A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER TECHNIQUE AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 PRINGSEWU

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

English as first language in Indonesia is a compulsory subject at formal education settings, from Junior High School up to University. Recently, English has also been introduced to students of elementary school, starting at first grade. The curriculum states that SMA/ MA students should be able to use the language in informational level that is expected to access knowledge by the language skills (Depdiknas, 2006: 307). Based on the reason that students are expected to get information for increasing their knowledge which is mostly written in English. Moreover, the curriculum used is text based curriculum so that reading dominates the teaching materials in almost English text books.

Reading is a process used for learning that inseparable from any kinds of learning including language learning. In this activity, students are in the process of

comprehending the content of the text given by the teacher. In the process, the students do some task that are given such as finding certain information and main ideas from the texts and gathering the general description from the content of the texts. When the students can not get something from what he reads, he will not get the knowledge which is a part of learning.

To gather the knowledge from the text, it is important for students to have a good reading comprehension. Without comprehension, reading would be empty and meaningless. Comprehension is not only intended to know what the letters stand for, but also involved power of fully understanding. Reading comprehension requires motivation, mental frameworks for holding the ideas, concentration and good study techniques. There are many ways to be good at reading such as; the readers should know the purpose in reading, they also should have awareness of type of material they are reading, and kinds of learning strategies can also be used in reading that can help them in comprehending the reading text.

In fact, not everyone is good at reading. In general, students still have difficulty in comprehending the idea in a reading text. Nurmalasari (2005) found that students in SMAN 5 Bandar Lampung had difficulty in comprehending reading texts. Some factors that cause the students’ difficulties in comprehending the text she found in her research, are: (1) interpreting the new vocabulary, (2) unphrasing reading, (3) interest in the materials (the text), (4) the lack of schemata/ background knowledge about the text, (5) ignoring reading technique.

These conditions show that reading is not a simple task to do for some people. For those people reading can be a painful and boring activity.

There are many factors that might influence students’ problem in reading. One may have difficulties to comprehend a passage because of some problems such as unfamiliar code in which the text is expressed, the amount of previous knowledge that reader brings to the text, the complexity of the concept expressed, and

one of the most important factors is the reading strategy used in the class. The students are lack of effective reading strategy. As the way out of this problem, the readers need a more creative reading strategy to overcome the problems. They need to be familiar with many kinds of reading strategy that can help them comprehend the text much better.

Among many techniques that can be applied in teaching reading comprehension is translation technique. This technique belongs to Grammar Translation Method and still widely used by English teachers in Indonesia until now. When applying this technique the students are supposed to be able to read a reading passage written in target language and translate the target language into the students’ native language. Many English teachers tend to use this technique since it is easier to present language material in the classroom and evaluate the process of language teaching. Moreover, the medium of instruction is native language, which is used to explain conceptual problems and to discuss the use of particular grammatical structure. Using the native language for the purpose of instruction is believed to give language learners a set of clear objective and a clear of sense of achievement. The students also need sense of security, thus the using of native language will provide it.

Another technique that can be applied in teaching reading comprehension is information transfer technique. This technique is important to help the students to understand the text by means of nonverbal device. An information transfer exercise involves the transfer or change of information from one into another form. The students are presented with a written text and provided incomplete

stimuli that have to be completed with information drawn from the text. Unlike many instructional tools that just have one purpose, information transfer technique is flexible and endless in application. It can be used to improve anyone’s learning ability in any kind of texts, and the kinds of information transfer exercises are unlimited. Moreover, information transfer may include ordering sequence of pictures, comparing text and pictures and completing documents. Or the students look at the information in the form of diagram, chart or picture and then they transfer it into a written form.

Nur (2005) at SMA Al- Kautsar did research dealing with the use of information transfer technique. However, she focused on the students’ perception on teaching reading comprehension through information transfer technique. The result of her research was 100% students (twenty one students) told that the exercise was the most interesting activity and 90 % students (19 of 21 students) told that they have more understanding to the content of the text through this technique.

According to the statement above, the researcher is intended to compare students’ reading comprehension achievement between students who are taught using information transfer technique and translation technique.

B. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the background of the problem above, the writer formulates the problem as follows:

1. Is there any significant difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement between those who are taught through information transfer

technique and those who are taught translation technique at the first year students of SMAN 2 Pringsewu?

C. The Objective of the Research

In line with the research problem above, the objectives of the research are : 1. To find out whether there is significant difference of students’ reading

comprehension achievement between those who are taught through

information transfer technique and those who are taught through translation technique at the first year students of SMAN 2 Pringsewu.

D. The Use of the Research

The uses of the research are:

a. Theoretically, to verify the previous theory dealing with theories in this research.

b. Practically, to be a consideration for English teachers that information transfer technique can be used as an alternative technique in teaching reading comprehension

E. Scope of the Research

The research is focused on students’ reading comprehension achievement. This quantitative research was conducted to the first year students of SMA Negeri 2 Pringsewu.

In the research, the information transfer and translation were used as the technique to teach the students. The researcher limited the type of text being used in the research into descriptive text. Since this type of the text belongs to curriculum of first year students of senior high school. According to KTSP 2006 there are some sort of texts that should be comprehended by the first year students of senior high school, which is narrative text, news item, and descriptive. Descriptive text is chosen since it allows many forms of the exercise involve the transfer or change of information. Then, the topic that chosen are describing people, places, and buildings.

F. Definition of Key Terms

 Reading comprehension is an active process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning.

 Information transfer technique is strategy that requires the students to process deeply the information in which the exercise involves the transfer or change of information from one form to another form. During the transfer the information remains substantially the same but the form of information changes.

 Translation technique is a technique in which the students transfer the thought and ideas from one language (source of language) to other language (target language).

 Descriptive text is a text that gives vivid details of how something or someone looks.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Concept of Reading Comprehension

Reading is the cognitive process of deriving meaning from written or printed text. It is supported by Clark and Silberstein (1987) who defined reading is as an active process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Furthermore, Grellet (1981) mentions that reading as the process of understanding a written text, means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. It means that the students are required being able to get a lot of information based on what they are reading in the text. Paulston (1967: 157) in Novalia (2008: 10) explains that reading is the most important skill of all English skill in term of transferring knowledge, idea, information, science, technology etc. It means that through reading, the readers will know any information of the world nowadays that they do not know.

