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AN ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN UNDERSTANDING SIMPLE
PAST TENSE AND PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
(A Case Study at the First Grade Students of SMK Dua Mei Ciputat)
By:
Inayatul Mustafidah
NIM: 108014000093
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS TRAINING
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2014
i
ABSTRACT
AN ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN UNDERSTANDING
SIMPLE PAST TENSE AND PRESENT PERFECT TENSE. (A Case Study
in the First Grade Students of SMK Dua Mei, Ciputat). Skripsi of English
Education Department at Faculty of Tabiyah and Teachers’ Training of State
Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. 2014
Keywords: Error, Error Analysis, Common Errors in Simple Past tense, Common
Errors in Present Perfect Tense.
This study was carried out to analyze and to classify the types and the
sources of students’ errors in understanding simple past tense and present perfect
tense. The types of error were classified based on James’ theory and the sources
of error were classified by Brown’s theory. Besides, the purpose of this study is to
find out their frequency of occurrence and to find out the sources of errors which
students made in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense.
The method used in this study was descriptive qualitative. The descriptive
qualitative design applied in this study was case study. Furthermore, the subject of
this study was First Grade students of AK class of SMK Dua Mei Ciputat which
consisted of 30 students and the writer only took 28 students as the sample
because there were 2 students absent when the research was done. The data were
collected through observation and test.
The result of the error analysis process showed that students committed
error into four types: omission, addition, misselection, and misordering. From the
frequency of each error types, misselection was the error which most frequently
produced by the students. It took 71.09% of the total errors. Moreover, 15.94%
errors fell into omission and 11.30% errors fell into addition. For misordering, it
only took 1.67%. These errors were conducted because most of the students were
still influenced by partial learning and the students did not understand about the
rules of target language as well, so that the students generalized the rule and
applied it incompletely (intralingual transfer). Besides, errors occured because of
their mother tongue and their Indonesian logical thinking (interlingual transfer).
To sum up, it showed that the understanding of simple past tense and present
perfect tense is difficult for students.
ii
ABSTRAK
ANALISA KESALAHAN-KESALAHAN SISWA DALAM MEMAHAMI
SIMPLE PAST TENSE DAN PRESENT PERFECT TENSE. (A Case Study
at the First Grade Students of SMK Dua Mei Ciputat). Skripsi jurusan
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan Universitas
Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. 2014.
Keywords: Error, Error Analysis, Error Analysis in Simple Past tense, Error
Analysis in Present Perfect Tense.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis dan mengelompokkan
kesalahan-kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh siswa dalam memahami simple past
tense dan present perfect tense. Jenis-jenis kesalahan tersebut dikelompokkan
berdasarkan teori James sedangkan sumber-sumber kesalahan dikelompokkan
berdasarkan teori Brown. Selain itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh
persentasi dari setiap jenis kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh siswa, serta untuk
mengetahui penyebab terjadinya kesalahan-kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh siswa
dalam memahami simple past tense dan present perfect tense.
Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif
deskriptif, sedangkan pola umum atau rancangan penelitian yang digunakan oleh
peneliti adalah studi kasus (case study). Selanjutnya, peneliti memilih siswa kelas
XAK yang berjumlah 30 orang. Tetapi penulis hanya mengambil 28 siswa sebagai
sample dalam penelitian ini karena 2 siswa tidak hadir ketika penelitian ini
dilaksanakan. Data dalam penelitian ini diperoleh melalui observasi dan test.
Hasil dari proses error analysis adalah siswa melakukan empat jenis
kesalahan yaitu omission, addition, misselection, and misordering. Dilihat dari
presentase setiap jenis kesalahan, selection merupakan jenis kesalahan yang
paling sering dilakukan dengan presentase sebesar 71.09%. Selanjutnya,
kesalahan omission sebesar 15.94%, addition sebesar 11.30%, sedangkan jenis
kesalahan ordering hanya sebesar 1.67% dari total kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh
siswa. Kesalahan-kesalahn tersebut terjadi karena sebagian besar siswa masih
dipengaruhi oleh pembelajaran yang belum tuntas dan siswa tidak mengerti secara
cermat aturan-aturan dalam bahasa target oleh karena itu siswa
mengeneralisasikan aturan (grammar rules) dan menerapkan aturan tersebut
dengan tidak sempurna (intralingual transfer). Disamping itu, kesalahan terjadi
karena dipengaruhi oleh bahasa ibu dan masih berfikir secara logika bahasa
Indonesia mereka (interlingual transfer). Sebagai kesimpulan, hal ini terlihat
bahwa siswa memiliki kesulitan dalam memahami simple past tense dan present
perfect tense.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praises be to Allah,
Lord of the Worlds, who has bestowed strength and health upon the writer in
finishing this research paper. Peace and blessing be upon to our prophet
Muhammad Peace be upon him, his family, companions, and all his followers.
Alhamdulillah by the grace of Allah the Highest, the writer could finish
her research paper after long hard effort of writing. Thus, she would like to
express her greatest gratitude to her beloved parents (Afnan Qohar and Sumini)
who always pray, support, and motivate her in every part of her life especially in
doing this study.
The writer would also like to address her gratitude to her advisors Drs.
Zaenal Arifin Toy, M. Sc and Teguh Khaeruddin, MAppLing for their patient
guidance, kindness, valuable advice, and correction during the development of
this research.
She would like to express her deep appreciation and gratitude to:
1. All lecturers of English Education Department who have taught her new
knowledge and have given her gorgeous experiences in study.
2. Drs. Syauki, M.Pd. and Zahril Anasy M.Hum, the head and secretary of
English Education Department.
3. Dra. Nurlena, MA, Ph,D., as the Dean of Faculty Tarbiyah and Teachers’
Training of State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
4. The principal and the English teacher of SMK Dua Mei Ciputat for
permitting and helping the writer to conduct the research.
5. All her beloved friends of English Education Department Class C for the
academic year 2008 whose names cannot be mentioned one by one who
always help and motivate her in accomplishing this research paper.
iv
May Allah, the Almighty bless them all. Aamin.
Finally, the writer realized that this research paper still has some weakness
and shortage. Thus, she would be grateful to accept any suggestions and
corrections from anyone for better research paper.
Jakarta, March 14th
, 2014
Inayatul Mustafidah
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... i
ABSTRAK ...................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................. v
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ vii
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................. viii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study ..................................................... 1
B. Identification of the Problem .............................................. 3
C. Limitation of the Problem ................................................... 3
D. Formulation of the Problem ................................................. 4
E. Objective of the Study ......................................................... 4
F. Significance of the Study .................................................... 4
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Error .…..…. ...................................................................... 5
1. Definition of Error…. ................................................... .5
2. Types of Error ............................................................... 6
3. Causes of Error ............................................................. 8
B. Error Analysis ................................................................... 10
1. Definition of Error Analysis ........................................ 10
2. Procedure of Error Analysis ........................................ 11
C. Error Analysis on Simple Past Tense ................................. 11
1. Common types of Error in Simple Past Tense.............. 11
2. Common Sources of Error in Simple Past Tense ......... 16
D. Error Analysis on Present Perfect Tense .............................19
1. Common Types of Errors in Present Perfect Tense….. 19
2. Common Sources of Errors in Present Perfect Tense…23
vi
E. The Differences between Simple Past tense and Present Perfect
Tense ................................................................................. .... 25
1. Form of Simple Past Tense ........................................... … 25
2. The Usage of Simple Past Tense .................................. … 26
3. Form of Present Perfect Tense ...................................... … 26
4. The Usage of Present Perfect Tense ............................. … 27
F. The Previous Related Study ............................................... … 27
CHAPTER III: REASERCH METHODOLOGY
A. Method of Research ........................................................... ... 29
B. Place and Time of Research …………. ............................ .... 29
C. Population and Sample ....................................................... … 29
D. Instrument of the Research ................................................ … 30
E. Techniques of Data Collecting .......................................... … 30
F. Techniques of Data Analysis ............................................. … 31
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDING
A. Error Identification. ............................................................ .. 33
1. The Result of Observation ........................................... .. 33
2. The Result of Test ........................................................ .. 34
B. Description of Errors .......................................................... .. 79
C. Explanation of Errors .......................................................... .. 81
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion …………………………………………. ....... .. 84
B. Suggestion …………………………………………… .... .. 85
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... .. 86
APPENDICES
vii
LIST OF TABLES
3.1 Types of Error........................................................................................... 31
4.1 Table of Students’ Errors......................................................................... 34
4.29 Frequency and Percentage of the Error….............................................. 81
viii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Instrument of the test ................................................................................................. 88
Lembar Jawaban Siswa ............................................................................................. 91
Surat Pengajuan Judul ............................................................................................... 97
Lembar Pengesahan Proposal ................................................................................... 98
Surat Bimbingan Skripsi ............................................................................................ 99
Surat Permohonan Izin Penelitian ............................................................................. 101
Surat Keterangan Selesai Penelitian .......................................................................... 102
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the general account of the present study. It covers
background of the study, identification of the problem, limitation of the problem,
formulation of the problem, objective of the study, and significance of the study.
A. Background of the Study
All people in this world need language to communicate. As the writer knows
that English is an international language. Therefore, it is crucial to be mastered. Some
countries use English as a first language and a second language while others use it as
a foreign language. While in Indonesia, English is used as a foreign language which
is taught in schools and it has been taught in every level of school education. In fact,
English becomes a compulsory subject which is learnt by the students.
In learning English, students are required to master grammar. By mastering
grammar, they can build up the sentences and express their ideas for communication
activities. Besides, they can also improve their ability in understanding reading text.
Those are some advantages the students will get through learning English grammar.
Meanwhile, English grammar is different from Indonesian.
One of the grammar aspects is tense. In making a sentence in English either
written or spoken, tense plays a very important role. In English, each sentence always
contains tense. Lock pointed, tense is different forms of a verb that indicate
distinctions in time.1 There are many kinds of tenses such as simple present tense,
simple past tense, present perfect tense, present progressive tense etc. From those
tenses, some students find some difficulties in understanding simple past tense and
present perfect. To understand simple past tense and present perfect tense is not easy
1 Graham Lock, Functional English Grammar, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1996),
p. 163.
2
especially for Indonesian students because the translation of these tenses have no
differences in Indonesian.2
According to the writer‟s experience, the students usually make errors on
tense usage in the verb form and the use of time signal. The students sometimes do
not understand when the verb form will be used whether in past or present. Here are
some mistakes that are often made by the students.
*Have you study English? Yes, I have study English.
* I have writted a novel last week.
The sentences above are incorrect. In the first sentence, the students do not
know the interrogative and affirmative form of present perfect tense. The
interrogative form of the sentence above should use past participle „studied‟.
However, the students use simple form. Then, the answer of the question uses simple
form too “study” that should be “studied” because the affirmative form of present
perfect tense is subject+ have+ past participle.3 In the second sentence, the
sentence must be past tense but the students use present perfect tense because they
feel difficult to choose which tenses should they use whether past tense or present
perfect tense. This error happens because they do not know the usage of simple past
tense and present perfect tense. They also do not know the past participle of “write”.
The writer thinks that this problem happens because there is no verb
agreement and tense marker in Indonesian.4 Then, the translation of simple past tense
and present perfect tense have no differences in Indonesian. If someone does not
understand the tense well, she/he can break the language use. Indeed, it causes
misunderstanding in communication. Therefore, it needs an error analysis to correct
the error and avoid miscommunication.
Error analysis is important in language learning process because it can help
teacher to know the strengths and weaknesses of the students. It can also improve
teachers‟ effectiveness in teaching. For the students, it helps them to reduce the errors
2 http://id.shvoong.com/writing-and-speaking/presenting/2103555-differences-present-perfect-
tense (Sunday, March 30th
, 2014:17.00). 3 A. J Thomson and A. V martinet, a Practical English Grammar, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1986), p. 165. 4 John Lyons, Linguistic Semantic, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 25.
3
and improve their abilities in learning target language. Error analysis gives some
advantages to the teachers and students. It can help them to achieve the goal of
language learning process.
Based on the description above, the writer intends to analyze the students‟
errors in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. As the writer
knows, many students find some difficulties in understanding simple past tense and
present perfect tense. Therefore, she would like to discuss it in her thesis under the
title “An Analysis on Students’ Errors in Understanding Simple Past Tense and
Present Perfect Tense” (A case study at the first grade student of SMK Dua Mei
Ciputat).
