THE EFFECT OF DIRECTED READING-THINKING ACTIVITY (DRTA) AND CONTEXT CLUES METHODS ON READING COMPREHENSION.

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for the de gr~e
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in Engi$sh s.pfi'l
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THESIS
THE EFFECT OF
DIRECTED READING-THINKING ACTIVI1Y (DRTA)
AND CONTEXT CLUES METHODS
ON READING COMPREHE.NSIO.N

Arranged by:
MERYSYSKA SITUMORANG
Registration number: 025010079

Has been defended before Thesis
Examination Committee, on July 281h. 2005.
And declared to have fulfilled the requirement.
Approved by

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Consultant Commission:

Consultant If

Prof. 1\1. Silitonga, M:*., Ph.f)

Head of English Applied Linguistics

Prof.Dr. Jawasi Naibaho

Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., P.h.D

Director of Graduate program
UNIMED

Prof. Dr. Belferik Manullang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is concerned with the effect of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
(DRTA) and Context Clues on Reading Comprehension. It is submitted to the Graduate
Program of the State University of Medan, in partial fulfillment of the final academic
requirements to obtain the degree of Magister of Hwnaniora from English Applied
Linguistics.
First of all, Praise to God The "Almighty" for His mercy and beneficial, without
His guidance and blessing she would have never been able to complete her th e~

is.

She also

expresses his sincere gratitude to Prof. M. SiJitonga, Ph.D and Prof. T ina Mariany
.Kariman, M.A., Ph.D as her consultants for their valuable inputs, guidance. and
encouragements to broaden her perception and knowledge on tl1e topic.
She also gives her appreciation to the reviewers for their const:p.Jctive
suggestions, criticisms and questions in the process of making this thesis.

Her great

gratitude is also due to Prof. Dr. Jawasi Naibaho and Dra. Meisuri, M.A as Head and
Secretary of the English Applied Linguistics Program, for their motivation and assistance
during her study and in conducting this research, as well as to all the lecturers wlio guided
her throughout her academic years at the Graduate Program in UNJMED.
The writer's sincerest thanks goes to her beloved parents J. Situmor ang and S.
br. Tampubolon who patiently give tlteir moral and financial supports, never-ending love

and prayers.

Next. she wants to express her thanks to all her sisters and brother Joy,

Erika, Samuel and Rahd Situmoraag fm; their moral and spiritual supports.
Her thankfullness goes also to her executive class (B'Indah, Azizab, Charles,

Maria, Susanto, Wilda, Ira, and Suaibatun) for their encouragements and togetherness

II

during the process of writing this thesis. All of her fiiends at Methodist Hang Tuab
Church, should also share the writer's appreciation for their motivation.

Finally, the wtiter realizes that tllis thesis is still far from being perfect.

Therefore constructive criticism and suggestions are welcomed for further improvement of
this thesis.

Medan, July 2005.
l11e writer,

Merysyska Situmoran2
Registration Number: 205010079

iii

ABSTRACT
}
\

Situmorang, Merysyska. 2005. The Effect of Directed Reading-Thinking
Activity DRTA) and Context Clues on Reading Comprehension.
English Applied Linguistics, Graduate Program of the Sate University
ofMedan.

There are many problems faced by teachers in teaching reading comprehension to
the students. It's not an easy task to make the students comprehend the reading
material in a given time. The problems is because most teachers are not aware of
this and they are not motivated to find the applicable method/s to be applied in the
teaching. Related to this, the writer conducted a research on the effect of teaching
methods on reading comprehension. The objectives of this study are to investigate
whether Directed Readi.ng-Thinking Activity (DRTA) and Context Clues
significantly affect on reading comprehension, and which of these methods is the

