EED OF UMY STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN USING TENSES-ASPECTS
Abstract
Tenses-aspects are important part in written and spoken English language. If students understand them well, they can minimize their mistakes. Tenses-aspects are frequently used by students for academic purpose and communicational purpose, therefore students must be able to speak and write using correct tenses-aspects. This research aimed to find out English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (EED of UMY) students’ ability in using tenses-aspects. The research used quantitative research design using descriptive statistics to describe the students’ ability in using tenses-aspects. The research was conducted in EED of UMY. The sample was 126 students batch 2014. The test was done to gain students’ score, and then the score was analyzed by using SPSS v.20. There are three categories of students’ ability. They are low/bad (score of 2-7.3), medium/fair (score of 7.4-12.6) and high/good (12.7-18.0). The result of this research showed that the mean value of students’ score was 9.2 meaning that the EED of UMY students’ ability in using tenses-aspect lies in the category medium/fair. In addition, the result showed that simple present-present progressive and past tense-present perfect have the highest mean. It indicated that the students’ highest ability was in using simple present-present progressive and past tense-present perfect. The statistical result also presented that will+progressive has the lowest mean. It showed that the students’ lowest ability in using tenses-aspects was in will+progressive. The students are suggested to learn more about tenses to reach high/good ability in using tenses-aspects.