teaching communication - reading comprehension

THE TEACHING OF READING COMPREHENSION BY USING A SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION AT THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP 1 WANADADI IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2006/2007 SKRIPSI Untuk memperoleh gelar Sarjana Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris pada Universitas Negeri Semarang Oleh Anteng Ria A. NIM 2201403631 FAKULTAS BAHSA DAN SENI UNIVERSITAS NEGERI SEMARANG 2007 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of The Study English as an international language is spoken in most international events and is used as the medium of information flow on science, technology and culture. As we understand that learning a foreign language is more difficult than learning a national language or learning a mother tongue. It is because the foreign language has completely different aspects and systems, which should be understood by the students or the learners, such as pronunciation, spelling, and the cultural background of the language. Besides that we also remember that there are some important factors in foreign language learning, which will mostly influence students, or learners in mastering the language. Bustami Subhan (1990: 18) in his paper (entitled) “Some important factors in foreign language learning” explained that learning a foreign language involved five factors. The first of all is intelligence. It is a gate for knowledge. Secondly, motivation plays influential role in encouraging students to learn the language. It covers both intrinsic motivation which comes from the students themselves and extrinsic one which comes from outside. The third and fourth ones have close relation with each other that are students’ attitudes and strategy of language learning. Facilities of language learning are the last factor which is not less important than the others. 2 In the Basic Course Outline (GBPP) of English curriculum 2004, it is stated that English is considered as a tool or instrument for expressing meanings. Based on the concept and the function of English as stated in that BCO the teaching of English at secondary school aims to develop the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). The Indonesian students start learning English at the Junior High School (SMP). The process continues at Senior High School (SMA). In fact, now, English is also taught in some elementary schools as the local content and even in some kindergartens. The pupils are introduced to some English vocabularies. In addition to learning the language in formal education as mentioned above, people also learn it in non-formal education. English courses and private lessons are the examples of non-formal education. This indicates the failure of teaching English in this country; as Ramelan (1992:4) stated that the teaching of English in Junior high School in Indonesia is not successful. It can be seen from the quality of SMP graduates’ mastery of English. Ramelan (1992:3) also stated that most SMU graduates are still very poor in reading comprehension, since they cannot usually read or understand articles in English dailies, magazines which are now in circulation in this country, even though the Basic Course Outline of English (BCOE) 2002 stated that among the four language skills, (listening, speaking, reading and writing), reading is the most emphasized in English teaching and learning process. Quite simply, without solid reading second language readers cannot perform at levels they must succeed in reading. Thus, reading is not passive but rather an active 3 process, involving the reader in on going interaction with the text. Furthermore, reading constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking, and comprehending. In group reading, students may enjoy from time to time getting away from the usual pattern of reading the story or article aloud at sight. This is particularly true of better readers; what may be undesirable as routine procedure has real value as an occasional variation. By seeing the problems, it is important that a study of English especially reading should be done. The writer hopes there will be an improvement in the teaching of English. 1.2 The Definition of The Title The title of this final project is” The Teaching of Reading Comprehension by Using a Small Group Discussion at the First Year Students of SMP 1 Wanadadi in the Academic Year of 2006/2007”. Before discussing this final project deeply, however, in order to be clear, the writer wants to explain some words in the title so that the readers who want to read this final project will not misunderstand it. They are: a. Teaching As stated by Hornby the term” teaching” “ means “to cause somebody to know or be able to do something “. Teaching a child to read a story book, for instance, means causing the child to be able to read the story book (Hornby, 1986: 886). b. Reading comprehension 4 Reading is an active and interactive activity to reproduce the word mentally and vocally and tries to understand the content of reading text. It is important to bear in mind that reading is not an invariant skill, that there are different types of reading skills, which correspond to the many different purposes we have for reading (1989:33). In classroom, in student’s reading activities, the writer is sure that they have many purposes, among others are to graduate from their school and to provide themselves with the knowledge to continue their studies whatever their purposes are. In order to achieve the goal, the comprehension ability in reading is needed. According to Olson and Diller (1982:42), reading comprehension is a term used to identify those skills needed to understand and apply information contained in a written material. c. Small group discussion is a discussion within a group consisting of 3 students Everyday we use language to communicate with other people. It means that language can be used for doing social interaction. The process of interaction exchange may happen between at least two individuals who have social interaction. One of the ways to have social interaction is by conducting small group discussion in the classroom. 