72 because of inability to answer the assignment, they chat to others in differences
topic. For example film, music, healthy they are lack of motivation to join English class especially in a reading activity. In reading activity, most of the students don’t
want to bring their textbook, they said that they forget to bring it because they have other assignments. Most of the students said that they weren’t interested in reading
textbook, because the texts aren’t interesting. Most of the students don’t want to read text loudly because they don’t understand what they read. In reading class,
most of the students keep silent, seldom answer the question. Sometimes the situation of the class is very awkward. In vocabulary section, they have a little
vocabulary.
C. The Method of the Research
The research method used in this thesis is Classroom Action Research CAR. The goal of action research is to understand some element of classroom by
collecting data. Action research is research done by teachers, for themselves: it is not imposed on them by someone else. Action research engages teachers in a four
step process 1 identifying an area of focus; 2 collecting data; 3 analyzing and interpret data; 4 developing an action plan Mills, 2000: 7. Wallace states that the
aim of action research is to demonstrate a particular strategy for accelerating and enhancing that kind of development, with special reference to language teaching.
The strategy is basically a way of reflecting on teaching which is done by systematically collecting data on everyday practice and analyzing in order to come
to some decision about what the future practice should be 1998: 4. It means that
73 before the research begins a plan is in place that describes what data to collect and
when, how, and how often the teacher will collect the data. .
D. Procedures of the Study
There are six steps in action research: identifying initial ideas, reconnaissance, constructing general plan, implementing action, observation, and reflection. These
six steps elaborate the spiral of activities in the following figure in cycles. The cycle moves to form the next cycles continually. Steps in the cycles of action research can
be applied through the following procedures:
74 1.
Identifying and clarifying the general data Elliot states that the ‘general data’ is essentially a statement which links an
idea to action 1991: 72. Further, Elliot states that the important criteria for selecting a ‘general idea’ are whether the situation it refers to a impinges on one’s
field of action and b is something one would like to change or improve on. The extent to which one is able to change or improve on it is a question which action
research should address, rather than assume an answer to 1991:71. Teacher should help learners to study, and know their problem why they are dissatisfied by the
given assignment. That’s the space to improve the weaknesses of the learners. McNiff states that in action teacher doesn’t have to begin with a problem but all the
teachers need is a general idea that something might be improved. The teacher’s general idea may stem a promising idea of the recognition that existing practice falls
short of aspirations. Further, he states that either case the teacher must centre attention on: What is happening now? In what sense is this problematic? and What
can I do about it?. He also states that there are many general starting points which should look like, for example I would like to improve the ......, some people are
unhappy about....... What can I do to change the situation? In other word, it can be said that teachers know the cause of weaknesses, and they want to improve their
skills. The teacher should know what the students want, need and hope. The teacher should be sensitive about the situation in class. By knowing the situation in class
and general idea about what something may be improved, the teacher decides what he should do.
Students are dissatisfied with the methods which they assess. Students feel bored in class, they seem to waste a lot of time in class. It happens because they are
75 disappointed with the activities in class. Students feel what they do is useless. In
teaching learning process, especially in reading activities, they feel bored. Text which they read is not useful for them. They don’t have background knowledge.
Students have a poor vocabulary, motivation to read text and lazy to read text. 2.
Reconnaissance The next important step in the action research process is reconnaissance, or
preliminary important gathering. Reconnaissance is taking time to reflect on the teacher’s belief and to understand the nature and context of the teacher’s general
idea. Mills states that doing reconnaissance takes three forms: self-reflection, description, and explanation 2000: 27. Further, he states that in gaining insight
into the teacher’s area of focus through self-reflection first by trying to explore his own understanding of the theories that impact the practice, the educational values he
hold, how his work in schools fit into the larger context of schooling and society historical contexts of his school and schooling and how things got to be the way
they are, and the historical contexts of how you came to believe what it is that you believe about teaching and learning 2000: 27-28.
Elliot states that in reconnaissance there are some activities that can be done. They are 1 describing the fact situation. He states that one needs to describe the
nature of situation that one wants to change or improve, 2 Explaining the fact of the situation. Elliot states many question to explain the facts of the situation. For
example: How do they arise? What are the relevant contingencies, or critical factors, which have a bearing on the state of affair described? In asking these questions,
further, one moves from a description of the facts to a critical analysis of the context in which they arise. This involves a brainstorming and b hypothesis testing
76 1991: 73. A hypothesis may cite a relationship between the facts of the problem
situation and some other factors operating in its context. In this reconnaissance, the writer wants to answer the following questions:
1 What do they want in joining English class?
2 Why are learners lazy in reading activities?
3 Why don’t they answer some questions?
4 Which learners are lazy to read?
5 How do they read textbooks?
Based on the collections of the information above, the writer proposes the students’ texts used to enhance the students’ ability in reading.
