THE EFFECT OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH DIRECTED READING – THINKING ACTIVITY (DRTA) STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE TEXT ACHIEVEMENT AT THE FIRST YEAR OF SMP PGRI 2 KATIBUNG LAMPUNG SELATAN

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THE EFFECT OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

THROUGH DIRECTED READING

–

THINKING ACTIVITY

(DRTA) STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE TEXT

ACHIEVEMENT AT THE FIRST YEAR OF SMP PGRI 2

KATIBUNG LAMPUNG SELATAN

By

MEIZI FITRIANA

0613042035

A Script

Submitted in a Partial Fulfillment of The Requirement for S-1 Degree

The Language and Arts Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY

BANDAR LAMPUNG

2013

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i ABSTRACT

THE EFFECT OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH DIRECTED READING – THINKING ACTIVITY (DRTA) STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE TEXT ACHIEVEMENT AT THE FIRST YEAR OF SMP PGRI 2 KATIBUNG LAMPUNG SELATAN

By Meizi Fitriana

Reading is the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text.Narrative text is a story about fictional or real events, which follows a basic standard format. Narratives include a plot, setting,

characters, structure (introduction, complication, resolution), and theme. _The

Directed Reading Thinking Activity is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. Students must improve their ability in reading comprehension, so they can get information from the text by means of

understanding the main idea, specific information, inference, reference and vocabulary.

The objective of this research was to find out whether there is significant increase in students’ reading comprehension achievement of narrative texts taught through Directed Reading – Thinking Activity Strategy. Reading test in the form of

multiple choices was used as the instrument of the research and repeated measures t-test was accomplished to analyze the data. The sample of the research was the first year students of SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan in the year 2012/2013.

The result of the test shows that there is a significant increase from pre-test to post-test after being taught through Directed Reading-Thinking Activity. The increase is from 70.84 up to 77.51 and the gain is 6.67. The result of the computation shows that the value of the two tailed significance is 0.000. This means that H1 is accepted and H0 is rejected since 0.000 < 0.05. This proves that the treatments given by the researcher has a positive effect on the students’ achievement, which meansDirected Reading-Thinking Activity can increase

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2. Lesson Plan I ... 83

3. Lesson Plan II... 88

4. Lesson Plan III ... 93

5. Pre Test ... 98

6. Post Test ... 107

7. Reliability Analysis of Upper Group Tryout Test ... 116

8. Reliability Analysis of Lower Group Tryout Test ... 117

9. Reliability Analysis of Tryout Test... 118

10. Difficulty Level and Discrimination Power of the Tryout Test ... 119

11. Coefficient of the First and the Second Group... 120

12. Result of Students Score of Pre Test... 121

13. Result of Students Score of Post Test ... 122

14. Students’ Score of Pre Test and Post Test ... 123

15. Table of Frequency of Pre-test ... 124

16. Histogram of Pre-test Scores... 125

17. Table of Frequency of Post-test ... 126

18. Histogram of Post-test Scores ... 127

19. Graph of Increase from Pre-test to Post-test Scores ... 128

20. Analysis of the Hypothesis ... 129

21. Graph Increases of Each Aspects of Reading ... 130

22. Result of Students Specification of Reading Aspects in Pre-Test ... 131

23. Result of Students Specification of Reading Aspects in Post-Test... 132

24. Highest Score of Pre-Test ... 133

25. Lowest Score of Pre-Test ... 134

26. Highest Score of Post-Test... 135

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I. INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces the beginning of this research. In the background of the

problem, the writer states how students’ reading comprehension skill is still low.

The writer also identifies the problems, limits the problem, formulates the problem and gives the objective and the uses of this research. She also explains the scopes of this research and definitions of every related term.

1.1.Background of the Problem

In Indonesia, English is an important subject that students must learn at school. Students learn English from elementary school through university. The students are expected to have language skills in English. One of the important skills is reading. Students must improve their ability in reading comprehension, so they

can get information from the text. As a matter of fact, the students’ ability in

reading comprehension is still far from the goal being expected, as stated in the syllabus of KTSP that students must be able to understand the meaning of functional text and simple short essay in form of narrative related to their environment. Based on the teacher’s information in the school when the writer observed the school for her research, many students have difficulties in

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the information from the text. Besides that, finding the details, finding the main ideas, the answer to questions based on the text and making inferences from the text are some other obstacles they face. And as a result, the students got

difficulties in retelling or in transferring the information from the text.

Standard and basic competence of KTSP indicates that there are many kinds of text in reading comprehension, such as descriptive, narrative, recount, spoof, report, review, etc. In this research, the writer focused on narrative text of reading comprehension, because narrative text is one of reading texts that is mostly used in the reading test. The text is simple but many students in the first year of senior high school do not really understand this sort of text. They have difficulty in finding the main idea and specific information of narrative text.

The students’ failure in comprehending the reading text may be influenced by

many factors, such as: lack of vocabularies, the media, the technique being used by the teacher, and the facilities. Due to this, the writer wants to underline one of

those factors that are technique. Based on the teacher’s information of the writer’s

observation, in fact English teachers in school do not teach reading

comprehension using an effective technique in helping students understand reading comprehension easier. Because of that, the writer is interested in applying Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) for the solution. In DRTA, most students require explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney, 1982). Good readers make predictions and verify or refute them as they read.

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They also make adjustments to what they think will come next based on the text. DRTA is a strategy that explicitly teaches students to good reading habits.

The DRTA strategy is one of reading strategies which has been proved, through

many studies, to have been able to improve students’ reading comprehension. The

DRTA strategy is developed by Stauffer in 1969 to help the students in

comprehending a text. The DRTA strategy has many advantages in the teaching and learning of reading. First, the DRTA strategy can help to develop critical reading skills. Second, the strategy can encourage the students to be active

readers. Third, it can activate the students’ prior knowledge. Then, the strategy

can monitor students’ reading comprehension as they are reading. Finally, the strategy can enhance students’ curiosity about particular texts or text types. From the statements above, it is obvious that the DRTA strategy is effective to improve

the students’ reading comprehension; so it is appropriate to be used by English

teachers in teaching reading.

The DRTA is a strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension. Then benefit of a DRTA strategy may be used with an individual, a small group, or a whole class. This activity can be easily adapted for a variety of subjects and reading levels. This strategy helps strengthen reading and critical thinking skills. As the teacher guides the process, the DRTA teaches

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students to determine the purpose for reading and making adjustments to what they think will come next based on the text.

