study entitled “Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension of Narrative Text
through Jigsaw Technique. A Classroom Action Research on 2
nd
Grade Students of SMP Ash-Sholihin Kebon Jeruk
”.
B. The Limitation of the Problem
To present an effective paper, the writer limits the problem. There are three materials will be discussed: reading comprehension, narrative text, and jigsaw
technique. This study emphasizes the method of teaching reading narrative text using jigsaw technique. The subjects of the study are the second year students of
SMP Ash-Sholihin Kebon Jeruk. And the objects of the study are jigsaw technique and the students’ achievement.
C. The Formulation of the Problem
To make the study easy to understand, the writer formulates the problem as follow:
“How far jigsaw technique in improving students’ reading comprehension of narrative text?
”
D. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to know how far jigsaw technique improves students’ reading comprehension of narrative text for the second year of SMP
Ash-Sholihin Kebon Jeruk. In addition, the objective of the research is to describe the analyses of the implementation of
students’ reading comprehension of narrative text.
E. The Significance of the Study
The contributions of this study are conveyed to: First, for the writer. The study gives many lessons about reading and jigsaw technique that will be very
useful when the writer be a teacher in the future. Second, is for the next English Education Department Students. They can make this study as a comparison of
their study with the same discussion.
5
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. READING
1. The Understanding of Reading Comprehension
Reading is a skill essential for formal education and for an individual’s success in society. It is supported by the theory states that
“reading is the construction of meaning from a printed or written message.
”
1
Getting meaning depends on the reader prior knowledge about the written message. While in a
dictionary, reading is also defined as “the skill or activity of getting
information from books. ”
2
So the more we read the more we get information that contributes a great advantage in our life, such as gaining success in school
for student. According to Elizabeth B. Bernhardt,
“reading is viewed as not merely taking written information on the printed matter but also attributing a
meaning-extracting process as the essence of the act of reading. ”
3
In addition, Roe et al states that:
reading comprehension is an abstract process that occurs in the brain; it is difficult to observe, to measure, and to teach directly. Students can
discuss reading content, answer questions, and verbalize how they arrived at answer, but the actual mental process cannot be observed. A
good way to explore the process of reading comprehension is to discuss reading with a reader who shares his or her thoughts as he or she reads.
4
1
Richard R. Day, Extensive Reading in Second Language Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, p.12.
2
Elizabeth Walter, Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: Third Edition, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 1181.
3
Elizabeth B. Bernhardt, Reading Development in a Second Language: Theoretical, Empirical, and Classroom Perspective, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing, 1991, p. 5.
4
Betty D. Roe, Barbara D. Stoodt, and Paul C. Burns, Reading Instruction in the Secondary School, Revised edition, London: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1978, p. 144.
It means that reading not only getting information simply but also processing that information on mind to understand the meaning. And the
process itself cannot be observed directly. Goodman in Richard Allington points out that if reading is the extraction
of meaning, “reading comprehension is a redundant phrase, because without comprehension, reading has not truly happened.
”
5
It means that the understanding of reading and comprehension cannot be separated. It is in line
with Francoise Grellet who states that “Understanding a written text means
extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.”
6
In this sense, when the readers can find the information from the text that they have
read, it means that they get the comprehension. In addition, Zemelman et al. in Farris states that “The essence of reading is a transaction between the words
of an author and the mind of the reader, during which meaning is constructed. It means that the main goal of reading instruction must be comprehension.”
7
It is as close as what Crowley defines that “The main purpose of reading
is to understand or comprehend the communication between the author and the aut
hor’s audience.”
8
Another explanation that reading comprehension is the main function in which people can communicate through a text, as Parris and Hamilton explain
that: Understanding the meaning of printed words and texts is the core function
of literacy that enables people to communicate messages across time and distance, express themselves beyond gestures, and create and share ideas.
Without comprehension, reading words is reduced to mimicking the sounds of language, repeating text is nothing more that memorization and
5
Richard Allington and Michael Strange, Learning through Reading in the content areas, Lexington: D.C Heath and Company, 1980, p. 16
6
Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skills: A Practical guide to reading comprehension exercises, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 3.
7
Pamela J. Farris, Teaching Reading: A Balance Approach for Today’s Classroom, New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2004, p.324
8
Sharon J. Crawley, Remediating Reading Difficulties: Third Edition, New York: McGraw- Hill, 2000, p. 40
oral drill, and writing letters and characters is simply copying or scribbling.
9
The explanation above describes the role of comprehension when reading a text that could express and create many ideas. In other words, it
explains how essential the comprehension to decode the text. Comprehension needs the reader
’s ability to follow the author’s organization of main ideas, details, paragraph structures, and whole
selection.
10
In order the readers can do that, many of them use some strategies to get comprehension of the text they read. They are:
a. Skip words they don’t know
b. Predict meaning
c. Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context
d. Do not constantly translate
e. Look for cognates
f. Ask someone what a word means
g. Have knowledge about the topic
h. Draw inferences from the title
i. Make use of all information in the paragraph to comprehend
unfamiliar words j.
Try to figure out the meaning of a word by the syntax of the sentence k.
Read things of interest l.
Study pictures and illustrations m.
Purposefully reread to check comprehension.
11
In addition, The National Reading Panel concludes the other comprehension strategies for improving students’ understanding of what they
read in the discipline areas: a.
Comprehension monitoring, where readers learn how to be aware of their understanding of the material;
b. Cooperative learning, where students learn reading strategies
together;
9
Scott G. Parris and Ellen E. Hamilton, “The Development of Children’s Reading Comprehension”, in Susan E. Israel and Gerald G. Duffy, Handbook of Research on Reading
Comprehension, New York: Taylor and Francis Group, 2009, p. 32
10
Roe, 1978, Op. Cit, p. 147.
11
Jerry G. Gebhart, Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1996, p.199
