CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

English has become one of the most important languages in the world. It has

also become an international language which is used in many countries, especially in

this globalization era. Many people, especially in Indonesia, learn English in order to

be able to communicate with other people from another country. English has also

become an important language in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, English is taught as a foreign language. It has been taught at

junior and senior high school since Indonesia's independence in 1945. English has

been given the most priority to be taught to students over other foreign languages

such as French, Arabic, Chinese and others (Dardjowidjojo, 2002 as cited in

Imperiani, 2010). English is now being taught in KTSP and K-13 curriculum style to

students from kindergarten level until university level in Indonesia.

Among the four language skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing,

writing might be the most difficult skill to master for some people because it requires

the writer to be competent in grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. Grammar is one of

the most important components of language which has to be learned by students.

Grammar helps people a lot in communication, especially in understanding what

other people write or say. However, it is difficult for students to learn grammar.

Students often find it difficult in making proper words or phrases which have correct

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and meaningful sentences. One of the grammatical items that are difficult to be

mastered is preposition.

A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between two words in a

sentence. Prepositions are always followed by nouns (or pronouns). They are

connective words that show the relationship between the nouns following them and

one of the basic sentences elements:subject, verb, object, or complement. They

usually indicate relationship, such as position, place, direction, time, manner, agent,

possession, and condition, between their objects and other parts of the sentences.

Prepositions have been called the biggest little words in English. There are

uasually quite short and insignificant looking, but they have very important

functions. It is difficult to learn to use preposition correctly in a foreign language.

Most english preposition have several different functions (for instance, one well-

known dictionary lists eighteen main uses of at), and these may correspond to several

different preposition in another language. At the same time, different preposition can

have very similiar uses (in the morning, on Monday morning, at night).

Many nouns, verbs, and adjectives are normally used in particular

preposition: people say the reason for, arrive at, angry with somebody, on a bus.

Often the correct preposition cannot be guessed, and one has to learn the expressions

as a whole.

Althougt preposition has been taught in school, university or even English

course about how to use it, to know the function and kind of preposition, but in

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reality, many students still make mistakes of the use of preposition. In this case, they

still cannot differentiate which preposition is appropriate for each sentences form.

According to the explanation about preposition above, it leads the writer to

focus her research to know the students’ ability in using some English preposition

and the difficulties that faced by students in using preposition.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Based on the background of this study, the writer would like to focus on the

following research problems:

1. What is the ability of the ninth grade students of MTS NW Kotaraja in

using English prepositions?

2. What problems are faced by the students in using English

prepositions?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

This particular writing are (1) to find out the ability of students to use English

prepositions (2) to find out the problems are faced by students inusing English

prepositions.

1.4 Scope of the Study

In line the topic of this study that the ability of using English preposition by

the ninth grade students of MTS NW Kotaraja than the discussion is directed to

investigate the students’ ability to use English preposition on, in, at, before, under

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and the problem are faced by thee students to use English prepositions. Therefore,

other prepositions are exclude.

The writer purposes the research questions, as follow:

1. How far is the level of student’s ability in using preposition?

2. what are the students’ difficulties in using preposition?

1.5 Objective of the Study

The purposes of this study are:

1. To measure the ability of students in using preposition and show the presentage of

student’s ability based on the test.

2. To investigate the difficulties of students in using preposition.

1.6 Significances of the Study

The writer expects that this study will provide more information about

preposition and problems faced by the students in choosing preposition. The writer

also intends to show how far the students’ knowledge of preposition and indentify

the difficulties of students in using preposition. The last point is, the writer hopes that

this study can be additional reference for those who are interested to learn more

about preposition.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Definition of Preposition

There are some definitions about preposition, they are:

1. According to Wishon and Burks (285:396):

“Prepositions are always followed by nouns or pronouns. They are connective
words that show the relationship between the nouns following them and one
of the basic sentences elements: subject, verb, object, or complement.”

