The Effect of Familiar Songs’ Tune to Improve Students’ Understanding in Irregular Verbs

English is one of the most important language in the world. It can be used as a language in any part of the world. That is why it is taught at all level of education in our country, Indonesia. Elementary school, high school and university students are all learning English now. However, learning English sentence pattern is much more difficult than learning Indonesian’s. English language learners usually get problems in understanding and using those three forms of verb which are commonly called irregular verbs as the core of tenses which are very essential in formulating tenses, have been taught at Junior and Senior High School. However, it is assumed that they are hardly used, even by those students of English Department of FBS UNIMA in Tondano. As prove it is observed that almost all students rarely speak English although they always meet at campus it is seems that they do not know how to speak English even a very simple sentence. It is assumed that their low of English competence has made them not have confidence to do their performance. Anyway, this is still an assumption that needs to be investigated. The low of competence of English knowledge might have been one of the causes that make them not able to communicate in English. Not mastering the three forms of verbs, their meanings and functions caused them enable to expressed what happened in the past present and future or they might know the structure or the pattern but do not know when to use. The research questions: Can the effect of familiar songs’ tune improve students’ understanding on irregular verbs. The study was delimited to the forms, meanings and functions of irregular verbs. The focus on this study was the fourth semester students of English department, FBS UNIMA. The tune is limited to that belongs to the songs which are well known by the students. To learn and memorize irregular verbs which have the same V2 and V3, the tune is taken from the song “Are you sleeping Brother John”. Each line was sung twice in order that the students are able to memorize easily. This is a quantitative research through pre-experimental design with one group pre-test and post-test design. The pretest was given to the students before treatment and the post-test was given after the treatment. This research showed that the effect of Familiar Songs’ Tune was improved students’ understanding on irregular verbs and it has made the class atmosphere become so lively and the students enjoy learning English by singing. Learning English by singing is fun.


INTRODUCTION
English is one of the most important language in the world. It can even be said to be the single most important language. It can be used as a language in any part of the world. That is why it is taught at all level of education in our country, Indonesia. Elementary school, high school and university students are all learning English now. However, learning English sentence pattern is much more difficult than learning Indonesian's.
English language learners usually get problems in understanding and using those three forms of verb which are commonly called irregular verbs as the core of tenses which are very essential in formulating tenses, have been taught at Junior and Senior High School. However, it is assumed that they are hardly used, even by those students of English Department of FBS UNIMA in Tondano. As a prove, it is observed that almost all students rarely speak English although they always meet at campus every day. It seems that they do not know how to speak English even a very simple sentence. It is assumed that their lack of English competence has made them not have self-confidence to do he performance. Anyway, this is still an assumption that needs to be investigated.
As a lecturer of English who has responsibility in the successful teaching and learning of English, the writer would like to find out how the competence of the fourth semester students of English Department, FBS UNIMA is. Are they already good at the forms of irregular verbs and their use or not, and if not, how to help them? What kind of technique can be applied to make students succeed in learning English. Based on the background above, this research entitled, "The Effect of Familiar Songs' Tune to in Improving Students' Understanding on Irregular Verbs".

Statement of the Problem
As it is mentioned earlier that according to the writer observation, it is hard for the students of English department to speak English every day when they are at campus, although they always meet each other before or after class. Instead of practicing English, they just keep chattering in Manadonesse. The lack of competence of English knowledge might have been one of the causes that make them not able to communicate in English. Not mastering the three forms of verbs, their meanings and functions caused them enable to expressed what happened in the past present and future or they might know the structure or the pattern but do not know when to use.

RESEARCH METHOD
This is quantitative research through pre-experimental design with one group pre-test and post-test design. The pretest will be given to the students before treatment but the posttest, after the treatment. "One group pretest and posttest design are similar to the oneshot study." Hatch and Farhady (1983:90).
"The small group that is observed is called a sample and the larger group about which the generalization is made called population. A population is defined as all members of any well-defined class of people, events or objects. A sample is a portion of population. " Donal Ary et.al (1979:129). In this research, the population is all the fourth semester students of English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, Manado State University (UNIMA) in Tondano.
As stated earlier a sample is a portion of a population. The fourth semester students are divided into nine classes; Class A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I. the class A has been chosen as the sample of this research.

Instrument for Data Collection
The instrument used in this research in written test; Pre-test and Post-test.

Formula for Data analysis
The data taken from the result of the pre-test and post-test will be analyzed by using the following Mean Score Formula, as stated by Hatch & Farhady (1983:35).
The data presented in frequency distribution, computation of mean score, computation of standard deviation of each test and display on frequency polygon.

Number of Student
Pre-Test (T1) Post-Test (T2)  1  93  100  2  81  95  3  79  99  4  76  99  5  76  99  6  68  100  7  68  100  8  68  100  9  63  100  10  63  99  11  63  92  12  58  99  13  58  99  14  45  100  15  45  97  16  45  96  17  45  92  18  40  92  19  36  71  20  36  84  21  36  96  22  36  95  23  28  96  24  28  96  25  28  75  26  20  92  27 20 75 The result of data analysis above points out that the effect of Familiar Songs' Tune has been applying in improving students' understanding on irregular verbs. Before applying FST in teaching irregular verbs the mean score was 51.92. However, while FST was used to learn and memorize the irregular verbs with their meanings and functions of each forms, as the treatment, the mean score increased to be 74. The increasing of mean score increased to be 74. It was found out that there were 6 students who got score 100 in the post-test, 6 students got score 99, 1 student got score 97, 4 students got score 95, 4 students got score 92, 1 student got score 84. 2 students got score 75, 1 student got score 71. The lowest score was 71. The amounts of students taking the post-test was 27. The total of students whose scores were from 71 until 100 were 27 students. It means that 100% of students got good scores in the post-test. Compared to the achievement of students in pre-test, no students got score 100, only 1 student got score 93, 1 student got score 81, 1 student got score 79, 2 students got score 72 and the rest scores were from 68 until 20. In this case the percentage of students with good scores was only 18.51%.
Based on the result of data analysis above, as the findings of this research it concluded that the hypothesis was accepted because 100% of students got good scores in doing the post-test. It was much more than 80% that was expected before conducting this research. This was a prove that the effect of Familiar Songs' Tune (FST), with irregular verbs and their functions as its lyrics was successful to give it contribution not only in improving students' understanding on irregular verbs but also had made the class atmosphere become so lively and the students enjoy learning English by singing. Learning English by singing is fun.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the data presented above, that the Mean Score of the post-test (74) was higher that of the pre-test (51.92), and the percentage of students whose scores 71-100 was 100%, while in the pre-test was 18.51%, the researcher comes to a conclusion that it is already proofed, the Familiar Songs' Tune (FST) can be used as a technique in teaching English in order the effect of FST in improving the students' understanding of Irregular Verbs.
The effect of Familiar Songs' True (FST), with irregular verbs and their functions as its lyrics was successful not only in improving the students' competence and performance of English but also had encouraged students to enjoy learn English by singing. Singing the familiar songs consist of English grammar/structure to replace their origin lyrics, had made students enjoy learning English grammar without getting bored, and retain what they learned in long-term memory. That was the reason why they were able to do the post-test well and got high scores. The conclusion above has proofed the effect of Familiar Songs' Tune in improving of students' understanding on irregular verbs.
Based on the conclusion above, it is suggested that English teacher use the Familiar Songs' Tune technique in the teaching of English, especially to help students learn, understand, memorize and remember the forms of irregular verbs with their meaning and function in order to improve their competence of English because the higher their competence, the better their performance will be.