Error Analysis on Students' Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester

Students at English Education Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

Reki Anggara; Wennyta; Khidayatul Munawwaroh

Abstract

This research aims to find out the kind of students errors in writing narrative text in the fourth

semester students at English Education Program of Batanghari University year 2017/2018.

This research using purposive sampling to get the sample from two class and then got the 4th

semester A class with the total 25 students. In collecting the data, the instrument of this

research is writing test by using narrative text with theme exeperience during holidays. The

findings of this research showed that, the error analysis writing narrative text in language

features and generic structure. In language features, the most of errors were past tense with

4,35% percentage of error from 25 students. In generic structure, the most of errors was

spelling with 6,74% percentage of errors from 25 students and orientation no errors from 25

students. The researcher concluded that the error analysis on students’ writing narrative text

made by fourth semester students A class at english education program of Batanghari

University year 2018 is good because from 25 student only two dominant errors in narrative

text are past tense and spelling.

Keywords: Error Analysis, Writing, and Narrative Text

Introduction

English is a language that is used by

almost everyone in the world. In

Indonesia, English is the first foreign

language and its as a compulsory subject

that is learned in schools. Nowadays, not

only as a foreign language but also taught

from secondary up to university level.

English is very important for our life.

Because it isn’t foreign language anymore

but it has become the second language in

Indonesia. The goverment directly and

inderectly has introduced the importance

of English.

As second foreign language, English

takes an important place and has used

largely in many sectors of life, such as

education, culture, economic, etc. In the

field of education, English plays as the

subject, which is taught and learned by

many people. In the course of learning

English as second foreign language,

students commonly make mistakes are

producing utterances in speech and

writing. These mistakes are judged by the

rules of the foreign language.

Learning English as a foreign

language is different thing to do for the

most of Indonesian students, because it

cannot be learnt naturally as their mother

tongue. In other words, learning foreign

language means learning the dictionary,

grammar and the sound of system in that

language. The foreign language learners

will face a new language structure which is

different from the language system they

have mastered.

As one of the English skill, writing

becomes the important aspect to be taugth

in the classroom. Writing is a method of

representing language in visual or tactile.

Unfortunately, in the process of learning

writing, the students always find

difficulties because writing are really

complicated. There are many kinds of

topic that must be discussed in writing. On

of them is writing narrative text.

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

About narrative text, Knapp and

Watkins (2005:45) adds that formally,

narrative sequences people/characters in

time and space. In its most basic form, in

text types such as recounting and retelling,

the genre does little more than simply

sequence. A key characteristic for all text

types in the genre, however, is the

requirement to orient or introduce the

reader/listener to the people, time and

place in the story. The structure of

narrative is generally more complex than

the orientation and sequencing typical of

recounting.

In writing narrative text students can

express they personal experience include

thought and feelings, students can present

detail in an easy to follow sequence, use

complete sentences and almost free of

error. (Pardiyono, 2007:55) “Writing

Narrative is kind of text to tell the

activities or events in the past, which give

priority to the problematic experience and

resolution with the purpose to amuse and

often be intended to give moral lesson for

the reader”. Narrative usually tell story

about fable, fairy tale, legend of folktale.

The social function of narrative text is to

amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or

various experience in different ways.

Even college students still feel

difficult in writing narrative text. after the

researcher made observation on the

students of English education at

Batanghari University, there are still many

students make mistakes in writing

narrative text. The students who learn

English may produce many error in their

writing such as tense. Even though they

have studied English for many years and

have mastered the grammar, they still

make many errors when they write. it

means grammatical knowledge is needed

for writing.

Based on the reason above, the

writer is interested in analyzing the error in

writing this Thesis Titled “Error Analysis

on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text

Made by Fourth Semester Students at

English Education Program of Batanghari

University Year 2017/2018”. The

researcher would like to focus in analyzing

the error in writing narrative text focus on

language features and generic structure

made by fourth semester students at

english education program of Batanghari

University. This research would like to

identify the kind of students errors in

writing narrative text focus on language

features and generic structure in the

students at English Education Program of

Batanghari University year 2017/2018 ?

Narrative Text

According to Meyers (2005 : 52)

states that narrative is one of the most

powerful ways ofcommunicating with

others. A good written story lets your

reader response to some event inyour life

as if it were own. They not only

understand the event, but they can almost

feel it. Pratyasto (2011: 39) states that a

narrative text is a kind of texts which tells

a series actions from time to time that is

outlined through early action, cfrisi actions

and then resolution. This text is to

entertain the readers and even sometimes

the takemakes the readers are experiencing

themselves the action told in the story.

