THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXTUAL CLUES STRATEGY ON THE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT AT THE THIRD GRADE OF SMP TAMAN SISWA TANJUNG KARANG

i ABSTRACT

THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXTUAL CLUES STRATEGY ON THE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT AT THE

THIRD GRADE OF SMP TAMAN SISWA TANJUNG KARANG

By

Mirna Oktaviana

In reading process, the students are required to be a good reader and they are hoped to have the substantial skills to comprehend the text. Besides that they should be able to get the information, find the main idea and identify new vocabularies by reading the text. However, the students still have some problems in comprehending the texts. Some of Junior High School students still have difficulties to identify the reading aspects required to deal with the text.

Therefore, the objective of the research was to investigate whether or not the contextual clues strategy can give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. The researcher applied one group pre-test post-test design. The sample of the research was the third grade of SMP Taman Siswa, Tanjung Karang.

The finding revealed that contextual clues strategy gave influence to the students’ reading comprehension achievement. It can be seen from the progress of students’ reading comprehension achievement after being taught through contextual clues strategy. The result of the research showed that the mean score of students’ post -test in the experimental class was 78.63 higher than the mean score of students’ pre-test was 58.63, with the mean difference was 20.0. The value of two significant was 0.000. It means that H0 was rejected and H1 was accepted since 0.000 < 0.05.

THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXTUAL CLUES STRATEGY ON THE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT AT THE

THIRD GRADE OF SMP TAMAN SISWA TANJUNG KARANG

MIRNA OKTAVIANA

A Script

Submitted in a Partial Fulfilment of

the Requirements for obtaining Bachelor of Education In

The Language and Art Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY 2013

Research title : THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXTUAL CLUES STRATEGY ON THE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT AT THE THIRD GRADE OF SMP TAMAN SISWA, TANJUNG KARANG

Student’s name : MIRNA OKTAVIANA Students’ Number : 0853042022

Study program : English Education

Department : Language and Art Education Faculty : Teacher Training and Education

APPROVED BY Advisory Committee

1st Supervisor 2nd Supervisor

Drs. Ujang Suparman, M.A., Ph.D. Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A. NIP 19570608 1986031 001 NIP 19641212 1990031 003

The Chairperson of

Language and Art Education Department

Dr. Muhammad Fuad, M.Hum. NIP 19590722 198603 1 003

ADMITTED BY

1. Examination Committee

Chairperson : Drs. Ujang Suparman, M.A., Ph.D.

Examiner : Drs. Sudirman, M. Pd.

Secretary : Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M. A.

2. The Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

Dr. H. Bujang Rahman, M.Si. NIP 19600315 198503 1 003

vii

ACKNOWLEDMENTS

All praises are rendered only to Allah SWT, the Almighty God, for His gracious mercy and blessing that enables the writer to finish her script. Greeting is never forgotten, praise upon Prophet Muhammad SAW and his family, followers and all Muslims. This script entitled “The Influence of Contextual Clues Strategy on the Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement at Third Grade of SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang” is submitted as a compulsory fulfilment of the requirement for S-1 Degree at the Language and Arts Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Lampung University.

Gratitude and honour are addressed to all persons who have helped and supported the writer in completing this research. It is necessary to be known that this research will never have come into its existence without any supports, encouragements and assistances from several outstanding people and institutions. Therefore, the writer would like to acknowledge her respect and best gratitude to: 1. Drs. Ujang Suparman, M.A., Ph.D., as the first advisor, for his criticism,

motivation and encouragement in encouraging the writer.

2. Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A., as the second advisor, for his assistance, ideas, guidance and carefulness in correcting the writer’s research.

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4. Prof. Dr. Cucu Sutarsyah, M.A., as the Chief of English Education Study Program and the writer’s academic advisor and all lecturers of English Education Study Program who have contributed their guidance during the completion process until accomplishing this research, for advices and supports to finish the writer’s study soon.

5. Drs. Suyanto, as the headmaster of SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang for giving the writer permission to conduct the research.

6. Joko Sumara, S.Pd., as the English teacher of SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang who has helped much and given the full supports for this research. For all of the students of classes IX A and IX B year of 2012/2013, for their participation were as the subject of this research.

7. The writer’s beloved parents (Muslim, S.Sos. and Nurmalina, S.Ip.), my sister (Veronica Seftiani, S.Ip.) and my brothers (Yudha, and Jefry) thanks for the love, spirits, pray and never ending sincerity.

8. For my beloved brothers (Bang Bayu and Bang Rendi) thanks for the kindness supports and pray.

9. All the writer’s friends of English Education Study Program 2008 generation: Dini, Tince, Nachan, Inggar, Desti, Annisa, Monic, Yuni, Vivi, Fenny, Bebe, Novi Fitri, Helda and sisters in Dorothy’s house Yoka, Serli, Misi and all of my friends that cannot be mentioned one by one thank you very much for your love, happiness, sadness, also supports.

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always opened for better research. Somehow, the writer hopes that this research would give a positive contribution to the educational development, the readers and to those who want to accomplish further research.

Bandar Lampung, 2013 The writer,

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CURRICULUM VITAE

The writer’s name is Mirna Oktaviana. She was born in Purbolinggo, East Lampung on October 2nd, 1990. She is the second child of Muslim, S.Sos. and Nurmalina, S.Ip. She has one sister and two brothers, Veronica Seftiani, S.Ip., Fernanda Yudha Sanjaya, and Muhammad Jefry Ramadhan.

In 1995, she graduated from TK Pertiwi Purbolinggo. Having finished from Playgroup, she continued to Elementary School in SDN 4 Yosodadi Metro and graduated in 2001. In the same year, she continued to SMPN 3 Metro and graduated on 2004 continued to SMAN 3 Metro and graduated on 2007. In 2008, she was registered as a student of English Education Study Program of Teacher Training and Education Faculty, University of Lampung. In 2011, she carried out Teaching Practice Program (PPL) at Mts. Hassanudin Kaliguha, Padang Cermin.

vi MOTTO

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” (Albert Einstein)

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DEDICATION

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and Merciful

This paper is proudly dedicated to:

My beloved parents (Papah and Mamah) with full of love, spirits and never ending sincerity

My lovely sister and brothers (Ica, Yudha, and Jefry) My beloved friends for being true friendship

I. INTRODUCTION

In this introduction chapter, the researcher explains the background of the problems that is the reasons for conducting the research. It includes the identification of the problems, the limitation of problems, formulation of the problems, the objective, uses and scope of the research and the last part of this chapter is the definition of terms related to the topic of this research.

