An Error Analysis On The Appropriateness Of Word Choice In Written Text By The Second Semester Students Of English Education Department Of Teacher Training And Education Faculty Of Sebelas Maret University In The Academic Year 2012/2013

Oleh :
Nia Annisa Fitri - K2209066 - Fak. KIP

The objectives of this research are to investigate (1) the appropriateness of word choice and its features written by students and (2) the causes of errors performed by the students in terms of the appropriateness of word choice in their written texts. The research is a descriptive qualitative research, carried out from March to June 2013 at English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret University. The population was all of the second semester students of English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret University. The sample of 20 students was taken by using cluster sampling technique. The instruments used to obtain the data were test and interview. The test was used to obtain data of errors while the interview was used to obtain the source of errors data. The technique to analyze the data was error analysis suggested by Corder (in Ellis 1994: 48). The research suggests that 90.55% of students’ errors do not hinder readers’ comprehension however violate readers’ expectation towards the text and the validity of the content. Students made deviations in word choice because of influences of interlingual transfer (14.01%). The use of translation method in producing text and use only bilingual dictionaries are the main problem in this area. The biggest influence in students’ production of errors is intralingual transfer (82.35%). Students’ word choice deviations are categorized into categories of overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rule, and semantic error. The smallest influence is communication strategies (1.29%). The last influence is the word choice category itself: logicality, overlap, and topic knowledge. This plays quite significant role since it influences 14.61% of total errors. Considering that word choice is important in language learning, teachers need to encourage students to interact more in English language context and increase their willingness to learn by they own inside or outside classroom. Students should also increase their interaction in English language by reading or listening a lot to authentic material. Therefore, students ability in choosing appropriate word choice will increase and thus students will be able to produce a good text, especially written text. Keywords: errors, error analysis, word choice, written texts