The implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) through a set of reading instructional materials to teach reading to the fifth grade students of elementary school.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOPERATIVE INTEGRATED READING COMPOSITION (CIRC) THROUGH A SET OF READING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS TO TEACH READING TO THE FIFTH

GRADE STUDENTS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Wahyu Widiasih Student Number: 051214069

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOPERATIVE INTEGRATED READING COMPOSITION (CIRC) THROUGH A SET OF READING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS TO TEACH READING TO THE FIFTH

GRADE STUDENTS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Wahyu Widiasih Student Number: 051214069

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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SUCCESS

There is no hope of success for the person who does not have a central purpose

or definite goal at which to aim.

The reason man may become the master of his own destiny is because he has the power to influence his own subconscious mind.

Man, alone has the power to transform his thoughts in to physical reality. Man, alone can dream and make his dreams come true.

First, thought and then organization of that thought,

into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans in to reality. The beginning as you will observe, is in your imagination.

(Napoleon Hill)

I dedicate this thesis to:

Myself

My savior: Jesus Christ and Saint Mary

My parents: Ay. Widodo and M. Suwarsih

My beloved soul mate: HY. Ismanu Didik H

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to convey my highest praise to Jesus Christ and Saint Mary for the amazing grace and guidance upon my life, especially during the hard times in my study and in the completion of this thesis. Without their grace, guidance, and blessing, I could not have accomplished the thesis well.

For sure, I am greatly indebted to my sponsor, C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., who willingly spent her precious time reviewing my thesis, making practical suggestions for the revision and also encouraging me in working on this thesis.

My thankfulness goes to all the lecturers of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University who have guided me during my study. My special thanks also go to all staff of PBI secretariat who patiently gave their service during my study.

My sincere thanks go to the headmaster of SD Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta, who has permitted me to conduct the research. I also thank all of the students in SD Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta, especially the fifth grade students, for their willingness and cooperation as the research participants in this thesis.

I present this accomplishment to the greatest people in my life; my beloved parents for their endless love, prayers, supports and encouragements. I also thank my brothers for their love, trust, support and help.

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I would like to send my deepest thank to HY. Ismanu Didik Harwoto, with whom I will spend my future life, for giving me love, care, attention, support during my time especially in finishing my thesis.

I am particularly grateful to my thesis mate, Rimas Sunaring Negari with whom I discussed, shared the confusion and the difficult time in writing this thesis. Further, I thank her for the willingness to spend her time to help me as the observer partner. Many thanks also go for her encouragement and suggestions.

My deep gratitude goes to Rm. Dr. Mateus Mali, CSsR, for the supports, prayers and suggestions for the improvement of my thesis. Besides, I also thank him for lending me his video camera. I also thank Fr. Yohanes Umbu Lede, CSsR, for his willingness to help me to record the learning activities during the research.

My special gratitude also belongs to all my best friends I have ever had, Rimas, Datia, Siska, Tunjung, Daniel, Adit, Marshel, Endru, Nita who shared joy, laughter, love, affection and support with me, especially during my study. My gratitude also goes to my lovely friends Septi, Yayaz, Filus, Kanya, Lia and all PBI 2005 students for the wonderful friendship and moments.

Last but not least, I would like to express my acknowledgements to all people who cannot be stated by names here. I thank those who have supported and loved me. I cannot finish my thesis without their assistance. May God give them all endless blessing.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ... i

APPROVAL PAGES ... ii

PAGE OF DEDICATION... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... v

PAGE OF PUBLICITY ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS... ix

LIST OF APPENDICES ... xi

ABSTRACT ... xii

ABSTRAK ... xiv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background... 1

B. Problem Identification ... 4

C. Problem Formulation... 5

D. Problem Limitation ... 5

E. Research Objective ... 6

F. Research Benefits... 6

G. Definition of Terms... 7

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description ... 9

1. The Nature of Reading ... 9

2. The Purpose of Reading ... 10

a. Reading to Search for Simple Information and Reading to Skim…... ... 10

b. Reading to Learn from Texts. ... 11

c. Reading for General Comprehension. ... 11

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4. Reading Comprehension ... 12

5. Facilitating Comprehension ... 12

6. Basic Principles in Teaching Reading to Children ... 13

7. In School Motivators of Reading Behavior ... 15

8. Techniques for Fostering Motivation... 16

9. Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition ... 18

B. Theoretical Framework ... 24

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ... 26

B. Research Participants ... 27

C. Research Instruments ... 28

D. Data Gathering Technique ... 31

E. Data Analysis Technique ... 32

F. Research Procedure... 36

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSIONS A. CIRC Implementation in Teaching Reading to the Fifth Grade Students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School... 39

B. The Influencing Factors in the Implementation of Teaching Reading Using CIRC. ... 56

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ... 72

B. Suggestions ... 77

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A The Permission Letter... 82

APPENDIX B Statement from SD Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta... 84

APPENDIX C The Results of Observation Checklists... 85

APPENDIX D The Results of Field Notes ... 92

APPENDIX E The List of Interview Questions ... 101

APPENDIX F The Results of The Interviews ... 101

xii ABSTRACT

Widiasih, Wahyu. 2009. The Implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) Through a Set of Reading Instructional Materials to Teach Reading to the Fifth Grade Students of Elementary School. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Teaching reading to the elementary students is not an easy thing to do as they have to be able to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret the information appropriately (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9). Moreover, the elementary students also have short attention span in following the lesson. Thus, the elementary students need interesting reading activities that could motivate them to follow the lesson. If they feel enjoy in reading, it will help them to achieve better result. The Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) is one of the methods that can be used to teach reading to be more interesting. In teaching reading using CIRC, the students will work in the groups to do interesting activities such as reading to one another, making prediction about how the story will end, responding to the story orally or in a written form, practicing spelling and vocabulary mastery (Slavin, 1995: 105).

In this research, the researcher would implement CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school Yogyakarta. In implementing CIRC method, the researcher would use a set of reading instructional materials design using CIRC, which is designed by Santi Dyah Ikasari, 2005. The researcher used the materials design in order to provide suitable materials with the implementation of CIRC. In this study, the researcher would focus the research to describe the process of the implementation of CIRC. Therefore, the researcher did not intend to evaluate the materials design.

This research was intended to answer two research questions, they are: 1. How is CIRC implemented in teaching reading for the fifth grade

students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School Yogyakarta? 2. What are the factors that influence the implementation of teaching

reading using CIRC?

To conduct this research, the researcher used survey as a method to gather data. In order to answer the research’s questions, the researcher used several instruments, they were: observation checklist, field notes, video recording and interview. Those four instruments were used in order to find out how CIRC is implemented. While, in order to find out the factors that influenced the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC, the researcher conducted interviews to twenty two fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school Yogyakarta.

After conducting the research, the researcher found the research questions’ answer. First, there were several steps to implement CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school. The researcher implemented CIRC by:

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1. Teaching reading to the fifth grade students using set of reading instructional materials design using CIRC.

Before teaching reading using CIRC, the researcher divided the students into four groups. The students would work in the same group to do the reading activities in the four times implementation of CIRC.

2. Implementing three principles of CIRC. The researcher classified five parts of the reading instructional materials design into three principles of CIRC. The principles were story-related activities, story-related writing and words out loud principles.

Second, it was found that there were inhibiting and supporting factors influencing the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. There were three inhibiting factors in the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. They were the reading text, students’ vocabulary limitation and students’ performance in group. While, there were two supporting factors in the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. They were the students’ interest and the students’ motivation. The inhibiting factors gave big influence so that the implementation of CIRC could not obtain optimum result.

In summary, the implementation of CIRC could work to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school. However, it could achieve optimum result if the teacher considers some aspects in teaching reading using CIRC. Some suggestions about the implementation of CIRC to improve the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC to elementary students were presented.

