n Analysis Of Grammatical Errors: The Use Of Tenses And Passive Voice In Essay Writing Made By Students Of English Department Faculty of Letters Jember University In The 2005/2006 Academic Year”

Abstract

Using correct grammar is important both in spoken and written English. Therefore grammar occupies an important role where the language uses patterns to convey meaning. Studying grammar is the basic study of language. In Indonesia English is regarded as foreign language. It means that a leaner who is studying English is inevitable to make error. In this case the students of English Department as English learners also still make errors in studying English especially grammar. They do errors in the use of tenses and passive voice especially in their essay writing. This thesis intends to analyze the error and the ability of students in the use of tenses and passive voice. In this study the method of the research is descriptive. The researcher uses essay writing test to obtain primary data. Exactly, the data are obtained by asking the students of 2005/2006 academic year, as respondents, to write a free topic in essay writing. The time given for doing the test is about 30 minutes in 300 words. In this test the students have to pay more attention in the use of tenses and passive voice. Through this test the researcher can analyze the error of tenses and passive voice that students make. After the data are obtained, the next step is to analyze the errors and to show the ability of the students in using tenses and passive voice. The error data are shown in percentage form. According to the result of this study, the total errors of tenses and passive voice are 147. It can be classified into omission (46.28%) that has fair categorization, addition (5.44%) that has good categorization and misformation (48.24%) that has fair categorization. The general classification of tenses and passive voice error shows that simple present tense is classified into poor and the others are good. Based on this research the students of 2005/2006 academic year still make errors in their essay writing. The students’ error in simple present tense is they omit s/es for third person singular. Another error is the use of wrong structure in using simple present tense in their writing. From the description above, it can be concluded that the students of 2005/2006 academic year are good in using tenses and passive voice except in using simple present tense