Portraying Students’ Grammatical Errors in Essay Writing: A Study at English Education Study Program Pattimura University

Abstract

This research was conducted to find out types of grammatical errors made by students when writing expository essay. Data were collected from expository essay samples from 39 students of English Education Study Program Pattimura University. Document study method was used in this study by identifying, classifying and analyzing students’ grammatical errors based on Dulay, Burt, and Krashen theory that consist of omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. The analysis was focused on the part of speech such as noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, adverb, and preposition. It was found that the highest error done by the students was misformation which is 42,27%, the second was omission which is 42,11%, the third was addition which is 15,32%, and the last was misordering which is 0,30%. Based on this result, It is obvious that students should focus more on grammar mastery in order to minimize grammatical errors in their essay writing.