ABSTRACT

This study aims at: (1) describing the patterns of English negation made by eighth grader (2) describing the patterns of English negation made by eleventh grader (3) describing the patterns of English negation made by university students and (4) describing the development English negation based on eighth grader, eleventh grader, and university students. This study was conducted at secondary school, high school, and academy of foreign language in Indonesia in 2016/2017 academic year. It is a cross sectional typed of study. The subjects of this study were 20 students in each academic level. The primary data were taken from a translation test.

The findings show that: (1) The pattern of negation made by eight graders is Subject + not+ verb or things being negated,? (2) The dominant pattern made by eleventh graders is S + unmarked auxiliary + not+ predicate/main verb,? (3) The dominant  pattern made  by  university  students  is  „S+ marked  auxiliary  +  not  + predicate/main verb? (4) The dominant patterns of negation shows that eighth graders are at stage 1 , eleventh graders are at 3, and university students are at 4 of developmental satges of negation proposed by Lightbown & Spada.

This study is expected to give pedagogical implications. It gives insight to the development of negation by students learning EFL. Therefore teacher will get to know the design of teaching activities and materials that is suitable for students at based on their stage of linguistic development especially negation.

Keywords: second language acquisition, negation, English as a foreign language