Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

In this study, the researcher would like to investigate the effectiveness of mind mapping technique to enhance students’ narrative reading comprehension in SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu grade eleven. This chapter presents six parts, namely background of the study, problem formulation, problem limitation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.

A. Background of the Study

Nowadays, English becomes an international language which is learnt by millions of students all over the world. Some countries set English as the second language which is used in the formal activities and in the official matters. Some countries put English as a foreign language since it is only formally learnt in schools and universities. In Indonesia, English is considered important to be learnt as only a foreign language though it takes part almost in all areas such as in science, technology, art and culture, economic, international relationship, and education. English language plays an important role in developing students’ knowledge, social, and emotional. Besides, English facilitates students to acquire and master all subjects Suhendro, 2006: 307. Realizing that English is very important, the Indonesian government tries to pay more attention to the improvement of English teaching and learning process. The government forms a new curriculum which considers English as a compulsory subject in schools since elementary level. In other words, students learn English formally in school, from the elementary level to the high school level. Students are required to able to use their analytical and imaginative ability to express their ideas and feelings Suhendro, 2006: 307. Senior high school students are expected to reach the informational level. They should be able to gain new knowledge through the process of acquiring the language skill Suhendro, 2006: 307. Then, mastering English facilitates students to gain new knowledge since English is used by many countries and takes place in most of all knowledge area. In learning English, students should master four main skills which are divided into two major skills. The skills are productive skills; speaking and reading, as well as receptive skills; writing and listening. Reading skill is one of the receptive skills which takes a major place among other language skills as it is the core of those four skills. As Bright and McGregor 1970: 52 state that general knowledge depends on reading and reading mastery facilitates the mastery of other skills. Carrel 1988: 46 also states that reading is the first skill that should be known in order to be able to acquire other skills of the target language. Since students of senior high school are expected to continue their study to go to higher level, they have to master reading skill well. It will be valuable for them since almost all the subjects in universities are accessed in English. Thus, they have to be able to comprehend English text in order to attain new knowledge. In other words, reading is expected to help students to learn new knowledge, ideas, concepts, and attitudes. In addition, reading is considered a difficult language skill to be mastered. Many Indonesian senior high school students get difficulties to master English reading skill since majority of the students rarely use English in their daily life. According to Wallace 2003: 4, one of the difficulties which young learners, especially EFL learners, may have is the incapability to understand text. They tend to fail in acquiring the significant meaning of the reading text well. In other word, they have difficulties in understanding the English reading text. As a result, they spend much time to read and understand the text since they have to read the text several times. One way to overcome that problem is by creating a summary. A summary is important since it assists students to remember many things and keep all memory in their mind DePorter, 2006: 146. In other words, if students memorize many things in a text, they can understand the text better and faster. In the newest curriculum, one of the genres which students have to master is narrative text. Government places narrative text in every semester since junior high level. It means that narrative text is important in students’ daily activities. In SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu, English becomes one of important subjects in the school education system. The students of grade eleven have six hours per week to learn English. Though there was no particular time for each skill, the time is set well so that they can cover all four skills in English. Through the interview with the teacher and questionnaire to the students of grade eleven, the researcher found that the eleventh grade students of SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu had several problems in reading. The researcher found three major problems. The first problem was about students’ reading interest. Sometimes they felt lazy to read English passages as they rarely use English in their daily activities. Therefore, they got problems to comprehend English text well. The second problem was about the variation of the English texts. The teacher seldom gave the students different kinds of reading passage. The teacher seemed to employ the texts which are provided in the handbook. The third problem was about the students’ lack of vocabulary. When they read a text, they would stop if they found a new word which they did not understand. They were not motivated to continue reading or find the meaning out in the dictionary. Thus, in order to solve the problems, the researcher tries to present a new technique for them. It is expected that the new technique is able to enhance their reading comprehension as well as help them to acquire English skill in general. There are many ways to comprehend English text. The most effective technique is by taking notes. There are several techniques to take notes and one of them is mind mapping technique. Mind mapping is a simple technique to gain information in a creative way since it employs pictures and colors Buzan, 2006: 4. Mind mapping technique offers an enjoyable condition in which the learners can focus on a certain topic and enhance the comprehension of a text DePorter, 2006: 172. It will be useful for senior high school students who get difficulty in comprehending texts. Besides, they can learn in an enjoyable way. In the light of the considerations above, the researcher decided to investigate the students’ perceptions of the implementation of mind map technique in SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu. This research emphasizes the eleventh grade students for the reason that they have had enough basic English since they have been learning English since they were in elementary school.

B. Problem Formulation