DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION FACULTY OF TARBIYA …

AN ANALYSIS ON DIFFICULTIES FACED BY STUDENTS IN

UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL PRONOUNS

(A Case Study at the Eight Grade Student of

SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta 2015/2016)

By:

Hardiansyah 208014000044

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYA AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2015

AN ANALYSIS ON DIFFICULTIES FACED BY STUDENTS IN

UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL PRONOUNS

(A Case Study at the Eight Grade Student of

SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta 2015/2016)

A “Skripsi”

Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training

in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Strata 1 (S-1)

in English Language Education

By:

Hardiansyah 208014000044

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYA AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2015

iv

ABSTRACT

Hardiansyah. 2015. An Analysis on Difficulties Faced by Students in Understanding Personal Pronouns (ACase Study in the Second Year of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Skripsi, English Education Department, The Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, Syarrif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.

The purpose of this research was describe is the causes of students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun and to know which the most difficult in personal pronoun faced by the students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. The method used in this study was descriptive analysis. The writer described the students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun by using percentage. The data of this research were taken from test and interview, for supporting the data. The test is used for knowing which the most difficult in understanding personal pronoun that faced by the students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. The test is multiple choices with the total item are 25 items. Then, the interview is used to support this research in order to know the causes of students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun. After conducting the research, the writer founds several finding of this study. Based on the result of the test, students got difficult in understanding personal pronoun. It can be seen that the percentage of students’ difficulty in understanding personal pronoun; difficulty in subject pronoun 56.06%, difficulty in object pronoun 64.65%, difficulty in possessive pronoun 55.76%, difficulty in possessive adjective 46.21% and difficulty in reflexive pronoun 48.48%. It can conclude that the most difficulty faced by student of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta is in using object pronoun. Based on the result of interview, the reason why students faced difficulties in understanding personal pronoun are caused by interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer and the concept of learning.

v

ABSTRAK

Hardiansyah. 2015. An Analysis on Difficulties Faced by Students in Understanding Personal Pronouns (A Case Study in the Second Year of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Skripsi, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.

Penelitian ini bertujuan menjelaskan penyebab-penyebab kesulitan siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun dan untuk mengetahui mana yang paling sulit dalam personal pronoun bagi siswa SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Metode yang diguakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif yang dikategorikan sebagai sebuah study kasus. Penulis menggambarkan kesulitan siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun dengan menggunakan persentase. Data dalam penelitian ini diambil berdasarkan tes dan wawancara. Tes digunakan untuk mengetahui mana yang paling sulit dalam memahami personal pronoun bagi siswa Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Tes berbentuk pilihan ganda dengan total soal 25 buah. Adapun wawancara digunakan untuk mendukung penelitian ini untuk mengetahui penyebab-penyebab yang dihadapi siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun. Setelah melakukan penelitian, penulis menemukan beberapa penemuan dalam penelitian ini. Berdasarkan hasil test, siswa mendapatkan kesulitan dalam memahami personal pronoun. Hal tersebut dapat terlihat dalam persentase kesulitan siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun; kesulitan dalam subjek pronoun adalah 56.06%, kesulitan dalam objek pronoun 64.65%, kesulitan dalam possessive pronoun 55.76%, kesulitan dalam possessive adjective 46.21% dan kesulitan dalam reflexive pronoun 48.48%. Hal tersebut dapat terlihat bahwa masalah yang paling sulit dalam memahami personal pronoun bagi siswa SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta adalah dalam menggunakan objek pronoun. berdasarkan hasil wawancara, alasan mengapa siswa tersebut menghadapi kesulitan dalam memahami personal pronoun dikarenakan interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer dan konsep dalam pengajaran.

vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, for His blessing, love and mercy

given to the writer, so she can complete the last assignment in her study. Then,

peace and salutation be upon the prophet Muhammad, his family, companion and

his adherences.

This “skripsi” is presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’

Training in a partial fulfilllment of requirements for the Degree of S.Pd (S-1) in

English Education Department.

In arranging this skripsi, a lot of people had given motivation, support,

advice and even remark to helped the writer. In this oppotunity, the writer would

like to express great honor and gratitude to all of them.

First of all, the writer would like to express his deepest gratitude to his

beloved parents, to his beloved wife Nursyamsiah, his son Axel Hardian, his

brothers Bambang Suwignyo and Muhammad Hadjar, his sisters Handriani and

Haryanti and the and the whole family who always give prayer, support,

motivation and moral encouredgment to finish his study. Also, she expresses great

honor and deepest appreciation to her advisor, Dr. Alek, M.Pd and Drs.

Nasifuddin Djalil, M.Ag., who have given suggestions and critical remarks in the

process of completing this skripsi.

Her appreciation and thank also goes to:

1. All of the lectures of English Education Department

2. Dr. Alek, M.Pd., the Head of English Education Department

3. Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum., the secretary of English Education Department

4. Prof. Dr.Ahmad Thib Raya, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and

Teachers’ Training Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.

5. Her beloved best friends in PBI who always support the writer.

vi

6. To all of people whose name can not be mentioned for their contribution

to the writer during finishing her paper.

May Allah, the Almighty bless them all, so be it.

Finally, the writer hopes this “skripsi” is useful for the writer particularly

and all the readers, and she realized that this skripsi is far from being perfect.

Therefore, the writer would like to welcome any suggestion and critism to make

this paper better.

Jakarta, 10 July 2015

The Writer

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVEMENT SHEET ............................................................................ ..... i

ENDORSEMENT SHEET ........................................................................... ..... ii

ABTRACT ...................................................................................................... ..... iii

ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... ..... iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENT .............................................................................. ..... v

TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................................. ..... vi

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study..................................................1

B. Focus of the Research ................................................ ......5

C. Research Questions .................................................... ......5

D. Aim of the Research.........................................................5

E. Significance of the Study ......................................... ......5

CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Definition of Pronoun ................................................. .....7

1. Kinds of Pronoun..........................................................9

2. Personal Pronoun .........................................................9

3. Types of Personal Pronoun..........................................11

B. Personal Pronoun Problems ..........................................16

C. The Difficulties in Personal Pronoun ........................ .....19

1. Difficulties ............................................................ .....19

2. Error ....................................................................... .....20

3. Difference of Error and Mistake ........................... .....22

4. Source of Errors..........................................................23

D. Test..................................................................................25

1. Types of Tests..............................................................25

2. Criteria of a Good Test................................................27

ix

CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ….................................28

A. Time and Location .................................................... .....28

B. The Method of Research…………………………..…....28

C. Data and Source ......................................................... .... 28

D. The Technique of Collecting Data ............................ .....28

1. Procedure ................................................................. .... 28

2. Instrument ............................................................... . .... 29

E. The Technique of Data Analysis ............................... .....29

CHAPTER IV : RESEARCH FINDING and INTERPRETATION.........31

A. The Descriptions ....................................................... .....31

B. The Data Analysis……………………………........…....39

C. The Interpretation……………...…………………….....42

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION and SUGGESTION

Conclusion............................................................................45

Suggestion............................................................................45

BIBILIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................46

APPENDIX 1: Test Sheet....................................................................................48

2: Score Analysis............................................................................50

3: The Result of Interview..............................................................51

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In a social interaction, communication plays the curcial role for people and

it cannot be separated from the language. The language itself has very important

role in this life as a tool of the expression and the performance of social

transaction between individuals1. People can express their feeling, emotion, ideas

or opinion and interact with others through the language.

Nowdays, English has become the popular language which is learnt by

most people in many areas of the globe. English is known as an international

languange. It is because people entire of the world most widely used English for

communication and international contact.

In this area, everyone is demanded to prepare a great resources for their

life particularly in science and technology. Of course, to compete againts a global

demanding, the people should have an adequate knowledge and good skills.

Moreover, mastering English language both oral and written English actively is

necessity for academic and global media communication requirement because it

has become compulsory for everyone who wants to compete againts the

globalization era.

As we know that the aim of teaching English in Indonesia is to enable

students to use English as a means of communication with other people. In

Indonesia, English is used as foreign language and a target language that is taught

in the kindergarten and the elementary school as local content subject. It is also

taught in the junior high school, the senior high school, and the university as

compulsory subject. Many people now are trying to master English by attending

certain English course or inviting a private English teacher to their home. English

that is taught consist of four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and

writing. And it also involves three language component such as; phonology,

1 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 17.