1.1.Background of the Problems

In learning English, there are four kinds of language skills to be mastered, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. For the students who learn English as foreign language, they need to develop their language skills. Based on the 2006 curriculum, in junior high schools that apply the school-based-curriculum (KTSP), the students are expected to learn English from various types of text. It means that the students are dealing with many texts which are mostly discussed in reading activity. Reading plays an important role in teaching and learning process. By reading the text, the learners are involved in bringing the information, knowledge, emotion, experience, and culture.

In reading process, the students are required to be a good reader. In reading, they have substantial skills to comprehend the text. There are five aspects which

helped the students to comprehend the English text, they are identify the main idea, getting the specific information, making inferences, reference and identify the vocabularies. Meanwhile, based on the information from the teacher when the researcher conducted the pre research in SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung karang, in comprehending the descriptive text some of Junior High School students still have difficulties to identify the main of those five reading aspects from the text. They also tended to be passive because of the students have no good self confidence in learning English. So, it was difficult for them to learn English well because they regarded that English was difficult to be learn. In addition, when the students had some problems to get the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary from the text, they would spent much time looking up their dictionary to see the meaning of that unfamiliar vocabulary then they were able to understand the meaning and answered the questions.

Moreover, there was one important factor that might influence the students’ problems in reading that was the reading strategy. Based on the researcher’s observation in SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang by interviewing the students, the researcher found that the students’ difficulties in transferring the information from the text and answering the questions were caused by the reading strategy. For example, when the teacher gave the students some questions directly, they could not answer quickly. So, the teacher asked to the students what was become their problem, some students said that they could not answer because they do not know how the way to understand the text. In addition, they did not understand about the meaning of the words, so that they did not understand the content of

reading passage. As the result the students could not answer the questions from the text, identify the main idea, get the specific information, make inferences, find reference and identify the vocabularies from the text, so that those factors give the influence to the students’ achievement in comprehending of descriptive text.

There are many reading strategies that can be used to teach reading, one of them was contextual clues strategy. Contextual clues strategy is the strategy how the readers use some clues of word based on the reading passage. The clues are sometimes placed in the same sentence as an unfamiliar word, or in nearby sentences. It proposed to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and clues which are related to the content of the text. Moreover, it can also be used to overcome the students’ problems identify the main idea, get the specific information, making inferences, reference and identify the vocabularies from the text given by the teacher.

Realizing the benefit of contextual clues strategy in reading comprehension, the researcher assumed that might be the influence of this strategy to the students’ achievement in reading descriptive text that would also help the students get the information from the text by understanding the meaning unfamiliar words. Moreover, the researcher proposed this research to investigate whether or not contextual clues strategy can give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. In this research, the researcher focused on the descriptive text because the students’ problem comprehended the descriptive text.

1.2. Identification of the Problems

Based on the background of the problem there are five main problems that could be identified:

1. The students got difficulties in comprehending the reading text, especially identifying the main idea, get the specific information, making inferences, reference and identify the vocabularies from the text.

2. The students’ problems of getting the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary from the text, they would spend much time looking up their dictionary to see the meaning of that unfamiliar vocabulary

3. The students’ difficulties in transferring the information from the text and answering the questions were caused by the lack information about the reading strategy.

4. The students tend to be passive (Teacher-centred).

5. The students have no good self confidence in learning English. So, it is difficult for them to learn English well because they regard that English is difficult to be learn.

1.3. Limitation of the Problems

In line with the identification of the problems above, the researcher focused the research on the students get difficulties in comprehending the reading text, especially identifying the main idea, getting the specific information, making inferences, reference, identify the vocabularies and the students’ problems getting the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary from the text. As the solution to overcome

the students’ difficulties, the researcher was interested to investigate the influence of contextual clues strategy on the students’ reading comprehension achievement.

1.4. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the limitation of the problems, the researcher formulated the research problem as follow:

Can contextual clues strategy give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement?

1.5. Objective of the Research

In line with the formulation of the problem, the researcher determined the objective of the research is to investigate whether or not contextual clues strategy can give influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement.

1.6. Uses of the Research

The findings of the research may be beneficial both theoretically and practically: Theoretically, the findings of this research are expected:

1. to support the existing theory on the reading comprehension and the contextual clues strategy in teaching learning of reading,

2. to be a reference for the future research.

Practically, the finding of the research is expected to give the information about the influence of contextual clues on the students reading comprehension achievement.

1.7. Scope of the Research

This research was quantitative by nature. It was conducted to the third grade of SMP Taman siswa, Tanjung Karang. The design of this research was one group pre-test post-test design (Hatch and Farhady, 1982). There were four classes of third grade on SMP Taman Siswa which consists of 22 until 24 students each class. One class was taken as the experimental class. For the experimental class, the researcher used the reading text concerning several reading aspects (main idea, specific information, inference, and vocabulary) and focused on the training of four types of contextual clues strategy suggested by Joffe (1997), namely synonym, antonym, explanation and example. The materials were taken from English handbook and internet that were relevant to junior high school curriculum (KTSP).

1.8. Definition of Terms

There are some terms that the researcher used to make them clearer, as will be defined in the following sections:

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is an active process which involves the interaction between thought and language. The readers use their prior knowledge for connecting words to their thoughts to get the information from reading the text.

Contextual Clues

Contextual clues are word clues that can help you figure out the meaning of an unknown word and the clues related to the text. They may be in the same sentence as an unfamiliar word, or in nearby sentences.

Contextual Clues Training Strategy

The strategy that used some clues of word based on the reading passage. The clues are sometimes placed in the same sentence as an unfamiliar word, or in nearby sentences. It proposes to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Descriptive Text

A descriptive text is a text, which list the characteristics of person, place, or things. It describes living and non living things such as animals, plants, town, building, etc.

II. THE FRAME OF THEORIES

This chapter discusses the frame of theories that are used to support the research. It includes several points, i.e. the review of previous research, the related literature, theoretical assumption, and the hypothesis of the research.

2.1. Review of the Previous Research

In relation to this research, there are several previous studies which have been conducted by some researchers (see, e.g. Ahmad and Asraf, 2004; Wilingham, 2006;

and Alfarini, 2008).

Ahmad and Asraf (2004) did a study in Missouri University concerning the language learners respond the English texts. The objective of their research was investigated how the learners made an effort to comprehend the texts by selecting the information from the context by comprehending the unfamiliar words in the text. They found that by understanding the unfamiliar words, the students are able to comprehend the text. They also divided the contextual clues into some categories, they are: (1) definition, (2) experiential background, (3) comparison or contrast, (4) synonym, (5) familiar expressions or language experience, (6) summary, and (7) reflection of mood or situation.

