The Implementation Of Think Pair Share Method To Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension For The First Grade Students Of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga In The Academic Year Of 2015/2016 - Test Repository
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF METHOD TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ COMPREHENSION FOR THE STUDENTS OF DIPONEGORO Submitted to the Board of Examiner in Partial F
Requirements for the Sarjana Degree of Islamic Educational Studies (S.Pd.I)
English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF TEACHER
TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
PLEMENTATION OF THINK PAIR SHARE METHOD TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ REA COMPREHENSION FOR THE FIRST GRAD
STUDENTS OF VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
DIPONEGORO SALATIGA IN THE ACADEMIC
YEAR OF 2015/2016
GRADUATING PAPER
Submitted to the Board of Examiner in Partial Fulfillment of the
or the Sarjana Degree of Islamic Educational Studies (S.Pd.I)
English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
DWI AMBARWATI
113 11 095
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF TEACHER
TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
SALATIGA
2016
THINK PAIR SHARE READING GRADE HIGH SCHOOL SALATIGA IN THE ACADEMIC ulfillment of the or the Sarjana Degree of Islamic Educational Studies (S.Pd.I)
English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF TEACHER
TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
MOTTO
“BELIEVE IF A LITTLE OUR OPPORTUNITY IS A GREAT
CHANCHED TO ACHIEVE OUR BIG DREAM”
(Dwi Ambarwati)
DEDICATION
This graduating paper is dedicated to:
1. My beloved parents, Mrs. Basriyah and Mr. Sukardjono, who always educate me in doing good thing. They are my hero, thanks for all generosity, finance, and encouragement, and also thanks for your love, trust, and everlasting praying. Allah bless you mom and dad.
2. My old sister Sri Hastuti Mesgeyani and my young brother Tsalis Prihantoro, thanks for your kindness, support, and togetherness.
3. My beloved Sandikomoyo, thanks for your kindness, love, trust, encouragement, and praying.
4. My unforgettable friends (Aris Lathifah, Dewi Rohmawati, Nurul Kusumawardani, and Ayu Kurniawati), thanks for your togetherness, helping and support.
5. My friends in TBI 2011
6. Mr. Fajar Umar H, S.Pd.I, as English teacher in first grade of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga, thanks for your helping and collaborating in teaching learning process.
7. The students in X-Accounting 1 class, thanks for your participants in the classroom.
8. Many people who have help the writer that I can’t mention one by one, thanks all.
ABSTRACT
Ambarwati, Dwi, 2016: “The Implementation Of Think Pair Share Method To
Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension For The First Grade Students Of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga In The Academic Year Of 2015/2016”. A Graduating Paper.English Education Department.Teacher Training and Education Faculty.State Institute of Islamic Studies.Salatiga.Consultant: Mashlihatul Umami, S.Pd.I, M. A. This research analyzes the improvement of students’ reading comprehension through “Think Pair Share” method. The objectives of the research are (1) to describe the implementation of Think Pair Share method to improve students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School DiponegoroSalatiga, (2) to find out whether the implementation of Think Pair Share method improves students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School DiponegoroSalatiga, (3) to find out to how significant of the implementation of Think Pair Share method in improving students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School DiponegoroSalatiga.
Method of the research was classroom action research (CAR). The subjects of the research were twenty seven students in the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga.The writer used two cycles; in each cycle comprised of one meeting and each meeting consist of planning, action, observation, and reflection. The writer found several findings on it. The findings show that the students’ reading comprehension increases from pre to post test.
In cycle 1, the mean score of post-test was higher than pre-test: 70.19>
62.41. In cycle 2, the mean score of post-test also was higher than pre-test 83.89 >
72.78. Then, the result of t-test calculation in cycle 1 and 2 was greater than t- table with N = 27 is 2, 77.In cycle 1, the result of t-test calculation was 3.72 and in the cycle 2 was 4.96. The percentage of students who reached the standardized score (kriteriaketuntasan minimal) in score 70 also increased.The percentage for pre-test from the students who reach standardized score in cycle 1 was 51.85%, and post-test was 66.67%. In cycle 2, the percentage for pre-test was 74.07%, and post-test was 88.89%. This result percentages can be gotten the improvement from cycle 1 to cycle 2 was 22. 22 %. It means that Think Pair Share method was able to improve the students’ reading comprehension.
Keyword: Think Pair Share method, reading comprehension, descriptive text.
TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER...................................................................................................... i
DECLARATION ..................................................................................... ii
ATTENTIVE COUNSELOR’S NOTE ................................................. iii
PAGE OF CERTIFICATION ................................................................ iv
MOTTO ...................................................................................................... v
DEDICATION .......................................................................................... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................... vii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................. viii
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................... ix
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS......................................................... xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 1
A. Background of The Research .................................................... 1 B. Statement of The Problem ......................................................... 4 C. The Objectives of The Research ................................................ 5 D. Benefit of The Research ............................................................ 6 E. Limitation of The Study ............................................................ 7 F. The Definition of Key Term …….............................................. 8 G. The Outline of Graduating Paper .............................................. 10
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................... 11
A. Think Pair Share.................................................................. 111. Definition of Think Pair Share ..................................... 11
2. The Procedure of Think Pair Share ............................... 13
3. The Advantages of Think Pair Share............................ 16
4. The Disadvantages of Think Pair Share…………........ 16
B. Reading Comprehension ...................................................... 17
1. The Nature of Reading................................................... 17
2. The Nature of Reading Comprehension ........................ 19
CHAPTER III: METHOD OF RESEARCH ………............................ 27
A. Setting of The Research ...................................................... 27 B. Subject of The Research....................................................... 30 C. Method of The Research .................................................... 32 D. Technique of Collecting Data ............................................. 36 E. Technique of Data Analysis …………................................ 37CHAPTER IV: Data Analysis .................................................................. 39
A. Research of Findings ...................................................................... 391. Cycle 1………………………………………………………... 39
2. Cycle 2……………………………………………………….... 66
B. Analysis and Discussion .................................................................. 89
CHAPTER V: CLOSURE ..................................................................... 93
A. Conclusion ......................................................................... 93 B. Suggestion ......................................................................... 94 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
Table 4.4 The result of pre test and post test cycle ITable 4.10 The mean and T-calculation of students’ scoreTable 4.9 Percentages students score in Cycle 2Table 4.8 The result of pre test and post test cycle 2The data of post test cycle 2
Table 4.7
Table 4.6 The data of pre test cycle 2Table 4.5 Percentages students score in cycle 1Table 4.3 The data of post test cycle 1Table 3.1
Table 4.2 The data of pre test cycle 1Rubric of Reading Comprehension
Table 4.1
DiponegoroSalatiga in the academic year 2015/2016
Table 3.3 The List of X-Accounting 1 Class of Vocational High SchoolDiponegoroSalatiga in the academic year 2015/2016
Table 3.2 The list of teachers of Vocational High SchoolThe List of Educational Facilities and Tools Vocational High School DiponegoroSalatiga in the academic year 2015/2016
Chart 4.1 The students’ score mean improvement diagram Chart 4.2 The percentages score of students’ achievement
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of The Research Language is one of the important things that can use to express the
man’s feeling and activity. It is bound up with nationality, religion, and the feeling of self. It is used for work, worship, and play by everyone, beggar or banker, savage or civilized (Lado, 1983: 11). Language also becomes a medium of communication for one and other people. It consists of some languages, one of them is English. It is useful for the human because it is one of the international languages. If we look at some school everywhere, they give English lesson for the students. However, English lesson makes them worry and are not ready to learn and understand the subject in the class. Thus, English teaching classroom should be enjoyable and learning methods should be fun, so the students are enjoyable during teaching and learning process.
English language teaching has identified the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing as the most important thing of curriculum development. Its success is measured in term of the ability to carry out conversation in an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing information. The teaching process above is used in the English teaching from elementary schools.
Reading is the key of knowledge. By reading, the students get information from the text or writer’s opinion. Reading would be enjoyable for the students if they have motivation to read. According to David Nunan (2007: 68), he said “Reading is a fluent process of readers combining from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension”.
