INVESTIGATING PREPOSITION USAGE PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM STUDENTS

As one of the English grammar elements, prepositions might be considered difficult for students of English as a foreign language (EFL). Many studies on this topic have been conducted but it remains problematic and unresolved. Accordingly, the researchers aimed to explore the prepositions in this paper. Gathering the data from fifty acknowledgments of undergraduate theses of the English Language Education Study Program (ELESPA) of a private university in Yogyakarta, the researchers analyzed preposition usage problems that occurred in the acknowledgments. Results showed that three main problems involving the use of prepositions, namely the misselection of prepositions for, in, and to, insertion of prepositions about and to, and omission of prepositions about. Factors causing the problems were investigated and it was found that students’ first language (L1) influenced the incorrect usage of English prepositions.


INTRODUCTION
In learning English, grammar, including the use of prepositions, plays an important role in assisting the students to understand the correct use of the English language and improve their writings (Debata, 2013). Grammar also still becomes a valuable asset in learning the English language (Saaristo, 2015). Wang (2010a), Wang (2010b), and Zhang (2009) also agree that mastering language needs excellent grammar. It helps the students in all English skills, such as writing, reading, listening, and speaking. However, mastering English grammar is not as easy as falling off a log. The learners also need to learn various aspects of English grammar, such as parts of speech, subject and verb agreements, and preposition usages. Those become a big challenge for the students who learn English especially the students who come from countries using English as a foreign language (EFL). Regarding prepositions in English, Sinclair (2011) states that they consist of various kinds and functions and due to their complexity, they cause problems for learners. This complexity makes the students tend to misuse the prepositions in writing sentences. Concisely, a preposition is a type of word used to provide information about places or actions (Sinclair, 2011). As one of the

