The errors made by the sixth semester students of the English Department of Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University in constructing compound and complex sentences

The mastery of English compound and complex sentences is of a \nparamount importance because it can help us to study the basic utterances of \nEnglish spoken and written sentences. In addition, compound and complex \nsentences can also be used to express ideas that are impossible to express in \none word, one phrase, or even in one simple sentence. In fact, they can be \nused to produce the effectiveness and clarity in English oral or written \ncommunication. Thus, the analysis of errors in English compound and \ncomplex sentences can be used as an input for the remedial teaching program. \nThe present research tries to study three types of compound sentences and \nthree types of complex sentences with the limitation on twenty five \ncoordinators and thirty five subordinators being tested. \nThe problems which were investigated in this study were: 1) the types of \nerrors made by the students in constructing English compound and complex \nsentences, 2) the frequency of occurrence of each type of error made by the \nstudents in constructing compound and complex sentences, and 3) the areas of \ndifficulties encountered by the students in constructing compound and \ncomplex sentences. \nWith these problems, the present study had three purposes: 1) to find out \nthe types of errors made by the students in constructing compound and \ncomplex sentences, 2) to find out the frequency of the occurrence of each type \nof error made by the students in constructing compound and complex \nsentences, and 3) to describe the areas of difficulties encountered by the \nstudents in constructing compound and complex sentences. \nThe subjects of this study consisted of 79 sixth semester students of the \nEnglish Department who were taking the translation course at Widya \nMandala Surabaya Catholic University. The instrument used to collect the \ndata was a pencil and paper test on compound and complex sentences in \nsentence combining and translation with 25 coordinators and 35 \nsubordinators. This test was administered to the subjects who had finished \ntheir grammar courses. \nThe study reveals the following findings: \n1) The types of errors made by the students in constructing compound and \ncomplex sentences consisted of (1) 11.51 % errors of omission, \n(2) 80.93 % errors of misformation, and (3) 7.57 % errors of misorder. \nThe results further show that in constructing compound and complex \nsentences, the students made 40.48 % errors on the average from the test. This \nmeans that the students' qualitative mastery in constructing compound and \ncomplex sentences was fair. \n2) With regard to the frequency of occurrence of errors of each coordinator \nand subordinator, it can be concluded that: \na) Six coordinators were difficult i.e. (1) correlative conjunctions: \neither... or, neither... nor; (2) conjunctive adverbs: however, \notherwise, besides, and likewise \nb) Three coordinators are fair, i.e. (1) correlative conjunctions: \nboth ... and (2) conjunctive adverbs: moreover, then, and \nmeanwhile \nc) Five coordinators are easy, i.e. (1) Coordinate conjunctions: but, \nor, for ; (2) Correlative conjunctions: not only ... but also ; \n(3) conjunctive adverbs: therefore. \nd) Thirteen Subordinators are difficult. i.e. (1) Noun clause: that-request, \nwhat-exclamation; (2) Adverb clause: while, since, before, \nafter, as soon as, whereas, in order to, unless, only if, whether or \nnot, and in case. \ne) Three Subordinators are fair, i.e. (1) Adjective clause: whose; \n(2) Adverb clause: when, and although \nf) Nineteen Subordinators are easy, i.e. (1) Noun clause: that-statement, \nwhether, who, which, what, when, where, how, why, \nhow-exclamation; (2) Adjective clause: who, whom, which, \nwhen, where, that; (3) Adverb clause: then, because, it: \nIn terms of each coordinator and subordinator being tested in this study, an \nattempt was made to trace back the causes of errors from the areas of \ndifficulties with the limitation on interlingual and intralingual errors. These \nerrors were mostly caused by the students' insufficient knowledge of the \ntarget language rules in constructing compound and complex sentences. \nSemantically, compound and complex sentences between Indonesian and \nEnglish are similar but it did not guarantee the students could master English \ncompound and complex sentences in general. It implies that those errors \nrepresenting the students' language background were due to intralingual errors \nrather than interference from Indonesian, as the students' native language.