Realizing the effectiveness of using DRTA strategy in reading, the writer is interested in using this strategy. The writer assumes that reading comprehension is an important skill for senior high school students and DRTA strategy is an

interesting strategy that can be used in teaching student’s reading comprehension. Therefore, the writer tries to propose the topic to find out whether there is any

significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement through DRTA strategy or not.

To implement the teaching strategy above, the writer chooses SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan as the setting of her research. Based on her pre observation, she finds that the students have difficulty in comprehending an English reading text, such as: the students have difficulty in finding the main idea of the passage with long sentences, main topics, and explicit and implicit specific information in reading text.

1.2 Identification of Problems

In reference to background of the problem, the following problems can be identified:

1. Students get difficulties in comprehending the reading text. They get difficulties in getting information from the text, finding the details, finding

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the main ideas, the answer to the questions based on the text and making inference from the text. As the results the students got difficulties in retelling or in transferring the information from the text.

2. Students get difficulties in comprehending English materials because there might be some misunderstandings between students with their English teacher in the teaching learning interaction.

3. Students’ motivations in learning English are still low. So it is necessary to improve their English ability well.

4. Students have negative attitude in learning English. So it is difficult for them to learn English well because they regard that English is difficult to be learnt well.

5. Teachers use inappropriate materials in teaching English. So it is difficult for students to improve their English ability well.

6. Teachers use inappropriate technique in teaching English. So it is difficult in helping students understand reading comprehension easier.

1.3 Limitation of the Problem

The writer realized her capability in doing her research. Therefore, the writer focused on the students’ difficulties in comprehending the reading text. As the solution to overcome their difficulties, the writer was interested in investigating

students’ reading achievement by using of DRTA strategy which was assumed to be an effective way in helping students understands reading comprehension easier.

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1.4 Formulation of the Problem

Based on the limitation of the problem above, the research question is: Is there

any significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement after

being taught using DRTA Strategy at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan?

1.5 Objective

In relation to the research question, the objective of this research is to find out

whether there is significant increase of students’ reading comprehension

achievement taught using DRTA Strategy or not at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan.

1.6 Uses of the Research

The uses of the research are:

1. Theoretically, the result of this research is expected to verify the previous theories dealing with teaching reading using DRTA Strategy and to be used as a reference for further research.

2. Practically, the results of this result hopefully can give contribution to the English teachers about the effectiveness of DRTA Strategy in increasing

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1.7 Scope of the Research

This research has been conducted at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan. The subject of the research is the first year students of SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan. In this research, the writer focused on the implementation of DRTA as a teaching strategy in developing students’ reading comprehension. The variables of the research were DRTA as the independent variable and the reading comprehension of narrative text as the dependent variable. The research focused on the activities of reading comprehension of narrative text taught by DRTA. The students were expected to be able to comprehend some reading aspects: main idea, vocabulary, specific information, reference and inference. The materials were taken from English Book based on the School Based Curriculum (KTSP) of SMP. To find out the improvement of students’ reading comprehension

achievement of narrative text, the writer measured the score of a set of pre-test and post-test.

1.8 Definition of Terms

There are some terms used by the writer and to make them clear, the writer gives some definitions as follow:

1. Effect is a change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.

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2. Reading Comprehension is defined as an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish the meaning (Silberstine, 1987,Simanjuntak, 1988:15)

3. Narrative text is a sequence of events, which is based on life experience and is person-oriented using dialogue and familiar language.

4. DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) engages students in a step-by-step process in which the teacher gives examples of how to make predictions. Students preview the passage, make and record predictions. As students read, they stop periodically to discuss and amend predictions.

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II. LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter contains some crucial elements of reading skill related to the topics under discussion. In this part, the writer gives explanations on the variables used in this research, the procedures in this research and the hypothesis.

2.1. Concept of Reading Comprehension

There are two kinds of reading activity, namely reading aloud and silent reading. What the readers are doing in silent reading is to use our eyes and our ability to understand the meaning of the written sign, thus comprehending the text will be given more emphasize in silent reading.

Clark and Silberstein (1987) state reading as an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. While Mackay (1979) in Simanjuntak (1988: 15) defines reading is an active process. The readers from preliminary expectation about the material then select the fewest, most productive cues necessary to confirm or reject the expectation. This is a sampling process in which the reader takes advantage of his knowledge of vocabulary, syntax, discourse, and the real world. Therefore, reading involves an

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interaction between taught and language. Moreover, Nuttal (1982:12) defines

reading as the meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols.

These concepts basically state that reading always deals with printed materials, which stresses on the grasping meaning from the printed language. It means that reading activity is the interaction between the perception of the graphic symbols

that represent the language and the readers’ language skill, cognitive skills and the

knowledge of the world. In this process, the reader tries to create meaning intended by the writer.

Someone has a purpose when he is reading. Usually the purpose of reading a passage is to find ideas from the reading passage. As Suparman (2005:1) states that 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).

At the same time, Richard (1986) defines comprehension as the process by which the person understands the meaning of the written or spoken language. Moreover, Williams (1981) says that comprehension is mind’s act or power of understanding what has been written. From these statements, the writer concludes that

comprehending is the process of mind’s act understanding the meaning of written

or spoken language.

According to these views, it is clear that reading and comprehension are regarded as one activity which cannot be separated, and each program is depending on the

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progress of activity of mind. In other words, reading comprehension is an activity to grasp the meaning of written materials with fully understanding.

Finocchiaro and Bonomo (1973:132) suggest that reading comprehension is ability which depends on the accuracy and speed of grapheme perception, that is, perception of written symbol, control of language relationship and structure, knowledge of vocabulary items and lexical combination, awareness of redundancy, the ability to use contextual clues and recognition of cultural allusion.

2.1.1 Level of Comprehension

Comprehension is the result of reading. Moreover, they categorize reading comprehension into three levels of comprehension:

1. Literal comprehension

Literal comprehension is the process of understanding the ideas and information explicitly stated in the passage such as: knowing the meaning of the words, recall of details directly stated or paraphrases in own words, understanding of grammatical clues, subject, verb, pronouns, and

conjunction, so forth. Recall of main idea explicitly stated and knowledge of sequence of information presented in passage.

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2. Interpretative comprehension

Interpretative comprehension means understanding of ideas and information not explicitly stated in the passage. For example: to

understand the author’s tone, purpose and attitude, interfactual

information, main ideas, comparisons, cause-effect relationship and also summarize the story content.

3. Critical comprehension

Critical comprehension is analyzing, evaluating and personally reacting to information presented in a passage. For example: personally reacting to information in a passage, indicating meaning to the reader, analyzing the quality of written symbol or information in the terms of standard.

