THE EFFECT OF V DIAGRAM TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS` READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, the writer would like to express his deepest gratitude to
Almighty God, Jesus Christ for His amazing grace, uncountable blessing, loves,
opportunity and strength given to the writer during his study and in completing
this thesis which entitled: The effect of Group Investigation method on students’
writing achievement. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the
degree of SarjanaPendidikanof the English Department, Faculty of Languages and
Arts, State University of Medan (UNIMED).
In completing this thesis, the writer realized that he faced some problems
and he had received the academic guidance, suggestions, and comments and got a
lot of assistance and moral support from many people. Therefore, the writer
would like to express his gratitude and special thanks to:

Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of
Medan.

Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages
and Arts, State University of Medan.


Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department,
Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd., M.Hum., the Head of English Education
Study Program.

Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D., her Thesis Advisor, who has
given his valuable advice, guidance, inspiration and spent his precious
time in the process of completing this thesis.

Drs. Johannes Jefria Gultom, M.Hum., her Academic Advisor, who
has supported her throughout the academic years.

Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., her Reviewer and Examiner, who
has given her precious time, guidance, suggestions, and comments.

Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan, M.Hum., her Reviewer and Examiner,
who has given her precious time, guidance, suggestions, and
comments.

All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided,
and advised his throughout the academic years.


Eis Sriwahyuni, M.Pd., the administration staff of English
Department, for her attention, assistance,and information in
completing it.

Muliadi, S.Pd., M.Si., the Headmaster of SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei
Tuan, for his permission and opportunities in allowing the writer to do
observation and to collect data.

Dra. Roland Silalahi, the English teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Percut
Sei Tuan, for the assistance, guidance, suggestions and comments in
the process of completing this thesis and all the teachers and students
at the school for the good cooperation.

Her beloved parents, Willem Saragih and Rosmaida Tambun, her
lovely brother, RelckySaragih, her sister, Fifi Santi Harefa, her
beloved grandparents, K. Tambun and B. Simangunsong, her
beloved uncle and aunt, E. Simatupang and A. Tambun, her lovely

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cousins, Kevin, Audry, and Laura and all her families for their
endless love, pray, inspiration, motivation, mental and everything that
they have given to the writer.

Her friends in Reguler Dik. A’ 2011, her great class, for the love and
togetherness throughout four years; her friends in PPLT SMA BTB 1
Balige 2014 for many experiencies and togetherness.

Her lovely friends, Afriando Terma, Fibie Liona, Choms Gery, Ice
Harianja, Wida Sitorus for all of their supports, pray, motivation,
laughs, tears, and togetherness.

Her beloved bestfriends, Melissa Abigail, Rini Dameria, and Diana
Natalia for their endless supports.

Her most loyal supporter, Renol Aprico Siregar, for the togetherness,
endless support and love.
The writer realizes that this thesis still has the paucity, she conveniently
welcomes any suggestions, comments, critics, and advices that will improve the

quality of this thesis. She hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who are
read and interested in the field of this study.

Medan, September 2015
The writer,

Novilda Angela Saragih
Reg. No. 2113121052

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ABSTRACT
Novilda Angela Saragih. 2113121052. The Effect of V Diagram Technique on
Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement in Descriptive Text. A
Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2015.
This study deals with the effect of V Diagram Technique on students’
comprehension achievement in reading descriptive text. The objective of the
study is to find out whether this technique significantly affects the students’

comprehension achievement in reading descriptive text or not. This study was
conducted by using experimental design. The population of the study was the
students of grade XI of SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan in the academic year
2015/2016, where there were 5 classes of XI Science (IA) and there were two
classes were selected as the sample by applying cluster random sampling. The
sample was divided into two groups. The Control group (XI.MIA 1) was taught
by conventional method, while the experimental group (XI.MIA 2) was taught by
applying V Diagram Technique. The data of the study were obtained from the
students’ score of reading test. To determine the reliability of the test, the writer
used Kuder Richardson formula (KR20). Based on the data calculation, it was
showed that the coefficient of reliability of the test was 0.69. It showed that the
test was reliable and the reliability was high. There were two data used in this
study namely pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed by applying t-test
formula. After analyzing the data, the result of the study showed that t-observed
(5.6) was higher than t-table (2.00) (t-observed ˃ t-table) at the level of
significance of α = 0.05 and at the degree of freedom (df) = 58. It can be
concluded that V diagram technique significantly affects on the students’
comprehension achievement in reading descriptive text or in other words the
hypothesis is accepted.
Key words : V diagram technique, Descriptive text, Reading comprehension

achievement

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................ iv
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... viii
LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study .............................................................................. 1
B. The Problem of the Study .................................................................................... 4
C.

The Objective of the Study .................................................................................. 4

D. The Scope of the Study ...................................................................................... 4

E.

The Significance of the Study ............................................................................. 4

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Theoretical Framework .……………………………………………………….. 6
1. Reading ............................................................................................................ 6
a. Purpose of Reading...................................................................................... 7
b. Reading Comprehension ............................................................................. 9
c. Levels of Comprehension ............................................................................ 10
d. Process of Reading Comprehension ............................................................ 11
e. Achievement ................................................................................................ 13
2. Text .................................................................................................................. 14
a. Descriptive Text .......................................................................................... 16
b. The Example of Descriptive Text ............................................................... 17
3. Approach, Method, and Technique.................................................................. 18
4. V Diagram Technique ...................................................................................... 19
a. Components of V Diagram .......................................................................... 20
b. The Procedure of V Diagram ...................................................................... 25
c. The Advantages and Disadvantages of V Diagram Technique ...................27


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5. Conventional Method ....................................................................................... 28
B.

Relevant Studies .................................................................................................. 29

C.

Conceptual Framework........................................................................................ 30

D.

Hypothesis ........................................................................................................... 32

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design .................................................................................................... 33
B. The Population and Sample .................................................................................... 33
C. The Instrument for Collecting Data ........................................................................34

D. The Procedure of Collecting Data .......................................................................... 35
1. Pre-Test ............................................................................................................... 35
2. Treatment ............................................................................................................ 35
3. Post-Test ............................................................................................................. 38
E. Scoring The Test ..................................................................................................... 38
F. Validity and Reliability of The Test ....................................................................... 39
1. The Validity of The Test ..................................................................................... 39
2. The Reliability of The Test ................................................................................. 39
G. Technique for Analyzing Data ............................................................................... 40
H. Statistical Hypothesis ............................................................................................. 41

CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH FINDING
A. The Data ................................................................................................................ 42
B. Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 43
1. Reliability of The Test ........................................................................................ 43
2. Data Analysis by Using t-test Formula ............................................................... 44
C. Testing Hypothesis ................................................................................................. 45
D. Research Finding .................................................................................................... 45
E. Discussion ............................................................................................................... 46


CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 49
B. Suggestions ............................................................................................................. 49

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REFERENCES......................................................................................................... 50
APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………… 53

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LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 1.1. The mean of students’ reading comprehension achievement...............3
Table 3.1. Experimental Design ...........................................................................34
Table 3.2. The Treatment for Experimental Group and Control Group ..............36

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LIST OF FIGURES

Pages
Figure 2.1. The Epistemological elements of V Diagram ....................................24
Figure 2.2. The Learning of V...............................................................................25

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LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. The Result Score of The Experimental Group ...........................54
APPENDIX B. Result Score of Control Group....................................................56
APPENDIX C. The Calculation of Reliability.....................................................58
APPENDIX D. The Calculation of T-Test for Experimental Group ...................64
APPENDIX E. The Calculation of T-Test for Control Group .............................66
APPENDIX F. T-table..........................................................................................70

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.

The Background of the Study
Reading is one of the important skills in language learning besides

speaking, listening and writing. As Brown (2004) states that reading, arguably the
most essential for successes in all educational context, remains a skill of
paramount importance as we create assessment of general language ability.
Moreover, reading is included in teaching English as the priority because there is
a competence standard in reading that students are expected to be able to
comprehend the meaning of written text in any kind of texts, such as; Descriptive,
Recount, Narrative, Procedure, and Report.
Reading is performed through a text in a purpose to convey new
information to the readers. Nunan (2003 : 68) states that reading is a fluent
process of readers combining information from a text and their own background
knowledge to build meaning. The readers need to know the main idea or the
central information of a text. According to Birch & Rumelhart in Lems (2010 :
33), reading is an interactive process that takes place between the text and the
readers’ processing strategies and background knowledge.
Reading has many contributions in enhancing and enriching students’
knowledge. By reading, the students are able to gain the information and improve
their knowledge. Not only that, reading also helps to develop creative and critical
thinking skill. The goal of learning reading is to enable the students in
understanding the text meaning. Grabe and Stoller (2002: 9), stated that reading is

