L1 Grammatical Inferences on English of Students in Four Senior
High Schools in Mataram
Titik Ceriyani Miswaty
Hasanuddin University, Makassar
Keywords: Interferences, Grammatical Order, Sasak Language.
Abstract: In the learning process of English language, there are some obstacles faced by the learners and teachers,
such as; the problems dealing with grammatical order, vocabulary and English pronunciation that are
slightly different from students' L1. This study is aimed to examine the interferences of students' L1 on their
English language in senior high school in Mataram and how strong those interferences influence students in
constructing English structure. The method is qualitative. The data consist of words and phrases. The first-
grade students of four senior high schools in Mataram serve as the participants of the research. The study
observed and analyzed the data based on the steps as follows - 1) data transcript 2) pre-coding and coding,
3) developing ideas, 4) interpreting and making conclusion. As a result, it shows that the interferences of
students' L1 can be seen in two points - 1) in the word order of English sentences, and 2) how students
interpret the sentences. As an influence of L1, students often make mistakes in making sentences and thus
the composition of their L1 sentence rivets it.
1 INTRODUCTION
In the learning process, like other English learners
in the world, the English learners in Indonesia also
face obstacles and difficulties in the English
learning process. In particular aspect, it was found
that learning SLA is more difficult than the others
(DeKeyser, 2005; Marsden et al., 2013). These
constraints include vocabulary, pronunciation and
grammar. The L2 difficulty is not a monolithic and
static notion but rather a multifaceted and dynamic
construct that results from some factors that interact
in determining L2 difficulty (Housen and Simoens,
2016, p. 166). As what stated in Ronowicz and
Yallop (2007), "The main problem facing by
teacher and learner is cross-cultural elements." This
describes that aspects of culture become the
determinant of the success of learner in mastering a
foreign language.
In response to how the second language is
learned is through understanding the factor
associated with it. Since the difficulties in learning
L2 has rarely been thoroughly theorized (Collins et
al., 2009; DeKeyser, 2005; Ellis, 2016; Long and
Robinson, 1998), for that reason, many researchers
focus on looking for problems that cause those
difficulties instead. One of the current issues in the
second language learning is research dealing with
the influence/interferences of L1.
Recent studies about L1 influences in morpheme
acquisition were conducted by Luk and Shirai
(2009) and Murakami and Alexopoulou (2016).
Those two studies proved that the L1 influences the
acquisition of L2. Hawkins and Buttery (2010)
investigated how the lack of equivalent feature in
the L1 leads to the low accuracy for the acquisition
of the L2. In this study, they focused on the
acquisition of articles. Dulay and Burt (1973) first
did the research dealing with the difference between
L1 and L2 grammatical acquisition in 1973.
The primary purpose of this study is to examine
students' L1 interferences students' language
acquisition of English and in which part of speech
or grammatical rule that this interference appears in
the way they construct English sentences. In
particular, this study used first-grade students from
four senior high schools in Mataram as a subject
from the Sasaknese tribe only.
Sasaknese is indigenous people who live in
Lombok West Nusa Tenggara. The people speak
Miswaty, T.
L1 Grammatical Inferences on English of Students in Four Senior High Schools in Mataram.
DOI: 10.5220/0008221100002284
In Proceedings of the 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference (BELTIC 2018) - Developing ELT in the 21st Century, pages 491-496
ISBN: 978-989-758-416-9
Copyright
c
 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
491

Sasak language. Sasak language has different word
order from English or even from Bahasa Mataram.
For example, in the sentence "Yakkoo mandik juluk
ne nane, karing semendak jok kantor" which is
translated literally in Indonesia becomes "akan saya
mandi dulu sekarang, lagi sebentar ke kantor" or in
English it is "Will I take a bath first, now. A moment
to the office”.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Interferences
Interference, according to Hartman and Stonk in
Jendra (2010), is a mistake caused by the tendency
to accustom speech of a language to other languages
that include sound pronunciation, grammar, and
vocabulary. It is clear that the mother tongue in the
second language learning is a barrier in the language
acquisition and the use of a second language. When a
speaker speaks using their L2, they often bring and
depend on their L1. When the difference between
L2 and L1 is significant, the possibility of making a
mistake is higher.
