THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS MASTERY OF PAST TENSE

AND THEIR ABILITY IN EXPRESSING PAST ACTIVITIES

IN WRITING AT THE ELEVENTH GRADE
OF SMK NEGERI I TUHEMBERUA

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Presented in
Research Methodology in LTC

By
Christophelly Sarobali Daeli
NIM. 042108007

INSTITUTE OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF GUNUNGSITOLI

FACULTY OF EDUCATION OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
NOVEMBER 2013
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract .......................................................................................................
Acknowledgements .....................................................................................
Table of Contents ........................................................................................
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study .............................................................
B. Reasons for Choosing the Topic ..........................................................
C. Statement of the Hypothesis ................................................................
D. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................
E. Statements of the Hypothesis ...............................................................
F. Significance of the Study .....................................................................
G. Scope of the Study ...............................................................................
H. Outline of the Study .............................................................................
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Theoretical Frame ................................................................................
1. Definition of Grammar ....................................................................
2. Importance of Learning Grammar ...................................................
3. English Tense ..................................................................................
4. Definition of the Past Tense ............................................................
a. Form of Past Tense ....................................................................
b. Form of Past Simple ..................................................................
c. Form of Past Continuous ...........................................................
d. Form of Past Perfect ..................................................................
e. Form of Past Perfect Continuous ..............................................
5. Use and Function of Past Tense ......................................................
a. Past Simple Use and Function ...................................................
b. Past Continuous Use and Function ............................................
c. Past Perfect Use and Function ...................................................
 d. Past Perfect Continuous Use and Function ...............................
6. Definition of Writing .......................................................................
7. Definition of Good Writing .............................................................
8. Speech and Writing .........................................................................
9. Writing Skills in 2006 English Curriculum ....................................
CHAPTER III METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
A. Object of the Study ..............................................................................
1. Population .......................................................................................
2. Sample .............................................................................................
3. Method of Data Collection ..............................................................
B. Research Design ...................................................................................
1. Instrument .......................................................................................
2. Try Out ............................................................................................
3. Validity of the Test ..........................................................................
4. Reliability of the Test ......................................................................
5. Difficulty Level ...............................................................................
6. Discriminating Power ......................................................................
7. Scoring System ................................................................................
 APPROVAL SHEET

This research proposal is submitted as a partial fulfillment in Seminar on English

Language Teaching subject and has been approved by:

Gunungsitoli, 15th November 2010

The Lecturer,

Miss. Yasminar Amaerita Telaumbanua

NIDN. 0130047702
 ABSTRACT

This research is about a correlation study between students’ mastery of past tense and
their ability in expressing their past activities in writing, a case study of eleventh
grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Afulu in academic year of 2009/2010.
The objectives of the study are to find out the students mastery of past tense
and the students abilities in expressing past activities in writing, and also to find out
whether or not there is a correlation between the students mastery of past tense and
their abilities in expressing past activities in writing.
This study is a case study and the population of this study is the eleventh
grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Afulu in academic year of 2009/2010. The sampling
process was administered by applying a purposive sampling technique. There were 80
students of the eleventh grade and I took 40 students as the sample.
I administered two kinds of tests, namely Grammar Test and Writing Test.
Both of the tests were in written form. In Grammar Test, I used Multiple Choice test,
while in writing test, I emphasized students to retell their past activities into a good
writing construction. The instrument used for measuring the achievement was a test.
Before the instrument was used, it had been tried out first. The main purpose of
conducting it was to find out the validity, reliability, discrimination items and level of
difficulties of the item of past tense in a multiple choice test. I then selected the items
before they were used as the instrument of this research.
The result of this research showed that there is a significant correlation
between the students’ mastery of past tense and their ability in expressing past
activities in writing. This result is obtained from the computation of the correlation
between the students’ mastery of past tense and their ability in expressing past
activities in writing applied to the sample is 0,8107. The critical value of the Pearson
r with the 5% significant level is 0,312. It means that the result obtained from the
computation is greater than its critical value. Therefore, I conclude that the
correlation between the two variables above is significant.
In line with the result of the research, I suggest that to improve the students’
ability in expressing past activities in writing, students should improve their mastery
of past tense, because the mastery of past tense can support their ability in expressing
past activities in writing. It is essential to the teacher to know that one of the factors
affect the students ability in expressing past activities especially in writing is the
students’ mastery of past tense.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Praise to be My Lord peace dan blessing on this research proposal prophet. I

wish to express my highest gratitude to God the Almighty for the blessing and

inspiration for finishing my research proposal.

I also extend my great gratitude and appreciation to:

1. My Lecturer of Seminar on English Language Testing subject of IKIP

Gunungsitoli, who has shared her knowledge and experiences during my study at

the English Department of IKIP Gunungsitoli.

