THE INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS GRAMMAR MASTERY
ON THEIR WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT ABILITY
AT THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS
OF SMAN 1 SINDANGBARANG
Nita Erniati (09220271)
Nitaerniati@yahoo.com
English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan Dan Ilmu
Pendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung
ABSTRACT
The objectives of this research entitled “The Influence of Students’ Grammar Mastery on Their Writing
Narrative Text Ability at the Second Grade Students of SMAN 1 Sindangbarang” were to identify the students’
grammar mastery at second grade students of SMAN 1 Sindangbarang, to identify the students’ writing narrative
text ability at the second grade students of SMAN 1 Sindangbarang, and to find out whether or not there is the
significant influence of students’ grammar mastery on their writing narrative text ability at the second grade
students of SMAN 1 Sindangbarang.The design of this research was ex post facto design. The writer used
quantitative method. The instruments of this research were the test (grammar and writing narrative text). The
population of this research was 50 students of the second grade students of SMAN 1 Sindangbarang in academic
year 2012-2013 and the sample was entire population which were divided into students group of good grammar
(the students who got the score of grammar test more than 60.1) and students group of poor grammar (the
students who got the score of grammar less than 60). The data of the research was collected by giving posttest to
the students sample. The collected data were analyzed using t-test formula. The results of the data analysis
showed that mean score of posttest in students group of good grammar was 73.2, whereas mean score of posttest
in students group of poor grammar was 60.4, and the t-observed was 7.52. The t-critical value with df = NA+NB2 = 25+25-2 = 48 and significance level at 0.05 was 1.68. Based on the data analysis above, the alternative
hypothesis of this research was accepted, because the t-observed was higher than the t-critical value (7.52>1.68).
It could also be concluded that students’ grammar mastery influenced their writing ability.
Keyword: Influence, Grammar mastery and Writing narrative text ability
A. BACKGROUND
English is an international language used by many
people in the world. Most of source of information
including book, science, and technology are written
in English. So English is very important to be learnt
by people. In Indonesia, English is studied as a
foreign language. Students are expected to use
English and practice it in their daily life effectively
after the class of English lesson over.In order to be
fluent English learners, the students have to master
the four of English skills (listening, speaking,
reading, and writing) in the language learning
processes. All these language skills are related to
each other. One of the units of a language is
grammar, so students have to study about grammar in
order to have good ability in writing.
According to Brown (2001:362) “Grammar is the
system of rules governing the conventional
arrangement and relationship of
words in a
sentence”. Writing is a process. As Halliday (1985b)
in Nunan (1998:84) expressed that “writing has
envolved in societies as a result of cultural changes
creating communicative needs which cannot be
readily met by the spoken language”.
Some students in Indonesia get some difficulties in
learning English. They find many differences in
grammar and culture concepts found in English but
not in Indonesia. These differences can cause
learning problems. In the skill of writing for instance,
at least students have to master not only vocabulary
but also grammar well. In writing narrative text, verb
tenses have essentials role, therefore using correct
tenses is important. In line with the problem above,
the writer held an interview with the English teacher
of the second grade students of SMAN 1
Sindangbarang (on January 22, 2013), he admitted
that his students are lack of grammar mastery, it
indicated by their score which under KKM (kriteria
ketuntasan minimum) when they were given a
grammar test and it affectected their writing ability
especially in writing narrative text.
Therefore, the writer was interested to make a
research
entitled “THE
INFLUENCE
OF
STUDENTS’ GRAMMAR MASTERY ON THEIR
WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT ABILITY AT THE
SECOND GRADE STUDENTS’ OF SMAN 1
SINDANG BARANG ” to know how well students’
1
grammar mastery and to know how significant
grammar mastery influences their writing narrative
text ability.
...............
Figure 2.2 Time line of tenses (cited from
Brown, 2001, p. 369)
B. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Definition of Grammar
Grammar is one of three dimensions of language
that are interconnected. Grammar gives us the form
or structures of language but those form are
meaningless without a second dimention, semantics,
and a third dimension, pragmatics( Larsen-Freeman
in Brown, 2001:362). Moreover, Celce-Muria
designs three dimensional grammar as follows:
FORM/
STRUCTURE
b. Maps and Drawings
Maps can also serve to illustrate certain
grammtical structure. For
example, map can
stimulate learners use of prepositional phrases( up
the street, on the left, over the hill, etc), question
forms ( where, how do I get to, can you tell me, is
this, etc ), asking for directions, receiving and
clarifying given information, and terminating the
conversation.
