Errors in direct-indirect speech made by the second year Senior High School students of A1 program of SMAK PETRA III Surabaya

This study deals with the analysis of students ' errors in transforming the direct speech into indirect speech. The writer has chosen this topic because during her practice- teaching in SMA, the writer observes that many students still make mistakes in doing written exercises on Direct- Indirect Speech although the Direct- Indirect Speech has been given and explained to them. In addition , learning Direct - Indirect Speech needs the students mastery of various kinds of tenses , pronouns, to- infinitives , noun clauses , and word order. Due to the fact , the writer becomes interested in conducting research on Direct- Indirect Speech focusing on various kinds of tenses, pronouns, to- infinitives , noun clauses and word order. She is especially interestedin describing the types of errors and the frequency of the error occurences. This research is neant to investigate the types of errors made by the Second Year Senior High School students of A program of SMA Kristen Petra III Surabaya in transforming the direct speech into in direct speech. The statement of the problem is “What types of Direct- Indirect Speech patterns are most frequently misconstructed by the second year Senior High school students of A Program of SMAK Petra III Surabaya?" This is further classified into five minor problems. In other word, do the errors the students make in transforming direct into indirect speech aostly belong to (1) conjunctions, (2) pronouns, (3) verbs, (4) adverb of time/ place, and ( 5 ) word order? The test which consists of 30 items is given t o the second year Senior High school students of A program of SMAK Petra III Surabaya. From the data obtained, the writer then analyzes , classifies , and counts the errors encountered. And the finding shows that the most frequenly error type made by the students is error of verb (4l,5%), followed by error of pronoun (25,4%), error of adverb of time/place (16,6%), error of conjunction (14,3%), and finally error of word order (2,2%). Then the writer divides each error types into some sub- error types . The sub- error types which are considered serious are wrong substitution of conjunction (57,7%), omission of conjunction (33,9%), wrong substitution of pronoun (88,1%), omission of pronoun (11,4'%), wrong substitution of verb (92,4%), wrong substitution of adverb of time/place (95,6%), errors of ordering (80,6%), and wrong substitution/wrong answer of word order (19,4%). These results mean that : 1. The students do not know how to use the right conjunctions in indirect sentences. 2. The students are not aware of the existence of conjunctions in indirect sentences. 3. In transforming the direct sentence into indirect one, the students are still confused in changing the pronouns appropriately . Very often ,they get difficulty in changing the pronouns. 4. The students are not aware of the existence of the pronouns in indirect sentences. 5. The students have not mastered well the rules of the tenses o f Direct- Indirect Speech. As a result , they can not apply or use the rules appropriately in turning direct sentences into indirect ones. 6. The students have not applied the rules of adverb of time/place in Direct - Indirect sentence properly. 7. In transforaing the direct sentences into indirect ones, especially wh-question forms and yes/no question forms, the students are not able to put the words in a correct order. 8. Besides applying in correct order, the students have also used in correct substitution . Eased on the findings, the writer concludes that the most difficult part for the students in transforming direct sentences into indirect ones is that dealing with tenses. After knowing the findings, the writer then suggests that in teaching Direct- Indirect Speech, a clear explanation about horn the process of transforaing direct speech into indirect speech is going on should be given by an English teacher. Here, besides the explanation of the rules application of Direct- Indirect Speech, the English teacher should demand the students t o realize about the substitution they will make in reporting direct speech. It is done because based on the findings of this thesis , the highest errors the students make is errors of wrong substitution . In addition , based on curriculum 1984 for SMA students , each type of Direct- Indirect Speech is not taught at the sane tine . Therefore, in this case, whenever it comes to a new type of Direct- Indirect Speech, a review on the previous types of Direct- Indirect Speech that have been learnt by the students before should be given by an English teacher. And finally, the teacher shonld give more exercises of each part of Direct-Indirect Speech to the students. Consequently, the findings and the suggestions are expected to be able to give some contribution to the teaching of Direct-Indirect Speech