Students Ability to Understand Simple Past Tense and Use

it to Writing Narrative Text

Okta Rido Ferdiansyah

1

University of Maritim Raja Ali Haji

1

Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia

Corresponding email: perdi22okta@gmail.com

Abstract

The understanding ability possessed by students is indeed an interesting thing to review

and study. many of the students who learn about language cannot grasp the intent and
purpose of the learning being taught. many can not distinguish between past tense and
future tense and also they sometimes can not distinguish each text. From this essay, I try to
analyze and give an opinion about the use of simple past tense and narrative text for high
school students.

Keywords: Simple past tense, narative text, writing, regular verb, irregular verb

I INTRODUCTION

English is one of the unique languages. There are many aspects that must be mastered in order
to be able to communicate well in English. They have listening, reading, speaking, and accurate
writing skills that are relevant to each other in everyday communication. When it comes to
studying, writing skills are one of the most complex and difficult subjects for most learners.

Therefore, writing skills as a cultural development must be considered an important part of

today's language learning. When it comes to language skills, writing skills are special skills that
help writers put their thoughts into words in a meaningful way and interact mentally with the
message. This means that if a learner wants to communicate in writing, he must know and
master his writing skills himself. However, there are still many English students who have
difficulty writing well because they do not understand grammar well. Here, i am focus on one
of the grammar aspect tenses, specifically simple past tense which describes the situation
happened in the past or prior moments. this tense is commonly used in the form of narrative
text.

Most of the students know that they have to use the simple past tense, but they do not really
know the use of regular and irregular verbs as indicators of the simple past tense. Therefore, the
researcher found significant problems regarding the use of regular and irregular verbs as
indicators of simple past tense and their implementation as writing skills in narrative texts.

II STUDENT ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND SIMPLE PAST TENSE

Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense indicates that an activity or situation started and ended at some
point in the past. The formula for writing past tense sentences for both verbs and non-verbs was:

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 Table 1
Formula of Simple Past Tense

Before discussing more about Regular Verbs and irregular verbs, it would be better if
the reader knows and is able to understand the basic components of a Verb first. Unlike in
Indonesian where all verbs have the same form to express past and present conditions, in
English there is a basic difference in the form of verbs to show present, past, and past tense
which is still done now.

The division of verbs in English is divided into three, namely Infinitive (V1), Simple
Past (V2), and Past Participle (V3). The infinitive is the basic form of a verb (not bound by past
or present tenses). The Simple Past is a verb form to describe past events. While the past
participle is a verb to describe a past event that has already happened and is actually done. The
past participle can function as an adjective or as part of a verb.

Regular Verb

Regular Verb is a regular verb form that has definite rules in forming the simple past
tense and past participle of the verb. In English, the "definite" rule is meant to add "-ed" or "-d"
to the base form of the verb to make the past tense.

Table 2
Example Regular Verbs

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Irregular Verb

Irregular verbs are verbs whose changes are irregular or irregular in the past (verb 2)
and past participle (verb 3). Unlike regular verbs, irregular verbs are not enough just to add -d/-
ed at the end of the verb. Irregular verbs have different forms of change and do not have a
specific rule.

This is different from regular verbs or regular verbs which only need to be added d/ed
at the end of the word in the past (verb 2) or past participle (verb 3). Irregular verbs are divided
into 3 forms, namely fixed verbs, verbs that change in vowels, and verbs that change
completely.

The first form of irregular verbs, namely those whose verbs still do not need to be
changed or added -d/-ed at the end of the word. For example, when you use the word Let, the
verb 2 and verb 3 of the word are not changed or added -d/-ed. So, Verb 1 Let, Verb 2 Let, Verb
3 Let. Other examples are Cut-Cut-Cut and Put-Put-Put.

The second form of irregular verbs is that the verb changes on vowels only. You don't
need to add –d/-ed, but there is a change in the vowel. For example, when you use the word run,
the letter u in run will change when you use the past (verb 2) to run. While the past participle
(verb 3) still uses run. So, Verb 1 Run, Verb 2 Ran, Verb 3 Run. Other examples are Sit-Sat-Sat
and Win-Won-Won.

The third form of irregular verbs are verbs that change completely. For example, when
you use the word Go. Its use in the past form (verb 2) will change to Went, and in the past
participle (verb 3) it becomes Gone. Other examples are Stand-Stood-Stood and Teach-Taught-
Taught.

All irregular verbs or irregular verbs form a new word from the first verb, except for
some verbs belonging to the first irregular verb form.

