Students’ Perception of Explicit and Implicit

Methods in learning Tenses in SMP DDI

Mangkoso
Winda Hartiwi Kuswanty
English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia

Burhanuddin Arafah
English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia

Andi Nurul Annisa Budiman

English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia

Tria Ali
English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia

Abstract— This research aims to investigate students' perceptions of explicit and implicit methods in learning
English tenses and to examine which one of these two learning methods is more effective to improve students'
understanding of the English tenses. The mixed method was employed by populating students of Junior High
School (SMP) DDI Mangkoso. The samples taken were 18 students from class VIII/a learning English tenses
through the implicit method and 8 students from VIII/b class using the explicit learning method. The data exhibits
that the implicit method was proven more significant in increasing students’ understanding of English tenses.
Students learning through the implicit method were more actively engaged in the learning process. Based on the
writer’s observation and students’ responses, both implicit method and explicit method are equally enjoyable, but
learning with an explicit method made students difficult to understand the materials delivered.

Index Terms— Implicit method, Explicit method, Understanding tenses

I. INTRODUCTION
As tenses become the most essential ground of English, especially in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context,
students are expected to master and fully understand the existed tenses material. The main reason is that each language has
its own rules and systems, so as English with tenses (Arafah et al., 2021). The use of language in communication refers to
an expression that carries out an action utilized by a speaker to the listener (Arafah & Kaharuddin, 2019). On the other
hand, language plays a role as a tool of communication in a society where many people still attribute internal motives,
intentions, goals, and plans to daily life (Fadillah et al., 2022). To some degree, teaching grammar, especially tenses, is the
most difficult part (Anggrawan et al., 2019). In further, many teachers develop various communicative approaches to help
students achieve learning outcomes in grammar (Arafah, 2018). The communicative approach has motivated many language
teachers to emphasize their teaching strategies on things that are deemed relevant to the attainment of communicative
competence in teaching English. This accordingly encourages scholars in this field to design methods based on the
evidential research data. There has been recently teaching method literary base that was suggested to positively correlate
with English learning success (Sunardi et al., 2018). This is also supported by Arafah et al. (2021) stating that literary works
can act as a teacher as it provides the number of knowledge not only in the essence of English grammar knowledge but also
the meaningful messages through the social line in the text. The use of language in literary works as a medium of
communication is meant to make it more interesting so that the readers can also feel enjoy reading and learning the
language (Afiah et al., 2022). Even though literary works can be learned in two different forms; written such as a novel or
performed such as theatre (Asriyanti et al., 2022), it indeed has many benefits that can be used as a lesson in life since they
reflect human life (Mutmainnah et al., 2022), it is difficult for teachers who also do not master in the literature field.
Therefore, those designed methods seem unfamiliar to all English teachers and make them end up less able to identify the
considerably easy methods to be applied in class. This implies that teachers have to understand the methods designed to
underpin their subject and the need to develop an appropriate pedagogy (Sunardi et al., 2018).
The proper method is highly required by teachers and students in the learning process so that the material provided could
be easily applied and mastered. Following that, education entails not only the acquisition of knowledge and abilities but also
the development of character traits in students (Mokoginta & Arafah, 2022). Therefore, each teacher needs to have different
strategies for teaching English to achieve it. English teaching material development is based on a needs analysis that can be
taken for granted and is effective for the student to master English (Arafah et al., 2020). The method applied also depends
on the teacher who uses it and the purpose for which the method is used. The most commonly well-recognized methods
applied by English teachers are the explicit method and the implicit method which are considered suitable to be used in
teaching English material, tenses in particular.
An explicit method is a learning approach specifically designed to support student learning processes related to
declarative knowledge and well-structured procedural knowledge that can be taught in a step-by-step pattern (Trianto,
2009). The explicit instruction method can also be interpreted clearly or in detail which is more focused on understanding
the forming process of the language used. In contrast, the implicit instruction teaching method is used to teach a language
with the focus of achieving the communication goal that is to understand the meaning of utterances. On the other hand,
pragmatics also plays a significant part in providing an implicit and explicit context for determining what to mean based on
the interpreters (Arafah & Hasyim, 2019). Arafah and Kaharuddin (2019) found that learning through communication
improves a person's sociocultural ability to communicate in a language in a culturally appropriate manner. In a sociocultural
life, communication has become a habit that humans will naturally do either using language as a sign or symbol of their
cultural background (Hasyim et.al, 2020). The reason is that each language consists of a different form has a broader
perspective, and is built in a different cultural environment (Arafah et al., 2020). As a result, every language is meaningful
and informative which can help students to improve their skills in communicating. Freeman (2022) posited that grammar is
supposed to be taught to reach the communication role. As a result, in conveying meaning, there is a point that is closely
related to the responsibility of the interpreters in revealing the truth and their deceit to the audience. It aims to influence a
person's point of view in judging something based on the words of the interpreter (Arafah et al., 2021). The language used
in the context of social life gives much attention to the underlying situation as the speakers have a specific purpose to
deliver using their thoughts and feelings (Takwa et al., 2022). Therefore, as a receiver or listener, it is important also to pay
attention to the context to avoid misinterpreting while interacting.
SMP DDI Mangkoso which is located at Barru of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia was chosen as the place to carry
out this research because this school is an Islamic boarding school that requires students to communicate using Arabic and
English in the dormitory. English speaking skill becomes the most favorable skill needed for professionals in Indonesia
(Arham et al., 2016). This is in line with the school’s vision to become a superior and competitive Islamic school.
Additionally, people often prefer to use a new language rather than their native one (Takwa et al., 2022). It proves that the
involvement of science and technology development in human daily life has changed from time to time, including how
society communicates on a worldwide scale (Siwi et al., 2022 & Suhadi et al., 2022). Moreover, in communicating, a
speaker can express their meaning in a style and pattern that is distinctively different from what they intend when they are
speaking (Yulianti et al., 2022). In addition, grammar has been one of the most controversial issues in foreign language
teaching since some language practitioners claim that it is important to learn, but some think that it is not (Kaharuddin &
Arafah, 2017). As a result, it encourages writers to teach the student the use of correct tenses by using methods that they
easily understand which are implicit and explicit.
By the explanation above regarding the two learning methods, this current study aimed to discover the most effective
method of two to be suitably applied in English grammar teaching, especially in teaching tenses. Besides, students’
perceptions were deeply explored to strengthen the stand of these two methods before being applied to teaching tenses in
school.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Implicit Method
Without paying specific attention to the grammatical patterns or forms, teaching grammar implicitly entails teaching
diverse grammatical patterns of sentences. In teaching grammar, Richard and Schmidt (2013) stated that teachers discern
grammatical patterns of sentences without explanation. Meanwhile, it is claimed that paying attention to language
components is still necessary when learning languages (Schmidt, 2013).
It can be concluded, based on the judgments of these experts, that there are two types of language learning strategies.
The first is language teaching tactics that improve language learning experiences (exposure) or interactions with a variety of
resources, such as reading newspapers, watching English-language broadcasts on TV, conversing with native speakers as
well as the internet and social media (Arafah & Hasyim, 2022). The technique exclusively focuses on meaning rather than
the structure or rhythm of the sentence (purely meaning-oriented) since meanings are communicated in a variety of ways by
people (Hasjim et al., 2020). As for the second, language instruction emphasizes meaning through implicit teaching tactics
that include forms. However, when they have difficulty producing language, they pay close attention (even if only briefly) to
the grammar employed, such as the prevailing sentence structure, listening to how the fluent people speak, mimicking it,
and so on.
 Schmidt (in Cohen & Macaro, 2007) also claims that learning grammar is implicitly claimed to be unconscious learning.
That is, pupils are unaware of the need to use particular grammatical techniques when learning languages and are unable to
determine which learning strategies should be used when dealing with grammatical issues.
B. Explicit Method
The explicit method is a teaching strategy that can assist students in learning fundamental abilities and acquiring
knowledge that can be taught gradually. This kind of instruction is known as the Direct Teaching Model. Explicit
Instruction Model according to Arends (in Trianto, 2011) is one of the teaching approaches specifically designed to support
student learning processes related to declarative knowledge and well-structured procedural knowledge that can be taught
with a gradual, step-by-step pattern of activities. According to Kardi (in Uno & Mohamad, 2012), explicit instruction might
take the form of "lectures, demonstrations, training or practice, and group work." The explicit technique is utilized to deliver
material to the student that is directly modified by the teacher.
Kardi and Nur (in Trianto, 2011) state the stages or syntax of the explicit instruction model according to Bruce and Weil
(in Subana & Sudrajat, 2011), as follows: "1) Orientation, 2) Achievement, 3) Structured Training, 4) Guided Training, 5)
Self-Training." Students will greatly benefit if the teacher gives a framework for learning and orientation to the provided
subject before presenting and explaining new material. Orientation can take the form of (1) preliminary exercises to
discover knowledge that is related to what students already know; (2) discussing or informing the lesson's objectives; (3)
explaining/guidance for the activities to be carried out; (4) provide information about the content/concept that will be used
and the activities that will be carried out during the learning; and (5) provide information about the lesson's structure. The
teacher can provide topic information in the form of concepts and skills throughout this phase. Material can be presented in
a variety of ways, including: (1) in small steps so that the material can be controlled in a short amount of time; (2) giving
examples of concepts; (3) modeling or demonstration of skills through demonstration or explanation of work steps on the
task; and (4) re-explaining difficult matters.
According to Cohen and Macaro (2007), there are two types of explicit learning methods, namely:
1. L2 Learning (Explicit-inductive)
This grammar learning methodology begins by understanding grammatical rules and looking at specific sentence examples.
This grammar learning model is referred to as 'rule discovery ' by De Keyser.
2. L2 Learning (Explicit-deductive)
Students learn grammatical rules from books or tutors, then apply the min sentences using this grammar learning
methodology. This method is known as 'rule delivery'.