Key Words: reading, CIRC, implementation, story-related activities, story related writing, words out loud principle.

xiv ABSTRAK

Widiasih, Wahyu. 2009. The Implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) Through a Set of Reading Instructional Materials to Teach Reading for the Fifth Grade Students of Elementary School. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Mengajar reading bagi siswa sekolah dasar bukanlah hal yang mudah, karena mereka harus mampu menarik kesimpulan dari teks bacaan dan menafsirkan informasi yang terkandung di dalamnya dengan benar (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9). Selain itu, para siswa juga mempunyai daya konsentrasi yang rendah ketika mengikuti pelajaran. Oleh karena itu, para siswa membutuhkan aktivitas membaca yang menarik untuk dapat memotivasi mereka dalam mengikuti pelajaran. Jika mereka merasa senang dalam aktivitas membaca, maka hal itu dapat membantu mereka untuk mencapai hasil yang lebih baik.

Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) adalah salah satu metode yang dapat digunakan untuk mengajar reading menjadi lebih menarik. Dalam mengajar reading dengan menggunakan CIRC, para siswa bekerja dalam kelompok-kelompok untuk melakukan aktivitas yang menarik seperti membacakan teks bacaan dari seorang kepada yang lainnya, membuat prediksi tentang bagaimana suatu cerita akan berakhir, menanggapi cerita secara lisan atau tertulis, melatih ejaan dan penguasaan kosa kata (Slavin, 1995: 105).

Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menerapkan metode CIRC untuk mengajar

reading kepada siswa kelas V sekolah dasar Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta. Dalam penerapan metode CIRC, peneliti menggunakan desain materi instruksi membaca dengan menggunakan metode CIRC yang dibuat oleh Santi Dyah Ikasari, 2005. Peneliti menggunakan desain materi untuk memberikan materi yang sesuai dengan penerapan CIRC. Dalam studi ini, peneliti memfokuskan penelitian untuk mendeskripsikan proses penerapan CIRC. Oleh karena itu, peneliti tidak bermaksud untuk mengevaluasi desain materi yang digunakan.

Ada dua pertanyaan penelitian dalam penelitian ini yaitu:

1. Bagaimana metode CIRC diterapkan dalam pengajaran reading bagi siswa kelas V SD Kanisius Kintelan?

2. Faktor-faktor apakah yang mempengaruhi penerapan pengajaran reading

dengan menggunakan metode CIRC?

Dalam melaksanakan penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan metode menggunakan metode survei. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan beberapa instrumen yaitu checklist observasi, catatan lapangan, rekaman video dan wawancara. Keempat instrumen tersebut digunakan untuk mengetahui bagaimana metode CIRC diterapkan. Peneliti juga menggunakan instrumen wawancara untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penerapan pengajaran reading dengan menggunakan metode CIRC. Wawancara dilakukan terhadap 22 siswa kelas V SD Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta.

Setelah melakukan penelitian, peneliti menemukan jawaban dari permasalahan penelitian. Pertama, terdapat beberapa langkah dalam penerapan metode CIRC untuk mengajar reading kepada siswa kelas V sekolah dasar Kanisius Kintelan. Peneliti menerapkan metode CIRC dengan cara:

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1. Mengajar reading kepada siswa kelas V menggunakan desain materi instruksi membaca menggunakan dengan metode CIRC. Sebelum mengajarkan reading menggunakan metode CIRC, peneliti membagi para siswa ke dalam empat kelompok. Para siswa bekerja dalam kelompok yang sama untuk mengerjakan aktivitas membaca dalam empat kali penerapan metode CIRC.

2. Menerapkan tiga prinsip dari CIRC. Dalam hal ini peneliti mengelompokkan lima bagian dalam desain materi membaca ke dalam tiga prinsip CIRC. Prinsip-prinsip tersebut adalah story-related activities, story-related writing and words out loud.

Kedua, dalam penelitian ini ditemukan faktor-faktor penghambat dan pendukung yang mempengaruhi penerapan pengajaran reading dengan metode CIRC. Ada tiga faktor penghambat penerapan pengajaran reading dengan metode CIRC, yaitu teks bacaan, keterbatasan penguasaan kosa kata dan kinerja siswa dalam kelompok. Faktor pendukung penerapan metode CIRC adalah minat siswa dan motivasi siswa. Dalam penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa faktor-faktor penghambat lebih dominan sehingga penerapan metode CIRC kurang mencapai hasil yang optimal.

Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa pada dasarnya penerapan pengajaran reading dengan menggunakan CIRC dapat digunakan untuk mengajar reading untuk siswa kelas V SD Kanisius Kintelan. Akan tetapi, penerapan mengajar reading menggunakan metode CIRC akan mencapi hasil yang optimal jika guru memperhatikan beberapa aspek dalam mengajar reading

menggunkan metode CIRC. Peneliti menyertakan juga beberapa saran untuk meningkatkan penerapan pengajaran reading dengan metode CIRC pada siswa sekolah dasar.

Kata Kunci: reading, CIRC, penerapan, story-related activities, story-related writing, words out loud principle.

1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the writer would like to discuss the research background, the problem identification, the problem formulation, the problem limitation, the research objectives, the research benefits, also the definition of terms.

A. Research Background

English is considered as an International language so that many people around the world want to learn English. This phenomenon also happens in Indonesia. English is one of the subjects taught in formal school in Indonesia due to the needs that language plays an important role in many fields in life. As it can be seen from Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional no 22 tahun 2006 (National Education Ministry’s rule number 22, 2006), language has a central role in the development of students’ intellectual, social, emotional and also a way to reach success in learning many subjects. Furthermore, the government expects that through learning English the students would be able to communicate in English both orally and literally (Depdiknas, 2007: 429). Therefore, according to

Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), students in Indonesia are taught English lesson from elementary school up to senior high school level. However, in this research the writer will focus on English for elementary school level.

The scope of English lesson for elementary school covers on the ability to communicate orally in the limited context. Moreover, the reading skill is taught in

order to support the oral communication as the main focus of learning English (Depdiknas, 2007: 429).

Ruang lingkup mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggris di SD mencakup kemampuan berkomunikasi lisan secara terbatas dalam konteks sekolah, yang meliputi aspek-aspek mendengarkan, berbicara, membaca dan menulis. ketrampilan menulis dan membaca diarahkan untuk menunjang pembelajaran komunikasi lisan. (The scope of English lesson in the Elementary School covers the oral communication limited in the school context which consists of listening, speaking, reading and writing aspects. Writing and reading ability are taught to support the oral communication lesson). (Depdiknas, 2007: 430).

As what the writer stated before, in learning English, the elementary students are also taught reading skills to support the oral communication as the main focus of learning English. The writer thinks that it is not an easy thing to do in teaching reading skills for elementary school level as the students have to be able to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret the information appropriately (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9).

In fact, reading is the basis to learn an essential skill to English learners because it is the most important skill to be mastered in order to ensure success in learning in any content class where reading in English is required (Anderson, 2003 in Nunan, 2003). Besides, Bright and Mc Gregor (1970: 52) state that reading is the core of language skills. Furthermore, Wallace (1992: 3) also states that reading as one of the skills plays an important role in English language because reading is the awareness of the way we use language. Considering that reading is an essential skill and the core of learning English, the researcher would focus the research on reading for elementary school level.

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In teaching reading for elementary school, the teachers are supposed to be able to create interesting reading activities because the elementary students have short attention span (Durkin, 1987: 37). Therefore, they are easily to feel bored in following the lesson in class. Thus, the students need reading activities that could motivate them to follow the reading activities in class. Cooperative integrated reading composition (CIRC) might be one of the methods to teach reading to be more interesting.

