THE EFFECT OF TEACHING STRATEGIES AND CURIOSITY ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION.
i
ABSTRACT
Rita Meutia, Registration Number: 8106112047, The Effect of Teaching Strategies and
Curiosity on Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension. A Thesis, English
Applied Linguistic Study Program, State University of Medan, 2013.
The objectives of this study are to know whether: (1) students’ achievement in
reading comprehension taught by KWL is significantly higher than taught by QARs, (2)
students’ achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity is higher than having
low curiosity, (3) there is significant interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on
students’ achievement in reading comprehension. An experimental research with factorial
design 2x2 was used in this study. There were 120 students of science classes from grade XII
of 2012/2013 academic year of SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai as sample of this study. The
students were divided into two groups. Each group consists of 60 students. The first group
was treated by using KWL strategy and the second group was treated by using QARs
strategy. Curiosity of the two groups was measured by giving questionnaire to classify the
students having high and low curiosity. Students’ achievement in reading comprehension was
measured by giving 40 questions of explanatory texts taken from State Examination (Ujian
Nasional: UN ) in form of multiple choice tests. The data were analyzed by applying TwoWay ANOVA. The finding of the data shows that: (1) students’ achievement in reading
comprehension taught by using KWL strategy is higher than those taught by using QARs
strategy. The mean of group taught by KWL strategy is 74.1 while the mean of group taught
by using QARs strategy is 73.3 with Fobserved = 6.74 > Ftable = 3.92 at level of significance =
0.05 (2) students’ achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity is higher
than having low curiosity. The mean of group having high curiosity is 83 while the mean of
group having low curiosity is 64.6 with Fobserved = 5.91 > Ftable = 3.92 at level of significance
= 0.05, (3) there is significant interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on
students’ achievement in reading comprehension with Fobserved = 4.70 > Ftable = 3.92 at level of
significance = 0.05. After Tuckey test was completed, it revealed that students having high
curiosity got higher scores if they were taught by using KWL strategy while students having
low curiosity got higher scores if they were taught by using QARs strategy.
i
ii
ABSTRAK
Rita Meutia, Nomor Registrasi: 8106112047, Pengaruh Strategi Pengajaran dan Rasa
Ingin Tahu terhadap Kemampuan Siswa dalam Membaca. Sebuah Tesis, Program Studi
Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Negeri Medan, 2013.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apakah: (1) siswa yang diajarkan
dengan strategi KWL memiliki kemampuan yang lebih tinggi daripada siswa yang diajarkan
dengan menggunakan strategi QARs dalam membaca, (2) siswa yang tinggi rasa ingin
tahunya memiliki kemampuan yang lebih tinggi daripada siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya
rendah, (3) ada interaksi yang signifikan antara strategi pengajaran dan rasa ingin tahu siswa
terhadap kemampuan membaca. Penelitian ini menggunakan Metode eksperimen dengan
desain faktorial 2x2. 120 orang siswa kelas XII dari jurusan IPA SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai
tahun akademik 2012/2013 menjadi sampel dalam penelitian ini. Para siswa dibagi dalam dua
kelompok. Masing- masing kelompok terdiri dari 60 orang siswa. Kelompok pertama
diajarkan dengan strategi KWL dan kelompok kedua diajarkan dengan menggunakan strategi
QARs. Tinggi rendahnya rasa ingin tahu siswa dari dua kelompok ini diukur dengan
menggunakan angket penelitian (questionnaire). Kemampuan membaca siswa diukur dengan
memberikan 40 pertanyaan dalam bentuk pilihan ganda dari teks eksplanatif yang diambil
dari soal- soal Ujian Nasional. Data dianalisa dengan menggunakan ANOVA dua arah. Hasil
dari olah data menunjukkan bahwa: (1) siswa yang diajarkan dengna menggunakan strategi
KWL memiliki kemamouan membaca yang lebih tinggi daripada sisiwa yang diajarkan
dengan menggunakan strategi QARs. Nilai rata-rata dari kelompok siswa yang diajarkan
dengan menggunakan strategi KWL adalah 74.1 sedangkan nilai rata-rata kelompok siswa
yang diajarkan dengan strategi QARs adalah 73.3 dengan Fobservasi = 6.74 > Ftabel = 3.92 pada
tingkat signifikan = 0.05, (2) siswa yang tinggi rasa ingin tahunya memiliki kemampuan
yang lebih tinggi daripada siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya rendah. Nilai rata-rata dari
kelompok siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya tinggi adalah 83 sedangkan nilai rata-rata kelompok
siswa yang rendah rasa ingin tahunya adalah 64.6 dengan Fobservasi = 5.91 > Ftabel = 3.92 pada
tingkat signifikan = 0.05, (3) ada interaksi yang signifikan antara strategi pengajaran dan
rasa ingin tahu siswa terhadap kemampuan membaca dengan Fobservasi = 4.70 > Ftabel = 3.92
pada tingkat signifikan = 0.05. Setelah Tuckey test diaplikasikan, hasil dari Tuckey test
tersebut menunjukkan bahwa siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya tinggi memiliki nilai yang lebih
tinggi diajarkan dengan menggunakan strategi KWL sedangkan siswa yang rasa ingin
tahunya rendah memiliki nilai yang lebih tinggi jika diajarkan dengan menggunakan strategi
QARs.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise to Allah SWT for his blessings and mercy that have been endlessly poured to
the writer before, during, and after accomplishing this thesis. The writer are indebted to many
people who always give attention, affection, love, and spirit. Only prayer, sincerity and
special thanks that can be presented by her.