B. Identification of the Problem
Based on the background of the study above, the writer identifies some
problems, such as:
1. Simple past tense and present perfect tense are difficult to be mastered for
Indonesian students.
2. Many students cannot differentiate between simple past tense and present
perfect tense.
3. Many students made errors in the form and usage of simple past tense and
present perfect tense especially in the irregular verb.
4. There are some causes why the students made errors in understanding
simple past tense and present perfect tense.
C. Limitation of the Problem
In order to achieve the goal of the research, the writer limits the problem on
students‟ errors in the form and usage of the simple past tense and present perfect
tense. The writer uses Carl James‟s error classification for this research. The problem
is limited on analyzing the students‟ errors in the types of misselection, missordering,
omission and addition. While in analyzing the causes of errors, the writer uses
Brown‟s classifications which consist of; intralingual, interlingual, context of
learning and communication strategy.
4
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the study, the problems of this study can be
formulated as follow:
1. What are types of errors that made by the students in using simple past
tense and present perfect tense?
2. What are the causes of students‟ errors in using simple past tense and
present perfect tense?
E. Objective of the Study
The objectives of this study are:
1. To identify the types of errors made by the students in using simple past
tense and present perfect tense.
2. To identify the causes of errors made by the students in using simple past
tense and present perfect tense.
F. Significance of the Study
The writer would like to find out some errors that faced by the students, the
types and the causes of them for the first grade students of SMK Dua Mei Ciputat in
the term of form and usage. The writer also expects that this thesis will be useful for
herself, English teacher, students and other people in general. For writer, this
research can improve and increase her analytical skill which will prevent her from
making the same errors. For English teachers, this research may help them to know
how good their students‟ ability in understanding simple past tense and present
perfect tense. For students, this research may assist them to improve their
understanding in simple past tense and present perfect tense. For other people, the
result may serve as guideline for the future study related to the subject.
5
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter presents the theoretical framework of the study. It consists of
error, error analysis, error analysis on simple past tense, error analysis on present
perfect tense, differences between simple past tense and present perfect tense and the
previous related study. In error part contains definition of error, types of errors and
causes of error. In error analysis contains definition of error analysis and the
procedure of error analysis. Next subchapter is error analysis on simple past tense
which involves common types of errors and common source of errors. Then,
common types of errors and common source of errors on present perfect tense will be
discussed in the next subchapter. The next subchapter is differences between simple
past tense and present perfect tense. The last is the previous related study.
A. Error
1. Definition of Error
To know further about error, the writer tries to describe the linguists‟
views about it. Brown stated that error is caused by lack of knowledge about the
target language or by incorrect hypothesis about it. Error is noticeable and cannot
be self-corrected. It is deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, and
reflects the competence of the learner. Error reveals the portion of the learner‟s
competence in the target language.1
Dullay claimed “Error is flawed side of learner speech and writing. It is
parts of conversation or composition that deviates from some selected norm of
mature language performance.”2 While Corder defined error is as a systematic
deviation made by learners who have not yet mastered the rules of L2.3
1 H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching, (New York: Prentice
Hall Regents, 1987), p. 127. 2 Heidi Dullay et al., Language Two, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 138.
3 Pit Corder, Introducing Applied Linguistics, (Middlesex: Penguin, 1973), p. 277.
6
According to Harmer an error is a part of student‟s interlanguage that is
version of the language which is a learner has any one stage of development and
continually reshape as he or she aims toward full mastery.4
From what have been suggested by some linguists about errors above, the
writer concludes that what is meant by error is the incurrent use of language
system elements and it cannot be self- corrected. It can be said that error occurs if
the learner has not yet learnt an item although this item has been covered in class.
2. Types of Error
A number of different categories for describing errors have been
identified. Firstly, Corder classified the error in terms of the difference between
the learners‟ utterance and the reconstructed version. In this way, error is
classified into four categories: omission of some required element; addition of
some unnecessary or incorrect element; selection of an incorrect element; and
misordering of the elements.5
Erdogan on his journal entitled Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign
Language Teaching mentioned Ellis stated that “classifying error in these ways
can help us to diagnose learners‟ learning problems at any stage of their
development and to plot how changes in error patterns occur over time.” This
categorization can be exemplified as follows:6
Omission:
Omission is an error which is characterized by absence of an item that
must appear in a well-form utterance. E.g. *Mary President new company. This
example is categorized as omission since the student omitted the part of the
sentence. This sentence is incorrect because there is no verb after the subject.
Also, there is no article “of” before the word “new”. The correct sentence should
be; Mary is a president of new company.
4 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (London: Pearson
Education, Inc.,), 5th
ed, p. 100. 5Pit Corder, ibid.
6 Vacide Erdogan, Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language Teaching, Mersin
University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 2005, p. 264.
7
Addition:
This type of error is contradicted to the previous one. The characteristic of
this error is known by the presence of an item, which must not appear in a well-
formed utterance. E.g. *He is buys a book. The sentence is incorrect because there
two verbs “is and buys”. Because the tense is present tense, to be “is” should not
be omitted in that sentence.
Selection:
This error is characterized by the use of wrong form of morpheme or
structure. In this error, learner supplies something although it is incorrect. E.g. *I
see a teeth. The word “teeth” in the example above has a plural meaning whereas
there is article “a” which shows a singular meaning. The subject failed to choose
correct morpheme that should be “tooth”.
Ordering:
The incorrect placement of a morpheme or a group of morpheme in
utterance is the character of this error. E.g. *I do not know what that is. The
sentence is incorrect because auxiliary in declaration sentence should be placed
before object. The correct sentence should be; I do not know what is that.
Another type of error is classified by Dullay in Language Two. According
to him, error based on the communicative taxonomy is divided into two parts.
a. Global Errror
Global error is an error which hinders communication; it prevents the
learner from comprehending some aspect of message. For instance, *I like
bus but my mother said so not that we must be late for school. Since the
hearer cannot understand the meaning of the sentence so it is categorized as
global error.
b. Local Error
Local error is an error which is not interference with understanding of an
utterance. For instance, *I angry will be local error since the meaning is
apparent.7 Local error does not prevent the message from being understood
7 Heidi Dullay, Ibid., p. 147
8
because there is a minor violation of one segment of a sentence that allows
the hearer to guess the meaning.
3. Causes of Error
Error happened because of some reasons. One of the strategies to prevent
students making error is by looking at the causes of the error itself. Here are some
causes of errors classified by linguists.
Brown classified the causes of error into four categories; interlingual
transfer, intralingual transfer, context learning, and communication strategy.8
While, Hubbard in a Training Course for TEFL mentioned that Corder
claimed there are three major causes of error; transfer errors, analogical errors and
teaching-induced errors. Hubbard himself proposed the same categories with
different names, they are: mother-tongue interference, overgeneralization and
error encourage by teaching material or method.9
a. Interlingual Transfer
Interlingual transfer occurs because the interference of a mother
tongues into a target language. “In this early stage, before the system of
the second language is familiar, the native language is the only linguistic
system in previous experience upon which the learner can draw.”10
The
other name of interlingual transfer is mother tongue interference. It is an
error which the sound system (phonology) and the grammar of the first
language impose themselves on the new language and this leads to a
„foreign language‟ pronunciation faulty grammatical pattern and,
occasionally, to the wrong choice of vocabulary.11
b. Intralingual Transfer
Intralingual transfer is a major factor in second language learning.
The early stage of language learning is characterized by a predominance of
8 Brown, op cit., p. 173.
9 Peter Hubbard et al., A training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University Press,
1983), pp. 140-143. 10
Brown, op. cit., p. 177. 11
Hubbard, Ibid.,
9
interference (interlingual transfer), but once learners have begun to acquire
parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer is
manifested.12
The other name of this category is overgeneralization. It is
error which is inevitable because it reflects various stages in the language
development of the learner. The learner processes new language data in his
mind and produces rules for its production, based on the evidence.13
c. Context of Learning
Context refers to the classroom with its teacher and its material in
the case of school learning.14
In a classroom context, the teacher or the
textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypotheses about the
language. Students often make errors because of a misleading from the
teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or word in a textbook. This cause
of error is as the same as error encourage by teaching material or method.
It is an error which is caused by ineffective teaching or lack of control.
This error occurs when the material is not well chosen and presented with
meticulous careless.15
d. Communication of Strategies
Communication strategies were defined and related to learning
style.16
Learners obviously use production strategies in order to enhance
getting their message across but at times, these techniques can themselves
become a source of error.
In this research, the writer uses four causes of error which has taken from
Brown‟s theory of error analysis. They are; interlingual, intralingual, context of
learning, and communication of strategies.
12
Brown, op. cit., p. 178. 13
Hubbard, op. cit., p. 141. 14
Brown, op. cit., p. 179. 15
Hubbard, op. cit., p.142. 16
Brown, op. cit ., p. 180.
10
B. Error Analysis
Error analysis is a way of looking at errors that made by the students while
they learn target language. It is important for the teacher to study about error analysis
because it can help the students to avoid the error. Here are some definitions of error
analysis according to the linguists.
1. Definition of Error Analysis
According to Brown, “The fact that learners do make errors and that these
errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system
operating within the learner, led to a surge of study of learners‟ errors, called error
analysis.”17
It means that error analysis is a process to observe, analyze and
classified the errors made by the students to right the wrong sentences made by
them.
Error analysis is a kind of linguistic analysis that concerns on the errors
learners made. It emerged as a reaction to Contrastive Analysis theory, which
considered errors as the result of the interference from learner‟s mother tongue.
James pointed out, "Error analysis is the process of determining the incidence,
nature, cause and consequences of unsuccessful language."18
Errors always occur
in language learning process especially foreign language and it is impossible for
students never make errors because producing errors is an inevitable process.19
Therefore, error analysis is needed to help teacher realizes that the errors which
are made by the learner in language learning process should be analyzed carefully
because with this analysis, the teacher can identify the difficult areas that are
faced by the learners.
Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that error analysis is a
way or methodology in language learning to observe or analyze the learner‟s
errors in order to facilitate the goal of the target language.
17
Ibid., p. 218. 18
Carl James, Error in Language Learning and Use, (New York: Longman, 1998), p. 80. 19
Heidi Dulay, op. cit., p. 138.
11
2. Procedure of Error Analysis
In the language teaching, either a native or a second language teaching,
study about students‟ error is very important. There are some procedures in error
analysis:20
These procedures are written to facilitate the teacher in analyzing the
errors.
a. Identification of error, the first step in the process of analysis is
recognition/ identification of errors. In this step teachers recognize the
students‟ errors from the task given by the teacher.
b. Description of errors, the next step is the describing errors. It begins when
an identification stage has taken place. The description of student errors
involves classification of kinds of errors made by the students.
c. Explanation of errors, the third step in the process of analysis is the
explanation of error that can be regarded as a linguistic problem. This step
attempts to account for how and why the students‟ errors happen.
d. Evaluation of errors, in this step, the teacher gives evaluation from the task
that teacher will be giving to the students.
e. Preventing or correction of error, finally the last step in the process of
analysis is correction of error when the teacher checks the result from the
task done by the students then, the teacher gives the correct answer from
the error has been done by the students.21
In this stage, the teacher gave a
feedback to the students‟ task in order to prevent them make the same
errors.
C. Error Analysis on Simple Past Tense
1. Common Types of Error in Simple Past Tense
Ratnah on her journal “Error Analysis on Tenses Usage Made by
Indonesian Students” found that types of errors made by the students at the first
semester of tour and travel department, academic year 2012/2013 in tenses usage
20
Theo Van Els et al., Applied Linguistics and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign
Languages, (London: a Devision of Hodder and Stoughton, 1983), p. 47. 21
Ibid.,
12
were error of omission, error of selection and error of addition, particularly in
using verb, time signals and the use of auxiliary verb.22
She found that the most
common errors made by the students in using simple past tense is error in
selection of irregular / regular verb and error in selection of time signal. Here are
the results of the error analysis on simple past tense:
Error of Selection of Irregular and Regular Verb
• Source sentence : “Saya sudah menulis surat kemarin”
Erroneous translation: “I write a letter yesterday”
Suggested translation: “I wrote a letter yesterday”
The error happened in the sentence above because the students failed to
select the irregular verb of the word “write”. They used present participle instead
of past tense because there is no tense marker in Indonesian. Besides, English is
different from Indonesian.