most significantly effective. Quantitative approach was carried in experimental
design. The samples was taken from the second year students from Methodist
Tanjung Morawa who were in the 2004/2005 school year. The Cluster sampling
was used with 105 students who were divided into three groups (two experimental
groups and one control group). In the process of collecting the data, first the
researcher administrated a pre-test for the three groups, then two groups were
treated with DRTA and Context clues methods, and one group was taught using
was administrated to tHe three
traditional method. After the treatments, the post~e
groups. For the analysis, the data were analyzed applying One Way-ANOVA The
result of the anatysis showed that the F observed is greater than the F table
(9.64>3.09). Further more, to prove which group was the most effective method,
the NEWMA~KULS
fonnula was applied and the result showed that from the
two experimental groups DRTA was the most effective method in teaching reading
comprehension (mean=60.80), followed by Context Clues method (mean=59.25).
In &eneral, it is concluded that the DRTA method and Context Clues method give
significant effect on reading comprehension.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT ..................... ........................................................... i

CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
CHAPTER II:

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1
2.2

z
~

Background of the Study ................ .. .... ... ..... 1
Research Problem ........................... .... .......... 3
Objective of the Study .................................. 3
Hypothesis ....................................... ...... ... .4
Significance of the Study ......................... ....... .4
Scope of the Study ................................. ...... .5

m

Reading ...... ...............................................7
The Levels of Reading ................................. .. 9
2.2.1 Independent Level ............................. .... 9
2.2.2 Instructional Level ............................ ..... 9
2.2.3 Frustration Level ................................... 9
2.3 Comprehension .......................................... 10
2.3 1 Taxonomic Levels of Comprehension .. ...... 10

2.4 Reading Comprehension ................................ 12
2.5 Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) ...... 13
2.6 Steps in DRTA ................................. ............. 15
2.6.1 Predicting ........................................ 15
2.6.2 Reading ............................................ 16
2.6.3 Proving ................... ..... ............... ... 17
2.1 Context Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. .... 18
2.7.1 Types of Context Clues .. .... .......... ......... 19
RESEARCH METHOD

3.1
3.2
3.3

Research Design .. . ....................................... 23
Population and Sample ................................ 23
rnstrument.. ............................................ 24

lV

3.4

3.5

CHAPTER IV:

DATAANALYSISANDRESEARCH FINDINGS
4. 1
4.2

4.3

CHAPTER V:

3.3.1 Validity ............................................ 24
3.3.2 Reliability .......................................... 25
Procedures of Data Collection .......................... 25
3.4.1 Pre-Test ......................................... 26
3.4.2 Treatments ............................................. 26
3.4.3 Post-Test .................................................... 26
Data Analysis ............................................ 27

Data Analysis ........ .. .. .. .. ..... .. .... ~ ............ 28
4.1.1 The Effect of Teaching Methods ........ ...... 28
Testing of the Hypothesis ...... ... ...... ... ............. 37
4.2.1 Hypothesis One: Teaching methods with
DRTA and Context Clues significantly
affect Reading Comprehension ... ... .......... 37
4.2.2 Hypothesis Two:The Most Significant
·Method .................................... ... ....... 38
Research Findings ............................... .. ~. ~ .3 9

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1
5.2

Conclusions .......................................... ... AO
Suggestions ................................................40

v

CHAPTER I
.INTRODUCTION

IMIUK PERPUST AKA AN {
1.1
Langu

Background of the study
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UNIM~

is a mediwn of communication, and the fundamental function of a

language is communication. LanJ.,ruage is needed to make sense of the world we Jive in.
By putting words to what is seen, felt and heard, a new experience can be understood.
Language enables people not only to talk about and ac;;k tor the things, but also to think and

plan. regulate the behavior, and express the emotion. There is no human community
without language, and a good and strong community needs a good infonnation s~

stem.

There are four skills to be mastered in the study of a language, namely listening,
speaking, reading, and writing.

From all these aspects, reading is the most complex

commw1ication process which requires effort, concentration, and attention. People read to
gain infonnation.