According to Heilman, Blair and Rupley (1981: 4) there are some basic aspects of reading:

1. Reading is interacting with language that has been coded into print.

2. The product of the interacting with the language has been printed should be comprehension.

4. Reading is an active and ongoing process that is affected directly by individual interaction with his environment.

Moreover, they said that reading comprehension is a process of making sense of written ideas through meaningful interpretation and interaction with the language. They categorize reading comprehension into three levels:

1. Literal Comprehension

Literal comprehension is the process of understanding the ideas and information explicitly states in the passage such as: knowing the meaning of the words, recall the details directly states or paraphrase in own words, understanding of grammatical clues, subject, verb, pronouns, conjunction, recall of main idea explicitly states and knowledge of sequence of information presented in the passage.

2. Interpretative Comprehension

Interpretative comprehension means understanding the ideas and information that is not explicitly states in the passage. For instance: to understand the author’s tone, purpose and attitude, infer the factual information, main ideas, comparison, cause and effects relationship and also summarize the story content. 3. Critical Comprehension

Critical comprehension is analyzing, evaluating and personally reacting to the information presented in a passage.

Smith (1978: 166) conveys that reading is a process of understanding the text in term of questions that the reader formulates about the text. He also states that in reading, the readers should be able to comprehend the text and memorize what they have read. It is also supported by Dallman ( 1983: 23) who states that reading

is more than recognition of words or than merely knowing what each letter of alphabets stand for, it needs comprehension as well. Without comprehension, there is no reading process that takes place. It is useless if the readers or students only want to look at each letter of alphabet in the written text. Reading is the process of gathering information, ideas and new knowledge from the texts.

Smith (1978: 15) defines comprehension in reading as a matter of “making sense” of text, of relating written language to what we know already and to what we want to know. Comprehension does not identifying or even examining in order to reduce uncertainty. Reading always involves asking questions of a text and comprehension ensues to the extent that such questions are answered.

Moreover, Harvey and Goudvis (2000) in Novalia (2008: 11) tell that a good reader is able to sift and sort through the text and pull out the essential or key ideas while the struggling reader tends to pay attention to everything in the text. It means that to comprehend the text, the reader should be able to catch the ideas which the author wants to convey. However, not all those ideas will be delivered if the reader can not understand or comprehend the text they are reading.

Based on some concepts of reading comprehension proposed by the experts, it can be concluded that reading is a process of understanding the meaning and the ideas of the text. In order to understand the text being read, a reader should be able to answer the questions formulated concerning with the text. In this process the reader tries to recreate the meanings intended by the writer. When he has

understood the text, he will get the information from the text. Therefore, reading comprehension is essential in learning.

B. Concept of Teaching Reading Comprehension

Teaching reading comprehension is the teaching activity conducted by the teacher to make his or her students to be able to comprehend the content of the written text. In this activity, the teacher has to guide his or her students in using their background knowledge of the language and the real world to comprehend the meaning of the written text. She or he has to direct his or her students in using their background knowledge and relate it to the content of the written text. Then, there are two main methods of teaching reading activity in the class; these methods have different features and applications in increasing students’ reading comprehension.

1. Intensive Reading Method

Intensive reading is a teaching reading method that contains the reading activity that use many reading techniques like scanning, skimming, making prediction, forming visual images while reading, gathering, analyzing and synthesizing information from the text and summarizing the content of a reading text in the framework of achieving a high degree comprehension and retention for students permanently. As Moore and Dodson (1995: 1) imply that intensive reading is a reading method for a high degree comprehension and retention over a long period of time that is based on variety techniques like scanning, the surveying techniques of planning your purpose, skimming, and others. This reading method views that memorizing activity is important in comprehending the content of text. They also say that the purpose of intensive reading is to understand and remember the content of reading text.

2. Extensive Reading Method

Extensive reading method is a teaching reading method that contains the activity of reading a large amount of texts in the focus of getting general understanding about the content of the texts and pleasure from the texts. It is reading a large quantities or long texts for global or general understanding; with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text (Susser and Robb, 1989:3). Further because reading is individualized, the students choose the texts they want to read in which it is not discussed in the class. So in order to achieve the target, it is important for the teacher to obtain and collect a large amount of texts of various interest and comprehension levels.

Besides, the teacher’s role is also important in succeeding the application of extensive reading method in the class. He has to guide his students from the beginning to the end of teaching reading activity. Susser and Robb (1989: 8) point that the teacher’s role in the extensive reading is to encourage and help the

students with their reading by conference during or after class time, and by checking and commenting on written summaries that students do after their reading. It means that in the time of the teaching reading activity that applies the extensive reading in the class, the teacher has to keep his attention continuously to the progress of the students’ reading comprehension from the beginning until the end of the activity.

Then concerning about teacher’s role is also important in the teaching reading comprehension. In order to achieve the highest result of teaching reading activity, teacher has to know and play his roles in the class. According to Wiriyachitra

(1995: 1-2) in Widiono (2007: 45-47), there are ten main roles that must be played by the teacher when conducting teaching reading activity:

1. The teacher should be a manager/ planner; he must be responsible for students’ learning both inside and outside of class. It means that he has to be able to arrange learning plan for students to undergo either inside or outside of class. He has also prepared some certain tasks for students to do both inside and outside the class.

2. The teacher should specify students’ objective in behavioral and measurable terms and look for a variety materials and teaching aids for achieving these objective.

3. The teacher should create an atmosphere of friendliness and trust by listening to the students, accepting their ideas or opinions, and if they have any

problems, finding ways to solve them. In teaching reading activity, the teacher should make the situation of the class to be a comfortable place for the

students to study. He has to stimulate his students to share their ideas and problems either about the text or about the teacher’s way of teaching and try to respond their ideas and solve their problems.