• Source sentence : “Saya sudah memanggil Rudi tadi malam”
Erroneous translation : “I call Rudi last night”
Suggested translation: “I called Rudi last night”
The error happened in the sentence above because the students failed to
select the correct verb of “call” in past tense. It should be “called”. The students
used present participle because there is no differences of the translation between
Indonesian and English. Therefore, it is important for the students to learn and
understand about the differences between tenses in English.
Error of Selection Time Signal
• Source sentence : “Ali sudah membeli buku ini dua minggu yang lalu”
Erroneous translation: “Ali bough this book two last week”
Suggested translation: “Ali bought this book two weeks ago”
The error in the sentence above happened because the students failed to
select the time signal in past tense. The students were influenced by their mother
tongue to translate word by word the adverbial of time” two weeks ago”. This
error happened because there is no tense marker in Indonesian. Besides, they also
22
Ratnah, Error Analysis on Tenses Usage Made by Indonesian Students, Journal of
Education and Practice ISSN, 2013, p. 164.
13
failed to choose the correct irregular verb of “bought” because they did not know
the past participle of the “buy”.
Based on the description above, it has been found that the types of errors
made by the students are error of selection (selection of regular and irregular and
selection of time signal).
Whereas, Ansar and his friends on their research on title Errors in Using
Simple Past Tense in Recount Texts at the SMP Lab UM found that there are
eleven types of errors classified by them namely; omission of to be, wrong form
of to be, wrong form of infinitive to, addition of to be (before/after), wrong form
of verb, wrong form of modal auxiliary, omission of verb, wrong form of negative
sentence, wrong form of question sentence, omission of subject pronoun, and
wrong use of subject pronoun.23
Here are some examples of the errors made by the students at the SMP
Lab UM:
a. Omission of to be: *I sleepy. The students omitted to be “was” because they
were influenced by their mother tongue and translated the sentence word by
word. The correct sentence should be “I was sleepy”.
b. Wrong form of to be: *She were angry. The students failed to choose the
correct to be that should be “was” because “was” used for the subject “I, she,
he and it” in simple past tense. The correct sentence should be “She was
angry”.
c. Wrong form of infinitive to: *My mother wanted to went shopping. This
sentence is incorrect because to infinitive is followed by present participle. It
should be “My mother wanted to go shopping”.
d. Wrong form of verb: *I go home yesterday. In this error, the students failed to
use the correct verb of “go” it should be “went” because the activity happened
in the past time (yesterday) so it must use past tense.
e. Wrong form of modal auxiliary: *I can helped my grandmother. In this
sentence, the students made error in forming modal auxiliary. They put past
23
Ansar et. al., Error in Using Simple Past Tense in Recount Text: Journal online.um.ac.id,
2008, p. 6.
14
participle after modal auxiliary “can”. The correct sentence should be “I can
help my grandmother”.
f. Wrong form of negative sentence: *I don’t brought it. In this sentence, the
students failed to form negative sentence of past tense. They used past
participle that should be present participle. Besides, they also made error in
selection of auxiliary “did” because they do not know the negative form of
simple past tense.
g. Wrong form of question sentence: *Do you brought my phone? In this
sentence, the students failed to form interrogative sentence of simple past tense
because they did not understand well about past tense. They used auxiliary
“do‟ instead of “did”. Also, they used past participle “brought” instead of
“bring” because the formula of past tense in interrogative is Did+ S+ V1. 24
Besides, Yuningsih in her thesis on tittle Analyzing the usage of simple
past tense and present perfect tense on third semester student of English
Department found that there were many errors made by the students in using
simple past tense and present perfect tense. The number of errors both tenses is
higher than the correct sentences found. It was about 59.99 %. What is
surprising is that the errors made by the students are not only in usage but also
in the form and verb spellings.25
Tittanean in his journal “L1 influence in simple past tense errors” the case
of Mandarin and Tamil ESL learners found there were some differences between
the learners in the frequency of some of the mistakes they made. The Mandarin
participants used over regularizations more frequently than the Tamil participants.
The Mandarin group‟s use of over regularizations accounted for 24.5% of their
total mistakes while this type of error only accounted for 8.0% of the Tamil total
mistakes.26
24
Ibid., 25
Yuningsih, Analyzing the Usage of Simple Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense:
Electronic journal of education, 2006, p. 4. 26
Mike Titanean, L1 Influence in Simple Past Tense Errors, Journal of Education, 2013, p.
50.
15
Other research was written by Blanca who has analyzed her student‟s error
named Ella. She found 38 instances of incorrect use of the simple past tense (i.e.
using it when she should not or not using it when she should). Here are some
examples from her finding:
*I felt very shameful because my mother has to wash dishes every day and has to
go to work. [In both cases, it should be “had”]. This kind of error happened
because the student used present participle “has” instead of had” in a recount
text. The tense used simple past tense because the student was retelling her
experience happened in the past so the verb used should be “had”.
*As my own experience, I still remember that I help my mother to wash dishes in
eight years old. [It should be “helped”].
*Then I was stood in front of my mother and said, “I will help you to wash dishes
today you could go and take a break.” [It should be “stood”].
The student also made some errors when she wrote an experience about
her past weekend. Here are the sentences:
*These were one more assignment that makes me crazy which is revising the
essay. [It should be “made” and “was”].
*My sister knows how to drive but she doesn’t know the location. [It should be
“didn‟t know”].
*I was totally forget to send you an email. [It should be “forgot”].
The number of the student‟s correct uses of the simple past tense may have
been inflated by the irregular verbs. For verbs that use the same form for the
simple present tense and the simple past tense, it is difficult to ascertain if she is in
fact using the past.27
The other result of the research was stated by Herlinawati. She found that
the errors of misinformation area are the most frequent errors in which the third
grade students at MTsN Pajajaran, Pamulang committed with 144 errors in
irregular verb. Moreover it is followed by errors of misinformation with 38 errors,
addition with 20 errors, omission with 43 erors and missordering with 43 errors.
27
Coma Blanca, Error Analysis: Simple Past Tense, Article, 2010, p. 3.
16
Then, error in irregular verb followed by errors 5 errors in addition, 20 errors in
omission, 15 errors in missordering and 63 errors in misinformation.28
From those finding, the writer concluded that the common errors happen
in the past tense are because of the misselection of regular and irregular verb.
2. Common Sources of Error in Simple Past Tense
Based on the types of errors described about it can be concluded that the
sources of errors made by the students in using past tenses covers: intralingual
error and interlingual errors and the causes of error are; interference,
overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, and false concept hypothesized.29
Intralingual errors happen because of the incomplete rule application or
faulty generalization of the rule apply. It is often further subdivided. Thus,
Richards distinguishes the following:30
a. Overgeneralization errors arise when the learner creates a deviant
structure on the basis of the other structures in the target language. It
generally involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two
target language structures for example *He can sings. The learner
knows he sings, he brings, he drinks, etc., but for using –s after a
modal, can, is incorrect because it is supposed to be a bare infinitive
which is put after modal. The learner over-generalized the –s addition
rule that is only used for third person in simple present tense.
b. Ignorance of rule restrictions involves the application of rules to contexts
where they do not apply. An example is *I made him to do it. Here the
learner ignores the restrictions on the distribution of make, that it is not
followed by to and a verb.
c. Incomplete application of rules involves a failure to fully develop a
structure. Thus learners of L2 English have been observed to use
28
Herlinawati, “Error Analysis on the Student‟s Writing Narrative Paragraph,” thesis on
State Islamic University of Jakarta: Jakarta, 2011, p. 33, not published. 29
Ratnah, loc. cit., 30
Rod Elis, the Study of Second Language Acquisition, (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1994), p. 59.
17
declarative word order in question for example:*you like to sing? In lace
of interrogative word order for example: Do you like to sing? This type of
intralingual error corresponds to what is often referred to as an error of
transitional competence.
d. False concepts hypothesized arise when the learner does not fully
comprehend a distinction in the target language. For example, the use of
„was‟ as a marker of past tense in *one day it was happened. The students
add “was” before the word happened. The auxiliary “was” should be
omitted because “happened” is categorized as intransitive verb.31
From the common types of error have been described by Ansar and friends
above, the source of error can be divided by intralingual and interlingual. He
found some errors categorized as an intralingual made by the students.
First is Overgeneralization factor. This error arises because the students
apply a structure that they already experience in another new situation. For
example, *I was went to Malang or *We visited be Jatim Park.
Second is Ignorance of rule restrictions. These errors occur when the
students ignore restriction of certain structures as in the following sentences:
*The waves is not too dangerous.
*I can helped my grandmother.
*My parents not accompany.
*Do you brought my phone and your computer?
*I and my friend swimming.
In this case, the students may be confused to use what kind of be that must
be used in the sentence, because in their mother tongue rules there is no difference
in meaning between both of them.
Third is incomplete application of rules. Here the students failed to apply
the correct English spelling pattern to different words. This cause of errors refers
to the students‟ failure to fully develop a structure, like in sentences below:
*I sleepy. In this case, the students omitted auxiliary “was” because they
31
Rod Ellis, ibid.
18
were influenced by their mother tongue to translate a sentence word by
word. The word “sleepy” is an adjective, so it needs auxiliary to make it
become complete sentence. Because the students are required to make a
recount text, the correct auxiliary must be “was”. The sentence above
should be “I was sleepy”.
*Before go home, we buy lots of fish. In this case, the students should
add “ing” after conjuction “before” and use past participle of the verb
“buy”. The correct sentence should be “Before going home, we bought
lots of fish”.
These types of errors occur when the students fail to make complete and
correct sentences.
Fourth is false concept hypothesized. Here the learners borrow an
element from one part of English pronunciation and put it into another. False
concept hypothesized derives from the students‟ faulty comprehension of
distinctions in the target language. It may be due to poor gradation of teaching
item which lead to students‟ confusion to distinguish two or more structures.
For example:
*Me helped grandmother in the kitchen.
In the sentence above, the students are failure to distinguish between
subject pronoun and object pronoun.
*My mother wanted to went shopping.
In that sentence, the students failed to distinguish infinitive to and past
simple. The students seemed confused in distinguishing when they have to use
past simple of the verbs and infinitive to. They may think that in the sentences of
simple past tense, every verb that occurs after subjects must be written in the
form of past tense.32
Ansar also mentioned that Brown stated interlingual errors are caused by
the interference of the mother tongue which has something to do with a
contrastive analysis hypothesis that aims at describing the differences and
32
Ansar et al., loc. cit.,
19
similarities between the two languages with a view to predicting possible
learning problems.33
There are two kinds of errors from the types of errors above which are
categorized into interlingual errors they are; omission of to be and wrong form of
verb. These two types of errors occur because of the negative transfer to the
target language. It means that the students make some errors by the effect of their
mother tongue, for examples in sentences *I sleepy.
This type of errors occur because be does not exist in the students‟ mother
tongue, so the causes of errors is called over differentiation in which a certain
target language item is not found in the native language. Another example is:
*We go home yesterday.
The sentence above is another type of errors in which the students are still
affected by their mother tongue. As the writer knows, in the student‟s native
language there are no verb changes such as in English. So, when the students
write the sentences of the simple past tense, they tend to use the infinitive verbs
without changing them into the verb form of past simple because of the effect of
their native language.34
D. Error Analysis on Present Perfect Tense
1. Common Types of Error in Present Perfect Tense
Arrakitsakul on his research An Error Analysis of Present Perfect Tense
found that the common types of error made by the freshman students of north
Bangkok in understanding present perfect tense are error in adverb of time,
regular and irregular verb, subject verb agreement, simple past tense and present
perfect distinguishing, and present perfect in translation and communication.35
The result of his study has shown that understanding on using the adverb
of time in present perfect tense was in moderate level (average 64%). The subjects
could recognize the aspect of present perfect tense and past participle verb both in
33
Ibid., 34
Ibid., 35
Yuttasak Arrakkitsakul, “an Error Analysis of Present Perfect Tense,” Thesis on
Thammasat University, Bangkok, 2008, p. 75, not published.
20
regular and irregular in moderate level (average 61%). The ability to use subject
and verb agreement in present perfect tense was in moderate level as the
percentage of correct answer is about 67%. The ability to distinguish the present
perfect tense and past tense usage was rather low (average 53.5%). The ability to
use present perfect tense for communication was in the low level as the percentage
of using present perfect tense in translation was 38% and speaking was only 23%.
