Students' Lexicogrammatical Problems in Writing a Descriptive Text: a Study at Grade XI Students of SMA N 1 Batipuh

Many students of class XI at SMA N 1 Batipuh faced problems in writing descriptive text. Analyzing the students‟ ability in writing descriptive text would help to find out their problems and the causes of the problems. Therefore, the researcher was interested in analyzing the students‟ ability in writing descriptive text, their problems and causes of the problems. This research was aimed to find out the students‟ ability in writing descriptive text, the students‟ lexicogrammatical problems in writing descriptive text and the causes of the problems. The design of research was descriptive. The subject of the research was the students of class XI IPA at SMA N 1 Batipuh. Instruments used to collect the data in this research are writing test and interview. The quantitative data were from the writing test conducted in the class. The qualitative data were from the result of interview done to the students and English teachers. The quantitative and qualitative data were grouped based on the indicators. The result of quantitative analyzing and qualitative analyzing were interpreted to get the result of the research. From the result of the research, it is found that the students‟ ability in writing descriptive text was fair with the average score was 1.53 in range of 1,1-2. Although the students‟ ability was fair, the students also faced some problems in writing descriptive text; they are: the use of simple present tense, adjective, attributive have and has, noun, linking verb, preposition, pronoun, and adverb. It was found that the factors which caused the students‟ problems were interference of first language, lack of knowledge about grammar structure, lack of vocabulary and low frequency of practicing writing.