4. The teacher should foster students’ expectations about reading and arouse their interest to read. It can be done by giving them some warm- up questions or giving them a purpose for reading. In this way, students will enjoy learning language and develop a positive attitude towards reading.

5. The teacher should promote thinking skills by encouraging students to participate in discussion and decision- making. In the teaching reading

discussing the content of the text that they have read. He can stimulate the groups to express their ideas about the content of the text and argue those ideas from other groups against the opposing statements.

6. The teacher is a language instructor. Even as a reading teacher, he cannot avoid teaching language. It can be done by presenting new vocabulary, teaching language patterns and reading strategies appropriate to a particular genre. Teacher should also use English in class because this is additional language input for the students. Apart from this, teacher should correct students’ mistake in language production but only if the mistake obstruct communication. In this way, students will learn about language usage while the language in a reading class.

7. The teacher is a director. The teacher should supervise learning by explaining how students should do specific activities, keeping them constantly engaged in doing reading tasks.

8. The teacher should also make students use the target language and have students get information from reading on their own. He should guide his students to use the target language and give a freedom for them to get information from the text.

9. The teacher is a monitor. This involves going around the class while students do their reading activities in order to observe their performance, listen to them, and give advice when needed.

10. The teacher is an evaluator. He should judge students’ performance by helping them to see if they completed their tasks successfully, finding out how well they have done, and providing feedback. This serves not only to evaluate the

students, but help the teacher to evaluate their teaching objectives to be successful or not.

C. Concept of Translation Technique

Translation is one of technique that can be used for teaching reading. Richards (1976: 1) says that translation is a general term referring to the transfer of thought and ideas from one language (source of language) to other language (target language) whether the language in written or spoken forms. It means that

translation is the process of giving the closest meaning or natural equivalent of the words, phrases, and sentences of one language (source language) into another language whether in written or spoken forms.

It is known that translation technique can be regarded as one of the techniques applied to teach reading comprehension. Translation technique belongs to

traditional ways of teaching English. In this way, the teacher presents the material directly to the students. It can be justified that the teacher directly teaches the students without any teaching aid, except dictionary. It is the fact that this

technique is still mostly used by teachers to teach English included at Elementary School, Junior High School and also Senior High School. The reason is in a sense related to the condition of the school, teachers’ ability, time allocation, and number of students in every class.

The procedures of teaching reading through translation (Larsen- Freeman 1996) are as follows:

1. The teacher gives the students a text. 2. The teacher explains the reading text.

3. Students write out the answers to reading comprehension questions.

4. Students translate new words from the target language to their mother tongue. 5. At the end of the meeting, the teacher together with the students evaluates the

results of the exercise.

The translation technique, even though, is believed to be ineffective to teach the target language communicatively, is still in use in some parts of Indonesia. Some English teachers still like to teach reading through translation technique. It seems that they prefer to use the technique because it is easier to present language materials in the classroom and to evaluate the process of language teaching. Based on the stages above, the researcher tried to make general procedure of teaching which was adjusted to English curriculum used in the school, i.e. KTSP, as follows:

Pre- Activity

Before being given reading material, the teacher is firstly doing some steps as follows:

a. Opening the class

b. Motivating the students by discussing the goals of the lesson and the roles of the teacher and learners in the lesson

c. Introducing the lesson procedure

While- Activity

In the following steps, the students are: a. Being distributed the text

b. Discussing the text based on the students’ schemata and their regular reading strategies

c. Discussing translation technique and its uses in reading comprehension with the class

d. Practicing applying translation in reading comprehension of the given text e. Evaluating their reading comprehension through reading test

Post- Activity

After the students read the text then they will do the following activity: a. Discussing their difficulty in the teaching learning process

b. Making conclusion of the lesson

c. Being motivated to use information transfer in reading comprehension d. Closing the meeting

D. The Advantages of Translation Technique

1. Translation can be done quickly. Therefore, it can help the teacher to keep balance between the time allocation and the number of students in every classroom.

2. Translation is not limited, as it can be used to explain many different types of words.

3. The using of native language will give a set of clear of objective that finally will give the students the security since they can understand most of the instruction.

E. The Disadvantages of Translation Technique

1. Translation is considered too quickly. Therefore, it takes away time that could have been used to expose the learners to English.

2. Not every English word has exact equivalence in native language.

3. The use of native language will reduce the learners’ experience of English in class.

F. The Information Transfer Technique

Craik, Lockhart and Pavio in Nation (1991:56) state that information transfer technique is an excellent learning strategy because it requires the students to process deeply the information. While, Palmer (1982) in Nation (1991: 56) states that an information transfer exercise involves the transfer or change of

information from one form to another form. During the transfer the information remains substantially the same but the form of information changes. While in accordance with Johns and Davies (1983: 13) state that by transfer of information, we mean the representation of some or all of information in the text in some other forms.

In other words, it can be said that in information transfer technique the students are asked to transfer or change the information drawn from the text into another form. The information being transferred is actually the same; the difference is just in the form of representation. For instance, in receptive, information is transferred from written form into diagram, chart or picture. Or in productive, the students

look at the information in the form of diagram, chart or picture and then they change it into written form or spoken form by retelling.

Here is a more detailed example; the students read a text for example a description of a flowering plant. While reading, the students are asked to look at the diagram and give a label in part of diagram. This kind of activity asked the student to change the form of information about flowering plant which is presented in a linguistic form into non- linguistic form ( Palmer (1982) in Nation, 1991: 56). By making this change the students show that they have understood about the

material and they understanding is deep enough to put it in some ways.

Nation (1991: 56) said that the information transfer technique can be used in three ways:

1. Attention on Language and Content

In this term, the information exercises focus on the students’ attention on the details information. The flowering plants example given before is belongs to this type. After the students do the activity, they would have some knowledge about the part of flowering plants. There are numerous other possibilities.

Concerning with the attention on language and content, Palmer (1982) suggested many ways to be used in information transfer exercises which are classified into maps and plans, grids and tables, diagrams and charts, diaries and calendars, miscellaneous list, forms, coupons etc.

