Chapter I INTRODUCTION 1.

1 Background of Study Reading can be placed in the first place of the most important skill in learning English. Some researchers believed that reading could support the process of mastering the other skills and improving the knowledge. However, the fact shows that not every individual learns it well. Moreover, in Indonesia, English is a foreign language. So, the way how the students in comprehend reading skill is totally different with the native students or ESL students. Williams (2010) wrote in her article that there are three kinds of major problems in reading comprehension that being faced by EFL students. First is language problem. Language plays a vital role in the reading skill. It can be taken an analogy like in ice hockey game. Someone who cannot skate will not able to play the ice hockey game. So, if someone has poor knowledge in English, his reading will also be poor and naturally also his reading comprehension. Second is foundational skill of reading havent been automized. It can be taken a case in speaking. When someone attempted to speak with a language which hasnt become automatic yet, necessarily he will try to divide his attention into two, contain of the text and the language itself. Because of his divided attention, the way how he speaks will be haltingly and with great difficulty. It also happened in reading skill. When the foundational skills of reading hasnt become automatic yet, the person
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will read haltingly and has great difficulty. The poor or lower level reader will try to force himself to apply his concentration to the word recognition and therefore has no concentration left to decode the written words. Finally, as the result, he will not be able to read with comprehension. The last problem is word recognition problem. The ability in decoding or recognizing the written words is very important. It is very impossible to get maximum reading comprehension without able to decode or recognize written words. Grabe (2004) cited in Chang (2010) stated that automatic word-decoding skills and prior knowledge of a texts content may interact and strongly affect success in comprehension. When learners are exposed to a large quantity of varying texts, their topical knowledge may be enhanced. This can explain why someone can read without understanding what they are reading. The other problem in reading also appears in EFL students. Actually, the most important thing in the reading process is comprehend the message in the text itself. The other important thing that should be given attention is about time management. Slow reading, as a result of frequent regression, will hinder comprehension. The fast reading is believed can help the reader to get more material to be prepared and consequently it will make the reader eager to read to get that kind of advantages. This case happened to Indonesian students whom the background is not native speaker. They maybe can overcome the problem in comprehension but they still failed to arrange the effective time in reading. They can understand the messages related to the text similar with natives but they need longer extra time to get the comprehension.

Generally, in education institution, it is found that the reading habit of the students is still not sufficient. Especially in intensive reading, which is stressed on the important information based on the text, the students often face some problems. They often need a long time to read because they only focus in the difficult word, looking up the meaning in the dictionary, and finally they forget what they have read before. These problems also happened in the 11th grade of the senior high school students in SMAN 1 Pacitan. Their ability in reading comprehension is still low whereas the level of difficulty of reading material always increases. They have problems in the difficult words, understanding the contents, an about the management of time. The teacher generally only asks the students open the dictionary if the students have problems in difficult words and it makes the learning process of reading run slowly. If their ability is still low, of course the students will face some problems in doing the reading tests. So that, it is needed speed-reading strategy to overcome these problems in order to the students able in comprehend the reading text itself in sufficient time. Based on the cases above, this research is conducted to know about the effect of speed-reading strategy in improving reading comprehension and the students responses toward the strategy itself. It will be used Class Action Research (CAR) in this research.

1.2 The Aim of Study Based on the cases above, the aim of this study is to know about the significant impact of speed reading strategy in solving the problems of reading comprehension of senior high school student and the students responses toward the strategy. 1.3 The Research Questions There are two research questions according to the problems and the aim of the study above. They are: 1. Does the speed-reading strategy give significant effect toward

the problems in improving reading comprehension? 2. strategy? 1.4 Hypothesis According to Hatch and Farhady (1982), hypothesis is a tentative statement about outcome of a research. 1.4.1 Null Hypothesis There is no relationship between speed reading strategy and the students reading skill 1.4.2 Alternative Hypothesis
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What are the students responses toward the speed reading

There is a relationship between speed reading strategy and the students reading skill

1.5 Limitation of Problems This research will is limited to particular subject, location, and area of knowledge. 1.5.1 Limitation of Subject and Location The limitation of the subject and location in this research is the students in senior high school of SMAN 1 Pacitan in the 11th grade. The reason why they are chosen is because they are still lack in the development of reading comprehension whereas mostly the level of difficulty in the reading texts material is quite hard. 1.5.2 Limitation of Knowledge Area The limitation of area knowledge in this research is only focusing in Reading Comprehension. 1.6 Benefits of the Study There are some benefits that try to be offered based on the results of this research. There are three kinds of beneficial, for the researcher, for the teachers of English, and the students. 1.6.1 Benefits of the Study for the Researcher
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She will know more about the use of reading speed strategy in terms of improving the reading comprehension of senior high school students. Furthermore, the researcher can get experience and reference about how to teach reading comprehension through several technique or strategy for high school students.