Problems of using English prepositions
As one of the elements in English grammar, prepositions might be confusing among the students who learn English due to the sheer number and their polysemous nature (Lorincz & Gordon, 2012). It corresponds to what has been claimed by Chodorow, Gamon, and Tetreault (2010) in their research in which they found that articles and prepositions are the most common grammatical error made by non-native speakers and maybe the most difficult elements of English for non-native speakers to master. Another research also showed that in written discourse, articles and prepositions have a percentage of 20% to 50% of all grammar errors made by second language learners (Dalgish, 1985;Diab, 1997;Izumi et al., 2003). Tetreault and Chodorow (2008) also found that prepositions become the most common type of usage error in writings among English as a second language (ESL) learners in China. These claims also have proved that the cases occurred in many EFL learners' writings. Those claims were also verified by the other researchers. In speaking, Huang (2010) investigated the potential influence of L1 (Chinese) on L2 (English) communication with a group of Chinese-speaking English. In writing, Mahmoodzadeh (2012) claimed that Iranian EFL learners tend to suffer from producing English prepositions that are grammatically redundant (e.g., went to home) or wrong (e.g., depends to) in a translation task. These types of problems may often occur for English L2 learners, especially if their L1 does not have such a system (Barrett & Chen, 2011). Recently, there are also still many types of research which tried to provide more evidence on the prepositional misuses made by the learners in the countries which use English as a second or foreign language (Johanson, 2017;Saravanan, 2014;Sudhakaran, 2015;Viloria, Ruiz, & Sanchez, 2017). In Malaysia, the students have difficulties in using prepositions on and at to indicate the time (Loke et al., 2013). Another study showed how Malaysian students also expe-Investigating Preposition Usage... saga, Vol 2(1), February 2021 rienced difficulties in using prepositions of place, in and on (Arjan, Abdullah, & Roslim, 2013). All of them still look at how important the use of prepositions in writing is. They agree that the use of prepositions still becomes problem for non-native students who learn English. The researchers used the same approach in investigating the cases in which they quantitatively analyzed the errors made by the students in the uses of prepositions. They calculated the occurrences of the errors from many students' writings and surveys and then concluded that the students still need help in English prepositions mastery. To enrich the research point of view and give a deeper investigation into the previous research, the researchers tried to provide an explanation on how the preposition systems and features of the students' L1 influence the use of prepositions in their L2, which are considered as incorrect. This kind of investigation can hopefully add different perspectives in analyzing and investigating the misuses of English prepositions.
Looking at the problems in using the prepositions which are shown in the previous studies (Arjan, Abdullah, & Roslim, 2013;Huang, 2010;Johanson, 2017;Loke et al., 2013;Mahmoodzadeh, 2012;Saravanan, 2014;Sudhakaran, 2015;Viloria, Ruiz, & Sanchez, 2017), the students tend to misuse the prepositions. From those misuses, Bram (2005); Chodorow, Tetreault, and Han (2007); and Jha (1991) categorized them into three types of preposition misuses: 1. Omission of preposition: The failure to use a preposition in a sentence where it is obligatory, as in *"We are fond sweet tea" (missing the preposition 'of' after 'fond'). 2. Insertion of preposition: The use of an extra preposition in a sentence where it is unnecessary, as in *"He went to outside" (unnecessary 'to'). 3. Selections of incorrect preposition: The use of a wrong preposition in a sentence, as in *"We arrived to the station" (using 'at', not 'to' after the verb 'arrived').
Finally, the studies on prepositional misuses have revealed that incorrect usages of prepositions were common for EFL and ESL learners. The prepositions may become quite problematic for EFL learners because the misuse of prepositions does not easily cause communication breakdowns (Brender, 2002). However, a degree of ambiguity for the audience may be resulted from inaccurate usages of articles and prepositions in a written context. Particularly, prepositions are difficult to master since they contain challenging and complex features in terms of their variety. They serve a great variety of linguistic functions (Tetreault & Chodorow, 2008).
Interlanguage contributes to teaching materials and methodology for the learners of the second language (Ellis, 2008;Richards, 1984;Rustipa, 2011). It is also the most accepted theoretical ground to explain the phenomenon of second language acquisition around countries including Indonesia (Fauziati, 2011;Fauziati;& Maftuhin, 2016;Lorincz & Gordon, 2012;Nurhayati, 2015;Sutopo, 2013;Viloria, Ruiz, & Sanchez, 2017). In this research, interlanguage might appear in the thinking process of ELESP students who wrote the acknowledgments since they activated the background knowledge of the Indonesian language (L1) and tried to English language (L2) sentences. However, the researchers only focused on the languages themselves by investigating in what ways the prepositions system of the students' L1 influences their L2 productions. Odlin (1989) also adds that "transfer of language" is not only influenced by learners' mother tongue but also is the interference of any other language knowledge possessed by the learners. With the same main idea of language transfer, Ringbom (1992) defines language transfer from a different perspective as "the influence of L1-based elements and L1-based procedures in understanding and producing L2 text" (Ringbom, 1992, p. 87). Yuan (2014) also verified the concept of language transfer which occurred among Taiwanese students. The study found the Taiwanese features of prepositions affected the productions of prepositions in English. Huang (2010) and Mahmoodazdekh (2012) also found the influence of students' L1 in the use of prepositions by the learners.
As investigated by Gass (1979), Gvarishvili (2013), Jarvis & Odlin (2000), and Zhanming (2014), the transfer can be divided into subcategories and different levels of language including the phonetic, lexical, morphological, syntactical, and cultural levels. Language transfer is also divided into positive and negative transfer (Jarvis & Odlin, 2000). The positive transfer can be understood as the similarities between languages which make an EFL learner more successful in using the patterns from their L1 in learning the TL. On the other hand, negative language transfer refers to the differences between two or more language systems which make learners produce errors due to patterns taken from their L1. This concept specifically shows what problems might appear in the use of prepositions by ELESP students and what causes them to face problems in using the prepositions.

