Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 155 ANALYZING STUDENTS' PASSIVE VOICE DIFFICULTIES Muziatun Department of English Education, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Indonesia Email: muziatun@ung.ac.id Fahria Malabar Department of English Education, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Indonesia Email: fahria@ung.ac.id Lisnawati Mustapa Department of English Education, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Indonesia Email: reallizna.mustapa@gmail.com APA Citation: Muziatun., Malabar, F., & Mustapa, L. (2022). Analyzing students’ passive voice difficulties. Indonesian EFL Journal, 8(2), 155-164. https://doi.org/10.25134/ieflj.v8i2.6439 Received: 09-02-2022 Accepted: 12-05-2022 Published: 31-07-2022 INTRODUCTION Educators emphasize the importance of English learning. A wide range of fields rely heavily on the English language, including commerce and engineering as well as the fields of medical and education. The English language has become an international medium of communication among the people of the world, and it is essential to learn so that people may speak with each other without any difficulties (Muziatun, Saud, & Halada, 2021). For Indonesia as a developing country, the acquisition of English as an international language is of the utmost importance in order to maintain effective communication with other nations whose primary language is English (Renandya, Hamied, & Nurkamto, 2018; Zein, Sukyadi, Hamied, & Lengkanawati, 2020). In order for students to be able to communicate effectively with persons who do not speak their native language, the education system in Indonesia prioritizes the teaching of English as a foreign language (Hamied, 2012; Rinantanti, Bin-Tahir, & Suriaman, 2019). In order for the students to achieve mastery of the English language, they need to be proficient in four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing (Cintrón-Valentín, García-Amaya, & Ellis, 2019; Mayyas & Bataineh, 2019; Muziatun, Virginia, & Jusuf, 2020). Aside from being fluent in these four skills, they should also be able to demonstrate proficiency in grammar (Mayanondha & Soontornwipast, 2020; Mayyas & Bataineh, 2019; Muziatun & Jusuf, 2020; Philippines & Tan, 2020; Yaccob & Yunus, 2019; Zalbidea, Issa, Faretta-Stutenberg, & Sanz, 2021). This is due to the fact that grammatical roles must to be taken into consideration in all aspects of English competence. According to some (Denham, 2020; Fontich, 2018; Fontich & García-Folgado, 2018; Kolln & Hancock, 2005; Larson, 2009) grammar may be seen as a systematic and scientific study. The study of it gives us the information and guidance that is Abstract: The purpose of this study is to find out how difficult it is for students of using passive voice. There were twenty students in class B of the English Department's 2017 academy class at University Negeri Gorontalo, but only sixteen of them were chosen for this study, which employed a descriptive quantitative technique. A survey and an interview were used to get the data. As part of the test, students had to change the forms of numerous active sentences into passive ones. The data was examined using Sudijono’s (2006) formula and Parrot's (2000) theory of passive voice difficulties. This study found that students in the English Department's Class of 2017 at Universitas Negeri Gorontalo continue to struggle with the use of the passive voice. Auxiliary verb "be" utilization was found to be the most problematic by students admitted, with a percentage of 67.18 percent, followed by difficulties in changing the main verb into the past participle (48.43 percent) and changing the object and subject (43.75 percent). The usage of the auxiliary verb "be" is the most difficult part of passive voice for students, compared to the other two. Keywords: students’ difficulties; grammar; and passive voice. mailto:muziatun@ung.ac.id mailto:fahria@ung.ac.id mailto:reallizna.mustapa@gmail.com Muziatun, Fahria Malabar, & Lisnawati Mustapa Analyzing students’ passive voice difficulties 156 required to comprehend a language. Grammatical structures provide a wealth of useful information for language learners. In addition to this, it contributes to the production of grammatically accurate language, whether spoken or written. In order to express themselves clearly, individuals must have a solid grasp of grammar. To put it another way, if people do not know the grammar, communication will not flow as smoothly as it should since the goal of communication will not be achieved. There are two categories of verbs that may be used in English sentences: transitive verbs and intransitive verbs (Bacharach, Kellas, & McFarland, 1972; Fiktorius, 2019; Ito, 2021). An intransitive verb is a verb that does not have an object that it acts upon in order to complete the action (Buriev, 2022; Hirakawa, 2013; Kline & Demuth, 2014; Liu, 2008; Najmiddinov & Bahodirov, 2020; Nasution, Sinaga, & Lubis, 2021). In the case of an intransitive verb, the predicate or the verb may be followed by an adverb rather than an object or a noun. For instance, cry, work, laugh, walk, etc. A transitive verb, on the other