2. Attention on Discourse

The information transfer exercises of this type focus the students’ attention on the familiarity of language used or physical structure pattern used in the text. Nation (1991: 57) states that in this type of learning, the difficulties of exercise can be adjusted according to the amount of information provided in the diagram.

Moreover, there are many types of text to be used as the basic information transfer activities suggested by the experts regarding to the attention on discourse, such as rhetorical pattern like comparison and contrast, exemplification and elimination of alternatives and others.

3. A Self- Questioning Strategy

This type of information transfer exercise allows the students to create their own information transfer diagram (Nation, 1991: 58). This can be done by letting the students to ask themselves as many questions as possible in order to get the information from the text, thus they can make their own diagram.

Nation (1991) states that there are many types of text that can be used as an alternative text in self- questioning strategy, for example the text talks about how to make a thing, how to make a recipe, how to operate washing machine, or instruction to fill hotel reservation form.

Franken (1987) said that the essential part of this sequence of the instruction is the self- questioning scale. It consists of a series of question which are based on the information of the topic type. These questions will be guidance in searching for and selecting the relevant content and the organizing of this content.

Based on the explanation above, it can be inferred that the intention of

information transfer is the changes of information presenting form. Besides, it also asked the learner to understand the information that they are dealing with deeply. It is noticed that the students are the active participants who try to find the information from the text themselves, while the teacher just become a guide.

G. Teaching Reading Comprehension through Information Transfer Technique.

Related to the ways of information transfer technique that explained before, the research will be focused on the first and third type: attention on language and content; and self-questioning strategy. This exercise makes the students’ attention focus on the information details used in the exercise and allows them to create their own diagram. At this exercise, the students change written information into other forms (fill the form and maps) or vice versa. By making this change, the students show that they have understood the information given.

Then, the researcher tried to make general procedure of teaching which will be adjusted to English curriculum used in the school, i.e. KTSP, as follows: Pre- Activity

Before being given reading material, the teacher is firstly doing some steps as follows:

a. Opening the class

b. Motivating the students by discussing the goals of the lesson and the roles of the teacher and learners in the lesson

c. Introducing the lesson procedure

While- Activity

In the following steps, the students are: d. Being distributed the text

e. Discussing the text based on the students’ schemata and their regular reading strategies

f. Discussing information transfer and its uses in reading comprehension with the class

g. Practicing applying information transfer in reading comprehension of the given text

h. Evaluating their reading comprehension through reading test

Post- Activity

After the students read the text then they will do the following activity: i. Discussing their difficulty in the teaching learning process

j. Making conclusion of the lesson

k. Being motivated to use information transfer in reading comprehension l. Closing the meeting

H. The Advantages of Information Transfer Technique

Nation (1991: 56- 59) states that there are some advantages of Information Transfer Technique:

1. The information transfer exercises give a deep understanding or

comprehension to the students by asking them to make the change of the form of the information.

2. The information transfer exercises give the ability to fit a text into existing schemata which has positive effect on finding the unknown information from the text.

3. Information transfer exercises give learner more control over their learning procedures.

4. In information transfer technique, the difficulty of the exercises can be adjusted according to the amount of the information provided.

5. Information transfer exercises will be more interesting if the text includes or contains the information about the learners’ experiences.

I. The Disadvantages of Information Transfer Technique

Nation also implies some disadvantages of using Information Transfer Technique in teaching reading, that is:

1. The class will be noisy. This happens because Information Transfer Exercise invites the students to have discussion among them; therefore the class will be noisy.

2. It will be take longer time. In reading activity, the students have to answer the exercise which is presented in different form. So that the students have to analyze the material first and they also have to understand the exercise. This will take longer time because the students have to understand two forms of material.

3. The material selection. The material should be selected carefully, because sometimes the same material cannot be applied to the different class. This is because the students in different class have the different capability.

J. Theoretical Assumption

Reading is very essential in language learning since one is expected to be able to communicate not only orally, but also in written language. One needs to be able to access the knowledge, which is mostly written in English. Hence, one must be able to comprehend written symbols in the texts since there will be no reading without comprehension.

But reading sometime is not a simple activity. Some people may have problems in comprehending the text. One may have difficulty to comprehend a passage

because of some problems like lack of vocabulary, the media, the passage itself, and the technique used by the teachers.

Nurmalasari (2005) in her research also found that students there had difficulty in comprehending reading texts. Some factors that caused the students’ difficulties in comprehending the text which she found in her research, were: (1) interpreting the new vocabulary, (2) unphrasing reading in which the students read individual word or they did not read in phrases, (3) interest in the materials (the text), (4) schemata, (5) ignoring reading technique. The students were erroneously think that anything appears in the print must be true and valuable, and worth reading. Therefore, they read the whole passage to get the main point. To comprehend the text, they thought they must comprehend every word in the text. These

assumption lead the students more looking up for the word, they stop at each unfamiliar words. Therefore, an alternative reading technique needs to be employed in reading.

The common technique used in reading comprehension is translation technique. The reason is in a sense related to the condition of the school, teachers’ ability, time allocation, and number of the students. In this technique, the students are asked to change the text written in form of source language into target language or vice versa. Another technique in teaching reading comprehension is information transfer technique. Information transfer technique is a technique that focuses on the change of information presentation form. The information being transferred is actually the same.

Based on the theoretical framework above, the researcher assumes that there will be significant difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement between students who are taught through information transfer technique and translation technique.

K. The Hypothesis

The researcher proposes the hypothesis as follows:

H : There is significant difference of students’ reading comprehension

achievement between those who are taught through information transfer technique and those who are taught through translation technique.

III. RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design

This research was intended to find out whether there was any significant difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement between those who were taught by applying information transfer technique and those who were taught by applying translation technique.