Reading is one of the important skills to be mastered. We can increase our knowledge and experience by reading. If we get a lot of knowledge, we can give our ideas and information with others. Especially for the students, reading is beneficial to know about something more. They can explore and be creative to do something because they have knowledge. However, most of Vocational High School students are less to read. They are more likely to play game than reading. The level of reading is very disappointing in that time. It may happen because English teacher doesn’t have an interesting method to make the teaching and learning process is enjoyable.
To teach English is not easy job. There are many problems in teaching reading in Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga. Firstly, the students who have poor vocabulary because they less on reading. Secondly, students don’t know about the meaning of word in the sentences. Thirdly, the problem is about the fluency. For instance, when the teacher asks them to come forward to read in English text, they are still nervous and not fluent.
Another problem related to the students in Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga who are not interested with material that is given to them by the teacher. There are many students who do not like to read.
They do not like reading because they think that reading is boring, need a long time to read and so on. For instance, sometimes students got a reading task in the class, they are often lazy to read and it will make their reading skill is low.
Based on the explanation above, the writer tries to use Think Pair Share method to improve the students’ reading comprehension in the Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga. Think Pair Share is a cooperative learning strategy to enhance students learning by facilitating students’ thinking about an issue then interacting with one peer to explain their ideas and listening their peer’s ideas (Edith Cowan University).
While, cooperative learning itself is a part of learning that includes many kinds of team work are chosen or directed by teacher. The teacher define task, member questions, provide materials and information that are design to help students solve the problems (Suprijono, 2013: 54).
In this method, the teacher gives some questions and opportunity for the students to answer the questions. Then the teacher asks the students to pair and discuss the problem for each other. It makes the students to be better in understanding the questions. If they had understood about it, they would have shared their answer and understanding for their classmate. This event is hoped to hold asking and giving opinion each other (Suprijono, 2013: 91). By giving this method, the students are more active and cooperative in teaching and learning process.
This cooperative learning promotes discussion and both individual and group accountability. It is very beneficial for the students because it can make them brave to express themselves and it is also can increase their self-confidence to explore their discussion together. In this method, they have prepared and provided the result of discussion together in every group, and they are ready to share with others.
From the explanation above, the writer want to hold research about
“The Implementation Of Think Pair Share Method To Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension For The First Grade Students Of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga In The Academic Year Of 2015/2016”.
The use of Think Pair Share method hopefully can improve the students’ ability to develop their English especially in reading comprehension.
B. Statement of The Problem
Based on the background of the study, there are many problems that arise. Some problems that can be identified are as follow:
1. How is the implementation of Think Pair Share method to improve students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016?
2. Whether the implementation of Think Pair Share method improves students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of
Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016?
3. How significant is the implementation of Think Pair Share method for the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016 in improving reading comprehension?
C. The Objective of The Research
The objectives of this research are as follow:
1. To describe the implementation of Think Pair Share method to improve students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016.
2. To find out whether the implementation of Think Pair Share method improves students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016
3. To find out to how significant of the implementation of Think Pair Share method in improving students’ reading comprehension for the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016.
D. Benefits of The Research
The writer hopes this research has some benefits in the English teaching learning process, especially in reading comprehension. There are two kinds of benefits in this research, theoretically and practically.
1. Theoretically
This result hopefully will be able to give a contribution in the implementation of teaching and learning process especially to improve the students’ reading comprehension using Think Pair Share.
2. Practically
a. For the writer The finding of the interesting method can be used as a starting point to improve the writer’s teaching ability, so she can make the best atmosphere for the English teaching learning process.
b. For the students 1) The students can increase their motivation in learning and can develop their reading skill.
2) The students can know and understand about the new method that given.
3) The students can add their knowledge by used this method, so the English is not boring lesson.
4) The result of this research can contribute to apply what is read by students. c. For the teacher This research can give contribution for English teacher to develop their language teaching method theoretically and practically. This study also can help the teacher to choose or use the appropriate method for students, so the learning teaching process can be fun and enjoyable. Classroom also is more colorful by using this method. Moreover, teacher can make the students interested with the material given and they do not feel bored.
d. For the institution This research can support the institutions to increase and improve their quality especially in the English teaching and learning process.
E. Limitation of The Study
This study takes place in the first grade students of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016. The writer wants to limit this study on the use of think pair share method to improve the students’ in reading comprehension. This result must be suitable and boarded from the problems. The topic must be limited in order to examine the problem more precisely and properly. Therefore, this research especially would be focused on how far is the improvement of students’ in reading comprehension in English teaching learning process in using Think Pair Share.
F. The Definition of Key Term
To avoid some incorrect interpretation on this research title, the writer wants to clarify and explain the term used.
1. Think Pair Share
Think Pair Share is a cooperative learning strategy to enhance student learning by facilitating students’ thinking about an issue then interacting with one peer to explain their ideas and listening their peer’s ideas (Edith Cowan University).
According to Agus Suprijono (2013: 91), think pair share is: thinking: it is begun by the teacher gives questions to the students about the subject and gives opportunity to find out the answer.
pairing: the teacher asks the students to pair each other and discuss about the question and answer. It hopes the students comprehensively their answer by pairing.
sharing: the result of discussion from every pairing will be shared for all of students in the class. It hopes will be held asking and giving opinion each other to improve their skill and knowledge.
2. Method
Method is a procedure, technique, or way of doing something, especially in accordance with a definite plan. Method is also quality of being well planned and organized.
3. Improve
Improve is become or make better, make good use of something (Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, 2008: 222). The other definition of improve is an interactive learning tool that supports the advancement of student learning outcomes.
4. Student
Student is a person who is studying at college, polytechnic or university; boy or girl attending schools; anyone who studies or who is devoted to the acquisition of knowledge (Hornby, 1974: 859).
5. Reading
Definition of reading are divided into two major types : (1) those that equate reading with interpretation of experience generally; and (2) those that equate reading with interpretation of graphic symbols. The first is a broader category and encompasses, the second; most reading definitions are related to one or both (Dechant, 1982: 3).
The other definition of reading is to grasp language patterns from their written representation (Lado, 1983: 132).
6. Comprehension
Comprehension is the ability to write answer to straight forward questions on a passage of English (Alexander, 2003: xi).
Comprehension includes the correct association of meanings with word symbols, the selection of the correct meaning suggested by the context, the organization and the retention of meanings, the ability to reason one’s way through smaller idea segments, and the ability to grasp the meaning of a larger unitary idea (Dechant, 1982: 311).
G. The Outline of Graduating Paper
The writer wants to arrange the graduating paper in order to the reader can catch the content easily. It is divided into five chapters.
Chapter I is Introduction. It consists of the background of the study, the statement of the study, the objective of the study, the benefits of the study, the limitation of the study, the definition of key term.
Chapter II is Theoretical Framework which discuss about definition of Think Pair Share method, the procedure of Think Pair Share method, and reading comprehension.
Chapter III is Method of Research. It consists of setting of the research, subject of the research, method of the research, technique of collecting data and technique of data analysis.
Chapter IV is Data Analysis. It consists of cycle I, cycle II, analysis, discussion, and result of each cycle. Chapter V is Closure. The writer states summary of the study includes Conclusion and Suggestion.
CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK A. Think Pair Share
1. Definition of Think Pair Share
Think Pair Share is a cooperative learning strategy to enhance student learning by facilitating students’ thinking about an issue then interacting with one peer to explain their ideas and listening their peer’s ideas (Edith Cowan University).
According to Trianto (2007: 61) think pair share is a kind of cooperative learning which design to influence the system of students’ interaction. It is an effective learning methodology which uses class discussion as part of its activity.
Think Pair Share is a simple method which first developed by Frank Lyman from University of Maryland. Nicholas (2011: 33) state that: Think Pair Share is one of the most important and beneficial activities. You can use in your classroom because it incorporates the individual, small group, and group discussion. This activity presents an opportunity for all students to respond to either question or task that is provided by the teacher. The question or task can be related to specific passage or it may pertain to a broader, thematic topic. After responding personally and silently, students share their written responses with their partners. If a student does not have an answer or what he or she considers an adequate response, he or she may build on his or her partner’s response. Finally, after working through a task independently and sharing privately, the class discussion enables each student to benefit from the thinking of the larger group. Students will gain immediate feedback about their interpretations and responses.