2. My beloved mother and father, my younger brother, sister and all my family

members. May God give the best place for you in heaven, thanks for always

giving me your everlasting love, blessing and support for finishing my study.

3. All of my friends in IKIP Gunungsitoli of English Education, you are all so

amazing and anyone I admire who gave me beautiful and memorable memories.

Finally, I realize that my research proposal is still far from being perfect.

There are still so many expectations can be done to make it better. I have a great

belief that my research proposal will be beneficial and useful for anyone who is

concerned in this final project.

Gunungsitoli, November 2013

The writer,

Christophelly S. Daely
NIM. 042108007
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Problems

English is one of the international languages used by many people in the

world. Most of source of information including book, science, and technology are

written in English. Brumfit (1981:1) states that English is an international

language and the most widespread medium of communication, both because of

the number and geographical areas of its speakers and the large number of non

native speakers who use it for their international contact. That it is not

surprisingly that English role is getting more and important in our life.

Human beings start to learn language since they were born. Indonesian

people acquire first language based on their mother tongue such as Nias,

Javanese, and Bataknese. These first languages are used in their daily

communication. A couple of years later they begin to learn Indonesian as their

second language. In Indonesian, English is not only taught in SMP and SMA or in

University but also taught in the elementary school. In this case, English is

studied as a foreign language. Thus it is clear that English is the first foreign

language taught in Indonesia. Students are expected to use English and practice in

their daily life effectively after the class of English lesson over.
 In order to be fluent English learners, the students have to master the four

of English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in the language

learning processes. All these language skills are related to each other. In this

relation, Alexander (1967: vii-viii) says that in order to be a skilled performer, the

students must become proficient in using the units of a language. It means, they

have to study about vocabulary, sound system and grammar.

The students must be trained adequately in all the four basic skills to make

them easily practice and use the language. Although the learners have mastered

the rules, they have not learned the correct distribution of rules yet. In fact, some

students in Indonesia get some difficulties in learning English. They find many

differences in grammar, sound system and culture concepts found in English but

not in Indonesia. These differences can cause learning problems.

In my opinion’s most students in Indonesia have problems in mastering

grammar which can be considered complicated Grammar is essentials as the rules

of wording to make meaningful utterances. In the skill of writing for instance, at

least students have to master not only vocabulary but also grammar well. In this

case, verb tenses have essentials role, because they tell readers when actions, then

the past tense is definitely needed to be used.

In line with the background of this study, I am interested in knowing how

well students master grammar especially in past tense and how well they use it to

express their past activities in the form of writing. In this case, I want to know

how well are the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Afulu mastering
grammar in the form of past tense and their ability in expressing past activities in

writing.

So, I choose the title: “The Correlation between Students Mastery of Past

Tense and Their Ability in Expressing Past Activities in Writing at the Eleventh

Grade Students of SMA Negeri 1 Afulu”

There are some reasons why does the writer choosing this topic. A number

of considerations are proposed to the importance of conducting this research.

They are as follows:

1. Most of students still get difficulty in using past tense even they have been

learning it since Junior High School. They can not use it properly when they

make a writing text, especially in expressing their past experience. The past

tense they use is still poor.

2. Writing is one of the English skills which is difficult to be mastered. Students

need to have an extra expresses their own past experience, hopefully it

becomes very helpful for students to have a good skill in writing.

3. There are not so many studies which concern deeply about analyzing a

correlation between students mastery of past tense and their ability in

expressing their past activities in writing.

B. The Identification of Problems

The study is conducted to address the following problems:

1. To what extent do the eleventh grade students of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua

in academic year 2013/2014 master past tense?

2. To what extent do the eleventh grade students of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua

in academic year 2013/2014 master at using past tense to express past

activities in writing?

3. Is there any correlation between the students mastery of past tense and their

abilities in expressing past activities in writing?

C. The Limitation of Problems

Adapting those problems above, I limit the study by focusing on grammar

at the level of past tense and writing past activities only. Along with this, I want

to know whether or not there is a correlation in students mastery of past tense and

their abilities in expressing past activities in writing. So in conducting this study, I

use a correlation study.

D. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the problems above, the working hypothesis of the study can be stated

as follows;

There is a positive correlation between the students mastery of past tense and
their abilities in expressing past activities in writing of the eleventh grade of
SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua in the academic year 2013/2014.
 However, since the way of testing is conducted by using statistic, the
statement above is changed into Null Hypothesis as follows:
There is no positive correlation between the students mastery of past tense and
their abilities in expressing past activities in writing.

E. The Purpose of the Research

The purpose of this study can be stated as follows:

1. To find out the students mastery of past tense,

2. To find out the students abilities in expressing past activities in writing, and

3. To find out whether or not there is a correlation between the students mastery

of past tense and their abilities in expressing past activities in writing.