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design
This research aims to find the students' perception of explicit and implicit methods in learning tenses in SMP DDI
Mangkoso by using the mixed method approach. As Purwaningsih et al. (2019) state that qualitative research uses primary
data that is considered as the written text that already exists and could be scientific. The overall purpose and central premise
of mixed methods studies is that the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches in combination provides a better
understanding of research problems and complex phenomena than either approach alone (Creswell & Clark, 2017).
Classroom action research was also used in this research. The writers used research procedures in the cycle process
according to the theory expressed by Kemmis and McTaggart  (1988) that states that the cycle process is a spiral-shaped
self-reflection cycle to make a process of improvement to conditions and to find new, better ways effective to achieve
optimal results in classroom action research.
B. Subject of Research
The writers took two classes that were only provided for taking the sample of data analysis. Male and female students are
placed in separate classes. The male class is VIII/a consisted of 18 students and the female class is VIII/b consisted of 8
students. The writers applied an implicit method in teaching tenses in class VIII/a while the explicit method was applied in
teaching tenses in class VIII/b.
C. Time and Place of Research
This research was conducted at SMP DDI Mangkoso, which is located in Mangkoso, Ajjakkang village, Soppeng Riaja
regency, Barru district, South Sulawesi province and this research have done from October until November 2020.

D. Data Collection Technique

The data collection was conducted in two ways based on implicit and explicit methods. The first is the writers gave a
pre-test for the student in each class. The second is the writers taught and explained the formula of tenses first using the
formula of tenses table that had been explained both in explicit and implicit methods. The third is the students then wrote a
sentence using the tenses formula that had been explained. In the implicit method class, the writers showed a short audio-
visual material about English daily conversation by Boston English Center and asked the students to read a conversation
paper using the tenses based on what they have seen and understood from the audio-visual material. The fourth is the writers
also gave daily practice and post-test. At last, after collecting the data, the writers analyzed and determined the results of the
research.
E. Research Instruments
1. Pre-Test and Post-Test
The pre-Test is given to the students before the implementation of tenses materials using the explicit and implicit
method and the Post-test is given afterward. Pre-test and post-test are conducted to compare the students’ ability in
learning tenses.
2. Audio-visual material
Audio-visual material is used to support the implementation of the implicit method in teaching tenses. The video
which is shown is about English daily conversation by Boston English Centre (2017) that is taken from YouTube.
Boston English Center is a YouTube channel from USA that helps to learn conversational English. This channel joined
YouTube on January 17th, 2017. The writers use a video source entitled "Everyday English Conversation" from the
Boston English Center channel as a research tool for implicit methods.

