CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the writer would like to present about the background of the study, the identification of the study, formulation and the significant of this
research, and the organization of the writing
A. Background of the Study
In Indonesia, English is one of the subjects that is learnt by the students from Elementary to University. In the higher level, it is categorized as
one of the subjects in National Examination. When students learn the language, they have to learn four language skills, they are: Listening,
Speaking, Reading and Writing. In this research, the writer focuses in reading skill. When students
are asked their opinion about reading, they said that reading an English text is difficult. They face some problems, such as: they lack of vocabulary, so they
need to open the dictionary all the time and it will make their reading very slow. If their reading is slow, it could make them lose their interest to the text.
Therefore, they lost their interest in practicing their reading and it could be difficult for them to develop their reading skill.
In addition, some English teacher, still use what Scrivener called as word-by-word approach, that is an approach which it is not used when
students read in a real life, because it is unnecessary for the students to open the dictionary all the time when they read, it could take a long time to read and
could not help them to be a good reader.
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Teacher should realize that it is not always effective to understand every word when they read. Teacher may ask
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Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching, London:McMillan, 2005. p. 184
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their students to keep reading whether they cannot understand the word, but they can understand the word by the content of the paragraph or sentences.
As far as the writer knows, in Indonesia, many schools still have big classes. The big classes can consist of 40 up to 50 students. It can be hard
for the teacher to manage the class and difficult to make the students to pay attention to the lesson.
When the teachers teach in a big class, it could be a problem for them to use the word-by-word approach, because it takes time, whether the
time of English lesson just has limited time. Therefore, teachers may try to find out a technique or strategy to help them in handling the class. So, they can
manage the students and students can more pay attention to the lesson. . According to Jeremy Harmer, “students can be organized in
different ways: they work together, in groups, in pairs or individually.”
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This technique could help the teachers to arrange such a big class in handling the
students to be more actively in the learning activity. According to Daniel Muijs and David Reynolds, in a group,
students are expected to work together and help each other to improve their skill.
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This activity can give students more opportunities to share their ideas and they are able to practice the language rather than they do in a whole class.
Based on the explanation above, the writer considers that group work can be one of an ideal technique in learning activities and can help the
teacher who teaches in a big class. Therefore, the writer would like to take a research under the title: The Effectiveness of Group Work in Teaching
Reading.
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Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English:An Introduction to the Practice of English Language Teaching New York:Pearson Edu, 1998 p. 20
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Daniel Muijs and David Reynolds. Effective Teaching: evidence and practice. London: SAGE Publication. 2005. p. 53
B. Identification of the Problem
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