3. Evaluating Students’ Grammar Mastery
Important for teacher to evaluate students
grammar mastery, at least informally. Error
correction via peer correction is a good way to
evaluate students writing to improve their grammar
matery. As Celce-Muria (1991:272) states that:
Obviously not all students in class wil produce the
same errors. Thus,
whenever possible and
appropriate, the writing of students in the class
should be used for exercises; in this way, if a few
students do not have the particular error problem,
they can contribute via peer correction.
MEANING/
SEMANTIC
PRAGMATIC/
Social context
Figure 2.1 Three dimensional grammar (cited from
Celce-Muria, 1991, p. 280
The figure above can be understood that grammar
is not only about structure, but also semantic and
pragmatics. As Gerot & Wignell (1994:2) express
that “Grammar is a theory of language, of how
language is put together and how it works”.
4. Definition of Writing
Writing is clearly a complex process, and
competent writing is frequently accepted as being the
last language skill to be acquired. ...Writing is
commonly seen as a three stage process: pre-writing,
writing and rewriting (Heasley in Nunan, 1998:91).
2. Techniques in Teaching Grammar
In teaching something, teachers should have
technique in delivering material in order to students
can understand easier. Teaching grammar also need
technique, and following are some simple techniques
for teaching grammar, using McKay’s classifications
(1985) in Brown (2001:368):
a. Charts
Charts and graphs are useful devices for practicing
pattern, clarifying grammatical relationship. The
exercise in Figure 2.2 stimulates students to practice
verb tenses.
Time can be shown by a line across the board. An
arrow pointing down indicates this moment now. To
the left is past time, to the right is the future.
Heaton (1988:135) gives further explanation
in dealing with the writing definition, he states
that “Writing skills are complex and sometimes
difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only
grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of
conceptual and judgemental elements”.
5. Functions of Writing
Halliday in Nunan (1998:84) explains that:
In the modern world, written language serves a range
of functions in everyday life including the following:
1. Primary for action
2. Primary for information
3. Primary for entertainment.
- He used to smoke ( in the past, not anymore)
...............
6. Techniques in Teaching Writing
In writing, there are several techniques which can
be explored in class for generating ideas according to
Oshima&Hogue (1999:4) are the following:
a. Brainstorming: the students in the class are
encouraged to participate by sharing their collective
- She works in the market ( did in the past and will
continue in the future)
........................
- We’ll travel by plane ( in the future )
2
knowledge about a particular subject. There are three
useful brainstorming techniques are listing,
freewriting and clustering.
2. Listing: think about your topic and quickly make
a list of whatever words or phrases come into your
mind. Your purpose is to produce as many ideas as
possible in a short time, and your goal is to find a
specific focus for your topic.
3. Free writing: write freely about a topic because
you are looking for a specific focus. The more you
freewrite, the more ideas you will have.
4. Clustering: In the center of your paper, write your
topic and draw “a balloon” around it. This is your
center, or core, balloon. Then write whatever ideas
come to you in ballons around the core. Think about
each of these ideas and make more ballon around
them.
truthful on the one hand and treating students
sensitively and sympathetically on the other
(Harmer,1998:84).
He also states that another technique which many
teachers use is when they come across a mistake they
underline it discreetly. However many mistakes you
may want to identify, it is always worth writing a
comment at the end of a piece of written work,
anything from ‘Well done’ to ‘This is a good story,
but you must look again at your use of past tense’.
This makes correction look less damaging. The other
really important point is that correction is worthless if
students just put their correcting away and never look
it again.
9. The Influence of Grammar on Writing
We realize that writing can not stand alone
without any other supported skills, for instance,
writing has relation with grammar. Students’
grammar mastery is very important to support their
writing ability because in writing English, there are a
lot of grammar rules that should be known.
The influence of grammar on writing has argued
that grammar is indeed an essential aspect of written
communication and that students in the EFL
classroom should be taught to view grammar as an
aid to shaping effective and appropriate message. As
Ponsot and Deen (1982:133) in Celce-Muria
(1991:275) put it,” grammar is clearly not remedial.
