Background of the S tudy

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the S tudy

M astering English requires mastering the four language skills, namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Reading is considered the most important skill among the four language skills. Reading provides any exposure to English. It also provides good model for English writing and opportunities to study language and the way to construct sentences, paragraphs, and texts. By reading, students can absorb a lot of information and knowledge because much information can be gained from books, magazines, newspapers, and bulletins. Simply, reading gives students many advantages. Therefore, students must have an ability to comprehend texts. The understanding of the text varies according to both one’s knowledge of the word and the purpose one has in reading. It also varies according to one’s knowledge of language and of text types. A reader has several possible purposes for reading, and each purpose emphasizes a different combination of skills and strategies. Reading emphasizes many criteria that define the nature of fluent reading abilities, it also reveals the many skills, processes, and knowledge bases that act in combination, and often in parallel, to create the overall reading comprehension abilities. It is necessary to have adequate understanding to suit a purpose since it is central to reading. Students need to understand how texts work and what they do when they read, and they must be able to monitor their own comprehension Grabe and Stoller, 2002: 9-10. However, many students have low reading skill which can be seen from their achievement. They have difficulties to know the words in the text and they have low understanding of the message from the text. The students probably know the words but they don’t know the meaning of the text. Some students may know the meaning of the words or vocabularies of the text but they cannot get the message of the text. Even, there are some students who don’t know the meaning of the text at all. 1 2 M ethod of teaching is one of the important factors in the teaching- learning process. There are many kinds of methods. One of them is Teams- Games-Tournament. Teams-Games-Tournament can be one among the kinds of cooperative method suggested by experts for its superiority. Teams-Games- Tournament is supposed to be appropriate to develop students’ reading skill. Teams-Games-Tournament TGT is the first of the Johns Hopkins cooperative learning methods http:courses.educ.queensu.caprof150-155 learningreadingsdocumentsSlavincooplrng.pdf. Cooperative learning refers to a broad range of instructional methods in which students work together to learn academic content. The use of cooperative learning strategies results in improvements both in the students’ achievement and in the quality of their interpersonal relationships. Cooperative learning encourages students to discuss, debate, disagree, and ultimately to teach one another. Cooperative learning has been suggested as the solution for an astonishing array of educational problems: it is often cited as a means of emphasizing thinking skills and increasing higher-order learning; as an alternative to ability grouping, remediation, or special education; as a means of improving race relations and acceptance of mainstreamed students; and as a way to prepare students for an increasingly collaborative work force Slavin in http:courses.educ.queensu.caprof150- 155learningreadingsdocumentsSlavincooplrng.pdf. M ost cooperative learning lessons can be characterized by the following features: students work cooperatively in teams to master academic materials; teams are made up of high, average, and low achievers; whenever possible, teams include a racial, cultural, and sexual mix of students; and rewards systems are group oriented rather than individually oriented Arends, 1997: 111. Cruickshank, et al. 1999: 206-207 also mention the characteristics of cooperative learning, as follows: heterogeneous mixed groups; group tasks, usually either mastery or project work; rule of behavior is all for one, one for all; group reward is shared equally by individual members. 3 Teams-Games-Tournament is one type of cooperative learning which is easy to implement, involving the activities of all students without a difference in status, involving the role of st udents as peer tutors and an element of the game and reinforcement http:dudy -adityawan.com education team-games-tournament-method-tgt. Learning activities designed to play in TGT allow students to learn to relax in addition to cultivate responsibility cooperation, healthy competition and the involvement of learning. Teams-Games-Tournament TGT is a strategy usually used to check for understanding information, for reviewing and test preparation http:www.yrdsb.edu.on.capdfswiiTeachingM asters.doc. Johnson 1996: 114 states that Teams-Games-Tournament technique requires student groups to work cooperatively to rehearse information andor skills before competing in a tournament against other groups. Teachers assign tasks to be completed collaboratively in groups, and eventually groups compete as teams against other teams. However, many teachers still apply