CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

Nowadays, English as an international language, English makes
many people in Indonesia must be able to communicate in order to the
next generation have good quality. English gives an important role as a
means of communication among people in the world for business,
education, technology, economy, science, etc. Moreover the importance of
English as spoken and written international communication, the Ministry
Education of Indonesia includes English as an obligatory subject to learn
in Junior High School up to Senior High School. In learning English, there
are four skills that must students need to learn, like: listening, speaking,
reading and writing. Not only the four skills but also have three
components that support of the lesson such as vocabulary, grammar and
pronunciation. Listening (understanding the spoken language) and reading
skills (understanding the written language) that involve receiving
messages are regarded as receptive skills. Speaking and writing skills
which involve language production are considered to be productive skills.1
Teaching English should be able to fill receptive skills and
productive skills, which is teach and learn from elementary school until
1

Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (New York: Longman,
1989), p. 16.

university. However, in Junior High School, English is taught as the main

subject. The main purpose of National Education of English is that
students should be able to understand in English communication. So the
learners must be able to master the four language skills. Receptive skill,
listening (understanding the spoken language), reading (understanding the
written language), and productive skills-speaking and writing.
As productive skill, writing is not like speaking skill in other hand
is called by receptive skills. Why it can said like that because Writing is
the most difficult skill for students not only it needs a lot of vocabularies,
but also correct grammatical in order to be comprehensible besides other
writings rules in make paragraph.
Writing text is the ability of the students to arrange the idea from
one paragraph to others and make efforts to connect the idea cohesively
and coherently so that is meaningful. Sometimes, many students write text,
but not many of them are able to write the text base on the correct
structures and features of the text itself. Therefore, the teachers are
expected to be able to guide the students when they study to write.
Recount text is one of the text genres that the students learn. This
text is written with the purpose to inform the readers or people about
something that happens in the past. It can be experiences and events. Many
students do not understand how to write this text correctly. When students
wrote about past experience they get many grammatical errors.

As we know, Richard state that errors caused by the interference of

the learners mother tongue.2 Most students still have difficulties in
learning it. It is not surprising because some of the differences, which are
found, between their native language and the language they are learning. It
seems that in learning a language, when a learner finds some forms,
meaning, and distribution of patterns that are functionally similar to his
native language, he will learn the language easily because he only transfers
the system of his mother tongue to his foreign language. But if the form,
meaning, and distribution of the pattern are different in the two languages
the learner will have difficulties.
The process of writing recount text is not easy for the students.
One of the indicators of the difficulties in writing recount text is using
simple past tense. The students make many mistakes in grammatical error.
To know errors in writing recount, errors analysis is needed. Sawyer in
Juanna states that Error Analysis arose from the need of objective statistics
to prove the previous hypothesis by analyzing the test scores of the
students in given area.3 So, error analysis is done by analyze the students
test and identify the errors from that test. By doing the error analysis, the
errors made by the students in writing recount text will be known.

Richard, Jack C. 1974. Error Analysis: Perspective on Second Language Acquisition.

(England: Longman Group Limited),p. 173.
Joanna Huang, Error Analysis in Language teaching: A Review of Studies,
.csghs.tp.edu.tw 03ERROR%20ANALYSIS.pdf, retrieved on 17th
November 2013

There are many kinds of English grammar that is taught and learnt
by the students. Simple past tense is one of the lessons in English grammar
that is taught and learnt by the second grade students, but it is still found
errors in doing items of simple past tense.
Doing the writing recount text is not easy for students. Based on
the researchers observation at the second grade students of Junior High
School at SMP N 3 Sungai Limau at the academic year 2013/2014, the
researcher found that writing recount text is one of the difficult subject to
be understood by the students. The first problem found by the researcher is
the students do not know how to use tobe in simple past tense and put it
into the verbal or nonverbal sentences. They cannot take it when they are
wrote a text that have been made by the students. The material about
recount text by using simple past tense has been learned by the students at
the second grade students but when the teacher ask the students to make
recount text, they just focus on how that text is finished without thinking
of use simple past tense on the grammar.
The second problem is when the students write recount text they
did not know how to use ed on verb. They just focused on them text,
they were confused to put ed in the regular verb or irregular verb. In this
case, many of the students put ed whenever they like. Furthermore, they
did not know the correct changing form of verb tense they wrote in their
writing. So, it can caused by the students seldom to see dictionary and
applied it into the sentence.

