TEACHERS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT READING COMPREHENSION AS IMPLEMENTED IN THE CLASSROOM.
TEACHER’S KNOWLEDGE ABOUT READING
COMPREHENSION AS IMPLEMENTED
IN THE CLASSROOM
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
YANTI FLORIDA SITORUS
NIM. 2103121052
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, the writer would like to express her deepest gratitude to Jesus
Christ, for His uncountable blessing, love, opportunity and strength given to the
writer during her study and in completing this thesis which entitled: Teacher’s
Knowledge about Reading Comprehension as Implemented in the Classroom.
This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana
Pendidikan of the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan (UNIMED).
In completing this thesis, the writer realized that she faced some problems
and she had received the academic guidance, suggestions, and comments and got
a lot of assistance and moral support from many people. Therefore, the writer
would like to express her gratitude and special thanks to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts,
State University of Medan.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Dra.
Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S,
M.um., as the Head of English Education Study Program.
Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd., her Thesis Consultant who has given his
great supervision and spent his precious time in guiding, commenting,
suggesting, inspiring, and giving valuable insights in the process of
completing this thesis.
Drs. Muhammad Natsir, M.Hum., herAcademic Advisor,who has
supported herthroughout the academic years.
All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided, and
advised her throughout the academic years.
Normawaty Sitorus, Jekson Sitorus, Herti Royani Sitorus, Eva
Hermawaty Sitorus, May Enni Sitorus and Renta Sitorus, her beloved
ii
sisters and brother for their endless love, advice, motivation and support both
mentally and financially to the writer during her study.
Her brothers and sisters in Christ who have prayed endlessly for the writer
during the process of completing this thesis, especially Dahlia Roma Uli,
Rika Gultom, Henry Panjaitan, Ani Situngkir, Muliani, Risma Sinaga,
Basril Tarigan, Elin Lumbantoruan, Boy Sianturi, Andri, Velin,
Marconi, Yunita and Monica.
Herbestfriends in Reguler Dik. C’ 2010,her great class for the love and
togetherness throughout four years, especially Rut Emi Febriyani, Indah
Cris Rama, Batsyeba Silaen, Maya Sari Sipahutar and Elsa Ernawaty
Nainggolanand for those whose names cannot be mentioned, yet have
inspired and encouraged the writer during the process of writing this thesis.
Her bestfriends in PPLT SMA Panca Jaya Galang for many great
experiences and togetherness.
Medan, July 2015
The writer,
Yanti Florida Sitorus
Reg. No. 2103121052
iii
ABSTRACT
Sitorus, Yanti Florida. 2103121052. Teacher’s Knowledge about Reading
Comprehension as Implemented in the Classroom. A Thesis. Faculty of
Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2015
This study was conducted to investigate the knowledge of English teachers in
teaching reading comprehension and the teachers’ teaching practices in the
classroom. The objectives were achieved by employing the descriptive qualitative
research. The data were collected through in-depth interview and classroom
observation. The data were analyzed by the data analysis technique of Miles and
Huberman. The result shows that the teachers misperceived the teaching reading
comprehension and the teachers implemented their knowledge of teaching reading
comprehension in their teaching practices in the classroom.
Key words: Reading comprehension, Knowledge, Practices
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................
LIST OF APPENDICES................................................................................
Pages
i
ii
iv
vi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION .............................................................
A. The Background of the Study ........................................
B. The Problem of the Study ..............................................
C. The Scope of the Study ..................................................
D. The Objective of the Study ............................................
E. The Significance of the Study ........................................
1
1
3
4
4
4
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...........................................
A. Theoretical Framework ..................................................
1. Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching Reading
Comprehension .........................................................
2. Reading Comprehension ............................................
a. The Nature of Reading Comprehension ................
b. Reading Comprehension Process ..........................
c. Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension ..........
1) Schemata ...........................................................
2) The Purpose of Reading....................................
3) Reading Comprehension Strategy ....................
4) Vocabulary ........................................................
B. Conceptual Framework ..................................................
5
5
5
6
6
7
10
10
12
15
21
23
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ...................................................
