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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
The objective of a Study Program is reflected in the competence standard of the institution. The competence standard of higher education graduates is
developed by the institution itself based on vocational, andor professional characteristic of the academic Study Program. It is stated in Peraturan Pemerintah
Republik Indonesia, No.19, 2005 about Standar Nasional Pendidikan, Pasal 27, Ayat 2, “Standar kompetensi lulusan pendidikan tinggi ditetapkan oleh masing-
masing perguruan tinggi.” English subject is stated as one of the compulsory subjects in higher
education institution. According to both Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia, No.20, 2003 about Sistem Pendidikan Nasional Sisdiknas, Pasal 37, Ayat 2c;
and Peraturan Pemerintah Republik Indonesia, No.19, 2005 about Standar Nasional Pendidikan, Pasal 9, Ayat 2, “Kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan
tinggi wajib
memuat mata
kuliah Pendidikan
Agama, Pendidikan
Kewarganegaraan, Bahasa Indonesia, dan Bahasa Inggris.” Moreover, the student’s competences in reading and writing have more
consideration in language learning. According to Peraturan Pemerintah Republik Indonesia, No.19, 2005 about Standar Nasional Pendidikan, Pasal 25, Ayat 3,
“Kompetensi lulusan untuk mata pelajaran bahasa menekankan pada kemampuan membaca dan menulis yang sesuai dengan jenjang pendidikan.”
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It is stated in the curriculum of English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak that Reading is one of the compulsory subjects which is
taught within three semesters. There are: Reading I, Reading II and Reading III. Acquiring a good skill in comprehending reading text is important for the
students. It will help the students with a clear understanding of what the writer intends to convey. According to Breznitz in Grabe 2009: 15,
Reading is an interaction between the reader and the writer. The text provides information that the author wants the reader to understand in
certain ways. The reader also brings a wide range of background knowledge to reading, and she or he actively constructs the meaning of
the text by comprehending what the writer intends and by interpreting it in term of background knowledge activated by the reader.
The objective of teaching Reading subjects as stated in the curriculum of the English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak is to train the
students to be able to get the reading competences, such as: getting the word meaning of the text, stating or formulating the main idea of the text, identifying
detail information from the text by considering the transition signals, identifying the reference from the text, differentiating the style of paragraph development,
and speed reading using skimming and scanning. Students are expected to get all those competences from varied types of the reading texts namely; short functional
text, dialog text, and monolog text. After all the competences are developed, the students will get broader
knowledge in extracting information from the various reading materials. The students will become independent, efficient and fast readers. This will help the
students easily comprehend the information convey in the reading text. The students also can avoid the time consuming when reading. A good reader will
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have wider opportunity to get good position in the society since he or she has an excellent skill in immediately grasping information than others.
Students who have the good reading competences will get benefits in seeking information from internet, magazines, newspapers, journals, and so on.
According to Pang, et al. 2003: 6, Learning to read is an important educational goal. The ability to read
opens up new worlds and opportunities. It enables us to gain new
knowledge, enjoy literature, and do everyday things that are part and
parcel of modern life, such as, reading the newspapers, job listings,
instruction manuals, maps and so on. Reading is a key to improve learning outcome in many fields of study.
Students need to read numerous sources of reading materials to broaden their knowledge in whatever their areas of interest are. Pang, et al. 2003: 20 state, “It
is well established that good readers read with ease, accuracy and understanding.
Good readers also read more, and by reading more, they increase their vocabulary
and knowledge.” Furthermore, by comprehending many reading materials, students get not
only the knowledge in their mind but also numerous advantages. Reading is a skill that will empower everyone who learns
it. They will be able to benefit from the store of knowledge in
printed materials and, ultimately, to contribute to that knowledge. Good teaching enables students to learn to read and read
to learn. Pang, et al. 2003: 21.
In teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia, it is fundamental to teach reading comprehension towards the students. Some people might consider
reading as the easiest skill in learning a foreign language because the reading texts
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generally provide the information which the readers need. However, many have difficulties in comprehending the reading text. Some consider it as the most
challenging skill indeed. Some even frequently get the reading score as the lowest one than the others skill’s score. The low score of reading test section in Test of
English as a Foreign Language TOEFL andor International English Language Testing System IELTS test of Indonesian graduates make this condition worse.
This is confirmed by the data gained from a research report conducted by I. Made Sujana, et al. 2011 that from the three sections of TOEFL test, the
student’s listening proficiency has the highest score with the average score of 462 students correctly answered 46 of the test items of listening section. Then, the
structure written expression section with the average score of 435 students correctly answered 45 of the test items of structure written expression
section. The reading comprehension section has the lowest score with the average score of 417 students correctly answered 42 of the test items of reading
comprehension section. The result is described in the Table 1.1. below.
Table 1.1. The Average Scores and Percentage of Correct Answers of Each
Section in TOEFL test.
Section Average score
Percentage of correct answers of test items
Listening Comprehension 462
46 Structure Written Expression
435 45
Reading Comprehension 417
42
Thus, in general, the reading ability of Indonesian students is not
exhilarating. This condition also occurs in the English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak. Most of the students are having low score in the
Reading subjects. They also still get difficulties in undertaking the reading test especially for the TOEFL test.
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The ability of Indonesian students to read English text is very crucial, especially for students at the higher education level. Most university graduates are
not able to read English with complete understanding. English students at higher education are expected to read or comprehend English text books of different
fields of study. English as one of the foreign language in Indonesia can be used as
language of instruction in particular education units to support the student’s ability on foreign language. As it is stated in Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia,
No.20, 2003 about Sistem Pendidikan Nasional Sisdiknas, Pasal 33, Ayat 3, “Bahasa asing dapat digunakan sebagai bahasa pengantar pada satuan pendidikan
tertentu untuk mendukung kemampuan berbahasa asing peserta didik.” There are several factors that might affect the student’s reading
competences. In outline those factors can be grouped into two aspects: internal and external. The internal factors include the student’s learning motivation,
learning interest, intelligence, talent, reading habit, creativity, self-esteem, and so on. Meanwhile, the external factors include the teacher qualification, learning
material, English as the foreign language, difficulty level of test, facilities and infrastructure, school or institution authority, teaching media, teaching method,
teaching technique, and so on. In addition, some factors are listed as the causes of the influence on the
student’s skill in reading competences of comprehending English text in the foreign language learning. The difference of language features of both languages
is the main cause of them. The cultural knowledge and awareness of the students
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to the English culture may also cause the problem. The ignorance of summarizing or taking notes from the reading text makes the student’s comprehension of the
text worse. Although it seems that the readers or the students need no effort in reading,
reading with comprehension involves a very complicated process for them. It is stated by Breznitz in Grabe 2009: 14,
When we read, we coordinate rapid and automatic word recognition, syntactic parsing, meaning formation, text-comprehension building,
inferencing, critical evaluation, and linkages to prior knowledge resources. We do this seemingly without effort and with all processes
synchronizing in time.
Considering this condition, it is necessary to involve those factors above in enhancing student’s reading competence. However, in this research, the researcher
focuses only on the teaching techniques and the student’s linguistic intelligence. By teaching the students with appropriate teaching technique, it is assumed that
the student’s reading competence will be better. The teacher provides the students with good reading competences to get clear information from the reading text by
using the proper teaching technique. By considering the different level of the student’s linguistic intelligence, the teacher also must consider to carefully choose
the appropriate teaching technique for the different groups of the students. In some classes, the teacher uses Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
DR-TA technique in teaching reading. The teacher invites the student’s prior knowledge for the brainstorming before involving them to the main activity and in
prediction activity. Teacher asks the students to think and to predict the information in the reading text before the students are allowed to read the text.
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During reading the text, the teacher periodically stops the reading activity at certain parts and asks the students confirmation about their prediction. Then, the
students are asked to think and predict the information of the next part of the reading text.
Although in using this teaching technique, the students are required to have a good thinking skill; the activities in the class are under the teacher’s
control and the students work individually although they are in group form. These activities should be more appropriate for the students who still need the guidance
of the teacher. This technique may suit to certain students but many will fail. Student’s verballinguistic intelligence and cultural background take crucial roles
in using this teaching technique. According to Manzo and Manzo 1990: 104, “Directed Reading-Thinking Activity DR-TA technique works for only a small
percentage of students, not for a great variety. The students who have other than ‘verbal’ intelligence, or who come from different culture world views will fail.”
On the other hand, by using Note-Taking Pairs as mother technique in teaching reading, students are expected to work collaboratively with their pairs.
Having a good ability in taking notes is a crucial learning skill for students in the higher level education because they have to master broader knowledge and
develop their ideas in an exemplary way. According to Barkley, et al. 2005: 135, “Being able to take good notes is an important learning skill, yet many students
are poor note takers; their note is incomplete and inaccurate.” In addition, “Effective note-taking is an important practice to master at university. You have a
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lot of new knowledge and you need to develop reliable mechanisms for recording and retrieving it when necessary.” University of Reading, 2011.
In using Note-Taking Pairs to teach reading skill in the class, teacher asks the students to read the text individually. After reading or whilst reading, the
students are taking notes of the major points of the reading materials. In pairs, then, the students offer correction and additional information each other. Sort of
these activities encourage the students to do the task collaboratively. Teacher’s role are as the activity designer, model, motivator, feedback giver, and monitor in
developing the student’s ability in taking notes from the reading materials; thus they are expected have a better reading competence.
Several studies on Note-Taking technique conducted were proposed to know the students participation by I. A. Olaofe 1994; to provide Note-Taking
guideline by Marianela Najul and Giancarla Marchi 1994 and Clara Perez Fajardo 1996; to help students achieving a better understanding of what is
presented by Amirullah Khan 1999; and to investigate the influence to the students’ external condition by Akio Oshiro 2010, et al.
Both good thinking skill and note-taking skill are substantial to be acquired by the students, especially in the higher education level. Thus, these
skills are strongly recommended to be involved in teaching and learning process. However, it cannot be denied that different level of student’s linguistic
intelligence will bring different effect on the student’s ability on these skills. Having high linguistic intelligence has a close relationship to reading
competence and taking notes by the students because linguistic intelligence has to
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do with words, spoken or written. “People with linguistic intelligence love and are talented with words. They enjoy reading, writing and learning languages. They
have an ability to teach and explain things to others. They learn best by reading, taking notes and going to lectures.” My Personality, 2007.
In this study, the researcher conducted a research to prove the theories; whether Note-Taking Pairs and DR-TA as the reading teaching techniques can
affect the student’s reading competence based on the different level of the student’s linguistic intelligence. Then, it was also to know whether this condition
brought the same effect when it was applied in STKIP-PGRI Pontianak.
Thus, the research conducted was an experimental research entitled: The Influence of Note-Taking Pairs Technique and Student’s Linguistic
Intelligence upon Student’s Reading Competence towards the second semester
students of English Education Study Program of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic year of 2011 2012.
B. Problem Identification
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