3. Table of Tenses Formula

The writer uses the Table of Tenses Formula to support the implementation of the explicit method in teaching tenses
class. This table is distributed to the students before the class starts.
4. Speaker and Projector
Speaker and projector are applied to support the implementation of the implicit method in teaching tenses.
5. Questionnaire
The writer has applied a questionnaire to find out the level of satisfaction of the whole students after learning tenses
using explicit and implicit methods in each class.
IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
A. Pre-Test Result
The pre-test was conducted on October 3rd, 2020 in SMP DDI Mangkoso in class VIII/a and class VIII/b. The pre-test for
class VIII/a and class VIII/b was held by giving them multiple choice questions about basic sentences. After the question
sheets were distributed to the students, the writers explained to the students to fill the blank spaces in the sentence by
choosing the choice under the sentence to get the answer. The students were given 25 minutes to answer the pre-test sheet.
During the pre-test session, the students were not allowed to cheat each other to ensure that the pre-test results formally
show the real ability of students before giving the material. The pre-test for class VIII/a and class VIII/b were conducted
under different schedules.
The same 10 multiple choice questions were given to both classes. These 10 questions are about basic tenses. The
students in each class showed a balanced average score. It can be seen in the score table data below:
TABLE 1
STUDENT’S SCORE ON PRE-
TEST
Code Name Code Name
Class VIII/a (Using Pre-Test Score Class VIII/b (Using Pre-Test Score
Implicit Method) Explicit Method)
Student A 20 Student A 50
Student B 80 Student B 20
Student C 30 Student C 60
Student D 40 Student D 50
Student E 20 Student E 50
Student F 30 Student F 30
Student G 40
Student H 40
Student I 50
Student J 50
Student K 40
Student L 50
Student M 50
 Average Score 50.8 50

The pre-test was only attended by 13 students from class VIII/a and 6 students from class VIII/b. The average score of
the two classes was almost equal. The average score of class VIII/a was 50.8 and the average score of class VIII/b was 50.
These data indicate that the understanding of the tenses between class VIII/a and class VIII/b was even. The results of the
pre-test scores were the basis for increasing the data on the achievement of students' tenses understanding and be compared
with the post-test results to find out which method was the most effective to improve student's ability in understanding
tenses.

B. Learning Tenses Activity Using Implicit Method (Class VIII/a)

The writers positioned themselves directly as the teacher and observer to provide tensed teaching using the implicit
method to students in class VIII/a. The writers started their observations during the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore several
health protocols were still carried out during the teaching and observation.
The first meeting on teaching tenses using the implicit method was carried out on October 5 th, 2020. Before starting
teaching, the writers prepared the teaching materials and checked the attendance of the students. After that, the writers
distributed a sheet of paper containing daily conversations under what would be heard through audio-visuals. The writers
took resources from the Boston English Center about basic daily conversations that were easy for students to understand.
Two conversations are given to students at every meeting.
Students were asked to make groups in pairs to make it easier to have conversations. Then the students were asked to
listen to the audio-visual and pay close attention to each reading that was spoken. The audio-visual playback was repeated 5
times and then the writers explained the meaning of each sentence in the conversation. The students were given the
opportunity one by one to repeat the conversation with their partners and mention the meaning of each sentence in the
conversation in lesson 1 and lesson 2 the opportunity to ask questions was also given to students if there was a mention or
meaning that was difficult to understand.
The students were very excited when the audio-visual was played because it was their first time learning English using
audio-visual. Although there were some annoying obstacles, such as the sound from the audio-visual was not heard by them.
But students still listen and carefully match each sentence of the conversation that comes from the audio-visual with the
conversation sheet they were holding. During the audio-visual listening process, some students had a little difficulty
understanding the native speaker's pronunciation that came from the speaker. Therefore, the students asked the writers to
repeat the conversation several times. Some students were also active in asking questions about the vocabulary they did not
understand, such as the word "American". The writers then explained to the students the meaning of the vocabulary. The
writers also explained a little about adding S in the word "Months". The writers also explained several forms of tenses in
each sentence in conversation.
Before the teaching of tenses was almost over, some students said to the writers with the phrasal verb, "Nice to meet you,
kak." The sentence was a sentence that came from the conversation of lesson 1. The writers assumed that the students
accidentally started practicing the material that the students have obtained on teaching tenses using the implicit method.
The second meeting on teaching tenses using the implicit method was carried out on October 12 th, 2020. Before starting
teaching activities, writers checked the attendance of students and prepared equipment for audio-visual listening. From the
writers’ observation, some students were excited when they saw the speaker prepared by the writers.
After listening to daily conversations (lesson 3 and lesson 4) through audio-visual speakers 5 times, students were asked
to practice again together with each group pair. Although the students still stammered when reading the conversation paper,
they were still confident and courageous. The writers also helped correct the students' pronunciation errors.
Students enjoyed conversing practice until class ended. Some students also spoke by mixing sentences in English and
Indonesian with a Makassar accent, such as "Bisa ma' speak English very well." The writers assume that the students
directly begin to implement the tenses material that has been taught into their daily conversations.
The third meeting was held on October 19 th, 2020. Students were given daily exercises on the material that had been
previously given. Giving daily exercises aimed to measure the extent to which students' ability to understand tenses using
the implicit method and also make it easier for students to answer post-test questions and then do teaching and research.
Students were asked to fill in the blank space on the conversation question sheets according to the audio-visual
conversation being played. The students listened carefully to the audio-visual which was played 5 times. The writers
watched the students not cheat on each other. Students were asked to do daily exercises according to what they listened to
and understood. After the daily exercise questions were collected, the students asked the writers to discuss the exercise
questions because the students were very curious about their answers. Writers distributed their practice questions again not
to the owner but other students so that they would not cheat or change their answers. During the discussion of the practice
questions, some students were enthusiastic about their correct answers. Some students were disappointed with their incorrect
answers. According to the writers’ observation, there was an increase in the score achieved by the students. The scores
achieved by the students at daily practice 1 were better than the scores on the previous pre-test. The daily exercise scores
can be seen in the table data below:
TABLE 2
DAILY EXERCISE 1 IN LEARNING TENSES CLASS (USING IMPLICIT METHOD)
No Code Name Score
1 Student A 86
2 Student B -
3 Student C -
4 Student D 100
5 Student E 96
6 Student F -
7 Student G -
8 Student H 90
9 Student I -
10 Student J 76
12 Student K 83
13 Student L 96
14 Student M 36
15 Student N 96
16 Student O 96
Average score 85.5