hand, is one that requires an object in order for the action to be taken (Buriev, 2022; Duffley, 2000; Najmiddinov & Bahodirov, 2020; Ninio, 2016). As a result of their actions (verbs), the verbs are linked to their respective objects. Without the object that is supposed to follow the verb, the meaning of the sentence cannot be fully understood. Such as borrow, bring, purchase, give, etc. There are two voices in transitive verbs: the active and the passive (Hamizah, 2019; Klammer, 2000; Ursic & Zoghbor, 2020). The use of the passive voice is often recognized as one of the most difficult aspects of English grammar to master (Abualzain, 2019; Hamizah, 2019; Inzunza, 2020; Klammer, 2000; Scholastica, 2018). Students have a difficult time understanding the passive voice, since the sentence’ structure is not in a typical position, and the emphasis of the sentence has shifted. In addition, Choomthong (2011) asserted that the students have a number of challenges while attempting to acquire the English passive voice. To begin, there is a circumstance in which it is appropriate to use the passive voice. Students do not understand when it is appropriate to utilize the active or passive voice. Second, become a proficient on the structure of irregular verbs in English. In addition, the students have difficulty comprehending the meaning of words. The uses of a formula that is not in agreement with the tenses that are employed, as well as a lack of correct grammar, particularly the past participle, are two of the most common types of writing mistakes that are discovered in passive sentences. When speaking or writing, employing the passive voice is a common mistake made not only by those who are just starting out or who are in their last year of high school. This error is made by people of all ages, even students in higher education. The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges that students face while attempting to employ the passive voice in four different tenses, namely the simple present tense, the simple past tense, the present continuous tense, and the past continuous tense. A statement or sentence is said to be written in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence or clause is recognized as the recipient of the action and is characterized by the predicate (Aarts, 2001; Abualzain, 2019; Scholastica, 2018). There are three components to the action sentence (Aik & Hui, 1994). The first person is a doer. A person or thing that carries out an action is known as a doer. The second category consists of verb-recognized actions. The third and last role is that of the person who is affected by the action. The person or thing that is affected by the action carried out by the doer is referred to as the recipient. An additional point of view about passive voice may be found in Radford (2020). He said that the passive voice is characterized primarily by the following four qualities: The first thing worth noting is that the passive voice requires the use of the auxiliary verb "be." The second important point to note is that the passive voice should use the past participle form of the primary verb. The third feature is that sentences written in the passive voice often conclude with the word "by," which performs the same role as the subject in active voice sentences. The fourth point is the complement, which appears in the active voice, may take on the role of the subject when used in the passive voice. According to Swan (2017), not all verbs are able to have forms that are expressed in the passive voice. For instance, intransitive verbs such as "like," "die," and "arrive," among others, cannot be converted into passive voice since they do not take an object; hence, none of them up become the Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 157 subject of the passive sentence. It is possible to change an active sentence into a passive one if the active sentence contains a transitive verb, but it is not possible to change an active sentence into a passive one if the active statement does not include a transitive verb. This claim has been substantiated by Hopper, Gale, Foote, and Griffith (2000), who wrote that a transitive verb, which is also known as an active verb, might be transformed into its passive version. Their finding provides credence to the aforementioned assumption. A verb that does not take an object; in other words, an intransitive verb cannot be altered to take the passive voice. The passive voice is an alternative to the active voice, and in order to produce a passive voice that is acceptable, the auxiliary verb be is required. According to Alexander (2019), the elements that comprise the passive voice are the subject, the verb be and the past participle. The formula for a sentence written in the passive voice consists of the subject, the verb be and the past participle. It signifies that the passive voice contraction is improper when there is no subject, no verb be and the subject is inaccurate or the past participle is incorrect. Example: Vegetables is watered by my little sister. The above statement is inaccurate because the passive voice was employed with the incorrect form of the