CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents and discusses of the background of the study, limitation and formulation of the problem, objective of the study, significance of
the study, and operational definitions.
F. Background of Study
Language is very important for human life. It has a big role for every person in making a good relationship with other people, so every one needs a
language to share ideas, opinion, and feelings to each other. Language also becomes the tool of communication, as a definition stated by H. Brown Douglas
“language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written or gesture symbol that enable members of a given community to communicate intelligibly
with one other”.
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From the definition above, it shows that language means as a tool for communication with another person which can be expressed not only
verbal or oral communication but also through non-verbal communication such as written form, gestures, and Morse code.
To greet the global area and communication, we need to learn English not only spoken but also written form because almost all of the information in this
world is usually spoken and written in English, such as newspaper, magazine, internet, product, television, and radio. As an International language, English is
spoken by many people all over the world, either as a first or second language. Moreover, English is also the key to open the doors to scientific and technical
knowledge which is needed for the economics, politics, and education development of many countries in the world.
In Indonesia, English has been introduced in many levels of education. It starts from play group, elementary school, junior high school, senior high school,
and up to university. Since this language taught in Indonesian school, there are many problems found which the teachers’ have to solve. One of the problems that
1
H. Brown Douglas, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, New York: San Fransisco State University Press, 2000, p.5
need to be solved is the method of teaching in order to make the students understand the material.
Understanding and learning English is not easy, because it is a foreign language which has different characteristics from our own language, therefore, we
have to learn many new aspects of language. There are two aspects that must be mastered by the students in learning
English, they are: Language skills which are involving actual production such as speaking and writing and reception such as listening and reading, in supporting
those skills the students have also master Component skills or language competence such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, and semantic.
According to the writer, grammar is the most important part to be learnt in the process of acquiring a language, it is also the skill that must be mastered to
help someone to use the language grammatically and meaningfully. It is very important either for teacher or students to have a good understanding the part of
grammar such as syntax form, semantic meaning, and pragmatic use in order they are able to communicate through language either oral or written form
correctly and easily to be understood by others. As said by Paul Roberts San Jose: “Most people, if they learn to write passably well, require a good deal of
instruction. They need to be told when their sentences need repairing and how to repair them. For this they must have some kind of awareness of the components of
sentences and the way they fix together”.
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It means the people who learn grammar will know whether his or her sentences are true or false.
Grammar has a lot of language elements; one of them is degrees of comparison of an adjective or adverb describing different levels of quality,
quantity, or relation. From the explanation above, it is very important for students to comprehend and express the fact that two things or people are similar or
different. In the process of learning degrees of comparison, many students still find
difficulties in making or understanding of comparative or superlative forms even though distinguishing the form and the usage of each function. Their difficulties
are sometimes confused to put suffix -er-est or prefix moremost, omit or
2
Paul Roberts San Jose, Understanding English, New York: State College Harper Brothers Publisher, 1958, p. 142
misplaced the use of be is, am, are, was, were, and the use of article the in the superlative form.
According to Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman in the Grammar Book, there are some common errors made by the second learners with
comparison, they are: 1.
Omission of the comparative inflection-and perhaps also the copula: -
John is tall than Mary
2. Substitution of some other function for than a or inappropriate use
of than b: a.
John is tall er from Mary
b.
Paul is as tall than John
3. Use of more where –er is required or vice versa:
a.
John is tall moremore tall than Mary
b.
Mary is beautifuller than Karen
4. Use of regular pattern where an irregular form is required
-
His handwriting is badder than mine
5. Double making of comparative
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a.
Jim runs more faster than Paul
b.
This car is more better than that one
Based on this fact, the writer is interested to discuss and analyze the students’ difficulties in learning degrees of comparison at second grade of SMP
Dua Mei Ciputat.
G. Limitation and Formulation of the Problem