3. Constructing the General Plan
This phase involves developing a viable plan of action for gathering data, or considering and selecting a range of appropriate research methods. The plan is
aimed at trialing a particular course of action and collecting data on the outcomes of this action.
Elliot states that general plan of action contains: 1 a revised statement of the general idea; 2 a statement of the factors one is going to change or modify in order
to improve the situation and the actions; 3 a teacher should have a statement of negotiation with others before undertaking the proposed course of action; 4 one
should have a statement of resources to undertake the proposed course of action, e.g. materials, rooms, equipment, etc.; 5 one should have a statement of the ethical
framework which will govern access to and release of information 1991: 75.
77 In constructing the general plan the writer proposes some activities. The
following activity will be done in this phase: a.
Asking the learners to seek the interesting text. The writer asks them to select their own text, it is hoped that the learners’ reading ability will improve, class
will be in enjoyable situation that can motivate learners to joining the reading activities
b. Cooperating with colleagues as collaborators and asking permission to
headmaster to use some equipments, rooms, and places to conduct the research c.
Arranging a schedule of classroom action research d.
Designing the lesson plan e.
Preparing the student’s questionnaire, pretest, interview f.
Preparing the assessment 4.
Action During this phase, the procedures selected for collecting data are developed
and put in action. These might not be the only data gathering events, but this period begins the process of going more deeply into the issue being researched. The
researcher implements the action by doing the planning. In reading activities, there are four steps that should be done:
1. Pre-Reading activities.
Previewing can be used to make decision whether to read a book, an article or a text.
78 2.
Prediction After taking the decision to read a text, the students predict the content of a
text. 3.
While reading strategies a.
self -questioning b.
self-monitoring 4.
Post reading Strategies Questions of evaluation and personal responses are also seen by teachers and
course book writer as a valuable post-reading activity related the text. These activities may be done either orally or in writing
To improve the students’ reading ability, the writer does many activities. The activities are done in groups and individual. The purpose of having groups is to
make the class more enjoyable and lively. By sharing ideas, discussing, and communicating each others, they will get fun. In addition, they will be very proud
when their idea can be received by others. This will encourage them to study more and more. The kinds of activities that can be done in groups are as follows: 1
finding the difficult words in their texts; 2 comprehending the texts together; 3 retelling the content of the texts in groups or with others. The individual activity is
meant to know each student’s ability. It is done because every student has his own capability. The kinds of activities that can be done in individual activities are as
follows: 1 reading the texts; 2 finding the difficult words; 3 analyzing the grammar for each sentence; and 4 comprehending the texts.
79 5.
Monitoring This phase involves observing the outcomes of the intervention and
reflecting on its effectiveness. The researcher, collaborators, and the learners observe the implementation of the program. Elliot states that in gathering the
evidence, there is a list of techniques and methods which can be used to gather evidence and to monitor of action research. The teacher uses 1 diaries; 2
profiles; 3 document analysis; 4 photographic evidence; tapevideo recording and transcripts; 5 using an outside observer; 6 interviewing; and 7
questionnaires 1992: 77–80. It is useful to keep diary on a continuous basis. It should content personal accounts of observation, feelings, reactions, interpretations,
reflections, hunches, hypotheses, and explanations. Keeping a diary is necessarily a personal and private matter. A profile provides a view of a situation or a person
over time. In a teaching situation one can produce profile of lessons, or of the performance of certain pupils. Documents can provide information which is relevant
to the issues and problems under investigation. In this research the documents analyzed are syllabuses and scheme of work, curriculum, examination papers and
tests used, minutes of departmental meetings, work cards and assignment sheets, students’ texts, and samples of students’ written work. Photographic evidence
captures the visual aspects of a situation. Actually some of this evidence can only be secured with the help of an observer, but there is quite a lot the teacher can
collect by him or herself. Tapevideo recordings and transcripts are used to record lessons in whole or in part. Using an outside observer can be useful if the outsider is
well briefed by the insider. Interviewing is a good way of finding out what the
80 situation looks like from other point of view. The sample of the students was
interviewed frequently. The result of the observation is the description of the qualitative data. The writer takes notes about the students’ difficulties in teaching
learning process
6. Reflecting
In every cycle an action is done, the action is always ended by test. Besides, to collect the data the research also seeks information directly using interview and
observation. The result of the test, interview and observation are analyzed to get the strength and weaknesses of the teaching and learning process. The strength can be
developed in next cycle while the weaknesses are used as basic steps to go on the next cycle. In other word, the next cycle is done as the treatment of the problems of
previous cycle. That is done until the desired result is gotten.
E. Data and Source of Data
