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AN ANAYSIS ON STUDENTS STUDENTS’’ DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING SIMPLE PAST TENSE AND PRESENT PERFECT TENSE by: M. Baiquni Syukron1, Yanti Suryanti2, Deddy Sofyan3
ABSTRACT Students consider tenses uneasy materials to understand. Many students have difficulties in understanding tenses since there are many similarity both in patterns and functions. In this research, the writer only focuses on Simple Past tense and Present Perfect Tense. The aim of this research is to investigate students’ difficulties in understanding Simple Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense. The research is conducted at FKIP Universitas Pakuan. The writer chooses students of class B from the second semester of English Education Study Program who get score less than B in Structure I and the lecturer of Structure I to be researcher’s respondent. After collecting the data, the writer concludes that students have difficulties in applying adverb of time, the irregular verbs, and the aggrement into simple past tense and present perfect tense.
Key words: Students’ difficulties, students’ understanding, simple past tense, present perfect tense
English Education Study Program Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Educational Sciences Pakuan University, Mei 2013
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Students of English Study Program FKIP Pakuan University
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Lecturer of English Study Program FKIP Pakuan University
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Lecturer of English Study Program FKIP Pakuan University
ABSTRAK Tenses merupakan salah satu materi yang sulit dipahami oleh siswa. Umumnya siswa merasa kesulitan memahami tenses karena beberapa Tenses memiliki keamaan baik pada pola kalimat maupun fungsinya. Dalam penelitian ini, Penulis hanya fokus pada kesulitan siswa dalam memahami Simple Past Tense dan Present Perfect Tense. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisa kesulitan-kesulitan siswa dalam memahami Simple Past Tense dan Present Perfect Tense. Penelitian dilakukan di FKIP Universitas Pakuan. Penulis memilih siswa semester dua Program Studi Bahasa Inggris kelas B yang mendapat nilai kurang dari B dalam mata kuliah Structure I sebagai responden penelitian. Setelah pengumpulan data, Peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa siswa mengalami kesulitan dalam menerapkan Adverb of time, The irregular verb, dan The aggrement ke dalam Simple Past Tense dan Present Perfect Tense. INTRODUCTION English is used everywhere because it is global language. Moreover, English is language of internet, business, politics, and diplomacy. Many countries use it as their first or second language and in Indonesia, English is a foreign language. One of important components in language is grammar. Grammar is important because it makes the speaker constructs sentence in grammatical order and conveys the meaning clearly. As Harmer (2010:32) states, “Grammar can thus be partly as knowledge of word can go where and what form these word should take. Studying grammar means knowing how different grammar element can be strung together to make chain of words”. It means Grammar is a study about how to arrange words into sentence in grammatical order. One of difficult grammar materials is tenses. First, it is because tenses have sixteen patterns to comprehend by students. Second, English has infinitive, past tense,
past participle verbs. Moreover, verbs in English are divided into regular and irregular verbs which make students need more effort to understand the material. Third, there are many almost similarities in the pattern or in the function in tenses. Based on the problems above, the writer wants to analyze students’ difficulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense the research questions in this research: What are students’ difficulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. The simple past is the tense which is used to tell actions completed at a definite time in the past. Schrampfer (1992:18) says “The simple past is used to talk about activities or situations that began and ended in the past”. It is usually followed by adverb of time like a few minutes ago, five hours ago, yesterday, last night, last week, last month, and so on.