CIRC is chosen by the researcher because of several reasons. First, the students are expected to achieve good result together in the area of comprehension (Slavin, 1995: 105). In the implementation of CIRC the students will do the reading activities in groups so that they are expected to help each other. Second, there are many interesting activities that the students could have in class, like reading to one another, predicting about how the story will end, responding to the story orally, etc. Third, the competition atmosphere among the groups is good to motivate the students to do their best in doing the reading activities.

The researcher also thinks that the CIRC itself is relevant to the competence standard of KTSP, “untuk mencapai kompetensi ini, peserta didik perlu dibiasakan dengan berbagai ragam pasangan bersanding (adjacency pairs)

yang merupakan dasar menuju kemampuan berinteraksi yang lebih kompleks,”

(Depdiknas, 2007: 429), (in order to achieve the competence, the students have to be familiar to work in adjacency pairs which is the basis to communicate in more complex situation).

Therefore, the researcher will implement the cooperative integrated reading composition through a set of reading instructional materials design, which is designed by Santi Dyah Ikasari. The title of the design is “Designing a Set of Reading Instructional Materials for the Fifth Grade Students of Kanisius Demangan Baru Elementary School Using Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC),” (Ikasari, 2005). The researcher will use a set of reading instructional materials design to help the researcher to provide the suitable materials with the implementation of CIRC. In this study, the researcher is not going to evaluate the design materials. The researcher will focus the study to describe the implementation of CIRC to teach reading.

B. Problem Identification

Considering the research background above, the writer identifies that the elementary students need to be taught reading using interesting reading materials so that they will enjoy learning English. If they feel enjoy in reading, it will help them to achieve better result.

The Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) is one of the methods that can be used in teaching reading for elementary students. Through this paper, the writer will focus on the attempt to describe the implementation of CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School Yogyakarta.

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C. Problem Formulation

In relation to the research background and the problem identification, this research is going to answer two questions as the guideline of the process of conducting and writing the research paper. The problems of the research are formulated as follows:

1. How is CIRC implemented in teaching reading for the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School Yogyakarta? 2. What are the factors that influence the implementation of teaching

reading using CIRC?

D. Problem Limitation

The focus of this study is to investigate the implementation of the reading materials design using Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC). The writer would like to investigate how the CIRC is implemented in teaching reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School Yogyakarta. Besides, the writer also would like to find out the factors that influence the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC.

The participants that will be used in this research are the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School Yogyakarta. Further explanation of the research participants will be discussed on chapter III.

E. Research Objectives

Dealing with the problems that have been formulated above on the problem formulation, the objectives of this paper are:

1. To describe how CIRC is implemented to teach reading to the fifth grade students.

2. To find out the influencing factors in teaching reading using CIRC.

F. Research Benefits

In accordance to the objectives of the research, this research is expected to give benefits for:

1. English teacher candidates:

The researcher expects the result of this research can give deeper information to English teacher candidates about reading materials design using CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition). Hopefully, this paper could motivate them to use CIRC method or motivate them to use another teaching reading method that can make reading interesting for the elementary level learners.

2. English teachers of elementary school:

The result of this research is expected to be able to provide descriptions to the English teachers of elementary school about how the reading materials using CIRC is conducted in class. Besides, the result of this research will be beneficial to the English teachers of elementary school so that they could conduct interesting and fun reading activities in their class.

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3. Other writers:

The research is expected to give insight to other writers who will conduct further research on the same or similar topic.

G. Definition of Terms

There are some terms used that need to be described in this study, they are: 1. Implementation

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, implementation comes from the verb ‘implement’, that is “to put something into effect; to carry something out” (1995: 595). From this definition which is found in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, the writer redefines implementation in this study as a theory or a method which is put into effect in a classroom situation. In this study, the researcher will implement CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of elementary school.

2. The Fifth Grade students

The fifth grade of elementary school is a level of school for children from 10 to 11 years old. In this study, the fifth grade students are the research participants of this study. The fifth grade students are chosen because CIRC is intended for the upper and middle elementary grades.

3. Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School

Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School is one of the private elementary schools in Yogyakarta. In this study, Kanisius Kintelan elementary school is chosen by the writer as the place to conduct the research.

4. Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition

Cooperative Integrated Reading Comprehension defines as a comprehensive program for teaching reading, writing, and language arts in the upper elementary grades (Slavin, 1995: 97). CIRC is focused on instructional method that is an attempt to use cooperative learning as a mean for teaching reading or writing. In this study, the writer will implement CIRC to see the process the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC.

5. KTSP

KTSP stands for Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan. It is the 2006 curriculum that is used in the educational system in Indonesia. In this study, KTSP becomes the guidelines to conduct the research on the area of reading skills.

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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter discusses the related literature as the theoretical base in doing the study on the implementation of CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School, as it is outlines in the Chapter I. On this review of related literature, the theoretical description and the theoretical framework of the study will be discussed further.

A. Theoretical Description

In this part, the writer discusses the theories about teaching reading for the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta using Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC).

1. The Nature of Reading

Grabe and Stoller begin the discussion of the nature of reading by providing a definition of concept. Grabe and Stoller state that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and the ability to interpret the information from the printed page appropriately (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9). While According to Moyle (1972: 21-25), reading is above all to do with the language, because in reading we meet all the components of the language such as vocabulary, grammar, and even pronunciation. Reading is also form of communication; it becomes the base of spoken language because reading turns the

collection of symbol into ‘talk’, or in the case of silent reading, into an image of speech sound. Furthermore, Wallace states that reading is a unitary process which cannot be subdivided into constituent skills (Wallace, 2003: 57). Therefore, teachers must not see reading as an isolated activity as what Wallace states (2003: 62) that reading is inevitably integrated with speaking, writing, and listening.

This study dealing with teaching reading to children, according to Wallace (2003: 4) one of the difficulties which young children may have is the ability to understand what they read, as they still have limited knowledge of English, especially vocabulary mastery. If we wish our children to read with understanding, the children must see a purpose in reading and gain enjoyment from reading from the earliest moment of instruction.

2. The Purpose of Reading

According to Grabe and Stoller, there are some purposes of reading; they are (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 11):

a. Reading to search for simple information and reading to skim

Reading to search simple information is common reading ability. It is used so often in reading tasks that it is probably seen as type of reading ability. While reading to skim is a common part of many reading tasks. It involves a combination of strategies for guessing where important information might be in the text.

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b. Reading to learn from texts

Reading to learn typically occurs in academic and professional context in which a person needs to learn a considerable amount of information from a text. c. Reading for general comprehension

Reading for general comprehension is the most basic purpose for reading, underlying and supporting most other purposes for reading. Reading for general comprehension is actually more complex than commonly assumed.

3. Reading Material

Reading is the most important skills in learning a language. In selecting a reading material for the elementary students, there are two factors to be considered. According to Wallace (2003: 71) the classification of the two factors in selecting reading materials can be summarized as follows.

a. The text should present content which is familiar and interesting to the learners so that the students would be able to see reading as useful, pleasant, or relevant to their lives. If a suitable topic is chosen, but the language is too difficult for a particular group of students, some simplification could be made.

b. The text should be appropriate to the learners’ language level. It means that reading material should be ‘not too easy nor too difficult.’ If a reading material were too easy, students would not have a good challenge to learn. While, if the reading material were too difficult, students would be frustrated. As a result, they would be discouraged rather than challenged.

The difficulty level of the reading material must match the students’ proficiency.

4. Reading Comprehension

Comprehension is the essence of reading. Comprehension is a bridge between what is being read and what is already known. Without comprehension, one is not reading but is merely engaged in recognizing words (Criscoe and Gee, 1984: 24). While Anderson (1979: 384) says that the result of reading is the comprehension of written material.

