ABSTRACT

STUDIENTS’ USE OF PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE AT SMA NEGERI

4 KOTA TERNATE

By: (1)Yurni andar, (2)Saiful latif, (3)Silvani umar

English Language Education Study Program
Language And Arts Education Department
Faculty Of Teacher Treaning And Education
Khairun University
2019

Conducted the research entitled “the students use of past perfect continuous tense.English
language education study program, teacher training and education faculty, Khairun
University. Advisor (1) Saiful latif and Advisor (2) Sivani umar.
This research focused on past perfect continuous tense at the second year students of SMA
Negeri 4 Kota Ternate.The objective of this research i to know students’ competence in using
past perfect continuous tense.This research applied descriptive qualitative method to describe
phenomena related to the problem of the research.In this research, the researcher selected the
second grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Kota Ternate. There are 330 students consisting of
three classes but the researcher only chooses 33 students of class IPA 6, academic year 2018
using purposive sampling.Students’ use of past perfect continuous through fill in the blank
and translation, it consist 19 respondents. Six respondents obtained score 50, three
respondents obtained score 45, three respondents obtained score 40, two respondents
obtained score 35. Two respondents obtained score 30%,two respondents obtained score 25,
and one respondent obtained score 20. Then mean score from students’ result is 755 and
average score 3.97. It means that the second grade students at SMA Negeri 4 Ternate still
confused in using past perfect continuous tense. The finding shows that most Students did not
correctly answer the question of past perfect continuous tense.
Keywords:Students, past perfect continuous tense

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 INTRODUCTION

Grammar is very important in every language because grammar can make people use

a language structurally. Without grammar, people will face the problem in understanding the

meaning of language. Grammar related the tenses forms because it has an importan role in

using of sentences context.

A kind of grammar in English language is tenses. Tenses divided become sixteen. One of
them is past perfect continuous tense. Perfect tense is used to explain an event already
happen. They are “have, has, and Had”. While past perfect continuous tense needs to add
been as the formula “have+been+v-ing/v3”.

Tenses are one of the complex matter in english grammar that concidered difficult to
comprehend by students. Besides, tenses as one of primarily matter in English grammar
which determine when an activity or an event happen. The auxiliary usually used in past
perfect continuous tense are “have, has, and had

LITERATURE REVIEW

Grammar is a description of the structure of a language and the way in which

linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to produce sentence in the language.

It usually takes into account the meanings and function theses sentences have in the overall

system of the language. It may or may not include the description of the sounds of a

language.

Rouf,(2015:7), states that grammar is one of the basic aspects which must be mastered

by students to produce and arrange words into correct sentences especially when they speak

or write sentences in English. In the study related to grammar, researcher tries to apply a

technical teaching through game to stimulate the students‟ interest in learning grammar.

Auction Grammar Game is one of some choices which can be used to deepen the students‟

understanding in all kinds of English structures. The scope of grammar is so broad to talk.

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Therefore, the researcher will only take simple present tense as the focus on conducting the

classroom action research.

According to Jakson,(2005:106), The grammar checker does not like hyphens! It

wanted home-made written solid, homemade; but it wanted well-stocked written open, well

stocked. Similarly, it asked for sea-lettuce to be written sea lettuce; but this compound noun

was in the noun phrase green sea-lettuce. If you remove the hyphen (green sea lettuce), it

becomes ambiguous whether green relates to sea or to lettuce. In this analysis, the grammar

checker was unable to investigate the context beyond the compound noun.

Jakson, (2005:1), if you are afraid of grammar, it is probably because you don’t know

what grammar is about. Many people think of grammar as being primarily about spelling and

punctuation, but these relate only to the written form of the language. They have no

equivalent in the spoken language, and yet grammar is an essential component of both spoken

and written language. Language would not be language without grammar.

Gorčíková, (2012:20), The past perfect progressive stresses the progress and the

duration of an action in the distant past. It is used for actions which happened inthe distant

past and ended before something else happened in the past. In this case one sentence is used

in the past perfect progressive tense, another one in the past simple tense. Typical

prepositions used are ´for´ and ´since´. If a speaker wants to express that something

happened in the past too often he/she should use the past perfect progressive tense. It is also

used to describe actions in the distant past with consequences in the past. In addition, these

consequences were still obvious at the time of speaking.

Examples:

a) She had been sleeping for an hour when a dog suddenly started to bark.

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b) John has been trying to solve the problem.

c) Her hands were dirty. She had been working in the garden.

The above mentioned sentences are the examples of the past perfect progressive tense

and its use.

RESEARCH METHOD

This research appllied descriptive qualitative method to describe phenomena related

to the problem of the research.

According to Freankel and Wallen (2009: 454), qualitative method is to document an

even, situation, or circumstance of interest. Based on the explanation above qualitative

descriptive method is a method of the research usually domination of describing object based

or related to natural aspect and based on the nature. It means that the researcher does not

make some treatments for the objects to find or collect data. In this case the researcher wants

to know and interpret the object at the natural context.

In this research, the researcher selected the second grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Kota

Ternate. There are 330 students consisting of three classes but the researcher only chooses 33

students of class IPA 6, academic year 2018 using purposive sampling. As it is stated by

Kumar (2011: 189), “The primary consideration in purposive sampling is your judgement as

to who can provide the bestinformation to achieve the objectives of your study.”

Research Instrument

The instrument of this research was fill the blank. It means that the researcher gave

the students a paper test and asked them to answer the question of past perfect continuous

tense to 90 minutes related to complete the test of past perfect continous tense.

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 Technique of Collecting Data

In this research, data was collected by written test. The researcher asked the respondents

to fill in correct answers.

According to Kothari,(2004:95), This method of data collection is quite popular,

particularly in case of big enquiries. It is being adopted by private individuals, research

workers, private and public organisations and even by governments. In this method a

questionnaire is sent (usually by post) to the persons concerned with a request to answer the

questions and return the questionnaire. A questionnaire consists of a number of questions

printed or typed in a definite order on a form or set of forms. The questionnaire is mailed to

respondents who are expected to read and understand the questions and write down the reply

in the space meant for the purpose in the questionnaire itself. The respondents have to answer

the questions on their own.

The data of research was collected in four steps as stated bellow;

1.Researcher presented past perfect continuous tense several times before test.

2.The researcher asked the students to fill in the paper of question

3.The researcher collected the student test result

4.The researcher read and corrected students result paper of test.

Technique of Analysis Data

After the data was collected, the researcher will continue to analyze the data through

some steps;

1. Analyze the students’ result based on past perfect continuous tense

2. The researcher used content analyze technique with basic statistic tool as follow;

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 FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents finding and discussion of the research.

A. Findings

The research finding is from students’ scores of using past perfect continous tense can

be seen from table 1 and 2: in table 1, students’ results of translating English into Indonesia

in the use of past perfect continuous tense. And table 2, students’ results of translating

Indonesia into English in the use of past perfect continuous tense.

a. Data Analysis

The data was taken at the second grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Kota Ternate.

Table 1.Students’ Percentage of using past perfect continuous tense.

No Items The number of students’ answer

True Percentage False Percentage

1 When Lisa had been examining for a 12 60% 7 35%

day, her father picked her up to go
home.

2 They had been playing tennis since 6 16 80% 3 15%

o’clock when she came to my house
this morning.

3 Marry had been sleeping for two 2 10% 17 85%

hours when I visited her last night.

4 Everybody had been talking about 13 65% 6 30%

him when he suddenly appeared.

5 I had been studying at SMA Negeri 4 9 45% 10 50%

Kota Ternate, for a year when we
moved from Java.

6 My sister had been crying for an hour 2 10% 17 85%

when my mother cooked the rice.

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7 When he read the book, he had been 16 80% 3 15%
calling his father for 5 minutes.

8 I had been sweeping the floor for six 10 50% 9 45%

minutes when my brother had a bath.

9 She had been passing the test since 14 70% 5 25%

this afternoon, when her uncle
arrived.

10 The police had been catching him for 3 15% 16 80%

a week when he ran away.

11 Sayatelahsedangberolah raga 8 40% 11 55%

selama sejam, sebelum ayah

sayaberangkatkeMakasar.

12 Ketikaiamenelponsaya, 2 10% 17 85%

saya telah sedang beristirahatselama
10 menit

13 Sayatelahsedang SMS keluarga saya 3 15% 16 80%

ketika saya berada di Sofifi

14 Pesawatitutelahsedanglepaslandasket 2 10% 17 85%

ikasayatiba di bandara

15 Investor itutelahsedangmenyimpanua 12 60% 7 35%

ngnya di bank, sebelum melan utkan
kontrak

16 Ketika teknisi memperbaiki compute 1 5% 18 90%

r itu, ia telah sedang menemukan
banyak virus di dalamnya

17 Habibi telah sedang 12 60% 7 35%

merancang model pesawat terbang,
ketika ia belajar di Jerman.

18 Kapalitutelahsedangberlayarketikasa 2 10% 17 85%

yaberada di Terminal

19 Perawattelahsedangmerawatpasienny 11 55% 8 40%

aselamasemingguketikaiabekerja di
rumahsakititu.

20 Presidensoekarnotelahsedangmembe 1 5% 18 90%
ntukpancasilasebelumbeliaumempers
entasikankepada public.

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 In this table the data of the students’ use of past perfect continuous at SMA Negeri 4

Ternate showed that the highest percentage of true answer for each items, the respondents

obtained true answers in item number two and seven 80% . Another respondent obtained true

answers in items number nine 70%. And also the respondents obtained true answers in item

number four 65%, respondents obtained true answers in items number one, fifteen, and

seventeen 60% , the respondent obtained true answers in item nineteen 55%, the respondents

obtained true answers in items number eight 50%, %, the respondents obtained true answers

in items number five 45%,%, the respondents obtained true answers in items number eleven

40%, %, the respondents obtained true answers in items number ten and thirteen 15%,%, the

respondents obtained true answers in items number three, six, twelve, fourteen, and eighteen

10%,%, and the respondents obtained true answers in items number sixteen and twenty 5%,.

Meanwhile, the lowest percentage gained by respondents scores is in percentage of true

answered is 5%. It means that students’ use of past perfect continuous tense significantly very

poor.

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 Table 2. Students’ scores of using past perfect continuous through fill in the blank and
translation

No Respondents Students’ Response

True percentage false percentage Qualification

scores

1 RAH 6 30% 14 70% 30 Very Poor

2 IS 10 50% 10 50% 50 Fair

3 A 10 50% 10 50% 50 Fair

4 NI 10 50% 10 50% 50 Fair

5 RPA 9 45% 11 55% 45 Poor

6 ER 9 45% 11 55% 45 Poor

7 MSP 5 25% 15 75% 25 Very Poor

8 FS 5 25% 15 75% 25 Very Poor

9 AP 10 50% 10 50% 50 Fair

10 A2 10 50% 10 50% 50 Fair

11 JFS 8 40% 12 60% 40 Poor

12 AMK 8 40% 12 60% 40 Poor

13 HWR 4 20% 16 80% 20 Very Poor

14 NAS 8 40% 12 60% 40 Poor

15 FNW 10 50% 10 50% 50 Fair

16 FIA 7 35% 13 65% 35 Very poor

17 AAA 7 35% 13 65% 35 Very poor

18 IOM 9 45% 11 55% 45 Poor

19 A3 6 30% 14 70% 30 Very poor

Mean score = 755 Very poor

Average= 39,7

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In table 2, students’ use of past perfect continuous through fill in the blank, it consist 19

respondents. Six respondents obtained score 50., three respondents obtained score 45, three

respondents obtained score 40, two respondents obtained score 35. Two respondents obtained

score 30, two respondents obtained score 25, and one respondent obtained score 20. It means

that students’ use of past perfect continuous tense were very poor.

a.Students’ result in the use of past perfect continuous tense in translating Indonesia

into English.

Item number 1; saya telah sedang berolahraga selama sejam, sebelum ayah saya berangkat

ke Makassar.

Respondent JFS; I had exerking for an hour ,before I left for Makassar.

Respondent FNW; I had been execise for a hour, before my father go to

Makassar.

Respondent PNI; I had been exercising for an hour, before I left for Makassar.

The false answer made by respondent JFS is (exerking), the respondent FNW is

(exercise), and the respondent PNI is (......before I left). The correct answer in this item is (I

had been exercising for an hour, before my left for Makassar

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B. Discussion

The past perfect progressive consists of the past progressive tense of auxiliary verb ´to

be´ and the present participle of a full verb. The negative form of the past perfect progressive

is created by adding the negative particle ´not´ to the auxiliary verb ´to be´. The interrogative

is formed with the change in the word order. The past perfect progressive does not form the

passive voice (Gorčíková, (2012:19). The data of the students’ use of past perfect continuous

at SMA Negeri 4 Ternate showed that the highest percentage of true answer for each items,

the respondents obtained true answers in item number two and seven 80% . Another

respondent obtained true answers in items number nine 70%. And also the respondents

obtained true answers in item number four 65%, respondents obtained true answers in items

number one, fifteen, and seventeen 60% , the respondent obtained true answers in item

nineteen 55%, the respondents obtained true answers in items number eight 50%, %, the

respondents obtained true answers in items number five 45%,%, the respondents obtained

true answers in items number eleven 40%, %, the respondents obtained true answers in items

number ten and thirteen 15%,%, the respondents obtained true answers in items number

three, six, twelve, fourteen, and eighteen 10%,%, and the respondents obtained true answers

in items number sixteen and twenty 5%,. Meanwhile, the lowest percentage gained by

respondents scores is in percentage of true answered is 5%. It means that students’ use of past

perfect continuous tense significantly very poor. The errors of misinformation include

misinformation of past participle form of regular verb, misinformation of past participle form

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of irregular verb, misinformation of the auxiliary verb have/has, misinformation of the

preposition since and for and misinformation of object.

A. Conclusion

Based on the data analysis and discussion in Chapter IV the researcher would

like to put forward inferences. students’ use of past perfect continuous through fill in the

blank and translation is very poor, The results of this research show that there are several

errors that students made in the use of past perfect continuous tense. The errors are classified

into omission, misinformation, and misordering the false answer made by respondent is

using present perfect tense (has) and simple present tense (cry). It was error because the

formula of past perfect continuous tense is S+Had been+(verb+ing). So, the correct answer in

this item should be (My sister had been crying for an hour when my mother cooked the rice).

So English teacher should explain again about past perfect continuous tense to students in

that school. Because students’ use of past perfect continuous through fill in the blank, it

consist 19 respondents. Six respondents obtained score 50 Poor, three respondents obtained

score 45 poor, three respondents obtained score 40 poor, two respondents obtained score 35

very poor. Two respondents obtained score 30 very poor, two respondents obtained score 25

very poor, and one respondent obtained score 20 very poor. It means that. The students’ use

of past perfect continuous tense was still low.

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