CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the adjective clause errors in essay writing made by English
Department students in academic year 2017/2018. This introductory chapter covers the
background of the study, research problem, theoretical review, significance of study, scope of
the study and the definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

Writing is one productive skill in language learning, which is different from other
language skills. It is less spontaneous since it takes much time and concentrated practice. In
order to write well, there are several aspects which should be considered by students. Harris
(1979) proposed five aspects of writing, namely grammar, content, vocabulary, mechanics,
and style. Writing offers opportunities to increase students’ vocabulary, knowledge of
grammar and develops their understanding of how to express their ideas in written form.
Writing is important skill to develop beside listening, speaking, and reading to enable
students express their ideas both in spoken or written form. As Bikeline (2017) stated that the
most important assignment for the university students is written assignments even though
they are not homogeneous in their function, focus, structure, and orientation. The problem is
the use of grammar in a written text must be correct to avoid misunderstanding between the
writer and the reader. Williams (2005) stated that language learners tend to let the grammar in
a written text.
Indonesian students, especially university students, consider grammar to be a boring and
difficult aspect in learning English, even though grammar is an important thing in an English
written text. Things that make grammar a boring and difficult aspect to learn is because the
students have to memorize all of the rules (Subekti: 2018).
As a part of grammar, the adjective clause is one of the important things in teaching
writing, but the problem is, the students still make the errors in using adjective clauses. The
most common adjective clause errors such as:
Table 1.1 Common adjective clause errors
Types of error Examples
The absence of auxiliary verbs The family with low income will not be
able to pay the fee so the children who
(are) studying in college need to drop out.
 Incorrect relative pronoun The teacher in high school always checks
the task and remind the students which
(who) did not do the task.
Two or more pronoun in one clause That is the school that it does lots of
music and drama performances.
The absence of coma to show identifying Sunlight(,) which is necessary to plan
and non-identifying clause growth(,) was plentiful that season

Many studies have found that the errors made by the students who used adjective clause as a
result influenced their ability to use adjective clause correctly. One of them is a study done by Amelia
et al (2017) about the level of students’ ability in using the adjective clause in second year students of
English Department STKIP PGRI West Sumatera shows that the students’ in good level was 41,66%,
middle level was 41,66%, low level was 16,66%, and there were 37,5% students who failed to use the
adjective clause. This study indicates that the students in the university level also need more attention
in grammar, especially adjective clause before they write on an essay.
Then, Kpornu (2017) has studied about “Analysing Common Errors in The Use of English
Adjective Clause: A Case Study of St. Peter’s Catholic Basic School Ngleshie Amanfro” who stated
that the results of students’ errors were classified into two main categories: error types and causes of
errors. The common errors committed by the participants were misuse or wrong use of relative
pronouns, omission of relative pronouns, blend or use both relative pronouns and personal pronouns
and simple addition.
Saputra, et al (2019) also investigated the types and factors cause of errors in using adjective
clauses under title “English Department Students Error in The Use of Adjective Clause” that found
the types of error made by the first semester students of English Department Students of STKIP
Muhammadiyah Sampit in using adjective clauses classified into four categories. The highest error
made by the students was misordering with frequency 85 (80,95%). The second error made by the
students was omission with frequency 9 (8,57%). The third error made by the students was
misinformation with frequency 9 (8,57%). The fewest error made by the students was addition with
frequency 2 (1,90%). Based on the analysis of the data, the factors that cause error in using adjective
clauses classified into two factors. They are teacher and students’ factor. Teachers’ factor is caused by
the competence of the teacher. Students’ factor is cause by overgeneralization and translation.
Since adjective clause is one of the materials given to English Department students and many
researchers found that many of students were confused in studying of adjective clauses when they
made a sentence. The indicator that students have problem to implement adjective is most of them
were confused in putting the right introductory word of adjective clause. This is a job for teacher to
explain hardly about adjective clause because adjective clauses are necessary. It is important to know
what is the problem that causing it and how to solve this problem. Considering adjective clause is
used in writing skill, this research tries to investigate possible linguistic problems by analysing the
adjective clause errors of the students’ essay writing at English Department.

1.2 Research Problem

Based on the background of the study, the research problems are formulated as follows.
1. What types of adjective clause errors do the students make in their essay writing?
2. What types of adjective clause errors mostly occur in the students’ essay writing?

1.3 Theoretical Review

1.3.1 Writing
Writing is the process of organizing sentences into paragraphs. According to Cox (2007),
writing is an important component on learning English in which requires a set of complex
skills in English. From writing, the students have to be able to spell English words, mastering
English grammar includes punctuation rules, and constructing word by word into a sentence
by sentence that becomes a paragraph. Based on the statement above, it can be said that
writing is a complicated skill that must be learned.
A. The Writing Process
Writing is not a one-step action. When students write an idea, they have to think about
what they should say and how to express it in written form. Them, after they finished
writing, they read and correct what they have written. According to Harmer (2007:265),
writing is a productive skill. Thus, it has purpose to communicate. Through writing
assignment, the students communicate their ideas and thought to the teacher, who rate
the students’ learning achievement then. Thus, it is important for the university students
to master writing. They write, revise and repeat it until they are satisfied with their
writing. According to Oshima and Hogue (1999) there are four steps in the writing
process, they can be explained as follow:
1) Pre-writing
Pre-writing is a step to get an idea. In pre-writing, students choose one topic and
collect the ideas to explain it.
2) Organizing
This step is to organize the ideas into simple outlines. The students write the main
idea.
3) Writing and Revising
 This step is to write a rough draft, using students’ outline as a guide. When
writing a rough draft, students can write it without thinking about the grammar,
spelling etc. they just put the ideas down on paper. After students write down all
the ideas that came up in their mind in a piece of paper, they can start to read it
from the beginning and check some errors in grammar, vocab and etc.
4) Writing the final copy
This is the final step in writing. make sure that as a writer, students make all the
corrections that are their note and the draft.
B. Essay Writing
According to Thoreau (2006), an essay is a short piece of writing, which is often from
the writers’ point of view. Essay is usually written in formal academic writing and is a
way to assess how the students understand a subject. There are five types of writing
essay, namely narrative essay, descriptive essay, comparison and/or contrast essay, cause
and effect essay, argumentative essay.
Writing is found to be the most difficult of the four skills and which is not a
spontaneous activity either. Free writing at the lower secondary level is one of the most
fundamental types where we cannot expect the writings that are absolutely error free.
The learners may commit errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and organization
style. There are many specific areas under each broad area of written discourse that the
beginners may commit errors in agreement, tense, aspect, number, preposition, article,
transformation and so on and so forth.
1.3.2 Adjective Clause
Wren and Martin (1979) state that an adjective clause is a group of words that contain a
subject and a predicate of its own, and does the work of an adjective. An adjective clause is
used to describe a noun. According to Azhar in Wijayanto (2009), adjectives give a little
different meaning by describing or modifying nouns. From the definitions, it can be
concluded that an adjective clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adjective or
modifies a noun or pronoun.
Example:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Here, the adjective clause is describing “those”. It is giving us more information on who
those people are. It begins with the pronoun “who”, and “who” is the subject of the clause.
Types of adjective clause:
1. Restrictive Adjective Clause
 Restrictive adjective clause contains the necessary information about the meaning of
the sentence. The clause helps the reader to identify or define the noun phrase which
they modify. If the writer did not put the restrictive clause in his sentence, it can
change the meaning of the sentence itself (Khron in Prihandini: 11).
Example:
The place where she died has been rebuilt.
The place has been rebuilt.
Both of the sentences explain about the condition of a place, but the meaning of both
sentences is different.
2. Non-restrictive Adjective Clause
Non-restrictive clauses give further information which is not essential to the meaning
or identification of the noun phrase but it does not change the meaning of a sentence
if the writer leaves it.
Example:
Anna, who live in Russia, will visit us in June.
Anna will visit us in June.
Both of the sentences have same meaning even the writer did not put who lives in
Russia in the sentence.