Wilingham (2006) conducted the research for primary students New York Primary School. The result of his study found that students are encouraged to use background knowledge to make educated guesses about the meaning of unfamiliar words by the clues, so that they were able to comprehend the text. In addition, by prior knowledge, students are encouraged to apply what they know from their own lives to the text, or to consider the theme of the text before read the whole text.

Based on the explanation above, it can be assumedthat the students’ understanding of contextual clues may help the students to make educated guesses about the meaning of unfamiliar words. It would become one solution for the students’ problem in comprehending the text especially for getting main idea, getting specific information from the text.

Another research related to contextual clues has been done by Alfarini (2008) at SMUN 3 Kotabumi. The aim of her research was to find out the difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement with the students’ understanding about contextual clues. She found that the students’ mean scores within the experimental class were higher than the control class. She found that students’ understanding of contextual clues increased the students’ reading comprehension achievement.

However, there was still one issue which has not been studied about understanding contextual clues strategy which related to the study about comprehending the descriptive text for the junior high school students and the influence of this strategy on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. In

short, based on the explanation above, the researcher proposed her research by implementing contextual clues strategy in order to know whether or not contextual clues strategy can give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. Moreover, it was also hoped to overcome the students’ problems comprehending the descriptive text which was explained in the background of the problems.

2.2. Review of Related Literature

For further explanation about the implementing of reading strategy for successful reading, the researcher explains some related literature about the reading comprehension and the strategies towards the students’ achievement in reading comprehension.

2.2.1. Concept of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from the text. The goal of all reading instruction is ultimately targeted at helping a reader comprehend the text. Reading comprehension involves at least two parties: the reader and the writer. The process of comprehending what was written in the text by the author and then using background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the author’s message.

There are two kinds of reading activity, namely reading aloud and silent reading. Reading aloud is to change the written sign (form) into oral sign giving the meaning. The most important characteristic of reading aloud (oral reading) are pronunciation, tone, speed and pause. Meanwhile, in silent reading is use the eyes

and ability to understand the meaning of the written sign, thus comprehending the text will be given more emphasizes in silent reading which will be conducted in this research.

As Downey (2006) defines reading as an active process of getting the information by using prior knowledge because in this activity the students are encouraged to apply what they know from their own lives to the text, or to consider the theme of the text. In reading, the students are encouraged to use background knowledge to make educated guesses about the information from the text in order to comprehend the text.

Meanwhile, reading as one of the language skills to be taught is a process of constructing or developing meaning for printed text (Cooper et al, 1988:3). This definition implies that the reading process includes an interaction between the reader and the prints. The reader tries to understand the ideas presented by the writer in the text.

According to Doyle (2004), comprehension is a progressive skill in attaching meaning beginning at the same level and proceeding to attaching meaning to entire reading selection. All comprehension revolves around the reader’s ability in finding and determining main idea and topic sentence from the text.

Reading is an active process (Mackay quoted in Simanjuntak, 1988:15). The reader forms a preliminary expectation about the material, and then selects the

fewest, most productive cues necessary to confirm or reject that expectation. Reading involves an interaction between thought and language. It means that the reader brings to the task a formidable amount of information and ideas, attitude and beliefs.

Meanwhile, comprehension can be said as a crucial aspect of reading, in fact, it has been emphasized that true reading is reading with understanding, that is, comprehension. Simanjuntak (1988:4) states that the first point to be made about reading process is comprehension and the meaning is the basic element for comprehension. She also adds that comprehending a text is as interactive process between the readers’ background knowledge and the text itself.

From the statement above, it can be said that in comprehending the texts the students have to know their understanding about the learning strategy in reading. It means to make them easy to identify the specific information in the texts. One aspect that becomes essential in students’ reading in the reading strategy. It has a connection in comprehension and strategy or technique. The researcher assumed that reading comprehension was students’ competence in comprehending the specific information, word and surface meaning in texts is described by students’ score with an appropriate strategy.

2.2.2. Teaching of Reading

Alyousef (2005:143) says that in teaching reading, contemporary reading tasks, unlike the traditional materials, involve three-phase procedures: pre-, while-, and

post- reading stages helps in activating the relevant schema. For example, teachers are able to ask the students questions that arouse their interest while previewing the text. The aim of while- reading stage (or interactive process) is to develop students’ ability in tackling tests by developing their linguistic and schematic knowledge. Post-reading includes activities, which enhance learning comprehension using matching exercises, cloze exercises, cut-up sentences, and comprehension questions.

Suparman (2005:1) states reading is a construct process of guessing. There are two major reasons for reading: (1) reading for pleasure, (2) Reading for information (in order to find out something or in order to do something with the information readers get).

Harmer (1987:70) states the principles behind the teaching reading: 1. Reading is not a passive skill.

2. Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.

3. Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language.

4. Prediction is a major factor in reading. 5. Match the task to the topic.

6. Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.

The researcher assumed that in teaching reading, appropriate and possible techniques or strategies should be applied based on the purposes of reading in

order to get the comprehension better. There are many kinds of reading techniques and strategies that can be applied in teaching reading.

In this research, the researcher proposed contextual clues strategy as the solution to overcome the problems in identifying the main idea, get the specific information, making inferences, reference and the vocabularies from the text given by the teacher and including the unfamiliar vocabulary. This strategy also developed students’ understanding and stimulates the students to be engaged with the text.

2.2.3. Aspects of Reading

In reading there are five aspects which help the students to comprehend the English text, they are:

1. Identifying Main Idea

In line with Mc Whorter (1986:36) the sentence with that states this main idea is called the topic sentence. She adds that the topic sentence tells what the rest paragraph is about in some paragraph; the main idea is not explicitly stated in any one of sentence. Instead, it is left to the reader to infer, or reason out. In other words, the main idea is the most important idea that author develops throughout the paragraph.

2. Specific Information

Supporting sentence or specific information develops the topic sentence by giving definitions, examples, facts, an incidents, comparison, analogy, cause and effect and quotation.

3. References

According to Latulippe (1986:20) references are words or phrase used either before or after the reference in the reading material. They are used to avoid unnecessary repletion of words or phrases. It means that, such words are used, they are signals to the reader find the meaning elsewhere in the text.

4. Inference

In relation to inferences, Kathleen (1983:31) states that an inference is an educational guess or prediction about something unknown based on available facts and information. It is the logical connection that the reader draw between his observes or unknown and what he does not know.

5. Vocabulary

According to Wallace (1987:30) vocabulary is the stock of word used by the people or even person. Concerning with those statements indeed vocabulary is fundamental for everyone who wants to speak or to produce utterances for reading.