1.3 Reason for Choosing the Topic 5 No doubt that in a modern school, reading stands a basic tool as a means for students to learn about the world around them. All subjects of school lessons are provided with textbooks as a foundation, so the students should read them if they want to follow the school lessons well. A modern school is also characterized by of adversity and quality and quantity of good reading materials. Reading, thus, is very important in modern schools (Wiersma, 1991: 38). Reading competence is essential to personal enrichment and the development of intelligent citizenship. By reading, the students can enlarge or enrich their knowledge and experience because most of information they need is served in written form. The curriculum of English for SMP states that the teaching of English should cover the four language skills; (listening, speaking, reading and writing). The teaching of these four skills should be done integratively. The teaching approach used for the 2002 curriculum, competency-based curriculum, is communicative approach. Reading skill is always given the main emphasis. As it is stated in the 2002 curriculum of English for SMP, the main goal of teaching English is to make students able to read. It means that the main goal of English teaching and learning for Indonesian students is to comprehend, that is to fully understand written or printed information. If we say that a certain student is good at comprehension we mean that the student can read accurately so as to get the maximum information from the text with the minimum of misunderstanding (Swan, 1992: 1). 6 Teaching a foreign language especially English is not as easy as teaching the first language, because it is something new for the students of Junior High School. The first year students will certainly face many problems. Up to this time, we often hear the disappointment of English teachers because of low scores of their students in the final exam (Bustami Subhan, 1990). Considering the importance of reading skill, the teacher should improve the teaching of reading comprehension. The teacher can use some methods of teaching reading so that the students can enjoy and be stimulated in learning EFL reading comprehension. One of them is by using small group discussion teaching technique. The writer has found that teaching reading in junior high school needs such kind of communicative technique. 1.4 Statement of The Problem The problem that is going to be discussed in this study is as follows: Are there any differences on reading comprehension achievement between students taught using a small group discussion strategy and those taught using the traditional method? 1.5 Objective of The Study The objective of the study can be stated briefly as follows: to search whether there are any different effects on reading comprehension achievement of junior high schools students between those taught using a small group discussion strategy and those taught using the traditional strategy. 7 7 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1. Small Group Discussion Small group itself, according to Baker (1987:159), is three or more people interacting face to face, with or without an assigned leader in such a way that each person influences, and is influenced by another person in the group. Johnson (1975:78) gives solution that students should be arranged so that each student can see all other members of his group and can be heard without shouting and disturbing the other groups. Two opposite tendencies exist with regard to the number of people in a group. The larger the group, the greater is the pool of talent and experience available for solving problems or sharing the effort. On the other hand, as the size increases, fewer members have the chance to participate, and indeed the differences in relative participation increase to the point where one or two members begin to dominate. Barker (1987:159) proposes that the best size in terms of total interaction and greatest efficiency is somewhere between five and seven members. Nevertheless, the writer used the teams of four in the experimental class. 2.2. Traditional Strategy Jacobsen (1989:211) states that when the teacher uses the traditional setting, or model, he begins with an objective and presents primary instructions to the 7 8 class. Primary instruction is mostly presented in the form of lectures, text book readings, teacher-lie discussion, or possible combination of any of these procedures. He also said that the traditional setting is just with rows of desks and teacher’s desk at front. So, the writer concludes here that in the traditional teaching model, the students focuses all attention upon the teacher and discourages communication among students. From Jacobsen’s explanation about the traditional strategy the writer concludes that this is the strategy used by English teachers in SMP 1 Wanadadi. By using this strategy, the teacher doesn’t need to divide her students into small groups, she just discussed the lesson in large group or in classroom setting. Students have only a little chance to express their opinion because the teacher speaks all the time. They get knowledge just from the teacher’s explanation. In the traditional teaching mode, the students focus all attention upon the teacher and discourage communication among students. All that they have to do is just listen to their teacher and make notes for the useful information. This strategy is a strategy without group’s work. The students only receive the knowledge from their teacher; they do not explore the knowledge themselves. 