- A Study on the Students’ Ability in Writing English Letters of the Eight Semester Students of Ahmad Dahlan University in Academic Year of 2005/2005

by:
Maskuroh

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study is to find out how high the ability in writing English letters is. Besides, this study is also aimed at finding out the easiest and the most difficult letter writing test.

This research population consists of the eight semester students of Ahmad Dahlan University in the academic year of 2005/2006. The sum of the population is 202 students. By using Krecjie’s table, it is found the sample size of 202 is a32. the sample is taken by using random sampling technique. The data of the students’ ability in English letters is collected with testing method. The data analyzing technique used is a descriptive technique to cover the mean and standard deviation.

The findings are reported as follows: the students’ ability in writing English letters is categorized into very good category with the mean of 16.41 and the standard deviation of 1.15. This arithmetic mean is higher than that of the ideal mean (16.41>10.8). Furthermore, from the data analysis, it can be seen that there are 213 errors based on the components of letter. These errors occur in all areas of English letter components. There are 26 errors or 6.56% in the heading, 15 errors or 3.79% in the inside address, 4 errors or 1.01% in the salutation, 149 errors or 37.63% in the body, 8 errors or 2.02% in the complementary close, and 11 errors or 2.78% in the signature. The easiest component of English letters is the salutation/greeting in which from 396 answers (the product of 3 x 132), most of the students can answer 392 or 98.99% correctly and 4 or 1.01% incorrectly. Meanwhile, the most difficult component is the body of paragraph. From 396 answers (the product of 3 x 132) the students made the greatest number of errors, that is, 149 or 37.63% and the students make 247 answers or 63.37% correctly.