PRONOUNCEMENT The undersigned
Student Name: CHALEARNSOUK DADIVONG
Student No: S890809003
Study Program: Pendidikan Bahasa Ingris
Institution: Seblas Maret University
Declare that, this thesis entailed classroom action research is my own write
action account and has not previously been submitted for a degree to any other
University or institution and the best of my knowledge it contains no previously
published work or point of those cited in writing and knowledge in the references my
Thesis entitled “Using Directed Reading to Improve the Students’ Reading Comprehension” (A Class action research at the 3rd year’s students of English Department, Faculty of Education, Champasack University in Academic year
2010-2011).
It is not a plagiarism or made by others, anything related to other’s work is
written in quotation, the source of which is listed on the bibliography. If or then, this
pronouncement proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment,
including withdrawal or canceling of any academic degree.
Surakarta, February 2011
Chalearnsouk Dadivong
Nim: S890809003
ABSTRACT
CHALEARNSOUK DADIVONG, Nim: S890809003 “Using Directed Reading to Improve the Students’ Reading Comprehension” A Class action research at the 3rd year’s students of English Department, Faculty of Education, Champasack University in Academic year 2010-2011. A thesis: English Education of Graduate School, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta 2011.
This action research is carried out to improve the students’ reading comprehension using directed reading and to know what happens when directed reading are used in classroom. The problem highlighted in this action research in the low, poor and different level reading comprehension of En3/2 class at Champasak University in Lao PDR. That caused by the uninteresting text book that caused students’ low motivation.
The action research is conducted in two cycles from June – January 2011 in En 3/2 class of Champasak University in Lao PDR. The procedure of the action research consists of identifying the problems, planning the action, implementing the action, observing the action, and reflecting the result of the action research. In collecting the data, the researcher used observation notes, questionnaires, interviews, diaries and test. The tests were in the form of pre-test and post-test to answer this action research questions. In this research, the researcher acted as a teacher who conducts the action in the classroom and he was assisted by his collaborator. There were two kinds of data such as qualitative and quantitative data. In analyzing quantitative data, the researcher used descriptive statistics. In analyzing qualitative data, the research used constant comparative method.
The result of research showed that using directed reading could improve students’ reading comprehension and classroom situation. The improvement of the classroom situation was supported by data which cover the students’ participation, attendance and enthusiasm during the teaching-learning process. The improvement on the students’ reading comprehension reflected from the mean progress of pre-test and post-test. Based on the results of the research, it was concluded that students’ reading comprehension can be improve by using directed reading. It is suggested that the teacher should use other texts beside the text book in teaching language skills, the teacher should be more careful in selecting the texts. The students are encouraged to read more to improve their ability in comprehending the text. Other researcher is encouraged to do the research in using directed reading texts in other areas of language skills.
MOTTO
“Orang pemarah tidak sesuai djadi guru” “An impatient man is not suited for teaching”
“Orang pintar selalu berguru kepada sesama manusia”
“A wise man always takes lesson from his surroundings”
“Mengembara adalah guru yang baik, tapi pengalaman adalah guru yang paling baik”
“Adventure is good teacher, but experience is the best”
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
The opportunity to reach a Master Degree has been provide an important
experience in my personal life. Because this is the process had been relatively longer,
but had exposed me to numerous challenging academic and intellectual phenomena, I
never had experience before.
Furthermore, unlimited thanks to the Government of Laos PDR and Indonesia
Government, which though the cooperation on Non-Aligned movement countries,
bee offering me to the scholarship to do master degree me in Indonesia, and
I would like to express gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to
complete this action research study.
I would like to express of my deepest and gratitude to the director, vice director and
staff worker, staff of English department and assistants of graduate school at Sebelas
Maret University, Surakarta Indonesia and Champasak University of Laos PDR for
their kindness and facilitation, especially The Head of English Department, Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd my sincere thanks.
All my gratitude and deeply indebted to my academic supervisor or
consultants, Prof. Dr. Joko Nurkamto, M.Pd and Drs. Gunarso S, M. Ed. Tesol who provided guidance, and largely contributed to the elaboration and comprehension
of this work and support to me during the action research for my study would be run
well.
