Rahman Rahim, S.E., M.M., Rector of Muhammadiyah University of Makassar for his scholar's academic advisor during the scholar's study. Erwin Akib, M.Pd., Ph.D, Dean of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar for the researcher's motivation and academic advisor during the researcher's study. The researcher also thanks the Head of Department of English Education, Ummi Khaerati Syam, S.Pd., M.Pd.
Thanks to all the researcher's friends at English Education Department 2015 and her classmates in Different Class.
INTRODUCTION
- Background
- Problem Statement
- Objective of Study
- Significance of Study
- Scope of the Research
Because of these questions, the researcher tends to know more about what are the difficulties or obstacles that EFL students face in learning grammar itself. What challenges do EFL students face in grammatical knowledge at Muhammadiyah University of Makassar Department of English. To analyze what challenges EFL students face in grammatical knowledge in English Department Muhammadiyah University of Makassar D.
For the researcher: To provide information and knowledge about what is the main challenge in developing grammar knowledge for EFL students at Muhammadiyah University, Makassar.
REVIEW THE RELATED LITERATURE
Previous of Related Finding
Sopin (2015) focused this research on students' perceptions of grammar teaching and learning in English language classrooms in Libya. This was to find out what the students' perceptions focus on form and error correction, and where these perceptions come from. Refnita (2014) focused this study on Students' grammatical problems in writing simple paragraphs: Lack of grammatical competence or language carelessness?.
It is suggested that all English grammar and writing instruction programs should be approached in such a way as to build and develop students' grammatical competence and language awareness.
Some Pertinent Ideas
- Concept of speaking
- Learning and Teaching Grammar
- The Importance of Grammar
- Challenges in Developing Grammar
An example of this was highlighted by Larsen-Freeman (2000) and Richards and Rodgers (2001), who argue that the grammar-translation method requires students to learn grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language. Grammar plays an important role in understanding and producing spoken language because learning grammar is considered fundamental to acquiring the correct utterances of language (Corder, 1988; Widodo, 2004). One of the English teachers claimed that she did not know the students' needs, while two of them believed that it is also a challenge to correct the students' mistakes, as they do not know exactly when to correct the students' mistakes, especially in speaking lessons.
Three of the English teachers said that having students with low language proficiency is also a challenge, while two more English teachers claimed that their students had negative attitudes towards grammar. Four of the English teachers claimed that they have no experience and this makes it difficult to teach grammar, while three of them teach grammar by trial and error as they were not taught ways of teaching grammar. The perception of the teachers can also be a challenge where the English teachers need to change their negative stigma towards grammar.
Four of the English lecturers believed that grammar was the most difficult part of teaching work, while two of them did not enjoy teaching grammar. Three of the English lecturers had high expectations for their students to learn grammar, as they believed that the students learned a lot when they were in school. Two of them, on the other hand, had expectations about the state of the classroom.
Regarding the grammar lesson, three English teachers claimed that it was a challenge for them to create a lesson that could meet the different needs of the students. Due to the difference in the structure of English and Indonesian language, students have difficulty in understanding the structure of English and writing in English.
Conceptual Framework
RESEARCH METHOD
Method of the Research
Subject of the Research
Variable of the Research
The first result reveals that there were 50 students who answered "I have challenges in developing grammatical knowledge". The third result showed that there were 50 students who answered "I am worried if the other students will laugh at me when I make a mistake in making English sentences." The result shows that 11 or 22% of students whose answers strongly agree with the statement 22 or 44% of the students answered agree and 5 or 10% were undecided with the statement. The result from the questionnaire shows that there were 17 or 34% students whose answers strongly agree, 8 or 16% students who answered agree, 10 or 20% students who answered undecided and 10 or 20% students whose answers disagree.
The result from the questionnaire shows that there were 20 or 40% students who answered strongly agree, 17 or 34% students who answered agree and 7 or 14% students answered undecided. While only 5 or 10% students disagree and 1 or 2% students strongly disagree with the statement. The result shows that there were 25 or 50% students who answered strongly agree, 11 or 22% students answered agree, 6 or 12% students answered undecided, 5 or 10% students who answered disagree and there were 3 or 6% students answered strongly. I don't agree.
The results of the questionnaire show that there were 10 or 20% of students who answered that they strongly agreed, 10 or 20% of students who answered that they agreed, 7 or 14% of students felt undecided with the statement. Meanwhile, there were 20 or 40% of students who answered that they disagreed, and 3 or 6% of students who answered that they strongly disagreed. The results of the questionnaire show that 7 or 14% of students answered strongly agree, 10 or 20% of students answered agree, 15 or 30% of students answered undecided, and 11 or 22%.
There were 50 students who responded "The atmosphere in the class makes me bored to learn grammar". The result indicates that there were 25 or 50% students who answered completely agree, 5 or 10% students whose answers agreed, 7 or 14% students answered undecided, 6 or 12% students answered disagree and 7 or 14% students whose answers do not agree. The result indicates that there are 10 or 20% students who answered strongly agree, 5 or 10% students whose answers agree, 20 or 40% students who answered undecided, 10 or 20% students who answered disagree and 5 or 10% students whose answers do not agree.
The results of the questionnaire indicate that there were 35 or 70% students who completely agree, 5 or 10% students whose answers agree, 2 or 4% students answered undecided. Meanwhile, there were 7 or 14% students whose answers disagreed and there were only 1 or 2% students who answered disagreed. Limited time is also one of the biggest challenges students face in learning grammatical knowledge at the English Department Muhammadiyah University of Makassar.
Instruments of the Research
Data Collection procedures
Technique of Data Analysis
The questionnaire data used the formula from Chapter 3 to know the percentages of students' challenges in developing grammatical knowledge. The second result showed that 50 students answered: “I am difficult in learning English because I don't know how to organize the sentences.” According to the statement at number 5, there were 50 students who responded: “I panic when the teacher asks me to complete English sentences.
This meant that most students were not confident in creating sentences using the correct grammar. There were 50 students who answered "I don't know how to distinguish the use of all tenses in English". It can be concluded that there were many students who did not know how to distinguish the use of all tenses in English.
The result showed that most of the students did not feel pressured when they attended the grammar class. There were 50 students who answered: “My learning environment is too noisy, so I can't learn grammar properly.” One of the biggest challenges students face in developing their grammatical knowledge is the lack of vocabulary; this is supported by the data from the questionnaire result.
Based on the findings and discussion, it can be concluded that there were some challenges in the development of grammatical knowledge by the EFL students of the English Department of Muhammadiyah University of Makassar.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Findings
Discussion
Based on the analysis of the data collected through the questionnaire, it turned out that the majority of students agree with the statements. The first challenge most students face in developing their grammar knowledge is not knowing how to organize words to make a good sentence. The lack of knowledge of structure made it difficult for students to organize the sentence to be a good paragraph. Supported by the questionnaire data and also supported by Muhsin (2015) said that without the mastery of grammar we cannot be better listeners, speakers, readers. , writer and communicator.
The second challenge is that most students agree that the learning environment is too noisy, preventing them from learning grammar correctly. Most of the problem that the student faces in learning English, including grammar, is vocabulary. They did not know much vocabulary, which can make it difficult for students to express their ideas in English. Lack of facilities made it difficult for students to develop their grammatical knowledge. Many of them argued that facilities are one of the biggest challenges in developing their grammatical knowledge because they do not have enough facilities to learn more about grammar supported by job interview data.
Meanwhile, Akbari (2015) also states that one of the problems students face in learning English is convenience: most students only have textbooks as a tool to learn English. This is supported by the data from the questionnaire result and Effendi et al. 2017) who said that the difference between the structure of English and Indonesian languages made it difficult for students to understand how to write in English through proper structure to use. The next challenge is a lack of self-confidence; most of the students in Muhammadiyah University of Makassar failed in grammar because they lacked confidence, which is supported by the data from the questionnaire result.
And they are afraid of being judged by their friends, so it makes students feel lack of confidence. Based on the findings, the researcher is needed to provide valuable suggestions for students and lectures. We hope this suggestion will be considered for them to develop the quality of students".
The atmosphere in the classroom has a major influence on the mood of the students, and this also applies to the lectures.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
