1

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
English as international language is important to learn by students. Although in
Indonesia, English still as a foreign language because they do not use English in
daily life, it have special role to engage them with globalization era. So then,
students are supposed to master four skills in learning English. Those are listening
and reading as the receptive skills, while speaking and writing as the productive
skills.
Unfortunately, writing is generally recognized as a difficult task for almost
of ESL and EFL students (Thonus,1993:15; Rosa,2007; Richard and
Renadya,2002, as cited in Lopa, 2012:164). And supported with the statement that
writing is different from other skills; it can be said as the combination of all skills
(Heaton, 1975:127). Halliday (1985b) as cited in Nunan (1991) also stated that
writing has evolved in societies as a result of cultural changes creating
communicative needs which cannot be readily met by the spoken language(p.84).
It means that writing can be the main reason how important it is in the society as a
need to communicate in the written form and fulfill the communicative need
indirectly. Differ with the spoken language, writing have their level of difficulties
to put the words so it formed in a correct structure and meaning which
understandable to others. Although there are three others skill should be mastered
by the learners, writing can be the most influence factor. By writing the words that
represent the thought, the students can develop their idea clearer than other skill. It
is followed by the explanation from Ghaith (2002) in Galuh (2008) stated that
writing is about more than making our thoughts and ideas visible and concrete.
Based on that writing skill not only about write anything, but it also about the
delivering thought and idea into words, sentences and texts so that the other can
read and know what really idea of the learners want to share.
The learners who want mastering writing skill should be able to
understand the structure or the component of writing. But there are some mistakes
or errors commonly found in English writing skill. The learners cannot write

perfectly so that any mistakes they made in their writing. And the errors made
become the essence of writing that should be learnt by teacher. Dulay (1982)
writes:
People cannot learn language without first systematically
committing errors. Studying learners errors serves two major
purposes: (1) it provides data from inferences about the nature of
the language learning process can be made, and (2) it indicates to
teachers and curriculum developers which part of the target
language students have most difficulty producing correctly and
which error types detract most from a learners ability to
communicate effectively.(p.138)a
It means that the errors made by the EFL or ESL learners are naturally in writing.
Because in learning language, studying the learner errors is beneficial for the
teacher and the learners itself to determine, evaluate, and develop their teaching
writing class process. While the written become more complexity than spoken, the
learners need to write fluently and expressively. Therefore, the researcher needs to
analyze the errors made by the students in writing text and also the writing class
process.
When the English students want to improve their skill in writing, they
must pay attention to the grammatical aspect of their writing. According to Knapp
& Watkins (2005:17) stated that the students should be able use the codes of
writing (genres and grammar) effectively and efficiently in their written text. This
statement give us the understanding that in writing the learners need to pay
attention to the genres of their text and how about the grammar use of their
written text. Therefore, each of genres in writing have the distinction of grammar
one another. This distinction may be caused by the purpose of the genres and the
language features of it.
The genre of English writing was divided into five, those are describe,
explain, instruct, argue, and narrate. Knapp and Watkins (2005) said that the genre
of narrating is the most commonly read by the students or young learner. The texts
which include to this genre are Narrative and Recount text. Both of the texts have
its own grammatical features that students must know. Therefore, the researcher
interest to know the students ability in writing narrative text then analyze it to
identify how far they do the mistakes in their written narrative text.

Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982:146) stated that they have reviewed the
most useful and commonly used bases for the descriptive classification of error
which are linguistic category, surface strategy, comparative analysis and
communicative affect. It means that those kinds of descriptive classification to
identify the errors made by the students will help the researcher to find out and
identify the errors specifically. Analyzing errors from a surface strategy
perspective holds much promises for researchers concerned with identifying
cognitive processes that underlie the learners reconstruction of the new
language.(Dulay, Burt, and Krashen, 1982, p.150). The surface strategy will help
the identification of errors made become easier for both the researcher and the
teacher. It holds a large result to conclude the students cognitive process in
learning english as second language especially in writing. It is support the
researcher to use the surface strategy taxonomy from Dulay to seek and analyze
the students narrative text written.
The study was conducted by Annisa Istiqamah Nur Aqilah et al (2012)
related to the surface strategy taxonomy analysis. It was entitled Dulays Surface
Strategy Taxonomy on the Selected Texts of the Bilingual Biology Textbook: A
Study of Error Analysis in Translation. The result showed that in the bilingual
book, there are still some erronouses done by the translator. If the translator of
book can do the erronouses, the possible case may happened to the English
learners who translating their idea into English as their target language. They were
analyzed the bilingual book using surface strategy taxonomy and give the
conclusion related to the most frequent error happened. They were also give the
contribution to the further researcher who want to conduct the similar study to
make a better understanding in Surface Strategy Taxonomy analysis.
As an elaboration from those explanations above the researcher aware the
difficulties of transferring language from Source Language (SL) into Target
Language (TL) which possible happen to the learners when they are trying to
translate in writing form. Therefore, the researcher becomes interest to analyze the
students writing which focus on the narrative text as an object. The researcher
will use larger sample and believe that it will give the valid generalization in study
learners errors. The sample will be taken from young learner students who have

