skripsi

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background of the Study

Language is a tool or media to send message for ideas it is a means of communication. One of the languages which is used widely in the world is English. Many people say that English is one of the International languages. In facing modern area and global trade, we are demanded to be able to speak and to communicate in English. It means that English plays an important role in International communication.

Indonesia as a developing country realizes the importance of English. It is signed by participated in and placed the English on the curriculum started from the secondary school up to the university or institute.

The main goal of the teaching English is to make the students master it soon. But in fact, they failed and even found many handicaps in learning processes, even though the students have studied English for a long time. They are still facing some problems in grammar, phonology, spelling vocabulary, listening and speaking. It seems that the grammar is more difficult than the other aspects.

Ralph (1974) states that it seems that all teachers of English everywhere are sometimes puzzled by the question about the grammatical structure of the language.

In teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia, there is tendency for a teacher to teach more structure than elements and skills, but the result is still unsatisfactory. This indicates that the structure causes a serious problem in English teaching and learning process.

Structure is very essential to master a certain language especially English because it is a fundamental aspects. As we know together meaning is expressed in vocabulary and relationship expressed is in grammar.

There are two structural aspects that often cause problem to the students, they are request and question sentences. These aspects are difficult, because there are some elements of the sentences involved mainly modal, pronoun, verb and adverb and so on.

These things must be mastered well by the students if they want to structure the sentences, otherwise they will find handicaps in understanding and using it. The mistake they make, of course will annoy and distract the flow of the communication. They can cause misunderstanding on the parts of the listeners or the readers who receive the information that we communicate.

Based on the phenomena above, the writer will  conduct a research on: “A Study on The Students’ Difficulties in Using Request and Question Sentences of The Second Grade of MTs Hidatyatullah Pejeruk Martaram in Academic Year 2010/2011”.

1.2              Statement of Problem

Related to the statement described above, the writer formulated two research questions as follows:

1.      Are the Second Grade Students of MTs Hidayatullah Pejeruk Mataram able to use request and question sentences?

2.       What factors contribute to the difficulties of using questions and requests by The Second Grade students of MTs Hidayatullah Pejeruk Mataram?

1.3              Purpose of the Study

Purpose of the study are:

1.      To find out the students’ ability in using request and question sentences?

2.      To find out the factors that may contribute to the students’ difficulties in using request and question sentences.

1.4              Scope of the Study

Scopes of the study are:

1.      The students’ ability in using request in imperative sentence + please.

2.      The students’ ability in using question such as WH-question.

1.5              Significance of the Study

The writer categorizes the significance of this analysis into two categories based on what Aminuddin Categorizes (1987: 60):

1.      General Significant:

By understanding requests and questions sentences, it can improve our knowledge in English about sentences so that we can avoid misunderstanding in communication.

2.      Specific Significant:

1.      It is expected to help the students to develop their knowledge.

2.      It is expected to the English teachers to improve their teaching on both requests and questions.

1.6              Definition of Key Terms

To get a clear concept of the terms which are used on the title, the writer presented them briefly in the following:

1.      Ability is a general word of mental power, native or acquire, enabling one to do something well.

2.      Request is (1) asking (person or an organization) to do something;(2) asking for permission or opportunity to do something; expressing a wish or desire to do something; (3) asking (someone) to come or go to somewhere, (Webster, 1980: 1538).

The request and question which is meant by the writer in this writing is about:

1.      Request which is imperative sentence + please

i.e.:

a.       Sit down, please.

b.      Could you take me that book, please?

2.      WH-questions which ask for information

i.e.:

a.       What is your name?

b.      Why did you come late?

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the writer would explain what is request, the type of the request, what is the question, the types of question, how to form WH-question and some differences between question and request sentences.

2.1  What is Request?

Request is (1) asking (as a person or an organization) to do something; (2) asking for permission or opportunity to do something; expressing a wish or desire to do something; (3) asking (a person) to come or go to something or some place (Webster, 1996-1929). Guth defines that request is asking others to do something. (1978: 102). Simatupang and Ariyanto (1988: 175) state: “To state a request in English can be used imperative form, imperative form can be taken from present tense for the second personal pronoun”.

