Students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in Prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.      Background of the Problem

          Grammar was a central for teaching and learning of languages, which was also the system or the first rules of a language, and was used to find ways to construct the words in sentences. It was not required to study grammar for learning and teaching English language, because many people spoke it as their native language without having studied it. However, it was essential to learn grammar rules for forming words and making sentences in order to utterly understood a foreign or second language. Grammar was important because it was the language that makes possible for people to talk about languages. It named the types of words and word groups that made up sentences not only in English but in any languages. As human beings, we could put sentences together as even children could. However, to be able to talk about how sentences were built, about the types of words and word groups, we should know about grammar. People associated grammar with errors and correctness. But knowing about grammar also helped us understood what made sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise. Knowing about grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialect follows grammatical patterns. Therefore, the second language learners enabled to learn better grammar from the aspects of languages, psychological cognition, beliefs and forms of teaching practices. It was important that before commencing nature of human language, linguistic could begin to discuss what speakers or writers were trying to communicate and how they do so by analyzing the structure of words and sentences.

            One of grammar studied by the student was phrases, the studying of phrases was needed to develop the sentence. According to Rozakis (2003) A phrase was a group of related words that did not include a subject and verb. If the group of related words does contain a subject and verb, it was considered a clause.

            Based on the the preliminary observation in SMA Budhi Luhur Pekanbaru, the students were studying the Prepositional phrase at the second semester for the tenth grade students. They studied about identifying the sentence related to prepositional phrase. There are two kinds of prepositional phrase that should be understood by the students. First, adjectival phrase that explained about the usage of adjective after preposition. And the second was about adverbial phrase that explains about the usage of adverb after preposition. From both of these lesson, the students should be able to identify them well.

Actually, prepositional phrase as an adjectival described noun and pronun. To find out if the prepositional phrase functioning as an adjectival phrase see if it  answered these questions : “which one?” or “what kind?”. While prepositional phrase as an adverbial describes a verb, adjective or adverb. To find out if the prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial phrase, see if it answers one of these questions : “where?”, “when?” , “in what manner?”, “to what extent?”.

In line with the importance of prepositional phrase in the texts, the researcher would like to investigate students’ ability in distinguishing the adjectival and adverbial phrase of the text under title “Students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in Prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung”.

B.        Identification of the Problem

Based on the background above, the researcher identified that the students should be able to distinguish the usage of adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase.

C.        Limitation of the Research

            Based on the above identification, the researcher limited the research on students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung.

D.      Formulation of the Research

          Referring to the limitation of the problems above, formulation of the research could be formulated in the following research question:  “How is students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung?

E.      Purpose of the Research

          The purpose of the research was to find out the students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung.

F.      Significance of the Research

          The use of the result of the research had great as in the following:

1.      To see and know the students’ ability and creativity, especially in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase.  

2.      To help the writer enlarges his knowledge in field of research in the future.

3.      To enlarge the ability of teacher related to adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase.

G.         Definition of Key Terms

To avoid mix-up over the topic of this study the researcher needs to define the term used in this paper as follows:

1.            Phrase

            A phrase is a group of words that functions in a sentence as a single part    of speech. A phrase does not have a subject or a verb, so it cannot stand             alone as an independent unit. It can function only as a part of speech.

2.            Adjectival Phrase

       Prepositional phrase functions as an adjective

3.            Adverbial Phrase

            Prepositional phrase that  functions as an adverb

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

A.    Review of the Related Theories

            In  this  part, Researcher  described  some related  theories  which support  the problems  of this research as follows:

1.       The Nature of Phrases

          According to Rozakis (2003) states that a phrase is a group of words that functions in a sentence as a single part of speech. A phrase does not have a subject or a verb, so it cannot stand alone as an independent unit—it can function only as a part of speech. As you write, you use phrases to add detail by describing. Phrases help you express yourself more clearly.

