An Analysis of Grammatical Errors Made By The Eight Grade Students of SMP Erlangga Pematangsiantar Descriptive Texts In The Academic

Abstract

This study investigates the grammatical errors made by eighth-grade students of SMP Erlangga Pematangsiantar in writing descriptive texts. English, as a global language, plays an important role in academic and communicative contexts; however, many Indonesian EFL learners still experience difficulties in using grammar accurately in writing. This research aims to identify the types of grammatical errors produced by students and to analyze the causes of those errors. This study employed a qualitative descriptive research design. The data were obtained from nine students’ descriptive texts and were supported by brief interviews. The data were analyzed using the error analysis procedures proposed by Gass and Selinker and were classified based on the categories of omission, addition, misformation, misordering, and spelling. The findings revealed that there were 140 grammatical errors found in the students’ writings. Omission was the most dominant error type, accounting for 33.57 percent, followed by misformation at 25.71 percent and spelling at 20.00 percent. The main causes of the errors were first language interference at 51.43 percent, carelessness or low attention to accuracy at 37.14 percent, and literal translation at 11.43 percent. These findings indicate that students’ grammatical problems are not only caused by limited grammatical knowledge but also by psychological and pedagogical factors such as low motivation and less varied teaching methods. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers apply more interactive and process-based writing approaches in order to improve students’ grammatical