1.6.2 Benefits of the Study for the Teachers From this research, the teachers especially the English teacher, they can develop the teaching strategy in reading comprehension better. It can be such a motivation for the teacher to prepare the proper strategy that needs to be used in solving the problems in reading comprehension so that they can improve the ability of the students in reading. 1.6.3 Benefits of Study for the Students They can clearly identify what are their problems in reading comprehension. Then, it can give a new experience in learning reading comprehension so that the students can be motivated to develop their reading skill.

Chapter II THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 2.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension There are some definitions of reading comprehension based on some experts. According to Zimmerman (2010), she stated that reading comprehension essentially the ability to understand what has been read. It means that the reader does not only know how to decode and pronounce well about the words in the reading text but also understand well what the text about. Then, the other definition comes from Flowers (2010). She stated that comprehension reading is reading with complete understanding of the text. It involves

knowledge of vocabulary, understanding of sentence structure and syntax, and ability to interpret the intentions of the writer. It deals that reading for comprehension requires more attentions than just reading for enjoyment. When a student is learning new information or studying for a test, he must be aware of the writer's intent and meaning. Without comprehension skills, a student will struggle with recall of information and total understanding of concepts. Moreover Richard et all (1987) cited in Ali (2009) define reading comprehension as the understanding that results from perceiving a written text. There are different types of reading comprehension distinguished according to the readers purpose in reading: literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, critical comprehension and appreciative comprehension. So, from some definitions above, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is the ability to understand the essential parts of text which deal with the vocabularies, the structures and syntax, the pronunciation and decoding, etc and also able to catch the idea, interpret and evaluate the text. 2.2 The Various Stages in Reading Comprehension Zimmerman (2010) explained that they are several stages in reading comprehension that can be done in improving reading skill in order to become fluent reader. The stages are below. a. Monitoring Comprehension

This stage is about clarifying the understanding when reading the text. Sometimes readers read the text but they absolutely didnt remember about the information. Simply rereading is done in this stage to help the reader to monitoring back the information that they have forgotten. b. Activating Background Knowledge This stage deals with recalling the background knowledge of the reader by connecting the things that they have already know with what they are reading in the text. c. Questioning the Text Good reading comprehension requires not only asking, "Do I understand what I am reading?" but, "What else do I want to know? Usually the reader will use post-it notes to write down their questions while reading. Sometimes it may be as simple as wanting to know what a specific word mean, or as complex as knowing about an historical event. d. Drawing Inferences Reading comprehension also means to combine prior knowledge and current reading to predict what may happen next in the text or to figure out what a word means by its use in the text. So, making inferences can help the reader in reading comprehension by guessing from them important word symbols from the text.

e. Determining Importance Finding the main idea, that popular part of comprehension questions, is only a part of determining importance. Good comprehension requires that readers can not only determine the main idea, but also themes, secondary ideas and clues as to what will happen next. f. Synthesizing Information Readers who infer from, question and connect to the text are then able to synthesize the information. For example, a simple form of synthesizing is when someone no longer read the directions to make a favorite recipe, but instead incorporate a few new ideas that he remember from the cookbook that he borrowed last week. 2.3 Theory of Reading Fluent Process Segalowitz (2000) cited in Chang (2010) stated that fluency, regardless of whether in reading, speaking, listening, or a musical performance, often refers to three components: accuracy, speed, and fluidity. Then Meyer (1999) cited in Chang (2010) added, in the case of reading comprehension, fluency has been widely characterized as the ability to read text rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically with little attention to the mechanics of reading such as decoding. Like in the previous that there are two kinds of reader, high level reader and lower level reader. Lower level reader must be processed rapidly and automatically and the automation of this lower level reader is requirement for fluent reading. Lower
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level reader and high level reader need comprehension processes, which involve understanding text meaning, interpreting the ideas represented by the text, using reading strategies if necessary, making inferences, drawing on background knowledge, and evaluating the information being read. For fluent readers or high level readers, all of these processes have become working in parallel, in terms of quickly and efficiently, in other words, automatically. Reading fluency is seen as primarily achieved through automatization of word recognition, which allows one to have more attention resources to focus on the meaning of the text rather than on decoding words. Reading fluency is usually measured by reading rate, calculated by words per minute (wpm). Research in L1 reading shows that in silent reading a normal reader reads at approximately 250 to 300 wpm (Carver, 1990 cited in Lin, 2009). Although automaticity in word processing alone is not sufficient to determine reading comprehension, which can be profoundly affected by many other factors for examples reading purposes, tasks, text difficulty (involving grammatical structure and vocabulary), as well as topic familiarity, or even readers physical condition (e.g., being tired or unable to concentrate), it is a good indicator of reading fluency because fluent readers usually have fast word recognition abilities. (Fraser, 2007 cited in Chang, 2010) 2.4 The Various Strategies in Reading Comprehension It is important for the students whether they are ESL/EFL students to get the training to become a strategic reader. Paris et al. (1983) cited in Fan (2010)

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highlighted that learning to be a strategic reader can promote reading comprehension and failure to be strategic in reading may result from either developmental inability or poor learning. Palincsar & Brown (1984) cited in Fan (2010) suggest that strategic reading helps students, especially low-achieving learners, avoid comprehension failure and enhance their retention of the text. Similarly, Koda (2004) cited in Chang (2010) points out that strategic reading can not only compensate for learners comprehension deficiency but also develop their critical thinking. So, from these states of the experts, in reading comprehension, it is important to implement the right strategies. Klingner (1998) cited in Fan (2010) proposed Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR). It is one type of comprehension strategy instruction designed to improve learners strategic reading abilities through small group discussion. In CSR, four reading strategies are taught including preview, click and clunk, get the gist and wrap-up. Empirical studies have supported the positive impact of CSR on primary and secondary ESL and EFL learners reading comprehension, learning motivation and English acquisition. The other strategy is called Reciprocal teaching (RT) stated by Brown (1984). Reciprocal teaching is designed for students who have basic decoding skills but have difficulties in meaning construction. This instructional model involves teachers and students collaborative work to construct text meaning. In practice, teachers model four cognitive reading strategies by using the thinking aloud technique to help students improve their reading comprehension: summarizing, generating questions, clarifying, and making predictions. In classroom settings using reciprocal teaching,
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students gradually assume the role of being the teacher when they become more proficient. This aims to make them more independent in their learning. Furthermore, Pressley (1992) proposed transactional strategies instruction (TSI). This strategic reading intervention shares the same features of teacher modeling, directs explanation of reading strategies and guided practice with direct explanation of comprehension strategies, but differs in (1) its emphasis on the interpretative transaction between readers and text and (2) transactions among group members to construct meaning together. Moreover, a major difference between TSI and other comprehension strategy approaches is that TSI not only emphasizes cognitive reading strategies but also interpretative strategies. In TSI, a small repertoire of comprehension strategies are instructed and practiced over a long period of time including predicting, generating images, seeking clarification and summarizing. The long-term goal of TSI is to help students internalize strategic processing through the interaction of group discussion and teacher scaffolding. It can be concluded that some researchers have conduct some researches to solve the problems in reading comprehension. Until this period, some researchers still make improvement in finding the best techniques or strategies. So, the writer tries to make a research which deal with reading speed strategy to know the effect of it and tries to compare with the other strategies before. 2.5 The Speed Reading Strategy Like what have been discussed in the previous study about the theoretical framework of the idea that speed reading strategy improves reading fluency. It based