2. According to Panca Prastowo (145:338),

“preposition atau preposisi adalah suatu kata yang tidak berubah bentuknya
dan umumnya terletak di depan kata benda atau dipandang seperti kata
benda(noun- equivalent), di mana pemakaiannya adalah untuk perlihatkan
hubungan tertentu. Jadi, dapat pula dikatakan bahwa preposition adalah
suatu kata yang dipergunakan untuk menunjukkan hubungan antara kata
benda atau kata ganti dengan kata- kata lainnya dalam kalimat”

3. A preposition in English grammar is a word employed with a noun or

pronoun to form a phrase or a prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrases express

meaning closely related to the meaning expressed by adverbs and adjectives: where,

when, how, and what kind. Prepositional phrases can also express a sense of why or

who.

e.g. : "He's in the jailhouse now." (where)

The word in is a preposition. The word jailhouse is a noun. The noun is called the

object of the preposition. This prepositional phrase provides a sense of location, a

sense of where something is located. (http://www.iscribe.org/english/prep.html)

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2.2 The Function of Preposition

It is difficult to learn to use prepositions correctly in a foreign language. Most

English prepositions have several different functions (for instance, one well- known

dictionary lists eighteen main uses of at), and these may correspond to several

different prepositions in another language. At the same time, different prepositions

can have similiar uses( in the morning, on Monday morning, at night). Many nouns,

verbs, and adjactives are normally used with particular prepositions: we say the

reasons for, arrive at, angry with someday, on a bus. Often the correct preposition

cannot be guessed, and one has to learn the expression as a whole. In some

expressions English has no preposition where one may be used in another language;

in other expressions the opposite is true.

There are some functions of preposition:

1. Preposition after particular words and expressions

It is not always easy to know which preposition to use after a particular noun,

verb or adjactive. Here are some of the most common combinations which cause

difficulty to students of English.

e.g.

drive into: Granny drove into a tree again yesterday.

kind to: people have always been very kind to me.

laugh at: I hate being laughed at.

listen to: please listen to me!

nice to: You weren’t very nice to me last night.

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2. Preposition before particular words and expressions:

For other preposition + noun combinations;

At the cinema, at the theatre, at a part

By car/bike/bus/boat/plane/foot; I go to school by bus.

3. Preposition at the ends of clauses:

A preposition often connects two things: (1) a noun, adjective or verb that

comes before it, and (2) a ‘prepositional object’

A noun phrase or pronoun that comes after the preposition.

This is a present for you.

I’m really angry with Joe.
He is looking at her.
They live in a small village.

In some stuctures we may put the preposition object at or near the beginning

of a clause. In this case, the preposition does not always go with it. It may stay

togather with ‘its’ noun, adjactive or verb at the end of the clause.

This happenes especially in four cases:

Wh- question: who’s the presents for?

Relative structure: Joe’s the person that I’m angry with
Passives: she likes to be looked at.
Infinitive structure: the village is pleasant to live in

a) Wh- questions:

When a question word is the object of a preposition, the preposition most

often comes at the end of the clause, especially in informal usage.

e.g. who’s the presents for?

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 b) Relative clauses:

When a relative pronoun(who,whom,which) is the object of a

preposition, the preposition also often goes at the end of the clause,

especially in informal usage.

e.g. this is the house that i told you about.

c) Passives:

In passive structures, preposition go with their verbs.

She likes to be looked at

d) Infinitive structures:

Infinitive complements can have prepositions with them.

The village is pleasants to live in.

4. Preposition before Conjunctions:

Preposition can be followed by conjuctions in some cases but not in others.

a) Indirect speech: Preposition dropped before that.

I knew about his problems

I knew that he had problems.

b) Emotional reactions: prepositions dropped

Prepositions are also dropped before that after many common words that

refer to emotional reactions. Compare:

We are sorry about the delay  we are sorry that the train is late.

c) The fact that

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 In other cases (not involving indirect speech or words reffering to

emotional reactions) prepositions cannot so often be dropped before that-

clauses. Instead, the expression the fact is generally put between the

preposition and that.

The judge paid a lot of attention to the fact that the child was unhappy at

home. Not: The judge paid a lot of attention (to) that the child)

d) Question words

After some very common words like tell, ask, depend, sure, idea, look,

prepositon can be dropped before who, which, what and other question

words. This is expecially common indirect question. Compare:

Tell me about your trip  not: tell me about where you went.

5. Preposition –ing forms and infinitives:

Preposition are not normally used before infinitive in English. After verb/

noun/ adjective + preposition, we usually use the –ing form of a following

verb.

I don’t like the idea of getting married not ....the idea of to get married.

2.3 Use of Preposition Phrase in the sentence

1. Prepositional phrases used as adverbs usually follow the verb, though like

adverbs, they can be moved to other position in the sentence.

2. Prepositional phrases used as adjectives usually follow the noun they modify.

3. Prepositional phrases used as nouns will be subject, object, or complements in

the sentence.

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2.4 Meaning Categories

The following list illustrates the use of prepositional phrases to convey specific

kinds of information.

1. Place, position

Accross: Her house is across the street.

After: The first street after the bridge is state street.

Against: His bicycle was leaning against the fence.

Among: The letter might be among those papers.

Around: The shop is just around the corner.

At: He used to be a student at a North American University.

Before: I have your letter before me now.

Behind: The garage is behinde the house.

Below: They live in the apartment below ours.

Between: His shop is between the bank and the post office.

By: That house by the lake is my dream house.

In: She was dozing in an armchair when we got there.

In front of: the ball stopped in front of the bus.

Inside: come in. It is warmer inside the house.

Near: You shouldn’t smoke near gasoline.

On: He found the book on the table.

On top of: I want whipped cream on top of my strawberries.

Opposite: The school is opposite the church.

Outside: There is a bird’s nest outside my window.

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 Over: The window is over the radiator.

To: Attach the rope to the bumper of the car.

Under: the book was under the desk.

Underneath: the book is underneath the papers.

2. Direction

Across: I am going across

At: The child threw a stone at the bear.

By way of: Can’t we drive to New york by way of philadelphia?

Down: we saw her walking down fifth Avenue.

Into: I saw her going into the theater a few minutes ago.

Out of: He took some money out of his pocket.

To: She went to the grocery store.

Through: The bird flew through the open window.

Toward: The road leads toward the sea.

Up: The salmon were swimming up the river.

Upon: The bird was perched upon his shoulder.

3. Time

About: I think she will be away about a week.

After: Would you please call after eight.

Around: I get to my affice around nine every morning.

At: I told her to meet us at six o’clock sharp.

Before: Take this medicine before mealtime.

By: She should be back by seven at the latest.

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 During: During the winter, I think I’ll go to Florida.

From...to: Teh office will be open from nine to one every day.

From...until: She workes from eight until tow six days a week.

In: I’ll meet you in an hour.

4. Purpose,reason

For: Take this medicine for your headache.

5. Possession

Of: The leader of the scouts has not arrived yet.

6. Manner, instrument

By: I enjoy going there by train.

In: You can’t go to that restaurant in jean.

Like: That clown walks like a duck.

With: She writes with a pen.

7. Identification

At: The shop at the cornet sellss stamps.

By: That book by hemingway is a masterpiece.

In: The man in the dark suit is my neighbor.

On: The apartment on the second floor is smaller than ours.

With: People with law degrees ofter go into politics.

8. Distance

For: We walked for miles and miles.

9. Agent

By: this film was directed by a czech director.

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 10. Material

With: I must fill my pen with ink.

11. Quantity

By: Meat is sold by the pound or by the kilo.

2.5 Preposition with Multiple Meanings

Some preposition are used to express a variety of meanings. These may present

difficulties. Some of the common preposition with their various meanings and their

most common uses are summarized as follows for reference purposes:

1. Around

“At approximately”

The police believe the man died around six o’clock.

The temperature has been around 32 celcius all day.

“In the vicinity”

People have reported seeing a stranger around the store.

2. At

With a street address if the house number is given.

She lives at 18 Magnolia Street.

With points in time

He arrived at 08.00 o’clock.

Those farmers stop working at sunset.

With prices.

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 They are on sale at two dollars a dozen

I cannot afford to buy them at the prices.

See Meaning Categories in 1 and 2

3. By

“Alone”(with a reflexive pronoun)

He lives by himself

She did the homework by herself.

“Past”(with verbs of motion)

I always walk by that house on my way to work.

Several buses go by our house.

“At the lates”(with a maximum time limit)

He will be here by five o’clock

All classes will be over by June.

See Meaning Categories 6 and 9.

4. For

To indicate duration of time.

She played the piano for two hours.

They lived in Washigton for two years.

“In exchanged for”

He rented the house for very little money.

I bought this book for two dollars.

With the beneficiary of an action.

