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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study There are many studies, surveys, conferences, magazines articles or books devoted to reading deficiencies. It is a huge problem that must be resolved. Harris and Sipay said that reading comprehension ability is taught to be a set of generalized knowledge acquisition skills that permits people to acquire and exhibit information gained as a consequence of reading printed language.1 The main purpose of teaching reading is not only to help students in improving their comprehension but also to find the ways in order that they love reading and develop great enthusiasm. Kessler said that the joy in life and learning that will make our students happy, successfully life-times learners.2 This thesis focused on reading comprehension, trying to figure out how effective teaching reading comprehension by using funny story text for the students. The writer also wants to know whether the funny story text can improve students ability or not. The study takes place at SMP Negeri 1 Indra Makmur. Based on preliminary study, it was found that the second year students of SMP Negeri 1

Harris and Sipay. How to Increase Reading Ability. A guide to Developmental and Remedial Methods, Seventh Edition Revised and Enlarged. (New York: Longman Publisher Inc, 1990) P. 179 Carolyn Kessler, et al. Making Connecton an Intergated Approach to learning English. (Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publisher:1996). P. 23
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Indra Makmur have many difficulties in comprehending the reading text. The students have lack motivation in understanding reading text. The students feel bored to read material given, because there were uninteresting materials. In other words, the writer can conclude that the material is not suitable to them. The teenagers like to read the entertainment reading such as novel, comic, or funny story (anecdote, fairy tale, etc). Therefore, teacher must be selective in select the material to be a suitable material for students need. Choosing funny story texts as the material for this thesis because of some factors: first, students will not be bored of the material because the material is interesting. If they like it, they will read it. More reading means more practicing. More practicing will improve students ability in reading comprehension. Second, students can find lot of new words from the story to develop their vocabulary. It makes the students easy to improve their reading ability. The writer is very interested in doing the research toward the students ability in mastering the English especially reading comprehension. The results of the research will be reported with the title: Improving Students Reading Comprehension by Using Funny Story (An Experimental Study at the Second Year Students of SMPN I Indra Makmur).

B. Terminologies 1. Funny Story According to Hornby funny story is something said (a story with a funny ending) or done to evoke laughter or amusement, especially an amusing story with a punch line, an amusing incidents or situation.3 Based on the statement above, the writer concludes that Funny Story is description of past or imaginary events that can make people laugh or being humorous. 2. Reading Comprehension According to Olson and Diller, what is meant by reading comprehension is a term used to identify those skills needed to understand and apply information contained in a written material.4 This statement is supported by Harris and Sipay, who say that reading comprehension ability is taught to be a set of generalized knowledge acquisition skills that permits people to acquire and exhibit information gained as a consequence of reading printed language.5 Based on the statement above, the writer concludes that Reading Comprehension is a process of constructs meaning by interacting with the text.

C. Research Question
Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English. (British Oxford University:1985) P. 112 Olson, J.P & M.H Diller. Learning to Teach Reading in Elementary School. (London: Macmilan Publishing Company:2002) P. 48 Harris and Sipay. How to Increase Reading Ability. A guide to Developmental and Remedial Methods, Seventh Edition Revised and Enlarged. (New York: Longman Publisher Inc:1998). Hal 179
5 4
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Based on the background of the study, the research problem can be written into: 1. Do the second year students of SMPN 1 Indra Makmur show the enhancement in reading comprehension by using funny story? 2. Do funny story texts motivate the students in learning reading comprehension? D. The Purposes of Study The purpose of this study are to know the enhancement in reading comprehension by using funny story. Besides, the writer wants to know how funny story texts motivate to the students in learning English reading comprehension. E. Hypothesis Based on the research problems above, the writer gives tantative answers, they are: 1) Funny story is very effective to be used in improving the students reading comprehension. 2) Funny story texts can motivate the students in learning reading comprehension. F. Research Methodology The methodology of research is conducted to answer the two research question above. It covers research design, population and sample, data collection, and data analysis.

1.

Research Design Kind of research that the writer used in this research is categorized as an

experimental research. The experimental research which the writer conducted experiment to the reading comprehension by using funny story. In teaching reading comprehension, the writer used funny story as media in involving students practicing reading comprehension. In this research, the writer described the comparison between two classes. The goal of the comparison made is to get the realistic result of the teaching learning process by using funny story in improving students reading comprehension is effective or not. This comparison conducted by the writer is to prove whether the hypotheses is acceptable or reject able. 2. a. Data Collection Observation Observation is either an activity of a living being (students, teacher, and its environment), consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity. An observation can also be the way to look at things. Colorado State University stated that the scientific method requires observations of nature to formulate and test hypotheses. It consists of these steps: 1. Asking questions about the important thing for data collecting 2. Hypothesizing an explanation for the data collecting 3. Predicting a logical consequence of the hypothesis

4. Testing the hypothesis by an experiment, an observational study, or a field study 5. Creating a conclusion with data gathered in the experiment.6 b. Interview David Nunan stated that interview is conversation between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.7 To complete the information, the writer held the interview. Through the interview the writer would directly understand the teaching learning process, teaching facilities, and other aspects related to the subject matter in the research. c. Test In this study, tests were used to measure the students reading comprehension skill and were administered twice; namely, the pre test and the post test. Here, the pre test was used to see the students reading comprehension mastery before the treatment, and the post test was used to see the reading achievement after the treatment. In collecting the required data in pre-test and post-test, the writer used multiple choices. Each of the tests consisted of a reading passage and 10 multiple choices reading comprehension questions followed each reading passage. Pre-test had 10 questions depends on story given. Correct answers were scored 10 each and
6

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/observe/pop4a.cfm. Retrieved on August,

14 , 2011 Nunan, David. Research Method in Language Learning. (Cambridge Language Teaching Library:1992) P. 149
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th

wrong answers were scored 0. Total score was 100. It was also apply to post-test. It had 10 questions based on the story that correct answers were scored 10 each and wrong answers were scored 0. Total score was 100 d. Experimental Teaching To apply the technique in experimental study, the researcher used funny story as media to increase students reading comprehension. The following items were the ways to apply it. First, the writer introduced the funny story that they apply to get reading comprehension. Second, the writer explained the funny story to the students with her own word based on the story given. Then, asked them to read aloud the funny story. After that, the writer asked them to identify the point of the story to get its comprehending. 3. Data Analysis After obtaining the result of the pre-test and post-test, the writer conducted data analysis. In data analysis, the writer used the formula of t-test. T-test formula was applied to see whether there was a significant difference between experimental class who used funny story and control class who used traditional method teaching technique in teaching reading comprehension. First, the writer required to find out mean score. The mean score formula is:
x1 =

fx
n

x2 =

fx
n

Note:

x1 , x 2

= mean score

fx
n

fx

= total score of the students = number of samples

Second, the writer required to find out standard deviation (SD). Standard deviation is used to manage the deviation from mean score. SD12 =

fx
n

( x1 ) ( x2 )

SD2 =

fx
n

2 2

Note:

SD12 , SD22

= Standard Deviation
2 2

fx
n

fx

= Total score of multiplying f time x = Numbers of sample

Third, the writer required to find out t-test. The formula is as follows:

x1 x 2
T-score =

SD1 2 SD2 2 + N 1 1 N 2 1

Note:
x1 x2

= mean of distribution sample 1 = mean of distribution sample 2

2 SD1 = Standard deviation of distribution sample 1 2 SD 2 = Standard deviation of distribution sample 2

N1 N2 4. a.

= Individual amount of sample 1 = Individual amount of sample 28 Population and Sample Population

The population of this study is all the second year students of SMP Negeri 1 Indra Makmur in the academic year 2010/2011. There are nine classrooms existed in the school. Those classrooms existed has been devided into 3 classrooms belong to the first year students, 3 classrooms belong to the second year students, and the last, 3 classrooms belong to the third year students. b. Sample The sample of this study would be taken two classes of the first year students of SMP Negeri I Indra Makmur in the academic year 2010/2011. There are class IIA and IIB. Class IIA consisted of 35 students and class IIB was 37 students. Class IIB is called as an experimental group and class IIA is called as a

Tulus Winarsunu. Statistik dalam Penelitian Psikologi dan Pendidikan. (UMM Press, Malang: 2007) P. 88 89

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control group. The writer selected two classes because the writer needs to compare and prove the hypotheses. The writer took only 30 students as the sample of the analysis from the total of each class randomly like described in the following table. No 1 2 Group Experimental Group Control Group Total Number of Students 30 students 30 students 60 students Class IIB IIA