2.2.4. Concept of Descriptive Text

Based on English curriculum 2006 that was applied in most of senior high school namely KTSP, the students are expected to comprehend the meaning of materials from various texts. One of them is descriptive text. Why it was important because the students had to have the ability to look at and get the meaning of written text, that was called reading comprehension. Because of that, reading was very important to be taught to the students.

A descriptive text is used to create a vivid image of a person, place, or thing. It draws on all of the senses, not merely the visual. Its purpose is to enable the reader to share the writer’s sensory experience of the subject (Salem, 2001: 325). Descriptive writing portrays people, places, things, moment and theories with enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about.

Moreover, Crimon (1983: 163) stated that descriptive is a kind of text for presenting a verbal portrait of a person, a place, or a thing. It can be used as a technique to enrich other forms of writing or as a dominant strategy for developing a picture of “what it looks like”. It means that when we describe something, we need to capture both details so that the reader can understand what we mean.

On the other hand, D’ Angelo (1977: 247) states that description is used to make the reader see or to point a verbal picture, and cover the significant physical or

abstract quality of a person, a place, an event, an idea or an object. It means that when we describe our subject, we must be able to make the reader understands what the writer means. Coffey (1973: 38) says that when the writers describe the subject have to use two kinds of details: objective details and subjective details. It means that when the writer want to describe something, writer must describe our subject in a variety of ways.

Furthermore, Mckay (1985: 4) says that when writer want to describe something we must be able to make the reader understand what writer mean. She also mentions several common types of descriptive text, i.e. describing as process, describing an object, describing a place, describing a personality and describing an event. In this research, the researcher emphasized one kind of describing a famous person and interesting place.

According to Gerot and Wignell (1994: 208), the generic structure of descriptive text as follows:

1. Identification : identifies phenomenon to be described. 2. Description : describes parts, qualities, characteristics.

The stages above are the generic structure/ text organization of the descriptive text. It also has language features:

2. Use of attributive and identifying process: additional adverbs of the subject mentioned (e.g. adjective clause, adjective phrase, and linking verbs such as taste, smell, appear, look, is, am, are, and so on).

3. Use of simple present tense.

4. Frequent use of classifier in nominal group (e.g. one of...., many of...., so on).

It can be concluded that by reading and understanding descriptive text enables students share what they have seen from someone, something or one information how it looked, felt, smelled, and so on.

2.2.5. Concept of Contextual Clues Strategy

Contextual clues are word clues that can help the readers figure out the meaning of an unknown word and the clues related to the text. They may be in the same sentence as an unfamiliar word, or in nearby sentences. Furthermore, Joffe (1997) suggested that the clues might be appeared within the same sentence as the word which refers to the meaning or it might be in the preceding or subsequent sentence.

In reading activity, sometimes the students were not able to get the point of the information from the text because they could not use their semantic prediction to identify the meaning of unfamiliar words in the text (Brown, 2001). The students used dictionary to find out the meaning of unfamiliar words. If they want to make a further analysis and use their prediction to get the meaning of word, they would

identify important words and their relationship to one another words to find out the meaning.

According to Ahmad and Asraf (2004), contextual clues are divided into 7 categories:

(1) definition: it is explain what the definition or explanation about the topic in reading text, (2) experimental background: it will be helpful for the reader use their background knowledge understanding the text, (3) comparison or contrast (4) synonym, (5) familiar expressions or language experience, (6) summary, and (7) reflection of mood or situation. The learners made an effort to comprehend the texts by selecting the information from the context by comprehending the unfamiliar words in the text and drawing the inferences from it. They found that the use of understanding the unfamiliar words are able to help the students comprehending the text.

By using contextual clues strategy, it was hoped that the students enable to overcome their problems in reading process. According to Joffe (1997) There were four categories of contextual clues:

1. Synonym is the word with the same meaning in the sentence.

For example: Most castles had high walls and were surrounded by water -filled ditch called a moat

The synonym of the water-filled ditch is a moat. The writer can guess the synonym from the clue word of “called” that means the same or nearly the same as the word before the next word.

2. Antonym is word or group of words that has the opposite meaning reveals the meaning of an unknown term.

For example: Jerry is very clumsy, but his sister Jenny is adroit.

The antonym of clumsy is adroit. The writer can guess the antonym by the clue of but, that means the contrary or nearly the opposite as the word before the next word or phrases.

3. Explanation or definition: The unknown word is explained within the sentence or in a sentence immediately preceding.

For example: The patient is so somnolent that she requires medication to help her stay awake for more than a short time.

In order to explain something or definition, usually the writer uses the words such as, is, that, which etc.

4. Example is the specific examples are used to define the term.

For example: Celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars, are governed by predictable laws.

In order to explain something or give the example, usually the writer uses these words (such as, for example, for instance) that readers may indicate as the example.

Considering the explanation above, there are some categories of contextual clues that can be used to help the readers in reading activity. For example, the categories clues might help the readers to determine what the definition of something in reading process. But, in this research the researcher was only focused on the category clues of definition, synonym, antonym, and the explanation in order to help the students to answer the questions about main idea, the specific information, inferences, reference and the vocabularies by using the

clues were related to the text. Based on the researcher’s opinion, these categories are easy to understand by the students, so that they can get the meaning and understand about the text. Moreover, it was hoped as the solution to overcome the students’ problems comprehending the main idea, the specific information, making inferences, reference and identifies the vocabularies from the text.

2.2.5.1. Procedures of Teaching Reading by Using Contextual Clues Strategy a. The materials are selected by the teacher based on the students’ level of

background knowledge and a suitable material based on the curriculum.

b. In the classroom activity, the students are divided into several group consist of 3 until 4 students in one group.

c. The students are explained the procedural of contextual clues strategy during the learning process.

d. The students are explained what are the categories of contextual clues and they are given the example of each category.

e. The students are asked by to answer the questions that given by the teacher directly, it purposed to measure the students’ understanding about contextual clues strategy and the categories.

f. The students are given the exercises and they have to answer based on what clues are in the text.

The illustration:

Adaptation

What is an adaptation? An adaptation is a feature or way of behaving that makes a plant or an animal more likely to survive. In every species, some individuals are better at surviving than others. These individuals live long enough

to mate have babies and pass on their genetic characteristics. Adaptation does not occur during one animal’s lifetime. It is a long, slow process that happens over many generations. However, results of adaptation can be seen in individual animals. For example, the toucan’s colorful and lightweight beak is specially adapted for grasping fruit from the branches of rainforest trees.

Direction: The word in bold is indicate as the clue. After you read the text, then tick the box to name the type of context clue based on the sample text!

Sample Text Type of Clues

“………An adaptation is a feature or way of behaving that makes a plant or an animal more likely to survive.

