2. Concept of Grammar
The word „grammar’ has several meaning according to some experts. According to Harmer, “grammar is the description of the ways in which
words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language”.
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It means that grammar explains how the words change and it shows how to make the words in a sentence of one language.
Meanwhile, according to Brown, grammar is the system of rules governing
the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence.
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It means that the relationship of words in a sentence is built by grammar.
Grammar is a description of the rules that govern how languages’ sentences are formed.
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It can be said that grammar has an important role to make a good sentence form.
In his book, Dykes said “grammar deals with the abstract system of rules in term of which a person’s mastery of his native language can be explained”
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From this definition, it seems that grammar plays an important role in combining units of language to form sentences. The sentences are acceptable
or grammatically if they follow the rules of grammar. Since a communicative
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Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, London: Longman, 2003. p. 12
10
H.Douglas Brown,Teaching by Principle – An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.
New York: Longman. 2001. p. 362.
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Scott Thorn burry, Op cit, p. 1.
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Barbara Dykes, Grammar for Everyone - Practical tools for learning and teaching grammar, Australia: ACER Press. 2007. p. 5.
purpose and function of language are reflected in grammar, it is necessary the language learners to acquire good grammar.
It should be admitted, good mastery in grammar will enable people easily to
express information, feelings, and ideas in their thought to others. In other words, it can be said that communication failure will happen if people does
not master the grammar because the purpose of communication cannot be reached. From that statement, it is clear that grammar is important to be
mastered by the students in order to be able to express their feelings, emotions, and to be able to use English appropriately.
Grammar has many rules of a language that should be understood by the
English learners. One of them is tense. Tense may indicate whether an activity or state is, was, or will be completed or whether it is, was, or will be in
progress over period of time. In learning English as a foreign language, it is very important to know the rules of tenses as part of grammar. By knowing
the rules of tenses, the students are believed to be able to construct good sentences in English communication. In other words, it is believed that by
mastering the tenses as one aspect in English grammatical structure, the students will be able to communicate in English correctly.
From those explanations, it can be concluded that grammar is the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into
sentences and it describes how the sentences are formed.
3. Concept of Tenses
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