METHOD
In this study, the researchers analyzed 50 undergraduate thesis acknowledgments. The researchers used a document analysis as a method. The researchers reviewed all the usages of prepositions and the initial verbs in the selected acknowledgments. From the usages, the researchers determined the misuses of prepositions and the initial verbs by referring to online English Dictionaries (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman, and Macmillan). From the prepositional misuses, the researchers categorized them into several types of prepositional misuses adapted from Bram (2005); Chodorow, Tetreault, and Han, (2007); Jha (1991). Based on the categories, the researchers investigated how the students' L1 would influence the usages of prepositions and the initial verbs. The researchers used English dictionaries, an Indonesian dictionary, and Indonesian corpus data from Corpora Collection (Leipzig University) to compare all the meanings, functions, and usages of verbs and prepositions in English and Indonesian languages. The method of document analysis allowed the researchers to gain a deeper analysis and investigation from the data gathered in the form of students' thesis acknowledgments. Therefore, the data were expected to provide more visible preposition misuse cases to be analyzed and investigated, specifically about the usages of prepositions with the initial verbs. This idea corresponds to what Selinker (1972) states, "the only observable data of the intermediate states of the students between their L1 and L2 are the utterances produced by the students when they try to formulate sentential sequences in the L2" (as cited in Gargallo, 2009, p.128). The researchers firstly downloaded 25 acknowledgments from http://www.library.usd.ac.id from 4th to 11th October 2018. From the data, the researchers found several misuses of prepositions and their initial verbs performed by the students. Then the researchers downloaded another twenty-five acknowledgments from the website from 7th to 11th May 2019. From the data, the researchers noticed the same misuses of prepositions again and again. Thus, the data saturation was being reached (Francis et al., 2010;Grady, 1998;Guest, Bunce, & Johnson, 2006;Hill, Baird, & Walters, 2014;Jackson, Harrison, Swinburn, & Lawrence, 2015;Middlemiss, Lloyd-Williams, Laird, & Fallon, 2015;Sandelowski, 2008). The researchers then calculated the general and incorrect usage of prepositions on 15th May 2019. After that, the researchers analyzed the data. In identifying the cases, the researchers focused on the incorrect usages of prepositions.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings
From the data, the researchers calculated preposition usage problems in each of the 30 acknowledgments. The researchers found the total number for each usage in Table 1. Based on Table 1, it can be seen that 69 preposition misuses occurred from 506 general uses of prepositions. If they were calculated in percentage, there were about 13.64% of misuses from the general uses of prepositions. The rate of preposition misuses showed that the students were aware of the appropriate uses of prepositions with the initial verbs. Based on the data, five students correctly used the prepositions with the initial verbs and one student had six misuses. In detail, 32 students did one prepositional misuse, seven students did two misuses, three students did three misuses, and two students did four misuses. Nevertheless, the students did the same types of misuses. Most of the students selected wrong prepositions in the sentences and some of them inserted unnecessary prepositions or omitted required prepositions after the verbs (Bram, 2005;Chodorow, Tetreault, & Han, 2008;Jha, 1991). The preposition misuses are presented in Table 2.  The table showed that there were five kinds of prepositions and the initial verbs which showed misuse rates of 50 percent or above. Based on the data, the researchers aimed to show that those prepositions became problematic for the students. Twelve prepositions and the initial verbs were detected to be influenced by L1 features. In this case, the influence might come from the use of prepositions and the initial verbs in the Indonesian language or the functions of the prepositions. From the table, it can be seen that the use of preposition to with its initial verbs was often used by the students. The students wrongly selected the preposition for to show a purpose, in which they should use the preposition to which is used to show a direction. This might be caused by the frequent use of those prepositions in students' L1. Prepositions to and for could also have the same meaning in the Indonesian language, namely untuk. From this influence, the students might perform a negative language transfer and they perform preposition misuses (Gass, 1979;Gvarishvili, 2013;Jarvis & Odlin, 2000;Zhanming, 2014).
After showing the misuse rates of each preposition and the initial verb, the researchers provided some sentences from each kind of preposition which was detected to be influenced by L1 features. Those sentences were provided as examples of how students' L1 influences the use of prepositions and the initial verbs in English.

Discussion
The findings have shown the prepositions which were frequently misused by the students. From the misuses, the researchers found that three problems might appear. The problems were categorized by types of misuses formulated by Bram (2005); Chodorow, Tetreault, and Han (2008); and Jha (1991), namely the misselection, insertion, and omission. The researchers provide examples from each kind of preposition and the initial verb problem which might be influenced by L1 features. The examples are provided in Table 3 below. From the examples in Table 3, it can be seen the misuses performed by the students in their acknowledgments more clearly. Most of them selected inappropriate prepositions for and with. Some of them inserted the preposition about and one student omitted it. The researchers divided the discussion into four sections, referring to the types of misuses proposed by Bram (2005), Chodorow, Tetreault, and Han (2008), and Jha (1991). Thus, the sections are the misselection of preposition for, the misselection of preposition to and in, insertion of preposition about and to, and omission of preposition about. In the four sections, the researchers focused on the influence of students' L1 which might stem from the functions of the prepositions and the common use of the prepositions in the Indonesian language.