F. The Hypothesis of the Research

The hypotheses of this research are formulated as follows:

Ha : there is a positive correlation between students mastery of past tense and

their ability in expressing past activities in writing at the eleventh grade of

SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua in 2013/2014

Ho : there is no positive correlation between students mastery of past tense and

their ability in expressing past activities in writing at the eleventh grade of

SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua in 2013/2014

G. The Significance of the Research

The study will be useful for the students as the aims of this research. The aim is to

improve their skill in past tense and writing their past activities in writing. I

expect students will recognize and realize that mastering grammar, especially

verb tense, is useful to have a good skill in writing.

H. The Assumptions of the Research

By conducting this research, I hope that the result will reveal the following topics:

1. The past tense’s mastery of the eleventh grade of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua

in academic year 2013/2014.

2. The abilities of the eleventh grade of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua in academic

year 2013/2014 in using past tense to express past activities in writing.

3. Whether or not there is correlation between the students mastery of past tense

and their abilities in expressing past activities in writing.

I. The Limitation of the Study

This research is limited to the eleventh grade of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua in

academic year 2013/2014 in using past tense to express their past activities in

writing.
J. The Operational Definitions

To avoid misunderstanding of the definition in this title, the writer gives some

definition.

1. Correlation is connection or relationship.

2. Writing is one of the important skills of English to study English well to

express an idea among the students nowadays.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Frame

1. Grammar

a. Definition of Grammar

Grammar is the system of language. People sometimes describe grammar as the

“rules” of a language. Actually the word grammar has several meanings and

descriptions attempted by linguists. Different experts define the term grammar

differently. Harmer (2001:12) defines the term grammar as the description of the

ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences

in that language. Whereas Cook and Sutter (1980:1) assume that grammar is a set

of rules by which people speak and write.

In accordance with paragraph above, it is clear that grammar is absolutely

necessary needed in using language both in spoken and written form? Hornby

(1989:517) defines grammar as the rules in a language for changing the form of

words and combining them into sentences. In short, grammar is something that

people can use to find their way in getting along with others in using language.

b. Importance of Learning Grammar

Many people in the world speak their own language without having study its

grammar system. They speak natively and naturally without learning the rules.

Children start to speak their native language before they even know the word
 grammar. But, if we want to study a second or foreign language the process will

be different.

As one of the language components, grammar plays an essential role in the

process of learning a second or foreign language. The importance of grammar as

stated by Nasr (1978:52) that grammar is a part of any language. Grammar and

language cannot be separated. Consequently, if language has no grammar, it will

never be spoken, because people will be able to either use and learn a language if

the language has its pattern as the grammatical rules. Grammar can help us to

learn a language more quickly and efficiently. This is reasonable since studying

grammar as something that tells us how to speak and write correctly. When a

second language learner understands the grammar as a system of language, he

will know the language works. As a result, he will make sentences or statements

grammatically correct and meaningful to other people.

c. English Tenses

We consider that tense is a system which we use to refer to time; past, present,

and future. Many languages use tense to talk about time. In English, we use tense

as a method that we use to indicate time. Other language may have no senses, but

of course they can still talk about time using different methods. Hornby (1972:47)

states tense is special verb endings or accompanying auxiliary verb signaling the

time an event takes places. From the statements above, basically they have some

opinions about tense.

 The description of verb form differs according to the way term tense is

interpreted. The most common interpretation of tense is semantic interpretation

and the other is based on the verb form itself. On the basis of semantic

interpretation, most grammarians present three tense systems; present, past, and

future. Each of them expresses time in relation to a particular point in the present,

past and future respectively. These different tenses are signaled by verb ending or

by their auxiliary verb.

The second basis of the tense is on the basis of verb alone. There are only two

tenses; present and past tense. Each of them is marked by different forms in the

lexical verb itself or in the auxiliary used with verb.

d. Definition of Past Tense

The past tense indicates definite events happened in the past. There are many

definitions of past tense. According to Frank (1972:73) the past tense indicates

definite time terminating in the past, whether a time word is given or not. While

Cook and Suter (1980:51) write that past tense are actions or states that usually

occurred or completed in the past.

The term past tense then can be concluded as an activity or situation began,

happened, and ended in the past, whether the time signals were mentioned or not.

Most grammarians agree to divide the past tense into four forms; simple past, past

continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous.

e. Form of Past Tense

1. Form of Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense is the most common tense in English. The simple past tense

is formed by using the simple past form of the verb. Firstly, for the regular verb,

the past form is made by adding – ed to the verb (Azar, 1941:18). The examples

are (walked, smiled, worked, danced…). The following is the other pattern to add

–ed which change the ending a little.

Verb Ending in How to make the simple past Examples

Live-lived
e Add –d
Date-dated
Try-tried
Consonant + y Change y to I then add –ed
Cry-cried
One vowel + one consonant (not Tap-tapped
Double the consonant, then add –ed
w or y) Commit-committed
Boil-boiled
Anything else Add –ed
Fill-filled
Cited from web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/ek/studyzone/330/grammar/pasted.htm

Although many verbs in English form their past tense with –ed, some do

not. We call this second form as irregular verbs. They have some patterns. The

only way to know how an irregular verb will change in the past tense is to learn

all of the important verbs. The following is a list of three main categories of

irregular verbs.

Category Examples
Cut-cut-cut
Verb which do not change
Hit-hit-hit
Get-got-got
Verb which change their vowel
Sit-sat-sat
Catch-caught-caught
Verbs which change completely
Bring-brought-brought
Cited from web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/ek/studyzone/330/grammar/irpast.htm
 The three most important irregular verbs are be, have, and do. Be is ordered to

be most difficult one, because its form are different depending on the subject.

Pronoun/s Be
I Was
You Were
He, She and It Was
We Were
They Were

Have and do are simple.

Base form Past tense

Have Had
Do Did
Cited from www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.html

The form of past tense can be affirmative, negative and interrogative.

Affirmative : Fakedo went to the cinema last night.

Negative : Fakedo did not go the cinema last night.

Interrogative : Did Fakedo go to the cinema last night?

2. Form of Past Continuous Tense

The past continuous tense is commonly used in English for actions, which

were going on (had not finished yet) at a particular time in the past. We use it to

say what we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past. This

tense was formed using two components. The verb be (in the past tense) and the

–ing form of a verb. Here are the rules using the examples of sing.
 Subject Be -ing form
I Was Singing
You Were Singing
He, She and It Was Singing
We Were Singing
They Were Singing

Affirmative : She was singing a love song.

Negative : She was not singing a love song.

Interrogative : Was she singing a love song?

3. Form of Past Perfect

The past perfect tense is quite an easy tense to be understand and used. This tense

tells about the “past in the past”. The past perfect tense in English is composed of

two parts had + the past participle of the main verb.

Subject Had Past Participle

We Had decided

Affirmative : She had studied.

Negative : She had not studied.

Interrogative : Had she studied?

4. Form Past Perfect

The past perfect continuous tense is composed of two elements; the past perfect of

the verb (had been) + the present participle (verb+ing).

Subject Had been Verb-ing

They Had been Graduating
 For negative sentences, we insert not after the first auxiliary verb. For question

sentences, we exchange the subject and the first auxiliary verb. Look at these

example sentences with the past perfect continuous tense.

Affirmative : You had been watching a Big Movie.

Negative : You had not been watching a Big Movie.

Interrogative : Had you been watching a Big Movie?

f. Use and Function of Past Tense

1. Simple Past Use and Function

a. The simple past is used to talk about a completed action in the past (Frank,

1972:73).

Duration is not important. The time of the action can be in the recent past or

distant past. For example,

1) My aunt died last year

2) I visited my friends last week

We always use the simple past tense when say something happened in the past. So

it is associated with certain past time expressions.

1) Frequency

(Often, sometimes, always)

 2) A definite time in the past

(last week, when I was child, yesterday, six weeks ago)

3) An indefinite time in the past

(The other day, a couple years ago, a long time ago)

b. A series of completed action (Frank, 1972:23).

We use the simple past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These

actions happen in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

Example: She finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to

swim.

c. Single duration (Frank, 1972:73).

The simple past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past.

Duration is a language action often used with expressions, like “for two years, and

all day”

Example: Wetto studied Javanese for seven years.

d. Habit in the past

The simple past can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. It

can have the same meaning as “used to”. To make it clear that we are talking

about a habit, we often used expression, such as “always”, “when I was child…”

Example: I studied English when I was child

2. Past Continuous Use and Function

a. The past continuous describes actions or events in a time before now, which

began in the past and was still going on at the time of speaking. In other words, it

expresses an unfinished or incomplete action in the past (Frank, 1972:73)

b. Interrupted action in the past (Frank, 1972:73)

We use the past continuous to indicate that a longer action in the past was

interrupted. The interruption is usually an action in the simple past which can be a

real interruption or just an interruption in time.

Example: He was watching TV when my father called him.

c. Specific time as an interruption

The Past Continuous is interrupted by an action in the Simple Past. However, we

can also us a specific time as interruption.

Example: Last night at 6 p.m, I was eating dinner.

d. Parallel

When we use the past continuous tense with two actions in the same sentence, it

expresses the idea that both actions were happening at the same time. The actions

are parallel.

Example: I was studying while he was making dinner.

3. Past Perfect Use and Function

a. Completed Action Before Something in Past

The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action

in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the

past.

Example: I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Nias.
b. Duration before something in the past (Non-Continuous verbs).

With Non-progressive and some non progressive uses of mixed verbs, we use the

past perfect to show that something started in the past and continued up until

another action in the past.

Example: We had had that car for ten years before it broke down.

c. Specific time in the past perfect

In past perfect, it is possible to use specific time word or phrases with the past

perfect. Although this is possible, it is usually not necessary.

Example: She had visited her Javanese relatives once in 1995 before she moved

with them in 1999.

4. Past Perfect Continuous Use and Function

a. Duration before something in the past

We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and

continued up until another time in the past. “For two weeks” and “for five
 minutes” are both durations which can be used with the past perfect continuous.

Again we are more interested in the “process”.

Example: They had been waiting there for two hours before Brandy finally

arrived.

b. Cause of something in the past

Using the past perfect continuous before another action in the past is good way to

show cause and effect.

Example: Jackson was tired because he had been working all day.

g. Definition of Writing

People consider that writing skill is the most difficult skill to develop. In the

process of studying and acquiring new languages writing process is more complex

than other skills. Writing has been a central topic in applied linguistics for many years

and remains an area of lively intellectual research or debate. Many forms of enquiry

have been summoned to clarify both how writing best works and how it should be

best taught. Its complex structures seem constantly need adequate description and

explanation. According to Hyland (2002:5) there are main approaches to researching

and teaching writing, focusing in turning on theories principally concerned with texts,

writers and readers.

1. The first approach focuses on the products of writing by examining texts in

various ways, either through their formal surface elements or their discourse

structure.
2. The second approach, loosely divided into expressivity, cognitive, and situated

strands, focuses on the writer and describes writing in terms of the process use to

create texts.

3. The third approach emphasis the role that readers pay in writing, adding a social

dimension to writing research by elaborating how writers engage with an

audience in creating coherent texts.

People realize that writing can not stand alone without any other supported

skills, for instance, writing has relations with reading. All writers rely on their skills

as readers, because all writers must be readers. You can not write without

acknowledge your experience through reading. Through reading you can understand

how the language work to communicate ideas, through reading you can evaluate how

vocabulary construct together as a certain rules of grammar of how the use of

spelling, grammar, punctuation, word choices, and other elements construct as a good

written text. Reading helps you to be a good writer.

Good writing skills are essential for effective communication learning to write

well of course takes time and practice. There are at least five stages in constructing a

good written text (Boardman and Frydenberg, 2002:27-28):

1. Establishing topics

2. Organizing ideas

3. Writing first draft

4. Revising first draft

5. Proofreading the final draft

Each step has its own purposes, for example is revising. In revising, you can evaluate

and change words you think inappropriate yet. You still have an opportunity to open

your mind to get the other better ideas.

h. Definition of Good Writing

In accordance with http://writingcenter.emory.edu good writing expresses a clear

point, is tightly structured, grammatically and syntactically correct, substantive, and

interesting. Each of the classifications is obviously explained in these ways; to

express a clear point means to convey the writer’s main idea or in the case of

descriptive writing the significance of the object, place or person described; in other

words, an attentive reader should be able to grasp the writer’s purpose. To be tightly

structured, writing should contain logical or associative connections and transitions

which clearly express the relationship of the ideas described. To be grammatically

and syntactically correct, writing should stick to the rules of Standard American

English, including proper punctuation and spelling. If writers choose to use

unconventional syntax, they should be able to justify their choices. To be substantive,

writing should convey the impression that the writer is informed about the subject.

The writer need not be an authority on the subject but should demonstrate awareness

of its significance and its implications within a specified context. Informed writing

might include any or all of the following: citations of authorities, experiential

evidence, and discussion of debatable issues related to it, and relevant questions it

raises. To be interesting, writing should engage its readers through original insight

and precise, unclenched language expressed in a “human” voice. It should

demonstrate the writer’s awareness of the specific audience for whom she or he is

writing (the audience’s degree of knowledge of the subject as well as its age, ethnic

background, gender, and assumptions).

i. Speech and Writing

People always face two kinds of communication in their daily lives, speech and

writing communication. When people communicate orally they use speech as the

media to send the messages and if they use written texts, letter for example then they

use writing as the media. Both of them are common used in the social live to establish

communicative society.

Writing is special since many structural features involved and indeed have

major impact on the process of writing. Grammatical feature is the one of the parts in

writing skills affect the sense of writing become either better or bad. Spotting

grammatical case and mechanical problems is only a minor concern in writing.

Writing in some cases has differences with speech.

Speech Writing
a) More hesitations, interruptions and self- a) More subordination and passives
corrections
b) No spelling and punctuation conventions b) Longer sentences
c) Relies on gestures and paralanguage c) More explicit coding of logical relations
d) Concrete, informal and context-dependent d) Less modal codification
e) Characterized by turn-taking e) Structurally elaborate, complex, abstract
and formal
f) Characterized by monologue
Cited from Hyland (2002:50)

Since your words can be changed and revised later, you do not need to worry

in making mistake in your first draft. That is one of the other specialties in writing. In

the other words, if you write in appropriate; however you can still has an opportunity
to change it. In speaking, you only have a one chance whatever you have said

whether appropriate or not, you have to say that. In writing you have second, third,

fourth chance to revise. It also helps you to know the better constructions

Richards (1990:101) states that the goal of language is convey information

accurately, effectively and appropriately. And to do this, written language has to be

more explicit than spoken language. Written language needs to be explicit because

the reader do not have any contact and may not know the writer. Consequently, the

written text has to clear understand. The amount of shared knowledge in written text

is much less than that usually find between speaker-listeners. All of these then

increase the difficulty in writing.

In general, the rules of speech and written language are different. Speech is

acquired through conversation and does not require complicated skill instruction. In

fact, the rules of writing are largely need to be learned.

j. Writing Skill in 2006 English Curriculum

Based on the 2006 English Curriculum (Depdiknas: 24), the standard of

competence of English for Senior High School is spoken and written by using kinds

of language which suitable fluently and accurately using common utterances in the

daily life. Whereas in writing, the standard of competence is: to express various

meanings fluently and accurately (interpersonal, ideational, and textual) in various

writing text, to read interaction and monologue particularly in forms of description,

narrative, spoof, recount, reports, news item, anecdote, analytical exposition,

explanation, discussion, commentary, and reviews. These various writing texts are
called genres. The objective of the writing skill in this curriculum is: students can

express their daily life activities into a writing text. The indicator that shows students

achieve the goal of the skill is they can produce a simple text in the notion of daily

life context.
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A. The Design of the Research

Inconducting this research the researcher will use Quantitative Research

particularly Experimental Research. Nasir (2003:63) states that experimental

research design is observations under conditions created and governed by the

researcher. It is supported by Yount (2006), “Experimental Research is research

in which the researcher manipulates independent variables and measures

dependent variables in order to establish cause-effect relationships between them.

The dependent variable measured by the researcher, independent variable is

controlled or set by the reseacher.” It means that Experimental Research is

research conducted the experimenter’s interest in the effect of eviromental change

in which there will be cause-effect relationship.

Meanwhile, Tuchman (2001:136) states that “Quasi experimental design is

partly but not fully-true experimental design. It is exists for situation in which

complete experimental control is difficult or impossible. Nowdays a common

problem in educational research is the unwillingness of educational administrator

to allow the researcher make random selection of students out of classes for

experimental samples. So, several designs have been developed for these

situations that are almost true experiments or quasi experimental design.

 In doing this research, the researcher will use randomized subjects pretest

and posttest control class design. The students will be divided into two classes as

subject of the research, one group is experimental class and the other is control

class. In experimental class, the researcher uses

B. Variable of the Research

According to Ary et al, (2002:34) “Variable is a construct or a characteristic that

can make of different values or score.” There are two variables in this research, as

follows:

a. Independent variable (X) is mastery of past tense

b. Dependent variable (Y) is the students’ ability in expressing their activities in

writing at the eleventh grade of SMK N 1 Tuhemberua.

C. The Population and Sample of the Research

1. Population

The first step in selecting sample is to determine the population. A

population is the entire group of individuals that the researcher wishes to study.

Irianto (1989:18) says that a population consists of every number of group that

researcher would like to study. The objects in a population are investigated,

analyzed, concluded in such away and then the conclusion made is valid to the

whole population. In this research the population is the eleventh class of SMK

Negeri 1 Tuhemberua in academic year 2013/2014.

 2. Sample

A sample is a portion of a population that is selected for observation

(Irianto, 1989:18). Representativeness of a sample determines the validity of the

generalization of the result. This sample must have the characteristics that

represent the whole population. A research according to Arikunto (1996:120) may

take 10-15% or 20-25% or more out of population. In this research, there were

two classes of the eleventh class of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua. Each class

consists of 40 students. All students of eleventh class were 80. I took 50% of 80

students. It meant that I had to take one class because purposive sampling

technique was used.

D. Data and Research Instruments

Although I thought the random sampling technique was the best way to

take the sample, at last I used the purposive sampling technique. Purposive

sampling technique is a judgment sampling in which sample element judged to be

‘typical’ or representative or chosen from the population (Ary, 1985:145). This

technique was chosen because it was hard for me to enter each class, took some

students and gathered them as samples in random. I worried to disturb the

teaching learning process. Another problem was related to the place. If I used

random sampling, I had to find a certain place/class for the respondents to do the

test, and I considered that there were small possibilities to get such facility. So

finally, I decided to use the purposive sampling technique.

In this research, the researcher will use quantitative data. The data will be

obtained directly from the research subject by using instrument or data measures

directly to the research subject as the source of intended information. So, in this

research, the primary data as the sources will be taken from the students at the

eleventh grade of SMK Negeri 1 Tuhemberua.

The instruments that will be used by the researcher in conducting this research

especially to get data are oral test, handycam, and pocket digital camera.

a. Test

It is used to determine the students’ ability in expressing their past activities in

writing skill in expression of telling past events. In this research oral test is

used by the researcher in giving a pretest and posttest both experimental group

and control group. Pretest is used to examine the normality of data and the

homogeneity of the sample, while the posttest is used to examine the

hypothesis of the research.

b. Handycam

it is used to record the teaching learning process included in measuring the

students’ ability in expressing their past activities in writing skill when the

researcher administer a pretest and posttest both experimental group and

control group. Besides, the research can measure the students’ ability in

expressing their past activities in writing clearly by replay it.

 c. Pocket Digital Camera

Most people used camera to capture some events and keep them all in any

format pictures, but here the researcher used it when picture was taken by him

during teaching learning process. And all of them items were used by

researcher when he did his research.

E. The Procedure of Collecting the Data

There are some procedures that the researcher uses in this research, namely:

1. Finallly, the researcher chooses SMK N 1 Tuhemberua as a location of this

research all at once as the population in this research.

2. Selecting the research sample. It is 2 classes that randomly selected from 3

classes of the research population. One class as the experimental group and

one another is control class. So, the total of sample in this research is 60

students.

3. The researcher goes to the qualified teacher or lecturer who are very

competent in language testing to validate the test by giving them the sheet of

instrument validity test, to make sure that the test which made by the

researcher is valid and reliable. In this research, the researcher will use

internal validity.

4. The researcher does the pretest both control and experimental class to know

homegeneity and normality of the sample.

5. The researcher does the treatment for experimental class by

F. The Techniques of Analyzing the Data
1. Method of Data Collection

G. Research Design

1. Instrument

According to Arikunto (2002:136), research instrument is a device used by

the researcher while collecting data to make his work become easier and get a

better result, complete and systematic in order to make the data easy to be

processed. In this research I used a test method as the instrument. Test is a set of

questions or other practices or devices used to measure the skill, intelligence,

ability and talent of an individual or a group. The type of test used here was

achievement test. Achievement test attempt to measure what individual has

learned-his or her present level of performance (Best, 1981:193). To get the

empirical data of the students’ mastery of past tense and their abilities in using

past tense to express past activities in writing, I administered two kinds of tests,

namely Grammar Test and Writing Test. Both of the tests were in written form. In

Grammar Test, I used Multiple Choice test. The reason for using multiple choice

tests was; the technique of scoring was easy and it was more practical for the

students to answer. The multiple choices item consists of premise and a set of

alternative answers. Premise known as the stem is presented as incomplete

statement, which the students to do. While in writing test, I emphasized students

to retell their past activities into a good writing construction. The tense that is

requested to be used is past tense which makes up some sequences events about to

retell or inform the reader what happen. The examples of writing are diary, letter
 for friends in retelling holiday’s activities and etc. I asked students to make up 15

minutes sentences in 45 minutes.

In finding out the correlation between the students mastery of past tense and their

abilities in expressing past activities in writing, I applied the product moment

correlation. The formula is:

Where,

rxy = Correlation coefficient

N = the number of students/subjects participating in the test.

∑x = the sum of score in grammar test.

∑x2 = the sum of the square score in grammar test.

∑y = the sum of score in writing test

∑y2 = the sum of square total score in writing test.

∑xy = the sum of multiple of score from grammar test and writing test in

each number

Frequently, textbook authors present a criterion for the evaluation of a coefficient

(Best, 1981:255).

Coefficient Relationship
0,00 to 0,20 Negligible
0,20 to 0,40 Low
0,40 to 0,60 Moderate
0,60 to 0,80 Substantial
0,80 to 1,00 High to very high

2. Try Out
 The quality of the data, whether it is good or bad, is based on the

instrument to collect the data. A good instrument must fulfill two important

qualifications. Those are valid and reliable. So, before the test was used as an

instrument to collect the data, it had been tried out first to the students in other

class. Students were given 60 minutes in doing each test. After scoring the result

of the try out, I made an analysis to find out the validity and reliability of the item

of the try out. All of them were used to decide which items should be used in

making instrument.

