THE EFFECT OF USING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN READING NARRATIVE TEXT.

THE EFFECT OF USING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING
STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN
READING NARRATIVE TEXT

A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

PUTRI RAMADANI LUBIS
Registration Number. 2103321031

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014

ABSTRACT

Lubis, Putri Ramadani. 2103321031. The Effect of Using Problem Based

Learning Strategy on Students’ Achievement in Reading Narrative Text. A
Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University
of Medan. 2014.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether Problem Based Learning
Strategy significantly affected on students’ achievement in reading narrative text.
This study was an experimental research design. The population of this study was
grade XI students of SMA Swasta Bhayangkari-2 Rantau Prapat with the total
number 60 of students as samples taken by using cluster sampling technique. The
students were divided into two groups, namely experimental and control group.
The experimental group was taught by using Problem Based Learning Strategy,
while the control group was taught by using Direct Instruction. The instrument of
collecting data was multiple choice tests of pre-test and post-test. To obtain the
result of the reliability of the test, the Kuder Richardson formula (KR21) was
used. The result of the calculation showed that the reliability of the test was 0.80,
which means that the reliability of the test was high. The data were analyzed by
using t-test formula. The result of the analysis showed that tvalue was higher than
ttable (3.65 > 2.00) at the level of significance 0.05 with the degree of freedom (df)
58. It means that there is a effect of using Problem Based Learning Strategy on
the students’ achievement in reading narrative text.

Keyword : Problem Based Learning Strategy, Reading Achievement.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The greatest gratitude is expressed to Allah SWT, the Almighty and Most
Beneficial for His Grace, Guidance, Praise, Honor and Mercy that has been given
to writer so that she finally accomplishes her thesis entitled “The Effect of Using
Problem Based Learning Strategy on Students’ Achievement in Reading Narrative
Text”.
This thesis is submitted to the English Department, Faculty of Languages
and Arts, State University of Medan as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for
taking the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan. During the process of completing this
thesis the researcher has worked with a great number of people, through their
guidance, suggestions, and comments for which the researcher would like to
extend her sincere gratitude and special thanks to:

 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of
Medan.

 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Languages and Arts Faculty,
State University of Medan.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department,

 Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of English Education Study
Program.

 Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed., her Thesis consultant.

 Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd, Drs. Willem Saragih, Dipl, Appl., M.Pd
and Johannes Jefri Gultom, S.Pd. M.Hum., her Thesis Examiners.

 All Lecturers who have taught her in this English Department for giving
knowledge, advices and amazing study experiences.

 Sihat Ridwanto Siregar, S.Pd, the Principal of SMA Swasta Bhayangkari-2
and Era Atma Dara Damanik, the English Teacher.

 Presen Lepeli Lubis and Leginah, her beloved parents, Fitri Elfiani and
Suriyadi her sister and brother in law, Dwi Fahrezi and Wulandari, her
lovable nephews, Alm. Sofyan Kadry Lubis, her beloved

big family.

cousin and her

 Her beloved friends,the students of English Department, Misida, Nova,
Rizka, Rafiqa,Soraya, Dika and also the other students in

Extension

A,

B, C 2010.

 Her special one, Ade Pratama Siagian, Her beloved close friends Febry
Nasution, M. Yusuf Sipahutar A.Md, Sertu Muh. Ravi Ravsanjani T, and
all people who cannot be mentioned one by one, she says

thank you.

Last but not least, the researcher resizes that her thesis still has some

weakness and mistakes. Thus, she would be grateful to accept any suggestion and
correction from anyone for the better writing.

Medan,
January 2015
The Researcher,

Putri Ramadani Lubis
Reg. Number 2103321031

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACK ………………………………………………………..
ACKNOWNLEDGEMENT ………………………………………
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………….
LIST OF TABLE …………………………………………………..
LIST OF APPENDIXES …………………………………………..

Page
i
ii

iv
vi
vii

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION …………………………………
A. The Background of Study …………………………………
B. The Problem of Study …………………………………….
C. The Objective of Study …………………………………...
D. The Scope of Study ……………………………………….
E. The Significant of Study ………………………………….

1
1
5
5
5
6

CHAPTER II : THE REVIEW OF LITERATURE ……………..
A. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………

1. Students’ Achievement ……………………………….
2. Reading ……………………………………………….
a. Purpose of reading ………………………………..
b. Reading Comprehension ………………………….
c. Level of Comprehension ………………………….
3. Kind of Text ………………………………………….
a. Recount Text ……………………………………..
b. Report Text ……………………………………….
c. Narrative Text …………………………………….
d. Procedure Text ……………………………………
e. Descriptive Text …………………………………..
4. Narrative Text …………………………………………
5. Problem Based Learning ………………………………
a. Definition of PBL …………………………………
b. Steps of PBL ………………………………………
B. Conceptual Framework ……………………………………
C. Hypothesis ……………………………………………….