Like baking powder, it can’t be stirred into the cake
after the batter has been poured into pans.”
concerning for grammatical correctness, should
be integrated with editing process . In selecting and
developing grammar oriented activities for the
classroom, the teacher should always beer in mind
the students’ needs and background as well as the
demands of writing task.
7. Writing Narrative Text
Narrative is one of text types of writing, and
usually exist in every semester. According to
Anderson (1998:3) “Text narrative is text that tells a
story and, in doing so, entertaints the audience”.
The purpose is to amuse the reader. Grammatical
feature of narrative usually use past tense. Though
it’s most commonly used when your child is asked to
write a personal essay (along the lines of What I Did
to Celebrate the Holidays), this type of writing can
also be used for fictional stories.
In writing, there are something that shouldn’t be
forgotten besides grammatical feature, it is the
generic structure. The generic structure of narrative
as follows:
Orientation: introduce the participants of the story
with the time and place set.
Complication: it is such the crisis of the story.
Resolution: solving the problem
Coda : there is a moral or message to be learned from
the story.
Generic structure in each text types are rather
hard because it’s different and must be arranged
correctly. Therefore the writer gave you some key
words to remember generic structure of narrative
easily. The first keyword is Oncom Raos Coy and
the second is Offering Corruptor’s Reputation
Collapse.
C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Research Design
According to Burns (2000:125), “research design
is essentially a plan or strategy aimed at enabling
answer to be obtained to research questions”. The
writer wanted to know the influent of students’
grammar mastery on their writing narrative text
ability. In this research the writer used ex post facto
design.
The characteristic that distinguises an ex post
facto from the other types of group comparison is the
fact that the group under investigation have already
formed according to values associated with a variable
of interest before the researcher has begun the study
(Crowl, 1996:13).
The ex post facto designs are frequently used to
identify possible relationship between variables.
8. Evaluating Students’ Writing
Most students find it very dispiriting if they get a
piece of written work back and it is covered in red
ink, underlinings and crossings-out. It is a powerful
visual statement of the fact that their written English
is terrible.
As with all types of correction, the teacher has to
achieve a balance between being accurate and
3
2. Research Method
In this research, the writer used quantitative
research method. “Quantitative research methods are
used to examine questions that can be best answered
by collecting and statistically analyzing data that are
in numerical form” (Crowl, 1996:10). This research
meant to find the effect of difference capability to the
subject of the research to know how significant
students’ grammar mastery influence their writing
narrative text ability.
3. Research Instrument
To collect the data of this research, the writer
used a standardized test, which means, “The test has
been designed so that the procedures for
administering the test, the materials used in the test,
and the way in which the test is scored are constant”
(Crowl, 1996:114). In this research, the writer used
an achievement test.
6. Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the writer used the following
steps which is stated by Crowl (1996:177) :
1. Put the score into the distribution table
2. Calculate the mean of students group of good and
poor grammar. Crowl (1996:135) notes the formula
as follows:
M=
∑𝑿
𝑵
Where:
M= Mean
X= Score
N= The number of students
3. Find out the significant differences by using t-test.
In analyzing the collected data, the writer used t-test
formula with significant level at 5 %. According to
Crowl (1996:177) the formula of the t-test as follows:
1.
𝐌𝐀 − 𝐌𝐁
𝚝=
4. Research Population and Sample
Crowl (1996:15) describes, “Populations are
groups consisting of all people to whom a researcher
wishes to apply the findings of a study.” In this
research, the population in this research was the
second grade science students of SMAN 1
Sindangbarang in academic year 2012-2013, which
consists of 50 students.
According to Crowl (1996:15) “samples are
subsets of people used to represent population. The
sample of this research was entire of population”.
The sample of this research was entire of population
that was the second grade students of SMAN 1
Sindangbarang which consisted of 50 students. And
sample were divided into students group of good and
students group of poor.
