CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 The Definition of Grammar

Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as

the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules (Sethu, EnglishClub.com).

If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then

spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages

started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences.

No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we

call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.

Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? According to Sethu

(EnglishClub.com), the short answer is "no". Very many people in the world speak

their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to

speak before they even know the word "grammar". But if you are serious about

learning a foreign language, the long answer is "yes, grammar can help you to learn a

language more quickly and more efficiently." It's important to think of grammar as

something that can help you, like a friend When the students understand the grammar

(or system) of a language, they can understand many things themselves, without

having to ask a teacher or look in a book. So think of grammar as something good,

something positive, and something that students can use to learn language.
 In addition, Khan (khushal_khugiani@yahoo.com) added that grammar is the

study and description of the inflexions and other formal features of a language by

which one communicates the relationships between spoken or written words.

Alternatively, it is a theory specifying how to construct sentences of a language in

preferred or prescribed forms, or the constructions themselves. In simple terms,

grammar is the study of a language's syntax and inflexions.

The use of grammar enables a person to control his or her subjects and

predicates, verbs, clauses, and phrases sufficiently to be intelligible to those to whom

he is speaking or writing. The use of grammar helps us to communicate to each

other. However, grammar does not lead or precede a language. Instead, it follows a

language. As a result, the grammar of a living language is in a state of constant

change as it adapts to the changes in the common use of the language by educated

citizens.

Only the grammar of a dead language, such as Latin, is fixed and unchanging.

Two examples serve to illustrate this point. During the Shakespearian period, the

double comparative or superlative ("the most unhappiest day" of the year) was

correct, although it is unacceptable today. Similarly, the use of "you wasn't' was

considered to be correct a century later, although it would be associated with

illiteracy or ignorance today.

 Moreover, Khan (khushal_khugiani@yahoo.com) concluded that “grammar”

is noun. According to the dictionary meaning, the word “grammar” means the book

that teaches rules for the use of words. In other words we can define the word

“grammar” as the rules that say how words are combined arranged and changed to

show different meanings. Its adjective form is “grammatical”. It means correct

according to the rules of grammar.

2.2 The Important of Grammar in Communication

A long with sleeping, eating, and drinking, talking is one of the common of

human activities. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t talk, if only to ourselves!

When we speak, we utter a stream of sounds with a certain meaning, which our

interlocutors can process and understand, provided of course they speak the same

language. If we have taught about language, you will have realized that whether it is

spoken or written, it has structure, and that it is not a hotchpotch of randomly

distributed elements. Instead, the linguistics ingredients that language is made up of

are arranged in accordance with a set of rules we call the grammar of language.

Grammar is a vast domain of inquiry and it will be necessary to limited ourselves to

a set domain (Bas Aarts, 1997:3).

Is learning English grammar important? Absolutely, understanding grammar

will give you better communications and thinking skills, making you a better listener,

speaker, reader, and writer. Understanding grammar will also allow you to develop

your own unique personal style of communicating, which can lead to a rewarding

career as a speaker or writer. Knowledge of grammar will enable you to

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communicate effectively in any situation. Allowing you to form more successful and

meaningful relationships with your coworkers, friends, and family.

3 Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense is sometimes called the preterite tense. We can use

several tenses to talk about the past, but the simple past tense is the one we use most

often. How do we make the Simple Past Tense? To make the simple past tense, we

use “past form” only or auxiliary “did + base form” (Sethu, EnglishClub.com).

Moreover, the simple past tense form in regular verbs is formed by adding

“ed” to the infinitive. For example, infinitive “to work”, in simple past tense form, it

would be changed to become “worked”. If the verb ending in “e”, it is added “d”

only. For example, infinitive “to love”, its past form is loved. There is no inflexions,

i.e., the same form is used for all persons (Mufarichah, 2007:25). For example: I

worked; You worked; He worked; She worked.

Additionally, Mufarichah (2007:25) stated that the negative form of this kind

of the sentence of regular and irregular verbs is formed with “did not” and the

infinitive (without “to”): I did not work; You did not work; He did not work; I did

not speak; You did not speak; He did not speak. The interrogative of regular and

irregular verbs is formed with “ did + subject + infinitive (without to): Did I work?;

Did you work?; Did he work?.

The simple past tense is the tense normally used for the relation of past

events. It is used for actions completed in the past a definite time. It is therefore used:

- for the past action when the time is given: I met him yesterday.

- or when the time is asked about: When did you meet him?
 - or when the action clearly took place at a definite time even though this

time is not mentioned: I was ten minutes late for the test; she bought her

new bag at Matahari; how did you came here?.

The simple past tense is also used for a past habit. For example: I always walked to

school; He never drank coffee.

In the table 2.1, it is stated the examples of the past form and base form for

irregular verbs and regular verbs:

V1 V2 V3
base past past participle

work worked worked The past form for

regular explode exploded exploded all regular verbs
verb like liked liked ends in -ed.

The past form for

go went gone
irregular irregular verbs is
see saw seen
verb variable. You need
sing sang sung
to learn it by heart.

You do not need the past

participle form to make the
simple past tense. It is shown
here for completeness only.

