Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is one of the international languages that has spread widely all over the world, for it is used as a native language, as a second language, or as a foreign language. Many countries put English as an important subject in the curriculum. In Indonesia, English is taught in secondary school and in the university level. It also becomes a compulsory subject. This is based on the issuance of Pusat Kurikulum, Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional 2003 about the function and purpose of English in the senior high school level. One of the functions and the purposes stated that: “Mengembangkan kemampuan berkomunikasi dalam bahasa tersebut, dalam bentuk lisan dan tulis. Kemampuan berkomunikasi meliputi mendengarkan listening, berbicara speaking, membaca reading, dan menulis writing.” 1 One of the functions and purposes of learning English as stated above is, to develop the communication skill in English in the form of spoken and written communication. The communication ability includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The function of English subject also stated in Keputusan Direktur Jenderal Manajemen Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah Departmen Pendidikan Nasional 2008: “Bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Asing lain, berfungsi sebagai alat untuk berkomunikasi dalam rangka mengakses dan bertukar informasi secara global, untuk membina hubungan interpersonal, dan meningkatkan wawasan tentang budaya bangsa asing wawasan internasional.” 2 Learning English and another foreign language aims as a means of communication in order to access the information and share it globally to build an 1 Pusat Kurikulum, Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, Standar Kompetensi Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris SMA dan MA, Jakarta: 2003, p. 14. 2 Keputusan Direktur Jenderal Manajemen Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah Departmen Pendidikan Nasional, Bentuk dan Tata Cara Penyusunan Laporan Hasil Belajar Peserta Didik Satuan Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, Jakarta: 2008, p. 3. interpersonal relationship and to increase the insight about foreign cultures. Different cultures will also evoke different languages and it is likely impossible to get know a culture without knowing its language at all. Language is also born in a culture, it is created by the habit in a certain area. So, learning a foreign language, specifically English, is important as it is already used globally all over the world. English learning has four major skills need to be mastered, namely; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Reading skill becomes very important because student who is a good reader is more likely to do well in school and pass exams than a student who is a weak reader. 3 So that, reading relates closely to the academic success of a student. The text, the question, the instruction of their exams are written in printed words, so if they have good reading ability, it will help them in answering the questions correctly and comprehend the instruction. Low achievement of reading becomes the root of low-performing schools because reading is seen as a fundamental skill that all subjects depend. 4 Nonetheless, reading skill can be learned, students should get trained and do some practice as much as possible to have good reading ability. Reading is a lifelong learning because to have good reading ability, the learning process should last for the whole of a l earner‟s life. The purpose of reading depends on what the readers would like to get while they are reading the text. The purposes of reading can be various, for instance someone reads for getting information, learning a subject matter, enriching their knowledge, for pleasure, hobby, and enjoyment, for preparation before taking examination, and so on. Reading also opens a window to the world because as people read a lot, they will get any kinds of information and enrich their knowledge, for example when people read journals, articles, textbooks, or even a novel. In the term of learning English, reading is one complex skill to be mastered. As Perfetti in Reading in a Second Language: Process, Product and Practice 3 http:esl.fis.eduparentsadviceread.htm , accessed on April, 1 2013. 4 AFT Teachers, Teaching Reading is Rocket Science, Washington DC: AFT, 2004, p. 7. book points out, “reading is the skill of transforming printed words into spoken words.” 5 It means when the readers are able to transform and delineate the printed words into spoken words and catch the meaning right, they succeed in reading a text. Readers need to manage every single part found in a text because when the readers can organize the text well, a comprehension will most possibly happen. There are some types of text; descriptive, recount, spoof, report, procedural, explanation, narrative, argumentative, persuasive, exposition, and so on. English learning in Indonesia requires the students to have comprehension towards some particular texts as it is stated in the standard of competence in the curriculum. The standard of competence in the senior high school curriculum proposes: The purpose of English learning is to communicate in both oral and written form by using appropriate variety of language fluently and accurately in the interactional text andor monlogue, mainly in descriptive, narrative, anecdote, analytical exposition, and hortatory exposition text that lead to a variety of interpersonal meaning. 