CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Rationale

One of the Allah power is that man have been created in many races and

etnics which is aimed to meet and know each other. This is appropriate with their

nature as social being that cannot live alone. To fulfill their necessities they have

to communicate and mutually interaction with their surroundings. Furthermore,

they need to know, even making relationship with other nations. That is stated in

Holy Quran at Al Hujurat verse 13 as below.

  

  
 
 
  
  
    
{13 :‫ } الحجرات‬ 
One of the bounties that was given by Allah the Al mighty to the human is

language, because language is an implementation of communication. Roud Sadry

stated as quoted by Paulin Tomasuow that “language is a medium to express an

inner opinion or feeling which are expressed orally or with symbol according to

certain purpose of human.”1 Normally, through language people can express the

ideas, gain something such as giving information, interact with the other people,

1
Paulin Tomasuow, Cross Cultural Understanding, (Jakarta: Karunika, 1986), first edition,
p.1.

1
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control the attitude and make an imaginative world.2 By language human being

can receive and transmit message, so that they can know each other. A language is

not only used for speaking but also needed to develop science and technology.

There are many kinds of nations and tribes in this world and each of them

has own language. So, there are also many difference languages as stated by Allah

in His book at Ar Ruum verse 22 as follow.

  

 
 
   
  

The need of communication forces some people to study another language

in this world beside theirs. Nowadays, to communicate with other countries is a

necessary. Thus, learning foreign language is not only a kind of obedience of

Allah, but also a necessity.

From a lot of languages that belong to separate of nation, English has very

essential position of communication among people. It is used as an international

language. It also becomes the language that most frequently used in modern

science and technology. English has the largest number of user all over the world.

It is used in many aspects of life such as education, tourism, politics, business, etc.

There is no doubt that English is very important in the globalization era.

2
Leonard Blomfield, Outline Guide for the Practical Study of Foreign Language,
(Baltimore: 1992), p. 22.
 3

English has become a compulsory subject of education in many countries,

including Indonesia. Indonesian government makes English as one of national

education curriculum, from elementary school to the university. The status of

English in national education curriculum is an important part of Indonesian

expansion human resources quality that desirable for national development.

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need to complete

communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen

first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write. These are called “the four

language skills”.3 All of those skills have their own way to master them.

Speaking is the second language skill, and probably the one that most

language learners wish to perfect as soon as possible.4 It means this skill had an

important thing. Mastering this skill shows that learners here success in learning

the target of language. Learners are successful; this can be seen from their ability

to use language productively and from their achievement or the result of the

learning.

According to Oxford learners dictionary, speaking which comes from word

speak means talk to somebody about something and using voice to do it. 5

Speaking is also one of the language skills that should be acquired by human

being after he understands the meaning of words in a language which he uses.

3 th
http://utecworld.org/zone/?p=90 (September 14 , 2010)

4
Ibid.
5
A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, (Newyork:
Oxford University Press, 1995) p. 414
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The main purpose of speaking is to communicate or to deliver an idea

effectively. Basically, speaking or communication has three general purposes,

namely to inform, to entertain, and to persuade. 6 Moreover, it also can be the

combination of those purposes.

In language learning speaking is a complex and lengthy process, furtermore

learning to speak foreign language. It involves simultaneously use of a number of

different abilities which often develop at different rates such as pronunciation,

vocabulary, grammar, fluency and comprehension.7

Speaking requires more than just producing words or any sounds. Because

random words could not convey any fixed meaning. An idea could be deliver

clearly only by using clear sentence, even only a simple sentence. Thus, a speaker

not only needs to know what the vocabulary which should be said, but he is also

required to combined the words into a good sentence or more, in order his idea

can be understood. The rules that say how words are combined, arranged and

changed to show different meaning are called grammar.8

In this case, the ability of grammar is very important. It can help speaker to

speak accurately. As Martin Bygate said that “it is obvious that in order to be able