The quantitative research with Intact Group Pretest Posttest Design was conducted to gain the objective of this research. There were two classes; one was as the experimental group I and the other was the experimental group II. The design of the research was presented as follow:

G1 = T1 X1 T2

G2 = T1 X2 T2

Where

G1 : Experimental class I G2 : Experimental II T1 : pretest

T2 : posttest

X2 : treatment (applying translation technique)

(Setiyadi, 2006, 134 -135)

The experimental I (applying translation technique) was used as the comparison of students’ achievement in experimental class II (applying translation technique) to see which one the better technique of the treatments in increasing the students’ reading comprehension achievement. In

experimental class I, the researcher administered the treatments by applying information transfer technique. While in experimental II, the teaching process was done by applying translation technique, the technique that used in regular teaching. Both classes received the same pretest and posttest. Then researcher analyzed the result of pretest and also posttest from both the experimental classes and finally the hypothesis was proved by comparing the data from posttest of both groups.

B. Population and Sample

The population of the research is the first year students of SMA Negeri 2 Pringsewu. There are seven classes of the first year students. Each class consists of about 34 students. The research took two classes as the

experimental classes, and one class as the try-out class. In order to make sure the sample that had been used was homogeneous, so the researcher selected some classes that had the homogeneity based on their English score in learning report. The classes that have the same ability in English are X4 and X3. Both of the classes have the mean score of English in their learning report

were 70 in X4 and 71 in X3. After the sample was homogeneous, the researcher used lottery drawing to choose which class that would be used as the experimental class I and experimental class II. So, the class that used as experimental class I was X4 (applying information transfer) and the class used as experimental class II was X3 (applying translation), meanwhile the class chosen as try out class was X5.

D. Research Procedures

The procedures of the research were as follows: 1. Determining the Samples of the Research

The first step in the research was selecting the class as the sample. The researcher took three classes, as try out class, and experimental classes. The class used as try out class was X5, X4 as experimental class I and X3 as experimental class II by lottery drawing.

2. Determining the Research Instrument

The instrument of this research was reading test that consisted of a pretest and posttest. The tests were in the form of multiple choice tests consisted of 20 items. In giving the treatments, reading texts that had been used were taken from English book for the first year students of SMA and authentic materials, (such as taken from magazines and internet). There were three reading texts used in this research. The type of the text used was descriptive text with topic; describing famous people, famous places, and buildings. Both of the item of

pretest and the posttest were the same, but in different arrangement in item test and options.

3. Administering the Tryout Test

The researcher conducted try out test in order to find out whether the test items that used in the research were good or not for validity, reliability, level of difficulty, and discrimination power.

In this test, the researcher provided 50 items of multiple choices tests with five options (a, b, c, d or e), one was correct answer and the rest were distracters. The scoring system was that the load of each correct answer was 2 points. Therefore, if one participant answered all the items correctly, she/he got 100 points.

The researcher used split-half method to measure the reliability which requires her to divide the test into same groups, first half and second half.

Some items were dropped and revised to administer in pretest and posttest. The try out test consisted of three easy items, 29 average items and 18 difficult items. Meanwhile, for discrimination indexes, eight items were bad, 15 items were poor, ten items were good, 14 items were satisfactory, and three items were excellent. For detail information, see Appendix 4.

Items that have average remark in the level of difficulty and excellent or satisfactory or good for the discrimination power were selected used for the test (2,4,6,9,11,12,15,22,25,27,28,29,30,38,40). Moreover, the items that were

easy and difficult but had excellent, satisfactory and good discrimination were revised. The revised items were 8,10,14,21,39. The items with negative and zero discrimination power were dropped and also the items that were easy and difficult in the level of difficulty and also had poor discrimination power were dropped. Eventually, the items that were administered for both of the pretest and posttest were 20 items.

4. Administering the Pretest

The pre test administered in order to check reading comprehension

homogeneity of both groups before the treatment. The researcher conducted pretest before treatment by using reading text and 20 items of multiple choice test for 45 minutes. The scoring system was that the each correct answer was 5 points. If one participant answered all the items correctly, she/he got 100 points.

5. Conducting Treatment

After the pretest was given to the students, researcher taught reading

comprehension in reading a text by using information transfer technique for the experimental class 1. Meanwhile in experimental II the students were taught using translation technique. The treatment conducted for three times meetings during the research, which took 90 minutes for each meeting.

Experimental Class I (Applying Information Transfer Technique) At the first treatment, the researcher introduced information transfer to the students and explained how to use it in reading comprehension. She firstly brainstormed the text to the students; it was intended to make the students get used to being directed and activating their schemata about the topic so it will make them easy to comprehend the text. This can be done by giving them some warm- up questions or giving them a purpose for reading. In this way, the students will enjoy learning language and develop a positive attitude towards reading. The title of the text was used in the first meeting is Egypt, here the researcher asked some questions to brainstorm students’ background knowledge. Such as, “Where does Egypt locate?” the students answered, “It is in Africa” other questions, “What can you see in Egypt?” many students mentioned “Pyramids, Pharaoh, Mummy, camels, etc” some students answered in English or in Indonesia.

In this treatment, the researcher explained about information transfer

technique in reading. Then she gave example how to change information from a text into other forms. The students were asked to pay attention on what and how to use in reading, then as the exercise, they were asked to complete a task prepared by researcher. In this task, the students were asked to fill the map and a chart based on reading text entitles ‘Egypt’. At first, the researcher

distributed the picture of the map to the students and also the table. After reading the text, the teacher asked the students to look up at the map; there were some missing information that had to be completed. So, the researcher

guided the students to find out the right information. They had to complete the name of the towns mentioned in the text.

After completed the map, the researcher leaded a class discussion about the text. Some students were asked about their work, so there was a feedback given after reading and transferring information from linguistic into non linguistic form. In this discussion, some students said that they found some mistakes in filling the map and also the table. Moreover, the students also asked some words that unfamiliar for them. And the researcher also asked some questions orally as the assessment, such as “Where does Luxor locate?” they answered “InEgypt, in Cairo, after Qena”.

In the second treatment, the students already got used to apply information transfer in their reading. They already know the basic steps of making information transfer. The topic used in this stage was describing people. In this stage, the students started filling a map together in group and the

researcher acted as a guide- on- the side. Before the students reading the text, some questions were asked to brainstorm their background knowledge. The researcher asked some questions, such as “Have you ever read a text with the topic of describing people?”most of them answered, “Yes”. Then other questions followed, “What can of information that can be found in that text?” they answered, “Name, address, physical description and so on”. After that the students were asked to read a text and they had to pretend that they were the person in the text because they have to fill an application form to enroll in

model agency. During the session of discussion in filling the map; it was found that the students were more active to follow the teaching learning process as they could share their opinion although there were few groups looked dominating the discussion and the class was little noisy. It also proves one of disadvantages of applying information transfer which is proposed by Nation (1991: 56- 59) that by applying information transfer, the class will be noisy.

Just like in the first treatment, in the second treatment the researcher also conducted class discussion as a feedback for the students. Not only give the right answers for the students’ work, the researcher also asked some questions as assessment for the students.

In the last treatment, the students were asked to make their own information transfer (building map) of a text that the researcher had distributed to them individually. At The text used was about describing building, entitled ‘The Tildemann’s Bank’. Like the treatments before, the researcher still asked some questions in brainstorming activity. Then, after reading the text the students were asked to complete the map of the building. They had to give the correct names based on the information given in the text. After the students finished their work, there was a class discussion and also some questions as students’ assessment at the end of the meeting.

Experimental Class II (Applying Translation Technique)

The students of experimental class II were also received the same text as the students in experimental class I. The students here seemed to be low- spirited or lazy to read the text. There were only a few students who enjoyed the reading class activity. They seemed passive during the class while the researcher was more dominant.

Here the description of how the researcher conducted the treatment in experimental class II:

In the first treatment, she began with some questions as brainstorming. Since the researcher chose descriptive text, she asked some questions related to the text. The first text was about Egypt, so she asked, “Have you ever heard about Egypt” and they answered, “Yes”, next she asked, “What can you see there?” then the students responded, “Camels, Sahara, Pharaoh, Sphinx and many others”. After doing brainstorming activity, she asked the students to read the text. Then, the teacher leaded the class to translate the text form English into Indonesia. Since the text quite long, the researcher found difficulty to maintain students focus during the activity. Many students involved in their own

conversation. After translating the text, she asked some questions related to the content of the text as the assessment for the students. The class looked enthusiast during the class discussion because they could understand more deeply about the text. They seemed more enjoying class discussion rather than only translating the text from English into Indonesia.

In the second treatment, the researcher brainstormed the students by asking some questions related to the previous material to remember them about the material had been given in the last meeting. Then she asked them question to guide them in following the material would be given. Then the researcher did almost the same step to begin the class except the using of different reading text with the topic describing people. The researcher did the same process of reading stage as the previous treatment. But the students’ motivation was not as high as the first treatment; the learning process in the experimental class II was passive. Only some students focused on the teacher’s explanation and the others were busy with themselves.

The students were given 45 minutes to finish reading and answering the questions. During the time given many students, especially boys who just looked at their friends worksheet. When the researcher asked them, they answered that they did not know the meaning of all the words in text and did not bring dictionary. When the time was up the activity continued into the class discussion, but very few students who interested to discuss the text and follow the discussion.

In the third treatment the researcher did almost the same step to begin the class except using different reading topic with the topic describing building. But the students’ responds became worse. They told to the researcher that they felt bored, because they had to translate a long reading text. Moreover, they just looked at friends’ worksheet, since there were many students who said that

they did not know many words in the text. Although, there were some students who were still tried to concentrate and comprehend the text but most of them just read the text passively.

Then the meeting ended by a class discussion, the researcher asked some questions orally dealing with the content of the text. However, many students just followed it without enthusiasm.

6. Administering the Posttest

The posttest given after the students got the treatment. It was aimed at

knowing the result of the students’ reading comprehension after administered the treatment. It also used to prove the hypothesis proposed in the research whether it was accepted or not. The test consisted of reading text and 20 items of multiple choices test. The scoring system was that each correct answer loaded 5 points. The posttest took 45 minutes.

7. Analyzing the Data (Pretest and Posttest)

Both of the pre test and posttest results of the two classes were treated using normality test, homogeneity test and random test. Normality test was intended to see the normal distribution of the data. Moreover, homogeneity test was employed to test the equality variance of the data in both classes. Then, random test was used to determine whether the students from both

experimental classes were taken from random population or not. Then the researcher compared mean pretest to posttest from each experimental class to

see the increase students’ reading comprehension achievement before and after treatment.

8. Testing Hypothesis

The hypothesis testing taken from the comparison between the students’ mean of posttest scores in both classes that computed through SPSS version 15.0. The hypothesis was analyzed at the significant level of 0.05 in which the hypothesis was approved if sig. < ά. Therefore if the result of SPSS’

calculation showed the sig. (2 tailed) was less than ά it can be stated that the hypothesis was accepted. In other words, there is a significant different of students’ reading comprehension achievement between the students who are taught by using information transfer and those who are taught by using translation.

E. Data Collecting Technique

The researcher used reading test as the instrument to gather the data. The reading test consisted of pretest and posttest in multiple-choice form. 1. Pretest

The pre test administered in order to check reading comprehension

homogeneity of both groups before the treatment. The test consisted of 20 items of multiple choice forms with four options. The test conducted within 45 minutes.

2. Posttest

The researcher administered posttest after the treatments. The purpose of conducting posttest was to find out the result of students’ reading

comprehension ability after applying information transfer technique and translation technique in reading. The test consisted of reading text with 20 items of multiple choice tests. The posttest conducted within 45 minutes.

F. Scoring System

The researcher used Arikunto’s formula (2005: 71) in scoring the students’ work. The ideal highest score was 100. The score of pretest and posttest calculated by using the following formula:

S = N Rx100

Where:

S = the score of the test

R = the total of the right answer N = the total of items.

G. Data Treatment

There were several steps in doing the data treatment. Firstly, the try out test result was computed. Here, the reliability, level of difficulty and discrimination power of the test was computed. Secondly, the result of pretest and posttest were simultaneously searched with the normality, homogeneity, and random. The complete procedure can be seen in the following explanation.

1. The Treatment of Try out Test Result

The try out test aimed to meet the quality of the test, so that the test had good reliability, validity, level of difficulty and discrimination power. Once the test had met the four criteria, it indicated that the test could be used as the base of arranging pretest and posttest. These were some elements tested as follows:

a. Validity

A test is said to be valid if it measures accurately what is intended to measure (Hughes, 1991: 22). There are some kinds of validity, namely face validity, content validity, and construct validity. To measures whether the test has good validity, the researcher used content and construct validity.

Content validity is the extent to which a test measures representative sample of the subject matter contents. It means that the test should represent the materials that have been taught. To make sure that all the items were based on the material taught and the 2006 curriculum for the first year of SMA the researcher asked two English teachers in SMA N 2 Pringsewu to check it. For further information see the syllabus at Appendix 24 .

A test, part of a test, or a testing technique is said to have construct validity if it can be demonstrated that it measures just the ability which it supposed to measure. The word ‘construct’ refers to any underlying ability (or trait) which is

hypothesized in a theory of language ability (Hughes, 1991: 26). Heilman, Blair and Rupley (1981: 4) categorize reading comprehension into three levels, one of them is literal comprehension. Literal comprehension is the process of

understanding the ideas and information explicitly states in the passage. Based on that theory some of the reading comprehension skills that should be mastered are recalling the main idea, understanding the information presented, knowing the meaning of the words, understanding the pronouns, and paraphrasing in own words (inference). Therefore to make sure that the items of the test already good in the term of construct validity, the researcher specify them into table of

specification. The table specification of the instrument test can be seen on below: Table 1. Table Specification of Pretest

No. Skills of reading Items number Percentage of items 1

2 3 4 5

Determining main idea Finding specific information Inference

Reference

Vocabulary in context

1,8,14,19. 2,3,4,5,10,11. 7,9,17,20. 12,15,18. 6,13,16. 20% 30% 20% 15% 15%

Table 2. Table of Specification of Posttest

No. Skills of reading Items number Percentage of items 1

2 3 4 5

Determining main idea Finding specific information Inference

Reference

Vocabulary in context

4,8,11,17. 1,2,7,15,18,20. 9,14,16,19. 6,10,13. 5,10,12. 20% 30% 20% 15% 15% b. Reliability

Reliability refers to the extent to which the test is consistent in its score, and it gives us an indicator of how accurate the test scores are (Shohamy, 1985: 70).

To estimate the reliability of the test, the researcher used the split-half method. To measure the coefficient of the reliability between first and second half group, the researcher used the following formula:



1

r



_



2



_

2



y x

xy

Where:

r1 = coefficient of reliability between first half and second half groups X = total number of first half group

Y = total number of second half group x² = square of x

y² = square of y

Then the researcher used “Spearmen Brown’s Prophecy Formula” (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 286) to know the coefficient correlation of whole items. The formula is as follows:

rk = 2rl 1 + rl Where:

rk = the reliability of the test rl = the reliability of half test The criteria of reliability are: 0.90 – 1.00 : high

0.50 – 0.89 : moderate 0.00 – 0.49 : low

The result of the reliability found through this research was 0.974 (see appendix 5). By referring to the criteria of the reliability proposed by Hatch and Farhady (1982:247), the test has high reliability that is in the range of 0.90-1.00. It

indicated that the instrument produced consistent result when administered under similar condition, to the same participant and in different time (Hatch and

Farhady,1982:244).

c. Level of Difficulty

To see the level of difficulty, the researcher used the following formula: LD =U+L

N Where:

LD : level of difficulty

U : the proportion of upper group students L : the proportion of lower group students

N : the total number of students following the test The criteria are;

< 0.30 : difficult 0.30 – 0.70 : average > 0.70 : easy

(Shohamy, 1985: 79) Based on the try out test related to those criteria there were three easy items, 29 average items, and 18 difficult items.

d. Discrimination Power

To see the discrimination power, the writer used the following formula: DP = U – L

½ N Where:

DP : discrimination power

U : the proportion of upper group students L : the proportion of lower group students N : total number of students

In accordance with Shohamy (1985: 81), there are some criteria of discrimination power of an item. An item is excellent if the discrimination index ranges from 0.10 to 1.00. A good item ranges from 0.41 to 0.70. A satisfactory item ranges from 0.21 to 0.40. An item is poor if the discrimination index ranges from 0.00 to 0.20, and an item is bad if the discrimination index is negative.)

Based on the try out test related to those criteria there were seven bad items, 15 items were poor, ten items were good, 15 items were satisfactory, and three items were excellent.

2. The Treatment of Pretest and Posttest Result

After having the result of the try out test, the researcher continued to analyze the data of the pretest and posttest of both groups. The SPSS version 15 was

implemented in the treatment of data. The steps of analyzing the data were as follows:

a. Normality Testing

The normality testing was held twice. These tests were employed to know whether the data of pretest and posttest were normally distributed or not. The normality of pretest was assumed if the significance was greater than 0.05. The result of the normality testing can be seen in table 4 below:

Table 3. Normality Testing

Kolmogrov- Smirnov Z

N Sig. (2-tailed)

Pretest X 4 Posttest X4 Pretest X3 Posttest X3

29 29 29 29

0.562 0.256 0.243 0.673

Table 3 inferred that the significance of pretest in the experimental class I (X4) was 0.562. Since the significance was higher than 0.05, it could be concluded that the data of the pretest in the experimental class I was normally distributed. While in the experimental class II (X3), the significance was 0.243. The significance was more than 0.05 and it meant that the data of pretest in the experimental class II was also normally distributed. These indicated that the data of pretest to both classes were normally distributed.

Moreover, Table 3 also showed that the data of the posttest in the experimental class I was normally distributed since the significance was 0.256. The significance was higher than 0.05, it could be concluded that the data was normally distributed. In the experimental class II, the significance was 0.673, which more than 0.05. So, the data in the experimental class II was also distributed normally. Furthermore,

the result of computation of normality can be seen completely in Appendices 17 and 18.

