THE PERCEIVED LANGUAGE EQUIVALENCE OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES FROM TAGALOG TO ENGLISH OF GRADE 11 STUDENTS

Abstract

This study aimed to discover the perceived equivalence of prepositional phrases found in the written output of the Grade 11 students. Specifically, this study aimed to find and describe the common errors in translating Tagalog prepositions into English prepositions. The participants of this study are the 125 Grade 11 senior high school students. The 125 respondents were purposively selected to participate in the standardized test. Among the 125 students, 7 participants were selected to partake in an interview. The data from respondents are the basis for both Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis. Contrastive Analysis revealed that the common translation of the Tagalog preposition “Sa” in English preposition is at, on, in, from, by, with, for, and to. The "Ng" prepositions in English prepositions are at, on, in, by, with, of, and to. Meanwhile, the Tagalog preposition "Kay" is on, at, with, and to. The Error Analysis shows that the common error committed by respondents falls under the category of the preposition of direction, time, agent, and place. And the descriptions of the respondents' errors are a substitution, omission, and addition. With these, language educators should continuously find strategies to suit the ever-changing nature of the curriculum and handle the weakness evident in the teaching of the English language.