Exploring Grammatical Errors in a BIPA Learner’s Paragraph Writing

Abstract

Writing plays an important role in second-language learning because grammatical accuracy supports clear and meaningful communication. However, previous studies on BIPA learners’ writing have generally focused on groups of learners or single sets of written data, leaving limited attention to grammatical errors across multiple writing tasks of an individual learner. This study aims to explore grammatical errors in a BIPA learner’s Indonesian and English paragraph writing and examine the persistence and changes of error patterns across two writing tasks. This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach with a single-case study design and Error Analysis. Data were collected from two writing tasks and analyzed using Setyawati’s classification for Indonesian and Dulay, Burt, and Krashen’s Surface Strategy Taxonomy for English. The findings showed that Sentence Structure was dominant in Indonesian, while Misformation was dominant in English across both tasks. Some error categories reoccurred across the two writing task, suggesting recurring areas of grammatical difficulty in the participant’s writing.