Synonym Antonym

Explanation/ definition Example

“ …….. a plant or an animal more likely to survive. ……… These individuals ……….”

Synonym Antonym

Explanation/ definition Example

“……. For example, the toucan’s colorful and lightweight beak is specially adapted for grasping fruit ………”

Synonym Antonym

Explanation/ definition Example

g. The students are asked to guess the type of clues based on the sample text given by the teacher.

h. The students are asked to discuss the content of text, the unfamiliar words and also to find out the antonym or synonym of unfamiliar words.

i. The students are asked to review the different types of contextual clues, such as examples, synonyms, antonyms, definitions.

j. The students are asked to make a guess; they should re-read the sentence, inserting their definition in place of the vocabulary word to see if it makes sense.

k. Then, the students are asked to look the word up in the dictionary to see how close they were in guessing the meaning of the word.

l. After the students have finished the exercises, they are asked to do the other exercises with another text by using contextual clues to help them answering the questions.

2.2.5.2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Contextual Clues Strategy

There are some advantages and disadvantages of using contextual clues in teaching reading comprehension:

1. Advantages of Contextual Clues Strategy:

a. Contextual clues strategy can be used to increase the students’ motivation and their awareness in reading process.

b. By using the word clues the students are able to overcome their problems answering the questions by themselves.

c. Contextual clues strategy helps the students to define difficult or unfamiliar words and develop their background knowledge in understanding content of the text.

d. The use of contextual clues can also increase their existing vocabulary base because of this strategy, the students to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words without having to look them up in a dictionary.

e. Teaching learning process can be more interesting for the students activate their awareness of the subject.

f. Contextual clues strategy helps the students to build up their ability to interact with each others and the teaching learning process become more effective.

2. Disadvantage of Contextual Clues Strategy:

a. The teacher is rather difficult to select the reading materials, which are accompanied with suitable words level based on the students’ background knowledge.

b. The students imitate what the teacher does. If the teacher makes mistakes help the students in defining the unknown words, the students will do too. In this case, the teacher should pay more attention for students in making decision about the definition of unfamiliar words.

2.3. Theoretical Assumption

The researcher assumed that contextual clues can give the influence to the students’ reading achievement. It also can be used to overcome the students’ problems which were explained in the background of the problems by using all clues related to the text. Realizing the use of contextual clues strategy, the researcher assumed that it might be one way to increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement, so that they are able to understand the content of the text. In addition, contextual clues strategy also can be the solution to overcome

2.4. Hypothesis

Based on the frame of theory above, the researcher formulated the hypothesis that contextual clues can give influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement.

III. RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter discusses the design of this research and how to collect the data from the sample. In this chapter, the researcher also encloses the data collecting technique, the procedures of this research, the scoring system and how to analyze the data.

3.1. Research Design

This research was quantitative by nature. Hatch and Farhady (1982: 22) state that quantitative is a kind of research in which the data were used to tend to use statistics as measurement in deciding the conclusion.

Related to this, the researcher used one group pre-test post-test design to investigate whether or not contextual clues strategy can give influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. Then the researcher administered pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was conducted to measure students’ reading comprehension achievement before treatment and the post-test conducted to find out the students’ reading comprehension achievement after being taught through contextual clues strategy. Then, the students’ achievement was found by comparing the means (average scores) between pre-test and post-test. It was used to find out the progress before and after the treatment. The researcher used one

class as the experimental class where the students were given a pre-test before a treatment and post-test after the treatment. The design of this research can be described as follow:

T1 X T2 Where :

T1 = Pre-test X = Treatment T2 = Post-test

(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 20)

The first activity was administering the try out test in order to determine the validity and reliability of the instruments. Then the researcher administered the pretest to the experimental class in order to find out the entry points of the students before they got the treatments. After that, the researcher conducted the treatment. The treatments were carried out three times assuming that three times treatments were enough. The next step was administering the post test to experimental class to identify the results of the treatment.

3.2. Setting of the Research 1. Time

The research was conducted from July 24th until August 10tth, 2012. The first activity was administering try out test. Then, continue to administered the pre test in the experimental class, after that the treatments were conducted for

three times meetings. The last was administering the post test to see the result after conducting the treatments.

2. Place

This research was conducted for the third grade of SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang. There are four classes of third grade on SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang. One class was taken as the sample of this research. The reason why the third grade students of SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang are chosen as the sample was because the students in this school still have difficulties in reading comprehension of descriptive text especially identifying the main idea, get the specific information, making inferences, reference and identify the vocabularies from the text.

3.3. Variables

This research consists of the following variables:

1. Students’ reading comprehension achievement of descriptive text as dependent variables (Y).

2. Contextual clues training strategy as independent variables (X).

3.4. Population and Samples

The population of this research was the third grades of SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang. There are four classes of third grades on SMP Taman Siswa Tanjung Karang. One class was chosen as the experimental class which was given the treatments by using contextual clues strategy. The class was selected randomly by using lottery since there were no stratified and priority class. It was

applied based on the consideration that every class in the population has the same opportunity to be selected as samples.

3.5. Data Collecting Technique

In collecting the data, the researcher used the reading tests which consist of pre-test and post-pre-test. The pre-tests was administered. The results will be discussed in detail in the following sections:

3.5.1. Types of Data Collecting Technique a. Pre-Test

Pretest was administered in order to find out the students’ reading comprehension achievement before the treatments. It required 60 minutes for the test. The test was multiple choices that consist of thirty items with the option A, B, C, D. The materials were descriptive text. In order to see the complete elaboration of the result of pre-test can be found in chapter 4 (p.40).

b. Post-Test

This test was administered after conducting the treatments for the students. The researcher gave the posttest in order to know the result of this class in teaching learning process whether they have progress or not. The aim of this test was to find out the students’ reading comprehension achievement after three times treatments. It required 60 minutes for the test. The test was multiple choices that consist of thirty items with the option A, B, C, D. The materials were descriptive text.

In order to see the complete elaboration of the result of pre-test can be found in chapter 4 (p.41).

3.5.2. Try Out of Data Collecting Technique

Before the data collecting techniques were used, they were tried out to measure the quality of the instrument. A try out of the test was conducted before having the pre-test and the post-test to investigate the quality of the test items. It was carried out to make sure the quality of the instruments before the test was used to gather the data. It was administered to IX A that is consisting of 22 students.

