Instructional Material Design Theoretical Description 1. Reading

B. Theoretical Framework

As stated in Chapter 1, there were two objectives to be achieved in this study. The first objective was to discover how the implementation of self-questioning strategy in the classroom and the second objective was to investigate whether the implementation of self-questioning strategy can improve the seventh grade learners’ reading comprehension of English texts or not. In order to address the research problems, this study implemented three major theories, namely self-questioning strategy, the steps of teaching reading, and reading comprehension theory Firstly, the researcher implemented self-questioning theory and the steps of teaching reading in order to address the first research problem. Ambruster and Osborn 2002 state that there are three steps of teaching reading, namely pre-reading activities, while reading activities, and post-reading activities. In this study, the researcher applied these steps by using self-questioning strategy. Muljani 2005 states that self-questioning refers to a reader’s activities in generating questions directed to oneself before, during and after the process of reading. The act of generating questions itself was done in the steps of teaching reading, especially in pre-reading and while reading activities. For example, as the introduction of the reading activity, the students generated the question by looking at the title of the reading text in order to evoke the students’ thought and to activate the students’ appropriate prior knowledge Secondly, the researcher implemented reading comprehension theory proposed by Rouch and Birr 1984 and Nuttal 1982 in order to address the second research problem. Comprehension is an essential thing to be achieved in reading process. Comprehending a text does not merely mean knowing the information directly stated in the text, which means in the level of literal comprehension. Rouch and Birr 1984 state that if a reader only recognizes who, what, when, and where questions literal-meaning questions, he or she will only develop a superficial understanding of written material. Muljani 2005 also states that “when a reader is successful in making sense of the text he is likely to reach literal, inferential, and critical or evaluative comprehension”. Therefore in this study, to improving students’ reading comprehension means to guide students to reach literal, inferential or interpretive comprehension, and critical or evaluative comprehension. As what many researchers state that the theory of self-questioning is related to reading comprehension, this research would implement the three major theories discussed above to find out whether or not the implementation self-questioning strategy improves students’ reading comprehension of English texts through experimental research. Having discovered how the implementation of self- questioning strategy, the researcher would find out whether the null hypothesis of this study was rejected or not by administering pretest and posttest.

C. Hypotheses

The hypotheses are: 1. The Conceptual hypotheses Ho: Implementing self-questioning strategy is not effective to improve reading comprehension of seventh grade learners at SMP Maria Immaculata Yogyakarta. H 1 : Implementing self-questioning strategy is effective to improve reading comprehension of seventh grade learners at SMP Maria Immaculata Yogyakarta. 2. The operational hypotheses Ho: There is no significant difference between the means for the pretest and the posttest H 1 : The mean for the posttest is higher than the mean for the pretest. 3. Statistical hypotheses Ho: μpretest = μposttest OR μ pretest - μ posttest = 0 H 1 : μ pretest ≠ μ posttest OR μ pretest - μ posttest ≠ 0 .