English student’s issue on constructing tree diagram sentences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53696/27753719.52338Keywords:
English Students, Tree Diagram, SentenceAbstract
This research aims to identify the key difficulties students face and develop strategies to enhance their understanding of tree diagrams. The purpose of this research is to identify the specific difficulties students encounter when understanding and constructing tree diagrams and to develop recommendations for improving teaching practices based on the analysis results. The researcher focuses on the discussion at the class to obtain qualitative insights into students’ experiences and challenges in constructing the tree diagram, gather the data on student’s answers on the test, and assess the accuracy of students' tree diagrams and identify common errors from collected student work samples. The results of this study revealed that English language students make a range of errors when constructing and interpreting syntactic tree diagrams. These errors were classified into five main categories: hierarchical misplacement, grammatical mislabeling, incorrect phrase segmentation, visual representation issues, and task completion problems.
Downloads
References
Carnie, A. (2013). Syntax: A generative introduction (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Radford, A. (2009). Analyzing English sentences: A minimalist approach. Cambridge University Press.
Smith, N. (2004). An introduction to the syntax of English. Routledge.
Steedman, M. (2000). The syntactic process. MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. Mouton.
Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasian, P. W. (2006). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications (8th ed.). Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1982). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Allyn and Bacon.
Cook, A., & Gorman, L. (2023). Cognitive Load and Tree Diagram Construction: Strategies for Improvement. Journal of Cognitive Science, 14(2), 112-130.
Faraj, A. K. A. (2023). Common syntactic errors in EFL learners’ sentence analysis using tree diagrams: A case study in Libya. American Journal of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Studies, 2(3), 48–59. https://aaasjournals.com/index.php/ajashss/article/view/497
Garcia, M., Sanchez, L., & Perez, J. (2022). The Effectiveness of Interactive Digital Tools in Teaching Syntax. Journal of Language Education, 15(3), 45-60.
Hegarty, M., & Just, M. A. (1993). Constructing mental models of machines from text and diagrams. Journal of Memory and Language, 32(6), 717–742. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1993.1036
Marpaung, Y. F., Ginting, R., & Sembiring, I. R. (2025). English syntax learning: Student errors in analyzing sentence structure through tree diagrams. Journal of English Linguistics and Learning, 7(1), 15–28. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390117309
Meyer, J., & Wilson, H. (2024). Bridging Theoretical Knowledge and Practical Application in Syntax Education. Journal of Linguistic Studies, 18(1), 56-72.
Patel, R., & Gupta, S. (2022). Error Analysis in Tree Diagram Construction: Common Mistakes and Remediation Strategies. Linguistic Studies Quarterly, 18(1), 35-50.
Uspayanti, R., Syarifuddin, & Sakka, M. H. (2022). An analysis of students’ difficulties in analyzing sentence structure using tree diagrams. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 10(2), 733–742. https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v10i2.7085
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Rizky Tazkiyatul Ummami, Kezia Zalfa Nafisa

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors certify that:
- if the manuscript is co-authored, they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- the work described has not been formally published before in a registered ISSN or ISBN media, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis.
- it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- its publication has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- they secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere (it does not infringe on the rights of others).
- they agree to license and copyright agreement.
All articles published are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and other proprietary rights related to the article.
- Authors retain the right and are permitted to use the substance of the article in their own future works, including lectures and books.
- Authors grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post or self-archive their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.