Table 2.1

Type of Phrases

Type of Phrase	Definition	Examples
Prepositional	Begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun	near the house over the moon under the desk
Adjectival	Prepositional phrase functions as an adjective	that Marci has a scarf with green stripes.
Adverbial	Prepositional phrase that functions as an adverb	The fans shouted with hoarse voices
Appositive	Noun or pronoun renames another noun or pronoun	that Fran, a teacher, enjoys summer vacation.
Verbal another	Verb form used as part of speech	See Participle, Gerund, Infinitive.
Participle	Verbal phrase that functions as an adjective	Screaming loudly, the baby was disconsolate
Gerund	Verbal phrase that functions as a noun	Working overtime requires great sacrifice
Infinitive	Verbal phrase that functions as a noun, adjective, or Adverb	To clean house on a spring day is depressing.

            And the following were the explanation about Types of  Adjectival and Adverbial phrases according to Rozakis (2003) .

1.       Adjectival phrases

          When a prepositional phrase serves as an adjective, it’s called an adjectival phrase. An adjectival phrase, as with an adjective, describes a noun or a pronoun. To find out if a prepositional phrase is functioning as an adjectival phrase, see if it answers these questions:

“Which one?” or “What kind?”

The cost of the jeans was surprisingly high.

The adjectival phrase “of the jeans” describes the noun cost.

The clown with the mask terrifies the children.

The adjectival phrase “with the mask” describes the noun clown.

2.       Adverbial phrases

          When a prepositional phrase serves as an adverb, it’s called an adverbial phrase. In these cases, it describes a verb, an adjective, or adverb. To find out if a prepositional phrase is functioning as an adverbial phrase, see if it answers one of these questions:

“Where?”

“When?”

“In what manner?”

“To what extent?”

The Mets played at Shea Stadium.

The adverbial phrase “at Shea Stadium” modifies the verb played.

The game lasted into the fourteenth inning.

The adverbial phrase “into the fourteenth inning” modifies the verb lasted.

2.       The Mastery of Prepositional  phrase 

          At the minimum, a prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause, the "object" of the preposition. The object of the preposition will often have one or more modifiers to describe it. These are the patterns for a prepositional phrase:

Preposition + Noun, Pronoun, Gerund, or Clause

Preposition + Modifier(s) + Noun, Pronoun, Gerund, or Clause

Here are some examples of the most basic prepositional phrase:

At home

At = preposition; home = noun.

In time

In = preposition; time = noun.

From Richie

From = preposition; Richie = noun.

With me

With = preposition; me = pronoun.

By singing

By = preposition; singing = gerund.

About what we need

About = preposition; what we need = noun clause.

Most prepositional phrases are longer, like these:

From my grandmother

From = preposition; my = modifier; grandmother = noun.

Under the warm blanket

Under = preposition; the, warm = modifiers; blanket = noun.

In the weedy, overgrown garden

In = preposition; the, weedy, overgrown = modifiers; garden = noun.

Along the busy, six-lane highway

Along = preposition; the, busy, six-lane = modifiers; highway = noun.

Without excessively worrying

Without = preposition; excessively = modifier; worrying = gerund.

3.         Prepositional Phrases Function as Adjectives or Adverbs

            Here are some more examples of prepositional phrases. In each example, the prepositional phrase is shaded with the preposition in bold. Be aware that prepositional phrases function as adjectives or adverbs.          

            a.    Prepositional phrases functioning as adjectives:

1)      Please read the message from Lee.

The prepositional phrase describes the noun message.

2)      The man on the radio has a boring voice.

The prepositional phrase describes the noun man.

3)      May I see one of the brown ones?

The prepositional phrase describes the pronoun one.

            b.    Prepositional phrases functioning as adverbs:

1)      Lee caught a small mackerel with utmost pride.

The prepositional phrase modifies the verb caught. It is an adverb of manner; i.e., it tells us how he caught it.

2)      Before the war, Lee played football for Barnstoneworth United.

The prepositional phrase modifies the verb played. It is an adverb of time; i.e., it tells us when he played.