Meanwhile, Knapp and Watkins

(2005 : 44) adds that formally, narrative

sequencespeople/characters in time and

space. In its most basic form, in text types

such as recountingand retelling, the genre

does little more than simply sequence. A

key characteristic for all texttypes in the

genre, however, is the requirement to

orient or introduce the reader/listener to

thepeople, time and place in the story. The

structure of narrative is generally more

complex thanthe orientation and

sequencing typical of recounting.

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

Based on some opinion above

researcher concludes that Narrative is a

story that is created in a constructive

format that describes a sequence of

fictional or non –fictional events. Narrative

text involves writing about an event or a

series of events, real or fictitious, the

logical arrangement of idea and sentences

in narrative text is chronological according

to time order. Fictional prose, such as

novels and short stories is the example

form of narrative text. Social functions of

the narrative text are to amuse, entertain

and to deal with actual or vicarious

experience in different ways. Narrative

deals with problematic events which lead

to a crisis and then turns into resolution or

solution to the problem.

The Language Feature of Narrative

Text

According to Pardiyono (2007: 97),

some of language features of writing

narrative text consist of Past tense,

Adjective, Adverb and Conjunction.

a. Past tense

One of the most frequently used

tense to tell about past activities or events

is past tense. It is marked with the use of

past tense verbs in predicate.

Example:

– We left for Yogyakarta at about 7:00.

– They watched the movie last week.

b. Adjective

The language feature of narrative

text is by using adjective with the purpose

is for showing the personal attitude, for

example: frightened, quite, calm, worried,

confused, anxious, happy, beautiful, etc.

c. Adverb

Adverb plays important in its role

of contributing for better clarity of the

message conveyed in the sentence. It can

express the information about time, place,

reason, purpose, status, and frequency. Lot

of adverbs is marked with the use of

prepositions: in, at, after, as, to, as, etc.

Adverb can be in the form of word or

phrase.

Example:

- My teacher always speak English

- Please stand over there

d. Conjunction

A sentence is a group of words that

contains a subject and verb to express

acomplete thought, which begins with

capital letter and ended with period. A

sentencecan be formed from one or two

clauses that joined with conjunctions or

relativeconnectors.

Example:

- He couldn’t go because he was ill.

- She is not American but British.

The Generic Structure of Narrative

Text

Pratyasto (2011: 39) adds the generic

structure of narrative text include

orientation, complication and resolution.

a. Orientation: As the first stage,

orientations which introduce the major

characters, the topic of story and

established setting – time and place that

the story happens.

b. Complication: As the second stage,

complication which is the series action

unfold. This stage contains the event falls

on the major characters and explains a

conflict among the characters. The conflict

can be shown naturally, socially, or

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

psychologically. He adds that complication

is the main element in the narrative text.

c. Resolution: In this stage, the conflict

crisis or crisis is resolved, and all things

return to normal. The thing is related

whether the characters are success or not,

but the main point is that the appeared-

conlfict has become extinct.

Furthermore, there some mechanics

aspects when we want to write narrative

text, there are: spelling, punctuation and

capitalization.

a. Spelling

Harmer (2004:12) says that spelling

is one factor of writing. A good spelling

makes meaningful writing. It will

influence the meaning of the sentence;

misspelling will change the meaning of the

words.

b. Punctuation

According to Memering and O’Hare

(1980: 401-421) state that one of the best

tools a writer has ispunctuation. They add

that with a view small signal, the writer

can tell the reader how to interpret the

ideas on the page and how to understand

the relationships among them. There are

dozen significant marks in the punctuation

system, they are:

a. Period (.): Open the window, please.

b. Question mark (?): Is he a student?

c. Exclamation mark (!): Be careful!

d. Comma (,): Mary, by the way, received

your mail last night.

e. Semicolon (;): The pianist was very ill,

therefore, the concert was cancelled.

f. Colon (:) The following words are

conjunction: and, but, or, …

g. Quotation mark (“…”): “I am going for

a walk,” she said.

h. Apostrophe (‘): Can’t you run faster?

i. Parentheses ((…)): If it rain (and we

hope it doesn’t), the picnic will be

cancelled.

j. Dash (---): There are four skills in

English—listening, speaking, reading, and

writing.

k. Triple dots (…): The most important

part of speech is the verb …

l. Hyphen (-): Forty-three plus twenty-nine

equals seventy two.

c. Capitalization

Memering and O’Hare (1980: 438)

says that the basis rule, to which there are

very few exceptions, it to capitalize “first”

words and words that are considered

proper names or titles. They have three

main purposes; to let the reader know a

sentence is beginning, to show important

words in a title, and to signal proper names

and official titles.

