IMPROVING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION OF THROUGH TASK BASED INSTRUCTION.

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN
READING COMPREHENSION OF NARRATIVE TEXT
THROUGH TASK BASED INSTRUCTION

A THESIS

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

By:

MOHAMMAD OTTIS YUDHAPRAWIRA RAMADHAN
Registration Number 081222210017

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

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, the writer would praise and say thank God, Allah
SWT, the Almighty and Most Beneficial for His grace, guidance, praise, honor
and mercy that have been given to the writer’s life especially in enabling his to
complete his thesis and to fulfill the requirements for the degree of Sarjana
Pendidikan at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan.
This thesis could have been completed because of the help, support,
advice, guidance, comments, and suggestions from several people for which the
writer would like to extend his sincere and special thanks to:
 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si.,the Rector of State University of
Medan
 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of the Faculty of Languages and
Arts, State University of Medan

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd.,the Head of English and Literature
Department
 Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of Education Program of
English Department
 Dra. Meisuri, M.A., hisThesis Consultant, for her valuable advice,
guidance, comments, correction, and precious time she spent on
supervising the draft of this thesis
 Drs. Johan Sinulingga,M.Pd., his Academic Advisor . And also thanks to
all beloved lecturers in English and Education Department who advised
and guided the writer during academic years.
 Prof.Dr.Lince Sihombing, M.Pd and Drs.Bachtiar.M.Pd hisThesis
Examiner, for them valuable comments, correction, and precious time
they spent.
 Tehdi,S.Pd, the Headmaster of SMP SWASTA MUHAMMADIYAH 4
Medan, for allowing his to conduct the research in the school, the English
teacher, Afrida, S.Pd, for guiding his during the research, and all of the
students of class VIII for their cooperation

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Dharma Bakti and Nurviana, his beloved parents, for their endless love
and their pray, support, motivation and also advices in finishing his study,
his sister Seruni Olivia Gita, for their pray, love, support, encouragement
and motivation, and all of his families, for their pray, support, motivation,
and advices to finish it

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His friends in English Education Department ’08 and ‘09 that could not be
mentioned one by one,for their support, information and encouragement in
finishing his study.
Lastly, the writer offers his regards to all of those who supported his
during the completion of this thesis.

Medan,
April 2014
The Writer

MOHAMMAD OTTIS .Y.R
NIM. 081222210017

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ABSTRACT
Ottis, Mohammad. Improving Students’ Achievement in Reading
Comprehension of Through Task Based Instruction. AThesis. English
Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
2013.
The objective of this study is to investigate whether the application of Task Based
Instruction significantly improves the students’ achievement in reading
comprehension especiallynarrative text. This study was conducted by using
classroom action research. The subject of this research was the students in SMP
Muhammadiyah 4 Medan especially class VIII which consisted of 32 students.
The research was conducted in two cycles. The first cycle consisted of three
meetings and the second cycle consisted of three meetings. The instrument for
collecting the quantitative data wasmultiple choiceand the instruments for

collecting qualitative data were interview sheet, observation sheet and diary notes.
Based on the analysis, students’ achievement is improved in every test of reading
comprehension especiallynarrative test. In test I, the mean score was 53.13. In test
II in cycle I, the mean score was 73.59. In test III in cycle II, the mean score was
83.28. Based on the interview sheet, observation sheet and diary notes, it was
found that the teaching learning process ran well. The students were more active
and enthusiastic working in group based on diary notes and interview sheet. It was
found that Task Based Instruction can improve the students’ achievement in
reading comprehension especiallynarrative text.
Keywords: Achievement, Reading, Narrative Text, Task Based Instruction

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Students’ Score in Test I, II and III ................................................................... 30
Table 4.2 Students’ Passing the Standard Test .................................................................. 35
Table 4.3 The Group of Improvement Students’ Score ..................................................... 36

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LIST OF DIAGRAMS
Diagram 3.1 Action Research Model .................................................................................. 23
Diagram 4.1The Comparison of The Students’ Reading Score ............................................ 34

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of The Study
Language is one of the most important role things in communication and it is
also tool of communication in daily activities because of social beings which used
all nation in all over the world, language as a means of communication is so
useful and flexible. It can serve the human needs in their communication in any
situation. Languages are really rich and beautiful because with language can
express almost everything such as thoughts, actions, ideas, emotions, etc.
Language can also be used to transmit culture from generation to generation. By
languages we know the culture from ancient to the modern.

English is international and globalized which makes English is important
language because most of the people in this world use english to communicate, to
communicate in English well, a person must know language proficiency consist of
four basic language skills : listening , speaking , reading and writing.

