e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 1 TEACHING THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE THROUGH SHORT DIALOGUE Darni1, Anshari Syafar2, Wahyudin3 Abstract Theobjectiveofthisresearchwastoexaminethattheuseofshortdialogue canimprovethestudentsabilityinmasteringthepresentcontinuoustenseat SMPNegeri19Palu.Thisstudyappliesintactgroupresearchdesign.The research sample was class VII C and VII D which consist of 18 students. The samplewastakenthroughclustersamplingtehnique.Thedatawerecollected by using test. The result of the data analysis showed that there is a significant differencebetweencontrolgroupandexperimentalgroup.Itwasprovedby testinghypothesis.Byapplying0.05levelofsignificancewith17(18-1) degreeoffreedom(df),thet-countedvalue(12.69)ishigherthanthet-table value(2.110).Itmeansthattheresearchhypothesiswasaccepted.Inother words,theuseofshortdialogueiseffectivetoimprovestudentsabilityin mastering the present continuous tense. Keywords: Teaching; Present Continuous Tense; Short Dialogue. INTRODUCTION Structureasalanguagecomponentplaysanimportantroletosupportthelanguage skills. The students can write English well if they have good competence in structure. Structure is essential to be taught because the students can learn the grammatical rules that are useful in mastering English well.Many writers of English tense have defined tenses. It is done to help the learners to be familiarwithEnglishtenses.AccordingtoPaul(2005:147)Tensemarkingindicates,to varyingdegreesofprecision,thetimewhenaneventoccurredorasituationexisted.Inother words, it specifies the situations location in time EverysentenceinEnglishhasitsownstructureaccordingtothesituationwhereitis usedortimewhenitishappened.Ur(1996:75)statesthataspecifiedinstanceofgrammaris usuallycalledastructure.Englishtenseisanexpressingthetimeat,during,oroverwhicha

1Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Universitas Tadulako email: DarniNuraviany@gmail.com 2Email: binbandori@yahoo.com 3Email: Yudigaretta@yahoo.com e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 2 state or action denoted by a verb occurs. Gari (2012) also argues that the basic tenses in English are present, past and future. English also has perfect tenses (present tense, present perfect, past tense, past perfect and future tense, future perfect) and progressive tenses. TherearesixteentensesinEnglish(Azar,2002).Theyareseparatedintofourgroups. They are present tense, past tense, future tense and past future tense.Present tense is used to talk aboutrepeatedactionandgeneraltruth.Itisdividedintofourtypes;simplepresenttense, presentcontinuoustense,presentperfecttense,presentperfectcontinuoustense.Pasttenseis used to describe things that happened in the past or thing that were true in the past. It is divided intofourtypes:simplepasttense,pastcontinuoustense,pastperfecttense,pastperfect continuoustense.Then,futuretense,itisusedtodescribesomethingthatwillhappeninthe future.Thistensealsodividedintofourtypes:simplefuturetense,futurecontinuoustense, future perfect tense, and future perfect continuous tense. Thepresentcontinuoustenseisusedtoexpressanactionthatoccursatthetimeof speaking or can be used to express the future time to explain a plan. The time signals are used now, right now, at the moment, at the present, today, this morning, this afternoon, this evening, etc. The present continuous tense or progressive tense is a tense that indicates the activities that are being done or are in progress.Azar (2002:13) points out, Thepresentprogressive(PresentContinuousTense)expressesanactivitythatisin progress at the moment of speaking. It is a temporary activity that began in the past, is continuing at present, and will probably end at some point in the future. Dialogueisaliteraryandtheatricalformconsistingofawrittenorspoken conversationalexchangebetweentwoormorepeople(Brainy,2001).Dialogueisashort conversationbetweentwoormorepeopletodayiswidelyencounteredinstudentslanguage textbook to practice a new language and is used by language teachers as a teaching technique to teachlanguageinclassroomactivity.Brainy(2001)defines,Aconversationbetweentwoor morepersons;particularly,aformalconservationintheatricalperformancesorinscholastic exercises. Although the sentences in the dialogue consist of fabricated sentences it can present somethingvaluableinteachinganewlanguage.Brainyfurtherstates,Aconversationisa dialogue,notamonologue.That'swhytherearesofewgoodconversations:duetoscarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet. e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 3 Inthedialoguetherearetwoormorepeopleinvolvedintheactivity,meaningwhen practicingalanguagethroughdialoguepeoplewillhavelearningexperiencethatmakethe classenjoyable,challenging,freshandinteresting.Meanwhile,Dobson(1975)alsodefines, Dialogueasashortconversationbetweentwopeople,presentedasalanguagemodel. Dialogue is a social context that can be used to practice the new language. The sentences in the dialoguecometolifebecauseadialoguerepresentsarealcommunicationofideasfromone person to another. Short dialogue is an activity in which two or more people ask and give ideas or opinions relatedtoonespecifictopicinashortperiod.Theresearcherinterestedinapplyingshort dialogue because it is assumed that it is a good technique or device that can help students learn effectively to masters present continuous tense. Basedontheexplanationabove,theresearcherformulatedaresearchquestionas follows:Cantheuseofshortdialogueimprovestudentsabilityinmasteringpresent continuoustense?Theobjectiveofthisresearchistofindoutwhethertheusesofshort dialogueinteachingpresentcontinuoustensehaveaffectontheimprovementofstudents ability to use the tense in writing and speaking. METHODOLOGY Inconductingthisresearch,theresearcherappliedintactgroupsdesign.Itisapartof pre- experimental design. Intact group design employs one group as an experimental group and one group as a control group. Both experimental and control groups were given a post-test, but the experimental group was given the treatment while the control groupwas not.Inthiscase,theresearcherusedresearchdesignadoptedfromHatchandFarhady (1982:20) as follows:G1 XT1 G2T1 Where: G1:experimental group G2:control group X:treatment T1:post-test e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 4 ThepopulationofthisresearchwastheseventhgradestudentsofSMPNegeri19 Palu.Itconsistedof18students.Thetotalnumberofthepopulationwas76students.In choosing the sample of this research, the researcher applied cluster sampling technique.ThesampleinthisresearchwasclassVIICandVIID.inthisresearch.Theresearch consistsoftwovariables,namelydependentandindependentvariable.Theindependent variable is condition or characteristic that the experimenter manipulates in his or her attempt to ascertaintheirrelationshiptoobservephenomena,whilethedependentvariablearethe conditionofcharacteristicthatappear,disappearorchangeindependentvariables (Best,1981:59).Theindependentvariableforthisresearchistheuseofshortdialogue,while thedependentvariableistheabilityoftheseventhgradestudentsofSMPNegeri19Paluin constructing present continuous tense. In this research, test is used to obtain data about the students ability in mastering present continuous tense. The number of item in the test and scores to each item are presented below: Table 1:Test Scoring System No. Kind of TestItemsScoreMaximum Scores 1.Multiple Choice15115 2.Completion15115 3.Sentence Transformation10330 Total40 60 Thetreatmentwasgiventothestudentsthatappliedeightmeetings.The experimental classwastaughtpresentcontinuoustense.Inthistreatmenttheresearcherappliedtheuseof short dialogue. The treatment was given twice a week. After that, the researcher gave post test to theexperimental and control class.Post-test was conducted to measure the students ability in present continuous tense. It was given to know the significance of the treatment.Theresultofthescoreofthetestwasanalyzedstatistically.Firsttheresearcher computedtheindividualscoreofstudents.Inscoringsystemtheresearcherusedtheformula proposed by Purwanto (1987:102): e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 5 =

100 Where: :standar score X: sum of correct answer N: maximum score 100: fixed score Toknowthemeanscoreofstudents,theresearcherusedtheformulabyHatchand Farhady (1982:55) as follows: M=

Where: M: mean score x: obtained score N:number of students Tocalculatethedeviationscorebetweenstudentsscoreinexperimentalclassand students score in controlclass, the researcher used the formula by Hatch and Farhady (1982:55) as follows: M=

Where: M:mean score x: obtained score N: number of students Forgettingthevalueoft-counted,theresearchercomputedtheformulaasfollows (Arikunto,2002:275): t =

() e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 6 Where: t:test score Md:mean from experimental class and control class d2 :sum of square deviation N:number of students FINDINGS Afterapplyingthetreatment,theresearchergavepost-testtothestudentsinorderto knowwhethertheuseofshortdialoguewaseffectiveinteachingpresentcontinuoustenseor not. The result of the post-test is presented in Table 2 and Table 3. Table 2: The Students Score on Post-test in Experimental Class Thepost-testresultofexperimentalclassshowninthetableaboveindicatedthatthe highest score was 100 and the lowest score was70.0. After calculating the students score in post- test, the researcher computed the students mean scores of experimental group post-test in the following: No. InitialsRaw Scores Standard Scores1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 SMG STD NEN MIS ASD MWH AKN RFS NFD ASK VYA MHY PAS MRA MRZ SAY SSS MSH 55 60 58 43 53 59 42 57 45 49 46 55 54 52 57 58 60 59 91.6100 96.6 71.6 88.3 98.3 70.0 95.0 75.0 81.6 76.6 91.6 90.0 86.6 95.0 96.6 100 98.3 Total 1602.7 e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 7 M=

