learning media was limited. This limited the students in comprehending their text independently.
These th ree problems were results to the students‟ ability in comprehending
the text and motivation in reading activities. These are important cases that commonly happen in the EFL educational context, especially in Indonesia.
C. Delimitation of The Problem
Due to the problems happen to the eighth grade students at SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta, the researcher focused the study on the efforts to
improve their comprehension in reading. The effort taken by the researcher was choosing some activities that are appropriat
e with the students‟ needs and characteristics. In this case, the researcher had chosen summarizing as the
activities of teaching reading.
D. Formulation of The Problem
In reference to the background, identification, and delimitation of the problems, the prob
lem of this study is formulated as follows: “How could the implementation of summarizing activities improve reading comprehension tothe
eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta in the academic year 20132014?”
E. Objective of The Study
With regard to the formulation of the problem above, the objective of this research is to improve reading comprehension using summarizing activities to the
eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta in the academic year of 20132014.
F. Significance of The Study
Significance of the study gives us both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this study can support the current theory about the significance of
the summarizing activities in language teaching and learning, especially on
reading.
There are four practical significance of the research, that is, for English teachers, for students, for other researchers, and for the researcher herself. This
study is expected to motivate the English teachers to apply various activities which can enhance students learning motivation and involvement during the
English teaching and learning process. In practical, the use of summarizing activities enables students to get new experience in improving their reading
comprehension. So, the implementation of the activities could develop the teaching and
learning process in the future. For other researchers and the researcher herself, the result of this study is expected to give an inspiration to conduct other studies
related to the problems by applying summarizing activities and also to develop her mind through the problem
– solving process and be a valuable experience related to her knowledge in research education, her life, and experience.
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
The discussion of this section is divided into three main parts, 1 a theoretical review which discusses theories related to this research, 2 reviews of
related studies which comprise relevant research to this study, and 2 a conceptual framework which relates the theories in the theoretical review to this
research.
a. Theoretical Review
This part discusses theories related to this research. The discussion is divided into four main topics, i.e. the nature of reading, the nature of reading
comprehension, teaching reading comprehension in junior high school, and the summarizing activities. This study focuses on the implementation of summarizing
activities to improve students‟ reading comprehension ability. To strengthen the conceptual framework of the study, this section presents underpinning theories
related to this research.
1. Nature of Reading
a. Definitions of Reading
Reading is an activity to get information presented in the text. It is an activity to interpret the text. According to Murcia and Olshtain 2002:119,
reading is a process of trying to understand a written text by readers through decoding, interpreting the message and eventually understanding the writer‟s
intention.
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