AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN CHANGING ACTIVE TO PASSIVE VOICE
AT THE SECOND GRADE OF SMK PHT CIANJUR
Yuliawati Syarif
09220531
Email: Rainame.yulia@gmail.com
English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department
Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan Dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung
Abstract
The objectives of this research entitled “An Analysis of the Students’ Errors in Changing Active to Passive
Voice at the Second Grade of SMK PHT Cianjur at the”, were to find out how many errors that the students
made, to find out type of error most frequently appeared, to find out type of error least frequently appeared. In
this research the writer used qualitative method. The subjects of this research were 20 of second grade students at
SMK PHT Cianjur 2012-2013. The instrument of the research was writing test on changing active to passive
voice, the data were collected by giving writing test on changing active to passive voice to the students’ sample.
The collected data was identified, classified, analysed and interpreted based on the types of errors using Dulay’s
theory (based on the surface strategy taxonomy). The results of the research showed that: The total amounts of
errors were 134 sentences. The frequency of errors were omission type = 37 or 27.6 %, misformation type = 79
or 58.9 %, addition type = 8 or 5.9% and misordering type = 10 or 7.4%. Based on the data analysis above, the
most of students’ error was misformation, and the least of students’ error was addition.
Keywords: Analysis of errors, Changing active to passive voice
A. BACKGROUND
English and Indonesian are broadly known as
languages which are being used by millions of
people. Based on Hamura (2011) English
developments cannot be separated from the
economic developments of the world. However,
Indonesian developments are caused by its similarity
with the Malaya language. English has tenses for
verbs while bahasa Indonesia has no similar
concept. The English grammar has many elements,
one of them there are Verbs. The verbs in English
divided into two voices: active and passive. Both
languages have passive & active voices - bahasa
Indonesia uses "di-" prefix to indicate the passive
voice while English uses the "-ed" suffix.
English is much different from Indonesian, for
example in functional skills, especially in passive
sentence. Students should master some elements of
language, like tenses. In changing active to passive
sentences, students should know the tenses, because
passive sentences depend on each of the tenses.
In changing active into passive voice sentences,
many people and students still make errors because
lack of ability in changing it and all Indonesian
people speak Bahasa Indonesia. The use of passive
sentence in Bahasa Indonesia is very often. But
English often use active sentence in many
expressions. Especially students, they do not
understand how to change it and when they try to
make a sentence they also got a problem because
they do not know how to make a good sentence and
they often got a trouble when they face a writing test
like changing active to passive voice.
In this study when the writer visited Sekolah
Menengah Kejuruan Pariwisata PHT Cianjur she
found some errors done by many students. Therefore
the writer is interested to analyze the student’s error
because most of the second grade student used
passive sentence so that when they are going to
change into their active sentence they confused and
finally error in changing active to passive.
The purposes of this study were to find out how
many errors that the students made, to find out type
of error most frequently appeared, to find out type of
error least frequently appeared
B. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Definition of Errors and Mistakes
Making errors is the most natural thing in the world
and it is evidently attached to the human being. But,
how do we define error? There are different
definitions of the word and as Ellis explains
"learners make errors in both comprehension and
production, the first being rather scantly
investigated”. Children learning their first language
(Ll), adult native speakers, and second language
learners; they all make errors that have a different
name according to the group committing the error.
Consequently, it is impossible for someone to learn
without committing any errors. Before analyzing the
learners’ errors, it will be very useful to understand
the difference between errors and mistakes.
Error is noticeable deviation from the adult
grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the
interlanguage competence of the learners. It
means that an error is something unconventional
that can be clearly seen when the learners
perform it and when they show their
interlanguage competence (Brown, 1994:205).
Mistakes refers to a performance error that is
either a random guess, fatigue, and inattention or
a slip of tongue or that it is failure to utilize a
known system connection; mistakes are generally
caused by performance factors. It is clear mistake
is differed from error. The differences lie on the
performance and competence of the learners
(Brown 1994:209).
2. Error Analysis and Contrastive Analysis
Error analysis involves a set of procedures for
identifying, describing, and explaining errors in
learning language (Ellis, 1994:127). Error
analysis is the study and analyze of the errors
made by second language learners. Error analysis
may be carried out in order to:
a) Identify strategies which learners use in
language learning, b) Try to identify the causes of
learners’ errors, c) Obtain information on
common difficulties in language learning. As an
aid to teach or in the preparation of teaching
materials (Richards, 1992:127).
The Error Analysis is concerned with the same
problems as Contrastive Analysis but from an
opposing point of view. In Error Analysis, the error
has been defined as a deviation from the norm of the
target language and a distinction has been made
between errors and mistakes. The error is what takes
place when the deviation arises as a result of lack of
knowledge whereas the mistake comes up when
learners fail to perform their competence.
