their friends. Also, they often made jokes in the class that caused some chaos in the class. It disturbed the students who were serious in the class. Furthermore,
they lacked knowledge about components of a text such as the grammatical features, vocabulary, and the generic structure of the text.
The next problem was related to the teacher. Although the teacher had a good competence in pedagogical competence, he could not control the condition
in the class well. There was a gap between the active and the passive students in the class. As a result, the active students were dominant and the passive students
were not covered by the teacher well in the teaching-learning process. Also, the teacher was rarely using a meaningful activity so the learning activity was boring.
He just translated the text word by word in teaching reading. The last problem was related to the learning activity. The learning
activity was monotonous which will drive the students to be bored. It was because the learning activity still used the teacher-centered approach. The students were
not given more opportunities to explore the knowledge by themselves. The learning activity was based on the teacher-centered approach without involving
the students to participate in the learning activity. In short, the teacher-centered approach will lead the students to be passive in the class.
C. Delimitation of the Problems
It is impossible to solve all the problems identified in the SMP N 2 Depok especially those related to the teacher, so the researcher limited the problems
related to the students and the learning activity. This limitation is based on the researcher’s observation and interview with the teacher. The students’ reading
comprehension was low because they were less motivated and they tended to be passive because of monotonous activities in the reading class. That is why the
class VII C students of SMP N 2 Depok need a teaching technique, the jigsaw technique, that can make the students engaged in teaching-learning process and
they become more active in the class. Thus, from the discussion in the background of the study and the identification of the problems, the researcher chose the jigsaw
technique to improve the students’ low reading comprehension. It is because the jigsaw technique can solve the problems related to students and the learning
activity.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the background of the study above as well as the identification of the problems, the research problem was formulated as follows: “How can the
reading comprehension of class VII C students of SMP N 2 Depok in the
academic year of 20132014 be improved through the use of the jigsaw technique?”
E. Objective of the Study
The objective of this research is to improve the students’ reading comprehension of class VII C students of SMP N 2 Depok by using the jigsaw
technique.
F. Significance of the Study
Considering the important the study, it is expected that some advantages can be acquired from the study as presented below:
1. For the class VII C students of SMP N 2 DEPOK, it can be an
effort for them to improve their reading comprehension through the jigsaw technique.
2. For the teacher, the teacher can use the research findings to
improve the success of teaching-learning process. 3.
For the readers, hopefully this research can give more information about how to improve the students’ reading comprehension by using
jigsaw technique.
8
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the theories that are related to the study. This chapter is divided into three subchapters which are literature review, relevant research study,
and conceptual framework. Each of them is presented below.
A. Literature Review 1.
Reading a. Nature of Reading
According to the School-Based Curriculum, reading is one of the four language skills that should be mastered by students of SMP. There are many
studies about the importance of reading and many experts define what reading is. According to Richards and Renandya 2002: 273, reading has the important
concern both in the second and foreign language teaching situations. There are two reasons why reading has to take into account in the language teaching. First,
many foreign language students have a goal in reading such as reading for information and pleasure, reading for their career, and reading for study purposes.
Second, good reading texts provide good models for writing and provide opportunities to introduce new topics, to stimulate discussion, and to study
language features. Thus, reading is a skill which is highly valued by students and teachers alike.
Additionally, Mikulecky and Jeffries 1996: 1 say that “reading is one important way to improve students’ general language skills in English. It is
because reading help students learn to think English, reading can enlarge students’