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on research on working memory (such as short-term memory, etc), referring to the information that is activated or given mental stimulation for immediate storage and processing, and is characterized by having limited capacity and the fact that its content fades very quickly. If a reader reads too slowly (below 200 wpm), they may be reading word by word and forget what is being read, and the result is poor comprehension. To minimize the functional limitations of short-term memory in the reading process, a variety of strategies have been suggested, one of them being speed reading. Speed reading involves having students read under time pressure, the purpose of which is to improve reading speed to an optimal rate that supports comprehension rather than developing speedy readers. Some studies have shown that increasing the reading rate will improve reading comprehension. What then is an optimal reading rate? Carver (1990) cited in Lin (2009), made a distinction between five types of reading: scanning, skimming, rauding (just to understand the message), learning (to acquire the information), and memorizing (to be able to recall the facts) and stated that each type is associated with different reading rates. According to Carver, the average reading rate for a college student who is raiding is 300 wpm, 200 wpm for learning, and 138 wpm for memorizing. However, reading at a rate between 250 wpm and 350 wpm allows readers to comprehend a text most efficiently. 2.6 The Advantages of Reading Speed Strategy Jones (2011) wrote in his article that there are several advantages of speed reading strategy. They are explained below.
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a. By enhancing their reading speed, students can cover more chapters compared to their contemporaries, and can find more time to study other subjects. It is proved that children who are blessed with the skill often out perform in their studies. Since its techniques also enhance retention capability, one will be able to recall the vital matters without re-reading the text. b. Speed reading skill will also help employees in the corporate world to read and comprehend reports, emails, newspapers, correspondences and technical papers faster. Since they are required to be up-to-date with new information without sacrificing the office duties, speed reading techniques will prove to be helpful. These techniques that help to manage reading and comprehension at an accelerated rate will lead to increased productivity and efficiency. c. Its techniques also train the eye of the reader to move more quickly across the page. Reading speed improvement comes as the reader learns to take in information in chunks, allowing the brain to more quickly process the data being presented. In summary, there are some advantages of reading speed technique that are very useful in for the students improving the reading comprehension. Because of that, it is better to try applying it in learning reading comprehension process to know about the real effects and responses from the students.

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Chapter III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter will discuss about the details of the research methodology. It deals with research problems, research method, and cycle of research. 3.1 Research Problems This research will be focus about whether it is effective or not applying reading speed strategy to the 11th grade senior high school student in solving the reading comprehension problems and the students responses toward this strategy. Those lead to the research questions below.

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1.

Does the speed-reading strategy give significant effect toward

the problems in improving reading comprehension? 2. strategy? 3.2 Research Method This research will deal with improving reading comprehension through speed reading strategy for 11th grade of senior high school students. Quantitative approach will be used as the research design. Then, this research is conducted in one of the classes in 11th grade in SMAN 1 Pacitan. The method that will be applied is Class Action Research (CAR) which consists of four stages namely (1) planning, (2) implementing, (3) observing, and (4) reflecting. The cycle of the research will be conducted once. However, if there is no significant effect in the first cycle, it will be conducted the second cycle of the research with some change (improvement) needed. The subject of the research is 36 students in one of the class in 11 th grade of SMAN 1 Pacitan. The data gotten in this research are the students reading achievement and their opinions on the speed reading strategy. The instruments which are used in this research are reading tests and questionnaires. The criteria of the success in this research are: (1) the students can read at least 100 words per minute; (2) the scores of the students in reading test increase. 3.3 Cycle of Research What are the students responses toward the speed reading

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3.3.1 Planning In this stage, it will be prepared every single thing that is needed to conduct the action research. First, it is about the socialization of speed reading strategy for 11th grade students. In this stage also will be analyzed what is the students problem in reading. From the discussion between the teacher, the researcher, and the students found that the main problem related to understanding the words. Generally, the students will be asked to open the dictionary to find the meaning by the teacher. So, in this stage also find that the teacher also has problem on how to teach reading comprehension. He only asks the students open the dictionary whereas this strategy can make the learning process of reading will run slowly. They may read word by word and slowly so that it needs a long time and they forget what they read before because they focus in the difficult words. After knowing the problem, they will be given explanation that the most important in reading is about understand the contents as fast as possible, not understand the difficult words. To reach the understanding contents as fast as possible, the students need the strategy, namely Speed-Reading Strategy. This strategy will be focused in context clues, skimming, scanning, timed word selection exercises, and timed reading exercises. Through the practice of those points, it is hoped that the students can be motivated to read and do reading activity as effective as possible. The second steps, the instruments of the research will be prepared. They are reading tests and questionnaires. The reading tests are used to know the effect of reading-speed strategy toward the students problem in reading comprehension,
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whether it is there will be improvement or not after the strategy is implemented. The questionnaires are used to know the students responses toward the strategy itself. 3.3.2 Implementing In this stage, based on the teaching learning preparation arranged before, there will be three phases namely pre-reading, whilst-reading, and post-reading in three meetings. Before implementing the phases, the reading materials and the reading tests have been prepared. They are taken from several sources, such as English text books of 11th grade and internet. The first meeting namely pre-reading, the students are asked to do the prereading tests. They are allowed to open the dictionary during they do the tests. The brief explanation without any simulation of the speed-reading strategy will be given to the students. It is assumed that they do not have background knowledge about speed-reading strategy. ` The second meeting, namely whilst-reading, the students will be given some

treatment on how the implementation of speed-reading strategy. The students will be given the complete explanation about speed-reading strategy. After that, the students will be shown the simulation of the activity in speed-reading strategy such as skimming, scanning, context clues, timed word selections, and timed reading exercises. Then, the last, after get the simulation, the students asked to do the

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second reading tests. They will be given supervisions about the steps in doing the activities in speed-reading strategy while they are doing the reading tests. The third meeting, namely post-reading, the students will be given postreading tests. The students have been given the complete explanation and the simulation activities of speed-reading strategy. Thus, they are asked to do the posttests by using the strategy that they have learned before. In the end, after the students have done in doing the post-tests, they will be given questionnaires to know the students responses toward speed-reading strategy. 3.3.3 Observing This stage will deal with on how the data will be collected. The gotten data will be collected to answer the research questions in two techniques, which are using tests and questionnaires. Firstly, to know the effect of speed-reading strategy toward the students problem in reading comprehension, it will be used reading tests which are taken from several sources, such as English text book for the 11th grade students and internet. There are two kinds of test, namely pre-test and posttest. The pre-test is conducted before they are given the treatment and the post-test is given after they are given the treatment. The scores of the pre-tests and the posttests will be compared and analyzed to know whether it is there is improvement or not after the students use speed-reading in reading comprehension tests. Secondly, to know the students responses toward the speed-reading strategy, it will be used questionnaires. The type of question that will be used is the
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dichotomous questions. There will be two kinds of answer choices, which are Yes and No answer. In each questionnaire sheet, there are three kinds of categories. Each category consists of five questions, so the total question is fifteen questions. The first category is about learning reading comprehension conventionally. The second category is about the learning reading comprehension through speed-reading strategy. The last category is about the progress in reading comprehension after implementing speed-reading strategy. 3.3.4 Reflecting This stage deals with the way how the data that have been collected are analyzed. For the first research question will be answered using the result of reading tests. The scores of pre-test and post-test will be presented in chapter four. From the scores, it will be analyzed statistically, namely statistic descriptive. The data will be presented trough tables of scores pre-test and post-test and bar graphs of pre-test and post-test. Beside of that, it will be also counted the mean and the standard deviation of the pre-test and post-test scores. If there is positive improvement from the pre-test scores to the post-test scores, it means that speed-reading strategy can help the students in solving their problems in reading comprehension. For the second research question, it will be answered by using questionnaires. The results of the questionnaires also will be analyzed statistically. After that, it will be presented in percentage. The major responses of each category will be used to

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know how actually the students responses toward speed-reading strategy in reading comprehension. If the cycle of the research are failed to prove that speed-reading strategy can improve the students reading comprehension, like the criterions of the success that have been explained before, the cycle will be repeated once more with some changes and improvements needed.

REFERENCES Ali, Mohammed Farouk. Journal: The Effect of Using the Jigsaw Reading Technique on the EFL PreserviceTeachers Reading Anxiety and Comprehension. Available at www.tcr.edu.sa/db/researches/54.pdf. Accessed on 15th June 2011. Chang, Anna. 2010. Journal: The Effect of a Timed Reading Activity on EFL Learners: Speed, Comprehension, and Perceptions. Available at www.
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nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/October2010/articles/chang.pdf. Accessed on 11th June 2011. Fan, Yen-Chi. 2010. Journal: The Effect of Comprehension Strategy Instruction on EFL Learners Reading Comprehension. Available at www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/6841/5357.pdf. Accessed on 8th June 2011. Flowers, Debby. 2010. What is Comprehension Reading? Available http://www.ehow.com/about_6625410_comprehension-reading_.html. Accessed on 10th June 2011. at

Hatch, Evelyn and Farhady, Hossein. 1982. Research Design and Statistics. NewBurry House Publisher, Inc. Massachusetts. Jones, Craig. 2011. Speed Reading Techniques for Effective Reading. Available at http://ezinearticles.com/?Speed-Reading-Techniques-For-EffectiveReading&id=6158029. Accessed on 10th June 2011. Lin, Lu-Fang. 2009. Journal: The Impact of the Retelling Technique on Chinese Students' English Reading Comprehension. Available at www.asian-efljournal.com/June_2010. Accessed on 6th June 2011. Williams, Christina. 2010. Comprehension Important Reading. Available at http://www.ehow.com/facts_5146900_comprehension-importantreading.html. Accessed on 6th June 2011. Zimmerman, Jennifer. 2010. Definition of Reading Comprehension. Available at http://www.ehow.com/about_6593485_definition-readingcomprehension.html. Accessed on 10th June 2011.

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