From the explanation above, it is quite clear that comprehension is important in reading. Comprehension is the result of reading. By comprehension meaning that we use our previous knowledge to response with the written text. In

comprehension, we process deeply information, so that we can make a meaningful interpretation of it. In this research, the writer focused on the interpretative

comprehension.

Here the writer sees that in reading comprehension, it is important that the reader should be able to interpret what they read and associate with their experience, not only see and identify the symbol in front of them. This is necessary because when a reader reads a text, the communication process between the reader and the writer has happened. The reader tries to interact with print, his/her prior knowledge

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combined with the visual (written) information result in his comprehending the text. In short, we can say that reading comprehension is a combination of

recognition intellect and emotion interrelated with prior knowledge to understand the message communicated.

2.2 Concept of Narrative Text

A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format (as a work of writing, speech, poetry, prose, pictures, song, motion pictures, video games, theatre or dance) that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events.

Narrative text is a sequence of events, which is based on life experience and is person-oriented using dialogue and familiar language. The purpose of narrative text is to amuse or entertain the readers with actual or imaginary experiences in difference ways. Narrative is always deals with some problems which lead to the climax and then turn into a solution to the problem.

The examples of genres that fit the narrative text structure:

1. Folktale is very old traditional story from a particular place that was originally passed on to people in a spoken form, e.g., The Mighty

2. Fairy tale is an old story about magic things happened intended for amusing and giving lessons, meanings, and moral values, e.g., Cinderella.

3. Fables is traditional short stories that teach moral lesson, especially one with the animals as characters; these stories are considered as one group of animal stories, e.g., The Lion and the Mouse

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4. Myth is a story from ancient times, especially one that was told to explain about natural events or to describe the early history of place or people, e.g., Tower of Babel

Text organization of narrative text: 1. Orientation

(Refers to the characters, problem, place and time, such as: who is the character in the text, what is the problem in the text and where does it happen in the text)

2. Complication

(Denotes a crisis arises. It comprises initiating event, subsequent event and climax aspects when the characters face the problems)

3. Resolution

(Shows that the crisis is resolved. In this part, the character does the act of solving or settling the problem for better or for worse one)

4. Re-orientation

(Indicates the optional point. This mean that a story not always uses this, and usually, it states the conclusions of the event based on the writer point of view)

Language Features of narrative text:

1. Focus on the specific and individualized participants. 2. The use of noun phrases

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3. The use of connectives

(First, before that, then, finally)

4. The use of adverbial phrases of time and place (In the garden, two days ago)

5. The use of simple past tense (He walked away from the village) 6. The use of action verbs

(Walk, sleep, wake up) 7. The use of saying verbs

(Say, tell, ask)

8. The use of thinking verbs, feeling verbs, verbs of senses

(She felt hungry; she thought she was clever, she smelt something burning)

Example of narrative text:

Beauty and the Beast

Orientation Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl named Beauty. She lived with her father and her two sisters. She was a hard worker; she always helped her father on the farm.

Complication One day, her father set out for the city. He saw an old castle and went it. None was in but there was food on the table. Then he walked around the castle. He picked a rose from the garden for Beauty. Suddenly, an angry beast appeared. He wanted to kill Beauty’s father unless Beauty was brought to him. Beauty’s father told his daughter what had happened, Beauty’s sister ordered her to see the beast.

Beauty went to see the beast and had to stay at the castle. She left scared, lonely, and sad. She tried to run away but was stopped by the beast.

The beast treated the beast’s magic mirror. Beauty saw that her father was sick.

The beast allowed her to go home. Her father was happy to see Beauty.

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Resolution One night, Beauty had a dream; a fairy told her that the beast was sick. Beauty hurried saw the beast dying, she began to cry. Tears fell onto the beast, suddenly the beast change into a handsome prince. Beauty and the beast got married and lived happily ever after.

2.3Concept of DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity)

The recent researches and speculation about the comprehension process that is associated with DRTA theory seems to have had the most unique impact. Because of its influence, it is important to define and review it.

DRTA is a reading comprehension strategy that is used in each of the three stages of reading (pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading). It emphasizes

prediction (thinking ahead), verification (confirmation), and reading with a purpose.

1. Pre-reading

 Survey the text with the students, looking for clues about the content – clues such as titles, section headings, key words, illustrations.

 Help the students make predictions about the text’s content.

 Have students write their predictions down on their paper, as you write them on the board or overhead transparency.

 Help the students establish a purpose for reading by directing them to read the text to determine whether it proves or disproves their predictions. 2. During Reading

 Have the students read the text, silently or aloud, individually or in groups, to verify their predictions.

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3. Post-Reading

 Have the students compare their predictions with the actual content of the text.

 Ask the students to analyze their prediction and determine how well they predicted the content of the text.

The DRTA strategy is one of reading strategies which has been proved, through

many studies, to have been able to improve students’ reading comprehension. The

DRTA strategy is developed by Russell Stauffer in 1969 to help the students in comprehending a text. The DRTA strategy has many advantages in the reading teaching and learning. First, the DRTA strategy can help to develop critical reading skills, for example after pre-reading; students re-read the text to identify elements like language usage, assumptions, and information. Second, the strategy can encourage the students to be active readers for example teachers use pictures displays as advanced organizers, as note taking devices, and as means for

summarizing the content of the reading. Third, it can activate the students’ prior

knowledge for example students read the title of the text, or tell them the topic of the text then ask students to brainstorm a list of ideas that come to mind when they think about the title or topic at least write those ideas on the board. Students will be making predictions about what they will read about in the text. Then, the

strategy can monitor students’ reading comprehension as they are reading for

example students learn to draw on their prior knowledge about the topic of their reading to aid in their understanding of the text, determine their own purposes for reading, and summarize what they have learned from reading, and helps students

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realize that through reading they can confirm prior knowledge and also gain new knowledge. Finally, the strategy can enhance students’ curiosity about particular texts or text types for example when students making a prediction about what they have read before. From the statements above, it is obvious that the DRTA strategy

is effective to improve the students’ reading comprehension, so it is appropriate to

be used by English teachers in teaching reading.

The DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) engages students in a step-by-step process in which the teacher gives examples of how to make predictions. Students preview the passage, make and record predictions. As students read, they stop periodically to discuss and amend predictions.

The DRTA is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or to refute their

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predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.

