GRAMMAR PROBLEMS FACED BY STUDENTS IN FREE WRITING

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore grammar problems faced by students in free writing. The participants of this study were students who stay in Pesantren mahasiswa internasional K.H Mas Mansyur Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. They are bachelor’s degree students from many study programs in Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. The samples consisted of twenty one participants. They are English tutors in Pesma. The instruments used to gather data were observation, and students’ assignment. This study used descriptive design by qualitative analysis. The study found that the grammar problems faced by students in free writing were the proper use of subject and predicate (33 %), the use of pronoun (15%), the use of ‘to be’ (is, am, are, was, were) (11%), to infinitive 10%, the use of punctuation and the written correct English word (7%), the use of plural (6%), the predicate (4%), the use part of speech (4%), the use of modality (4%), passive voice (2%), parallelism in grammar (2%), conjunction (1%) and Indonesian word (1%).