Preposition errors found in the descriptive writings of the third semester English department students of Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya. [CD-ROM]

Key terms: prepositions errors, error analysis, descriptive writings \nLanguage is a means of communication. With language, people \ncan express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. English, in this case, has \nbecome an international language that is used in many countries. In \nIndonesia, English is a foreign language. When learning a foreign language, \npeople often face interference. \nThere are many kinds of English grammatical item the students \nlearn. One of them is prepositions. Although prepositions have been taught \nsince the junior high, or even in some schools it is taught at the elementary \nlevel, errors in prepositions are still often made. Descriptive, one of the \ngenres in writing, has been taught in the senior high school. One of the \nsignificant lexicogrammatical features of descriptive writings is the use of \nadverbials (prepositions). Therefore, the writer would like to find out the \nstudents’ learning problems of prepositions in descriptive writings and \nkinds of error that they make. The purpose of this study is to find out the \ntypes of preposition errors made by the third semester English Department \nstudents of Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya in their \ndescriptive writings, the types of prepositions on which the students often \nmade errors, and their sources. \nThis study is descriptive in nature. The data used in this study are \nprepositions and prepositional phrases; the types of error on the use of \nprepositions, the types of prepositions on which the errors occurred, and the \nsources of the errors. To get the data, the writer borrowed the students’ \nmidterm examination from the lecturers who taught Writing Course II in the \nacademic year of 2012/2013. Next, the writer selected and picked up data \nwhich are relevant to the problems of the study. After that, the writer \nanalyzed and classified the errors on the use of prepositions in descriptive \nwritings. At the same time, the writer asked two of his triangulators (a \nlecturer and a teacher) to analyze and classify them. Next, the writer \nix \ncompared the identification from each evaluator. Then, the writer calculated \nand tabelized the percentage of each error. The result of the research shows \nthat the most frequent errors made by the third semester English \nDepartment students of Widya Mandala Catholic University in their \ndescriptive writings are errors of substitution (72.44%), followed by errors \nof addition at the second place (19.68%) and errors of omission at the last \nplace (7.88%). The writer found that those errors occurred in the four types \nof prepositions with prepositions of other semantic relationship as the most \nproblematic prepositions (71.65%), followed by prepositions of position \n(18.11%), prepositions of time (7.88%), and prepositions of direction as the \nleast problematic prepositions (2.36%). \nNext, the writer interviewed all of the writers of the selected \nwritings to find out the sources of errors. After that, the writer asked two \nlecturers as the triangulators to analyze the result of the interviews to \nclassify the sources of errors. The result of the interviews shows that the \nmost frequent sources of errors are L1 interference (48.51%), followed by \nignorance of the rule restrictions (29.10%), false concepts hypothesized \n(20.90%), and overgeneralization (1.49%). \nThe implication of the research finding in the teaching of \ndescriptive writing is that the teaching approach is expected to anticipate the \nmaking of the errors by emphasizing the differences between the native \nlanguage and the target language to overcome the L1 interference problem. \nIn explaining the prepositions that are confusing, especially prepositions of \nposition, the teaching approach should emphasize the relation between the \ntwo things. Still regarding the prepositions that are confusing, especially \nprepositions of time, the students should be explained about the rules of \nusing a certain preposition of time. Last but not least, the students should be \nexplained about idiomatic expressions.