2.3. Reading Comprehension David Nunan says: “It is important to bear in mind that reading is not an invariant skill, that there are different types of reading skills that correspond to the many different purposes we have for reading” (1989:33). [...]... Conclusion In EFL reading comprehension, efficient reading comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one’s own knowledge Considering the importance of reading process, the teacher should improve the teaching of reading comprehension In this attempt to find out the teaching reading comprehension technique, the writer has conducted a study to reveal the difference in reading comprehension. .. were given the small group discussion teaching method, and reading comprehension achievement of the students who were given traditional or large group teaching method, also it deals with the difference in reading comprehension achievement between the two groups of the students 4.1 Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement The score of reading comprehension for both experimental and control class in... Wanadadi in the academic year of 2006/2007 The numbers of students in each class are as follows: VII-A: 40 VII-C: 40 VII-E: 40 VII-B: 40 VII-D: 40 VII-F: 40 On the basis of these data, the writer then took the two classes with the same average score and have the same numbers of students; VII-A and VII-C then were taken as samples They were taken randomly as experimental class and control class In this... variable: the use of a small group discussion in teaching reading comprehension 20 2) Dependent variable: the score of reading comprehension test 3.4 Data Collecting Documentation study was used to get the number of students, number of classes, students’ name list and teaching schedule In this study, tests were used to measure the students’ reading comprehension skill and were administered twice; namely,... EFL students’ reading comprehension 1) The writer suggests that the teacher should use the small group discussion teaching strategy as an alternative in teaching reading comprehension class This study shows that the experimental group got the higher score in the post test than the control group after they got small group discussion teaching strategy The students of both groups used the reading passages... classroom, in students’ reading activities, the writer is sure that they have many purposes, among others are to graduate from their school and to provide themselves with the knowledge to continue their studies whatever their purposes are In order to achieve the goal, the comprehension ability in reading is needed The concept of reading comprehension could be bottom-up and top-down approaches Nunan... reflected the students’ reading comprehension ability before they were taught using a small group discussion teaching technique The experimental class used a small group discussion as the teaching strategy As stated in chapter II the writer used Think-Pair-Share method to build communicative class The procedure of the experiment was as follows: 1) The students read silently the reading passages for 10... the reading passages with the setting of classroom 3) The students had their post test The pre test of control class was held on 22 January 2007 and the post test was held on 27 May 2007 3.7 Data Processing T-test formula was applied to see whether there was a significant difference between a small group discussion and traditional method teaching technique in teaching reading comprehension The t-test... score N : Maximum score 4.1.1 Reading comprehension achievement of students taught without using small group discussion teaching strategy The students’ pretest score taught without the small group teaching technique was 182 or 60 72% The post test score was 183 or 61% Their score rose slightly from 182 to 183 or it rose 0 33% (see chart 1) 26 27 Chart 1 Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement without... pretest score was 184 or put in percentage their reading comprehension ability was 61 3% The students’ post test score using the small group teaching technique was 231 In other words their reading ability was 77% Thus, it could be seen that the students’ score rose from 184 to 231 In other words, it rose 15 7% (see chart 2) 28 Chart 2 Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement Using the Small Group . goal, the comprehension ability in reading is needed. The concept of reading comprehension could be bottom-up and top-down approaches. Nunan (1989:33) mentions that with the bottom-up approach,. Considering the importance of reading skill, the teacher should improve the teaching of reading comprehension. The teacher can use some methods of teaching reading so that the students can. and be stimulated in learning EFL reading comprehension. One of them is by using small group discussion teaching technique. The writer has found that teaching reading in junior high school needs