A Comparative Analysis of Computer and Manual Drawing of Syntactic Tree Diagrams

Learning English syntax requires the ability to draw syntactic tree diagram. Knowing how to draw a tree diagram correctly displays the student’s knowledge of English sentence structures. Yet, with the advance of learning technology, students can utilize some computer applications to generate the tree diagrams. This study aims to compare the students’ ability to draw tree diagrams manually and using the computer application called Syntax Tree Generator. The participants for this study were 60 English Department students from a private university in Jakarta. To collect the data, a test was conducted. The participants were instructed to draw tree diagrams for ten pairs of equally structured sentences. The first group of sentences should be drawn manually using pen and paper, and the second group of sentences should be drawn using Syntax Tree Generator. The results show that students generate more accurate and neater tree diagram using the computer program. However, the accuracy of tree diagrams also depends on the students’ syntactic knowledge of the language being studied.