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.

B. The Identification of the Problem

The identification of problem consists of some factors that become cause of the problem happened; in the identification of the problem, the researcher hopefully explains some factors that have a relation or become cause of the problem which is happened through a logic argumentation and based on the empirical and theoretical fact deeply. 10 From the background of the study above, there are some causes of problems arising: 1. Most of the students are not interested in learning English, especially in learning grammar. 2. Most of the students are not interested in learning grammar, especially in learning degree of comparison 3. Most of the students still find the difficulties in learning English, especially in understanding and using the grammar. 4. Most of the students still find the difficulties in learning grammar, especially in understanding and using degree of comparison. 5. Most of the students feel bored when they are learning grammar which has the confusing rules. 6. Most of the students cannot use and comprehend degree of comparison properly because each type has different rules. 7. Most of the students made some mistakes when making the sentences which is used degree of comparison. 8. There is the probability that the technique and the strategy that are used by the teacher are not suitable for teaching degree of comparison. 9. The technique that was implemented by the teacher currently make the teaching degree of comparison less effective. 10 Kadir. et al., Pedoman Penulisan Skripsi, Jakarta: Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan, 2013, p. 54.

C. The Limitation of the Problem

The limitation of the problem has a mean in determining research area and operational limitation of research variable; it also can be done in some aspects; time, location, and object or subject of the research. 11 The writer limits the problem of the research just to find the effectiveness on using of pictures as the media to make the teaching and learning degree of comparison at Second Year students of SMP AD- DA’WAH more effective. The degree of comparison covers only regular adjectives forms in positive, comparative, and superlative degree. And the media is only limited to the pictures.

D. The Formulation of the Problem

The formulation of the problem consists of the questions that will be found its answer through the research, and it is made based on the identification of the problem and the limitation of the problem. 12 Based on the description in the background of the study, the formulation of the problem can be stated as: 1. is using picture in teaching degree of comparison effective? 2. To what extent is the effectiveness of using picture in teaching degree of comparison at the second year students of SMP AD- DA’WAH Duri Kosambi-Cengkareng?”

E. The Objective of the Study

In general, the objective of the study is to give the answer to the research problem that has been made to the formulation of the problem; it also can be declared in the sentence which has the characteristic in concerning to factual information, and the words that can be used in the objective of the study such as; to study, to explore, to analysis, to find out, to reveal, etc. 13 According to the formulation of the problem above, the objective of the study is to find out the effectiveness of using picture media in teaching degree of comparison at the second year students of SMP AD- DA’WAH Duri Kosambi-Cengkareng. 11 Ibid., p. 55. 12 Ibid., p. 55. 13 Ibid., p. 56.