Backgroundof theStudy Problem of theAnalysis

1 CHAPTERI INTRODUCTION

1.1 Backgroundof theStudy

Languageisthebestmeansofcommunicationtointeractamongpeopleand tocreateagoodrelationshipbetweentheminsociety.Withoutlanguage,theywill notableto expressand share theirideas, thoughts,feelings,stories,experiences,etc that isreallyneeded to build agood relationship in life. Inthisworld,everycountry hasitsownlanguageorlanguages.But,they cannotusetheirownlanguagesiftheyareincountrywheretheirlanguageisnot understood. For example, generally Indonesian people cannot use Indonesian languagewhenthey areinGermanorothercountriesthatdonotunderstand Indonesianlanguage.Theyshouldusealanguagethatisunderstoodbyeach.Itis English. English is an internationallanguagethatis used as astandard languagein internationallevel.Therefore,inordertocreatearelationshipinternationally,they have to use English. InIndonesia,EnglishhasbeenlearntfromKindergarten,Primary School, Junior HighSchool, Senior High School, until University. However, stillmany peoplewhohavenotbeen able touseEnglishbecauseEnglishissodifficult to be learnt andunderstood.Oneofthedifficultpartstobelearntisgrammarbecauseit creates somewordsto becomeagood sentence, paragraph, etc. If we talk aboutgrammar, we can notbeseparate itfrom tenses. In thisthesis, thewriterfocusesontheuseofsimplepasttense.Basedontheobservationat 2 SMAN21Medan,Thewriterwantstomakesurestudents’ability tousesimplepast tense.That’swhythewriterwantstodescribeandanalyzethestudents’abilityin using simplepasttenseatSMAN21Medan.Thestudentshavestudiedsimplepast tensein Englishsubjectwhich istwiceaweekfor each classand the time2x 40 minutesforonemeeting wasallotted.Furthermore, thewriterneedsfurther some evaluation of thegravityfrom each typeof abilityin a communicativeor pedagogical pointofview.Thewriterchoosesthisschoolaslocationof theresearch becausethe termsof accessibilityand thesameresearchsarenever conducted there.

1.2 Problem of theAnalysis

Basedonthedescription above,theproblemsofthisresearcharestated in the formof questions: a.TowhatextentthetenthyearstudentsinSMAN21Medanareabletouse simplepasttense? b.Whatarethecausesforstudentswhoobtainedlowestscorefornotbeen able to usesimplepast tense?

1.3 Objectiveof theAnalysis