The fourth meeting was held on October 26 th 2020. The writers provided the next material as well as provided daily
practice questions to the students. Before giving the next material, the writers distributed question sheets for a daily exercise
about the conversations that had been given previously. The writers decided to give a daily exercise after giving the material
at each meeting. The provision of daily exercises can help students get used to dealing with similar listening questions on
other occasions.
The students listened to the audio-visual conversation as usual while filling in the blank space on the conversation sheets
that had been distributed to each student. The students were more careful and serious about listening to the conversation
from the audiovisual because there were some vocabularies that they had not heard before. The students also had a little
difficulty writing the spelling of the words they heard. The writers were also asked by the students to repeat the audio-visual
conversation.
TABLE 3
DAILY EXERCISE 2 IN LEARNING TENSES CLASS (USING IMPLICIT METHOD)
No Code Name Score
1 Student A 92
2 Student B 88
3 Student C -
4 Student D 92
5 Student E 92
6 Student F -
7 Student G -
8 Student H 88
9 Student I 88
10 Student J 84
11 Student K -
12 Student L -
13 Student M -
14 Student N 100
15 Student O -
16 Student P 80
Average score 89.3
The scores achieved by the students had increased even though they experienced a little difficulty at the time solving the
questions, but the results they achieved were quite maximal than before. The students were also very satisfied with the
scores they got through the daily exercises they did.
After the daily exercise was carried out, the students were given the next conversation material. The writers distributed
conversation sheets containing lessons 5 and 6. As usual, the students listened to the audiovisuals while adjusting the
reading on their respective conversation sheets. The students had complained that some of the vocabularies they had just
heard were very difficult to pronounce. The writers also helped students several times to translate the meaning of each
sentence in the conversation.
C. Learning Tenses Activity Using Explicit Method (Class VIII/b)
The writer positioned herself directly as a teacher and observer to provide tense teaching using the explicit method to
students in class VIII/b. The writers started their observations during the Covid-19 pandemic; therefore, several health
protocols were still carried out during the teaching and observation. By looking at the students' abilities on the previous pre-
test questions and the limited time for research and observation, the writers decided to provide basic material for tenses:
Simple Present, Simple Past, Simple Future, and Simple Past Future.
The first meeting on the teaching of tenses using the explicit method was held on October 10 th, 2020. Before providing
material, the writers first explained the introduction of tenses and the explicit methods that would be used in understanding
the tenses material. Some students understood the basic tenses and some don't understand because they have never been
taught before. Then the writers distributed a table sheet containing the tenses formula as their guide for making sentences
using tenses.
Some students had asked the writers whether this tense formula table was needed in making English sentences. The
writers explained the answers that were easily understood by the students by comparing them with the making of sentences
in Indonesian. Before making simple present tense sentences, the writers also explained the placement of To Be, adding s/es
to verbs, and adding s/es to plural nouns. They slowly began to understand even though before they had been confused and
had difficulty distinguishing each word that was explained.
The writers wrote the sentence in Indonesian "Saya minum kopi" and then asked the students to translate it into English.
The students translated it easily because the sentence is familiar to them. The writers changed the subject of the sentence to
"She", and the students translated "She drinks coffee." then the writers explained again about adding s/es to the verb. The
students also had difficulty placing do/does in negative simple present sentences. The writers then explain the placement of
doing/does that are easily understood by the students. As with the negative simple present sentence, students also
experienced confusion in making interrogative sentences in the simple present form. The writers appointed one by one the
students to write a simple present sentence. This made it easier for students to practice making tenses directly. Students
