Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In Indonesia, English language is considered as an important subject and the first foreign language that must be learned and has been taught from elementary school as a local content subject, and junior high school, senior high school and up university as compulsory content subject. Based on the Decree of the minister of Education and culture number 22 of 2006 about content standard, the graduation of standard competence and the objective of English teaching at junior high school or MTs that called “ Mengembangkan kompetensi berkomunikasi dalam bentuk lisan dan tulis untuk mencapai tingkat literasi functional,memiliki kesadaran pentingnya bahasa Inggris untuk meningkatkan daya saing bangsa dalam masyarakat global ” 1 Besides that in learning process, Harmer said there are four basic language skills which students have to learn. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. 2 In Kurrikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP reading in English Education in Indonesia is one of competence standards which should be learnt is: to comprehension the meaning of short functional text and essay in the form of narrative, descriptive text and news item in the context of daily activities. 3 Based on kisi-kisi ujian nasional SMPMTs 2014-2015 reading competence has been taught in junior high school especially in the third grade to contain those kinds of texts and to comprehend them. Thus, students in the third grade have to comprehend the kinds of text. One of them is narrative text to identify orientation, complication and resolution. 1 Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan BSNP, Standar Isi, Standar Kompetensi dan Kompetensi Dasar SMPMTs, Jakarta, 2006, p. 123 2 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching,New York:Longman,1991, p. 16 3 BSNP, op.cit., p. 132 However, reading is activity more people read to find out information from newspaper textbook, internet and other source, to gain their knowledge to enrich their vocabulary or just pleasure. According to Harmer, reading is not beneficial for their career, study or simply for pleasure but also reading is useful for language acquisition. 4 In English Education field, reading skill would be improving students to understand the text or integrate new idea from the text. According to Baumel, it does not need to comprehend the content of the message but also need to understand the language used in the text. 5 However, some people or students’ in English Education in Indonesia get a difficulties in comprehend the text. Based on the writer’s unstructured interview with English teacher in April 2014, the writer found the some problems in reading activities for students such as: First, students have limited number of vocabulary. It is the problem for students who make them fail to answer the question because they didn’t know the meanings of many words on the text. Second, students have different background knowledge that didn’t have connect with the unfamiliar text. Third, teaching and learning environment are problems that make them not interest in the subject. Based on preliminary study when the writer conducted PPKT, she found that there were teachers who teach English in MTsN II Pamulang used reading tests such as summative test, mid- test, final test to measure the students’ ability to comprehend the text in English. Besides, the wri ter’s experience the students do not understand the schematic structure of the story about orientation, complication and resolution. Moreover, this problem that make them to get hard to concentrate plot. 4 Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English New Edition, New York:Pearson Edition, 2007, p. 99 5 J.M.S Baumel, Reading Comprehension: Research Inform Us. http:www.greatschools.org.special- education Next, the students got bored when they read long paragraph, so students tended to ask other students or use dictionary to get the unfamiliar vocabulary. According to curriculum book of MTsN II pamulang has minimum mastering criteria MMC score or Kriteria Ketuntasan minimum KKM in English subject the gains score 75 seventy five. In the fact, the studen ts’ on reading comprehension in narrative text still low to comprehend the text. It is support by the English teacher told me, about 10 students could achieve KKM but 26 students could not achieve KKM from 36 students in the third grade of regular class. Teachers in Indonesia use a traditional method like grammar-translation method to teach reading, such as teacher asked students to read and translate the text into bahasa Indonesia. In addition, Sudjianto gives opinion from his article said grammar-translation method still use in teaching of second language like learning Japanese useful for translate other literature written and acquisition other culture of target language. 6 It is not completely bad method but students need different atmosphere which makes them relaxed and motivate them in learning process like a colorful, making music etc because grammar-translation method emphases in grammar rules and translate from one language to other language. Based upon the writer’s experience during the Praktek Profesi Keguruan Terpadu PPKT at MTsN II Pamulang, almost six teachers in learning process didn’t give pay attention to make students relax and interest in reading activity. They gave the students exercise without create the atmosphere fun and interest for them. Moreover, the students cannot focus on what they read during reading activity because the environment of classroom does not support them to read well. As the English teacher, the teacher has to create interesting model of teaching and atmosphere of learning process which make student relaxed and fun to student comprehending in reading narrative text. However, the writer arranges to help students to comprehend of reading narrative text to decrease their anxiety 6 Sudjianto. “Metode Pengajaran bahasa Asing dan Implikasinya terhadap Pengajaran Bahasa Jepang”, http:file.upi.eduDirektoriFPBSJUR._PE , 2010 by suggetopedia or dsuggestopedia. According to Jack Richard and Rodger, Suggestopedia is a modern methodology in teaching foreign language that come from Bulgaria. 7 It is developed by a Bulgarian doctor and psychotherapist, Georgi Lozanov. It involved physical activities, educational, artistic and musical 8 . Students must be comfortably relaxed in learning process by using soft music or classical as the background. The teacher brings the material and motivate for students. To create the classroom comfortable in reading process without students under pressure to get ideas from they read. Therefore, based on the explanation above, the writer is eager to conduct study about the effectiveness of suggestopedia on students’ reading comprehension in narrative text A Quasi- Experiment Study at the Third Grade Students of MTsN II Pamulang as her “skripsi” title.

B. Identification of Problem