Nowadays, scientific and Infonnation Teclmology

(IT) written-in

English and it is available in large number of media To get access to such infonnation,
people need to be able to read and tu1derstand written sources from the internet, books,
journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.
The 21st Century which is also known as the era of knowledge and .information
forces every individual to read in order to develop their horizons and to get varieties of
information. In todai s world, reading becomes a valuable experience. It is often said
"You are what you read.

ft is said tlplt if you read nothing, than your mind withers, and

your ideals lose their.. vitality ana sway•·.
Reading is one oflanguage skil1s that should be mastered by language leamers. Jt
is the most essential skills. Reading is not easy as people think. Maybe one can read the

words but he can't understand it. People read without giving much thought on how they
do it since they assume reading as common and take it for granted. Someone whose

primary task is teaching reading should consider the concept of reading.
Teaching reading gets more emphasis than do any other skills, because it needs
more time to spend than other skills. To be able to access the world's scientific and
technological information, the teaching of English in Indonesia has been started by giving
much more attention to the impJementation of developing reading comprehension.

A

research report from Badan Litbang Depdikbud Rl in 2000 concludes that the reading
competence of High School and University Students was regarded low.

l)le failure is

caused by the teachers who emphasize the teaching on emphasis on language structure
rather than language skills, particularly reading skHl. It also implies that the instructional
system of reading in Indonesia has failed to literate Indonesians Students. The system
emphasizes more on the letter recognition rather than decoding meaning from text.
In the Competency-Based CWTiculwn 2004 (Department of Education, 2005), the
general objective of teaching reading comprehension to students is that students are
expected to be able to comprehend the text in the fonn of narration, description, dialogue,
etc .• by having the reading skills, such as : (a) finding the specific information, (b) getting
the general information, (c) finding the explicit meaning of the main idea, (d} finding the
imp Jidt meaning of the main idea, (e) finding the detail information, (f) getting the implicit
information, and (g) interpreting the meaning of the words, phrases, and sentences based
on the context. The level of students'

comprehnsi

o~

of the text as well as the uses of

reading text across curricuJum is part of the procedures in teaching reading comprehension.
Based on the writer's experience in teaching and learning practice in the Senior
High School where it was found that many students could read the words in a passage

2

fluently but were unable to answer questions in interpreting or identifying the main idea.
The fact shows that students failed to master Interpret ive or Inferential Comprehension.
Since Inferential Comprehension seems more difficult for students, teachers have to find
out a method that will help them in solving 1he difficulties.
1n line with this background, this study will be carrioo out in two major types of
teaching reading methods. The first is Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) and
the second type is Comex.t Clues method and their effects on Reading Comprehension
particularly on Inferential Comprehension.
The wiiter proposes DRTA and Context Clues as the alternative me}hods in this

study because both of these methods come from different areas of reading. DRTA is one
o f the general method for content area reading, while Context Clues is a reading method
focuses on word recognition (Bums, 1984:31 0). It is hoped that these methods would give
significant contribution to the mastery of reading comprehension.

Research Problem
In relation to the background of the study, the problems are fonnulated in a fonn of
questions below:
1. Do teaching method with DRTA and Context Clues give significant effect lO

Reading Comprehension?
2. Which

of these method gives the most significant effect to Reading

Comprehension?

1.3

Objective of the Study

I

In connection with the above research problem , this study attempts to investigate
whether:

3

l.

teaching methods with DRT A and Context Clues give significant effect to Reading

Comprehension.
2.

1.4

one of these methods gives the most significant effect to Reading Comprehension.

Hypothesis
The hypotheses of tlris study are fonnulated as follows:

Hoi

: Teaching methods with DRTA and Context Clues do not give significant effect

to Reading Comprehension.
Ho2

None of these methods

gives more significant effect to Reading

Comprehension.
Hal

Teaching methods with DRTA and Context Clues give significant effect to
Reading Comprehension.