Smith & Robinson (1980: 205) define reading comprehension as the understanding, evaluating, and utilizing of information and ideas through an interaction between the reader and the author.

Reading comprehension skills are thinking skills that are applied prior to, during, and after the visual scanning task by which written language is interpreted into associated meaning, (Guszak, 1972: 49). So, reading comprehension skills is an active process of thinking that depends not only on comprehension skills but also the students’ experience and prior knowledge.

5. Facilitating Comprehension

Durkin states (1987: 379) that facilitating comprehension consists of: a. Teaching New Vocabulary

When the readers do not know some words might not become their obstacle. On the contrary, the new vocabulary might become their obstacle in

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comprehending the text. Therefore, children need to be taught the new vocabulary so that they can comprehend the text better.

b. Providing Essential Background Information

The purpose of providing background information is to give the students adequate preparation, because teaching new vocabulary might be not enough to help the students to comprehend the text. Moreover, by giving adequate background information is necessary to help the students who find problems with new vocabulary.

c. Establishing purpose (s) For the Reading

The reason something is being read determines what constitutes not only the essential background information but also adequate comprehension. Therefore, the teachers need to tell the purpose (s) for the reading to facilitate comprehension.

6. Basic Principles in Teaching Reading for Children

Moyle states that the basic principles on good reading program should consider the point of view of the nature of literacy at the adult level and from the child needs and abilities at any given stage of development (Moyle, 1972: 103). Here are the principles that have to be considered in teaching reading:

1. Reading should form as natural as a unit of the child’s development as is possible.

It is important to know that in order to achieve success in reading, the whole activity in teaching reading must be as natural as possible. If the reading

activity which appears natural to the child then any instruction given or attainment expected should be firmly based on the child’s abilities and interest.

2. Reading as an integral part of other activities.

The child must be lead to an understanding that reading is useful and important. Therefore, the teacher should create reading activities which are interesting and can build curiosity so that the child will enjoy reading activities. Moreover, the child also will realize that reading is an integral part of other activities.

3. Reading instruction should be attractive to the child

The children love to talk and enjoy listening to stories. However, the children often find difficulties in learning reading. One of the ways to reduce difficulties in learning to read is that the teacher should create an interesting reading instruction so that it can attract the child to read.

4. All reading should be meaningful

If the teacher expects the children comprehend what they read, then the teacher must provide a reading passage which is meaningful to the children. 5. Word recognition skills can not be ignored.

Children can not recognize all the words they meet in the reading passage. Therefore, they need to learn how to figure out the unfamiliar word.

6. Instruction should lead increasingly to independence in reading.

The more a child reads, the more he should be able to read without help. If the teacher gives too much help in every reading activity, the child would dependent to the teacher. Hence, the child needs to have some instructions in word

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recognition techniques and in the basic skills of comprehension so that the child can read independently when the assistance of teacher or friend is not available. 7. Every activity must be related to the whole scheme

All the reading activity that the students have should fit with the aims of reading activity. If the teacher provides the activities that unrelated to the reading lesson, the students will not achieve the goal of reading lesson.

8. Progress through the reading program must be kept under review

The teacher, particularly, if the class is large, will find difficulty to measure the students’ progress in reading lesson. Therefore, in order to see the progress of each student in class, the teacher should keep the detailed records in every meeting of the reading by conducting some form of standardized test.

7. In-school motivators of reading behavior

According to Guszak (1972: 73), traditionally there are several specific motivators, such as:

-Grades (designed to reward or punish ego)

-Promotion or retention (designed to threaten, reward punish) -Symbols (such as gold stars to reward or punish ego)

-Praise and criticism (designed to verbally reward or punish ego)

Teachers should inform the children about how to get the praise, rewards, and symbols in the reading activities. Guszak then states that the children in class

must do the reading activities in competition with other children in class. It will motivate the children to do best in their reading activities (Guszak, 1972: 73).

8. Techniques for fostering motivation

Guszak begins the discussion by emphasizing that most children already have self initiating and directing behaviors going for them. Furthermore he said that it is our task to foster their full development by:

Building positive self-concepts

Assisting realistic goal-setting behaviors Establishing listening sets

Creating self-instructional attitudes Planning tangible rewards reinforcement.

(Guszak 1972: 74)

ƒ Buliding positive self-concepts

Children believe they cannot read. They experience a string of failures in their reading instruction. We can correct much of the damage or prevent it in the following ways:

1. Step 1/ Praise the children efforts and accomplishments generously, and allow the opportunities to delay reinforcement as the child develops. Praise is essential to the development of positive self concept.

2. Step 2/ Avoid criticism that reflects on the personality of the individual. Statements such as “Are you going to be a baby all of your life?”

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3. Step 3/ Criticism can be useful to the child if it focuses on what has to be done and omits negative statements about the children.

ƒ Assisting realistic goal setting

According to Guszak, the affection and praise of teacher will not afford sufficient satisfaction if the child does not get any challenge in the reading task, (Guszak, 1972: 75). Therefore, the teacher should establish realistic short and long term goal in reading activities as it is not an easy to do to predict how quickly children will master certain skills.

Furthermore, according to Guszak, the short realistic goals are those the child can attain in the short period which are guided by the teachers who assist students in checking their progress in short interval. While long term goals in reading are things like finishing given book, learning a list of words, etc, (Guszak, 1972: 75).

ƒ Planning tangible rewards reinforcement

Reinforcement is one of the ways to motivate students in classrooms. However, sometimes praise and approval can not always be carried out in the terms of both frequency and timing. Therefore, teachers should provide real motivators to children. According to Guszak, the real motivators that can be used in class are the use of tangible rewards or gifts.

Tangible rewards consist of two types; they are fixed rewards and occasional rewards (Guszak, 1972: 78). Fixed rewards means the regularly rewards that have value in the sense that they can be clearly seen as the rewards or gifts to specific behaviors, for example candy, toys, food, books, etc. If the

teachers want to use fixed rewards as one of the reinforcements in class, the teachers have to tell the students about the behaviors that the students have to achieve in order to get the reward. So, the students know what they have to do in order to obtain the reward.

Furthermore, fixed rewards also have negative results when the student (1) can not complete the task and subsequently gain the reward, (2) is asked to perform other behaviors without reward, or (3) performs the task and gains the reward, but does not retain the behavior.

Different to fixed rewards, occasional rewards seem to be less meaningful than fixed rewards but more useful and effective to sustain established behaviors. Fixed rewards are more meaningful to students but it can be monotonous for the students whereas the occasional rewards enable the students to maintain his behavior for long periods of time. Besides, it can make the students not easily pleased with what they have achieved

9. Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition

CIRC is a comprehensive program for teaching reading and writing in the upper elementary level and middle grades (Slavin, 1995: 7). In the implementation of CIRC, the students will work in pairs from two or more different reading levels. Besides, in CIRC activities, the students work in their cooperative teams, which are coordinated within with reading groups’ instruction, in order to meet the objectives in such areas as reading comprehension, vocabulary, decoding, and spelling. In CIRC activities, the students also will have some interesting activities

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such as reading to one another, making prediction about how the story will end, summarizing the story, responding to the story orally or in a written form, practicing spelling and vocabulary mastery. Moreover, in teaching reading using CIRC, the students are motivated to work with one another by the use of cooperative reward structure.

Oral reading also becomes a part of CIRC because oral reading or reading out loud has positive effects on the students’ comprehension skills. The oral reading has positive effects because it increases their ability to interpret the text automatically and therefore, focus more on comprehension. One objective of CIRC program is to increase students’ opportunities to read aloud and receive feedback on their reading. Students will get a chance to read aloud in their teammate and the teammates will learn how to give feedback or how to respond to one another’s reading.

a. Objective

In teaching reading using CIRC, the students are expected to achieve the objective. One of the objectives of CIRC is to increase students’ comprehension skills. As Slavin stated that a major objective of CIRC is to help students learn broadly applicable reading comprehension skills in the cooperative teams (Slavin, 1995: 105).

