Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Language is an important thing in this world. Each language is a unique system which can be described only in terms of itself and not in terms of any language. Every nation has a language, for example: Indonesia with the Indonesian language, and the most of the nations in this world used English as a means of communication among them. People should master the language skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing to get information to communicate and to deliver ideas and messages. It is also used in internal trade, tourism, and other important international affairs. So, English is as an international language. In Indonesia, Indonesian language is a mother tongue, thus Indonesian people do not use English language commonly in a daily life. Therefore, to consider the important role in English, the Indonesian government chooses English as the foreign language to be taught in schools Ramelan, 1992:3. By including English as one of to be taught in learning program, hopefully, students have an ability to use English. English is a means of communication which is used by most of the advance countries in this world. So, in order to get in touch with other countries. In Indonesian students should master it. There are four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reading is one of the language skills that should be taught by English teachers. 2 Reading involves comprehension; it means that students get information from what they have read from the text. According to the concept and the function of English at Junior High School of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP 2006, the teaching of English has three purposes, those are to 1 develop the competence to communicate in spoken and written form listening, speaking, reading and writing to reach literacy level 2 grow the English as one of foreign language to increase the nation competition in the global society 3 develop the comprehension of the culture and language interrelation and broaden the aim above, the students should be able to develop their competence to communicate in spoken and written language. Reading is one of the indicators of the competence is a good activity for the students. They will get information, experience, knowledge and pleasure that can support their success in their future. In addition, the writer thinks that reading activity as one of the important skills for the students in learning language. Students’ Junior High School especially eighth graders have to be able to communicate both written and spoken, in this study the writer only focuses in one form of communication that is in spoken one. The students of junior high school should be able to communicate in various texts. One of text types that should be taught in junior high school especially in eighth graders is narrative text. A narrative text is an imagine story to entertain people. The social function of narrative text is to amuse, entertain and to deal with actual experiences in different ways. 3 In reading, the readers have to get the impression about text they read. The readers able to extract something specific, something that interest him of her. Since it is a crucial mater in learning foreign language, teacher should provide suitable texts, activities, and a teacher should be selective in choosing a teaching method. The teacher can create the reading habit by offering enjoyable learning for the students. In this case, the writer decide using alternative method. The writer use Directed Reading-Thinking Activity method that is benefit for learning.

1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic