AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON THE SURFACE STRATEGY IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT WRITING MADE BY THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP N 1 MOJOLABAN

Abstract

Indonesian students as foreign language learners still have difficulties in learning English, especially in delivering ideas in a written form. They need to consider about the grammatical components of English that differ from Indonesian language. This article describes errors based on surface strategy made by the students in writing a descriptive text. Thirty two students from the eighth grade of SMP N 1 Mojolaban were asked to write a descriptive text about their family. All students writing are, then, analyzed, in order to investigate students’ errors and their causes. Based on the surface strategy, it can be concluded that the students have difficulties in omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. Most of students tend to make errors of omission.