Analysis On Students’ Ability To Identify Correct And Erroneous Language Features Of Descriptive Text By The First Grade Students Of Sma Negeri 5 Surakarta Academic Year 2008/2009

Oleh :
Tetri Nur Hidayah - K2205020 - Fak. KIP

This thesis is written to achieve some objectives as follows: (1) To get a clear description about the students’ problem in identifying language features of Descriptive text, (2) To know the highest percentage of the errors types, (3) To know the distribution of errors on the students’ work. The method used in this study is descriptive method. The research was carried out at SMA Negeri 5 Surakarta, on May 8th, 2009. The population of the research is the first grade students of academic year 2008/2009 that of class X-9. There are 37 students used as the sample. Random sampling by lottery is used to get the sample. To get the data, the writer uses test as the instrument, i.e an essay test. The total number of items is 40. The six types of the language features of Descriptive text are observed. Based on the collected data, there are 686 errors found in the students’ worksheets (46,35%). The writer finds that there are 191 grammar errors (27,84%) out of the total number of error, 187 appropriateness errors (27,25%) out of the total number of errors, and 308 grammar errors and appropriateness errors (44,89%) out of the total number of error. Language features in this study are limited to tenses, preposition, agreement, noun phrase, vocabulary, spelling and capitalization. The six types of errors having the highest frequency are: 107 errors in tenses (7,22%), 88 errors in preposition (5,94%), 112 errors in agreement (7,56%), 104 errors in noun phrase (7,02%), 140 errors in vocabulary (9,45%), 40 errors in spelling (2,70%), 95 errors in capitalization (6,41%). From the frequency, the writer can identify the students’ mastery as high as 53,7%. Referring to Suharsimi’s opinion, it is classified as poor. This analysis is very useful for the teacher and students. It helps the students to know their weaknesses and difficulties in developing English grammar and structure, especially in developing language features of Descriptive text. The number of errors, indicate the effectiveness of teacher’s teaching technique. Teacher also can plan and determine an effort in teaching process to minimize the errors.