2
how wellthe students’ reading comprehension is, and to find out how far the communicative
approach candevelop
the students’ reading
comprehension.
B.
Theoretical Foundation 1. Definition of Teaching
According to Brown, 2000:7 “Teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do
something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge,
causing to know or understand.” He further says that teaching is guiding and facilitating learning,
enabling the learner, setting the conditions for learning. Our understanding of how the learner
learns
will determine
our philosophy
of education, teaching style, approach, methods,
and classroom technique.
This research
focuses on
teaching reading
comprehension. Teaching reading foreign language or second language contexts is gaining more and
more attention, as evidenced by the numerous professional resource books on the topic. This
increasing attention is welcome, for reading can be one of the major focuses of learning a second or
foreign language Day: 1993.
1. Teaching Methodology
In this research study, the writer used the communicative approach or the communicative
language teaching as a method in her teaching learning process.
a. Communicative ApproachCommunicative Language Teaching CLT
Based on Larsen and Freeman 1986:131, “The communicative approach is an approach which has a
goal to have one’s students become communicatively competence.” While this has been the stated goal of
many other
methods, in
the Communicative
Approach the
notionof what
it takes
to be
communicatively competence is much expanded. Then, Richards 2006:2 says in Communicative
Language Teaching Today says “CLT sets as its goals the teaching of communicative competence.”
b. The Role of Teachers and Learners in the CLT Classroom
The followings are definitions of the teacher and learner’s role propose by some experts:
1 Richards implied 2006:5 new roles in the classroom for teachers and learners. Learners now
had to participate in classroom activities that were based on a cooperative rather than individualistic
approach to learning. Teacher now had to assume the role of facilitator and monitor. Rather than
being a model for correct speech and writing and one with the primary responsibility of making
students produce plenty of error-free sentences, the teacher had to develop a different a view of
learners’ errors and of herhis own role in facilitating learning.
2 Larsen and Freeman 1986:131 state that “The teacher is the facilitator of hisher students’
learning. He is a manager of classroom activities. In this role, one of hisher major responsibilities is
to establish
situation likely
to promote
communication. Students
are, above
all, communicators. They are actively engaged in
negotiation meaning – in trying to make they understood – even when their knowledge of the
target language is incomplete. They learn to communicate by communicating.”
From the definitions above, it can be concluded
that the teachers and learners in the classroom are; the teachers are facilitator and monitor, where they
facilitate the language learning. Then, learners are as participation, when they participate in classroom
activity.
c. The Techniques in the Classroom Activities
