Background of the Study

1

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents and discusses background of the study, identification of the problem, research focus, research question, the objective and significances of the study.

A. Background of the Study

In this era globalization, Indonesia as developing country, it is necessary for Indonesian students to master an English language as an international language which is use by almost countries in this world in order to be able to interact which other nations for developing science, technology and culture. Nowadays in Indonesia, English becomes essential language subject of education issues. The government realizes how important English today for global development. Therefore, English has been an important part of the school curriculum, which is learnt as the main subject by the Indonesian students to develop technology, science and culture. To achieve it, the Indonesian students must be able to master the four skills in English; they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and also English components such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation etc. and now learning English is necessary for Indonesian students, therefore it is taught from elementary school to university level. Learning English language is not as simple as we thought because there is a set of rules that must be learnt, which is called grammar. Grammar is one of the English components which are taught to every language learner. It has an important role in understanding the English language. Without proper knowledge of grammar the students will find many problems to build up the sentences and express their ideas for communication activities. But if they have a good grammar, they will be confidence in speaking and writing English and they are also able to use the language correctly and clearly. Penny Ur, in her said that “a learner who knows grammar is one who has mastered and can apply the rules to express him or herself in what would be considered acceptable language forms.” 1 Harmer defines that “grammar as the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentence in that language.” 2 Michael swan stated that “grammar is the rules that say how words are combined, arranged, and changed to show different meaning.” 3 To be able to communicate in English, the students should have to master grammar. Grammar is a great rule in students’ acquisition in English. It seems the heart of language. One of its aspects discussed in grammar is tense. Tense is something to express activity that need time relation. Based on curriculum, there are six tenses which are taught in the Junior High School include simple present tense, simple present continuous tense and simple past tense. There are some differences between Indonesian and English, especially about tense, as follows: in Indonesian “saya pergi ke pasar setiap hari minggu’. It shows habitually. Then, “saya sedang pergi ke pasar sekarang”, it shows in the progress events. And then “saya pergi ke pasar kemarin”, it shows pass events. Based on three sentences, it can be concluded that Indonesian does not need to change the verb, although the sentences have different time indicators. Meanwhile, in English, “I go to the market every Sunday. It shows habitually. Then, “I am going to the market now”, it shows in the progress events. And then “I went to the market yesterday”, it shows pass events. Based on three sentences, it can be concluded that English needs tenses to change the verb based on time indicators. From those conclusions, it shows students cannot understand tenses in English by using Indonesian paradigm. Therefore, tenses is considered as one of difficult materials when students learn grammar. It is proved by some researchers who studied about tenses. As mentioned in some studies on “an analysis on students’ difficulties in using 1 Penny Ur, Grammar Practice Activities: A Partical Guide for Teacher, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980, p. 4. 2 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman Group, 1983, p. 12. 3 Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, New York: Oxford University Press, 1980, p. Xxiii. simple present tense” by M. Solahudin. 4 And other studies on “an analysis on students’ difficulties in learning simple past tense” by Evi Setiawati. 5 There are many errors and mistakes in learning English tenses but making errors and mistakes is normal and unavoidable. This problem is as John Norrish notes “it’s natural for the students as human being to make error, even many native speakers produce many mistakes in speaking and they would be unaware of the way they speak unless they heard recording of themselves.” 6 Based on the problem descriptions above, the writer actuated to research this study with to analyzing students’ errors in using simple present tense, simple present continuous tense and simple past tense. This idea is also supported by the writer experience in teaching such topic in her PPKT Praktek Profesi Keguruan terpadu in one of the Junior High School in Ciputat. The writer taught English tenses especially in simple present tense, simple present continuous tense and simple past tense to the second grade students. Because of the above case, the writer interested to analyzing the students’ errors in using simple present tense, simple present continuous tense and simple past tense. She appoints her study by the title: “An Analysis of Students’ Error in Using English Tenses” A case of study at the second grade of SMP YAPERA An-Nurmaniyah, Ciledug Academic year 20132014.

B. Identification of the Problem