S1 : Iya udah banyak tau kosakata jadi gampang. Since we already know
many new vocabularies, it becomes easier. IT 9, Thursday, 30
th
April 2015
Referring to the observation results and interview transcripts collected during the implementation, the teacher and the collaborator agreed that the action
had successfully improved the students’ attitude towards reading lesson and the students’ reading comprehension ability.
D. General Findings
In relation to the evaluation of cycle I and II of the research, the implementation of Experience-Text-Relationship method in improving the
students’ reading comprehension was successful. The improvement happened during the implementation was presented in the table below.
Table 4: The Improvement after the Implementation
No. Before the
Implementation After the Implementation
Cycle I Cycle II
1. The students were less
interested and enthusiastic in reading
classes. Only a few dominant students who
often participated actively.
Some students were interested while the
teacher inserted some games in the teaching
and learning process. However a group of
students did not pay attention well while the
teacher was not around or was giving
explanation to the other students.
The number of students who
participated in learning process increased
showed when the teacher made an
interaction, many students active
responding. Various activities and
games made the students more
interested and enthusiastic in joining
the lesson. Moreover, providing a reward for
the students made them more motivated to
participate actively.
2. The activities rarely
involved the students to activate their
background knowledge. Providing pictures and
picture series helped the students to activate their
background knowledge. Experience phase in
ETR method gave a chance to the students
to share their prior knowledge and
experience related to the text.
The students could think more critically
when they were given a picture or a title of a
particular story. Especially when a
topic given was quite familiar for them, they
could explore their prior knowledge better.
3. The students were not
familiar with a particular reading
strategy. Some students started to
know ETR method although they still
needed a lot of guidance in applying
the method. While some others needed
more explanation what they should do in each
step, and how to relate between experience and
the content of the text. Most of the students
had better understanding of ETR
method and each steps of it.
The use of graphic organizer facilitated
them to draw relationship between
what they know experience and the
content of the text read.
4. The students faced
difficulties in understanding the
meaning of some difficult unfamiliar
words. As the result they depended on
dictionary too much to find the meaning of the
words. Some students did try to
understand the meaning of some words by
looking at the context and surrounding
sentence, but some students were less effort
to do so and asked to look in the dictionary.
Most of the students were accustomed to
understand the meaning based on the
context. As the result, their knowledge of
vocabularies increased.
5. The students faced
difficulties to comprehend a text.
Some students needed long time
to comprehend a text and
to find a main idea of the text.
Steps of ETR method helped them to
understand the content of the text, but they still
need a lot of assistance. As the students got
better understanding of implementation of
ETR method, their ability in
comprehending text also improved. In
addition, by the time their knowledge of
vocabularies increased, comprehending a text
become easier.
In connection to the table 4, the teacher found that experience-text- relationship method improved the students’ behavior towards teaching reading as
well as the students’ ability in comprehending texts. This notion was in line with the previous researches conducted by Jarmianik, J. 2013 and Samosir, D.N.
2013. Jarmianik 2013 proved in her research that the result of the study indicated that ETR method had improved students’ reading comprehension and
the class situation. The findings by Samosir 2013 also indicated that there was significant improvement of students’ reading comprehension through the
implementation of ETR method. This research was carried out in two cycles. During the implementation of
the actions, the researcher also used accompanying activities and supporting teaching aids which were useful and meaningful to provide in the class. They
indeed played an important role in succeeding the process of the implementation of the actions. As the result, the implementation of ETR method was not only
effective in improving the students’ reading comprehension, but also the students’
behavior in teaching reading and the class situation. The general findings of the actions were described as follows.
Firstly, experience-text-relationship is able to improve the students’ participation and enthusiasm towards reading lesson. Various steps of the method
encouraged them to think and share their opinion related to the topic. It gave the students chances to participate and have interaction with the teacher as well as the
other students. In consequence, the class situation became livelier. Moreover the topic discussed was selected based on relevance and familiarity with the students,
so it made them more confident while discussing and exploring the topic in the class. This notion was supported by Au 1979 claiming that ETR method is a
discussion-based activity in which a discussion refers to interactive communication between a teacher and students talking about a particular topic.
Additionally, various activities, games, and reward increased the students’ interest and motivation. They enjoyed joining the lesson as they experienced a new way of
teaching. Secondly, experience-text-relationship is able to improve students’ skill in
using background knowledge. As stated by Carrell et al. 1988, experience-text- relationship method emphasizes in reading for meaning. This method can help
students to activate background knowledge to draw meaning of a text that is useful for text comprehension. During the learning process, the students had got
sufficient practice in sharing their experience and background knowledge as a bridge to connect their knowledge with the content of the text. Experience phase
enabled the students to think more actively and critically before they read the text.
Furthermore, experience-text-relationship is able to enhance students’ knowledge of vocabulary. As stated by Nunan 2003 that one of the pricnciples
in teaching reading is to build a strong vocabulary base. He adds that basic vocabulary should be taught explicitly to the students and they should be taught to
use context to effectively guess meanings of less frequent vocabulary. Previously, the students depended too much on dictionary. When they found unfamiliar words
in a text, they just looked in the dictionary to find the meaning. However, it was not effective because the students would only know the meaning of the words at
that time but they would easily forget it in the future as they did not intend to understand the meaning of the words. By using ETR method, the students were
directed to understand the meaning based on the context by looking at surrounding sentences. The students were given chances to make use of their
background knowledge related to the text to guess the meaning. Lastly, experience-text-relationship is able to improve the students’
reading ability. Since ETR method provides opportunities for students to explore many dimensions of the story and to integrate features of it with their existing
store of knowledge Au, 1979, it helps the students to develop their reading comprehension. Previously, the students faced some problems in comprehending
a text, but ETR method enabled them activating their background knowledge in which it led them to have a prior prediction related to the text that they were going
to discussed. As the result, the students found it easier to understand the content of the text and to obtain specific information from the text. It also enabled them to
compare and contrast the result of the story with their prior prediction which led
them to summary and make conclusion. The improvement of the students’ reading comprehension was also supported by the result of reading test scores. The
following table shows the result of the pre-test and post-test.
Table 5: The Result of the Pre-test and Post-test Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum
Mean Std. Deviation
Pretest 34
33.00 90.00
66.5294 14.82061
Posttest 34
50.00 97.00
77.4118 12.34876
Valid N listwise 34
Table 5 shows that the mean score of post-test is higher than the mean score of pre-test. Previously in the pre-test, the mean score is only 66,52 while in
the post-test it becomes 77,41. The mean score increases 10,89 points which means that there is significant improvement in the students’ reading
comprehension ability.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, SUGGESTIONS
