Background of the Problem

thing. 5 It means descriptive text is a kind of text with a purpose to give information about particular person, place or thing. “it differs from report which describes things, animals, persons, or others in general. The social function of descriptive text is to describe a particular person, place, or thing”. 6 It can be concluded that descriptive text is a type of text which describe particular person, animal or thing and report text is a type of text which describe person, animal or thing in general. Based on an interview with Melda Wati, S.Pd, as English Teacher in SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in the preliminary research, she said that many students got difficulties when they describe something. They looked difficult to arrange words into sentences and becomes paragraph. They are just easy to describe something with a vocabulary not sentence structure. 7 Furthermore, based on the observation at SMPN 1 Karya penggawa Pesisir Barat, the writer found that there are many students who still had low score of descriptive text. It is proven by the following data of writing test at the eight grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in 20162017 academic year. Whereas, the criteria of minimum mastery score KKM of the school is 75. 5 Juanita Siahaan, An Analysis of Students’ Ability and Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Text. Journal of Englis and Education. Vol.1.Issue 1. 2013, p.115, http:www.ejournal.upi.edu, retrieved on April 2 nd , 2016 6 M Mursyid PW, English Learning Handout 2005, p. 4, http:www.mmursyidpw.files.wordpress.com, retrieved on April 2 nd , 2016 7 Melda Wati, The Result with Interview to the English Teacher of Eighth Grade, retrieved on March 3 rd , 2016, Unpublished Table 1 The Stud ents’ Score of Descriptive Text Test at the Second Semester of the Seventh Grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in the Academic Year of 20152016 No. KKM The Number of Students Persentage 1. ≥70 48 39.67 2. 70 73 60.33 Total 121 100 Source: Document of the Writing in Descriptive Text Score of Eighth Grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat 20152016. Based on the table above, it can be seen that more than 60 descriptive text score of students was under the passing grade for English subject in SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat. There were only 48 students from 121 students who passed the criteria of minimum mastery KKM. It shows that writing descriptive text ability of students in SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in 20152016 academic year is still low. In teaching and learning English as a foreign language it needs grammar to speak and write correctly. The students need grammar in order to make good sentence. Grammar is one of the components of language that must be mastered by the students to learn English, because the grammatical rules of Indonesian language are different from English. That is why, learning English grammar is very important to understand. Brown says that grammar is a system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in sentence. 8 In other word grammar is one 8 H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy 2 nd Ed, New York: Longman, 1994, p. 347 kind of language component that give explanation or rule about how to join of the words become a good sentence based on grammatical rule. 9 Grammar is also called as organization words that are combined into sentences to express thought and feeling or to express of the idea in writing. In teaching English as foreign language, the students need to master grammar because by mastering grammar students will be able to speak and write English correctly. In mastering English grammar there are many rules and sentences that should be mastered by the students. One of sentences is simple present tense. The simple present tense refers to action or situation that to do not change frequently. It is used to describe habits or routines, to express opinions, or to make genenral statements of fact, the simple present can also be used to refer to the future. 10 It means that simple present tense is one kind of sentence that is used to the express daily activities and general statement. This sentence is used in descriptive text. As we know in descriptive text often use simple present tense formula. According to Juanita, Linguistic features of descriptive text are: use specific participant, written in present tense, use linking verbs, use adjective, use relational and material process. 11 Based on the interview with some students, they said that they were still confused about tenses, the students still made many errors in using tenses. One of the tenses 9 Ibid. 10 Patricia Werner, Mosaic 1 A Content-Based Grammar, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990, p. 125 11 Juanita Siahaan, Op.Cit, p. 115 that was regarded difficult by them is simple present tense. They found difficulties to understand the subject verb agreement in simple present tense, the formula of simple present tense, and the rule of verb in simple present tense. In conclusion the students ability in simple present tense is still low. 12 It can be seen in the table below: Table 2 The Students’ Score of Simple present Tense Test at the Second Semester of the Seventh Grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in the Academic Year of 20152016 NO KKM The Number of Students Percentage 1 ≥70 37 30.58 2 70 84 69.42 Total 121 100 Source: Document of the Simple Present Tense Score of Eighth Grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat 20152016. Based on the table above, it can be seen that 84 students got score of simple present tense lower that 70, and only 37 students that get score passed the KKM. Moreover, from the table above it can be seen that there were many students had still not understood about simple present tense. They faced difficulties in simple present tense. Based on the background, the writer conducted a research entitled “The Correlation Between Students’ Simple Present Tense Mastery and Their Ability in Writing Descriptive Text at the First Semester of the Eighth Grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in 20162017 Academic Year ” 12 Seventh Grade Students’, The Result with Interview to Students of Seventh Grade, retrieved on March 3 rd , 2016, Unpublished

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the problem above, the writer finds several problems as follows : 1. The students find difficulties to understand the subject verb agreement in simple present tense. 2. The students find difficulties to understand the formula of simple present tense. 3. The students find difficulties to understand the rule of the verb in simple present tense. 4. The students find difficulties in writing descriptive text correctly based on the grammatical rule. 5. The students find difficulties to arrange the sentence in writing descriptive text. 6. The students find difficulties to understand the generic structure of descriptive text.

C. Limitation of the Problem

In this research, the writer focuses on the c orrelation of students’ grammar mastery and their ability in writing. The grammar used was focused on the simple present tense mastery and writing was focused on the descriptive text.

D. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the background of the problem above, the writer makes a formulation of the problem as follows : Is there a significant correlation between students’ simple present tense mastery and their ability in writing descriptive text at the first semester of the eighth grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in 20162017 Academic Year ?

E. Purpose of the Research

The purpose of this research is to know whether there is a correlation between students’ simple present tense mastery and their ability in writing descriptive text at the first semester of the eighth grade of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat in 20162017 Academic Year.

F. Use of the Research

The uses of the research are as follows : 1. Theoretically To give information to the readers about the correlation between students’ simple present tense mastery and their ability in writing descriptive at SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat. 2. Practically a. For the students The result of this research can motivate the students in learning English especially in simple present tense and descriptive text. b. For the teachers The result of this research can give information for the teachers about the correlation between students’ simple present tense mastery and their ability in descriptive text. c. For the school The result of this research is expected to be able to motivate the school to improve the quality of learning English.

G. Scope of the Research

1. Subject of the research The subject of this research was the eighth grade students’ of SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat. 2. Object of the research The object of this research was the correlation of students ’ simple present tense mastery and their ability in writing descriptive text. 3. Place of the research The research was conducted at SMPN 1 Karya Penggawa Pesisir Barat. 4. Time of the research The research was conducted at the first semester of 20162017 academic year.