The DRTA is often associated with the DRA (Directed Reading Activity)

developed by Stauffer (1969). As defined in the International Reading Association

Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms, the DRA is "a lesson plan which involves a) preparation/readiness/motivation for reading a lesson; b) silent reading; c) vocabulary and skills development; d) silent and/or oral reading; and e) follow-up or culminating activities." While this is a useful plan for some reading lessons and is essentially synonymous with the basal reading lessons of the elementary grades (Tierney, 23, 1990), the DRTA is a much stronger model for building independent readers and learners.

The hyphen in Directed Reading-Thinking Activity is intended to symbolize the interdependence of the two terms, "Reading" and "Thinking," because in order to be a good reader, one must also think. Unfortunately, the link between the two has been lost for some students as evidenced in their replies to teachers' questions about what they have "read."

The DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) engages students in a step-bystep process that guides them through informational text. It is designed to move students through the process of reading text. Questions are asked and answered, and predictions are made and tested throughout the reading. Additionally, new questions and predictions are formulated as the student progresses through the text.

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While the teacher guides the process, the student determines the purpose for reading. To introduce the strategy, the teacher gives examples of how to make predictions. A preview of the section to be read is given by having the students read the title and make predictions. Independent thinking is encouraged as

knowledge from previous lessons is incorporated into the predictions. All student predictions should be recorded by the teacher, even those that will later prove to be inaccurate. Misconceptions are clarified by the reader through interaction with the text and in post-reading discussions. After reading small selections, the teacher prompts the students with questions about specific information. It is important for the teacher not to interrupt too often. The amount of reading is adjusted depending on the purpose and the difficulty of the text. The reading is broken into small sections, giving the students time to think about and process information. The teacher makes sure students can identify and understand important vocabulary. Words are explained in context.

This literacy strategy allows students to ask questions or make predictions using their own words in a non-threatening environment. Everyone is on the “same

page” and has the information right in front of them. New concepts and ideas are

connected to those learned inprevious lessons.

As the reading continues, questions are answered and predictions are confirmed, revised, or rejected. The predicting-reading-proving cycle continues throughout the lesson. The format can be varied with different activities and by integrating technology. Predictions made at the beginning of the lesson should be revisited at

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the end of the lesson as a closing activity. This review offers a comprehension

check. Questions such as, “Were you correct?” and, “What do you think now?”

help students examine the proof of their predictions.

Example of Narrative Text:

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Across an ocean, over lots of huge bumpy mountains, across three hot deserts, and one smaller ocean there lay the tiny town of Chewandswallow. In most ways, it was very much like any other tiny town. It had a Main Street lined with stores, houses with trees and gardens around them. A schoolhouse, about three hundred people, and some assorted cats and dogs. But there were no food stores in the town of Chewandswallow. They didn’t need any. The sky supplied all the food they could possibly want. The only thing that was really different about Chewandswallow was its weather. It came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everything that everyone ate came from the sky. Whatever the weather served, that was what they ate. But it never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.

The people could watch the weather report on television in the morning and they would even hear a prediction for the next day’s food. When the towns-people went outside, they carried their plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives and napkins with them. That way they would always be prepared for any kind of weather. If there were left-overs, and there usually were, the people took them home and put them in their refrigerators in case they got hungry between meals. The menu varied. By the time they woke up in the morning, breakfast was coming down.

After a brief shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs moved in followed by pieces of toast. And most of the time it rained milk afterwards. For lunch one day, frankfurters, already in their rolls, blew in from the northwest at about five miles an hour. There were mustard clouds nearby. Then the wind shifted to the east and brought in baked beans. A drizzle of soda finished off the meal. Dinner one night consisted of lamb chops, becoming heavy at times, with occasional ketchup. Periods of peas and baked potatoes were followed by gradual clearing, with a wonderful Jell-O setting in the west.

The Sanitation Department of Chewandswallow had a rather unusual job for sanitation department. It had to remove the food that fell on the houses and sidewalks and lawns. The workers cleaned things up after every meal and fed all the dogs and cats. Then they emptied some of it into the surrounding oceans for the fish and turtles and whales to eat. The rest of the food was put back into the earth so that the soil would be richer for the people’s flower gardens.

Life for the townspeople was delicious until the weather took a turn for the worse. One day there was nothing but Gorgonzola cheese all day long. The next day there was only broccoli, all overcooked. And the next day there were brussel sprouts and peanut butter with mayonnaise. Another day there was a pea soup fog. No one could see where they were going and they could barely find the rest of the meal that got stuck in the fog. The food was getting larger and larger, and so were the positions. The people were getting frightened. Violent storms blew up frequently. Awful things were happening.

One Tuesday there was a hurricane of bread and rolls all day long and into the night. There were soft rolls and hard rolls, some with seeds and some without. There was white bread and rye and whole wheat toast. Most of it was larger than they had ever seen bread and rolls before. It was terrible day. Everyone had to stay indoors. Roofs were damaged, and the Sanitation Department was beside itself. The mess took the workers four days to clean up, and the sea was full of floating rolls. To help out, the people piled up as much bread as they could in their backyards. The birds picked at it a bit, but it just stayed there and got staler and staler.

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The teacher begins the lesson by showing the book and saying:

The title of the book we're going to read today is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. What do this title and the picture make you think the story is about?

There was a storm of pancakes one morning and a downpour of maple syrup that nearly flooded the town. A huge pancake covered the school. No one could get it off because of its weight, so they had to close the school. Lunch one day brought fifteen-inch drifts of cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. Everyone ate themselves sick and the day ended with a stomachache. There was an awful salt and pepper wind accompanied by an even worse tomato tornado. People were sneezing themselves silly and running to avoid the tomatoes.

The town was a mess. There were seeds and pulp everywhere. The Sanitation Department gave up. The job was too big. Everyone feared for their lives. They couldn’t go outside most of the time. Many houses had been badly damaged by giant meatballs, stores were boarded up and there was no more school for the children. So a decision was made to abandon the town of Chewandswallow. It was a matter of survival. The people glued together the giant pieces of stale bread sandwich-style with peanut butter took the absolute necessities with them, and set sail on their rafts for a new land. After being afloat for a week, they finally reached a small coastal town, which welcomed them. The bread had held up surprisingly well, well enough for them to build temporary houses for themselves out of it.

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The teacher now reads until the story describes a tomato tornado and then stops and asks questions again.

Teacher : So, what happens in the town of Chewandswallow?

Kayla : All kinds of food starts coming down. Some of it is yucky like peanut butter, mayonnaise, and Brussels sprouts. And sometimes just too much of it comes down, like when they had a tomato tornado. Everything was a mess because the food was going crazy.

