Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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B. Theoretical Framework

In globalization era people are demanded to be able to use English in many aspects. Therefore, they need to learn English. In learning English, the students learn the four basic skills namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In addition to learning the four basic skills, the students also learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Those are the elements of language. One of the important things needs to be mastered is grammar because it provides rules. There are many aspects in grammar. One of them is tense. It is needed to master tenses when studying English because in learning English, time or tense cannot be avoided. The study focuses on ten tenses. They are simple present tense, present progressive tense, simple past tense, past progressive tense, present perfect tense, present perfect progressive tense, past perfect tense, past perfect progressive tense, simple future tense, and future progressive tense. The writer conducts the study on the ten tenses because they are taught at the first semester in the English Language Education Study Program. The study also puts emphasis on the use of functions of each tense. Hence, the students not only know the forms of each tense but also the functions and meaning of each tense. It is important to know their weaknesses or errors that they make in using tenses to enhance the mastery of tenses. Richard Shawstack in a book entitled Essential English Grammar Mas‟ud, 2005: 18 states, “to learn a new language, he must practice, and the more he practices, the more mistakes he is likely to make; the secret is to make one‟s mistakes and correct them.” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 31 The writer categorizes the errors into three categories. They are context- related errors, form-related errors and other errors. Those three categories are then divided into sub categories based on the errors that the writer found in each tense. The categorizations are based on the errors that the writer found from the students‟ answers. Then, the writer relates them to the theory of tenses. Context- related errors consist of the students‟ answers that deviate from the context or function in a given tense. Form- related errors consist of the students‟ answers that deviate from the form or pattern in a given tense. Other errors consist of the students‟ answers that do not belong to two previous categories because they deviate from the intended context and form. To measure their mastery, the writer administers a test. The test is a production test because the study focused on the use of tenses. The test is administered to the students in written form. They are asked to fill in the blanks using the correct verbs form based on the context of each sentence. The students‟ errors show their weaknesses. It is used as feedback in learning grammar, particularly English tense. The test results are also used to show their level of mastery in using tenses based on the scoring category of Peraturan Akademik Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta 2002 . PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 32

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology used in the study. It consists of six parts. The methodology includes research method, research participants, research instrument, data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedures.

A. Research Method

There were two problems to be solved as mentioned in chapter one. First, the research was aimed to find out the errors that the students of the English Language Education Study Program made in using the tenses. Second, the research was conducted to find out the mastery of the tenses of the students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta. The study was a survey research. According to Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh 2002: 374, survey is “a research technique in which data are gathered by asking questions of a group of individuals called respondents.” In the study, the writer used a test to gather the data. The test was administered to the third semester students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta in the academic year of 20082009. From the test results, the writer tried to find out the errors that the students made in using the tenses. The writer also analyzed the mastery of the tenses of the students.