An analysis on students' mastery of simple past tense (A case study at the second year of madrasah tsanawiyah yayasan Pondok Pesantren Depok)

The purpose of this research is to get clear information of the students� mastery of simple past tense by the students at the second year of MTs YPPD and to analyze the students mastering of simple past tense. This study categorized as descriptive qualitative. It is called descriptive because it is intended to describe the students mastering at the second year of MTs YPPD. Besides, this study is also called qualitative, because it is involve the collection and analyzes of information based on its quality not quantity. The techniques used to collecting the data are interview guide to the English teacher of MTs YPPD and giving test to the students. After that, analyzes the students� answer sheet. . The finding of the study is the highest percentage of error that students made is in the form of simple past tense. About 61.75 % of students made error in the form of simple past tense and 33.75 % of students made error in the usage of simple past tense. This is concluded that the higher error was made by the students that mean the students� mastery is lower about the material was examined or the lower error was made by the students that mean the students� mastery is higher about the material was examined. Based on the finding above, it is suggested that (1) the English teacher should give clear explanation about simple past tense and more attention to the students who ignore the lesson, (2) the teacher should use interesting techniques and references related to simple past tense, (3) students should make a list of words regular and irregular verb that they can memorize, (4) students should use the English dictionary and pay attention to the teacher