2

gammar, and vocabulary. One of the sub skills that should be mastered in learning

English by the students is grammar. They have to master the grammar properly

beacause it is needed even in communicative ways.

Grammar is one of the language aspects which is taught to every

language learners. Penny Ur stated that “ Grammar is somtimes defined as the

way words are put together to make correct sentences”2. By learning grammar,

someone can communicate his or her message clearly and precisely. Without

grammar, learners can communicate effectively only a limited number of

situations. Richard Veit also stated on his book Discovering English Grammar

“your Grammar is what enables you to understand the every words you are now

reading as well as to speak and write words and sentences of your own. You have

had Grammar of English for as a long as you have known English”.3 So, many

linguist and researcher have given support to grammar instruction in ESL and

EFL.When students learn English especially grammar skill, one of the subject

learned by them is part of speech. There are eight part of spech; verb, noun,

adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjunction. The main

concern in this study is about English pronoun. Pronoun are word that used

instead of nouns. Cambridge advance learner dictionary stated that ‟ pronoun is a

word which is used instead of a noun or a noun phrase: pronoun are often used to

refer to a noun that has already mentioned”4. Pronoun can be used as a subject

and an object in a sentence called subjective and objective pronoun, they can be

used as adjective to modify some nouns called possessive adjective, and they can

also be used to subtitute for a noun phrase called posssessive pronoun.

Personal Pronoun is used for efficiency, especially in written like an

article, mail or memo. The writers will avoid to repeat the same words by using

pronoun to represent the words in order to save time.

2 Penny ur, A Course in English Language Teaching, (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1996) p. 75. 3 Richars Veit, Discovering English Grammar, (Boston, USA, 1986). P. 1 4 Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, (Singapore: Green Giant Press, 2009), p.

1137.

3

In fact. Personal pronoun in English grammar is naot always difficult,

even it has been familiar, especially when learning English.

Students often make mistakes and errors in using personal pronoun. They

use the form of objective pronoun when it serves as the subject of the sentence.

They also use the form of subjective pronoun when it serves as the object.

Ideally, the second years students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta are supposed to

master that element personal pronoun, because it always uses in their activity.

When they speak or write something, pronoun is always used. Here are some

examples:

Example 1:

Me called her susan.

I called she susan.

The first sentence is incorrect because this pronoun form is object pronoun

that serves as the object of the sentence. The object pronoun “me” should be

changed to the subject pronoun “I”. The correct sentence must be : “I called her

susan”

Then, on the second sentence is also incorrect, because this pronoun serves

as the object. The subject pronoun “she” should be changed to the object pronoun

“her”. Moreover, the correct sentence must be : “I called her Susan”. Both

mistakes above happened because students cannot distinguish the use between the

subject and object pronouns.

Example 2:

John, yours book is on the table

Where is your?

The first sentence is incorrect, because the possessive pronoun “yours” is

accompanied by the noun book, and the possessive pronoun must not be

accompanied by noun. In this case, the possessive adjective “your” is needed. The

correct sentence must be: “John, your book is on the table”.

4

Moreover, in the second sentence obove is also incorrect, because the

possessive adjective “your” in this sentence is not accompanied by noun. so , the

possessive adjective must be accompanied by noun. For this case, possessive

pronoun “yours” is needed. The correct sentence must be: where is yours?. These

mistake also occured because students cannot distingush the use between

possessive adjective and the possessive pronouns and they think that there is not

differenciate between those pronouns.

Example 3:

I have a little sister. His name is Susi.

The sentence above absolutely wrong. “His name is Susi”, is wrong

because the possessive adjective “his” does not agree with the previous sentence

that refer to gender (Susi and sister) it is clearly that Susi and sister refer to

feminine gender (female). This pronoun should be replaced with the posessive

adjective “her”because the pronoun her is as an antecedent of English pronoun

which is female gender. The correct form of the sentence is “I have a little sister.

Her name is Susi”

However, the third singular pronouns contrast in gender, which is a

clasification of NPs that has variety of dimensions in some language put in

English mainly around sex.

*. The masculine gender pronoun he is used for males

*. The feminine gender pronoun she is used for females

*. The neuther pronoun it is used for in animates, or for male or female

animals5

After analyzing the sentences above, the writer conclude that students may

find difficult dealing personal pronouns. The incorrect sentences made by students

above show their level of knowledge in using personal pronouns. Therefore, the

5 Rodney Huddleston and & Geoffrey K. Pullum, A student’s Introduction to English

Grammar, (Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press, 2005), p. 103.

5

writer uses an analysis to know the difficulties faced by students in understanding

personal pronouns and why they do the errors.

Finally, based on the fact above, he interested in writing a “skripsi” under

the title

“An Analysis on Difficulties Faced by Students in Understanding Personal

Pronouns”

B. Focus of the Research.

In this research, the writer focuses his research to analyze the percentage

of difficulties of understanding personal pronoun (subject pronoun, object

pronoun, possessive adjective, possessive pronoun and reflexive pronoun).

C. Research Questions

There are two problems analyzed in this research:

1. What are the percentages of students’ difficulties in understanding personal

pronoun?

2. What are the causes of students’ (SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta) difficulties in

understanding personal pronoun?

D. Aim of the Research.

The aim of the research is to know and analyze the causes of difficulties

in understanding personal pronouns of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Besides, the

aim of this research is to know the most difficult in understanding personal

pronoun.

E. Significance of the Study

This research is expected to give useful information for :

a. Students

This research may help the students in junior high school, senior high

school and univesity about some common difficulties faced by students in

understanding personal pronouns.

6

b. English teacher

By knowing some common difficulties made by the students in

understanding personal pronouns, they will find out a better strategy to teach it

in order to the students can overcome their difficulties.

c. Further researchers

It can also be used as a reference for other researchers who are interested

in doing a further linguistic research to personal pronouns.

7

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Definition of Pronoun

First, the writer would like to explain about pronouns before giving the

definition of personal pronoun. According to Frank, The traditional definition of

pronoun is a word that takes the place of noun.1

On the other hand, the word ‘pronoun’ comes from the Latin pronomen

meaning “for a noun”. as the word implies, pronoun are the words that we use in

place of nouns.2

One of pronoun function is to avoid the word repetition on sentence. For

example: “Bagus and Dewi are students of SMPN Permata Indah. Bagus and

Dewi are the second grade’s students”. The subject in the first sentence are Bagus

and Dewi. In second sentence, the subject is repeated. The repetition “Bagus and

Dewi” in second sentence is just a wasting word unnecessary. And what does the

text look like when it occurs in long paragraph. Here, the student should be able to

write the sentence “ Bagus and Dewi are students of SMPN Permata Indah, they

are the second grade’s students”

As John Langan said that “ pronouns are shortcut to keep you from

unecessarily repeting words in writing”.3 By definitions above, we can say that

pronoun is a word that is used in place of noun, thing, person and place. It refers

to an individual or group of person and things. A pronoun must agree in number

with the word or words it replaces. If the word a pronoun refers to is singular, the

pronoun must be singular; if the word is plural, the pronoun must be plural4. For

example: “Lola agreed to lend me her Billie Holiday Albums”. In this sentence,

the pronoun “her” refers to the singular word Lola. The students are learning in

their classroom. The pronoun “their” refers to plural word “students”.

1 Marcella Frank, Modern English, A Practical Reference Guide, (New Jersey: Prentice

Hall, 1972), p. 20. 2 Barbara Dykes, Grammar for Everyone, (Australia: ACER Press, 2007), p. 35. 3 John Langan, Sentence Skill, form A, (New York; Mc Grow Hill Press, 2003), p. 195. 4 Ibid.

8

From the definition above, it can be known that pronoun is a word that

takes place of noun, in order to avoid the repetition word in the sentence.

Actually, Pronouns have some different types that can people use in daily

activity. There are “I”, “we”, “them”, “their”, “her” etc that can people usually

use. The differences of many pronouns are more highly inflected for grammatical

properties, (person, case, number and gender), and all pronouns are lack the

derivational endings such as; -tion, -ment that nouns have. Pronouns have most of

the same functions as noun, such as;5

a. Subject of the verb

Example: They were late for their appointment.

b. Object of the verb

direct object

Example: We enjoyed ourselves at the party

indirect

Example: We will send you the goods immediately

c. Subjective complement

Example: That’s the one

d. Object of preposition

Example: After this, be more careful.

