GRAMMATICAL ERROR ANALYSIS IN STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXTS

This thesis entitled Grammatical Error Analysis in Students’ Recount Texts: Case Study of Eleventh Year Students of SMAN 1 Pemenang in the Academic Year 2010/2011 was intended to find out the grammatical errors and the possible causes faced by students in writing recount texts. The population of this study was the eleventh year students of SMAN 1 Pemenang. The researcher took 30 students as the sample. The students were chosen from 3 classes; only 10 students were taken from each class as the representative. The researcher administrated a free recount test, questionnaire and interview as the instruments of the study. The researcher then analyzed the data by identifying, classifying, describing, and explaining the grammatical errors and possible causes faced by the students. The writer found that the students’ errors generally came from the students that had not known about grammar. The grammatical errors were classified into seven categories. They were errors in producing verb group, errors in subject-verb agreement, errors in the use of articles, errors in the use of prepositions, errors in noun pluralization, errors in the use of pronouns, and errors in the use of conjunctions. The students made 324 grammatical errors which were classified into 192 errors in producing verbal groups, 30 errors in subject-verb agreement, 23 errors in the use of articles, 37 errors in the use of preposition, 9 errors in noun pluralization, 23 errors in the use of pronouns, and 10 errors in the use of conjunction. From the result, the researcher can conclude that the possible causes of errors are students’ lack in mastering the grammar. It is suggested that the students still need more practices dealing with verb forms since they were the basic knowledge needed for telling their past experiences.