The Past Tenses Used in Recount Texts Written by The Tenth Graders of Nursing Vocational High Schools (SMK)

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study is to find out the types of errors in using past tenses in recount text writings of the tenth grade students of SMKN 11 Malang and the causes of the errors. The participants were 32 students of X Nursing 2 class or KPR (Keperawatan) in the academic year of 2015/2016. The data were obtained from the students’ recount writing works and their answers in the questionnaire and interview. The data were identified based on Dulay et al. (1982) Surface Strategy Taxonomy and Richards (1974). The findings showed that the past tenses used by the students were simple past, past progressive, and past perfect. The past tenses errors found were 125 items in the first writing and 83 items in the second writing. Misformation was the most frequent type of error occurred followed by omission and addition. In terms of causes of the errors, ignorance of rule restriction and incomplete application of rules were at the highest rank followed by false concept hypotheses and over-generalization.ABSTRACT Agustina, Juwita, Dwi. 2016. The Past Tenses Used in Recount Texts Written by The Tenth Graders of Nursing Vocational High Schools (SMK). Thesis, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisors: (I) Dr. Utari Praba Astuti, M.A., (II) Dr. Enny Irawati, M.Pd. Keywords: past tenses, recount text This descriptive qualitative study was aimed at finding out: (1) the types of errors in using past tenses in recount text writings of the tenth grade students of SMKN 11 Malang, and (2) the causes of the past tenses errors in the students’ recount text writings. The types of errors were identified based on Dulay et al. (1982) Surface Strategy Taxonomy while the causes of the errors were analyzed based on Richards (1974). The participants were 32 students of X Nursing 2 class or KPR (Keperawatan) in the academic year of 2015/2016. The students have heterogeneous English skills and competences and can be said as in the highest rank among tenth grade students of other nursing classes in that school. They were active to get involved in any English class’ activities. The data analysis was conducted according to three steps which were data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The research instruments were the students’ writing tests, questionnaire, interview guide, and rubric of error categorization. The data were obtained from the students’ recount writing works and their answers in the questionnaire and interview. The past tenses used by the students were simple past, past progressive, and past perfect. The past tenses errors found were 125 items in the first writing and 83 items in the second writing. Misformation was the most frequent type of error occurred followed by omission and addition. In terms of causes of the errors, ignorance of rule restriction and incomplete application of rules were at the highest rank followed by false concept hypotheses and over-generalization. As most of the errors were misformation which was caused by ignorance of rule restriction, it seemed like there was something wrong with the context of learning. Some of the students tended to use present tenses instead of the past tenses and always put a verb after ‘be’ although it was a non-progressive sentence. Based on the findings, reinforcement in the form of repetition, practice and corrective feedback are needed in learning English. It is essential for the English teacher to encourage the students to be active and productive while learning English in the class. It is suggested that the English teachers give more explanation of the difference between English and Indonesian, regular and irregular verbs, also explain more about the rules of all the past tenses and the use of it. For future researchers, the findings can be used as valuable references to conduct research in the same field such as schools and students which have similar characteristics. It is suggested that future researchers conduct a research which focuses on the use of all the past tenses