The last problem is the students knowledge. The students still

confused use the grammatical form in simple past tense. They still tend to
make errors. In this case, some students still made the recount text in
present form is simple present tense. They difficult to remember in writing
recount text should made by simple past. So, the student still made error in
writing recount text.
Based on the problems above, the researcher is interested in
conduct a research under the title An Error Analysis of Use Simple Past
Tense in Writing Recount Text by the Second Grade Students at SMP
N 3 Sungai Limau at the Academic Year 2013/2014

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of the problem above, there are three
problems found by researcher:
1.

What errors on the use of simple past tense in writing recount

text are made by the second grade students at SMP N 3 Sunagi
Limau?

2. What are the causes of errors on the use of simple past tense in
recount writing by second grade students at SMP N 3 Sunagi
Limau?
3. What problems do the students face in writing recount text?

C. Limitation of the Problem

In this research, the researcher will limit on the analysis of
grammatical errors in simple past tense form that are done by the students.
The writer just explains An Error analysis on the Use of Simple Past tense
in Writing Recount Text by second grade students at SMP N 3 Sungai
Limau at the Academic Year 2013/2014.

D. Formulation of the Problem

In accordance with the limitation of the problem above, the
problem of this research was formulated by the following question: Is
the use of Simple Past tense clear in Writing Recount Text by second
grade students at SMP N 3 Sungai Limau?

E. Purpose of the Research

Based on the statement of the problems above the writer has some
purposes:
1.

To identify and classify the errors on the use of simple past

tense in writing recount text by the second grade students at

2.

SMP N 3 Sungai Limau.

To find out the causes of errors in doing item of simple past

3.

tense.
To find out the students problems in writing recount text.

F. Significance of the Research

The researcher hopes that the result of this research give the
advantages to:
1.

To the college, it can be used as the reference for the next

researcher.

2.

To the lecturer, it can give the information about the

grammatical errors in simple past tense

done by the

students in writing recount text.

3.

To the students, the writer hopes the students will be able to

do simple past tense items well and improve the students
mastery of simple past tense.
4. To the writer, it can get more knowledge and experience
from the research.

G. Definition of the Key Term

The writer provides some definition of the terms used in the title of
the study. Those are:
1.
Error Analysis is the process of determining the incidence,
2.

nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language.

Simple past tense is a part of grammar lesson which
indicates that an activity or situation began and ended at
particular time in the past (Betty, 1989: 25).

3.

Recount text is a text which retells events or experiences in

the past. Its purpose is either to inform or to entertain the

4.

audience.
Writing is the process of using symbols (letters of the
alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts
and ideas in a readable form.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Theory

There are some relevant theories which are discussed about An error
analysis of use simple past tense in writing recount text.
1. The Nature of Error
a.

The Definition of Error

In learning a language, it is possible the learners to make
errors caused by the interference of the first language or the target

language. Errors can occur in grammatical, phonological, and

semantic level. That sentences related to Richard, he state that
errors caused by the interference of the learners mother tongue.4
According to Brown, human learning is fundamentally a
process that involves the making of mistakes. So about the
relation to the term of error, Brown defines error is a noticeable
deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting
the interlanguage competence of the learner.5
So,
b. Error Analysis
c. The Purpose of Error Analysis
d. Cause of Error
2. The Nature of Grammar
a. The Definition of Grammar
Each language has its own systematic rules, which is called
grammar. Jeremy Harmer (1999, 1) state that Grammar is
conventionally seen as the study of syntax and morphology of
sentences. As the branch of linguistic, it includes phonology
(pronunciation), morphology (inflectional form), syntax (the
relation of words to word in phrase, clause and sentences) and
semantics (meaning of word). In this research, the problem
concerns with the tenses and word order.
In addition, Grammar is partly the study of what
form/structure are possible in a language.6 This grammar is a
description of the rules that govern how languages sentences are
4
5

Richard, Jack ,,p. 173.