already study English. The source of data is conducted from two schools as
subjects which have the similar curriculum and similar level of grade. SMPN 1
Cerme and SMPN 2 Cerme are chosen as the source of collecting data here. The
researcher chooses both of schools because these schools have the similar
classification and level in a same region with the difference teacher. Therefore, the
researcher will identify and compare the errors made by the students from both of
the school which have the different teacher one another. From the result of
identification that will be done, the researcher can see the cause of errors made by
the students. That is why the title of this study is Surface Strategy Taxonomy
Analysis in Narrative Text Written by The Students of Junior High School.
1.2 Statement of The Problem
Based on the background of the study above, the problem statement of this study
can be stated as follows:
a. What is the frequency of the occurrence of errors from the students written
text made by the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 1 Cerme and SMP Negeri 2
Cerme based on surface strategy taxonomy?
b. What type of error commonly made by the students of SMP Negeri 1 Cerme
and SMP Negeri 2 Cerme based on surface strategy taxonomy?
c. What is the cause of error made by the students of SMP Negeri 1 Cerme and
SMP Negeri 2 Cerme?
1.3 Purpose of The Study
Based on the statement of the problem above, the purpose of this study can be
stated as follows:
a. To know the frequencies of the occurrence of errors from the students written
text made by the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 1 Cerme and SMP Negeri 2
Cerme based on surface strategy taxonomy?
b. To describe and explain the type of error commonly made by the students of
SMP Negeri 1 Cerme and SMP Negeri 2 Cerme based on surface strategy
taxonomy?
c. To describe and explain the cause of error made by the students of SMP
Negeri 1 Cerme and SMP Negeri 2 Cerme?

1.4 Significance of The Study

Theoretically, this study may confirm the theory of Surface Strategy Taxonomy
proposed by Dulay et al (1982) in analyzing the errors of written text made by the
students.
Practically, the result and suggestion of this study are expected to be used as a
consideration for:
a. The teachers in preparing the teaching material about writing. So that, the
teacher will know how far the learners progress in the writing class. The
teacher also can help the students become aware to the elements of language
features in writing narrative text.
b. The students who will know their errors made and they will try to develop
their knowledge about writing narrative text for further writing assignments.
c. The researcher in gathering the information about students error in writing
and achieving the purpose of this study in error analysis of EFL context.
d. Further researcher who interested in text analysis may use this study as
reference with the similar object but using another type of taxonomy as
distinguishes or vice versa.
1.5 Definition of Key Terms
a. Errors Analysis in Writing

: error analysis

is the study and analysis of the errors made by

the second and foreign language learners.
(Richard 1985:96)
b. Narrative Text
: text which relates a series of
logically and chronologically related events
that are caused or experienced by factors.
(Rebecca, 2003)
c. Surface Strategy Taxonomy

: taxonomy

classify the errors based on the omit, add,

misform and misorder the item. (Dulay et al,
1982)
d. The Cause of Errors

: the possible reason

why the errors happen, the causes of errors are

divided into two categories, interference and
intralingual.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW AND RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Narrative Text
The narrative series and processes are sequential that is organized by time, one
event in the story, one step in the process happening after the other. Zaimar and
Harahap (2009:47) point out that a narrative text is a signed by the chronological
use of time. Followed by the assumption of Rebecca (2003) who said that a
narrative text is a text which relates a series of logically and chronologically
related events that are caused or experienced by factors. It can be conclude that
the narrative is a genre text which consists of events in the story and happening in
the past time then the writer of narrative text should be write it logically and
chronologically.
2.1.1