2. Homogeneity Testing

The homogeneity testing was intended to test whether the variance of the data in the experimental class I and experimental class II was equal or not. The

homogeneity was assumed if the significance was greater than 0.05. The result of homogeneity testing is as follows:

Table 4. Homogeneity Testing of Pretest

Variables Sig. (2-tailed) Conclusion Experimental Class I

Experimental Class II

.696 Homogeneous

Table 4 showed that the data were homogeneous since the significance was 0.575. As the significance was more than 0.05, it illustrated that the data of both classes were homogeneous. The complete result of computation can be seen in Appendix 19.

3. Random Test

The statistical formula of runs test was used to determine whether the data of both classes were taken from the population at random. It was accepted if the

significance was greater than 0.05. The result of random test is stated in the Table 5 below.

Table 5. The Random Test of Pretest in the Experimental I and Experimental Class II

Variables Test Value (a) Sig. (2- tailed) Conclusion Experimental Class I

Experimental Class II

45.86 47.24 .132 .132 Random Random

Table 5 indicated that the significance of the data was greater than 0.05. It could be concluded that the data of both classes were taken from the population at random.

Table 6. The Random Test of Posttest in the Experimental Class I and Experimental Class II

Variables Test Value (a) Sig. (2- tailed) Conclusion Experimental Class I

Experimental Class II

65.52 56.37 .410 1.00 Random Random Table 6 indicated that the significance of the data was greater than 0.05. It could be concluded that the data in the experimental class I and experimental class II were taken from the population at random.

G. Hypothesis Test

Research findings were used to test the hypothesis- that was:

H1 : There is significant difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement between those who are taught through information transfer technique and those who are taught through translation technique. The hypothesis was analyzed by using independent group t- test to compare the mean of posttest result of both classes. The hypothesis was analyzed at the significant level of 0.05 (p<0.05).

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusions

After conducting the research at grade XI of SMAN 2 Pringsewu and analyzing the data, the researcher draws some conclusions as follows:

1. The information transfer technique is better than translation technique in teaching reading comprehension. It can be seen by comparing total number of the students who can achieve the mastery learning standard between the students taught using information transfer technique and translation technique. In which the numbers of the students who achieve the mastery learning

standard are higher in information transfer class than in translation class. Moreover, the gain from pretest to posttest is also higher in information transfer class than in translation class.

2. Furthermore, information transfer technique provides the students clear purpose in reading so they are able to find and select the relevant information needed in information transfer activity. That makes the students have an obvious objective on reading and finally help the students in extracting the information from the text.

B. Suggestion

Based on the findings in conducting the research, the researcher would like to convey some suggestions below:

1. From conclusion number 1, information transfer technique can be used as an appropriate tool for teaching reading since based on the research result, it can increase the students’ reading comprehension significantly.

2. Since information transfer technique makes the students active, the teacher should be able to manage the class as well in order to avoid a noisy in the classroom. To overcome the problem the teacher should give exact time for doing the transfer activity to minimize the noisy.

3. Translation technique can be used in comprehending a text. But, we have to be careful to choose the difficulty of the text, and also to combine it with other technique to minimize students’ boredom. For instance, the teacher can add other activity such as by giving cloze test to give the students a kind of challenge so that it gives them motivation.

4. It is suggested to the future researcher who wants to do the similar research to have longer period of time since the present research was conducted only for four weeks. This is intended to see the real and accurate result of the research because in learning language there is a process which might influence the achievement like habit, the learners’ characters, motivation, learning strategies, etc.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER TECHNIQUE AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 PRINGSEWU

(A Script)

By FITA SARI

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY BANDAR LAMPUNG

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER TECHNIQUE AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 PRINGSEWU

By FITA SARI

A Script

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

in

The Language and Arts Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY BANDAR LAMPUNG

MOTTO

When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced.

Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.

DEDICATION

I thank my mighty God, Allah SWT, for all His tremendous blessing. I would like to dedicate this paper to:

My parents, family and friends in appreciation of your

Kindness Patience Loving support

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusions

After conducting the research at grade XI of SMAN 2 Pringsewu and analyzing the data, the researcher draws some conclusions as follows:

1. The information transfer technique is better than translation technique in teaching reading comprehension. It can be seen by comparing total number of the students who can achieve the mastery learning standard between the students taught using information transfer technique and translation technique. In which the numbers of the students who achieve the mastery learning

standard are higher in information transfer class than in translation class. Moreover, the gain from pretest to posttest is also higher in information transfer class than in translation class.

2. Furthermore, information transfer technique provides the students clear purpose in reading so they are able to find and select the relevant information needed in information transfer activity. That makes the students have an obvious objective on reading and finally help the students in extracting the information from the text.

57

B. Suggestion

Based on the findings in conducting the research, the researcher would like to convey some suggestions below:

1. From conclusion number 1, information transfer technique can be used as an appropriate tool for teaching reading since based on the research result, it can increase the students’ reading comprehension significantly.

2. Since information transfer technique makes the students active, the teacher should be able to manage the class as well in order to avoid a noisy in the classroom. To overcome the problem the teacher should give exact time for doing the transfer activity to minimize the noisy.

3. Translation technique can be used in comprehending a text. But, we have to be careful to choose the difficulty of the text, and also to combine it with other technique to minimize students’ boredom. For instance, the teacher can add other activity such as by giving cloze test to give the students a kind of challenge so that it gives them motivation.

4. It is suggested to the future researcher who wants to do the similar research to have longer period of time since the present research was conducted only for four weeks. This is intended to see the real and accurate result of the research because in learning language there is a process which might influence the achievement like habit, the learners’ characters, motivation, learning strategies, etc.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER TECHNIQUE AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 PRINGSEWU

(A Script)

By FITA SARI

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY BANDAR LAMPUNG

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER TECHNIQUE AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 PRINGSEWU

By FITA SARI

A Script

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

in

The Language and Arts Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY BANDAR LAMPUNG

MOTTO

When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced.

Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.

DEDICATION

I thank my mighty God, Allah SWT, for all His tremendous blessing. I would like to dedicate this paper to:

My parents, family and friends in appreciation of your

Kindness Patience Loving support