Abstract

Writing can improve the students’ ability to share what they feel, everything on their
mind could be on the paper. It also can make students to be brave to make arguments
about what they have to argue. Many differences between male and female such as in
morphology, phonology, diction, and intonation. On the other hand, male and female
students have different ways of communication. To achieve the aforementioned purpose,
this descriptive study attempts to compare the types of grammatical errors dominantly
found in writing task of male and female students of one of university in Cimahi. In this
research, the grammatical errors subcategories on focus are past tense, punctuation,
spellng and capitalization. Ten pieces of male students’ writing and ten pieces of female
students’ were randomly selected. The result showed that the two of subcategories; past
tense and spelling were found in male students’ writing while other two of subcategories;
punctuation and capitalization were found in female students’ writing. Being aware of the
learners’ most frequent errors in the process of language learning and focus their attention
on the features may contribute in the learning process. Likewise, advance study suggested
examining other types of linguistics features in the context of writing ability of EFL
learners through gender based.
Keywords: error analysis, male and female students, grammatical errors, EFL context.
INTRODUCTION

English is a language that is used in many countries nowadays since it become an

international language. English is the first foreign language that is used in Indonesia
and it’s as a compulsory subject in schools. English becomes a language that is not
strange anymore for Indonesia people.
According to Leap, in Meyerhoff (2008) gender is negotiated and contested
through the production and circulation of life stories, personal anecdotes, gossip and
other narratives, legal statements, ritual oratory, words of advice and practical
caution, jokes, songs, and other forms of expressive language, as well as through
word borrowings, modifications to existing vocabulary, and new word formations.
Writing is one of the skill that students could get from teacher at school. Writing
can improve the students’ ability to share what they feel, everything on their mind
could be on the paper. It also can make students to be brave to make arguments
about what they have to argue. Writing is the activity that some students hate
because they think they have no idea to write or some students afraid if it is wrong in
grammatically. Is there any differences between male and female in writing recount
text based on grammatical errors?What kinds of grammatical errors in writing
recount text at the second semester grade in this university?

LITERATURE REVIEW

a. Male and Female in Writing

Taking a close look at the importance of gender and writing relation, it is helpful to state
that the second language writing research may explore gender differences in how men and
women or boys and girls write differently in L2 with respect to process and product
(Kubota, 2003). These differences, however, should not be conceptualized as fixed traits,
but as phenomena contingent on context and power. Research on gender difference in the
writing process may consider some issues, such as topic choice, planning, writing, peer
editing, and revising; on the other hand, as a focus on product, it may also explore word
choice, syntax, discourse organization, audience awareness, and so on (Kubota, 2003).
A growing body of research has been reported that females are better in academic
achievement than boys (Camarata & Woodcock, 2006; Gibb, Fergusson, & Horwood,
2008; Marks, 2008; Pajares & Valiante, 2001). In her study on fourth and eighth-grade
 teachers' and students' perspectives on boys' and girls' relative writing competence,
Peterson (2000) reported a superiority of girls' writing over boys' writing and girls'
writing was considered as more detailed, descriptive, and having greater conformity to
writing conventions.

b. Writing
Writing is one of productive skills that should be mastered in language learning.
According to Richard (2000:172) “Writing is functional communication, making learners
possible to create imagined worlds of their own design.” According to Byrne (1979), he
says that writing is putting message from our thoughts into language. Nunan (2003) also
stated that writing is finding out ideas or opinions then it is transferred into statements
and paragraphs.
Writing is a complex process which requires some stages involves putting ideas and
thoughts into written form and revising a number of writing from the given feedback.
Writing is more complex than speaking skill. A good written text is when everyone who
reads the texts can understand its meaning (Moore, as cited in Emilia, 2011).
c. Error Analysis
An error is noticeable grammar from the adult grammar of native speaker, reflecting the
interlanguage competence of the learners. (Brown, 1980: 165). H. Douglas brown
explains that; a mistake refers to performance error that is either a random guess or a
“slip” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly.

Corder made a distinction between a mistake and error. Whereas a mistake is a random
performance slip caused by fatigue, excitement, etc., and therefore can be readily self-
corrected, an error is systematic deviation made by learners who have not yet mastered
the rules of the L2.

Grammatical Errors

Kaswan (2014:41) states “An error is a fault which result from incomplete knowledge”.

Grammatical error is a term used in procedure grammar to describe an instance of

faulty, unconventional, or content usage, such as a misplaced modifier or an inappropriate
verb tense. (Azar, 1996: 26)

Having known the definition of the grammar, it would be not a hard thing to do
why the grammar is important especially in English language. Without knowing the
grammar, someone cannot be call as a learner of a language. It seems impossible to learn
a language without knowing the grammar of its language. People will learn how to
construct a good message based on the rules they have known and try to convey the
message to others. The rules are termed as a grammar.

