STUDENTS MASTERY

ON SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE AND SIMPLE PAST TENSE

(A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY AT SMP NEGERI 3 BANYUMAS IN THE
ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2014/2015)

ARTICLE
Submitted to the English Department
As a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for S. Pd Degree

By:
LILIS NUR SUPRIYANI
1001050002

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
MUHAMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF PURWOKERTO
2015

ABSTRACT

STUDENTS MASTERY ON SIMPLE PRESENT AND SIMPLE PAST

TENSE (A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY AT SMP NEGERI 3 BANYUMAS IN
THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2014/2015)

By:
LILIS NUR SUPRIYANI
1001050002

The aims of this research were to find out: 1) the level students mastery
in English simple sentences for tense of simple present tense and simple past
tense 2) the errors made by the students in simple present tense and simple past
tense. The method of this research was descriptive in which the objective test
used to get the data. The data was taken on Wednesday, January 14th, 2014 in
the eighth students of SMP Negeri 3 Banyumas and there were 39 students as a
sample. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistic. After analyzing the
data, it revealed that the mean of students mastery on simple present tense and
simple past tense on the eighth students was 45.33. It indicated that the students
mastery on simple present tense and simple past tense belonged to fair category.
It revealed that the errors made by students on simple present tense and simple
past tense were the errors which are caused by: 1) over generalization 2)
ignorance of rules restrictions 3) false concepts hypothesized.
Grammar has been separated from
other elements of language. It is
known that from many English
structural features the tense is the
one of the most difficult to learn. It is
very complicated. The biggest
problem is how to make the tense
correctly. To make a tense correctly,
firstly students should know the
structure and the meaning of tense.
Based on the syllabus, there
are several tenses which are learned
for instance simple present, simple
past and simple future at the grade

INTRODUCTION
English language has four
skills, they are reading, speaking,
listening, and writing. English
language also has some elements;
they are structure or grammar,
vocabulary,
pronunciation
and
spelling. Learning the skills and the
elements of English language is not
easy. This is the one factor of the
result
why
this
subject
is
unsatisfactory. Many students still
get difficulties and confused in
learning structure or grammar.

ii

eight students, here the writer only

wants to discuss about simple present
and past tenses. Simple present and
past tenses have own rules and it is
different from the other tenses.
After
the
writer
had
interviewed an English teacher in
SMP N 3 Banyumas, it was found
that many students in that school still
got some difficulties and problems in
mastering the simple present and past
tenses. It is because they did not
really master the tense especially the
rule and the system of simple present
and past tenses. By learning simple
present and past tenses, the students
will know and use simple present
and past tenses well both spoken and
written forms. They can also state the
present activity, habitual action, and
general truth semantically and
grammatically well.
Based on the fact and the
explanation above, the writer wants
to know the students mastery in
simple present and past tenses,
besides the writer also wants to know
some errors made by students in
simple present and past tenses. So
the writer is interested having
students mastery in simple present
tense and simple past tense (A
descriptive study at SMP Negeri 3
Banyumas the academic academic
year of 2014/2015).

meaning. Misunderstanding occurs

between speaker and his partner
because of grammatical mistakes.
Although grammar is not the first
priority in English teaching, it does
not mean grammar is not necessary
and unimportant to be learnt. Mc
Kay in Nunan (1991:154) says that
the primary purpose of instruction on
grammar is to help our students use
English well and appropriately.
Grammar will make a fluent
communication with others easily.
There are some definitions of
grammar; grammar teaching is
necessary
where
grammatical
problems are such that the students
cannot cope with them. Harmer
(1987: 4) defines the grammar terms
as the study and practice start of the
rules by which words change their
forms and are combined into
sentences. The rules of grammar are
about how words change and how
they are put together into sentences.
For example the words go changes
into went in the past tense. In line
with Harmer opinion, Corder (1981:
53) writes that grammar is a set of
rules for making sentences. Then,
when a learner grammar, he will
learn the part of speech, phrase,
clause, and interrogative sentence,
etc (Robert, 1995: 132). He also says
that grammar is the basic signal by
which a language transmits meaning.
Therefore, if a learner knows his
language grammar, he also knows
how to construct sentences in order
to express his idea correctly.