Teacher : What do you think the town will do about it? Why do you think so?

Frank : I think that they will hire a magician to put a spell on the clouds so that the weather will get straightened out because sometimes in the stories they can do that.

Harold : I think that they have to leave if they can, before they all die. That's what I would do.

Nancy : I think they need to find out who is in charge of making it rain so that they can ask them to stop it and make things go back to normal.

Teacher : Those are good answers. Now I want you all to decide which of those you think is the most likely to happen and let's continue reading.

The teacher reads the rest of the book.

Teacher : Did the people do what you thought they would do? Did you like how they solved

their problem?

Harold : Yes, that's what I thought they should do.

Frank : No, I still think they should've called on somebody to help them so that they wouldn't have to leave Chewandswallow and have to buy groceries in the store.

John : It might be about an old man that makes a magic spell on the sky so that meatballs

come down when he wants to eat them.

Lisa : I think it might be about a place where any kind of food you want rains down from

the sky.

Teacher : Let's read and see how close your predictions are.

Teacher then reads until the town of Chewandswallow is described. Teacher : Now, do you still agree with your predictions?

Children : It sounds like it's going to be about a place like Lisa described.

Teacher : What makes you think so?

Jessica : Because they haven't talked at all about an old man, the author only described the town and how food rained down for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Teacher : Would you like to live in a town like Chewandswallow?

Susan : I think it would be fun because then you wouldn't have to wait for your mom to

cook dinner. You could just catch some extra food and eat when you were hungry.

Tyler : I wouldn't like it because what would happen if it rained something heavy like barbecued ribs and you got hit on the head and got knocked out or died.

Teacher : Tyler brought up a good point. Could there be some problems with living in this town?

Jeff : It could rain heavy things and hurt you.

Maria : If there were a storm of ice cream or something mushy it would get really messy.

Teacher : Good, now that you're thinking about what a place like Chewandswallow would be

like, let's read on to see what happens in the town.

She reads until the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Teacher : Now what do you think is going to happen in the story?

James : It's about a town that rains food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and then one day the food starts coming down funny.

Teacher : What do you mean by funny?

James : I think that maybe too much food started coming down.

Teacher : What makes you think that maybe too much food started coming down?

James : Well, in the picture there is too much spaghetti in the road and the cars can't move.

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To use the DRTA, teachers give students a text selection and ask them to read the title, a few sampled lines of text, and examine the pictures to develop hypotheses about the text. Children generate hypotheses as they read from the text and from their own experiential backgrounds. Teachers may adapt the DRTA in such a way as to sample the most important elements of a narrative or exposition based on the text structure employed. If the children are assigned a narrative or story to read, the DRTA could be based on the important elements of a story grammar or map, as suggested by Beck and McKeown (1981). These elements include setting, characters, initiating events, problems, and attempts to solve problems, outcomes or resolutions. For example, consider the sample DRTA lesson constructed using the story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (1978).

The DRTA engages students in a step-by-step process that guides students through understanding and thinking about text. DRTA also promotes active comprehension. This metacognitive strategy teaches students to acquire and activate their own purposes for reading and develops their reading and thinking processes. During DRTA, readers are encouraged to review what they know about a topic, make predictions about what they will learn, and follow through with an evaluation of what they actually learned as well as how their assertions pertained to what they read. DRTA extends learning to high-order thought processes and is useful for processing all types of text (Tankersley, 2005). Some of the higher order thinking skills that DRTA requires students to use include: making

connections between interrelated elements of text, justifying their thought process and logical conclusions, and conclude meaning from the text. The skills can be

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practiced and refined to set the pathway toward independent reading and foster learner responsibility (Richardson and Morgan, 1997).

In addition to building comprehension strategies, DRTA is a useful tool for teachers to model accurate and appropriate reading skills (Richardson and Morgan, 1997). The prediction component especially encourages active reading and serves as a way for the reader to get involved and interested in the text. Making predictions about the text can help improve understanding (Richardson and Morgan) as well as help clear up any misconceptions about the topic (Billmeyer and Barton, 1998). Almasi (2003), in her book Teaching Strategic Processes in Reading, asserts that the DRTA, especially making predictions, helps students focus their attention on the text and encourages active reading

2.3.1 Purpose of DRTA

1. To encourage readers to be more aware of the strategies they use to interpret text.

2. To develop prediction skills.

3. To stimulate thinking and develop hypotheses about text which aid interpretation and comprehension.

4. To increase understanding of the purposes and effects of the structures and features of particular text.

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6. To encourage students to listen to the opinions of others and modify their own in light of additional information.

If used effectively, DRTA has the potential to equip students with the abilities to determine purposes for reading; extract, comprehend, and assimilate information; examine reading materials based on purposes for reading; and make decisions based upon information gleaned from reading. The DRTA can help students read, think, understand, and remember what they have read.

2.3.2 Advantages of DRTA

1. DRTA can helps students become critical readers. In this case, DRTA can give a freedom to the readers to examine their own thinking to raise questions and seeks answer diligently and boldly.

2. DRTA help the student who has difficulty in justifying his answers with information from the text since this strategy requires the reader to do so : a. This helps develop critical reading skills.

b. Also helps students develop reading comprehension. 3. It encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers. 4. It activates students’ prior knowledge.

5. It teaches students to monitor their understanding of the text as they're reading.

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DRTA helps students realize that prediction and verification of predictions are essential parts of the reading process. Students learn that by reading with a purpose, they can more easily focus their predictions. Good readers automatically predict and confirm what will or will not happen in the text and merge their

knowledge and ideas with the author’s. Poor readers do not make predictions or

verifications as they read. DRTA helps readers learn to make predictions before they read and verify those predictions as they read. Use DRTA with students who have difficulty comprehending text or who need help understanding that reading is an interactive process between the author and the reader. Teach DRTA in-group or one-on-one situations. After working through the strategy with the students (guided practice), encourage them to use it independently. Below are the

guidelines for helping students apply DRTA in each of the three stages of reading.

2.3.3 Disadvantages of DRTA

1. Only useful if students have not read or heard the text being used. 2. Classroom management may become a problem.

According to writer opinion, DRTA is an active strategy coding strategy

necessary for facilitating the recall of knowledge. As new knowledge is perceived, it is coded into either pre-existing schema or organized into a new script. In

essence schemata are organized mental structures that aid the learner’s ability to

understand and associate with what is being presented to them. DRTA is a reading comprehension strategy that is used in each of the three stages of reading

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(pre-reading, during (pre-reading, and post-reading). It emphasizes prediction (thinking ahead), verification (confirmation), and reading with apurpose.