Finally, I would like to express of my deepest gratitude to my parent, sisters,
and my cousin for their morale patience, encouragement financial support. I also
would like to thanks all my friends to gave me the support.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE ………... i
APPROVAL ……… ii
LEGALIZATION ………... iii
PRONOUNCEMENT ……… iv
ABSTRACT ……… v
MOTTO ………... vi
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS………... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……….. viii
APPENDIX……….... xi
LIST OF TABLES………. xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study……….1
B. Problem Formulation………...5
C. Object of Research………...5
D. Benefit of the Research………5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Descriptive………7
1. The Nature of Reading…………...7
2. Reading Comprehension…………...……….16
3. Directed Reading……….21
B. Rationale ………...24
C. Action Hypothesis……….27
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Setting 1. Time of Research……….28
2. Place of Research……….28
3. Research Subjects………30
B. Research Design………....31
C. Data Collecting Techniques………..37
D. Data Analysis Techniques……….38
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION A. Introduction ………..41
B. The process of the research ………..43
1. Description of the Previous Research ………43
a. Students’ Reading Comprehension ………..45
b. Class Situation ………..47
2. Research Implementation .………..49
a. Cycle 1………...51
b. Cycle 2 ………..63
3. Research Findings ………...73
C. Discussion ………79
1. The Improvement of Students’ Reading Comprehension...…79
2. The Improvement of Classroom Situation………...80
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND SUGGESSION A. Conclusion ………83
B. Implication ………84
C. Suggestion ……….84
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
Appendix 1 : Photographs………...89
Appendix 2 : Interview I ………...91
Appendix 3 : Students’ Answer Interview I ………...92
Appendix 4 : Questionnaire I ………93
Appendix 5 : Students’ Answers Questionnaire I ………...95
Appendix 6 : Pre-test………..………...97
: post-test 1………...109
: Key Answer for pre-test and post test 1……….121
Appendix 7 : Blue print for pre-test Items ………..122
Appendix 8 : post-test 2………...123
Appendix 9 : Students’ Answer for Post-test 2………136
Appendix 10 : Interview 2 ……….149
Appendix 11 : Students’ Answer for Interview 2………..150
Appendix 12 : Questionnaire 2………...151
Appendix 13 : Students’ Answer for Questionnaire 2………...153
Appendix 14 : Lesson plan 1 for the first meeting………...155
: Lesson plan 2 for the second meeting………158
: Lesson plan 3 for the third meeting………...162
Appendix 15 : Lesson plan A for the second cycle ………...165
: Lesson plan B for the second cycle ………...169
Appendix 16 : T-test for Non-Independence ……….173
Appendix 17 : T-test for Non-Independence ……….174
Appendix 18 : Pre-test of Test Validity………...175
Appendix 19 : Post-test 1 of Test Validity……….177
Appendix 20 : Post-test 2 of Test Validity……….178
Appendix 21 : The Students’ Handout ………...179
Appendix 22 : Maps of Laos………..………...185
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Research Schedule ………..28
Table 3.2 Research procedures………31
Table 3.3 The System of Score Category………39
Table 4.1 Process of the research………42
Table 4.2 prior situation………..44
Table 4.3 The result of pre-test can be seen as follows………...45
Table 4.4 The grade, percentage mean score and complete questions of pre-test…...45
Table 4.5 The score of pre-test………46
Table 4.6 the result of questionnaire………48
Table 4.7 Overall Implementation of the Research……….50
Table 4.8 Implementation of cycle 1………...51
Table 4.9 The teaching reading comprehension was show below………...56
Table 4.10 The scores of Post-test 1………62
Table 4.11 The result of mean scores and complete of Questions in post-test 1...62
Table 4.12 Implementation of cycle 2……….64
Table 4.13 The scores of Post-test 2………71
Table 4.14 The result of mean scores and complete Questions in post-test 2……….71
Table 4.15 Research Finding………...73
Table 4.16 The Score of Pre-test, Post-test 1 and Post-test 2………..76
Table 4.17 The mean Score of Pre-test, Post-test 1 and Post-test 2………76
Table 4.18 The Result of Questionnaires………78
Chapter I Introduction
E. Background of the Study
Reading is a complex process because it includes transferring the message
between writers and readers who have different background knowledge. In other
words, it is such kind of activity to comprehend the writer’s ideas or the way of the
writer communicates with the readers by the way of the writer or painted the words.
So in reading, the readers have to construct the meaning while reading. One of the
ways in constructing the meaning is by using readers’ background knowledge to get
the meaning or information in the text. In these cases, the level of readers’ knowledge
is different one to the other. Sometime, the readers are poor or lack of relevant
cultural knowledge or they have enough relevant cultural knowledge but they do not
use it optimally. As the result, they cannot comprehend what they read well.
