AN ANALYSIS ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN DETERMINING TYPES OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS ACADEMIC YEAR 2012

Abstract

The objects of this research are the difficulties in determining types of conditional sentence of English Department students that were taken by two instruments, i.e. a test and an interview. The test consists of the questions of seven studies in conditional sentence; they are the distinction between type 2 with type 3, the study of probability, the knowledge of irregular verbs, the confusion to locate “had” and “have” in main or conditional clause in type 3, the affirmative conditional, the were-subjunctive, and the study of context/situation. The interviewer’s questions in the interview seek the answers of the reasons of the difficulties. The goals of this study are to identify the type that students mostly get difficulties in understanding conditional sentences and to explore the difficulties students have in determining types of conditional sentence. Understanding a conditional sentence is not only about using the formula well but also getting the formula along with the context. Furthermore, The test is needed to answer the first goal and the interview is conducted to get the reasons that have to be found in order to make the students acknowledge their weakness in determining types of conditional sentence. They may find an easier way to dispose of them by knowing weaknesses. The data in this research were analyzed using the study of conditional sentences that is approached by L. G. Alexander (1990). In his book, Longman English Grammar Practice: for Intermediate students, there are three types of conditional sentence; i. e. types I, type II, and type III. The nature of this study is descriptive. The type of the analysis research is applied on qualitative research. The method of collecting data is survey method. There are 29 samples who are chosen randomly. All of the studies of conditional sentence will be used to evaluate the data taken from the test in the processing. Finally, in analyzing, thematic network analysis will be used to accomplish the second goal of this research by analyzing the data taken from the interview. The approach takes a more exploratory perspective, encouraging researchers to consider and code all the data, allowing for new impressions to shape researchers’ interpretation in different and unexpected directions (Stirling, 387-388). The findings of this research revealed that the most difficult type of conditional sentences is type 3 and the reasons of the difficulties the students have are: that they forget the formula, they don’t practice often, then the rules are too complicated, their vocabulary is poor, they don’t understand clearly about the use of conditional sentence, they think that the formula is less important in verbal communication; and they are not too focused on the formula when they practice it in speaking.