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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, I present background of the study, reason for choosing the topic, limitation of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study,
significance of the study, outline of the study.
1.1 Background of the Study
Language is a multi-purpose medium of expression. Language enables people to express their feeling, thought, and mind. In social life, people use language to
communicate with others in fulfilling their daily needs. In academic environment, language plays a role in an interactive process between student and
teacher. Student and hisher peer, student and hisher lessons. Each country may have its own language that is used for communication by the people. English is
one of the international languages, which is used as a means of both oral and written communication. It is the most well known language in the world which is
spoken as a first language by millions of people and used as means of communication by many more all over the world. People in non-English
speaking countries like Japan, China, and Indonesia learn English as a second or foreign language. We need English to get involved in international society.
Teaching English has existed in Indonesia for many years. It used to focus on vocabulary and grammar structures. Teachers are also expected to help
students to be able to communicate in English. The language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; must be taught integratively and holistically.
2 English subject has been introduced for almost ten years in Indonesian
elementary schools. It began to be applied at fourth grade. Because the characteristic of elementary school students are different from those of
secondary school students, our government construct curriculum, which is suitable for young learners. English subject for elementary school covers oral
communication ability limitedly in school context. Reading and writing skills are supposed to support oral communication learning. The materials focus on
language accompanying action. By learning English, elementary school students are expected to be able to use English to accompany action, participate in
classroom and school interactions, and recognize simple written English. In this study I focused on teaching reading in fourth grade students of
elementary school. Reading is the skill that children acquire first before they have not yet learnt to write. Language learning is a hard task, which can
sometimes be frustrating. In fact, most of our language learning comes from reading. At their age, children still find difficulty in learning their mother tongue
Javanese and second language Indonesian. So since English is a foreign language for Indonesian children, we must choose appropriate teaching methods
which will make them not afraid of English. Young learners are often more enthusiastic and lively in learning
something new. They will make an attempt to get involved in an activity even when they do not quite understand why or how. However, they also lose interest
more quickly and they are less able to keep themselves motivated on tasks they find difficult. Therefore, they need an interesting techniques can be found easily
3 like using song, pictures, and cards. For this study I choose to use cards as an
alternative by using look and say technique in teaching reading. In look and say technique, it is based on words and phrases, and makes a
lot of use of flashcards. It is usual started by teaching words which are already familiar to the children. The teacher shows the children the word and says it
while pointing to the object. The children repeat the word. This happens several times with each word. The introduction of the words only take a short time, and
goes quite quickly, so the teacher may spend five minutes of a thirty minute lesson on four new words. So this technique encourages recognition of a range of
words and phrases before reading a text. In this research, I want to find out how effective the use of look and say
is as a technique in teaching reading to the fourth grade students of SD Negeri 1 Kambangan, Tegal in the academic year of 20102011.
1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic
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