Her appreciation goes to Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed., TESP and Dr. I Wayan Dirgayasa
Tangkas, M.Hum as her advisers for their excellent and constructive suggestions, comments,
and evaluation. The time and the moment passed through are unforgettable. They have
afforded much knowledge and experience.
Her special thank go to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd, Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing,
M.Pd, and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S as her reviewers and examiners for their valuable
suggestions, corrections during thesis propossal and examination.
Her great complimentss go to all lectures at English Applied Linguistics Study
Program, State University of Medan who have shared their worthful knowledge during her
academic year.
Her kind regards go to the Principal of SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai, Dra. Rosminah,
MM for her help during the process of collecting the data in this research.
Her eternal gratitude goes to her husband, AKP. Hairun Edi Sidauruk, S.H for his full
supports when the writer is down , understanding when the writer busies herself with her
tasks, and love when the writer needs to share her gladness and sadness with. Her profound
thanks also go to her father M. Hasan Ibrahim, SE, brother and sisters; Takim and Ayi for
their continous pray and motivation.
Last but not least, the writer would also like to say thanks to all her friends in 2011
Academic Year for their friendship and sweet memory. May Allah SWT upholds her
brotherhood with their friends forever
Medan, March 2013
The writer,
RITA MEUTIA
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of The Study
Reading is one great habit that can truly change the life forever. Reading can
entertain and enrich people with knowledge—the only thing that does not decay with time. In
today’s world, reading is the key to education so that is why when people read any literatures
related to any fields of study, their lives are rewarded by others.
Reading means different for different people. Some people read to get feeling and
pleasure while the others read to get ideas, and information. For students, particularly, they
read to have general understanding, specific and detailed information (Harmer, 2001). It
means that when the students read any texts, they learn to extract meaning from the text. In
order to make sense of any texts, they try to understand what the words mean, see the pictures
painted by the words, engage with what they are reading to respond to the content, and catch
the message conveyed by the writer. Due to those reasons, the students need to be taught by
appropriate and suitable teaching strategies to increase their reading comprehension.
Learning reading comprehension, nowadays, is a complicated task to do by the
students of Senior High School since Educational Unit Level Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat
Satuan Pendidikan: KTSP) requires them to know various text genres based on their levels.
For example, Recount, Narrative, Procedure, Descriptive, and News Item Genres are exposed
to First Grade Students, Report, Exposition, Anecdote, and Spoof/ Recount genres are
exposed to Second Grade students, and Explanation, Discussion, and Review genres are
exposed to Third Grade Students. By knowing those genres, it is hoped that the students are
being informational literate in terms of knowledge elevation in accordance with their needs in
their lives as stated in Content Standard ( Standar Isi: SI, 2006) of KTSP. As the evaluation,
Standard Committee of National Education (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan: BSNP)
1
2
will formulate genre- based questions to test students’ reading comprehension in State
Examination (Ujian Nasional: UN). Those questions are dominated the questions. From 40
questions tested, only 15 questions are aimed at testing Listening skill while the rests are
aimed at testing reading comprehension skill.