Shall I open the window for you?

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 He baked a cake for me.

“Instead of”, “In place of”

When he was away, his neightbor did the work for him.

When the subject of an infinitive.

It is important for them to arrive early.

For him to go to a party is unusual.

See Meaning Categories 4 and 8.

5. In

With cities, states, countries, continents.

He lives in Cairo.

That river is in California.

Rice is grown in Thailand.

With period of time.

I saw him in January.

The mail comes in the morning.

With lengths of time.

He will come in an hour.

He finished that cook in one evening.

With language

That opera was originally written in Italian.

See Meaning Categories 1 and 6

6. On

To indicate contact with a surface.

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 The book is on the table.

The picture is on the wall.

There is a light on the ceiling.

With days of the week and dates.

Summer begins on June 21.

We do not have classes on Sundays.

With the name of street.

She is visiting a friend on Magnolia Steet.

7. With

To indicate association

She is with a consulting firm.

I will stay with the car while you go for help.

See Meaning Categories 6,7 and 10

8. Without

To indicate the absence of something.

Nothing can live without water.

I am without money today and cannot buy the tickets.

2.6 Preposition That Are Often Confused

In, on, and, at, discussed previously, are probably the most often confused

English prepositions. Following are some others:

1. Above, over

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 Above refers to a place higher than a certain point. Over refers to a place

directly above a certain point.

The temperature is well above freezing.

He held an umbrella over his head.

Over also means “more than” and “in the course of” a period of time.

He is over eight years old.

Over the years, he has proven to be a true friend.

2. Below, under

Below refers to a place lower that a certain point. Under refers to a place

directly below a certain point.

That valley is below sea level

His shoes are under the bed

Under also means “less than” and “under the supervision of”

The children in this class are under six years of age.

She works under the managing editor.

3. To, toward

To is used with verbs of motion and definite destination. Toward means “in

the general direction of”

We walked to the station.

All mosques face toward Mecca.

4. Beside, besides

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 Beside means “next to”. Besides means “in addition to”.

He is sitting beside his brother

Two others won prizes besides us.

5. In, into

In ise used with location or condition. Into is used with verbs that show

motion (real or metaphorical) from one place or state to another.

The child is in the pool. The child jumped into the pool.

The patient is in a coma. The patient slipped into a coma.

6. Past, beyond

Past is used with verbs of motion to indicate approaching, then passing by a

certain point. Beyond refers to a location further away than some speacified

concrete or abstract point.

The car went past the monument at 10:00

He lives beyond the post office.

His generosity is beyond belief.

7. Between, among

Between refers to position in relation to two persons or things. Among refers

to position in realtion to three or more persons or things.

I want to put the table between those two windows.

I found your letter among my school papers.

8. Through, throughout

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 Through refers to motion first into then out of something. Throughout is

used with something that is distributed in every part of something.

Let’s walk through the park.

The news spead throughout the country.

9. By and With

Use by when you want to refer to the doer of an action. Use with when you

want to refer to the instrument with which the action was performed.

The spider was killed by John. (John is the doer. He killed the spider.)

The spider was killed with a stone. (Stone is the instrument with

which the spider was killed.)

The spider was killed by John with a stone.

10. On, In and At

Use At with clock times.

I will meet you at 4 pm.

We had a party at 11 am.

Use on with days of the week and dates.

We met on a Monday.

The meeting is on the 21st of this month.

Use in with morning, evening, afternoon, years, months and seasons.

She was born in October.

The postman brought this letter in the morning.

We visited Kashmir in the summer.

We bought this house in 2002.

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 Note that we use at with night.

The pattern of at, on, and in; time: at + clock time, in + part of day, on

+particular day, at +weekend, public holiday, in + longer period.

2.7 Preposition after particular words and expressions

It is not always easy to know which preposition to use after a particular noun,

verb, or adjective. Here are some of the most common combinations which cause

difficulty to students of English:

Accuse somebody of something (not for)

Afraid of (not by)

Agree with a person, opinion, or policy.

Agree about a subject of discussion.

Agree on a matter for decision.

Agree to a suggestion.

Angry with (sometimes at) a person for doing something.

Angry about ( sometimes at) something.

Anxious for (=eager to have)

Anxious about ( worried about)

Apologise to somebody for something

Arrive at or in (Not to)

Bad at(not in)

Believe in God.