The Generic Structure of Narrative Text

Generic structure is thing that should contain in writing genre of text. It

distinguishes one text genre to another. So that, every genre of text has its own
generic structure as a characteristic of writing text genre. Peter Knapp (1994) have
pointed out that narrative have many of the basic features of recounts, textually
they set up a complexity of some sort that must be resolved. That is why between
recounts and narrative they are little different in the term of basic structure but
they are similar in the term of narrating text.
Knapp and Watkins (1994) give the brief generic structure into
Orientation, Sequence of events and Resolution. They also stated that the
complication stage of simple narrative need not be a single problem or
complexity. This stage can also include reflection on the problem and possible
solutions. So that, the generic structure of narrative text can be conclude as below:
Orientation
Sequence of events
Resolution
2.1.2

The Language Feature of Narrative Text

Orientation
Problems
Solutions
Resolutions

Beside the generic structure, in writing genre of text, it needs to pay attention at
the language features of it. The language features of text become the guideline for
the writer to produce the sentence in every generic structure. The language
features of Narrative text can be said as the grammatical features. Anderson and
Peter (2003) give the grammatical features of narrating as follows:
a. When sequencing people and events in time and space, narrating typically
-

uses action verbs and temporal conjuction.

Action verbs
Example : One day the man and his son went collecting fire-wood. They saw
a golden tree. They went slowly over to the tree. When they got

closer to the tree they heard a voice coming from the tree.
Temporal conjuction
Example : We then looked at some games and equipment. After lunch we

walked up to the Sydney Morning.

b. Typically written in the past tense unless quoting direct speech.
Example : They were poor because their pog ate them out of house and home
and he did not share with the other animals. His name was Bob.
You should go on a diet said Clarabelle.
c. In action sequences, mainly action verbs (bold) are used, while it
reflections/evaluations, mental verbs (underlined) predominate.
Example : Bells were ringing, sirens screeching and people were running
everywhere.
Maria didnt know what to do next. She thought about her mother
and wondered what was in her head.
d. Often use action verbs methaporically to create effective images, e.g:
Example : It was a terrible argument. Words were flying everywhere.
2.2 Error Analysis
Study of error analysis commonly use for the productive skill in language
learning. It can be spoken or written form. The error analysis in writing used to
reach the purpose of communicative English teaching in the term of students
performance in writing ability as productive skill in L2 acquisition. It is can give
the information both to the teacher and students about the writing achievement in
the class.
2.2.1

The Concept of Error Analysis

The errors are usually made by the learners either EFL or ESL. It is in line with
the statement from Richard et al (1985:96) error analysis is the study and
analysis of the errors made by the second and foreign language learners. Then,
followed by the statement related to the error analysis from Corder (1987), error
analysis has to do with investigation of the language of the second language. Both
of theories give us the brief explanation about error analysis in a general
definition. It can be conclude that error analysis is the act to analyze and
investigate the errors made whether the errors done by the second or foreign
language. So, the error analysis is the general way to investigate the students of
EFL or ESL occurrence do errors in their language. The errors are made by the
students is the natural problem and be certain for language learning.
To analyze the errors, there are some step should be followed to get the
effective and systematic result. However, to analyze the students writing, some
rules are needed to follow then the teacher can found the result of analysis
systematically. According to Brown (1980:166) stated that the soncept of error
analysis is observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system
operating within the learner, led the surge of study of learners errors. The brief
statement gave the simple rule which should be done when analyzing the errors.
So then, similar with the errors analysis in writing, those rules are needed too.
Observed the students written text, then analyzed it to found what are the errors
made, then classified the errors found to conclude the students ability in writing
is the general system of errors analysis.
Richards & Schmidt (2010:201) state that error analysis is the study of
errors made by the second and foreign language learners. Error analysis may be
carried out in order to : a) find out strategies which the learners use in language
learning, b) find out the cause of the learners errors, and c) obtain information on
common difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or in preparing
teaching materials. This definition of error analysis show the purpose of error
analysis which help the language teacher to determine the students ability in
applied their language learning whether in second or foreign language. Not only
that, the language teacher also can see whether the strategies of teaching is