Relative Pronoun
Relative pronoun is a pronoun that joins a clause and its noticeable feature of an
adjective clause of its functions. Some relative pronouns that introduce the adjective clause
are who, whom, which, and that. The use of relative pronoun will depend on the noun or
pronoun which is modified in a sentence (Wijayanto: 2009).
1. Who
This pronoun is used to explain a person as the subject of a sentence. The pronoun who
replaces the use of he, she, and they in a sentence. Beside introducing person, the relative
pronoun can be used to explain an animal.
Example: Anna, who came to my house last night, will come to my birthday party.
In this sentence, the relative pronoun who refers ti Anna as a subject of the sentence.
2. Whom
Whom is also used to introduce person and the animals. But whom used to explain a person
as an object of the verb.
Example: Andy likes the girl whom he met at a singing contest.
The pronoun whom in this sentence explains about the girl that functions as the object of this
sentence.
3. Which
This pronoun introduces things in a sentence. It refers to the objects, animals, and ideas, but
this pronoun is not used to explain a person.
Example: The novel, which he borrowed yesterday, is about a true love story.
Which in this sentence explains about the novel.
4. That
Murphy (1985) and Azhar (1999) in Wijayanto (2009) and Prihandini (2011) state that the
use of relative pronouns “that” is the same with which and who. This pronoun refers to a
person, object, idea, or animal.
Example: The mountains that rise along the shores of Loch Ness shroud the lake of the fog.
That in this sentence refers to the mountains.
Walter (2000) states that there are five usage of adjective clauses. They are replacement
of subject, object of verbs, possessive, and objective of prepositions. The following
explanation discusses them.
1. Replacement of Subject
An adjective clause is called replacement of subject or object of the main clause is
the same as subject of dependent clause (second sentence). We use relative pronouns
“who” or “that” to indicate a person and “which” or “that” to indicate ideas and
things.
Example:
The boy is my son.
He is wearing a brown jacket.
The boy who is wearing a brown jacket is my son.
2. Replacement of object of Verb
An adjective clause is called replacement of a verb if a noun (subject or object) in the
main clause is the same as the object of the dependent clause, we use the relative
pronoun “which” or “that” to indicate things. We also can use “where” to indicate
place and “when” to indicate time.
Example:
a. Whom
The man was doctor Haryadi.
I met him in the hospital.
 The man whom I met yesterday was doctor Haryadi.
b. Which
The bag was expensive.
I bought it last year.
The bag which I bought last year was expensive.
c. Where
The house is new.
Mr. Joko lives there.
The house where Mr. Joko lives is new.
3. Possessive
The relative pronoun (whose) can replace a possessive.
Example:
I was glad to meet Mr. John.
He shared about his experience.
I was glad to meet Mr. John, whose shared his experience.
4. Replacement of object of Preposition
An adjective clause is called objects of prepositions if a noun (subject or object) of
the first sentence (main clause) is the same as object of preposition of the second
sentence (dependent clause).
Example:
She is my cousin.
I tell you about her.
She is my cousin whom I tell you about (informal).

