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their sentences. According to Ahlish; 1996:45, “tag question adalah bentuk lemah suatu pertanyaan yang di tambahkan di akhir kalimat affirmative yang
berfungsi untuk meminta penegasan dari pendengar tentang sesuatu yang belum meyakinkan atau meminta persetujuan pendengar”.
1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic
In daily life whenever people communicate with one another, they often use question tags but they rarely realize it. The question tags’ is a part of
grammar. The function of question tags in English is to show that the speaker is not sure about hisher statements’, she or he doesn’t know whether his or her
statement is true or false, or in other words question tags are used to showexpress doubt of someone’s statements.
Here is an example of the conversation using question tags. Andi :
Hi, Tommy, you didn’t come late, did you? Tomy : Oh yes, Andi, I remember that I had to pick up my mother at 07.00
o’clock to go to the market. From the dialogue above, question tags do not always need an answer with yes or
no. In bahasa Indonesia question tags is called “kalimat pengukuh atau
penegas”. Question tags’ is very complex in English, because it has a special pattern in using the question tags in sentences. Therefore it is rather difficult for
learners to learn it. In bahasa Indonesia learners do not have to consider many things when they speak using ‘kalimat pengukuh’ or question tags. In bahasa
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Indonesia there are not special rules or principles. They can just say “bukan” at the end of their sentences, the examples:
- ‘dia yang paling pintar di kelas ini kan?’
- ‘saudaramu semuanya perempuan bukan?’,
In English learners must consider many things when they use it, for example they have to consider the agreement between subject and verb. Because
of those differences, the third year of SLTP students still had problems in mastering the question tags. Therefore, the writer would like to make research on
the profile of students’ mastery of question tags.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Based on the previous explanation the writer presents the problems, as follows: a.
How well do the students master question tags? b.
What special difficulties do the students face in using question tags? c.
How should the teachers of SLTP Institut Indonesia Semarang minimize their students’ mistakes in using question tags?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