10

effective or not. So that, the teacher can gain the information of students
difficulties to understand the language material. The error analysis can give the
evidence for the teacher to measure their students competence in producing
foreign language.
2.2.2

The Types of Error Analysis

Dulay et al (1982:146) describe the types of error into four classifications that are:
1) Linguistic category, this taxonomy classify errors according to either or both
the language component or the particular linguistic constituent the error
affects.
2) Surface strategy, this taxonomy highlights the ways surface structures will be
altered : learners may omit necessary items or add unnecessary ones; they
may misform items or misorder them
3) Comparative analysis, this taxonomy classify the errors based on comparisons
between the structure of L2 errors and certain other types of construction.
4) Communicative effect, this taxonomy deals with errors from the perspective
of their effect on the listener or reader.
Those descriptive taxonomies is guided by two major purposes which are to
present error categories which rely solely on observable characteristics for their
definition and to report the findings of research conducted to date with respect to
error types observed.
According to that classification of errors types and the major purposes,
the writer conclude that the types of error was classified systematically and the
teacher can use those kind of types to identify and analyze the students error in
their productive skill like writing and speaking. Because here the writer only
focusing to analyze the written text produced by the students, so the types of error
is needed to identify the errors made in the use of language features
systematically.
Those types of error are good and recommended for the teacher to analyze
students writing. But in this study the writer focus in the surface strategy
taxonomy to analyze the students written text because this type of error give more
contributions to this research than other types of errors. It is related to the purpose

11

of this study which to gain the information of students occurrence in making

errors in their written text based on surface strategy taxonomy.
2.3 Surface Strategy Taxonomy
The surface strategy taxonomy is proposed by Dulay et al (1982:150) who point
out that this taxonomy classify the errors based on the omit, add, misform and
misorder the item. It have noticed that however the error analysis type is, this kind
of taxonomy is specific and systematic ways which enumerated briefly by look at
the surface elements of a language. Errors may be happened not because of the
students laziness or mistake thinking about the language features they produce,
but it may cause the learners use to keep in touch with the foreign or second
language. That is why, Dulay (1982) have been pointed out the surface structure
into 4 classifications which are Omission, Addition, Misformation and
Misordering. Below, it will be described more about those four of surface
structure below.
1. Omission
Dulay (1982:154) described omission errors are characterized by the absence
of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance. Although any
morpheme or word in a sentence is a potential for omission, some types of
morphemes are omitted more than others. The learners more omitted any item
of morpheme whether in spoken or written so the sentence seems that it loss
such important item which have minor role in conveying the meaning of it.
Example : Mary president new company. (incorrect)
Mary is the president of the new company. (correct)
From the example, it seems that the writer omit the grammatical morpheme of
is, the, of and the. Thus, the writer did the omission 4 times in a sentence.
2. Addition
Addition errors are the opposite of omissions. They are characterized by the
presence of an item which must not appear in a well-formed utterance.
There are three types of addition errors in the speech of both L1 and L2
learners:
a. Double Markings

12

Many addition errors are more accurately described as the failure to delete
certain items which are required in some linguistic construction, but not in
others. For Example:
I didnt go
Another example is the learners who often place the marker on both
auxiliary and verb, as in:
Incorrect
: He doesnt knows my name
Correct
: He does not know my name
b. Regularization
This rule is kind of the linguistics items such as the errors happen in the
class of main verbs or the class of nouns.For example:
the verb eat does not become eated, but ate;
the noun sheep is also sheep in the plural, not sheeps.
The example showed that learners apply the rules to produce the regular
verb to that irregular one, and regular plural markers s have been added
to singular items which do not take marker even though the words
become plural.
c. Simple Addition
This addition errors type is the grab bag of errors item which include to
the addition but not a double marking nor a regularization. No particular
feature of this type but, if there are some words that are adding some
items which not necessary in the morpheme belong this sub-type of
addition.
3. Misformation
Misformation errors are characterized by the use of the wrong form of the
morpheme or structure. The learner supplies something although it is
incorrect. For example:
Incorrect : He is licking hisself.
Correct : He is licking himself.
It seems like similar to the omissions which omit the morpheme, or to the
addition, but this type are usually not random.
Three types of misformations have been frequently reported in the literature
such as regularization errors, archi-forms, and alternative archi. But, the basic
of misformation itself commonly happen to the errors of words form and the
use of it in the grammatical sentence.
4. Misordering