In teaching reading using CIRC, the ways to improve the comprehension skills are by teaching the students summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting skills. Moreover, during the follow up time, the students work in their team to identify five critical features of the story such as characters, setting,

problems, attempted solutions and final solution. Students in CIRC also make the predictions about how the story will end if the story has not finished yet.

b. Program Elements

CIRC consists of three principal elements: basal-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated language arts and writing. In all of these activities, students work in heterogeneous learning teams. All of those activities are followed a regular cycle that involves teacher presentation, team practice, independent practice, peer assessment, additional practices and testing. The major components of CIRC are

1. Reading Groups

In the reading groups the students are assigned to two or three reading groups according to their reading level, as determined by teachers. However, instruction is given to the whole class.

2. Teams

In teams the students are assigned to pairs (or trials) within their reading groups, and then pairs are assigned to teams composed of partnerships from two reading group levels. As example, a team might be composed of two students from the high reading group and two from the low group. Although the students work in team, they will get the point based on their individual performances on all quizzes, compositions and book reports, and these points form a team score. 3. Story-Related Activities

In these activities students use either novels or basal readers. Stories are introduced and discussed in teacher-led reading groups that meet for

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approximately twenty minutes each day. In these groups, teachers set a purpose of reading, introduce new vocabulary, and discuss the story after students have read it, and so on. The story discussions are structured to emphasize such skills as making and supporting predictions and identifying the problem of narrative.

After teachers introduce the story, students are given a story packet, which contains a series of activities for them to do in their teams when they are not working with the teacher in a reading group. The sequence of activities is as follows.

¾ Partner Reading

Students read the story silently and then take turns reading the story aloud with their partner, alternating each paragraph. The other student who becomes the listener will give correction to any errors the reader may make. The teacher assesses students’ performance by circulating and listening in as students read to each other.

¾ Story Grammar and Story-Related Writing

Students are given questions related to each story that emphasize the story grammar- the structure that underlies all narratives. Halfway through the story, they are instructed to stop reading and to identify the characters, the setting and the problem in the story, and to predict how the problem in the story and to predict how the problem will be resolved. At the end of the story students respond to the story as a whole and write paragraphs on topic related to it (for example, they might be asked to write a different ending of the story).

¾ Word Out Loud

Students are given a list of new or difficult words used in the story; they must learn to read these words correctly in any order without hesitating or stumbling. Students practice these word lists with their partner or other teammates until they can read the words smoothly.

¾ Word Meaning

Students are given a list of new or difficult words that are new in their speaking vocabularies and asked them to look up them up in the dictionary.

¾ Story Retell

After reading the story and discussing it in their reading groups, students summarize the main points of the story to their partner.

¾ Spelling

Students evaluate one another on a list of spelling words each week and then over the course of the week students help one another master the list. The students use a “disappearing list” strategy, in which they make new lists of missed words after each assessment until the list disappear. Then they go back to the full list, repeating the process until no words are missed.

4. Partner Checking

As the students complete each of these activities, their partner checks what they have achieved. The teacher gives students expectation as to the number of

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activities to be completed, but they can go at their own rate and complete the activities earlier if they wish, creating additional time for independent reading. 5. Tests

At the end of three class periods, students are given a comprehension test on the story. Students are asked to write meaningful sentences for each vocabulary word and asked to read the word list aloud to the teacher. In the test the students are not allowed to help each other.

6. Direct Instruction in Reading Comprehension

Once a week, the students will receive direct instruction in specific reading comprehension skills, like identifying main ideas, understanding causal relations, and making inferences. The students work on reading comprehension after each lesson. First, the students gain consensus on one set of worksheet items and then assessing one another and discuss the problems that appeared.

7. Integrated Language Arts and Writing

This activity is emphasized on the writing process, and language mechanics skills are introduced as specific aids to writing rather than as separate topics.

8. Independent Reading and Book Reports

Students are asked to read a trade book of their choice for at least twenty minutes every evening. Independent reading and book reports replace all other homework in reading and language arts. The students will get bonus in this activity as the team points.

B. Theoretical Framework

Teaching reading is not an easy thing to do, especially for children. Moyle (1972: 21-25) states that reading is above all to do with the language, because in reading the readers meet all the components of the language such as vocabulary, grammar, and even pronunciation. Moreover, Wallace states that (2003: 4) one of the difficulties which young children may have is the ability to understand what they read, as they still have limited knowledge of English, especially vocabulary mastery. If teachers wish their children to read with understanding, the children need to see a purpose in reading and gain enjoyment from reading from the earliest moment of instruction.

One of the methods in teaching reading for children that might be used to motivate the students in reading lesson is Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC). In this study, the writer would like to implement CIRC through a set of reading instructional materials using CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students. Therefore, CIRC will be the base theory that underlies the study.

Based on Slavin (1995: 7), CIRC is comprehensive program for teaching reading in the upper elementary level and middle grades. In the implementation of CIRC, the students will work in pairs from two or more different reading levels. Besides, in CIRC activities, the students will work in their cooperative teams, which are coordinated within with reading groups’ instruction, in order to meet the objectives in such areas as reading comprehension, vocabulary, decoding, and spelling. Furthermore, in teaching reading using CIRC, the students will have

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interesting activities in their reading group such as reading to one another, making prediction about how the story will end, summarizing the story, responding to the story orally or in a written form, practicing spelling and vocabulary mastery.

In the end of the class the best reading group will obtain reward from the teachers. The competition atmosphere can motivate the students to like reading. Moreover, by teaching and implementing reading materials design using CIRC to the elementary students, hopefully the students’ reading comprehension skills will increase. CIRC might be one of the methods to teach reading to be more interesting.

26 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter in this research discusses: (A) Research Method; (B) Research Participants; (C) Research Instruments; (D) Data Gathering Technique; (E) Data Analysis Technique; (F) Research Procedure.

A. Research Method

The method of this study was qualitative research, which meant that the data would be presented in explanation and description. Sprinthall (1991: 102) defined that a qualitative research methodology as a methodology used to systematically gather data and the data will be purely descriptive. The research would be a qualitative descriptive research. According to Cohen and Manion, the descriptive research is concerned with processes that are going on (Cohen & Manion, 2000: 169). Therefore, qualitative descriptive research was suitable in this research because the researcher wanted to provide detailed description about the implementation of reading materials design using CIRC.

To be exact, this qualitative study was a survey. Survey study is defined as a process of collecting information from a group of people in order to describe some aspects or characteristics (Frankael & Wallen, 1993: 343). This survey study was aimed to find out the implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) method to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School.

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Moreover, the survey in this research was done by teaching and implementing the reading instructional materials design using the Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC), conducting observations and interviews. The researcher would involve or participate in this survey research since in this survey study the researcher would teach and implement the CIRC by herself. Therefore, the researcher asked observer partner to observe the process of the implementation of CIRC. The observer partner would carry out the observation based on the provided observation checklists. Besides, the results of the observations also would be reported in the form of field notes.

B. Research Participants

The subjects of the research were the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School. The fifth grade students were in the semester II during the 2008/2009 academic year. The researcher chose the fifth grade students considering that the Cooperative Integrated Reading Compositions (CIRC) is a comprehensive program for teaching reading in the upper and middle elementary grades (Slavin, 1995). Another reason why the researcher chose the fifth grade students because in this stage the children develop the capacity of productive work, cooperative with others and pride in doing things well (Erikson, 1987: 17). Besides, the researcher chose the fifth grade students as the research participants rather than sixth grade students because the sixth grade students would focus their study for preparing the National Examination.