According to the result, errors in the area of the present perfect tense
seemed to be the most problematic language areas for the subjects. Errors
occurred as following:
Subjects chose adverb of time or time markers in present perfect tense
correctly are 33% to 83%.
Subjects recognized the aspect of present perfect tense and past participle
verb both in regular and irregular form correctly are 27% to 80%.
Subjects identified the subject and verb agreement in present perfect tense
correctly when subject of sentence is noun phrase 48%, single noun 72%
and compound 80%.
Subjects distinguished the present perfect tense and past tense correctly
54% (for present perfect tense distinguishing) and 48% (for past simple
tense distinguishing).
Subjects used present perfect tense for translation from Thai to English
38% and other tenses 62%.
Subject used present perfect tense in speaking for communication 23%
and other tenses 77%.36
Besides, Hayyinatul on her thesis Analysis students difficulties in learning
present perfect tense at the second Year students of Anida Islamic Junior High
School found that there are 56,25% students who find difficulties in the use of
present perfect tense. There are 38.12% students who find difficulties in the form
36
Yuttasak Arrakkitsakul, ibid.
21
and have/has. 22.5% students who find difficulty in the form of regular verb, and
41.2% who find difficulty in the form of irregular verb.37
From those result, the writer conclude that the common types of error
faced by the students on present prefect tense involves the using of auxiliary
have/has, verb tense in forming regular and irregular verb.
Also, Aini found that types of error made by the students at the second
grade of SMP YAPIA covers error of omission 37 frequency or 19.58%, error of
misinformation 152 or 39.38% and error of misselection 197 or 51.04%.38
She
classified the errors into two part; error in the form and error in the use of present
perfect tense. The total error in the form of present perfect tense is 189 or 48.97%
which covers 57 frequency or 14.77% errors made by the students in the form
have/has in present perfect tense. 43 frequency or 11.14% errors made by the
students in the form of regular verb and 89 frequency or 23.05% in the form of
irregular verb. The total errors in the use of present perfect tense is 197 frequency
or 51.04%.39
From the finding above, it can be concluded that the highest percentage of
errors happen in the present perfect tense is in the use of present perfect tense. The
students have not mastered the form and the use of present perfect tense yet.
Another result was found by Gloria in his research at the first year students
of Spanish. He stated that the students showed problems with the choice of tense.
Students used present perfect instead of past perfect. This error can be explained
as false analogy because students seem to be overgeneralizing the use of present
perfect. The error in the present perfect made the students is 16.67% shows a high
frequency of errors. The most frequent error is misformation (use of infinitive
instead of past participle form of an irregular verb). This means there is
incomplete rule application.40
37
Jannah Hayyinatul, “Analysis Students‟ Difficulties in Learning Present Perfect Tense”,
Thesis on State Islamic University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2009, p. 41, not published. 38
Nurul Aini, “an Error Analysis in Using Present Perfect Tense”, Thesis on State Islamic
University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2012, p. 66. not published. 39
Nurul aini, ibid., 40
Carmen Gloria et al., Errors in the Use of English Tense, Journal of Education, 2012, p.
289.
22
Here are the examples of error made by the Spanish students:
Expected answer: You haven’t written.
Students‟ errors:
*You written. Type: Omission. The students omitted auxiliary “have not” in
forming negative sentence of perfect tense because they did not understand it
well. They should add auxiliary have/has after subject in present perfect tense. In
this example, the subject is “you”, so the suitable auxiliary should be “have”.
*You don’t have writing. Type: Misformation. This error categorized as
misinformation because the students failed to choose the correct verb in present
perfect tense. They used “don‟t” because they did not understand about the
formula of present perfect tense. It should be; “You have not written”
*You don’t have writed. Type: Misformation. In this case, the students failed to
choose auxiliary used in present perfect tense. Also, they did not know the past
participle of the word “write”. They overgeneralized the past participle of the
verb. Then, add “ed” after word “write”. The correct sentence should be” You
haven‟t written”.
* You haven’t write. Type: Misformation. This sentence is incorrect because the
students used present participle in the negative form of present perfect tense. They
did not understand about the rule of present perfect tense. The correct sentence
hould be” You haven‟t written”.
* You haven’t wroten. Type: Misformation. In this case, the students failed to
choose the correct verb of “written” because they did not know the irregular verb
of the word “write”. The correct sentence should be “You haven‟t written”.
Results showed that students still have problems to form the present
perfect. The main problem in this case is the past participle of the irregular verb
write.41
The main problems faced by the students in understanding present perfect
tense are in the forming regular and irregular verb and the misuse of past tense.
41
Carmen, loc. cit.,
23
2. Common Sources of Error in Present Perfect Tense
Nurul said that the causes of student‟s error in understanding present
perfect tense are:42
a. Mother-tongue interference is a learning strategy-based error. The students
fail to make the correct form of present perfect tense because they are
influenced by their mother tongue. The students translate a common error
from Indonesian language into English language.
b. Contex of learning is an error which is suspected happen because of the
incomplete teacher‟s explanation.
c. Overgeneralization is an error which is appeared because the students
overgeneralize the rule of past form.
After interviewing the respondent, jannah found that there are many
students confused in distinguishing the present perfect tense and simple past tense
because they have not understood yet the use of time expression of present perfect
tense properly.
Besides, the other students also say that they confused in use the auxiliary
have/has in different subject, and they have not mastered yet the regular and
irregular verb, especially for the third form of past participle. Another common
source of error happened because the external factor such as; the students‟ lack
interest and the students‟ low motivation in learning so they do not pay attention
to the teacher‟s explanation. From the external factor such as; the disturbing of
students‟ friends which make them cannot study and focus on the teacher‟s
explanation.
Whereas, Yuttasak stated that the errors of present perfect tense occurred
by the subjects of Thai students are caused by the following factors:
a. Use of Present of Present Simple Tense and Past Simple Tense.
The findings from the translation and interview test were found in the use
of the past simple tense 25% and present simple tense 38% in instead of the
present perfect tense. The results from this study showed that the most frequent
42
Nurul Aini,op. cit., p. 67.
24
errors within the wrong usage of tense is the use of the present simple and past
simple tense to describe the present perfect tense. For Thai people, tense errors
often occur because there is no tense in Thai. A lot of Thai people use the present
simple tense even though the sentences are supposed to be in the past simple
tense.
b. Differences between Thai Language and English Language Structure.
The errors in tenses usage showed that students had difficulty with the
distinction of tenses. As a result, they used the present simple tense or past simple
instead of the present perfect tense. This type of error appeared in the translation
and interview test. Sometimes they expressed actions which must be used in
present perfect tense by using present simple, past simple and past perfect. In
English, the form of verb is changed when tense and time are changed. Because of
these different rules, Thai students have trouble understanding tense forms.
c. Interference from Thai language
From the result in his survey, the subjects produced English sentence in
Thai structure. They used more than one finite verb in one sentence. Moreover,
they put adverb of time of present perfect in the wrong position in sentence. And
they did not change the form of verb to be verb 3 after have or has in present
perfect tense.
d. A Word for Word Translation
This incorrect technique of students might be one of the possible sources
of errors as well. For example, *I never go to Chieng Mai. This sentence can be
translated into Thai as: Chan Mai Keuy Pai Chieng Mai. The students thought in
Thai and were not aware of the present perfect tense rule. It must be: I have never
been to Chieng Mai. As a result, this sentence is not using English standard and
can be hardly understood. Moreover, the students were not aware that certain
words in Thai could not be used to express English words directly.43
Other finding was found by Duan. He stated that Chinese students often
get confused and misuse the tenses; students have vague understanding of the time
concept indicated by the different tenses. Based on the analysis, he tentatively
43
Yuttasak, ibid.,
25
provide some interpretations for these mistakes: many problems exist in the
teaching of grammar in Chinese English teaching, and the teaching of tenses is not
systematic and the focus of teaching and tests is not in accordance with the actual
uses of tenses; students are affected by inter-lingual transfer and intra-lingual
transfer when making English sentences.44
Based on those findings, it is known that students still do not understand
enough about simple past tense and present perfect tense. The students still make
some errors in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. Thus, in
this research, the writer intends to analyze what are the most common types of
errors and the possible causes of those errors in understanding simple past tense
and present perfect tense. By understanding the types and the sources of students‟
errors, the writer expects that she could give beneficial suggestions to solve
student‟ problems in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense so
the difficulty of understanding these material would be reduced.
E. The Differences between Simple Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense
1. Simple Past Tense
a. Form of Simple Past Tense
Betty Schrampfer stated her idea that, “most simple past verbs are
formed by adding –ed to a verb. Some verbs have irregular past forms. The
simple past form of be are was and were.45
Furthermore, Nasrun Mahmud in English for Muslim University Students
argued that “Simple past tense is formed with past form of the verbs which
may be either regular, e.g. by adding -ed to the infinitive (incidentally, most
verbs are regular) or irregular must be learned in each case.46
44
Marfu Duan, a Corpus Based Study of the Misuse of Tenses in English Composition of
Chinese Students, Article, 2011, p. 173. 45
Betty Schrampfer Azar, Fundamentals of English Grammar, (New York: Longman,
1992) 3rd
edition, p. 25. 46
Nasrun Mahmud, English for Muslim University students, (Jakarta: PT. Siwinakti
Darma, 2003), p. 88.
26
b. The Usage of Simple Past Tense
According to Marcela Frank in “Modern English a Practical
Reference Guide” the past tense indicated time terminating in the past,
whether a time word is given or not. The past time may refer to:47
1) One event completed in the past
I saw him last night.
They left two hours ago.
2) Repeated events completed in the past and no longer happening
Last year it rained frequently in this past.
When I was young, I went swimming every day.
3) Duration of an event completed in the past
He lived in New York for thirty years and then he decided to return
to French in 1898.
From the explanations above, the writer synthesizes that the use of simple
past tense is to describe actions and situations that happened in the past. These
actions and situations were started and finished in the past.
2. Present Perfect Tense
a. Form of Present Perfect Tense
George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks stated that “the present perfect
tense is a construction made up the auxiliary have + the past form of the main
verb”.48
Whereas Raymond Murphy stated that, “the present perfect tense is
formed with have/has + the past participle”.49
47
Marcella frank, Modern English a Practical Reference Guide, (New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1972), p. 73. 48
George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (New York: Litton
Educational Publishing, Inc., 1980), p. 206. 49
Raymond Murphy, English Grammar in Use, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1994) 2nd
edition, p. 14.
27
b. The Usage of Present Perfect tense
Michael swan in practical English Usage stated that: the uses of the
present perfect are:
1) The present perfect simple is often used to talk about finished action
events. This normally happens when the past events have some present
importance, and when we could make a present tense sentence (with
similar meaning) about the same situation.
2) The present perfect is also used to talk about the past actions which are not
recent, but which are‟ still with us‟ as part of our experience and
knowledge.50
From the discussion above it can be known that present perfect tense is
focused on the action that happened in the past but related to the present moment.
It is used commonly to show that the action has just been complete or at least the
effect of the action is still felt at the moment of speaking.
F. The Previous Related Study
This research is relevant to the three previous researchers. They are
Susanti, Linda Maisari and Erka Cahya. In her research An Analysis on Students’
Mastery of Simple Past Tense at the Second Year Students of Madrasah
Tsanawiyah Yayasan Pondok Pesantren, Depok (2011), Susanti used qualitative
method and the technique she used to collect the data were interview guide to the
English teacher and test to the students. She found that the highest percentage of
error that students made is in the form of simple past tense. About 61.75% of
students made error in the form and 33.75% of students made error in the usage of
simple past tense.51
While, Maisari on her thesis Some Difficulties Faced by the
Students in Learning the Present Perfect Tense at the Third Grade of SMP
Puspita Bangsa, Ciputat (2011) used the case study method to collect the data.
She collected the data by using observation, test and questioner. She found that
50
Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, (London: Oxford University Press, 1980) p.
495. 51
Susanti, “an Analysis on students‟ mastery of simple past tense”, Thesis on Stated
Islamic University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2011, p.33, not published.
28
there are 36% students get difficulties in auxiliary have/has 32% students get
difficulties in regular verb and 32% students get difficulties in irregular verb.52
Another previous study was related to Cahya on her thesis An Error
Analysis on students’ Learning in Present Perfect Tense at the first year students
of Madrasah Aliyah Soebono Mantofani Jombang, Ciputat (2011), in doing the
research, she used quantitative method and the technique to collect the data she
used are test, observation and interview. She gave the test to the students which
consist of 25 items. 15 items is used to analyze the form and 10 items is used to
analyze the usage. The result is from overall responded 48% students did errors in
the form of have/has, 28% students did errors in the form of regular verb, 55%
students did errors in the irregular verb and 58.75% students did errors in the
usage of present perfect tense.53
Based on the previous researches above, the writer intends to use
descriptive qualitative method to know the common types and causes of errors
that made by the students at the First Grade of SMK Dua Mei, Ciputat. The
explanation of the method of the research will be explained in next chapter.
G. Research Hypothesis
As an effort to answer the question in this research, the writer would like
to propose hypothesis as temporary answer for the problem that has been
formulated. The hypothesis is presented into two parts, null hypothesis (H0) and
alternative hypothesis (H1). Null hypothesis (H0) is presented to avoid
subjectivity in conducting this research.
H0 = There is no errors made by the students in understanding simple
past tense and present perfect tense.
H1 = There are some errors made by the students in understanding
simple past tense and present perfect tense.
52
Linda Maisari, “Some Difficulties Faced by the Students in Learning the Present Perfect
Tense”, Thesis on Stated Islamic University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2011, p. 29, not published. 53
Erka cahya, “an Error Analysis on Students‟ Learning in Present Perfect Tense”, Thesis
on Stated Islamic University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2011 p. 31, not published.
24
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS
A. Method of Research
This thesis is written based on the field research supported by library
study; in this case the writer chose SMK Dua Mei Ciputat as the place where the
research was held. She observed some difficulties and problems that were faced
by the students at the first grade of senior high school in understanding simple
past tense and present perfect tense.
In the library study, the writer visited some libraries such as the main
library of State Islamic University of Jakarta, the Faculty of Tarbiya library,
Atmajaya library and UNJ library. Besides, she also read some journal and
browsed some references related to the topic.
In the field research, the writer observed the first grade students of SMK
Dua Mei by giving the test and interviewing the students about present perfect
tense and past tense as the data of this study. The processes of this research are;
First, the writer observed the process of teaching and learning in the classroom.
Second, the writer gave a test to the students. Third, the writer analyzed the errors
made by the students and classified them into types of error and the possible
causes of them by Brown’s theory. The last, the writer interpreted the data about
types of errors that the students made mostly and predicted the reason why the
students made some errors.
B. Place and Time of Research
The writer did the research at SMK Dua Mei. It is located on Jl. Abdul
Gani No. 135 Cempaka Putih, Ciputat Timur- Kota Tangerang Selatan. The
research was starting from April, 1st to 10
th 2013.
25
C. Population and Sample
The writer focused on her research at the first grade students of SMK Dua
Mei Ciputat. The population of the research consists of three classes; XAK, XAP1
and XAP2 class with the total 86 students. Because the population is homogenous,
the sample taken is only one class. She took XAK class which consists of 28
students as the sample of this research. The writer uses a cluster sampling to get
the representative data.
D. Instrument of The Research
The writer uses the test as the instrument of the research. The types of the
test are a multiple- choice, T/F, sentence completion and the translation of
Indonesian to English. The test consists of 35 items which cover past tense and
present perfect tense materials. The material of the test is taken from the book
which modified by the writer’s own word. Before giving a test, the writer
observes the condition of the classroom to know how the teacher explains the
material and what are the students doing during the lesson. The writer also
interviews the students to get the data. From those data, the writer hopes that she
can find some errors made by the students in understanding simple past tense and
present perfect tense. Then, she could find solution to avoid the students making
those errors.
E. Technique of Data Collecting
The writer uses three techniques of collecting data in this research, they
are; observation, test and interview.
1. Observation
The writer observed the condition of the classroom during the language
learning process. This observation is used to know the activity happened in the
classroom. The writer wanted to now the way how the teacher explains the
material and what are the students doing during the lesson.
26
2. Test
The test is given after the writer observed the classroom. The test
consists of 35 questions about simple past tense and present perfect tense.
The students are required to answer the question based on the instruction. The
result of this test will be analyzed by the writer as the data of her research.
From those result of the test, the writer will know what are types of errors
and the causes of them made by the students in understanding simple past
tense and present perfect tense.
3. Interview
This technique is used to supplement the data needed which are not
covered by the previous technique. The writer asked some questions to the
students to know what are some difficulties faced by them in understanding
simple past tense and present perfect tense. This interview consists of 10
questions and the participants of this interview were some students who made
many errors in using simple past tense and present perfect tense.
F. Technique of Data Analysis
In this research, the writer uses descriptive qualitative analysis. At first,
the writer analyzed the students’ errors by coding students’ names, identifying
students’ errors, then she classified students’ errors based on the kinds of errors,
the causes of errors, tabulated the data of students’ erros, corrected their errors,
calculated them and gave percentage of all the errors thay made. The last, she
interpreted the data and concluded them to know most types and causes of errors
that made by the students. The percentage will be described in the table
percentage and the formula as follows:
P =
100%
P = Percentage
27
F = Frequency of error made
N = Number of students’ errors1
1Anas Sudjiono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, (Jakarta: PT. Raja Grafindo Persada, 2005),
p.43.
33
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS
This chapter presents and discusses about research findings which consists of:
Error Identification, Description of Errors, and Explanation of Errors. Those are
arranged based on the procedural of error analysis.
A. Error Identification
1. The Result of Observation
The writer has observed how English teacher delivered simple past tense and
present perfect tense material in her teaching learning activity. This observation was
carried out before giving the test to students. It was held at the first grade students of
SMK Dua Mei Ciputat in XAK class which consists of 30 students but only 28 attended
the class when the research was done. This observation was conducted on 1st – 10
th of
April 2013 at 10.00 a.m. – 11. 30 a.m. By considering herself as an observer, she
recorded all activities which happened during classroom activity not only English
teacher‟s performance in delivering this material but also students‟ activities in
responding teacher‟s performance on it. In delivering this material, the teacher used
Grammar Translation Method to help students in understanding simple past tense and
present perfect tense. Firstly, the students seemed very interested in learning this
material; however, when the teacher presented the forms and rules of simple past tense
and present perfect tense, the students seemed bored and confused. Some of them were
talking to their friends and only few students were still paying attention to the teacher‟s
explanation. During the teaching activity, the class was uncontrolled. Even though the
teacher asked them to be quiet, the students still kept talking to their friends. Then,
when the teacher gave some examples of simple past tense and present perfect tense,
some students in the class seemed that they did not pay attention on it, so when the
teacher gave them exercise orally they could not do it. Furthermore, when the teacher
gave written exercise some students cheated each other. Besides, the teacher used LKS
(Lembar Kerja Siswa) during the teaching learning activity, so the students did not get
34
detailed information about the material. From this observation, the writer thought that
this classroom condition might bring some problems in teaching learning product which
could lead students to do some errors in their application of understanding simple past
tense and present perfect tense.
2. The Result of Test
The writer described the common types of errors made by the First Grade
students of SMK Dua Mei in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense.
The types of errors can be classified and analyzed by using James‟ table which consists
of (omission, addition, misselection, and misordering).
After the writer analyzed the errors, she counted the errors by using the table.
The data analysis is done after processing the result. To obtain the data for this research
the writer took the data from students‟ result of test. There were 28 students.
Table of Students’ Errors
Table 4.1
Errors of Student 1 (FS)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes
*I never met
her/I have
never met.
*When exactly
go out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
*I have lunch/
I have had
lunch.
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
*I didn’t
finished/
I didn‟t
finish.
Intralingual
*I knew each
other for over
fifteen years/ I
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
35
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 14 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (21.42%), addition (7.14%), misselection (71%) and
misordering (0%). The most type of errors she made was misselection. In some cases,
she failed to select the verb used in present perfect tense. For example she wrote “Mr.
Ahmad has live”. In that sentence, the writer can see that the student used present
participle “live” in present perfect tense. Whereas, the correct verb must be “lived”
because the form of present perfect tense is S+ have/ has+ V3. Another example is the
have known *My uncle
lived in
Jakarta for ten
years/ My
uncle has
lived in
Jakarta for ten
years.
*She finishing/
She finished
*She has took a
bath/ She has
taken a bath.
*They have
play/ They
have played.
*Has she close
it?/ Has she
closed it?
*Has the
teacher told a
history?/ Has
the teacher
taught a
history?
*Mr. Ahmad
has live/ Mr.
Ahmad has
lived.
*He has wait/
he has waited.
*Dina has
study/ Dina
has studied
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
36
sentence “He has wait”. It must be “He has waited”. Another type of errors made by
student was omission. The student omitted auxiliary “have” in the sentence “I never
met”. The correct sentence is “I have never met”. Student mostly made error because
of intralingual. It because of the student does not know the past participle of a certain
verb and she does not how to use simple past tense and present perfect tense.
Table 4.2
Errors of Student 2 (DE)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When
exactly go
out?/ When
exactly did
she go out?
*We waited
you/ We
have waited
for you.
*He has
knowed/He
has not
known.
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
*Dina was
studied English/ Dina
studied
English.
Interlingual
*My best
friend and I
knew each
other/ My
best friend
and I have
known each
other.
*My uncle
lived in
Jakarta for
ten years/
My uncle
has lived *He worked
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
37
in this firm
for 20 years/
He has
worked
*She teached
math/ She
taught math
last week.
*I was not
watched/ I
did not watch.
*He was not
finished/ He
did not
finish.
*She was not
drinked/ She
did not
drink.
*I was not
sleeped/ I
did not sleep * They were
not called/
They did not
call.
*Was I got
the door
prize?/ Did I
get the door
prize?
*Was he took
the food?/
Did he take
the food?
*Was she
came to your
house?/ Did
she come to
your house?
*Were you
sweep the
floor?/ Did
she sweep
the floor?
*Were they
worked?/
Did they
work?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
38
*He has
knowed/ He
has not
known.
*Have the
police/ Has
the police
*Have the
police catch/
Has the
police
caught?
*Have the
teacher/ Has
the teacher
*Have the
teacher
teached/ Has
the teacher
taught
* I was eat
lunch/ I have
had lunch.
*Mr. Ahmad
was lived/
Mr. Ahmad
has lived
*He is
waiting for
you for 2
hours/ He
has waited
for you.
*Were you
watched TV?/ Did
you watch
TV?.
From the table above, the writer can see the student made errors 27 in total. He
made errors in the omission (11.1%), addition (3.7%), misselection (85.1%) and
misordering (0%). The most common error made by the student is in the misselection.
He cannot differentiate which tense he should use and he also does not know how to use
39
negative and interrogative form of past tense. He always used nominal formula of past
tense in every sentence. Here are the examples of errors made by him:
*I was not watched the film last night.
It should be; I did not watch the film last night.
*She was not drinked the ice juice.
It should be; She did not drink the ice juice.
*Was he took the food?
It should be; Did he take the food?
And he also confused to choose which tense he should use either past tense or
present perfect tense. The example is:
*My best friend and I knew each other for over fifteen years.
It should be; My best friend and I have known each other for over fifteen years.
This error happened because the student does not understand enough about the
usage of simple past tense and present perfect tense.
Table 4.3
Errors of Student 3 (NR)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*She finish/
She
finished
Intralingual
*He has
wrote/ He
wrote.
*My
grandmoth
er was
died/My
grandmoth
er died.
Intralingual
Interlingual
*Who finded/
Who found
*He has
wrote/ He
wrote
*My best
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
40
friend and I
knew each
other/ My
best friend
and I have
known *I teached my
brother/ I
taught
*Has the
police
catched?/
Has the
police caught
*I have eat my
lunch food/ I
have had
lunch.
*Mr. Ahmad
lived/ Mr.
Ahmad has
lived
Intralingual
*When
exactly she
did went out?/Did she
go out?
Intralingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 11 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (9.09%), addition (18.18%), misselection (63.63%) and
misordering (9.09%). The most common errors made by the student were misselection
of verb used in the simple past tense and present perfect tense. Besides, she also made
some errors in irregular verb. Here are the examples of the errors:
*I teached my brother; it should be “I taught my brother”
* Has the police catched the criminal?; it should be “Has the police caught the
criminal?”
In those cases, the student overgeneralized the rule of past tense and present
perfect tense because she does not know the past participle of the irregular verb “teach
and catch”.
41
Table 4.4
Errors of Student 4 (HA)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When
exactly she
went
out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
*Mita not
sleep
during the
day/ Mita
has not
slept yet.
Interlingual
Interlingual
*My
grandmother
was died/ My
grandmother
died
*Dina had
learned
English
yesterday/Di
na learnt
English.
yesterday.
*I didn’t
watched
television/ I
didn’t watch *I didn’t
drinked the
water/ I
didn’t drink the water.
Interlingual
Interlingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
*Who finded
our city/ Who
found
*I have never
meet/ I have
never met
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
42
*He worked in
this firm for 20
years/ He has
worked
*I buyed
clothes for
mom/ I
bought some
clothes for
mom.
*They have
make a
chocolate/
They have
made a
chocolate
*Has they send
the letter?/
Have they
sent
*Why she has
closed the
door?/ Why
has she closed the door?
Interlingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 13 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (15.38%), addition (30.76%), misselection (46.15%) and
misordering (7.69 %). The table shows that the student does not know the negative form
of past tense for example: *I didn’t drinked the water; it should be I did not drink the
water. She used V2 in the negative form of past tense. However, the correct answer to
form negative form of past tense is use V1 after negative auxiliary “did not”. The
student also made some errors in misselection of auxiliary have/has in present perfect
tense. The example is *Has they send the letter? It should be “Have they sent the
letter?”.
43
Table 4.5
Errors of Student 5 (AU)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of Error
*When
exactly she
went out?/
When
exactly did
she go out?
Interlingual
*Sam have
arrived in
San Diego a
week ago/
Sam
arrived *My best
friend and I
have knew/
My best
friend and I
have
known
*The man
haven’t
built/ The
man hasn’t
built
*Have the
police
catched the
thief?/ Has
the police caught
*Have the
teacher taught
English?/
Has the
teacher
taught
English?
*I ate lunch/
I have had
lunch
*He waited
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Intralingual
44
you for 2
hours/He
has waited you for 2
hours.
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 8 errors in total. She
made most errors in the omission (12.5%), addition (0%), misselection (87.5%) and
misordering (0%). She made the most common error in misselection of simple past
tense and present perfect tense. She overgeneralized the auxiliary “have” in using
present perfect tense. Also, she made some errors in the misselection of irregular verb.
Here are the examples:
*have the police catched the thief? It should be; has the police caught the thief?
*have the teacher taught English? It should; has the teacher taught English?
It is seen that student does not understand enough about the using of auxiliary
have/has in the present perfect tense.
Table 4.6
Errors of Student 6 (FE)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*I have
lunch/ I
have had lunch
Interlingual
*We have
been
waited for
you/We
have
waited for
you
Intralingual
*Sam have
arrived in
San Diego a
week ago/
Sam
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
45
arrived
*He hasn’t
know/ He
hasn’t
known
*The man
hasn’t
build/ The
man hasn’t
built
*The boys
hasn’t
play/The
boys
haven’t
played
*Mila hasn’t
open my
book/ Mila
hasn’t
opened
*Have you
study
math?/Have
you studied
*Has she close
the
door?/Has
she closed
the door?
*Has the
police catch
the
thief?/Has
the police
caught the
thief?
*Have they
send the
letter?/Have
they sent the
letter?
*Has the
teacher
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
46
teach you?/
Has the
teacher
taught you?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 12 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (8.33%), addition (8.33%), misselection (83.33%) and
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection. She did not understand
well about negative and interrogative forms of present perfect tense. She used present
participle in both forms that must be V3 (past participle). Here are the examples of the
errors she made:
*He has not know what I mean. It should be; he has not known what I mean.
*Mila has not open my book. It should be; Mila has not opened my book.
*Have you study Math? It should be; have you studied math?
Table 4.7
Errors of Student 7 (DT)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When
exactly she
went out?/
When
exactly did
she go out?
Interlingual
*Sam have
arrived in
san Diego a
week ago/
Sam arrived
*My best
friend and I
have knew
each other/
My best
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
47
friend and I
have known
*I have
founded my
book/ I have
found my
book
*The man
hasn‟t build
the building/
The man
hasn‟t built
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 5 errors in total. He
made errors in the omission (20%), addition (0%), misselection(80%) and misordering
(0%). She found difficulties in using irregular verb. For example, she wrote *The man
hasn’t build the building. It should be; The man hasn’t built the building. Another
example of the error she made was *I have founded my book. It should be; I have
found my book. She failed to make correct sentence because she overgeneralized the
verb.
Table 4.8
Errors of Student 8 (AS)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*She finish her
homework just
now/ She
finished
Intralingual
*My grand
mother was
died/ My
grand
mother died.
*He didn’t
finished the test/ He
Interlingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
48
didn‟t
finish the
test
*Nia didn’t
drinked
mineral.
water/ Nia
didn’t
drink. *Didn’t he
worked for
FBI?/
Didn‟t he
work for
FBI?
*My best friend
and I knew
each other/ My
best friend and
I have known
*Who finded/
Who found
*She teached
patiently/ She
taught patiently
*He didn’t
finished the
test/ He didn‟t
finish the test
*Nia didn’t
drinked
mineral water/
Nia didn’t
drink *Did she took a
bath?/ Did she
take a bath?
*Didn’t he
worked for
FBI?/ Didn‟t
he work for
FBI?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
*When
exactly she
did went out? When
exactly did
Interlingual
49
she go out?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 13 errors in total. She
made errors in omission (7.69%), addition (30.76%), misselection (53.84%) and
misordering (7.69%). The most common errors made by the student are in misselection.
She does not understand how to form negative and interrogative sentence in past tense.
She used V2 that should be V1. Here are the examples:
*He did not finished the test. It should be; He did not finish the test.
*Nia did not drinked mineral water. It should be; Nia did not drink mineral water.
Table 4.9
Errors of Student 9 (LT)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/When
exactly did she
go out?
Interlingual
*My best and I
has known/
My best friend
and I have
known
*My uncle
lived in
Jakarta for ten
years/My
uncle has
lived
*She is
finishing her
homework just
now/She
finished
*I had eaten
lunch/ I have
had lunch
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
50
*Dina had
studied
English
yesterday/
Dina studied
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 6 errors in total. She
made error in omission (16.66%), addition (0%), misselection (83.33%) and
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection of verb tense. She used past
perfect tense instead of simple past tense. Also, she used past tense in present perfect
tense because she does not understand enough the usage of both tenses. Here are the
examples:
*Dina had studied English yesterday. It should be; Dina studied English yesterday.
*My uncle lived in Jakarta for ten years. It should be; My uncle has lived in Jakarta for
ten years.
Table 4.10
Errors of Student 10 (FV)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/
When exactly
did she go
out?
Interlingual
*I did not
watched
insidious last
night/I did
not watch
Intralingual
*My best
friend and I
have knew/
My best
friend and I
have
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
51
known
*She has
finished her
homework
just now/
She
finished
* Mr. Yayat
teached
English last
Wednesday/
Mr. Yayat
taught
*I did not
watched
insidious
last night/I
did not
watch
*I did not
slept last
night/I did
not sleep
*I did not
drank coca-
cola this
morning/ I
did not
drink
*Did rina got
up late?/
Did rina get
up late
*Did you
took my
pencil?/Did
you take
*I have take
a lunch/ I
have had
lunch
Intralingual
Interlingual
52
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 11 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (9.09%), addition (9.09%), misselection (81.81%) and
misordering (0%). The student made most errors in misseletion because she failed to use
simple past tense and present perfect tense correctly. As the previous student, she used
V2 in forming negative and interrogative form of simple past tense. Here are the
examples of the errors she made:
*I did not drank coca-cola this morning. It should be; I did not drink coca-cola this
morning.
*Did you took my pencil? It should be; Did you take my pencil?
Table 4.11
Errors of Student 11 (RF)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
go out?/
When
exactly did
she go out?
*She taken a
bath/ She has
taken a bath
*We waited
you so long/
We have
waited for
you so long
*They made
you feel
confused/
They have
made
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
*I have
been
lunch/ I
have had lunch
*Mr.
Ahmad
have
Interlingual
Interlingual
53
been
lives in
Ciputat/
Mr.
Ahmad
has lived
*Who finded
our city/ Who
found
*My best friend
and I
knew/My best
friend and I
have known
*My uncle
lived/ My
uncle has
lived
*She finishing/
She finished
*He was
worked/ He
has worked
*You aren’t cut
the paper/ You
haven’t cut
*He isn’t known
you/ He
hasn’t known
you
*The boys
aren’t played
tennis/ The
boys haven’t
played
*Mila isn’t
opened the
door/ Mila
hasn’t opened
the door
*Are you
studied
English?/
Have you
studied
English?
*Is the police
catched him?/Has the
police caught
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
54
him?
*Are they sent
an email?/
Have they sent
an email?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 17 errors in total. He
made errors in the omission (23.52%), addition (11.76%), misselection (64.70%), and
misordering (0%). He made most errors in misselection of present prefect tense. He
used auxiliary “is and are” that should be “have/ has” in the negative and interrogative
form of present perfect tense. The data above has shown that the student does not
understand enough about present perfect tense. Here are the examples:
*You are not cut the paper. It should be; You have not cut the paper.
*He is not known you. It should be; He has not known you.
*Are they sent an email? It should be; Have they sent an email?
Table 4.12
Errors of Student 12 (M.FM)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*My
grandmother
was died/
My
grandmother
died
Interlingual
* I have never
see that movie/ I
have never seen
*I have never
meet/ I have
never met *Mrs. Anggi
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Intralingual
55
teached math/
Mrs. Anggi
taught math
*She has took a
bath/ She has
taken a bath
*I ate a lunch/ I
have had lunch
*Mr. Ahmad
lived in Ciputat
since 2009/ Mr.
Ahmad has
lived
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 7 errors in total. The
student made errors in omission (0%), addition (14.28%), misselection (85.71%), and
misordering (0%). The most common error he made was in the misselection of verb he
used in present perfect tense. Here are the examples of the errors he made:
*I have never see that movie. It should be; I have never seen that movie
*I have never meet her. It should be; I have never met her.
Table 4.13
Errors of Student 13
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went
out?/When
exactly did she
go out?
Intralingual
*Dina was
studied
English
yesterday/
Dina studied English
yesterday
Interlingual
56
*She has
finished her
homework just
now/ She
finished her
homework just
now
*Mrs. Eka
thought English/ Mrs.
Eka taught
English
*I boughth a
flower/ I
bought a
flower
*She has take a
bath in my
bathroom/ She
has taken a
bath
*He was waited
for you about
2 hours/ He
has waited for
you for 2
hours
*Do you watch
TV last night?
Did you watch
TV last night?
*I was eat
lunch/ I have
had lunch
*Mr. Ahmad
was lived in
Ciputat since
2009/ Mr.
Ahmad has
lived
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 10 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (10%), addition (10%), misselection (80%), and
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection. She made errors in
selection the correct verb and auxiliary used in past tense and present perfect tense.
57
Besides, she was influenced by her mother tongue to make a sentence in English. Here
are the errors:
*Dina was studied English yesterday. It should be; Dina studied English yesterday.
*He was waited you about 2 hours. It should be; He has waited for you for 2 hours.
Table 4.14
Errors of Student 14 (RF)
Types Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering
*He has wrote
ten creative
short stories in
the last year/He
wrote
*We have to
waited her/ We
have waited for
her
*They have to
made
cookies/They
have made cookies
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
*Who finded/
Who found
*He has wrote ten
creative short
stories in the last
year/He wrote
*Does she went
out?/Did she go
out?
*My teacher
teached Mathematic
yesterday/ My
teacher taught
Math yesterday
*I have eat lunch/
I have had lunch
*Sir Ahmad has
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
58
stay in Ciputat
since 2009/ Mr.
Ahmad has lived
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 9 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (0%), addition (33.33%), misselection (66.66%), and
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection. Here is one of the
examples of the errors she made:
*He has wrote ten creative short stories in the last year. It should be; He wrote ten
creative short stories in the last year.
In the sentence above, it can be concluded that the student failed to choose the correct
tense. She should use simple past tense but she use present perfect. Then, she does not
know the past participle of the verb “write”.
Table 4.15
Errors of Student 15 (WS)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*Mila have
not open the
window/
Mila has not
opened the
window
*The boys
have not
play badminton/
They boys
have not
played
Intralingual
Intralingual
*Dina was
studied English
Yesterday/ Dina
studied
*Did you
watched TV
Interlingual
Intralingual
59
last night? Did
you watch TV
last night?