13

Misordering errors are characterized by the incorrect placement of a

morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance. For example:
Incorrect : I do not know what is daddy doing.
Correct : I do not know what daddy is doing.
Students have made written misordering errors that are word-for-word
translations of native language surface structures ((Duskova, 1969 cited in
Dulay 1982:163). For example:
I met there some Germans.
and phrases such as:
Another my friend.
2.4 The Causes of Error
According to Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005:65), Brown (2000:224), and Norrish
(1983:22-25), the causes of errors are divided into two categories. They are
interference and intralingual. Interference errors are made under the influences of
the mother-tounge. They are seen as a process in which learners use their
knowledge of the first language in learning the second language. Beside that, the
intralingual errors are caused by the strategies that are universal use in learning
language as second or foreign language. These are given the brief theory about the
causes of error which come from the mother-tounge of the learners and the
strategies they used to learning English language. Both of those are giving the
guideline that the source of errors may come from the natural ability of learner in
translating to the target language.
The area of error analysis has been growing research interest conducted
with the learners in order to examine the error found in students writing which can
be caused by the source of errors such as first language interference or
developmental (Reid, 1993:36). This theory can be the evidence that mother
tounge as the first language and the learners way to develop their ability in
learning foreign or second language is very affected the errors made.
According to Richards (1974), there are some intralingual phenomena
reflect the general characteristics of rule learning. They are overgeneralization,
ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rule and false concept
hypothesized. To make these are clearer, it will be explained as below:
1. Overgeneralization

14

The cause of over-generalization deals with the creation of a deviant structure

in which grammatical rules are generalized with one deviant structure instead
of the other rule of the regular structures (Richards, 1970:16).
2. Ignorance of Rule Restriction
This cause deals with the generalization of deviant structures in which
grammatical rules are applied into inappropriate contexts in which other rules
should be used instead (Richards, 1970:9)
3. Incomplete Application of Rule
This cause of errors deals with an incomplete application of rules in which
grammatical rules are not used fully in constructing the sentences (Ellis,
2008:710)
4. False Concept Hypothesized
This cause deals with the faulty comprehension of distinction in the target
language in which word choices are incorrectly made. It means that this cause
arises when the learner does not really comprehend the distinction of the
contrastive meaning of words in the target language (Ellis, 2008:710)
2.5 Previous Study
The focus of this study is related to the some previous studies that have been done
by the others researcher. it is become the review for the present study in
formulating the topic of this research. The brief review of previous study will be
described as follows:
a. First, the study conducted by Hendriwanto and Bambang Sugeng (2013)
entitled An Analysis of the Grammatical Errors in the Narrative Writing of
the First Grade Students of SMA 6 Yogyakarta. The aim of this study was
finding out: (1) the types of grammatical errors in the narrative writing of the
first grade students of SMA 6 Yogyakarta, and (2) the causes of the
grammatical errors in their writing. The design of this study was case study.
This study analyzed the grammatical errors of the students narrative writing
concerning verb tenses, finite verbs, non-finite verbs, pronouns, prepositions,
spelling, agreement of singular and plural, punctuation, contexts of usage,
context of meaning, redundancy, word choices, and unintelligibility. The
highest number of errors was occupied by the verb tense. The researcher give
the possibility to the other researcher in conducting study which cover other