According to Curriculum 2006 of National University of Laos intends to
obtain the achievement of Competence Standard in students’ reading ability: (1) to
understand the meaning in transactional and interpersonal conversation formally and
sustainably: (2) to understand the meaning in the short functional and monologue text
in the form of the narrative, spoof, and hortatory: (3) to express the meaning in the
short functional and monologue text in the form of narrative, spoof, and hortatory
accurately, fluently and acceptably: (4) to understand the written monologue text in
the form narrative accurately, fluently and acceptably in the daily life context and to
access the science: (5) to express the meaning in the written monologue text or essay
in the form of narrative in the daily life content. The target of the achievement in
English competence is hoped 60 as criteria complete minimum.
One of the four macro skills taught in an English language classroom is reading.
Reading is defined as a thinking process which requires a response from the reader
may it be through making generalizations, drawing new inferences and planning to
involves steps to achieve and reinforce understanding namely; word perception,
comprehension, reaction and integration (Zintz & Maggart, 1986:56).
Reading comprehension has become the problems among students. These
conditions were identifies as the students got the difficulties to answer such questions
especially for finding main ideas and inferences. Furthermore, they also got difficulty
to paraphrase. These difficulties were indicated as follows: (1) students incorrectly
interpreted main idea with specific details: (2) they could not relate between one clue
to other and they failed determining the key point of the sentence: (3) The classroom
situation made these situations even worse: (4) The students were passive during the
lecturing. They even showed no interest toward the subject. Then they low
cooperation completed their negative respond to reading class. The students’ passivity
in the classroom was indicated as students kept silent during lecturing and they also
had no respond when they were asked questions. In addition to their passivity, the
students also showed no interest toward reading class; many of them make noisy,
play with their hand phone, discus with other topics and went out during the class.
Furthermore, their low cooperation was identified as they had no courage to share
ideas with friends, tended to work individually and talked with their topics out of the
discussion.
There were some causes of the mentioned problems above. The first cause
was from the students. It was identified that the students’ vocabulary mastery was
poor. Then students had no contributive model during work group activity and
independent activity. From the teacher’s point of view, the teaching learning process
showed that it was monotonous. Teacher less monitored the student activity. The
technique which was applied during teaching-leaning process made the students’ in
such passive situation as they often got broad oral explanation from their teacher.
Even the teacher’s broad oral explanation was even considered fast to the students.
In this view, reading was seen as a tool for cultural transmission and
socialization among people in a sense that texts were viewed as cultural artifacts
unique cultural context for each culture contributes to different ways of reading a text
Bernhardt, (1991:35).
Moreover, reading means different things to different people, for some it is
recognizing written words. While for others it is an opportunity to teach
pronunciation and practice speaking. However reading always has a purpose. It is part
of daily lives and generally assumed that everybody can do it. The reason for reading
depends very much on the purpose for reading. Reading can have three main
purposes, for survival, for learning or for pleasure. Reading for survival is considered
to response to our environment, to find out information and can include traffic signs,
advertising, and timetables. It depends on day-to-day needs of the reader and often
involves an immediate response to a situation. In contras reading for learning is
considered to be the type of reading done in the classroom and is goal oriented. While
reading for pressure is something that does not have to be done. For Nuttal (1996:
168-169) the central idea behind reading are: the idea of meaning, the transfer off
meaning from one to another, the transfer of message from writer to reader, how we
get meaning by reading and how the reader, the writher and the text all contribute to
the process. We can conclude that reading is a complex activity that involves both
perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition
and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written
symbols correspond to one’s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of
making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers usually make use of
background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and experience with
text.
The English teachers are teaching in the classroom, it like testing and asking
questions to get information. I was often frustrated by the fact that students have
difficulties in reading comprehension because some students were citizen and some
were from remote area and negative in second language, so they have different
background of English language there are four aspects of background such as word
Moreover, there is only a little enthusiasm to learn English. For some of them,
studying is a must which they have to do, not a need. Teaching English in such
situation needs extra patience and effort; some teachers have limited experience to
teach the students in the class.
Even though, from the previous research there were the problems with
students’ reading skill by some indicators as follows: (1) students could not predict
the meaning of the words: (2) they lack of making inference: (3) The students could
not find the detail from the context: (4) The students were passive during teaching
and learning process.
And the main causes of these problems were as follows: (1) teacher still used
traditional approach and only gave few portions for reading where as reading is a
complex activity: (2) Teacher didn’t give enough attention to teach the students how
to read in English correctly: (3) teacher did not have enough experience: (4) students
had differences level of knowledge, Low and poor reading: (5) students lack of
practices and still do not master on reading comprehension: (6) students came from
remote area, so they had different limited knowledgeable.