7
7

7
7
8
10
12
13
13
13
14
14
14
15
17
17
18
19
20

CHAPTER III : THE METODOLOGY OF RESEARCH ……….
A. Research Design …………………………………………...

B. Population and Sample …………………………………….
C. Instrument of Collecting Data …………………………….
D. Scoring The Test …………………………………………..
E. Procedure of The Study …………………………………...
F. The Validity and Reliability of The Test ………………….
G. The Technique of Analyzing Data …………………………
H. Statistical Hypothesis ………………………………………

21
21
21
22
23
23
24
25
26

CHAPTER IV DATA AND ANALYSIS ……………………….
A. The Data ……………………………………………….

B. Data Analysis ………………………………………….
C. Testing Hypothesis …………………………………….
D. Research Finding ………………………………………

27
27
27
37
38

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ………..
A. Conclusion ……………………………………………..
B. Suggestions …………………………………………….

39
39
39

REFERENCES …………………………………………………...

41

LIST OF TABLE
Table

Page

Table 2.1 The Example of Narrative Text ………………............

16

Table 3.1 Research Design ………………………………………

21

Table 3.2 Table of Specification ………………………………..

22

Table 4.1 Table Score of Pre and Post Test in Experimental
Group ................................................................................

28

Table 4.2 Table Score of Pre and Post Test in Control
Group ................................................................................

29

LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDICES

Page

A. Lesson Plan ……………………………………………………..

42

B. Question Sheets …………………………………………………

78

C. The Scores of Pre Test and Post Test of Experimental Group ….

88

D. The Scores of Pre Test and Post test of Control Group ………..

89

E. The Scores of Reliability of The Test …………………………..

90

F. The test for homogeneity of pre test and post test ……………..

92

G. The Calculation of T-Test for Experimental Group ……………

96

H. The Calculation of T-Test for Control Group ………………….

97

I. The Table of T-Table …………………………………………...

99

J. Students’ Answer Sheets of Pre Test and Post Test ……………

100

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study
English is an international language. Living in this globalization era makes
people have a must to master English, because English has an important role in
the various kinds of activities, such as : communication, technology, economics,
politics, etc. In short, English language is very important to be learnt now.
English as a foreign language in Indonesia is taught from elementary level
up to university. Learning English means that people have to learn four basic
language skills, they are : listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Reading is one
of the important skills in teaching English ,as Sharan (1999) states that reading is
an essential skill for English as a second or foreign language students (ESL/EFL) ;
ESL is the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages and
EFL is a traditional term for the use or study of the English language by nonnative speakers countries where English is generally not a local medium of
communication. For many studies, reading is the most important skill to be
masteredbecause it helps people to keep their minds active and growing. With
strengthened reading skills, ESL/EFL readers will make greater progress and
attain greater development in all academic areas.
Reading as one of the four language skills becomes very important and
cannot be separated in language learning because students have to read any kinds
of book to increase their knowledge, and most of scientific books available are
written in English. In line with this, McDonough and Shaw (2003) states that as a

skill, reading is clearly one of the most important. Many instance around the
world argue that reading is the most important foreign language skill, particularly
in cases where students have to read English material for their own specialist
subject but may never have to speak the language , such cases are often referred to
as English as a library language.
There are three reasons to recommend reading as one of the language
programs in English as Foreign Language (EFL) class. First, students can usually
perform at higher level in reading than in other skills; second, they can accurately
understand written materials that they have not yet prepared to discuss them
accurately; third, reading is a productive skill. Although one may read fictions for
pleasure, one often reads nonfictions with eyes to perform the pleasure reading
which serves to integrate a variety of language activities and purposes. Scientific
and technological information written in English are available in large number
nowadays. To access such information, the students need to be able to read and
understand written sources.
In fact, reading is not as easy as people think, it is not easy to have the
ability of drawing meaning from the printed page and interpret the information
appropriately. Consequently, students will need to read the text two or three times
to get even approximate sense. All these take time and make students give up
because of lack of motivation. Reading passage is bound to be difficult for them
and they predict that the whole reading passage will be frustrating.
Sometimes, the students are bored with the material which are presented in
reading comprehension tasks. Soejoto (2002) states that one of the greatest