A. Research Design .............................................................
B. Subject of the Study ........................................................
C. Technique of Data Collection .........................................
1. Observation ................................................................
2. Interview .....................................................................
D. Technique of Data Analysis ............................................
25
25
25
25
26
26
26
CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS .............................
A. Types of Teacher’s Knowledge of the Nature of Reading
Comprehension as Realized in the Classroom
Implementation ...............................................................
1. Superficially Function Based Knowledge .................
2. Partial and Incorrect Based Knowledge .....................
3. Schemata Based Knowledge ......................................
B. The Realization of Teachers’ Knowledge of the Nature
of Reading Comprehension in the Classroom
28
iv
28
28
31
33
Implementation ...............................................................
1. Superficially Function Based Knowledge .................
2. Partial and Incorrect Based Knowledge .....................
3. Schemata Based Knowledge ......................................
C. Research Findings ...........................................................
D. Discussion .......................................................................
CHAPTER V
36
36
39
40
43
44
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ........................... 47
A. Conclusion ..................................................................... 47
B. Suggestions .................................................................... 47
REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 48
APPENDICES ................................................................................................ 52
v
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. Interview Transcript ............................................................. 50
APPENDIX B. Observation Transcript ........................................................ 65
APPENDIX C. Matrix Analysis for Interview Transcript ............................ 90
APPENDIX D. Matrix Analysis for Observation Transcript ........................ 102
vi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Reading is one of the skills of language that has an essential role for
students. Students can obtain knowledge by reading from various sources. A
student’s success at school and throughout life depends largely on the ability to
read and understanding of texts. Reading is an essential skill for students, as the
development of good reading abilities will greatly help them progress in the
development of their academic areas.
Reading is essential to success in the complex world of today and
tomorrow. Nowadays is the global era. The ability to read is highly valued and it
is important for personal, social, and economic well-being. By reading, students
expose themselves with new things, new information, new ways to solve a
problem, and new ways to achieve one thingbecause exploration begins with
reading and understanding. Through reading, students also begin to have a greater
understanding on a topic that interest them; for example, how to build
self confidence, how to make plan better before taking action, how to memorize
things better and more. All of these self improvements start from the reading.
Reading also increases the understanding of the rules of life, in order for
students to adapt, adopt and accommodate into the society better. When students
are reading, they are actually gaining the knowledge and experience of someone.
It can hasten their success towards a goal.Through reading, students also build a
more solid foundation for communication. It is one of the most important tools
1
2
that human beings use every day to connect with each other. Whereas if they don’t
read; they can’t even connect with the world and what people are talking about
out there. Reading connects students with the world.
Reading skills are not innate capacities of human being .Therefore to read
effectively students must learn how to read using appropriate strategies.Reading is
not only the process of decoding the words. Reading requires comprehension or
understanding of the text. Comprehension is a part of the communication process
of getting the thoughts that are in the author’s mind into the readers’ mind.
Without comprehension, reading is simply following words on a page from left to
right while sounding them out. Therefore, reading comprehension has involved
understanding what is being read, since the main objective of reading
comprehension is to gain some understanding of what the writer is trying to
convey and utilize that information.
Although reading comprehension is very important to be mastered, there
are many students who have difficulty in comprehending the texts. This is known
from the persistent underachievement of Indonesian students in the area of reading
comprehension that has been documented in numerous high profile reports such as
PIRL (Progress in international reading literacy) and PISA (Program for
International Assessment). The data that have been observed and showed in
International Student Achievement in Reading shows that the reading score of
Indonesian students as reported by PIRL (Progress in international reading
literacy, 2006) was very low. Indonesia got the fourth lowest rank from 45
countries. Furthermore, the worse result is also shown in the research which
3
wasdone by PISA (Program for International Assessment, 2013); the reading
score of Indonesian students was the second lowest rank. Indonesia was ranked at
64 from 65 countries. The average scores for Indonesian students for reading were
396.