Example: I go to school every day.

My father and Mr. Robin arrived in Jakarta

at 19.00 o’clock

Research Methodology

In this research the researcher uses

descriptive method. According to

Sugiyono (2008: 28) Descriptive method is

kind that collected like words, pictures.

The data come from interview, document,

note and so on. This aim is to describe

systematically a situation or area of

interest factually and accurately. In the

relation to defenition above, the researcher

attempts to describe the errors analysis in

writing narrative text from documentation

and analysis the possible of the errors. The

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

setting of the research is at Batanghari

University in the student English

Education Program year 2017/2018.

In this research, the researcher uses

purposive sampling. According Crossman

(2017) purposive sampling is a non

probability sample thai is selected based

on characteristics of a population and the

objective of the study. Purposive sampling

is also known as judgemental, selective, or

subjective sampling. This type of sampling

can be very useful in situation when you

need to reach a targeted sample quickly,

and where sampling for propotionality is

not the main concern. The 4th semester of

students english education program have

two classes, A class with 25 students and

B class with 7 students. Researcher choose

A class as a proportional sample because B

class less number of student than A class.

To collect the data of this research, the

researcher used test method. According to

Arikunto (2006:53) the test is a tool or

produce use to determine or measure

something in the atmosphere, the way and

the rules has been determined. The

researcher will give the test one times, the

student will make a narrative text with the

theme of “experience during holidays”.

Findings and Discussion

The researcher found the result

percentages of two types of the errors

made by the fourth semester students at

english education program Batanghari

University. The result total percentage of

errors in students’ writing narrative text

are :

Table 1. Total Percentages types of

errors in language features made by the

students in writing narrative text

Types of

Errors

Frequenc

y of

Score

Percenta

Past Tense

4,35 %

Adjective

4,20 %

Adverb

3,73 %

Conjuncti

3,77 %

Source : result of research

Based on the explanation above, the

researcher found that first, the biggest total

percentage of the errors in language

feature made by the students writing

narrative text was past tense. Second, the

middle total percentage of the errors made

by the students was adjective. Third, the

smallest total percentage made by the

students was adverb.

Table 2. Total Percentages types of

errors in Generic structure features

made by the students in writing

narrative text

Types of

Errors

Frequen

cy of

Score

Percenta

Orientation

100

0 %

Complicati

5,70 %

Resolution

5,82 %

Spelling

6,74 %

Punctuation

6,30 %

Capitalizati

6,07 %

Source : result of research

Based on the explanation above, the

researcher found that first, the biggest total

percentage of the errors in generic

structure made by the students writing

narrative text was spelling. Second, the

middle total percentage of the errors made

by the students was punctuation. Third, the

smallest total percentage made by the

students was orientation.

Kinds of Error in Language Features

a. Kinds of error in Past tense

Example in Student 7:

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

Last year, I got a fantastic holiday. I

visited some great places.

I went to an airport and was going to fly to

dubai. I was spending there three days. I

like to around the town and see some great

places.

Then, i went to Burj Khalifa. Burj khalifa

is a famous tower in Dubai. It had become

world-famous as the tallest building in

United Arab Emirates. I did not want to

leave but I had too. After that, I went to the

Dubai mall, I know as the home of the

Dubai shopping festival is one of the

world’s largest shopping malls in United

Arab Emirates.

The last, I went to the Dubai fountain.

Dubai fountain is attraction fountain that

is one famous place in Dubai. Also known

as a dancing fountain. The place made me

feel at home but I have to go home. Next

time I would return to them.

Based on example above, it can be

conclude that the sentence “see” in

paragraph one it should be “saw”. The

sentence “know” in paragraph two it

should be “ known”. The sentence “feel”

in paragraph three it should be “felt”.

b. Kinds of error in Adjective

Example in student 22:

The last college holiday, I spend the

time with my family on vacation to

relative’s house in madiun, approximately

6 hour by bus from our home in jambi.

On the way there, we saw many

beautiful views such as rice field,

mountain, etc. Having arrived at the uncle

house, we were greeted by our relatives

who had not met us for a long time. The

next day. We walked around the town of

madiun untill the got sky dark.

On the next day, I forgot that it was

the new years sudenly one of my cousin

come and asked me to celebrate the new

year’s eve together. At night we went

together with him to the center of madiun.

Wow so really view of beautiful in here.

We played together and watched the

fireworks in the sky the night.