2.4Teaching Reading Comprehension through DRTA Strategy in Narrative Text

Based on Russell Stauffer (1969) DR-TA encourages students to make predictions while they are reading. After reading segments of a text, students stop, confirm or revise previous predictions, and make new predictions about what they will read next.

Procedure:

1. Choose a text. This strategy works well with both fiction and expository texts.

2. Activate students’ prior knowledge. Have students read the title of the text, or tell them the topic of the text. Teacher asked students to build

brainstorm a list of ideas that come to mind when they think about the title or topic. Teacher writes the ideas on the board. Students will be making predictions about what they will read about in the text, so it is important

for teacher to activate students’ prior knowledge on a topic that will allow

them to make predictions about what might be included in the text. 3. Have students make predictions about what they will read about in the

text. Use all available clues, including the index, table of contents pictures, charts, and tables in the text. Ask students to explain how they came up with their predictions. At the end of every section, ask both predictive

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questions (“Were your predictions correct?” What has changed since your last prediction”, what do you think will happen next?”) And

comprehension questions (Who is…?” Why do you think the character did that?”. “What would you do if you were in that situation?”) the last do not

accept “I don’t know” answers.

4. Have students read a section of the text. Either has student volunteers read aloud, or have students read silently to themselves. If students are reading to themselves, be sure to indicate where students should stop reading. The teacher should predetermine stopping points. They should be points in the text that lend themselves to making predictions. In expository texts, good stopping points are often right after students have read a new heading or subheading in the text.

5. Ask students to confirm or revise prior predictions, and make new predictions. Students should be encouraged to explain what in the text is causing them to confirm and/or revise prior predictions, and what is causing them to make the new predictions they are making.

6. Continue steps 4 and 5 until students have finished reading.

7. When students have finished reading, ask questions that promote thinking and discussion. Sample questions:

a. What is the main point the author is making in this story/article? What supports your answer?

b. Do you agree with the author’s ideas or the character’s actions? Explain why or why not.

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d. What would you tell someone about this article/story if the person did not have time to read it?

e. Is this like something else you have read? Explain.

Teachers should follow the steps when creating a DRTA:

1. Determine the text to be used and pre-select points for students to pause during the reading process.

2. Introduce the text, the purpose of the DRTA, and provide examples of how to make predictions.

3. Use the following outline to guide the procedure:

D = Direct. Teachers direct and activate students' thinking prior to reading a passage by scanning the title, chapter headings, illustrations, and other materials. Teachers should use open-ended questions to direct students as they make predictions about the content or perspective of the text (e.g., "Given this title, what do you think the passage will be about?").

R = Reading. Students read up to the first pre-selected stopping point. The teacher then prompts the students with questions about specific information and asks them to evaluate their predictions and refine them if necessary. This process should be continued until students have read each section of the passage.

T = Thinking. At the end of each section, students go back through the text and think about their predictions. Students should verify or modify their predictions by finding supporting statements in the text. The teacher asks questions such as:

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1. What do you think about your predictions now?

2. What did you find in the text to prove your predictions? 3. What did you we read in the text that made you change your

predictions?

In the first lesson plan, narrative reading texts entitled “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” were distributed to the students. The first teaching – learning Activity started with Pre-activity, the teachers started class with greeting. The teacher giving the brainstorming the material based on their background knowledge. It is

used to build the students’ thought before they learn further about narrative text.

the story, “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby”. The teacher explained to the students

that today they will be reading the story “Brer and the Tar Baby”, students are

asked to look at the background picture on the poster and teacher giving some question based on the poster. The teacher explained to the students about the important events based on the poster. Teacher asked one of the following questions which will have them relate their own personal experience. For example

“Have you ever make someone angry?”. Next teacher asked students to answer

questions about each event that will predict what will happen in the story. For example Event 1: Would Brer Rabbit angry to Brer Fox? Then students brainstorming among their peers for the answer to these questions and write them on paper. The last is Post-activity, teacher using the poster, review the main

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events to verify comprehension. Teacher has a question and answer session with students having them review the main events in the story. Teacher closing the meeting with review and asked students what they have learned and making some summary based on the story.

In the second lesson plan, narrative reading texts entitled “The Monkey and The Crocodile” were distributed to the students. The first teaching – learning Activity started with Pre-activity, the teachers started class with greeting. The teacher giving the brainstorming the material based on their background knowledge. It is

used to build the students’ thought before they learn further about narrative text.

The teacher informed the material they are going to learn, the goals of learning to achieve and reading strategy the students use. The second is Whilst-Activity, teacher is displayed a poster showing pictures of the following important events of the story, “The Monkey and The Crocodile”. The teacher explained to the students that today they will be reading the story “The Monkey and The Crocodile”, students are asked to look at the background picture on the poster and teacher giving some question based on the poster. The teacher explained to the students about the important events based on the poster. Teacher asked one of the following questions which will have them relate their own personal experience.

For example “Did u ever lie?”. Next teacher asked students to answer questions

about each event that will predict what will happen in the story. For example Event 1: What did the monkey do in order to save his life? Then students brainstorming among their peers for the answer to these questions and write them on paper. The last is Post-activity, teacher using the poster, review the main

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In the third lesson plan, narrative reading texts entitled “The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane” were distributed to the students. The first teaching – learning Activity started with Pre-activity, the teachers started class with greeting. The teacher giving the brainstorming the material based on their background

knowledge. It is used to build the students’ thought before they learn further about

narrative text. The teacher informed the material they are going to learn, the goals of learning to achieve and reading strategy the students use. The second is Whilst-Activity, teacher is displayed a poster showing pictures of the following important

events of the story, “The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane”. The teacher

explained to the students that today they will be reading the story “The Little

Mailman of Bayberry Lane”, students are asked to look at the background picture

on the poster and teacher giving some question based on the poster. The teacher explained to the students about the important events based on the poster. Teacher asked one of the following questions which will have them relate their own

personal experience. For example “Have you ever got a letter?”. Next teacher asked students to answer questions about each event that will predict what will happen in the story. For example Event 1: What do you think in the second pictures? Then students brainstorming among their peers for the answer to these questions and write them on paper. The last is Post-activity, teacher using the

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poster, review the main events to verify comprehension. Teacher has a question and answer session with students having them review the main events in the story. Teacher closing the meeting with review and asked students what they have learned and making some summary based on the story.