3)      Lee is tired from the hike.

The prepositional phrase modifies the verb is. It is an adverb of        reason; i.e., it tells us why he is tired.

4)      Lee lives in that fridge.

The prepositional phrase modifies the verb lives. It is an adverb of   place; i.e., it tells us where he lives.)

B.      Review of the Related Findings

          There are some researchers that have done the research related to the  Prepositional phrase such as Adjectival and Adverbial Phrase;

            The First, Nirmalasari (2012) conducted the research entitled “adverbial phrases in russian’ (syntax review)”. This thesis discusses about the modifier of adverbial phrases in russian, syntactic relations between the components in phrases, modifier position, and also the optional and obligatory adverbial modifier phrase in russian. the result of this thesis showed that adverbial phrases have modifier of adverbs, nouns, and pronouns. syntactic relations between the phrase components of the adverbial phrase in the formed as adverbial relations. the position of adverbial modifier of the phrase is in front of or behind the core of phrase. in adverbial phrase also have modifier with optional and obligatory form.

            The Second, Susana (2013) entitled “Shifts in Translation of Locative Prepositional Phrases with Reference to Steve Jobs Biography”. The finding shows that shifts in translation of locative prepositional phrases with reference to Steve Jobs biography occur in both level shifts and category shifts. Category shifts consist of structure shift, class shift, unit shift and intra-system shift. Shifts occur because the translator tries to establish translation equivalences between two different language systems. Translating locative prepositional phrases can bring loss, gain and skewing of information as well as its phenomenon. The phenomenon in which data without the above shift and zero translation of the vital component of the phrase in the target language namely the preposition itself are found.

            The Third, Pebriyanti (2008) conducted the research entitled “An analysis of prepositional phrase in jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice” From the result analysis, found that there were 240 Prepositional phrase used in that Novel. By applying Purposive Sampling method, gotten 120 prepositional phrase that became the sampel of the research and  60 Prepositional phrase analyzed based on six information gotten from that novel such as : Place, Direction, Time, Identification, Purpose/Reason, and Possession. From data analysis, there were  6 kinds of information  usage of preposition which is more dominant is prepositional phrase including  type of Physical Relationship ( 17 of phrase ).

            The Fourth, Rehatta (2014) the research entitled “prepositional phrases in academic journal article of the english teaching forum, volume 41, no.4, 2003” is an attempt to identify, classify, and analyze the types of prepositional phrases in terms of forms and meanings in academic journal article. the results of this research show that there are 280 prepositional phrases, which classified in terms of form: the preposition can be followed by noun, noun phrase, pronoun, v+ing, wh-clause, and prepositional phrase. in terms of meanings, it is divided into three: place, time (position), and place (direction).

            The Fifth, Park (2011) conducted the research entitled  “Concept mapping of scientific propositions with adverbial phrases or clauses”. the study results in an alternative concept mapping method for the propositions which is easier to construct and has a clearer meaning than the traditional one. we also developed an online concept mapping program which can construct a concept map using the newly derived method. we applied the new concept mapping method and program to seniors at the university. the result was that 73% of the participants preferred the newly developed method for presenting adverbial phrases or clauses, and in reading, 79% of the participants preferred the new method to the old one.

            The Six, Zhong (2009) conducted the research entitled “Determining the position of adverbial phrases in English”. in this paper we compare three approaches to adverbial positioning using lexical, syntactic, semantic and sentence-level features. we find that: (a), one- and two-stage classification-based approaches can achieve almost 86% ac- curacy in determining the absolute position of adverbials; (b) a classifier trained with only syntactic features gives performance close to that of a classifier trained with all features; and (c) a surface realizer incorporating a two-stage classifier for adverbial positioning as the sec- ond stage gives improvements of at least 10% in simple string accuracy over a baseline real- izer for sentences containing adverbials.

Based on the related findings above, Researcher could conclude that most of the students were not able to apply Prepositional phrase especially in Adjectival and Adverbial phrase.

