AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ABILITY ON UNDERSTANDING PASSIVE VOICE AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF STKIP PGRI WEST
SUMATERA IN 2013/2014 ACADEMIC YEAR
Arma Rasyid1), Melvina,M.Ed2), Rika Afriyanti,M.Pd3)
1)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang , Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun arma.rasyid@yahoo.co.id
2)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun melvina.amir@yahoo.com
3)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun rikaafriyanti21@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The background of this research that students had problem in understanding passive sentences. It happened because the students did not master in grammar. The purpose of this research was to found out the students’ ability in understanding passive voice. This research was descriptive quantitative research. Population of this research were all of English Department students in STKIP PGRI West Sumatera 2013/2014 academic year. Moreover, samples of this research were 32 students that taken by simple random sampling. In collecting the data, researcher gave grammatical test. Grammatical test consisted of multiple choice and fill in the blanks. The number of items was 40 questions. In this research, researcher analyzed the students’ ability in understanding nine forms of passive voice that used as passive voice test. There are nine form of passive voice. The each form have four until five questions.
Based on the data that have analyzed, the researcher found that 26 students were to answer the question number 28 correctly (81%) in modals auxiliaries passive voice. Meanwhile, the difficult question with percentage 13%. The researcher found out that 4 students answered the question number 8 in part B in future tense passive voice.
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh adanya siswa yang bermasalah dalam memahami kalimat pasif. Hal ini disebabkan oleh penguasaan grammar yang kurang baik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana kemampuan mahasiswa dalam memahami kalimat pasif. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian descriptive quantitative research.Populasidari penelitian ini adalah semua mahasiswa Bahasa Inggris tahun ajaran 2013/2014 STKIP PGRI Padang . Sedangkan yang menjadi sample adalah 32 orang mahasiswa yang dihitung menggunakan formula dan diambil menggunakan random sampling. Dalam pengumpulan data, peneliti memberikan test kepada mahasiswa, yaitu grammar test. Grammatical test berbentuk pilihan ganda dan isian. Tes ini terdiri dari 40 soal. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menganalisa bagaimana kemampuan mahasiswa bahasa Inggris dalam memahami sembilan bentuk-bentuk kalimat pasif di gunakan sebagai materi tes di kalimat pasif. Ada sembilan jenis pasif. Masing – masing bentuk pasif mempunyai empat sampai lima pertanyaan. Berdasarkan data yang diperoleh, peneliti menemukan bahwa 26 siswa mampu menjawab pertanyaan nomor 28 dalam jenis kalimat pasif modals auxiliaries dengan persentasi pertanyaan termudah 81%. Sedangkan untuk pertanyaan tersulit dengan persentasi 13%, peneliti menemukan hanya 4 siswa mampu menjawab pertanyaan nomor 8 di bagian B dalam jenis kalimat pasif future tense.
Key Words: Passive Voice, Students’ Ability.
INTRODUCTION
Learning a language is supported by learning the components of the language, such as vocabulary, structure, pronunciation, and spelling. Lado (1999, p.163) states, “Learning a foreign language can be
defined for testing purpose not only as learning to understand and be understood, but more specially as learning to use the structural units and patterns of the foreign language in valid situation”. From this definition it can be said that learning a foreign language is not just enough to understand the
language but it is necessary to measure to what extend the learners’ ability to master the grammar or structure correctly in any situation.
Grammar is one of important parts in studies English; grammatical competence is concerned with communicative competence. The difficulties of learning English are mainly caused by the grammatical systems which are different from Indonesia language. One of the grammatical structures in English is passive voice. This material is very important to known by students or learner who studying English. If the people want their words to seem impersonal, indirect, and noncommittal, passive is the choice.
Passive voice is the verb form, where the subject receives the action. Thomson and Martinet (1998, p.176) explain, “ the passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb”. For example: “Oji loves Iid for thousand years (Active)” and “Iid is loved (by) Oji for thousand years (Passive)”. From the example above, in a simple rule, the sentence in the active voice can be transformed to the passive voice in which the subject in the active becomes the object in the passive voice and object in active becomes subject in passive voice. The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the active verb becomes the agent of the passive verb. The agent is very often to be mentioned, when it is mentioned, it proceeded by “by” and placed at the end of the sentence.
Based on the researcher’s interview with Ms.
Armilia Riza,M.Pd (grammar’s lecturer) on September 17th2015 and classroom pre-observation that have done by researcher in Grammar II class at English Department of STKIP PGRI West Sumatra, researcher found that several phenomena in using passive by the students. In Indonesian passive voice uses only prefix to express passive sentence.
Otherwise, in English must use many elements such as the different tenses of to be followed by past participle and apply by in define agents. In usage correct passive sentence, the student need to master tenses for instance: tenses(present, past and future tense, etc.), auxiliaries (modal auxiliaries and auxiliaries verb).Because every tenses have different to bethat should they put in right form. The students usually make errors in building passive sentences as they ignore some aspects required in arranging best form of passive sentence.
Then, a problem which commonly faced by the students is to change the past participle form. On the other hand, the verb used in passive sentences are
always in past participle form. For example, “Cake was eat by the mouse”. But in right pattern, “Cake was ate by the mouse”. And then, the students usually make errors in the agent less passive constructions where the by-phrase was missing and only the verb to be with the past participle appeared as an indicator of the passive voice as in “the girl was pushed the boy”but in right pattern as“ the girl was pushed (by) the boy”. Furthermore, sometimes they do not know who did the action. Thereceiverof the action (or the action itself) is much more important than the doer of the action. In such cases, choose the passive voice. For example: Everyone in the village was quarantined for smallpox. (we care more about the people who were quarantined than people who did the quarantining). Last, students are misunderstanding in making passive sentence. They consider all of the active sentence can be changed into passive sentence. In fact, it is not correct because passive sentence only can be changed if use transitive verbs, for example “She is beautiful” (it cannot change to the passive because it is intransitive verbs).
Because of that, many students feel learning of passive voice is not easy. They are still confused to know the usage of some differential structures on tenses. That is also aimed at avoiding difficulties of using passive sentences.
Under the circumstances, the researcher argues that to get a good ability on using passive voice, it is required for the students to able in passive voice. So the researcher interest to analyze students’
ability on understanding passive voice in grammar class at English Department of STKIP PGRI West Sumatera 2013/2014 Academic Year.
Lyons (1998, p.145) states, “sentence is an independent linguistic form, not included by virtue of any grammatical constuction in any larger linguistic form”. It means that the sentence is the largest unit of grammatical description. a sentence is grammmatical unit between the constituent parts of which distrubutions and dependencies can be established, but which can itself be put into no distibution class.
Traditionally defined ad a word or group of words that express a complete idea and that includes a subject and a verb.
In addition, Sidney and Gerald (2002, p.76) state, “sentence is the largest unit that expresses a complete thought”. It means that sentence can be meant as a set of ideas or opinions that will be told by the writer in written form. It is because the ideas or opinion of the writer will be the component in describing about something happened. Idea will also be a crucial part for the writer in producing good writing.
In conclusion, sentence is a combination of some words that have meaning. The words will be
chosen by the writer based on his or her idea or opinion about something. Therefore, sentence is used by the writer to express about something that he or she thought. Sentence will create a combination of words in good composition if the writer can apply well.
According to Murphy (1982, p.72), “the passive voice shows that subject of the sentence is being acted upon, that is, is receiving the action of the verb”. It means that the passive sentences are necessary when the doer of the action (the subject) is less important than the action itself or the result of the action. In passive sentence, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentences and the thing doing the action optionally included near the end of sentence passive form. Students can use the passive if they think that the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized. So, they should able to use passive voice and know who is doing the action
.
Moreover, Dykes (2007, p.114) notes, “the word ‘passive’ is form Latin passivus meaning
‘suffering’. A verb in the passive voice is one in which the subject suffers the action, i.e. it happens to the subject”. It means that the form of a verb used when the subject is affected by the action of the active verb. Thus, in passive voice if subject area states a preference for passive voice, then the receiver of the action comes first in the sentence, and we may choose to omit the doer of the action.Example: The ball was kicked by Jasmin. In this sentence, the subject is ‘the ball’ and it suffered the action of being kicked.
Based on some opinion above, the researcher concludes that in a simple rule, the sentence in the active voice can be transformed to the passive voice in which the subject in the active becomes the object in the passive voice and object in active becomes subject in passive voice. The object of passive becomes personal pronoun as object that isthem.The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to beinto the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the active verb becomes the agent of the passive verb. The agent is very often to be mentioned, when it is mentioned, it proceeds by “by”
and placed at the end of the sentence. The passive sentences are only used when it fits the meaning of the sentence. If it is not used correctly, the passive voice usually expresses an idea in a weaker way than the active voice. We must notice that only action verbs that have a direct object (transitive verb) may show passive sentences. And then, in learning process the lecturer have to know what the learner need, so that teacher can choose the theory that
appropriate the student ability so that the student can be easy to catch the passive voice that given by lecturer.
RESEARCH METHOD
The design of this research was a descriptive quantitative. The researcher chose this type because the researcher wanted to described the students’
ability on understanding passive voice in sentences.
As a Gay et al (2000,p.275) state, “a descriptive study to determines and describes the ways thing are”. Therefore, refers on those statements, descriptive research is a process to collect the data based on the phenomenon that happen in the field. In addition, Gay et all (2009, p.7) note, “quantitative is the collection and analysis of numerical data to describe, explain, predict, or control phenomena of interest”. In brief, it is called quantitative because the data obtained from the test result done by the students. Thus, the researcher used descriptive quantitative design because researcher wanted to analyzed and described about students’ ability on understanding passive voice at English Department of STKIP PGRI West Sumatra in 2013/2014 Academic Year.
According to Ary et al (2010, p.148) ”a population is defined as all members of any well- defined class of people, events, or objects”. The population of the research was the English Department students of STKIP PGRI West Sumatera in 2013/2014 academic year. There were six classes of English Department in 2013/2014 academic year.
They were 2013A, 2013C to 2013 F each class had about 40 students, and than 2013B, it has about 39 students. Based on the researcher’s observation, total students were 239 students. Sample is the part of population that is taken by using specific way, it is known by sampling. Polit and Beck (2004, p.291) emphasize, “sampling is the process of selecting a portion of the population to represent the entire population”. In this research, researcher used simple random sampling technique. Ary et al ( 2010, p.150),
“sampling technique has basic characteristic that is all members of population have an equal and independent chance of being included in the random sample”. In determining the size of sample, the researcher used this following formula (Sugiyono, 2013, p.124) because the number of population had been known.
Instrument is a tool in collecting the data. In this research, the researcher used test as instruments.
Using instrument, it can help the researcher to collected all of information that is needed to support this research. According to Ary et al (2010, p.201) “a
test is set of stimuli presented to an individual in order to elicit resposes on the basis of which a numerical score can be assigned”. In this research, the researcher uses grammar test for instrument.
Grammatical test consisted of 40 items. There were two parts in this test, part A and B. Part A consists of 30 multiple choices and part B consists of 10 items which the students change active sentences into passive sentences.
In technique of data collecting in this research, the researcher focuses on test. In gathering the data, the researcher prepared the instruments before gave a test at English Department of STKIP PGRI West Sumatra in 2013/2014 Academic Year.
The researcher done the research as follow, the researcher asked teacher permission before coming to the class. Before researcher gave a test for the representative sample, the researcher gave try out to another class. After gave the try out and measure the validity and reliability of the test, the researcher gave a test for representative sample. The researcher searched the grammar test to the students. After the students finish the test, the researcher collected students’ grammar test. The researcher analyzed students’ ability on using passive voice in sentences.
In analyzing the data, researcher did several steps. They are: First, researcher makes score for each question for each kinds of passive voice.
Second, researcher used percentage scale. It can interpret students’ ability on using passive voice in each forms of tenses. After measuring the students’
ability result by using percentage, researcher classified the students’ ability by using the classification is suggested by Sudijono (2009, p.35).
Researcher used the percentage scale to interpret students’ ability on understanding passive voice in sentences. Interpreting has a function to give information related the result of the research.
Therefore, interpreting can be the important part of the research because it can determine the situation, condition or ability of the sample after conduct the research.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Based on data analysis and finding above.
From the data that the researcher got, most of the students got mark score 0-45. Based on the percentage scale that failed because score of students’
understand on passive voice in the 0% until 45%
scale. The researcher have given the students fourty question that include nine forms of passive voice.
The researcher found most of students was able in answering the question number 28 about modals auxiliaries. Then, most of students was unable in
answering question number 8 in Part B about future tense. It can be interpreted that the question number 28 about modals auxiliaries is easy for students understanding on passive voice with percentage 81%
students of sample. The researcher also interpreted that the question number 8 in part B about future tense in passive voice have difficulties for students understanding with percentage 13%.
In addition, from the nine forms of passive voice, the researcher had interpretation that some students were have similar mistake in students’
ability on understanding passive voice. The first mistake was in using tobe.The second mistake was in using verb participle. The third mistake was some students did not know who is the doer of the action.
The last mistake was the students can not change active sentence into passive sentence.
Therefore, researcher also made interpreted related to the data that researcher got after researcher analyzed the data. Passive voice is one of the materials that need students’ full attention in learning process because from the data that researcher got, the students’ understanding on passive voice was failed.
It means most of the students do not understand related the material and it become difficult for the students to answer the questions that researcher gave in done this research.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
In this research, the researcher analyzes the students’ ability on understanding passive voice at English Department of students STKIP PGRI West Sumatra in 2013/2014 academic year. After analyzing the data from the students’ test, the researcher gave score for each forms of passive voice. The researcher can conclude that students’
ability on understanding passive voice was failed.
Therefore, the students’ need to pay attention in understand passive voice, and if the students do not understand they can ask to the teacher again until they comprehend related to passive voice in sentences.
Dealing with the research finding, it can be a view for students, teacher and also researcher.
Passive voice is one of the materials that need students and teacher pay attention. In this material, the teacher gave students several exercises to finds students’ problem on passive voice. Therefore, the researcher has some suggestions. First, for the lecturer should be more pay attention related students’ ability on understanding passive voice. The lecturer also gave exercises to broke students’
problem on passive voice in sentences. Meanwhile, for the students, they should pay attention when teacher explain this materials. The students should ask the teacher if still doubt with this materials.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To complete this thesis, the researcher has obtained a plentiful guidance, help, advices, and constructive critics from many people. In this occasion, the researcher would have to extend his special gratitude and very special thanks and appreciation are given from the deepest of his heart to the advisors, Melvina,M.Ed and Rika Afriyanti,M.Pd who have been kinds and willing to give their times, opinions, and supports in completing this thesis.
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