Based on example above, it can be

conclude that the sentence “the got sky

dark “ it should be “the sky got dark”. The

sentence “view of beautiful”,it should be

“beautiful view”.

c. Kinds of error in Adverb

Example in student 6:

Last mont I went to jogjakarta. I

visited various places. One of them to the

Malioboro area. There I also met my

friend who happened to be studying in

Jogja. He took me around the place in

Malioboro.

He also invited me to go to

Magelang. To take a walk to Borobudur

temple and to Prambanan temple. There is

the most beautiful place to pamper the eye.

Incidentally on Borobudur newly opened

ship museum. There is a history of ships.

The most unique is the history of dames

that docked around the world.

After goimg to Magelang I went back

to Malioboro to buy some food and

clothes. Dont forget I bought a souvenir to

be brought back again to Jambi.

Based on example above, it can be

conclude that the sentence “Incidentally on

Borobudur” it should be “Incidentally in

Borobudur”.

d. Kinds of error in Conjuction

- Example in student 12:

On the second day, all of us went to

Malioboro street. We saw so many

merchant with various of product which

they claim to be a traditional product of

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

Yogyakarta. I bought some wooden

figurine and T-shirt with the word

‘Yogyakarta’ on it, my sister bought some

leather handbag. My mom and dad were

busy choosing some merchadise to be

brought home when we go back.

Based on example above, it can be

conclude that the sentence “the word

‘Yogyakarta’ on it, my sister bought some

leather handbag” it should be the word

‘Yogyakarta’ on it, and my sister bought

some leather handbag” because added

“and” .

Kinds of error in Generic Structure

a. Kinds of error in complication

Example in student 10:

Sentence : The last college holiday, I

spend the time with my family on vacation

to relative’s house in madiun.

Apporoximately 6 hours by bus from our

home in jambi.

Based on example above, it can be

conclude that orientation part contains

time and place where the story happened,

characters inside, and the situation there.

But in the sentence above still less

sentences.

b. Kinds of error in resolution

Example in student 6:

Sentence : One week in Bali passed

quickly, at the end of seven day. We were

pretty tired but we feel very happy.

Based on example above, it can be

conclude that the resolution part of his

story was not composed well. The students

didn’t write the resolution part in sequence

and directly gave the ending of the story.

c. Kinds of error in spelling

Example in student 6:

In the text, the researcher found

errors in paragraph one. “ last mont I went

to Jogjakarta. “ it should be last month I

went to Jogjakarta.

d. Kinds of error in punctuation

Example in student 9:

Last mont I went to Sumatera Barat with

my family. We went to use the minibuses.

On our journey throught various

adventures, such as deflated tires, leaking

tires and running out of oil. But that is all

we passed together so it does not feel tired

and finally got there.

When we got there, we headed straight to

the lake Singkarak which is located in

Solok area. In lake Singkarak we sit back

while enjoying the beach breeze. After

that, we continued the trip to Istano Basa

pagaruyung. In here we can see historical

relics of society Sumatra Barat, and then

we went to Air manis beach. Wow …… so

really beautiful view in here.

After finished around padang city we

finally go back to Jambi City. END…

Based on example above, researcher

found one mistakes. it can be conclude that

the sentence must should be “comma (,)”.

The right sentence is “After finished

around padang city, we finally go back to

Jambi City”.

e. Kinds of error in capitalization

Example student 3:

My family and I went to my grandmother’s

house in yogyakarta last month. It was my

first trip to this city. We went there two

days after my sister’s graduation

ceremony in Semarang. We arrived at

Yogyakarta at night. We spent a week

staying in my grandmother’s house which

is 5 minutes away by foot to Malioboro

street.

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 2 No. 2 Tahun 2018

Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

Based on example above, researcher

found one mistake. it can be conclude that

the word “yogyakarta” it should be

Yogyakarta.

Conclusions

Based on the result of the analysis, it

can be concluded that :

1. The result of this research have

provided information about what

kind of error analysis writing

narrative text made by the fourth

semester students at English

education program of Batanghari

university year 2017/2018.

2. There are some common errors

made by the students in writing

narrative text such as language

feature and generic structure. In

language feature some errors there

are past tense, adjective, adverb

and conjunction. In generic

structure some errors there are

complication, resolution,

punctuation and capitalization.

3. In some of these errors are grouped

into the types of errors, such as

language feature and generic

structure. The most common errors

in language feature writing

narrative text is past tense. It can

show the total score of errors from

25 students are 84 scores, and the

percentage is about 4,35%. The

most common score of errors in

generic structure writing narrative

text is spelling. It can show the

total errors from 25 students are 82

errors and the percentage is about

6,74%.

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Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Narrative Text Made by Fourth Semester Students at English Education

Study Program of Batanghari University Year 2017/2018

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