Do not talk about computer to me.

e. Appositive

Nonrestrictive:

Example: Mary, one of the most intelligent girls I know, is planning to

attend the university.

Rectrictive:

Example: The men all got into boat.

5 Frank, op. cit., p. 27.

9

1. Kinds of Pronoun

Pronouns have various types, as they can be seen below:

1. Personal Pronouns. (they, we, i ,you)

2. Reflexive Pronoun. (myself, yourself, himself, herself)

3. Demonstrative Pronoun. (this,that,those)

4. Relative Pronoun. (who, that, whom, whose, which, where)

5. Interrogative Pronouns. (who, whom, what, where, whose, which,

how)

6. Indefinite Pronoun. (none, all,one, each)

7. Reciprocal Pronoun. (Each other, one another)6

2. Personal Pronoun

Pronouns is a structure class whose members serves as subtitution forms

for noun phrases. The noun phrases for which a pronoun subtitutes is called the

antecedent of the pronoun. The subcategories of pronoun serve as subtitution

forms to different degrees. 7

Personal pronoun itself, are part of pronouns that are words that replace a

noun or noun phrase, but they commonly refer to person and thing. “personal

pronouns are the ones we usually think of when the word pronoun comes to mind,

we generally label them on the basic of person and members”.8

From the definition about pronoun above, the writer concludes that

personal pronouns is a word that take places of noun. however, the position and

function as the significant fators in organizing a part of speech often consider

pronouns as a subclass of noun and subtitution forms to different units.

There are four case forms of personal pronoun to indicate different

sentence function. There are: subjective case, objective case, the possessive case

and refelxive case.

6 Ibid., p. 21. 7 Marks S. Lc Tourneau, English Grammar, (Weber State University, 2001 Hancourt), p. 66. 8 Martha Kolln, Understanding English Grammar Fourth Edition, (New York: Macmillan,

1991), p. 331.

10

Personal pronouns change their form for person:

1. Number: singular, plural (e.g. I/we).

2. Person: first person, second person, third person (I/you/she)

3. Case: subjective, objective, possessive (I/me/mine)

4. Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter (he/she/it)

Chart 2.1

Form of Personal Pronoun

Subject Object Possessive

Adjecive

Possessive

Pronoun

Reflexive

Singular : I

You

He

She

It

Me

You

Him

Her

It

My

Your

Her

Him

Its

Mine

Yours

Hers

His

My self

yourself

Himself

Herself

Itself

Plural : we

You

They

Us

You

Them

Our

Your

Their

Ours

Yours

Theirs

Ourselves

Theirselve

s

Yourselve

s

11

3. Types of Personal Pronoun

a. Subject Pronoun

Chart 2.2.

Form of Subject Pronoun

Subject pronoun

Singular Plural

I

You,

He, she, it

We

You

They

A pronoun in the subject group (I,you, she, he,it we, they) may be used in

two ways:9

As the subject of a verb

Examples:

He is my brother. (He is the subject of the verb is).

We girls gave a party. (We is the subject of verb gave).

He is taller than I. (The sentence is not written out in full, it means. He is taller

than I am. I is the subject of the verb am).

As a word that means the same as the subject.

Examples:

That boy in the blue jeans is he. (He is the same as the subject boy).

It was she all right (She is the same as the subject It)

9 Teressa, The Least You Should Know About English Basic Writing Skill, (Macomb Illionis:

Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 106.

12

b. Object Pronoun

Chart 2.3

Table of Object pronoun

Object pronoun

Singular Plural

Me

You

Him, her, it

Us

Our

Them

Object pronoun are another types of pronouns. These are pronoun that

replace nouns or noun phrase in object position in the sentence. Object position

means that the noun or noun phrase receives the action of the verb.1 0

Examples:

1. The girls read. (noun phrase in subject position).

2. She reads. (subject pronoun).

3. The girl reads books. (noun phrase in object position)

4. He reads them. (pronoun in object position).

In sentence (1) the girl is the subject of the verb reads.

The noun phrase, the girl answer the question Who Reads?, a question that

helps tell us who or what the subject of the verb is.

Since the girl is in the subject position and refers to a a single female person,

the subject pronoun she can replace The girl (sentence 2).

1 0 Andrea DeCapua, Grammar for Teachers, (New York: Springer, 2008), p. 69.

13

In sentence (3) books is the object of the verb reads.

The word books answer the question what does the girl reads?, a question that

helps tell us what (or who) the object of the verb is

Since books is in object position and refers to a plural object, the object

pronoun them can replace books (sentence 4).

Object pronoun as the object of preposition1 1

Examples:

Do not look at me. (me is the object of the preposition at)

We will go to Bali with them. (them is the object of preposition with)

c. Possessive Adjective and Possessive Pronoun

Chart 2.4

Form of Possessive Adjective and Possessive Pronoun

Possessive Adjectives Possessive Pronoun

Singular Plural Singular Plural

My Our Mine Ours

Your Your Yours Yours

Singular Plural Singular Plural

His

Their

His

Theirs Her Hers

Its Its

We use both possessive adjective and pronouns to talk about ownership or

relationship between people. We put a noun after a possessive adjective, but not

1 1 Langan, op. cit., p. 208.

14

after a possessive pronoun.1 2 Furthermore, we use possessive adjective in front of

nouns and use possessive pronouns without nouns.

1. Possessive Adjective

Examples:

She is one of my friend. (singular)

Those are your pencil.(singular)

This is her pen. (singular)

Those are their shirts. (plural)

2. Possessive Pronoun

Examples:

Those cars are mine. (mine is possessive pronoun, that shows possession.

On the other word, it can say, “those are my cars”).

The book on my table is yours. (yours is possessive pronoun, that shows

possession. It means that “your book is on my table”).

The most beautiful picture is hers. (hers is possessive pronoun, that shows

possession. Hers in this sentence means her picture).

Possessive adjectives are followed immediately by noun; they do not stand

alone, but refer to the possessor and not to the thing possessive. My, your, his, her,

its, our and their are determines, while in grammars and dictionary called

“possessive adjective”.

Moreover, possessive pronouns are not followed immediatelly by noun,

they stand alone. It also shows possession the same as in possessive adjective

(Mine, yours, hers, his, ours, theirs)

We say “a freiend of mine/ yours/ ours/ his/ hers and theirs” not a friend

of me, friend of her or friend of him etc1 3

Examples:

1 2 Milada Broukal, Grammar Form and Function, (New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc,

2005), p. 121. 1 3 Raymond Murphy, English Grammar in Use, (Australia: Cambridge University Press,

1994), p. 162.

15

I am going to a wedding on Saturday. A friend of mine is getting married. (not

a friend of me).

We went on holiday with some friend of ours. (not some friend of us).

Mechelle had an argument with a neighbour of his.

It was a good idea of yours to go swimming this afternoon.

In the same way, we say ‘ a friend of Tom’s, a friend of my sister’s.

Examples:

It was a good ideaof Tom’s to go swimming.

That woman over there is a friend of my sister’s.

For learners of English, difficulties in the use of possessive adjective and

possessive pronoun arise for several reason. First, they are similiarities in form

between the subject and object pronouns. The possessive pronouns and the

possessive adjective are also similar in form. Second, English pronoun forms

distinguish between gender when the pronoun back to a female or male subject.1 4

d. Reflexive Pronoun

We use reflexife pronouns when the subject and object are the same.

A reflexive pronoun is combination with one of the personal pronoun or with the

impersonal pronoun-one, genarally refers to an animate being usually a person.

The most common use of the reflexive pronoun is as an object that “reflects back”

to the subject ; it used1 5.

1. As the direct object of the verb

Example:

You must not blame yourself for that mistake.

(the subject you and the object yourself have the same identity).

2 As the indirect object of the verb

Example:

I bought myself a beautiful watch. (or I bought a beautiful watch for myself).

1 4 Andrea de Capua, op. Cit, p. 72 1 5 Frank, op.cit., p. 32.

16

3. As a prepositional object

Of a verb:

We should depend on ourselves rather than on others.

Of an adjective :

She is angry with herself for making such a mistake

In popular speech, reflexive pronoun is sometimes used in the last part of a

compound subject or object.

My wife and myself were invited to the party

Her teacher asked her friend and herself to help with the decoration.

4. We can use reflexive pronouns for emphasis1 6:

Examples:

You will have to wash the dishes yourself.

I hope you like this food. I made myself.

B. Personal Pronoun Problems.

Most the learner have some difficulties in using the formal personal

pronoun. Here are some problem that learner face:

a. A pronoun appears to refer to more than one word12

Example: I locked my suitcase in my car, and then it was stolen

The sentence may be confusing and unclear. What was stolen? It is unclear

whether the suitcase or the car was stolen

Corrected to: I locked my suitcase in my car, and then my car was stolen

b. A pronoun with two possible antecedants

Example:

Whenever John is able to help his brother financially, he is very happy.

Corrected to:

John is happy when he is able to help his brother financially.

1 6 Martin Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, (Jakarta: Cambridge, 1999), p. 162.

17

c. An unnecessary personal pronoun after a noun subject

Example:

My friends, they told me the whole story

Corrected to:

My friends told me the whole story.

d. Vague it.

The persona pronoun it is used without a definite antecedant.

Example: baecause Jane had once had a bad accident while driving. She

was afraid to try it again.

Corrected to: ....she was afraid to try to drive again.

In certain colloquial idioms, a definite antecedent is not required for the

personal pronoun it.

Example: the strain of final examinations is to great, Ican not take it.

e. A pronoun whose antecedent must be infered from the preceding discourse

Example:

My father is an engineer. This is a profession I admire very much.

Corrected to: My father is an engineering. Engineering is a profession I

admire very much.

f. A pronoun whose antecedent remotely precedes it. The antecedent is so far

back in the discourse as to cause difficulty in associating the pronoun with its

antecedent.

Example:

The author tells the story of a man who gambles away his entire fortune and

has nothing left for his family to live on. The gambler, in despair, decides to

commit suicide. He goes on tell us how the man helped by an old friend.

18

“He” in the third sentence should be corrrected to the author or the writer (or,

the author’s name can be given)..

g. Too many it’s near each other. Personal it appears in close proximity with

impersonal or anticipatory it.

Example:

We like it very much in this hotel. It’s wonderful to relax in its comfortable

atmosphere. It is possible we’ll stay in it again on our next vacation.

h. Loose use of it or they as subject.

It or they is sometimes used as the subject of a verb, while the agent that

should actually be the subject is put in prepositional phrase.

Example:

In the newspaper, it says that the concert was cancelled

Corrected to: The news paper says that the concert was cancelled

Example:

At the university, they require an examination for all entering freshmen

Corrected to: The university requires all examination for all entering freshmen.

i. Shift in Pronoun Number

Example:

The student must be made to understand how each lesson can be of value to

them.

The sentence can be corrected either by changing the student to students, or by

changing them to him.

j. Shift person

“third person” is not used in one part if it is shifted back to the personal you

Example:

a good song lends comfort to people, so that you feel less alone.

Corrected to: a good song lends comfort to you. Or so that feeless alone.

k. Choice of case

Over corrected. It happens when there are two choices between subject and

object (she) and (her) case forms od proouns. Many students tend to use objective

19

forms when standard English uses subject ones (him and me are friends), they

automatically “overcorrected” in certain situations.

Example:

They appointed she and I to subcommitee

As direct object, the pronouns are suppossed to be her and me. The fact,

that there are two direct objects instead of one, so nothing should be changed.

It is not allowed the case of a pronoun to be determined by a following appositive.

Example: parking is a tragic dilemma for we professor.

Actually, it does not mean to write for we, so it is not allowed to allowed to

write for we professor.

L. Pronoun complements.

It appears when the pronoun complements are often used in the objective

case(that is him: itis them), they are supposses to be that is she and it is they. Only

for pronoun me and us special exeption for this rule.1 7

Based on the explaining about the problem of personal pronoun above, it

can be seen that there are many kind problems that might be occurred by students

in understanding and using personal pronoun correctly and properly. The writer

hopes that students are aware of personal pronoun problem in learning English

grammar.

C. The Difficulties in Understanding Personal Pronoun

1. Difficulties

In English, grammar is one thing that is essential for the mastery of every

foreign language learning. Students sometimes get difficulty to learn English

grammar, especially in learning personal pronoun. As Centeno points out that:

A difficulty is something that inhibits the students in accomplishing correctly or in understanding quickly a given item. Difficulties may be due to several causes: related to the concept that is being learned, to the

1 7 Frank, op.cit., p. 44.

20

teaching method used by teacher, to the student’s previous knowledge, or to his ability. (citied in C. Batanero, et al., 2004).1 8

Based on what Centeno said that the difficulty just the barricade of the

students to comprehend in learning English grammar. It could be because of the

concept of their learning, the method that the teacher used, the knowledge of the

students and their ability of English.

Difficulties in learning a new language such as English commonly happen

to most of the students in the world, no matter in Indonesia. The different cultural

backgrounds between their mother tongue and English as a foreign language may

have a great effect on students in learning foreign language. Therefore, students

with learning difficultiesmay find activities that involve thinking and

understanding particularly difficult.

Moreover, the differences between the two languages will become a

negative transfer, from this case; the learners will face the error. On the other

hand, if the two languages have the same habit, the transfer will be positive.

Littlewood stated that “The differences between the two languages lead to

interference, which is the cause of learning difficulties and error.”1 9 In other word,

errors in learning English grammar as a result of the difficulties that learner

encountered. So, difficulties and errors are correlated each other.

From the ststement above, the writer concluded that the difficultie in

learning English especially in grammar are created by the negative transfer that

takes place from the mother tongue to the second of foreign language and the

learner produced the error. In this case, the teachers have an important role to help

the students overcome the difficulties

2. Error

1 8 C. Batanero, et al., Errors and Difficulties in Understanding Elementary Statistical

Concept, International Journal of Mathematics Education in Science and Technology, 25, 2004, pp. 527—547.

1 9 William Littlewood, Foreign and Second Language Learning, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 17.

21

In learning foreign language, the learners must do some errors or mistakes

as Dulay and Burt on Richards’ book stated, “you can not learn without

goofing”.2 0 According to them, error as a natural product of the process of second

language learning. It mens that the students as the learners may produce many

forms which would not be produced by a anative speaker of the standard forms of

the target language.

In the other hand, Erdogan also has the same thought with Dulay and Burt

about error. He said “it is inevitable that the learners makes mistakes in the

process of foreighn language learning.” 2 1 It means that error or mistake can not

be avoided in acquiring foreign language.

Douglas Brown stated that errors as a noticeable deviation from the adult

grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the

learner.2 2 Example: if learner asks: Does John can sing? They are probably

reflecting a competence level in which all verbs require a pre-posed do auxiliary

for question formation. So, he has committed an error. On the other hand, Rod

Ellis said “errors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the

learner does not know what is correct”2 3

Referring to the definition errors above, errors were considerable as the

result of difficulties that students encountered in learning foreign language.

Errors may happen in teaching learning process. It may be caused by the teachers

who have a lack of grammar in English teaching competence or students who

have different understanding in their English grammar concept.

3. Difference of Error and Mistake

2 0 Jack C.Richards, Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition,

(London: Longman, 1974), p. 95. 2 1Vacide Erdogan, Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language Teaching, Mersin

University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 1(2), 2005, pp. 261—270. 2 2 H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching third edition, (New

York: Longman, 2000), p. 205. 2 3 Rod Ellis, Second Language Acquisition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p.

17.

22

In learning of error analysis field, it is crucial to make distinction between

error and mistake since most of people still misunderstand about the definition of

them. Error and mistake are not the same, but in learning English foreign

language both of them can be separated, morover, they always faced by student in

learning. Some experts distinguished both of them such as Brown said that

mistake is because of lack attention, carelessness, a “slip” or performance error,

and it can be self-corrected when attention is called2 4. However, error itself is the

learners’ competence error and they cannot make self-correction.

Hubbard, et al. stated, “errors caused by lack of knowledge about the

target language (English) or by incorrect hypotheses about it; and mistakes caused

by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on”2 5.

The definitions above lead the researcher to sum up that error and mistake

are different. Error is caused by incorrect hypothesis of the target language or use

of linguistic items showing faulty or incomplete learning and learner does not

know whether the correct, and can not make the self-correction. And on the other

hand, mistake is caused by lack of attention, carelessness, a slip, or other aspect of

performance error and can be self-corrected when attention is called. Jeremy

Harmer said that “mistakes is less serious since it is the retrieval that is faulty not

the knowledge”2 6. In other word, the students knowte rule, but they make a slip

when producing it.

