INCREASING STUDENT’S READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH DRTA-STRATEGY (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN).

IMPROV

ING STUDENT’S READING COMPREHENSION

THROUGH DRTA-STRATEGY

(A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT SMP

ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN)

A Thesis

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora

By:

MARIA FRISKA N

Registration Number: 8106111021

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

MEDAN

IMPROV

ING STUDENT’S READING COMPREHENSION

THROUGH DRTA-STRATEGY

(A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT SMP

ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN)

A Thesis

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora

By:

MARIA FRISKA N

Registration Number: 8106111021

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

MEDAN

i

Increasing Student’s Reading Comprehension

Through DRTA-STRATEGY

(A Classroom Action Research at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN)

Maria Friska N

Maria Friska N. Registration Number 8106111021. Increasing Student’s Reading Comprehension Through DRTA STRATEGY (A Classroom Action Research at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN). A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study Program, State University of Medan. 2014

Abstract

This study was designed to improve the students’ reading comprehension ability through DRTA Strategy. It was conducted in order to find a strategy of teaching and learning that occurs, especially, in the teaching of reading skills. The strategy was selected because it was believed to be able to stimulate or activate the students to be more involved in the reading activities and to facilitate the students to comprehend the texts, especially report texts. Thus, this study was directed to solve practical problems in the teaching and learning process. The research problem was formulated as follows: “How to apply DRTA strategy in order to improve students reading comprehension at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN?

The study employed a collaborative classroom action research design in which the researcher and the collaborator as research team worked together designing the lesson plan, implementing the action, observing the action, and reflecting the action. The subjects of this research were 30 students the first semester students XI of SMP ST.IGNASIUS in the 2013/2014 academic year. This research study was conducted in two cycles by following the procedure of action research, i.e. planning, action, observation, analysis and reflection. Each cycle of the research study encompassed three meetings of the strategy implementation and reading comprehension test. The data of this research study were obtained through reading tests, observation checklist and field notes at the end of the cycle and the implementation of DRTA strategy in teaching-learning process.

The findings of this research study indicated that the DRTA strategy was successful in improving both the students’ ability in comprehending report texts and the students’ involvement in reading activities. The improvement can be seen from the students’ individual score percentage from preliminary study to Cycle 2. The students’ mean score had improved greatly from 58.66 to 80.33 or the students’ individual score percentage had achieved to a great extent from 77.14 to 85.71. The mean score and the students’ individual score indicated higher than predetermined criteria of success that was 80% of 30 students who got score 70. Based on the result of the Cycle 2, the next cycle did not need to be conducted because the students’ individual scores that the predetermined criteria of success have been met in the second cycle. Dealing with the students’ involvement, it also seemed that most of students (93.30%) were involved actively in the reading activities in Cycle 2 which were shown by the observations checklists and field notes.

The appropriate procedure of DRTA strategy in teaching reading comprehension encompassed the following steps: 1) the teacher create a classroom climate in which students are free to state their ideas and share their thinking; 2) Introduce the purpose of the DRTA; 3) The students divided into groups and then the researcher gives the copies of the text to the students; 4) Determine the text to be used and pre-select points for students to pause during the reading process, and provide examples of how to make predictions; 5) Then the researcher clarified the prior knowledge to the students that related to the content of the topic by applying DRTA strategy; 6) The teacher asked the groups to make a list of the different features that supply clues about the text; 7) The teacher helped the class understand that the features will help them predict what they are going to read, which in turn will help them understand the material; 8) Each group discuss the text and write their prediction, using prediction list.;9) The researcher called on each group to read

ii

their prediction and explain the group’s reasoning. 10) Ask the students compare their predictions with the actual content of the text.11) Ask the students to analyze their checklist and determine how well they predicted the content of the text.

