Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Reading is one of four skills that must be mastered by university students of English Education Program. Reading taught in University becomes demanded skill which students have to master. Through reading, they are able to comprehend the content of the subject matters and catch the information. Thus, it is very important for advanced level students to master reading skill. In university level, there are Reading 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each class of reading has its own syllabus. Based on the reading syllabus, the lecturer has developed so far, the students at the first semester are expected to be able to find main idea, find specific information or details, make inferences, and predict the word meanings from context. Based on preliminary research, students’ reading comprehension of 1G, the first grade students of English Teaching Department, IKIP PGRI Madiun is still low, worrying, unsatisfying, and far from the expectation. It is indicated by the following situations: When they were asked questions, they had no response. They also kept silent during lecturing. They were passive and had no courage to share ideas with their friends and tended to work individually. They were not able commit to user xvi to spot or to find the main idea of each paragraph. They had difficulties to differentiate between the main idea and supporting details. They could not identify the unstated information from text. They could not relate one clue to another. And they were not able to recognize the word meanings from the context. There were three causes of reading problems; from the students, the teacher and the class conditions. First, the students had low mastery of vocabulary. Furthermore, the students had low motivation to learn in reading class. They did not have curiosity and interest on the passage which will be read. The material was too long and too difficult. Besides, some of them often came late to the class. Some others often asked permission to go outside. In addition, students had lack of guided session in group activity. Second, the teacher less monitored the students’ activities. The teaching learning process was monotonous. The teacher seldom used various techniques to make the students become better readers. The technique which was applied during teaching-learning process made the students passive. Teacher dominated class with broad oral explanation so that the students faced some difficulties in understanding the passage. The teachers just read the passage and discussed with the whole class so the students did not have time to share their ideas with their friends about the passage freely. Moreover, the teacher’s explanation was considered fast. Third, the class condition is not alive, uninspiring and boring. Instead of having made a crowd in the class, students stayed silent when they were in reading class. Badly, when they are asked, most answers would be “keeping silent”, “smiling”, and “I do not understand.” Most of them could not participate actively in reading class. commit to user xvii To solve this problem, the researcher proposes the use of Peer Tutoring technique that can be applied in teaching reading. Peer Tutoring is a collaborative learning strategy in which students alternate between the role of tutor and tutee in pairs or groups. Peer tutoring refers to students working in pairs to help one another learn material or practice an academic task. Peer tutoring works best when students of different ability levels work together Kunsch, Jitendra, Sood in http:www.nichcy.orgResearch EvidenceForEducationpagesMathPeerTutoring. aspx. During a peer tutoring assignment, it is common for the teacher to have students switch roles partway through, so the tutor becomes the tutee. Since explaining a concept to another person helps extend one’s own learning, this practice gives both students the opportunity to better understand the material being studied. In addition, Peer tutoring is a type of instructional strategy in which students are taught by their peers, who have been trained and supervised by the classroom teacher. Peer tutoring involves having students work in pairs, with another student of the same age or grade. Peer tutoring is an extremely powerful way to improve student academic, social, and behaviors. Gresham in http:www.lehigh.eduprojectreach teachers peer_tutoringpeer_tutoring_step_1.h tm Peer tutoring works for six reasons: first, students have more opportunities to respond to academic material. In other words, they have more opportunities to practice what they are learning by talking about what they are learning. commit to user xviii Second, students receive feedback and error correction immediately and more frequently. In large group or teacher-directed settings, it is impossible to provide feedback and error correction to every student for every response. With peer tutoring, students receive feedback and correction immediately for every response. Third, students are engaged in active learning, not passive learning. For example, when using peer tutoring, students are actively asking each other questions, responding, correcting mistakes, and providing positive feedback, as opposed to simply watching and listening to the teacher passive learning. Active learning has been shown to be more effective in promoting student achievement. Fourth, many students tend to learn more and experience more engagement and “on-task” behavior when instruction is at a brisk pace. Peer tutoring allows for a faster pace as students are more frequently responding to academic material than in a large-group setting. Peer tutoring also allows for students to be matched based on their learning style, in other words, students who learn better at a slower pace may be paired together, as can be students who learn better at a pace that is more brisk, thus allowing for individual adaptation in instruction. Fifth, Students are more “on-task” and motivated to learn, which means they are less likely to engage in behaviors that are disruptive or problematic. Sixth, Peer tutoring provides students with valuable opportunities to practice their social skills in a structured environment, whereby the teacher can directly monitor social interaction and provide feedback as necessary. commit to user xix Therefore, this technique is beneficial because students have a chance to be both the tutor and tutee. The roles are equitable, which can promote an environment of acceptance. Peer Tutoring gives students the opportunity to make choices throughout the learning process. By making choices, students enhance their self-management skills, and enhance control over learning and cooperation with others. Furthermore, students are accountable for monitoring and evaluating peer performance. In addition, student can be more active during lecturing and has high motivation in teaching learning process. Thus, it is believed that Peer tutoring can improve students’ ability in reading.

B. Formulation of the Problems