The exercise types in basic reading 1 of academic year 2011/2012 in English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University - USD Repository

THE EX YEAR STUD

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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

  I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work of parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and references, as a scientific paper should.

  Yogyakarta, 21 June 2012 The writer,

  Yunita Sulistyaningtyas 071214032 LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Yunita Sulistyaningtyas

  Nomor Mahasiswa : 071214032 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Pepustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

The Exercise Types in Basic Reading I of academic year 2011/2012 in English

Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University

  beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 21 Juni 2012 Yang menyatakan Yunita Sulistyaningtyas

  

ABSTRACT

  Sulistyaningtyas, Yunita. (2012). The Exercise Types in Basic Reading I of

  

academic year 2011/2012 in English Language Education Study Program of

Sanata Dharma University. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study

  Program, Sanata Dharma University.

  Reading is a dynamic and interactive process, during which learners make use of a variety of skills and strategies, combined with background knowledge. Therefore, one of the teaching reading goals is to give students opportunity to develop their skills. Then, to accomplish it, teachers used various exercise types.

  There are two problems in this study: (1) what are the types of exercises used in Basic Reading I? (2)What are the students’ problems in reading? Thus, the study has two objectives. The first is to find out the types of exercise used in Basic Reading I. The second is to find out the students’ problems in reading.

  The researcher observed the exercise types in D class of Basic Reading I, collected the documents of Basic Reading I such as weekly handouts, course outline, and syllabus. The researcher, then, distributed the student questionnaire to the students who took Basic Reading I and lecturer questionnaire, and interviewed four students who were randomly selected to gain deeper information. The participants of this study were the students and the lecturer of D class of Basic Reading I academic year 2011/2012. The data were collected from the observation notes, documents, questionnaire sheets, and interview transcripts. The researcher employed qualitative research particularly in survey and document analysis. It means that the purpose of this study is to gain information about the exercise types in Basic Reading I and the students’ problem in reading.

  Responding to the first question, the exercise types used were multiple- choice, matching, true-false, short-answer question, fill in the blank, reading aloud, reading faster, games, discussion, reader’s log, and online tasks. Moreover, the exercise types aforementioned were used to develop and train reading skills in Basic Reading I. The reading skills were previewing, prediction, skimming, scanning, finding pronoun referents, making inferences, and guessing words meaning from context. Responding to the second question, the research revealed the students’ problems in reading were due to text characteristics, reader characteristics, and interaction between reader and text.

  The researcher concluded that short-answer question was the exercise type that was most likely used in Basic Reading I. Moreover, the research revealed the students’ preference to exercise types in Basic Reading I that true-false was the favorite and easiest exercise type; the difficult type was summary and the type that developed skills most was reader’s log. In addition, the students’ problem in reading from text characteristics was lack of vocabulary. Meanwhile, the problem which was from reader characteristics was lack of background knowledge. Then, the problem which was from the interaction between reader and text was comprehension in which was influenced by the lack of vocabulary and the lack of

  

ABSTRAK

  Sulistyaningtyas, Yunita. (2012). The Exercise Types in Basic Reading I of

  

academic year 2011/2012 in English Language Education Study Program of

Sanata Dharma University. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa

  Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Membaca merupakan proses yang dinamis dan interaktif dimana siswa

menggunakan kemampuan dan strategi yang berbeda, dan dikombinasikan

dengan latar belakang pengetahuan. Oleh karena itu, salah satu tujuan mengajar

membaca adalah memberikan kesempatan siswa untuk mengembangkan dan

melatih kemampuan membaca mereka. Untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut, para

pengajar menggunakan tipe latihan yang bervariasi.

  Ada dua masalah dalam penelitian ini: (1) apa saja tipe latihan yang

digunakan di kelas Basic Reading I? (2) apa masalah siswa dalam membaca?

Penelitian ini memiliki dua tujuan yaitu untuk mengetahui tipe-tipe latihan di

kelas Basic Reading I dan masalah para siswa dalam membaca.