Chaer (2009) stated that interference was first
used by Weinrich to refer to a change in a language
system concerning the contact of language with
other language elements performed by speakers.
Brown (2000, pp. 94–95) states that "it has been
common in the second language teaching to stress
the role of interference - that is, the interfering
effects of the native language on the target (L2).”
Interference appears in all elements of language
such as phonology, morphemes, grammar, lexical
and spelling. Interference phonologically involves
the process of distributing the phonology system
from the first language (L1) to the second language
(L2) where some sounds of the first language were
also included. e.g. emphasis, rhythm, and intonation.
This type of interference occurs where the physical
sound features of the two languages differ from
each other or if one element are not found in
another language. According to Chaer (2009),
interference is categorized into:
a. Grammatical interference that refers to the
syntactic form, a sentence structure or sentence
arrangement, the use of a pronoun, conjunction,
etc. In Sasak language, the word "yak" or "will"
in English will be placed in the beginning of the
sentence. Thus, the sentence "I will go" becomes
"yakku/ yakko lalo" in Sasak.
b. Lexical interference has two types of
interference at the word level and semantic
meaning. Interference at the word level arises
when learners use the vocabulary in the first
language (L1) when they do not know the word
equation in the second language (L2).
Interference in the level of semantic arises when
the meaning of a word in the first language is
used for the corresponding meaning of a second
language.
c. The last is spelling interference. This
interference usually occurs when the learner is
unfamiliar with another language which then
causes him to use his first language perception
in the spelling of the second language.
2.2 Grammatical Order
English grammar is the way in which meanings are
encoded into wordings in English. This includes the
structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences,
right up to the structure of whole texts. In
linguistics, a grammatical order is the fundamental
order of a clause – the relative order of subject,
object, and verb; the order of modifiers (adjectives,
numerals, demonstratives, possessives, and adjuncts)
in a noun phrase; and the order of adverbials
(Halliday, 1985).
2.3 Interferences
Sasak is a member of the Malayo - Sumbawan
branch of the Austronesian language family. It is
spoken by about 2.1 million people in West Nusa
Tenggara province in Lombok, Mataram and it is
closely related to the language spoken in Bali and
Sumbawa. They are five dialects of Sasak varying
mutually intelligibility among them: Kuto-Kute
(north Sasak), Nggeto-Nggete (northeast Sasak),
Meno-Mene (central Sasak), Ngeno-Ngene (central
east Sasak and central west Sasak), and Meriaq-
Meriku (south central Sasak) (Austin, 2008).
Sasak was originally written with a script called
Aksara Sasak, a version of the Balinese script with
influences from the Javanese script. It was first
written on lontar palm leaves, and since 1970s paper
was used. These days, the awareness of Sasak script
is limited to a very small group of people because
nowadays people tend to use the Latin alphabet
rather than the Sasak script. It is known that parts of
the Bible were translated into Sasak in 1948, and
there was some literature in Sasak in the 19th
century, which was influenced greatly by Javanese
(Austin, 2008).
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3 METHODS
3.1 Research Design
Qualitative research is a category of social science
study that gathers non-numerical information to
find meaning from the accumulated information.
The study will provide us with further data reference
about social life over and done with the study of
targeted populations. Most people are likely to
recognize it with the opposition to qualitative
research.
In this study, the researcher acts as an observer
and the main instruments. The object of research is
based on the events that become the topic of
research and to avoid the occurrence of bias
researcher. During the study period, the researcher
did not tell the subject of research on the ongoing
research.
3.2 Research Subject
The subject of this research is first-grade students
who are Sasaknese from four senior high schools in
Mataram. There are 125 Sasaknese students
involved in this research.
3.3 Data
The data of this research is the result of the exam
script written by the students. The writing tasks
cover a range of text types, include an essay, a letter,
and a story. Other data include L1 background
collected through a short questionnaire
administered to students when they are taking the
exam.
3.4 Data Collection Technique
The observation technique data were taken from the
observations made by the researcher during learning
English in the class. Tagliamonte (2006, p. 20)
reveals "the fundamental approaches to variation
analysis are participant observations and large-scale
surveys. Furthermore, he also revealed that
"Participant observation is requiring the researchers'
integrate them within the community under the
investigation" (Tagliamonte, 2006, p. 20). The
participant observation technique is used in order to
obtain the level of objectivity and the authenticity of
the data.
Test is given to students to examine and to give
more concrete data that help the researcher to gain
the findings of the research.
3.5 Data Analysis Technique
In the process of data analysis, the study followed
steps by Dörnyei and Narcy-Combes (2008):
1. Data Transcription.
The first phase is to transfer the recording into
the script. This step is used in order to collect data
dealing with information needed about the
background of the students' L1.
2. Pre-coding and coding.
The second phase is pre-coding and coding. The
process provides specific code on the transcribed
data. Dörnyei and Narcy-Combes (2008) says, "a
code in qualitative inquiry is most often a word or
phrase that symbolically assigns a summative,
salient, essence-capturing and -or evocative attribute
for a portion of language-based or visual data". This
is a process of encoding data obtained from the
previous process.
3. Developing ideas.
The third process is developing ideas; the
researcher transcribed the results of collected data
to provide secondary data that will complement the
previously collected data. In this process, the data
are obtained from the results of the records. The
researcher collects the data and records them in
memos or field notes during the observation
process.
4. Interpretation and conclusion.
In this final phase, the data in a series of analysis
are gathered, interpreted and concluded to provide
the researcher with final data results.
3.6 Data Validation
To obtain valid data, the researcher performs the
validation phase. The method used in this validation
process is the triangulation method (Bogdan and
Biklen, 2006) where they proposed that
triangulation is a technique that facilitates data
validation through cross-validation techniques from
two or more sources.
4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Research Findings
The researcher proposes two research questions 1)
does students' L1 interfere the acquisition of
students' English language? and 2) in which part of
L1 Grammatical Inferences on English of Students in Four Senior High Schools in Mataram
493

speech or grammatical rules does this interference
appear?
In conducting this study, the researcher used a
qualitative method. The observation data are used as
supporting data. The rest data are collected then
analyzed using the following three steps. First, at the
data reduction stage, to reduce the data, the
researcher selected, simplified and transformed the
raw data that consist of words which are claimed to
reflect the L1 interference on students' English
sentences. Second, at data display, the researcher
organized the collected data of language
interference. Third, after all data have been reduced
and displayed, the next step is verification.
Thus, to answer the research questions, the
researcher collected and analyzed the data and found
some findings as follows:
Table 1: Sample data Indonesian language towards Sasak
language
No
Indonesian Language
Sasak Language
1.
Rumahnya Fakih,
bagus.
Ye bagus balene
Fakih.
2.
Sepatu kalian basah.
Ye basaq sepatum
pade.
3.
Mainan itu dibeli di
toko.
Kedekan no ye tebeli
lek took.
4.
Kita tidak terlalu suka
makanan itu.
Ndek te sak demen
laloq kakenan no.
5.
Setelah pulang sekolah,
kalian akan kemana?
mbe padem laik
seuwahan ulek
sekolah?
6.
Setelah selesai
memanen, saya dan
teman-teman saya akan
pergi ke pasar.
Seuwahan engkah
merampek, aku kance
baturku jakte lalo jok
peken.
7.
Saya diberikan kado
oleh ibu saya.
Aku tebeng kadi sik
inakku
8.
Mereka memiliki dua
anak.
Ye pade bedoa anak
due.
9.
Anak-anak mereka
tinggal di Jakarta.
Anak-anakne ndot lek
Jakarta.
10.
Mereka jarang sekali
mengunjungi orang tua
mereka di Lombok.
Ye Langahne pade
janguk dengan toak
ne.
Table 2: Sentences constructed by students.
No
Sentences
1
It is good Fakih’s house.
