CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Research
Language plays a crucial function in life. Language is used for many various functions most of which involves interaction with other person. As people interact in different circumstances in the course of a day, they need to use a language in order to maintain contact with other in gaining and giving information. The crucial function of a language has been revealed by Marry Finnochiaro in his book English as Second Language from Theory to Practice, (1974: 5)
―The major functions of language have been subdivided by some linguists as follow: Personal: to express one‘s emotions, needs, thoughts, desires, attitudes, etc.Interpersonal: to maintain good social relations with individuals and groups—expressions of praise, sympathy, joy at another‘s success, inquiries about health, etc.Directive: to control the behavior of other through advice, warnings, request, Persuasion, discussion, etc. Referential: to talk about objects or events in the immediate setting or environment or in the culture. Metalinguistic: to talk about language: e.g., what does_________ mean? Imaginative: to use language creatively in rhyming, composing poetry, etc.‖
People do not just talk, instead they do a thing with words and sentences by using language to reveal idea, thought, opinion and feeling from one to other.
grammar, it is impossible for the students to compose sentence and speak English grammatically and it will limit the capacity for communication. By understanding it the students are expected not only to arrange words in the correct forms but also understand every word they read and listen as well as speak and write sentence in their own.
However the grammar is not the one thing that has to be emphasized in language. In language (sentence) there are things that have role as subject and predicate. Talking about sentences, is talking talk about subject and predicate. The subject is what is being talked and the predicate shows the action or state of the subject. In constructing a sentence, predicate will affect to its sentence. The predicate that will be used in a sentence must be adjusted with the subject and time when the action happened to the subject. Predicate in this research here is simple predicate.
Subject and simple predicate is a part of sentence that have been taught as long as the students learn English, but some students are often getting difficulty in understanding subject and simple predicate even they are students of English department. They often make error in the use of it. The error like this often happened whether in spoken or written English. If the students lack of mastering subject and simple predicate, it will affect on the failure of understanding a passage and making sentence related with subject and predicate.
To know the students‘ competence in subject and predicate it is
consideration of choosing a printed media in English should be based on the criteria of a good writing system. The Jakarta post is considered as the media because it has been widely published as a trusted national newspaper using English. It has good writing system, good English grammar and does not use figurative language as it is used in prose, so it is easy to understand the content of the passage, thus it can be used as an instrument for knowing the students‘ ability.
The language skill product is necessary to be grammatically correct. In order to produce good sentences, the students must have good grammatical competence. One of the grammars that must be mastered by the students is the concord between subject and predicate, therefore based on the interview to the forth semester students of English department of Muhammadiyah of Purwokerto, this research wants to know the competence of the students.
Based on the explanation above, this research does an investigation entitled ―Students‘ Competence in Analyzing Subject and Predicate in The
B. The Reason of Choosing Topic
It is interesting to take students‘ competence in analyzing subject and
simple predicate in the headline of The Jakarta Post as a topic of this research, because the students are often getting erroneous in subject and simple predicate. They do wrong identify which word/s that belong/s to subject and predicate. The erroneous are often happens especially in the simple predicate that involves helping verbs.
C. The Problem of Research
The knowledge about subject and simple predicate will increase students‘ ability to choose the correct grammatical form of sentences
according to their structural function. The problems of research are considered as follows:
3. How is the students‘ competence in analyzing subject and predicate? 4. What kinds of error are made by the students?
D. The Aim of Research
E. The Clarification of Term
To understand the topic easier, the terms of research are clarified as follows:
1. Competence
a. The word competence means person‘s knowledge of his language or the mastery of the system or rules of his language. (Ramelan, 1974: 860)
b. Competence is a person‘s knowledge about system, structure, vocabulary, and the also the all of aspect in that language like understanding and comprehending. So student‘s competence is
ability to do something well in researching. (Nurgiyanto, 2001: 165) 2. Subject
The subject is the person or thing in the sentence is ‗about‘. Often (but not always) it will be in the first part of the sentence. The subject will usually be a noun phrase (a noun and the words, such as adjectives that modify it) followed by verb. (Beech: 1984)
3. Simple Predicate
g. The simple predicate, or verb, is the main word or word group that tells something about the subject. (Margaret L. Benner, 2004: 2 ) h. The main word in the predicate is called the simple predicate.
(Martinez, 2012: 12) 4. The Jakarta Post
largest English language newspaper in Indonesia. The paper is owned by PT Bina Media Tenggara, and the head office is in the nation's capital, Jakarta. The newspaper was launched on 25 April 1983. (Rashtriya Sahara Urdu, 2009: 1).
F. Contribution of Research
This research is expected to give contribution for students, lecturers and other researches.
1. For students
By reading the information in this research, the students will know the subject and simple predicate rule. If the students make erroneous, they will not do it again.
2. For lecturers
The lectures know the students‘ ability in analyzing the subject
and simple predicate. 3. For the other researcher
