GRAMMATICAL ERROR ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ WRITING IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, UNSIQ WONOSOBO

Abstract

Being able to write a good composition in English is one of the ultimate goals of English learning. In a place where English is a foreign language, realizing ideas in English can be very challenging for students. It is due to the fact that students must always be aware of the grammatical and rhetorical components of the language they are learning. In this process, errors commonly appear. This study aims to describe the grammatical errors as well the cause. There were 42 students involved in this study who were asked to answer several questions and write a composition. They range from the second to sixth semester in English Department of Faculty of Language and Literature, Unsiq Wonosobo. The research result shows that the grammatical errors students made are those in subject-verb agreement, diction, articles, sentence fragment and tense. Students are still unable to identify the correct grammatical form in building sentences. The causes of errors are both interlingual and intralingual. However, more errors are caused by intralingual which are related to the learning strategy of the target language. Students are still unable to make a good composition in this language. It is suggested that more exercises are given to students to practice their skills and that more research can be conducted to determine better syllabus for the teaching-learning process.