∑𝐗𝐀𝟐 −
√[
(∑𝐗𝚨)𝟐
+ ∑𝐁 𝟐 −
𝐍𝐀
𝐍𝐀 + 𝐍𝐁 − 𝟐
(∑ 𝐗𝐁)²
𝐍𝐁 ] [ 𝟏 + 𝟏 ]
𝐍𝐀 𝐍𝐁
Where:
t
= t-test
MA = Mean of students group of good grammar
MB = Mean of students group of poor grammar
∑
= Summation (Sum Up)
XA = The score of students group of good grammar
XB = The score of students group of poor grammar
N = The number of scores
4. Calculate degree of freedom (df)
Degree of freedom is needed when we want to
compare between the obtained (𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑠 ) with the table
entry for relevant df and level significant the degree
of freedom formula is :
df= NA + NB - 2
Where: df= degree of freedom
N= the number of the students
5. Research Data Collection
a. Giving the Grammar test
Giving grammar test was used to know students’
grammar mastery. The test consisted of 20 items
multiple choice. The result of grammar test are used
to know which one students who got score more than
60.1 in grammar test, then it was called as students
group of good grammar and which one students who
got score less than 60 in grammar test, then it was
called as students group of poor grammar. Giving
grammar test was held on April 5 and 10, 2013 to the
second grade of students as the samples in this
research.
b. Giving the Writing Narrative Test
In this study, the writing test scores were used as
data. Posttest was used to find out the students’
ability in writing narrative text after getting the
treatment,it was held on April 19 and 24, 2013.
7. Research Procedures
In conducting the research, the writer did the
following procedures:
a. Completing the permit letters from the institution
of STKIP Siliwangi Bandung and the school where
she would do the research in SMAN 1 Sindangbarang
b. Making a lesson plan, this was based on the
school-based curriculum (KTSP).
c. Making research instruments (test)
d. Collecting the data
e. Analyzing the collecting data.
f. Interpreting the results of the data analysis.
g. Writing the final result reports.
4
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
1. Research Data
The data of grammar test and writing narrative
text scores in students group of good grammar were
described in the following table:
Table 1
The Grammar Test and Writing Narrative Scores in
Students group of Good Grammar
No.
Students’
Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
A8
A9
A10
A 11
A 12
A 13
A 14
A 15
A 16
A 17
A 18
A 19
A 20
A 21
A 22
A 23
A 24
A 25
Grammar
Score (XA)
100
100
100
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
80
80
80
80
80
80
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
∑XA = 2,080
Highest score = 100
Lowest score = 70
Mean = 83.2
Writing
Score
(XB)
80
70
70
80
70
80
70
70
80
90
70
80
70
80
70
60
60
80
70
70
60
80
70
80
70
XB2
6400
4900
4900
6400
4900
6400
4900
4900
6400
8100
4900
6400
4900
6400
4900
3600
3600
6400
4900
4900
3600
6400
4900
6400
4900
B 13
B 14
B 15
B 16
B 17
B 18
B 19
B 20
B 21
B 22
B 23
B 24
B 25
∑XA = 1,210
Highest score =60
Lowest score = 20
Mean
= 48.4
2. Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the writer used the following
steps which is stated by Crowl (1996:177) :
1. The mean of students group of good and poor
grammar.
The mean of students group of good grammar:
∑XA
1830
MA = 𝑁 = 25 = 73.2
The mean of students group of poor grammar:
∑XB
1510
MB =
=
= 60.4
𝑁
25
2. After knowing the mean of each groups, the
writer could find out the t-test value. To make it
clear the writer uses t-test formula which is stated
Crowl (1996:177) as follow:
√[
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
B8
B9
B 10
B 11
B 12
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
XB
153500 −
√[
153500 −
=
2
=
4225
3600
3600
4900
3600
3600
3600
3600
3600
3600
3600
3600
=
=
=
=
5
(1830)2
(1510)²
+ 91600 −
25
25 ] [ 1 + 1 ]
25 + 25 − 2
25 25
12.8
=
Table 2
The Grammar Test and Writing Narrative Scores in
Students group of Poor Grammar
𝟏
𝟏
+ ]
𝐍𝐀 𝐍𝐁
][
𝐍𝐀+𝐍𝐁−𝟐
73.2 − 60.4
√[
test and writing narrative text scores in students
group of poor grammar were described in the
following table
Writing
Score
(XB)
65
60
60
70
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
(∑𝐗𝚨)𝟐
(∑ 𝐗𝐁)²
∑𝐗𝐀𝟐 − 𝐍𝐀 + ∑𝐁 𝟐 − 𝐍𝐁
𝚝=
The writer also presented the result of grammar
Grammar
Score (XA)
𝐌𝐀−𝐌𝐁
𝚝=
∑XB= 1,830
∑XB2 = 135,300
Highest score =90
Lowest score = 60
Mean
= 73.2
Students’
Number
3600
60
3600
60
3600
60
3600
60
3600
60
3600
60
3025
55
4900
70
3600
60
2500
50
3025
55
3600
60
4225
65
∑XB = 1,510
∑XB2 = 91,600
Highest score =70
Lowest score = 50
Mean
= 60.4
50
50
50
50
50
40
40
40
30
30
20
20
20
3348900
2280100
+ 91600 −
25
25 ] [0.04 + 0.04]
48
12.8
√[153500 − 133956 + 91600 − 91204] [0.08]
48
12.8
√[1344 + 396] [0.08]
48
12.8
√[1740] [0.08]
48
12.8
√[36.25] [0.08]
12.8
√2.9
12.8
1.70
because the t-observed was higher than the t-critical
value (7.52>1.68).
