The Relationship between Students‘ Understanding of Past Tense and Their Skill in Writing Recount Text

(A Correlational Study at the Eight Grade Students of MTs. Mathla‘ul Anwar, Jatiuwung - Tangerang)

By

Septiyani Wafda

109014000077

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

Wafda, Septiyani. 2014. The Relationship between Students‘ Understanding of Past Tense and Their Skill in Writing Recount Text, Skripsi, Department of English Education, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers‘ Training, Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University, Jakarta.

Advisor: Dr. Ratna Sari Dewi, M.Pd. Neneng Sunengsih, M.Pd.

Keywords : Relationship, Recount Text, Past Tense

The objective of this study was to find out the relationship between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text. The method that used in this study is a correlational study and applied a purposive sampling technique, with the total number of the sample was 40 students. The data were taken through test, grammar test and writing test. The data were analyzed by using product moment correlation by Pearson. The formula used to find out the correlation between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text. From this research, the writer found that the average

score of students‘ understanding of past tense is 70.9 and the average score of

students‘ skill in writing recount text is 62.65. The total result from the formula is

Bismillahirrohmanirrohim,

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds who has bestowed upon the writer in

completing this ―skripsi.‖ Peace and Blessing be upon our prophet Muhammad

SAW, his families, his companions and his followers.

This ―skripsi‖ is presented to the English Education Department of the Faculty

of Tarbiyah and Teachers‘ Training, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta as partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Strata-1 (S1).

The writer would like to express her great honor and deepest gratitude to her

beloved mother (Eni Nuraesih), her father (Muthori), her sisters (Desthoriyani

Vasthi and Arifa Fauziya), her brother (Naufal Tantowi) and all her families who

always give support, motivation and moral encouragement to finish her study.

The writer would like to express her great thanks and gratitude to her advisor

Dr. Ratna Sari dewi, M.Pd. and Neneng Sunengsih, M.Pd. for their valuable help,

guidance, corrections and suggestions for the completion this ―skripsi.‖ Her gratitude also goes to:

1. Drs. Nurlena Rifa‘i, MA, Ph.D. as the Dean of faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers‘ Training.

2. Drs. Syauki, M.Pd. as the head of English education Department.

3. Mr. Zaharil Anasyi, M.Hum., the secretary of English Education Department.

4. Drs. Maman Suherman, M.Pd., the principal of MTs. Mathla‘ul Anwar, Jatiuwung – Tangerang who has giver the permission to do this research in his area.

5. All lecturers in the English Education Department, the staff and officers of

UIN library and Khatolik Atma Jaya University library, who have given

7. Her closest friends: Qomi, Lia, Wirda, Icha, Tazki, Ratna, Salamah, Azka and

Isnha. Thank you for supporting and being a best friends ever after.

8. All friends in English education Department, especially ―Bees Class‖ for

sharing their time and for being good friends.

9. All of her friends that she cannot mention them one by one who always help

and gives the writer support, time and love to remind her in accomplishing this ―skripsi‖.

May Allah, the Almaighty blesses them all, amen.

Finally, the writer realize that this ―skripsi‖ is not perfect yet, therefore the writer would like to welcome and accept constructive suggestion and criticism to make this ―skripsi‖ better.

Jakarta, September 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL... i

ENDORSEMENT SHEET ... ii

ABSTRACT ... iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. Background of Study ... 1

B. Identification of Problem ... 3

C. Limitation of Problem ... 3

D. Formulation of Problem ... 3

E. Objective of Study ... 3

F. Significance of Study ... 4

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 5

A. Writing Skill ... 5

1. Definitions of Skill ... 5

2. Definitions of Writing ... 6

3. Definitions of Writing Skill ... 6

4. Characteristicas of Good Writing... 7

5. Writing Process ... 8

B. Past Tense ... 10

1. Definitions of Past Tense ... 10

2. The Form of Past Tense ... 11

3. The Function of Past Tense ... 15

C. Recount Text ... 18

1. Definitions of Recount Text ... 18

2. Types of Recount Text ... 18

3. Generic Structure of Recount Text ... 20

H. Theoretical Hypothesis ... 24

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 24

A. Place and Time of the Resesarch... 24

B. Method of Research ... 24

C. Population and Sample ... 24

D. Resesarh Instrument ... 25

E. Technique of Data Collection ... 25

E. Technique of Data Analysis... 30

G. Statistical Hypothesis ... 31

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... ₃₂

A. Research Finding ... 32

1. Data Description... 32

2. Data Analysis ... 34

B. Test of Hypothesis ... 36

C. Discussion... 35

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 37

A. Conclusion ... 37

B. Suggestion ... 37

REFERENCES ... 40

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

English is one of the important languages in the world because it is widely

used and studied all over the world. There are many reference books written in

English, such as books of technology, science, art, and so on. Besides, English

makes us easier in communicating with other people all over the world and makes

us easier in using some technology.

In Indonesia, English as a foreign language is a compulsory subject in

national curriculum. Therefore, English has been taught from elementary school

up to university level. It means that English has an important role so that it is

taught in Indonesia‘s school. Although English has been taught from elementary school, it can be seen there are many students are not able to communicate well

orally or written and they have a low score of English subject.

Low students‘ score in English subject is a problem that has not been

completely resolved. In learning English, the students should study the four basic

skills that related each other, there are listening, reading, speaking, and writing.

Through listening and reading, people can get the information from anywhere all

over the world, and through speaking and reading, people can share their feelings.

Writing is an important skill in teaching and learning English process.

