INVOLVING STUDENTS IN FORMULATING PATTERNS OF CHANGING SIMPLE PAST VERBS

Abstract

This research aims to explore the implementation of an inductive learning method to keep students engaged in learning activities rather than passively listening to the teacher's explanation in a junior high school. Conducted in an EFL class with 38 second grade students on beginner English level, this method modifies, Observe - Hypothesize - Experiment method from Lewis (1993) by adding one element, Share. The method provides students a wide opportunity to observe real examples of language use, compile simple hypotheses about the rules or patterns in these examples, test these patterns in different sentences, and share their works with their classmates. Besides, this method helps students to identify the patterns one by one instead of learning all past verb changes at the same time. The simple past verbs were divided into at least 4 groups of regular and irregular verbs. The first regular group was the addition of -d to the base words such as love-loved, dance-danced. The second was the addition of -ed such as talk-talked, want-wanted. The next was changing y into i and the adding of -ed as found in study-studied. And the last regular verb was doubling the last consonant of the base word and followed by -ed as in step-stepped. While in irregular groups, the first was a group without any changes in the base form. The next was a group where the vowel was changed. Then, a group where changes occurred on some of the vowels and consonants. The last was a group where the word changed completely. Related to students' perception of the implementation of this method, it has improved students' participation in classroom activities and most of them stated that they felt more encouraged while working in a group as well as in individual work and while presenting or sharing the result of their group work in front of the class. They also felt more confident in using simple past tense in different sentences. However, this method also has several weaknesses, such as the need for more time in its preparation and class management.