3.5.2.1. Criteria of a Good Try Out Test

A test was said to have a good quality if it has a good validity, reliability, level of difficulty, and discrimination power. Therefore, the try out of the test was carried to achieve the objectives. The results of which are elaborated in the following sections:

3.5.2.1.1. Validity

The validity test was the extent to which a test does the job desired of it; the evidence may either empirical or logical (Lyman, 1971:196). A test can be said valid if the test measures the object to be measured and suitable with the criteria (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:251). According to Hatch and Farhady (1982:251), there are four basic types of validity: face validity, content validity, construct validity and empirical or criterion-related validity. The researcher used content

and construct validity for this research. It was considered that the test should be valid and in line with reading theory and material.

a. Content Validity

Content validity was extent to which a test measures a representative sample of the subject matter content, the focus of content validity is adequacy of the sample and simply on the appearance of the test (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:251). The researcher used content validity because she wanted to know whether or not the content of the test was sufficiently representative and comprehensive for the test to be a valid measure of what it was supposed to measure. To know whether the test was good reflection of what was taught and the knowledge which the teacher wants the students to know, the researcher compared this test with table of specification. If the table represented the material that the researcher wants to test, then it is valid from that point of view. A table of specification is an instrument that help the test constructor plan the test.

Table 1. Table of specification of Try Out Test

No Aspects of Reading Item Numbers Total

Items Percentage 1 Identify the main idea 1, 6, 9, 17, 22, 28, 31, 37 8 20% 2 Specific information 2, 5, 7, 10, 21, 23, 27, 33,

38,39 10 25%

3 Inference 4, 14, 19, 24, 26, 29, 34, 36 8 20%

4 Reference 8, 12, 15, 16, 18, 25, 32, 40 8 20%

5 Vocabulary 3, 11, 13, 20, 30, 35 6 15%

Table 2. Table of specification of Pre-Test

No Aspects of Reading Item Numbers Total

Items Percentage 1 Identify the main idea 1, 6, 9, 18, 23, 28, 29 7 23% 2 Specific information 2, 5, 7, 10, 17, 20 6 20%

3 Inference 4, 15, 21, 25, 26 5 17%

4 Reference 8, 12, 14, 19, 24, 30 6 20%

5 Vocabulary 3, 11, 13, 16, 22, 27 6 20%

TOTAL 30 100%

Table 3. Table of specification of Post-Test

No Aspects of Reading Item Numbers Total

Items Percentage 1 Identify the main idea 1, 10, 11, 13, 18, 21, 26 7 23% 2 Specific information 3, 14, 17, 19, 23, 27 7 20%

3 Inference 4, 7, 9, 16, 24 5 17%

4 Reference 2, 6, 12, 20, 22, 29 6 20%

5 Vocabulary 5, 8, 15, 25, 28, 30 6 20%

TOTAL 30 100%

b. Construct Validity

Construct validity concerned whether the test was actually in line with the theory of reading comprehension or not (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:251). The test was aimed to know whether the test was true reflection of the theory in reading comprehension, the researcher examined whether the test questions actually reflect the means of reading comprehension or not.

3.5.2.1.2. Reliability

Reliability refers to the extent to which the test was consistent in its score and gave us an indication of how accurate the test score are (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 244). Reliability of the test can be determined by using the spilt half method in

order to estimate the reliability of the test. To measure the coefficient of the reliability the first and second half group, the researcher used the following

formula:







 ) 2 )(

( x2 y

xy rl

Where:

rl : the coefficient of reliability between first half and second half group.

X : the total numbers of first half group. Y : the total numbers of second half group. X2 : the square of X.

Y2 : the square of Y.

(Lado in Hughes, 1991:3) Then the researcher uses “Spearman Brown’s Prophecy Formula” (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 256) to determine the reliability of the test as follow:

rl rl rk   1 2 Where:

rk : the realibility of the whole test. r1 : the realibility of the half test.

The criteria are: 0,90 – 1,00 is high

0,50 – 0,89 is moderate (satisfactory) 0,0 – 0,49 is low

The result of the reliability test was 0.75 (See Appendix 5). It was based on the criteria of reliability that was proposed by Hatch and Farhady (1982:247), the test had moderate or satisfactory reliability in the range 0,50 – 0,89. It indicated that this instrument would produce consistent result when administered in the similar condition to the same participants and in different time (Hatch and Farhady, 1982).

3.5.2.1.3. Level of Difficulty

Level of difficulty of an item simply showed how easy or difficult the particular item proved in the test (Heaton, 1975: 182). Level of difficulty was generally expressed as the fraction (or percentage) of the students who answered the item correctly. To see the level of difficulty, the researcher used the following formula:

N R

LD

(Heaton, 1975: 182) Where:

LD : level of difficulty.

R : the number of students who answer correctly. N : the total number of the students.

The criteria are:

< 0.30 = difficult 0.30-0.70 = average > 0.70 = easy

Based on the computation of level difficulty (see Appendix 6.), the researcher found that there were 6 items which were more than 0.70 which means that the items were easy and 4 items were below 0.30 which means difficult. Meanwhile there were 30 items which were between the ranges 0.30 – 0.70 or belonged to average.

3.5.2.1.4. Discrimination Power

The discrimination power (DP) was the proportion of the high group students getting the items correct minus the proportion of the low-level students who getting the items correct. To see the discrimination power, the researcher used the following formula:

(Heaton, 1975: 182) Where :

DP = Discrimination power.

U = number of upper group who answer correctly. L = number of lower group who answer correctly. N = total number of the students.

The criteria are:

DP: 0.00-0.19 = Poor.

DP: 0.20-0.39 = Satisfactory. DP: 0.40-0.69 = Good. DP: 0.70-1.00 = Excellent.

DP: - (negative) = Bad items, should be ommited. N

L U DP

2 1

 

From the computation of discrimination of power (see Appendix 6) the researcher got 7 items were poor (having less than 2.00 index), 11 items were satisfactory (having more than 2.00 index), and 19 items were good (having more than 4.00 index) and 3 items were excellent (having more than 0.70 index). In general, it can be stated that all items tested had good discrimination power and positive value. In this research, the researcher omitted 10 items that were unsatisfactory to be used. Eventually, the items that were administered were 30 items for pre-test and post-test. After analyzing the data, the researcher got 30 items were good and 10 items were poor and should be dropped.

3.6. Research Procedures

The procedures in administering the research are as follow: 1. Determining the problem

The first step of this research was determining the problems. The researcher determined what kind of problems appear in the class.

2. Determining the sample of the research

The sample was chosen by simple random technique, using lottery since the students’ ability was parallel and all students had the same chance. The researcher took one class as the experimental class which was given the treatments by using contextual clues strategy.

3. Determining the research instrument

The research instruments for reading tests were try out test, pre-test and post-test. Most of the materials were taken from students textbook and the internet. It was aimed to make an equal proportion both pre-test and post-test.

