An Analysis of syntactic errors produced by the engineering students of Petra Christian University Surabaya

Abstract

In this study the writer focuses on the syntactic errors found in the compositions, kind of assignments in class, written by twenty engineering students of Petra Christian University during two hours. This study is done to find the types of syntactic errors and the frequencies and the percentages that occur to know the engineering students? capabilities in mastering English rules and the area of difficulties in learning English structures. By using a descriptive approach, the writer collects all syntactic errors found in students? compositions. Then, the data is analyzed and classified based on some relevant underlying theories as seen from the first to the twentieth without any comparison among them. The findings show that there are eight groups of errors which consist of thirty-three types and several sub types. By counting the frequencies and the percentages of the types, the readers can know the most common type until the least one. There are three most common types namely errors in determiners, errors in number and errors in the use of prepositions. Concerning to the result of this study, the engineering students need to improve their English skills. The teachers also have to improve their teaching way and give more exercises to the students.