a. Time triangulation
Time triangulation means that the data are collected over period of time. It was done to get a sense of what factors are involved in change processes. In
this research, the researcher conducted the actions from March-May 2015.
b. Investigator triangulation
Investigator triangulation means that more than one observer were involved in the same research setting. To fulfill the investigator triangulation, the
researcher involved at least two observers during the action implementation i.e. the researcher herself and a collaborator. It was done to avoid bias or
subjective observations.
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CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the research findings which refer to the effort in improving the grade eight
students’ reading comprehension through Directed Reading Thinking Activity. It is divided into three main parts. They are
reconnaissance, the implementation of the action, and the general finding of the research. The detail description of this chapter is presented as follows.
A. Reconnaissance
In carrying out this research, some activities were done to determine the most suitable actions before the implementation. The description of the actions
is presented as follows. The first one is observation. It was carried out before the implementation to know the real condition of the teaching and learning reading
of the grade eight students at SMP N 9 Magelang. The second one is the
interviews. It was conducted to collect the information about the teaching and
learning process of reading from different points of views, i.e., students and the English teacher. The last is the pre-test. It was done to get the data of the
students’ reading competence before the actions were implemented. The activities were crucially important to identify the problem in the teaching and
learning reading, determine the research problem, and then determine the actions to solve the problems which were discussed as follows.
1. Identification of the Field Problem
The findings of the problems in this research were based on the observation, the interviews and the pre-test. The observation was done on February, 24
th
2015 at class 8G of SMP N 9 Magelang. From the observation, it was obtained the global picture of the teaching and learning practice of reading as presented
below Vignette, Appendix 1. The class was started by greeting, praying, and checking the students’
attendance list. Two students were absent. It was continued by recalling the previous lesson and discussing the homework. After that, the students were
asked to open their textbook and read a descriptive text silently. Next, the class was asked to voluntarily read a paragraph from the text, but
no one seemed to do it and a student was pointed out to read in front of the class. The student seemed nervous. She did some pauses and wrong
pronunciation. During this activity, some students were paying no attention and busily playing and talking by themselves. The class was quite noisy.
The activity was continued by the English teacher asking some questions about the text. Only few students were actively participating to answer the
questions whereas the other were kept silent and seemed sleepy. After the question and answer session, the students were asked to do a task
from the textbook. They had to answer an open-ended question task about the text. Some students opened their dictionary to look for the meaning of
unfamiliar words, but most of the students did not bring dictionaries so they preferred to ask their friends about the difficult words.
After finishing the task, students were invited to discuss the task together. The students were given opportunity to ask question if they found something
they want to know. The class was dismissed after the discussion and review from the teacher at 9.30 a.m.
From the observation, it was found that only some students were active participating during the lesson. Some other students were busy and paying no
attention and the rest seemed hard to understand in following the lesson. In addition, there was minimum supporting media as well to carry out the lesson.
After conducting the observation, three students were interviewed and there was a discussion with the English teacher about the teaching and learning
practice of reading involving the students’ and teacher’s problems, the way or strategies to cope with the problem, and the students’ and teacher’s wants in
reading activities. The interview transcripts are attached on the Appendix. Based on the observation, interviews, and pre-test, some problems were
found during the teaching and learning process of reading. Those problems are presented in the following table.
Table 2: Problems in Teaching and Learning of Reading Process in Class VIIIG at SMP N 9 Magelang
No. Field Problem
Aspects Code
Source 1.
The reading class activity was mostly in the form of questions
and answers. There were no other kinds of activities such as
discussing the texts together. Teaching
technique A
Observation and interview
2. There is no interactive media
Media M
Observation
PPT and or pictures to support the teaching and learning
process. and interview
3. Most students didn’t bring
dictionary. S
Observation and interview
4. Students’ vocabulary mastery
was low. Students’
proficiency S
Observation and interview
5. The students were focusing on
the grammar during the reading activity.
Reading purpose
S Observation
and interview
6. The students lack the reading
strategies. Reading
strategies T
S Interview
7. The students’ participation was
low. Classroom
participation S
Observation
8. Students easily got bored with
long texts. Reading
strategies S
Interview
8. Students’ participation during
the class was low. Classroom
activity S
Interview
9. Students often lost attention and
concentration. Affective
S Observation
and interview 10. Students had difficulties in
identifying main ideas and detail information.
Reading strategies
S Interview
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