Table 3
Example Irregular Verbs

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Writing Skills

There are several skills that form part of the language used in communication. This
includes reading, listening, speaking and writing skills (Sarosdy et al., 2006: 51). According to
linguist O'Graddy, writing is a symbolic representation of the language in a storable graphic
format. This is a relatively young cultural development that has taken place only in certain parts
of the world within the last 5000 years (1997: 591). Writing skills, summarized as productive
skills, include some important skills that must be acquired. These skills are described by Edge
(1999: 116) as follows: 1) the ability to develop meaning logically and clearly, 2) the ability to
speak and write clearly. Ability to express, 3) Ability to use language Appropriately for the
people you address.

Narative Writing Skill

The text of the story has several purposes. That is, it handles interesting or interesting,
real or imaginary experiences in different ways (Sudarwati & Grace, 2007: 74). The story text
consists of at least three parts: 1) Orientation is an introduction to the story text. Introducing the
characters in the story, when and where the story happened. In particular, this part is about who,
what, when, and where the story happened. 2) Complications relate to a series of events in
which the hero tries to solve a problem. This is the middle part where the story problem
becomes a climax. 3) The solution is the end of the story (Sudarwati & Grace, 2007: 52 & 74).

The writing skills aspect includes several important sub-skills such as spelling,
punctuation, orthography, writing at the required speed, language proficiency, cohesion, and
style (Sarosdy et al., 2006: 6061). In story writing, special features are used in the text.
According to Sudarwarti & Grace (2007: 74), the features are explained as follows: 1) focus on
specific individual participants, 2) use of material processes (behavioral verbs), 3) some Use of
behavioral and linguistic processes, 4) use of relational and mental processes, 5) use of the past
tense, 6) use of temporal conjunctions and situations.

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Hypothesis

Researchers had three hypotheses about the scope of their research, including 1) regular
verbs, 2) irregular verbs, and 3) simple past tenses related to how to write stories. These are
divided into the null hypothesis (Ho) and the alternative hypothesis (H1) as follows. 1) Ho has
no influence on the understanding of regular verbs in how to write a story, H ₁ has no influence
on the skill in writing a story, 2) Ho has no influence on the skill in writing a story, or has no
influence on the understanding of irregular verbs. H₁ is not affected by the understanding of
irregular verbs in the skill of writing a story, 3) is not influenced by Ho = Simple past form
understanding of the skill of writing a story or H₁ is the past of the skill of writing a story It has
the effect of a simple understanding of the shape.

III METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCHER

Researchers use quantitative research as the basis for processing research. Quantitative
research is a research approach aimed at causally explaining phenomena by identifying
variables that serve as the basis for experimental research (Richards and Schmidt, 2010: 476).
This means that the study focuses only on data at specific times and places. The style used in
this study is called cloth. Research stage. According to Cohen et al. (2007: 213) This term
describes studies that create images of the population at a particular point in time. The study
conducted this study within a set time derived from data obtained from senior researchers and
the institutions in which the study was conducted. Occur. This consideration is also related to
the short survey time allowed to conduct the survey and collect data from this survey. The Past
Simple (X) variable consists of two subvaries, a regular verb (X1) and an irregular verb (X2)
and a writing skill (Y), as shown in the following figure.

3.1 Place and Time

This research was conducted at SMA Negeri 1 Lingga Utara in July 2020. I will use this
data as material for further research with the approval of the data owner.

3.2 Population and Sample

The population was the people studied. According to Lodico (2006), the population is a
larger group of individuals for whom researchers provide information. I want to make a
statement. Creswell (2012) states that population is a group of individuals who share the same
characteristics. Next, Gay (2009) states that the population is interested in randomly selecting
researchers to generalize the results of their studies. Based on these definitions, we can conclude
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that the population is a larger group of individuals that researchers want to generalize. The
subjects of this survey were 10th grade science students of SMA Negeri 1 Lingga Utara in
2019/2020. There were 37 students from two classes. The following table shows the population
for this study.

Table population and sample

Population quantity Sample quantity

3.3 37 Class X IPA 1 Data

18 student

Collecting Technique

To know the students’ ability in writing narrative text the researcher asked
the students’ to make a narrative text. So, the researcher use writing test.

