The Background of the Research

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter outlines a general portrait of what this research deals with. It describes the background of the research, the limitation and formulation of problem, the objective of the research, and the significance of the research.

A. The Background of the Research

English is considered as the most prominent international language and has wide influence in the various fields of activities, such as: communication, economics, education, technology, politics, etc. No one will be able to understand those without understanding English since most of the scientific books are written in English. Hence, learning English is crucial importance. English becomes the first foreign language and the compulsory subject in Secondary Schools 1 . It covers four basic language skills consisting of listening, speaking, reading and writing which have to be mastered by students. As one of the language skills, reading is considered as the most important skill in learning a foreign language. It is in line with McDonough and Shaw’s statement, As a skill, reading is clearly one of the most important; in fact in many instances around the world we may argue that reading is the most important foreign language skill, particularly in cases where students have to read English material for their own specialist subject 1 Depdiknas, Peratran Menteri Pendidikan Nasional No.22 tentang Kerangka Dasar dan Struktur Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris SMP dan MTS, Jakarta: 2003, p.9 2 but may never have to speak the language; such cases are often referred to as „English as a library language’. 2 Regarding the importance of reading, the ability to read text in English will contribute a great deal of advantages either for careers, for study purposes or simply for information or pleasure, so the need for mastering reading skill cannot be denied. According to Competency Standard- Standar Kompetensi SK and Basic Competency- Kompetensi Dasar KD in the current School-Based Curriculum- Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP, the second year students of Junior High School are expected to be able to comprehend both the functional text and a simple essay such us descriptive, recount and narrative text in their nearest environment in mastering reading skill. 3 Besides, the policy of the school in determining the Minimum Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal KKM for English subject is students are required to achieve score 70 seventy. It is realized that the accomplishment of the instructional objectives of the teaching reading skill is not easy and simple, either for the teacher or for the students. Based on the writer ’s experience and observation in classroom activities during Praktek Profesi Keguruan Terpadu PPKT in SMPN 17 Tangerang Selatan, there were some problems which students faced in the learning reading skill. For example: First, most of students just had the ability to recognize the word but they could not draw a conclusion of what the author extends. Second, they tended to be lazy to answer the question individually, so they decided to cheat to their friend. Third, the writer found that the teaching learning process was less interesting, so the students were noisy in class. Fourth, the teaching learning process tended to be teacher-centered; the students were passive in teaching learning process. Fifth, the classes in SMPN 17 Tangerang Selatan are big class because it consisted of more than 30 2 Jo McDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Method in ELT second edition, Oxford: Blackwell publishing, 2003, P.89. 3 Depdiknas, Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional No 22 tentang Standar Isi Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris SMP dan MTS, Jakarta: 2006, p.25 3 students; hence it was difficult to make teaching learning activity more effective. Based on the writer’s observation concerning students’ activities in teaching learning process of reading skill, the writer assumed that the teaching learning process seemed to be monotonous because teaching reading was focused on reading aloud, translating the entire words in the passage and finding the difficult words then translating whole passage into Bahasa Indonesia. Furthermore, the theacher liked to dominated in teaching learning process because the students did not give the apportunity to be active in the class. It made the students bored and loses interest in the subjects which affect their reading ability. In addition, based on interview result with the English teacher, she told that: First, most of second year students of VIII-6 class of SMPN 17 Tangerang Selatan were still difficult to achieve Minimum Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal KKM targets because their knowledge of English still minimum. Second, in reading skill students are unable to comprehend the reading materials in the text; they only guess the meaning on the text. Third, the teacher did not arrange the students into group, because she had been ever tried to arrange them into group but did not work well because they relied on the cleverest in their group to answer the question. Fourth, the classes in SMPN 17 Tangerang Selatan are big class because it consisted of more than 30 students; hence it was difficult to make teaching learning activity more effective. Referring to the problems above, it is necessary for language teacher to foster reading on their students. To improve the student’s ability, the teacher should use appropriate method. The method should be interesting to interest students in teaching learning process. One of the methods is cooperative learning method. It is seen as an active learning process, because students will learn more through a process of constructing and creating working in a group and sharing knowledge. Nevertheless, individual responsibility is still the key of success of learning English. A cooperative learning method is 4 believed as being able to give chance for students to be involved in teaching learning process and take responsibility of hisher own learning. Students Team Achievement Divisions STAD is then taken as the technique to be implemented. It is a type of cooperative learning. It is the way to give stimulus to the students and motivate them to learn, then the students will be active. Using this technique, the students are the center. They will be in the team consists of various students. Every team consist of 4-5 students. They will study together to get better achievement in the form of individual improvement score after taking the individual quiz or individual test. Every member in team need to be responsible for their team progress. So, they will get predicate as “SUPER TEAM”. That means they will get high achievement. STAD consists of five major components; class presentation, teamwork, quizzes, individual improvement scores, and team recognition. 4 The writer chooses Student Team Achievement Division STAD in teaching reading because it is considered that teaching reading should be emphasized in raising student’s motivation so that teaching learning process of reading results will get better achievement. By applying this technique, students’ problem is hopefully solved. Based on the phenomenon mentioned above, the writer intends to conduct a classroom action research dealing with: ”Developing students’ reading ability by using Student Team Achievement Division STAD Technique. A Classroom Action Research in the second grade of VIII-6 class of SMPN 17 Tangerang Selatan ”.

B. The Limitation and Formulation of the Problem