4. Administering try-out of the test

The try out test was conducted before the pre test and the post test to investigate the quality of the test items, whether the test was appropriate for the students or not. The test consists of 40 items of multiple choices test. 5. Administering the pre-test

Pre-test was aimed to identify the ability of the students before they get the treatment. The researcher used the objective test with four options of each item. One of the options was correct answer and the rests were as distracters. 6. Conducting the treatment

The treatments were classroom activities which applied contextual clues strategy during the classroom activity. The researcher gave three-time treatments in 2 x 40 minutes for each treatment. The topic was about the descriptive texts.

7. Administering the post-test

Post-test was aimed to evaluate the students’ reading comprehension after being given the treatments. After the treatment, it was hoped that the students are able to practice the technique independently.

8. Analyzing the data

Analyzing the data was used to compare the pre-test and post-test results by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0. The students’ scores of the reading test both from pre-test and post-test would be analyzed, discussed and interpreted.

3.7. Data Analysis

The data had been analyzed in order to see whether the students’ reading comprehension achievement was increase or not. The researcher examined the students’ scores using the following steps:

1. Scoring the pre-test and post-test.

2. Tabulating the result of the test and calculating the scores of the pretest and posttest.

3. Drawing conclusion from the tabulated-result of the pretest and posttest by statistically analyzing the data using statistical computerization. i.e. Repeat Measure T-Test of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0 It is used as the data come from the two samples (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 111).

3.7.1. Scoring System

In scoring the result of students’ scores in pre-test and post-test, the researcher used percentage correct system (Lyman, 1971:95). The percentage correct score was used to report the result of classroom achievement tests. The researcher calculated the average of pre-test and post-test by using this formula:

Where: c

X_% : Percentage of correct score R : Number of the correct answer T : Total number of the item test

(Lyman, 1971:95)

T

R

X

_%c



100

3.7.2. Calculating the Mean Score

Mean told about how difficult or easy the test was. According to Heaton (1991, p.175), the mean score of one test was arithmetical average i.e. the sum of separate score which is divided by the total number of students. It was efficient to measure the central tendency, even it was not always appropriate. To calculate the mean, the researcher used the formula as follow:

Where:

X : Mean



x : total scores

N : Number of students

3.8. Hypothesis Testing

After collecting the data, the researcher recorded and analyzed them in order to find out whether or not contextual clues strategy can give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement after implementing the contextual clues strategy. The researcher used Repeated Measure t-test to know the level of significance of treatments effect. To see the significance, the researcher used the following formula:

Where:

X1 : Mean from pre-test

D S

X X t  1 2

N x X 



X2 : Mean from post-test

SD : Standard error of differences between means

(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 114)

The criteria are:

1. If the t-ratio is higher than t-table : H1 is accepted 2. If the t-ratio is lower than t-table : H0 is rejected

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This final chapter presents the conclusion of the research findings and suggestions for English teacher who want to try to use contextual clues strategy as the alternative strategy to teach reading and for further researchers who want to conduct similar research.

5.1. Conclusions

In line with the results of the data analysis and discussion, the following conclusions are drawn:

Contextual clues strategy can give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. It has been proven by the gain of students’ mean score in post-test, that is 78.63 points higher than the mean score in pre-test 58.63 points. The gained score between the mean of pretest and posttest was 20 points. The significant value of posttest in experimental class was 0.000 (p= 0.000) that was lower than 0.05 (0.000 < 0.05). value is 12.462 which was higher than t-table 2000 at the level of significant 0.05 means that H1 was accepted. Contextual clues strategy can be used to increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement in comprehending the descriptive text. Then, by implementing contextual clues training, the students tended to be more active to find out the

answer independently by using all of clues based on the text. It also provides a chance to the students to focus on their reading, control and monitor their reading hence this leads to better comprehension.

5.2. Suggestions

Referring to the conclusion above, the researcher gave some suggestions as follows:

1. Since contextual clues strategy gives the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement, the researcher suggests to the teachers to apply contextual clues strategy as the solution to overcome the students’ problems comprehending the text.

2. By using contextual clues strategy, the students are able to answer the question by using the clues based on the text and determine what kind of clues that they found to help them answering the questions.

3. For the further researchers can apply contextual clues strategy used to increase the students’ reading comprehension in comprehending the descriptive text. 4. Increased the students’ reading comprehension achievement. It has proved

from the result of the research in SMP Tamansiswa Tanjung Karang. The mean or average score of posttest was higher than the mean score of pretest 78.63 > 58.63.

REFERENCES

Ahmad and Asraf 2004. The contribution of vocabulary knowledge and working memory span for teaching reading. From: http://www.criticalreading. com.htm, retrieved on March 20th, 2012.

Alyousef, Hesham Suleiman. 2005. Teaching Reading Comprehension to ESL/EFL Learners. http: //www.Buddies.org/articles/ reading.pdf, retrieved on Mrch 10th, 2012.

Alfarini, V. 2008. Increasing students’ reading comprehension achievement through Contextual Clues training at the First Year Students of SMUN 3 Kotabumi. Unpublished Script. Bandar Lampung: Lampung University. Aryadi, F. 2000. Developing the students reading comprehension by using

contextual clues to the students of SMUN 2 Palembang. Unpublished Script. Bandar Lampung: Lampung University.

Brown. D. A. 2001. Reading diagnosis and remediation. Englewood Cliffs. N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Coffey, Margareth, P. 1973. Communicative through reading. Kansas: University of Kansas Applied English Center.

Copper S. C. 1988. Planning Lessons for a Reading Class. Singapore: SEAMO Regional Language Centre.

Crimon. M 1987. Comprehensive high school reading methods. New York: Bell and Howel Company.

Depdiknas. 2006. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan. Jakarta: Depdiknas. D’ Angelo, Frank, J. 1977. Process and though in composition. Arizona: Arizona

State University.

Downey. 2006. Teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy second edition. Pearson Longman: London.

Doyle. 2004. Teaching of reading. New York: CBS College Publishing.

Harmer, Jeremy. 1987. How to teach English. London: Longman.

Hatch, E. and Farhady. H. 1982. Research design and statistics for applied linguistics. London: Newbury House, Inc.

Heaton, J.B. 1975. English language test. New York: Longman Inc.

Heaton, J.B. 1991. Writing English language test. New York: Longman Inc. Hughes, Arthur. 1991. Testing For Language Teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Joffe, I.L. 1997. Opportunity for the successful reading 8th. Belmont: Wadswort. Kathleen. 1983. Reading skills for college students. Engelwood Clipps, New

Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Latulippe, D. 1986. Comprehensive reading methods. New York: Bell and Howel Company.

