Background of study INTRODUCTION
together to form meanings: grammar is also the study of that system, the various theories or perspectives that attempt to understand and describe it.
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Grammar is one of the language aspects which is taught to every language learners. By learning grammar, someone can communicate his or her
message clearly and precisely. The statement above shows that grammar is a basic knowledge to learn about English sentence structure and also keep an
important role in learning and understanding the English language. Although English has been taught since the First grade of elementary school, even in the
Kindergarten; many Indonesian students still do not understand orand cannot apply the rules.
Sometimes students who learn English find many problems, especially with grammar. In English grammar, there are many aspects that students have
to know. Even though students have learnt grammar completely; they still find difficulties in differentiating the usage of each function. One of the aspects in
grammar is sentence. Generally, there are three basic forms of English sentence. They are positive, negative and interrogative sentences. Interrogative
sentence is a sentence that is used in questions. According to Azar 1989: A16, there are four types of questions. They are Yes-No questions,
Information questions, Negative questions and Question-Tags.
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In learning question-tags it is actually related to the tenses, as far as the students understand about tenses, it is quite possible that the students will
get better understanding about question- tags’. Question-tags do not use the
form of question word such as: who, what, when, where, why, whose, how, etc
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Craig Hancock, Meaning- Centered Grammar, London: Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2005, p.6
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Betty Azar Fundamentals of English Grammar, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, inc, 1989,p.A16
Acco rding to Michael Swan “question-tags is an expression like isn’t
it? Or don’t you? consisting of auxiliary verb + pronoun subject put on to the end of a sentence, for example: It’s a nice day today, isn’t it?
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Moreover, Stannard W.Allen in li ving English structure stated that “A
very common device in conversation is that of making a statement and at once asking the listener to confirm it. In English this has to be practiced, as
we have a variable form: Positive statement, negative tag; negative statement, positive tag. The auxiliaries repeat themselves in the tag”.
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Some students still make mistakes and find difficulties in identifying question-tags. Here are some examples of wrong sentences that are often
made by the students in using question- tags in affirmative sentences”
- He plays football well, isn’t he?
- Tommy is an actor, isn’t it?
The sentences above are wrong, they should say: -
He plays football well, doesn’t he? -
Tommy is an actor, isn’t he? Furthermore, the students often make mistakes in using question-tags in
negative sentences, for example: -
Mary isn’t here, does she? -
You like him, are you?
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From the typical mistakes we know that students are still confused in making the forms of question-tags, and they are also confused about the use of
question tag in sentences. They are still confused to find what tense or verb or pronoun to be used in the tag.
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Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, New York: Oxford University Press:1983,xxi
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Stannard W.Allen. Living English Structure, London: Longman, 1987,p.155
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Kam Chuan Aik and Kam Kai Hui, Longman Dictionary of Grammar and Usage,Singapore: Addison Wesley Longman,1997, p.248
As the writer found when teaching practice P2KT in SMPN 4 Kota Tangerang Selatan did. They still find difficulties in using question-tags.
Because they are still hard to use the question tags correctly, as a yield it will lead the students to produce many mistakes in their learning but it is logically
acceptable. The teacher must be aware about this problem and prevent them from making the same mistake
by analyzing student’s problem itself. Based on the background above, the writer is interested in writing about
“ AN ANALYSIS ON THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY THE STUDENTS IN LEARNING QUESTION-TAGS
” A case study at Second Year of SMPN 4 Kota Tangerang Selatan. The writer chooses this title
because there are many students still faced difficulty in learning Question- Tags. By observing the students difficulties in learning Question-Tags, the
writer tries to identify and analyze them. The writer hopes it can make the teaching and learning activities better and can give a new idea for teacher how
to teach Question-Tags well.