CHAPTER III

METHOD OF THE RESEARCH

A.                Research Design

            The design of this research was survey descriptive study. According to Creswell (2005: 354) Survey designs was procedures in quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey to a sample or to the entire population of people in order to describe the attitudes, opinion, behaviors, or characteristics of the population. The survey design had two kinds; the first is “at one point in time” (Cross sectional), and the second, “Study over time” (longitudinal).

 In this case researcher conducted one point in time (Cross-sectional). Creswell (2005:355) states that cross- sectional designs consisted of particularly type that matches to this research was related to program evaluation. Program evaluation was a survey that provided useful information to decision makers. In this study, the performance of a study on the students’ ability in ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA Budhi Luhur Pekanbaru. With regard to the finding of the research it will be an input for the English teacher make such as evaluation in teaching especially, in prepositional phrase according to the curriculum target.

            In conducting this research, researcher applied quantitative research. According to Creswell (2005: 39) A quantitative research is a type of educational research in which the researcher decides what to study, asks specific, narrow questions, collects numeric (numbered) data from participants, analyzes these number using statistics, and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased, objective manner”.  Furthermore, researcher will use descriptive statistics test to measure students’ ability in understanding possessive pronoun.

            Creswell (2005:183) stated that Descriptive statistic helped you summarize the overall trends or tendencies in your data. Provide insight into where one score might be, and provide insight into where one score stands in comparison with others. These three ideas from descriptive statistic are the central tendency, variability, and relative standing. Descriptive statistic can be used in analyzing data statically, which in short the data was gained from test.

In this study, the research will be students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and. adverbial phrase in Prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung.

B.                Setting of the Research

            The research was conducted at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung on June 2015.

C.                Population and Sample

            Cresswell (2005:510) stated that a population was a group of individuals who had the same characteristic. The population of this research was the tenth grade students of SMA N 3 Tapung. There were six classes. So, the total of the population in this research comprise  233 students. 

1.                  Population

            As stated above that in doing this research the researcher must consider the subjects in the single population without grouping them in the class, gender, and age. Therefore, the subject of this research will be the tenth grade students of SMA Budhi Luhur Pekanbaru. It consisted of 233 students. In conducting this research the researcher will use  the sample of population to be subjects of research.

TABLE 3.1

The population of the Tenth grade Students of SMA N 3 Tapung

No	Class	Population		Total
		Male	Female
1	X 1	15	25	40
2	X 2	12	27	39
3	X 3	13	27	40
4	X 4	14	25	39
5	X 5	9	29	38
6	X 6	12	25	37
Total		75	158	233

2.                  Sample

            Cresswell (2005:510) stated that a sample was a sub group of the target population that the researcher plans to study for generalizing about the target population. In this research, researcher used simple random sampling because in simple random sampling  the researcher selected participants (or units such as schools) for the sample so that any individual had an equal probability of being selected from the population.  Researcher took 10 students in each class as  the sample of  this research.

TABLE 3.2

The sample of the Tenth grade Students of SMA N 3 Tapung

No	Class	Sample
1	X 1	10
2	X 2	10
3	X 3	10
4	X 4	10
5	X 5	10
6	X 6	10
Total		60

D.                Instrument of the Research

            The researcher used the test as the instrument of this research. The test was multiple choices test. Multiple choice test was the instrument in quantitative research to answer the research question in this research that related topics on syllabus.

Table 3.5:

Blue Print Item Test

No	Prepositional phrase indicator	Number of Items	Items Number
1. 2.	Adjectival phrase Adverbial phrase	10 10	1, 3, 5,7, 9,11,13,15,17,19 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20

                                                                                        (Harmer, 2003: 237)

E.        The Technique of Collecting Data

            In this research, the researcher collected the data needed to support this research. There were 20 items of question. One correct answer got 5 points. If the students could answer all questions, they got 100 points.