verb be. The formula for passive voice is: S + Verb Be + Past Participle The subject of the sentence is vegetables, and it has to have the verb be agree with that subject. Therefore, the verb that ought to be used in the preceding passive voice is going to be are. Passive voice may be problematic for students for a variety of reasons, as what have discussed earlier. These reasons include the difficulty of passive sentence structure, changes in the focus of passive sentences, a weak mastery of irregular verbs and past participles, a low proficiency of when to use active and passive sentences, and students' inability to comprehend the meaning of words (Abualzain, 2019; Choomthong, 2011; Hamizah, 2019; Inzunza, 2020; Klammer, 2000; Scholastica, 2018). In addition, Cowan (2018) outlined the challenges associated with using the concept of passive voice as follows: (a) Students have a difficult time understanding the change in place because the object of the active voice becomes the subject of the passive voice. (b) The verb form for passive voice is the past participle, and some of the students are caught off guard by the change in verb form. (c) The decision of whether or not to provide information on the object of the sentence might also be difficult at times. (d) Even though the structure of passive voice is straightforward, it is not easy to understand and may be challenging to implement in a variety of tenses. (e) Using the passive voice should not be done without careful consideration since it often leaves out information about the agent. In addition to those issues, Parrot (2000) discussed from his point of view the challenges that students confront while employing the passive voice. According to Parrot (2000), the following are the obstacles that students face while utilizing passive voice: (1) The subject and the object of the sentence have switched places. The students are under the impression that the subject of a sentence is the agent, despite the fact that this is not the case. Consider the following scenario, here is the example: A man was attacked by three women. (2) The use of the "to be"/auxiliary verb. The auxiliary verb that comes before the past participle might be skipped by the students. For instance, England was eliminated by Costa Rica. In this sentence, students will sometimes use the verb in the right tense, and then just follow it up with the word by. Consider, for instance, The film made by Scorsese. In this sentence, students have a propensity to leave off the auxiliary verb be, which is the most prevalent issue that arises while using the word. (3) The verb change. Students may not utilize the past participle form of the main verb. The construction of passive voice involves changing the tense of the verb "to be," which is then followed by a past participle. For instance, The song is sung by me. METHOD The descriptive quantitative approach or the descriptive statistical method was used in this study. The term "descriptive statistic" refers to a straightforward quantitative overview of a data collection that has been compiled. According to Sugiyono (2010, 2014), descriptive statistics is the method of doing data analysis with the purpose of describing or explaining the data. The researchers deliver the data in numerical and descriptive form in this descriptive quantitative research approach. Muziatun, Fahria Malabar, & Lisnawati Mustapa Analyzing students’ passive voice difficulties 158 This study used a method known as descriptive quantitative research, because after the researchers had discovered the outcome of the data, they explained the data into descriptive form and interpreted the data qualitatively. The researchers are able to determine the proportion and frequency of the students that have difficulty utilizing passive voice by using this methodology. This study's population was made up of 124 students from the English Department's 2017 class. This was because the graduating class of 2017 completed an Advanced English Grammar course, which was one of the reasons for sample selection in this study. The students in this class were categorized as belonging to one of five different classes: A, B, C, D, and E. For the purposes of this study, the researchers had the choice of using either the class of 2015 or the class of 2016 as the population. On the other hand, the vast majority of students in the class of 2015 have already graduated. In the meanwhile, the members of the class of 2016 were nearing the end of their studies. As a direct consequence of this, doing study with students from the classes of 2015 and 2016 would present a substantial barrier to the researchers. According to Sugiyono (2014), a sample is a representative portion of the population that is going to be researched. The researchers used purposive sampling in order to determine the sample. The term "purposive sampling" refers to a method of selecting samples by taking into account a variety of factors. Even though the majority of students in class B earned poor scores in the Advanced English Grammar subject, class B is the most appropriate class to employ as a sample in this study out of all the classes because of