A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ READING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPREHENDING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE IN THE THIRD YEAR OF SMPN 1 NATAR

ABSTRACT
A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ READING
ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPREHENDING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL
TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER AND
TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE IN THE THIRD YEAR OF SMPN 1
NATAR
By
Triya Heny Riyanti
This research was conducted based on the consideration that students have
difficulties in comprehending the text. There were many factors that influenced
students’ problems in comprehending the reading text, e.g. students’ lack of
vocabulary and interest in reading a text. There are two techniques considered
applicable and useful in increasing students’ reading achievement, namely
information transfer and translation technique. Therefore, this research was
intended to investigate whether there was a significant difference of students’
achievement in comprehending authentic material taught through information
transfer and translation technique and to know which of the two techniques was
more effective for teaching reading of authentic material.
This research took place in SMPN 1 Natar. The participants included two classes
of the third grader. Control group pre-test post-test design was applied in this
research. The data were analyzed by using Independent t-test with Statistically

Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 15.0.
Based on the result of independent t-test, the significant difference was
determined by p t-table), 2.598 > 2.000. It showed that the
alternative hypothesis was accepted, since there was a significant difference in
students’ reading achievement after being taught through information transfer and
translation technique. Besides, information transfer was more effective than
translation in increasing students’ reading achievement because it helped students
to comprehend the text given by using self-questioning strategy. Thus, it is
concluded that information transfer technique can be applied and recommended as
a reference to teach English in reading skill.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ READING
ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPREHENDING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL
TAUGHT THROUGH INFORMATION TRANSFER AND
TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE IN THE THIRD
YEAR OF SMPN 1 NATAR

By
Triya Heny Riyanti

A Script
Submitted in a Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for S-1 Degree
in
The Language and Arts Department of
Teacher Training and Education Faculty

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY
BANDAR LAMPUNG
2013

Research Title

: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’
READING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPREHENDING
AUTHENTIC MATERIAL TAUGHT THROUGH
INFORMATION TRANSFER AND TRANSLATION
TECHNIQUE IN THE THIRD YEAR OF SMPN 1 NATAR

Student’s Name

: Triya Heny Riyanti

Student’s Number

: 0913042081

Department

: Language and Arts Education

Study Program

: English Education

Faculty

: Teacher Training and Education

APPROVED BY
Advisory Committee
Advisor I

Advisor II

Hery Yufrizal, M.A., Ph.D
NIP 19600719 198511 1 001

Drs. Sudirman, M.Pd.
NIP. 19550712 1986031 003

The Chairperson of
Language and Arts Education Department

Dr. Muhammad Fuad, M.Hum.
NIP. 19590722 198603 1 003

ADMITTED BY

1. Examination Committee
Chairperson

: Hery Yufrizal, M.A., Ph.D.. .….……………………

Examiner

: Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A. ……………………….

Secretary

: Drs. Sudirman, M.Pd. .………………………………....

2. The Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

Dr. H. Bujang Rahman, M.Si.
NIP 19600315 198503 1 003

Graduated on: April 4rd 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praise and thanks go to the almighty God, Allah SWT for the gracious mercy and
tremendous blessing so that the writer is finally able to finish this script entitled
“A Comparative Study between Students’ Reading Achievement in
Comprehending Authentic Material Taught through Information Transfer and
Translation Technique in The Third Year of SMPN 1 Natar”.
The writer would like to express her deepest gratitude to all those who gave her
possibility to complete this script. The writer would like to acknowledge her
sincere gratefulness to her supervisor committee, Hery Yurizal, M.A., Ph.D. as
her first advisor, and Drs. Sudirman, M.Pd., as her second advisor, who have
given her many helps in guiding and giving stimulating suggestions, knowledge,
and encouragement during the accomplishment of this script. Her sincerity is due
to Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A., as her examiner, who has given her
constructive suggestion to complete this script.
Her thankfulness is given to all Lectures at English Education Study Program who
have given much contribution in broadening and deepening the writer’s
knowledge during her study, and to all staffs and members of Language and Arts
Department.
Her appreciation is also given to Drs. Priyo Hartono,MM., the headmaster of

SMPN 1 Natar; Heni Sumintorowati S.Pd. as the English teachers, who has given
her help and chance to conduct her research; and to all of students of Class IX A,
IX B, and IX C in academic year 2012/2013 at SMPN 1 Natar, for their nice
cooperation.
The writer would like to acknowledge her deepest gratitude to her beloved
parents, Heriyans and Siti Joleha for their love, prayer, and support; may the only
Allah SWT rewards them within His blessing.
The writer’s special appreciation is extended to unforgettable comrades the Hi
Heels: Tami, Ria, Bunga, Tyas, Uti, Elsya, Intan, Dede, Irene, Ketrin, Vira, Cucu,
Bundo, Tyas Tinyos, and my entire mates in English Department 2009 for a
pleasure and challenging time to pass each day with.
And as for sekdes’ gang KKN: R.A. Siti Marhani, S.Ked., Mega, Sevtiana, Desi,
Deni, Satria, and Andi, the writer deeply thank them as well as my girls: Maya
and Yulia thanks for your support.

