Key Words: function words, students, ability
Function words are the words that a used to make the sentences grammatically correct.
Pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs are example of function
words. If the EFL students used the function words incorrectly, that they are probably
considered as poor speakers of English. This research was aimed to describe the students’
ability in using function words at eighth grade of SMP Negeri 24 Banjarmasin in academic
year of 2016/2017. This research used quantitative approaches with the descriptive method and
case study design. The population of this study was the 216 students of the eighth grade
students. The researcher took 30 students as the sample, because the researcher took a
purposive sample as sampling technique for this research.
The result of ability in using function words showed that there was no student get an
excellent ability, 10 students (33, 3%) very good ability, 5 students (16, 7%) good ability, 8
students (26, 7%) average ability, and 7 students (23, 3%) low ability. It means the ability in
using function words of the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 24 Banjarmasin was in an
average ability.
Based on the result above, it is suggested that the teacher should give more an exercises
because the results score was showed that students get an average ability and it is also suggested
that students should increase their function words, grammar abilities.