CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the research

Writing is one of skills in English which is plays important in learning language.

Moreover, it can help the people to express ideas, feeling and opinion and able to communicate

with other people, writing has commonly been viewed as a support skill, used to reinforce the

acquisition of grammar, as in the grammar method.1 According to Harmer State that ‘’writing is

as one of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing has always formed parts of

syllabus in the teaching of English. Writing holds an important role in studying foreign

languages.’’ According to Langan describes ‘’writing as a process of discovery involving a series

of steps and those steps are very often a zigzag journey. Writers do not discovery just what they

want to write about until they explore their thoughts in writing.’’ 2

So, Writing is an activity in which learners form graphic symbols, arrange them to form

words, and put the words in order and link them together in a certain way to produce a logical

sequence of sentence.

Grammar is not only the study of what forms (sounds, words, sentences, texts ) are possible

in a language, but also the study of the meanings these forms convey. These two parts of

1
Torid Homstad,Helga Thorson, “Writing theory and practice in the second Language classroom: A selected
annoted bibliography”. (Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, Karen Grimstad & Ray wekefield,
1994)p.6
2
Irawansyah, “A way to Enhance Students’ Writing Ability”. Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris, Vol 9 No.1 (2016),p.74-
75
grammar can be simply called ’’grammatical structures and grammatical meaning’’. Grammar is

one of the components of language that must be mastered by the students to learn English. The

students need grammar in order to make good sentence.3Often there are events that make it

difficult to write one of them is the difficulty in writing grammar. Finally, grammar is important

because grammar must be learned in order to master of the four skills in English like speaking,

listening, writing and reading.

According Marcella Frank, simple past tense indicates definite time terminating in the past,

whether a time word is given or not.4 According to Dykes the terms tenses is derived from the

Latin word ‘tempus’ which means time. Tense is a part of grammar and it is a system which is

used to refer time:past, present, future.

Joko priyatna et al. defined spoof text is a type of the text that contains an unpredictable event

which makes the story of the text funny.5

Byrne, categorizes three problems that make writing skills difficult to master, namely

linguistic, cognitive, and content problems. The first problem is linguistics, this relates to our

shrewdness in writing the correct structure and hence the sentences that are formed will be able to

blend with one another. The result is that the text that is created can be well replicated by the

reader. The second problem is cognitive problems related to our mastery of the forms of language,

structure, grammar that are useful for effective communication in writing. Harmer termed it with

organizational problems which are certainly more complicated than organizational problems in

3
Bachelor , ‘’A grammar practice book for adult beginner learners of English’’ (Masaryk University,2008)p.6
4
Marcella Frank, Modern English: a Practical refrence guide, New York University:Prentice-Hall,p.73
5
Joko Priyana, Zayn Adib Muhammad, & Eka Denis Machfutra, Interlanguage: English for Senior High school
students XI language study programme, Jakarta, Pusat perbukuan Department Pendidikan Nasiona, 2008, p.212
speaking. The third is a problem about ideas, this relates to what we can put in writing. Often we

lose ideas in the middle of the writing process.6

Based on the writer interview with one of the English teacher in Junior High School 1

Pringsewu the problem with studets in writing students will difficulties the explain idea and write

if their had lack of grammar it makes the students confused. Especially students difficulties in

spoof text and past tense should be taught at every Junior High Schools instructed by School Based

Curriculum. They have not yet understood about it, many students got difficulties when they tells

a factual story in written form. They looked difficult when they explain ideas and they were not

able to write text correctly.

The previous research was conducted by Tias evi hidayah ”a correlation between students

mastery of past tense and their achievement in writing recount’’ Semarang university (2006). This

research mainly focuses on writing recount. Other research by Noor eka fatmawati ”a correlation

between students mastery of past tense and their achievement in writing narrative text’’ Muria

Kudus University (2017) this research mainly focuses on simple past tenses and want to know

achievement students in writing narrative text. And last research by Mhd Nazuril Ikhwan “ the

correlation between students mastery of writer’s text organization and their reading comprehension

of spoof text” Universiry of sultan syarif kasim Riau (2012) focuses on writers text organization

in reading comprehension of spoof text.

Thus, this research will be entitled by writer as THE CORRELATION BETWEEN

STUDENT’S IN THEIR ABILITY WRITING SPOOF TEXT AND GRAMMAR MASTERY

6
Fikri Asih Wiganti, ”Difficulty in writing students aspects with English different proficiency levels’’. Jurnal Ilmiah
Solusi, Vol.1 No.3 (September-November 2014), p.47
IN PAST TENSE. Writer would to find is there correlation between spoof text with simple past

tense and find out why students have more difficulty writing spoof text in past tense.

B. Identification of The problems

Based on the previous background of problem, the writer found the indetification of problem:

1. Students found difficulties in mastering grammar.

2. Students not able to use simple past tense in writing spoof text.

C. Formulation of the problem

Referring to identification and limitation of that problem, the problem can be formulated into:

Is there any positive correlation between students in their ability writing spoof text and grammar

mastery?