Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language as a means of communication in human life is very necessary to be mastered. In the globalization era, it is very important for us to master a foreign language especially English as an International language, which has been widely used all over the world to communicate with each other. This is because English is useful for establishing and maintaining the relationship among people. Furthermore, it is also very useful to master English since it plays an important role in understanding and developing the scientific and technological knowledge. Therefore, Indonesian government takes a policy by adding English lesson to be taught from Elementary School up to University in order to prepare students to become familiar with English from the early age. Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are the basic language skills especially in teaching English as a foreign language at schools, courses or other education places which are formal or informal. In many situations, it is easy to find the reading materials because it is always seen in simple texts, such as English newspapers, textbooks, novels, essays, and others. By reading, we can get information we need through books that publish in English. We can follow the world’s change and a lot of knowledge that the world’s notice. Reading texts also provide opportunities to study language such vocabulary, grammar and the way we construct sentences, paragraph, and texts. As Lafevre said, “Reading, we are told, can be a golden key to open golden door”. 1 This means reading has a significant role in increasing reader’s knowledge about anything that happens in the world. Even today the person’s ability to read can make an individual become successful in life as Pamela J. Farris said: “Whether an individual is successful in life or not is largely 1 Carl A. Lafevre, Linguistic and the Teaching of Reading, London: Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 1964, p.15 1 dependant upon that person’s ability to read and write. Reality dictates that if you are illiterate, you are likely doomed to be in the lower class of society and forced to do manual labor to earn a wage”. 2 To teach reading comprehension effectively and efficiently is not an easy task, because there are a lot of aspects that influence the teaching learning process. One of the aspects is the classroom management. According to Jack C. Richards that, “Classroom management refers to the ways in which students behavior, movement, and interaction during a lesson are organized and controlled by the teacher to enable teaching to take place most effectively”. 3 Besides, a good method is also important to make the students understand and master the lesson. As said by William F. Mackey, “The method used often been said to the cause of success or failure in language: for its ultimately the method that determines that what and the how of language instruction”. 4 One of the methods is how the teacher tries to build students’ interest in reading and understanding the material. In this case, the teacher plays an important role to teach reading materials in an appropriate method to get the students comprehend about the text. By, using an appropriate method, the students can understand the material and also interest to read in English reading. Besides, they are expected to make progress in reading comprehension with their improvement in vocabulary, structure, and meaning. Realizing this problem and helping students to solve it, the teacher have to create the effective way to motivate students and stimulate them; so they will be interested in learning reading comprehension, because a good strategy will support them in learning in the classroom. Hammer said, “It seems reasonable to suggest that the motivation which students bring to class is the biggest 2 Pamela J. Farris, Teaching Reading: A Balanced Approach for Today’s Classroom, New York: Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 2004, p.48 3 Jack C. Richards and David Nunan, Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 138 4 William F. Mackey, Language Teaching Analysis, London: Longman Green and Co. Ltd, 1996, p.138 single factor affecting their success”. 5 The teacher can use methods and techniques that are suitable and interesting to the students. As Mulyanto said, “Technique depends on the teacher, the imagination, the creativity and the condition of class. A certain problem can be solved with various techniques”. 6 A good technique may make students understand and master the lesson better. “Howard Gardener’s multiple intelligence theory reminds teachers that there are many types of learners within any one class, auditory, visual and kinesthetic”. 7 Therefore, the teacher can use many kinds of media, namely audio, visual, and audio-visual to help the process of teaching and learning. The writer gives an alternative technique by using visual media. According to Betty Morgan Bowen: Learning is a complex process and visual aids are great help in stimulating the learning of foreign language. The students must use their ears as well as their eyes. Good visual materials will help maintain the pace of the lesson and the students’ motivation. As we learnt most through visual stimulus, the more interesting and varied these stimuli are, the quicker and more effective our learning will be”. 8 Visuals are pictures, maps, charts, real object, etc. The writer prefers using story map to using another visual media because it is more effective in increasing students’ reading comprehension ability. Story map is a graphic or semantic visual representation of a story. Story map is useful for comprehending the whole story more simply. It can take interesting in the students’ attention. The use of story map is not only making a classroom dynamic, relevant, and attractive but also building students’ motivation in learning reading comprehension in a fun and interesting way. Based on such discussion, the research would be carried out is about “Teaching Reading Comprehension through Story Mapping” . By using this activity, the students can comprehend what the author is saying. The 5 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, UK: Longman, 1991, p.3 6 Mulyanto Sumardi, Pengajaran Bahasa Asing, Jakarta: Bulan Bintang, 1974, p. 14 7 http: www.teachingenglish.org.UKthinkresources.html 8 Betty Morgan Bowen, Look Here Visual Aids in Language Teaching, London: Essential Language Teaching Series, 1973, p. 1 students will also be cooperative and improve their motivation with the right procedure and the good way of teaching.

B. Limitation and Formulation of the Problems