A Study on The Students’ Errors in Using Simple Present Tense

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the kind of errors conducted by eighth-grade students of SMPN 13 Banjarmasin when writing simple sentences in simple present tense form. This research is a descriptive study. The sample of this research was 23 students from 8-B. The data were gathered by using tests that were conducted twice with three weeks interval to check the errors made by the students. The result of the first test shows that the total errors done by the students were 193 errors. The students made 138 errors (71.5%) in verb agreements. Followed by the verb be with 58 errors (28.5%) as the lowest number of errors. While in the second test, from 212 errors, the students made 138 errors (65%) in verb agreement and 74 (35%) in verb be. Thus, from the results, we can conclude that errors in verb agreement are the most errors that occurred with the highest percentage in both tests. It was recommended that the students should practice grammatical rules in the simple present tense to minimise the errors.