And finally, my inspiring partner, Achmad Yudi Wahyudin, S.Pd. thanks for
being excellent motivator in my life journey, giving so much care and advice to
guide me in accomplishing this script; and anyone who cannot be mentioned
directly who has contributed in completing this script.
I am completely aware that this script has limitation in certain ways, thus,

constructive input and suggestion are expected to make this better paper.

Bandar Lampung,
The writer,

Triya Heny Riyanti

April 2013

ANSWER SHEET POSTTEST
NAME

:

CLASS

:

NO
1

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
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A

B

C

D

CURRICULUM VITAE

Triya Heny Riyanti is the youngest child of a lovely couple, Heriyans and Siti
Juleha. She was born on March 27th, 1991 in Branti. She has one brother and one
sister.
She started her study from kindergarten at TK Eka Dyasa Bandar Udara Raden
Inten II in 1995 and graduated in 1997. Then she enrolled SDN 2 Branti Raya and

graduated in 2003. In the same year, she continued her study at SMPN 1 Natar.
After graduating from Junior High School in 2006, she pursued her study at
SMAN 9 Bandar Lampung. She graduated from Senior High School in 2009. In
the same year, she was registered as an S-1 college student of Lampung
University at English Education Study Program of Teacher Training and
Education Faculty.
She accomplished her Teaching Training Program (Program Pengalaman
Lapangan) as one of the requirements for FKIP students, at SMPN 2 Punduh
Pedada Pesawaran from July to September 2012.

MOTTO
“The secret of getting things done is to act.”
(Dante Alighieri)

DEDICATION

This script is dedicated to:
My beloved parents: Heriyans and Siti Joleha
My beloved grandma: Amah
My Siblings: Eka Hendra Riyanto, A.Md., Rika Apriyani, A.Md., Dwi Hetty
Riyantini, Ake Indrawantoro
Achmad Yudi Wahyudin, S.Pd.
My entire mates in English Education Study Program 2009
My almamater, University of Lampung

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................
ADVISOR APPROVAL ................................................................................
ADMISSION...................................................................................................
CURRICULUM VITAE ................................................................................
DEDICATION ................................................................................................
MOTTO ..........................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................
LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................
LIST OF APPENDICES ...............................................................................

ii
iii
iv
v
vi
vii
viii
x
xii
xiii

I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the problem .................................................................
1.2. Formulation of the Problem ................................................................
1.4. Objective of the Research ...................................................................
1.5. Uses of the Research ...........................................................................
1.6. Scope of the Research .........................................................................
1.7. Definition of Terms .............................................................................

1
5
5
5
6
6

II. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Concept of Reading ..............................................................................
2.2 Concept of Reading Comprehension …………………………………
2.3. Concept of Authentic Material .............................................................
2.4. Concept of Advertisement ....................................................................
2.5. Concept of Information Transfer Technique ........................................
2.6. Concept of Translation Technique .......................................................
2.7. Theoretical Assumption ........................................................................
2.8. Hypothesis ............................................................................................

8
10
13
18
20
25
31
32

III. RESEARCH METHOD
3.1. Research Design .................................................................................. 33
3.2. Subject of The Research ..................................................................... 34
3.3. Data Collecting Technique .................................................................. 35
3.4. Research Procedures ........................................................................... 36

3.5 Scoring System ..................................................................................... 38
3.6 Analysis Research Instrument .............................................................. 38
3.7 Data Analysis ....................................................................................... 43
3.8 Data Treatment ..................................................................................... 44
3.9 Hypothesis Testing ............................................................................... 45
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1. Result of the Research .........................................................................
4.1.1. Result of Try Out Test ................................................................
4.1.2. Result of Pre Test .......................................................................
4.1.3. Result of Post Test......................................................................
4.1.4. Normality Test............................................................................
4.1.5. Homogeneity Test ......................................................................
4.1.6. Hypothesis Testing .....................................................................
4.2. Discussion ...........................................................................................

