17
4. Used when some events or activities should tell the time order clearly. If the
order is should not tell clearly, the past perfect is should not be used but used a simple past form.
e.g. : - She finished cooking before her husband came.
D. Past Perfect Continuous Tense
The last form of past tense is past perfect continuous tense. Past perfect continuous tense is a tense that indicate some activity in the past that ended or still
continuing. There are several functions of past perfect continuous tense:
30
1. To declare some events or activity begin and still continuing while some
activities happened in the past. e.g. : - I had been reading when the door knocked
- Wirda had been swimming when I called her 2.
To declare how long some activities happened and still continuing before other activities happened.
e.g. : - He had been sitting for thirty minutes in the shelter when the accident happened
3. To describe or declare some situations.
e.g. : - A thief had been stealing everything in the house when I entered it
C. Recount Text
1. Definitions of recount text
Recount text is a part of narrative text that retells past events, usually in the order in which they happened. Many experts tried to define this recount text,
Mulyono and Widayanti in their book said that ―recount genre is used to retell events for the purpose of informing or entertaining.‖
31
Besides, Hayland tell the purpose of recount is to reconstruct past experiences by retelling events in original
sequences.
32
30
Sukur, op. cit., pp. 84-86.
31
Mulyono and M. J. Ari Widayanti, English Alive, Jakarta: Yudhistira, 2011, p. 16.
32
Ken Hyland, Second Language Writing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 20.
18
Another experts such as Mark and Kathy Anderson in Text Type in English 3, stated that ―A recount is a piece of text that retells past events, usually in the order
in which they occured. Its purpose is to provide the audience with a description of what occurred and when it occurred.‖
33
―A recount reconstructs past events in the time in order in which they occurred. It involves telling what happened and
interpreting or evaluating the experience in some way.‖
34
Based on the definitions above, recount text is a text that retells some experiences or events that happened in the past. Because this text is retelling
something that happened in the past, the tense that used in this text is past tense.
2. Types of Recount Text
As mentioned before, recount text is a text that retell someone activity or experiment in the past. Based on the purpose of recount text, there are several
types of recount text:
35
a. A personal recount
A personal recount is retelling an activity that the writer has experienced before by his or herself. This personal recount may be used to communicate or to build
the relationship between the writer and the reader. The examples of this personal recount are: diary, personal letter, and biography or autobiography.
b. A factual recount
A factual recount records the details of an incident by reconstructing some factual information. The examples of this factual recount are: traffic report, a
science experiment, historical recount, and police report of an accident. c.
An imaginative recount An imaginative recount is a writing of an imaginary role and creates imaginary
details by applying factual knowledge in order to interpret and recount events. The examples of this imaginative recount are: A day in the life of an ant, How I
invented.
33
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 3, South Yarra: Macmillan, 1997, p. 24.
34
Targeting Text: Recount, Procedure, Exposition Middle Primary, Blake Education, 2011, p. 4.
35
Ibid.
19
There are some differences of each types of recount text based on the audience, the tense, the language, the first or third person, the addition of details,
and the series of events. Figure 2.4 below shows some differences from every recount:
Figure 2.4 Focus on Different Recounts
36
Personal recount Factual recount Imaginative recount Audience
Child or adult Child or adult
Child or adult
Tense
Past tense Past tense
Past tense
Language Often focuses on
adding personal
and emotive
responses. The focus is on
using evaluative language
e.g. importance,
significance, influence,
achievement. Often
includes imagined
personal responses.
First or third person
Written in first person
using personal pronouns
I, we. Written in third
person using
pronouns he,
she, they. It may be written
in the passive voice.
Written in the first person I, we.
Addition of
details
Interesting ideas may be chosen to
add some
humour. Precise retelling
assists readers to accurately
reconstruct what happened.
Appropriate explanations and
justifications may
be included.
Sometimes in an experiment the
outcome of the activity
is explained.
Imaginative details
may be added to the tale that has been
written in a realistic setting.
Series of events Sequenced details
of who,
what, when, where and
why sometimes are included.
Precise details
of time, place and manner are
added. Sequenced details of
who, what, when and where are included.
36
Ibid., p. 6.
