CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.
Background
of the problem.
Education is one of the most important
aspect in our life. Education is effort which is done purposely by human
through the activities of guidance, instructions, and training for better
feature. It is one of the aspects to make our country successful. Therefore, to
get education must give a specific attention to education such as giving the
chance or the same right for every people.
It is not easy to get a good education
without hard work and guidance from parties, whether from teachers, parents,
and more over from his/her self. As known in education occur a teaching
learning process where there is an activity to transfer or give knowledge,
skill, and experience to students. In educational world, learn many things, one
of them is language.
Language is a very important thing in
our life. By using language, people can communicate with each others. The
function of language is not only as a lesson to study, but also it is used to
express the idea, main, opinion and feeling, either orally or written to
others. Teguh Handoko in his e-book stated: “Language is a means of
communication”.[1]
Language can make a harmony among
individuals, societies, ethnics, and nation. Beside that through language
people can know each other, understand more about something around them.
Language is a gift of God for human being adjusts to one of the holly Qur’an
Al-Hujuraat: 13 as follow:
$pkš‰r'¯»tƒ â¨$¨Z9$# $¯RÎ) /ä3»oYø)n=yz `ÏiB 9x.sŒ 4Ós\Ré&ur öNä3»oYù=yèy_ur $\/qãèä© Ÿ@ͬ!$t7s%ur (#þqèùu‘$yètGÏ9 4
¨bÎ) ö/ä3tBtò2r&
y‰YÏã «!$# öNä39s)ø?r& 4
¨bÎ) ©!$# îLìÎ=tã ׎Î7yz ÇÊÌÈ [2]
Meanings:
(O mankind! indeed we have created you
from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one
another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most
righteous of you. Indeed, Allah knowing and acquainted)
So, as it is said in the holly Qur’an
Allah explain that is important for human being to know and interact with other
people in their life.
There are many languages in the world
that is used to communicate. It is suitable with the verse of the holly Qur’an,
Ar-Ruum: 22 below that there are many different languages in the world:
ô`ÏBur ¾mÏG»tƒ#uä ß,ù=yz ÏNºu¬»yJ¡¡9$# ÇÚö‘F{$#ur ß#»n=ÏG÷z$#ur öNà6ÏGoYÅ¡ø9r& ö/ä3ÏRºuqø9r&ur 4 ¨bÎ) ’Îû y7Ï9ºsŒ ;M»tƒUy
tûüÏJÎ=»yèù=Ïj9
ÇËËÈ
[3]
Meanings:
(And of his sign is the creation of the
heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors.
Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge).
One of them is English it is one of the
most important language that is spoken and learned by most people all around
the world. Based on the rate of science and technology development rules
especially to discover the science, because there are many books written in
English, so, to transfer those sciences people have to master English well.
In Indonesian, English is foreign
language. It has very essential position in communication among people. It has
been studied and taught from junior high school until university. The aim of
teaching English at Indonesian school is to produce people mastering English
perfectly. However, it has been already done indeed but it is still far from
what expected. The study of a language is now seen as a useful skill.
Therefore, it is so important to study language that mostly used and available
in many places around the world. English language is unique, because there is
one thing that very different from the other language in the world.
Basically, learning a foreign language
has four skills namely; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Firstly,
listening is the process of a unidirectional receiving of audible symbols or an
interactive process as the brain acts on the impulses, bringing to bear a
number of different cognitive and affective mechanisms. Secondly, speaking is
an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing,
receiving and processing information. Thirdly, reading is a receptive skills,
it is a transactional between a reader and writer. Fourthly, writing is one of
the four language skill that is the way its native speaker to organize a piece
of both spoken and written information.
Reality, in writing has two elements
namely; vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary is the handle of word to help
student to can make sentence in accordance with grammar. Grammar is a
systematic study of scientific method which provides information and guidance
necessary to learn a language. The science of grammar teaches how a language is
spoken and written correctly and effectively. So, it can be said that grammar
is primarily concerned with the formation and classification of words and
sentences and their practical significance in daily life.[4]
Grammatical patterns are very important to be mastered, it because when they
are using skills, the sentences those are the decoded and in coded are arranged
according to grammatical patterns that language.
There are many aspects of studying grammar.
One of them is tenses. Tense is a term used in grammar to indicate the time of
the action or event. Tense is very important thing that should be known by the
user of English language. Tense different form of verb and change their forms
depending upon the time at the event. Tenses are the verb shows the time when
the action takes place and will take place in English sentence.
In senior high school, tense is
important to helping students to learn English language. In any tense, among
those are divided into three classes namely; 1) Present tense, 2) Past tense,
3) Future tense.[5]
Tense has role in write sentence to another particular, as paragraph and text.
In fact, students’ books never escape in story, as needed knowledge tense. In
the story also use past form to talk about action, event, and situation use
verb.
Simple past tense is used to refer to
events that where completed in the past. The key to use the simple past tense
is to remember that the using of the simple past tense emphasizes that the
event is over and done with before the present moment of time. The simple past
tense is used for past time, to express an action which took place before the
moment of utterance.
Remembering to the importance for tenses,
researcher is interested to know how the students’ mastery especially in simple
past tense. The students’ problem in simple past tense mastery because most of
students are lack in comprehension of the composition, and their motivation is
low. However, in reality there are many students are bored to learn it. The English
teacher is Elva Juliyanti srg, S. Pd at eleventh grade SMA Negeri 8
Padangsidimpuan said that there are many students are still unable to use
English, it can be seen when students can’t write sentence well especially in
simple past tense.
