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research findings describe the outcome of implementing comics in encouraging students‟ reading motivation. Generally, it will be presented based on the cycles
of classroom action research. Each cycle consists of planning, action, observation, and reflection. In this research, there were two cycles conducted because the
implementation of the comics in cycle 1 still needed improvement. It will be presented as data presentation and discussion on cycle 1 and data presentation and
discussion on cycle 2.
A. Data Presentation and Discussion on Cycle 1
1. Plan
After the problem faced by VIII G students of SMP Negeri 2 Yogyakarta was identified, the researcher made some plans. The actions were planned based
on their reading habit in order to overcome the problem. In this research, the problem identified was that the students were unmotivated to read English texts in
English class. Thus, the researcher made some plans to encourage students‟
motivation to read English texts in the English teaching and learning process. The researcher planned to use comics which contained light and easy-to-
read storyline for the students. The comics would also be designed in a way to make the students enjoyable and motivated in reading. According to Nation
2009 , “the reading class should make the learners enjoy reading and feel
motivated to read, so teachers should provide interesting texts and reading activities p.6.
” Furthermore, the storyline would be contextual to relate it to Curriculum 2013. The comics were designed by the researcher based on the
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learning materials. Before implementing this action, the researcher consulted the comics to the English teacher. Besides, the researcher also explained the
procedure and the teaching and learning process which use the comics. There were four meetings in total in this research. The materials of the
meetings were based on KD Kompetensi Dasar Basic Competence 3.5 and 4.6 which were about description of people, animals, and things in certain numbers.
This Basic Competence then was divided into four topics i.e. describing animals, describing things and places, describing peopleperson, and final assessment.
However, in the first cycle the researcher would use two meetings which would discuss about describing animals and describing things and places. Then teaching
and learning process was described as follows. a.
In the first meeting, the researcher explained to the students that there would be four meetings which used comics as the main resource of the
material. b.
In the first meeting, the researcher explained to the students that they had to write a reflection in each meeting.
c. In every meeting, the researcher used comics at the beginning of the
lesson. d.
In every meeting, the students read the comics. e.
In every meeting, the students learned something from the comics based on the basic competence that was used.
f. In every meeting, the students wrote reflection related to the teaching
and learning process in their personal review given by the researcher.
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The first meeting was about describing animals. The comic designed for this meeting was related to the topic. The story of the comic was about two
students who met on the street. They were Genter and Cebol. Cebol was going to the pet shop to buy a puppy but he met Genter on the street. Genter asked Cebol
not to go the pet shop because he had a puppy and wanted to give it to Cebol. Cebol was curious about the puppy, so he asked Genter to describe it. Genter then
described it based on its physical appearance and its color. After Genter described it, Cebol was interested to have it. The materials included quantity, „Wh‟-
questions, Yes-No questions, havehas, transitive verbs, adjectives, and
description structure See Appendix 5. In this meeting, the researcher would tell a story about his pet as the pre-
teaching activity. Then, the researcher distributed the comic about describing animals. After the distribution was finished, the researcher asked the students to
read the comic‟s story loudly. The researcher then explained the topic by adding
some explanations and examples which were not included in the comic. The researcher was also open for any questions from the students. Next, the researcher
asked the students to write a paragraph which describe their pets or their favorite animals in their books. The last activity was summarizing the learning material.
The second meeting was about describing things and places. The comic designed for this meeting was related to the topic. The story of the comic was
about two students who went to the zoo together. They were Genter and Cebol. Cebol was not able to see inside the zoo because he was blocked by a wall.
Having a tall body, Genter wanted to help him to explain the zoo. Cebol then
48 asked Genter for help. Genter described the zoo in detail related to Cebol‟s
questions. The description was about how inside the zoo looked like and the things inside. The materials included quantity, „Wh‟-questions, Yes-No questions,
havehas, transitive verbs, adjectives, and description structure See Appendix 5. In this meeting, the researcher would ask the students about their favorite
places. Then, the researcher distributed the comic about describing things and places. After the distribution was finished, the researcher asked the students to
read it loudly. The researcher then explained the topic by adding some explanations and examples which were not included in the comic. The researcher
was also open for any questions from the students. Next, the researcher asked the students to write a paragraph which described the class included the things inside
it in their books. The last activity was summarizing the learning material. 2.
Action In the first two meetings, the plans were successfully implemented to the
actions. The teaching technique of using comics as the main resource was successful so that the teaching and learning process showed good progress and
good result. The plans that worked were described as follows. a.
In the first meeting, the researcher explained to the students that there would be four meetings which used comics as the main resource of the
material. b.
In the first meeting, the researcher explained to the students that they had to write a reflection in each meeting.
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c. In every meeting, the researcher used comics at the beginning of the
lesson. The students were happy to see the comics because they thought that the stories were funny.
d. In every meeting, the students read the comics enthusiastically. Even,
there were some students who volunteered their selves to read the comics for the class.
e. In every meeting, the students learned the materials from the comics
well based on the basic competence that was used. f.