Based on the students’ achievement using DRTA strategy in comprehending report texts, it was suggested for the English teachers apply DRTA strategy as one of many alternatives that can be used in teaching reading skills. To the further researcher teachers, particularly those who are interested in applying DRTA strategy in their research, it is suggested that they conduct classroom action research and implement this strategy in the teaching of reading to other English text types (descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure) and other language skills, for instance writing and it can be their reference in conducting in the same strategy. For institution, DRTA strategy can be new strategy that can improve the students’ reading comprehension ability of grade nine at SMP ST.IGNASIUS in comprehending the report texs.

iii

Meningkatkan Kemampuan Pemahaman Membaca Siswa SMP ST.IGNASIUS melalui Strategy-DRTA

Maria Friska N

Maria Friska N. Nomor Induk Mahasiswa 8106111021 . Meningkatkan Kemampuan Pemahaman Membaca Siswa SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN melalui strategy DRTA.Tesis. untuk menyelesaikan Gelar Magister pada Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris . Program Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Medan. 2014

Abstrak

Penelitian ini dirancang untuk meningkatkan kemampuan membaca pemahan siswa melalui strategi DRTA. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menemukan sebuah strategi belajar dan mengajar yang terjadi, khususnya, mengajar keahlian membaca. Strategi ini dipilih karena strategi ini diyakini mampu merangsang atau mengaktifkan siswa untuk lebih terlibat dalam kegiatan-kegiatan membaca dan menfasilitasi siswa untuk memahami bacaan, khususnya teks reporti. Jadi, penelitian ini diarahkan untuk memecahkan masalah praktis dalam proses belajar mengajar. Rumusan masalah dalam penelitian ini adalah (1) Bagaimana kemampuan membaca siswa SMP ST.IGNASIUS dapat ditingkatkan melalui strategi DRTA?

Penelitian ini menggunakan penelitian tindakan kelas yang merupakan kolaborasi antara peneliti dengan kolaborator sebagai sebuah tim yang bekerjasama dalam merancang rencana pembelajaran, melaksanakan tindakan, mengamati tindakan, dan merefleksikan tindakan. Subyek penelitian adalah tiga puluh siswa kelas XI B SMP ST.IGNASIUS pada tahun akademik 2003/2014. Penelitian ini dilakukan melalui dua siklus yang mengacu pada prosedur penelitian tindakan yaitu: planning, action, observation, analysis and reflection. Tiap siklus dalam penelitian ini terdiri dari tiga pertemuan untuk pelaksanaan teknik dan satu pertemuan untuk pemberian test. Data penelitian dikumpulkan melalui test membaca, lembar observasi ceklist, dan catatan lapangan diakhir siklus.

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa strategi DRTA telah berhasil dalam meningkatkan kemampuan siswa memahami teks bahasa Inggris (report texts) dan meningkatkan keterlibatan siswa dalam kegiatan pemahaman teks. Perbaikan dapat dilihat dari peningkatan nilai rata-rata siswa dari studi pendahuluan sampai Siklus 2. Nilai rata-rata siswa meningkat dari 58.66 ke 80.33 Nilai rata-rata siswa menunjukkan lebih tinggi dari nilai yang ditetapkan pada kriteria kesuksesan, yaitu 80 persen dari 30 siswa yang memperoleh nilai lebih dara70. Nilai-nilai individu siswa yang telah ditetapkan pada kriteria kesuksesan dapat dicapai. Hal yang berkaitan dengan keterlibatan siswa, sebagian besar siswa (93.33%) telah terlibat secara aktif dalam tahap-tahap kegiatan membaca pada Siklus yang diperoleh dari lembar observasi ceklist, dan catatan lapangan.

Prosedur yang sesuai strategi DRTA dalam mengajar pemahaman membaca meliputi langkah-langakah sebagai berikut: 1) menciptakan suasana kelas di mana siswa bebas untuk menyatakan ide-ide dan pemikiran mereka; 2) memperkenalkan tujuan DRTA; 3) membagi siswa ke dalam kelompok dan memberikan salinan teks kepada siswa; 4) menentukan teks yang akan digunakan dan menentukan jeda bagi siswa untuk berhenti sejenak selama proses membaca, dan memberikan contoh bagaimana untuk membuat prediksi.;5) menjelaskan pengetahuan yang terkait dengan isi topik dengan menerapkan strategi DRTA; 6) meminta kelompok untuk membuat daftar petunjuk berbeda tentang teks; 7) membantu siswa memahami bahwa gambar dan judul akan membantu mereka memprediksi apa yang akan mereka baca, yang akan membantu mereka memahami materi.;8) meminta setiap kelompok mendiskusikan teks dan menuliskan prediksi mereka pada lembar yang telah disediakan ;9) meminta setiap kelompok untuk membacakan prediksinya dan memberikan alasannya ; 10) meminta setiap kelompok untuk membandingkan prediksi mereka dengan isi teks; 11) meminta setiap kelompok untuk menganalisa prediksi mereka dan menentukan seberapa baik mereka memprediksi teks tersebut.

Berdasarkan prestasi siswa menggunakan strategi DRTA dalam memahami teks bahasa Inggris, khususnya pada report teks, disarankan pada guru bahasa Inggris untuk menerapkan strategi ini sebagai salah satu dari banyak alternatif yang dapat diaplikasikan dalam mengajar

iv

keahlian membaca. Kepada peneliti lain, khususnya yang berminat dalam meneliti strategi jaring didalam penelitiannya, dianjurkan untuk melakukan penelitian tindakan kelas dan menerapkan teknik ini pada pengajaran pemahaman membaca dengan jenis teks bahasa Inggris yang berbeda, seperti teks: deskripsi, narasi, recount, adan prosedur atau pada keterampilan bahasa yang lain yaitu menulis. Ketiga, hasil penelitian bisa memberikan kontribusi dalam perbaikan pembelajaran untuk memahami text pada siswa kelas 9B di SMP ST.IGNASIUS. Untuk para peniliti kedepan, penerapan suatu strategy khusus dalam kelas membaca dengan menggunakan strategy DRTA bisa menjadi rujukan dalam bentuk stategy yang sama.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would never have been able to finish my thesis without the guidance of my advisors, help from friends, and support from my family and husband.

I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to my advisor Dr.Didik Santoso, M.Pd and Dr.Eddy Setia, M.Ed, TESP, both of you has been a tremendous mentor for me. I would like to thank you for encouraging my research and for allowing me to grow as a research scientist. Your advice on both research as well as on my career have been priceless. I would also like to thank my The Head of English Applied Linguistic Study Program, Prof.Dr.Busmin Gurning, M.Pd for serving as my committee members even at hardship. I also want to thank you for letting my defense be an enjoyable moment, and for your brilliant comments and suggestions, thanks to you.

A special thanks to my family. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my lovely husband, my mother and father, father in law and mother in law for all of the sacrifices that you’ve made on my behalf. Your prayer for me was what sustained me thus far. I would also like to thank all of my friends who supported me in writing, and incented me to strive towards my goal.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i

ABSTRACT ... ii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 The Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 The Problem of the Study ... 5

