ABSTRACT

The title of this research is An Analysis of the Student Errors in

Mastering the Present Continuous Tense. (A case study at SMP Negeri 1 Cipanas
Cianjur). It was an investigation which focused on: how high students ability in
mastering the present continuous tense, what the difficulties were encountered by
the students in mastering the present continuous tense.
The research method in this investigation was descriptive method. The
techniques used for obtaining and analyzing the data were collecting data from
students achievement test, analyzing students ability in mastering the present
continuous tense, analyzing students difficulties, and drawing the conclusion
based on the data.
In this research, the population was the second grade students of SMP
Negeri 1 Cipanas-Cianjur in academic year 2008-2009 (461 students) and the total
sample were 46 students selected based on simple random sampling technique.
The collected data were analyzed by frequency and percentage categories. It was
to find out the average of the student mastery and errors in using the present
continuous tense. The result of this research showed that the average of the total
items (30 items) which were answered correctly by 46 students was 13 items
(13/30 x 100% = 43.33 %). And the average of the total item which were
answered incorrectly was 17 (17/30 x 100% = 56.66 %). In additions, the result of
this average showed also that the students mastery on comprehending the use of
present continuous tense was still low.

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