Think Pair Share provides students with a brief opportunity to think about an issue, discuss with a paired partner, and then share thoughts with the class. The activity is designed to encourage class participation and interaction with clasmates. In addition, it can be useful for gauging students comprehension of class concepts.
Think Pair Share also requires students to develop an understanding of course content, draw conclusion, and critically consider the views of others. The activity can be used for a variety of purposes, including review of key concepts and ideas, brainstroming new conclusions, peer teaching, or exam preparation. It encourages engagement in classes of essentially any size and can accomplish the task quickly. It can be done in a small or large class is only a few minutes. (Howell, 2015: 61)
Based on the explanation above, it concludes that Think Pair Share is one of method in cooperative learning. By giving this method, students have timing to think through the own answer to the question before the question are answered by others peers and discussion move on. Students also have opportunity to think aloud with other students about their responses before being asked to share their ideas publicly.
This method provides an opportunity for all students to share their thinking with at least one other student; this increases their senses of involvement in classroom learning.
2. The Procedure of Think Pair Share
According to Suprijono (2013: 91), the procedure of think pair share is: thinking: it is begun by the teacher gives questions to students about the subject and gives opportunity to find out the answer.
pairing: the teacher asks the students to pair each other and discuss about the question and answer. It hopes the students comprehensively their answer by pairing.
sharing: the result of discussion from every pairing will be shared for all of student in the class. It hopes will be held asking and giving opinion each other to improve their skill and knowledge.
Nicholas (2011: 33) describes the procedure of think pair share as follows:
a. Thinking
Two things are extremely important during the Think Pair Share phase of this activity: 1) Students must be given enough time to think and then record their thoughts on paper. Sufficient wait time is paramount.
2) Students must actually participate and not just wait for the share part of this activity. Sometime the teacher should walk around the room, checking the individuals’ work. Other times, do not permit the students to pair up until the teacher sees that they both have a response. The teacher also collects their individual responses after they have paired and shared. The most important thing is keeping the students honest and on task.
b. Pairing
The students may be paired in a variety of ways: 1) Have the students choose a partner after they have completed their individual responses.
2) Pair up the students as they complete their response. 3) Pair opposites: the quite boy with the outspoken girl; the first in the row with the last.
Walk around the room during “Pair” time. The teacher’s presence helps keep students on task and you can note the responses that ought to be heard.
c. Sharing
During the class discussion, everyone who wants to speak should get a chance to speak; however, do not allow any one individual to monopolize the conversation. The “share” may be the student’s initial reaction. It may be the contrast that the students noticed as they compared their responses, or it may be a changed opinion, based on the conversation that the two students have. The teacher should conduct the “share” portion of Think Pair Share in a manner that is consistent with the way they normally conduct class discussion.
The procedure of how to teach reading using Think Pair Share extracted from Barkley, et al. (2015:14) as follows: a. The teacher provides the student with a topic or idea.
b. The teacher distributes reading text for each pair.
c. The teacher poses the question to the class, giving students a few minutes to think about the question, devise individual responses, and the students make brief notes about their thoughts.
d. The teacher asks the students to pair with another student nearby.
The pairs will then talk with one another using their notes to remind them of the points they wish to make.
e. Ask the students A to share his or her responses with student B, and then student B to share ideas with student A. If the two students disagree each other, they will be clarify their responses together so that they are ready to explain for class.
f. Finally, the teacher calls on few students randomly to share their ideas for the class.
According Huda (2015:136), the procedure of Think Pair Share is: a. The students are divided in to some group by the teacher. Every group consists of four people.
b. The teacher gives assignment for every group.
c. Every group thinks and solves the assignment by herself or his self.
d. Every group divides them by pairing. Every couple discuss the result of individually e. Then, two couple meets in their group to share their discussion.
3. The Advantages of Think Pair Share
According Howell (2015: 61) the advantages of Think Pair Share are: a. TPS improves students’ outcomes through direct peer engagement.
b. Peer learning emphasizes students working together to achieve shared learning goals.
c. The students are able to help each other, thus maximizing the learning for both the individual and the pair
4. The Disadvantages of Think Pair Share
According to Lie (2005:46), the disadvantages of think pair share are: a. Many groups will be present their result and must be monitor.
b. The idea that appeared is little. c. If any problems is not an mediator.
B. Reading Comprehension
1. The Nature of Reading
a. Definition of Reading
Definition of reading are divided into two major types: (1) those that equate reading with interpretation of experience generally; and (2) those that equate reading with interpretation of graphic symbols. The first is a broader category and encompasses, the second; most reading definitions are related to one or both (Dechant, 1982: 3).
According to Gibson (1966) as quoted by Dechant (1982: 5) says that “reading is receiving communication; it is making discriminative responses to graphic symbols; it is decoding graphic symbols to speech; and it is getting meaning from the printed page. Deboer and Dallmann (1960: p. 19) consider that reading “involves the comprehension and interpretation of ideas symbolized by the written or printed page.”
Thorndike (1917) in Dechant (1982: 5) maintained that the reading of a paragraph involves the same sort of organization and analysis as does thinking. It includes learning, reflection, judgment, analysis, synthesis, problem-solving behavior, selection, organization, comparison of data, determination of relationships, and critical evaluation of what is being read. Hilderth (1958) has pointed out that reading requires inference, weighing the relative importance of ideas and meanings, and seeing the relationships among them.
b. Types of Reading
Brown (2004: 189) mention four types of reading : 1) Perceptive: it tasks involve attending to the components of larger stretches of discourse; letters, words, punctuation, and other graphemic symbols. 2) Selective: this category is largely an artifact of assessment formats.
3) Interactive: include among interactive reading types are stretches of language of several paragraphs to one page or more in which the reader must, in psycholinguistics tense, interact with the text.
4) Extensive: applies to texts of more than a page, up to and including professional articles, essays, technical reports, shot stories, and books.
c. The activities of Reading
The activities of reading are (Richard and Charles, 1994: 120): 1) Pre-reading activities Activities which prepare the students for reading text.
Such activities could include providing a reason for reading, introduction the text, breaking up the text, dealing with new language, and asking signpost questions.
2) While-reading activities Activities which students complete as they read and which may be either individual, group, or whole-class.
3) Post-reading activities.
Activities which are design to provide a global understand of the text in terms of evaluation and personal response. Such activities could include eliciting a personal response from the students, linking the student’s own experience, establishing relationships between this text and others, and evaluating characters, incidents, ideas, and arguments.
2. The Nature of Reading Comprehension
a. Definition of Reading Comprehension
Comprehension includes the correct association of meanings with word symbols, the selection of the correct meaning suggested by the context, the organization and the retention of meanings, the ability to reason one’s way through smaller idea segments, and the ability to grasp the meaning of a larger unitary idea. (Dechant, 1982: 311)
Davis in Dechant (1982: 312) notes that “underlying comprehension are two general mental abilities: the ability to remember word meanings (word knowledge) and the ability to reason with verbal concepts, and hence with words”.
Dechant also defines comprehension as a thinking process: it is thinking through reading. As such, it is dependent upon the learners’ basic cognitive and intellectual skill; upon their background of experience (vocabulary, knowledge, concepts, and ideas); and upon their language skills (knowledge of morphology, syntax, and grammar). In addition, he informed that reading comprehension is function to understand a text that is read as the process of construction meaning from a text. Moreover, Thorndike in Dechant (1982: 311) describes reading comprehension simply as thinking.
b. The Level of Reading Comprehension
According Lanier and Davis (1972) as quoted by Dechant (1982: 313), comprehension skills is divided into four levels: 1) Literal skills (recognizing and recalling facts, details, sequence, main idea, direction, organization, and the like).
2) Interpretative skills (inferring, drawing conclusions, generalizing, deriving meaning from figurative language, predicting, anticipating, and summarizing). 3) Critical skills (judging, detecting propaganda, analyzing, checking validity, checking the author’s biases and purposes) 4) Creative skills (applying information, responding emotionally).
Based on Barrett’s taxonomy, comprehension skills include: 1) Literal comprehension requires the identification, recognition, and recall of ideas, information, or happenings that are explicitly stated in the selection. 2) Reorganization requires the analysis and synthesis or organization of ideas or information explicitly stated in the materials read. It includes classifying, outlining, summarizing, and synthesizing.
3) Inference requires an integration of the content of the content of a selection which alone can lead to inferences about the material. 4) Evaluation requires the reader to make evaluative judgments about the content, using external or internal criteria as points of reference. 5) Appreciation requires the reader to become aware of the literary techniques, forms, and styles employed by the writer to stimulate emotional response.
c. Microskills for reading comprehension
1) Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
2) Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.
3) Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose. 4) Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
5) Recognize grammatical word classes, systems, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
6) Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
7) Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the relationship between and among clauses.
(Brown, 2004: 187-188)
d. Macroskills for Reading Comprehension
1) Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for interpretation.
2) Recognize the communicative function of written texts, according to form and purpose.
3) Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge.
4) From described events, ideas, etc., infer links and connection between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification.
5) Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
6) Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural schemata.
7) Develop and use a battery of reading strategies, such as scanning and skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning of words from context and activating schemata for the interpretation of texts. (Brown, 2014:188)
e. The Strategies for Reading Comprehension 1) Identify your purpose in reading a text.
2) Apply spelling rules and conventions for bottom-up decoding. 3) Use lexical analysis to determine meaning. 4) Guess at meaning when you aren’t certain. 5) Skim the text for the gist and for main ideas. 6) Scan the text for specific information. 7) Use silent reading techniques for rapid processing. 8) Use marginal notes, outlines, charts, or semantic maps for understanding and retaining information.
9) Distinguish between literal and implied meanings. 10) Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships.
(Brown, 2004:188-189)
f. The Activities of Reading Comprehension
Grellet (1981) as quoted by Nunan (1990: 72) provides following typology for reading comprehension activities: 1) Reading techniques
Activities in the first section (Reading techniques) are designed to develop basic reading skill and strategies.
Sensitizing activities are designed to help learners cope with unfamiliar words and grammatical structures.
Learners are taught to infer the meaning of unknown elements, to understand relations within the sentence (in particular, to identify subject and verb), and to link sentences and ideas, particularly those which are signaled by cohesion.
Learners are also encouraged to increase their reading speed, and to develop flexible reading strategies (in particular, scanning for specific information, and skimming for an overview of the text).
2) How the aim is conveyed The second set activities focus the learner on how writers convey their aim through the function and organization of the text. Learners are taught to identify the function of the text by utilizing linguistics and non linguistic clues.
They are also taught to identify the essential organization of the text, whether it is through the expansion of a main idea, and/or whether it is organized in terms of chronological sequence, description, analogy and contrast, classification, argument and logic.
Finally, learners are sensitized to the mechanics of thematization. They are shown how altering the order of elements in a sentence can alter the meaning. 3) Understanding Meaning
Activities which focus on meaning are designed to get learners to process the content of the text through the various type non-linguistics and linguistics responses they might make to the text. The activities have two different aims: a) To make students active in the reading process by presenting them with decision-making activities.
b) To devise activities which are as natural as possible, as close as possible to what one would naturally do with the text. 4) Assessing the text
The final set of activities is designed to get readers to go beneath the surface of the text, as it were, in order to judge it and evaluate it. Here, readers are required to differentiate fact from opinion and to identify the writer’s attitudes, intentions and biases.
g. Indicators of Students’ Reading Comprehension
There are some indicators of students’ reading comprehension, as follows: 1) The students are able to understand the function of descriptive text.
2) The students are able to find the difficult words from the descriptive text.
3) The students are able to answer the question about descriptive text.
4) The students are able to identify the important information on the text.
5) The students are able to give opinions about the text that they have been read.
CHAPTER III METHOD OF RESEARCH A. Setting of The Research
1. General Situation of Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga
This classroom action research was conducted at Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga. It was located in Jl. Kartini No. 2 Salatiga, Jawa Tengah.
Vocational High School Diponegoro Salatiga was built by Islamic foundation namely Yayasan Imaratul Masajid Wal Madaris (YAIMAM) in 1997. The first name of the school was Madrasah Aliyah NU. Then YaIMAM changed the name of school became Vocational High School Diponegoro based on decree No: 010/ YAIMAM/ 11/ 1997.