Belong in/on/etc(=go, fit, have its place in/on/etc)

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 Belong to (= be a member of)

Clever at (not in)

Congratulate/congratulation on something

Congratulate/ congratulation on/for doing something.

Depends on (not from or of)

Details of

Die of or from

Difficulty with something, (in) doing something (not difficulties to)

Eventhough prepositions are ususally quite short and insignificant looking, but

they have very important function. By looking the usage and kinds of preposition

above, it show that preposition must be learnt hardly.

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 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Method has an important role in analyzing data. It must be related to the

object of research and must follow the rules of writing. Therefore, in relation to the

methodology of this study, the writer uses few things concerned to the writing of this

study namely;

3.1 Method of Collecting Data

3.1.1 Library Research

Library research is the way of collecting secondary data. In this case, the

writer needs some books, journals, essays, and research results related to the

problems being studied to have references and guidance’s in explaining the data.

3.1.2 Field Research

To support this research, the writer used field research in order to get a lot of

information and data that are relevant with this study. In collecting data, the writer

uses the following techniques:

1. Multiple- choice

In this part, the writer give 25 questions about English prepositions. There are

four choices for each qusetion to be choosen by the students to complete the

sentences. One of the choices is the correct answer.

2. Fill in the blanks

In the second part, the writer give 5 questions for the students to answer.

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The writer gave the test to all samples then they were given half an hour to answer

the all questions(Multiple-choice, Fill in the blanks, and quessionare).

3. Quesionnare

writer also gives quesionnare to answer the second question of this research.

This question is to find out the students’ difficulties in using preposition.

The writer uses descriptive approach in order to know the criteria of the

students of Faculty of Letters of Hasanuddin University, based on the result of the

test. According to Soedjianto (1981;36), there are five criteria of students based on

the presentage of the result of the test, they are:

1. Excellent 86 – 100%

2. Good 76 – 85%

3. Fair 66 – 75%

4. Poor 56 – 65%

5. Very Poor 0 – 55%

Every students were given a score according to the criteria above and the

mean score also used these criteria.

3.2 Population and Sample.

The population and sample of this study are:

1. Population.

The writer collect data from the ninth years students of MTS NW Kotaraja. They

are chosen as research object because they generally have learnt about English

grammar since in the first semester.

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2. Sample

The writer tooks all of the students of the ninth grade in as the sample of this

research. The sample would be taken out by using simple random sampling.

3.3 Method of Data Analysis

In this method, the writer analyzed data that is, the result of the tests which

were given to the ninth years sudents of MTS NW Kotaraja. There are several steps

in analysis data as followes;

Step one : Studying all the data, which were gathered through some test and

quesionnare.

Step two :The writer categorized the data according to the objective of this

research

Step three : Percentage data by calculating the number of the correct answer and

the wrong answer, in order to know the ability and the error of the

students in using English preposition. To count the percentage of

every students, the writer used this pattern:

S = Fx X 100%
N

Where, S = Score

Fx = the sum of correct answer

N = total number of test

After that, the writer also count the mean score:

m = Fx X 100
N

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 Where, Fx = Sum of total score

N = Number of sample

m = mean score

Step four : Tabulation of the result of the tests will be put into table.

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Azar, Betty Schrampter. 1989. A24- A28. Understanding and using English
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Beare, Kenneth.(2009). English Preposition, From http://www.About.Com, part of

New York Times Company.

Cook, Guy.1989.Discorse.Oxford:Oxford University Press.

Hopper, Paul J.1999. A Short Course in Grammar. New York: W.W. Norton &
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Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge

University Press: Cambridge.

Hurford, James R, and Brendan Heasley. 1983. Semantic: a Course Book.

Cambridge:Cambridge Univerity Press, Ltd.

Arisma. 2006. The Use of Simple Preposition by Third year students of Pasantren
Modern Immim Putra Makassar. Unpublished thesis Faculty Of Cultural
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Matlail Fajarianto. 2010. Students’ ability to use preposition. Unpublished thesis

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Swan Michael. 1988. Practical English Usage-Fully Revised- Third Edition.

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Thomas, A.J, and A.V Martinet. 1986. A Practical English Grammar. Fourt Edition.
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