  The imperative sentences are in natural order. Still, the subject may seem hard to find since it does not appear in the sentence. These are addressed to ‘you’.

An imperative sentence has an understood subject (you) and the verb is in the simple form. For example:

a.       Shut the door.

b.      Don’t be late.

Note: in the negative, “don’t” precedes the simple form of the verb.

Although the subject ‘you’ has been left out, these request, are still complete sentence. We say that ‘you’ is understood as the subject of a complete sentence. We say that we are talking to someone and that person is expected to of what we ask or wish. Noticing the example above, we can say that there are speaker and a listener involved them in this presentation.

Imperative can also be used to make a polite request when the word please is added. Formulas of politeness such as please, will (or would) you please often accompany request.

1.      Formulas of politeness before the verb

a.       Please open the window.

b.      Will / would you (please) open the window.

2.      Formulas of politeness at the end of the sentence

a.       Give me that book, please.

b.      Give me that book, will / would you (please).

3.      Formulas of politeness split between the beginning and the end of the sentence

a.      Please turn on the light, can / could you.

b.      Can / could you turn on the light, please.

2.2  Types of Request

Request includes asking for something, information, permission and asking for a favor.

1.      Asking for something

For example:

a.       May I have a glass of water, please? – Here you are

b.      Could you spare a moment? – Any time.

2.      Asking for information

For example:

a.       Excuse me, could you tell me how far the post-office is? – Sure. It’s two block away from here

b.      How do I get to the railway-station from here? – You can take bus No 1. if you like

3.      Asking for permission

1.      Is it all right (ok)

For example:

a.       Is at all right for me to go now? – Sure, if you must be off now.

b.      Is at all right for me to come in any time? – Sure, as long as it’s not midnight.

c.       Is at all right if I use the telephone? – Sure, go right ahead.

2.      Do you mind?

‘Do you mind?’ is used for any occasion, e.g.:

a.       Do you mind, if I use the bathroom? – Not at all. I’ll show the way.

b.      Do you mind, if I borrow your car? – Not at all, but I don’t have a car

4.      Asking for a favor

For example:

a.       Could you spare me a moment?

b.      Would you do me a favor?

2.3              What is the Question?

In general, the junior high school students have already studied the question for many years. Directly, their thinking on that a question is an interrogative sentence marked by one or more these three criteria:

1.      The placing of the operator (auxiliary verb) in front of the subject: e.g. Will Peter speak to the boss today?

2.      The initial positioning of an interrogative or WH-question element: e.g.: Don’t you speak to the boss today?

3.      The rising “question” intonation:

By referring the function that the questions are primarily used to express the lack news of information on a specific point and usually to request the listener to supply this information verbally.

2.4  Type of the Question

Most of the English grammar books in which written either English or Indonesia described that the question can be divided into two major classes according to the type of answer that they expect.

Based on the statement above, we could define that the question into the two types:

1.      Closed Question

Closed question demand a yes/no, true/false or right/wrong answer. When we want to ask yes/no questions we can use do/does, am/is/are or have/has as question words. We use do or have or am with personal pronouns (I), we use does or has or is with third person singular pronouns (he, she, it) and with singular forms. We use do or have or are with other personal pronouns (you, we, they) and with plural noun forms. Yes/no questions with the verb be are created by moving the verb be to the beginning of the sentence. In other words the subject and the verb change their positions in statements and questions

For example:

a. Are you from England?

Answer              : Yes, I’m / No, I’m not. 

b. Does she go to school?

Answer              : Yes, she does / No, she doesn’t.

2.      Open question

Open question are often called WH- questions because in English they almost always begin with one of the ‘WH-word like: what, who, whom, where, when, whose, which, or how’. (Philip S, and Dale, 1976).

For example:

a. Where Anna live now?

Answer: Anna lives in California.

b. How old are you?

Answer: I am 23 years old.

c.   When will they come?

Answer: They will come on Friday.

3.      Object question

Object questions ask about the object of a sentence. The word order of the question must be changed and the question requires the use of the auxiliary verb ‘to do’.

For example:

a. What do you do today?

Answer: I do something for you.

b. Which films do you like, horror or action?

Answer: I like action film.

4.      Subject  question

There are also subject questions. These are question that we ask to find out about the subject. When what, which, who or whose refers to the subject, the question word comes before the verb without the use of the auxiliary verb.

For example:

a. What happened in your house yesterday?

Answer: there was something happened in my house.

b. Which films is the best?

Answer: The best film is action film.

5.      Tag question

A Tag question is a short question added to the end of positive or negative statement. Normally a positive statement is followed by a negative tag, and negative statement is followed by a positive tag.

For example:

     +                          -

a. you’re English, aren’t you?

    +                           -

b. you’re not German, are you?

2.5  How to form WH-questions

WH-question is formed with the aid of one of the following simple interrogative words (Q-words):

a.      Who

b.      Whom

c.       Whose

d.      What

e.       Which

f.       When

g.      Where

h.      Why

i.        How

As a rule, (Randolph Quirk, at al., 1972: 394)

1.      The Q-element (i.e. clause element containing the Q-Word) comes first in the sentence (apart from some conjunct).

2.      The Q-word itself, moreover takes first position in the Q-element.

e.g.: What did you see base your prediction?

WH-questions ask for the specific information. They are called WH-questions, because in English, they always begin with one of the WH-words: what, where, which, when, whose, why, who, whom and how.

For example:

1.      What is she doing?

2.      Where does he live?

3.      Which is magazine have you read?

 To form WH-question is firstly we put Q-words than followed by the operator, which is followed the subject and predication.

For example:

1.      I will go to school.

Question: Where will you go?

2.      Nanny read a novel by Shakespeare.

Question: What is Nanny read?

3.      I like you because you are so beautiful.

Question: Why do you like me?

Furthermore, we try to clarify one by one of the following question words with its more examples and the answer it.

1.      In the most cases indicates that the ‘WH-question’ (Q-word) should be followed by one of the auxiliary verb.

2.      What? ‘What’ is a general interrogative used for things. (Thomson and Martinet, 1986: 72).

2.1        If what used as the subject of a question, it refers to ‘things’.

For example:

                        Question                                             Answer

a.       What made you angry?              +    His rudeness.

b.      What went wrong?                    +    Everything.

2.2        ‘What’ is also used as an object.

For example:

Question                                       Answer

a.    What do you need?                      +   I need a pencil.

b.   What did Alice buy?                    +   Alice buys a book.

c.   What did he talk about?               +   His vacation.

d.      About what did he talk?(formal) +  He talks about his vacation.

2.3        ‘What kind of’ asks about the particular variety or type of something.

For example:

                  Question                                             Answer

a.       What kind of soup is that?                      +   It is bean soup.

b.      What kind of shoes did he buy? +   He buys sandals.

2.4        ‘What + a form of do’ is used to ask questions about activities.

For example:

                  Question                                             Answer

a.       What did you do last night?        +   I studied English last night.

b.      What is Mary doing?                  +   Mary reading a book.

2.5        ‘What’ may accompany a noun.

For example:

                  Question                                             Answer

a.       What countries did you visit?    +   I visited Italy and Spain.

b.      What time did she come?           +   She comes at 7 o’clock.

c.       What colors is his hair?               + His hair colors is dark brown.

2.6        ‘What + be like’ asks for a general description of qualities.

For example:

                           Question                                             Answer

a.       What is Ed like?                          +   He is kind and friendly.

b.      What is the weather like?            + The weather hot and humid.

2.7        ‘What + look like’ asks for a physical descriptions.