English Education Study Program Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Educational Sciences Pakuan University, Mei 2013
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There are three forms of the simple past tense. The first is statement. It is constructed by putting simple past after the subject. The simple past is formed by adding –ed to the infinitive, as Thomson and Martinet (1985:161) say that “The simple past tense in regular verb is formed by adding- ed to the infinite.” The simple past also can be constructed by using TO BE (was, were). It depends on the subject in the sentence, was is used if the subject of sentence are I, he, she, it and third subject singular. On the other hand, were is used if subject of sentence are you, we, they. In the negative form, it is constructed by adding not after the verb. In contrast, the interrogative form is constructed by putting to be at the biginning of the sentences. According to Thomas (2011:281), “The simple past can be used in a number of ways. Most functions of past tense is clearly to refer to completed situations presented as occuring before the time of speaking”. It means The simple past tense has many functions but mostly it is used for presenting actions and situations in the past. Moreover, it is used to talk about habitual in the past. As Thomson and Martinet say that “The simple past is also used for a past habit”. The Present perfect tense allows you to refer to a past action that has been completed at the present time”. The primary difference in meaning between the two tenses is that the present perfect describes a situation that continues to exist up to the present time, while the past tense describes a situation that no longer exist or an event that took place in the particular time. Action in present perfect tense happened in the past but has a result the situation in the present, while the simple past tense refers to action which has no result situation in the present. It also refers to action which took place in unspecified time. The present perfect tense in affirmative form is constructed with have/has+ past participle. Have is used if the subject are: I, you, we, they. While, has is used if the subject are he, she, it or other singular
subjects. The past participle in regular verbs are exactly form the same as the simple past. The interrogrative form of it is constructed with have + subject + past participle According to Thomson and Martinet (2009 : 166), “This tense may be said to be a sort of mixture of present and past. It always implies a strong connection with the present and it is cheifly used in conversation, letters, newspapers, and television and radio report”. It means this tense is mainly used to tell action in the past but which has connection to the present. Moreover, there are other varied functions. First, present perfect is used for to tell an action that happened in unspecified time, an action that started in the past but still continues at the present, and actions occuring many times in the past
METHODOLOGY In this research, the writer applies qualitative approach. He uses descriptive method to describe the analysis of students’ difficulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. To achieve the aim of this research, He administers questioner, interviews and documentation. Below is research design: Reason for choosing the the topic
Research Questions
Aim of the research
Research Participant
Research Method
Triangulate
Conclusion
English Education Study Program Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Educational Sciences Pakuan University, Mei 2013
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The Research is conducted at FKIP Universitas Pakuan. The writer chooses students of class B from the second semester of English study program who get score less than B in structure I and the lecturer of structure I to be reasercher’s respondent. To collect the data from respondents, the writer uses three kinds of instruments: questionnaire, interview and documentation. The questionnaire is used to acquire information about students’ difficulties in understanding the two tenses. It consists of eleven questions. The questions are about the students’ difficulties, students’ learning style, and students’ opinion about the two tenses. The writer uses the interview to know lecturer’s opinion about students’ difficulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense during structure I. The documentation is collected by the writer to get further infomation about students’ difficulties in understanding those tenses from students’ work sheet. First of all, the questionnaire is distributed to the respondents to find out their experience in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. Then, the writer interviews the lecturer of structure I to find out more about students’ difficulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense in structure I. Finally, the writer uses documentation to obtain further information. RESEARCH FINDING To answer research question “What are the students’ difficulies in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense?” The writer crosschecks the data from the questionnaire, interview, and documentation. Most of students who study simple past tense and present perfect tense in Stucture I have difficulties in differentiating the fuctions of those tenses. Moreover, the students confuse to distinguish if the adverb of time in the sentence is not stated.
Students also have difficulties in applying the irregular verbs. They have not memorized all of the irregular verbs. They often add -ed into irregular verbs. From the lecturer explanation, many students often write buyed instead of bought in using simple past and present participle in simple past tense and present perfect tense. The last, few students have difficulties in understanding the pattern.The students admit they have difficulties in using the agreement such as was, were, has, and have. To overcome the problem, the respondents say that they need additional exercises, review, and tips from the lecturer in distinguishing simple past and present perfect. The students also tried to understand more by doing exercise in grammar book, sharing with their classmate, and reviewing the material at home. They also suggest that in teaching the two tenses the lecturer should make sure that all students are involved in teaching learning process and explain slowly, detail and also in fun way. DISCUSSION A. Result of Questionnaire There are eleven questions in this questionnaire, the first question is Apa motivasi Anda untuk memahami tenses? 94% respondents say that they want to be able to construct sentences in grammatical order while 6% of them just want to pass Structure I. Second question is Apa yang sudah Anda pahami dalam materi simple past dan present perfect tense? 83% respondents understand the pattern of simple past and present perfect tense, 15% of them only understand the pattern of simple past, and only 2% respondents only understand the pattern of present perfect. Next question is Apa yang belum Anda pahami dalam mempelajari dua tenses tersebut? 57% of them do not understand in distinguishing the two tenses because both of them are used to tell past event, 32% respondents do not understand in using regular and irregular verbs, and 11%
English Education Study Program Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Educational Sciences Pakuan University, Mei 2013
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respondents do not understand in using agreement. Fourth question is Apa kesulitan Anda dalam mempelajari simple past tense dan present perfect tense? They have difficulties in understanding adverb of time in simple past and present perfect tense (72%),in memorizing irregular verbs (25%), lack of vocabulary (2%), and lack of motivation (1%). The fifth question is Apa kesulitan Anda dalam memahami perbedaan fungsi simple past dan present perfect tense? The respondents have difficulties in distinguishing because those tenses are used to tell event in the past (97%) and the rest of the respondents wrote unclear answers (3%). The sixth question is Bagaimana cara Anda mengatasi kesulitan tersebut? They overcome the difficulties by reading and doing the exercise in grammar books (83%), sharing with their friends (15%), reviewing the material at home (2%). Seventh question is Apa yang Anda butuhkan untuk meningkatkan pemahaman Anda dalam mempelajari dua tenses tersebut? From their answer, the writer notes that they need tips in distinguishing simple past and present perfect tense from the lecturer (34%), need to join courses (38%), more grammar books (18%), and partner in learning the two tenses (10%). Question number eight is Bagaimana usaha Anda untuk memahami simple past dan present perfect tense? They tried to understand more about it by doing exercises in books and internet (92%), sharing with friends (5%), memorizing formula (3%), using it in daily conversation (2%). The ninth question is Menurut Anda dengan cara bagaimana sebaiknya materi simple past tense dan present perfect tense disampaikan? From the respondents’ answers, students want simple past and present perfect are explained in detail, slowly and clearly (76%), giving more examples and exercises (11%), using Bahasa Indonesia (8%), and dicussing (5%). The tenth question is Bagaimana dosen melibatkan Anda secara aktif dalam proses pembelajaran dua tenses tersebut di kelas?
They are involved in teaching learning process in discussing and sharing the material in a group (48%), answering questions on whiteboard (14%), and just listening to the teacher (32%) and the rest of them give unclear answer (6%). The last question is Apa saran Anda agar pembelajaran simple past tense dan persent perfect tense agar lebih efektif? From their answer, the writer knows that simple past and present perfect tense sould be taught in fun way (63%). The lectures should add exercise and homework (19%), and explain the material in detail (18%). B. Result of Interview The writer tries to explore more about students’ difficulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense by interviewing the lecturer, this interview was conducted in April 11th, 2013. He asked eleven questions to the lecturer. From the lecturer explanations, the writer knows that the lecturer uses Jigsaw and Think Pair share of Cooperative Learning in teaching simple past and present perfect tense because he wants his students involve in teaching learning process. He uses English and also Bahasa Indonesia if it is needed in explaining the materials since he wants the students to understand his explaination. In teaching learning process, the students are asked to discuss and find out the materials as much as possible with their groupmates. They have to share to the other groups. Next, the lecturer adds the detail information about it. Finaly, he asks the students to do the exrcises. He usually explains simple past before present perfect tense. The lecturer admits that the students have difficulties in differentiating the two tenses if the adverb of time is not stated or unclear in the sentence. He helps them by giving the traits of those tenses. Finally, he suggests that the students who learn simple past and present perfect have to be careful in applying the irregular verbs, and adverb of time.
English Education Study Program Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Educational Sciences Pakuan University, Mei 2013
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CONCLUSION Based on the research, the writer concludes that many students who take stucture I find several dificulties in understanding simple past tense and present perfect tense. The difficulties are distinguishing the functions of the tenses, applying irregular verbs, and understanding the pattern of the two tenses. First of all, most respondents have difficulties in distinguishing the function since the two tenses are used to tell the past events. They usually confuse in the test if the adverb of time is not clear or stated in the sentence. As the result, they doubt what tense they have to use. Second, students have difficulties in using the irregular verbs. Many of them have not memorized all of the irregular verbs. As the result, they often add –ed into irregular verbs. The last, few students have difficulties in understanding the pattern of present perfect tense. In addition, The students admit they have difficulties in using the agreement such as was, were, has, and have. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching. England: Pearson Longman. Thornbury Scott. 2003. How to Teach Grammar. Essex: Pearson Longman. Herawati, Atti. 2008. Research on ELT. A Handook for EESP Students. Unpublised.
Douglas et. al. 1999. Grammar of Spoken and written English. London: Pearson Education Limited. Payne, Thomas E. 2011. Undersatanding English Grammar. New York: Cambridge University Press. Thomson and Martinet V. 2005. A practical English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sukur, Silvester Goridus. 2008. Complete English Grammar For TOEFL Test Langkah Jitu Melejitkan Score TOEFL Test. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Indonesia Cerdas. Brown, H. Douglas. 2000. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc. BIOGRAPHY M. Baiquni Syukron was born on December, 10th 1990 in Bogor He started his study in TK Ass’addah when he was five years old. He continued his study in SDN Ciluar I. He was graduated in 2002 and he continued his study in SMPN 3 Cibinong. In 2005 he continued his study in SMA Darut Tafsir. He finished his study in 2008 and he continued again for his first degree (S1) in Universitas Pakuan, Bogor. He took English Education Study Program, Faculty of Teachers Training and Educational Sciences, Pakuan University. He started to conduct the research from March, 05th 2013 and on May, 23th 2013 he has graduated as a Bachelor of Education.
Azar, Betty S. 1989. Understanding and Using English Grammar. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall , Inc. Danesi, Marcel. 2006. Basic American Grammar and Usage. New york: Barron’s Educational Series. Inc.
English Education Study Program Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Educational Sciences Pakuan University, Mei 2013