Concept of Grammatical Error

Azar (1996: 26) states that the usage of grammar in writing skill is important, students
always make errors when they use it in writing grammatical such as tenses, spelling,
punctuation, and part of speech.

a. Past Tense
Wishon and Burks (1980: 192) state that tense means time. However t should be pointed
out that time n relation to action is a concept that exists in the mind of the speaker, reader,
or listener.
The writer focuses only on the past tense. The forms are:

The Formula of Past Tense

Past Tense The formula Example
Positive (+) S+ Verb2 He came to the party.
S+be (was/were) She was a teacher.
Negative (-) S+ did not + bare He did not come to the party.
infinitive
S+be (was/were) + She was not a teacher.
not
Interrogative Did + S + bare Did he come to the party?
(?) infinitive
Be (was/were)+ S Was she a teacher?

b. Punctuation
Punctuation is simply about a series of conventions that make it easier for readers to
follow your train of thought. Punctuation is an established code of signs which allows
people to make sense of writing, one of the skills of writing and a necessary part of any
piece of writing.
1) Full stops
 2) Commas
3) Apostrophe
c. Capitalization
Capital is a letter of the alphabet in the form and larger size that is used at the beginning
of sentences and names print in capitals. Captalization is the use of capital letters.
d. Spelling
Spelling words in English can be difficult for learners because sometimes a word is very
similar to a word in their own language but is not spelled the same. For example, spell
success, with only one ‘s’, or colleague, without an ‘a’.
Recount Text
Definition of Recount Text
There are so many experts that state about the definition of recount text. According to A.S
Hornby “Recount text is one kind of story genre, recount tells somebody about
something, especially something that you have experienced”.
Kinds of Recount Text
According to Mukarto and Sujatmiko (2007: 62) Recount text is classified into three, they
are:
1) Personal Recount
2) Factual Recount
3) Procedural Recount
The Generic structure of Recount Text
Mark and Kathy (1998) claim that there are three which are includes to the generic
structure of recount text:
a) Orientation
Recount text begins by telling the reader who was involved, what happened, where this
event took place, and when it happened.
b) Events
Events are the main important activities or events that occurred in the story of the text.
The function is to give more explanation of the orientation.
c) Re-orientation
Re-orientation is the conclusion of the story. Some recounts have a concluding paragraph;
however this is not necessary.
Linguistic Form of Recount Text
Based in a textbook Look Ahead Senior High School, the linguistic features that usually
found in recount text are:
a) Focus on individual participant
b) Use of past tense
c) Focus on temporal sequence events
d) Use of material (or action) clauses

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Method
In this research, the writer uses descriptive qualitative method. Descriptive method is a
method of research that involves collecting data in order to answer question concerning
the current status of the subject of the research in presenting the data, the writer employs
a descriptive method (Mills in kholifsh: 2012:30). Lambert (2012:256) took a summary
that a qualitative descriptive approach needs to be the design of choice when
straightforward description of a phenomenon is desired. It is an approach that is very
useful when researcher want to know, regarding events, who were involved, what was
involved, and where did tigs take place.

Population and sample

1. Population

According to Burns (1995:62), a population is a entire group of people, objects, or events,

that all have at least one characteristic in common, and must be defined specially an
unambiguously. Based on the definition above, the population of this research are the
students of second semester grade of STKIP SILIWANGI BANDUNG, consisting of one
class with 60 students.
 2. Sample

According McMillan (2002:69) sample is the group of element, or a single element, from
the data obtained, the writer took 20 students of second semester grade of STKIP
SILIWANGI BANDUNG. The writer took 10 males and 10 females for her research.

Instruments

The writer used three instruments to collect the data by giving test to the students. The
test instrument was to write recount text. The writer asked the student to make a recount
text with a free theme. After giving writing task to the students, the writer interviewed the
students.

Data Anlalysis

The data calculated in terms of the frequency of students who answer the question that
have given. The data analyzed with the following procedures:
1. Classifying the students’ answer
2. Calculating students’ answer with this numeral percentage formula:

P = F x 100%
N
Note:
P = Numeral Percentage
F = Frequency of Answer
N = Number of Sample
(Sudjana, 1996: 129)
The writer uses descriptive analysis technique (percentage) with the percentage
from the frequency of information and divided with number of cases.

In this research, the writer does the following steps:

a. Listing all of the texts

b. Identifying and listing the errorneous sentences each text.
c. Classfying/categorizing the kinds of error.
d. Computing the percentage of the errors.
e. Discussing about the error that made by male and female students.
 f. Drawing the conclusion and giving the recommendation.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The Result of Writing Test

This researcher focused on recount text writing errors made by the second semester grade
students at STKIP SILIWANGI BANDUNG. Many errors in students’ recount text
writing were found, and then the classification of students’ errors on grammatical aspect
were made. The writier identified on students’ grammatical errors based on Azar’s
classification, those past tense, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

The results of the calculation are presented in the table below.

a. Female
Table 1. Frequencies of errors in female students’ writings.

