DOI: https://doi.org/10.36841/pioneer.v13i2.1306 PIONEER VOLUME 13, Issue 2, December 2021: 327 – 336 LEXICAL ERRORS IN ENGLISH STUDENTS’ WRITING 1Afrillia 1 Anggreni* Universitas Tadulako, Indonesia 1 afrillthe1st@gmail.com 2Siska 2 Bochari Universitas Tadulako, Indonesia 2 siska.bochari@gmail.com *Corresponding author: afrillthe1st@gmail.com Received Accepted : November 16, 2021 : December 25, 2021 Revised Published : December 21, 2021 : December 31, 2021 Abstract: This research analyzed lexical erros in writing of English students and focused on three types of errors; they were errors in literal translation, errors of word formation, and errors in word choice. This research aimed to explore the most frequent errors and the factors of errors made by English students. The design of this research was qualitative in which the data were colleted by using document in the form of students’ writings and interview. The informants of the research were thirty students majoring in English study program at Tadulako University. The result of this research showed that the most frequent errors made were in word choice and followed by errors in literal translation and errors in word formation. The factors causing the errors were students’ inability to consider the context of the topics when writing. They only focused on using dictionary, Google translate, or simply the words that they had in mind to express ideas in their writing. The students also never used words that were related to the topic in their daily interaction. Keywords: error, lexical, writing INTRODUCTION Writing a text in foreign language presents big challenges for EFL learners. One of the challenges is the selection of lexical items in their writing. Using correct lexical item in writing will present a qualified writing. Furthermore, choose appropriate lexical item will help the readers to interpret or comprehend the ideas or the message of the writing accurately that the writer will be conveyed to the reader but in vice versa if the writers select incorrect lexical, it will provide some impacts to the reader such as misunderstanding or 327 misinterpreting related to the content of the writing and it will lead miscommunication between the writer and the readers. Choosing incorrect lexical or lexical errors are normal for foreign language (EFL) learners since the learners still rely on the words that they have in mind and using dictionary to select word that they will use in their writing without consider the use, the form and the context how the word is used. Lexical errors occur because the EFL learners do not have adequate English vocabulary and never try to expand new vocabularies (Andre, 2015). Lexical errors are essential to be investigated to explore the students’ obstacles in target language. According to Llach cited in Ander and Yildirim (2010) argues that identify and remedy lexical errors in foreign language learners’ compositions is very significant to be analyzed because those errors appear to be one of the main causes of communication problems. Hence, the researchers conducted this research and focused on three types of lexical errors: errors in literal translation, error in word formation, and error in word choice to find out the most frequent errors made by the students and the factors causing the errors. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Error is different from mistake. Error refers to a deviation that produced by EFL learners because of lack of language competence while mistake refers to the performance of language learners because they fail to exploit a known system correctly while error refers to the competence in which the language learners do a conspicuous deviation because of lack of language knowledge or competence(Charles Owu-Ewie & Miss Rebecca Williams, 2017). Furthermore, while mistake is related to learners’ performance, error is related to learners’ incompetence (Tarigan, 2011). Errors are often made because the learners have limited knowledge or understanding related to language system of target language (Sari, 2016). Errors happened because the learner is lack of knowledge of the target language and occurred consistently and systematically (Gayo & Widodo, 2018). Errors are caused by lacking knowledge of the language system and cannot be corrected by the learner –self (Al-husban, 2018). In addition, language errors can be caused by interlingual interference and intralingual interference. Interlingual interference refers to a negative transfer of first language learners 328 (L1) while intralingual interference involves errors caused by learners’ incomplete knowledge of the target language(Kaweera, 2013). Lexical error is one of language errors. It refers to a deviation of word selection that used in communication. Lexical errors refers to a wrong choice of content words that express meaning in communication either oral or written that causes misunderstandings related to the outcomes or messages that speaker or writer wish to convey (Cordero Badilla & Martin Núñez, 2020). Lexical error is scrutinized as first language interference (Kaweera, 2013). Llach cited in Andre and Jurianto (2015) claims that lexical errors are the use of incorrect lexical item as the impact of the confusion of the semantic similarity between two words and as the influence of the first language (L1) or the second language (L2). Some lexical errors that are always found in students’ writing, those includes errors of wrong word choice, errors of literal translation, errors of omission or incompletion, misspelling, errors of redundancy, errors of collocation, and errors of word formation (Ander & Yıldırım, 2010). James cited in Andre and Jurianto (2015) divides lexical errors into two types, formal errors include wrong selection, wrong formation, and distortion while semantic errors include confusion of sense relation and collocational errors. METHOD This research used a qualitative method to analyze the lexical errors in students writing that had been laid out. Qualitative is an approach that allows the researcher to identify issues from the perspective of the researcher’s study participants and understand the meaning and interpretations that they give to behavior, events or object, identify people’ experiences and behavior and also seek to embrace and understand the contextual influences on the research issues (Hennik, Hutter&Baley.,2020).The researchers chose this method because the researcher wants to represent or describe the result of the data. The data were collected by taking some documents or students’ writing and conducting interview. The documents or students’ writing were students’ tasks in Text Type Writing Course in which involved three topics, Junk food, Covid-19 and Mybedroom.Next the documents were scrutinized related to lexical errors and then identified, counted, interpreted and classified into categories. Those were done to find out the most frequent errors regarding to three types of errors, those were 329 errors in literal translation, errors of word form and errors in word choice while the interview was conducted to find out the information related to the factors of errors made by English students. The interview was only conducted to the students who were found lexical errors in their writing related to the scopes of this research. The informants of the research were thirty students in Third Semester of English Study Program, Tadulako University. The informants were chosen because the researcher thought that they had vocabulary mastery well. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings After collecting the data, it was found that English students ‘writing still contained some lexical’ errors related to this research’ domain. It can be seen on the following table: Table 1. Errors in Literal Translation No 1 Informant initial IIM Errors   AS  3 TS  4 5 WA LS   2 Correction Most people who contract covid-  19 will experience mild to moderate symptom Most people who (are) infected (by) Covid 19 will experience mild to moderate symptom.  You can (be) contaminated(by)it You can catch it when you when you breathe air that contains breathe air that contains the virus the virus if you are near/ contact if you are near someone who is with infected people. already infected with covid-19 The conclusion we get from this  The conclusion that we get from pandemic is that the virus that hit this pandemic is the virus that attackIndonesia causes economic Indonesia caused economic crisis crisis and lack of discipline in and lack of discipline in education education. while studying on line Consuming junk food can lead to  Consuming junk food can lead to obesity and other diseases later in obesity and other diseases life because the body lacks because the body is nutrients malnourished We will fall sick too  We will get sick too Junk food contains more calories  Junk food contains more caloric than nutrients and lack of fiber and than nutrional, lack of fiber and it it can hinder digestion. can harm digestion. Source: English Students’ Writing 330 Table 2. Errors of Word Formation No 1 Informant initial UT Errors  2 LS  Correction Junk food is consider as a type food  Junk food is consider that is not healthy for consumption (considered) as a type food that is not healthy for consumed (verb) (noun) Junk food contains more calories than  Junk food contains more caloric nutrients and lack of fiber and it can than nutrional, lack of fiber and hinder digestion it can harm digestion Source: English Students’ Writing Table 3. Errors of Word Choice 1 Nama (initial) MN Students Error  2 NRY  3 ZA  4 WD  5 MCN   6 7 MRN RMN   8 ASY  9 ATR  TS  10 Correction Not only destroy our health, it is also  slowly killing us by accelerating climate change If you are already addicted to junk  food, there are several ways you can reduce it, set limits, snack healthy, find subtitutes other than junk food, eliminate bad habits With piece and quiet all around  nothing and except the wind I think a small room it would be nice  if not a lot of stuff. Not only harm/injureour health, it slowly kills us . If you are addicted by junk food, there are several ways that can reduce it namely: set limits, snack healthy, find other subtitutes, get rid of bad habits/reduce bad habits With peace and quiet, nothing in around, except the wind I think a small room would be nice if not a lot of Furniture/things People use the term of junk food to describe a food that low in nutrients. You know that junk food can harm/injureyour health It has a few nutritive subtances. Under the small table, there is a cardboard to put various school equipment things People use the term junk food to  describe a food that has few of the nutrients. You know that junk food can hurt  your health It has very little nutritive content.  Under the small table, there is a  cardboard place to store various school equipment or other important items The conclusion that can be drawn  The conclusion that can be drawn from this corona virus disaster is that from this corona virus disease is it has become a major problem in it has become a major problem…. Indonesia….. Corona virus has now infected more  Corona virus has infected more than 20 million of mankind in the than 20 million people in the world world. Junk food does not have good  Junk food does not have good nutrition. nutrients. Source: English Students’ Writing 331 Three tables above show that from thirty writing that had been collected from thirty informants, fiveteenwritingare identified contain lexicalerrors. Five writing contain errors in literal translation, two writing contain errors of word formation and ten writing contain errors in word choice. Discussion The result of the research that has been analyzed show that only fiveteen writing involve three topics, Junk food, Covid-19 and My bedroom are identified contain lexical errors that become scopes of this research. Eight writing related to junk food, five writing related to Covid-19 and two writing related to my bedroom. While other writings are not identified containlecixal errors that become scope of this research but contain other types of errors. For error of literal translation, five students are indicated translating literally and directly the first language into the second language without consider the topic or the context of what had they write, for example, the student IIM translates the word terkena/terjangkit becomes contractand mendapatkan becomes catch to express an act related to the people who having an infection of Covid -19 while the most correct word to express them are infected or contaminated. Next student, AS, translates the word menyerang becomes hit to express an act to be injurious by saying “The conclusion we get from this pandemic is that the virus that hit (attack) Indonesia caused economic crisis and lack of discipline in education while studying on line” while the correct word to place it is attack. The next error is produced by Student TS, she translates kurang gizi becomes lacknutrients while the correct word to express it is malnourished. Next student who translates word literally is WA, she translates jatuhsakit into fall sick, while in English sick is collocated with get to express jatuhsakit or ‘get sick’. Last students is LS, she translates menganggu into hinder to state an act that injure people’ physical but the correct one is should be harm. These errors clearly inform that the students write some texts in English are still interfered by their mother tongue or first language (L1). It seems that interlingual interference still affect in perform the target language. 332 For error of Word Formation, only two writing from two students are identified doing the error. The first student is UT who placed noun for verb: Error : Junk food is consider as a type food that is not healthy for consumption (noun) Correction : Junk food is consider (considered) as a type (of) food that is not healthy for consumed (verb) The second student is LS. She uses noun to compare noun not adjectives. It is indicated by placing the word more in front of those words and followed by than, it can be seen as follow: Error : Junk food contains more calories than nutrients… Correction : Junk food contains more caloric than nutrional …. These errors reflect that the students are still confused to differentiate class of words since the words have visual similarity. For error of word choice, ten students are identified do the error. It is indicated happened because the writers/students seem focus on meaning of the words but ignore the use (context) of the word. The first case from Student MN, she selects the word ‘destroy’ to express an act that injures the health by saying: Error :Not only destroy our health, it is also slowly killing us Correction :Not only harm/injure our health, it slowly kills us The word destroyand harm has same meaning but the word destroy is more appropriate to state an act that damage a building but to state an act that injure people’ health is better to choose the word harm or injure. Next students are NRY, ZA, WD, MCN, MRN, RMN, ASY, ATR dan TS. For student NRY, he chooses the word eliminate to state an act to make a free from something like bad habid while the appropriate word to place it is get rid of bad habit or reduce bad habit. Next is ZA who choose word piece to state a quiet condition or she wants to say peace, seem that she chooses piece because the sound of the words almost similar. Furthermore, the student WD selects the word stuff to describe things/furniture. Stuff is refers to material that thing is made of and it also informal in writing and it is often used to describe uncountable noun, so things or furniture is most appropriate to place it. Next is 333 MCN who choose few of to describe the nutrionalsubtancesof the food while the most appropriate is low in or high in. He also chooses the word hurtto express an act that injures health. Hurt generally is used to describean act that injure a part of body not a whole of body, so the appropriate word is harm or injure For MRN, he chooses the word contentto describe subtances of food. Next is RMN, the student who chooses word store to place something in specified place or in whichthe word put is more appropriate to place itt. Store and put have same meaning but use in different context. Store is generally used to put things in large place such as warehouse or put somethings/devices refer to technology such as store in computer, flask disc, smartphone and others. But if the things are placed in specified place such as a card board, put is better to be placed it. The student RMN also chooses items to describe things that are in his bedroom. Items and things also have same meaning but item refers to the enumerated things and it is usually used for saintific. Next ASY, the student who chooses disaster to describe Corona virus but in fact corona virus is disease so the appropriate is Corona virus disease not corona virus disaster, next error is produced by ATR in which place mankind for people by saying: Error : Corona virus has now infected more than 20 million of mankind in the world Correction : Corona virus has now infected more than 20 million peoplein the world People is more appropriate to describe all person belonging to nation, community or in general while mankind is used to describe human species. The last student is TS which chooses nutrition for nutrients. Nutrition refers to the knowledge about nutrients (subtances). This error actually was not only found in TS’ writing but in almost all students’s writing about junk food. It seems that they cannot differ nutrition, nutrional, nutrients and nutritive. The results of errors in word choice convey that the students have a low skill in semantic competence or they still have confusion of sense relation. From the three topics written by the students as the informants of this research, the dominant errors are found in topic of Junk food. It can be indicated that the students are unaccustomed or new with some terms/words related to this topic. It is also supported by the 334 result of interview that conducted to fiveteen students who have erros in their writing, the students clarify that they never discuss or talk about the topic in English in their daily interaction. They also do not consider the topic in choosing the words in their writing. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION Conclusions After identifying and analyzing the data, the researchers found that the most frequent error in English students writing was error of word choice and then followed by error in literal translation and error of word formation. The errors were also most found in Junk food topic. The students made some errors because they did not consider the context of the topics of writing and never used some kinds of words related to the topic in their daily interaction. They only wrote and translated the words literally using a dictionary, Google Translate, or simply used the words that they had in their mind. The students also clarified that they were lazy to read so they were not rich in vocabulary. Suggestions After conducting this research, the researchers suggest some recommendation to the English learners, teachers, lectures, and other researchers who read this article and who will conduct the research related to this topic. For English learners, the reserchers suggest to give attention related to the form, meaning, and context in selecting lexical items that they will use in their performance either in oral or written form and read many English articles in various topics to expand their knowledge about the use of lexical item. For teachers and lectures, the researchers suggest that they should always notice and give corrected feedback related to the lexical item that the students use in their performance. In addition, the researchers also suggest other researchers who will conduct the similar topic to expand their research areas/scope related to the lexical errors so it can give more information related to the lexical errors in which are still found in students’ performance because it helps the teachers to identify the areas that seems difficult for students and they will focus and emphasis to teach about it. 335 REFERENCES Al-husban, N. (2018). 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