Fahmi, Yazid. 2011. The Ability in Using Simple Past Tense in Narrative Text of the Eighth Grade Students’ of SMP Negeri 1 Barabai School Year 2010/2011. Skripsi, English Education Department Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP PGRI) Banjarmasin. Advisors: (I) H. Said Zein, S. Pd., M.Pd., (II) Wahyu Fibrianto, S.Pd.
Key Words: Simple Past Tense, Narrative Text, Ability
Simple past tense is the tense that tells what happened either at a specific, previous time or describes a pattern of behavior in the past. Simple past tense uses in writing narrative text. The issue of the study is on how is the ability on using simple past tense in narrative text at the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Barabai school year 2010/2011 focusing on the use of past verb.
The objective of the research is to find out the ability on using simple past tense in narrative text at the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Barabai school year 2010/2011.
The method of this research is descriptive-quantitative method. The data source is taken from the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Barabai. Technique of collecting data is through achievement test. The population in the research consist of six classes with the total number is 153 students. It takes 25% from each class using proportional random technique, totally 38 students. The data analysis is done by three steps, that are finding individual score, means score, and interpreted on interpretation table.
The result of the study shows that the ability on using simple past tense in narrative text at the eighth grade students’ of SMP Negeri 1 Barabai school year 2010/2011 is good enough. It can be seen at the interpretation table. There are many students are able to use simple past tense good that is 44,73%; and 44,73% are good enough , and just 10,52% students are still have problem in using simple past tense.
From the result of the study, it can be concluded that the ability on using simple past tense in narrative text at the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Barabai school year 2010/2011 is in average qualification where is the mean score is 79. Suggestion of the research are the students should improve their ability with do more practice in using grammar, especially in this discussions is simple past tense, and try more exercises about verb changing especially about irregular verb.