C. Research Instruments

In conducting this research there were four instruments that would be used to gather the data, namely: observation checklist, field notes, video recording, and interview.

1. Observation Checklist

The first instrument was the observation checklist. Best and Khan defines observation checklist as a list of items which contains of items or categories analyzed (Best and Khan, 1986). Moreover, he states that checklist is used to systemize the observation records. In this research, the observations were chosen in order to see the process of the implementation of reading instructional materials using CIRC. So, the observation checklist was used to find out the answer of the first research question.

Moreover, the researcher prepared the observation checklist to be filled out by the observer partner as the researcher would implement the reading instructional materials design using CIRC by herself. The observation checklist was prepared in order to guarantee that the observer partner would record all the aspects that the researcher wanted to be observed.

The observer partner would observe the process of the implementation of the reading instructional materials design using CIRC for four times. The observer partner did the observation by sitting at the back without causing any distraction to the teaching-learning process.

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Field-notes, according to Moleong (1989: 90) are notes which are used by the observer when someone is observing, interviewing or noticing certain moments. Field notes were used in this research in order to answer the first problem in this research. Moreover, field notes were used to give detail description of what had happened during the implementation of CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students.

Bodgan and Biklen (1985: 85) state that field notes consist of two materials, namely: descriptive and reflective part. In the descriptive part includes the background of the observation, people, action and conversation. The reflective part consists of the observer’s comments, arguments and ideas. Therefore, the researcher would prepare the field notes sheet which was made based on the requirements in making field notes. The field notes would be done by the observer partner to give additional data to answer the first problem in the problem formulation.

3. Video Recording

Video recording, according to Bodgan (1982: 104) is one of the methods to obtain data in qualitative research. Moreover, he states that the visual record taken from video can help the researcher to remember and help manage the data. In this research, the researcher used video recording to provide additional data which would be used to answer the first question listed in the problem formulation. The researcher would take notes based on the visual record of the video in order to give additional data.

4. Interview

In conducting this research, particularly in answering the first and the second problem, the researcher would use the interview as the instrument. The interview was conducted after the researcher implemented one lesson unit. It means that the interview was conducted four times. Before conducting the interview, the researcher explained the aim of the interview to the students who had been chosen as the respondents. The researcher chose five to six students for each interview. In every interview, the students were chosen based on their English proficiency level. Among those five to six students, there were low, medium and high English proficiency levels. The researcher decided to choose the students based on their English proficiency level in order to get rich data.

The interview would be a guided interview. Therefore, the researcher prepared the list of questions to be used in the interviews. The list of the interview questions were attached in appendices.

Furthermore, the interview would be conducted more or less five to ten minutes. The guided interview would be recorded using MP4. Besides, the researcher also took notes during conducting the interviews. The interviews were used to answer the first and the second problem of the study.

D. Data Gathering Technique

In conducting the research, the researcher would implement CIRC using a set of reading instructional materials designed by Santi Dyah Ikasari (Ikasari, 2005). The researcher used the materials in order to provide appropriate reading

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instructional materials using CIRC. In implementing the reading materials design, the researcher wanted to describe the implementation of CIRC. The researcher did not intend to evaluate the materials design. The materials were used as means to find out the answer of the research questions.

The researcher would teach four times by herself. Therefore, the researcher asked a partner to observe the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. The observer partner would observe based on the observation checklists to guarantee that the observer partner would record all the aspects that the researcher wanted to be observed. However, in order to support the data, the observer partner was allowed to add comments for each item in the observation checklists. Besides, the observer partner was allowed to give general comment to the process of implementing reading materials using CIRC.

The second instrument that would be used to gather the data was field notes. The field notes was made by the observer partner to give a description of what had happened during the implementation of reading instructional materials using CIRC. The field notes were made four times as there were four times of implementation. Furthermore, in order to support the data from observation checklist and field notes, the researcher would record the teaching learning process using video recording. Video recording was needed in order to provide additional data to the implementation of CIRC. The researcher realizes that video recording has limitation in providing data so that the researcher would use the video recording as the additional data to support another data gathering technique.

The researcher would watch the video and then would take notes based on what the video captured.

The last instrument which was used to obtain the data was the interview. The interview was used in order to find out the answer of the first and the second research question. The interview was conducted after the researcher implemented one lesson unit. It means that the interview was conducted four times. The researcher conducted interview to the all fifth grade students. There were five to six students for each interview. Furthermore, the researcher used guided interview which would be recorded using MP4.

E. Data Analysis Technique

In this research, the researcher used several steps in analyzing the data. First, the researcher would analyze the instruments that were used to attain the answer of the first research question. Second, the researcher would analyze the instrument which was used to attain the answer of the second research question in this study. In analyzing the instruments that were used to answer the first research question, there were several steps taken. The first process in analyzing the data was the data reduction.

According to Miles and Huberman (1985), they state that in qualitative research the data analysis is done under three activities: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing. Data reduction refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and transforming the data that appears in the field notes or transcription (Patton, 1994: 10). The data reduction was done in the

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following points. First, the results of the field notes were reduced because not all the data in the field notes were necessarily relating to the research. Only the important data which was useful to the research was taken. Second, the comments that were added by the observer partner in the observation checklist also would be selected to enrich the data from the field notes.

Based on Wiersma (1969: 217), the process of data reduction was the part of coding. He states that coding is the process of organizing data and obtaining data reduction. Moreover, he states that coding is the process of deciding on more category systems and then organized the data (Wiersma, 1969: 217). So, after the researcher conducted data reduction, the researcher organized the results of data reduction into some categories.

The categorization process was done in the following points. First, the researcher made the categories of the data. The categories were made based on the principles of CIRC. The categories consisted of: Words Out Loud, related activities, related writing. Words Out Loud coded as (WOL), Story-related activities coded as (SR), Story-Story-related writing coded as (SrW).

After made the categories, the researcher did the coding process to the results of the field notes. Then, the researcher clustered the same code of the data into its category. Then, the researcher would do the same steps for the results of the observer’s comments in the observation checklists. Next, the researcher synthesized the results of the coding process of the field notes and the observation checklist. Then, the researcher presented the data in the form of paragraph.

Before conducting the coding process to the results of the interviews, there were several steps taken. First, the researcher listened to the recording several times. Second, the researcher made the transcripts based on the results of the interviews. Third, the researcher would cluster the results of the interviews which were used to answer the first research question in this study. Fourth, the researcher conducted the data reduction since there would be some unnecessary answers. Fifth, the researcher synthesized the data and then made categorization based on the results of the interviews. Next, the researcher presented the results of the interviews in the form of paragraph.

After the researcher synthesized the results of the observation checklist, field notes and interviews, the researcher watched the results of video recording to see the process of the implementation of CIRC through reading instructional materials design to teach reading to the fifth grade students. Then, the researcher took notes based on the results of video recording to give additional data from field notes and observation checklist.

The next step in analyzing the data was triangulation which was done for instance, by comparing the data from the observation checklist, field notes, interviews, and video recording. According to Patton (2002: 556) triangulation is a technique to combine different data collection method to overcome the bias data that comes from single-methods, single observer, and single instrument.

Since, the researcher used three instruments to answer the first research question in this study, triangulation was chosen as a technique to analyze the data. The researcher would compare and combine the results of the observation

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checklist, field notes and interviews to complement each other. Furthermore, the researcher used one of the types of triangulation which was called as triangulation of qualitative data sources ( Patton 2002: 559) to check out the consistency of information derived at different times and by means different instruments within qualitative methods. Through triangulation, the researcher would check whether there were any differences data between the instruments that were used in this research or not. As the triangulation data within qualitative methods may not lead to a single, totally consistent picture, (Patton, 2002: 560). If there were any differences data, the researcher then would analyze why the differences appear.