  Peneliti mengobservasi, mengumpulkan dokumen misalnya handout

mingguan dan silabus dari Basic Reading I kelas D, memberikan kuesioner

kepada siswa dan dosen, dan mewawancarai empat siswa secara acak untuk

menjawab pertanyaan. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa dan dosen

dari Basic Reading I kelas D tahun ajaran 2011/2012. Data dikumpulkan melalui

observasi, dokumen, kuesioner, dan wawancara. Peneliti menerapkan penelitian

kualitatif khususnya survei dan analisis dokumen. Hal ini bertujuan untuk

  Basic Reading I dan

  mendapatkan informasi tentang tipe-tipe latihan di kelas masalah siswa dalam membaca.

  Untuk menjawab masalah pertama, tipe latihan yang digunakan adalah

  multiple-choice, matching, true-false, short-answer question, fill in the blank, reading aloud, reading faster, games, discussion, reader’s log, dan online tasks.

  

Tipe-tipe latihan tersebut digunakan untuk melatih dan mengembangkan

kemampuan atau strategi membaca yang dipelajari di Basic Reading I. Strategi

membaca yang dipelajari adalah previewing, prediction, skimming, scanning,

  finding pronoun referents, making inferences, dan guessing word meanings from context. Untuk menjawab masalah kedua, penelitian ini menemukan masalah

  

siswa dalam membaca yaitu berasal dari karakteristik teks, karakteristik

pembaca, dan hubungan antara pembaca dan teks.

  Peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa short-answer question adalah tipe latihan

yang sering digunakan di Basic Reading I. Penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa

tipe true-false adalah tipe latihan yang paling disukai dan paling mudah menurut

siswa, summary adalah tipe yang paling sulit dan reader’s log adalah tipe yang

paling dapat mengembangkan kemampuan dan melatih strategi membaca siswa.

Selain itu, masalah siswa dalam membaca ditinjau dari karakteristik teks adalah

kurangnya kosakata; dari karakteristik pembaca adalah kurangnya latar

belakang pengetahuan; sedangkan dari hubungan antara pembaca dan teks,

berasal dari pemahaman membaca yang juga berhubungan dengan kurangnya

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to thank everyone who supports me until I can accomplish the research. Therefore, first of all, I would like to address my deepest gratitude to Allah SWT because without His guidance, I could not have accomplished this research.

  I give my special gratitude to Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd. M.Pd. as my major sponsor, for her guidance, patience, and especially challenge and trust that can encourage me to work on the research. Her comments, correction, suggestion for the research were the biggest contribution. Without her help, I would not have been able to finish my thesis. Moreover, I would also like to thank Henny

  

Herawaty, S.Pd., M.Hum., for the opportunity given to me to conduct my study

on her Basic Reading I class.

  Furthermore, I thank all participants in my research. The research would not have been accomplished without their cooperation and participation. I also would like to give my gratitude to all PBI’s lecturers from whom I have learnt many valuable things. In addition, I thank the PBI’s staff and library staff who helps me much.

  Then, my special gratitude devotes to my parents. My father, Bapak, Sumarjiyo, S.Pd., who has passed away and may God give him rest in peace. This thesis is my obligation to him and also my beloved mother, Ibu, Dra. Sri Rahayu Tyas Wibowo, who always supports me in everything I do. My sister, Een, is my

  I would also thank my best friends in PBI Sanata Dharma University, Widi, Sance, Eboy, Rima, and Ruddy for their trust and friendship. They are the best friends I have ever met. I thank them for the happy and sad moment we had together. I also would not forget to say thanks to Merici who has given me useful advice, Novi, and Suster Yusta. I also thank all my classmates in PBI Sanata Dharma University. They have given me a wonderful experience.

  Moreover, I would like to thank them who have helped me to finish my research but the names have not been stated here. May God bless them all forever.

  Yunita Sulistyaningtyas

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Page TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGES ................................................................................................. ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .......................................................... iv PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...................................................... v ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... vi

  

ABSTRAK ................................................................................................................... vii

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... xii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................ xiii

  CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 A. Research Background ................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulations .................................................................. 6 C. Problem Limitations ..................................................................... 7 D. Research Objectives ..................................................................... 7 E. Research Benefits ......................................................................... 7 F. Definitions of Terms..................................................................... 8

  1. Types of Exercise ........................................................................ 8

  2. Basic Reading I ........................................................................... 9

  3. Students of Sanata Dharma University ....................................... 9

  CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ......................................... 10 A. Theoretical Description ................................................................. 10

