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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
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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