1.3.3 Error Analysis

According to Crystal (1992), error analysis in language teaching and learning is the
study of unacceptable forms produced by someone in learning a language, especially foreign
language. As a language learner, making errors in the language process is vry common.
Errors help the learners to establish the closer approximations to the system of the target
language.
Corder (1975) in Ellis and Barbuizen’s theory (2008) states that the most obvious
practical use of the error analysis is to the teacher. He also suggest five steps in error analysis
research which are collection of a sample of a learner language, identification of errors,
description of errors, explanation of errors, and evaluation of errors. The analysis of learners’
errors serves feedback that is very useful for teachers. It can be a tool to determine the
effectiveness of learning techniques used, to know the material or discussions which are
taught less than others, and this can be used as a reference for the implementation of remedial
teaching.
Error analysis is an activity to show the result of learning interlanguage especially from
speaking and writing skills. It shows the comparison between the errors in first language and
second language accomplished by the learners. Error is an unavoidable thing in any learning
condition both in oral and written skill that need writers’ creativity, for instance in learning a
second or foreign language. Learners often create errors and mistakes.
Richard (2010) mentions three purposes of analyzing error, as follows 1) To identify
strategies used by the learners in learning language, 2) To classify the causes of errors made
by the learners, and 3) To obtain information about common difficulties faced by learners and
teachers. Frequently, people are confused between error and mistake. It is reasonable because
they have close meaning but actually both of them are two different things.
According to Dulay et al. (1982) as cited by Esmalde (2020) classified there are four
classifications of errors commonly used in descriptive classifications. Those classifications
contain of Linguistic Category, Surface Strategy, Comparative Analysis, and Communicative
Effect. Linguistic Category carries out errors in term of where the error is located in overall
system of the target language based on the linguistic item which is affected by the error.
1.3.3.1. Linguistic Category
Many errors taxonomy has been based on the linguistic item which is affected
by an error. These linguistic taxonomies classify error according to either or
both the language component and the particular linguistic constituent of error
affect. Language components contain of Phonology (pronunciation), Syntax
and Morphology (grammar), Semantic and Lexicon (meaning and vocabulary),
and Discourse.
1.3.3.2. The Surface Strategy Taxonomy
It’s about learners’ erroneous type is different from the presumed target
version. It focused on the ways surface structures are being changed. Surface
Strategy Taxonomy are classified into four kinds of errors; there are Omission,
Addition, Misformation and Misordering. Omission is a type of error which is
characterized by the absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed
utterance. The learners commonly make omission in grammatical words much
more than content word in writing sentences. Addition is a type of error which
 is represented by the existence of an item that must appear in well-formed
utterance. Dulay, Burt, and Krashen elaborate three categories of addition,
there are Double Marking, Regularization, and Simple Addition. Misformation
errors is a type of errors caused by the using of wrong form in the morphemes
or structure. There are three types of misformation errors, it caused by
Regularization, Archi-form, and Alternating Form. Misordering errors are
described by inappropriate arrangement of morpheme or group of morphemes
in an utterance. It can happen thoroughly for both of first and second language
learning in a structure that have been acquired.
1.3.3.3. Comparative taxonomy
It is based on comparison between the structure of second or target language
acquisition errors and particular other types of structures. It is divided into
three types; there are Intralingual or Developmental Error, Interlingual Error,
and Ambiguous Error. Communicative taxonomy involved in errors from the
perspectives of their effects on the listeners or readers.
1.3.3.4. Communicative effect taxonomy
The communicative effect classification deals with errors from the perspective
of their effect on the listener or reader. It focuses on distinguishing between
errors that seem to cause miscommunication and those that do not.
In this research, the writer concerns on surface strategy taxonomy. It is highlights the
ways surface structure are altered: students my omit necessary items (omission) or add
unnecessary ones (addition). They may misformation items (selection) or misorder them
(misordering). Meanwhile, Dulay et al. (1982:138) as cite in Istiqamah (2012: 1) say that
error analysis is a method to analyze the flawed side of learner errors in speech or writing. It
is further stated that errors has four types, they are linguistic category, surface strategy
(omission, addition, misformation and misordering), comparative analysis and
communicative effect. It has same statements also by Suhono (2016: 9-11) in his journal
which discuss surface strategy.
1) Omission
Omission errors are characteristic 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 candidate for omission, some types or morphemes are omitted more than
other. Omission of verb inflection: For example: She feel that her speech is correct.
 Omission of – s, it simple present tense which is must, “She feels that her speech is
correct”