The Specification Table of Past Tense Test used in Try Out

No Past Tense Type Item Format

1  Simple Past Tense Regular verbs  14 items
2  Simple Past Tense Irregular  11 items
3  Past Continuous  10 items
4  Past Perfect  10 items
5  Past Perfect Continuous  5 items
50 items

The distribution questions of items were arranged as listed below:

1. Simple Past Tense Regular : 8, 12, 16, 21, 26, 31, 36, 38, 40, 41, 44, 45,

48, and 49

2. Simple Past Tense Irregular : 1, 2, 5, 7, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39, 42 and 50

3. Past Continuous : 3, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19, 22, 27, 33 and 47

4. Past Perfect : 4, 10, 14, 20, 23, 25, 29, 34, 43 and 46

5. Past Perfect Continuous : 6, 9, 17, 24, and 28

3. Validity of the Test

Validity is a standard or criterion that shows whether the instrument is

valid or not. A test is valid to the extent that it measures what it claims to measure

(Ary, 1985:143). To calculate the validity of each item Iused the product moment

formula:

Where,
rxy = coefficient of correlation between x dan y variable or validity
N = the number of students/subjects participating in the test.
∑x = the sum of score in each item.
∑x2 = the sum of the square score in each item.
∑y = the sum of score from each student
∑y2 = the sum of square total score from each student
∑xy = the sum of multiple of score from each student with the total score in
each item

4. Reliability of the Test

Reliability shows whether the instrument is reliable and can be used as a

device to collect the data. Reliability means the stability of test scores when the

test is used. Best (1981:199) says that a test is reliable to the extent that is

measures consistently, from one time to another. To measure the reliability of the

test, I used the K-R 20. The formula is:

 rii = the reliability
n = the number of items in the test
p = proportion of the subject answering the item correctly
s2 = standard deviation of the test

5. Difficulty Level

After conducting and getting the result of the try out, then I classified and

selected the items by using this formula:

Where,
P = item difficulty
B = number of students who answered the item correctly
p = proportion of the subject answering the item correctly
JS = number of students
The criteria used here are:

Interval Criteria
P≤0,00 Too Difficulty
0,00<P≤0,30 Difficult
0,30<≤0,70 Medium
0,70<P≤1,00 Easy
1,00<P Too Easy

6. Discriminating Power

The discriminating power measures how well the test items arranged to identify

the differences in the students’ competence.

 The formula is:

Where,
D = discriminating power
BA = number of students in the upper group who answered the item
correctly
BB = number of students in the lower who answered the item correctly.
JA = number of all students in the upper group
JB = number of all students in the lower group

The criteria are:

Interval Criteria
D≤0,00 Too Poor
0,00<D≤0,2
Poor
0
0,20<D≤0,4
Medium
0
0,40<D≤0,0
Satisfactory
7
0,07<D≤1,0
Excellent
0
7. Scoring System

In grammar test, scoring was arranged in such way. 1 for correct and 0 for

wrong answer. There were 50 questions and if the answer were all corrects the

maximal score were 50. To reach 100, the maximal score was multiplied by 2.

While in writing test was a little more complicated, where so many methods were

suggested like TWE methods holistic scoring, primary trait scoring and analytic

scoring (Brown, 2004:241-243). I decided to use analytical scoring which

considered best evaluation of learning six major elements in writing. Brown and

Bailey (1984:39-41) design an analytical scoring scaled that specified five major

categories and a descriptions of five different level in each category. Since the
major study of this study is grammar, then the scoring was in line with grammar

level suggested by Brown and Baley. The scoring systems are:

20-18 17-15 14-12 11-6 5-1

Adequate to Non College-
Excellent to Good Good to Adequate Unacceptable
Fair level work
Numerous
Native-like Advanced Ideas are getting Severe
serious
fluency in English proficiency in through to the Grammar
Grammar
Grammar English Grammar reader problems
problems

In classifying the score, I used the measurement of student’s achievement

suggested by Harris (1969:134).

Student’s achievement
Test Score Class Performance
91-100 Excellent
81-90 Very good
71-80 Good
61-70 Fair
51-60 Poor
Less than 50 Very poor
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, L.G.1967. Practice and Progress. London: Longman Group Limited

Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian. Jakarta: PT. Rineka Cipta

Ary, Donald. 1985. Introduction to Research in Education. New York: CBS College
Publishing

Best, W. John. 1991. Research in Education: fourth edition. New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall

Brumfit, Christopher.J.1981. English for International Communication. London:

Pergamon Press

Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London:

Longman

Irianto, Agus. 1989. Bahan Ajaran Statistik Pendidikan. Jakarta: Depdikbud

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