NAME : Mutia Nafasha Putri

NPM : 2011040117

ACADEMIC ADVISOR (PA) : Nurul Puspita, M.Pd

TITLE :

“The Influence of Using Mentimeter Towards Students’ Mastery in Simple

Past Tense at the Eighth Grade of SMP Negeri 23 Bandar Lampung”

A. Background of the Problem

English, a widely utilized language across various spheres of life, is
increasingly imperative as a means of global communication and
information dissemination. Various domains like science, education,
business, and entertainment heavily rely on English for effective interaction.
Proficiency in English holds great significance for students, not only due to
its inclusion as a subject in the National Final Examination but also as a
crucial assessment component during job searches after graduation. Beyond
academic purposes, mastering English is vital for day-to-day activities,
enabling individuals to access information from international sources.
Students engage in learning English to enhance four fundamental skills:
speaking, writing, listening, and reading, while also focusing on the
understanding and refinement of essential components such as grammar,
vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. Among these, grammar stands out
as a important aspect of mastering the English language.
Grammar comprises a defined set of regulations dictating the
arrangement of words within sentences. 1 When there are errors or
misunderstandings in any of these aspects of grammar, it can lead to
disruptions in communication. Understanding grammar involves the
assimilation of rules for constructing sentences, constituting fundamental
knowledge in mastering a language. This process begins with words and

1
H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall, 2001), 362.
 progresses into phrases and clauses. Grammar encompasses teachings on
various linguistic elements such as tenses, modals, verbs, prepositions,
adjectives, among other concepts. Essentially, the teaching of grammar is
aimed at enhancing skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Correct application of grammatical rules holds great importance in both
spoken and written language. Hence, students need a comprehensive
understanding of English grammar theories and their accurate application,
whether in oral or written form, to effectively fulfill communicative tasks.
Mastery of grammar equips students with the ability to structure sentences
correctly based on the timeframe of events. Tenses, modals, verbs,
prepositions, adjectives, and other linguistic elements are integral parts of
grammar education, with a particular emphasis on understanding tenses for
constructing well-formed sentences.
The word "tense" is described as a verb that expresses a relationship
in time, an activity, or a state.2 The feature that defines the moment at which
a verb performs an action is known as tenses. Which indicates that the verb
frequently expresses the action's timing. English grammar divides tenses
into present, future, and past depending on when the event occurs. Simple,
progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive are the categories for each
tense. Students should grasp tense well before moving on to the following
set of information, as they will find it difficult to retain the subject after that.
A topic that is taught in the eighth grade is the simple past tense. The simple
past tense denotes the beginning and finish of an activity or situation in the
past.3 The form of the simple past tense includes interrogative, negative, and
positive. Both regular and irregular verbs are included in Verb 2, which is
used in the simple past tense.
However, there are some difficulties that learners have when
learning the English simple past tense. One significant obstacle is the
irregularity of verb forms. English has numerous irregular verbs whose past

2
Marcella Frank, Modern English A Practical Reference Guide (London: Prentice-Hall,
1992), 47.
3
Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar 2nd Edition
(London: Prentice-Hall, 1989), 24.
 tense forms don't follow a predictable pattern, requiring rote memorization.
This includes common verbs like "go-went" and "eat-ate." Additionally,
while regular verbs generally form their past tense by adding "-ed" to the
base form, the pronunciation of this ending can be varied (/t/, /d/, or /ɪd/
sounds) depending on the final sound of the base verb. Understanding when
to use the simple past tense, constructing sentences correctly, and forming
negatives and questions further add to the complexities. Students often
struggle with applying the tense appropriately, leading to confusion in
conversation and writing. Overcoming these challenges demands consistent
practice, exposure to examples, and guidance from resources or teachers to
navigate these intricacies effectively.
Based on the exposure of the problem above, teachers need
something that can provide solutions to these problems. One solution is to
provide learning media that is interactive, interesting, and fun so that it can
increase learning motivation and also student understanding of Simple Past
Tense material. One of the media that can be used is the Mentimeter.
Mentimeter is a digital media in the form of a website application in which
there are interesting features that can be used for teaching and learning
activities. Mentimeter is a platform that can help us create interactive
presentations. Basically, this platform is like the powerpoint that we usually
use on our laptops. However with Mentimeter, we can be spoiled with
various features that we cannot find in powerpoint. For example, such as
creating surveys, quizzes, or interactive charts.4
Besides, As described by Little (2016), Mentimeter represents a
form of Student Response System (SRS) polling tool similar to
TurningPoint or 'clickers,' as well as the more gamified platform Kahoot! It
encourages student participation in discussions and debates using their
portable devices like mobile phones, laptops, or tablets. Like Poll
Everywhere and Socrative, Mentimeter allows swift and unidentified
feedback for both quantitative and qualitative queries posed during a