47
47
48
53
58
59
59
65

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1. Conclusions .........................................................................................
5.2. Suggestions .........................................................................................

70
71

REFERENCES ...............................................................................................
APPENDICES ................................................................................................

72

LIST OF TABLES

Tables
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Page

Specification of Reading Test in Pretest ..............................................
Distribution of Students’ Pre Test in Experimental Class ...................
Statistical Data Pre Test per Element in Experimental Class ..............
Distribution of Students’ Pre Test Score in Control Class ..................
Statistical Data Pre Test per Element in Control Class ........................
Distribution of Students’ Post Test Score in Experimental Class ........
Statistical Data Post Test per Element in Experimental Class .............
Distribution of Students’ Post Test Score in Control Class .................
Statistical Data Post Test per Element in Control Class……..…….....
Analysis of The Hypothesis .................................................................
Analysis of Students’ Reading Achievement in Terms of
Comprehension………………………………………………………..
12. Analysis of Students’ Reading Achievement in Terms of
Inference……..………………………………………………………..
13. Analysis of Students’ Reading Achievement in Terms of
Vocabulary……..…………………………………………………….. .

40
49
50
51
52
53
54
56
57
60
61
63
64

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

Page

Research Schedule ............................................................................... 75
Lesson Plan ......................................................................................... 76
Pretest ................................................................................................... 110
Reliability Analysis Upper Group Try Out Test .................................. 133
Reliability Analysis Lower Group Try Out Test.................................. 134
Reliability Analysis of Try Out Test .................................................... 135
Difficulty Level and Discrimination Power of Tryout Test ................. 136
The Reliability Computation of data Collecting Technique ................ 137
The Result of Students Score of Pre Test in Experimental Class ....... 138
The Result of Students Score of Pre Test in Control Class.................. 139
The Result of Students Score of Post Test in Experimental Class ....... 140
The Result of Students Score of Post Test in Control Class ................ 141
Distribution of Students’ score per Element of Reading in Experimental
Class .................................................................................................... 142
Distribution of Students’ score per Element of Reading in Control Class143
Normality Test .................................................................................... 144
Homogeneity Test ............................................................................... 145
T-table .................................................................................................. 150
Observation Sheet of Students Activities ............................................. 151
Surat Keterangan Telah Melaksanakan Penelitian ............................... 159
Keterangan Telah Melaksanakan Penelitian ........................................ 160

1

I. INTRODUCTION

This chapter illustrates the reasons for choosing the topic; why the research was
conducted. It also covers formulation of problem, objectives of the research, uses
of the research, scopes of the research, and definition of term; clarified as the
followings.

1.1 Background of the Problem

The students are expected to be able to master all language skills as stated in
School Based Curriculum for English subject, namely listening, speaking,
reading, and writing, with the primary emphasis on reading. The reading skill
becomes very important in the education field, and reading is indispensable from
the students’ life because the success of their study depend the greater part on
their ability to read. If their reading skill is poor they are very likely to fail in their
study or at least they will have difficulty in making progress. On the other hand, if
they have a good ability in reading, they will have a better chance to succeed in
their study.

However, many complaints have been expressed in relation to the failure or at
least unsatisfactory results of the teaching of English especially in reading in
Indonesian educational institutions. In addition, the goal of School-based
Curriculum (KTSP) is that the students are expected to increase their knowledge

2

which is mostly written in textbook. It means that comprehension of the textbook
is the most important things.

According to Widiono (2007), one of the factors that caused students’ difficulties
in comprehending the text is students’ lack of vocabulary and interest in reading a
text. Students tend to have difficulty to make sense of English texts because they
encounter unfamiliar words. As the result, they have low ability in comprehending
the ideas contained in written language. It can be said that students have a
problem in getting information from the text as they do not know how to make
inference of the text without having sufficient vocabularies.

Furthermore, Nuttal also (1985: 5-6) pointed out the factor that one may have
difficulties to comprehend a passage because of some problems such as unfamiliar
code in which the text is expressed, the amount of the previous knowledge that
reader brings to the text, the complexity of the text expressed, and vocabulary
knowledge. Therefore, in this case, at least it is assumed that students should have
much interest in reading a passage. Thus, students are reluctant to read and get
information from the text given so that their reading achievement would be low.
In relation to the explanation above, the researcher used authentic materials in the
classroom to overcome the problem above. Authentic material is considered as an
alternative material that provides benefit for students from the exposure to real
language being used in a real context. This means that when using authentic
materials, students are able to understand the materials well when they deal with
them in their daily lives.