  1. Definitions of Exercises ................................................................. 10

  2. Three Levels of Choosing Exercises by Teachers ......................... 12

  3. Types of Exercises ......................................................................... 12

  4. Theory on Reading ........................................................................ 21

  c. Reading skills ................................................................................. 24

  d. Comprehension in Reading ............................................................ 27

  e. Problems in Reading ...................................................................... 28

  5. Teaching Reading for University Students .................................... 28

  B. An Overview of Basic Reading I ................................................... 30

  C. Theoretical Framework .................................................................. 32

  CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................... 35 A. Research Method ........................................................................... 35 B. Research Setting ............................................................................ 36 C. Research Participants ..................................................................... 37 D. Instruments and Data Gathering Techniques ................................. 39 E. Data Analysis Techniques ............................................................. 46 F. Research Procedures ...................................................................... 51 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................. 53 A. Exercise Types Used in Basic Reading I ....................................... 53

  1. An overview of exercise types used in Basic Reading I ................ 53

  st th th

  2. Exercise types of 1 , 8 , and 15 meetings of Basic Reading I .... 78

  B. Student’s Problems in Reading when Doing Exercises ................. 83

  1. Text Characteristics ....................................................................... 84

  2. Reader Characteristics ................................................................... 86

  3. Interaction between Reader and Text ............................................ 87

  CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................ 89 A. Conclusions .................................................................................... 89 B. Recommendations .......................................................................... 91 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 93 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 96

  

LIST OF TABLES

  Table Page

  2.1 Reading skills aimed in Basic Reading I.............................................................. 31

  2.2 Reading materials and the text genre in Basic Reading I ..................................... 31

  2.3 Reading skills aimed and the reading skills aimed .............................................. 32

  3.1 Part A data of student questionnaire .................................................................... 42

  3.2 Part B data of student questionnaire .................................................................... 43

  3.3 Data of first question in Part C ............................................................................. 44

  3.4 Data of lecturer questionnaire .............................................................................. 45

  3.5 Data of document analysis ................................................................................... 48

  3.6 Relation of reading skills aimed and the exercise types used .............................. 48

  4.1 Reading materials, reading skills aimed, and exercise types used in Basic Reading I .................................................................................................................... 56

  4.2 Exercise types used to train and develop the reading skills ................................. 58

  4.3 Students’ preferences of exercise types used in Basic Reading I ........................ 77

  st th

  4.4 Reading materials, reading skills aimed, and exercise types used in 1 , 8 , and

  th

  15 meeting ................................................................................................................ 81

  st th

  4.5 Exercise types used to train and develop the reading skills aimed in 1 , 8 , and

  th

  15 meeting ................................................................................................................ 82

  st th th

  4.6 Exercise types used in 1 , 8 , and 15 meeting .................................................. 82

  APPENDICES

  Page Appendix A: Observation result and Online Tasks.................................................... 97 Appendix B: Student questionnaire and Lecturer Questionnaire ............................... 109 Appendix C: Transcripts of Interview ........................................................................ 118 Appendix D: Documents of Basic Reading I ............................................................. 124

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The research investigates the use of exercise types in Basic Reading I by first semester students of academic year 2011/2012 Sanata Dharma University. This chapter presents the research background, problem formulations, problem limitations, research objectives, research benefits, and definitions of terms. A. Research Background Language has contributed greatly to the progress made by mankind by

  providing, not only the external social skill of communication, but also by giving man an advanced type of shorthand which has enabled him to communicate with himself in thought (Moyle, 1972, p.22). Reading is such of a written language. Moreover, reading is an active skill that involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between the two. The acquisition of reading skills is a very important aspect of first (L1) as well as second (L2) or foreign language (FL) literacy. Reading in a L2 or FL is a dynamic and interactive process, during which learners make use of a variety of skills and strategies, combined with background knowledge, L1-related knowledge and real-world knowledge to arrive at an understanding of written material (Aebersold & Field, 1997, p.ix as cited in Constantinescu, 2007). On the other hands, reading is a process in which we look at words printed on a page and derived some meaning from them (Raygor &

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  Meanwhile, it is important to view any method of teaching. To successful English language teaching and learning, teachers need to define the goals and objectives on their teaching (Davies, 2008, p.3). Nevertheless, there is no known correct or perfect way to approach the teaching reading in the present state of knowledge (Moyle, 1972, p.28). This is because the process of reading is such a complex mixture of individual abilities, skills, and personal traits. However, the general objectives of teaching reading can derive from comprehension, speed, etc. as known that reading comprehension is seen as very complete understanding of a topic (Raygor & Raygor, 1985). It is said that although different readers may engage in very different reading processes, the understanding they end up with will be similar.