Table 2.1 the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs

According to Sethu, (EnglishClub.com).The structure for positive sentences

in the simple past tense is:

subject + main verb

past

The structure for negative sentences in the simple past tense is:
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subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb

did base

The structure for question sentences in the simple past tense is:
auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

did base

The auxiliary verb “did” is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I

did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at

these examples with the main verbs go and work in the table 2.1:

subject auxiliary verb main verb

+ I went to school.

You worked very hard.

- She did not go with me.

We did not work yesterday.

? Did you go to London?

Did they work at home?

Table 2.2 The example of Past Tense

But there is an Exception! The verb “to be” is different. We conjugate the

verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an

auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the

subject and verb. Look at these examples in table 2.3:

 subject main verb

+ I, he/she/it was here.

You, we, they were in London.

- I, he/she/it was not there.

You, we, they were not happy.

? Was I, he/she/it right?

Were you, we, they late?

Table 2.3 The example of Past Tense with the verb “to be”
How do we use the Simple Past Tense? We use the simple past tense to talk

about an action or a situation—an event—in the past. The event can be short

or long. Here are some short events with the simple past tense:

The car exploded at 9.30am yesterday.

She went to the door.
We did not hear the telephone.
Did you see that car?

Here are some long events with the simple past tense:

I lived in Bangkok 10 years ago.

The Jurassic period lasted about 62 million years.
We did not sing at the concert.
Did you watch TV last night?

Notice that it does not matter how long ago the event is: it can be a few

minutes or seconds in the past, or millions of years in the past. Also it does not

matter how long the event is. It can be a few milliseconds (car explosion) or millions

of years (Jurassic period). Sethu (EnglishClub.com) said that we use the simple past
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tense when:

• the event is in the past

• the event is completely finished

• we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event

In general, if we say the “time” or “place” of the event, we must use the

simple past tense; we cannot use the present perfect.

Here are some more examples:

• I lived in that house when I was young.

• He didn't like the movie.

• What did you eat for dinner?

• John drove to London on Monday.

• Mary did not go to work yesterday.

• Did you play tennis last week?

• I was at work yesterday.

• We were not late (for the train).

• Were you angry?

Note that when we tell a story, we usually use the simple past tense. We may

use the past continuous tense to "set the scene", but we almost always use the simple

past tense for the action. Look at this example of the beginning of a story:

"The wind was howling around the hotel and the rain was pouring down. It was cold.

The door opened and James Bond entered. He took off his coat, which was very

wet, and ordered a drink at the bar. He sat down in the corner of the lounge and

quietly drank his..."

 In line with the explanation above, Khan (khushal_khugiani@yahoo.com)

stated the structure of simple past tense: “Subject + 2nd Form of the Verb + Object /

complement”. The simple past expresses an action in the past taking place once,

never, several times. It can also be used for actions taking place one after another or

in the middle of another action. He also stated the details form of Simple Past:

1. Positive

Subject + Verb II + Object

Example: I spoke English.

2. Negative

Subject + did not + Verb I + Object

Example: I did not speak English.

3. Question

Did + Subject + Verb I + Object + ?

Example: Did I speak English?

For irregular verbs, use the past form (see list of irregular verbs in the Table

2.4, 2nd column). For regular verbs, just add “ed”.

Exceptions in spelling when adding ed Example

after a final e only add d love – loved
final consonant after a short, stressed admit – admitted

vowel or l as final consonant after a travel – travelled

vowel is doubled
final y after a consonant becomes i hurry – hurried
Table 2.4 The exceptions in spelling when adding “ed”
 Khan (khushal_khugiani@yahoo.com) stated the use of simple past:

- action in the past taking place once, never or several times

Example: He visited his parents every weekend.

- actions in the past taking place one after the other

Example: He came in, took off his coat and sat down.

- action in the past taking place in the middle of another action

Example: When I was having breakfast, the phone suddenly rang.

- if sentences type II (If I talked, …)

Example: If I had a lot of money, I would share it with you.

He also stated the signal words of simple past as follows:

- yesterday,

- 2 minutes ago,

- in 1990,

- the other day,

- last Friday,

- last week,

- two weeks ago.

3.1 The Benefits of Teaching Grammar through Games in Language

Classroom

Saricoban and Metin (2004:96), authors of songs, Verse and Games for

Teaching Grammar explain how and why games work for teaching grammar in an

ESL classroom. They say, “Games and problem-solving activities, which are task-

based and have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech, are the examples
 7

of the most preferable communicative activities”. They go on to explain that

grammar games help children not only gain knowledge but be able to apply and use

that learning. Additionally, games have the advantage of allowing the students to

practice vocabulary, grammar and structures extensively. They can do this because

students are often more motivated to play games than they are to do desk work.

During the game, the students are focused on the activity and end up absorbing the

language subconsciously. One can also add that fun learning games usually contain

repetition, which allows the language to stick.