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Fourth Edition, (New York:
Addision Wesley Longman, Inc. 2000), 217.
Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach Grammar, (New York: Addision

scott Thornbury Longman, Inc. 1999). p, 1.

formed. Furthermore, a learner of a certain language should

understand the elements of grammar.
b. Tenses
c. The form of Simple Past Tense
There are two kinds of verb in simple past tense: regular
verbs and irregular verbs.
1.
Form of the simple past tense with regular verb
Regular verb is formed the past verbs by adding (d/ed) to
the infinite.
a. The regular past always ends in-d:
Arrive / arrived
Verbs ending in -e add -d:
Example: phone/phoned, smile/smiled.

This

rule

applies equally to agree, die, lie, invite, etc.

b. Verbs not ending in-e add ed:
Example: ask/asked, clean/cleaned, follow/followed,
kill/killed, visit/visited, etc.
c. Verb spells with a single letter followed by a single
consonant letter double the consonant.
Example: beg/begged, rub/rubbed,

stop/stopped,

plan/planned, slip/slipped, etc.

d. In two-syllable verbs the final consonant is doubled
when the last syllable contains a single vowel letter
followed by a single consonant letter and is stressed.
Example: prefer/preferred, refer/referred.
Compare: benefit/benefited, differ/.differed and
profit/provided which are stressed on their first
syllable and which therefore do not double their final
consonant. In American English labeled, quarreled,
signaled and traveled follow the rule. In British English

labeled, quarreled, signaled and traveled are exceptions

of the rule.
e. Verbs ending in y there are two rules to change.
When there is a consonant before-y, the y changes to
i before we add-ed.
Example: carry/carried, deny/denied, fry/fried, try/tried.
Compare: delay/delayed, obey/obeyed, play/played, etc.
which have a vowel before-y and therefore simply added in the past.
3. Form of the Simple Past Tense with regular Verbs.
Unlike regular verbs, irregular verbs (about 150 in all)
do not have past form that can be predicted:
a) A small number of verbs have the same form in the
present as in the past.
Example: cut/cut, hit/hit, put/put.
It is important to remember, particularly with such
verbs, that the third person does not change in the past.
Example: he shut (past) : he shuts (presents).
b) The past form of most irregular verbs is different from
the present.
Example: bring/brought,

catch/caught,

keep/kept,

leave/left, lose/lost. (Wikipeda).

d. The Pattern of Simple Past
Simple past is used for describing acts that have already
been concluded and whose exact time of occurrence is known.
Furthermore, simple past is used for retelling successive events.
That is why it is commonly used in storytelling.
The simple past indicates that an activity or situation began
and ended at a particular time in the past (Betty, 1989: 24).

1.

Using Verb (Verbal)

a. In the positive form uses regular/irregular verb
(Positive).
S + V2

The form is the same for all persons

For example:
- I played guitar with my brother last week (regular
verb)
- They bought some fruits two days ago (irregular
verb)

b. Use the conjugated helping verb did not (didnt)

the base form of the verb t makes negatives.
S + did not + V1

The form is the same for all persons

For Example:
- He did not visit me last sunday
- We did not go to New York last year.

c. Use the conjugated helping verb did subject the

base form at the verb in question forms.
did + S + V1

The form is the same for all persons

For Example:
- Did she reply a letter last night? (Yes/no question)
- Where did she go last holiday? (WH-question)
Note: Simple past uses some adverbials like
yesterday, lastandago
For example: Last
Last month
Last year
.days ago
Two months ago
Ten minutes ago
- Last month, I went to Jakarta with my
family.
2.

Using Non-Verb (Nominal)

Form:

S + to be (was/were)

For example:
S

To be

Adverb of time

In Padang

Last Week

I
She

Was

He
Name
of
Person
You
They

Were

We

4. The Nature of Writing

a. The Definition of Writing
b. Writing skills
c. Types of Writing Performance
5. The nature of Recount text
a. The Definition of Recount text
b. The Generic Structure of Recount text
c. The example of Recount text
B. Review of the Relevant Studies
Study atau siapa yg telah menerapkan pnelitian ini..
C. Conceptual Frame Work

There is a schema to explain this research in order to make clear; the

research can be shown in a diagram as follows: