CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background Reading is one of the skills that Students should master in learning English.

Based on the curriculum for Madrasah Aliyah No: 373 December 22nd 1993 the main Objective of the Teaching English is developing students ability to read. The Students should be able to read the subject and get the information from the reading text. In reading activities, as stated in the

Curriculum of Madrasah Aliyah the purposes of teaching reading are; First, Students are excepted to find

certain Information of the reading material. Second, Students Reading. can find the general can Information find Main of the

Third,

Students

Ideas

implicitly. Fourth, Students can find the Main Idea explicitly. information information Fifth Students can find Students students all can can detail find guess

implicitly. explicitly.

Sixth, Seventh,

the meaning of the words; phrases and sentences based on the context. And eighth, Students can get enjoyment (DEP. AGAMA 1993).It is generally believe that reading

should be learnt by the students from the first to the third years. The fact, it is students understand the difficult to make the text. They have

reading

difficulties to catch the ideas of the reading text and they often misunderstand and misinterpret about the content of the text. Because of difficulties of reading comprehension, the writer assume that the students are of uninteresting teaching techniques. bored because Therefore the

writer will try to apply one of the techniques to help the students by using small groups work discussion in reading classroom. Using small groups work will make the students learn selves and it can help them to develop their ability by themselves. By a good leading of the doing technique in reading classroom activities students are expected to be able to catch the content of the topics, get the ideas, get general or specific

information in reading text which they will discuss in small group discussion. From the explanation above, the writer is

interested to carry out the research on the Improving Students ability in reading comprehension through

small groups work.

The writer hope this technique can help the students improvement in reading comprehension.

1.2. The Setting of the Problem There are some problems the writer found after teaching at Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) Bengkalis, the problems can be caused by some aspects that may influence students in comprehending reading materials, it can come from the teachers capability, such as techniques, roles, or performance, the time schedule, the school environment and the students capabilities, such as their background knowledge, vocabularies, and their knowledge about the topics so the students have problems in understanding reading text. The problems are: Why do most of students have difficulties in

answering question? Does it happen because of their vocabulary, their knowledge in structure or other

skills needed to comprehend the text and to answer the questions or the teacher techniques? How the problems can be overcome? Can small group work discussion

techniques solve the students problem?

1.3. The Limitation of the Problem Since it is impossible to cover all the problems mentioned above, limitation should be made. In this term the writer attention want in to discuss how to In increase reading

students

learning

process.

activities, the writer use some themes and topics of the subject. The Family topics of the subject were: and

Education,

Planning,

Healthy,

Galaxy,

Olympic. The small groups work in reading classroom activities suitable with the subject.

1.4. Formulation of the Problem Based on the background the problem can be formulated as follows: Do the students have better reading comprehension

achievement when they are taught in small group work? Can teaching reading in small group work improve the students achievement in reading?

1.5. The Objective of Research The objective of this research is to know the techniques Reading for improving small students groups Comprehension technique in in

through

work

classroom activities.
4

1.6. The Need of research The research is intended to know the students with the small groups work have better comprehension. And it can improve themselves.

1.6. The Definition of the Term Used The terms used in this research are explained as follows: Improving: the ways to become better than before(Hornby 2000). Ability: capacity or power and skill to do somethings(Echol,1995). Based on this definition, the writer defines that students ability is students capacity to comprehend the reading texts. Reading: study, perusal of written or printed matter intended to be read ( Witty,228.1971). Comprehension : the ability to understand/an exercise that trains the students to understand(Hornby 2000). Small group: group consisting of 3 or 4 students Small group work: it is an activity done by learner to select and discuss the content of reading text

with the teacher and the learner during the process of teaching and in a reading class (Harmer,1991).

CHAPTER II THEORICAL FRMEWORK

2.1 The Concept of Reading Comprehension. Talking about the concept of Reading

Comprehension some expert have given their thought as follows: first reading is an interactive process

between what a reader already knows about given topic or subject and what the writer writes (Nunan, 1990; 33). Second reading is a process of understanding of the Symbols (Lado; 1964). In the development bottom-up of and the theory of reading

comprehension

top-down

processing

strategies are important for readers ( Nuttal 1996; 17). Bottom-up reading belongs to the theory that

states that the reader will understand the meaning of the text only after the action of reading. According to the theory the readers understanding of the text will depend only on the meaning of the words,

sentences, will

and

paragraph. The to the

meaning of of a

the words a

contribute

meaning

sentence,

sentence to a paragraph and so on. This theory claim

that the readers background knowledge does not help or influence the readers understanding to the text. Top-down reading on the opposite, is the theory that states that reading is dynamic process. There is an interaction between the reader and the text. The readers understanding and interpretation to the text will depend not only on the meaning of the words and sentences, but also on the readers background

knowledge and past experiences related to the topic of the reading. A substantial body of research indicate that many readers do not fully understand the text, not because they do not know the meaning of the words and sentences in the text but because they dont have appropriate background knowledge about the text. Moreover reading has been called a process of decoding a particular writing system into language or a process of getting meaning from written materials. According to Reinking and Scheiner in Kustaryo (1988) define with reading print as an active process to of interacting meaning.

and

monitoring

establish

Kustaryo (1988) mentioned that reading is meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols. Furthermore, he concludes that reading is combination of word recognition and intellect, and emotion
8

interrelated with prior knowledge to understand the message communicated. Horn (1971), indicate that to understand the

message mean to comprehend the text. The comprehension of the written language involve large factors such as lexical, between grammatical, sentences, of cultural paragraph meaning, connection the

structure, and many

organization

longer elements

other. In

order to read confidently, students should understand what they read.

2.2. The purpose of Teaching Reading According to the GBPP of Madrasah Aliyah 1993, reading is the most important skill to be developed in the classroom. This means that teaching/learning time must be very much devoted for the students

development of receptive skill. The aim of teaching reading is to help the

student to develop students skill, so that they can read English text effectively and efficiently, and

also to enable them to interpret of what they read. Thus effective reading is always purposeful.

Mc Donough and Shaw (1993 : 102) Claim that much of the currents thinking on reading tends to focus
9

primarily on the purpose of the activities even if reading is done for pleasure, it is purposeful. In general, the purpose of reading is classified into as follows : 1. Getting general information from the text. 2. Getting specific information from the text. 3. Reading for pleasure or for interest (William 1984). In addition Gallert (1986) stated that there are some goals of reading activities: Recognizing the script of a language Deducing of the meaning and use unfamiliar lexical item Understanding explicitly stated information Understanding information when not explicitly stated Understanding the communicative value (function) of sentences Understanding relations within the sentences Understanding relation between part of a text

through lexical cohesion devises Interpreting text by going outside it Recognizing indicators in discourse Identifying the main point or important information in a piece of discourse
10

Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details Extracting salient points to summarize Selective extraction of relevant points from a text Basic reference skill Skimming Scanning to locate specifically require information Transcending information to diagrammatic display

2.3. The Concept of group work The group work is designed for collaborative

activity in teaching learning. Group work seems to be extremely attractive idea for a number of reasons.

When all the student in a group are working together to produce an advertisement, for example they will be communicating with each other and more importantly cooperating among themselves (Harmer,245.1991). There is some research that indicates that the use of groups work improves learning outcomes. It can improve motivation and contribute to a feeling

cooperation and warmth in the class (Penny,232.1996)

11

2.4.Importance of Small Group-work in Language learning Group-work in learning language is significant to increase learners language quantity. Students are able to increase their language store as they listen or read authentic linguistic materials or event the output of their fellow students in discussion, joint problem, group solving tasks, can or use dialogue. all the Moreover, posses in of in the life is

work

student all where they

language, exchanges

have

learned, their

real meaning

expressing

real

important to them (Rivers1998). Cotteral strategies (199O), small has groups. developed He reading the

trough

examined

reading behavior of a group of students involved in interactive reading strategy training program. The

study paid attention to the learners processing of the text in foreign language. The experimented technique seek to bridge the gap between students current level of reading performance in English and that required for successful reading through a combination of

strategy training and groups work. The uses of small group work in reading

classroom can improve the quality of students ability because: (1) students obtain face to face
12

communication for conversation in a small groups; (2) two or three students working together are not limited to producing hurried, isolated sentences so that they can develop discourse competence; (3) students are

able to develop at least some of the variety of skills which make up communicative competence in a foreign language/second language. For additional information, Livia Savova and Richard Donanto point out the feeling of positively contributing to the successful

achievement of task, typical for group work, increase students motivation to learn.

Furthermore, the use of small group student can: Collaborative gather information,

support opinions decisions Collaborate analyzing, in readers and response student Solve the problems, evaluate and make

activities:

evaluating

essay (Blanton 1992, Savova and Donanto 1991). The next, Nunnan (1990: 35) argues that successful

reading, can involves: Using word attack skills such as

identifying sound/symbol correspondences;

13

 meaning ;

Using grammatical knowledge to recover

Using

different

techniques

for

different process, such as skimming and scanning for key word or information; Relating text content to ones own

background knowledge of the subject at hand; Identifying the rhetorical or

functional intention of individual sentences or text segments, for example recognizing when the writer is offering a definition or a summary even when they are not explicitly signaled by phrases such as X may be defined as In small groups work the students can discover what they know and what they dont know, what they understand and what they dont understand.

2.5. Three phases in Teaching Reading To help student to develop their ability in reading comprehension the teaching learning process

will involve these phases: Pre-reading, Whilst-reading and Post reading activities. Pre-reading

14

Pre-reading activity is the activity before reading process then, the aims of this phase are; To introduce and a rouse the interest of the

students to the topic. To motivate the students to give a reaction for the reading. To provide some Languages preparation for the

text.

Whilst-reading. Whilst-reading activity is the chore of the lesson. What is done in this phase is for development of the students reading skill as demanded by the GBPP. In this phase the students divided into small groups. A group consists of three or four members to discuss the tasks. Through whilst reading tasks, students

are trained how to read the text effectively and efficiently, for example to read according to the purpose. In this phase the students do activities which focussed on: Read the text once or twice silently; In this task, the students are asked to read the text by themselves.

15

Discuss the general topic of the text in their group; The students are asked to find the general topic of the text that they read.

Discuss the content of each paragraph; The students are asked about the content of each paragraph according to the text

Discuss the main idea of each paragraph; The students are asked to find the main idea of each paragraph

Getting some specific

information of the text;

The groups are asked to discuss and find some specific information of the text, and Getting information explicitly. The groups asked to find information of the text explicitly.

Post-reading This phase is the last activities for reading class which the aim as follows; To consolidate or reflect up on what has been read.

16

To

relate

the text

to the

students knowledge

interest or views. In this phase student still work in small group. By evaluating the task, they can share their idea,

knowledge based on the reading text and relate to their real life.

2.5.

Hypothesis The writer proposes that on had his been experience mention in and the

supporting

theories

previous pages before the result of this research is conducted. The hypotheses is as follows; groups work is one of significant the small for

techniques

improving students ability in reading comprehension at the first year students of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri Bengkalis

17

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1. Research Design This research can be categorized into action

research. It has developed with a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research

process. Each cycle has three steps: intend, act, and review (Rory, 1998). At the beginning, the writer

tries to collect some information about the students problem in reading activity. The writer chooses the reading materials for teaching based on the theme, sub theme and topics. Finding a good technique that can be used to improve class. It can the students attention in reading help him to make some planning for

teaching learning process in

reading classroom. Then

apply the small group work discussion as a technique in teaching learning process and finally, evaluate the technique to see the improvement of the students

ability in reading comprehension.

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3.2. The Location and Time of research. The research was conducted at Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) I Bengkalis. It was located at Jalan

Pembangunan

Bengkalis. The

research is

held from

July to August 2003.

3.3. Population and Sample In this research the writer took the first year students academic year 2003-2004 as population with the number as follows: Class I.1 I.2 I.3 I.4 I.5 Total number Student number 33 35 32 34 33 172

In this term the writer got the class I.1 as sample for the research and class 1.3 for trying out of the test. It was taken randomly. The main reason

to choose the sample is that they are relatively have the same characteristics such as the ages, they also have same prior of Learning English achievement,

19

background taught using the same methods by the same teacher. 3.5. Data Collection Technique In this research, the writer used two phases of reading test by pre test, teaching in small groups and posttest. students The pre test whose used to figure as out the The

abilities

chosen

sample.

teaching in small group is significant activities to get the result of the research. The small group work

was employed to subject in the action research to the subject. And the last phase is administering posttest. The result were taken is analyzed in order to know the effect of the two different teaching techniques. Validating and reliability the test

Validity is the most important feature of a good test. A test is considered valid when the test

measures what is supposed to measure. For the purpose of the present study content validity was used as an achievement comprehension test. test The is result analyzed of by try out reading ways.

using

two

Determining item difficulty and item discrimination. The first step is to determine the difficulty level of each item. It is done by finding the percentage of the research subjects who answer each item correctly. The
20

numbers of students who answer correctly were compare to the total number of students who are involved in the test. index of The second step is to determine difficulty each item, between that high is and how low well each of item the

discriminates

level

subject ( Harris 1974: 105 106). Then Heaton (1975) show the formula to

calculate the difficulty index (facility value), it can be calculate by using the following formula; FV Where FV = R N The = = items Facility Value The number of correct answer The number of Students discrimination shows the extend to = R N

which the items discriminate among the students who are able to mastery it. It is calculated by the

following formula: Correct U Correct L D = N D = Discrimination Index N = Number of student

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U = Upper group answering ( upper half) L = Lower group answering ( lower half) From this formula, it can be said that the items, which get the standard discrimination index below 0,30 or above 0,70 should be revised and changed into the new ones which are more appropriate ( J.B Heaton;

1975). Reliability characteristic of of any the good test test. is In a order necessary to find

reliability of the test is used the following formula: N = N-1 m(N-m) 1- N (x)2

rtt Where rtt N m test x

= Reliability of test = The Number of test items = The main score of the test of try out

= Standard deviation of try out test (Heaton, 1975)

3.6. Instrument To collect the required data in the present

study, the writer decided to use reading comprehension test. In this term the writer apply 25 test items to
22

be done by the students. The test was in multiple choice formatted. The tests are divided into five

groups of items based on the topics; 5 items refers to Education, 5 items refers to Family Planning, 5 items refers to Keep Healthy, 5 items refers to Galaxy and

5 items refers to Olympic. The table of items specification Topics Education Family planning Healthy Galaxy Olympic Reading Skill Finding main idea Finding general information Finding specific information Finding Finding Item 5,8,14,20,23 1,9,15,16,21 2,10,13,19,24

explicit information 3,6,11,17,22 content of paragraph 4,7,12,18,25

The test procedure were taken as follows: At the beginning the students were given pre-test to know the students taught in mastery the in reading group comprehension Than before in the

small

discussion.

process of action applying the groups work technique. Finally, they were given post-test to see the

increasing of the students comprehension on reading the text. Here is an example of the test. Choose the correct answer by crossing a, b, c, d or e.

23

Besakih, is the location of. a. largest and holiest temple in Bali b. many sandstone shop c. many community d. Balinese painting e. The Goa gajah

3.7. Data Analysis technique The final data analysis is done in order to get the answer of the research question in this action research. Data will be analyzed by comparing the

result of pre-test and post-test score. The data will be analyzed by t t = Md x2d formula:

Where ; Md xd = =

N(N-1) Mean deviation of Pre-test and Post-test Deviation of each student Total quadrate of deviation Number of Student (Arikunto 1993).

x2d = N =

24

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING

4.1. The Result of Try Out After doing the try out, the writer found that there were some items should be changed or rewritten because their index of difficulty could not reach the standard changed of or difficulty rewritten items. were The items should be

the

item

number

1,2,7,9,11,17. They were categorized as too easy one because their difficult index of the tests item was above 70% (see appendix III). While the items number

6,15, and 22 were changed because their validity value was below 0,30. They categories as difficult one (see appendix III). After knowing the difficulty level of the test, the writer would present the discrimination index and reliability of the test. To be more clearly, it can be seen in appendix V.

4.2. The Presentation of The Data Analysis

25

After conducting the pretest and posttest of the students and analyzing the result, the writer shows the result of the test, it can be seen the sum of the students score in the pre test is 2144 and the sum of the posttest is 2306, the score increased 162 when its compared to the sum of pretest and posttest the students score have improvement. It shows that the mean score of pretest is 64,97 and the mean score of posttest is 69,87. From the data analysis t

calculated is 4,67 (see appendix VI). After consulting the t table with 32 degrees of the freedom (N-1). The t value is needed for the selected significant level of 0.01 is 2.75 and

significant level of 0,05 is 2,04. The chapter analysis IV result of in the a t-test finding as that presented in in

general

students taught with the small group work get better score in reading comprehension test. As a result, the null hypotheses is rejected, while the working

hypotheses is accepted. This indicate that the present study proves that the small group work of teaching reading comprehension develop students skills more

effectively.

26

CHAPTER V CONCUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1. CONCLUSION Based on the results of data analysis, some

conclusions can be drawn: a. The small group work technique of teaching reading comprehension has better achievement for improving

students ability in reading class. In other words, the former of technique facilities learning more than later. b. The score of the students pretest and posttest c. Most of students got mediocre score. has increased between

5.2. SUGGESTION Having seen the results of the research, the

writer would like to offer some suggestions. 1. The small group work technique can be done in order to make the students reading comprehension

achievement better and better.

27

2. The teacher who want to use the small group work technique, suggested select the reading materials that appropriate for the technique. 3. A good performance of the teacher to lead the

students in using the small group work technique will get reading comprehension achievement well.

28