An Investigation on the Metalinguistic Competence of Indonesian Students in Acquiring the English Tense-Aspect System

Abstract

This study addresses how well Indonesian second language learners of English apply the English tense-aspect system. Further, the present study attempts to investigate and better understand the process of making sense of the English tenses and aspects the students have applied in their academic writing. Thus, error analysis procedure is employed to see whether the students have applied correct tenses and aspects in a relevant context. Subsequently, quantitative analysis was conducted involving sixteen pieces of the student writings. Employing the procedure of Error Analysis (Corder, 1981), this study focuses on the covert errors that the students frequently made, which allow in-depth investigation beyond the grammatical errors. Additionally, to see a pedagogical implication of this research, a correlation between the number of errors and the score obtained from the writings were also investigated. The results revealed that the students’ attitude toward the use of tenses and aspects in an academic context is considerably low. It was frequently found that the students employed a particular tense and aspect in an irrelevant context. Also, a weak correlation between the two variables measured, the number of errors and scores, was revealed. Keyword: Academic Writing, English tense-aspect system, Error Analysis, Covert Error