Writing involves some language components such as grammar, spelling,

vocabulary, and punctuation. Because writing needs some components‘ mastery,

there are some problems related to students‘ ability in writing. The common

problem that students often face when writing is the lack of English language

vocabulary that make them feel writing is a difficult subject. In addition, improper

punctuation placement is also a problem often faced by students in addition to the

lack of mastery of vocabulary. Placement of punctuation that does not fit within a

component in writing but many students are still frequently make mistakes is the

lack of proper grammar usage. Grammar has an essential role in writing to make

meaningful utterance. In this case, tenses have an essential role because it tells the

readers when action takes time. Careful and accurate use of tense is important to

clear writing.

There are various ways to organize sentences in a piece of writing. One of

them is in the form of recount text. Recount text is a text that describes about

someone experience that happened in the past. In recount text, it is told past event

and used tenses that have the function to tell story in past tense. To make a good

recount text, the writer or the students have to choose the correct tenses and they

also should know many vocabularies because text is an arrangement of words,

sentences, and paragraphs.

In writing recount text, the common tense that often used is the past tense.

The past tense is a tense that indicates an event happened in the past.According to Frank, ―the past tense indicates definite time terminating in the past, whether a

time word is given or not.‖1

There are four kinds of past tense that students should

know; simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense, and past perfect

continuous tense.

Based on the writer‘s experience and her observation while she was doing PPKT (PraktekProfesiKeguruanTerpadu) at SMPN 178 Jakarta, the writer found

that in writing recount text, students commonly have some difficulties in choosing

tenses that suitable with the situation they write in the text. If the students have

mastered in choosing the tenses, it could make the students easier in writing good

recount text. Another problem that commonly faced by the students is about

changing the verb. In writing recount text that uses past tense as a tense, the

students have to change the verb from verb 1 to verb 2 or from verb 1 to verb 3. In

this case, there are two form of verb; regular and irregular verb. The problem is

the students sometimes forget that not all verbs are ending in –d or –ed as a regular verb, but there are also some irregular verb that used in the past tense.

1

Based on the background of study above, the writer is interested in

conducting a research about the relationship between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text. Because recount text tells the

event in the past, this text is using past tense as a tense in writing it. The writer

wants to know how well the students‘ understanding in grammar especially in past tense and how well they use it to express their past experience in recount text. In

this case, the writer conducted the research at Mts. Mathla‘ul Anwar, Tangerang.

B. Identification of Problem

Based on the background of the study above, the writer find out the problems

as follows:

1. Students have lack of English language vocabulary.

2. Students have difficulties in putting on the correct punctuation in the text.

3. Students have a deficiency in the use of proper grammar in writing.

4. The students have difficulties in choosing tenses that suitable with the situation

in recount text especially in using past tense in it.

C. Limitation of Problem

Based on the identification of problems above, the study limited only on the

relationship between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text.

D. Formulation of Problem

Based on the background and limitation above, the writer formulate the

problem as follow:

―Is there any relationship between students‘ understanding of past tense and

their skill in writing recount text?‖

E. Objective of Study

Based on the formulation above, the objective of study in this research is to

F. Significance of Study

1. For the teachers

To give input about the effective way in teaching writing, so that the students

can write good recount text and get high score in writing subject.

2. For the students

a. To give the information about the important of past tense undersatnding

in writing recount text. So that, they can be motivated to practice more

than they did before and they are encouraged to learn grammar seriously.

b. It will help the students to improve their scores in past tense and writing

recount text.

3. For the researcher

This research can add insight and knowledge about the use of past tense in

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Writing Skill 1. Definitions of Skill

Every people in this world have their own skill. A skill is a result of experiments and training that people can achieve it. Based on Wikipedia, ―A skill is the learned ability to carry out a task with pre-determined results often within a

given amount of time, energy, or both.‖2

Another expert, Boyarzis and Kolb satetd in their journal From Learning

Styles to Learning Skills:The Executive Skills Profile that ―a skill is a combination of ability, knowledge, and experience that anables a person to do something well.

A learning skill defines a generic heuristic that anables mastery of a specific

domain.‖3

Based on the definitions above it can be concluded that skill is something that

people can get it by their effort and their experiences and training. People with

high motivation in learning and training, commonly they also have a good skill.

2. Definitions of Writing

Writing is an important element in life, especially in teaching and learning

process, the students and the teachers spend most of time in teaching and learning

for writing. As a human being, writing skill is also needed when someone wants

to write a note to friend, letters of inquiry, and application to businesses and

schools. Some people also communicate their thought in written form, in papers,

reports, and so on. As mentioned in chapter I, writing needs some language

components such as grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and punctuation. Therefore,

2

Cited from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/skill on April, 17.

3

people consider that writing is difficult skill to develop because the components

are related each other.

Writing is more than a medium of communication. Writing is a way to

remember and to think as well.4 Meyers said that writing is a way to communicate

to others through paper or through a computer screen. Writing is a kind of talent,

but it‘s mostly a skill, it improves with practice like another skill. Writing is also

an action which has a process such as discovering and organizing ideas, putting

them on paper, and reshaping and revising them.5 Therefore as mention before,

people who want to increase their skill espesially in writing should do an exercise

regularly.

Lyons and Kroll stated in Weigle‘s book, Assessing Writing, that writing is an action which completes some particular purpose in a context that established

for signified audience.6 Still in the same book, Sperling notes that writing is a

meaning-making activity which is formed by social and cultural, and have some

purpose for individual and social such as language in general.7

Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is an

important element in teaching and learning process. Writing is a way to share

unspoken idea or feeling through paper. In writing there are some language

components such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation that related

each other to make writing meaningful and the purpose of writing is achieved.

3. Definition of Writing Skill

Writing is one of four language skills. Writing is a way to communicate and

to give some information to other people by using a language in written form. As

mentioned above, skill is a result of learning activities, training, and experiences

and it as same as a writing skill. Writing skill is an outcome of students‘ activity

4

James C. Raymond, Writing: Is Unnatural Act, (New York: Harper & Row, 1980) p. 2.

5

Alan Mayers, Gateways To Academic Writing: Effective Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays, (New York: Longman, 2005) p. 2.

6

Sara Cushing Weigle, Assesing Writing, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 19.

in doing some writing task. There are some ways to improve students‘ writing skill:8

a. Keep a journal

b. Participates in writing prompts

c. Rewrite blog posts

d. Rewrite newspaper and magazine articles

e. Activate google alerts

f. Read beyond what normally read

g. Comment on favorite blog posts.

h. Join a writer‘s group

i. Attend a writer‘s conference or workshop

j. Write

4. Characteristics of Good Writing

In making a good writing, there are some characteristics that students have

to know. Andelstein and Pival in their book define the characteristics ofgood

writing as follows:9

―(a) Good writing is interesting. This is true regardlessbof whether it is

designed to amuse, inform, or persuade the reader. Writers generally stimulate interest by presenting some knowledge or insight that is new and important to readers what is abvious or already known. (b) Good writing is clear. Its ideas have been organized so logically, words selected so carefully, and sentences crafted so skilfully that readers do not need to struggle to understand what the writers mean. (c) Good writing is concise. It contains no unnecessary words, phrases, or sentences; consequently, readers will not feel that their time is wasted. (d) Good writing is effective. It conveys a message to readers in such a way that it will achieve the effect that the writer intended. To achieve this objective, writers must choose wisely the ords, sentences, and a paragraph structures that will best communicate to their readers. So that readers will not be distructed from the messege, good writers also follow the accepted conventions of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and so on. (e) Good writing reflects the authentic voice of the writer. It conveys the sound of someone talking with

another person; however, good writers adapt that ―speaking style‖ to suit the relationship appropriate to the purpose and audience of the writing occasion.‖

5. Writing Process

In learning writing subject, there are some processes that make students easier

in making a paragraph that will be combined to be some writing. Based on

Mayers, there are six writing processes that students should know; explore ideas,

prewriting, organize, write a first draft, revise the draft, produce the final copy.10

a. Explore ideas

Before writing, the students are supposed to let his/her mind explore freely in

order to find the topic for his/her writing. In this first step, the students should find

the answer of what, who, where, when, why, and how questions to his/her topic.

Besides, the students also have to ask his/her self about these three questions;

what is the subject, what is the purpose, and who is the audience of the writing.

b. Prewriting

The second step of the writing process is put the thoughts or idea on the paper

or on the computer. Prewriting allows the student to visualize his or her writing

before begin. The student does not need to worry about grammar, exact word

choice, spelling or punctuation, because it can be change later in editing process.

Sundem mentioned in his book that there are three usable formats for prewriting:11

1. Bubbling (mind web)

Sundem said that bubbling technique is the easiest way to brainstorm many

ideas. In bubbling technique, the student only write the topic in the center of page

and then the student will circle it and connect related ideas like cartoon quote

bubbles.

2. Outlining

Outlining is the most specific and directed of these three methods of

prewriting. The students are supposed to describe the function of each paragraph

by organizing ideas into topic sentences and supporting details.

10

Mayers, op.cit., p. 3.

11

3. Drawing/writing a captioned cartoon strip

This technique is appropriate for fiction or narrative writing. By using this

technique, the student is not only defining the flow of events, but they may also be

motivated by enjoying this process.

c. Organize

This step of writing process involves selecting, subtracting, and adding ideas,

and then outlining them. The students should think about their purpose and

audience. Is the text is to inform, to persuade, or to entertain the reader. The

student should return to his/her prewriting and do the following process:

1. In the brainstorming list, underline and highlight the best ideas.

2. Choose the best ideas of the clustering diagram.

3. Circle and highlight the best part of freewriting.

d. Write a first draft

Drafting means writing a preliminary version of a work that you will later

revise.12 In writing draft, the students or the writer is not demanded to make a

perfect draft. There are some tips for drafting:

1. Say something aloud before write it.

2. Write by fast by hand or by computer.

3. Use only one side of the paper.

4. Leave wide margins and double-space to make room for changes.

5. Save work every five or ten minutes on the computer.

e. Revise the draft

In this process, students‘ writing will be checked in order to know the

mistakes, so the students can correct it to make a perfect writing. Revising means

that you rewrite a paper, building upon what has already been done, in order to

make it stronger.13 There are some tips in revising the draft:

1. Make notes in the margins—or write new material on separate sheets of paper.

2. Circle words that misspelled or need to change later.

12

Robert Keith Miller, Motives for Writing, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006) p. 23.

13

3. Tape or staple the additions.

4. On the computer, use cut-and-paste or insert commands to move things

around.

5. Print out a double spaces copy for revisions: Slow down and revise in

pencil.

f. Produce the final copy

This is the final step of writing process. In this step the student needs to pay

attention to details that have been ignored while getting ideas on paper and

shaping them to fit the purpose that is called editing process. Editing as part of the

writing process in producing the final copy should be checked using the

appropriate editing marks by the author and then by a peer or adult.14 In this

process, the components that should be noticed are such as grammar, punctuation,

usage, and spelling. The student may use the dictionary or any other reference

materials that needed. The student also can use the spell checker in the computer.

After doing these processes of writing, the studentss are expected to make a

good writing. The students are expected to avoid some mistakes in the context of

grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and in selecting the tenses and words that will

be used in the text.

B. Past Tense

1. Definitions of Past Tense

The past tense is a tense that indicate an event happened in the past. There are

many definitions of past tense according to some experts. According to Frank,

―the past tense indicates definite time terminating in the past, whether a time word

is given or not.‖15 While Willis said that, ―past tenses are used to refer to past

time, and also to refer to imaginary situations, and to express politeness.‖16

14

Garth Sundem, Improving Student Writing Skill, (USA: Shell Education, 2007) p. 61.

15

Marcella Frank, Modern English: A practical reference guide, (New Jersey: Prantice-Hall, Inc, 1972), p. 73.

16

Another experts Roberts & Martins said that the past tense is ―a tense that is most used for narrative purpose i.e. when related about something that has already

happened.‖17

From the definitions from some experts above, it can be concluded that past

tense is a tense that indicated a situation or an activity began, happened, and

ended in the past whether the time signal words are mentioned or not. There are

four forms of past tense; simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect

tense, and past perfect continuous tense.

2. The Form of Past Tense

As mentioned above, there are four forms of past tense; the first of the tense

is simple past tense. Azar, in her understanding and using English grammar said

that simple past tense is a tense that shows some situation or activity began and

ended at a particular time in the past.18 The simple past tense is used for an action

whose time is not given but which (1) occupied a period of time now terminated,

or (2) occurred in period of time now terminated. These may be expressed

diagrammatically thus:19

a.

b. x

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

negative interrogative.

Affirmative : You worked

Negative : You did not work

Interrogative : Did you work?

17

E.W. Roberts & Martins, English Grammar and Composition for High Schools,

(Malaysia: Golden Books Centre SDN. BHD., 2003), p. 138.

18

Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, (New York: Pearson Education, 1999), p. 27.

19

The simple past tense is formed by using the simple past of the verb. The

simple past tense in regular verbs are formed by adding –ed or –d (worked, played, loved,..etc). The figure below is the form of simple past tense for regular

verbs.

Figure 2.1

The Form of Simple Past Tense for Regular Verbs20

The simple past tenses in irregular verbs are not formed by adding –ed or –d.

Thomson said that, ―the simple past form of each irregular verb must therefore be

20

Judy DeFilippo, Grammar Plus, (USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc, 1987), p. 132.

4. ONE VOWEL + ONE CONSONANT

learnt, but once this is done there is no other difficulty.‖21

The figure below is the

three main categories of irregular verbs:

Figure 2.2

Three Main Categories of Irregular Verbs22

Category Examples

Verbs which don't change

cut - cut hit - hit

fit - fit

Verbs which change their vowel

get - got sit - sat drink - drank

Verbs which change completely

catch - caught bring - brought

teach - taught

The second form of past tense is past continuous tense or past progressive

tense. Past continuous tense is a tense that indicate some activity which were

going on (had not finished yet) at a particular time in the past. Past continuous

tense is used for past actions which continued for some time but the exact limits

are not known and are not important. It might be expressed diagrammatically

thus:23

The structure of past continuous tense is

S + Was/Were + V1 + Ing form + O

21

Thomson, op. cit., p. 148.

22

Cited from http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/irpast.htm on November 2013.

23

Figure 2.3

Form of Past Continuous Tense for TO BE

Subject TO BE

I

You

They

We

She

He

It

Was

Were

Were

Were

Was

Was

Was

Affirmative : I was working

Negative : I was not working

Interrogative : Was I working?

Next form of past tense is past perfect tense. Robert and Martin said, ―past perfect tense is used to explain some activity ended in the past or to show about

two past actions that one past action happened or was completed before the other

began.‖24

The structure of past perfect tense is

S + Had + V3

Affirmative : I had worked

Negative : I had not worked

Interrogative : Had I worked?

The last form of past tense is past perfect continuous tense. Past perfect

continuous tense is a tense that explain about some activity ended or still

continuing in the past.

The structure of past perfect continuous tense is

S + Had + Been + Ing form

24

Affirmative : I had been working

Negative : I had not been working

Interrogative : Had I been working?

3. The Function of Past Tense A. Simple past tense

Simple past tense is one of past tense forms. Simple past tense is a tense that

indicate some event or activity began and ended at a particular time in the past.

There are some functions of simple past tense:25

1. One event completed in the past.

e.g. : - I saw a good film last night

- I came here yesterday

2. Repeated events completed in the past and no longer happening.

e.g. : - I always went to the zoo with my parents when I was child

- When I was young, I went swimming everyday

To express the habit that happened in the past, usually some writers use a

words such as usually, always, never, every day.26

3. Duration of an event completed in the past.

e.g. : - They lived in Jakarta for ten years

- Qomi studied English when he was in New York

B. Past Continuous Tense

The second form of past tense is past continuous tense. Past continuous tense

is a tense that indicate some activity that had not finish yet in the past. There are

some functions of past continuous tense:27

25

Frank, op. cit., 73.

26

Silvester Goridus Sukur, Panduan Penggunaan Tenses Dalam Berkomunikasi,

(Yogyakarta: Indonesiatera, 2007) p. 61.

27

1. To declare some activity that still continuing in the particular time.28

e.g. : - I was studying last night

- Azka was playing badminton at seven o‘clock yesterday morning 2. Used to declare some events or activities that still continuing in the past while

another activities or events happened or while two activities happened in the

past.

e.g. : - I was sleeping when you phoned me last night

- Isnha arrived while I was cooking dinner

3. Used when some activities was happening in the past.

e.g. : - I was studying while Evni was singing

- You were singing while Lia was swimming

C. Past Perfect Tense

Another form of past tense is past perfect tense. Past perfect tense is a tense

that indicate some activity ended in the past or to show about two past actions that

one past action happened before the other began. There are some functions of past

perfect tense:29

1. Used to declare some activity that happened before other activities.

e.g. : - She had eaten when we came

- I had known Ratna before I knew Icha

Past perfect tense should be used when some past activities happened

before other activities.

2. Used to declare some activities that begin in the past and still continuing in

the particular time in the past, or just already ended in the past.

e.g. : - I had waited you for an hour when the bus came

- Salamah had study since seven o‘clock last night when her mother brought her a dinner

3. Used to answer some questions in the past form.

e.g. : - How did she know his name? She had meet him.

- How did you know the story of the film? I had seen it before.

28

Sukur, op. cit, p. 69.

29

4. Used when some events or activities should tell the time order clearly. If the

order is should not tell clearly, the past perfect is should not be used but used

a simple past form.

e.g. : - She finished cooking before her husband came.

D. Past Perfect Continuous Tense

The last form of past tense is past perfect continuous tense. Past perfect

continuous tense is a tense that indicate some activity in the past that ended or still

continuing. There are several functions of past perfect continuous tense:30

1. To declare some events or activity begin and still continuing while some

activities happened in the past.

e.g. : - I had been reading when the door knocked

- Wirda had been swimming when I called her

2. To declare how long some activities happened and still continuing before

other activities happened.

e.g. : - He had been sitting for thirty minutes in the shelter when the accident

happened

3. To describe or declare some situations.

e.g. : - A thief had been stealing everything in the house when I entered it

C. Recount Text

1. Definitions of recount text

Recount text is a part of narrative text that retells past events, usually in the

order in which they happened. Many experts tried to define this recount text, Mulyono and Widayanti in their book said that ―recount genre is used to retell

events for the purpose of informing or entertaining.‖31

Besides, Hayland tell the

purpose of recount is to reconstruct past experiences by retelling events in original

sequences.32

30

Sukur, op. cit., pp. 84-86.

31

Mulyono and M. J. Ari Widayanti, English Alive, (Jakarta: Yudhistira, 2011), p. 16.

32

Another experts such as Mark and Kathy Anderson in Text Type in English 3,

stated that ―A recount is a piece of text that retells past events, usually in the order

in which they occured. Its purpose is to provide the audience with a description of

what occurred and when it occurred.‖33_{―A recount reconstructs past events in the}

time in order in which they occurred. It involves telling what happened and

interpreting or evaluating the experience in some way.‖34

Based on the definitions above, recount text is a text that retells some

experiences or events that happened in the past. Because this text is retelling

something that happened in the past, the tense that used in this text is past tense.

2. Types of Recount Text

As mentioned before, recount text is a text that retell someone activity or

experiment in the past. Based on the purpose of recount text, there are several

types of recount text:35

a. A personal recount

A personal recount is retelling an activity that the writer has experienced before

by his or herself. This personal recount may be used to communicate or to build

the relationship between the writer and the reader. The examples of this personal

recount are: diary, personal letter, and biography or autobiography.

b. A factual recount

A factual recount records the details of an incident by reconstructing some

factual information. The examples of this factual recount are: traffic report, a

science experiment, historical recount, and police report of an accident.

c. An imaginative recount

An imaginative recount is a writing of an imaginary role and creates imaginary

details by applying factual knowledge in order to interpret and recount events.

The examples of this imaginative recount are: A day in the life of an ant, How I

invented.

33

Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 3, (South Yarra: Macmillan, 1997), p. 24.

34

Targeting Text: Recount, Procedure, Exposition Middle Primary, (Blake Education, 2011), p. 4.

There are some differences of each types of recount text based on the

audience, the tense, the language, the first or third person, the addition of details,

and the series of events. Figure 2.4 below shows some differences from every

recount:

Figure 2.4 Focus on Different Recounts36

Personal recount Factual recount Imaginative recount Audience Child or adult Child or adult Child or adult

Tense Past tense Past tense Past tense

3. Generic Structures of Recount Text

In writing good recount text, there are some structures that the writer should

know in order to make the text coherence to each paragraph. The generic

structures of recount text are:37

a. Orientation

In orientation it provides the setting and introduces the participants about the

text. It told the reader who was involved, what happened, where this event took

place, and when it happened.

b. Series of Events

Tell what happened in sequence. It gives more information about the story and

give the details of what, who, where, and when. In this part, the beginning of each

paragraph is commonly uses conjunctions or connectives like: first, next, then,

finally, and so on.

c. Re-Orientation

Re-Orientation is a conclusion of the events. It is also describe the writer

opinion about the events. Some recounts have a concluding paragraph, however it

is an option and not always necessary.

4. Linguistic Features of Recount Text

Beside the generic structures of recount text, the writer also should know about

the linguistic features that used in recount text. The linguistic features that used in

recount text are:38

a. Use of past tense

Recount text is a text that retell someone experience and of course it used

simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense and past perfect

continuous tense.

b. Use of sequence makers or enumerators

This text is used sequence makers or enumerators such as: first, second, then,

after that, etc to show sequences.

37

Mulyono and M. J. Ari Widayanti, English Alive, (Jakarta: Yudhistira, 2011), p. 16.

c. Use of adjectives

It usually used adjectives to show personal attitudes, such as: wonderful,

happy, curious, fun, etc.

5. The Example of Recount Text

Figure below shows some example of recount text:39

Figure 2.6 Coast. Yesterday we went to Movie World.

SEQUENCE OF

When we got up in the morning it looked like rain. After a while the clouds disappeared and it became a sunny day. We the decided to go to Movie World.

The first ride I went on was Lethal Weapon. Next I saw the Police Academy show. After that I had lunch as I was really hungry. Meanwhile, Mum and kelly queued for the Batman ride.

About one o‘clock we got a light shower of rain but it cleared up soon after. We then went on all the other rides followed by the studio tour.

A CONCLUSION and their ability in writing recount text.

The objective of his study was to find the correlation between the students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text. He used a

correlation study as his method of this research. For sample, he took 40 students

by applying a purposive sample technique. The instrument of the research he used

39

in this study was a test, grammar test and writing test. The results of this research

were 66.15 for the average scores of students‘ mastery of past tense and 71.075 for the average scores of students‘ ability in writing recount text. For the final result, he used product moment pearson formula to analyzed the data and he found

the result was 0.8107 which is mean that the result obtained from the computation

is greeter from its critical value. Based on the result above it can be concluded that there is a correlation between students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text.

Another researcher who did this research is Masriqon in 2011 by the title of

the thesis the correlation between simple past tense mastery and writing ability in

recount text at tenth grade of SMA Ibnu Sina Braja Selebah in the academic year

of 2011/2012.

The objective of his study was to find out simple past tense mastery, writing

ability in recount text, and whether there was any correlation between simple past

tense mastery and writing ability in recount text. He used a quantitative research

as the method of the study. The populations of his study were 30 students of tenth

grade of SMA IbnuSinaBrajaSelebah. The instrument he used was a test. He

decided to give grammar test and writing test. Type of grammar test was multiple

choices and writing test is essay test which asked students to make sentences into

a paragraph. The result of the test was 0.745 score and the product moment table

N=28 using 5% confidence limited the score 0.374 and 1% = 0.478, where the

score 0.745 is between 0.600 – 0.800. It means that the relationship between simple past tense mastery and writing ability was enough. rratio = 0.745 > rtable =

0.374, it means that there was positive relationship between both of variables.

Based on the research it can be concluded that there is the significant relationship

between simple past tense mastery and writing ability in recount text at tenth

grade of SMA Ibnu Sina Braja Selebah in academic year 2011/2012.

E. Conceptual Framework

Writing is one of language skills that has an important role in teaching and

from the writer to the reader through paper. In making a good writing, the writer

should know the language components such as grammar, spelling, vocabulary,

and punctuation. Many people consider that writing is a difficult skill to develop

because it requires many language components. But writing, like another skills,

can be improved by practice.

There are various ways to organize sentences in a piece of writing. One of

them is in the form of recount text. Recount text is a text that retell someone

activity or experience in the order in which they happened in the past. Because

recount text tells the event that happened in the past, it requires a past tense that

have some function to tell story in past.

Past tense is a tense that indicate some activity or event began, happened, and

ended in the past whether the time signal is given or not. There are four forms of

past tense; simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense, and past

perfect continuous tense.

Based on the the elaboration above, the writer assumes that students‘ understanding about past tense have a relationship in their writing skill in recount

text. Because as mentioned above, recount text is a text that needs past tense as a

tense to show the reader that an activity or event happened in the past.

F. Theoretical Hypothesis

Based on the theories were elucidated above, it can be posed a theoretical

hypothesis as follow: there is a relationship between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A.Place and Time of the Research

This research conducted at eighth grade students of Mts. Mathla‘ul Anwar, which located at Jatiuwung, Tangerang on 12 May 2014 to 02 June 2014.

B.Method of Research

This research is designed as correlational research. ―Correlational research attempts to determine whether, and to what degree, a relationship exists between

two or more quantifiable variables. The purpose of a correlational study may be to

establish relationship (or lack of it) or to use relationship in making prediction.‖40

The main objective of this research is to discover the relationship between the two

intended variables; students understanding in simple past tense and the students‘ skill in writing recount text. It figured out how much the understanding of past

tense affects their skill in writing recount text.

C.Population and Sample

1. Population

Before selecting sample, the writer determined the population for this research.

In this research, the writer took the population of the eighth grade students of Mts. Mathla‘ul Anwar, tangerang. The total population is about 88 students from 2 classes.

2. Sample

In this research, the writer used purposive sampling as the method in taking the

sample for the research. ―purposive sampling is a judgment sampling in which

sample element judged to be ‗typical‘ or representative or choosen from the

40

population.41 The writer took 40 students from one class with the total population

are 88 students from two classes for this research.

D.Research Instrument

In this research, the writer used test as an instrument of the research. The test is

devided into two: grammar test and writing test. In the gremmar test, the writer

asked the students to answer 30 multiple choice questions with 4 alternatives

answer about past tense. In the writing test, the writer asked the students to

construct at least 3 paragraphs about their activities yesterday.

E.Technique of Data Collection

1. Students‘ understanding of past tense test.

To know the students‘ understanding of past tense, the writer collected the data from the students by test in simple past tense. 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 validity and reliability. To test

the validity and reability of the questions, the writer firstly asked other students

from another class to do some test in understanding past tense.

After getting the result, the formula that used to test the validity of the

questions is:

_√

Description:

Rpbis = biserial correlation coefficient

Mp = scores in subjects who responded well

Mt = Mean total scor eachieved by the test participants

SDt = standard Deviation of the total score

p = proportion of test takers who answered correct

q = proportion of test takers who answered incorrectly

41

If r > rtable then the items were valid, but if r < rtable then the items were not valid

But in this test, the writer used Anates software to know the validity of the

questions. Based on the calculation of test validity, from 40 questions with 4

alternatives answers, the significant questions are only 30 questions which used in

making the instrument of the test. Those are the questions number 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8,

9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38,

39, 40.

The formula to test the reliability of the questions is Kuder Richardo or KR-20

formula as follows: 42

∑

Description:

rii = Reliability using the equation KR-20

n = The number of questions

s = The standard deviation of the test (akarvarians)

p = proportion of test takers who answered correct

q = proportion of test takers who answered incorrectly

The criterion of the test is:

rii = 0.90 – 1.00 = very high rii = 0.70 – 0.90 = high rii = 0.40 – 0.70 = medium rii = 0.20 – 0.40 = low rii = 0.00 – 0.20 = very low

The resercher here used Anates software to find out the reliability of the

questions and the reability of the questions is 0.79 it means that the reability of the

question is high.

42

From the result of the validity and reliability of the test above, the writer asked

the students to answer 30 questions in multiple choices with 4 alternative answers

about past tense to know students‘ understanding of past tense. The following

figure is the items used in making the instrument.

Figure 3.1

The Specification Table of Grammar Test

Kompetensi Dasar Indikator No. Butir

Soal

kata kerjanya tidak berubah 4, 7

In classifying the score, the writer used the measurement of student‘s achievement suggested by Harris.43 As seen in the figure below:

Figure 3.2

2. Students‘ skill in writing recount text

To know their writing ability in writing recount text, the writer asked the

students to construct at least 3 paragraphs about their last holiday or their activities yesterday. In scoring students‘ writing test, the writer used Hughes analytic scores as mentioned in the following figure.

Figure 3.3

substantive – thorough development of thesis – relevant to assigned topic

GOOD TO AVERAGE: some knowledge of subject – adequate range – limited development of thesis – mostly relevant to topic, but lacks detail

FAIR TO POOR: limited knowledge of subject – little substance – inadequate development of topic

VERY POOR: does not show knowledge of subject -

43

David P. Harris, Testing English as a Second Language, (New York: McGraw Hill Book Company Inc., 1969), p. 134.

44

substantive – not pertinent – OR not enough to evaluate

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: fluent expression – ideas clearly stated/supported – succinct – well organized – logical sequencing – cohesive

GOOD TO AVERAGE: somewhat choppy – loosely organized but main ideas stand out – limited support – logical but incomplete sequencing

FAIR TO POOR: non-fluent – ideas confused or disconnected – lacks logical sequencing and development effective word/idiom choice and usage – word form mastery – appropriate register

GOOD TO AVERAGE: adequate range – occasional errors of word/idiom form – choice – usage but meaning not obscured

FAIR TO POOR: limited range – frequent errors of word/idiom form, choice usage – meaning confused or obscured

VERY POOR: essentially translation – little knowledge about English vocabulary, idioms, word form – OR not constructions- few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions

GOOD TO AVERAGE: effective but simple construction – minor problems in complex constructions – several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions but meaning seldom obscured FAIR TO POOR: major problems in simple/complex constructions – frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons, deletion, meaning confused or obscured

M

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: demonstrates mastery of conventions – few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing

GOOD TO AVERAGE: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing but meaning not obscured

FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing – poor handwriting – meaning confused or obscured

VERY POOR: no mastery of conventions – dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible, OR not enough to evaluate

F.Technique of Data Analysis

In analyzing the data to see whether there is the correlation between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text, the writer will

used product moment correlation formula.45

∑ ∑

√ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑

rxy : Correlation coefficient between students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text.

N : Number of Respondents

X : Distribution of students score in grammar test

Y : Distribution of students score in writing test. ∑X : Total score of students score in grammar test.

In giving some simple interpretation for the result ―r‖ in product moment (rxy), some people commonly use this guide as an interpretation. The figure below

shows some interpretation of correlation coefficients.

Figure 3.4

Interpretation of Correlation Coefficients46

(rxy) Interpretation

0,00 – 0,20 There is very weak relationship between two variables. Because the relationship is too weak, it is reputed as there

is no relationship between those two variables.

0,20 – 0,40 There is a weak relationship between two variables. 0,40 – 0,70 There is some average relationship between two variables. 0,70 – 0,90 There is strong relationship between two variables.

0,90 – 1,00 There is very strong relationship between two variables.

G. Statistical Hypothesis

X = Students‘ understanding of past tense

Y = Students‘ skill in writing recount text

H0 = XY = 0

H1 = XY ≠ 0

Significant critical value : 0.05 and 0.01

Criteria : If ro > rt means there is correlation and Ha is accepted, Ho is

rejected.

If ro < rt means there is no correlation and Ha is rejected, Ho is

accepted.

Ho : There is no significant correlation between students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text.

Ha : There is a significant correlation between students‘ mastery of past tense

and their ability in writing recount text.

46

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Research Finding 1. Data Description

In this research, there were two data. The first is students‘ result of grammar test about their understanding of past tense, and second is students‘ result of writing test about their skill in writing recount text.

a. Students‘ Understanding of Past Tense

The writer used a multiple choice test to measure students‘ understanding of past tense. There were 30 questions and 4 alternative answers for each question.

The average result of the eight grade students of MTs. Mathla‘ul Anwar, Tangerang is 70. 9. It means that they had fair in past tense understanding test.

To find the frequency distribution of simple past tense mastery scores, the

writer used the following formula:

Where:

IR = class interval

t = the highest score

r = the lowest score

N = total of the categories

From the data, it could be seen as follows:

The Highest Score: 85

The Lowest Score: 43

While the criteria divided into 3 were high, average, and low, so the interval is:

The total interval IR for independent variable of this research was 14.

Figure 4.1

The Frequency Distribution of the Result Of Past Tense Understanding

INTERVAL FREQUENCY CATEGORIES PERCENTAGE

85 – 71 24 High 60%

70 – 56 13 Average 32,5%

55 – 41 3 Low 7,5%

40 100%

Based on the figure above, it can be concluded that:

a. There are 24 students (60%) who got the high score

b. There are 13 students (32.5%) who got the Average score

c. There are 3 students (7.5%) who got the low score

From the data of the research, the writer also found that in this test there are

no students (0%) who get excellent result, 6 students (15%) get very good result,

18 students (45%) get good result, 8 students (20%) get poor result and 8 students

(20%) get very poor result.

b. Students‘ skill in writing recount text

To know the students‘ skill in writing recount text, the writer used a writing test. The writer asked the students to write at least three paragraphs about their

activities yesterday. The average score of the students is 62.65. It means that the

students had a fair score in writing test.

To find the frequency distribution of simple past tense mastery scores, the

writer used the following formula:

Where:

IR = class interval

t = the highest score

N = total of the categories

From the data, it could be seen as follows:

The Highest Score: 83

The Lowest Score: 23

While the criteria divided into 3 were high, average, and low, so the interval is:

The total interval IR for independent variable of this research was 20.

Figure 4.2

The Frequency Distribution of the Result of Writing Skill in Recount Text

INTERVAL FREQUENCY CATEGORIES PERCENTAGE

83 – 63 25 High 62,5%

62 – 42 11 Average 27,5%

41 – 21 4 Low 10%

40 100%

Based on the figure above, it can be concluded that:

a. There are 25 students (62.5%) who got the high score

b. There are 11 students (27.5%) who got the Average score

c. There are 4 students (10%) who got the low score

From the data of the research, the writer also found that in this test there are

no students (0%) who get excellent result, 1 student (2.5%) gets very good result,

10 students (25%) get good result, 14 students (35%) get fair result, 8 students

(20%) get poor result and 7 students (17.5%) get very poor result.

2. Data Analysis

Based on the data above, the writer finds that there is an average correlation

between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount

statistical analysis it was found that there is a positive correlation between the

students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text. It was

proved by the value of rxy is greater than the value of r table. The value of rxy is

0.616 and the value of r table with N=38 and 5% significant level is 0.312. It can

be concluded that the students‘ understanding of past tense have a correlation with

their skill in writing recount text.

To see the correlation between the two variables, the writer used Pearson

Product Moment Correlation formula to compute the data as follows:

xy ∑ ∑ ∑

√ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑

xy

√

xy

√

xy

xy

To find the critical value of rtable the writer firstly must find Df. Df is Degree

of Freedom. The formula of Df is . N is the total number of research

population.

Df = N – 2 = 40 – 2 = 38

After found the Df, it known that rtable with N = 38 and 5% significant level is

B. Test of Hypothesis

From the computation above, it can be seen that the value of rxy is 0.616. To

know whether there is a significant correlation between the two variables or not,

the rxy value is consulted to the critical value of r table with N=38 and 5%

significant level is 0.312. It can be concluded that rxy value is greater than r table.

Based on the result above, it can be concluded that Ho is rejected and HI is

accepted. It means that there is the correlation between students‘ understanding of past tense and their ability in writing recount text.

C. Discussion

Writing needs some language components such as grammar, spelling,

vocabularies and punctuation. In the case of recount text, past tense has an

essential role to show the reader when the actions take time. Hairston stated that, ―to write clearly, you have to pay attention to everything: audience, sentence,

structure, transition, choice of example, and half dozen of other consideration‖. 47

This theory is related to the research about the correlation between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text, because tenses

is a part of the consideration in writing.

After analyzing the data, it can be seen that the score of rratio is 0.616 and the

value of rtable with N = 38 and 5% significant level is 0.312. It means that there is a correlation between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text because rratio = 0.616 higher than rtable = 0.312.

Comparing to the previous research by Azmi in 2011, about the correlation

between past tense and recount text, he found the result of his research is 66.15 for the average scores of students‘ mastery of past tense and 71.075 for the

average scores of students‘ ability in writing recount text. For the final result is

0.8107 which means there is the correlation between students‘ mastery of past tense and their ability in writing recount text.

47

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on the result of the research above, it can be concluded that the

relationship between students‘ understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text of the eighth grade students of MTs. Mathla‘ul Anwar, Tangerang is in the average relationship. It can be seen from the computation of the average result of students‘ understanding of past tense and the average result of students‘ skill in writing recount text. The average result of students‘ understanding of past tense is 70.9 and the average result of students skill in

writing recount text is 62.65. By using product momen correlation formula by

Pearson, the result of the computation is rratio is 0.616 which is higher than rtable

with N=40 and 5% significant level is 0.312. The result of rratio is also between

0.400–0.700 which means the relationship between these two variables is in the average relationship.

B. Suggestion

From this study, the writer has some suggestions for the teacher and the

students to improve their understanding of past tense and their skill in writing

recount text. The sugestions are:

1. The students should know that there is the correlation between their

understanding of past tense and their skill in writing recount text. So, they

have a motivation to increase their score of past tense in order to increase

their score in writing recount text.

2. The students have to practice their writing and reading in order to enrich their

3. The teachers have to motivate them in studying English especially in studying

past tense and gives them daily exercise to write about their activities such as

the diary.

4. The teacher should have many interesting way to teach the students about

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