to speak a foreign language, it is necessary to know a certain amount of grammar

6
Henri Guntur Tarigan, Berbicara Sebagai Suatu Keterampilan Berbahasa, (Bandung:
Angkasa, 1993), p. 15
7
David P. Harris, Testing English as A Second language, (USA: McGraw-Hill, 1969), p. 82
8
Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995),
p. 73
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and vocabulary”. 9 Despite fluency is very important in speaking, but if the

conversation is full of grammatical errors, the ideas will not get across so easily,

because different structure may caused different meaning. In summary, a good

ability of grammar can help learners to speak better.

In fact, in daily activities communication orally often consider as

nonstandard and practical form of communication. Some students view grammar

rules as an unimportant set of conventions that are useful for passing test but of

dubious value in actual English conversation.10 Learners of English often produce

utterances that are ungrammatical. It is quite natural, especially for the beginner or

young learner, errors that are made can be considered as a part of learning

process, especially the error of grammar. Moreover, there are many factors should

be considered in improving speaking process.

According to Joan Marley, the learners have to help accomplish four things:

1. To increase their self-confidence in speaking and listening to English

2. To increase their level of intelligibility in speaking and their level of aural

comprehension in listening to English.

3. To increase their fluency in speaking English

4. To increase their accuracy in speaking English11 .

9
Martin Bygate, Speaking, (Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 3
10
Don Snow, From Language Learner to Language Teacher, (USA: TESOL, 2007), p. 186
11
Joan Marley, Improving Spoken English, (Jakarta:Bina Rupa Aksara, 1993) p.5
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This condition causes the speakers do not use the language carefully

especially for grammatical structure. Because the first thing that should be

considered the self confidence to speak of learners. Most of the students cannot

communicate verbally in English because of some factors such as shyness, limited

vocabulary, or simply lacking the necessary knowledge. They are afraid of

making mistakes.

Another cause is Indonesian learners do not speak English much whether

inside or outside of classroom. English as a foreign language in Indonesia has

many differences with mother tongue of Indonesian learners. So, it is needed

much time to practice. Ideally teacher and students use English to communicate

each other in teaching learning English process. Infact, it is quite difficult to

practice cause of some problems. Meanwhile, the special time for speaking skill in

the class is limited. Students tend to learn writing and reading more than practice

to listening and speaking.

In other side it is not expected if the errors that learners made became a

habit. So there should be improvement. Many methods, strategies and facilities

are found to solve the problem. Teachers are suggested to speak English in

classroom as much as possible. Moreover, learners should improve their attitude

to learning language rules of English include grammar of English. Studying

grammar rules will certainly help students to speak more accurately.

In this study the writer wants to know the correlation between students’

ability of grammar and speaking. It is interested to know the relation of speaking

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skill and grammar ability for grammar ability is a concrete theory and tending to

writing skill than to speaking. Meanwhile, speaking is a practical skill which is

influenced by speaker’s feeling, attitude, memory, habit and other abstract factors.

For this reason the writer is interested to express more deeply a research

entitle THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ ABILITY OF

GRAMMAR AND SPEAKING OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT

SMAN 1 MUARA TEWEH CENTRAL KALIMANTAN.

B. Clarification of Title

To avoid a missinterpretation of this title the writer needs to define some

words or expressions that are mentioned in the title, they are:

1. Correlation

Correlation derived from word “correlate” means there is a mutual

relationship or connection. 12 In statistic term, correlation is “hubungan

antar dua variable atau lebih”.13Suharsimi Arikunto said that correlation

research attempts to determine whether there is any correlation or not and

to what extent a relationship between two or more variables exist. 14

Furthermore, correlation here means that the type of this research will be a

quantitative research to find out relation between two things. The

correlation in this title means the relationship between students’ ability of

12
A.S. Hornby. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, (New York University Press,
1995), P.261
13
Anas Sudjono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, (Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada,2000),
p. 167
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grammar and their English speaking ability of the second year students at

SMAN 1 Muara Teweh in academic year 2010/2011.

