The Background of the Study
the students to assist them in combining words becomes the longer units and more meaningful in using the language. By learning grammar, hopefully the
students can communicate clearly and precisely, and therefore grammar could not be separated in learning English.
Grammar covers lots of language elements; one of them is degree of comparison. According to Leech and Svartvik
, “Comparison is expressed either by the endings -er and -est or by the words more and most before the
adjective or adverb”.
2
The use of -er, -est, more, and most depends on the total of syllable of adjective or adverb. Adjectives nearly always appear
immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify, for example: a beautiful girl, a new car, a tall man, the interesting books, etc. While for
adverb, Azhar elaborated that it was used to modify a verb. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree. The commonest way to form
an adverb is to add -ly to the adjective: careful-carefully, slow-slowly, etc.
3
Although the students have learnt degree of comparison at school, most of them still find difficulties in understanding and using them. They think that
degree of comparison has confusing rules and sometimes they feel bored when learning it. The writer found those problems when he had done The Integrated
Professional Teacher Training Program-Praktek Profesi Keguruan Terpadu PPKT for four months in Al-Fajar Islamic Junior High Shool, Kedaung-
Pamulang. Observing English teaching activity in the classroom for several times, the writer noticed that while the teacher was explaining degree of
comparison rules, some of the students were paid attention but the others were preferred talking to each other during the lesson because they did not
understand what the teacher explained. Most of the students in
writer’s class feel confused and didn’t understand how to use it. This is because comprehending and using the rules of degree of
2
Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik, A Communicative Grammar of English, London:
Pearson Education Limited, 2002, Third Edition, p. 267.
3
Betty Schramfer Azhar, Fundamentals of English Grammar, New Jersey: Preniice
Hall, 1992, Second Edition, p. 332.
comparison was different from comprehending and using degree of comparison in their mother tongue; there are a lot of different items between
English and bahasa. For example, in degree of comparison in English, there are three types of comparison; positive, comparative, and superlative degrees
in which each type has their own rule, while in bahasa the separation is different like we see in English. Such as in English we have smart, smarter,
and smartest, while in bahasa there is only rajin, lebih rajin and paling rajin. Moreover, degree of comparison in English has irregular words like good,
better and best, while in bahasa there is no such irregular words such as bagus, lebih bagus and paling bagus. Therefore, it is very understandable that
the students get the difficulties in comprehending and in using degree of comprehension properly
. Many of them made some mistakes when they made
the sentences which used degree of comparison. To solve this problem, it is important to find another strategy or technique in conveying the material in
order to minimize the students ’ difficulties in learning degree of comparison,
and make them understand how to use it. By using an appropriate strategy or technique, the subject matter hopefully
will be more interesting to learn, thus the teaching learning process can be more effective. Larsen-Freeman in her book stated, depending on how it is
managed, the particular technique might look very different and might lead students to very different conclusions about their learning.
4
One of the ways to make the students more interested in their learning process especially in
grammar lesson is by using a media. There are many kinds of media that the teacher may choose in teaching and learning process. One of them is visual
media; it is a picture to teach degree of comparison. Pictures are not just an aspect of method, but through their representation of place, object and people
essential parts overall experience.
5
Moreover, Harmer also highlighted to facilitate learning; teachers have always used pictures or graphics - whether
4
Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 4.
5
Andrew Wright, Pictures for Language Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 2.
drawn, taken from books, newspapers and magazines, or photographs.
6
The picture also can be in the form of flashcards smallish cards which we can
hold up for our students to see, large wall pictures big enough for everyone to see details, cue cards small cards which students use in pair or group
work, photographs, or illustrations typically in a textbook.
7
The writer considers that picture can be an effective and helpful medium to motivate
students in learning English. Therefore the writer chooses the picture as the media to convey the material especially in teaching degree of comparison to
make them more interesting. Celce-Murcia and Hilles highlighted that
“Pictures are versatile and useful resources for teaching aspects of grammar that require a structure-meaning
match ”.
8
They can be used in all phases of a grammar lesson i.e., in presentation, focused practice, communicative practice, and for feedback and
correction. They also add that interesting or entertaining pictures motivate students to give a feedback of teachers explanation.
9
Thus, teaching and learning process can be more interactive and more interesting.
Therefore, in this study the writer would like to find out whether the use of picture can
improve the students’ understanding in learning degree of comparison. Based on the explanations above, the writer is interested in
making the
teaching experiment and take the title “The Effectiveness of Using Picture
in Teaching Degree of Comparison” A Quasi Experimental Study at the Second Year Students of
SMP AD- DA’WAH
Duri Kosambi- Cengkareng
6
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, London: Longman, 2001, Third Edition, p. 134.
7
Ibid.
8
Marrianne Celce-Murcia and Sharon Hilles, Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p.73.
9
Ibid.