1.3 The Objective of the Study ... 5

1.4 The Significance of the Study ... 6

1.5 The Scope of the Study ... 6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 7

2.1 Reading Comprehension ... 7

2.1.1The Concept of Reading Comprehension ... 7

2.1.2 The Process of Reading Comprehension ... 9

2.1.2.1 Schema Activation ... 10

2.1.2.2 Schema Construction ... 12

2.1.3 Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension ... 13

2.1.3.1 Reader Variable ... 14

2.1.3.2 Text Variable ... 15

2.1.4 Levels of Reading Comprehension ... 16

2.1.5 Measuring Reading Comprehension ... 17

2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategy ... 21

2.3 Directed Reading-Thinking Activity Strategy ... 23

2.3.1 Definition ... 23

2.3.2 Principle ... 25

2.3.3 Design ... 26

2.3.3.1 The Objective ... 27

2.3.3.2 The Syllabus ... 28

2.3.3.3 Types of learning and teaching activities ... 29

2.3.3.4The Role of Material ... 29

2.3.3.5The Role of Students and Teacher ... 31

2.3.5 Predicting ... 36

2.3.6 Strengthens and Weakness of DRTA-Strategy ... 38

2.3.6.1 The strength ... 38

2.3.6.2 The Weaknesses ... 39

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH OF METHOD ... 40

3.1 Research Setting ... 40

3.2 Data and Data Source ... 40

3.3 Research Method ... 41

3.4 Research Procedure ... 43

3.4.1 Preliminary Study ... 44

3.4.2 Cycle 1 ... 44

3.4.3 Cycle 2 ... 46

3.5Instrument and Technique of Collecting the Data ... 48

3.5Technique of Analysing the Data ... 49

3.6 Technique of Establishing the Trustworthiness ... 55

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 58

4.1 The Data Analysis ... 58

4.1.1 The Preliminary Study ... 58

4.1.2 The First Cycle ... 60

4.1.2.1 Planning ... 60

4.1.2.2Action ... 61

4.1.2.3 Observation ... 64

4.1.2.4 Reflection ... 68

4.1.3 The Second Cycle ... 69

4.1.3.1 Planning ... 69

4.1.3.2 Action ... 70

4.1.3.3 Observation ... 72

4.2 The Research Finding ... 76

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 79

5.1 Conclusions 79

5.2 Suggestions ... 80

vi

APPENDICES

Appendix A ... 88

Appendix B ... 103

Appendix C ... 115

Appendix D ... 123

Appendix E ... 132

Appendix F ... 134

Appendix G ... 136

Appendix H ... 138

Appendix I ... 139

Appendix J ... 141

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of the Study

Reading is one of important aspects in language, since through reading a text the readers gain large information from written words. It means that through reading, readers get much information about the world. The texts that the readers read consist of different genre which will give different function to the readers. Gaining information from the written words is not as simple as most people think of. Many times when people asked what they have already comprehended from their reading, readers could not explain it. They just read the text without knowing what they have read.

Reading comprehension help people to develop their knowledge. In this case, reading in foreign language that is English language is very important. The students of Junior High school are expected to master the four language skills such as Reading, listening. Speaking, and writing. Reading in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contributes a part of essential skills to be taught besides the other skills. In reading process, the students are not merely necessary to read a text or passage loudly, but the most important thing is how the text or passage is comprehensible according to the objectives of reading itself. In short, the students are expected to be able to comprehend reading text that they read. Furthermore, Otto et al. (1979) stated that reading is not just saying the words. Reading must be a process of meaning gotten and it therefore needs understanding. He further says, the teacher must use and need a variety of reading strategies to have good understanding of a reading passage or text for instance, in drawing conclusions,

recognizing details from selection, recognizing word meaning, identifying the main idea.

However in reality, good reading comprehension is not achieved yet by the students. The lack of ability in reading comprehension is proved by the data that has been observed and showed in International Student Achievement in Reading. The reading score of Indonesian students as reported by PIRL (Progress in International Reading Literacy, 2006) is low, Indonesia got the fourth lowest ranked from 45 countries, that is indirectly reveals that Indonesian students have a problem in reading.

This lack of reading comprehensiaon also found in SMP ST IGNASIUS students . It can be seen from the result of reading test of the second year students in SMP ST IGNASIUS. The second year students in academic year of 2013/2014 consisted of three classes. The strategy used is when the teacher is teaching reading, the teacher always use the same strategy. Firstly, she gives an example to the students how to read the passage. After that, she asks some students to read it. Then, she ask whether there are any difficult words or not. If there are, the teacher gives the translation directly. Finally, she asks the students to answer the following questions. This is not enough to fulfill students reading comprehension

Furthermore, in order to know how serious the problems are, a pre test is administrated to the students of class VIII. The test covers the sub skills in reading particularly finding main idea and word meaning. In addition, the test that used in this study had been tried out to check its validity at SMP IGNASIUS especially the students of grade 8 in academic year 2012/2013. The result of the pre-test showed that the student’s comprehension in reading is poor. It can be indicated

that the students in grade eight had low in reading comprehension.The students score is far from the minimum standard of the passing score grade eight. In line with the problems above, the teachers should be able in motivating the students to read.

