The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 244 Copyright © 2024 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 12, Number 1, June 2024 pp. 244 - 257 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 juwitacrestiani@uncp.ac.id1,dwiindahopik@gmail.com2, miniparjas@gmail.com3,mhasby91@gmail.com4 Palopo Cokroaminoto University, Indonesia Received: 2024-01-01 Accepted: 2024-02-21 DOI: 10.24256/ideas. v12i1.4352 Abstract This research deals with the the kinds of errors of the first semester students of Elementary School Teacher Education Study Program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University mostly do in their writing. The population of this research is the first semester students of Elementary School Teacher Education Study Program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University in academic year 2023. The total number of populations was 200 students. The researcher applied the purposive sampling technique and there are 20 students as sample. Writing test is the instrument of this research. Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapter, the researcher concludes the kinds of errors of the first semester students of Elementary School Teacher Education Study Program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University mostly do in their writing is selection. It can be proven by the kinds of error made by the students are selection error (21 errors or 53.84%), omission error (9 errors or 23.07%), and addition error (9 errors or 23.07%). Key words: error, analysis, and writing. Introduction English must be taught in Indonesia from kindergarten till university level because English is the most important language and used all over the world and also it is used as the means of communication to convey information. It makes people especially for Indonesian learners have to learn English because they will make communication orally. However, learn English is not easy and also is not difficult. There are four skills http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:juwitacrestiani@uncp.ac.id mailto:dwiindahopik@gmail.com mailto:miniparjas@gmail.com mailto:mhasby91@gmail.com IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 245 in English that has to be mastered by students and they are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Writing as a skill in its own right, just as important as speaking, listening and reading (Harmer, 1998, p.79). According to (Hyland & Hyland, 2006) writing is also a significant skill in language production. Its significance increases when it comes to writing in the English language is extensive for global mediation of insight, particularly for students studying at the school or the university. In addition, writing becomes the most important role because through writing, the student can share the ideas, opinion to the others and has a lot of time to think about what they want convey through writing. Coffin, Curry, Goodman, Hewings, Lillis, and Swann (2003) support the view that reasons for writing include writing as an assessment; as an aid to critical thinking; understanding and memory; extending students’ learning beyond lectures and other formal meetings; improving students’ communication skills; and training them as future professionals in particular disciplines. On the other hand, through writing, the students can produce good writing because they have a lot of time to think and acquire ideas but in fact mastering writing especially finding idea is not easy and need to think hardly. Nevertheless, writing has always been difficult and challenging for EFL learners because the writing process includes many issues: the generation and organization of ideas, drafting, revising, and editing. In addition, writing is complicated because the writer needs to do everything at once. The writer must produce words, sentences, paragraphs, and extended compositions all the same time. Furthermore, producing a coherent, cohesive, well organized piece of writing is a challenging task which is intensified by the fact that the rhetorical conventions of English texts such as the structure, organization, lexis and grammar differ from those in other languages and particularly in Arabic (Leki, 1991 & Santos and Suleiman, 1993 as cited in Ahmed, 2011). Consequently, errors in writing are unavoidable. Making error is a natural and unavoidable part of the process of learning English. Many kinds of errors arise when the learners write because they do not master the English structure well. Also, errors are the inability of the students in using rules of the components and elements of the second language. A learner‟ error can provide evidence of a system of language that they use. Learners‟ errors are significant in three ways (Richards:1973,25). The first is for the teacher, he/she can undertake a systematic analysis and how far the goal of learning has progressed. The language teacher, therefore, has to deal with these errors by devising some strategies after he or she has done error analysis, although it is quite challenging Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP 246 since they become fossilized, and fossilization is related to interlanguage. The second, they provide to the studier evidence of how language is learned or acquired, And