2
It is wet, your shoes.
3
The toy it is bought in the store.
4
Not we really like that food.
5
Where you go after come to school.
6
After finished harvesting, I come along with
my friend, will we go to market.
7
I am given a present by my mom.
8
He has two kids.
9
The kids of they live in Jakarta.
10
They rarely visit they parent.
4.1.1 The Use of Pronoun
The following sample in table 2, some pronouns use
the same word "Ye". In the example 8-10, the word
"ye" is used to refer to "they". This is then different
from the example number 5 and 2. In the example,
number 5 and 2, the pronoun "they" is "pade". This
"double usage" of "ye" somehow interferes students
when they construct the English sentences. The
following table shows the sentences constructed by
students.
Table 3: Pronouns in Sasaknese language
No
English Language
Sasak Language
1.
You
‘em/ ’e/ mek/ bi
2.
I
Aku/ tiang
3.
She/he
Iye/ en/ ne
4.
They
pade
5.
We
Ite/ te
4.1.2 Neegative Sentences
There is a clear distinction between the formulas of
negative sentence in English language with the
sentence in Sasak language. In English, the formula
used in expresses negative sentence is S + to be +
not + C (for non-verbal sentences) or S+
do/does+not + V while in Sasak language the
formula is ndek + S+ Verb/C. Since in Sasak
language there is no difference between verbal and
non-verbal sentence, the formula above is used for
both types of sentence. The following data will
show the interferences of Sasak language in the
negative sentence of English made by the students.
Table 4: Interferences of Sasak language in the negative
sentence of English made by students
No
Sasak Language
English Language
1.
Ndekq demen kance
side (I don’t like
you).
Not I like you.
2.
Ndekye mele jok
kampus nane.
Do not she want to go
to campus now.
3.
Ndekq taok.
Do not I know.
4.
Ndekm onek lek te.
Not you too long to be
here.
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4.1.3 Future Tense
In a future form of Sasak language sentence is
expressed using the word "jak/yak". In a formal
sentence, Sasaknese says "yak" after subject as "aku
yak lalo jok peken" (I will go to market) but this
kind of sentence is rarely used. Sasaknese is used to
using "Yak ku lalo jok peken" instead. The
following data will show the interferences of Sasak
language in the negative sentence of English made
by the students.
Table 5: Interferences of Sasak language in the future
tense of English made by students
No
Sasak Language
English Language
1.
Jak ku bait kepeng
no bareh.
Will I take that
money later.
2.
Jakne lalo jok mbe
kanak tiye?
Will he go to where
that boy?
3.
Ape jakm gawek bareh?
What will you do
later?
4.
Yakku mandi juluk.
Will I take a bath
first.
4.2 Discussion
Based on the table above the researcher found
that the students' L1 interferes their English sentence
construction. It is caused by negative transfer from
Bahasa Indonesia-Sasak to English language. Sasak
language structure is interfered in English language
students. They are using the incorrect grammatical
rules instead of using the correct grammatical rules.
The interferences of students’ L1 can be seen in
three types, such as:
a. In the use of pronoun.
b. In the use of negative sentences.
c. In composing future tense.
The interference also occurs when they are using
Bahasa Indonesia. They use Bahasa Indonesia with
the structure of Sasak language. For example, in
Indonesian "Where are you going?", The sentence
is not an Indonesian sentence under the standard
rules, but the Indonesian language with Sasak
language structure. Another influence shows that
students are afraid to express their ideas using
English because they are too terrified of making
mistakes.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the data and discussion above, we can
conclude that the majority of the students who have
the ability and proficiency in Sasak language in
their daily communication will find it difficult in
acquiring a new language, in this case, both Bahasa
Indonesia and English. The teacher will have to put
their attention when it comes to a grammar lesson
in the topics of pronoun, negative sentence and
future tense.
Teachers will also have to insert in one of their
teaching strategies on how to provide students with
an encouraging learning method since students tend
to be afraid of communicating their ideas using
English.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Bapak Harry Pratama, thank you for your
indefinite support and love.
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