In Addition, reading is one of the most important skills in learning
language, reading is the window of the world, with reading someone can get and
absorb much knowledge about anything in the world because this activity will
increase broaden one’s horizon especially in this globalized era.

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It is also give a contribution with the information about anything in this
world. Reading can be done to kill the time. Reading is one of skill which most
important in language and should be mastered especially in academic world
besides listening , speaking and writing. As one of the basic language skills,
reading has a very complex skills because in reading people not only have to
activate their language competence but also their competence in connecting the
text to the context,with reading activities can guide someone to take the most
appropriate way his/her life and the solution for the problem that are being faced.

Reading programs can help students develop their language skills necessary for
success. the success way to implement an affective reading program with make
the students’ interest.

Reading comprehension is one of the skill that must be mastered by
student , but according the experience and the fact shows that teaching reading
comprehension is not easy task because the teacher must face learning reading
comprehension thats also make situation of teaching and learning become bore ,
student can not comprehend English text well because strategy or methodology
which is used in not suitable And also student do not have a good motivation to
read and they should comprehend every word of text because strategy is high
level plan to achieve goals or teaching learning process and also need motivation ,
so they just look at the words in the dictionary and find of the meaning. According
to schema theory comprehending a text is an interactive process between the
reader’s background knowledge and the text.

Based on problem of student and also teaching and learning so Task Based
Instruction is one of suitable strategy in teaching and learning. Nunan stated that
task based instruction (TBI) is implies a shift away form some tradisional teach
role. Teacher can not always be acting as controller if we want the student

“comprehend and interact” with a task. Bourke (2009) stated that Task Based
Instruction has some advantages for all ages and background their focus on
meaning not form. A special consideration for these learners is that their language
skills are still developing and teachers must be careful to create appropriate task
for their level

Task Based Instruction (TBI) is frequently promoted as an effective
teaching strategy, superior to ‘traditional ‘ strategy, and sounly based in theory
and research. Reading Comprehension is Critical to nearly every language learner
so TBI Helps Learners become actively engeged with the languages and meet
their learning goals. In TBI , students participate in communicative tasks in
English. Tasks are defined activities that can stand alone as fundamental units
and that require comprehending, producing, manipulating, or interacting in
authentic language while attention is principally paid to meaning rather than form
.
B. The Problem of The Study
The problem of study was formulated as follows :

“Does the Task Based Instruction (TBI) improvethe ability of students in reading
comprehension?”

C. The Objective of The Study
The objective of study is to find out the use of Task Based Instruction could
significantly improve the ability of students in reading comprehension.

D. The Scope of The Study
. There are many strategies can be implemented in order that the student
become active. Thus, the scope of this study is focused on the use and application
of Task - Based Instruction to improve students’ reading comprehension.in
teaching reading narrative text. In the teaching process, the generic structure and
the language features of the narrative text will teach in order to make them easier
to comprehend narrative text. In other words, this study is limited to see the
improvement of students’ achievement in reading comprehension, especially
reading narrative text by using Task Based Instruction for SMP Muhammadiyah
4.

E. The Significance of The Study
The Finding of this study is expected to be useful for :
1. English teachers to improve their teaching of reading comprehension through
Task – Based Instruction

2. Students to increase and usefull for

their reading ability in reading

comprehension.
3. The other researchers who interest in this study to get information about the
effective approach in learning reading comprehension

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion
Based on the result of the study, the conclusion were drawn as follow:
There was an improvement of students’ achievement in reading
comprehension, especially reading narrative text if it was taught by using
Task Based Instruction. It is showed from the mean of the students’ score in
three tests: test I (53.13), test II (73.59) and test III (83.28). Also, the
informations of the observation sheet, interview sheet and diary notes
indicated that there was improvement in students’ achievement in reading
narrative text therefore. It was showed most of the students became more
active working in groups. The use of Task Based Instruction could
significantly improve the students of SMP 4 Muhammadiyah.
B. Suggestions
Based on the result of this study, the use of Task Based Instruction could
improve the students’ achievement in reading comprehension, especially
Narrative text. The following suggestions are offered:

1. to the teachers, to apply Task Based Instruction so that they can improve
their students’ achievement in reading comprehensionand also can make
students easier to understand the various kinds of reading materials;
2. to the students, to use Task Based Instruction can enjoy in teaching
learning process and
3. to other researchers, this research may bring them into good understanding
on how to improve the students’ reading comprehension through Task
Based Instruction.