“An Analysis of the Second Grade Students’ Ability to Write WH-questions of the Simple Past Tense Based on Narrative Text at SMA N 1 GunungTalang”

Abstrak

Writing is one of English language skills.Many scientists have defined about concept of writing. According to Lyons and Heasley in Utami (2016:1), writing is clearly a complex process, and competent writing is frequently accepted as being the last language skills to be acquired (for native speakers of the language as well as for those learning a foreign or second language).At senior high school, writing is one of skills in the English subject, and the students have learnt how to write a narrative text. Robert in Darfi (2015:2) states writing a narrative text is really just putting what happened to you on paper but it is not as simple as we thought. We have to pay attention to formal aspect such as content, organization, correct spelling and punctuation, as well as acceptable grammar and careful selection of vocabulary. Moreover, there are sixteen tenses in English grammar that we need to know and study. Among those tenses, the simple past tense relates to past time. Simple past tense expresses an event, action or situation that happened.

The purpose of this research was to find out the ability of the second grade students of SMAN 1 GunungTalang in writing WH-questions (what, who, where, when, why, and how) in simple past tense based on narrative text. The design of this research was descriptive research. The population of this research was the second grade students’ at SMAN 1 GunungTalang. The number of population was 320 students. The researcher took the sample by using stratified cluster random sampling technique. The researcher took two classes as sample (XI MIA 2 and XI IIS 1). The number of sample was 60 students.The data were collected by gave a writing test. To know the reliability of the test, the researcher used inter-rater technique. The reliability index of this test was .99 and it was categorized into very high.

The result of data analysis revealed that the second grade students of SMAN 1 GunungTalang had low ability to write WH-questions of the simple past tense based on narrative text. It was indicated by the fact that 45 students (75%) had low ability. Specifically, the students’ ability to write WH-questions using what was low. It was indicated by fact that 35(53.33%) students had low ability. The students’ ability to write WH-questions using who was low. It was indicated by fact that 37(61.67%) students had low ability. The students’ ability to write WH-questions using where was low. It was indicated by fact that 33(55%) students had low ability. The students’ ability to write WH-questions using when was low. It was indicated by fact that 32 (53.33%) students had low ability. The students’ ability to write WH-questions using why was low. It was indicated by fact that 35(58.33%) students had low ability. The students’ ability to write WH-questions using what was low. It was indicated by fact that 36(60%) students had low ability.

In conclusion, the result of this study showed that students’ ability to write WH-questions of the simple past tense based on narrative text was low. Therefore, the students are suggested to do writing questions constantly in order to get better ability.

Keyword: Writing, WH-questions, Simple Past Tense, Narrative Text