THEORITICAL REVIEW
Grammar is the basis of
language. If the language had no
grammar, the speaker would never
be able to communicate well
(Finochiaro, 1974:5). Every language
has its own grammar including
English. To use a language properly,
we have to know the grammatical
patterns of the language and their

Simple Present Tense

As Azar (1989:11) said that
simple present tense is something
that true in the past, in the present,

iii

and will be true in the future. It is

used for general statements of fact.

The Use of Simple Past Tense

According to Fuad Masud (1998:34)
the use of simple past tense, as
follows:
a. of completed actions in the past.
b. The Simple Past Tense to talk
about events, actions or situations
which occurred in the past and
are now finished (often indicated
by the time expression such as
yesterday, last week, last year,
two days ago etc).
c. The simple past tense to express
past habit.
d. The simple past tense to express
the clear action which is done in
the past but not it does not
adverbial of time.
The simple past tense to list
series

The Form of Simple Present Tense

There are three patterns of simple
present using verb (Bambang Suroso,
2010: 2), those are: Positive
Sentence, Negative Sentence, and
Interrogative Sentence.
The Use of Simple Present Tense
According to Azar (1989:9) the use
of simple present, as follows:
a. The simple present is used for
describes general truths, facts and
scientific laws.
b. The simple present is used for
habits and routines.
c. The simple present is used for
permanent situations.
d. The simple present is used for
future plan and schedules.
e. The simple present tense is used
to talk about the action that in
progress at the moment of
speaking.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The aims of this research
were to find out: 1) the level
students mastery in English simple
sentences for tense of simple present
tense and simple past tense 2) the
errors made by the students in simple
present tense and simple past tense.
The method of this research was
descriptive in which the objective
test used to get the data. The data
was taken on Wednesday, January
14th, 2014 in the eighth students of
SMP Negeri 3 Banyumas and there
were 39 students as a sample. The
data was analyzed by using
descriptive statistic.
The population of this
research in the grade eight students
of SMP N 3 Banyumas in the
academic year 2014/2015. The total
numbers of population are 262
students from 8 classes.

Simple Past Tense

Simple past tense is an
activity or situation began and ended
at particular time in the past (Azar,
1989:24). For example: I bought a
new car three days ago. From this
sentence, we know that the sentence
is categorized as past sentence. The
verb bought above is a past and the
word three days ago is the past time,
signal that both of them indicate as
the past tense.
Simple past tense is the one,
which is most often used to talk
about something in the past. It can
refer to short, quickly finished
actions and events, to longer actions
and happenings (Swan, 1993: 18).

iv

answers is 82.04%. About 23

students
or
58.97%
students
answered was and were. In this
case, they made error ignorance of
rule
restriction
because
they
neglected the rule of simple present
tense and the students did not use the
suitable to be in present tense (am,
is, are), some students used past form
of to be (was, were).

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

In this part, the writer limits
the discussion on the error analysis
for the items number 3, 11, 16, 17,
30, 32 and 36 because the percentage
of error of these number are more
than 70%. So that it should be
analyzed.
As stated before in chapter
III, according to Richard there are
two factors of errors that are
interlanguage
errors
and
intralingual errors. The intralingual
errors can be caused by Overgeneralization, ignorance of rule
restrictions, incomplete application
of rules and false concepts
hypothesized. All of the errors are
caused by intralingual errors. But
they have different errors. The errors
in number 30, 32 and 36 are caused
by over-generalization. 16, 17 are
caused
by
false
concepts
hypothesized. And the item number
3 and 11 is caused by ignorance of
rule restrictions. The other errors
were their difficulties in doing the
test. The descriptions of those errors
are explained as follows:

Table 4.3
Number
of item
11

Question:
They stayed in
their uncle house
before they 11
a
job
The correct
answer:
Got
The incorrect
answer:
get
geted
Total of errors

Variant of errors

Question:
Most of the people
in his village
(be)
farmers too.
The correct
answer:
Are
The incorrect
answer:
was
is
were
decide
weres
Total of errors

P (%)

39

74.36%
2.56%

29
1
30

76.92%

In item number 11 it was

very obvious that most of students
answered get (74.36%). In this
case, they made error ignorance of
rule restriction because the students
did not pay attention to the rule of
simple past tense. They used Verb 1
instead Verb 2.

Table 4.2
Number
of item
3

Variant of errors

P (%)

Table 4.4
Number
of item
16

13
8
9
1
1
32

39

Variant of errors

Question:
Nardi
(move) on Dunia
Fantasi as a driver
The correct
answer:
Moved
The incorrect
answer:
moves
movies
more
Total of errors

33.33%
20.51%
23.08%
2.56%
2.56%
82.04%

Based on the table the correct

answer is are. The total incorrect

P (%)

39

53.85%
33.33%
2.56%

21
13
1
35

89.74%

The correct answer is

moved. The table showed that the
students did not understand the
sentences well, they answered
incorrectly. The total incorrect
answers is 89.74%. About 35
students or 89.74% answered
moves, movies and more. Most of
students answered moves they
made
error
false
concepts
hypothesized because they didnt
know that this sentence is a past form
and it should use verb past moved,
while some students answered
movies and more because the
students didnt know the correct
spelling.

Table 4.7
Number
of item
30

Variant of
errors
Question:
I
buy
a
newspaper
every day but
sometimes
I
read it.
The correct
answer:
b. dont
The incorrect
answer:
a. am not
b. doesnt
c. didnt
Total of errors

Variant of
errors
Question:
they
(not
want) to
The correct
answer:
did not
The incorrect
answer:
do not
does not
Total of errors

P (%)

39

48.71%
33.33%

19
13
30

P (%)

39

46.15%
7.69%
23.08%

18
3
9
30

76.92%

Based on the table the correct

answer is dont. The total incorrect
answers is 76.92%. Most of students
choose am not or 46.15% they
made
error
over-generalization
because the question is multiple
choice and students answer by
choosing the options and the students
didnt realized that sentence contains
verb. The negative sentence form of
this sentence should be putted do +
not.
Table 4.8

Table 4.5
Number of
item
17

Number
of item
32

Variant of
errors
Question:
Mozart
more than 600
pieces
of
music in his
era.
The correct
answer:
b. wrote
The incorrect
answer:
a. write
b. is writing
c. writes
Total of errors

82.04%

The correct answer is did

not. The total incorrect answers is
82.04%. Most of students answered
do not. Some students thought that
they should use the auxiliary verb of
simple present tense. Based on the
table above 82.04% the students had
false concepts hypothesized because
they didnt know the grammatical
concept between simple present and
past tenses.

P (%)

39

28.21%
2.56%
61.54%

11
1
24
36

92.31%

The correct answer is

wrote. Based on the table above,
we know that about 92.31% of the
students
answered
incorrectly.
89.75% students answered write
and writes, they made error overgeneralization because the students

vi

cant identify that it is past event.

They should use past tense and use
past verb (wrote). This sentence
happens last time so it should use
past form.

The most error made by the

students
was
false
concepts
hypothesized. It is caused they did
not understand about the concept of
simple present tense and simple past
tenses. And another error was overgeneralization because there are
multiple choice questions and
students should answer by choosing
the options, and error by ignorance
of rule restriction because they
neglected the rule of simple present
tense or simple past tense. In this
case there are seven items that were
analyzed because those items have
percentage of error more than 70%.

Table 4.9
Number
of item
36

Variant of
errors
Question:
What

you eat for

lunch
yesterday?
The correct
answer:
c. did
The incorrect
answer:
a. do
b. does
c. are
Total of errors

P (%)

39

82.05%
2.56%
10.26%

32
1
4
37

REFERENCES
Ali, Muhammad. 1985. Penelitian
Kependidikan Prosedur dan
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Praktek.
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Azar, Betty Schrampfer. 1989.
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Finochiaro, Mary. 1974. English as a
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Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern
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New Jersey. Prentice Hall.

94.87%

Based on the table in correct

answer is did. The total incorrect
answers is 94.87%. Some students
thought that they should choose the
auxiliary verb into simple present
tense. 33 students or 82.05%
answered do and does. They
didnt understand the use of simple
past tense and they dont know time
reference. By answering do and
does they made error overgeneralization because the question
is multiple choice and students
answer by choosing the options and
they did not understand about the
grammatical
concepts
between
simple present and past tenses.
CONCLUSION
After the data has been
collected and analyzed by using
statistical computation, the result is
that the mean of students is 45.33 so
it can be said that the students
mastery in simple present and past
tenses at SMP Negeri 3 Banyumas
belongs to fair category.

vii

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viii