6 Practically, to comprehend each text is not easy because they all have different characteristics and somehow tricky. One of the text types that many students cannot comprehend well is narrative text as it is kind of similar to recount text for both types of text tell past events. There are some mutual similarity that many students find it quite difficult to distinguish each text. In telling past events, it must be affected the tenses used, so both narrative and recount text use past tense. The communicative purpose of both narrative and recount is also the same, it aims to tell past events which sometimes the students get confused for both text have similar purpose. The generic structure and the language features used in each text also quite similar. 5 A. H. Urquhart and C. J. Weir, Reading in a Second Language: Process, Product and Practice, New York: Longman, 1998, p. 16. 6 Pusat Kurikulum, Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, Standar Kompetensi Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris SMA dan MA, Jakarta: 2003, p. 32. As the writer underwent her teaching practice at one of senior high schools SMA in Jakarta, she found some problems and difficulties faced by the students. Another problem also came from the teacher, the technique applied in the classroom, and the material given to the students. Most students thought that reading English text is really difficult for it has different vocabulary, stuctures with Indonesian language rules. It becomes a major reason for them to comprehend an English text. Having lack of knowledge about those features in an English text makes most students difficult in achieving the message of a text. Then, reading activity only ended up reading, yet they did not catch any ideas from the text. Some students also found that simply cannot construct the meaning of the words into a comprehension. Some of the students also viewed reading as a boring activity as they usually read in silent and it will make them sleepy. They also have low motivation to read, it is clearly seen when they had time to read but only a small number of students did it. Providing a material in interesting ways is a must for a teacher but in contrast, sometimes a teacher provides only the tedious ones. As a result, students cannot get attracted to the material they are going to learn because they do not get impressed. Jeremy Harmer assumed in his book entitled How To Teach English, “good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and provide the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons.” 7 It is obvious that if teacher does not provide good reading texts, a fascinating learning process is not going to happen in teaching reading, otherwise reading activity will be boring. From the problems mentioned above, it is obvious that there should be huge efforts from the teacher to help the students improving their reading ability. In addition, the teacher should focus on the implementation of the techniques in the classroom about how to teach them appropriately. Consequently, the duty of the English teachers becomes more difficult because they should motivate and encourage the students to read English text as a part of English lesson. The 7 Jeremy Harmer, How To Teach English, Kuala Lumpur: Longman, 2007, p. 99. teachers should also encourage the students to acquire and to master reading skill as one of the most important skills in English. In teaching reading, teachers might try to apply a cooperative learning in the classroom. According to Methodology in Language Teaching, “cooperative learning principles and techniques are tools which teachers use to encourage mutual helpfulness in the groups and the acti ve participation of all members.” 8 Cooperative learning could create an ambience of active participation of each student to get involved in a learning process. One of the effective strategies in teaching reading included in cooperative learning is jigsaw technique. As the writer had experienced the implementation of jigsaw technique, she thought that it could help her to comprehend a text better so she gets interested to use jigsaw technique in teaching reading. When jigsaw technique was applied, it was confusing many students as jigsaw technique was a very new thing for them. At last, jigsaw technique really helped the students to comprehend the text. Jigsaw technique is one of the kinds in cooperative learning, it must be conducted cooperatively in a small group in which students should play a more active role in their groups because it requires the students to discuss about the ideas of a text. Jigsaw technique is also interesting because it demands the students to participate actively and work together in their group. Another reason why the writer interested in applying jigsaw technique in teaching reading is because jigsaw technique is fun even though it slightly took time in conducting it. Eventually, based on the description above, the writer would like to do the research under the title: “The Effectiveness of Using Jigsaw Technique towards Students‟ Reading Comprehension on Narrative Text A Quasi-Experimental Study at the Eleventh Grade Students of SMA Negeri 63 Jakarta ”. 8 Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 52.

B. Identification of the Problems