this. The sample consisted of just 16 students who had grades ranging from 3.00 (B) to 2.00 (C), despite the fact that there are 21 students in total in the class. Taking into account the fact, that one student did not follow the final exam and that four other students obtained scores ranging from A to B+ accordingly. As a result, they have eliminated from consideration to be a part of the sample. Two types of instruments, including a test and an interview, were employed by the researchers to gather the data. Due to the widespread transmission of the Covid-19 virus, both the test and the interview were all carried out online through use of the use of a Google form. In this study, the researchers gathered data through the use of a test as an instrument. The purpose of the test was to determine the extent to which students struggled with the use of passive voice, particularly in simple present tense, simple past tense, present continuous tense, and past continuous tense. Due to the fact that, out of all tenses, only these four tenses fall into the difficult group according to Parrot. Then, therefore, the students will be given a test on changing sentences, in which they will be required to convert an active statement into a passive sentence by using the appropriate formula. The students have been provided with four numbers that correspond to four distinct tenses. Although each tense only has one number, the number covers every area of challenging topics. Those four questions are listed below: (a) Ralph Lauren designs many of actresses’ gowns. (2) They are presenting an award now. (3) The actress wore a beautiful gown. (4) The reporter was interviewing the winners. In order to back up the outcome of the test that was completed by the students, the researchers conducted an interview with them and asked them 11 questions concerning their understanding of learning passive voice. Due to the fact that they had previously achieved a passing grade in Advanced English Grammar subject during a different semester, the researcher did not observe the class or engage them when they were sitting in on the class. The researchers only presented the students with 11 questions that were connected to the active and passive voice instruction that they had previously received when studying this topic. The inquiry that was addressed in response to Parrot's assertion on the challenges that students face when attempting to use passive voice. These 11 questions are as follows: (1) “do you know about passive voice?”, (2) “do you know the meaning of passive vice?”, (3) “mention the rule of passive voice”, (4) “are you difficult in determining subject and object in passive voice?”, (5) “do you know the position of subject and object will be changed”, (6) “do you know the subject will be the agent in passive?”, (7) “are you difficult in changing main verb into past participle?”, (8) “do you find difficulty in using auxiliary verb in passive voice?”, (9) “do you know the auxiliary verb will follow the subject in passive?”, (10) “mention the auxiliary verb of passive voice in four tenses”, and (11) “do you know how to change active sentence into passive?”. Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 159 Following the completion of the data collection process, the researchers performed an analysis on the data. Without the researchers' intervention, the findings of the questions and test were presented as they were in terms of their current state. The data collection techniques that the researchers employed in this study were known as descriptive analysis technique (using percentage). This technique can be implemented in further detail in the table percentage that is shown in Sudijono (2006), which reads as follows: In which: P = The percentage of incorrect answers in each item f = The number of incorrect answers in each item N = The total number of students Using percentage and frequency, the researchers calculated the average score using the formula below: In which: P = The percentage F = The frequency N = The total number of students n = The number of item test RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The researchers concluded that the following are the challenges associated with the use of passive voice. It was based on the data that had been obtained about the identification of problems that are associated with utilizing passive voice from the test and the interview. The data had been gained regarding the identification of difficulties that are related with employing passive voice. Test The findings of the investigation were derived from the students' ability to construct four passive sentences, which were rephrased versions of the four active sentences that the researchers had provided as inquiries to the students. The problem in using the passive voice was covered in more depth earlier on in the section that bears the same name, and the aforementioned remark by Parrot serves as the foundation for the discussion that follows. The students’ difficulty in changing object and subject in passive sentence The ability of students to recognize adjustments in the focus of the sentence is the first consideration that must be made when analyzing the challenges that students face while attempting to use passive voice. This may be determined by examining the students' ability to alter the subject and object of the sentence. Table 1 displays the percentage of difficulty in changing objects and subjects in four distinct tenses. Table 1. Object-subject change difficulty N o. Object-to-Subject Change in Four Tenses Item Number Diffic ulty Freq uency Percen tage 1. 