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A. Background

For many years, English has been the most important foreign language in

Indonesia. In senior high school, it is taught as one of the main subjects in

Curriculum. One of the purposes is to develop and to achieve the communicative or

discourse competence. Therefore, the learners must be able to master the four skills,

they are: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and English components namely

grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.

In the process of learning English, the students often do errors because they

do not master the English structure well. Errors are the inability of the components

and elements of the second language. Corder. S.P. (1981:6) say, We live in an

imperfect world and consequently errors will always occur in spite of our best

efforts. It means that the learners cannot avoid errors in learning second language.

The students of senior high school, especially at the Ten grade, are hoped to

be able to express their ideas in a written form. They can develop their writing in

various text genres such as: narrative, descriptive, recount, news item, etc.

One of the text genres is recount text. It tells about activities in the past.

According to Mulyati, Emirfan T. (2011:51), Recount text adalah jenis teks yang

menceritakan kejadian atau pengalaman di masa lampau atau sudah berakhir. It

means that recount text is a kind of text that tells about events or experiences in the

past. Thus, tense used in recount text is simple past tense because it tells about past

events. According to Mulyati, Emirfan T. (2011:51), Tenses yang digunakan dalam

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recount text adalah bentuk lampau. It means that tense used in recount text is

simple past tense.

To make a good composition, the students must be able to master and to

apply the structure correctly, especially about tense. In this case, the tense used is

simple past tense. If they cannot do it, errors will arise. When the writer did the

Teaching Practice Program (PPL) at the eighth grade of SMAN 3 Tsikmalaya, she

found that most of the students encountered problems in using simple past tense,

especially in using verb and to be (was, were) because of their low simple past

tense mastery. Therefore, the writer wants to analyse the errors made by the students

in using simple past tense in recount text, and then she tries to suggest a good

teaching learning strategy to overcome it.

Based on the description above, the writer is interested in doing the research

entitled, The Analysis of Students Errors in Using Simple Past Tense in Recount

Text at the Eighth Grade of SMK DAARUDDAWAH.

B. Formulation of the Problem

The formulation of the problem that will be investigated in this research is,

What are the errors made by the students in using simple past tense especially in

using verb (past form) and to be (was, were) in recount text and what are the

causes of their errors?

C. Operational Definition
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To avoid the different perception, the writer explains the terms related to the

topic of this research, as follows:

1. Students errors : the errors made by the eighth grade

students of SMA Negeri 3 Tasikmalaya in the academic

year of 2010/2011 in using simple past tense especially in

using verb (past form) and verb be (was, were) in

positive form in recount text. The data are obtained from

the test given by the writer.

2. Simple Past Tense : one of the English tenses

used to show an activity or event in the past without

indicating any connections with the present.

3. Recount Text : a text type which tells about a series of events or

activities in the past with the ppurpose of informing or entertaining.

D. Aim of the Research

The aim of the research are to find out the errors made by the students in

using simple past tense especially in using verb (past form) and to be in recount

text and the causes of their errors.

E. Uses of the Research

This research can hopefully give the information to English teachers about

the students ability in understanding simple past tense, the errors made by them in
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using it, and the causes of their errors. Thus, the teachers can find the suitable

instructional strategy to overcome it.

F. Literary Review

Simple past tense is an English tense that is still considered as the difficult

subject. In this case, some students are often difficult in using it, so that it causes

the students to make errors. Therefore, it is very important to give a clear

explanation to the students about the rules of using simple past tense, so that they

are able to use it correctly.

Through this research, the writer will get the data about the students errors

in using simple past tense in recount text from the test given by the writer in the

form of objective test. The students are asked to complete the paragraphs of recount

text.