The effect of school origins on the grammatical competence of university students

This study addressed the issue of whether students' school origins (Jakarta and non-Jakarta) affect their grammatical competence in the university. The participants for this study were 250 first semester students of Faculty of Economy of a private university who graduated from various high schools. They were given a TOEFL style grammar test consisting of 30 questions of various grammatical items. The students' answers were analyzed quantitatively using independent sample T-test and Analysis of Variance (Anova) and the answers were also analyzed qualitatively to find out the types of grammatical items that are problematic for the students. The results showed that in general, students from Jakarta performed better in the grammar test including, some of the problematic areas such as subject-verb agreement and participle adjectives. Further implications on teaching and materials development are discussed.