To overcome the problems of reading comprehension, many researchers and teachers have tried to find out the possible ways to help student increase their reading comprehension. There are many factors affect the reading comprehension, they are external and internal factors. The external factors are teaching strategys including reading strategies, school and social environments, text types. The internal factors are; motivation and student’s intelligence. One of the most important factors is learning strategies.

There are several strategies that can improve reading comprehension that has been suggested by researchers, such as; ASK to THINK-TEL WHY strategy (King, 1994) describes readers learn how to ask deep level questions while reading. Peer-assisted learning strategies (Fuchs et al, 2001), which entails pairing children from preschool through the intermediate elementary grades to engage in reading activities including repeated reading, paragraph summaries and making predictions. Concept- Oriented Reading Instruction (Guthrie, 2007), a broad strategy intervention for elementary school children that includes an emphasis on motivational practises for encouraging conceptual goal setting and affording student choice and collaboration. Including Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy (Stauffer, 1969), encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.

According to Stauffer (1969), Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy has four basic steps namely: Predict, Read, Confirm and Resolution. Predicting involves what the students interpret as to what will happen in the text. Then the students read to turning point in the text. In the Confirmation step, the teacher leads a brief discussion and reflection period, allowing students to compare their predictions with what was actually presented in the text. Finally, the lesson closes with a resolution at which time the text is summarized and evaluated both in terms of its verity and relevance.

Predicting is an essential part of the reading process through DRTA Strategy. Students learn that by reading with a purpose, they can more easily focus their predictions. Prediction is a major factor and one of the strategies in reading. Clues, such as a book cover, topics, images, lists of words are very important so that the reader gets a good idea about the contents of the text before they read it. These instructions can also make the brain begin to actively predict readers an idea to be found in the text.

Making predictions keeps the students actively engaged in the reading process, and being engaged is the key to comprehension. By constantly thinking about their predictions to confirm or revise them, readers remain motivated and focused. Skilled readers are good detectives, always searching for clues to shed light on what they are reading. In making predictions, they call on prior knowledge to make inferences. These readers constantly think about their predictions to confirm or revise them.

Moreover, Hojnacki (2001) who is in favor of the power of DRTA states that, this method teaches students to acquire and activate their own purpose for

reading. By setting their own purposes of reading, students develop their reading and thinking process. The teacher though his questioning techniques prescribe how the students will interact with the text.

Therefore the researcher would like to conduct an action research about ‘Increasing Student’s Reading Comprehension Through DRTA Strategy (A Classroom Action Research at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN) ’.

1.2 The Problem of the Study

In line with the background that has been explained, the research problem could be formulated as follows: How to apply DRTA strategy in order to improve students reading comprehension at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN?

1.3 The Objective of the Study

The Objective of this study is aimed at increasing students reading comprehension of grade nine at SMP ST.IGNASIUS in the academic year of 2013/2014 using DRTA strategy.

1.4 The Significance of the Study

Reading is one of the most important academic tasks faced by students. The role if strategies designed to improve reading comprehension have any number of purposes, to enhance understanding of the content information presented in a text , to improve understanding of the organization of information

in a text , to improve attention and concentration while reading , to make reading a more active process , to increase personal involvement in the reading material , to promote critical thinking and evaluation of reading material, to enhance registration and recall of text information in memory

The findings of this study are expected to be useful for English teachers and students:

1. English teachers as an input in increasing the quality of teaching-learning process by Applying Direct Reading- Thinking Activity in their teaching learning process to improve the reading comprehension ability.

2. Students of SMP ST.IGNASIUS grade nine to improve their ability in reading comprehension.

1.5 The Scope of the Study

This study is restricted to the implementation of Directed Reading Thinking Activity Strategy in reading. In a specific focus, this study is concentrated on how to improve the students reading comprehension with applying DRTA Strategy.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusion

To improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension the researcher applied DRTA strategy and based on DRTA strategy there were 11 stages to do in teaching and learning process of reading comprehension. They were: 1) the teacher create a classroom climate in which students are free to state their ideas and share their thinking. 2) Introduce the purpose of the DRTA. 3) The students divided into groups and then he researcher gives the copies of the text to the students. 4) Determine the text to be used and pre-select points for students to pause during the reading process, and provide examples of how to make predictions. 5) Then the researcher clarified presented the prior knowledge to the students that related to the content of the topic by applying DRTA strategy. 6) The teacher asked the groups to make a list of the different features that supply clues about the text. 7) The teacher helped the class understand that the features will help them predict what they are going to read, which in turn will help them understand the material. 8) The teacher gave each student one index card on which you have written a different phrase or sentence from the textbook passage the students are about to read. 9) The teacher asked the students to circulate around the room and read their cards to as many of their classmates as possible but not to discuss them. 10) After five minutes the students returned to their home group and jointly write a prediction about what they think the passage will

discuss. 11) The teacher called on each group to read its prediction and explain the group’s reasoning.

5.2 Suggestion

Based on the conclusion above the suggestions were formulated as the following:

1. To the English Teacher, they are suggested to apply the stages in DRTA strategy in teaching reading comprehension because this strategy helps the student easily in understanding and processing the text. The teachers are also suggested to apply the stages of DRTA strategy because it makes the students more active and enjoy the teaching learning process, especially in reading comprehension.

2. To the students, they are suggested to follow the stages in DRTA strategy; they are used to be active and enthusiastic in predicting the text which will make them understand the text easily. The students become critical readers. In this case, DRTA give a freedom to the readers to examine their own thinking to raise questions and seeks answer diligently and boldly. Allows the active reader who uses what has already known and the text to construct meaning with the guidance of the teacher. The stages of DRTA strategy help the student who has difficulty in justifying his answers with information from the text since this strategy requires the reader to do so. Students enjoy making predictions and then finding out whether or not their predictions were correct. DRTA is also a very flexible strategy in that it can be used individually, with a small group, or with an entire class.

that the students in grade eight had low in reading comprehension.The students score is far from the minimum standard of the passing score grade eight. In line with the problems above, the teachers should be able in motivating the students to read.

To overcome the problems of reading comprehension, many researchers and teachers have tried to find out the possible ways to help student increase their reading comprehension. There are many factors affect the reading comprehension, they are external and internal factors. The external factors are teaching strategys including reading strategies, school and social environments, text types. The internal factors are; motivation and student’s intelligence. One of the most important factors is learning strategies.

There are several strategies that can improve reading comprehension that has been suggested by researchers, such as; ASK to THINK-TEL WHY strategy (King, 1994) describes readers learn how to ask deep level questions while reading. Peer-assisted learning strategies (Fuchs et al, 2001), which entails pairing children from preschool through the intermediate elementary grades to engage in reading activities including repeated reading, paragraph summaries and making predictions. Concept- Oriented Reading Instruction (Guthrie, 2007), a broad strategy intervention for elementary school children that includes an emphasis on motivational practises for encouraging conceptual goal setting and affording student choice and collaboration. Including Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy (Stauffer, 1969), encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.

According to Stauffer (1969), Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy has four basic steps namely: Predict, Read, Confirm and Resolution. Predicting involves what the students interpret as to what will happen in the text. Then the students read to turning point in the text. In the Confirmation step, the teacher leads a brief discussion and reflection period, allowing students to compare their predictions with what was actually presented in the text. Finally, the lesson closes with a resolution at which time the text is summarized and evaluated both in terms of its verity and relevance.

Predicting is an essential part of the reading process through DRTA Strategy. Students learn that by reading with a purpose, they can more easily focus their predictions. Prediction is a major factor and one of the strategies in reading. Clues, such as a book cover, topics, images, lists of words are very important so that the reader gets a good idea about the contents of the text before they read it. These instructions can also make the brain begin to actively predict readers an idea to be found in the text.

Making predictions keeps the students actively engaged in the reading process, and being engaged is the key to comprehension. By constantly thinking about their predictions to confirm or revise them, readers remain motivated and focused. Skilled readers are good detectives, always searching for clues to shed light on what they are reading. In making predictions, they call on prior knowledge to make inferences. These readers constantly think about their predictions to confirm or revise them.