After comparing, combining and checking the data consistency through triangulation, the researcher then presented the data in the descriptive form. The result of triangulation presented integrated in the one descriptive illustration in the form of paragraph. In this step, the researcher would conclude the process of implementation CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School.

Then, in order to find the answer of the second research question, the researcher analyzed the results of the interviews. The researcher would cluster the answers of the interviews which were used to answer the second problem. Then, the researcher synthesized the data and made categorization based on the results of the interviews. The last step was presenting the results of the interviews in the form of paragraph.

F. Research Procedure

There were several procedures in attaining the objective of the research. The researcher would conduct class observation before implementing CIRC in order to know the students’ characteristics. Then, the researcher would implement CIRC using a set of reading instructional materials design to see how CIRC was implemented. In implementing the reading materials design, the researcher wanted to describe the implementation of CIRC. The researcher did not intend to evaluate the materials design. The materials design was used as means to find out the answer of the research questions.

The researcher would implement CIRC by herself. Therefore, the researcher asked a partner to observe the implementation of CIRC based on the provided observation checklist. The observation was conducted four times as the researcher would teach reading using CIRC four times. Moreover, in the observations, the observer partner would make field notes based on what had happened during the implementation of reading instructional materials. The implementation processes were recorded using video camera to answer and give additional data to the first research question listed in problem formulation.

In order to obtain the answer of the second research question, the researcher conducted interviews to twenty two fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school. The interview was conducted after the researcher implemented one lesson unit. There were five to six students for each interview. The interview was conducted after the researcher implemented one lesson unit. It means that the interview was conducted four times.

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After obtaining the data, the researcher employed three steps of data analysis technique. They were data reduction, coding and triangulation. The first step was data reduction. The researcher conducted data reduction for the results of the field notes and observation checklist. Then, the researcher conducted coding process to the results of the field notes and observation checklist by giving categories based on CIRC principles. Next, the researcher clustered the same code into its category. Then, the researcher would employ the same process to results of the interviews. However, there were several steps taken before conducting data reduction and coding to the results of the interviews. First, the researcher listened to the results of the interviews several times. Second, the researcher made the transcripts of the interviews. Third, the researcher clustered the results of the interviews which were used to answer the first and second research question in this study.

Then, the researcher watched the results of video recording to give additional data to see the process of the implementation of CIRC. Next, the researcher used triangulation as the technique to analyze the data which gathered through observation checklists, field notes, and interviews. Then, the researcher would combine and compare and check the data consistency from those three instruments. The result of triangulation presented integrated in the one descriptive illustration in the form of paragraph. In this step, the researcher concluded the process of the implementation of CIRC.

Then, the researcher would analyze the results of the interviews which were used to answer the second research question. The researcher clustered the

results of the interviews which were used to answer the second research question. Then, the researcher presented the results of the interviews in the form of paragraph to find out the factors that influenced the implementation of reading instructional materials using CIRC.

39 CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents detailed information about the results gathered in this study. The data were obtained from observations and interviews with twenty one students. This chapter will be divided into two main parts. The first part is the research findings and discussions used to answer the first problem on how CIRC is implemented to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan

elementary school. The second part is the research findings and discussions used to answer the second problem on the factors that influence the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC.

A. CIRC Implementation in Teaching Reading to the Fifth Grade Students of

KanisiusKintelan Elementary School

In order to find out the implementation of CIRC, the researcher conducted observation and interview. The observation was conducted four times as the researcher implemented four lesson units. It was done on 7, 14, 20 and 28 May 2009. The observations were helped by the observer partner because the researcher implemented CIRC by herself. The observer partner helped the researcher to see the process of the implementation of reading instructional materials using CIRC. While, the interview was conducted four times after the researcher implemented one lesson unit.

This part would be divided into two parts. The first part was the research findings and the second part was the discussions on the implementation of teaching reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School.

1. Research Findings

In doing the observations, the researcher prepared the observation checklists and field notes to be filled out by the observer partner. Checklists were used to see the existence of CIRC principles in the learning activities. While, the field notes were used to note all the things happening in the process of the implementation of CIRC.

Based on the results of the observation checklist and field notes, the researcher could define the steps of the implementation of CIRC. The researcher implemented CIRC by:

1. Teaching reading to the fifth grade students using set of reading instructional materials design using CIRC.

Before teaching reading using CIRC method through a set of reading instructional materials design, the researcher divided the students into four groups. Each group consisted of four to five students. The teacher also told the students that they would work in the same group in the four times implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. The teacher also informed that the teacher would choose the best group for each meeting and the best group would get rewards.

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2. Implementing three principles of CIRC. The researcher classified five parts of the reading instructional materials design into three principles of CIRC. The principles were story-related activities, story-related writing and words out loud principles. Further explanation of the implementation of the three CIRC principles would be discussed as follows.

a. Story-Related Activities

In the implementation of story-related activities principle, there were three parts of lesson unit materials that could be categorized into story-related activities principle. They were, let’s get started, let’s get serious and let’s cool down part.

Based on the result of four observations on the implementation of reading instructional materials using CIRC, the result showed that most of the learning activities of the story-related activities principle existed in class. It could be seen from the checklists that almost all of the learning activities were done in class (see the appendices page 84-91). There were only two learning activities in lesson unit three that could not be carried out in class. The results of the implementation of story related activities principle would be discussed as follows:

ƒ Lesson Unit One

To start the class, the teacher used different ways to focus the students’ attention to the theme or topic of the lesson. Moreover, the teacher used the lesson plans as the guideline.

In the lesson unit one, the teacher used questions to prepare the students to be ready before coming to reading text. The questions were asked based on the related topic. The lesson unit one topic was about family.

Teacher : How many members are there in your family? Student : Four

Teacher : Do you have brothers or sisters? Student : I have one sister.

When the teacher asked the questions above to the students, some students still found it difficult to answer the questions in English. The students answered the teacher’s questions in Indonesia. However, there were also some students who were able to answer the questions well.

After the teacher asked the questions about family to the students, the teacher asked the students to do the activity of let’s get started. The students were asked to complete the sentences based on the picture of family tree. The students had to do the first task individually. In this activity some students still found it difficult to understand the questions. Therefore, the teacher helped the students to understand the questions by translating the questions together with the students. Then, after the students finished doing the task, they discussed the answers with the teacher.

Next, the students did the tasks in the let’s get serious part. In this part, the students had to do the tasks in group. They were divided into four groups. There were five to six members in each group. The members of the groups were chosen by the teacher considering their English proficiency level. Every group consisted

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of students of high, middle and low English proficiency levels. Moreover, the students had to work in the same group in the four times implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. Based on the results of observation checklists, it could be seen that there were several learning activities of story-related activities principle that could not be done in lesson unit three (see the appendices page 89).

In lesson unit one, all the items in the observation checklists existed. After the students had been divided into four groups, they had to do the first activity of

let’s get serious part in group. The students worked in group and read three short reading texts about family members, and then they had to write down the end of the stories by choosing one of the pictures. In doing this activity, two groups could cooperate well with the other group members. However, the members in the other two groups did not want to cooperate with the members in the group. Some of them were too busy with themselves and some of them did the task individually. Some of the students were very busy because they did not want to do the task. They found it difficult to comprehend the text. On the contrary, some of the students did the task individually because they did not want to cooperate with the other members in their group.