2. 3. 4. Simple Present Tense Present Continuous Tense Simple Past Tense Past Continuous Tense Sentence 1 Sentence 2 Sentence 3 Sentence 4 10 5 4 9 62.50 % 31.25 % 25.00 % 56.25 % Total 4 28 43.75 % The total average is calculated using the following formula: = = = 43.75 % The table demonstrated the students' difficulties in changing the object and subject of an active voice into a passive voice in four tenses. The test consists of four questions. Sixty-two percent of the 16 students who took the exam had difficulty changing the object into the subject in the simple present tense. Meanwhile, 31.25 percent of students, or five, had trouble switching from object to subject in the present continuous tense. In the simple past tense, 25.00 percent or four students had trouble converting the object into the subject in a passive phrase. In the past continuous tense, nine students, or 56.25 percent of the total students, had difficulty changing the object to the subject in the passive voice. As a result, 43.75 percent of students still struggle with changing the object of an active voice into the subject of a passive voice. There were 10 students, or 62.50 percent of the total number of students, who had trouble converting the object into the subject in a passive Muziatun, Fahria Malabar, & Lisnawati Mustapa Analyzing students’ passive voice difficulties 160 sentence while using the simple present tense with the active statement "Ralph Lauren designs many of actresses' gowns." When constructing a passive sentence, the object from the active sentence should be transformed into the subject. Therefore, in an active statement such as "Ralph Lauren designs many of actresses' gowns," the phrase "many of actress' gowns" will function as the subject, while "Ralph Laurent" will play the role of the object or the agent. The students’ difficulty in changing form of “be” in passive voice Table 2 provides the frequency of difficulties encountered while changing the form of "be" in each of the four tenses. Table 2. "be" form changes difficulty N O “be” Change in four Tenses Item Number Diffi culty Freq uency Percent age 1. 2. 3. 4. Simple Present Tense Present Continuous Tense Simple Past Tense Past Continuous Tense Sentence 1 Sentence 2 Sentence 3 Sentence 4 8 11 10 14 50.00 % 68.75 % 62.50 % 87.50 % Total 4 43 67.18 % For the purpose of determining the overall average, the formula that follows is used: = = = 67.18 % The students had difficulty changing the form of the verb "to be" in active voice into passive voice in all four tenses, as seen in the table. In the simple present tense, there were eight students out of the total of sixteen who responded to the exam who struggled with changing the form of the verb "be." This is a percentage of difficulty equal to 50 percent. In the meanwhile, 68.75 percent of students, or 11 of them, had trouble changing the form of the verb "be" when engaging in the present continuous tense. There were ten students, which is 62.5 percent of the total, who have trouble changing the form of the word "be" in passive sentences while using the simple past tense. In addition, in the past continuous tense, there were 14 students, which represents for 87.5 percent of the total students, who have difficulty changing the form of the verb "be" when it is used in the passive voice. As a result, the overall average percentage of students who still struggle with modifying the form of "be" in passive sentences is 67.18 percent. According to the findings, the most challenging aspect of using the passive voice, in terms of the auxiliary verb 'be,' accounted for 67.18 percent of all instances of occurrences, on average (please see Table.2). In the past continuous tense with the active voice "the reporter was interviewing the winners," there were 14 students, or 87.5 percent, who struggled with transforming the form of "be" in the active voice into a passive voice. The following is the incorrect response that some students gave: (1) Student 1: The winners was interviewed by the reporter. (2) Student 2: The winners were interviewed by the reporter. (3) Student 3: The winners are being interviewed by the reporter. (4) Student 4: The winners are interviewed by the reporter. The students’ difficulty in changing main verb into past participle in passive voice Table 3 illustrates the frequency of difficulties encountered while transforming the main verb into the past participle in a variety of tenses. Table 3. Main verb to past participle difficulty N O Main Verb into Past Participle Change in four Tenses Item Number Diffic ulty Frequ ency Percenta ge 1. 2. 3. 