Rationale REVIEW ON RELATED LITERATURE

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D. Rationale

Reading is a process of obtaining meaning from written text. The objective of all reader is comprehension of what they read. Reading comprehension can be defined reading is an activity that needs comprehension and interpretation of written language in which readers must be aware of an idea, understand it in terms of their experiential background and interpret it in relation to their own needs and purpose. Based on the pre-observation, the eighth grade students of SMPN 13 still have difficulties in comprehending English text because they do not have adequate grammar and vocabulary mastery for understanding them. Moreover, they also have low motivation and feel uninterested in joining reading class. Motivation, that is wanting to read, wanting to learn, is crucial as stated by William 1984: 36. Therefore, giving motivation, help and responsibility for all students in doing the discussion were occurred dominantly during the teaching and learning process in order to enhance the students to understand what has been read. Because of the problems above, they have difficulties in understanding word meanings, identifying detailed information of a text, identifying main idea of the text. Consequently they are unable to understand and interpret meaning from an English text as the main purpose of teaching reading. To overcome the problems above, applying an appropriate teaching technique where students become active and interested in joining the reading class should be done by the teacher. The writer suggests using Reciprocal teaching as the technique of teaching reading in order to overcome those problems. Reciprocal teaching is an instructional teaching technique which facilitates students and teacher to bring the meaning by using four strategies; predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing which are used to analyze the text. Each of these strategies was selected as a means of aiding students to construct meaning from text as well as a means of monitoring their reading to ensure that they understand what they read. commit to user 37 The interaction between students in group discussion during the process of reciprocal teaching can increase cooperation and greater initiative to finish the task. It is in line with Kessler 1992: 38, by doing interaction; students get more opportunities to talk, practice and better retention of new information and ideas. Furthermore, reciprocal teaching is a major instructional strategy that helps readers interact personally with the text and construct meaning as they increase their ability to ask questions, clarify hard parts, make predictions and summarize what they are reading. Students involved in the reciprocal teaching process tend to learn the art of checking their own understanding of the material, which they have encountered. They do this by generating questions, clarifying concepts and summarizing important information from the text. The ultimate purpose of reciprocal teaching is to help students actively bring meaning to the written word, with or without a teacher. The reciprocal teaching strategies not only assist reading comprehension but also provide opportunities for students to monitor their own learning and thinking processes. The structure of the dialogue and interactions of the group members in reciprocal teaching system requires all of the students to participate fosters healthy relationships and helps to create an ideal learning atmosphere. The reciprocal teaching system benefits for slow learners and above average students in understanding the text. Considering the explanation above, it is assumed that reciprocal teaching technique which is based on four strategies; predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing can improve the students’ reading comprehension.

E. Action Hypothesis