Knowledge of text genres, in terms of how texts are organized, how information is
signaled and how changes of content might be marked, has long been thought to be of
importance in comprehending reading (Alderson, 2000). In other words, knowing where to
look for the main idea in a paragraph, being able to find determinant meanings (author intent
and implicit meaning of text), and being able to identify how subsidiary ideas are marked
really help the students process the information and comprehend the whole text. Being
familiar with text genres—taught since the first grade of Senior High School, ideally, the
students have good ability on decoding and comprehending the text. But in fact, it is found
that only 65.29 % of State students and 64.73 % of Private students are able to reach the score
above 4.0—fixed score decided by Depdikbud (2012). Further more, in SMA Negeri 1
Tanjungbalai, it is found that the major achievement of students in reading comprehension is
still under Minimal Passing Grade Criteria (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal: KKM ). The
detailed data can be seen in the following table:
Table 1.1
Mean Score of the Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension of SMA
Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai, School Year of 2011/ 2012
Class
Mean
KKM
X
67
70
XI
66
72
XII
67
72
(Source: Mark Collection List (Daftar Kumpulan Nilai: DKN) of SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai, School Year of 2011/ 2012)
3
The result shown by the table above indicates that the students’ achievement in
reading comprehension is very low. The lowness of students’ achievement in comprehending
a text is influenced by some factors. Orasanu (1986: 33) identifies two factors that affect
reading comprehension: internal and external. Internal factors, called reader variable, refers to
everything related to the readers that includes cognitive ability and strategy, background
knowledge, and affective characteristics such as self- esteem, self- efficacy, willingness,
curiosity, interest, and motivation. External factors, called text variable, context variable, and
writer variable, refer to all factors external to the reader. Text variable includes such elements
as text modality and text-characteristics such as lexical density and structural complexity,
context variable refers to all situational elements such as the time of reading and the place of
reading, and writer variable refers to the text-producer. Both factors interact to each other.
The harmonious interaction between internal and external factors that affect reading
comprehension achievement will lead the readers to interaction conception regarded meaning
as a product of the information encoded in text and the knowledge and experience of the
reader. It means that it was acknowledged that the reader’s background influenced the
perception of the text and the meanings generated (McNeil, 1992). In other words, the closer
the match between what the reader already knew and the content and structure of the text, the
greater the comprehension.
Due to the concepts above, there are two teaching strategies which encounter
interactive perspective of students’ achievement in reading comprehension, namely KWL
(Know, Want to know, Learnt) and QARs (Question-Answer Relationships). KWL is a threephase strategy that develops students’ independent skill in comprehending a text. It helps the
students engage with texts in deliberate and purposeful ways. In the first phase (Know),
students activate prior knowledge. Then, in the second phase (Want to know) they predict
what additional information they are likely to need and develop a plan to gather that
4
information. In the final phase (Learnt), students reflect on the new knowledge generated or
retrieved as the plan is implemented. In KWL, the teacher functions as facilitator for this
teaching strategy is student- centered (Ogle, 1986). So, it is inferred that KWL is a strategy
that trains students to be active readers (Hyde, 2006).
Meanwhile, Question- Answer Relationships (QARs) is a teacher- centered strategy.
It requires three levels of reading comprehension; reading the lines, by which students obtain
information explicitly, reading between the lines, by which the students discover implicit
meaning of text, and reading beyond the lines, whereby students interpret text in terms of
their own personal values (Dale, 1966). QARs has three kinds of questions; Right There,
Think and Search, and On My Own. In Right There, the answer is explicitly found in the text
and it is easy to find. It means that the words used to make the question and the words that
make the answer are Right There, in the same sentence. In Think and Search, the answer is in
the story, but a little harder to find. The students would never find the words in the questions
and words in the answer in the same sentence, but they would have to Think and Search for
the answer. In on My Own, the answer would not be found in the text. The students must find
the answer in their heads. In QARs, the teachers control the process of students’ reading
comprehension. The students only answer the question proposed by the teachers. There is no
need for them to read the passages beyond the questions given (Hyde, 2006).
Both KWL and QARs acquire the concepts of meta-cognition theory. The theory
emphasizes the importance of two components in facilitating reading comprehension;
knowledge and regulation. Meta-cognitive knowledge include knowledge about oneself as a
learner and the factors that might impact performance, knowledge about reading strategies,
and knowledge about when and why to use the strategies while meta-cognitive regulation is
the monitoring
of students’ cognition. It includes planning activities, awareness of
comprehension and task performance, and evaluation of the efficacy of monitoring processes
5
and strategies (Lai, 2011). In other words, when the students are taught reading
comprehension by using KWL and QARs strategies, they are regarded as self- regulated
learners who set goals for extending knowledge and sustaining motivation. One of personal
factors that provide motivational fuel for learning reading comprehension is curiosity.
Curiosity, undoubtedly, is a personal factor that really affects the success of teaching
and learning in the classroom. When learner’s curiosity is well- provoked, they will have
great wander through the tasks given by the teachers, new sensation directed towards the
process of learning, positive behavior and better concentration and attention while teaching
and learning processes occur. Those attitudes, of course, are considered as strong motivators
to facilitate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor developments in teaching and learning any
skills, including reading comprehension.
Moreover, curiosity is considered to be an information- seeking process that directs
and motivates learning (Loewenstein, 1994). When the students are exposed to KWL and
QARs strategies in comprehending a text, they, actually, are treated to be informationseekers since they must be aware of what they know and what they believe by selfquestioning and they must confront what they know and believe with the information
conveyed by the writers in a text by self- clarifying. So, it is undeniable that KWL and QARs
can provoke curiosity in comprehending a text for the students.
