another word, cooperative learning is a group working to help the group member to understand the material about.
Then, numbered heads together is a teaching technique by using group that consists of four students. The rules of numbered heads together are teacher will
divide class into several groups that consist of four students, teacher ask a question based on the text, students in each group put their heads together and discuss the
answer, and teacher calls number randomly. The student with that number gives and explains their group’s answer. This activity not only about practice reading in group
but also train the student to socialize and help each other. Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested in conducting the
research under the title “the effectiveness of numbered heads together technique on students’ reading ability at SMPN 2 Tangerang Selatan”. The researcher wants the
students practice to read descriptive text by using numbered heads together technique.
B.
The Identification of the Problems
In this research, the writer identified some problems in SMPN 2 Tangerang Selatan, those problems are;
1. Students are difficult to understand the text because many unfamiliar vocabularies so they often used dictionary. It makes their reading activity
slowly meanwhile the learning time is limited. 2. Students are difficult to understand the meaning of the text because the
difficulty of the structure that used in the text.
3. The researcher found sometimes teachers taught reading by reading aloud, as the researcher knows that technique is good for elementary to
practice reading and also practice how to pronounce the word, but not for
understanding the meaning of the text in junior high school.
C.
The Limitation of the Problem
Based on the identification of the problems above, the writer limits the study on the effect of using numbered heads together technique in improving
students’ reading ability in descriptive text at the second grade students of SMPN 2 Tangerang Selatan.
D.
The Formulation of the Problem
From the statement above, the writer formulates the problem: “Is numbered head
together technique effec tive in improving the students’ reading ability in descriptive
text at SMPN 2 Tangerang Selatan ?”
E.
The Objectives of the Study
Based on the formulation above, the objectives of this study is to find out an empirical data, to see whether or not numbered heads together technique is effective
in improving students’ reading ability in descriptive text and how can numbered
heads together effective in improving the students’ reading ability in descriptive text
at SMPN 2 Tangerang Selatan.
F.
The Significance of the study The result of the study hopefully can be useful for:
1. Students, the result of this study will give many benefits to students because they are not only can improve their understanding in reading
descriptive text and improve their vocabulary but also can make them socialize and active, work together to help each other and make them
unified. 2. Future teachers, colleagues, and many others to help them more
understand about the use numbered heads together technique in teaching reading descriptive text. They will know if numbered heads together
technique not only good for teaching reading descriptive but also good for students’ behavior.
6
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. The Nature of Reading Ability
1. The Definition of Reading Ability
A number of people never overlook reading like magazine, newspaper, article or advertisement everyday while doing their activities. Everyone can do it because it
is quite simple and easy. Whereas, most of them only read the text without understanding what is the meaning from the text. Actually, reading is not only about
how to pronounce the words or explain it but the most important thing is understands the meaning of the text or what the writer conveyed about. As Nuttall stated
, “reading is not about decode decipher identify or articulate speak pronounce but focus on
understanding interpret meaning sense”.
1
In addition, Harmer stated that, “reading is useful for language acquisition.
Reading also has a positive effect on students’ vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling and on their writing
”.
2
In another word, reading is beneficial activity because students not only get the information from the text but also can increase their English
ability indirectly. However, Grellet said,
“reading is an active skill; it constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking and asking oneself questions
”.
3
It can be said that reading is an active activity because before the readers read the text, theyhave to
suppose what the writer will talk about by seeing the title, picture, clues, or the first and last paragraph, skimming the text to check their hypotheses and to get the
information what they are looking for, revision then reread the text for more detail.As
1
Christine Nutall, Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language, Marion Geddes and Gill Sturtridge ed, Practical Language Teaching, Heinemann, 1983, p.2.
2
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Kuala Lumpur: Pearson Education Limited, 2007, p.99.
3
Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skills A practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercise, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p.8.
Snow stated, “the best way to understand reading is therefore to see it as a process of active guessing in which readers use a variety of different kinds of clues to
understand a text and to take what they need or want from it, generally as quickly as possible
”.
4
From those explanations above, it can be concluded that reading is an active activity because the readers not only read those printed words in the text but they
must understand what is the message that conveyed by the writer from the text. Before reading, the readers can guess what the writer will talk about by seeing the
title, picture, clues, or the first and last paragraph, skimming the text to check their hypotheses and to get the information what they are looking for, revision then reread
the text for more detail.There are many purposes in reading, beside the readerscan get many informations from the text, they will improve their english ability indirectly
because they not only practice how to pronounce the words, but also find new vocabularies and those new vocabularies can be applied in their speaking and writing.
Furthermore, Allington and Strange stated, “reading ability is a complex skill
and many issues surround its measurement. Most assessment of reading ability consider both word-identification abilities, and the understanding or comprehension
of the message ”.
5
Then, Alderson said, “reading ability is not only abilities in learning new knowledge, but also abilites to process information”.
6
Meanwhile, according to Harmer, students need to be able to scan the text for particular bits of information they are searching for. They also need to be able to skim
4
Don Snow, From Language Learner to Language Teacher, Virginia: TESOL Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Language, Inc, 2007, p.133.
5
Richard Allington and Michael Strange, Learning Through Reading In The Content Areas, Toronto: D. C. Heath and Company, 1980, p.5.
6
J. Charles Alderson and Lyle F. Bachman, Assessing Reading, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p.48.
a text – as if they were casting their eyes over its surface – to get a general idea of
what it is about.
7
In another word, reading ability is capability of the readers in understanding the meaning of the text.Also, they must be able in understanding and applying the
reading technique in order to adjust with the text and their reading purpose. If their reading purpose is to find the unfamiliar vocabulary in dictionary, they must be able
read the text in scanning technique but if their purpose is to seek the general idea of
the text, they must be able read the text in skimming technique.
2. The Objective of Reading
The objective of reading is based on what text that read by reader such as novel, newspaper, textbook, magazine, article, dictionary and many more.Anything what
reader read, they want to get the information from it. Although reader will get pleasure when they read novel or magazine, their first aim is to know the information
how the story of the novelor hot news of some actress and actors in magazine. Likely, when they read textbook, newspaper and others, their purpose is to get the
information. As Nutall stated , “you read because you wanted to get something from
the writing: facts, ideas, enjoyment, even feelings of family community from a letter: whatever it was, you wanted to get the message that the writer had
expressed ”.
8
In addition, Jordan said that, students can have different purposes in their reading; these will include;
To obtain information facts, data, etc. To understand ideas, or theories, etc.
To
discover authors’ viewpoints
7
Harmer,op. cit., p.100.
8
Nutall, op. cit., p.3.