the third is the learner himself. We can regard the making of error as a device the learner uses in order to learn. Due to the fact that writing English for Indonesian learner is difficult since English is different from Indonesian structure. Therefore, learning English is different from learning Indonesian language. Thus, the students who learn English may produce many errors in their writing. Some of them are confused in using it in their writing; for example, “Sweater Pink” it should be “Pink Sweater”. This error happens because the students translate Indonesian language to English directly. In other words, the student is influenced by Indonesian students thinking. Another error example produced by students is in spelling. For example, “Checks” the right one is “Cheeks”. In addition, grammar is also making them confused. Grammar is the desire to be an intricate part of learning by the learner because there are many sets of rules that the people must be followed and memorizing it there by caused the learners stress, bored and even some of them frequently skip the English class. According to (Huddleston et al., 2002) grammar is rules show how words combine, arrange, or change to offer specific kinds of meaning, and (Hull & Vaid, 2005) said that learning English grammar is a difficult part of the learning language process for ESL learners. The structure and components of writing in English and Indonesian are very different, which can be seen from the grammar, spelling and many other differences, this is one of the factors that causes writing errors by students. According to (Ramli, D et al., 2013) Error is the flawed side of learner speech or writing. They are the parts of a conversation or composition that are dedicated to a specific mature language performance norm. Meanwhile, (Brown 2000) stated that error a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker. the impact of errors is can make writing difficult to understand by the reader, and even the meaning of the text gets lost. In addition, (Khansir, 2012) defines error analysis as a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the mistakes that students make. It is based on a comparison of the target language's errors and the target language itself. And another definition of error analysis is given by (Karim et al., 2018) state that error analysis is defined as the technique for identifying, classifying, and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by a learner of a foreign language. Considering the phenomena above, the researcher conducted a research “Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP”. The researcher wanted know what types of errors of the first semester students of Elementary School Teacher Education Study Program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University mostly do in their IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 247 writing. Error analysis is an activity to identify, classify and interpreted or describe the errors made by someone in speaking or in writing and it is carrying out to obtain information on common difficulties faced by someone in speaking or in writing English sentences. Although errors are bad things in learning English, error analysis is advantageous for both students and teachers. For students, error analysis is needed to show them in what aspect in grammar which is difficult for them, to show the errors made by the students can learn from their mistakes in order that they will not make some errors repeatedly. And for teacher, it is required to evaluate themselves whether they are successful or not in teaching English (Hutagalung 2017). Method This research applied descriptive quantitative method. This design is intended to describe phenomena or problems in writing skills, mainly descriptive essay. Referring to the statement, the researcher describes the students’ error in writing a descriptive essay. Referring to the statement, the researcher describes the students’ error in writing a descriptive essay. The population of this research was the first semester students of elementary school teacher education Study Program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University in academic year 2023/2024. The total number of populations was 200 students. The researcher applied the purposive sampling technique because the sample was the students who taught descriptive paragraph. There were 20 students as sample. The instrument of this research was writing test. Result After collecting the data from the test which have been done by first semester students of elementary school teacher education study program. The Researcher had found some errors that make by the students. To know errors of the students’ writing the researcher identified and classified into 3 aspects. Here are the data of the students’ errors which are using in writing descriptive paragraph. Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP 248 Table 1 The Identification of the error of the student 1 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction ANG He nine years old Omission Should be He is nine years old He studies at Elementary School Omission Should be He studies at Elementary School He has two brothers Selection Should be He has two brothers Table 2 The Identification of the error of the student 2 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction FRS I am grade second Selection Should be I am the second grade My hobbies reading Omission My hobby is reading Sometimes, I nervous Omission Sometimes, I am nervous Table 3 The Identification of the error of the student 3 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 249 FRS My hobby is watching Selection My hobby is watching I have to three brothers Selection I have three brothers I old eighteen Selection I am eighteen years old I lived in Palopo Selection I live in Palopo Table 4 The Identification of the error of the student 4 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction MCH He lives in Palopo Selection He lives in Palopo Table 5 The Identification of the error of the student 5 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction HRD My hobby is reading and cooking Selection My hobbies are reading and cooking I study at Cokroaminoto Palopo University Selection I am studying at Palopo Cokroaminoto University Table 6 The Identification of the error of the student 6 The Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction LST I lived in Palopo Selection I live in Palopo Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP 250 Table 7 The Identification of the error of the student 7 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction RCH I have two brothers Omission I have two brothers I want to be a teacher Addition I want to be a teacher Table 8 The Identification of the error of the student 8 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction ART I live in Palopo Selection I live in Palopo My hobbi reading book Omission My hobby is reading book Table 9 The Identification of the error of the student 9 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction FCH Him have two sisters Selection He has two sisters Her live on Palopo Selection He lives in Palopo Table 10 The Identification of the error of the student 10 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction AVU Her hobbi are playing basket Selection Her hobby is playing basket ball IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 251 Table 11 The Identification of the error of the student 11 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction MRT She has one brother and two sisters Selection She has one brother and two sisters She liv in Rongkong Omission She lives in Rongkong Table 12 The Identification of the error of the student 12 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction NUR She wants to be a doctor Addition She wants to be a doctor She live in Palopo Omission She lives in Palopo Table 13 The Identification of the error of the student 13 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction BRC My hobbies are reading Addition My hobby is reading My favorite color is grey Addition My favorite color is grey Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP 252 Table 14 The Identification of the error of the student 14 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction DHT He like eating durian Omission He likes to eat durian His favorite color is blue Addition His favorite color is blue Table 15 The Identification of the error of the student 15 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction IES She was born in City Palopo Selection She was born in Palopo City Her ambition she wants to be a doctor Selection She wants to be a doctor Table 16 The Identification of the error of the student 16 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction ADK He was born of Singapura Selection He was born in Singapura He is very love travelling Addition He very love travelling Table 17 The Identification of the error of the student 17 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 253 ATK I want to be a doctor Addition I want to be a doctor Table 18 The Identification of the error of the student 18 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction ASC My hobby is playing basket Selection My hobby is playing basket ball I have two brothers Addition I have two brothers Table 19 The Identification of the error of the student 19 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction DIY Her hobby is playing badminton Selection Her hobby is playing badminton I have one sister Addition I have one sister Table 20 The Identification of the error of the student 20 Initial Identification of Error Description Error Classification Correction AFC Her hobby is shopping Selection Her hobby is shopping Table 4.1.1 Table of recapitulation of the student’s types of error Students Error of Classification Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP 254 Omission Addition Selection 1 2 - 1 2 2 - 1 3 - - 4 4 - - 1 5 - - 2 6 - - 1 7 1 1 - 8 1 - 1 9 - - 2 10 - - 1 11 1 - 1 12 1 1 - 13 - 2 - 14 1 1 - 15 - - 2 16 - 1 1 17 - 1 - 18 - 1 1 19 - 1 1 20 - - 1 Total 9 9 21 Total of Error 39 Percentages of students’ error: a. Omission %100 39 9 xP = = 23.07% b. Addition %100 39 9 xP = = 23.07% IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 255 c. Selection %100 39 21 xP = = 53.84% Based on the table of the students’ error it can be stated that 1. Total errors of omission are 9 errors on percentages 23, 07%. 2. Total errors of addition are 9 errors on percentages 23.07%. 3. Total errors of selection are 21 errors on percentages 53.84%. Based on research result above, the researcher found 7 students made error in omission with total error 9 or 23. 07 %. The students miss some required element. They omitted the item should be appear in the sentences. First, the student omitted noun such as He nine years old. It should be he is nine years old. The second is the students also committed error in omission the plural marker –s such as he has two brothers, it should be he has two brothers. Moreover, the students also committed error in simple present tense such as I lived in Palopo it should be I live in Palopo. There are 8 students made error in addition with total error 9 or 23.07%. In this case the students add some unnecessary or incorrect element. For example, he is very love travelling it should be he very love travelling. There are 15 students made error in selection with total error 21 or 53.84%. It happened because the students might face difficulties selecting and forming in correct sentence. For example, my hobbi are playing basket and it should be my hobby is playing basketball. Conclusion Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapter, the researcher concludes the kinds of errors of the first semester students of Elementary School Teacher Education Study Program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University mostly do in their writing is selection. It can be proven by the kinds of error made by the students are selection error (21 errors or 53.84%), omission error (9 errors or 23.07%), and addition error (9 errors or 23.07%). References Ahmed, A. A. (2011). The EFL essay writing difficulties of Egyptian student teachers of English: Implications for essay writing curriculum and Juwita Crestiani M1, Opik Dwi Indah2, Hermini3, Muhammad Hasby4 Students Error Analysis in Descriptive Text of UNCP 256 instruction. (Doctoral dissertation), Graduate School of Education, the University of Exeter. From: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/ Bilanti, E., Susilawati, E., Suhartono, L., Salam, U., & Rezeki, Y. (2022). Developing a Minecraft Adventure Map to Support Eleventh Grade Senior High School Students’ Vocabulary Learning. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 10(2), 1379 - 1393. doi:https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v10i2.3000 Brown, H. Douglas, 2000. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. Brown, H. Douglas, 2000. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. Coffin, C. et al. (2003). Teaching Academic Writing: A toolkit for higher education. London & New York: Routledge. Ekasiwi, A., & Bram, B. (2022). Exploring Euphemisms in Bridgerton: Diamond of the First Water. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 10(1), 240-248. doi:https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v10i1.2599 Harmzer, J. (1998). How to teach English. Pearson Longman. p.79. H.D. Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.(New Jersey: Prentice- Hall Inc, 1980), 166 Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. K., Bauer, L., Birner, B., Briscoe, T., Collins, P., Denison, D., Lee, D., Mittwoch, A., Nunberg, G., Palmer, F., Payne, J., Peterson, P., Stirling, L., & Ward, G. (2002). Cambridge Grammar English Language. Hull, R., & Vaid, J. (2005). Clearing the Cobwebs From the Study of the Bilingual Brain: Converging Evidence From Laterality and Electrophysiological Research. In Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Hutagalung Insenalia Sampe Roly. 2017. Error Analysis on Students’ Writing of Recount Text at Grade Ten in SMK Negeri 1 Bandar Masilam. JETAFL (Journal of English Teaching as a Foreign Language) Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (2006). Feedback on second language students’ writing. Language Teaching, 39(2), 83–101. J. Norrish. Language learning and their error. (London: Macmillan publisher Ltd 1987). 21-26 Karim, A., Mohamed, A. R., Ismail, S. A. M. M., Shahed, F. H., Rahman, M. M., & Haque, M. H. (2018). Error Analysis in EFL Writing Classroom. International Journal of English Linguistics, 8(4), 122. Masruddin, M., & Nasriandi, N. (2022). Lexical and Syntactical Errors Performed by Junior High School Student in Writing Descriptive Text. IDEAS: Journal https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/ IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 257 on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 10(1), 1094-1100. doi:https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v10i1.3024 Khansir, A. A. (2012). Error analysis and second language acquisition. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(5), 1027–1032. Paul Davies, Eric Pearse, success in English teaching (Shanghai: foreign language Education Pers 2002), 103 Ramli, D., Suhartono, L., & Novita, D. (2013). AN ANALYSIS ON THE STUDENTS’ERROR IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT. Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Pembelajaran Khatulistiwa, 2(2). Richards, J.C. (1973). Error analysis. London: Longman Susan M. Gass, Larry Selinker., An Analysis on the Grammatical Errors in the Students Writing. Skripsi (Jakarta: English Education Department Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training ‘Syarif Hidayatullah’ State Islamic University 2010), 10.