CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Grammar is one of the language components that need to be paid more attention in learning English. The students need to learn and master grammar in order to understand how to make a good sentence. Incorrect grammatical sentences and using wrong tenses can make miscommunication each other. The students often get confused and do not know how to use the correct grammar of English. English grammar is different from Indonesian grammar. For example, in Bahasa Indonesia we do not need to use an auxiliary verb to construct a sentence while in English the auxiliary verb is needed. If we want to transform a positive sentence into negative one, there is no change of the verb in Bahasa Indonesia while in English the form of the verb must be changed, particularly in simple past tense. As stated in Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP 2007:11) telah dipahami bahwa tatabahasa membantu seseorang untuk mengungkapkan gagasannya dan membantu sipendengar untuk memahami gagasan yang diungkapkanoleh orang lain. It means that grammar is one of English component that must be mastered by the students. It will help the students to use English both oral and written form in daily life. At senior high school, the students get formal teaching of English sentence based on its tense. Several tenses have been taught in senior high
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school, one of them is simple past tense. In learning simple past tense, student has to know the change form of the verb. For example, they go to school yesterday, Yoksan is a driver last year, he visit his mother last Saturday, etc. The sentence make correct in communication because the meaning and the function is clear, but it is not grammatically correct. The sentence must be: They went to school yesterday, Yoksan was a driver last year, he visited his mother last Saturday. From this reason, it is important for students at senior high school to learn simple past tense in order to minimize incorrect grammatical sentence. For an English teacher, it is important to teach simple past tense with the appropriate media of learning English. One of them is by using true story. The writer chooses true story as a media of teaching simple past tense because it is an attractive media that can stimulate them in learning simple past tense. True story is written based on the real events of peoples experiences. The most verb used in the story is in past form. Based on the researchers experience when she took PPLT in SMA Negeri 1 Ampibabo, she found out many students of the eleventh grade got difficulty in using simple past tense, especially when they are asked to transform the verb from positive into negative and interrogative. Most of them got difficulty to change the verb and to use auxiliary did in the sentence. Then the writer think about the appropriate media that can be a good solution to solve students problem there in using simple past tense, that is true story.
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The writer chooses SMA Negeri 1 Ampibabo as the place of her research because she wants to help students there to use simple past tense correctly. By using true story, the writer hopes it can be a good solution to overcome students difficulty in using simple past tense.

1.2 Problem statement Based on the problem written above, the writer formulates a problem statement as follow: Can the use of true story improve the ability of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Ampibabo in using simple past tense?

1.3 Objective of the research The objective of this research is to prove that the using of true story can be an effective way to improve students ability of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Ampibabo in using simple past tense.

1.4 Hypothesis of the research The hypothesis of the research is described as follow: The ability of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Ampibabo in using simple past tense can be improved through the application of true story.

1.5 Significance of the research 1.5.1 For students The result of this research is expected to be useful for the students in overcoming their problems dealing with the use of simple past tense, so the ability of the students can be improved. 1.5.2 For teacher It is expected give valuable contribution for the teacher who wants to develop their method to solve students problem in learning simple past tense by implemented true story. 1.5.3 For the writer It will enlarge her knowledge and get experience by doing this research. 1.5.4 For the reader This research can be one of the references for the next researcher to get information about the implementation of true story in learning simple past tense 1.6 Scope of the research The writer will conduct her research by focusing on teaching the use of to be (was, were), regular and irregular verbs in affirmative, negative and interrogative sentence. 1.7 Operational definitions of key terms Teaching : the activity of educating or instructing that inform knowledge or skill
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Simple past tense

: a kind of English tenses expresses an activity in the past

True story

: a kind of story tell the experiences of someone in the past