c. There is significant influence of students’ grammar
mastery on their writing ability.
2. Suggestions
a. Teachers should be able to explain grammar as
simple as possible to be understood, so it will be
more important for teachers to know techniques in
teaching grammar.
b. The students have to know and understand more
about basic grammar in order to be able to make
English sentence correctly.
c. The result of this research is hoped to be a baseline
information for the other researchers who are
interested in the same research topic by involving
more populations and samples to make more
generalization.
= 7.52
The result of the significant mean differnce by using ttest was 7.52.
3. Calculating the number of degree of freedom and
critical value of t-table at 0.05 level of the significance for
the degree of freedom which is formulated as follows:
Df = NA + NB – 2
= 25 + 25 - 2
= 48
The result of degree of freedom (df) was 48. The critical
value of t-table at the 0.05 level of the significance for the
degree of freedom 48 was 1.68.
The output from minitab 14 below to ensure the
writer’s calculation.
Descriptive Statistics: SCORE XA;SCORE XB
Two-sample T for SCORE XA vs SCORE XB
N
Mean StDev SE Mean
SCORE XA 25 73,20
7,48
1,5
SCORE XB 25 60,40
4,06
0,81
Output from MINITAB 14
F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Mark and Kathy. (1998). Text Types
in English. Australia: Macmillan PTY LTD.
Brown, H. Douglas. (2001). Teaching by
Principles: An Interactive
Approach to
Language
Pedagogy.
San
Fransisco,
California: Addison Wesley Longman Inc.
Burns, Rober. (2000). Introduction to Research
Methods. England: Longman.
Celce-Muria, Marianne. (1991). Teaching English
as a Second
or
Foreign Language.
University of California, Los Angeles: Heinle
& Heinle Publishers.
Crowl, Thomas. K. (1996). Fundamentals of
Educational research. New York: Brown &
Bencmark Publishers.
Gerot, Linda.&Wignell, Petter. (1994). Making Sense
of Functional Grammar.
Sydney: Gerd
Stabler.
Harmer, Jeremy. (1998). How to Teach English: An
Introduction to the Practice
of English
Language Teaching. California: Addison
Wesley Longman.
Heaton, J. B. (1988). Writing English Language Test.
New York: Longman Inc.
Nunan, David. (1998). Language
Teaching
Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers.
Sydney: International Book Distributors Ltd.
Oshima, Alice.&Hogue, Ann. (1999). Writing
Acadmic English. California: Addison Wesley
Longman.
To see the result easier, the group statistics in this
research was described in the following table:
Table 3
Group Statistics
Students
group
Good
grammar
Poor
grammar
N
25
25
Mean
73.2
60.4
St.dev
t-obs
t-tab
7.52
1.68
7.48
4.06
Interpret
ation
H1
accepted
3. Data Interpretation
Based on the data above, the writer concluded
that the alternative hypothesis was accepted because
the t-observed was higher than t-value (7.52>1.68).
The hypothesis of this research was there is a
significant influence of students’ grammar mastery
on their writing narrative text ability. It means that
students’ grammar mastery influenced their writing
ability. We can see that the mean of students group of
good grammar was higher than students group of
poor grammar.
E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
1. Conclusions
a. The highest grammar test score in students group
of good grammar was 100 and the lowest was 70,
whereas the highest grammar test score in students
group of poor grammar was 60 and the lowest was
20.
b. The highest writing narrative text score in students
group of good grammar was 90 and the lowest was
60, whereas the highest writing narrative text score in
students group of poor grammar was 70 and the
lowest was 50. Based on the data analysis above, the
alternative hypothesis of this research was accepted,
6