4
Yuniastuti, Miftakhuddin, and Muhammad Khoiron. Media Pembelajaran Untuk
Generasi Milenial Tinjauan Teoritis Dan Pedoman Praktis. Surabaya : Scopindo Media Pustaka,
2021, p.93.
 teaching session.5 Through their devices, students log into the Mentimeter
webpage and input a unique six-digit code to submit their answers. The
responses from the group are instantly displayed anonymously on the
instructor's screen and stored for later access within a collection of
presentations.
Based on the background above, the researcher is interested to
investigate “Is there any significant influence of using Mentimeter Towards
Students’ Mastery in Simple Past Tense?”

B. Formulation of the Problem

Dealing with the issues presented in the background, the research question
in this research is : “Is there any significant influence of using Mentimeter
Towards Students’ Mastery in Simple Past Tense?”

C. Objective of the Research

Based on the previous explanation, the objective of the research will find
out whether or not there was a significant influence of using Mentimeter
Towards Students’ Mastery in Simple Past Tense.

D. Significance of the Research

The output of this research is highly expected to provide significant
contribution both theoretically and practically as follows:
1. Theoretically
To give information to the readers about the influence of using
Mentimeter Towards Students’ Mastery in Simple Past Tense.
2. Practically
Hopefully this research could be valuable information and give a
meaningful contribution for students, teachers or lecturers, and schools.
a. For the Students

5
Little, C, ‘Technological Review: Mentimeter Smartphone Student Response System.’
Compass, Journal of Learning and Teaching, 9(13), 2016, p.64-66. Available at:
https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/328
 The researcher hopes that each student will be able to comprehend
Simple Past Tense and share information to others. Because they
work together and help one another in class, this web application
may also engage the students' interest in learning the material.
b. For the Teachers
This research is expected to help teachers in encouraging their
students' interest in learning and improving their mastery in simple
past tense using Mentimeter as a media.
c. For the School
The result of this research is expected to be able to motivate the
school to improve the quality of learning using digital media in this
technology era.

E. Relevant Research
There were several previous research that relevant to this research
as follows:
F.Ranjbaran, A. Al-Abri, H. Sobhanifar entitled Using Technological
Innovation To Engage Students: Vocabulary Learning With Mentimeter.
This research focused on overcome COVID-19 challenge and increase
student engagement and interaction in the classroom in order to enhance
motivation and achievement among Omani EFL learners by using
Mentimeter. The results of this study indicate the beneficial aspects of
integrated learning through innovative technological tools to boost students’
performance both in the classroom and in overall achievement. 6 As an
innovative approach to engaging students in the classroom, this
technological tool allows students to overcome demotivation and helps
teachers to create more effective and interactive lessons to achieve learning
and teaching goals.
The second is journal entitled The Utilizing of Mentimeter Platform
in Enhancing the EFL Students’ English Skills in Digital Era by Pratiwi

