Background of the Study

encounter their problems in reading. Therefore, the students need to build a reading strategy to help them getting the best way to read effectively. 8 According to Winograd and Hare, a strategy is a conscious action that students have to reach their goals. 9 In addition, strategy is beneficial as a procedure used in learning, thinking, etc to help students reaching a goal of learning. Moreover, the strategy itself is helpful for language learners in learning and using a language in both conscious and unconscious processes. 10 It is true that a strategy can help the students to achieve their goals especially in the goals of reading. Furthermore, it may be very useful to help them when reading does not give them understanding about the main idea of a text. Students who have reading comprehension strategy are different from those who do not. As the evidence, Pressley finds that students who have had comprehension strategies instruction 1 have more willingness to try challenging text, 2 are more active while reading, 3 interact with peers more effectively, 4 are able to interpret text better, and 5 perform well on standardized tests. 11 In short, there are a lot of benefits that students can gain from having reading strategies. There is a lot of reading comprehension strategies that students can choose as their strategy in reading. Zimmermann and Hutchin offer seven reading comprehension strategies, namely; 1 activating or building background knowledge; which enables learners to connect their background knowledge, feelings, personalities, and experiences to the text; 2 using sensory images; which enable learners to create images about the topic of the text by making use their senses to gather the comprehension of a text; 3 questioning; which enables learners to engage 8 Judi Moreillon, Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension, Maximizing Your Impact American Library Association, 2007,p. 18. 9 Neil J Anderson, Exploring second language reading: Issues and Strategy. Heinle Heinle Publishers, 1999, p. 70. 10 Thom Hudson, Teaching Second Language Reading.Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 105. 11 Susan Lenski, Jill Lewis ed.. loc. Cit. their curiosity in reading by questioning to the text before, during, and after reading; 4 Making predictions and inferences; which enables learners to predict what happen next in the text and also they can make a conclusion about what they read; 5 Determining main ideas; which enables learners to decide the main idea of a text; 6 Using fix-up option; which enables learners to help them in fixing the loss of comprehension by rereading, reading ahead, etc; 7 Synthesizing; which enables learners to analyze the gathering information in reading and filters it through their own interpretation. 12 All of those strategies can be useful as reading comprehension strategies. Concerning questioning as a reading comprehension strategy, the previous study on the use of questioning as a strategy in reading is limited. One previous studywhich is closer to this research is “ A Comparison of the Metacognitive Reading Strategies Used by EFL and ESL Readers ” written by Alireza Karbalaei. This study shows that the students who have reading strategy are more successful in reading than those who have not; the students who get higher score in test performance are the students who have cognitive and metacognitive strategy in reading. 13 The second previous study comes from a study entitled “Awareness of reading strategy use and reading comprehension among poor and good readers ” written by Dimitris Anastasiou and Eleni Griva. This study describes that good readers who have cognitive and metacognitive strategy are more successful in reading test. The study also finds that both cognitive and metacognitive strategy extremely effect good readers’ reading accuracy and reading speed. Therefore it can be interpreted that a reading strategy is very essential to affect students’ reading achievement. 14 12 Judi Moreillon, op. cit., p. 18. 13 Karbalaei, “A Comparison of the Metacognitive Reading Strategies Used by EFL and ESL Readers ” The Reading Matrix, 2 September 2010, p. 165. 14 DimitrisAnastasiou and EleniGriva, Awareness of Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension among Poor and Good Readers, 2009, p. 283, http:ilkogretim-online.org.tr. Considering the importance of reading comprehension strategy and the problems faced by students in reading, this study is aimed at finding out the influence of questioning strategy and students’ achievement in reading. The study will be conducted at the first semester students of Department of English Education, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta based on the assumption that college students have comprehended a lot of English texts.

B. Limitation of the problem

There is a lot of reading comprehension strategies in Educational field. Therefore, to present a comprehensive study of the topic, the writer limits the scope of the study. The writer uses „questioning’ as a reading comprehension strategy based on the assumption that questioning is an effective reading comprehension strategy to help students ’ problem in facing English text. By questioning, students will increase their curiosity in reading. Moreover, an importance of reading comprehension is questioning, and then questioning needed to conduct the research, and also an essential component of critical thinking. In short, questioning is a key to learning. 15 In addition, Questioning is the strategy that encourages the students,because when the students ask questions, they begin to clarify their understanding and make meaning of what they comprehend. 16 Based on the explanation above, the study will be conducted based on the aim of the study, entitled THE INFLUENCE OF QUESTIONING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN READING. 15 Judi Moreillon, op. cit., p. 64 16 Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, Strategies That Work . Stenhouse Publishers 2000, p. 11

C. Problems formulation

Based on the background above, the formulation of the research questions can be seen as follows: Does Questioning strategy influence students’ achievement in reading?

D. Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study is to know whether questioning strategy influences students’ achievement in reading.

E. Significance of the study

The result of the study is expected to give information for all English learners about the importance of reading comprehension strategy to help them to be effective readers. It is also beneficial for the teacher especially in teaching reading. The teacher will be informed that questioning is very essential as a reading comprehension strategy. Furthermore, the teachers can develop teaching reading technique by using questioning as a reading comprehension strategy. 7

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Reading 1. Definition of reading Reading is a connection between our eyes and the text to obtain the information in the written sources. Furthermore, Rumelhart states that reading is an interaction which involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text. 1 It can be said that between reader and text is a significant relationship which happens in reading. When readers understand a message in a text, there will be an interaction between the reader and the text. However reading activity does not only to involve between eyes and text, but also how the readers can comprehend the written message in the text. Furthermore, the essential activity in reading is, the readers should be able to interpret what happens in a text. In addition, Reading is defined as an activity when people look at the text and able to interpret the meaning of that written symbol. Essentially between the text and the reader is an association how the reading process begun. 2 It could be said that, reading involves the reader‟s attention to the written symbol in a text. The reader and text are both two aspects that should relate each other to gain a message which was found in a text.In addition, the readers should build a connection between what they have seen and the text itself. Moreover, to build a well connection between readers‟ eyes and text, it is important for readers to have full attention in the written symbol in the text. Furthermore, reading is a complicated activity to get a lot of information from various written sources.As stated by Colin Harrison and Terry Salinger, “reading is a complex activity and accomplished readers operate at a number of levels 1 Jo A. Aebersold, and Mary L. Field, From Reader to Reading Teacher, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 5. 2 Ibid., p. 15.