20
3. Generic Structures of Recount Text
In writing good recount text, there are some structures that the writer should know in order to make the text coherence to each paragraph. The generic
structures of recount text are:
37
a. Orientation
In orientation it provides the setting and introduces the participants about the text. It told the reader who was involved, what happened, where this event took
place, and when it happened. b.
Series of Events Tell what happened in sequence. It gives more information about the story and
give the details of what, who, where, and when. In this part, the beginning of each paragraph is commonly uses conjunctions or connectives like: first, next, then,
finally, and so on. c.
Re-Orientation Re-Orientation is a conclusion of the events. It is also describe the writer
opinion about the events. Some recounts have a concluding paragraph, however it is an option and not always necessary.
4. Linguistic Features of Recount Text
Beside the generic structures of recount text, the writer also should know about the linguistic features that used in recount text. The linguistic features that used in
recount text are:
38
a. Use of past tense
Recount text is a text that retell someone experience and of course it used simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense and past perfect
continuous tense. b.
Use of sequence makers or enumerators This text is used sequence makers or enumerators such as: first, second, then,
after that, etc to show sequences.
37
Mulyono and M. J. Ari Widayanti, English Alive, Jakarta: Yudhistira, 2011, p. 16.
38
Ibid,.
21
c. Use of adjectives
It usually used adjectives to show personal attitudes, such as: wonderful, happy, curious, fun, etc.
5. The Example of Recount Text
Figure below shows some example of recount text:
39
Figure 2.6 The Example of Recount Text
STRUCTURE INTRODUCTION
THAT PROVIDES AN
ORIENTATION We are having a greet holiday here on the Gold
Coast. Yesterday we went to Movie World.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THAT
RETELLS THE EVENTS IN THE
ORDER THEY OCCURED
When we got up in the morning it looked like rain. After a while the clouds disappeared and it
became a sunny day. We the decided to go to Movie World.
The first ride I went on was Lethal Weapon. Next I saw the Police Academy show. After that I had
lunch as I was really hungry. Meanwhile, Mum and kelly queued for the Batman ride.
About one o‘clock we got a light shower of rain but it cleared up soon after. We then went on all
the other rides followed by the studio tour.
A CONCLUSION It was a top day. See you when we get back.
Love, Sam
D. Previous Study
This research previously had been researched by some researcher. First is Azmi in 2011 by the title a
correlation between students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text.
The objective of his study was to find the correlation between the students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text. He used a
correlation study as his method of this research. For sample, he took 40 students by applying a purposive sample technique. The instrument of the research he used
39
Anderson and Anderson, op. cit., p. 25.
22
in this study was a test, grammar test and writing test. The results of this research were 66.15 for the average scores of student
s‘ mastery of past tense and 71.075 for the average scores of students‘ ability in writing recount text. For the final
result, he used product moment pearson formula to analyzed the data and he found the result was 0.8107 which is mean that the result obtained from the computation
is greeter from its critical value. Based on the result above it can be concluded that there is a correlation between students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in
writing recount text. Another researcher who did this research is Masriqon in 2011 by the title of
the thesis the correlation between simple past tense mastery and writing ability in recount text at tenth grade of SMA Ibnu Sina Braja Selebah in the academic year
of 20112012. The objective of his study was to find out simple past tense mastery, writing
ability in recount text, and whether there was any correlation between simple past tense mastery and writing ability in recount text. He used a quantitative research
as the method of the study. The populations of his study were 30 students of tenth grade of SMA IbnuSinaBrajaSelebah. The instrument he used was a test. He
decided to give grammar test and writing test. Type of grammar test was multiple choices and writing test is essay test which asked students to make sentences into
a paragraph. The result of the test was 0.745 score and the product moment table N=28 using 5 confidence limited the score 0.374 and 1 = 0.478, where the
score 0.745 is between 0.600 – 0.800. It means that the relationship between
simple past tense mastery and writing ability was enough. r
ratio
= 0.745 r
table
= 0.374, it means that there was positive relationship between both of variables.
Based on the research it can be concluded that there is the significant relationship between simple past tense mastery and writing ability in recount text at tenth
grade of SMA Ibnu Sina Braja Selebah in academic year 20112012.
E. Conceptual Framework
