THE EFFECT OF KWL (KNOW WANT LEARNED) TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

THE EFFECT OF KWL (KNOW WANT LEARNED) TECHNIQUE
ON STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION
IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

A THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
For the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

RAIDENI KALOKO
Registration Number 2112121026

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In the name of Allah SWT the most almighty, the most merciful, all of

praise to Allah who already give health and mercy so that the writes was able to
finish this study. Peace be upon to the prophet Muhammad SAW who brought
human being from the dark ages to bright one in the world.
In writing this thesis entitled “The Effect of KWL (Know Want Learned)
Technique on Students’ Reading Comprehension in Descriptive Text” as the
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan ( S-1)
of the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of
Medan (UNIMED), the writer faced some problems and she had received the
academic guidance, suggestions, and comments and got a lot of assistance and
moral support from many people. Therefore, the writer would like to express
hergratitude and special thanks to:
 Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan.
 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts, State University of Medan.
 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department and her Thesis Consultant who has given her valuable advice,
suggestion, guidance and spent her precious time in the process of
completing this thesis.
 Dra. Meisuri, M.A, the secretary of English Department
 Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed, her academic advisor and as her

reviewer and examiner
 Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., her Thesis Consultant who has given her
valuable advice, suggestion, guidance and spent her precious time in the
process of completing this thesis.
 Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., Neni Afrida Sari Harahap , S.Pd ,
M.Hum her reviewer and examiner who have given their precious time,
guidance, suggestions, and comments.
 All Lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided, and
advised her throughout the academic years.
 Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd, and Pantes the administration staff of
English Department, for her attention, assistance, and information in
completing it.
 H. Abdul Maas, S.Pd the Headmaster of SMA N 1 Air Putih, for his
permission and opportunities in allowing the writer to do observation and
research to collect the data.
 Zuhairiah S.Pd, the English Teacher of SMA N 1 Air Putih, for the
assistance, guidance, suggestions and comments in the process of
completing this thesis. And all the teachers and students at the school for the
good cooperation.
 Her beloved parent Maspir Kaloko and alm. Ration Lingga. Her lovely

Brothers Mahjan Kaloko, Suprijen Kaloko, Dahong Kaloko, and

ii

Makmur Kaloko Her beloved sister Candra Warni Kaloko. Her dearest
aunt Binti Mariah Lingga and all her families for their endless love, pray,
inspiration, motivation, mental and everything that they have given to the
writer.
 Her dearest Aditiya Masridi, S.Pd for his love, care and support and
everything that they have given to the writer.
 Her friendship Reguler Dik. C’ 2011, as her great class for the love and
togetherness throughout four years.
 Her beloved best friends ever (Nomita Manurung S.Pd, Rostina Silalahi
S.Pd, Helena Siregar S.Pd, Rahmadayani saragih S.Pd, Putri Simbolon
S.Pd, Rismauli Aritonang S.Pd And Laura E. Hutapea S.Pd) and all of
friends PPLT SMA N 1 AIR PUTIH 2014
The writer realizes that this thesis still has the paucity, she conveniently
welcomes any suggestions, comments critics, and advices that will improve the
quality of this thesis. She hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who are
read and interested in the field of this study.


Medan, Agustus 2015
The writer,

Raideni kaloko
Reg.No. 2112121026

iii

ABSTRACT
Kaloko, Raideni, 2112121026, The Effect of KWL (Know Want Learned)
Technique on Students’ Reading Comprehension in Descriptive Text. A Thesis:
English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of
Medan. 2015.
This study deals with the effect of KWL (Know Want Learned) technique
on Students’ Reading Comprehension in Descriptive Text. The population of this
research was students of grade X SMA N 1 AIR PUTIH which are consisted 240
students. There were 60 students from the population taken as the sample in this
research. The sample was divided into randomized groups: experimental and
control group. The experimental group was taught by using KWL (Know Want

Learned) technique, while the control group was taught by conventional
technique. To obtain the reliability of the test, the researcher applied Kuder
Richardson 21 formula (KR21). The result of the reliability was 0.65. The data
were analyzed by using t-test formula. The analysis showed that the scores of the
students in the experimental group were significantly higher than the scores of the
students in the control group at the level of significance 0.05 with the degree of
freedom (df) 58, t-observed value 4.51> t-table value 2.00. The finding indicated
that using KWL (Know Want Learned) technique significantly affected on
students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text. Therefore alternative
hypothesis (Ha) was accepted.
Keywords : KWL (Know Want Learned) Technique, Reading Comprehension in
Descriptive Text

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................ ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... iv