make simple present sentences while following the direction of the writers and the formula tenses table. The writers then
directed the students to make sentences in the simple past form. Previously the writers gave several irregular verbs and
regular verbs such as: Buy - bought - bought, Drink - drunk - drank, Eat - ate - eaten, Attend - attended - attended, Study -
studied -studied, Give - gave - given, etc. to make it easier for students to make a simple past sentence. The students were
just a little difficult in making simple past interrogative sentences, but the students did not hesitate to ask the writers.
Although the students had made mistakes in the placement of will/shall, the students had no difficulty in making simple
future and simple past future sentences. Under the direction of the writers and following the tense formula table, the students
made simple future and simple past future sentences.
The second meeting was held on October 17th, 2020. The writers gave daily exercises to the students. The provision of
daily exercises can help students to do the following post-test questions or other tense questions. The writers made it easy
for students to work on tenses by viewing the tenses formula table. Students were also encouraged to ask questions if there
was confusion or unknown patterns and meaning that was not understood. The students experienced a score increase in
doing daily exercises even though they were still assisted by the formula tenses table. It can be seen in the daily exercise
score table below:
TABLE 4
DAILY EXERCISE IN LEARNING TENSES CLASS (USING EXPLICIT METHOD)
No Code Name Score
1 Student A 91
2 Student B 66
3 Student C 75
4 Student D 91
5 Student E 75
6 Student F 100
7 Student G 100
8 Student H 100
Average score 87.5
The third meeting was held on October 31 st, 2020. The writers reviewed the daily exercise questions that were given
previously. Students were also trained to make tense sentences without the help of a tense formula table. They had difficulty
in determining the tenses formula pattern, especially in interrogative sentences. The students are given the opportunity one
by one to make their sentences using the tenses that have been taught by following the tense formula table and directions
from the writers.
D. Post-Test Result
The post-test was carried out by the writers to see the students' achievement after being taught tenses using different
methods. This post-test also aimed to see the students' scores after teaching tenses using 2 different methods. The writers
also wanted to compare which methods were more effective in teaching tenses.
The Post-Test was conducted on November 2nd, 2020 for class VIII/a (using the implicit method) and on November 7 th,
2020 for class VIII/b (using the explicit method). The Post-Test material was not the same as the Pre-Test material that had
been given previously. The writers gave Post-Test questions following the material and daily exercises given per each
method. To make it easier for students to answer and apply all the material that has been taught. For class VIII/a (using the
implicit method), the writers distributed sheets containing several blank space conversations, then the students filled in the
sheets with the answers they saw through the audio-visual played by the writers. Meanwhile, for class VIII/b (using an
explicit method), the writers provide several sentences that must be changed to several tense forms without seeing the tense
formula table that has been previously shared. The writers also discouraged students from cheating on each other.
The class VIII/a students’ scores experienced an average increase compared to the pre-test and daily exercise scores.
Students also experienced improvements in spelling, translation, and vocabulary. Meanwhile for class VIII/b, although the
students' scores experienced an increase in daily exercise than the pre-test scores, the students' post-test scores experienced a
decrease on the post-test. This was because in the post-test they were not recommended to do the questions without looking
at the tenses formula table. The scores of each student can be seen in the post-test score table below:
TABLE 5
POST-TEST RESULT
Code Name Code name
No class VIII/a (using the Score class VIII/b (using the Score
implicit method) explicit method)
1 Student A 100 Student A -
2 Student B - Student B 66
3 Student C 84 Student C -
4 Student D 100 Student D -
5 Student E 92 Student E 91
6 Student F 100 Student F 83
7 Student G - Student G 91
8 Student H 68 Student H 83
9 Student I 100
10 Student J -
11 Student K 72
12 Student L -
13 Student M -
14 Student N 72
15 Student O 100
16 Student P -
17 Student Q 96
Average Score 90 83