2. Ability of Grammar

According to Oxford learner dictionary, ability is skill or power. 15

Meanwhile, grammar is rules for forming words and making sentences.16

So, the ability of grammar is a skill of using or implementing rules to

forming words or making sentences of any language.

3. Speaking

A. S. Hornby said that “speaking is made use a language: is an ordinary,

not a singing voice: know and be able to use (a language): make a speech:

make a sound.”17 In this study Speaking is purposed as the ability in using

English orally.

Thus, this research aims to find out the degree of students’ ability of

grammar and speaking, and correlation between them. Furthermore, it needs to

find out the degree of the correlation.

C. Problem Formulation

Based on the background of the study before, the problems which are

represented in this research are:

14
Suharsimi Arikunto, Prosedur Penelitian, (Jakarta: Rineka Cipta, 1997) p. 31
15
A. S. Hornby, p.1
16
Ibid, p.187
17
A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, (Newyork:
Oxford University Press, 1995) p. 827
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1. How is the second year students’ ability in grammar at SMAN 1 Muara

Teweh?

2. How is their speaking ability?

3. Is there any significant correlation between students’ ability of grammar

and their speaking ability?

D. Reason for Choosing the Title

There are some factors make the writer conducts this title, they are:

1. English is one of popular languages in the world that has become the main

communication device in the field of science and technology

2. Speaking is one of the important four basic skills in English.

3. In learning a foreign language, grammar is one of important component for

someone to be successful in four language skills, especially to improve

speaking and writing.

4. SMAN 1 Muara Teweh is one of the qualified Senior High Schools in Central

Kalimantan, but still has the same problems as the other schools do.

E. Purpose of the Research

Based on the problem formulation above, this study will be done for some

purposes as follow:

1. To know the second year students’ ability in grammar at SMAN 1 Muara

Teweh in acdemic year 2010/2011.

2. To know their speaking ability.

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3. To find out the correlation between the second year students’ ability of

grammar and their speaking ability at SMAN 1 Muara Teweh in academic

year 2010-2011.

F. Assumption and Hypothesis

1. Assumption

a. Each student has different ability in grammar and speaking.

b. The students’ ability of grammar of second year students at SMAN 1

Muara Teweh influences their speaking ability.

2. Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a temporary answer of the research problem till it would

have been proved through the collected data.18 Based on the assumption

above, there are two possibilities of hypothesis as below.

a. Direction or alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a significant correlation between students’ ability of grammar

and their speaking ability.

b. Null hypothesis (H0)

There is no significant correlation between students’ ability of

grammar and their speaking ability.

G. Significant of the Research

The result of this research is expected to give contribution as follow:

18
Suharsimi Arikunto, p. 64
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1. Students, particularly the second year students at SMAN 1 Muara

Teweh, to improve their ability in grammar and speaking skill.

2. English teacher, especially English teacher at SMAN 1 Muara Teweh, to

qualify their teaching activities.

3. The writer, to enrich her knowledge about English language.

4. Be consideration and input for education executor on increasing and

improving education faculty.

5. Information or additional references for other researchers.

H. Organization of the Content

This study is divided into five chapters as follows.

The first chapter is introduction that consists of rationale, clarification of

title, Problem formulation, reason for choosing the title, purpose of the research,

assumption and hypothesis, significant of the research, and organization of the

content.

The second chapter is theoretical review that consists of definition of

speaking, definition of grammar, the need of grammar ability in improving

speaking skill, and grammar of spoken English language.

The third chapter is method of research. It consists of subject and object of

research, data and source of data, technique of data collecting, basic framework of

research, design measurement, technique of data processing and analysis data, and

research procedure.

The fourth chapter consists of presentation of data, data analysis.

The last chapter consists of suggestion and conclusion.

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