In short, although KWL and QARs have numerous similarities, they have basic
differences; QARs is teacher- centered, while KWL is student- centered, QARs is convergent
(it focuses on the answer) while KWL is divergent (It focuses on the process of getting the
answer), and QARs treats the students to be passive and dependent learners while KWL treats
the students to be active and independent learners (Hyde, 2006)
Based on the explanation above, it is believed that teaching strategies and the level
of students’ curiosity significantly affect reading comprehension achievement of students.
6
That is why in this research, KWL and QARs strategies will be associated with high and low
levels of students’ curiosity.
1.2
Problems of the Study
In accordance with the background of the study above, the problem of the study can
be formulated as follow:
1. Is the students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by using KWL
strategy higher than taught by QARs strategy?
2. Is the students’ achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity
higher than having low curiosity?
3. Is there any significant interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on
students’ achievement in reading comprehension?
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The main objectives of this study are to answer the questions posed in the problem
of the study. The objectives are:
1. to know whether the students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by
KWL is significantly higher than taught by QARs.
2. to know whether the students’ achievement in reading comprehension having
high curiosity is higher than having low curiosity.
3. to know whether there is significant interaction between teaching strategies and
curiosity on students’ achievement in reading comprehension.
1
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS
4.1
Conclusions
Based on data analysis, hypotheses testing, research findings, and discussion, it can
be concluded that :
1. KWL has more advantages than QARs strategy in affecting students’ reading
comprehension achievement because it treats the students to be active,
independent, and detail information- seekers.
2. The higher curiosity had by the students, the more comprehensive they read the
text. It means that when students have high curiosity, they are eager to read more
and more, store the ideas, and create personal knowledge.
3. The strategy used by the teachers in teaching reading comprehension and the
levels of students’ curiosity are connected to each other because suitable strategy
applied by the teachers will determine the success of provoking students’
curiosity.
4.2
Implications
The findings of this study gives implication to the students who want to improve
their reading comprehension achievement and to the teachers who want to develop reading
comprehension skill of their students when learning and teaching process takes part in the
classroom. This study has examined two reading strategies, namely KWL and QARs. They
are applied to students with high and low curiosity in order to know which teaching strategy
is more suitable for them in improving their reading comprehension achievement.
92
2
The first finding of this research shows that students with high curiosity have higher
achievement in reading comprehension when they were taught by using KWL strategy. it
implies that English teacher should try to apply this strategy for it can activate students’ prior
knowledge, retrieve information from the text, interpret it, and reflect their understanding by
creating their personal knowledge. This strategy really helps the students become active
readers. Moreover, KWL strategy also can make English teachers become easier in managing
learning activity because they just function as facilitator. At the end of KWL session, the
teachers clarify the findings of the students during reading process. Therefore, this strategy
can be a good choice for English teacher in teaching reading comprehension.
The second finding of this research showed that reading comprehension achievement
of students with high curiosity is higher than those with low curiosity. It gives implications
for English teacher that before teaching reading comprehension, the teacher should identify
their students’ curiosity. The identification of students’ curiosity can determine the teachers
in deciding what efforts they will do to make the students pay more attention when they are
teaching reading comprehension. So, understanding that students have different curiosity is
the key to success in teaching reading comprehension since the teachers can choose which
strategy is more suitable to apply in the classroom.
The third finding of this research reveals that there is significant interaction between
teaching strategies and curiosity on students’ achievement in reading comprehension. It
implies that any teaching strategy applied by the teachers should be related to the levels of
students’ curiosity. The way the teachers provoke students’ curiosity determine the attitude of
the students in learning reading comprehension. Finally, it is suggested that KWL strategy is
applied to students with high curiosity while QARs is applied to students with low curiosity
in order that they can achieve their reading comprehension achievement significantly.
3
4.3
Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions presented in previous chapter, it is suggested that:
1. English teachers are recommended to use KWL and QARs strategy because both
strategies can improve students’ reading comprehension achievement.
2. English teachers should be very creative to stimulate students’ curiosity in order
that the students have great desire in learning and completing the tasks and
activities during learning
3. Other researchers can develop further study in the area of KWL and QARs
strategies in order to improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension.
4. Other researchers can research other factors that also affect reading
comprehension achievement because in fact, there are so many variables that can
stimulate the success of teaching and learning reading comprehension. The
performance of the teachers, the attractiveness of the media, or other personal
traits such as self- esteem, personality, or efficacy are some examples of
variables that extremely influence the teaching and learning of reading
comprehension
1
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ABSTRACT
Rita Meutia, Registration Number: 8106112047, The Effect of Teaching Strategies and
Curiosity on Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension. A Thesis, English
Applied Linguistic Study Program, State University of Medan, 2013.
The objectives of this study are to know whether: (1) students’ achievement in
reading comprehension taught by KWL is significantly higher than taught by QARs, (2)
students’ achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity is higher than having
low curiosity, (3) there is significant interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on
students’ achievement in reading comprehension. An experimental research with factorial
design 2x2 was used in this study. There were 120 students of science classes from grade XII
of 2012/2013 academic year of SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai as sample of this study. The
students were divided into two groups. Each group consists of 60 students. The first group
was treated by using KWL strategy and the second group was treated by using QARs
strategy. Curiosity of the two groups was measured by giving questionnaire to classify the
students having high and low curiosity. Students’ achievement in reading comprehension was
measured by giving 40 questions of explanatory texts taken from State Examination (Ujian
Nasional: UN ) in form of multiple choice tests. The data were analyzed by applying TwoWay ANOVA. The finding of the data shows that: (1) students’ achievement in reading
comprehension taught by using KWL strategy is higher than those taught by using QARs
strategy. The mean of group taught by KWL strategy is 74.1 while the mean of group taught
by using QARs strategy is 73.3 with Fobserved = 6.74 > Ftable = 3.92 at level of significance =
0.05 (2) students’ achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity is higher
than having low curiosity. The mean of group having high curiosity is 83 while the mean of
group having low curiosity is 64.6 with Fobserved = 5.91 > Ftable = 3.92 at level of significance
= 0.05, (3) there is significant interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on
students’ achievement in reading comprehension with Fobserved = 4.70 > Ftable = 3.92 at level of
significance = 0.05. After Tuckey test was completed, it revealed that students having high
curiosity got higher scores if they were taught by using KWL strategy while students having
low curiosity got higher scores if they were taught by using QARs strategy.
i
ii
ABSTRAK
Rita Meutia, Nomor Registrasi: 8106112047, Pengaruh Strategi Pengajaran dan Rasa
Ingin Tahu terhadap Kemampuan Siswa dalam Membaca. Sebuah Tesis, Program Studi
Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Negeri Medan, 2013.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apakah: (1) siswa yang diajarkan
dengan strategi KWL memiliki kemampuan yang lebih tinggi daripada siswa yang diajarkan
dengan menggunakan strategi QARs dalam membaca, (2) siswa yang tinggi rasa ingin
tahunya memiliki kemampuan yang lebih tinggi daripada siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya
rendah, (3) ada interaksi yang signifikan antara strategi pengajaran dan rasa ingin tahu siswa
terhadap kemampuan membaca. Penelitian ini menggunakan Metode eksperimen dengan
desain faktorial 2x2. 120 orang siswa kelas XII dari jurusan IPA SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai
tahun akademik 2012/2013 menjadi sampel dalam penelitian ini. Para siswa dibagi dalam dua
kelompok. Masing- masing kelompok terdiri dari 60 orang siswa. Kelompok pertama
diajarkan dengan strategi KWL dan kelompok kedua diajarkan dengan menggunakan strategi
QARs. Tinggi rendahnya rasa ingin tahu siswa dari dua kelompok ini diukur dengan
menggunakan angket penelitian (questionnaire). Kemampuan membaca siswa diukur dengan
memberikan 40 pertanyaan dalam bentuk pilihan ganda dari teks eksplanatif yang diambil
dari soal- soal Ujian Nasional. Data dianalisa dengan menggunakan ANOVA dua arah. Hasil
dari olah data menunjukkan bahwa: (1) siswa yang diajarkan dengna menggunakan strategi
KWL memiliki kemamouan membaca yang lebih tinggi daripada sisiwa yang diajarkan
dengan menggunakan strategi QARs. Nilai rata-rata dari kelompok siswa yang diajarkan
dengan menggunakan strategi KWL adalah 74.1 sedangkan nilai rata-rata kelompok siswa
yang diajarkan dengan strategi QARs adalah 73.3 dengan Fobservasi = 6.74 > Ftabel = 3.92 pada
tingkat signifikan = 0.05, (2) siswa yang tinggi rasa ingin tahunya memiliki kemampuan
yang lebih tinggi daripada siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya rendah. Nilai rata-rata dari
kelompok siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya tinggi adalah 83 sedangkan nilai rata-rata kelompok
siswa yang rendah rasa ingin tahunya adalah 64.6 dengan Fobservasi = 5.91 > Ftabel = 3.92 pada
tingkat signifikan = 0.05, (3) ada interaksi yang signifikan antara strategi pengajaran dan
rasa ingin tahu siswa terhadap kemampuan membaca dengan Fobservasi = 4.70 > Ftabel = 3.92
pada tingkat signifikan = 0.05. Setelah Tuckey test diaplikasikan, hasil dari Tuckey test
tersebut menunjukkan bahwa siswa yang rasa ingin tahunya tinggi memiliki nilai yang lebih
tinggi diajarkan dengan menggunakan strategi KWL sedangkan siswa yang rasa ingin
tahunya rendah memiliki nilai yang lebih tinggi jika diajarkan dengan menggunakan strategi
QARs.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise to Allah SWT for his blessings and mercy that have been endlessly poured to
the writer before, during, and after accomplishing this thesis. The writer are indebted to many
people who always give attention, affection, love, and spirit. Only prayer, sincerity and
special thanks that can be presented by her.
Her appreciation goes to Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed., TESP and Dr. I Wayan Dirgayasa
Tangkas, M.Hum as her advisers for their excellent and constructive suggestions, comments,
and evaluation. The time and the moment passed through are unforgettable. They have
afforded much knowledge and experience.
Her special thank go to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd, Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing,
M.Pd, and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S as her reviewers and examiners for their valuable
suggestions, corrections during thesis propossal and examination.
Her great complimentss go to all lectures at English Applied Linguistics Study
Program, State University of Medan who have shared their worthful knowledge during her
academic year.
Her kind regards go to the Principal of SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai, Dra. Rosminah,
MM for her help during the process of collecting the data in this research.
Her eternal gratitude goes to her husband, AKP. Hairun Edi Sidauruk, S.H for his full
supports when the writer is down , understanding when the writer busies herself with her
tasks, and love when the writer needs to share her gladness and sadness with. Her profound
thanks also go to her father M. Hasan Ibrahim, SE, brother and sisters; Takim and Ayi for
their continous pray and motivation.
Last but not least, the writer would also like to say thanks to all her friends in 2011
Academic Year for their friendship and sweet memory. May Allah SWT upholds her
brotherhood with their friends forever
Medan, March 2013
The writer,
RITA MEUTIA
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of The Study
Reading is one great habit that can truly change the life forever. Reading can
entertain and enrich people with knowledge—the only thing that does not decay with time. In
today’s world, reading is the key to education so that is why when people read any literatures
related to any fields of study, their lives are rewarded by others.
Reading means different for different people. Some people read to get feeling and
pleasure while the others read to get ideas, and information. For students, particularly, they
read to have general understanding, specific and detailed information (Harmer, 2001). It
means that when the students read any texts, they learn to extract meaning from the text. In
order to make sense of any texts, they try to understand what the words mean, see the pictures
painted by the words, engage with what they are reading to respond to the content, and catch
the message conveyed by the writer. Due to those reasons, the students need to be taught by
appropriate and suitable teaching strategies to increase their reading comprehension.
Learning reading comprehension, nowadays, is a complicated task to do by the
students of Senior High School since Educational Unit Level Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat
Satuan Pendidikan: KTSP) requires them to know various text genres based on their levels.
For example, Recount, Narrative, Procedure, Descriptive, and News Item Genres are exposed
to First Grade Students, Report, Exposition, Anecdote, and Spoof/ Recount genres are
exposed to Second Grade students, and Explanation, Discussion, and Review genres are
exposed to Third Grade Students. By knowing those genres, it is hoped that the students are
being informational literate in terms of knowledge elevation in accordance with their needs in
their lives as stated in Content Standard ( Standar Isi: SI, 2006) of KTSP. As the evaluation,
Standard Committee of National Education (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan: BSNP)
1
2
will formulate genre- based questions to test students’ reading comprehension in State
Examination (Ujian Nasional: UN). Those questions are dominated the questions. From 40
questions tested, only 15 questions are aimed at testing Listening skill while the rests are
aimed at testing reading comprehension skill.
Knowledge of text genres, in terms of how texts are organized, how information is
signaled and how changes of content might be marked, has long been thought to be of
importance in comprehending reading (Alderson, 2000). In other words, knowing where to
look for the main idea in a paragraph, being able to find determinant meanings (author intent
and implicit meaning of text), and being able to identify how subsidiary ideas are marked
really help the students process the information and comprehend the whole text. Being
familiar with text genres—taught since the first grade of Senior High School, ideally, the
students have good ability on decoding and comprehending the text. But in fact, it is found
that only 65.29 % of State students and 64.73 % of Private students are able to reach the score
above 4.0—fixed score decided by Depdikbud (2012). Further more, in SMA Negeri 1
Tanjungbalai, it is found that the major achievement of students in reading comprehension is
still under Minimal Passing Grade Criteria (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal: KKM ). The
detailed data can be seen in the following table:
Table 1.1
Mean Score of the Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension of SMA
Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai, School Year of 2011/ 2012
Class
Mean
KKM
X
67
70
XI
66
72
XII
67
72
(Source: Mark Collection List (Daftar Kumpulan Nilai: DKN) of SMA Negeri 1 Tanjungbalai, School Year of 2011/ 2012)
3
The result shown by the table above indicates that the students’ achievement in
reading comprehension is very low. The lowness of students’ achievement in comprehending
a text is influenced by some factors. Orasanu (1986: 33) identifies two factors that affect
reading comprehension: internal and external. Internal factors, called reader variable, refers to
everything related to the readers that includes cognitive ability and strategy, background
knowledge, and affective characteristics such as self- esteem, self- efficacy, willingness,
curiosity, interest, and motivation. External factors, called text variable, context variable, and
writer variable, refer to all factors external to the reader. Text variable includes such elements
as text modality and text-characteristics such as lexical density and structural complexity,
context variable refers to all situational elements such as the time of reading and the place of
reading, and writer variable refers to the text-producer. Both factors interact to each other.
The harmonious interaction between internal and external factors that affect reading
comprehension achievement will lead the readers to interaction conception regarded meaning
as a product of the information encoded in text and the knowledge and experience of the
reader. It means that it was acknowledged that the reader’s background influenced the
perception of the text and the meanings generated (McNeil, 1992). In other words, the closer
the match between what the reader already knew and the content and structure of the text, the
greater the comprehension.
Due to the concepts above, there are two teaching strategies which encounter
interactive perspective of students’ achievement in reading comprehension, namely KWL
(Know, Want to know, Learnt) and QARs (Question-Answer Relationships). KWL is a threephase strategy that develops students’ independent skill in comprehending a text. It helps the
students engage with texts in deliberate and purposeful ways. In the first phase (Know),
students activate prior knowledge. Then, in the second phase (Want to know) they predict
what additional information they are likely to need and develop a plan to gather that
4
information. In the final phase (Learnt), students reflect on the new knowledge generated or
retrieved as the plan is implemented. In KWL, the teacher functions as facilitator for this
teaching strategy is student- centered (Ogle, 1986). So, it is inferred that KWL is a strategy
that trains students to be active readers (Hyde, 2006).
Meanwhile, Question- Answer Relationships (QARs) is a teacher- centered strategy.
It requires three levels of reading comprehension; reading the lines, by which students obtain
information explicitly, reading between the lines, by which the students discover implicit
meaning of text, and reading beyond the lines, whereby students interpret text in terms of
their own personal values (Dale, 1966). QARs has three kinds of questions; Right There,
Think and Search, and On My Own. In Right There, the answer is explicitly found in the text
and it is easy to find. It means that the words used to make the question and the words that
make the answer are Right There, in the same sentence. In Think and Search, the answer is in
the story, but a little harder to find. The students would never find the words in the questions
and words in the answer in the same sentence, but they would have to Think and Search for
the answer. In on My Own, the answer would not be found in the text. The students must find
the answer in their heads. In QARs, the teachers control the process of students’ reading
comprehension. The students only answer the question proposed by the teachers. There is no
need for them to read the passages beyond the questions given (Hyde, 2006).
Both KWL and QARs acquire the concepts of meta-cognition theory. The theory
emphasizes the importance of two components in facilitating reading comprehension;
knowledge and regulation. Meta-cognitive knowledge include knowledge about oneself as a
learner and the factors that might impact performance, knowledge about reading strategies,
and knowledge about when and why to use the strategies while meta-cognitive regulation is
the monitoring
of students’ cognition. It includes planning activities, awareness of
comprehension and task performance, and evaluation of the efficacy of monitoring processes
5
and strategies (Lai, 2011). In other words, when the students are taught reading
comprehension by using KWL and QARs strategies, they are regarded as self- regulated
learners who set goals for extending knowledge and sustaining motivation. One of personal
factors that provide motivational fuel for learning reading comprehension is curiosity.
Curiosity, undoubtedly, is a personal factor that really affects the success of teaching
and learning in the classroom. When learner’s curiosity is well- provoked, they will have
great wander through the tasks given by the teachers, new sensation directed towards the
process of learning, positive behavior and better concentration and attention while teaching
and learning processes occur. Those attitudes, of course, are considered as strong motivators
to facilitate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor developments in teaching and learning any
skills, including reading comprehension.
Moreover, curiosity is considered to be an information- seeking process that directs
and motivates learning (Loewenstein, 1994). When the students are exposed to KWL and
QARs strategies in comprehending a text, they, actually, are treated to be informationseekers since they must be aware of what they know and what they believe by selfquestioning and they must confront what they know and believe with the information
conveyed by the writers in a text by self- clarifying. So, it is undeniable that KWL and QARs
can provoke curiosity in comprehending a text for the students.