  Hence, one of the teaching reading goals in a classroom is giving the opportunity for teachers to develop their students’ ability in reading such a reading comprehension. Nevertheless, the teachers should pay attention to the teaching goals and objectives that should be apparent to the learners. They should feel that every activity the teachers do with the learners is worthwhile, and that the whole course is worthwhile (Davies, 2008, p. 5). Therefore, to develop the students’ reading skills, teachers need a kind of assessment devices, for example assignment, homework, and practice (Miller, Linn, & Grounlund, 2009, p.26).

  They are used as the way to reach the goals and objectives of the teaching and learning. Homework and practice are instructional techniques that are well known to teachers. Both provide students with opportunities to deepen their

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  beginning. It is naturally obvious that practice is necessary for learning of any type (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001, p. 60).

  According to Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001, p.67), students should adapt and shape what they have learned while practicing. Practice has a classroom implication that is students must adapt skills as they are learning them. In fact, one can think of skill learning as involving a phase that is called as “shaping phase”. During this “shaping phase”, learners focus on their conceptual understanding of skills. They should follow procedures effectively. The generalization of practice notes that skills should be learned to the level that students could perform them quickly and accurately.

  In addition, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) states that to facilitate the skill development, students should be encouraged to keep track of their speed and accuracy. It uses the idea of “focused practice” (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001, p. 70). It is particularly important when students are practicing a complex, multistep skill or process. For example, there are some aspects to make troublesome for students, and the students might need to be given some exercises that help them to focus on one objective they want to reach. This type of exercises is referred to as focused because the learner still engages in the overall skill or process in the teaching learning activity.

  Furthermore, teachers typically set time aside for modeling the skill or process, for providing guided practice with the steps of the skills or process, and then for assigning independent practice sessions. It is also important if students

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  about speed reading, then teacher should set a time and steps to the material. Homework and practice are ways to provide students with opportunities to refine and extend their knowledge. Teachers can use both of these practices as powerful instructional tools (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001, p. 70).

  Based on Piepho in the “Communicative teaching of English” by Candlin (1983, p. 45), practice is seen as part of a method and is introduced through sets of integrated exercises as a means towards curriculum objectives. Practice demands the learners’ willingness to do a set of exercises or a sequence of tasks. Generally, practice is likely to be most effective when it is followed by communicative or interpretive tasks. The tasks or exercises should make the learners clear that the tasks are a combination of cognitive and linguistic skill.

  Later on Piepho as cited by Candlin (1983, p. 46) explains that exercises are not simply a didactic organization. It involves the relationship between the teachers and the learners. Thus, the essential conditions for successful teaching are patience, encouragement, praise, and helping every learner continually towards the mastering of learning. The way of the teachers can look after every individual learner in this way has organizational or procedural, which is set of repeated exercises. These exercises are not always to be terminated in course book unit or lesson, but it can be form handouts compiled by the teacher. It sequences every learner to achieve the learning objective and to master the skills or sub-skills the related subject, for example, the lecturers can compile the material from internet, and this compilation is based on the students’ need and the objectives of the

  5    

  course. It likes what Moyle (1972) explains that teachers should know the purpose of giving exercise to fulfill the students’ needs.

  The value and effectiveness of exercise lie not only in the more or less automatically correct language produce, but also more importantly in the requirement they force, like formal drill in which the teacher make his purposes clearly through the exercises. Moreover, learners assess the value of exercise in terms of the degree to which their particular objective is fulfilled by the activity required by exercises (Phiepho as cited in Candlin, 1983, p. 47).

  Moreover, when doing the exercises, students can face some problems. The problems can come from the motivation, lack of words, environment, etc. This situation influences their interest to do the exercise. The similar problems also can occur in doing reading exercises. When the students are given some exercises about reading comprehension, they may fail to comprehend a text because of their interpreting text process. The problem when interpreting a text is that the readers supposedly reduce their focus on what they should understand. As known that comprehending a text for a reader is crucial. It is related to the meaning from a text. Meaning is created in the interaction between a reader and a text. The text has what Halliday (1979) and Widdowson (1979) called meaning potential, and the potential is realized in the product of understanding only by readers reading (both are cited in Alderson, 2000, p. 6).