3

In addition, anything can be used as authentic material, but one of useful resources
for developing students’ reading comprehension is advertisement text.
Advertisement is one of the examples of authentic text. It provides certain
information that should be comprehended by the students as they always deal with
it in their daily activities. Advertisement is also one of the texts included in Junior
High School Curriculum (KTSP). Therefore, this research is proposed to find out
what strategy that is really effective to improve students’ ability in comprehending
advertisement.

Among many techniques that can be used in teaching reading comprehension is
information transfer technique. Palmer (1982) in Nation (1991:56) stated that an
information transfer technique exercise involves the transfer or change
information from one form into another form. In this case, the students are
presented a stretch of passage that should be changed into series of information,
from picture to the text. Information transfer technique might include ordering the
sequence of pictures, comparing text and pictures and completing documents. In
this study, the students were provided with the information in the form of picture,
and then they transferred it into a written form. Unlike many instructional
techniques that just have one purpose, information transfer technique is flexible
and endless in application. It can be used to improve anyone’s learning ability in
any kind of texts, and the kind of information transfer exercise are unlimited.

4

Another technique that can be applied in teaching reading comprehension is
translation technique. Richards (1976:1) pointed out that translation is general
term referring to the transfer of thought and ideas from one language (source of
language) to other language (target language) whether the language is in written
or spoken forms. When applying this technique the students are supposed to be
able to read a reading passage written in target language and translate the target
language into the students’ native language. Many English teachers tend to use
this technique since it is easier to present language material in the classroom and
evaluate the process of language teaching. Moreover, the medium of instruction is
native language, which is used to explain conceptual problems and to discuss the
use of particular grammatical structure. Using the native language for the purpose
of instruction is believed to give language learners a set of clear objective and a
clear of sense of achievement.

At last, based on the explanation above, the researcher intends to compare
information transfer technique with translation technique in order to find out
which technique is more effective to improve students’ reading achievement in
comprehending authentic material.

5

1.2. Formulation of the Research Questions
Based on the background above, the writer would like to formulate the problem as
follows:
1. Is there any significant difference of student’s reading achievement in
comprehending authentic material between those who are taught through
information transfer technique and those who are taught through
translation technique in the third grade of SMPN 1 Natar?
2. Which of the two techniques is more effective for teaching reading of
authentic material?

1.3. Objectives of the Research
The objective of this research is:
1. To find out whether there is a significant difference of students’ reading
achievement in comprehending authentic material between those who are
taught through information transfer and translation technique in the third
year in SMPN 1 Natar.
2. To find out which of the two techniques is more effective for teaching
reading of authentic material.

1.4 Uses of the Research
The uses of this research are:
1. Theoretically, this research can be used as verification and contribution for
the previous theory dealing with theories in this research.

6

2. Practically, this research can be used to give information to the English
teachers especially for junior high school whether information transfer
technique or translation technique can be applied as an alternative
technique in teaching reading comprehension particularly in authentic
material.

1.5 Scope of the Research
This research was conducted at SMPN 1 Natar. The subject of the research was
two superior classes of third grade students in academic year 2012/2013 in the
even semester in which a class consists of 31 students. These samples were
considered as the subject of the research since they have studied grammar and
vocabulary in the previous semester. Hence, this study was focused on improving
students’ ability in comprehending authentic material which was taught through
information transfer technique and translation technique. In this case, the text that
was considered as a representative of authentic material was advertisement. This
research was especially intended to give a better alternative way to teach reading
comprehension in junior high school.

1.6 Definition of Terms
In this research, there are several definitions of terms that should be considered
well as follows:
•

Reading achievement
Reading achievement is the ability of understanding the text which is
represented by score.

7

•

Information transfer technique
Information transfer technique is a technique that requires the students to
process deeply information in which the exercise involves the transfer or
change of information from one form to another form. During the transfer
the information remains substantially the same but the form of information
changes.

•

Translation technique
Translation technique is a technique in which the students transfer the
thought and ideas from one language (source of language) to other language
(target language). In this case, the students will translate the material given
from English into Bahasa Indonesia.

•

Authentic material
Authentic material is the material that is not designed for pedagogical
purpose yet it can be used for language teaching to give exposure of real
context to the students.

•

Advertisement
Advertisement is one of authentic text in which a communication of
information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about
products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.

8

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

In relation to this study, there are several points of theories and previous studies
which should be reviewed. Some concepts are described in order to give similar
understanding. Thus, this chapter discusses the concept of reading, concept of
reading comprehension, concept of authentic material, concept of advertisement,
concept of information transfer technique, advantages and disadvantages of
information transfer technique, concept of translation technique, advantages and
disadvantages of translation technique. By referring the concepts theoretical
assumption and hypothesis are constructed.

2.1 Concept of Reading
Reading plays very important role for students because they will deal with written
text in their daily life. Nevertheless, reading is not an easy activity. There are
many definitions of reading from several experts. Smith (1982) says that reading
certainly implies comprehension, and reading is something that makes sense to the
reader. The reader tries to understand and get the meaning and information in the
written texts form of symbols, letters, graphs, etc. Thus, they grasp the writers’
messages from the texts.

9

Meanwhile Nuttal (1985) defines reading as the meaningful interpretation of
printed or written symbols. It means that reading is a result of the interaction
between the perception of graphic symbols that represent language and the
readers’ language skills, cognitive skills, and the knowledge of the world. In this
process, the reader tries to recreate the meaning intended by the writer.

In addition, Howart (2006) established that reading is just as communicative as
any other form of language. It means that in reading there is an interaction
between the writer and the students through the texts. The writer tries to encode
the messages to the readers. Then the students try to decode the messages that sent
by the writer.

According to Doyle (2004), comprehension is a progressive skill in attaching
meaning beginning at the same level and proceeding to attaching meaning to an
entire reading selection. All comprehension revolves around the readers’ ability in
finding and determining main idea and topic sentence from the text.

From all theories mentioned above, it can be concluded that reading is an active
process of getting meaning or information from printed or written language
transferred by the writer whereas reading comprehension is the level passage or
text understanding while reading. The researcher assumes that students’ reading
comprehension is students’ competence in comprehending the specific
information, word and surface meaning in texts is described by students’ score
with an appropriate technique. Comprehension occurs when students are able to

10

understand, remember, retell, and discuss with others about what they have read.
One aspect that becomes essential in students’ reading is the reading technique.
Therefore, it is necessary to find out what technique which is the most effective to
teach reading in the classroom.
2.2 Concept of Reading Comprehension
In reading process, the reader needs comprehension to follow the flow of the
passage. By comprehending the text, the reader gets the point of the reading text.
Reading activity is not simply defined as an activity in which readers read word
per word in the text. Grabe and Stoller (2002: 9) state that reading is the ability of
drawing meaning and interpreting information in the printed page appropriately. It
is in line with Williams’s idea (1989: 11) stating that reading as a process of
looking at and understanding what has been written. The definition means that
readers should comprehend the text when they are reading. It can be said that
reading means understanding the text in term of transferring knowledge, idea,
information, science etc. It means that through reading, the readers will know any
information of the world nowadays that they don’t know.
Grabe and Stoller (2002: 17) define reading comprehension as the ability of
understanding and interpreting information in a text correctly. Similar to this,
according to Texas Reading Initiative (2002), the purpose of reading is
comprehension or to get meaning from written text. It means that, a major goal of
reading instruction is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and
experiences that they must have to be competent and enthusiastic readers.

11

Brown (1983:32) discusses four elements in reading comprehension. The four
elements mainly deal with the vocabulary, the specific information, the main idea,
and the ability to infer or imply- the ability to gain meanings are not explicitly
stated in the context of reading materials. In addition, Brown (1983:32) and
Cooper at al. (1988:25) classify that there are four categories of comprehension
skills. The elements are presented as follows: (1) meaning of vocabulary, (2)
literal comprehension, (3) inference, and (4) critical reading or thinking. The
researcher will focus on vocabulary, finding specific information and inference
because those categories are suitable for Junior High School level. Critical
thinking is excluded from the focus of this study since it is considered beyond
junior high school students’ ability.
In relation to the statement above, Heilman, Blair and Rupley (1981:4) categorize
reading comprehension into three levels:
1.

Literal Comprehension
Literal comprehension is the process of understanding the ideas and
information explicitly in the passage such as knowing the meaning of the
words, recall the details directly states or paraphrase in own words,
understanding of grammatical clues, subject, verb, pronouns, conjunction,
recall of main idea explicitly states and knowledge of sequence of information
presented in the passage.

2. Interpretative Comprehension
Interpretative comprehension means understanding the ideas and information
that is not explicitly stated in the passage. For instance, to understand the

12

author’s tone, purpose and attitude, infer the factual information, main ideas,
comparison, cause and effects relationship and also summarize the story
content.
3.

