AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF RECOUNT TEXT WRITING PRODUCED BY EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT OF MTSN 11 AGAM
Oktavia Elya Zahra, 2319147 “An Error Analysis of Recount Text Writing Produced by Eighth Grade Student of MTsN 11 Agam”. A thesis, English Education Department, State Islamic University of Sjech M Djamil Djambek Bukittinggi, 2026. Writing recount texts requires proficiency in past tense and grammatical accuracy. However, eighth-grade students at MTsN 11 Agam often struggle with grammatical structures, leading to frequent errors such as omissions and misselections. These issues hinder their ability to convey meaning effectively. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the types and frequencies of grammatical errors in students' recount texts and to explore the underlying causes of these errors. This research employed a content analysis design. The data were collected through document analysis of recount texts produced by 35 eighth-grade students at MTsN 11 Agam. The collected data were identified and classified using the Surface Strategy Taxonomy. To ensure the reliability of the findings, the analysis underwent an inter-rater verification process involving the researcher, an English teacher, and an expert lecturer, ensuring objectivity and theoretical soundness in the classification process. The research findings indicate that a total of 91 grammatical errors were identified. The most dominant error category was Wrong Verb Form with 56 cases (61.54%), followed by errors in articles with 14 cases (15.38%), pronoun usage errors with 13 cases (14.29%), and preposition errors with 8 cases (8.79%). The integration of the researcher’s micro-analytical approach with the validator’s pragmatic approach demonstrates that subjectivity in error identification can be synergized to produce a balanced assessment. These errors serve as systematic indicators of the students' interlanguage development, influenced by cognitive load and native language interference, where students tend to prioritize meaning over structural accuracy. These findings suggest that English teachers should shift away from isolated grammar exercises and adopt a more contextual, scaffolding-based approach to writing instruction to effectively improve students' grammatical accuracy.