Moreover, Hojnacki (2001) who is in favor of the power of DRTA states that, this method teaches students to acquire and activate their own purpose for

reading. By setting their own purposes of reading, students develop their reading and thinking process. The teacher though his questioning techniques prescribe how the students will interact with the text.

Therefore the researcher would like to conduct an action research about ‘Increasing Student’s Reading Comprehension Through DRTA Strategy (A Classroom Action Research at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN) ’.

1.2 The Problem of the Study

In line with the background that has been explained, the research problem could be formulated as follows: How to apply DRTA strategy in order to improve students reading comprehension at SMP ST.IGNASIUS MEDAN?

1.3 The Objective of the Study

The Objective of this study is aimed at increasing students reading comprehension of grade nine at SMP ST.IGNASIUS in the academic year of 2013/2014 using DRTA strategy.

1.4 The Significance of the Study

Reading is one of the most important academic tasks faced by students. The role if strategies designed to improve reading comprehension have any number of purposes, to enhance understanding of the content information presented in a text , to improve understanding of the organization of information

in a text , to improve attention and concentration while reading , to make reading a more active process , to increase personal involvement in the reading material , to promote critical thinking and evaluation of reading material, to enhance registration and recall of text information in memory

The findings of this study are expected to be useful for English teachers and students:

1. English teachers as an input in increasing the quality of teaching-learning process by Applying Direct Reading- Thinking Activity in their teaching learning process to improve the reading comprehension ability.

2. Students of SMP ST.IGNASIUS grade nine to improve their ability in reading comprehension.

1.5 The Scope of the Study

This study is restricted to the implementation of Directed Reading Thinking Activity Strategy in reading. In a specific focus, this study is concentrated on how to improve the students reading comprehension with applying DRTA Strategy.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusion

To improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension the researcher applied DRTA strategy and based on DRTA strategy there were 11 stages to do in teaching and learning process of reading comprehension. They were: 1) the teacher create a classroom climate in which students are free to state their ideas and share their thinking. 2) Introduce the purpose of the DRTA. 3) The students divided into groups and then he researcher gives the copies of the text to the students. 4) Determine the text to be used and pre-select points for students to pause during the reading process, and provide examples of how to make predictions. 5) Then the researcher clarified presented the prior knowledge to the students that related to the content of the topic by applying DRTA strategy. 6) The teacher asked the groups to make a list of the different features that supply clues about the text. 7) The teacher helped the class understand that the features will help them predict what they are going to read, which in turn will help them understand the material. 8) The teacher gave each student one index card on which you have written a different phrase or sentence from the textbook passage the students are about to read. 9) The teacher asked the students to circulate around the room and read their cards to as many of their classmates as possible but not to discuss them. 10) After five minutes the students returned to their home group and jointly write a prediction about what they think the passage will

discuss. 11) The teacher called on each group to read its prediction and explain the group’s reasoning.

5.2 Suggestion

Based on the conclusion above the suggestions were formulated as the following:

1. To the English Teacher, they are suggested to apply the stages in DRTA strategy in teaching reading comprehension because this strategy helps the student easily in understanding and processing the text. The teachers are also suggested to apply the stages of DRTA strategy because it makes the students more active and enjoy the teaching learning process, especially in reading comprehension.

2. To the students, they are suggested to follow the stages in DRTA strategy; they are used to be active and enthusiastic in predicting the text which will make them understand the text easily. The students become critical readers. In this case, DRTA give a freedom to the readers to examine their own thinking to raise questions and seeks answer diligently and boldly. Allows the active reader who uses what has already known and the text to construct meaning with the guidance of the teacher. The stages of DRTA strategy help the student who has difficulty in justifying his answers with information from the text since this strategy requires the reader to do so. Students enjoy making predictions and then finding out whether or not their predictions were correct. DRTA is also a very flexible strategy in that it can be used individually, with a small group, or with an entire class.