The Difficulty in Using Adjectives Ending in –ing and –ed in Sentences: A Case Study of the Tenth Grade Accounting Students of SMK N 2 Purworejo in the Academic Year of 2011/2012

Abstract

It is understood that learning English is difficult for Indonesian students. One of the difficulties faced by the Indonesian students related to grammar. The students are usually confused because of the complex rules. One of the grammar topics is about adjectives ending in –ing and –ed. These adjectives imposes problems to some students. The main purpose of this study is to analyze and to find out the difficulties faced by the tenth grade accounting students of SMK N 2 Purworejo in the academic year of 2011/2012 in using adjectives ending in –ing and –ed and its possible causes. The type of this research is descriptive research. The population of this research is the tenth grade accounting students of SMK N 2 Purworejo in the academic year of 2011/2012 that consists of 128 students. The number of sample in this research is 32 students which were selected by using simple random sampling technique. The writer used a test and a questionnaire to collect the data. The test was used to know the students’ ability and to identify the students’ difficulties in using adjectives ending in –ing and –ed. The questionnaire was used to find out the possible causes of the students’ difficulties. The result of the study shows that the mean score of the students is 68.23. It means that the students’ ability in using adjectives ending in –ing and –ed belongs to good category. The difficulties faced by the students in using adjectives ending in –ing and –ed in sentences are in using those adjectives attributively and also in differentiating the use of both forms of those adjectives. The possible causes of the students’ difficulties in using adjectives ending in –ing and –ed are not knowing the meaning of those adjectives (96.88%), unaware of the different function of those adjective (75%), not paying attention to their progress in learning (70.31%), and also having negative attitude towards grammar (63.54%).