            For example:

                     Question                                             Answer

a.       What does Ed look like?            +   He is tall and has dark hair

b.      What does her house look like?  +   It’s a two-story, red brick   house.

3.      ‘Which?’

                           Which is used instead of what when a question concerns choosing from a definite, known quantity or group.

            For example:

                           Question                                          Answer

                        I have two pens.                                 

                        a.   Which pen do you want?

                  Or       

                        b.   Which one do you want?             +   I want the blue one.

                                    Or                   

                        c.   Which do you want?

                        d.   Which book should I buy?           +   I should buy that one.

                           In some cases, there is little difference in meaning between which and what when they accompany a noun.

For example:

                           Question                                          Answer

1. Which countries did he visit?

                                                                        +   I visited Peru and Chile.

2. What countries did he visit?  
3. Which class are you in?          +   I am in this class.  
4. What class are you in?

4.      ‘Whom?’

                           Whom is used as the object of a verb or preposition. In spoken English, whom is rarely used; who is used instead. Whom is used only in formal questions. Note: whom, not who, is used if preceded by a preposition.

      For example:

                           Question                                          Answer

a.           Whom did you see?                +   I see George.

b.      Whom are you visiting?          +   I visiting my relatives.

c.       Whom should I talk to?          + I should talk to the secretary.

d.      To whom should I talk? (formal)+ I should talk to the secretary.

5.      ‘Who?’

5.1   ‘Who’ is used as the subject of a question. It refers to people.

                  For example:

               Question                                             Answer

a.       Who can answer that question?  +   I can answer that question.

b.      Who came to visit you?              +   Jane and Eric came to visit me.

5.2     ‘Who’ is usually followed by a singular verb even if the speaker is asking about more than one person.

                           For example:

            Question                                          Answer

a.       Who is coming to dinner tonight?         + Ann, Bob and John are coming to dinner tonight.

b.      Who wants to come with me?   + We do want to come with you.

6.      ‘Whose?’

                        ‘Whose’ asks questions about possession?

For example:

         Question                                                      Answer

a.      Whose book did you borrow?                        +   I borrowed David’s book.

b.      Whose key is this?                              +   It’s mine.

c.       Whose is this?                                     +   This is yours.                     

7.      ‘When?’

                        ‘When’ is used to ask questions about time.

For example:

         Question                                          Answer

1. When did they arrive?                        +   They arrived yesterday.
2. When will you come?             +   I will come next Monday.

8.      ‘Where?’

                        ‘Where’ is used to ask questions about place.

For example:

               Question                                          Answer

a.       Where is she?                          +   She is at home.

b.      Where can I find a pen?         +   You can find a pen in that drawer.

9.      ‘Why?’

‘Why’ is used to asks question about reason.

For example:

         Question                                          Answer

a.       Why did he leave early?          +   He leaves early because he is ill.

b.      Why aren’t you coming with us?        +   I don’t coming with you because I am tired.

10.  ‘How?’

10.1 ‘How’ generally ask about manner.

                  For example:

               Question                                             Answer

a.           How did you come to school?            +   I come to school by bus.

b.          How does he drive?                +   He drives carefully.

10.2    ‘How’ is used with ‘much + countable’ and ‘many + uncountable nouns’

For example:

            Question                                          Answer

a.         How much sugar do you need?           +   I need two kilograms.

b.      How much she drinks milk?      + She doesn’t drink much milk.

c.       How many students in this class? +   They are forty two.

d.      How many she has shoes?         +   She has not many shoes.

10.3     ‘How’ is also used with adjectives and adverbs.

For example:

            Question                                             Answer

a.       How old are you?                      +   I am 23 years old.

b.      How long is your ruler?                        +   My ruler is thirsty.

c.       How quickly can you get there?           + I can get there in 30 minutes.

d.      How well does she speak English? +   She speaks very well.

10.4    ‘How long’ asks about length of time

For example:

               Question                                             Answer

a.       How long has he been here?      +   He has been here 2 years.

