An error analysis on the use of tenses in students? recount writing (a case study at first grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Tangerang Selatan)

The objective of this study is to know the most frequent type of error in using past tense made by the first grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Tangerang Selatan in writing recount and also the source of those errors. The writer used type of error of Pit Corder?s and source of error of Rod Ellis? and Gary Barkhuizen?s. The method used in this study was descriptive analysis method to describe students? errors and analyze the data. The data was taken from the test; it was written test. The research findings showed that the most common type of error that the students made is selection error. The students made 156 errors of selection error out of 313 errors or 49.89%. The second common error is omission error with the total number of error is 128 or 40.89%. Then, addition type of error is the third with the total of errors is 24 errors or 7.67%. The least type of error which was made by the students is misordering error with the total of errors is 5 errors 1.60%. From the data, it was also found that those errors are caused mostly by intralingual transfer with the total of error is 241 out of 313 errors or 70.74%. The rest errors were caused by interlingual transfer with the total of error is 69 or 22.26%. In summary, the most error made by the students of X-9 of of SMA Negeri 4 Tangerang Selatan academic year 2013/2014 in using past tenses in writing recount text is selection error; and the most errors the students committed are mostly caused by intralingual transfe