2.5 Theoretical Assumption

Based on the literature review, it is assumed that DRTA is an effective technique

to be used in teaching reading in order to improve the students’ achievement in

reading comprehension of narrative text. As has already stated that in reading activity the students make contacts and communication with ideas that relate to their own thinking. It is important that students are able to interpret what they read and associate with their experience, but also see and identify the symbol in front of them. DRTA strategy requires the learners to be actively involved in teaching learning process based on the previous knowledge that the students have to construct their own understanding.

Therefore, the writer assumes that after doing a process on the information

contains in the text, automatically the students will get better understanding on the text, and as the result, it assumes that DRTA can be an effective strategy in

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2.6 Hypothesis

Based on the theories and the assumptions above, the writer formulates the hypothesis as follows:

Teaching through DRTA strategy can give a positive effect on students’ reading comprehension achievement at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan.

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III. RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter discusses the design of this research and how to collect the data on reading comprehension. The writer encloses the data collecting technique and the procedures of this research. The writer also gives the scoring system and how the data are analyzed.

3.1Research Design

The writer used one group pretest-posttest design (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:20). She used one class as the experimental class and another one as a try out class. This research is intended to see whether there is an increase of students’ reading comprehension in narrative text after being taught using DRTA strategy.

The pretest was conducted to measure students’ reading comprehension achievement before treatments, and the posttest was conducted to find the

students’ reading comprehension achievement after being taught using DRTA

strategy. Then, the means of both pretest and posttest was compared to find out the progress before and after the treatment.

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This research design conducting includes pretest, treatments, and posttest. The research design is represented as follow:

T1XT2

T1 : Pre-Test T2 : Treatments T3 : Post-Test

(Hatch and Farhady in Setiyadi 2006:131)

Firstly, a pre-test was administered to the students. Then, the students were given three treatments by using DRTA strategy. After that, a post-test was administered

to identify students’ reading comprehension achievement after they were taught through DRTA technique. If the average score of the pre-test (mean) is higher than the average score (mean) of the post-test, it indicates that DRTA strategy cannot be used to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement of narrative text. However, if the average score (mean) of the post-test is higher than the average score of the pre-test (mean), it shows that DRTA strategy can be used to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement of narrative text.

3.2Population and Sample

The population of the research was the first year students of SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan in first semester of 2012/2013 academic year. In this research, the writer chose the first year students to be investigated. The writer used two classes, one class as an experimental class, and another one as a try out

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class. In determining the experimental class, the writer used random sampling technique by using lottery, so that all the first year classes got the same chance to be sample in order to avoid subjectivity and to guarantee every class had the same opportunity.

3.3Data Collecting Technique and Instrument

In collecting the data the writer used the following strategy: 1. Giving Try-Out Test

It was done in order to know the level of difficulty and discrimination power, and also to find out the reliability. Therefore, 40 items were arranged and made before the students were given for pre-test and post-test items. The same items were used for the pre-test and post-test taken from try-out items.

2. Giving Pre-Test

Pre–Test was given before treatments in order to know the basic of students’ reading comprehension of narrative text.

3. Treatments

The treatments were given three times. 4. Giving Post-Test

Post-Test was given after giving treatment. The students were given the post-test in order to know the result of the class in teaching learning process whether they had progress or not.

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3.4Procedures of Collecting Data

In conducting this study, the writer conducted the following procedures:

1. Planning

There were some steps that were planned in order to make the research run well. The procedure of making planning of this research could be seen as follows: a. Preparing the Try-out

A kind of test (called Try-out test) that was given to the students was prepared. It used an objective test in form of 40 multiple choice items in 60 minutes time. It was done in order to know the level of difficulty,

discrimination power and also to find out the reliability. Split-half method was used to measure the reliability in which requires the writer to provide the items into two same groups, first half and second half.

b. Preparing the Pre-Test

A kind of test (called Pre-Test) that was given to the students was prepared. It used an objective test in form of 30 multiple choice items in 40 minutes time.

It was done to know the students’ reading comprehension before treatments.

c. Determining the material to be taught

The material that should be taught to the students was determined. The material was about narrative text. Each treatment was held for 80 minutes. d. Preparing the Post-Test

A kind of test (called Post -Test) that was given to the students was prepared.

It was done to know the result of students’ reading comprehension after

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achievement after taught through narrative text. The researcher used an objective test in form of 30 multiple choice items in 40 minutes time. It was done to find out whether there is any significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement after the treatments.

2. Application

After making the planning, the writer procedure which had been planned was applied. There were some steps that had been applied:

a. In the first meeting, try-out was given.

The test papers were administered to the students and the students were asked to do the test and the last, they answered in their answer sheet. This test was in the form of multiple choices that consisted of 40 items.

b. In the second meeting, pre-test was given.

This test was in the form of multiple choices that consist of 30 items. c. After giving the pre-test, the treatments consisting of three meetings were

conducted.

d. In the last meeting, post-test was given.

The test papers were administered to the students and the students were asked to do the test and the last, they were answer in their answer sheet. This test was in the form of multiple choices that consists of 30 items.

3.5 Research Instrument

The research instruments for collecting the data were pre-test and post-test. The writer used an objective test ; it was a multiple choice (MC) test which items consist of four options (A,B,C,D), since it was easy to correct and to give the

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score. The material was about narrative text, the researcher used 30 items for pre-test and 30 items for post-pre-test.

3.6 Try Out of Instrument

In doing this research, to prove whether the test items were applicable or not, the writer found the validity, the reliability, the level of difficulty and discrimination power of the test. It was done in order to know that 40 items before being given for pre-test and post-test items had a good quality or not. There are four criteria of a good test should be met: validity, reliability, reliability, level of difficulty, and discrimination power.

3.6.1 Validity of the Test

Validity refers to the extent to which the test measures what it was intended to measure. This means that it relates directly to the purpose of the test (Shohamy, 1985; 74). Validity is concerned with the study's success at measuring measure. In this research, to measure whether the test had good validity or not, the researcher analyzed its content and construct validity.

Content validity means that the test is good reflection of what has been taught and the knowledge which the teacher wants the students to know (Shohamy, 1985:74). It means that the items of the test should present the material being discussed. Then the test is determined according to the materials that have been taught to the students. In other words, the test is based on materials in the English curriculum, so that it can be said that the test has content validity since the test is good representation of material studied in the classroom.

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Construct validity examines whether the test is actually in line with the theory of what it means to know certain language skill (Shohamy, 1985:74). It means that the test item should really test the students or the test items should really measure

the students’ ability in listening comprehension. Therefore to know the construct

validity of test, then the researcher used table of specification to judge the validity of the test in order to know whether the test represented the materials that were discussed.