Furthermore, the students found difficulties to comprehend the text because of their vocabulary limitation so that they could not understand the reading texts well. Moreover, the students found difficulties to understand the reading texts because the teacher did not discuss the text with the students before they did the task.

xii ABSTRACT

Widiasih, Wahyu. 2009. The Implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) Through a Set of Reading Instructional Materials to Teach Reading to the Fifth Grade Students of Elementary School. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Teaching reading to the elementary students is not an easy thing to do as they have to be able to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret the information appropriately (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9). Moreover, the elementary students also have short attention span in following the lesson. Thus, the elementary students need interesting reading activities that could motivate them to follow the lesson. If they feel enjoy in reading, it will help them to achieve better result. The Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) is one of the methods that can be used to teach reading to be more interesting. In teaching reading using CIRC, the students will work in the groups to do interesting activities such as reading to one another, making prediction about how the story will end, responding to the story orally or in a written form, practicing spelling and vocabulary mastery (Slavin, 1995: 105).

In this research, the researcher would implement CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school Yogyakarta. In implementing CIRC method, the researcher would use a set of reading instructional materials design using CIRC, which is designed by Santi Dyah Ikasari, 2005. The researcher used the materials design in order to provide suitable materials with the implementation of CIRC. In this study, the researcher would focus the research to describe the process of the implementation of CIRC. Therefore, the researcher did not intend to evaluate the materials design.

This research was intended to answer two research questions, they are: 1. How is CIRC implemented in teaching reading for the fifth grade

students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School Yogyakarta? 2. What are the factors that influence the implementation of teaching

reading using CIRC?

To conduct this research, the researcher used survey as a method to gather data. In order to answer the research’s questions, the researcher used several instruments, they were: observation checklist, field notes, video recording and interview. Those four instruments were used in order to find out how CIRC is implemented. While, in order to find out the factors that influenced the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC, the researcher conducted interviews to twenty two fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school Yogyakarta.

After conducting the research, the researcher found the research questions’ answer. First, there were several steps to implement CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school. The researcher implemented CIRC by:

1. Teaching reading to the fifth grade students using set of reading instructional materials design using CIRC.

Before teaching reading using CIRC, the researcher divided the students into four groups. The students would work in the same group to do the reading activities in the four times implementation of CIRC.

2. Implementing three principles of CIRC. The researcher classified five parts of the reading instructional materials design into three principles of CIRC. The principles were story-related activities, story-related writing and words out loud principles.

Second, it was found that there were inhibiting and supporting factors influencing the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. There were three inhibiting factors in the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. They were the reading text, students’ vocabulary limitation and students’ performance in group. While, there were two supporting factors in the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC. They were the students’ interest and the students’ motivation. The inhibiting factors gave big influence so that the implementation of CIRC could not obtain optimum result.

In summary, the implementation of CIRC could work to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan elementary school. However, it could achieve optimum result if the teacher considers some aspects in teaching reading using CIRC. Some suggestions about the implementation of CIRC to improve the implementation of teaching reading using CIRC to elementary students were presented.

Key Words: reading, CIRC, implementation, story-related activities, story related writing, words out loud principle.

xiv ABSTRAK

Widiasih, Wahyu. 2009. The Implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) Through a Set of Reading Instructional Materials to Teach Reading for the Fifth Grade Students of Elementary School. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Mengajar reading bagi siswa sekolah dasar bukanlah hal yang mudah, karena mereka harus mampu menarik kesimpulan dari teks bacaan dan menafsirkan informasi yang terkandung di dalamnya dengan benar (Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9). Selain itu, para siswa juga mempunyai daya konsentrasi yang rendah ketika mengikuti pelajaran. Oleh karena itu, para siswa membutuhkan aktivitas membaca yang menarik untuk dapat memotivasi mereka dalam mengikuti pelajaran. Jika mereka merasa senang dalam aktivitas membaca, maka hal itu dapat membantu mereka untuk mencapai hasil yang lebih baik. Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) adalah salah satu metode yang dapat digunakan untuk mengajar reading menjadi lebih menarik. Dalam mengajar reading dengan menggunakan CIRC, para siswa bekerja dalam kelompok-kelompok untuk melakukan aktivitas yang menarik seperti membacakan teks bacaan dari seorang kepada yang lainnya, membuat prediksi tentang bagaimana suatu cerita akan berakhir, menanggapi cerita secara lisan atau tertulis, melatih ejaan dan penguasaan kosa kata (Slavin, 1995: 105).

Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menerapkan metode CIRC untuk mengajar reading kepada siswa kelas V sekolah dasar Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta. Dalam penerapan metode CIRC, peneliti menggunakan desain materi instruksi membaca dengan menggunakan metode CIRC yang dibuat oleh Santi Dyah Ikasari, 2005. Peneliti menggunakan desain materi untuk memberikan materi yang sesuai dengan penerapan CIRC. Dalam studi ini, peneliti memfokuskan penelitian untuk mendeskripsikan proses penerapan CIRC. Oleh karena itu, peneliti tidak bermaksud untuk mengevaluasi desain materi yang digunakan.

Ada dua pertanyaan penelitian dalam penelitian ini yaitu:

1. Bagaimana metode CIRC diterapkan dalam pengajaran reading bagi siswa kelas V SD Kanisius Kintelan?

2. Faktor-faktor apakah yang mempengaruhi penerapan pengajaran reading dengan menggunakan metode CIRC?

Dalam melaksanakan penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan metode menggunakan metode survei. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan beberapa instrumen yaitu checklist observasi, catatan lapangan, rekaman video dan wawancara. Keempat instrumen tersebut digunakan untuk mengetahui bagaimana metode CIRC diterapkan. Peneliti juga menggunakan instrumen wawancara untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penerapan pengajaran reading dengan menggunakan metode CIRC. Wawancara dilakukan terhadap 22 siswa kelas V SD Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta.

Setelah melakukan penelitian, peneliti menemukan jawaban dari permasalahan penelitian. Pertama, terdapat beberapa langkah dalam penerapan metode CIRC untuk mengajar reading kepada siswa kelas V sekolah dasar Kanisius Kintelan. Peneliti menerapkan metode CIRC dengan cara:

1. Mengajar reading kepada siswa kelas V menggunakan desain materi instruksi membaca menggunakan dengan metode CIRC. Sebelum mengajarkan reading menggunakan metode CIRC, peneliti membagi para siswa ke dalam empat kelompok. Para siswa bekerja dalam kelompok yang sama untuk mengerjakan aktivitas membaca dalam empat kali penerapan metode CIRC.

2. Menerapkan tiga prinsip dari CIRC. Dalam hal ini peneliti mengelompokkan lima bagian dalam desain materi membaca ke dalam tiga prinsip CIRC. Prinsip-prinsip tersebut adalah story-related activities, story-related writing and words out loud.

Kedua, dalam penelitian ini ditemukan faktor-faktor penghambat dan pendukung yang mempengaruhi penerapan pengajaran reading dengan metode CIRC. Ada tiga faktor penghambat penerapan pengajaran reading dengan metode CIRC, yaitu teks bacaan, keterbatasan penguasaan kosa kata dan kinerja siswa dalam kelompok. Faktor pendukung penerapan metode CIRC adalah minat siswa dan motivasi siswa. Dalam penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa faktor-faktor penghambat lebih dominan sehingga penerapan metode CIRC kurang mencapai hasil yang optimal.

Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa pada dasarnya penerapan pengajaran reading dengan menggunakan CIRC dapat digunakan untuk mengajar reading untuk siswa kelas V SD Kanisius Kintelan. Akan tetapi, penerapan mengajar reading menggunakan metode CIRC akan mencapi hasil yang optimal jika guru memperhatikan beberapa aspek dalam mengajar reading menggunkan metode CIRC. Peneliti menyertakan juga beberapa saran untuk meningkatkan penerapan pengajaran reading dengan metode CIRC pada siswa sekolah dasar.

Kata Kunci: reading, CIRC, penerapan, story-related activities, story-related writing, words out loud principle.