The Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

As an international language, English is widely used among many aspects in the world such as politics, economics, sciences, religions, educations, etc. In term of education, Indonesia has stated that English as the first foreign language either in formal institution or informal institution. In formal educational institutions English is taught by students from elementary up to university; in Elementary level, English is taught as a local-content subject. In Junior and Senior high school, English is taught as a compulsory subject, and in University level, English is taught as a complementary subject. There are four major skills in English, namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading skills are classified into receptive skills; meanwhile speaking and writing skills are productive skills. Furthermore, the language components subskills are vocabulary, grammarr, pronunciation, and spelling; which are taught in an integrated way with the four basic language skills. As one of language components, grammar has many aspects that should be learned. In the second grade of junior high school, students need to learn the simple past tense both in active and passive sentences in which it has been stated on the Standard of Competence – Standar Kompetensi SK and Basic Competence – Kompetensi Dasar KD in School-Based Curriculum - Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP. 1 To fullfil the writer’s curiosity related to teaching and learning activity of English subject, the writer visited Al-Mujahidin Islamic Junior High School in Cikarang to oebserve it. Ideally, students in second grade of Al-Mujahidin Islamic Junior High School in Cikarang must aquire the Minimal Mastery Criterion level – Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum KKM 70 seventy toward English subject. It has been stated on the school policy since 2009. Besides, the students are able to understand simple past tense both in active and passive form. However, most of the students in the second grade of Al-Mujahidin Islamic Junior High School in Cikarang are still difficult to acquire the Minimal Mastery Criterion level – Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum KKM. Mostly, they acquired the score below 70 seventy in English especially on learning grammatical structure. After discussing and observing the teacher in teaching learning activity, the writer found some phenomenons such as; first, when the teacher asked students to distinguish between active and passive pattern of Simple Past Tense but unfortunately they could not answer what the teacher asked. Second, when the teacher asked the students to change from active form into passive form in simple past tense, most of them had not match between subject and to be waswere, for example; Dictionaries was bought by me in Kuitang Last Semester. Third, mostly they were not able to change from subject pronoun into object pronoun. Fourth, some of them were wrong in using the past participle V3 for example; She was hurted by her friends last Sunday. Fifth, as the students made some passive sentences, they tended to make meaningless sentences such as The train was pushed by my brother yesterday. Sixth, most of students were less active in learning activity especially on grammar subject because the teacher almost dominated classroom. Based on those phenomenons above, the teacher and the students need to solve soon because it can raise further difficulties for them such as difficulty 1 Pusat Kurikulum, , Standar Kompetensi Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris SMP dan Mts, Jakarta: Balitbang Depdiknas, 2003, p.17 understanding simple past tense both in active and passive form and hard to acquire the Minimal Mastery Criterion level – Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum KKM of school target. Therefore, the writer and the teacher discussed and looked for alternative solution how to improve their ability in passive voice of simple past tense. After that, we dealt to choose Contextual Teaching and Learning CTL method as the alternative solution. Contextual Teaching and Learning CTL helps students relate subject matter content to real world situations and motivate them to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members, citizens, and workers and engage in the hard work that learning requires . Hopefully, through Contextual Teaching and Learning, the students are able to improve their understanding in constructing and using the passive form of simple past tense and hence they are able to acquire the Minimal Mastery Criterion level – Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum KKM.

B. The Limitation of the Study