Error analysis (henceforth EA) proceeds further than
merely predicting error. Error analysis studies the
nature of errors and present confirmation on
reputation of prediction made by contrastive analysis
(henceforth CA). EA and CA have different point of
view. CA begins with the prediction that learners’
errors are predictable. Whereas, EA begins from the
examination of learners’ errors from which the
learners learning problem can be inferred. Brown
(1994:206) describe in EA, errors are attributable to
all possible sources not just those resulting negative
transfer of the native language.
Error analysis (EA) supplanted contrastive analysis
(CA), which sought to predict the errors that learners
make by identifying linguistics differences between
their L1 and the target language. The underlying
assumption of CA was that errors occurred primarily
as a result of interference when the learners
transferred native language ‘habits’ into the L2.
Interference was believed to take place
whenever the habits of the native languages
differed from those of the target language. CA
gave way to EA as this assumption came to be
challenged. Whereas, CA looked at only the
learners’ native language and the target
language, EA provided a methodology for
investigating learners’ language (Ellis, 1994:4748).
Contrastive analysis is one of the approaches used as
comparison method in solving the problems. It ideas
are differences among language make for ease of
learning. The differences of L1 and L2 cause
interference. The aim is to bring out points of
similarity and difference and thus to predict and
explain learners’ errors and difficulties (Leo and
Yonohudiyono, 1997:18).
3. Kinds of Errors
There are many kinds of error, according to Ellis
(1997:18):
1) Omission: Leaving out an item that is required
for an utterance to be considered grammatical. ’a’
and ‘the’ and leave the –s off plural nouns. For
example, students leave out the articles, 2)
Misinformation: Using one grammatical form in
place of another grammatical form, 3)
Misordering: Putting the words in an utterance in
the wrong order.
According to Dulay (1982:154):
a) Omission: means that an item which must be
present in a well-formed utterance is left out. There
is evidence that grammatical morphemes are
absent more often than content morphemes which
carry the meaning, b) Addition: Resulted from “alltoo-faithful use of certain rules. They are: 1)
Regularization: involves overlooking exceptions
and applying rules to domains unnecessarily, 2)
Double Marking: defined as failure to delete
certain items which are required in some linguistic
constructions but not in others, c) Misformation is
the use of the wrong form of the morpheme or
structure, d) Misordering which occur when the
learners select the right forms to use in the right
context; nevertheless they arrange them in the
wrong order.
Passive and Active Voice
According to Swan (1996), a passive verb form is
made by verb past participle; the subject of a passive
verb is usually the person or thing that is affected by
the action the verb. According to Alice and Hogue
(1983), in passive sentences the subject receives the
action of verb. The direct object of active sentence
becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
Because every sentence in English must have a
subject, passive sentences can be formed only from
transitive verbs, which can take direct object.
According to the statements above, then we can
conclude that error is an act, condition, assertion, or
idea that are deviate from what is correct, right, true,
or the standard one passive verb.
1. Present simple tense
- She does the homework (active form)
- The homework is done by her (passive form)
2. Past simple tense
- He did the homework (active form)
- The homework was done by him (passive
form)
C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Research Method
The researcher used qualitative research
method.According to Crowl (1996:10) Qualitative
research methods are used to examine questions
that can best be answered by verbally describing
how participants in a study perceive and interpret
various aspects of their environment. Based on
definition above, the research method in the
research is qualitative method.
2. Instruments of the Research
The writer used a writing test of changing active to
passive voice as the instrument. The writer has
prepared a test to make sentences in changing active
to passive voice. The writing test consisted of 10
essay questions. The writing test should be
completed by the students in order to identify the
kind of errors in their answer. The writer gave
students writing test to collect the data.
3. Research Site and Subjects
a. Research Site
The research site of this research was at SMK PHT
Cianjur. Jln Pasir Gede. The writer chose SMK PHT
Cianjur because she has thought the second grade
students when she was PLP at SMK PHT Cianjur.
b. Research Subjects
The subjects of this research are twenty students at
the second grade of SMPK PHT Cianjur in academic
year 2012-2013.
c. Data Collection
d. The data of this research were collected by
giving writing test to the students sample on
May 24th, 2013.
E. Data Analysis
After conducting data collection the data were
processed using Dulay’s theory and using
Sudijono’s formula (2008:43) “surface strategy
taxonomy”. They are as follow:
P = F x 100 %
N
P = the class percentage
F = total percentage
N = number of students
F. Research Procedure
The study conducted under the following
procedures.
Preliminary
study,
planning,
implementation the action, research analysis and
data analysis. See below:
1. Preliminary Study
In this preliminary study, the researcher met the
headmaster and English teacher of SMK PHT
Cianjur to talk about the plant of the research.
2. Planning
In relation to the application of this research, the
researcher made a prior preparation before the
implementation of this research based on the
preliminary study. In this case, the researcher
prepared writing test.