In every meeting, the students wrote reflection related to the teaching and learning process in their personal review given by the researcher.
3. Observation
This observation result was based on the teaching notes recorded by the researcher while teaching the students using comics. The findings on the teaching
notes were then analyzed based on the theories of motivation reviewed in chapter two. This cycle consisted of meeting one and meeting two. The discussion of the
findings based on teaching notes in each meeting of cycle 1 is reported below. Based on the teaching notes, meeting one was begun
with teacher‟s question related to reading at the meeting one. The teacher asked them whether
they like reading English or not. Most of the students answered, “No, Mr. Dony.” Then the teacher asked again, “Do you like comics?” and most of the students
ans wered “Yes, Mr. Dony.” When the teacher told them that the meeting will use
comics as the reading material, the students were happy and yell, “Hurray” There
was a positive reaction from the students. Meanwhile, there was a student asking
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the teacher. He asked , “Mr. Dony, komiknya seperti apa? Ada materi bahasa
Inggrisnya tidak? ” “Mr. Dony, how does the comic look like? Is there any
English material inside it?” His question showed his curiosity to the comic. According to Kellough Kellough 2008, “Early adolescence youths tend to be
greatly curious and show a wide range of interests, yet few are sustained ” as cited
in Caskey Anfara, 2007, p.2. It really expected that since the beginning of the lesson, he had motivation to get involved in the teaching and learning activity.
The comic was distributed to the students but the students were quiet. For the first meeting, the teacher asked the students to pay attention to him and read
the comic aloud for them. After reading the comic, the teacher asked , “What is the
story about?” and the students were quiet for a while and answered, “nggak tahu, Mr. Dony
” “I don‟t know, Mr. Dony”. Then the teacher took this chance to see their reading ability by asking them to read the comic. All students read the comic
for several time. While reading the comic, some students were laughing and quarter of the students were not reading but talking each other. After hearing some
laughing voice, the teacher asked, “Why do you laugh?” The laughing students answered, “ceritanya lucu banget, Mr. Dony.” “the story is funny, Mr. Dony.”.
The picture of the comic helped the students to describe the story. According to Munadi 2013, p.89, pictures help people to get ideas or information brought by
the pictures clearly, clearer than information through words. In order to make sure that they understand the text, the teacher asked them
what the story was about. There were only two students who answered. They answered
, “it is about describing a dog, Mr. Dony.” The teacher asked them to
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repeat the answer and some other students answered too. In order to know their understanding deeper, the teacher chose the students one by one and asked them
to describe. They can describe the dog clearly based on the text. Question and answer was not enough to see their understanding about the
material. Hence, the teacher used writing skill to assess them. The students were asked to write some sentences about their favorite animal. They wrote the
sentences enthusiastically. After they had done, the teacher asked them to present their writing one by one. Based on the presentation, most of the students only
wrote 3-7 sentences even the teacher asked them to write 5-10 sentences before. It indicates that the students did not really understand the steps in writing
description text. In order to make them understand the steps, the teacher briefly reviewed the material before continuing to the post-teaching activity.
In the meeting two, there were some changes in the teaching and learning activities. At the beginning, there was a student who said
, “halah, Cebol karo Genter meneh karakter e
” “ah, the characters are still Cebol and Genter” after the teacher finished distributing the comic. This comment was not really
problematic to the plan, so the teacher continued the teaching and learning activity. In this meeting, the teacher did not read the comic for the students but the
inverse. The teacher asked two students to read for the whole students. These students read the text enthusiastically and loudly. Their loud voice made all of the
students attracted to the comic. The next activity was the students read the comic by themself. In this activity, all students were quiet while reading. They were
really focused to read the comic. All of students‟ faces were looking at the comic.
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According to Levie and Lentz 1982, the comic functioned as an attentive function; visual media draw out and lead students‟ attention to concentrate on the
material given by the teacher as cited in Arsyad, 2010, p.16. Based on the observation, meeting two was better than meeting one. There
was an improvement of students‟ manners on the comic. The students read the
comic enthusiastically. Besides, their understanding to the material was better. The students knew what to do when the teacher asked them. Their writing was
also improved. The students were able to write at least seven sentences in describing their classroom. Even, some students volunteered to read their writing
in front of the class. 4.
Reflection The implementation of comics in cycle 1 was rather successful. At the first
meeting, the students need an adaptation to read English comics because they had not experienced yet reading English comics. They still had difficulties in
understanding the idea of the material from the comics. However, in the second meeting, the students were motivated to read the comics. The students were
improved in the manner and understanding. The students understood what to do if the teacher gave instruction related to the material.
The implementation of comics was successful but not the comics themselves. The comic was not really attracting at the second meeting. There were
some students who were bored with the character of the comic. At this case, the characters in the comics took important role in motivating the students. Based on
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this problem, the researcher tried to make improvement in writing and drawing the comics for cycle 2. The improvement would be explained in cycle 2.
B. Data Presentation and Discussion on Cycle 2