F.         Technique of Analyzing Data

            According to Creswell (2005:183) states that: “Descriptive statistic will help you summarize the overall trends or tendencies in your data. Provide insight into where one score might be, and provide insight into where one score stands in comparison with others.” It clear description of using this statically method is as in the following diagram in down:

Figure 3.1 Diagram

Descriptive Statistics

 

Central tendency                           Variability                      Relative Standing

          Mean                                    Variance                                Z-Score     

        Median                           Standard Deviation            Percentile Ranks

          Mode                                      Range                

                                                                        ( Cresswell, 2005:182)

There were some steps in analyzing the data of descriptive statistic. Firstly, the researcher analyzed the central tendency. This was about the contribution of the score based on their character of statistic such as mean, mode, and median. They were expressing an average score (the mean), the middle of a set of score (the median), or the most frequently occurring score (the mode). A mean is the total of the scores were divided by the numbers of scores. To calculate the mean, the researcher summed all of scores and then divided the sum by the number of students. The median was a middle score that gotten by seeing that middle score. The mode was the number (score) that appears most frequently in a list of scores as in the following:

a.    Mean

Mean                 =

The explanation of formula above is:

∑fx                   : The raw score

N                     : The number of the cases

b.    Mode

            To find out the mode of the score, the researcher identified the score that mostly occurs.

c.    Median

            To find median, the researcher identified the middle score from the all score.

Secondly, it was variability. Variability showed the spread of the scores in distribution of scores in a distribution. Range, variance, and standard deviation all indicate the amount of variability in a distribution of scores. Range of scores is the difference between the highest and the lowest scores to items on an instrument. The variance indicates the dispersion of scores around the mean. Standard deviation is useful information.

a.    Range

            To find the range of the score, the researcher identified the lowest and the highest.

b.    Variance

Variance =

The explanation of formula above is :

Raw score : The score

M                       : Mean of the score

N                       : Number of the cases or students

c.    Standard deviation

sd=

The explanation of formula above is:

∑d²      : The score of variance

N-1      : Number of cases – 1

The last step, the research calculated relative standing. Relative standing was statistic that describe one score relative to a group of score. Two frequently used statistics were percentile rank and Z score. A percentile rank of a particular score is the percentage of participants in the distribution with scores at or below a particular. A z score is a popular form of the standard score, and it will show a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one.

a.    Percentile rank

            To find the percentile rank, the research identified the percentages of the score.

b.    Z-score

Z-score =

The explanation of formula above is :

Raw Score      : The score

M                     : The average of the score

SD                   : The score of standard deviation

Also, the researcher refers to English curriculum of SMA Budhi Luhur to know the students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase as in the following:

Table 3.2

Score Categories of SMA N 3 Tapung

No	Range of score	Level
1	90 – 100	Very good
2	80 – 89	Good
3	72 – 79	Fair
4	<72	Poor

 (Adopted from SMA N 3 Tapung)

          After doing all the calculation above, finally the researcher knows the students’ ability in understanding language features that contributes to the end instruction in teaching English. From the result, the researcher also can ask the teacher to make decision dealing with teaching English.

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

          This chapter presented the description of data analysis namely findings and discussion, Researcher was explaining the finding of the research question and in discussion researcher gave more explanation to make the findings was more understood. The research question was “How is students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase at the tenth grade of SMA N 3 Tapung?”. this question was answered based on the data obtained from reading test.

A.                Findings

           The test had been done to 60 students at eighth grade of S SMA N 3 Tapung at 4^th June, 2015 to find out the students’ ability in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase. The tests were given to answer the research question in this research. In answering the research question, the multiple choice test was given. The students chose the suitable the correct adjectival and adverbial phrase. There were two kinds of phrase that should be answerd by the students, the first was adjectival phrase items and the second was adverbial phrase items. The test consisted of 20 questions.

            After giving the test, the scores of the students from individual correct answer was calculated and elaborated from the data obtained from the test, the explanation described the ability of the students in distinguishing adjectival and adverbial phrase in prepositional phrase. The complete description of the scores could be seen in the following table.