Misselection of the preposition for
In this section, the researchers focused on the misselection of the preposition for, instead of to. The verbs which are followed by this substituted preposition are go, deliver, express, send, dedicate, give, and present. From those verbs, the researchers provided the sentences with the suggested forms based on four online dictionaries namely, Oxford Online Dictionary, Cambridge Online Dictionary, Longman Dictionary, and Macmillan Dictionary. The Indonesian translation from the sentences was also provided. According to the data, there were 57 general uses of the preposition with the initial verb go + to. From the general uses, there were four occurrences of go + to which might be indicated as misuses performed by the students. They changed the preposition to into for. As a result, the students wrote the sentences as follows.
(13) My special thanks go for the students of IPA 3 and IPS 2 who participated in my research patiently and cooperatively. (14) Last but not least, my gratitude goes for those whose name I cannot mention one by one. (15) My special thanks also goes for AWK. (16) My special thanks also go for MV.
However, the students did not pay attention to the verbs before the preposition, which is go. According to Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan, and Longman online dictionaries, there were many kinds of what verb go means and how verb go should be used. Some of them were to move from one place to another, to move somewhere to do something, to be sent or passed on, and so on. Those functions require different kinds of prepositions to use. In this case, we need to look at what intention the students are trying to convey in their sentences. Referring to the sentences of the students, they might intend to give their thankfulness and gratitude to the people who helped them. Therefore, there could be a sense of movement or sending something to someone. It means that the preposition to is more appropriate and required to follow the verb go to show the intended meaning (Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan & Longman).
(13a) My special thanks go to the students of IPA 3 and IPS 2 who participated in my research patiently and cooperatively. (14a) Last but not least, my gratitude goes to those whose name I cannot mention one by one. (15a) My special thanks also go to AWK. (16a) My special thanks also go to MV.
The same cases also happen when the students used the verbs deliver, express, send, dedicate, give, and present. According to the data, the use of those verbs is accompanied by two objects. Between those objects, there is a preposition that functions to distinct the direct and indirect objects of those verbs. This preposition is categorized as the preposition used with verbs with two objects. In this case, those verbs supposed to be followed by the preposition to. However, the data showed that the students change to into for.
(1) I dedicate my biggest gratitude for my honorable thesis advisor.
(4) I also deliver my greatest gratitude for my parents. All of those sentences which use the verbs dedicate, deliver, express, give, present and send have the same meaning in which the students want to give their feelings of thanks to the people who have helped them. Thus, there is a sense of movement in which the students' feelings of thankful are aimed at the people who helped them or have the roles in their processes. The feelings of thankful from the students go to the other people. However, the examples show that the students do not use the appropriate prepositions to link direct objects (the feelings of thankful) and indirect objects (the people who helped the students or have the roles in their processes). The students use the prepositional phrases with for after the direct objects. Preposition for and to have different meanings and functions when they are used in sentences (Larry, 2015;Sinclair, 2011).
The preposition to would be more appropriate to use in the students' sentences, as shown in (1a), (4a), (6a), (10a), (17a), and (22a). (22a) I also send thank to TST. Larry (2015) and Sinclair (2011) describe that the preposition to is used when the action described by the verb involves the transfer of something from one person or thing to another. It can be seen from (1a), (4a), (6a), (10a), (17a), and (22a) that the intention of the students to give their gratitude and thanks to the people who helped them are more clearly stated.

Misselection of prepositions in and to
The data also showed that the students performed the selection of the preposition in when they used the verb contribute and selection of preposition to when they used the verb share.
(23) I thank everyone who has contributed in the process of doing my thesis.
(24) They contributed a lot in proofreading my thesis.
(25) I also thank her for sharing her experience and knowledge to us, her students.
The students made the wrong selections in which they should use the preposition to after contribute and with after share. English dictionaries (Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan, and Longman) state that prepositions to and in have different functions in which preposition to is used to show the person or thing which is affected by an action. Meanwhile, in is used to show somebody or something which is at a point within an area or space. From the meaning of each proposition, it can be seen which prepositions match the whole meaning of the sentence. The student wants to thank the people who helped him or her. The people have affected the thesis accomplishment process of the students, whether they are the students, advisor, or anyone else. Although the preposition in has a function to show direct involvement in something, the preposition might not be appropriate to use. In the sentence, the people who helped the student are not meant as the people who do the thesis, they only helped the student outside the process of thesis writing. Therefore, the preposition to is more accurate to be used after the verb contribute (Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan, and Longman) as shown on (23a) and (24a).
(23a) I thank everyone who has contributed to the process of doing my thesis.
(24a) They contributed a lot to proofreading of my thesis.
The next case can also be seen when one student used a verb share in a sentence (25). He or she wrote a prepositional phrase with to after the direct object. In that sentence, the student misused the preposition. According to the Oxford Online Dictionary, Cambridge Online Dictionary, and Macmillan Online Dictionary, if the verb share has direct and indirect objects, its direct object should be followed by a preposition with.
(25) I also thank her for sharing her experience and knowledge to us, her students. (25a) I also thank her for sharing her experience and knowledge with us, her students.
The use of verb and preposition share + with is already common among English native speakers. The data on COCA show that the use of the verb share with a direct object is always followed by the preposition with and the indirect object.
(25b) ... individual taxpayers who do not want to share their personal health care and household income information with their employer. (25c) ... it will share information with third parties when... (25d) We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google ...