Critical Comprehension
Critical comprehension is analyzing, evaluating and personally reacting to the
information presented in a passage.

Based on the definitions above, it can be said that reading comprehension is the
readers’ ability in gaining meaning from the content of the text. Reading and
comprehension are one activity to extract the meaning of written materials with
fully understanding. There is no reading without comprehension and background
knowledge is involved in the process of building up the comprehension.

Meanwhile, comprehension can be said as a crucial aspect of reading. In fact, it
has been emphasized that true reading is reading with understanding, that is,
comprehension. Simanjuntak (1988: 4) stated that the first point to be made about
reading process is comprehension and the meaning is the basic element for
comprehension. She also adds that comprehending a text is an interactive process
between the readers’ background knowledge and the text itself. Similarly,
Dallman (1982: 23) states that reading is more than knowing what each alphabet
stands for; reading involves more than word recognition; that comprehension is an
essential of reading, without comprehension no reading takes place.

13

According to the concepts of reading comprehension above, it may be inferred
that the essence of reading comprehension is the use of reading technique. The
teacher must use the most appropriate teaching reading technique in order to
increase students’ reading comprehension. It means that the appropriate reading
technique may assist the comprehension of reading. The reading technique should
not only develop the students’ thinking and creativity but also develops the
students’ social ability.

At last, among the three types of reading comprehension, literal comprehension
has been considered as the way to comprehend the text in this research. The
reason is that it is suitable to the level of the third grade of junior high school
students as it only deals with understanding the ideas or information explicitly in
the passage such as finding main ideas of paragraph, synonym of the words based
on the context, and the information.

2.3 Concept of Authentic Material
An authentic text commonly is a stretch of real language, produced by a real
speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to convey a real message of
some sort of information. This assumption is supported by Day and Bamford
(1998:54) who state that an authentic material is a written language used to
convey a message. Then, they note that authentic language is considered,
unabridged text that is written for native speaker. They are materials that have been
produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community Peacock (1997).

14

Furthermore, Martinez (2002) defined that authentic materials are sometimes
called authentic or contextualized, real-life materials are those that a student
encounters in everyday life but that weren’t created for educational purposes.
They include newspapers, magazines, and Web sites, as well as driver’s manuals,
utility bills, pill bottles, and clothing labels. From, these assumptions, it can be
said that authentic texts is made by using authentic language (a language that is
only used by native speaker for the conversation activity with native speaker too)
only for native speaker without any facilitator for second language learner. This
text is used to transfer ideas, information and messages from the author to his
readers. Besides, this text is made not for teaching a language. It is made without
making its language components (vocabulary and grammar) to be able to
understand easier by second language learner, it is made only for native speaker.
Although authentic text is not for language learning program, it is important for
language learners or students who want to broaden their knowledge about the way
of using the foreign language in the real life. Spelleri (2002:1) clarifies:
“ Authentic material refers to any items created for the ESL community.
Authentic materials offer real language that is contextually rich and
culturally pertinent. They also provide insights into the adult learners’
new community and the services and opportunities offers.”

It can be said that authentic text or material is important to learn because it is full
of language insights and related to the culture. Most of them contain a large
variety of structures and vocabularies that has never been found in the school
textbook. The uses of authentic material here is to motivate the students in reading
a text, because most of the authentic material, in this case advertisement has
colorful. So advertisement which has many colour can increase the students’

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interest in reading a text. Those reasons have in line with the background of the
problem which says that most of the students have lack interest in reading a text.
And, although authentic text uses original language (language in which its
sentence’s structure and the use of vocabulary is not simplified) that is hard for
students to comprehend, it can improve students’ reading comprehension better
than other reading materials that use simplified language, such as school English
textbook.

In addition, Peacock (1997) pointed out that authentic material is the material that
has been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community. The
source of authentic material are newspapers, magazines, the internet, TV
programs, movies, CDs, songs, brochures, comics, literature (novels, poems and
short stories), catalogues, leaflets, tickets, postcards, bills, receipts, wrappings,
recipes, business cards, labels, stamps, etc.

Moreover, Spelleri (2002:2) explains that authentic material contains a lot of
vocabularies appropriated to the readers’ vocabularies. This reading text does not
contain vocabularies that exceed the readers’ vocabularies limitation. The material
has some characteristics which can be described as follows:

- The authentic items feature pictures, diagrams, tables, etc.
- The material uses bullets, titling, subtitles or other clear separation of text.
- The material allows some learner interaction: a form to fill out, a recording
to listen, to a check list, questions to think about, etc.