*When exactly
does she go
out?/When
exactly did she
go out?
*My uncle has
finished her
homework just
now/ My uncle
finished
*My teacher
teach me how to
swim/ My
teacher taught
me
*I write this
poem/ I wrote
this poem
*I has find new
idea/ I have
found *Mila have not
open the
window/ Mila
has not opened
the window
*The boys have
not play
badminton/
They boys have
not played
Intralimgual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
*Since year
2009, Pak
Ahmad live
in Ciputat/
Mr. Ahmad
has lived in
Ciputat since
2009.
Interlingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 11 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (18.18%), addition (18.18%), misselection (54.54%) and
misordering (9.09%). She made most errors in the misselection of simple past tense and
60
present perfect tense. Besides, she also made error in the auxiliary “have/ has” in the
present perfect tense. Here are the examples:
*Mila have not open the window. It should be; Mila has not opened the window.
*I has find new idea. It should be; I have found new idea.
Table 4.16
Errors of Student 16 (IM)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When
exactly she
went out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
*He move to
London/ He
moved to
London
*Dina study
English
tonight/Dina
studied
English last
week.
Interlingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
*My
grandmother
was died before I was
born/ My
grandmother
died
Interlingual
*She has finished
her homework
just now/She
finished
*He worked in
this firm for 20
years/He has
worked
*He has not
know my mother/
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
61
He has not
known
*The man have
not build new
house/ The man
has not built
*The boys have
not play football/
The boys have
not played
*Have you study
English?/Have
you studied
English?
*Has she close
the door?/Has she
closed the door?
*Have the police
catch the
terrorist?/Has the
police caught the
terrorist?
*Do you watch
TV last
night?/Did you
watch TV last
night?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 13 errors in total. He
made errors in the omission (13.07%), addition (7.69%), misselection (69.23%) and
misordering (0%). He made most errors in the misselection. He used present participle
in the negative and interrogative form of present perfect tense. Here are the examples of
the errors he made:
*He has know my mother. It should be; He has known my mother yet.
*Have the police catch the terrorist?. It should be; Has the police caught the terrorist?
62
Table 4.17
Errors of Student 17 (RF)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/
When exactly
did she go
out?
*My sister be
angry/ My
sister has been
angry
*The boys play
futsal in the
yard/ The boys
have played
Interlingual
Interlingual
Intralingual
*My
grandmother
was died before I was
born/ My
grandmother
died
Interlingual
*My best friend and
I have know each
other/ My best
friend and I have
known each other
*She has finished
homework just
now/She finished
homework just now
*My father teached
me/My father
taught me
*I have find my
key/ I have found
my key
*We have wait the
bus/We have
waited the bus
*They have make a
fried rice/ They
have made a fried
rice
*He has not know
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
63
her/He has not
known her
*Mila has not open
the window/ Mila
has not opened *Have you study for
the test?/Have you
studied
*Have they send the
letter?/Have they
sent the letter?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 14 errors in total. He
made errors in the omission (21.42%), addition (7.14%), misselection (71.42%), and
misordering (0%). He made most common errors in the misselection. He used present
participle in the positive, negative and interrogative form of present perfect tense. That
is why he failed to use present perfect tense correctly. Besides, he also used present
perfect tense instead of past tense. Here are the examples of the errors he made:
*I have find my key. It should be; I have found my key.
*He has not know her. It should be; He has not known her.
*Have you study for the test? It should be; Have you studied for the test?
Table 4.18
Errors of Student 18 (NF)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*I never met
her/ I have
never met
*When
exactly she
went out?
When exactly
did she go out?
*I eat lunch/
I have had
lunch
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
64
*He wait for
you about 2
hours/ He
has waited
for you for 2
hours
*Dina was
studyied
English
yesterday/
Dina studied
English
yesterday.
Interlingual
* She has
finished her
homework just
now/ She
finished
*Raihan writed a
note yesterday/
Raihan wrote
*He studyied in
this school/ He
studied in this
school.
*She take a bath
for an hour/ She
has taken a
bath for an hour.
*My sister being
a nurse/My sister
has been a
nurse.
*The man has not
build the
building/The
man has not
built the
building.
*Have the police
catched the
wanted?/ Has
the police
caught the
wanted?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 12 errors in total. She
made errors in the omission (33.33%), addition (8.33%), misselection (58.33%) and
65
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection. She overgeneralized the
verb. She has known the form of simple past tense and present perfect tense but she
failed to choose the correct verb especially in irregular verb. Here are the examples of
the errors she made:
*Raihan writed a note yesterday. It should be; Raihan wrote a note yesterday.
*He studyied in this school. It should be; He studied in this school.
Table 4.19
Errors of Student 19 (Z)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/
When exactly
did she go
out?
*I have lunch/ I
have had lunch.
Interlingual
Interlingual
*My
grandmot
her was
died/ My
grandmot
her died.
Interlingual
*I have never
meet her/ I have
never met her.
*I written a story
last month/ I
wrote a story.
*The teacher
thought us with
patient/ The
teacher taught
us patiently.
*You have not
cuted the paper/
You have not
cut the paper.
*They has made
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
66
a soup/ They
have made a
soup.
*Mr. Ahmad
lived in Ciputat
at
2009/Mr.Ahmad
has lived in
Ciputat since
2009.
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 9 errors in total. He
made errors in the omission (22.22%), addition (11.11%), misselection (66.66%) and
misordering (0%). He made most errors in the misselection because he did not know the
past participle of the verb so he overgeneralized the verb either in past tense or present
perfect tense. Here are the examples of the errors:
*The teacher thought us with patient. It should be; The teacher taught us patiently.
*You have not cuted the paper. It should be; You have not cut the paper.
Table 4.20
Errors of Student 20 (M.YP)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering
Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
Interlingual
*My
grandmother
was died before I was
born. My
grandmother
died
Interlingual
*My uncle
lived in
Jakarta for
ten years/My
uncle has
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
67
lived *She has
finished her
homework
just now/
She finished
*He worked
in this firm
for 20 years/
He has
worked
*My sister has
been read a
book/ My
sister has
been a
doctor.
*The boys
have not
play soccer/
The boys
have not
played
soccer.
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 7 errors in total. He
made errors in omission (14.28%), addition (14.28%), misselection (71.42%) and
misordering (0%). He made most errors in the misselection. He confused to choose the
correct tense either simple past tense or present perfect tense. Here are the examples of
the errors he made:
*My uncle lived in Jakarta for ten years. It should be; my uncle has lived in Jakarta for
ten years.
*She has finished her homework just now. She finished her homework just now.
68
Table 4.21
Errors of Student 21 (VL)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
*Mila has open
the door/ Mila
has not
opened the
door.
Interlingual
Intralingual
*I never saw that
movie/I have
never seen that
movie
*She has
finished her
homework just
now/ She
finished *Mr, Herman
baugh new car
last week/ Mr.
Herman bought
new car.
*The man have
not built a mall/
The man has not
built a mall
*Have the
teacher taught
the student?/Has
the teacher
taught the
student?
*Mr. Ahmad live
in Ciputat in
2009/Mr.Ahmad
has lived in
Ciputat since
2009.
*Do you watch
TV
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
69
tonight?/Did
you watch TV
last night?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 9 errors in total. She
made errors in omission (22.22%), addition (0%), misselection (77.78%) and
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection. She confused to choose the
correct verb and auxiliary “have/has” in present perfect tense. The causes of the errors
are mostly intralingual but she also made the errors because of interlingual because she
translated the word one by one from Indonesian. Here are the examples of the errors she
made:
*The man have not built a mall. It should be; The man has not built a mall.
*Do you watch TV tonight? It should be; Did you watch TV last night?
Table 4.22
Errors of Student 22 (M.FA)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
Interlingual
*My
grandmot
her was
died
before I
was born/
My
grandmot
her died.
Interlingual
*My best friend
and I have
know each
other/My best
friend and I
Intralingual
Intralingual
70
have known
*She has
finished her
homework just
now/ She
finished
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 4 errors in total. He
made errors in omission (25%), addition (25%), misselection (50%) and misordering
(0%). He made most errors in the misselection. He confused to choose the tense should
he use either simple past tense or present perfect tense because he did not know the
usage of both tenses. Here is the example of the error he made:
*She has finished her homework just now. It should be; She finished her homework
just now.
Table 4.23
Errors of Student 23 (PJ)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*I never seen
that movie/ I
have never
seen
*When exactly
she went out?When
exactly did
she go out?
*He move to
London/He
moved to
London
Intralingual
Interlingual
Intralingual
*Mr.
Ahmad
was lived in Ciputat
since
2009/Mr.
Ahmad
Interlingual
71
lived
*She has
finished her
homework just
now/She
finished her
homework just
now.
Intralingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 5 errors in total. She
made errors in omission (60%), addition (20%), misselection (20%) and misordering
(0%). She made most errors in the omission. She omitted auxiliary “have” in the present
perfect tense and she also omitted auxiliary “did” in interrogative form of past tense.
Here are the examples of the errors she made:
*I never seen that movie. It should be; I have never seen that movie.
*When exactly she went out? It should be; when exactly did she go out?
Table 4.24
Errors of Student 24 (R.AP)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
gone out?
When exactly
did she go out?
*I lunch/ I have
had lunch.
Intralingual
Interlingual
*Dina
was
study English
yesterday/
Dina
studied English
yesterday.
*He had
waited
Interlingual
Interlingual
72
you for 2
hours/ He
has
waited for you
for 2
hours.
*Who finded our
city over four
hundred years
ago/ Who found
*My best friend
and I knew each
other for over
fifteen years/My
best friend and I
have known
*My uncle lived
in Jakarta for ten
years/My uncle
has lived
*She finishing
her homework
just now/She
finished her
homework just
now.
*He worked in
this firm for 20
years/He has
worked
*Did he got a
candy?/Did he
get a candy?
*Did dina took a
cake?Did dina
take a cake?
*Did anto came
here?/Did anto
come here?
*Did you swaap
the floor?Did
you sweep the
floor?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 13 errors in total. He
made errors in omission (15.38%), addition (15.38%), misselection (69.23%) and
73
misordering (0%). He made most errors in the misselection. He did misselection in past
tense and present perfect tense. Besides, he also failed to use past tense in interrogative
form. He used past participle instead of present participle. He also overgeneralized the
verb, especially in irregular verb. Here are the examples of the errors he made:
*Did he got a candy? It should be; Did he get a candy?
*Did you swaap the floor? It should be; Did you sweep the floor?
Table 4.25
Errors of Student 25 (TN)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*I had lunch/I
have had lunch
*My sister be
angry to me/
My sister has
been angry
with me.
Interlingual
Interlingual
*She has
finished her
homework just
now/She
finished her
homework just
now
*Mr. Budi tought
Math lesson
yesterday/ Mr.
Budi taught
Math lesson
yesterday.
*Did you got the
last
newspaper?/Did
you get the last
newspaper?
*Did you toke
the broom?/Did
you take the
broom?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
74
*Didn‟t you
came
late?Didn‟t you
come late?
*Did shela
sweept the
room?/Did shela
sweep the
room?
*Did your father
worked hard?/Did your
father work
hard?
*Are you
watching TV
last night?/Did
you watch TV
last night?
*When
exactly she
did went out?/When
exactly did
she go out?
Intralingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 11 errors in total. She
made errors in omission (18.18%), addition (0%), misselection (72.72%) and
misordering (9.09%). She made most errors in the misselection. She did misselection in
the interrogative form of past tense. Besides, she also made errors of misselection the
correct verb and tense. She used present continuous tense instead of past tense. Here are
the examples of the errors he made:
*Did you got the last newspaper? It should be; Did you get the last newspaper?
*Are you watching TV last night? It should be; Did you watch TV last night?
75
Table 4.26
Errors of Student 26 (SL)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*Mr. Ahmad
live in Ciputat
since year
2009.
*Mr. Ahmad
has lived in
Ciputat since
2009.
Interlingual
Interlingual
*My
grandmot
her was
died/ My
grandmot
her died.
Interlingual
*My best friend
and I knew each
other/ My best
friend and I
have known each other.
*When exactly
does she go
out?/When
exactly did she
go out?
*My uncle lived
in Jakarta for ten
years/My uncle
has lived
*He worked in
this firm for 20
years/ He has
worked
*My sister has be
a nurse/ My
sister has been a
nurse.
*They have
maked cookies
since 2010/They
have made
*You have not
cuted a paper/
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
76
You have not
cut a paper.
*The boys has
not played x
box/The boys
have not *Have the
teacher teached
English?/Has
the teacher
taught English?
* Have the
teacher teached
English?/Has
the teacher
taught English?
*Has the police
catched the
thief?/Has the
police caught
the thief?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 13 errors in total. She
made errors in omission (7.69%), addition (7.69%), misselection (84.61%) and
misordering (0%). She made most errors in the misselection. She did misselection in the
irregular verb of past tense. She overgeneralized the verb because she does not know the
past participle of certain a verb. Here are the examples of the errors she made:
*You have not cuted a paper. It should be; you have not cut a paper.
*They have maked cookies since 2010. It should be; they have made cookies since
2010.
Table 4.27
Errors of Student 27 (SS)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*When exactly
she went out?/When
Interlingual
77
exactly did
she go out?
*My best friend
and I knew each
other for over
fifteen years/My
best friend and I
have known *My brother
drunk a milk
last night/ My
brother drank
milk
*You have not
cutted your
hair/You have
not cut your
hair.
*Has the police
catched a
thief?/Has the
police caught a
thief?
*Has the teacher
teached the
student?/Has the
teacher taught
the student?
*Dina has
studied English
yesterday/ Dina
studied English
yesterday.
*Have you
watched TV
last night?/Did
you watch TV
last night?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 8 errors in total. He
made errors in omission (12.5%), addition (0%), misselection (87.5%) and misordering
(0%). He made most errors in the misselection. He did misselection in choosing simple
past tense and present perfect tense. Like the other students before, he failed to choose
78
the correct verb in either past tense or present perfect tense. Here are the examples of
the errors:
*My brother drunk milk last night. It should be; My brother drank milk last night.
*You have not cutted your hair it should be; You have not cut your hair.
Table 4.28
Errors of Student 28 (SD)
Types of Error Omission Addition Misselection Misordering Causes of
Error
*My
grandmot
her was
died
before I
was
born/My
grand
mother
died.
Interlingual
*She has
finished her
homework just
now/She
finished
*We have
waitted you in
warnet/We have
waited you
*The man has
not build a
building/ The
man has not
built
*The boys has
not played
football/The
boys have not
played
*Has the police
cought a
thief?/Has the
police caught
the thief?
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Intralingual
Interlingual
Interlingual
79
*Has the teacher
teached the
student?Has the
student taught
the student?
*I already eat
lunch/I have
had lunch.
*Do you watch
TV last
night?/Did you
watch TV last
night?
From the table above, the writer can see the student made 9 errors in total. He
made errors in omission (0%), addition (11.11%), misselection (88.89%) and
misordering (0%). He made most errors in the misselection. He did misselection of
irregular verb. He also used another tense such as present tense instead of past tense.
Here are the examples of the errors:
*Has the police cought a thief? It should be; Has the police caught the thief?
*Do you watch TV last night? It should be; Did you watch TV last night?
B. Description of Errors
The next step is description of errors. The writer described the total and the
percentage of errors in Omission, addition, misselection, and misordering. Here is the
table:
Table 4.29
Frequency of the Modification of Error and Its Percentage
Types of Error Frequency Percentage (%)
Omission 48 15.94%
Addition 34 11.30%
Misselection 214 71.09%
Misordering 5 1.67%
Total 301 100%
80
From the table above, it could be known that the total of the type of errors was
301 errors. And the table described that the errors in missselection was the most
frequent errors in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense which is
committed by the students 214 errors or 71.09%, and it was followed by omission
which consists of 48 errors or 15.94%. Then, errors in addition consisted of 34 errors or
11.30%. Last is errors in misordering, there are 5 errors or 1.67%.
From the table above the writer can conclude that the most type of errors made
by the students in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense was
misselection, which consists of 214 errors or 71.09%.
Here, the writer interpreted the errors based on its types:
1. Percentage of students„ errors based on the frequency of the types of errors
(P =
100%):
A. Omission: 48 x 100% = 15.94 %
301
B. Addition: 34 x 100% = 11.30%
301
C. Misselection: 214 x 100% = 71.09%
301
D. Misordering: 5 x 100% = 1.67%
301
81
Here is the figure of students‟ errors based on its modification type of error:
Figure 4.1
From the data it could be interpreted that the errors in missselection was the
most frequent errors in which the students committed 214 errors or 71.09%, and it was
followed by omission that consists of 48 errors or 15.94%. Then, errors in addition
consisted of 34 errors or 11.30%. Last is errors in misordering, there are 5 errors or
1.67%.
C. Explanation of Errors
This part is the explanation of the causes why the students made errors in
understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. The results come from the
instrument which has been mentioned in the previous chapter. The writer found some
evidences. Here are two main sources of errors which considered by the students.
a. Interlingual
Interlingual defined as errors which is the result of language transfer/translation
that caused by the influence of students‟ first language. Interlingual error can be called
Percentage of Students' Errors
Omission
Addition
Misselection
Misordering
82
mother tongue interference because interlingual errors happen when the mother tongue
contaminates the foreign language.
Based on error identification, the writer found that all of the students made
errors in interlingual. Most of student made errors in misselection. The student failed to
choose the correct verb in translation test. For example, she wrote *Mr. Ahmad was
lived in Ciputat since 2009 (Table 4.23). It should be; Mr. Ahmad has lived in Ciputat
since 2009. Another example is: *I was eat lunch (Table 4.13). It should be; I have had
lunch. The other examples are made by the students in addition *Dina was studied
English yesterday (Table 4.2 and 4.15). It should be; Dina studied English yesterday.
The students add auxiliary “was” because they translated it means “sudah” in
Indonesian. It could be a negative transfer of L1. These are literal translation into L2 of
the L1. In these cases, the knowledge of learners‟ language background helps
understanding what they mean. The students translated the word one by one from their
mother tongue into English.
The student also made error that caused by interlingual error in misordering. For
example, the student wrote *Why she has closed the door? (Table 4.3) It should be;
why has she closed the door? That error might occur because the student was
influenced by her mother tongue. The total of students errors caused by interlingual is
72 or 23.92%.
b. Intralingual
Intralingual error reflects the general characteristic of rule learning such as
faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions
under which rules apply.
Intralingual refers to errors caused by the lack competence of the language being
learnt, so the students will produce incomplete rule application. Then, there are items
produced by the learner that does not reflect the structure of the mother tongue, but
generalizations based on partial exposure to the target language.
The writer found that all of the students; 28 students made errors caused by
intralingual error. Most of students made errors in misselection. In some cases, students
failed to choose the correct tense either past tense or present perfect tense. Here is the
example:
83
*She has finished her homework just now.
It should be; She finished her homework just now.
Besides, most of the students overgeneralized the verb because they do not know
the past participle of a certain verb, especially in irregular verb. Here are the examples:
*you have not cuted the paper (Table 4.19).
It should be; you have not cut the paper yet.
*Raihan writed a note yesterday (Table 4.18).
It should be; Raihan wrote a note yesterday.
The student also did misselection in the auxiliary “have/has” in the present
perfect tense. Here is the example of the error:
*The man have not built a house (Table 4.5).
It should be; the man has not built a house.
The student also made error that caused by intralingual in addition at verb tense.
For example, the student wrote:
*I did not watched television (Table 4.4).
*I did not drinked water (Table 4.4).
From the examples above, the writer can see that student used past participle of
the verb in the negative form of past tense, the student add –ed which should be omitted.
It occurred might be caused by intralingual error, because student does not understand
the negative form of simple past tense. Those sentences should be;
- I did not watch television.
- I did not drink water.
The writer found that the total errors made by the students caused by
intralingual is 229 or 76.07%.
c. Context of Learning and Communication Strategies
In this research the writer did not find the errors caused by context of learning
and Communication strategies. This case may be caused by the limited skill and
knowledge of the writer. It needs a deeper and longer time to explore this case to be a
perfect research.
84
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. CONCLUSION
As it has been stated in the background of the study, the writer limited this
study into the analysis on the errors made by the first grade students of SMK Dua
Mei Ciputat at XAK class academic year 2012/2013 in understanding simple past
tense and present perfect tense.
Based on the writer’s research, there are four types of error made by the
students. The types of error which the students made the most in understanding
simple past tenses and present perfect tense is misselection errors with the total
number of error 214 errors (71.09%). The second error made the most by the
students is omission error with the total of errors 48 (15.94%). Then, addition type
of error is the third with the total of errors 34 errors (11.30%). The least error
which is made by the students is misordering type with the total of errors 5 errors
(1.67%). Regarding the source of the students’ errors, the writer found that the
errors that students made were caused by interlingual transfer and intralingual
transfer. The source of errors affecting the students most in understanding simple
past tense and present perfect tense is intralingual transfer with the total of error
229 errors (76.07%). Here is the example of the error that made by the student
which is caused by intralingual. *You have not cuted the paper. It should be;
you have not cut the paper. The student overgeneralized the verb because they
do not know the past participle of a certain verb, especially in irregular verb. The
next cause of errors affecting the student is interlingual transfer with the total of
error 72 errors (23.92%). Here is the example of the error that made by the student
caused by interlingual:*Dina was studied English yesterday. It should be; Dina
studied English yesterday. The students add auxiliary “was” because they
translate it means “sudah” in Indonesian. It can be concluded that the most errors
caused by the lack competence of the language being learnt; so the students
produced incomplete rule application, faulty generalization, and failure to learn
conditions under which rules apply.
85
B. SUGGESTION
After presenting the result of the research, the writer would like to propose
some suggestions which will be useful for both the students and the English
teachers. As for the students, they should learn more about past tenses and present
perfect tense to avoid or comitting error in both two tenses. For the teachers, they
should improve their teaching techniques by preparing systematic materials and
more practices in order to make the students understand the materials more and
also help the students to reduce the errors which are often made by them.
86
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APPENDICES
Name:
Class:
Simple past tense/ Present perfect tense
Complete the text below with the appropriate tenses !
1. Anang: Do you like the movie of “Star Wars?”
Firman: I don’t know. I (see, never) ……. that movie.
2. Sam (arrive) ……. In San Diego a week ago.
3. This tree (be) …..planted by the settlers who (find)…..our city over four hundred years
ago.
4. Stinson is a fantastic writer. He (write)……. ten creative short stories in the last year.
One day, he will be as famous as Hemingway.
5. My grandmother (die)…….before I was born. I (never, meet)…….her.
6. My best friend and I (know)……each other for over fifteen years. We still get together
once a week.
7. Anita: Is vena here?
Sonia: No, she went out
Andi: When exactly …...(she/go) out?
Sonia: about ten minutes ago.
8. My uncle (live)…….in Jakarta for ten years and after that he (move)…..to London.
9. She (finish)…….her homework just now.
10. He (work) ….. in this firm for 20 years. He still works here.
Simple Past Tense
Write 5 sentences using simple past tense in positive, negative and interrogative form!
a. Positive Form (+)
1. (Visit) =
2. (Write) =
3. (Teach) =
4. (Study) =
5. (Buy) =
b. Negative Form (-)
1. (Watch) =
2. (Finish) =
3. (Drink) =
4. (Sleep) =
5. (Call) =
c. Interrogative Form (?)
1. (Get) =
2. (Take) =
3. (Come) =
4. (Sweep) =
5. (Work) =
Present Perfect Tense
Write 5 sentences using present perfect tense in positive, negative and interrogative form!
a. Positive Form (+)
1. (I, find) =
2. (She, take a bath) =
3. (My sister, be) =
4. (We, wait) =
5. (They, make) =
b. Negative Form (-)
1. (You, cut) =
2. (He, know) =
3. (The man, build) =
4. (The boys, play) =
5. (Mila, open) =
c. Interrogative Form (?)
1. (You, study) =
2. (She, close) =
3. (The police, catch)=
4. (They, send) =
5. (The teacher, teach)=
Please, translate the sentences below into English!
1. Saya sudah makan siang.
2. Pak Ahmad sudah tinggal di Ciputat sejak tahun 2009.
3. Dia (laki-laki) sudah menunggumu selama 2 jam.
4. Dina sudah belajar bahasa inggris kemarin.
5. Apakah kamu nonton tv tadi malam?