ABSTRACT
The ability to write recount, which constitutes communicative competence, requires another supporting sub competences. The past tense should be acquired in order to be able to write recount well.
The objective of the study is to reveal whether there is a correlation between students’ mastery of past tense and their achievement in writing recount. Furthermore, it attempts to find out the extent to which the students’ mastery of past tense affects their achievement in writing recount.
To achieve the objectives of the study, the writer conducted a field research in which a test of past tense and that of writing recount were administered. The subjects of the study were the eleven graders of SMA I Weleri. There were 233 students from which 50 students were taken as the sample. With the intention of drawing representative sample, cluster random sampling was applied. The data were in the form of students’ scores on both tests.
Since this study is a correlational one, the data was statistically computed using Pearson Product Moment correlation formula. The obtained r value was 0.724, while the critical value of r for two-tailed test with α = 5% and df = 48 was 0.284. Because r value was higher than the critical value, the correlation coefficient was significant. Thus, the null hypothesis saying “There is no correlation between students’ mastery of past tense and their achievement in writing recount” was rejected.
The obtained regression equation was Ŷ = 18.585 + 0.774 X and the determination coefficient was 0.525. This indicates that 52.5% of the variation of students’ achievement in writing recount was accounted for by the relationship with their mastery of past tense, while the remaining 47.5% was probably due to other relevant factors, which was excluded in this study.
It is suggested that further research in the same topic should take those relevant factors into consideration. Moreover, In terms of the relationship between past tense and recount, the writer recommends diary-writing practice as a means of enhancing students’ mastery of past tense and recount.