4. Simple Present Tense Present Continuous Tense Simple Past Tense Past Continuous Tense Sentence 1 Sentence 2 Sentence 3 Sentence 4 6 7 14 4 37.50 % 43.75 % 87.50 % 25.00 % Total 4 31 48.43 % The following is the formula for calculating the overall average: = = = 48.43 % The table illustrated how difficult it was for the students to change the main verb into the past participle in all four tenses. There were six students, or 37.50 percent, out of the sixteen students that answered the test who struggled with changing the main verb into the past participle in simple present tense. In the meanwhile, the transformation of the main verb into the past participle in present continuous tense was Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 161 challenging for 43.75 percent of students, or seven of them. The transformation of the main verb into the past participle in a passive sentence was challenging for 14 students, which accounts for 87.50 percent of the class as a whole. The difficulty in changing the main verb into the past participle in passive voice was therefore found in the past continuous tense by four students, or 25.00 percent of the total student population. As a consequence of this, the overall average reveals there were still 48.43 percent of students who continued to struggle with changing the active main verb into the past participle of a passive voice. The difficulty of changing passive voice for the following group of students is the modification of the main verb, with an overall average of 48.43 percent. The sentence "the actress wore a beautiful gown" is written in simple past tense and with an active sentence. There were fourteen students, which corresponds to an 87.5 percent failure rate, who are unable to change the verb into the past participle. The active sentence has an irregular form of the main verb; however, the majority of the students employed past verb after the subject, which is an inappropriate construction. Several students gave the following responses, all of which are instances of inappropriate responses: (1) Student 1: A beautiful gown was wore by the actress. (2) Student 2: A beautiful gown was wearing by the actress. The students’ difficulty in using passive in four tenses Following the administration of the test, the researchers reviewed the students' responses and calculated the outcome. The study revealed that students had an average difficulty of 53.12 percent when it comes to adopting passive voice in four different tenses, including simple present tense, present continuous tense, simple past tense, and past continuous tense. After conducting an investigation into the difficulties that students encounter when attempting to use passive voice in all four tenses, it was revealed that students' difficulties in using passive voice in all four tenses indicated a total of 102 incorrect answers. Applying Sudijono’s formula yields this result: So, F = 102 N = 16 n = 12 Percentage = = 53.12 % According to the figure shown up above, the percentage of students that have issues with applying passive voice averages out to 53.12 percent. Table 4. Passive voice difficulties in four tenses N o Passive voice difficulty Difficulty Frequency Percentage 1. Changing object into the subject 28 43.75 % 2. Changing form of “be” 43 67.18 % 3. Changing main verb 31 48.43 % Total 102 53.12 % Passive voice, according to Parrott (2000), is difficult for students to master because of the difficulty in changing the subject and object, as well as the usage of to be/auxiliary verbs and changing of the main verb. The employment of the auxiliary "be" was found to be the most common issue in applying passive voice, followed by the change of the main verb, and finally, the change of subject and object. Interview Based According to the results of the interview, each of the students responded that they are familiar with the concept of passive voice as well as the meaning of passive voice in general. Since students are already acquainted with the subject matter, passive voice is not foreign to them. When the researchers investigated the students about the rules of passive voice, the majority of the students stated how to construct a passive voice, and some of the students typed down the formula for passive voice. There were a total of 11 questions that were asked of the students throughout the interview, and there were a number of questions to which all of the students - a total of 16 students - responded "yes." These values correspond to the questions "do you know about passive voice?" (question number 1) and "do you know the meaning of passive vice?" (question number 2), respectively. This demonstrates that students have a good grasp of passive voice. The remaining questions all received Muziatun, Fahria Malabar, & Lisnawati Mustapa Analyzing students’ passive voice difficulties 162 a variety of responses from the students. In particular, the question that inquires about how difficult it is to make use of passive voice will serve as the initial focus of the investigation. Particularly the questions that corroborate the results of the data gathered from the test questions change the active to passive voice. When asked, "Are you difficult in determining object and subject in passive voice?" only four of the sixteen students who were surveyed