Lyman, A. 1971. Testing English as a second language. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Mc Whorter. 1986. Guide to college reading. Toronto: Little, Brown and Company.

Mckay. Sandra. 1985. Fundamental of writing for specific purpose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Nordquist, Richard. 2009. Grammar and composition guide. The New York Times Company.

Salem, Nada Abisamra. 2001. Teaching writing approaches and activities. American University of Beirut.

Rubin, J. 1993. How to be a more successful language learner. Boston: Boston & Heinle Publisher

Setiayadi, Ag. B. 2006. Metode penelitian untuk pengajaran bahasa asing. Graha Ilmu: Yogyakarta.541 pages.

Shohamy.R. 1985. Communicative language testing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Simanjuntak, Edhita G. 1988. Developing reading skill in foreign Language Students (EFL). Jakarta: P2PLTK.

Smith. F. 1978. Understanding reading 2nd Edition. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.

Suparman, U. 2005. Understanding and developing reading comprehension. Bandar Lampung. Lampung University. 112 pages.

Universitas Lampung. 2008. Pedoman penulisan karya ilmiah. Bandar Lampung: Lampung University.

Wallace, J. Michael. 1987. Teaching vocabulary. London: Briddles Ltd.

Willingham, S. 2006. Diagnostic teaching of reading: Techniques for instruction and assessment. From: http://csuchicodspace.calstate. edu/Htm, retrieved on April 22nd, 2012.

(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 114)

The criteria are:

1. If the t-ratio is higher than t-table : H1 is accepted 2. If the t-ratio is lower than t-table : H0 is rejected

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This final chapter presents the conclusion of the research findings and suggestions for English teacher who want to try to use contextual clues strategy as the alternative strategy to teach reading and for further researchers who want to conduct similar research.

5.1. Conclusions

In line with the results of the data analysis and discussion, the following conclusions are drawn:

Contextual clues strategy can give the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. It has been proven by the gain of students’ mean score in post-test, that is 78.63 points higher than the mean score in pre-test 58.63 points. The gained score between the mean of pretest and posttest was 20 points. The significant value of posttest in experimental class was 0.000 (p= 0.000) that was lower than 0.05 (0.000 < 0.05). value is 12.462 which was higher than t-table 2000 at the level of significant 0.05 means that H1 was accepted. Contextual clues strategy can be used to increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement in comprehending the descriptive text. Then, by implementing contextual clues training, the students tended to be more active to find out the

hence this leads to better comprehension.

5.2. Suggestions

Referring to the conclusion above, the researcher gave some suggestions as follows:

1. Since contextual clues strategy gives the influence on the students’ reading comprehension achievement, the researcher suggests to the teachers to apply contextual clues strategy as the solution to overcome the students’ problems comprehending the text.

2. By using contextual clues strategy, the students are able to answer the question by using the clues based on the text and determine what kind of clues that they found to help them answering the questions.

3. For the further researchers can apply contextual clues strategy used to increase the students’ reading comprehension in comprehending the descriptive text. 4. Increased the students’ reading comprehension achievement. It has proved

from the result of the research in SMP Tamansiswa Tanjung Karang. The mean or average score of posttest was higher than the mean score of pretest 78.63 > 58.63.

REFERENCES

Ahmad and Asraf 2004. The contribution of vocabulary knowledge and working memory span for teaching reading. From: http://www.criticalreading. com.htm, retrieved on March 20th, 2012.

Alyousef, Hesham Suleiman. 2005. Teaching Reading Comprehension to ESL/EFL Learners. http: //www.Buddies.org/articles/ reading.pdf, retrieved on Mrch 10th, 2012.

Alfarini, V. 2008. Increasing students’ reading comprehension achievement through Contextual Clues training at the First Year Students of SMUN 3 Kotabumi. Unpublished Script. Bandar Lampung: Lampung University. Aryadi, F. 2000. Developing the students reading comprehension by using

contextual clues to the students of SMUN 2 Palembang. Unpublished Script. Bandar Lampung: Lampung University.

Brown. D. A. 2001. Reading diagnosis and remediation. Englewood Cliffs. N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Coffey, Margareth, P. 1973. Communicative through reading. Kansas: University of Kansas Applied English Center.

Copper S. C. 1988. Planning Lessons for a Reading Class. Singapore: SEAMO Regional Language Centre.

Crimon. M 1987. Comprehensive high school reading methods. New York: Bell and Howel Company.

Depdiknas. 2006. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan. Jakarta: Depdiknas. D’ Angelo, Frank, J. 1977. Process and though in composition. Arizona: Arizona

State University.

Downey. 2006. Teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy second edition. Pearson Longman: London.

Doyle. 2004. Teaching of reading. New York: CBS College Publishing.

linguistics. London: Newbury House, Inc.

Heaton, J.B. 1975. English language test. New York: Longman Inc.

Heaton, J.B. 1991. Writing English language test. New York: Longman Inc. Hughes, Arthur. 1991. Testing For Language Teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Joffe, I.L. 1997. Opportunity for the successful reading 8th. Belmont: Wadswort. Kathleen. 1983. Reading skills for college students. Engelwood Clipps, New

Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Latulippe, D. 1986. Comprehensive reading methods. New York: Bell and Howel Company.

Lyman, A. 1971. Testing English as a second language. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Mc Whorter. 1986. Guide to college reading. Toronto: Little, Brown and Company.

Mckay. Sandra. 1985. Fundamental of writing for specific purpose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Nordquist, Richard. 2009. Grammar and composition guide. The New York Times Company.

Salem, Nada Abisamra. 2001. Teaching writing approaches and activities.

American University of Beirut.

Rubin, J. 1993. How to be a more successful language learner. Boston: Boston & Heinle Publisher

Setiayadi, Ag. B. 2006. Metode penelitian untuk pengajaran bahasa asing. Graha Ilmu: Yogyakarta.541 pages.

Shohamy.R. 1985. Communicative language testing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Simanjuntak, Edhita G. 1988. Developing reading skill in foreign Language Students (EFL). Jakarta: P2PLTK.

Smith. F. 1978. Understanding reading 2nd Edition. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.

Suparman, U. 2005. Understanding and developing reading comprehension. Bandar Lampung. Lampung University. 112 pages.

Universitas Lampung. 2008. Pedoman penulisan karya ilmiah. Bandar Lampung: Lampung University.

Wallace, J. Michael. 1987. Teaching vocabulary. London: Briddles Ltd.

Willingham, S. 2006. Diagnostic teaching of reading: Techniques for instruction and assessment. From: http://csuchicodspace.calstate. edu/Htm, retrieved on April 22nd, 2012.