10.5     ‘How often’ asks about frequency

For example:

               Question                                                         Answer

a.       How often do you visit your family? + I visit my family every week.

10.6     ‘How far’ asks about distance.

For example:

               Question                                                         Answer

a.         How far is it to hospital from here?       +   It is 100 kilometers from here.

Table 1. Some differences between request and question sentences

No	Request sentence	Question sentence
1	Request sentences are most punctuated by an exclamation mark (!) at the end of the sentence. e.g. -         Sit here! -         Come back tomorrow!	The questions are always punctuated by a question mark (?) at the end of the sentences. e.g. -         Are you a student? -         Where do you go?
2	The requests are still on natural word order. e.g. -         Look at me! -         Come here, please.	All questions are auxiliary verb inversion. e.g. -         Is he a farmer? -         Does she visited her family
3	Typical verbs used are always on the simple present. e.g. -         May I borrow your pen? -         Sit down, please.	Typical verbs used may be on simple present, simple past, past participle or present participle. e.g. -         Have talked to him? -         Am I studying English?
4	The context of a request is to asking someone to do something or to be granted. e.g. -         Please turn off the light. -         Could you give me a glass of water, please?	The context of a question is to elicit some information. e.g. -         What time is it? -         How are you today?

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

            3.1  Method of The Research

The writer used descriptive method in this research. This method aimed to find out the students’ difficulties in using request and question sentences and the factors that may contribute to the students’ difficulties in using request and question sentences.

            3.2  Population and Sample

1.      Population

Population according to Hadi (1988: 220) is the number of people or individual that has at least the same characteristic.

Based on the opinion above it could be concluded that “a population is all individuals that are prepared as research subject”. The population of this research was all The Second Grade students of MTs Hidatyatullah Pejeruk Martaram in Academic Year 2010/2011. Total of the population was 140 students.

2.      Sample

According to Arikunto (2006: 134): “If the population is less than a hundred, it must be taken all as sample. It is categorized as population research. However, if the population is a hundred or more, it should be taken 10-15% or 20-25% from all of the population”.

      Based on the opinion above, the writer took 20 % of the population in this research. It means that from 140 students, the writer took 28 students as the sample of this research.

 The sampling technique used in this research was a sample random sampling. A sample random sampling is a technique to get a number of sample and it’s doing directly to the unit of sample. It means that each unit of sample as population element gets same chance to be a sample or to represent population. The writer took the sample in an ordinal manner. All of the subjects were given the number than the number was chosen randomly and who got a number was taken as a sample.

The Second Grade students of MTs Hidatyatullah Pejeruk Martaram consist of 4 classes. From that population, 28 students were taken to be investigated in this research.

Table 2. Population and sample of the study.

No	Class	Population	Sample
		Number of the students
1	VIII.A	35	7
2	VIII.B	35	7
3	VIII.C	36	7
4	VIII.D	34	7
Total                         140			28

            3.3  Instrument of the Research

            In this research, the writer used two instruments; they were questionnaire and objective tests

1.      Objective Test

In objective tests, the writer used multiple choices and matching test. The objective tests are applied to find out the students’ ability in using request and question sentences.

2.      Questionnaire

The writer  used check list questionnaire, the students will be give a check sign in the check list questions. This test was applied to find out the factors that may contribute students’ difficulties in using request and question sentences.

            3.4  Procedures of Data Collection

The data needed in this study were collected through questionnaire and objective tests.

In questionnaire, the writer gave the students some free questions which are related to request and question sentences in which the students gave a check sign to check list question.

In multiple choices, the writer gave 10 questions in which they were asked to choose the correct answer.

In matching test, the writer gave each student 10 questions for request and 10 questions for question in which they were asked to determine the sentences that belong to question or request.

             

            3.5  Technique of Data Analysis

In analyzing the data, the writer classified the data as the quantitative form. It means that writer tabulated the data through the check list questionnaire and objective tests to find out the students’ scores on the difficulties in using request and question sentences. I could be as following;

1. scoring the students’ ability in answering the objective test of multiple choices.The  writer has prepared 10 questions for the multiple choices and 20 questions for maching test. Each correct answer will get “4” score and “0” score for incorret answer. Total score of multiple choices are 40 score for 10 test. Score of  maching test each correct answer will get “3” and “0” score for incorrect answer. total score of maching test 60 score for 20 test, so total of score multiple choices and mathing test are 100 for total 30 numbers of tests.

2. the computing them into this formula do analysis:

a. ∑ X

 N

Where :

           = The mean score of the students

∑X      = The students’ score

N        = The number of the students

The classifications of students are classified into the following table

10        is classified as excellent

8 – 9    is classified as very good

6 – 7    is classified as satisfactory

4 – 5    is classified as fairly satisfactory

3 – 4    is classified as fairly English

1 – 2    is classified as poor English

And the result of the questionnaire would be interpreted, describe and the discussed to get conclusion with:

 X = ∑ X

 N

Where :

X        = The mean score of the students

∑X      = The students’ score

N        = The number of the students

CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter deals with the data analysis of the difficulties at The Second Grade students of MTs Hidatyatullah Pejeruk Mataram in using request and question sentences.

In presenting the data analysis, the writer used descriptive analysis of the problem in learning request and question sentences.

4.1  Descriptive Analysis

This relates to the instrument that the writer used in this research, that is test which consists of objective tests. The result of the students’ score can be seen in the following tables. To get further explanation how the score was tabulated into the rate percentage, the writer firstly categorized their scores into six categories:

1.      10        is classified into excellent

2.      8 – 9    is classified into very good

3.      6 – 7    is classified into satisfactory

4.      4 – 5    is classified into fairly satisfactory

5.      3 – 4    is classified into fairly English

6.      1 – 2    is classified into poor English

            Table 3. The students’ score for request sentence

Number of Subject	Score	Classified
1	4	Fairly satisfactory
2	5	Fairly satisfactory
3	4	Fairly English
4	7	Satisfactory
5	8	Very good
6	7	Satisfactory
7	7	Satisfactory
8	5	Fairly satisfactory
9	3	Fairly English
10	4	Fairly English
11	10	Excellent
12	4	Fairly English
13	10	Excellent
14	6	Satisfactory
15	10	Excellent
16	9	Very good
17	8	Very good
18	10	Excellent
19	8	Very good
20	7	Satisfactory
21	6	Excellent
22	3	Fairly English
23	3	Fairly English
24	4	Fairly English
25	4	Fairly English
26	4	Fairly English
27	10	Excellent
28	3	Fairly English
TOTAL	174

            Table 4. The students’ score for the question sentence

Number of Subject	Score	Classified
1	9	Very good
2	9	Very good
3	10	Excellent
4	7	Satisfactory
5	6	Satisfactory
6	10	Excellent
7	10	Excellent
8	10	Excellent
9	10	Excellent
10	10	Excellent
11	8	Very good
12	10	Excellent
13	6	Satisfactory
14	10	Excellent
15	10	Excellent
16	10	Excellent
17	8	Very good
18	10	Very good
19	9	Excellent
20	10	Satisfactory
21	10	Excellent
22	10	Excellent
23	10	Excellent
24	10	Excellent
25	10	Excellent
26	10	Excellent
27	9	Very good
28	10	Excellent
TOTAL	261

1.      The data analysis for request

The percentage of the students’ answer for the request sentence can be seen in following table.

Table 5. Table percentage of the students’answer for request sentence

No.	Classification	Score	F	Percentage
1	Excellent	10	5	17.85 %
2	Very good	8 – 9	4	14.28 %
3	Satisfactory	6 – 7	6	21.42 %
4	Fairly satisfactory	5	3	10.71 %
5	Fairly English	3 – 4	10	35.71 %
6	Poor English	1 – 2	0	0 %
	Total		28	100 %