activities had not provided the students with enough opportunities to show and check their comprehension. Also, the use of media remained inadequate.
Considering the importance of reading comprehension for the students’ successful English mastery, it is necessary to overcome the aforementioned
problems. Those problems indicate the need in an appropriate teaching strategy that cannot only help improve students’ comprehension ability but that can make
them actively participate in the reading class as well. In this case, the researcher suggests the use of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity DR-TA. DR-TA helps
students comprehend texts by activating their background knowledge related to the texts and promote the use of reading strategies. In addition, th
e students’ comprehension progress before, while and after reading is monitored during the
discussion so as to prevent the students from misunderstanding the texts. Also, DR-TA uses media and activities that can help the students understand the text
and make them actively involved in the teaching and learning process. It is expected that DR-TA will be an effective way to teach students reading to
improve their comprehension.
B. Identification of the Problems
Being able to comprehend English texts is crucial. However, the findings of the interviews with the English teacher and some students of Class VIII H of
SMPN 1 Yogyakarta, in addition to the classroom observation and a pre-test on reading comprehension, revealed several crucial problems that the reading
instruction in that school met. The problems were stemmed from several factors,
namely the students’ reading skill, the teaching and learning activities of reading in the class and the use of media during the teaching and learning activities of
reading. The
first factor influencing reading instruction is related to students’ reading skill. The students remained having difficulty comprehending an English text.
They lacked vocabulary and grammatical knowledge important to understand the text. Consequently, they often found it difficult to understand the text. They
almost could not find the main idea and some of the supporting details of the text, even they often misunderstood some of the information presented in the text. All
that they knew was to translate every single word unfamiliar for them. They had not learned to guess meaning using context or to employ their background
knowledge related to the text. In addition, they could not express their understanding to a text clearly and smoothly and therefore it often made their
answers to open-ended questions illegible. When answering such questions, many students did not use their own language to answer the questions. Instead, they
tended to do “copy and paste” a part of the text having the same words as what the questions had in a full sentence. It may indicate their inability to use English to
express their answer. The next factor has something to do with the teaching and learning activities
of reading in the class. The activities were less varied. Findings from the classroom observation had shown that the activities that the teacher arranged for
the students only consisted of explaining unfamiliar words taken from a text to the students and having them read the text before they answered some questions
based on the text. Actually, vocabulary mastery is not the only aspect to be successful in
comprehending an English text. The students’ background knowledge about the text being discussed also needs to be explored. Moreover,
the task sequence that the students received had not sufficiently facilitated the students’ learning process since the tasks provided the students less opportunities
to express, discuss and verify their understanding about the text. The activities also could not attract their interest and motivation to get engaged. This might be
indicated by some students who did not pay attention to the teacher during the teaching and learning activities of reading or who did not complete the task given.
Finally, the use of media to support the teaching and learning process also had not been maximized. The classroom has actually been equipped with an LCD
and a screen. However, it was not utilized. To teach reading, the teacher distributed a piece of paper containing a text and a list of comprehension
questions to answer. It did not provide the students with much help especially to find clues to help them comprehend the text. It is also less attractive to catching
the students’ attention to join the activities. If more media are used, the teaching and learning process may be more interesting and bring about a more fruitful
result. This research uses those problems as the basis to implement an alternative
in teaching reading. DR-TA is then chosen since the stages it has offer students more assistance in comprehending
an English text. It activates students’ background knowledge of the text, provides them with reading purposes, makes
them employ reading strategies and monitors their comprehension. It also has the
students actively involved in the teaching and learning activities. In addition, compared to the teaching and learning activities described above, the use of more
media such as pictures, an LCD and a screen to display the text used will be more able to make the activities more attractive to the students. Therefore, the action
becomes essential for the success of the students in comprehending English texts.
C. Limitation of the Problems