M= 1602.718 M= 89.03 The mean score of experimental class was 89.03 Table 3: The Students Score on Post-test in Control class No.Initials Raw Scores Standard Scores1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 NRW MTH NRH MRH MAN DDY CFT NAN AHJ MZT WYD MRN ISW ASW AMY ADY WND MAD 28 35 50 35 39 41 30 41 27 31 28 30 34 31 29 31 48 38 46.6 58.3 83.3 58.3 65.0 68.3 50.0 68.3 45.0 51.6 46.6 50.0 56.6 51.6 48.3 51.6 80.0 63.3 Total 1042.7 Lookingatthepost-testresultofthecontrolclass,itwasobviouslyfoundthatthe highestscorewas83.3andthelowestscorewas45.0.Aftercalculatingthestudentsscorein post- test, the researcher computed students mean scores of control group post-test as follows: e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 8 M=

M= 1042.718 M= 57.92 The mean score of controlclass was 57.92 The next step that the researcher did in analyzing data was calculating the deviation and the score deviation of experimental class andcontrol class. The result ofdeviation and square deviation are shown in the following table: e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 9 Table 4: Deviation and Square Deviation of Experimental Class and Control Class No. Initials of Experimental Class Post-Test of Experimental ClassInitials of ControlClassPost-Test of Control ClassDeviation(d)(G1-G2) Square Deviation (d2) 1 SMG STD NEN MIS ASD MWH AKN RFS NFD ASK VYA MHY PAS MRA MRZ SAY SSS MSH55 60 58 43 53 59 42 57 45 49 46 55 54 52 57 58 60 59 NRW MTH NRH MRH MAN DDY CFT NAN AHJ MZT WYD MRN ISW ASW AMY ADY WND MAD 28 35 50 35 39 41 30 41 27 31 28 30 34 31 29 31 48 38 27 25 8 8 14 18 12 16 18 18 18 25 20 21 28 27 12 21 729 2625 364 464 5196 6324 7144 8256 9324 10324 11324 12625 13400 14441 15784 16729 17144 18441 Total3366938 Aftercomputingthedeviationscorebetweenexperimentalgroupspost-testand controlgroupspost-test,theresearchercomputedthemeandeviationofthestudentsscore presented as follows: Md=

Md= 33618 Md= 18.66 After getting the mean deviation, the researcher computed the sum of square deviation shown belows: e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 10

2 = 2( )2

= 6938 (336)218 = 6938 (112896)18 = 6938 6272 = 666 To get the value of t-counted, the researcher computed the formula as shown below: t =

