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