A STUDY OF THE THIRD YEAR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING COMPLEX SENTENCES IN SIMPLE PAST TENSE AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF BUNG HATTA UNIVERSITY

Abstrak

The purpose of this research was to find the difficulties by the third year students of English Department of Bung Hatta University in writing complex sentence in simple past tense. The design of this research was descriptive. The population of this research was the third year students of English Department of Bung Hatta University in academic year 2013/2014. The population was 96 students; they were separated into three classes; class A, class B and class C. The researcher used cluster random sampling technique to get the representative sample. Class B was the sample and the total number of sample members was 40 students. The instrument used to get the data was a writing test. The researcher tried out the test to the population out of the sample before giving it to the sample. The purpose of tried out was to make sure whether the allocation of the time was enough or not and instruction of the test was understood by the students.The researcher found the reliability of the test by using inter-rater technique. It was found that the coefficient correlation was very high (0.97). By having known the difficulties found by students in writing complex sentence in simple past tense. Dealing with this conclusion, the writer suggests English lecturers should give more explanation and exercises in writing complex sentence in simple past tense. For the students, the researcher suggests that they should pay attention when the lecturer explains the lesson and the students should also do more exercises.

Key words: Writing, Complex Sentence, Adjective Clause, Simple Past Tense