Actually, simple past tense has been
learned since junior high school. So, students eleventh grade SMA 8 is learned
simple past tense. But, in reality students at eleventh grade SMA 8
Padangsidimpuan still many unable of simple past tense. It can be proved with
less their mastery in sentence material like narrative text and spoof.[6]
Based on the explanation above, it is
that simple past tense is very important for students. Students’ mastery in
tenses is low. So, the researcher is interested to know students’ mastery in
simple past tense then the researcher applied in through the title “The
students’ mastery in simple past tense at eleventh grade SMA Negeri 8 Padangsidimpuan”.
B.
Identification
of the problem.
Based on the background above, there were
some problems in Students’ mastery in Simple Past tense at eleventh grade SMA 8
Padangsidimpuan. They were: the students’ problem in simple past tense because
most of students lack mastery in tense, lack in comprehension of the
composition of tense especially simple past tense, their motivation to write
essay is low in simple past tense that they are bored in tense.
C.
Limitation
of the problem.
Based on the identification above, the
researcher found some problems especially in simple past tense mastery. Past
tense can be divided into four categories: simple past tense, past continuous
tense, past perfect tense, and past perfect continuous tense. Because learning
material at eleventh grade SMA Negeri 8 Padangsidimpuan most used the simple
past tense in text for example, spoof or narrative text. The researcher limits
the problem. The researcher only focused the problem in simple past tense in
active, passive, nominal and tried found out students’ mastery in simple past
tense treated by eleventh grade SMA Negeri 8 Padangsidimpuan.
D.
The
formulation of the problem.
To make the problems clearly in this
research, the researcher formulates them of as follow:
How
is the students’ mastery in simple past tense at eleventh grade SMA Negeri 8
Padangsidimpuan?
E.
The
aim of the research.
The aim of this research was to examine
the students’ mastery in simple past tense at grade SMA Negeri 8
Padangsidimpuan.
F.
The
significances of the research.
The significances of the research are:
1. As
input for the headmaster in guiding his English teacher to do the best in
teaching process.
2. As
an input for the teacher, teaching learning process, especially in simple past
tense.
3. As
input to the students’ so that they have to learning the tense especially in simple
past tense well.
4. For
researchers, can be a useful input in English teaching learning process and as
information for the reader.
G.
Definition
of terminologies.
To avoid the
misunderstanding of this research, the researcher explained definition of key
terms as follows:
1.
Students.
Student is a learner who is enrolled in an educational institution
or a member of society that effort to develop his/her self through education.
According to Hornby stated “student is a person who is studying at a university
or college”.[7]
Based definition above, the researcher concludes the students not only learned
on the formal education but also on the informal education. Student is a person
who learned on the elementary, junior and senior high school like a school SMA
Negeri 8 in Padangsidimpuan at eleventh grade.
2.
Mastery.
Mastery
is complete knowledge; great skill: achieve/ attain mastery of several
languages, show complete mastery in one’s handling of a difficult situation.
Then, mastery is control complete or knowledge.[8]
Based definition above, the researcher concludes that mastery is a knowledge
or great skill of someone to do something by his/her self. It means of the
students must be able in simple past tense. The mastery means here is the
students’ mastery in simple past tense by the students in eleventh grade SMA
Negeri 8 Padangsidimpuan.
3.
Past
tense.
The past tense indicates definite time terminating in the past,
whether a time word is given or not.[9]
The past tense means here is the past that used in a tense is simple past
tense.
4.
Simple
past tense.
The simple past tense is used to report a state or activity which
can be a scribed to a definite past time.[10]
The simple past indicates that an activity or situations began and ended at a particular time in the past.[11]
The simple past tense means here
is that used in a text.
H. The
outline of the thesis.
The systematic of this research is
divided into fife chapters. Each chapter consists of many sub chapters as
follow:
In chapter one, it consisted of
background of the problem, identification of the problem, limitation of the
problem, formulation of the problem, the aims of the research, the
significances of the research, definition of terminologies and the outline of
the thesis.
In chapter two, it consisted of the
theoretical description, which the sub chapter consist of theoretical
description, which explain about: definition of students’ ability and simple
past tense, reviewed of related finding, and hypothesis.
In chapter three, it consisted of
research methodology that consist of the location and schedule of research,
research design, population and sample, technique of collecting data, test
validity and technique of analyzing data.
In chapter four, it consisted of the
result of the research talking about the analysis of data. It is consisted of
description of data, hypothesis testing, the threats of research and
discussion.
Finally, in chapter five consisted of conclusion that give
conclusion about the result of research and suggestion to students and teacher
by researcher.
[1] Mr. Teguh Handoko, Rahasia Sukses Belajar Bahasa Inggris Dengan
Mudah,(Jakarta: Copyright by e-Compusoft Training Centre,2009), p. 4.
[2] Lajnah Pentashih
Mushaf Al- Qur’an, Al- Qur’an dan
Terjemahnya, (Bandung: cv diponegoro, 2005), p. 412.
[3] Ibid., p. 324.
[4] Jayanthi Daksina
murthy,Contemporary English Grammar,
(cet. 1; New Delhi: Book Place, 1998), p. 2.
[5] Ibid., p.151
[6] Elva Juliyanty, Private Interview To English Teacher In SMA
Negeri 8 Padangsidimpuan, (Padangsidimpuan: SMA Negeri 8 Padangsidimpuan on
November 02th 2016 at Wednesday 10 am)
[7] AS. Hornby, Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p.
1187.
[8] Hornby.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 721
[9] Marcella frank, Modern English a practical reference guide, (New
York: prentice-Hall, 1972), p. 73.
[10] George F. Wishon and
Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (New
York: Litton Educational, 1980), p. 195.
[11] Betty Schrampfer
Azar, Understanding and using English
Grammar, (cet. 3rd ed; New York, Pearson Longman, 2002), p.
27.