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From that statement, it can be said that authentic material uses language that can
be understood by the public or society. It is also completed by some interested
pictures, tables and other things that can facilitate the readers in comprehending it.
Besides, it is usually illustrated by a few of advertisements and cleared by placing
a title and some subtitles in the right place. Sometimes, authentic text gives some
chances for readers to interact with the author of the reading text or with the
editorial staffs who publish that reading text; giving some quiz with a gift and
chances for expressing mind and feeling to the readers.

There are some advantages that can be obtained from using authentic texts or
materials in teaching reading comprehension.

a.

Authentic material can provide many chances for teacher and students to
understand about how to use the target language (in this case English) in the
real life. As Homolova (2004:1) explains that authentic material can provide
resources for ESL/EFL teacher can offer them to opportunity to expose
learners to materials produced for real life and for-out classroom context. By
authentic material, we understand materials with “real language”, produced
by real speaker for a real audience. It can be said that by using the authentic
materials, both of teacher and students will understand how to use the target
language in the real life. They will understand how to use the target language
in communicating to the native speaker (that is a person who’s their first
language for teacher and students).

b.

Authentic materials contain a lot of information from all aspects of life. This
advantage is very important for students to increase their knowledge. As

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Martinez (2002:1) views that authentic materials keep students informed
about what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educational
value. It means that authentic materials have educational value for students.
Besides containing a lot of information needed by students to increase their
language knowledge, these reading texts also help students in increasing their
background knowledge.
c.

Authentic materials provide a lot of happiness for students. As Martinez
(2002:2) notes that they can encourage reading for pleasure, because they are
likely to contain topics of interest to learners, especially if students are given
the chance to have a say about the topics or kinds of materials to be used in
class. It means that authentic materials have a large variety of topics that can
make students to be interested in. And, it is important for teacher to give a
chance to students in determining the topic of authentic reading materials that
will be read by them.

Then, there are many reading materials that can be called as an authentic text.
Martinez (2002:2) describes that in today’s globalize world, the examples are
abound, but the most commonly used perhaps are: newspaper, TV programs,
magazines, the internet, movies, songs, brochures, comics, literature books (novel,
poem, and short story), and so on. It means that every reading text that is always
found or read by every person can be called authentic text if this text has some
characteristics explained above.

Finally, it can be said that authentic text is a text used for transferring ideas,
messages and information from author to the readers. It is made not for teaching a

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language. It is made only for native readers (readers whose first language is the
same with the language used in an authentic text). It is made without making its
language components (vocabulary and grammar) to be easier to understand easier
by second language learner, it is made only for native speaker. But although
authentic material is not for teaching learning program, it is important for
language learners or students who want to broaden their knowledge about the way
of using the foreign language in the real life.

2.4 Concept of Advertisement
Advertisement is the form of media which is printed or broadcast. Hiebert et al
(1988:334) says that advertising is a specialized form of persuasion.
Advertisement has become an integral part in today’s daily life.

In English subject, advertisement is one of short functional text that should be
learnt by students of Junior High School especially in third grade based on School
Based Curriculum (KTSP) 2006. They should learn how to get information that is
stated in advertisement. The example of advertisement can be seen as follows:

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Figure 1. Example of Authentic Advertisement

(taken from: Lionmag Magazine, January 23rd 2011

Furthermore, it is important to students to learn about advertisement since
advertising performs some functions. These functions can be stated as follows:
(A) It can inform the readers about a product, service, or idea.
(B) It can persuade the readers to buy products, services, and ideas.
(C) It can remind existing readers about the presence of the product, service, or
idea in the market till now.

In brief, the use of authentic material is really important for student since it
provides exposure of real context of language learning particularly in
comprehending advertisement. Due to that advertisement is one of short
functional text that should be learnt in third grade of junior high school students,

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this research will be focused on finding the best way to teach it by trying to apply
two techniques; they are information transfer and translation techniques.

2.5 Concept of Information Transfer Technique
Information Transfer Technique is an alternative technique which is commonly
used in teaching reading. Palmer (1982) in Nation (1991:56) states that an
information transfer exercise involves the transfer or change of information from
one to another form. During the transfer the information remains substantially the
same but the form of information changes. While in accordance with Johns and
Davies (1983:13) state that by transfer of information, we mean the presentation
of some or all information in the text in some other forms. Concerning Palmer
(1982:10) suggested many ways to be used in information transfer exercises
which are classified into maps and plans, grids and tables, diagram and charts,
diaries and calendars, miscellaneous list, forms, coupons etc. In addition, Lattore
and Garfinkel (1982: 10) said that other types of information transfer may include
ordering a sequence of pictures, comparing text and pictures, and completing
documents. Information transfer devices focus on the function of language in a
given text and draw students' attention to the logical organization of the text, to
the ways in which the writer has deployed information, and to how language
reflects this organization. These activities require students to concentrate on what
words, sentences, and other language units do in a given text.

In relation to this study, it can be said that in information transfer technique the
students were asked to transfer or change the information drawn from the picture

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into another form. This was adopted by previous research conducted by Indrawati
(2009) in which information transferred is actually the same; the difference is just
in the various form of material such as diagram, chart or picture. In this case, the
students looked at the information in the form of diagram, chart or picture and
then they change it into written form or spoken form.

Nation (1991:56) said that the information transfer technique can be used in three
ways:
1. Attention on Language and Content
In this term, the information exercises focus on the students’ attention on the
details information. The flowering plants example given before is belongs to this
type. After the students do the activity, they would have some knowledge about
the part of flowering plants. There are numerous other possibilities.
2. Attention on Discourse
The information transfer exercises of this type focus the students’ attention on the
familiarity of language used or physical structure pattern used in the text. Nation
(1991:57) states that in this type of learning, the difficulties of exercise can be
adjusted according to the amount of information provided in the diagram.
Moreover, there are many types of text to be used as the basic information
transfer activities suggested by the experts regarding to the attention on discourse,
such as rhetorical pattern like comparison and contrast, exemplification and
elimination of alternatives and others.

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3. A Self-Questioning Strategy
This type of information transfer exercise allows the students to create their own
information transfer diagram (Nation, 1991:58). This can be done by letting the
students to ask themselves as many questions as possible in order to get the
information from the text, such as questions initiated by what, where, and how.
These questions are a series of question which are based on the information of the
topic given. These questions will be guidance in searching for and selecting the
relevant content which is necessary.

Based on the explanation above, it can be inferred that the intention of
information transfer is the changes of information presenting form. Besides, it
also facilitates the learner to understand the information that they are dealing with
deeply. It is noticed that the students are the active participants who try to find the
information from the text themselves, while the teacher just gives them guidance.
Therefore, the researcher will ask the students to apply self-questioning strategy in
the process of acquiring information from the text. Self-questioning strategy is
assumed to be effective in teaching reading because it encourages the learners to
find the information stated in the text by themselves. Thus, the students are
actively involved in reading activity. In result, it is assumed that they can
understand and get the information comprehensively.
The researcher will try to make general procedure of teaching which will be
adjusted to English curriculum uses in the school, i.e. KTSP, as follows:

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A. Pre Activity
Before starting the main activity, students are:
1. The teacher greets the students in order to open the teaching session
2. The students are given brainstorming which is related to topic given
3. The teacher introduces the topic
B. While Activity
1. The teacher gives a reading text of authentic advertisement.
2. Students are listening to the teacher explanation about information
transfer in reading comprehension. The teacher explains about the
definition of information transfer and how to get the information
from advertisement by using self-questioning strategy.
3. The teacher lets the students ask themselves as many questions as
possible in order to get the information from the text. The example
of how to make self-questioning is :

a. What : i.e what does the advertisement tell about?
b. When : i.e when will it happen?

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c. Where : i.e where is it located?

4. Students discuss and write the information based on the guided
question. In this case, by answering self-questioning in the form of
W/H questions.
5. After students get information as much as they can get, they were
given several questions which should be answered based on the
text.
C. Post Activity
While in this phase, the students are:
1.

Discussing whether they have difficulties in the lesson or not

2.

Making conclusion of what they have learnt

3.

The teacher closes the meeting

Advantages of Information Transfer Technique
Nation (1991:56-59) states that there are some advantages of Information Transfer
Technique:
1. The information transfer exercises give a deep understanding or
comprehension to the students by asking them to make the change of the form
of the information.
2. The information transfer technique exercises give the ability to fit a text into
existing schemata which has positive effect on finding the unknown
information from the text,
3. Information transfer exercises give learner more control over their learning
procedures.

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4. In information transfer technique, the difficulty of the exercises can be adjusted
according to the amount of the information provided.
5. Information transfer exercises will be more interesting if the text includes or
contains the information about the learners’ experiences.

Disadvantages of Information Transfer Technique
Nation