  Nevertheless, the researcher takes Basic Reading I as the research subject. Basic Reading I provides the students with various exercise types for

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  joined the Basic Reading I class did some different types of exercises. They were trained to develop their reading skills and reading comprehension. They stated that they could improve their reading skills and reading comprehension because they were doing the exercises given by the lecturer. The examples of exercise types used were multiple choice, true-false, matching, short-answer question, fill in the blank, etc.

  Since Basic Reading I was one of the subject in English Education Study Program, it had the course objectives. The objectives are seen to obtain the goal of the course or subject. The students are provided with the hands-on experience in applying the reading strategies when reading various types of texts. Moreover, the course helps the students develop their English vocabulary and reading aloud ability. It also helps the students become independent and effective readers. The topics of this course include basic reading skills which consist of various reading strategies and exercises (Syllabus of Basic Reading I, 2011). Thus, the research will focus on the use of exercise types in Basic Reading I and students’ problem in reading. The title of the research is the exercise types in Basic Reading I of academic year 2011/2012 in English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University.

B. Problem Formulations

  Based on the previous part, which is the research background, there are two problems formulated to this research. The problems are as follows.

  1. What are the exercise types used in Basic Reading I?

  7     C. Problem Limitations

  There are several classes for reading in English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. However, the researcher limits the subject to Basic Reading I. It is because the data gathering will be done in odd semester and the objectives of Basic Reading I class still emphasize on the development of the basic reading skills. In this case, the students of Basic Reading I are given some exercise types during the course. The exercises may differ in several types such as multiple-choices, fill in the blank, matching, etc. The students do the exercises and get the problems in reading when doing such the exercise. Hence, the researcher limits the discussion on the use of the exercise types in Basic Reading I class of first semester students in Sanata Dharma University and its problems in reading.

  D. Research Objectives

  This study intends to find the answer the two questions stated in problem formulation. There are two objectives. The first is to find out the types of exercise used in Basic Reading I. The second is to know the students’ problems in reading when doing the types of exercise in Basic Reading I

  E. Research Benefits

  This research will primarily benefit the students, the lecturers, and other researches. They are as follows.

  1. The students The research will be useful for the students in Sanata Dharma University

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  exercise that they use in the reading class, will help them to know which exercise types they like most in Basic Reading I course and what problems that they face in doing the exercise, so that they can anticipate the problem before facing the exercise types.

  2. The lecturers The research is also useful for the lecturers because the lecturers will know which type of exercise their students may have the problems and know the purpose of giving exercise to fulfill the students’ needs (Moyle, 1972).

  3. Other researchers Other researchers mean people who will conduct the similar research. This research will be useful because they will have a method view of how to do the research. The other researcher also can apply the similar research in different subject or participants.

F. Definitions of terms

  In order to make common conception with the readers about some terminologies used in this research, the researcher defines some terms as follows.

  1. Exercise types Exercise types are kinds of exercise used for developing particular skills in a course since an exercise aims to give the students opportunities to deepen their understanding and relative to content (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001, p. 60). In this study, exercise types are kinds of exercises that are used as the assessment to measure student-learning outcome and develop reading skills.

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  2. Basic Reading I Basic Reading I is one of the compulsory courses in English Education

  Study Program. This course is taken in the first semester (Universitas Sanata

  

Dharma , 2011). It is designed to introduce students with the reading strategies. In

  this course, the students are provided with the hands-on experience in applying the reading strategies when reading various types of texts. Moreover, the course helps the students develop their English vocabulary and reading aloud ability. It also helps the students become independent and effective readers. The topics of this course include basic reading skills which consist of various reading strategies and exercises (Syllabus of Basic Reading I, 2011).

  3. Students of English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma Univeristy English Education Study Program Students of Sanata Dharma University is the person who is listed as a student in English Education Study Program of

  Sanata Dharma University (Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007).

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter presents detailed theories related to the research of the

  exercise types used in Basic Reading I Sanata Dharma University in first semester students’ academic year 2011/2012. This chapter will be divided into three parts; they are theoretical description, an overview of Basic Reading I, and theoretical framework.