15

categories such as developmental taxonomies, surface strategy taxonomies

and communicative effect taxonomies.
b. Second, Fadzilyna (2013) conducted the study entitled Errors in Using Past
Tense Made by Eighth Graders of MTsN Model Trenggalek. This study
aimed to describe the errors in using past tense made by the eighth graders of
MTsN Model Trenggalek in writing recount texts. The researcher used
Surface Strategy Taxonomy by Dulay (1982) to analyze the types of errors
and Richards (1974) concepts on error analysis to analyze the possible cause
of errors. The results of this study showed there were 66 errors of the use past
tense.
c. Third, Kusumastuti Dian Pratiwi (2014) also conducted the study entitled
Surface Strategy Taxonomy Analysis of Morphological Errors on the Eighth
Grade Students Recount Text Writing at SMPN 2 Nawangan in the
2013/2014 Academic Year. She showed the result of her study based on the
Surface Strategy Taxonomy analysis, there are 73 errors made by the
students in their writing recount text. It covered three types of errors they
were omission errors, addition errors, and misformation errors. The highest
number types of errors was happened in omission. In conclusion it is known
that the omission errors of plural noun inflection was the most made
morphological errors based on the Surface Strategy Taxonomy in the
students recount text writing. It might happen since the system of Indonesian
as the students native language is different from system of English that is the
foreign language.
Based on those previous studies, the researcher can conclude the topic of the
present study. Based on the first study, the researcher try to conduct the similar
research of error analysis with the different linguistic category that is surface
strategy taxonomy. Meanwhile, the second and the third study give more
contribution for this present study to use the surface strategy taxonomy analysis
on the written text. Moreover, to make it different from those studies above the
researcher try to focus on the narrative text as the object of surface strategy
taxonomy analysis. In analyzing the errors based on surface strategy taxonomy,

16

the researcher try to combine those theories above to formulate a new study as
present.
1.

17

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design
This study focus on identifying the frequencies of occurrence of errors based on
surface strategy taxonomy and possible causes of errors made on it. So that, it is
conducted by quantitative and qualitative research method or mixed method.
This study try to use mixed method, quantitative and qualitative research
design (Denscombe, 2007:107). The researcher use this design to conduct the
analysis of the errors. The quantitative research apply to count the most frequent
errors while the qualitative research apply to interpret and explain the cause of
errors on the students writing.
This study use descriptive approach. It is focus on finding the fact and
information about students errors based on surface strategy taxonomy in the
narrative text
3.2 Subject & Setting
The subjects of this study are the eighth grade students of SMPN 1 Cerme and
SMPN 2 Cerme. The eighth grade will be taken as the subjects because they get
the material of narrative text in this grade.
In selecting how many subjects will be taken, the researcher will use
purposive sampling technique. As knowing in all of the study that sampling is the
process of selecting individuals for a study in such a way that individual
represents the larger group from which they are selected. Purposive sampling
technique also known as judgmental, selective or subjective sampling, is a type of
non-probability sampling technique. Non-probability sampling focuses on
sampling technique where the units that are investigated are based on judgment of
the researcher (Merriam, 2009:78).
In this study, using purposive sampling technique will let the researcher to
choose the participants who fulfilled the criteria of sample directly. In order to
make an equivalen comparison between students of SMPN 1 Cerme and SMPN 2
Cerme, they must have at least similar mean score for their writing assignment.

18

3.3 Data Collection

In this descriptive study, the researcher will use multiple technique of data
collection. To get the detail about students errors in writing narrative text, the
writing test and interview will be conducted as the instrument of this study.
3.3.1 Instrument
There are two kinds of instrument will be used in this study in order to answer the
questions and achieve the purpose of this study.
a. Writing Test
The writing test will be narrative text. This type of text is used since a narrative
writing was quite easy for the researcher to investigate the grammatical errors
(Norrish, 1983:20). The test included the instructions of the writing narrative text,
the topic of the writing and the length of the writing. This writing assignments
will used as the documents that will be analyzed based on the surface strategy
taxonomy. Moreover, to answer the first and second research question this writing
test is needed.
b. Interview
The next instrument will be in the form of interview. This instrument will use to
gather the information related to the factors that cause the errors and difficulties
exist. So that, the researcher will answer the third research question by
formulating this instrument.
3.3.2 The Procedure of Collecting Data
The data will be gathered from the students of eight grades in SMPN 1 Cerme and
SMPN 2 Cerme. First, the researcher ask for permission to the headmaster of the
schools to coopt the school as the subject of this study, then go to the teacher from
both of school to discuss about the purpose of this study and ask for permission to
give the students writing test. The researcher will ask the students to complete
their writing of narrative text without any preparation before. The researcher will
give some instructions related to the topic and the length of text. The students
allow to open the dictionary if there are some difficulties in translating words.
This spontaneous production is expected to produce the authentic data.
Then, the researcher will analyze the documents based on surface strategy
taxonomy and classify it into the table of surface strategy taxonomy analysis.