6
F. Ranjbaran, A. Al-Abri, H. Sobhanifar, Using Technological Innovation To Engage
Students: Vocabulary Learning With Mentimeter, INTED2022 Proceedings, 2022, p. 8114.
 Samad and Fairus Suryani Munir. The objective of this research was to
determine the ability of students' English education and to determine
students' perceptions regarding the process of learning English through
Mentimeter platform. Moreover, The results of the research showed that
there was an improvement in students' English skills performance, they are
speaking, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, writing, and listening. The
result of the interview described that students have improved in the field of
communication and vocabulary mastery, but their need of the specific
English training must be fulfilled. 7
The last is journal by Rajapova Ruzigul with entitled The Usage Of
Nearpod And Mentimeter In Enhancing Writing Abilities Of Efl Learners.
This research was conducted to find the impact of Nearpod and Mentimeter
in enhancing writing skills of students and to find the pros and cons of
integrating Nearpod and Mentimeter in writing classes.8 It was found that
the usage of Nearpod and Mentimeter is efficient in teaching writing skills
in EFL.
So, based on the explanation above about a few previous research,
the researcher conclude that there are some similarities and differences
between those previous research and this research. For the differences are
the purpose of the research and the ability itself. The previous research
investigated about vocabulary and writing, while this research investigated
about simple past tense mastery. However, there are some similarities, such
as on the media itself, which is Mentimeter.

F. Theoretical Framework
1. Concept of Grammar
In essence, grammar provides the framework that allows us to
communicate effectively by organizing words and phrases to convey
meaning. It involves understanding the parts of speech (nouns, verbs,

7
Samad, P. and Munir, F.S. The Utilizing Of Mentimeter Platform In Enhancing The Efl
Students’ English Skills In Digital Era. Edumaspul: Jurnal Pendidikan, 6(2), 2022, pp.1645-1650.
8
Rajapova, R. The Usage Of Nearpod And Mentimeter In Enhancing Writing Abilities Of
Efl Learners. Educational Research in Universal Sciences, 2(4), 2023, pp.778.
 adjectives, adverbs, etc.), sentence construction, punctuation, tense,
agreement, and much more. Good grammar enables clarity in
communication, ensuring that ideas are conveyed accurately and
comprehensibly. According to Harmer, the grammar of language is the
description of how words in a language can change forms and be joined
to make sentences. 9 Meanwhile, Brown stated that grammar is the set of
rules that govern the standard arrangement and relationship of words in
a sentence.10
Grammar is considered important because it is a fundamental
knowledge of language that is required to fully comprehend English.
Before studying the tenses, it is critical to understand what grammar is.
We require a grammar or language theory to help us understand how
text works. It is important to consider the time of occur and also the
structure of the sentences in order to make our message being
understand.

2. Concept of Tenses
The term “tense” is derived from the Latin word “tempus” which
means “time”.11 Tenses are a grammatical concept used to indicate time
in a sentence. They define the time of an action or state of being -
whether the action happened in the past, is happening in the present, or
will happen in the future. Tenses are essential for conveying the timing
of events or actions within a sentence. According to Frank, Tense is a
special verb ending or accompanying auxiliary verb that indicates when
an event occurs.12 Tense can be indicated by modifying the spelling of
a verb. In English, tense was a very important matter because every

9
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching (Malaysia: Longman, 2001),
p. 12.
10
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles an Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy (San Francisco: Longman, 2001), p. 362.
11
John Lyons, Linguistic Semantic an Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1995), 312.
12
Marcella Frank, Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide. (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972), 47.
 occurrence, event, or action in a sentence had to be according to the time
of occurrence.
In English, there are generally three primary tenses: past, present,
and future. Each of these primary tenses can be further divided into
different forms to express more specific times or conditions. For
instance, the past tense can be divided into simple past, past continuous,
past perfect, and past perfect continuous. The same applies to the present
and future tenses, which can have various forms to indicate different
timings or conditions of an action.

3. Simple Past Tense

a. Concept of Simple Past Tense
Simple past tense is tense which indicates that an activity or situation
began and ended at a particular time in the past.13 The simple past
tense is one of kinds of tenses. Simple past tense is used to represent
things that happened in the past or things that were true in the past.
The things that happened in the past may be single repeated or
habitual actions. The simple past form of regular verbs, with –ed
added to the base verb. All people use the same past form.

b. Form of Simple Past Tense

There are three form of sentences in simple past tense: positive,
negative, and interrogative. 14
1) Positive form
Verbal Subject + Verb II (Regular/Irregular verb) +
Sentence Object
Nominal S + To be (Was/Were) + Complement
Sentence (nouns, adjective, or adverb)

13
OpCit, Azar, p.24
14
Ibid
 2) Negative form
Verbal Subject + Did not + Verb 1 + Object
Sentence
Nominal Subject + To be (Was/Were) + Not +
Sentence Complement (nouns, adjective, or adverb)

3) Interrogative form
Verbal Did + Subject + Verb 1 + Object ?
Sentence
Nominal To be (Was/Were) + Subject + Complement
Sentence (nouns, adjective, or adverb) ?

4) Verb and Auxiliary Use in Simple Past Tense

a) Regular Verb
The regular verb, denoted with the ending –ed of the verb.
All past form of regular verbs end in –ed. 15
b) Irregular Verb
The irregular verb do not end with –ed. Learning all of the
important verbs is the only way to predict how an irregular
verb will change in the past tense. To use the tense forms of
irregular verbs, the speaker or writer must understand the
principal parts of irregular verbs.
c) Auxiliaries
There are som auxiliaries in simple past tense, which are
“did” and “was/were”. Did is used not only in sentence
structures for questions, but also in sentence structures for
negative statements. It is immediately followed by verb 1.
Moreover, there are was and were. Was is used for the
pronouns I he, she, it, this, and that. However, were is used
for pronouns such as you, they, and we.

15
Ibid, 17
 c. The Use of Simple Past Tense
The use of simple past tense refers to a situation set at particular time
in the past such as: 16
1) Completed Actions
Using Simple Past Tense to express the idea that an action started
and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes the speaker
does not mention a specific time, but they do have one in mind.
2) Past Habit
To make it clear that we are talking about a habit, we often add
expressions such as: always, often, usually, never, when I was
younger, etc.
3) The Immediate Past
We can use the simple past without a temporal reference to
express something that happened recently.
4) Polite Inquiries
The simple past may not always refer to a specific point in time.
It can also be used to ask polite questions.

4. Mentimeter
a. Concept of Mentimeter
Mentimeter is one of the digital media in the form of a web
application that can be accessed for free, both for business and
education purposes. According to Gillow-Wiles and Niess,
Mentimeter is a tool that can be used to encourage discussion that
allow for students’ opinions and analysis of data. They they also
added that Mentimeter are interactive and powerful ways to navigate
and displaying data visually, which can be challenge in virtual
learning environment.17 Moreover, Mentimeter is a platform that can
help us create interactive presentations. Basically, this platform is

16
L. G. Alexander, Longman English Grammar (New York: Longman, 2003), 168–69.
17
Gillow-Wiles, Henry, Margaret Niess. Handbook of Research on Transforming
Teachers' Online Pedagogical Reasoning for Engaging K-12 Students in Virtual Learning. United
States: IGI Global, 2021, p.202
 like powerpoint that we usually use on our laptops. But with
Mentimeter we can be spoiled various features that we cannot find
in powerpoint. For example, creating surveys, quizzes, or interactive
charts.18
The variety of interactive presentations that we can create
using this platform include presentations that contain; 1) Multiple
choice; 2) Word clouds; 3) Scale; 4) Paragraph; 5) Ranking; and
many others. The results of surveys or quizzes that we create can be
accessed by students online via a link. Not only that, educators can
also download the results of surveys, quizzes, in excel form. So
when the educator needs the results for recapitulation.
This platform can be accessed through its official website at
https://www.mentimeter.com. Using this platform is relatively easy,
as it looks similar to powerpoint. No special additional devices are
required to use this platform. All we need is a laptop or a smart
phone that is connected to the internet. However, for an educator
should access it using a laptop / PC that has a large display to make
it easier during the editing process. editing process. For students, it
does not matter if they only use smart phones only.

b. Features of Mentimeter
The key features of Mentimeter (Mentimeter, 2017b) and their
applications in a large class are explained below in table.19
Features Applications
Multiple Choice Multiple choice questions with
or without question image;
formative assessment;
enhancement of student

18
OpCit, Media Pembelajaran Untuk Generasi Milenial Tinjauan Teoritis Dan Pedoman
Praktis.
19
Mentimeter, (2017b) Mentimeter Features. Available at:
<https://www.mentimeter.com/features>
 engagement, active learning,
and enjoyment.
Image Choice Aid Visual learners according to
the VARK model.
Word Cloud Emphasise the most common
words submitted by the students
in real-time.
Quiz Engage students in fun and
learning-intense competition.
Scales Evaluating the teaching activity
with the learning environment.
Questions from the Audience Ask the lecture/teacher.
Who Will Win Test and develop knowledge of
the students from an instructor,
reinforce students’ learning.
Quick Slides Teacher’s presentation.

c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Mentimeter

There are some advantages and disadvantages of Mentimeter in
teaching learning process as follow :
1) The Advantages of Mentimeter
a) Anonymous answers allow students to feel that they can
contribute in a safe, non-judgemental environment.
b) It is quick for lecturers and tutors to create the slides needed
for the Mentimeter presentation.
c) Students say that they find the tool easy and quick to use.
d) An increase in real-time feedback has enabled tutors to
develop and shape future teaching.
e) It can be used as a learning and assessment tool, pinpointing
any misunderstandings that students may have and
 consequently enabling staff to alter the content of lectures
and workshops or to publish additional online support.20

Moreover, there are more advantages of Mentimeter. First, As

Mentimeter presents no personal information of the students on
the application screen, shy, introverted, and withdrawn students
in the classroom can participate in the lesson as well (Latham &
Hill, 2014; Musliha & Purnawarman, 2020; Shaffer & Collura,
2009). Mentimeter promotes active learning in an entertaining
way by increasing the interaction between learner-content,
learner- instructor and learner-learner (Little, 2016; Mohin,
Kunzwa & School, 2020;). Moreover, the advantages of this tool
include timesaving in preparing slides, increased real-time
feedback, easier identification of possible misconceptions
among students, and increased support in the design of
additional activities.21

2) The Disadvantages of Mentimeter

a) Because Mentimeter responses are anonymous, it is not
possible to identify which students have contribute.
b) Students can contribute only if they have a Wi-Fi connected
device or internet.
c) Once students have submitted their answers, they are unable
to retrieve or edit their responses; this has left some students
feeling frustrated and occasionaly, embarrassed over errors
that have been made.
d) If the use of the tool is not well planned within a programme,
staff may use the tool too often with the same group, risking

20
Vallely, K., & Gibson, P. Engaging Students on their Devices with Mentimeter.
Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching, 11(2), 2018, p. 4.
21
Mersin, N., & Akkaş, E.N. (2022). Experiences of pre-service mathematics teachers on
the use of mentimeter in distance learning. Shanlax International Journal of Education, 11(S1),
p.12.
 SRS over saturation and consequent students
disenchantment.22

G. Research Methodology
1. Place and Time of the Research
a. Place
SMP Negeri 23 Bandar Lampung
b. Time
The second semester of the eighth grade

2. Research Design
In this research, the researcher will use quasi-experimental design. In
quasi-experimental design, Researchers try to meet research criteria that
have high validity. In this type of research, researchers also try to meet
experimental criteria by conducting initial tests and final tests to
measure the results of test treatment.23 Researchers will divide the class
into two, namely as a control group and experimental group based on
class rank. This quasi-experimental design is said to be appropriate for
this study, because the research subjects were not randomly assigned. A
pre-test was administered before they were taught for 2 weeks. Then,
the experimental group will teach using Mentimeter. After experimental
teaching, post-test will conduct by using the same set as that was used
in pre-test. The researcher design can be presented as follows table :
Select Control Pre-test No Treatment Post-test
Group
Select Pre-test Experimental Post-test
experimental treatment
group

22
LocCit, Engaging Students on their Devices with Mentimeter. p. 5.
23
Ag. Bambang, Setiyadi. Research Methods for Foreign Language Teaching: Qualitative
and Quantitative Approaches 2nd Edition. Graha Ilmu, Yogyakarta, 2018, p. 116-117.
3. Population, sample, and data collecting technique
a. Population
The population of this research is the students at the eighth grade of
SMP Negeri 23 Bandar Lampung.
b. Sample
The sample of this research was two classes, that was choose one
class as the experimental class and another class as control class.
c. Data collecting technique
In this research, the data will be collected by using two tests; pre-
test and post-test. The students have to do tests of simple past tense
in Mentimeter. The students’ scores from pre-test and post-test were
analyzed to find out the students’ mastery before and after having
the treatments.
1) Pre-Test
The researcher will conduct pre-test in order to find out the
students’ scores of mastery in the simple past tense before
treatments are given and to diagnose individual specific strength
and weaknesses in mastery in simple past tense. The pre-test will
do to know of the students’ simple past tense mastery before the
treatment. The pretest was used to know the preliminary data of
the students’ mastery in simple past tense before conducting
treatment.
2) Post-Test
The post test was given to students after 2 treatment. It was
aimed to determined the influence in students' simple past tens
emastery after given treatment by using the Mentimeter media.
The posttest was used to know the achievement of the
implementation of Mentimedia in improving students’ mastery
in simple past tense after conducting treatment.

4. Research instrument
 In this research, the instrument was a multiple choice questions pre-test
and post-test.

5. Fulfillment Of The Assumption

After collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the data by using
independent simple t-test. There are two tests that must be done before
the researcher analyze the data by using independent simple t-test. They
are normality test and homogeneity test.

H. References
Azar, Betty Schrampfer. 1989. Understanding and Using English Grammar
2nd Edition (London: Prentice-Hall), 24.
Alexander, L.G. 2003. Longman English Grammar (New York: Longman),
168–69.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
(New Jersey: Prentice-Hall), 362.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles an Interactive Approach
to Language Pedagogy (San Francisco: Longman), p. 362.
Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide.
(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.), 47.
Gillow-Wiles, Henry, Margaret Niess. 2021. Handbook of Research on
Transforming Teachers' Online Pedagogical Reasoning for
Engaging K-12 Students in Virtual Learning. United States: IGI
Global, p.202.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching
(Malaysia: Longman), p. 12.
Little, C. 2016. ‘Technological Review: Mentimeter Smartphone Student
Response System.’ Compass, Journal of Learning and Teaching,
9(13) , p.64-66. Available at:
https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/328.
Lyons, John. 1995. Linguistic Semantic an Introduction (Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press), 312.
Mentimeter, (2017b) Mentimeter Features. Available at:
https://www.mentimeter.com/features
Mersin, N., & Akkaş, E.N. (2022). Experiences Of Pre-Service
Mathematics Teachers On The Use Of Mentimeter In Distance
Learning. Shanlax International Journal of Education, 11(S1), p.12.
Rajapova, R. 2023. The Usage Of Nearpod And Mentimeter In Enhancing
Writing Abilities Of Efl Learners. Educational Research in Universal
Sciences, 2(4), pp.778.
Ranjbaran, F, et al. 2022. Using Technological Innovation To Engage
Students: Vocabulary Learning With Mentimeter, INTED2022
Proceedings, p. 8114.
Samad, P. and Munir, F.S. 2022. The Utilizing Of Mentimeter Platform In
Enhancing The Efl Students’ English Skills In Digital Era.
Edumaspul: Jurnal Pendidikan, 6(2), pp.1645-1650.
Setiyadi, A. B. (2018). Research Methods for Foreign Language Teaching:
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches 2nd Edition. Yogyakarta:
Graha Ilmu, p. 116-117.
Vallely, K., & Gibson, P. 2018. Engaging Students on their Devices with
Mentimeter. Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching, 11(2), p.4.
Yuniastuti, et al. 2021. Media Pembelajaran Untuk Generasi Milenial
Tinjauan Teoritis Dan Pedoman Praktis. Surabaya : Scopindo
Media Pustaka, p.93.
1. Transkrip Nilai
2. Bukti Pembayaran Terakhir
3. Lembar Pengajuan Judul