A. Theoretical Description

  This theoretical description concerns the related theories used to support the accomplishment of the study. There are five major areas. They are definition of exercises, three levels of choosing exercises, types of exercises, theory on reading, and teaching reading for university students.

1. Definition of exercises

  Assessment of student learning requires the use of techniques for measuring student achievement. Assessment is more than a collection of techniques, however. It is a systematic process that plays a significant role in effective teaching, It begins with the identifications of learning goals, monitors the progress students make toward those goals and ends with a judgment concerning the extent to which those goals have been attained (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.26). Hence, teachers take time to construct and select the assessment type,

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  Homework, assignment, tasks, exercises, and the like are the assessment type that used in a classroom. As explained by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001), homework and practice are instructional techniques that are well known to teachers. Both provide students with opportunities to deepen their understanding and skills relative to content that has been initially presented to them.

  Piepho as cited by Candlin (1983, p. 46) explains that exercises are not simply a didactic organization. It involves the relationship between the teachers and the learners. Thus, the essential conditions for successful teaching are patience, encouragement, praise, and helping of every learner continually towards the mastering of learning. The way of the teachers can look after every individual learner in this way has organizational or procedural, which is set of repeated exercises. These exercises are not always to be terminated in course book unit or lesson, but it can be form handouts compiled by the teacher. It sequences every learner to achieve the learning objective and to master the skills or sub-skills the related subject, for example, the lecturers can compile the material from internet, and this compilation is based on the students’ need and the objectives of the course. It likes what Moyle (1972) explains that teachers should know the purpose of giving exercise to fulfill the students’ needs.

  The value and effectiveness of exercise lies not only in the more or less automatically correct language produce, but also more importantly in the requirement they force, like formal drill in which the teacher make his purposes clearly through the exercises. Moreover, learners assess the value of exercise in

  12    

  terms of the degree to which their particular objective is fulfilled by the activity required by exercises (Phiepho in Candlin, 1983, p.47).

  2. Three levels of choosing exercises by teachers

  McNeil, Donant, and Alkin in How to Teach Reading Successfully mentioned the three levels used by teachers to choose exercises. The levels are goal level, the instructional objectives or skills level, and the activity level (1980, p. 8).

  a. The goal level A reading goal is one level of purpose for the guidance of educational activity (p. 8). Statements of goals imply both values and commitment of instruction for their attainment.

  b. The instructional objectives or skills level An instructional objective is a statement of what pupils are supposed know, be able to do, or believe as a result of instruction (pp.8-9).

  c. The activity level Activities or learning opportunities include the lessons, reading selections, games, learning centers, discussions, cassettes, films, all of the things and events that learners engage in when learning to read (p.9).

  3. Types of exercise

  Classroom tests and assessments play a central role in the evaluation of

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  outcomes and indirect evidence concerning others (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.139). Many different types of assessment data might be useful in a particular situation. The teaching-learning process involves a continuous and interrelated series of instructional decisions concerning ways to enhance student learning (p. 28). Assessment, on the other hand, may include both quantitative descriptions (measurement) and qualitative (non-measurement) of students as in figure 2.1 (p. 29).

  Tests and other assessments procedures can also be classified terms of their functional role in classroom instruction (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.38). The categorized are as follows.

  a. Format of assessment 1) Selected-response test is that students select response to question from available options.

  2) Complex-performance assessment is that students construct extended response or performs in response to complex task (p.45).

  b. Use in classroom instruction 1) Placement assessment is concerned with the student’s entry performance and typically focuses on questions. It is to determine student performance at the beginning of instructions. 2) Formative assessment is used to monitor learning progress during instructions. Its purpose is to provide continuous feedback to both students and teachers concerning learning successes and failures. Formative assessment

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  instruction. Because formative assessment is directed toward improving learning and instruction, the results are typically not used for assigning course grades. To be effective tools of teaching and learning, formative assessments must be consistent with important student learning goals (p.21). Teachers must be able to control the time that formative assessments are administered and the choice of tasks that students are asked to perform. Thus, exercises are kind of formative assessment. 3) Diagnostic assessment is a highly specialized procedure. It is concerned with the persistent or recurring learning difficulties that are left unresolved by formative assessment. The aim of diagnostic assessment is to determine the causes of persistent learning problems and to formulate a plan for remedial action.

