CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1. The Reasons for Choosing the Topic

Language is as a mean of communication in the human life. No group of
people can interact one each other without language. Language is also as a part of
culture, thus, It is necessary to maintain and develop it. It is reasonable enough for
some experts said that one thing that differentiate human from animal (others) is
language. It is true that the other creatures also own the language, but some
wonder that their spoken appears instructively, so it cannot be classified into a
language. English as a language, has succeeded to attract most of the people all
over the world to learn it. It is spoken in a vast area and involves many countries
in the world.
In Indonesia, this language is regarded as an important language after the
national language Bahasa Indonesia. English is an obligatory subject to learn
starting from Junior High School until the University. Since English has different
socio - cultural background. It is found that the learners are still difficult to
understand the language.
One aspect of English language that is hard to understand lies on structure
racially tenses. Deepen the above description, the writer would like to know about
the correlation between the students mastery of the five basic tenses to their
ability of using elliptical construction and make his topic of research as follows :

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The correlation between the students mastery in tenses and their ability in using
tenses to the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan in 2014
2015 academic yar.
The writer chooses the topic of research based on the following reasons:
1. The writer is interested to find out the effect of the learners mastery of tenses
to their ability of using elliptical construction,
2. Tenses and elliptical construction have a very important role in conversation.

1.2.The Limitation of Research

As it has been explained in preceding sub-chapter that this research is the
question to be answered about the correlation of the students mastery in tenses
and their ability in elliptical construction. This research shows us that there are
two aspect of language ability to be discussed here, they are tenses and elliptical
construction.
Therefore, in this sub-chapter the writer would like to express the
limitation of this reaserch as follows:
1. Tenses in this research means a property of the verb which indicates the
occurrence or state of being which is expressed in indicate mood. In this
research, the writer only focuses in basic tenses. They are: Simple Present
Tense, Future Tense, Simple Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense.
2. Elliptical construction in this research means the construction of sentences
which some of its world or one of its world is united.

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1.3.The Problem of Research
The problem is the spirit of a research. A research cant be carried out
without problem. As Nasution (1989) states: The problem is the spirit of
research, the problem motivates to think, to research in order to get something.
Based on the above explanations it can be stated that the problem has an
essential role in a research. The problem can give direction to what should be
carried out in our research. A research is carried out in order to solve the problem.
Therefore, the problem should be formulated as soon as possible.
It is also relevant to the statements of L R Gay (1988) that states : A
statement of the problem is invariably the first component of the introduction
section of both a research plan and a research report on a completed study. Since
the problem statement gives direction to the rest of the plan or report, it should be
stated soon as possible.
Based on the above explanations the writer comes to the problem of this
research and formulates it as follows :
1. How far is the students mastery in tenses to the eighth grade students of SMP
Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan in 2014 2015 academic year?
2. How far is the students ability in elliptical construction to the eighth grade
students of SMP Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan in 2014 2015 academic year?
3. How far is the correlation between the students mastery in tenses and their
ability in elliptical construction to the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 3
Padangsidimpuan?

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1.4.

The Purpose of Research

The purpose of this research are:

1. To find out the students mastery in tenses to the eighth grade students of SMP
Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan in 2014 2015 academic year is.
2. To find out the students ability in elliptical construction to the eighth grade
students of SMP Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan in 2014 2015 academic year is.
3. To find out the correlation between the students mastery in tenses and their
skills in elliptical construction to the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 3
Padangsidimpuan in 2014 2015 academic year is.

1.5.

The Hypothesis
The hypothesis is also regarded as one of important elements of a research.

It is essential for guiding the writer in doing the research. As Komaruddin ( 1982 )
states : Hypothesis, having seen from its purpose is guiding the writer to the
further works.
Hypothesis is a tentative answer of the researched problem until it is
proved through the collected data. It is also relevant to the statement of Arikunto
(2006) that stated: Hypothesis can be meant as a tentative answer to the
researched problem, until it is proved through the collected data.
Deepen on the above explanations the writer can formulate her hypothesis
as follows: There is a significant correlation between the students mastery in
tenses and their ability in elliptical construction to the eighth grade students of
SMP Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan in 2014 2015 academic year.

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1.6.

The Uses of Research

This research is expected to be able to give the uses, both for the writer
and the people who are interested to the problem of this research as follows :
1. For the Head Master of SMP Negeri 3 Padangsidimpuan, this research can be
used as the input in the educational field about to improve the students
knowledge in learning, especially in learning English.
2. For the teachers it can be used to improve the student mastery in tenses and
their ability in elliptical construction.
3. For other people the result of this research is expected to be able to become
the reading material in order to add the list of literature in the English
educational field.