However, there is a question of how error and mistake, in written data, can

be distinguished. Brown stated that to identify the errors might be through the

frequency of errors. If learner consistently reveals such utterance as “He cans ride

a motorcycle and “He mays go to Puncak. They can be deduced as error not

mistake. If an English learner says, “He cans ride a motorcycle but on other

occasions says, “He can ride a motorcycle”, and “he may go to Puncak”, it is

assumed as mistake not error. However, if on one or two occasions, the learner

2 4Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 5th ed., (United States:

San Francisco State University, 2007), p. 257-258. 2 5Peter Hubbard, et al., A Training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1983), p. 134 2 6 Jeremy Harmer. The Practice of English Teaching, (USA: Longman Group: 1983). P. 35

23

says “he cans ride a motorcycle but on other occasion he says “he may go to

Puncak”. It is difficult to determine whether “cans” is mistake or error.

4. Source of Errors

Students who dealt with errors must have their own reason why they did

such kind of errors So that it is important to know the cause of the errors made by

the students in order to know more about the students’ errors.

Brown mentions that errors caused by some following factor:2 7

a. Interlingual Transfer

In acquiring second language system, learners tend to transfer the first

language to the second language. In this case, learner can only draw the previous

linguistics system because the system of the second language is not be familiar

with. In other word, they sometimes translate their native language into second

language since they think it is the easiest way to deliver the messages. Example “I

love she”, instead of “I love her”. It means that interlingual transfer is cause of

errors as learners’ transfer of what they have known about the language system in

the first language to be transformed into the target language.

b. Intralingual Transfer

Interlangual transfer is cause of errors that the target language itself as a

major factor in second language learning. Although learners initially transfer their

native language to the target language, then they have begun to acquire parts of

new system.

c. Context of Learning

“Context” refers to the teachers and materials related to the school learning

or the social situation in the case of untutored the second language learning. Both

can lead learners to make errors. It may be resulted from a misleading

2 7 Brown, op. cit.., pp. 215-217.

24

explanation, faulty presentation of structure or word in a textbook, and improperly

contextualize pattern in a drill. It means that context of learning is the cause of

errors because the teacher failed to presents a target language system correctly or

the textbook students use provides the language system that is wrong.

d. Communication Strategies

Communication strategies relate to learning style. Errors occur when

learner produce the L2 by their own strategy with a little previous knowledge.

From this, It may results an improperly sentence meaning like structured. It means

that communication strategies are the causes of errors when the learners try to

presents a concept with unrepresented phrase or clause. Example: the word “right”

is used instead of “true”.

Chart 2.5

Transfer, Overgeneralization, and Interference

Note: L1 = First Language or Mother Tongue

L2 = Second Language or Target Language

On the other hand, Richard resume on his document in A Non-Contrastive

Approach to Error Analysis. He classified that the cause of error into, 1.

Overgenerilaztion, means that the learner use their learning experience of other

structure in the target language. It is can be incorrect application of the rules ofthe

target language itself because of their language experience. 2. Ignorance of rule

restriction, it is almost seems like the sturucture of generalization. It means that

Transfer

Positive (+) Negative (-)

Overgeneralization Interference (L1 => L1) (L1 => L2) (L2 => L2) (L2 => L1)

25

the learners do not apply the application of rules into the context that should be

applied. 3. Incomplete application of rules, that is the occurence of structure

representing the development of its rules needed to create an acceptable utterance.

Then, False concepts hypotized, this one is a significance errors that caused by the

faulty of comprehension.2 8

D. Test

In other words, test means the school examination, college entrance or

employment. According to Antony on his book Educational and Measurement an

Introduction, he said that test is involving writing or making aswer. The test itself

is defined as a systematic procedure for observing one or more characteristics of a

person with the aid of either a numerical scale or category system. This test could

be qualitative or quantitative test.2 9

Moreover, measurement and evaluation are not same, but they are part of

others. Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to individual or more.

Then, ana evaluation is the systematic process of collecting, analyzing and

interpreting the information to determine the axtent to which pupils are achieving

instructional objective, and test isa set of question, each of which has a correct

answer, that examines usually answer by orraly or writing.

1. Types of Tests

There are many purposes for which language test are developed. The test

itself has defined into 3 types of language test. However, many important broad

categories of test that do permit more efficient desciptionand explanation: the

three types of tests categories there are:3 0

a. Objective test

2 8Jack C. Richards, A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis, English Language

Teaching, 25, 1970, pp. 6-14. 2 9 Anthony. J Nitko, Educational and Measurement, an Introduction, (NewYork: Harcourt

Brace Jovanovic, 1983). P. 6 3 0 Grant Henning, A Guide to Language Testing, Development, Evaluation and

Reasearch, (USA: Henley Publisher, 1987).P. 4-8

26

This test is higly structured and requires the students to supply a word or

more to select the correct answer

b. Subjective test

This test is to require scoring by optionated judgment, hopefully based on

insight and expertise

c. Direct and indirect test

It has been said that certain test, such as ratting of language use in real and

uncontrived communication situation. This test performance directly whereas

other test such as multiple choice, are indirecly tapping true language

performance, for example interview and contextualized vocabulary test.

d. Discrete point and integrative test

Discrete points as a variety diagnostic test are designed to measure

knowledge or performance in very restricted areas of the target language.

Whereas, the integrative test is to tap a greater variety of language abilities like

dictation and oral imitation task.

e. Aptitude, achievment and proficiency test

Aptitude test is often used to measure the suitability of a candidate for a

specific program of instruction or particular kind of employment. Achievment test

is used for program evaluation as well as for certification or learned competence.

f. Criterion and norm referenced or standarized test

Criterion reference tests are devised before the instruction itself is

designed. The test much match teaching objectives perfectly, so that any tendency

of the teacher to teach to the test would be permissible.

g. Speed and power test

Speed test is test that might be expected to get every item correct, given

enough time, but sufficient time is not provided, so examines are compared on

their speed rather that knowledge itself. Power test are testthat allow sufficient

time for every person to finish, but that contain such difficult items that view if

examiners are expected to get every item correct.

2. Criteria of a good test

27

a. Validity

Validity is refer to extent to which the result of an evaluation procedure

serves the particular use for which they are intended. A test is valid when it

measures effectively what it is suppossed to measure whether itcan be

achievment, aptitude or proficiency in the language.

b. Reliability

This test is concerning with the degree to which it can be trusted to

procedur the same result upon repeated administration to the same individual,

or to give consistent information above the value of learning variable being

measured.

c. Comprehensiveness

A foreign language test is said to be comprehensive when it contains an

apprpriatness proportions of item from all aspect of the material to be tested

d. Practicality

It would be unwise if in the design and administration of foreign language

test were consider it validity, reliability and comprehensiveness apart from its

practically.3 1

3 1 Mary Finochiaro and Syden Sako, Foreign Lnguage Test a Pratical Approach, (New

York: Regents Publishing Company Inc, 1983). P. 24.

28

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Time and Location

This research took places at SMP. Bahrul Ulum Jakarta which is located on

Kampung Baru Jakarta Barat. This research was done on Wednesday, March, 04

2013.

B. The Method of Research

The method, which is used in this research, is qualitative descriptive method.

The writer describes the students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronouns by

using percentage of students’ difficulties.

C. Data and Source

In this research, the researcher took the data sources in the second grade

students which is consists of 33 students. Then he took 7 students who got low score

after test given for interview.

D. The technique of Collecting Data

1. Procedure

Before doing this research, the writer did observation to know how many

classes that available in SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarata. After doing observation, he

chose the class for the subject of the research, and then he gave the test to the

students. After giving the test, he calculated and tabulated the score and then he chose

7 students for doing interview.

29

2. Instrument

a. Test

This test was used to know the percentage of students’ difficulties in

understanding personal pronoun. The writer gave a test which focused on the use of

personal pronoun. The test consists of twenty five items; each of personal pronouns

has certain items. For subject pronoun; it has six items. Object pronoun also has six;

possessive adjective has four items, possessive pronoun has five items and last,

reflexive pronoun has four items. The writer put the item at random, as it can be seen

below.

Table 3.1

Personal Pronoun Area and Each Item

NO Personal Pronoun Area Number Items

1 Subject Pronoun 4, 8, 11, 16, 24, 25

2 Object Pronoun 7, 9, 12, 14, 20, 23

3 Possessive Adjective 1, 3, 6, 19

4 Possessive Pronoun 5, 13, 17, 15, 21

5 Reflexive 2, 10, 18, 22

b. Interview The writer gave interview to the students; it is used by the writer as the

technique of collecting data to know why students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta faced

difficulties in understanding personal pronoun.

E. The technique of Data Analysis

In this part, the writer analyzes the data is used qualitatively analyzed in

which describes the cause of difficulties faced by the second year students of SMP

Bahrul Ulum Jakarta.

30

Besides, it also described the most difficulties in understanding personal

pronoun faced by students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. The data are calculated

using simple percentage formula. The formula as follow:

100%

P: Percentage

f: Frequency of wrong answer

N: Number of samples or students1

After having percentage and frequency, the writer looks for the average mark

by using the formula:

100%

P: Percentage

F: Frequency of wrong answer

N: Number of samples

N: Number of item test

1 Anas Sudijono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, (Jakarta: PT. Raja Grafindo, 2008), p. 43.

31

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS and INTERPRETATION

A. The Description

In this section, the writer analyzed the students’ difficulties in understanding

personal pronoun based on the test given. In this research the writer gave the test

about personal pronoun that consists of 25 items. Six items consist of subject

pronoun, six items consist object pronoun, five items consist of possessive pronoun,

four items consist for possessive adjective and four items for reflexive. The writer put

the item at random as it can be seen below.

Chart 4.1 Personal Pronoun Area and each Item

No Personal Pronoun area frequency of

difficulties

1 Subject Pronoun 4, 8, 11, 16, 24, 25

2 Object Pronoun 7, 9, 12, 14, 20, 23

3 Possessive Pronoun 5, 13, 15, 17, 21

4 Possessive Adjective 1, 3, 6, 19

5 Reflexive 2, 10, 18, 22

Next, knowing the highest and the lowest rate of the kinds of students’

difficulties in understanding personal pronoun, the writer calculated and elaborated

the frequency of the students’ score of the test. Here table 2 shows the students’ score

of the test.

32

Chart 4.2

Students’ Score of Test Result

No Participants Score No Participants Score

1 Student 1 28 17 Student 17 56
















33 Student 33 40

Average 44.73

Highest Score 72

Lowest Score 28

After the writer counted and tabulated the English test score, he got frequency

of students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun. The data will be

described as follow:

33

1. Subject Pronoun

Chart 4.3

The Frequency of Students’ Difficulties on Subject Pronoun

personal pronoun area Item Frequency

of percents of

Number difficulties Difficulties

Subject Pronoun

4 20 60.61%

8 13 39.39%

11 18 54.55%

16 17 51.52%

24 19 57.58%

25 24 72.73%

Total 6 items 111 56.06%

According to the data above, that there are six item numbers and there are 111

frequencies of difficulty occurrences. The highest difficulty is on the last number, 25

which the frequency of difficulty is 24 and frequency of difficulty in percentage is

72.73%. The lowest difficulty is on number 8 which is the frequency of difficulty in

percentage is 39.39%. For item number 16, the frequency of difficulty is 17 and its

frequency of percentage is 51.52%.Then, the frequency of difficulty on number 11 is

18 which the frequency of difficulty in percentage is 54.55%. For frequency of

difficulty on number 4 is 20 which frequency of difficulty in percentage is 60.61%.

And the last is on number 24; with the frequency of difficulty is 19 which the

frequency of difficulty in percentage is 57.58%. The average of difficulty in the use

of personal pronoun is as follows:

34

100%

11133 6

100%

111198

100%

=56.06%

The total averages of frequency difficulties made by students are 56.06% in

the use of subject pronoun area.

2. Object Pronoun

Chart 4.4

The Frequency of Students’ Difficulties on Object Pronoun

Personal pronoun area

Item Frequency

of Percents of


Object Pronoun

7 19 57.58%

9 20 60.61%

12 20 60.61%

14 23 69.70%

20 22 66.67%

23 24 72.73%


According to the data above, that there are 6 items number, there are 128

difficulties occurrences. The highest difficulty is on number 23 which the frequency

of difficulty is 24 and the frequency of difficulty in percentage is 72.73%. The

lowest difficulty is on number 7 which the frequency of difficulty is 19 and

35

frequency of difficulty in percentage is 57.58%. It also can be seen that there is the

same frequency, those are on number 9 and 12 which the frequency of difficulty is

20 with the frequency of difficulty in percentage is 60.61%. On number 14, it has

frequency of difficulty with 23 which the frequency of difficulty is 69.70%. The last

is number 20 which has 22 frequency of difficulty with frequency in percentage is

66.67%. The average of difficulty in the use personal pronoun is as follows:

100%

12833 6

100%

128198

100%

=64.65%

So, the total averages of frequency difficulties made by students in

understanding personal pronoun are 64.65%.


Chart 4.5

The frequency of students’ difficulties on Possessive Pronoun

Personal Pronoun area Item Frequency

of Percent of


Possessive Pronoun

5 22 66.67%

13 18 54.55%

15 20 60.61%

17 17 51.52%

21 15 45.45%

Total 5 92 55.76%

36

Based on the calculation above, he got the information that the highest

difficulty occurrences on possessive pronouns is on number 5 which the frequency of

difficulty is 22 and in the percentage, it is 66.67%. And the lowest difficulty is on

number 21 which the frequency of difficulty is 15 and the frequency of difficulty in

percentage is 45.45%. On number 2, it has 18 frequency of difficulty which

percentage is 54.55%. And then there are 20 frequency of difficulty occurred on

number 15 which the frequency of difficulty in percentage is 60.61%. The last, on

number 17, the frequency of difficulty is 17 which the frequency of difficulty in

percentage is 51.52%. The average of difficulty in the use possessive pronoun is is as

follows:

100%

9233 5

100%

92165

100%

=55.76%

The averages of frequency of difficulties made by students are 55.76 in the

use possessive pronoun area.

37


Chart 4.6

The Frequency of Students’ Difficulties on Possessive Adjective


of Percent of


Possessive Adjective

1 6 18.18%

3 17 51.52%

6 20 60.61%

19 18 54.55%


According to the data above, the item on number 6 has taken the highest

frequency of difficulty which total difficulty 20 and frequency in percentage is

60.61%. And the number which has taken the lowest difficulty is occurred on number

1 which frequency of difficulty in percentage 18.18%. On item number 3, the

frequency of difficulty is 17 with 51.52% for the frequency of difficulty in

percentage. Last, on number 19 has 18 frequency of difficulty with percentage

54.55%.

100%

6133 4

100%

61132

100%

38

=46.21%


the use of possessive adjective area.

5. Reflexive Pronoun

Chart 4.7

The Frequency of Students’ Difficulties on Reflexive Pronoun


of Percent of

Number Difficulties Difficulties

Reflexive

2 15 45.45

10 18 54.55

18 15 45.45

22 16 48.48

Total 4 64 48.48

According to the data above, there 4 items number on reflexive pronoun area

and there are 64 frequency of difficulty occurrences. There are 18 frequency of

difficulty on number 10 as the highest difficulty, with percentage 54.55%. and then,

there is the same frequency as the lowest difficulty, those are on number 2 and 18

which the frequency of difficulty is 15 with 45.45% for the frequency of difficulty in

percentage. The last one is number 22 which has 16 frequency of difficulty with

percentage 48.48%. The average of difficulty in the use of reflexive pronoun area is

as follows:

39

100%

6433 4

100%

61132

100%

=48.48%


the use of Reflexive pronoun area.

B. The Data Analysis

Chart 4.8

The Recapitulation of the Average of Difficulty

in Understanding Personal Pronoun

No Personal Pronoun area Frequency of Percent of

difficulties Difficulties

1 Subject Pronoun 111 56.06%

2 Object Pronoun 128 64.65%

3 Possessive Pronoun 92 55.76%

4 Possessive Adjective 61 46.21%

5 Reflexive 64 48.48%

The table above showed that many students are still got difficult in

understanding personal pronoun. It can be seen that most of students got difficulty in

Object pronoun area with frequency of difficulties 128 with percentage 64.65%. The

40

second level is subject pronoun with percentage 56.06% or 111 frequency of

difficulty occurrences. The third is possessive pronoun with percentage 55.76%. The

fourth is reflexive pronoun with percentage 48.48%, and last 46.21% on possessive

adjective.

After calculating and tabulating the difficulties in understanding personal

pronoun into the table description with its frequency and percentage, the researcher

would like to analyze the kinds of difficulties made by students in understanding

personal pronoun and their causes.

a. The Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Personal Pronouns Based on

Each Area

1. Subject Pronoun

According to the finding of the research, the total average of difficulties made

by students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta in understanding personal pronoun in

subject pronoun area is 56.06%. It happened because the students got difficult to use

appropriate pronoun as subject pronoun. In this area, most of students choose the

wrong answer.

For example on number 25, it is uses the subject pronoun “we” and other is

“them”, as can be seen in appendix. When the students choose “them”, they maybe

think that “them” is the right answer. This case occurred because they cannot differ

very well the function of pronoun as a subject and object. It should use “we”, as

subject pronoun.

2. Object Pronoun

As we seen on the table 4.4, the highest frequency of difficulty is at number

23 with frequency of difficulty is 24 with percentage 72.73%. Followed by number

14 with frequency difficulty is 23 with percentage 69.70%.

However, the most difficult of object pronoun faced by students is on large

number. For example “Diana bought a tie to…father”. Most of students choose wrong

41

answer. It may be “his” is the right answer as the antecedent of “father”. It may also

caused by they had lack of understanding about the personal pronoun and native

language is different with the target language which do concern with gender. So the

right answer is “her” as the object of preposition “to”. On number 14, actually the

writer uses a simple question. He puts 4 pronoun forms which 3 of all are same as

subject pronoun and there is 1 as an object pronoun. Most of students choose the

wrong answer because they still can not differentiate the forms between subject and

object pronoun.


Based on the result of test, students’ average got difficulties in possessive

pronoun are 92 or 55.76%. It happened because the students got difficult to use the

appropriate personal pronoun as the possessive pronoun. From the data above, the

highest difficulty in possessive pronoun area is on number 5 which frequency of

difficulty 22 with percentage 66.67%. The writer uses simple question, but most of

students still choose wrong answer. This number use possessive pronouns “yours”

and other is “your”, for example on the sentence “My house is bigger than…” most of

students choose “your”. Based on the interview, the students almost get difficult

because there is a different concept between Indonesian and English language.

Example in Bahasa: “rumahku lebih besar daripada rumahmu”. Students may use the

English concept “you” in general. They may write “my house is bigger than you”. In

this case, the students may also think that “your” in this sentence uses as singular and

other “yours” as plural for noun “house”.

42


From the data above, the highest frequency of difficulty in using possessive

adjective is on number 6 which frequency of difficulty 20 or 60.61% for its

percentage. From the sentence “That girl is beautiful, what is ...name? (Diana)” most

of students choose “hers” as the appropriate answer, instead of “her”. They made the

word to be wrong answer, because they can not differentiate the use pronoun as

possessive adjective and possessive pronoun properly. They may be thinking that

both of those pronouns are same in form, in fact they are different. See chapter II.

5. Reflexive Pronoun

In the table 4.7, most of students choose the wrong answer at number 10, with

frequency of difficulty 18 and frequency of difficulty in percentage 54.55%. in this

part, the students faced the difficulty in order to change the subjective pronoun to be

objective pronoun. On this number, the writer puts reflexive as object pronoun

“myself” as can be seen in appendix I. in chapter II stated that reflexive pronoun is an

object that reflect back to the subject. On the sentence “I wrote this letter…” this case

occurred because the students still not understanding the usage of reflexive pronoun

and its form properly, and it is the one part of problem that faced by the students of

SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta.

C. The Interpretation

Based on the data analysis, the writer found the kind of difficulties in

understanding personal pronoun faced by second grade students of SMP Bahrul Ulum

Jakarta; they are subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive pronoun, possessive

adjective and reflexive pronoun.

Finally, as in the following table below, the writer showed the sequence of

personal pronoun area. It can be seen which one of the personal pronoun that is

highest and the lower frequency of difficulty.

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Chart 4.9

Percentage on Students’ Difficulty in Understanding Personal Pronoun Based on

the Highest to the Lowest Total Difficulties

No Personal Pronoun Area Frequency of Percent of

Difficulties Difficulties

1 0bject Pronoun 128 64.65%

2 Subject Pronoun 111 56.06%

3 Possessive Pronoun 92 55.76%

4 Reflexive 64 48.48%

5 Adjective 61 46.21%

Based on the table above, the highest frequency of difficulty is in objective

pronoun which there is 128 frequency of difficulties occurred or 64.65%. Second

level is subject pronoun with percentage 56.06%, the third is possessive pronoun with

percentage 55.76%, fourth reflexive pronoun with percentage 48.48% and the last one

is possessive adjective with percentage 46.21%.

Therefore, the writer uses the average to count the percentage of difficulties

faced by students, the result show that the most difficulties which are faced by the

second grade of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta is in object pronoun area. Moreover, from

the data above, it seems that kinds of personal pronoun are different, so, the function

of every personal pronoun makes students confuse to choose the right answer. From

this case, the teachers must pay more attention to this personal pronoun.

After the researcher elaborated and interviewed some students, the researcher

found that the Indonesian students are still lack of understanding the English

grammar in term of using grammar rules, especially in understanding personal

pronoun, because the using between Indonesian and English pronoun is different.

44

As in interview to some students, they still confused to choose the right

answer. It happend because they do not know the use of personal pronoun properly

and their knowledge about English grammar rules is low, so they did many

misselection and got difficulties in answering the right answer. As In sentence “my

house is bigger than...” most of student choose the wrong answer. They do not

understand verywell about personal pronoun forms. The students confuse because

they overgeneralize all of the forms of personal pronoun.

To them the using of pronoun “you”, “yours”, “your” are same and can be

used in any forms like in Bahasa Indonesia, there is word “kamu”.In this case,

students bring the concept of their native language to the target language. As what

Brown, stated that there are three categories of error causes. There are interlingual

transfer, intralingual transfer, and context of learning.

45

CHAPETR V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusions

Based on the data analysis and questionnaire of the data, the writer would

like to conclude that the mastery of second year students of SMP Bahrul Ulum

Jakarta on Personal Pronoun in determining the usage of it is low. Most of

students have not understood about the form and the function of Personal

Pronoun. This case may be caused by the change of Personal Pronoun form have

different position and function in sentences. So the students confuse to use

Personal Pronoun properly. The reason why students faced the difficulties in

understanding personal pronoun are caused by:1. Interlingual transfer. It is caused

by the differences concept of two languages; they transfer their first language into

second language. 2). Intralingual transfer; it is caused by the students

understanding about pronouns is low.3). Context of learning; it happened because

the teacher’s explanation can not be accepted very well by the students.

B. Suggestions

In this part, the writer would like to contribute his suggestions for the English

teacher and the students.

1. The teachers should give more pay attention and motivation to students to

be more active in learning, especially in English

2. The teacher should choose the method, strategy and technique in teaching

to deliver the material very well.

3. The students should read any kind of grammar book to enrich their ability

in understanding forms and function of personal pronoun

4. The students have to give their full attention, when the material is being

explaining by the teacher in the classroom.

46

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anthony, Nitko. Educational and Measurement an Introduction. NewYork:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovic, 1983.

Broukal, Milada. Grammar Form and Function. New York: McGraw-Hill

Companies, Inc, 2005.

Brown, Douglas. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching third edition.

New York: Longman, 2000.

Brown, Douglas. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching fifth edition.

United States: San Francisco State University, 2007.

DeCapua, Andrea. Grammar for Teachers. New York: Springer, 2008.

Dykes, Barbara. Grammar for Everyone. Australia: ACER Press, 2007.

Ellis, Rod. Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Finochiaro, Mary., and Syden Sako. Foreign Language Test a Pratical Approach.

New York: Regents Publishing Company Inc, 1983.

Frank, Marcella. Modern English A Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey:

Prentice Hall, 1972.

Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Teaching. USA: Longman Group, 1983.

Henning, Grant. A Guide to Language Testing, Development, Evaluation and

Reasearch. USA: Henley Publisher, 1987.

Hewings, Martin. Advanced Grammar in Use. Jakarta: Cambridge, 1999.

Hubbard, Peter, et al., A Training Course for TEFL. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1983.