  4) Summative assessment typically comes at the end of a course of instruction. It is designed to determine the extent to which the instructional goals have been achieved and is used primarily for assigning course grades or for certifying student mastery of the intended learning outcomes (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, pp.38-39).

  In planning for a reading assessment, for example, a list of the reading skills and the number of test items for measuring each skill may be sufficient for specifying what the test is to measure (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.149). Tests and assessments given during instruction provide the basis for formative assessment (p.141). Teachers commonly call these formative tests as learning tests, practice tests, quizzes, unit tests, and the like. Therefore, Basic Reading I

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  used various types of test items as the exercise intended to develop the reading skills. The types of items used are as follows.

  1. Supply type is the type that requires students to supply the answer (p.151). Both short answer and completion are the types that can be answered by a word, phrase, number, or symbol.

  a. Short answer Short answer uses to direct question. The short answer is suitable for measuring a wide variety of relatively simple learning outcomes (p. 172). For example, “what is the name of the man who invented the steamboat? (Robert Fulton)” (p.172). Short-answer question provides possibility to interpret the students’ response to see if they have really understood (Alderson, 2000, p. 227).

  b. Completion Completion is used to answer the incomplete statement. It is like fill in the blank. For example, “the name of the man who invented steamboat is _________

  (Robert Fulton)” (p.172). Fill in the blank type required students to read a text, read a summary of the same text, from which key words have been removed.

  Their task was to restore the missing words (Alderson, 2000, p.240).

  Both short answer and completion are common used in as follows. 1) Knowledge of terminology Example: “Lines on a weather map that join points of the same barometric pressure are called _____________. (isobar)” (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.172).

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  Example: “A member of the United States Senate is elected to a term of ___________ years.” (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.172) 3) Knowledge of Principles Example: “If the temperature of a gas is held constant while the pressure applied to it is increased, what will happen to its volume? (It will decrease)” (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.172) 4) Knowledge of method or procedure Example: “What device is used to detect whether an electric charge is positive or negative? (electroscope)” (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.173) 5) Simple interpretations of data Example: “How many syllables are there in the word Argentina?” (Miller, Linn, & Grondlund, 2009, p.173)

  2. Selection types is the type that requires the students to select the answer from a given number of alternatives (p.151) a. Multiple-choice

  Multiple-choice type is quite used in any textbooks for teaching reading, in fact, some exercises are developed with this type (Alderson, 2000, p.204). On the other hands, the answers of every question in multiple-choice type include the distractor to represent a reasonable misinterpretation of some part of the text. The purpose of it is that if a learner responded with an incorrect choice, the nature of his misunderstanding would be immediately obvious, and could then be ‘treated’ accordingly (Alderson, 2000, p.204). This type is used only one absolutely correct

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  choice type are measuring knowledge outcomes and measuring outcomes at the understanding and application levels (pp.196-199).

  b. True-False or alternative response True-false is dichotomous items. Because of its apparent ease of construction, are items with only two choices. Students are presented with a statement which is related to the text and have to indicate whether it is true or false, or whether the text agrees or disagrees with the statement (Alderson, 2000, p. 222). The most common use of the true-false items is in measuring the ability to identify the correctness of statements of facts, definitions of terms, statements of principles, and the like (Miller, Linn, & Grondlund, 2009, p. 179). One of the useful functions is in measuring the students’ ability to distinguish fact from opinion (p. 180). The type also can become measures of understanding if the opinion statements attributed to an individual or group are new to students. The task then becomes one of interpreting the beliefs held by individual or group and applying them to new situation. This type can measure the ability to recognize cause-effect relationships. Here, students are to judge whether the relationship between the statements is true or false (p.181).

  c. Matching The matching type consists of two parallel columns with each word, number, or symbol in one column being matched to a word, sentence, or phrase in the other column (Miller, Linn, & Gronlund, 2009, p.186). In any event, the students’ task is to identify the pairs of items that are to be associated on the basis

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  information based on simple associations. It is a compact and efficient method of measuring such simple knowledge outcome. This type provides two sets of stimuli which have to be matched against each other, for example matching headings for paragraphs to their corresponding paragraph (Alderson, 2000, p. 215). On the other hands, students are asked to match the options associated with a given keyword(s) (“Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy”, n.d).

  However, other exercise types used in Basic Reading I are as follows.