Syntactic Errors in thesis proposals on Syntax Study Written by The Students of English Letters and Language Department of The State Islamic University of Malang

ABSTRACT

People as human being are inseparable from making errors. They can make errors in different ways, for example in writing or speaking. Especially in foreign language learning process, making errors cannot be avoided for the learners in acquiring the target language. This thesis is based on an error analysis of the written work of the students of English Letters and Language Department of the State Islamic University of Malang, especially thesis proposal on syntax study. The researcher chooses syntax thesis proposal because she believes that the students who write thesis discussing syntax are good in constructing sentences and mastering English grammar well. But the fact shows that their thesis proposals have some errors in sentence construction. Related to the problem of this study, the researcher is intended to answer “what are the types of the syntactic errors in thesis proposals on syntax study of the students of English Letters and Language Department of the State Islamic University of Malang?”

This study uses a descriptive qualitative research design in which the data are taken from thesis proposal on syntax study written by the students of English Letters and Language Department of UIN Malang. The data are collected and described using surface strategy taxonomy proposed by Dulay, Burt and Krashen. Then, the errors found are classified into syntactic errors based on Politzer and Romirez’ model as a guideline.

The findings of this study reveals that based on the surface strategy taxonomy, the researcher finds the highest number of syntactic errors is omission of definite article ‘the’ before a singular and plural countable noun, followed by omission of preposition and omission of the third singular inflection to show the agreement of subject and verb.

The findings of this study are expected to give new perspective for the lecturers and syllabus designers dealing with English syntax to improve their teaching techniques. For the students, it is important for them to know what aspect in syntax which is difficult for them, so they can improve their study in acquiring grammar, especially in syntax.