IMPROVING GRADE XI STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT ON READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH THINK PAIR SHARE TECHNIQUE.

IMPROVING GRADE XI STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT
ON READING COMPREHENSION
THROUGH THINK PAIR SHARE TECHNIQUE

A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for
The Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

EKA NOVITA
Registration Number: 209321044

ENGLISH EDUCATION AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost the researcher would like to express her praises to
Almighty God, Allah SWT for the strengths, blessings, and guidance which have

been given in completing this thesis. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the
requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S-1) at the English
Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable
assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The researcher’s
special appreciation goes to:
1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts State University of Medan and to all her staffs.
3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department, Rika,
S.Pd., M.Hum., the Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri,
MA., the Head of Non-Educational English Program, and Dra.
Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of Educational English Program
and her Academic Counselor thanks for their administrative help during
the researcher’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
4. Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum as her Thesis consultant
who always gave the encouragement, constant support, constructive
comments, and suggestions to the researcher in finishing this thesis. May

Allah SWT give you blessings forever.
5. All lecturers of English Department, who have lead, enlighted,
encouraged, and given insightful comments during writing of this thesis.
6. Mam Eis for their kind help in providing academic administrations to the
researcher.

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7. The Head Master of SMA PAB 1 Medan Estate, Dra. Hj. Roslaini his
permission and opportunity in allowing the researcher to do observation
and collect data. All teacher and the students, thanks for their support.
8. The researcher’s family, her beloved Dad, Zubirman and Mom, Ferika
Maxdalena, S.Pd, thank you for the love, patience, financial supports and
prayers. The researcher loves both of you so much. May Allah SWT gives
many happiness to you. To her brother Abdi Dewantara, thank you for
supporting your sister. The researcher loves you so much, too. May Allah
SWT gives you blessings and happiness altogether.
9. The researcher’s best friends Hafizhah Siregar, S.Pd., Nur Jannah,
S.Pd., Kurniawan Novian Putra, S.Pd., Vany Tarsidasari Jambak,
S.S., Marhamah Melisda, S.Pd., Nursa’adah, Licha Asmaira for the

friendship, love, helps, laughter and tears, and for all the sweet and happy
memories we shared. She loves them all the way and will never forget
them.
10. The writer’s best colleague’s friends especially for EXT A, B, and C 2009
for the love, having special time, chit-chatting, having stupid laughs, and
supporting each other for this past 4 years.
11. The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this research, your
kindness means a lot to her. Thank you very much. May God bless you all

Medan,

Februari 2014

The Researcher,

Eka Novita
NIM. 209321044

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ABSTRACT
Novita, Eka. 209321044. Improving Grade XI Students’ Achievement on
Reading Comprehension Through Think Pair Share Technique. A Thesis,
English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of
Medan. 2014.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the application of Think
Pair Share Technique improve the students’ achievement on Reading
Comprehension. This study was an classroom action research. The subject of this
study was class XI SMA Persatuan Amal Bhakti 1 Medan Estate which consisted
of 25 students. The study was conducted in two cycles, cycle I consisted of three
meetings and cycle II consisted of three meetings. The instrument for collecting
data were quantitative data (reading comprehension test) and qualitative data
(observation sheet, interview sheet and diary notes). The mean of the students’
score in the second cycle (77.2) was higher than in the first cycle (67.8) and
orientation test (56.2). Based on reading comprehension scores, students’ score
kept improving in every evaluation and based on the observation sheet, interview
sheet, and diary notes it was found that teaching and learning process ran well.
Students could enlarge their thinking process. The result of this study showed that
the Think Pair Share Technique improved the students’ achievement on reading

comprehension.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ..............................................................................

Page
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ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................

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TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................

A. The Background of the Study ......................................................
B. The Problem of the Study ............................................................
C. The Objective of the Study ..........................................................
D. The Scope of the Study ...............................................................
E. The Significance of The Study ....................................................

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3
4
4
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE .........................................
A. Theoretical Framework................................................................
1. The Students’ Achievement In Reading Comprehension .......
2. Reading ...................................................................................
a. The Purposes of Reading ...................................................
b. Reading Comprehension ....................................................
c. Levels of Comprehension. .................................................

1. Literal Comprehension ..................................................
2. Interpretative Comprehension .......................................
3. Critical Comprehension .................................................
3. Genre ......................................................................................
4. Narrative .................................................................................
5. Think Pair Share Technique ...................................................
a. The Advantages of Think Pair Share Technique ...............
b. The Application of Think Pair Share Technique. ..............
B. Conceptual Frameworks. .............................................................

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ..................................................
A. Research Design ..........................................................................
B. The Subject of Research ..............................................................
C. The Instrument for Collecting Data .............................................
D. Procedure of the Research. ..........................................................

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CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS .....................................

A. The Data ......................................................................................
B. Data Analysis ..............................................................................
1. The Quantitative Data .............................................................
2. The Qualitative Data ...............................................................

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C. Research Findings and Discussion ..............................................
1. Research Findings ...................................................................
2. Discussion ...............................................................................

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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ............................
A. Conclusion ...................................................................................
B. Suggestion ...................................................................................

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REFERENCES .............................................................................................

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APPENDIX ...................................................................................................

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LIST OF TABLE

Page
Table 4.1 Score of Reading ...................................................................................

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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1.3 Kemmis and Mc. Taggart Model Cycle ........................................... 21

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LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix A. Lesson Plan ...............................................................................

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Appendix B. Score of Reading .......................................................................

83

Appendix C. Interview Sheet..........................................................................

84

Appendix D. Diary notes. ...............................................................................

86

Appendix E. observation Sheets. ....................................................................

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study
Reading is an essential skill for all students at all levels started from
elementary school to university. Reading is one skill which has many
contributions in enhancing and enriching students’ knowledge. According to
Grabe & stoller (2002) reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed
page and interpret this information appropriately. It means that reading is a result
of the interaction between the perceptions of graphics symbols that represent
language and reader’s language skill, cognitive skill, knowledge of world and so
on.
To master reading skill, the readers need good comprehension in reading
activity. It is not only related to know about the code of the reading text but also
to full meaning from whole reading text. It means the reading comprehension
involves the thinking process.
Most people around the world use English as a means of communication.
If someone wants to communicate with people from other countries, he should
know English. It is one of the subjects is taught since elementary school until
university and it become a part of the curriculum of education in Indonesia.
Based on The Unit Level Curriculum of Education (KTSP) for short, the
students are required to master four basic skill of English, namely: listening,
reading, speaking and writing. The emphasis of the curriculum is that the students

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are able to communicate both in spoken and written language. However, it is not
easy to master all the skills; there must be one important skill that covers the
whole skills. one of them is reading.
Reading is an important activity in every language. According to Brown
(2001) reading is only incidentally visual, the reader then contributes more
information. Reading enables people to find out information from a variety of
texts, written or printed information from newspaper, magazines, advertisements,
and brochures. In reading activity, we are not only reading the text, but also trying
to understand what we are reading. Leipzig (2001) states that reading requires
words recognition, comprehension, and fluency. To understand all types of
information in an array of the text, it requires not only the reading activity, but
also ability to understand the content. In addition, he states that without the ability
to understand the text content, one is not able ti absorb or comprehen a lot of
information quickly, accurately, and easily.
To master reading skill, the readers need good comprehension in reading
activity. It is not only related to know about the code of this reading text but also
to full meaning from whole reading text. it means the raeding comprehension
involves the thinking process.
Based on the researcher experience in Teaching Practice Program (PPL) at
Grade students of Junior High School, the researcher observed that the process of
comprehending a reading text was still a serious problem for the students. The
unsatisfactory result of student’ reading comprehension regarding might be caused
by the following problems. First, students’ vocabulary is not ample. Students are

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not able to understand the texts when they encounter words that have actually
been taught or told to them, not to mention if they find new words. Second,
teachers tend to emphasize more on students’ reading result, not on the learning
process. Teachers usually do not pay attention to the learning process but the
results of the learning. Third, reading teaching and learning activities is more
teacher-centered in a way that the reading instruction is based on what the
teachers tell. Fourth, the strategy the teachers employ is still conventional,
meaning that students sometimes read text silently or aloud and after that the
teacher translates the text for students. fifth, the reading teaching and learning
process is sometimes boring, students are not motivated to students can solve the
problem in reading which needs analyzing, since they do not work individually
with own limited comprehension. but with different levels of ability. They will
share their comprehension to each pair and will complete each other. This
tehnique is made to improve students’ reading comprehension.
Based on the explanation above, the writer would like to conduct a study
about Improving Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension through
Think Pair Share Technique.

B. The Problem of the study
Based on the background of the study, the problem of the study is
formulated as follows : “does the Think Pair Share Technique improve the
students’ ability on reading comprehension?”

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C. The Objective of the study
The objective of this study is aimed to find the significant improvement of
using Think Pair Share Technique on the students’ reading comprehension.

D. The Scope of the study
The scope of the study is limited on improving the students’ achievement
in reading comprehension through TPS technique. There are four levels of reading
comprehension, they are literal comprehension, interpretative comprehension,
critical comprehension and creative comprehension. In this study the level of
reading comprehension is limited on the two levels, namely literal comprehension
and interpretative. the kinds of the text are focused to narrative text. there are
many strategies which can be used in teaching learning of English. Some of them
include Think Pair Share (TPS) Technique to limit the discussion, this study is
focused by conducting classroom discussion, asking the students about their
thought of the text and finally identifying the generic structure and language
features of the text.

E. The significance of the study
The findings of the study are expected to have both theoritical and
practiced importance in reading as a process and product. Especially the
framework of reading comprehension

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1. Theoritically, the findings of the study are expected to enhance the
theories of reading.
2. Practically, the finding of the study is expected to give a feedback to the
a. English features in which of the study is expected to be useful in
enriching the strategy of teaching reading.
b. English teacher as a source of valueable information about how to
increase students’ reading ability by using Think Pair Share Technique.
c. Students can have more information on how the selection of the
interesting and affective media to improve their reading ability.
d. other researcher, as a reference material for the conducting of more in
depth research on students’ reading comprehension.

REFERENCES
Edhitia, S, Drs, 1998. Developing Reading Comprehension Skill for EFL Students.
Jakarta
Grabe, Wand Stoler, FL. 2002. Teaching and Researching Reading. Malay:
Longman.
Hornby, AS. 1989. Oxford advance learners dictionary of current English.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Kemmis,S. and R. McTaggart. 1988. The Action Research Planner. 3rd ed.
Geolong: Deakin University.
Knapp.p. Watkins. M. 2005. Genre, Text, Grammar.Sydney University of New
South Water Press Ltd.
Lyman, F. 1981. The Responsive classroom discussion. MD: University of
Maryland Collage of Education.
Pardiyono. 2007. Pasti bisa! Teaching Genre-based Writing. Metode mengajar
writing berbasis genre secara efektif. Yogyakarta: ANDI
YOGYAKARTA.
Shepherd, David L. 1978. Comprehensive High School Reading Methods. Bell &
Howel company.
Trianto, 2010. Mendesain Model Pembelajaran Inovatif-Progresif. Jakarta;
Kharisma Putra Utama.
Wallace, Michael. J. 1988. Action Research for Language Teacher. United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Preaa.
http//ole.spsd.sk.ca./DE/PD/instr/think/html april 20, 2011

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