lecture in teaching reading. The activity in lecture is teacher-centered. Lecture encourages one-way communication. Students just become the followers and depend on the teacher during the teaching-learning process. In other words, lecture places students in a passive rather than an active role. The information tends to be forgotten quickly when students are passive. Another factor influencing the learning process is affective domain. Affective as stated by Brown 2000: 143 refers to emotion and feelings. It is considered the emotional side of human behavior. Stern in Finch http:www.finchpark.comarts notes that the affective component contributes at least as much and often more to language learning than cognitive skills. In recent years, the importance of affective factors has been of interest in the field of language learning because of their high effects on learning a foreign or a second language http:www.njcu.eduCILLvol7 andres.html. 4 Affective factors in reading can be attitude, motivation, self-esteem, and self-actualization Davies, 1995: 73. Brown in Aebersold and Field 2000: 8 details several individual factors that influence language learning, including self-esteem, inhibition, risk-taking, anxiety, and motivation. They can be positive or negative factors. All of these factors operate in reading classroom as well. For this reason, researchers call upon reducing anxiety and inhibition and enhancing students’ motivation and self-esteem in the classroom context. Self-esteem is the evaluation which the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself; it expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy Coopersmith in Brown, 2000: 103. Such evaluation is built up through repeated experiences of success and failur e, other people’s impressions, and the self-appraisals in relation to ideal selves. Self-esteem is considered as one of the important affective factors because success or failure of a person depends mostly on the degree of one’s self-esteem. Stevick in Finch http:www.eslteachersboard.comegibin articlesindex.pl?page=3;read=949 states that success depends less on materials, techniques, and linguistics analysis, and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom. Indeed, success is not measured of how much one gains but of how satisfies he is with his work. Hence, a person should put a high value for his performance and be confident of his achievement because the judgments he makes are the drive for mastering proficiency. Self-esteem plays a crucial role in learning since it is the best predictors of academic success. It appears that high self-esteem is both a cause and a consequence of better academic grades Biggs and Watkins, 1995: 75. Dickinson also stresses the importance of self-esteem in language learning 1996: 25. Littlewood 1998: 64 states that a study by Adelaide Heyde found that self-esteem was associated with second language proficiency. It is the 5 most crucial aspect of the affective factors because all are related or caused by self-esteem. Educators have long realized that self-esteem plays a crucial role in learning. Students with high esteem forge ahead academically while those with low esteem fall behind Atwater, 1990: 155. Learners with high self-esteem are less likely to feel threatened when communicating in a strange language or in an unfamiliar situation. They may also be more ready to risk making mistakes or projecting a reduced image of themselves Adelaide Heyde in Littlewood, 1998: 64. They expect to do well in their accomplishments, try hard and try to be successful Atwater, 1990: 155. M eanwhile, students with low esteem tend to expect the worst, exert less effort on their tasks especially challenging and demanding ones and achieve less success Atwater, 1990: 155. M any researchers agree upon the effect of teachers on building or harming student’s self-esteem. Dornyei 2001: 31 suggests some strategies for ESLEFL teachers to create a supportive atmosphere in the classroom, namely: establishing a norm of tolerance; encouraging risk-taking, and having mistakes accepted as a natural part of learning; bringing in and encouraging humor, and encouraging learners to personalize the classroom environment according their taste. To make the students achieve adequate skill in reading, the writer applies Teams-Games-Tournament on the consideration that it can improve the students’ reading skill and encourage students’ active role in the teaching- learning process. She also considers the students’ self-esteem high and low to know whether Teams-Games-Tournament is suitable for students who have high self-esteem or those who have low self-esteem, and to know whether lecture is suitable for students who have high self-esteem or those who have low self-esteem. Since students’ self esteem and the method of teaching applied by the teachers are important factors in teaching reading, the writer is interested in conducting a research entitled: “THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAMS- GAMES-TOURNAMENT TO TEACH READING VIEWED FROM 6 STUDENTS’ SELF-ESTEEM An Experimental Study at the Seventh Grade Students of SMP Batik Surakarta in the Academic Year of 20092010”.

B. Problem Identification