Procedure of the Research

2. Applying cooperative integrated reading and composition CIRC in the form of competitive games a. Giving competitive games for students in the form of arranging puzzle of text, matching questions and answers, and guessing the correct order of the text puzzle. b. Giving group competition in the form of retelling story. c. Giving reward for the winner of the game the best three groups and students who are brave to retell the story in the text in front of the class. 3. Action and observation After the planning was approved, some actions were conducted in the classroom. Two cycles were done. The first cycle consisted of 3 meetings, and the second cycle consisted of 2 meetings. Then, the observation of the classroom activities and taking a note of the activities were done by the researcher and the English teacher as the collaborator. Based on the observation, the implementation of the actions to the students was discussed. 4. Reflection The reflection of the actions was done after the cycles were completely done. The researcher invited the collaborator ’s insight to reflect whether the action was effectively used, and whether the action improved the reading comprehension or not. If the action could make changes in the reading comprehension ability of students, then the English teacher can use that new strategy in the future. On the other hand, if the action was unsuccessful, the researcher found out a suitable action to implement the CIRC method. 36

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this research, cooperative integrated reading and composition CIRC was used to improve the reading comprehension ability of students of the 8 th grade at SMP IT Abu Bakar Yogyakarta. This chapter deals with the research findings and discussion of Cycle I and II.

A. The Identification of the Field Problems

The research process began with finding problems in the field. There were some activities conducted to gain clearer identification of the field problems. The researcher conducted an interview with the English teacher to find out the problems in English lesson. It was done on January 30 th , 2013. Then, the interview with the students was done on October 2 nd , 2013 after the classroom observation. To give a clearer description, the following is the vignette of the teaching and learning process during the observation. Most students were still out of the classroom when the English teacher and the researcher came. They seemed not ready to learn English. Ten minutes later, the students entered the classroom and sat on their seats. The teacher sat on her seat and the researcher sat at the back row of the students’ seat. The teacher said “Assalamu’alaikum…” and greeted students. She asked the students, “Who is absent today?” then the students answered that no one was absent. She also checked the attendance by calling the students’ names. The teacher asked the students if they were ready to learn English with her. Then the teacher opened the lesson by checking students’ homework. Most students haven’t done the homework yet. Then, the teacher gave a narrative text entitled “Snow White” to all students. Some students seemed not too enthusiastic with the text. Some of them were busy talking to their friends. The teacher asked them to work in pairs to complete the stories. There were part A and part B which represent the text. The teacher asked them to read in pairs. The teacher came to each pairs to see their activities. She explained the instruction of the lesson that day. The students did the teacher’s instruction although they made some noises in the classroom. The situation of the classroom was very noisy that day. After that, the teacher asked the students to answer some questions related to the text. The activities happened too long because some students were not interested to the lesson and felt difficult in doing those activities. The next activity was identifying the story into the generic structure of the text. The students were asked to classify the paragraph in the text into the generic structure of narrative text. The teacher also taught the grammar used in the text. Some students seemed bored with the activities. They seemed sleepy so t hey didn’t pay much attention to the teacher’s explanation. Finally, the teacher ended the lesson on that day after the bell rang. Field note 1, Appendix A The vignette above shows that the teaching of reading did not run well. It needed to be improved because the activities were not interesting for the students. The teacher did not give sufficient opportunities for the students to comprehend the text deeply. Both the teacher and the students had difficulties during the teaching and learning process. The following transcripts also support the facts above. … … R: Yang paling gak disukai pas bahasa Inggris apa?Is there anything that you don’t like in English lesson? S2: Ngerjain soal grammar.Doing grammar task S3: Iya, sama mbaca teks.Yes, reading text also R: Aqilla , kenapa ngga suka baca teks? Aqilla, why don’t you like reading text? S3: nggak suka aja, nggak tahu arti kata-katanya, susah tahu maksud teksnya tu apa I just don’t like it because I don’t know the meaning of words and it’s difficult to understand the story R: Trus biasanya kalau sama Ustadzah Arina, belajar reading ngapain aja? Then, when you were taught by Ust. Arina, what did you do for reading lesson? S1: Biasanya paling ya mbaca teks sama ngerjain soal grammar gitu Read a text and did the grammar task S2: Iya, lebih banyak belajar grammar biasanya Miss Yes, usually we learn more about grammar S3: Iya, mbaca sama ngerjain soal Yes, reading text and doing task R: trus, kalian lebih suka belajar berkelompok atau sendiri? Do you prefer learning in group or alone? S1: kelompok Miss, lebih seru Group Miss, it’s more fun S2: kelompoklah, soalnya biar bisa tanya-tanya In group so I can ask the others S3: kelompok, biar gampang ngerjain soalnya kalau ada temennya Group, because it’s easy if there’re friends … … R: Researcher S: Student Interview 1 , Appendix B … … R: Seperti apakah aktivitas membaca siswa dalam kelas? How was the reading activity of students in the classroom? T: Anak-anak itu sangat beragam, jadi aktivitasnya tidak semua sama, ada yang tekun belajar sendiri, ada yang seringnya minta bantuan temannya, ada juga yang malas-malasan ketika diminta untuk membaca teks Bahasa Inggris. The students are various, so the activity was not the same for all, there are diligent students, students who often ask their friend, lazy students when reading text R: Apakah siswa dilibatkan secara aktif dalam aktivitas pembelajaran?Do you involve the students actively in the lesson? T: Ya, tentu saja saya libatkan, tapi memang mereka kadang-kadang merasa bosan dengan aktivitas membaca dan menganalisa teks. Yes, of course I always involve them, but sometimes they feel bored with reading activity and text analysis R: Bagaimanakah respon siswa terhadap aktivitas pembelajaran yang dilaksanakan di dalam kelas? How was the students’ response with the learning activity in the classroom? T: Responnya macem-macem ya, karena ini kelas yang paling ramai jadi ya sebagian besar anak memang sangat berisik ketika pelajaran, mereka sering cepat bosan dan ujung-ujungnya ngobrol sendiri sama temennya. It is various, because this is the most noisy class so the students are very noisy during the lesson, they often feel bored and talk to their friends. R: Menurut Ibu, apakah sajakah kesulitan siswa ketika membaca teks bahasa Inggris? What do you think about the students’ difficulties when they read English text? T: Sebenarnya kesulitan mereka yang paling dasar itu motivasinya, motivasi membacanya kurang namun ketika sudah mulai mau membaca mereka cukup bisa tahu isi teks tapi belum mendalam. Mereka terkadang masih terpaku pada kata-kata sulit yang ada di dalam teks jadi itu mungkin yang cukup menghambat. Actually, their problems lie on their motivation, their