AN ERROR ANALYSIS IN ENGLISH SPELLING

Abstract

The aims of this research are to describe the English spelling errors made by the students in writing English and to explain the cause s of the English spelling errors. This research used the qualitative method since the results of this research are in the form of descriptions. The population of this research is the 2 nd grade student of the Faculty of Letters of Guna darma University. The source of data is students’ English writing. The result of this research, are clas sified into three main categories and divided again into several sub-categorie s for each main categories of English spelling errors, which are arbitrary errors + error of missordering the letter 2% = 65%; consists of error of omitting a letter 35%, error of misselecting a letter 12%, and error of adding unnecessary letter 16%. Word unit errors 6%; consists of two words become one word error 4% and one word becomes two words error 2%. Capitalization errors 29%; consists of capitalization error at the beginning of sentence 5%, capitalization at the middle of sentence 16%, and title and proper nouns error 8%. There are two kinds of cau ses of error, whic h are interlingual error 31%, intralingual error 69%.