2(1) = 18.66

66618(181) = 18.66

666306 = 18.662.17 = 18.661.47 = 12.69 Theresultofthedataanalysisshowedthatthet-countedwas12.69byapplying0.05 levelofsignificancewith17degreeoffreedom(df)or18-1=17,theresearcherfoundthatt-counted(12.69)washigherthant-table(2.110).Itmeansthattheresearchhypothesiswas accepted.Inotherwords,theuseofshortdialogueinteachingpresentcontinuoustensewas effective to the seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 19 Palu. DISCUSSION According to the result of students post-test in control class, it can be seen that none of thestudentsofthecontrolgroupgothighscore.Allofstudentsgotscorelowerthan85.The highest score was only 83.3and the lowest score was 45.0. There were9 students who did not pass in the test. It means that many students got less in mastering present continuous tense. e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 11 The researcher found that most students still got difficulties to distinguish the tenses and they were confused to turn it into negative and interrogative sentences.Consequently, it made most students unable to answer the exercises. Duringthetreatment,theresearchergavetreatmenttoexperimentalgroupusingshort dialogue technique. The researcher taught about the positive, negative and interrogative form of present continuous tense. The researcher used short dialogue as the technique to strengthen the studentsstructure.Inusingthetechnique,theresearchergaveuncompletedshortdialogueto thestudentsandaskedthemtofilltheuncompletedinthatshortdialogue,Afterthat,the researcher asked them to practice the dialogue with their partner. After conducting the treatment, the researcher administered the post-test to the students in the experimental and control class. The researcher found that most of the students could get higherscorethanthestudentsincontrolclass.Themeanscoreofthepost-testwas89.03in experimentalclasswhereasthemeanscoreofpost-testwas57.92incontrolclass.Therewas nonestudentwhodidnotpassinthetest.Itshowedthatthemeanscoreoftheposttestin experimental class was higher than the post- testin control class. This result affirmed that the studentsabilityinteachingpresentcontinuoustensehasbeenimprovedbyusingshort dialogue as the technique. There are some studies which are relevant with this research. One of them was written bySance(2009).Theresultofthatresearchshowedthatbyusingshortdialoguecanimprove studentsprogressivetense.Itwasprovedbylookingatthestudentsmeanscorefrom3.8in the pre-test to 8.07 in the post-test.Furthermore, there was a similar research conducted by Magfirah (2009). The title was Teaching present continuous tense to the sevenyear students of SMP Negeri10 Palu through substitutiondrill.Thetensetaughtisthesameasthecurrentresearch,thedifferentisthe techniquewhichwasused.Theresultofdataanalysisshowedthatthet-counted(13.26)was higher than the t-table (2.031). It means that the use of substitution drill technique can improve the present continuous tense. Basedonthepreviousexplanation,itcanbeconcludedthattheuseofshortdialogue canimprovenotonlythestudentsmasteryofpresentcontinuoustense,butalsocanimprove theirspeaking.Furthermore,thepresentcontinuoustensecanbeimprovedbyusingother technique, such assubstitution drill. e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 12 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Basedontheresultofdataanalysisinthepreviouschapter,theresearchercandraw someconclusions.Firstly,shortdialoguecanbeappliedtominimizethedifficultiesofthe studentsinlearningpresentcontinuoustense.Itcouldbeseenbythemeanscorebetween experimentalclasspost-testandcontrolclasspost-test.Secondly,themeanscoreofthe experimentalclasspost-testwashigherthanthemeanscoreofcontrolclasspost-test.Itwas also proved by the t-counted value which was higher than the t-table. It showed that the useof shortdialogueinteachingpresentcontinuoustensehaveaffectedontheimprovementof students ability in structure. In addition, based on the conclusions above, the researcher would like to provide some suggestions. The suggestions are presented as follows: 1.The teacher of English may use short dialogue as one ofthe solutions to overcome the students problem in learning grammar particularly present continuous tense. 2.The teaching of Englishgrammar,presentcontinuous tense should be paid attentively. ItmeansthattheteacherofEnglishshouldapplyinterestingstrategies,methods, techniques,andmediatostimulatethestudentsability,motivationandinterestin learning English grammar. 3.Theteachershouldgivemoreexamplesbyusingpresentcontinuoustenseinsome kinds of test. 4.The teacher should motivate the students to learn English. REFERENCES Arikunto, S. (2002). Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktik. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta. Azar,B.(2001).UnderstandingandUsingEnglishGrammar.2ndEdition.NewYork: Prentice- Hall, Inc. Best, J. W. (1981). Research in Education. 4th Edition. London: Prentice- Hall, Inc. Brainy.(2001).DefinitionofDialogue.RetrievedonMarch10,2013from http://www.brainyquote.com/words/di/dialogue153896.html Dobson. (1975). Dialogue: why, when, and how to teach them. ET. Forum Vol. XIII Number 1 and 2e-Journal of English Language Teaching Society (ELTS)Vol. 2 No. 1 2014 ISSN 2331-1841Page 13 Hatch,EandFarhady,H.(1982).ResearchDesignandStatisticforAppliedLinguistics.Los Angeles: Newbury House Publishers, INC Gari,A.(2012).DefinitionofTense.RetrievedonMarch25,2013from http://www.allwords.com/word-tense.html Magfirah.(2009).TeachingPresentContinuousTensetotheSeventhYearStudentsofSMP Negeri10ThroughSubstitutionDrill.UnpublishedSkripsi:TeacherTraining and Education Faculty of Tadulako UniversityPaul, R. K. (2005). Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction.New York: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Purwanto,N.M.(1987).Prinsip-PrinsipdanTeknikEvaluasiPengajaran.Bandung:PT. Remaja Rosdakarya Sance.(2009.)TeachingPresentProgressiveTensetotheEighthGradeStudentsofSMP Negeri1KulawithroughShortDialogue.UnpublishedSkripsi:Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Tadulako University Ur, P. (1996). A Course in a Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.