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, namely: double marking, regularization, and simple
addition.
a) Double Marking
Many addition errors are more accurately described as the failure to delete
certain items which are required in some linguistics construction. For example:
He doesn’t knows my name. Which the correction of the sentence above is; He
doesn’t know my name.
b) Regularisation
Regularization errors that fall under the addition category are those in
which a marker that is typically added to a linguistic item is erroneously added to
exceptional items of the given class that do not take a marker. It means that
regularization error occurs when learners add morpheme to the exceptional
words, for example: Sheeps → Sheep, Putted → Put
c) Simple Addition
It is addition error that is double marking or regularization. No particular
features characterize all addition errors that are the use of an item should not
appear in well-form utterances. For example: The fishes doesn’t live in the
water. Here, the student makes a wrong sentence. He adds “does” for fishes. The
well-formed sentence is the fishes don’t live in the water.
3) Misformation
Misformation errors are characterized by the use of the wrong form of the
morphemes or structure. While in omission errors them is not supplied at all, in
misformation errors the students supplies something, although it is incorrect. There
three types of misformation namely:
a) Regularization errors
 It is that all number the misformation category is those in which a regular
marker is used in place of an irregular one. as in runned for ran or gooses for
geese
b) Archi forms
The selection of one number of a class of forms to represent others in the
class is a common characteristic of all stages of second language acquisition. We
have called the form selected by the students an archi-form. For example, a
learner may select one member of the class of the class of personal pronoun to
function for several others in the class, me hungry, give me that!
c) Alternating forms
As the student’s vocabulary and grammar grow, the use of archi forms often
gives way to the apparently fairly free alternation of various members of a class
with each other. For example: Those dog. I seen her yesterday.
4) Misordering
Misordering errors are characterized by the incorrect placement of a
morpheme on utterance. This type of errors can be caused by the word-for word
translation of native language surface structure. For Example: I don’t know what is
that. Here, the learner misorders the word “is” and the well-formed sentence is I
don’t know what that is.

1.4 Significance of Study

This research is aimed for teachers, other researchers and also the students. Teachers can
understand the adjective clause errors that the students make in their essay writing, so they
can apply better strategy to teach writing, and to focus on those areas that need
reinforcement. For other researchers, this research can be used as the reference for their
further research about adjective clause error analysis or other topics related to errors to enrich
the existing study. Then for the students, this research can be used as a guidance in making a
better sentence with adjective clauses.

1.5 Scope of Study

This study was conducted in the English Department, Universitas Negeri Malang. The
subjects were the third semester students of English Language Teaching study program of the
academic year 2017/2018. The analysis attempted to find out the most dominant adjective
clause errors made by the students in their essay writing.
1.6 Definition of Key terms
Adjective clause is a dependent clause that functions as adjective or modifies a noun or
pronoun.
Essay is an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject
from a limited or personal point of view.
Error analysis is a tool to investigate the learners’ error in acquiring language which includes
identifying, describing, analysing and explaining the errors.

REFERENCE

Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching 4th Edition. London: Longman.
Richards and Schmidt. 2002. Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics.
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Esmalde, Vicente S. 2020. Surface Strategy Taxonomy in Error Analysis: Basis for
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Science and Research (IJSR). Volume 9 Issue 7, July 2020.
Istiqamah NA, Annisa. Prof. Dr. Samudji, M.A.and Riskia Setiarini S.S., M.Hum. 2012.
Dulay's Surface Strategy Taxonomy on the Selected Texts of the Bilingual Biology
Textbook: A Study of Error Analysis in Translation. English Department, Faculty of
Letters: Jember University.
Suhono. 2016. Surface Strategy Taxonomy On The Efl Students’ Composition: A Study Of
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Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. 1982. Language Two. New York: Oxford University
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