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a way to draw information from a text and to form interpretation of that
information. So, reading is very important in studying and learning process.
The main goal of reading is comprehension. According to Irwin in
Klingner (2007:2-7) comprehension is an active process to which the reader
brings his or her individual attitudes, interest, and expectation. It means that
comprehension is the reader’s ability in getting the message or information that is
given in the text. Otto et. al. (1966:151) defines reading comprehension as
interaction between thought and language. It shows that reading comprehension
is the ability of readers in getting the information or message from a text based on
their prior knowledge.
All the information mentioned above shows that reading comprehension is
so important to be mastered by students. However, attention to this matter has not
been adequately paid to most teachers of English for instance still use
conventional method in teaching reading. The conventional method is regularly
done by asking the students to translate words contained in the passage. This is
one of the reasons why students’ achievement in reading comprehension is low.
So, teachers need to develop and upgrade their knowledge and ability in teaching
reading. One factors that affects the achievement of students’ reading
comprehesion is the technique, strategy, or method applied by the teachers.
Teachers can use different kinds of media and methods to make the teaching
process become more interesting. It is a must for the teacher to choose an
appropriate method in teaching reading to help the students develop their reading
skill so that the objectives of teaching reading are achieved.

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Related to the problems above, the writer had seen the score of students’
reading comprehension achievement in SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan. Here is
the score of SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan in reading comprehension
achievement by using conventional method.
Table 1.1. The mean of students’ reading comprehension achievement
Semester
Mean of the students
reading achievement
The first semester in 2013/2014 of academic year

68.53

The second semester in 2014/2015 of academic year

66.07

The first semester in 2013/2014 of academic year

66.95

The second semester in 2014/2015 of academic year

67.97

(Source: SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan, 2013-2015)
Considering to the condition above, the writer was interested in using V
diagram technique to teach reading comprehension and to help the students
comprehend the text easily. V diagram is an instructional problem solving
technique in the shape of V that helps one to observe the interplay between what
is known and what needs to be known or understood (Gowin and Alvarez,
2005:35). The V diagram has a theoretical/conceptual (thinking) left side and a
methodological (doing) right side. Both sides actively interact with each other
through the use of the focus or research question(s) that directly relate to events
and/or objects at the point of the V to be observed.
It helps the students to understand the structure of knowledge and
processes of knowledge construction. It is a technique that requires the mind to
draw upon past experiences and world knowledge in order to think new thought
about our exiting knowledge with a given problem or situation. Because when the

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readers process the text, they integrate the new information from the text into their
pre-exiting knowledge.

B.

The Problem of the Study
Considering the realities of expectation in the background of the study,

the problem of this research was formulated as: “Does the use of V diagram
technique significantly affect the students’ reading comprehension achievement?”

C.

The Objective of the Study
In line with the problem, the objective of this study was to investigate the

effect of using V diagram technique on the students reading comprehension.

D.

The Scope of the Study
This study dealed with reading descriptive text by applying V diagram

technique. The researcher used descriptive text because descriptive text is a text
which is commonly used by students in senior high school and they must know
well about descriptive text. As the level comprehension, the researcher used literal
comprehension and inferential comprehension level.

E.

The Significances of the Study
The finding was expected to be useful for the development of theory and

practice. Theoretically, the findings were expected to give positive contribution
for teaching in overcoming problem in reading through value finding in the area

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of teaching reading. Moreover, the students could also apply this finding to other
subjects. Even they probably also apply this technique when reading any books in
order to gather the comprehension from their reading. It means that it is very
useful not only for English but also for other subjects in which the key of
enhancing and enriching the knowledge is reading.
Practically, the findings of the study were expected to be useful for:
1. The teachers, in that they can use this method in teaching learning
process to increase students’ comprehension in reading,
2. The students, in that it will help them in improving their ability in
comprehending reading text,
3. The writer, for adding her knowledge about this technique in teaching
reading, and
4. The other researchers, where they can refer to the research findings
when doing a similar research.

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A.

Conclusion
It has been shown that the alternative hypothesis (� ) is accepted and null

hypothesis (�0 ) is rejected. This is supported by the data analysis results in which
the ��

(5.6) is higher than the �





(2.00) at the significance level of 0.05.

Based on the result of the data analysis, it is concluded that the application

of V diagram technique significantly affects the students’ reading comprehension
achievement.

B.

Suggestions
With reference to the conclusion, some suggestions are staged as the

following :
1. English teachers are suggested to use V diagram technique in their
teaching learning process in order to improve their students’ reading
comprehension.
2. Students are advised to have more practice in reading and applying
reading strategies.
3. The researchers who are interested in doing a research related to the
study should explore the knowledge to enlarge their understanding
about how to improve reading comprehension and search other
reference.

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