KURNIYAH (Student Number: 3104076). Error Analysis on using finite verbs in Recount Text Writing: A Case Study at the 8th Grade Students of SMPN 1 Reban Batang in The Academic Year 2008 – 2009. Thesis, Semarang: Bachelor Program of English Language Education of Walisongo State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN Walisongo), 2009.
Keywords: Error, Finite Verbs, Recount Text.

The background of the study is the importance of aspect in grammatical pattern, especially on using appropriate finite verbs. They should be mastered by students in order to make well structured and meaningful sentences. Because English is not first language and it has different systems in grammatical pattern from Indonesian’s. As a result, students make a lot of mistakes when they are studying finite verbs.
The problem of this research can be stated as follows:
1. What errors on using finite verbs are found in recount text written by the 8th grade students of SMPN 1 Reban – Batang in the Academics Year of 2008 /2009?
2. What are the causes of the errors on using finite verbs?
The objectives of this study are:
1. To identify errors on using finite verbs are found in recount text written by the 8th grade students of SMPN 1 Reban – Batang in the Academic Year of 2008/2009.
2. To identify the causes of the errors on using finite verbs.
3.
The data source of her study was the eight grade students of SMPN 1 Reban – Batang in the academic year of 2008/2009 which consists of 30 students. The instrument consists of a free writing test. It means that the students were free to choose any topic of their experience because it was in the form of a recount text. The test had been done once after they had finished their lesson about recount text. The writer gave the students the whole meeting time (2 x 35 minutes) to do their task.

Based on analyzing the data, there were many finite verbs errors made by students. They were classified in four categories: Omissions, Additions, Misinformations and Misorderings. The total finite error made by the students were 110 divided into 34 or 31% finite verbs errors in omissions, 9 or 8,2% finite verbs in additions, 64 or 58% finite verbs errors in misinformation, and 3 or 2,8% finite errors came from misorderings. The causes of the errors were Indonesian (interlingual/interference) and English (intralingual).

Therefore, by doing this study hopefully the writer can give a valuable contribution not only to the teacher but also to the students in improving their English. The teacher should always try to find better techniques and give more practice to the students. By mastering it well, the students will not find any difficulty in further English study, especially in grammar. Hopefully this study will inspire the other researches to do further research on grammatical problems faced by the students, especially in finite verbs.