3.4 Technique of Data Analysis

The final step in this chapter is to analyze the data. This analysis was designed to
review the and determine if there is a significant association between the student's proficiency in
the past tense and their ability to write narrative texts. First, researchers checked the integrity of
the data, and then gave a score of to master simple past tenses and tests for writing story text.
Researcher then processed the data.
Multiple choice test

In this test, researchers used formulas to find the results of past tense student
acquisition. Jihad and Haris (2013) states that there is a formula for calculating multiple-choice
tests to measure the proficiency of past tense students.

B
Score = x 100
N

Which:
B = Right answer
N = mount of question

Writing narative text

In this test the researcher used writing test. The researcher asked the Students to write a
narrative text.
Writing Rubric: adapted from Jacob (1981)

Scoring Aspects Score Indicators

5-6 The storyline is very easy to
Purpose (social function) understand
3-4 The Storyline easy to
understand
2 The Storyline not quite easy
to understand
1 The storyline is difficult to
understand
6
 Structure of the text: 5-6 The text is complete with all
required elements

3-4 Some elements of the text

may be missing

2 Most elements of the text is

missing

1 Improper form is used

Language Features: 7-8 Use appropriate grammatical
Grammar & Vocabulary form & many vocabulary
variations.

5-6 There are some inappropriate

grammatical forms and many
vocabulary variations.

3-4 Major problem on the use of

grammatical form and few
vocabulary variations

2-1 Virtually no mastery of the

usage of grammatical form
and almost no vocabulary
variations

IV FINDING AND DISCUSSION

Data Description

The data analyzed were the results of multiple-choice and written tests. The
researcher's explanation is a multiple-choice test to understand the student's acquisition of past
tense and a writing test to determine the ability of SMAN 1 Lingga Utara 10th graders to write
story texts that they know in their grades. Was based on the results of 2019/2020. When
calculating data, researchers were supported by SPSS 21 for Windows to analyze all data and
hypotheses. It was presented in the form of mean, median, standard deviation, highest and
lowest scores, and the variable description was completed in the form of a table. Students'
motivation for learning and English performance scores are listed in the table.

Students score of each variable

Student Score
Mastery of past Ability in
tense writing narative
text
1 87 80

7
 2 60 60
3 87 85
4 60 65
5 87 90
6 80 75
7 67 75
8 60 70
9 53 60
10 80 80
11 80 80
12 93 85
13 73 75
14 80 80
15 80 80
16 73 80
17 73 80
18 73 75

The data research from two variables was summarized bellow:

Variable data descriptipn statistics

Students Students ability

mastery of past in writing
tense narative text
Mean 74.77 76.38
Median 76.50 80.00
Min 53.00 60.00
Max 93.00 90.00
Sum 1346.00 1375.00
Standard 11.16 8.16
Deviation

See the Table from the above data. Average data proficiency of past tension is 74.77,
average data skill when writing story text is 76.38, central data proficiency of past tension is 76.50,
and average data skill when writing is narrative text 80.00, past tension The minimum data control is
53.00, the minimum data control when writing narrative text is 60.00, the maximum data control for
past tensions is 93.00, and the maximum data control when writing narrative text is 90,00. After
calculating the data in SPSS 21 version, we found that the total student proficiency of the past tense
was 1346.00 and the student's ability to write the story text of the total data was 1375.00.

V CONCLUSION

The purpose of this essay is to find out if students can use the past tense well and write
story texts. From the problem formulation and research results in the previous chapter, we can
conclude that:
There is a significant positive link between the student’s acquisition of the past tense
and the student’s ability to write story texts for class XSMAN. I Lingga Utara. This means that

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the acquisition of past tense students helped them write the text of the story. Based on the
results of the
Survey, conclude that there is a positive correlation between past tense student
proficiency and student ability to write story texts for Class X SMAN I Lingga Utara in
2019/2020. I can see a positive correlation means an increase in the student’s ability to write
story texts, following an increase in past tense student proficiency. Based on the results and
conclusions of the study, it was found that the student’s acquisition of the past tense contributed
to the ability to write narrative texts. From the results of this study, we can conclude that in
order to improve the ability to write narrative sentences, it is necessary to consider the
improvement of students in the acquisition of the past tense.

Refference

Cohen, Louis [et al]. 2007. Research Methods in Education. Routledge. New York

Anderson, Mark & Anderson, K. (1997). Text Types in English. sidney: Mac
Millan Education Australia PTY LTD.

Hewings, Ann & Hewings, Martin. (2005). Grammar and Context. Routledge. UK.

Andriansyah, Husni. (2020). The Correlation Between Students’ Mastery Of Past Tense And
Their Ability in Writing Narrative Text. TanjungPinang. Indonesia