Koln, Martha. Understanding English Grammar Fourth Edition. New York:

Macmillan, 1991.

Langan, John. Sentence Skill, form A. New York: Mc Grow Hill Press, 2003.

Lester, Mark. English Grammar. Weber State University, 2001 Hancourt.

Littlewood, William. Foreign and Second Language Learning. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Murphy, Raymond. English Grammar in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 2004.

47

Richards, Jack. Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition.

London: Longman, 1974.

Richards, Jack., and Theodore S. Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1981.

Swick, Ed. English Verb and Essentials of Grammar for ESL Learners. New

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Teressa. The Least You Should Know About English Basic Writing Skill. Macomb

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University Press, 1996.

Veit, Richards. Discovering English Grammar. Boston, USA, 1986.

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Appendix 2

Instrument of Interview

1. Bagaimana pendapat kamu tentang pelajaran bahasa Inggris? Student 1: Agak susah,tapi lumayan menyenagkan. Student 2: Biasa saja, tapi lumayan seru Student3: Agak susah, karna beda dengan bahasa Indonesia Student4: Lumayan mengasyikan. Lebih santai dari pelajaran lain Student5: Biasa saja, tidak terlalu suka Student6: Mengasyikan, jadi semangat Student7: Biasa saja. Tidak terlalu mengerti

2. Bagaimana cara guru kamu mengajarkan pelajaran bahasa inggris di kelas? Student 1: Baca buku, lalu menjelaskan, juga pakai contoh Student 2: Kadang-kadang bertanya pada murid Student3: Selalu memberi PR diakhir pelajaran Student4: Menunjuk murid-murid untuk menjawab Student5: Memberi latihan Student6: Kadang-kadang membuat kelompok Student7: Menjelaskan dari buku cetaknya

3. Apakah kamu tahu apa yang dimaksud personal pronoun itu? Dan bagaimana kamu mengidentifikasikannya? Student 1: Tahu. Seperti kata ganti Student 2: Tahu. Pronoun itu biasanya yang ada kata “self”, “her”,

“we” nya. Student 3: Tahu. Pronoun itu kata ganti orang Student 4: Tahu. Menunjukan kata ganti Student 5: Tahu. Guru saya pernah bilang, kalau pronoun itu rumusnya

“dewi ayu” Student 6: Ya. Seperti “they”, “you”, “his”, “her”, “self”, “she”. Student 7: Tahu. Pronoun adalah kata ganti

4. Apa yang membuat kamu tidak mengerti tentang personal pronoun? Student 1: Tidak tahu cara menempatkannya Student 2: Kadang suka tidak mengerti kalau guru menjelaskan Student 3: Saya suka malas kalau materinya tidak saya paham Student 4: Sering lupa Student 5: Mengerti, tapi sering lupa Student 6: Banyak jenis-jenisnya Student 7: Suka tidak jelas apa yang guru saya sampaikan

49

5. Menurut kamu, adakah personal pronoun dalam bahasa Indonesia? Dan

apakah sama dengan bahasa Inggris Student 1: Ada. Berbeda jenisnya Student 2: Ada. Sama, tapi mungkin beda menempatkannya Student 3: Ada. Sama, tapi sedikit sulit kalau di bahasa Inggris Student 4: Ada. Tapi berbeda caranya Student 5: Ada. Tapi agak rumit Student 6: Ada. Tapi maksudnya sama. Student 7: Ada. Tapi lebih mudah kalau dalam Bahasa Indonesia

6. Dapatkah kamu mengganti kata di dalam kurung menjadi bentuk personal pronoun? a. The students are in the classroom, (students) are learning English. b. My father gives (Susi) some books. Student 1: a. they b. she Student 2: a. they b. she Student 3: a. we b. she Student 4: a. They b. her Student 5: a. we b. her Student 6: a. they b. her Student 7: a. their b. she

APPENDIX 1

INSTRUMENT TEST

Name : Class:

Choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) by crossing the letter.

1. I live in Jakarta. ... house is big and beautiful a. My b. You b. mine d. I

2. Bagus repaired his car ... a. Herself c. Himself b. Yourself d. His self

3. Ronald has a sister. ... name is Rosa a. Him c. Hers b. His d. Her

4. ... are drawing a picture a. she c. Their b. we d. them

5. My house is bigger than... a. your c. their b. Yours d. you

6. That girl is beautifull, What is ...name? (Diana) a. Her c. hers b. his d. she

7. could you tell... the way to the post office , please? a. Hers c. me b. he d. I

8. ... is a new student? His name is Bagus a. I c. his b. He d. She

9. My dad gave... some books a. me c. I b. they d. You

10. I wrote this letter ... a. meself c. herself b. I self d.myself

11. Andy and I are friends. ...will go to Bali next month a. their c. we b. them d. Our

12. - Could you help Kartika please? ‐ Sure, I will help....

a. She c. her b. him d. Hers

13. This is Nadine’s car. The car is... a. Her c. hers b. She d. Theirs

14. I will send...a letter a. He c. they b. them d.she

15. Alex and I have many books. These books are... a. Theirs c. mine b. Our d. Ours

16. ...has a new car (Budi) a. She c. He b. his d. They

17. This is my pen and that is... a. Her c. you b. Yours d.your

18. He cut a cake for... a. Myself c.herself b. Himself d.heself

19. I took a book from... desk a. yours c.mine b. Him d.her

20. Please tell (Ahmad)...that I will be late a. Him c. her b. His d. He

21. That bag is... (Dewi) a. Hers c. your b. my d. Them

22. Bagus, did you do the homeworks...? a. Himself c. themselves b. Youself d. Yourself

23. Diana bought a tie to... father a. they c. his b. she d. Her

24. ...Are going to cinema a. Their c.they b. Them d. theirs

25. Tamara and I at the caffe ... are getting some foods a. We c. she b. their d.them

:

APPENDIX 2

Analysis of Students’ Score

No Students

TOTAL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TRUE FALSE

A C D B B A C B A D C C C B D C B B D A A D D C A

1 Students 1 D D C D C B D A A C C D A D A B A B 7 18

2 students 2 B B A D A A C A B A A B D A B C C B 7 18

3 Students 3 B C A C C D A B A A C A D C B D 9 16

4 Students 4 D C D D A B A D B B D A A D B B D 8 17

5 Students 5 A C D C C A C D C A B A A C 11 14

6 Students 6 B D B D D A B A A B D B D A A B D 10 15

7 Students 7 C C C B C B D D A D A D C D 11 14

8 Students 8 B D C B A B A A C B C D B B 11 14

9 Students 9 D A A A B D C A A A D A C C B A B 8 17

10 Students 10 A C A B D D B D D C 15 10

11 Students 11 A D A C A B A B C C C B 13 12

12 Students 12 C C C A A D A B A C D C A C 11 14

13 Students 13 A C C D D B A A B B D B C 12 13

14 Students 14 D C D D A A C C A D D C B A D 10 15

15 Students 15 D A D D D A B A B B A B D C C A C 8 17

16 Students 16 A A D B D A A A C D D C D 12 13

17 Students 17 A A C A A C A A A B D 14 11

18 Students 18 D C A A D B D A A B B B B 12 13

19 Students 19 B D A D A D B C B B C 14 11

20 Students 20 C C D D C C A A B A A A A D B C B B 8 17

21 Students 21 C D C A A A B A D A A D 13 12

22 Students 22 B D D D A B A C B 15 10

23 Students 23 C D C C A D A C B A C A A C B D 9 16

24 Students 24 B A A C B A C A C D A B B 12 13

25 Students 25 B A A C D C C B B B A A A C D B C B 7 18

26 Students 26 B A D C B B B A C D C A D 12 13

27 Students 27 B A A C C A A A D A B C B A 9 16

28 Students 28 C D B A C B A B 17 8

29 Students 29 C D D D A B C A B B B D 13 12

30 Students 30 C D D D C B B C D D A B D D 11 14

31 Students 31 A C C C D D D B 18 7

32 Students 32 C D D A D A A D C A D 12 13

33 Students 33 D A A D D A A A B C B C A A C 10 15

Total True 27 18 16 13 11 13 14 20 13 15 15 13 15 10 13 16 16 18 15 11 18 17 9 14 9 369

Total False 6 15 17 20 22 20 19 13 20 18 18 20 18 23 20 17 17 15 18 22 15 16 24 19 24 456

No Students TOTAL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TRUE FALSE

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