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... vi
LIST OF APPENDIXES ............................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION................................................................... 1
A. The Background of The Study ............................................................. 1
B. The Problem of The Study ................................................................... 4
C. The Objective of The Study ................................................................. 5
D. The Scope of The Study ....................................................................... 5
E. The significant of The Study ................................................................ 5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..............................................
A. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................
1. Reading Comprehension ................................................................
a. The Nature of Reading Comprehension ..................................
b. The Levels of Reading Comprehension ..................................
c. Assessment of Reading comprehension ..................................
d. Teaching Reading Comprehension Based Genre ...................
e. Descriptive Text .......................................................................
2. Technique .......................................................................................
a. Definition of Technique ...........................................................
b. Kinds of Techniques ................................................................
c. KWL(Know Want Learned) ) technique.................................

d. The purpose of KWL(Know Want Learned) technique ........
e. The application of KWL (Know Want Learned)
Technique on Reading Descriptive Text …. ............................
f. Advantages and disadvantages
of KWL (Know Want Learned) technique ............................
g. Conventional Technique .........................................................
B. Conceptual Framework ........................................................................
C. Hypothesis ............................................................................................
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ......................................................
A. Research Design ...................................................................................
B. Population and Sample.........................................................................
1. Population ......................................................................................
2. Sample ............................................................................................
C. Instrument for Collecting The Data ....................................................
D. Scoring The Test ..................................................................................
E. The procedures of the Research .........................................................
1. Try out ............................................................................................
2. Pre-test ...........................................................................................

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3. Treatment ......................................................................................
4. Post-test .........................................................................................
F. The Validity and the Reliability of The Test .......................................
1. The Validity of The Test ................................................................
2. The reliability of The Test .............................................................
G. Technique for analyzing data ...............................................................
H. Statistical Hypothesis ...........................................................................

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CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND THE DATA ANALYSIS ......................
A. The Data ..............................................................................................
B. Data Analysis ......................................................................................
1. Reliability of the Test .....................................................................
2. Analyzing the Data using t-test ......................................................
C. Testing hypothesis ................................................................................
D. Research Finding..................................................................................

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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ................................. 42
A. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 42
B. Suggestion ............................................................................................ 42
REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 44

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A : The Score of Pre-Test and Post-Test of Experimental Group ..
Appendix B : The Score of Pre-Test and Post-Test of Control Group ...........
Appendix C : The Calculation of Pre-Test and Post-Test of Experimental
Group ........................................................................................
Appendix D : The Calculation of Pre-Test and Pot-Test of Control Group ...
Appendix E : The Calculation of the T-Test...................................................
Appendix F : Table of Distribution T .............................................................
Appendix G : The Reliability of the Test ........................................................
Appendix H : Skill Observation Score of Experimental Group ......................
Appendix I : Skill Observation Score of Control Group ...............................
Appendix J : Attitude Observation Score of Experimental Group ................
Appendix K : Attitude Observation Score of Control Group..........................
Appendix L : Pre-Test and Post Test Items ....................................................
Appendix M : Answer Key for Pre-Test and Post- Test Items ........................
Appendix N : Lesson Plan (Experimental Group) ..........................................
Appendix O : Lesson Plan (Control Group)....................................................

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
English, as an international language plays a great contribution in human
life. It is one tool that supports people to know this world. There are four skills
that should be achieved in learning English, namely: Listening, Speaking,
Reading and Writing. Reading is one of the most difficult language skills in
learning language. In reading, the students are expected to be knowledgeable and
familiar with what the teacher has explained in the context; where as in
comprehension the students are expected to have more skills than to explain
individual text or passage after comprehending them.
According to Grabe & Stoller (2002:9), reading is the ability to draw
meaning from printed page and interpret this information appropriately. It is
useless without both comprehending and interpreting any ideas of the text.
Students are expected to get knowledge and understand about the context that has
explained in the text. It means that students need to learn a considerable amount of
information from a text. Reading comprehension involves the students’ ability to
find some information in reading text of English. Reading is also something
crucial and indispensable for the students, because the success of their study
depends on their ability to read. Reading is a skill that must be developed and can
be develop by means of extensive and continual practices. Students learn to read
and learn better by reading. For the beginner, reading is concerned mainly with
learning to recognize the printed symbols that represent language and to respond

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intellectually when being asked about the content of the text he has read.
Reading is not as easy as what people think. There are some difficulties which are
faced by people when they want to get information through reading. Similarly, the
students also find some difficulties students feel that is not easy to have ability to
draw the meaning and interpret the information from the text. Therefore, this
subject makes them boring and they always get bad score in reading
comprehension.
Reading comprehension is the most basic purpose for reading. As the
purpose of reading is to comprehend the notions in the materials, it means that
without comprehension, reading is useless and meaningless. To realize the
consideration above, it is important to develop reading comprehension which is
essential for the students. The purpose of reading is to connect the ideas on the
page to what they have already known. Because reading comprehension is the
important thing in reading, the students are expected to read various texts to get
deeper understanding of information or to have knowledge.
Harmer (2007: 208) states that students sometimes have low expectation in
reading comprehension. The students think that understanding the passage is
difficult and when the teacher in the past given them a text that they have no
interest, then they would predict that the future activities will be boring. So, when
the teacher told them to tell some information from their reading text, most of
them did not have any ideas to tell some information from what they have read.
For Indonesian students, reading is still difficult to learn, particularly in reading
English material. It is because English is still foreign language in Indonesia.