No Name Gender Past Punctuation Capitalization Spelling Total

Tense
1. Student 1 Female 2 6 3 4 15
2. Student 2 Female 1 7 6 7 21
3. Student 3 Female 4 6 4 - 14
4. Student 4 Female 4 2 2 1 9
5. Student 5 Female 10 4 - 2 16
6. Student 6 Female 8 11 1 5 25
7. Student 7 Female 5 8 3 12 28
8. Student 8 Female 6 1 - 1 8
9. Student 9 Female 12 7 9 3 31
10. Student 10 Female - 1 6 1 8
Total 52 53 34 36 175

b. Male
Table 2. Frequencies of errors in male students’ writings.

No Name Gender Past Punctuation Capitalization Spelling Total

Tense
1. Student 1 Male 6 7 3 12 28
2. Student 2 Male 6 5 1 1 13
3. Student 3 Male 8 10 6 3 27
4. Student 4 Male - 4 3 1 8
5. Student 5 Male 6 3 1 3 13
6. Student 6 Male 7 9 4 9 29
7. Student 7 Male - 3 2 4 9
8. Student 8 Male 6 6 2 1 15
9. Student 9 Male 10 3 5 6 24
10. Student 10 Male 10 6 3 4 23
Total 59 56 30 44 189

The differences between male and female n making

recount text based on grammatical errors
(%)

35
30
25
20
15 Female
10
5 Male
0

The Discussion of The Result

1. Kinds of Errors
a) Past Tense
Table 3. Errors in Past Tense
Male Student Female Student
(a) My grandfather is colonist. (b) There are very crowded.
 In sentence (a), the student wrote My grandfather is colonist, but his
father is not a colonist anymore now. The appropriate sentence is “My
grandfather was a colonist.” In sentence (b), the student wrote There are very
crowded, but the accident had happened in the past. The appropriate sentence is
“There was very crowded”.
b) Punctuation
Table 4. Errors in Punctuation

Male Student Female Student

(a) When I was in elementary (b) My name is Choirun Nisa
school I have bad experiences. Ulinnuna, two years ago ...

In sentence (a), the student wrote When I was in elementary school I have
bad experiences.In a good grammar, especially this sentence refers to Past
Continuous Tense. We should a comma to seperate between the Clausa 1 and
Clausa 2. The appropriate sentence is “When I was in elementary school , I have
bad experiences.” In sentence (b), the student wrote My name is Choirun Nisa
Ulinnuna, two years ago ... In grammatical, we probably know that to seperate
between a sentence to another sentence, we should put a full stop. The
appropriate sentence is “My name is Choirun Nisa Ulinnuna. Two years ago ...”
c) Capitalization
Male Student Female Student
(a) he killed many indonesian (b) I drink a coconut in front of the
army Sunset.

In sentence (a), the student wrote he killed many indonesian army.

Instead, the student had put a fullstop before this sentence. It means the student
wanted to write a new sentence in the paragraph. So it should be “He killed many
indonesian army.” Beside that, another student, in sentence (b) wrote I drink a
coconut in front of the Sunset. It seems the sentence has nothing error, but the
student wrote “Sunset”. That word was not in the first sentence. So, it should be
“I drink a coconut in front of the sunset.”
d) Spelling
 Male Student Female Student
(a) the was very pleasnt moment (b) After they had been on the
with my friends that I ever got. island for to monts...

In sentence (a), the was very pleasnt moment with my friends that I ever
got. The writer thinks that the student wanted to say that the moment that the
student and friends is one thing that cannot be forgotten, but the student was
typing an error in some words; the and pleasnt. It should be “There was very
pleasant moment with my friends that I ever got.” While the female student (b)
wrote After they had been on the island for to monts... The writer knows that the
student wanted to write two months but the student did an error. The sentence
should be “After they had been on the island for two months..”

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Conclusion

Based on the data in previous chapter, the writer would like to draw a conclusion that the
second grade semester of STKIP SILIWANGI BANDUNG still made many grammatical
errors in writing recount text using past tense, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.
From the twenty students (10 males and 10 females) as sample, the percentage of errors
of past tense produced by male students are 31,89% and 23,78%. On the other hand,
punctuation and spelling are the typesof grammatical errors which take place the most in
female students’ written works. The percentage of the types are 30,28% and 20,57%.

According to this findings, it can be conclude that there are many students still
make errors in doing writing recount text, it can be seen from the number of the
errors made. The students still need to learn writing grammatically. Although they
had been taught this material before, they still make an error such as they don’t pay
attention to the capitalization and students are lack in vocabularies.

Concerning to the students’ writing test, the writer found that most of students,
both male and female felt difficult in using past tense, less understanding about the
capitalization, and students’ error spelling in making recount text.