gave a positive response. The other twelve students said they had no trouble identifying the subject and object of a passive voice sentence. As a result, the subject and object placements in a sentence are not the important considerations for them while using the passive voice. This point is made obvious by the high percentage of students who are aware that in a passive sentence, the subject will take on the role of the active agent, while the object will trade places with the subject and take on the role of the recipient of the action. Only six of the students who answered the question “Are you difficult in changing main verb into past participle form?” had trouble changing the verb in a passive phrase, whilst the other students did not have any issue with this aspect of the assignment. Furthermore, this indicates that the use of a past participle in a passive voice sentence is not a significant issue. In the meanwhile, in response to the question “Do you find difficulty in using auxiliary verb in passive voice?” eight students gave the answer "yes." This is more than the problems in any other category, and it is verified by the test result, which indicated that the students had the strongest struggles employing auxiliary verbs in passive voice. Only three of the students were able to properly mention the auxiliary verb "be" in passive voice when the researchers requested them to do so in simple present, present continuous, simple past, and past continuous. As a direct result of this, the use of the auxiliary verb "be" is the core reason for the complexity that is associated with the composition of passive voice for students. A final question was presented to the students, and the findings revealed a tendency that was quite astonishing. Out of the 16 students, there were 15 students who responded "yes" to the question “Do you know how to change the active sentence into the passive sentence?”. This indicates that the vast majority of students have the confidence to answer questions using the passive voice. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that students have an optimistic outlook of their abilities in terms of the use of passive voice. When asked to change an active statement into a passive one, the vast majority of students do it incorrectly. This demonstrates that their knowledge does not line up with the reality of the circumstances in which their understanding is put into practice. CONCLUSION It is possible to draw the conclusion that the students in the English Department Class of 2017 continue to struggle with the use of the passive voice; the changing of subject and object, the use of the auxiliary verb of be, and the application of verb. In this particular circumstance, the students were encountering the greatest amount of difficulty with the auxiliary verb of be. This is also reinforced by interviews that were provided to the students, which indicated that the usage of the auxiliary verb be is the most dominating hindrance for the students when it comes to employing passive voice. This inclination is brought on by the fact that students often choose to communicate using an active voice as opposed to a passive voice, which is what triggers this predisposition. The students are more used to utilizing active speech as opposed to the passive voice. In addition, according to the findings of the investigation that were carried out in each tense, it was revealed that the majority of students had difficulty deciding whether to use an auxiliary verb of passive voice in the Past Continuous Tense. The students were given the recommendation to focus their attention more intently on the circumstances surrounding the use of the passive voice, as well as to comprehend and commit to store up the auxiliary verb and verb form, in addition to the regular verb and irregular verb. It is recommended that teachers of grammar provide students with detailed and understandable explanations of the materials they are teaching, particularly with regard to the use of passive voice. It is required of lecturers to provide additional motivation to the students in order to stimulate the students' interest. Motivating students to learn passive voice in English is essential, since it is an important aspect of the language that has to be learned for both spoken and written communication. Researchers might undertake Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 163 further studies to determine the exact reasons why students have difficulty utilizing passive voice. In conclusion, this study may serve as a reference for the subsequent researcher who is working on a subject that is comparable, and it is anticipated that this research will give some sort of empirical data for the research that will be conducted in the future in this field. Next researchers will be able to come up with a strategy that addresses the research problem, particularly in finding a technique to alleviate or at the very least minimize the challenges of students. REFERENCE Aarts, B. (2001). English syntax and argumentation (2nd ed.). Palgrave Distribution Ltd. Abualzain, O. Y. I. (2019). 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