Table 1. Specification of the Validity test

No Skills of Reading Items Numbers Percentage

of Items

1 Determining main idea 19,24,28,30 13,3%

2 Finding specific information

1,3,7,10,13,17,18,20,22,23,26 36,6%

3 Inference 5,6,11 10%

4 Reference 12,25,29 13,3%

5 Vocabulary 2,4,8,9,14,15,16,21,27 30%

3.6.2 Reliability of The Test

To find out the reliability of the test, split-half technique was used. It required to split the test in two similar parts, first and second half (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:246). To measure the coefficient of the reliability between first and second half, Pearson Product Moment formula was used (See Appendix 11).

The formula is:



 2 1 2 Y X xy r

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Where,

r = coefficient reliability between 1st half and 2nd half X = total number of the 1st group

Y = total score of 2nd group

X = square of x

Y = square of y

Then to know the coefficient of the whole items, the writer used Spearman Brown Formula: 1 1 1 2 r r r_k   k

r = reliability of full test

r = reliability of half of the test The criteria of reliability are : 0.80 - 1.00 = very high 0.60 - 0.79 = high 0.40 - 0.59 = average 0.20 - 0.39 = low 0.00 - 0.19 = very low

(Hatch and Farhady, 1982:246)

3.6.3 Level of Difficulty

To know whether the test items were easy or difficult from the students’

perception who took the test, then the researcher found out the level of difficulty. To see the level difficulty, the researcher used this formula:

LD =

N R

Where,

LD = Level of difficulty

R = Number of the students who answer correctly N = Total number of the students

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The criteria are :

LD < 0.30 = Difficult LD = 0.30 – 0.70 = Satisfactory LD > 0.70 = Easy

(Heaton, 1986:178)

3.6.4 Discrimination Power

To see the discrimination power (see Appendix 10), the writer used the following formula:

DP = the proportion of upper SS – the proportion of lower SS ½ total number students

(Shohamy, 1985: 81)

The criteria are:

1. If the value is positive, it has discrimination because a large number or more knowledgeable students than poor students get the item correct. If the value is zero, it means no discrimination.

2. If the value is negative, it has negative discrimination because more low-level students than high low-level students get the item correct.

3. In general, the higher discrimination index, the better, in the classroom situation most items should be higher than 0.20 index.

(Shohamy, 1985: 82)

3.7 Scoring System

In scoring the results of students’ work, the researcher used Arikunto’s formula (1997: 212). The writer gave score for each correct answer 10 and calculated the

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Where:

S : The score of the test R : The right answers N : The total items

3.8 Data Analysis

In order to know the students’ progress in attempt to master the reading

comprehension of narrative text through DRTA strategy, the researcher computed

the students’ score by doing three activities:

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

b. Tabulating the results of the test and calculating the score of the pre-test and post-test.

c. Data analysis was done by tabulating the result of the test given, that was by statistically analyzing the data using statistical computerization i.e. repeated measures T-Test of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 16.0 for Windows to see whether or not the difference between pre-test and the post-test was significant, in which the significance was determined by p < 0.05. It was used as the data come from the same sample or known as paired data (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:114). To find out the significant difference of

students’ reading comprehension of narrative text, the researcher used T-Test,

while to find out the significant increase of students’ reading comprehension

100

N R S 

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achievement of narrative text, it can be seen from the gain score of pre-test and post-test.

3.9 Hypothesis Testing

After getting the mean of the pre-test and the post-test, the data was analyzed by using repeated measures T-Test in order to know the significance of the treatment effect. Hypothesis of this research:

“There was significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement

of narrative text after they are taught through DRTA strategy.”

The hypothesis was statistically analyzed by using Repeated Measures T-test that was used to draw the conclusion at the level of 0.05 (p < 0.05). It can be seen from 3 treatments result of try out, pre-test and post-test, because there is increase from 70.84 up to 77.51.

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V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1Conclusions

In line with the result of the data analysis, the researcher draws the conclusion as follows:

1. There is a significant increase of students’ achievement in reading

comprehension of narrative text taught through DRTA Strategy. This can be identified from the gain of the score that is 6.67 of students’ reading

comprehension achievement of narrative text. It can be seen from the mean of

students’ score pre-test and post-test which increase from 70.84 up to 77.51 and the increase is 6.67.

2. DRTA Strategy is appropriate and effective strategy to be used in increasing

students’ reading comprehension achievement using narrative text. The

students’ are very interested because the texts and the strategy are closely related. The texts they learned through past experience and the strategy they learned through their prior knowledge make it easy for them to understand the texts.

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5.2Suggestions

Referring to the conclusion above, the writer would like to propose some suggestions as follows:

1. English teachers are recommended to apply DRTA Strategy as one of the ways in teaching reading comprehension of narrative text because it can help the students in comprehending the text easier in terms, in content, in vocabulary, finding the specific information, reference, inference,

determining the main idea.

2. English teachers are suggested to apply this strategy when discussing a new topic, which is never discussed before.

3. English teachers are suggested to have creativity when they conduct teaching and learning so the students will be more interested in the lesson. For example when students could make a sentence only by seeing a picture shown by the researcher. Teachers must prepare instructional media such as pictures. So, will facilitate the learning process in the class.

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Bandar Lampung: Unila Press.

Universitas Lampung, 2009. Pedoman Penulisan Karya Ilmiah Universitas Lampung. Penerbit Unila. Bandar Lampung

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Where:

S : The score of the test R : The right answers N : The total items

3.8 Data Analysis

In order to know the students’ progress in attempt to master the reading

comprehension of narrative text through DRTA strategy, the researcher computed the students’ score by doing three activities:

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

b. Tabulating the results of the test and calculating the score of the pre-test and post-test.

100 N R S 

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3.9 Hypothesis Testing

“There was significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement of narrative text after they are taught through DRTA strategy.”

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V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1Conclusions

In line with the result of the data analysis, the researcher draws the conclusion as follows:

1. There is a significant increase of students’ achievement in reading

comprehension of narrative text taught through DRTA Strategy. This can be identified from the gain of the score that is 6.67 of students’ reading

comprehension achievement of narrative text. It can be seen from the mean of students’ score pre-test and post-test which increase from 70.84 up to 77.51 and the increase is 6.67.

2. DRTA Strategy is appropriate and effective strategy to be used in increasing students’ reading comprehension achievement using narrative text. The students’ are very interested because the texts and the strategy are closely related. The texts they learned through past experience and the strategy they learned through their prior knowledge make it easy for them to understand the texts.

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suggestions as follows: