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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter presents the conclusions and recommendations of the study.

The conclusion section wraps up the study. The recommendation section presents
the recommendation in relation to the teaching of writing and also to other
researchers who are interested in interlanguage theory and realizations.

5.1. Conclusions
The primary goal of the study is to investigate the interlanguage in regard
to verb phrase acquisition that undergraduate students of English Education
produce when they write English. There are two research questions as stated in the
first chapter. The first research question is about what verb phrasesthat
undergraduate students produce in their English writing. The second question is
aboutwhat processesthat contribute the students’use of verb phrases.
Regarding the first research question, the study finds that the students are
able to produce the accurate productions of verb phrases. However, their
productions evidence interlanguage. The total occurences of verb phrases in their
writings are 323 expressions, 200 of which (61.5%) are accurate or non-error
expressions and the rest 123 (38.5%) are erroneous. The higher achiever students
produced 127 expressions, 70 of which (55.1%) are non-errors and 57 (44.9%)%)
are erroneous. Middleachiever students produced 114 expressions, 84 of which
(73.7%) are non-errors and 30 (26.3%) are erroneous. Then, lower achiever
students produced 82 expressions, 46 of which (56.1%) are non-errors and 36
(43.9%) are erroneous.
Based on analysis using Politzer and Ramirez’ and Burt and Kiparsky’s
Linguistic Category Taxonomy focusing onverb phrase, the study finds that the
use of third person singular verbs is the most frequent errors (28.5%), followed by
omission of to be(17.9%), errors due to double marking (13%), the use of have
and has (7.3%), problem with negative transformations (5.6%), verb-and-verb
construction (5.6%), problem with gerunds (4.9%), disagreement of subject and

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Verb Phrase Acquisition as Indicated Through Students’ Writing
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number (4.9%), problem in passive transformations (4.9%), problem with modals (4.1%) and
problem with question transformations (3.3%).
While, based on the results of the analysis usingacquisition criteria,it can be assumed
that in general the use of verb phrases has not been acquired by all students since the correct
use attains only 61.5% and the total errors reach 38.5%. Eventhough, the results of the
analysis vary in terms of students’ levels of proficiency. The higher achiever students have
already acquired thethe rule of the use of verbal after modals and subject-number agreement.
The middle achiever students have already acquired the rule of subject-number agreement
and the use of to be (not to add to be in the structure where it is unnecesary). Then, the lower
achiever students have already acquired the rule of verbal after modals and the use of
gerunds (both after preposition and in front of the clause).
In addition, the results above lead the study to the limitation that students’ proficiency
levels do not influence the acquisition. It might be because the students’ writing score can be
considered as not sufficient to cover students’ levels of proficiency. Hence, they seem to be in
the similar stage of acquisition development since there is no big differences among the three
groups in terms of the acquired rules or structures of verb phrases usage.
As stated in the second research question, the study also investigate the processes or
causes of students’ interlanguage. Based on Selinker’s (1972) five central processes and
Richards’ (1971 & 1971b) sources of errors, the results of the analysis reveal that there are
basically four processes that contribute to students’ interlanguage, i.e. language transfer
(67.5%), strategies of second language learning (16.7%), overgeneralization (2.6%), and false
concpets hypothesized (13.2%). Based on this percentage, their target language seems to be
partly influenced by their native language. A further contirbution seems to be the students’
internal processes in the form of their strategy in language learning, overgeneralization, and
some errors caused by false concepts hypothesized.
What can be concluded from the findings of the study is that students’ target language
appear to contain errors because their language proficiency is not good enough for them to
use this language. In order to fill the gap between inadequate proficiency and tough
requirements of a task, the students use different strategies, such as native language
transference, second language learning strategies, overgeneralization of target meterials, and
false concepts hypothesized, which cause different types of errors i.e third person singular
verbs, omission of to be and so on. Therefore, the students in each group have not acquired
the principles of the target language completely. Their competence of Englsih is considered to
be interlanguage because their language production is neither target language nor their native
Mohammad Qushoy, 2013
Verb Phrase Acquisition as Indicated Through Students’ Writing
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language. This is in line with Kil (2003) who claims that the errors they make show that they
go through developmental process and their acquisition of the target language must be on the
interlanguage continuum. To some extent, the present study supports that of Luna’s (2010)
study in that interlanguage provides a more comprehensive way of dealing with students’
errors. They are not perceived as something negative but as a construction of their own
process of learning.

5.2. Recommendations
There are several recommendations proposed concerning the research in the field of
second language acquisition, namely interlanguage, and the teaching of writing, especially
Writing for Academic Purposes in undergraduate studies.
Since the present study is not able to cover all syntactic elements due to its limitation,
it is recommended that further studiesanalyse other syntactic elements, such as noun phrase,
adjective phrase or adverbial phrase. Analysing the whole features of syntax also will give
more comprehensive understanding of students’ interlanguage. Moreover, morphological
elements (i.e. the use of article, preposition, regular and irregular verb, etc) may also be worth
investigating since students still potentially face difficulties in this area. Besides, as the
present study is cross sectional, the more in-depth analysis through longitudinal study on
students’ second language development may also give anotherinsight and understanding in
regard to interlanguage development. Also, it isrecommended to next researchers use more
reliable test instrument when they have to group participants in a cross sectional study,such as
TOEFL test and othervalid and reliable insturmentsto measure students’level of proficiency.
For the teaching of writing, it appears that grammatical elements become important
aspects to master by undergraduate students, notably those who are majoring in English
Education. As evidenced in the study, most of students lack grammatical competence in that
heir writings contain a wide range of verb phrase errors. Thus, to some extent, the findings
are considerably important for the lecturer to review her/his classroom instructions in order to
overcome students’ problem in producing English writings. As the processes or causes of
students’ interlanguage are mainly caused by students’ native language, the lecturer may use
some kinds of contrastive samples of writing and/or models in relevant contexts so that
students can see what may differ between their own native language and the target language.

Mohammad Qushoy, 2013

Verb Phrase Acquisition as Indicated Through Students’ Writing
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu