Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In our life, when someone wants to learn English language, he or she should have a capability to learn the rules of English that is grammar. As a result, mastering grammatical rules is urgent for language learners besides mastering the four skills reading, writing, listening and speaking. By mastering grammar, they will understand the rules and know how the sentences are constructed . As Penny Ur said that “There is no doubt that the knowledge –implicit or explicit- of grammatical rules is essential for mastery of the language: you cannot use words unless you know how they should be put together”. 1 So what is grammar? Grammar is a description of the way language works. The parts of grammar such as syntax form, semantic meaning, and pragmatic use work together to enable people to communicate through language with grammar they can communicate their message clearly and precisely. So, the effective communication would be seriously impaired without an ability to put grammar to use in a variety of a situation. Bowers and Brumfit stated that “Mastering the grammatical structure is necessary in teaching for communication, the learners actively 1 Penny Ur, Grammar Practice Activities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 4 1 do things through the language that means the learners know how the sentences are constructed”. 2 Teaching foreign language grammar has a paramount importance for good command of the foreign language where there is no natural way of acquiring the language as Batstone stated that “Language without grammar would certainly leave us seriously handicapped”. 3 Grammar keeps important position in acquiring the four language skills and that is why we should learn grammar well. But the problem is that the learning of grammar for many students is something boring and difficult to memorize the formula of every tense. Because the technique used in teaching learning process is not attractive, so we should look for another way to attract our students in order the teaching learning process is enjoyable and they can get the lesson easily. Those statements above show us that grammar plays an important role in teaching and learning foreign language. Talking about grammar, there are many parts to be learnt by students, and one of the most essential to be learnt is “tense’. And Bauer stated that “Tense is usually defined as relating to the time of an action, event or state”. 4 The time of the action is commonly expressed by the verb. Almost all verbs can show the difference between the past and present by changing in the verb form. With tense students can know when the time action occurs, and understand the correspondence between the form of the verb and their concept of time. Allen noted that “English has three main divisions, past, present and future... ” 5 Absolutely, the verb in English is influenced by the “time”, when it happens or will happen past, present, or future. So a verb should relate with the time. When the students want to tell a verb that “used to 2 Roger Bowers, and Christopher Brumfit, Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching, London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1994, p. 49 3 Rob Batstone, Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 3 4 Laurie Bauer, English Word-Formation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, p. 157 5 W. Stannard Allen, Living English Structure, London: Longman, 1987, p. 75 indicate an action that took place at an indefinite time or over a period of time in the past, but still has relevance in the present” 6 we call the present perfect tense. “And the most common time expression is prepositional phrase beginning with for or since. Other such expression includes up to the present now, many times, often, frequently, finally, already, etc.” 7 The present perfect is not easy to be learnt without a proper way of how to learn it. Mostly, an English teacher uses the conventional or traditional techniques; one of them is Grammar Translation Method GTM. Wikipedia writes “The grammar translation method is a method of teaching foreign languages derived from the classical sometimes called traditional method of teaching Greek and Latin. In grammar-translation classes, students learn grammatical rules and then apply those rules by translating sentences between the target language and the native language” . 8 In this case, English teacher has an important role to stimulate the students to learn the present perfect tense. Therefore, it is necessary for the teacher to look for a new way in teaching the present perfect tense. “Games reduce tension by adding fun and humor to lessons, and they add an element of competitiveness that motivates students to participate Cross 1992; Martin 2000”. 9 According to Andrew Wright, David Betteridge and Michael Buckby about games, “ „game’ means an activity which is entertaining and engaging, often challenging, and an activity in which the learners play an d usually interact with others”. 10 Based on talking about the definition of game above, to apply the effective strategy in teaching the present perfect tense to the tenth year students of MA Jam’iyyah Islamiyyah Pondok Aren South - Tangerang, the effective way to teach the present perfect tense is by using games. 6 George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, Revised edition, New York: Litton Educational Publishing International, 1980, p. 206 7 George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, Revised edition, p. 207 8 http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiGrammar-translation_method 9 Emerita P. Cervantes, Livening Up College English Classes with Games, English Teaching Forum, Vol. III, 2009, p. 21 10 Andrew Wright, David Betteridge and Michael Buckby, Games for Language Learning, third edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 1 Because by using games the students can be motivated to learn the present perfect tense and also they focus on the message, not only at the language itself. In addition, it is hoped that the students could be fun and enjoy the lesson because the games will interest to be used and the present perfect subject can be understood well by the students. In t his “skripsi” the writer is interested in finding out the influence of games in teaching learning process of the present perfect tense. The study is done in 10 th year of senior high school. Based on the observation many students in this grade still find some difficulties in learning the present perfect tense and also caused by its subject that must be acquired by the students in this grade. Based on the description above, the title of this skripsi is “THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING THE PRESENT PERFECT TENSE THROUGH GAMES An Experimental Study at the 10 th Year Students of MA Islamic Senior High School Jam’iyyah Islamiyyah Pondok Aren South - Tangerang ”

B. The Limitation and Formulation of the Study