Considering the condition above, we have to take a look at the many
factors that influence the students’ achievement in reading comprehension. One of
the crucial factors that influence the achievement of the students is the role of the
teachers. Teachers play a very important role in determining the successful of
students in reading comprehension. This also emphasizes by the report of the
International Reading Association (2000) that states that it is the teacher’s
knowledge that makes a difference in students’ achievement.The persistent
underachievement of Indonesian students in the area of reading comprehension is
influenced by the teachers. The way teachers teach reading comprehension is
based on the knowledge of the teachers of reading comprehension itself.
Therefore, the writer is interested in investigating the knowledge of teachers about
teaching
reading
comprehension
as
implemented
during
the
reading
comprehension classroom implementation.
B. The Problem of the Study
In line with the background of the study research problems were
formulated as follows:
1. What knowledge do teachers have about teaching reading comprehension?
4
2. What reading comprehension strategies doteachers implement during the
reading comprehension classroom implementation?
C. The Scope of the Study
This study was limited to the investigation of the types of the teacher’s
knowledge of teaching reading comprehension during the reading comprehension
classroom implementation. The teachers were three English teachers of two
schools in Tanjung Morawa and Galang who taught 10th and 12th grade students.
D. The Objective of the Study
Parallel with the research problem, the objective of the study was to
investigate the knowledge of teachers in the area of teaching reading
comprehension.
E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful for English teachers as
the teachers can improve their understanding of teaching reading comprehension.
This study will also expose to the teachers that the knowledge of teaching reading
comprehension influences the teaching of reading comprehension as well as
development of the reading competences and comprehension among students.
Thus, this study will increase the awareness of teachers of how important it is to
have a good understanding of teaching reading comprehension.
REFERENCES
Alderson, C. J. (2000). The Nature of Reading.Assessing Reading. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press [Available at http://ebooks.cambridge.org/]
[Viewed on April 8th 2014]
Anang, J. A. (1982). What is Reading? A Social Theory of Comprehension
Instruction. Michigan: The Institute for Research on Teaching
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., &Kucan, L. (2002).Bringing words to life: Robust
vocabulary instruction.New York: Guilford Press.
Becker, H. (2001).Teaching ESL K-12: Views from the Classroom.Canada:
Heinle&Heinle
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on
what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language
Teaching, 36, 81–109.
Burke, K., & Dunn, R. (2003). Learning style based teaching to raise minority
student test scores. Social Studies, 94(4), 167–170.
Crawley, S. J and Merrit, K. (1996).Remediating Reading Difficulties,3rded. The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Creswell.(2007). Educational Research.New Jersey : Upper Saddle River
Davis, M. M., & Wilson, E. K. (1999).A Title 1 teacher’s beliefs, decisionmaking, and instruction at the third and seventh grade levels.Reading
Research and Instruction, 38(4), 290–299.
Dornyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and Researching Motivation.England: Pearson
Education Limited
Duff, P. (2008).Case study research in applied linguistics. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Duke, K. N and Pearson, D. P. (2002).Effective Practices for Reading
Comprehension.International Reading Association (IRA).
Edge, J. (1993).Essentials of English Language Teaching: Longman Keys to
Language teaching. New York: Longman Publishing
48
49
Florence, A. (2013). Teaching Reading Comprehension in Primary Classrooms: A
Case Study of Teachers’ Instructional Practices to teaching Reading
Comprehension to Primary Three Classrooms in Uganda.Master’s
Thesis.Universitetet I Oslo
Grabe, W and Stoller, F. L. (2002).Teaching and Researching Reading. London:
Person Education
Graves, M. (2000).A vocabulary program to complement and bolster a middlegrade comprehension program. In B. M. Taylor, M. F. Graves, & P. van
den Broek (Eds.).,Readingfor meaning: Fostering comprehension in the
middle grades (pp. 116–135). Newark, DE: International Reading
Association
Harste, J. C., & Burke, C. L. (1977). A new hypothesis for reading teacher
research: Both the teaching and learning of reading is theoretically based.
In P. D. Pearson (Ed.), Reading: Theory, research and practice (pp. 32–
40). Clemson, S.C.: National Reading Conference
Henderson, E.C and Henderson, T. L. (1965).Learning to Read and Write. New
York: Holt, Rinehart &Winston, Inc
IRA (International Reading Association), (2000).Prepared to Make a Difference:
An Executive Summary of the National Commission on Excellence in
Elementary Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction. Newark, DE:
IRA.