problem in reading comprehension faced by junior, senior, and university students
in Indonesia are still poor. Although some teachers have used many strategies in
reading instructions to make students interested in doing reading comprehension
tasks, yet they just cheat or guess the answer of the questions or the result was
unsatisfied in doing reading tasks.
It is the fact thatmajority of the students are not independent readers and
do not achieve good ability of it. The fact shows that when the students face the
test, some of them cannot use the time wisely and answer the question
correctly.From the facts above, the researcherhad decided to use a strategy which
would help the students to achieve good ability in reading narrative texts. The
major strategy that used is Problem Based Learning Strategy (PBL)
The PBL format actually originated from the medical school, and is now
used in other schools. The goals of PBL are to help the students develop flexible
knowledge, effective problem solving skills, self-directed learning, effective
collaboration skills and intrinsic motivation. Problem-based learning is a style of
active learning.In PBL classroom, the teacher provides students with appropriate
problem to work on, assist them in identifying and accessing the materials and
equipment necessary to solve the problem, gives necessary feedback and support
during the problem solving process, and evaluates the students participation and
products, with the goal of helping them develop their problem solving as well as
their language and literacy skills. Sanjaya (2006) states that PBL is good
technique in understanding, increasing, critical thinking, developing and
interesting.

Based on the research report result about using PBL to reading
comprehension, Hasibuan (2010) shows that teaching reading comprehension of
narrative text by using PBL significantly affect the students’ reading
comprehension. Prakash (2013) shows that PBL activities with authentic media
and reading procedure significantly noticeable positive enhancements in the
academic writing of the students. Rahman (2010) shows that teaching poem by
using PBL improve students’ ability speaking. In Science, Nasruddin (2010)
proves that teaching biology by using PBL improves students’ ability in studying
of biological variety. In physics, Mutoharoh (2011) shows that teaching physics
by using PBL makes students learn more active and creative to solve the problem.
By having those research report above, it can be concludedthat Problem Based
Learningstrategy is good to be applied in doing research.Beside the strategy, the
researcher carried the reading comprehension focuses to narrative text.
The purpose of narrative text is to entertain, gain and hold reader's interest;
however, writers of memoirs and novels often relate complex stories that examine
universal ideas, events, and issues. In addition, speakers, advertisers, and
politicians use stories to persuade us to accept or reject an idea. In effect, students
need to learn the purposes and methods of narration in order to understand the
narrative framework and to eliminate frustration when they read.Narrative
framework is part of involving someone that relates the main story to another
character, and it shows how someone affects character in the present. The
narrative framework can help the readers recognize person and character as they
read and give them ideas for writing the own words. Narrative is not simply about

entertaining reading audience although it generally always does so, but the
problem of narrative itself must also find some way of being resolved. Good
problem solving skills are necessary part of reading narrative.

B. Problem of Study
Based on the background of study, the research problem is formulated as
follows :“Does problem based learning strategy affect the students’ achievement
in reading narrative text ?”

C. Objective of Study
The objective of study is to find out the effect of using Problem Based
Learning on the students’ achievement in reading narrative text.

D. Scope of Study
It has been mentioned in the background that the texts being discussed
only deals with narrative text. This research describeshow problem based learning
strategy gives lines for teachers and administrators on implementing Problem
Based Learning Strategy in classes and outlines of the benefits and challenges of
Problem Based Learning Strategy approach with the students.
The scope of study just focused on narrative text. Eventhough, base on
levels of comprehension, there are four levels of reading comprehension namely :
literal comprehension, interpretive comprehension, critical comprehension and
creative comprehension. Butthis in study, the researcherlimited on literal and

interpretive comprehension. Because the population that used was still the second
year student of senior high school.

E. Significant of Study
This research finding are expect to be useful for :
1. English teachers who are expected to improve their English teaching quality
in teaching learning process.
2. The students who are expected to learn more about reading skills and get
motivation in improving their reading skill.
3. The researchers who may apply the same strategy in conducting further
research.

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
The data analysis showed that Problem Based Learning Strategy (PBL)
affected students’ reading comprehension. Based on the calculation of t-test which
showed that ttable at level significance of 0.05 with (df) 58, or 3.65>2.00 at level
significance of 0.05 with (df) 58. The students could improve their ability in
comprehending the text when they were taught by using Problem Based Learning
Strategy (PBL).
Due to the research finding of this study, it is obtained that the students
who are taught reading narrative text by using Problem Based Learning Strategy
(PBL) have higher achievement than the students who are taught by using Direct
Instruction.It means that the hypothesis states that Problem Based Learning
Strategy (PBL) gives an effect on the students’ reading achievement in reading
narrative text is accepted.

B. Suggestions
Since teaching reading comprehension by using Problem Based Learning
Strategy (PBL) has a significant effect to improve students’ achievement in
reading narrative text, it is suggested that:
1. English teachers to apply the Problem Based Learning Strategy (PBL) in
teaching reading comprehension particularly in reading narrative text.

2. Students follow the steps on Problem Based Learning Strategy (PBL) to
improve their achievement in reading comprehension particularly in reading
narrative text.
3. Other researchers who may apply Problem Based Learning Strategy (PBL)
for further research. It is suggested for them to manage the sufficient time
when applying the cooperative learning group in Problem Based Learning
Strategy (PBL) as it needs more time to be managed.