack of knowledge of P = Percentage
schematic structures and linguistic Ef = Error frequency
features to generate sentences. This fact is Ne = Number of errors
based on the experience of the researchers
in teaching at the research site. The data was analyzed based on
Related to the above background, indicators of writing tasks. It can be seen
the researchers was interested in in the following table:
conducting research on some problems
that non-English students arise in writing. Table 1. Generic Structure and
Therefore, the researchers have compiled Grammatical Problems in Writing
this research entitled "Analysis of Generic Engliah Paragraphs of Descriptive Text
Structure and Grammatical Problems of
Students in Writing English Paragraphs in Generic Identification, Descriptions
Online Learning at Muhammadiyah Structure
University of Riau" Problems
Grammatical Noun, Pronoun, Verb,
2. METHOD Problems Adjective, Adverb,
This research was conducted using a Preposition, Conjunction,
descriptive qualitative design collected Parallelism, Modifiers,
data through writing tasks of the students. Subject-Verb Agreement,
The research was aimed to analyze the Punctuation, Capitalization
problem of the generic structure and
grammatical writing of students in writing The theory of genre with a
English paragraphs in online learning at perspective of systemic functional
Muhammadiyah University of Riau. The linguistics was applied to analyze the
population of this research were the identification in descriptive text. The first
students taking the English subject in the clause was tabulated and clarified whether
first semester in academic year of the identification is categorized correctly
2021/2022 at Muhammadiyah University or not. The researchers examined the
of Riau. relational process in identification. The
process (verb or predicate) should be

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 92

relational-identifying. In addition, the verb

or process on the description is called Identification
relational-attributive. The last part is an
object called an attribute. The whole of Appropriate Inappropriate
them (carrier and token, relational-
attributive and attribute) should be written
textually.
17%
3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Findings
This research was a qualitative 83%
research which used observation of
writing tasks as intrument to take the data.
The researchers checked over the
students’ writing and used observation
checklist as a tool of observation. As Figure 1. Writing Identification
stated before, the numbers of students
who were observed in this research were From the figure above, it can be seen
four classes consisting of a number of that most of the students got problem in
students for each class. The total numbers writing identification. There were 115
of the students were 138. students (83%) writing inappropriate
From the research conducted at identification and 23 students (17%)
Muhammadiyah University of Riau writing appropriate identification.
through observation, it was found that the
non-English students had problems in
writing English paragraphs. To describe
the problems, the researchers referred
back to the research questions. They were
about the students' problems in generic
structure and grammar in writing
paragraphs of descriptive text. The
findings of the research are presented as
follows:

1. The generic structure problems in

writing paragraphs

There were two things that must be

written by students in generic structure of
descriptive text: Identification and
Descriptions. It could be seen in the
following figures:
Figure 2. Writing Descriptions

From figure 2, it showed that most

of the students could write descriptions
appropriately. There were 97 students
(70%) writing appropriate descriptions

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and 41 students (30%) writing - So I live in a rented house (NA) =>

inappropriate descriptions. Inappropriate
It can be concluded that the - Like sepending time with my family like
generic problems encountered by students eating together (SFBN) =>
was writing identification. They could not Inappropriate
write the appropriate identification. It may
be due to lack of knowledge about writing 2. The grammatical problems in writing
a good identification. paragraphs
The researchers applied the theory
of genre with a systemic functional
linguistics perspective proposed by Gerot
and Wignel (1994) and Halliday et al.
(2014) to know whether the identification
and descriptions were categorized as
appropriate or inappropriate. Some
examples of data were presented as
follows:

The Examples of Writing Identification and

Descriptions

Identification
- I have a big family (YW) =>
Inappropriate

- I would like to introduce my self (VR)

=> Appropriate

- I have a family consisting of 5 members

=> Inappropriate

- I am from a big family (UH) =>

Inappropriate

- Let me intoduce my family (MFR) =>

Inappropriate

- My family consists of father, mother, a

older brother, two sister in law, and me
(ZP) => Appropriate
Figure 3. The Numbers and the
Descriptions Percentage of Grammatical Problems
- My father’s name is Donirin (LS) =>
Appropriate The Examples of Problems in writing
- He works as a rubber farmer (ADS) => paragraphs
Appropriate 1. Noun
- I spend time with my family only at Student’s writing:
night (NE) => Appropriate

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When on holiday, what I want to do is 8. Parallelism

take a walk to the beach Student’s writing:
It should be: We like to travel around and
When on holiday, what I want to do is shopping everything
taking a walk to the beach
It should be:
2. Pronoun We like to travel around and shop
Student’s writing: everything
My father’s name is Suyanto. She
works as a teacher. 9. Modifiers
It should be: Student’s writing:
My father’s name is Suyanto. He The person which I admire most is my
works as a teacher. mother
It should be:
3. Verb The person who I admire most is my
Student’s writing: mother
My brother still in junior high school
It should be: 10. Subject-Verb Agreement
My brother still studies in junior high Student’s writing:
school He work as a mechanic in
Kalimantan
4. Adjective It should be:
Student’s writing: He works as a mechanic in
My mother is the most strong and Kalimantan
patient mother figure
It should be: 11. Punctuation
My mother is the strongest and Student’s writing:
patient mother figure I really admire grandmother, because
sh is great grndmother, tough figure
5. Adverb and show me to do good thing to
Student’s writing: anyone
I love very my sister It should be:
It should be: I really admire grandmother because
I really love my sister sh is great grndmother, tough figure
and show me to do good thing to
6. Preposition anyone
Student’s writing:
She was born at July 12. Capitalization
It should be: Student’s writing:
She was born in July I really admire Mother because she is
a very strong, loving and very patient
7. Conjunction person
Student’s writing: It should be:
She didn’t work but she becomes I really admire my mother because
housewife she is a very strong, loving and very
It should be: patient person
She didn’t work so she becomes
housewife

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3.2 Discussion the participant or token must be written

This research aimed to find out the explicitly. The identity of a specific
problems of the generic structure and phenomenon, person, place and thing is
grammatical writing of students in writing needed and important to formulate
English paragraphs in online learning. identification. Identifying process and
First, the results were found that the specific participants are important things
students had problems in writing in producing the first generic structure in
identification in descriptive text. It the description. However, in writing the
indicates whole participants did not know second generic structure, the writer can
how to write identification appropriately use both processes (attributive or
to begin in writing a descriptive text. identifying).
Gerot & Wignel (1994) state that Moreover, the students also
identification must be written with the encountered grammatical problems such as
identifying process and the participants noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb,
are token and value. The students should preposition, conjunction, parallelism,
know how to write the appropriate modifiers, subject-verb agreement,
identification especially the usage of the punctuation, and capitalization. Based on
idntification process. In addition, the non- the numbers and the percentage of the
English students should be familiar with grammatical problems above, it showed
the group process like identifying and that the non-English students at
attributive. Muhammadiyah University of Riau got
Besides, the non-English students serious problem on subject-verb agreement
also had problems in grammar. The most that has 129 / 14,16%. It is also occured on
frequent problems were in subject-verb relevant research coducted by Romadhon,
agreement, parallelism, pronoun and et.al (2020) entitled Grammatical Error
preposition. This is due to the lack of Analysis in Descriptive Writing of
knowledge about the usage of grammar in Accounting Students at Politeknik
writing. Latif (2007) claims that the Harapan Bersama Tegal. They found that
reason of committing writing problems the students made mistakes on the Verb
among non-native speakers of English is Agreement 7.07%, Capitalizing 34.84%,
the lack of knowledge of second or Grammatical Error (Usage) 2.52%, Sentence
foreign language structure. In addition, it Pattern 4.04%, Pronoun 49.49%, and
can be caused by lack of practising in Spelling 2.02%.
writing English paragraphs. Mourtaga Besides, there is also a research
(2010) points out that the main reason of conducted by Syaifullah and Sukova
writing problems committed by second or (2022) focusing on finding out
foreign language learners is the lack of grammatical mistakes undergraduate
practicing English writing. students when writing their thesis abstract
in English. It was found that there were four
4. CONCLUSION types of grammatical faults in writing
After analyzing the data, it was abstracts: omission, addition, and
found that there were some problems misformation.
occurred on non-English students at From the result of analyzing the
Muhammadiyah University of Riau in generic structure problems and
writing English paragraphs of descriptive grammatical problems faced by the non-
text. They had problems in writing English students, it is expected that they
identification in descriptive text. It is care on writing problems and pay attention
necessary to be known that the identity of to these problems. In addition, the result of
the analysis is beneficial for lecturers as

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