E. Questionnaire Results
The writers distributed questionnaire sheets to students with different questions based on the methods they used in
understanding tenses. There were five questions given to each class.
The students said that learning tenses using the implicit method was very fun and made them feel bored during the
learning process from start to finish. This was the first time for them to learn tenses using audio-visual. Students also
enjoyed learning using this implicit method because they did not write a lot. They were also easy listening to the
conversations through audio-visual, although sometimes some words were not heard. The students also assumed that
learning tenses using implicit methods can help them to speak quickly.
Whereas in the questionnaire of the students in class VIII/b, the students had a little difficulty understanding the material
taught at the beginning of the learning tenses using an explicit method. But they began to understand the tenses material
after being taught and given several daily exercises. The tense table helped them to understand formula tenses. They also
said that it takes a lot of practice making sentences without using formula tenses correctly.
F. Limitation of the Research
 Since the number of students treated with the implicit method (18 students) exceeds the number of students in the other
class (explicit method); (8 students), the result of the comparison taught might not be used reliably. The writers understand
that teaching a small number of students is more effective than teaching a large number of students. This is regardless of the
findings of this study.

V. CONCLUSION
The students at SMP DDI Mangkoso show increased understanding of tenses using the implicit and explicit methods.
Based on the daily and post-test scores, the student's responses in VIII/a using the implicit method and VIII/b using the
explicit method both are effective in understanding tenses even though the students had trouble comprehending at the
beginning of the teaching by using explicit methods. This research will aid English teachers in engaging implicit and
explicit methods as an alternative solution in teaching tenses to be more effective in following the goals of the study. The
educationists and new writers will find assistance from this research to study different subjects and schools further to obtain
broader and more beneficial research results as information material for the world of education. In further, regardless of all
these findings regarding the most applicable teaching method, a great role is highly required from the teacher's side in terms
of encouraging students to learn called motivation as discovered by Arafah et al (2020) that students with high motivation
will lead themselves to successful learning outcomes.

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Winda Hartiwi Kuswanty obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Hasanuddin University (UNHAS), Makassar,
Indonesia. She completed her bachelor’s degree in English Literature, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UNHAS, in
2021. Currently, she is continuing her study in English Language Studies Program, majoring in English Education in
the Postgraduate Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UNHAS. Her scholarly interests are teaching methods,
structural grammar, and grammatical error analysis.

Burhanuddin Arafah obtained his Ph.D. degree in English (Australian) literature at the University of Newcastle
Australia in 2003. He earned his Master's degree in American literature at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Yogyakarta
of Indonesia in 1995, and his Bachelor's degree in English literature at Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) in 1988.
He is currently a full Professor in English literature at the English Literature Study Program, Faculty of Cultural
Sciences of Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) Indonesia. He has published 4 books in English language and literature
and more than 50 research articles ranked in international journals published in the English language. He also has
received 24 Intellectual Property Right Certificates from the Indonesian government. His areas of interest are English
literature, language education, and cultural studies, He was the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences of Hasanuddin
University from 2009 to 2017, and currently, he is actively involved at the National Accreditation Board-Higher
Education, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia for his position as Assessor.
Professor Arafah is currently a member of the Indonesian Literature Scholar Association, and Linguistics and Literature Association of
Indonesia, as well as actively involved in the Indonesian Linguistics Society Association.
Andi Nurul Annisa Budiman obtained her Bachelor's degree in English Education at the State University of Makassar
(UNM) in December 2020. She was an exchange student at Pangasinan State University (PSU), The Philippines for the
SEA Teacher Project headed by Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in 2019. She achieved
the highest score for her teaching training evaluation report among the participants there.
She is currently a graduate student for Master degree in English with concentration of Education, Faculty of
Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University (UNHAS).

TRIA ALI Obtained a Bachelor's Degree in English Education at the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) Makassar,
Indonesia. He completed his undergraduate education in English Education, at the Faculty of Language and Literature,
UMI, in December 2018. Interested in developing structured learning methods. Currently studying for Masters's in
English with a concentration in Education, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University (UNHAS).