Games are motivating for the students, probably the best reason, according to

Saricoban and Metin (2004:103), to use games is that “the use of such activities both

increases the cooperation and competition in the classroom”. One can use games to

add excitement through competition or games which create bonding among students

and teacher. Ersoz (2001:45), author of Six Games for the ESL/EFL classroom also

explains more reasons why games do work for teaching grammar. Learning a

language requires constant effort and that can be tiring. Ersoz says games can

counter this as because: (1) Games that are amusing and challenging are highly

motivating; (2) Games allow meaningful use of the language in context.

3.2 The Appropriate time to Use Game in Class

Usually games are often used by professional English teacher as short warm-

up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson. As it explained by

Lee as quoted by Andrew (19984:3) that “a game should not be regarded as a

marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing
better to do" (1979:3). Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages.

Besides, Rixon as quoted by Andrew (19984:2) suggests that “games can be used at

all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen”.

Additionally games also help students in remembering material they have

already learned happily. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if games

resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention

to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote

communicative competence, and generate fluency (Andrew, 1998: 2-3).

2.6 The Use of Games

To improve grammar mastery, we need media to be used. One of them is

game. It is line with the definition of game that game is an activity that we do to have

some fun (Elbahri, 2009:5). It through games the students can be more focus in

learning since they do not feel like they are forced to learn.

Furthermore games also can lower students’ nervousness which can improve

the students’ acquisition of input more likely to happen (Richard in Elbahri, 2009:5).

Again in this case Hansen in Elbahri (2009: 5) says the how students feel about

learning through game that “they are highly motivating and entertaining, and game

can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinion and feelings”.

So based on the explanation above the researcher views that English teaching

and learning process through game can enable students get new experiences within

English which seems not always possible during a normal class. Additionally, games

can catch the attention of the students to learn English because it is enjoyable and

make them want to explore experiences through games in learning process.

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2.7 Some Advantages of Using Games in Classroom:

Game is one of the effective media with some advantages. In this case

Elbahri (2009:10) gives the description of some advantages of using games in

classroom. They are as follows:

a. They are motivating and challenging

b. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort.

c. Games help the students to make and sustain the effort of learning.

d. Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing,

listening and reading.

e. They encourage the students to interact and communicate.

f. They create a meaningful context for language use.

g. Vocabulary games bring real world context into the classroom, and increase

the students’ use of English in a flexible, meaningful and communicative

way.

h. Games usually involve friendly competition and they keep the students

interested in learning the language.

i. Games can help them (children) learn and hang on to new words more easily

2.8 Some Reasons of Using Games in Teaching and Learning Process

To gives some views on why is game used in class time, the researcher

provides some of the reasons cited in (Mei and Yu-Jing, 2000:1). They are as

follows:

1. Games are fun and the children like to play them. Through games the
 children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment.

2. Games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing a

plausible incentive to use the target language. For many children between

four and twelve years old, especially the youngest, language learning will not

be the key motivational factor. Games can provide this stimulus.

3. The game context makes the foreign language immediately useful to the

children. It brings the target language to life.

4. The game makes the reasons for speaking plausible even to reluctant

children.

5. Through playing games, the students can learn English the way children learn

their mother tongue without being aware they are studying; thus without

stress, they can learn a lot.

6. Even shy the students can participate positively.

2.9 The Way How to Choose Game for Language Teaching

An English teacher in using games to fulfill classroom activity in teaching a

language must also be very careful in choosing the right game to right target of

teaching and learning. In this case, Lin and Hong (2002:1) propose some ways of

choosing games used in language classroom. They are as follows:

1. Which language does the game target?

2. Which skills does it practice? The language skill focus could be any one of

the major skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing.

3. What type of game is it?

4. What's the purpose for using it?

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5. Does it fit the students? How could I simplify or make it more complex if

necessary? Many games require modification in use when the students' needs

are taken into consideration.

6. How much interaction and participation is there? Maximum involvement is

something we are pursuing.

7. Do I like the game myself?

2.10Hints and Suggestions for English Teacher in Teaching English

through Game

There are some hints and suggestions explained by Lin and Hong (2002:1)

for English teacher in using game to teach English by using game. They are as

considered below:

1. When giving instructions to beginners, a few words in the mother tongue

would be the quickest way to make everything clear. More English exposure

is needed at a later stage.

2. Games are best set up by demonstration rather than by lengthy explanation.

3. It is very important not to play a game for too long. Students will begin to

lose interest. It is best to stop a game at its peak.

2.11 The Instruction of how to Play the Game Board

1. Each player rolls the die and then moves that number of spaces.

2. If a player lands on a "move back" or "move ahead" space, they do so and then
 have to do the directions for that word.

3. If a player lands on "lose your next turn", they must stay at this spot and do

nothing for the current turn. Then they are skipped on their next turn.

4. When the player gets to the Finish line a special rule applies!! The player who is

currently in last place can pick any word that they choose from the board. If the

player on finish can complete this word in the sentence correctly, they win. If the

player cannot complete the word then they go all the way back to start.

5. Directions for when a player lands on a space with a word:

1. Say the word and then say its past form and put it in the sentences.

2. If a player is unable to do this, the player moves back to the space the player

started his or her turn on. This instruction is taken from

(http://www.asthmansw.org.au)