Abstrak
This research aims at: (I) knowing the types of errors made by the first grade students of MAN 2 Jepara, (2) knowing the percentage of errors made by the first grade students of MAN 2 Jepara, and (3) knowing the causes of errors made by the first grade students of MAN 2 Jepara.
The method used in this research is descriptive method. The research was carried out at the first grade students of MAN 2 Jepara on May 5th, 2012. From the population, there were 24 students of class X (I) taken as the sample by using cluster random sampling. In collecting the data, the writer used writing test on recount text. Then, the data are analyzed by using error analysis procedure which consists of: collecting the data, identifying students' errors, classifying errors, explaining errors based on their sources, and evaluating errors.
The result of the study shows that the errors made by the students based on linguistic category are classified into errors in morphology, errors in syntax, errors in meaning and vocabulary, and errors in mechanics. The writer found 523 total errors consisting of 13 or 2.49% errors in morphology, 312 or 59.66% errors in syntax, 159 or 30.40% errors in meaning and vocabulary, and 39 or 7.45% errors in mechanics. Error in syntax is the most frequent errors made by the students. It is followed by error in mechanics, error in vocabulary and meaning, and the last is error in morphology.
The factors causing errors made by the first grade students of MAN 2 Jepara are: (I) Interlingual transfer which is caused by the interference of their mother tongue, (2) Intralingual transfer which is a negative transfer within the target language (English), and (3) Context of learning that deals with the teacher and its material in the case of teaching and learning. Thus, the teacher should minimize the cause of errors by considering those causes and try to overcome students' problem in writing especially in linguistic aspect.
Keywords : error analysis, recount text