Tla2

One of these methods !:,.-ives more si!,111ificant effect to Reading Comprehension.

Significance of the Study
The fmdings of this study are expected to provide useful information on the using
of the DRT A and Context Clues methods, where these methods could facilitate and lead

the students in comprehending English text. The description and the findi ngs would be
very useful for teachers of Eng] ish in selecting appropriate method, material, and approach
for the students in teaching reading comprehension, and in overcoming t11e students'

problem in reading comprehension.
Furthermore this study"is also expected to be useful for other1"e8earchers in getting
sources of information and as a trigger in conducting further in-depth research related to
the improvement of the students' reading comprehension.

4

r.6

Scope of the Study
Reading comprehension is usually difficult for students whose first language is not

English. The reading methods are badly needed by teachers to help students in reading
comprehension. There are many methods of teaching reading comprehension proposed by
some experts, such as: Casale, Stauffer, Manzo, Heller, Stetson, Robinson, etc. In this
case, the writer focuses on DRTA and C..ontext Clues methods, considering that these
methods comes from different area of reading where DRTA focuses on the content and
Context Clues on the word recognition. The writer assurnmed that' both methods would
give significant conribution on reading comprehension.
Since comprehension covers a large scope, it is not possible for the writer to cany
them largely. She makes a limitation. There are three taxonomic levels of comprehension,
namely: Literal Comprehension, Inferential Comprehension, and Critical Comprehension.,
the writer considers that it is not possible for her to touch all the levels in this study. First,
because it will take too much time as well as too many samples if these three levels of
comprehension are applied in this study, and second is that the levels of difficulties of
comprehension should be condsidered too. According to the writer, literal comprehension
has been applied mostly by teachers and students in reading comprehension class, where
the teacbers tend to give exercise mainly in literal questions, so it is not necessary for the
writer to apply this in her study. In inferential comprehension, the writer considers that the

level of difficulty is high enough and it is believed that the students of the second year will
face much problems jn doing the task. Thus, the

~

of the study is limited to the

Inferential Comprehension. The reason is because the difficulties is in the middle level
between Litera] and Gritical comprehensionl. so the students will not get frustrate in
understanding and doing the task. Furthermore, she has examined that most of the

5

questions in reading text found in the National Examination as well as in SPMB from
1996-2004 were generally given inferentially, and studies have shown that the students
mostly failed in finding the right answer.

6

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

ERPUSTA.,K~i
UNIMEO

JT"'ILIK

5.1

Conclusions

!

Reading is a process m which infonnation ffom the text and the
knowledge possessed by the reader act together to produce meaning, so it is not
simply a matter of oottom-up word identification but a perc.eptual process that
involves interpretations on the reader's part, and understanding or comprehension is
the basis of reading and of learning to read. Jt has been explained previously j,n this
thesis that there are three levels of comprehension, they arc literal comprehension,
inferential comprehension, and critical comprehension. Furthermore, there are two
methods proposed in this study, they are Directed Reading-Thinking Activity and Context
Clues methods, and this study was conducted as an attempt to discover whether the DR1A
and Context Clues significantly affect on reading comprehension. After the data analysis
conducted, it is concluded that the application of DRT A and Context Clues method is
significantly affected on reading comprehension. And it is also proved that from the three
methods, the DRTA is the most effective method in teaching reading

cm~prehnsio

n,

followed by Context Clues method and the Traditional method.

5.2

Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, it is suggested that teachers should be aware of

some re.levant metheds...,o f teachif!g.l. particularly in teaching reading skills. And it is hoped
that teachers can develop their teaching methods and introduce or apply new methods of

40

reading which are relevant to the students, in order to improve students competence in
reading comprehension. Some examples of the methods are DRTA and Context Clues
methods which are proposed in this study, and it has been proved that these methods can
give significant effects to the students reading comprehension ability. And there is a need
for more research to discover some other methods in reading sKills.

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