IRA, (2007).Teaching reading well: A synthesis of the International Reading
Association's research on teacher preparation for reading instruction.
Newark, DE: IRA.
McKeown, M. G., Beck, I. L., & Blake, R.G.K. (2009). Rethinking reading
comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies
and content approaches. Reading Research Quarterly
McLaughlin, M. (2012).Reading Comprehension: What Every Teacher Needs
toKnow.Vol.65,pp.432-440 [Available
athttp://www.learner.org/workshops/teachreading35/pdf/teachers_know_
comprehension.pdf] [Viewed on April 8th2014)
Miles, Matthew and Michael Huberman.Qualitative Data Analysis.Arizona State
University: Sage.
Moore, W. D. [n.d.].Why Vocabulary Instruction Matters [Available at
http://ngl.cengage.com/assets/downloads/edge_pro0000000030/am_moor
e_why_vocab_instr_mtrs.pdf] [Viewed on September 3rd 2014)
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Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed
school English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 304–330.
National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based
assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its
implications for reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institutes
ofHealth.
Palincsar, A. and Brown, A. (1984).Reciprocal teaching of comprehension
fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities.
Pardo, L. S. (2004). What Every Teacher Needs to Know about Comprehension.
Vol.58, pp.273-280
Pisa 2012 results: Which Country Does Best at Reading, Math and Science?
[Available http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/03/pisaresults-country-best-reading-maths-science] [Accessed on May, 12th
2014]
Rosenblatt, L.R. (1978). The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional
Theory of The Literary Work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press.
Rumelhart, D.E. (1980). Schemata: Building Blocks of Cognition. R. Spiro, B.
Bruce and W. Brewer (eds.), Theoretical issues in Reading
Comprehension. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Scarcella, R. C and Oxford, R. I. (1992).The Tapestry of Language Learning: The
Individual in the Communicative Classroom. USA: Heinle&Heinle
Publishers
Schumn, S. J. (2006).Reading Assessment and Instruction for All Learners. New
York: The Guilford Press
Schwartz, R., & Raphael, T. (1985).Concept of definition: A key to improving
students’ vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 39(2), 198–205
Snow, C.E.,Burns, M., &Griffin,P. (Eds) (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in
young children.Report of the national Committee on the prevention of
reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press.
Snow, C.E. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an R&D program in
reading comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
51
Sousa, D. A. (2005).How the Brain Learns to Read. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press
Trehearne and Doctorow, (2006).Reading Comprehension: Strategies that Work.
COMPREHENSION AS IMPLEMENTED
IN THE CLASSROOM
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
YANTI FLORIDA SITORUS
NIM. 2103121052
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, the writer would like to express her deepest gratitude to Jesus
Christ, for His uncountable blessing, love, opportunity and strength given to the
writer during her study and in completing this thesis which entitled: Teacher’s
Knowledge about Reading Comprehension as Implemented in the Classroom.
This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana
Pendidikan of the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan (UNIMED).
In completing this thesis, the writer realized that she faced some problems
and she had received the academic guidance, suggestions, and comments and got
a lot of assistance and moral support from many people. Therefore, the writer
would like to express her gratitude and special thanks to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts,
State University of Medan.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Dra.
Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S,
M.um., as the Head of English Education Study Program.
Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd., her Thesis Consultant who has given his
great supervision and spent his precious time in guiding, commenting,
suggesting, inspiring, and giving valuable insights in the process of
completing this thesis.
Drs. Muhammad Natsir, M.Hum., herAcademic Advisor,who has
supported herthroughout the academic years.
All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided, and
advised her throughout the academic years.
Normawaty Sitorus, Jekson Sitorus, Herti Royani Sitorus, Eva
Hermawaty Sitorus, May Enni Sitorus and Renta Sitorus, her beloved
ii
sisters and brother for their endless love, advice, motivation and support both
mentally and financially to the writer during her study.