In short, although KWL and QARs have numerous similarities, they have basic
differences; QARs is teacher- centered, while KWL is student- centered, QARs is convergent
(it focuses on the answer) while KWL is divergent (It focuses on the process of getting the
answer), and QARs treats the students to be passive and dependent learners while KWL treats
the students to be active and independent learners (Hyde, 2006)
Based on the explanation above, it is believed that teaching strategies and the level
of students’ curiosity significantly affect reading comprehension achievement of students.
6
That is why in this research, KWL and QARs strategies will be associated with high and low
levels of students’ curiosity.
1.2
Problems of the Study
In accordance with the background of the study above, the problem of the study can
be formulated as follow:
1. Is the students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by using KWL
strategy higher than taught by QARs strategy?
2. Is the students’ achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity
higher than having low curiosity?
3. Is there any significant interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on
students’ achievement in reading comprehension?
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The main objectives of this study are to answer the questions posed in the problem
of the study. The objectives are:
1. to know whether the students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by
KWL is significantly higher than taught by QARs.
2. to know whether the students’ achievement in reading comprehension having
high curiosity is higher than having low curiosity.
3. to know whether there is significant interaction between teaching strategies and
curiosity on students’ achievement in reading comprehension.
1
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS
4.1
Conclusions
Based on data analysis, hypotheses testing, research findings, and discussion, it can
be concluded that :
1. KWL has more advantages than QARs strategy in affecting students’ reading
comprehension achievement because it treats the students to be active,
independent, and detail information- seekers.
2. The higher curiosity had by the students, the more comprehensive they read the
text. It means that when students have high curiosity, they are eager to read more
and more, store the ideas, and create personal knowledge.
3. The strategy used by the teachers in teaching reading comprehension and the
levels of students’ curiosity are connected to each other because suitable strategy
applied by the teachers will determine the success of provoking students’
curiosity.
4.2
Implications
The findings of this study gives implication to the students who want to improve
their reading comprehension achievement and to the teachers who want to develop reading
comprehension skill of their students when learning and teaching process takes part in the
classroom. This study has examined two reading strategies, namely KWL and QARs. They
are applied to students with high and low curiosity in order to know which teaching strategy
is more suitable for them in improving their reading comprehension achievement.
92
2
The first finding of this research shows that students with high curiosity have higher
achievement in reading comprehension when they were taught by using KWL strategy. it
implies that English teacher should try to apply this strategy for it can activate students’ prior
knowledge, retrieve information from the text, interpret it, and reflect their understanding by
creating their personal knowledge. This strategy really helps the students become active
readers. Moreover, KWL strategy also can make English teachers become easier in managing
learning activity because they just function as facilitator. At the end of KWL session, the
teachers clarify the findings of the students during reading process. Therefore, this strategy
can be a good choice for English teacher in teaching reading comprehension.
The second finding of this research showed that reading comprehension achievement
of students with high curiosity is higher than those with low curiosity. It gives implications
for English teacher that before teaching reading comprehension, the teacher should identify
their students’ curiosity. The identification of students’ curiosity can determine the teachers
in deciding what efforts they will do to make the students pay more attention when they are
teaching reading comprehension. So, understanding that students have different curiosity is
the key to success in teaching reading comprehension since the teachers can choose which
strategy is more suitable to apply in the classroom.
The third finding of this research reveals that there is significant interaction between
teaching strategies and curiosity on students’ achievement in reading comprehension. It
implies that any teaching strategy applied by the teachers should be related to the levels of
students’ curiosity. The way the teachers provoke students’ curiosity determine the attitude of
the students in learning reading comprehension. Finally, it is suggested that KWL strategy is
applied to students with high curiosity while QARs is applied to students with low curiosity
in order that they can achieve their reading comprehension achievement significantly.
3
4.3
Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions presented in previous chapter, it is suggested that:
1. English teachers are recommended to use KWL and QARs strategy because both
strategies can improve students’ reading comprehension achievement.
2. English teachers should be very creative to stimulate students’ curiosity in order
that the students have great desire in learning and completing the tasks and
activities during learning
3. Other researchers can develop further study in the area of KWL and QARs
strategies in order to improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension.
4. Other researchers can research other factors that also affect reading
comprehension achievement because in fact, there are so many variables that can
stimulate the success of teaching and learning reading comprehension. The
performance of the teachers, the attractiveness of the media, or other personal
traits such as self- esteem, personality, or efficacy are some examples of
variables that extremely influence the teaching and learning of reading
comprehension
1
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