3. Implementing the Research
After planning stage was finished, the researcher
repeated a lesson about active and passive voice.
After that the writer gave the writing test on
changing active to passive voice to the students
D. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND
DISCUSSIONS
1.Findings
The writer showed the data collected by students’
writing test in the following tables. There are tables
expressing the total errors made by students’.
Table 1 The scores of students’ writing test
No
Name
1
2
3
4
AZ
FZ
FD
LD
Correct
Answers
7
4
4
2
Incorrect
Answers
3
6
6
8
scores
70
40
40
20
Percentage
of Errors
30 %
60 %
60 %
70 %
5
IN
6
GJ
7
ID
8
VA
9
VI
10
FI
11
IT
12
IA
13
IH
14
IZ
15
IH
16
AD
17
AT
18
TK
19
BL
20
SR
TOTAL
AVERAGE
(%)
3
3
2
2
2
3
3
2
5
2
3
3
3
1
7
5
66
33 %
7
7
8
8
8
7
7
8
5
8
7
7
7
9
3
5
134
67 %
30
30
20
20
20
30
30
20
50
20
30
30
30
10
70
50
660
33 %
70 %
70 %
80 %
80 %
80 %
70 %
70 %
80 %
50 %
80 %
70 %
70 %
70 %
90 %
30 %
50 %
67 %
The data above showed that the total numbers of
errors were 134 or 67% (incorrect answer) and 66 or
33% (correct answer). The highest score is 70 and
the lowest is 10. There are two students who got the
highest score. It means that 18 students got poor
scores.
Table 2. Percentage of Errors
No
Category of
Score Percentage
Errors
(%)
1
Omission
37
27.6 %
2
Addition
8
5.9 %
3
Miss
79
58.9 %
formation
4
Miss ordering
10
7.4 %
TOTAL
134
67 %
Based on the table above there are 4 following
categories:
1. The totals of omission are 37 or 27.6%.
2. The totals of addition are 8 or 5.9 %.
3. The totals of miss formation are 79 or 58.9%.
4. The totals of miss ordering are 10 or 7.4 %.
The total numbers of errors were 134. The
most frequently errors made by students were
79 or 58.9 % (miss formation) and the least
frequently errors made by students were 8 or 5.9
% (addition)
Discussions
After analyzing and computing the data from writing
test, the writer found that the second year students of
SMK PHT Cianjur made some errors in making
simple past tenses. This statement was approved by
the research findings that the writer identifies the
students’ errors as follows:
a. Omission (27.6%)
Omission error is characterized by the absence of an
item that must appear in well-formed utterance. The
students were missing verb auxiliary “be” in the
sentence.
Incorrect
: A new airport is going to built
Correct
: A new airport is going to be built
b. Addition (5.9%)
The presence of an item that must not appear in a
well-formed utterance, the students added “have”
Incorrect
: Ann said her car had have been
stolen
Correct
stolen
: Ann said that her car had been
c. Misformation (58.9%)
The students didn’t understand the function of
passive voice, they use one grammatical form in
place of another grammatical form.
Incorrect
: When building a new airport, I was
here
Correct
: When I was here a few years ago,
a new airport was being built
d. Misordering (7.4%)
The students made incorrect placement of a
morpheme, or a group of morpheme in utterance.
Incorrect
: How is made butter?
Correct
: How is butter made?
E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Conclusions
After processing and analyzing the data, the writer
concludes as follows:
Based on the result of the research from writing test,
the students made errors in changing active to
passive voice with amount of errors are 134 or 67 %,
She can identify what type of errors was made by
the students, those errors were: omission with
amount of errors are 37 or 27.6%, addition is the
type of error least frequently made by the students
with amount of error are 8 or 5.9%, misformation is
the type of error most frequently appears with
amount of errors are 79 or 58.9%, and misordering
with amount of errors are 10 or 7.4%. The students
made error in omission, it means they leave out an
item that is required for an utterance to be
considered grammatical. The students were missing
verb auxiliary “be” in the sentence.
1. For the Teacher
a. The writer really hopes that the teachers can
increase their teaching methods and not only
gives explanation about active and passive but
also he or she could explain more detail on how
in changing active to passive voice and the
differences between them
b. The English teachers need to conduct remedial or
tutorial teaching for passive voice, because the
findings showed that they are very weak in this
material. For example, the teachers can assign the
students to make list of verbs and write complete
in sentences and tries to change it to passive
voice.
2. For the Students
a. The writer really hopes that students will increase
more their English study. It is important especially
for second grade student in SMK PHT, because they
have to use and speak English, they were considered
in the tourism department. Beside that, they will feel
the advantages of their success in the future.
b. The students should memorize the form of verb
c. The students should be aware of their errors and
avoid repeating the same errors in their further
learning.
3. For The Next Researcher
The following research may open to other
researchers to find the right teaching method in
order to decrease the students’ errors
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