Analysis of students’ errors in telling the English time expressions

Abstract

EFL Students commonly make errors in expressing English Telling Time. This current study revealed frequent error phenomena of beginner learners in Indonesia: telling time in English. This study revealed the types of errors made by students in grade 7 related to telling time. In addition, it also revealed the factors that caused the error. The approach of this current study is descriptive qualitative. The data of this current research are phrases/clauses/sentences containing 'telling time' erroneous constructions collected through a test. The results show that the respondents still needed help in expressing time in English. Two problems that arose were related to writing and word order. The first problem arose due to the respondents’ limited knowledge of the target language, while the second problem was caused by the interference of the first language (Indonesian). This confirms that errors in English are very likely to occur, especially when there are differences between the source language system and the target language.