Her brothers and sisters in Christ who have prayed endlessly for the writer
during the process of completing this thesis, especially Dahlia Roma Uli,
Rika Gultom, Henry Panjaitan, Ani Situngkir, Muliani, Risma Sinaga,
Basril Tarigan, Elin Lumbantoruan, Boy Sianturi, Andri, Velin,
Marconi, Yunita and Monica.
Herbestfriends in Reguler Dik. C’ 2010,her great class for the love and
togetherness throughout four years, especially Rut Emi Febriyani, Indah
Cris Rama, Batsyeba Silaen, Maya Sari Sipahutar and Elsa Ernawaty
Nainggolanand for those whose names cannot be mentioned, yet have
inspired and encouraged the writer during the process of writing this thesis.
Her bestfriends in PPLT SMA Panca Jaya Galang for many great
experiences and togetherness.
Medan, July 2015
The writer,
Yanti Florida Sitorus
Reg. No. 2103121052
iii
ABSTRACT
Sitorus, Yanti Florida. 2103121052. Teacher’s Knowledge about Reading
Comprehension as Implemented in the Classroom. A Thesis. Faculty of
Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2015
This study was conducted to investigate the knowledge of English teachers in
teaching reading comprehension and the teachers’ teaching practices in the
classroom. The objectives were achieved by employing the descriptive qualitative
research. The data were collected through in-depth interview and classroom
observation. The data were analyzed by the data analysis technique of Miles and
Huberman. The result shows that the teachers misperceived the teaching reading
comprehension and the teachers implemented their knowledge of teaching reading
comprehension in their teaching practices in the classroom.
Key words: Reading comprehension, Knowledge, Practices
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................
LIST OF APPENDICES................................................................................
Pages
i
ii
iv
vi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION .............................................................
A. The Background of the Study ........................................
B. The Problem of the Study ..............................................
C. The Scope of the Study ..................................................
D. The Objective of the Study ............................................
E. The Significance of the Study ........................................
1
1
3
4
4
4
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...........................................
A. Theoretical Framework ..................................................
1. Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching Reading
Comprehension .........................................................
2. Reading Comprehension ............................................
a. The Nature of Reading Comprehension ................
b. Reading Comprehension Process ..........................
c. Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension ..........
1) Schemata ...........................................................
2) The Purpose of Reading....................................
3) Reading Comprehension Strategy ....................
4) Vocabulary ........................................................
B. Conceptual Framework ..................................................
5
5
5
6
6
7
10
10
12
15
21
23
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ...................................................
A. Research Design .............................................................
B. Subject of the Study ........................................................
C. Technique of Data Collection .........................................
1. Observation ................................................................
2. Interview .....................................................................
D. Technique of Data Analysis ............................................
25
25
25
25
26
26
26
CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS .............................
A. Types of Teacher’s Knowledge of the Nature of Reading
Comprehension as Realized in the Classroom
Implementation ...............................................................
1. Superficially Function Based Knowledge .................
2. Partial and Incorrect Based Knowledge .....................
3. Schemata Based Knowledge ......................................
B. The Realization of Teachers’ Knowledge of the Nature
of Reading Comprehension in the Classroom
28
iv
28
28
31
33
Implementation ...............................................................
1. Superficially Function Based Knowledge .................
2. Partial and Incorrect Based Knowledge .....................
3. Schemata Based Knowledge ......................................
C. Research Findings ...........................................................
D. Discussion .......................................................................
CHAPTER V
36
36
39
40
43
44
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ........................... 47
A. Conclusion ..................................................................... 47
B. Suggestions .................................................................... 47
REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 48
APPENDICES ................................................................................................ 52
v
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. Interview Transcript ............................................................. 50
APPENDIX B. Observation Transcript ........................................................ 65
APPENDIX C. Matrix Analysis for Interview Transcript ............................ 90
APPENDIX D. Matrix Analysis for Observation Transcript ........................ 102
vi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Reading is one of the skills of language that has an essential role for
students. Students can obtain knowledge by reading from various sources. A
student’s success at school and throughout life depends largely on the ability to
read and understanding of texts. Reading is an essential skill for students, as the
development of good reading abilities will greatly help them progress in the
development of their academic areas.
Reading is essential to success in the complex world of today and
tomorrow. Nowadays is the global era. The ability to read is highly valued and it
is important for personal, social, and economic well-being. By reading, students
expose themselves with new things, new information, new ways to solve a
problem, and new ways to achieve one thingbecause exploration begins with
reading and understanding. Through reading, students also begin to have a greater
understanding on a topic that interest them; for example, how to build
self confidence, how to make plan better before taking action, how to memorize
things better and more. All of these self improvements start from the reading.
Reading also increases the understanding of the rules of life, in order for
students to adapt, adopt and accommodate into the society better. When students
are reading, they are actually gaining the knowledge and experience of someone.
It can hasten their success towards a goal.Through reading, students also build a
more solid foundation for communication. It is one of the most important tools
1
2
that human beings use every day to connect with each other. Whereas if they don’t
read; they can’t even connect with the world and what people are talking about
out there. Reading connects students with the world.
Reading skills are not innate capacities of human being .Therefore to read
effectively students must learn how to read using appropriate strategies.Reading is
not only the process of decoding the words. Reading requires comprehension or
understanding of the text. Comprehension is a part of the communication process
of getting the thoughts that are in the author’s mind into the readers’ mind.
Without comprehension, reading is simply following words on a page from left to
right while sounding them out. Therefore, reading comprehension has involved
understanding what is being read, since the main objective of reading
comprehension is to gain some understanding of what the writer is trying to
convey and utilize that information.
Although reading comprehension is very important to be mastered, there
are many students who have difficulty in comprehending the texts. This is known
from the persistent underachievement of Indonesian students in the area of reading
comprehension that has been documented in numerous high profile reports such as
PIRL (Progress in international reading literacy) and PISA (Program for
International Assessment). The data that have been observed and showed in
International Student Achievement in Reading shows that the reading score of
Indonesian students as reported by PIRL (Progress in international reading
literacy, 2006) was very low. Indonesia got the fourth lowest rank from 45
countries. Furthermore, the worse result is also shown in the research which
3
wasdone by PISA (Program for International Assessment, 2013); the reading
score of Indonesian students was the second lowest rank. Indonesia was ranked at
64 from 65 countries. The average scores for Indonesian students for reading were
396.
Considering the condition above, we have to take a look at the many
factors that influence the students’ achievement in reading comprehension. One of
the crucial factors that influence the achievement of the students is the role of the
teachers. Teachers play a very important role in determining the successful of
students in reading comprehension. This also emphasizes by the report of the
International Reading Association (2000) that states that it is the teacher’s
knowledge that makes a difference in students’ achievement.The persistent
underachievement of Indonesian students in the area of reading comprehension is
influenced by the teachers. The way teachers teach reading comprehension is
based on the knowledge of the teachers of reading comprehension itself.
Therefore, the writer is interested in investigating the knowledge of teachers about
teaching
reading
comprehension
as
implemented
during
the
reading
comprehension classroom implementation.
B. The Problem of the Study
In line with the background of the study research problems were
formulated as follows:
1. What knowledge do teachers have about teaching reading comprehension?
4
2. What reading comprehension strategies doteachers implement during the
reading comprehension classroom implementation?
C. The Scope of the Study
This study was limited to the investigation of the types of the teacher’s
knowledge of teaching reading comprehension during the reading comprehension
classroom implementation. The teachers were three English teachers of two
schools in Tanjung Morawa and Galang who taught 10th and 12th grade students.
D. The Objective of the Study
Parallel with the research problem, the objective of the study was to
investigate the knowledge of teachers in the area of teaching reading
comprehension.
E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful for English teachers as
the teachers can improve their understanding of teaching reading comprehension.
This study will also expose to the teachers that the knowledge of teaching reading
comprehension influences the teaching of reading comprehension as well as
development of the reading competences and comprehension among students.
Thus, this study will increase the awareness of teachers of how important it is to
have a good understanding of teaching reading comprehension.
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