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Indonesian students still have low reading ability. This phenomena is shown by
Vincent Grenay study (2009) that students reading ability 51,7% in Indonesia, the
final sequence after Philippines 52,6%, Thailand 65,1%, Singapore 74,0 %, and
Hongkong 75,5 %. It means even Indonesia is not the last sequence. It should be
shame on us when know the reality. Reading comprehension has also been
included in National Exam (Ujian Nasional). It means that reading needs to be
mastered by the students to pass the National Examination. In fact, many students
failed in National Examination. They cannot comprehend the text well because
the text is very long and there are many difficult words. Finally, the students got
bored and the result was not good.
When the writer did the field experience practice (Praktek Pengalaman
Lapangan) at SMA Negeri 1 Air Putih, found out that her students had little
comprehension of the reading text. It can be seen from their final exam scores.
The average score of their final exam is 50.0. There are many students did the
remedial because their score was under the standard. From 35 students, 17 of them
should have remedial test or about 48%. It means that the English score of the
students is still low. When the students are reading, the students are difficult to
understand what they are reading. This can be extremely frustrating for students.
There are some factors which influence the students’ difficulties in reading
comprehension. First, the students have a language problem. The students can
understand the text if they understand the language. Second, the foundational
skills of reading such as reception, decoding, and learning have not been mastered
by students, they will get difficulties in reading such as reading haltingly. Last, the

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students are unable to decode the written words. The decoding of the written
words is a very important aspect of the reading act. Without being able to decode
the written word, reading comprehension is impossible. In order to make teaching
and learning process interesting and effective, teachers need good techniques.
They will help the students to learn faster and to remember information for a long
period of time. For this purpose, the researcher proposes a technique named KWL
(Know Want Learned) which is developed by Donna Ogle (1987). KWL (Know
Want Learned) is a technique that provides a structure for recalling what students
know about a topic, noting what students want to know and finally listing what
has been learned and is yet to be learned. KWL (Know Want Learned) is an
introductory of what they have already known and what they want to know.
Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested in conducting a
research on the effect of KWL (Know-want –learned) technique on students
reading comprehension in Descriptive text.

B. The Problem of the Study
In relation to the background of the study mentioned before, the problem
of the study is formulated as” Is there any significant effect of KWL (Know Want
Learned) technique on students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text?

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C. The Scope of the Study
This study focuses on KWL (know want learned) technique on students’
reading comprehension in descriptive text especially in reading the description of
place and people.

D. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to find out the effect of KWL (Know want
learned) technique on the students reading comprehension in descriptive text.

E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of the study are expected to be useful:
1. Theoretically for:
Theoretically this study has significance for those who are interested in
this study to provide the information by looking at the result.
2. Practically for:
Practically this study has significance to English Teacher and Students.
English teachers who want to get the further information about the technique in
reading comprehension and enlarge their experience in teaching reading
comprehension.
Students who want to improve their skill and stimulate them in their
reading ability in reading comprehension.

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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGESTION
A. Conclusion
After analyzing the data, it was found that the scores of the student in
control group of pre-test was 1505, the mean score 50.16 and the post-test was
1825, the mean score 60.83. Moreover, the total score in experimental group of
pre-test was 1650, the mean score 55 and the post-test was 2205, the mean score
73.5. It was concluded that the using of KWL (Know Want Learned) technique
significantly affects the students on reading comprehension in descriptive text and
it showed that the student scores in experimental group are higher than in control
group. Since the t-observed (4.51) is higher than t-table (2.00) for the degree of
freedom 58 at level of significant  = 0.05. It means the null hypothesis (Ho) was
rejected and alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted because there was
significant effect of applying of KWL (Know Want Learned) technique on
Students reading comprehension in descriptive text. Besides that, the students’
attitude and skill was also significantly improved while being taught by using
KWL (Know Want Learned) technique.

B. Suggestions
Based on the conclusion drawn, the results of the findings contribute some
valuable suggestions, they are:
1. The English teachers are suggested to improve their technique in teaching
reading comprehension by using KWL (Know Want Learned) technique,

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because it enables the students to active their prior knowledge and extend
students to make a critical thinking.
2. Students are advised to have more practices in reading text to improve their
reading comprehension ability, attitude and skill because it can make
students more easily to understand the text and students think about what
they know and what they want to know, so that they can explore what they
have learned by using KWL (Know Want Learned) technique.
3. For other researcher can develop similar research to help teacher to improve
the learning technique specially in reading comprehension.

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