19

The interview will be given to the teacher in order to get the information
about the students ability and class activity during English lesson especially in
writing. The interview will do to the students also who get the most errors in their
written text to find out the information about the cause of errors and the problem
or difficulties during writing the narrative text. The result of interview will be
recorded in the form of sentences or note to describe.
3.4 Data Analysis
In analyzing the data, the researcher will use the table in order to help analyzing
the data easily and find out the answer for statement of the problem briefly. The
researcher use Surface Strategy Taxonomy by Dulay (1982) to make a checklist
on types of errors and the source of errors. The checklist will help the researcher
to identify and classify the types of errors and the possible cause of errors in
students written text. Because the researcher only focuses on the theory of
Surface Strategy Taxonomy proposed by Dulay (1982), the researcher will try to
focuses on how sentences deviate from the correct ones.
Form of Checklist
No

Sentences

Correction

Types of Error
OM A
M MO
D
F

Total Number of Error

Note:
OM

: Omission

AD

: Addition

MF

: Misformation

MO

: Misordering
The researcher will use the steps that are proposed by Corders (1981)

with some modifications appropriate with the purpose of this study. These steps
will be drawn below.
1. Identification of errors

20

After the researcher done with the form of checklist, the total number of errors in
each form will be identified as one for each types in the table of errors
identification. To make the classification of errors easier, the researcher will use
the format of the error classification after collected all the data from checklist
table above and put the total number of errors from each texts. So that, the form of
errors classification format will be drawn as follows:
Table of Errors identification
N
o

Total of
Errors

Types of Error

Students Code
OM

AD

MF

MO

1
2

Total
2. Quantification of errors
After the errors were classified, the researcher will count the frequency of errors
in each category based on the frequency of error types. Then, the researcher will
count the percentage of errors based on the number of errors in each category
divided by the total of the errors using following formula (Adapted from Mahsun,
2007:192):
P=

e
t x100%

Note :
P : Percentage
e : Number of errors of each type
t : Total of errors
The result of this step will answer the first problem statement of this study.
By counting the total number of the errors for each categories based on surface
strategy taxonomy, the researcher will know the frequencies of occurrence of
errors in the form of percentage.
3. Explanation of errors

21

In this step, the researcher will be able to explain the errors commonly made by
the students in their writing narrative text and give more detail description about it
included to the sentence of the commonly errors and the correction of it. In the
form of checklist above, the researcher can find the sentences which consist of
commonly errors and in this step, the researcher will give the reason why the
errors sentences should be corrected like what stated in correction column.
This step will answer the second question of this study. In this step, the
researcher will find the commonly errors made by the students of junior high
school especially both of SMPN 1 Cerme and SMPN 2 Cerme.
According to Miles and Huberman (1994) there are three major
components of descriptive data analysis consists of data reduction, data display
and conclusion drawing. These data analysis will deliver the answer for the last
problem statement of this study which aim to find the causes of errors.
3.4.1

Data Reduction

Data reduction refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting

and transforming the data that appear in written up field notes or transcriptions.
The data reduction of this study is the result of error percentage based on the data
analysis above as the quantitative data while the notes of interviewing with the
teacher and students as the qualitative data. The researcher will use it as the data
reduction because the data are the result of findings to answer the questions of this
study.
3.4.2

Data Display

Data display can be extended piece of text or a diagram, chart or matrix that
provides a new way of arranging and thinking about the more textually embedded
data. In this study, the researcher will display the chart of errors based on the
errors quantification from both of subject and describe each of error frequent
provide with the relationship of it toward the theory of Surface Strategy
Taxonomy by Dulay (1982). Therefore the description of interviewing will use to
make the clear conclusion related to the theories of the causes of errors.

22

In this phase, the researcher will try to interpret the result of interviewing
by filtering the information and relate it with the theories of the causes of errors.
The most frequent error made will be the constraints of the questions to make the
interviewing still focus. The researcher will interpret in which theories the causes
of errors possibly happen to the both of subject.
3.4.3

Conclusion Drawing

Conclusion drawing requires the researcher begin to decide what things mean.
This phase make the researcher will be able to conclude the result chart and
interview then decide which causes of errors that close to both of the subjects. The
researcher can give the more valuable conclusion related to the similarities and the
differences between both of subject. Whether the causes of errors are similar or
not will be explain here. Therefore, the last research question of this study which
aim to find the causes of errors will be answered.