Insertion of prepositions about and to
The students did not only select the wrong prepositions after the particular verbs, but they also added a preposition after a verb that does not need any preposition after it. Those verbs are teach and thank. The students used the verbs with the prepositions as follows.
(26) He does not only teach me about some English courses but also about real life and his experiences.
(28) I would also thank to my grandfather (29) I then thank to my academic advisor.
In those sentences, the students inserted the prepositions about and to after the verbs teach and thank. According to English dictionaries (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman, and Macmillan), verbs teach and thank do not need any preposition because both of them are transitive verbs. Transitive verbs are verbs that accept one or more objects. The objects can be a direct object or direct and indirect objects. Those verbs will need the prepositions only if there is an indirect object.
If we look at (26), even though there is an indirect object me, the verb teach should have no preposition between me and some English courses (direct object), as shown on (26a). It is because teach has the same structure as the verbs give, deliver and send, for example, in which any preposition is not used if the indirect object comes after the verb. Otherwise, a preposition to can be used only if the indirect object comes after the direct object, as seen in (26b).
(26) He does not only teach me about some English courses but also about real life and his experiences.
(26a) He does not only teach me some English courses but also real-life and his experiences. (26b) He does not only teach some English courses to me but also real life and his experiences.
(28) and (29) also showed the same case as (26). Thank does not need any preposition to show the relationship between the verb and the object (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman, and Macmillan), as shown on (28a) and (29a). A preposition might be used to show a reason why the subject thanks the object, as seen in (28b) and (29b).
(28) I would also thank to my grandfather (28a) I would also thank my grandfather.
(28b) I would also thank my grandfather for motivating me.
(29) I then thank to my academic advisor. (29a) I then thank my academic advisor. (29b) I then thank my academic advisor for encouraging me to finish my study.

Omission of preposition about
In the following, a required preposition after the verb care was omitted.
(33) Pdt. MD and Ev. HS always pray, support, guide, care, and love me during my ups and down.
The sentence showed that the student used five verbs in the adjective clause. From those five verbs, pray and care have the dependent prepositions which should be used. In this case, those verbs would not have a complete meaning when the clause is deconstructed, as shown on (33a) and (33b). There would be something missing in those sentences and the clauses seem to be less meaningful. It will be different if the prepositions are added, as shown on (33c) and (33d). Then, the suggested form of the sentence would be as follows.
(33e) Pdt. MD and Ev. HS always pray for me, care about me, support, guide, and love me during my ups and down.
In (33e), the researchers only focused on the use of verb care and preposition about. According to Oxford, Cambridge, and Longman, care can be intransitive or transitive verbs. When one uses verb care to show that he or she loves somebody and worries about what happens to them, he or she should add preposition about after it (Oxford Online Dictionary). This meaning might also be the same as what the student intends to deliver. Therefore, the preposition about is needed. Unfortunately, the student did not use the preposition.

CONCLUSION
Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that there were three problems which appeared in the usages of prepositions in the students' thesis acknowledgments, namely the misselection of prepositions for, to, and in, the insertion of prepositions about and to, and the omission of the preposition about. Those problems were found in 12 kinds of prepositions and the initial verbs, namely contribute + to, teach + about, present + to, care + about, share + with, send + to, dedicate + to, deliver + to, give + to, thank + for, go + to, and express + to. The students misselected the preposition for when they were supposed to use the preposition to after the verbs present, send, dedicate, deliver, give, go, and express, as shown in sentences (1) to (22). The students seemed to feel the ambiguity between the meaning of purpose from the preposition for and the meaning of direction from the preposition to. The students also selected the preposition to when they were supposed to use the preposition with after the verb share, as seen in sentence (25). In other cases, the students selected the preposition in when they were supposed to use the preposition to after the verbs contribute, as shown in sentences (23) and (24). The students also added redundant prepositions by inserting the prepositions about and to after the verbs teach and thank, in sentences (26) to (32) respectively. The other preposition misuse was the omission of the preposition about, in sentence (33), after the verb care.
From the results, it can be recommended that the EFL teachers or lecturers need to give more explicit teaching on prepositions. the teachers or lecturers can start by providing the list of verbs with their appropriate prepositions. The list can be easily found from internet sources. By showing the list of verbs with their appropriate prepositions, EFL students are expected to have a clear understanding of the use of prepositions. It is also beneficial for EFL students in the English Department since as future English teachers they need to have a good mastery of English prepositions to teach the students.