In recent years, Reading in the classroom it was using directed reading to
development in first language, and second foreign language (L2/FL) setting has
increased. Directed reading gives student highly engaged and focused on directed
reading. Actively guiding students through a reading frequently requesting student
responses, offering comments when appropriate rather than asking students to read
text and rather than presenting the information to them orally, we can intersperse the
reading and oral discussion in a way that produces high participation lessons. This is
especially useful for poor reader and poor listeners.
Gregory and (2007: 103) state that graphic organizers can be used for
brainstorming at the beginning of lesson or unit to find out what students have
already known. Graphic organizers can help students to be able to organize and
capture information, for example in reading assignment or when watching video.
new information to previously learn information. Finally, they also function as tool
for checking understanding, note taking and summarizing and the culmination
assessment. Further, Almasi (2003: 94) support to Gregory and Caloryn opinion
about the use of graphic organizers on reading. He state that graphic organizer help
focus students’ attention to the meaner in which text is organized while they read.
This visual aid helps students anticipate the type for information they will encounter
while reading and it helps them organize the incoming information as they read. Such
organization facilitates easy access, which enhance recall and comprehension. Base
on those mentioned experts’ arguments, the researcher defines graphic organizer as,
in lines with the need of the research, graphic displays that enhance students’
opportunity to portray any information from the given passage for mean idea,
inference, and paraphrase both in individual and group work activity. Therefore, the
researcher is sure that graphic organizes are good selection to solve the students’
problem on finding mean idea, inference and paraphrasing.
F. Problem Formulation
The problems of the Action Research are formulated as follows:
1. Can and to what extent directed reading improve students’ reading
comprehension?
2. What happens with classroom situation when directed reading is used to improve
the students’ reading comprehension?
G. Object of the Research
Base on the problem statement above the objectives of the research are:
1. To identify whether and to what extent directed reading can improve students’
reading comprehensions or not.
2. To describe what happens with classroom situation when directed reading are
applied in teaching learning comprehension.
H. Benefit of the Research
Hopefully, this research can be useful to the students, the other teacher and
The finding of this class action research will give benefit to:
1. The students: the students’ reading comprehension will be better and their
motivation to read will improve.
2. The teacher: the result of this research can be useful input in teaching reading
skill by using directed reading.
3. The writer: the writer will have more knowledge in selecting and using good
directed reading in teaching reading skill.
4. The institution: the result of this study can be used as an alternative to compose
Chapter II
Review of Related Literature
In this chapter, the writer describes the concept of theories, such as:
theoretical descriptive, reading comprehension, directed reading, rationale and action
hypothesis.
A. Theoretical Descriptive 1. The nature of reading
a. Definition of reading
Many people assume that reading is an activity of looking at and
understanding writing form. Mean while, reading has different definitions for
different people. According to Harris (1962: 9) reading is the meaningful
interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols. It also involves sensing,
perceiving, achieving meaning, learning and reacting in a variety of ways.
Menyan and Leeuw (1965: 49) as quoted by Sabrina (2002: 5) state that
reading is digestive process and it has two principles, first they are learning by
understanding, it means selecting, discriminating and organizing. The second
principle is flexibility. He must take time to read slowly when the meaning of word
recognition and intellects and emotion interrelated with prior knowledge to
understand the message communicated (Callahan and Clark, 1988: 245).
Furthermore, Harris (1962: 10) also explains that the sense of reading starts with
focusing of two eyes so that they center on particular symbols. At this level, reading
requires legible symbols, adequate light so eyes are able to focus clear pattern on
retina. The meaning of perceiving is reading has visual sensations. The visual
sensations are aroused by the printed symbols and already existing memory traces of
visual appearances, of the thing, of the spoken word and of its meaning.
In addition, Hudgson in Kamidjsn (1996: 67) cites that reading is s process
that is done and used by the reader to get message and information that is obtained by
wide meaning is a process of formulating the text, the value, the function and the
impact of the text itself (Depdikbud, 1985: 11).
Base on the definition above, the reader begins reading from letter to larger
units, they read letter by letter to sound and combine them into words, then connect
the individual words into sentences. It can be concluded that reading is a silent and
individual activity, an active cognitive process to establish meaning, word recognition
to understand the message communicated and the language symbols to re present
what sound shows the writer’s idea.
What is really happening when we are reading? When we are reading our eyes
move from left to right going through long line of print and they make a series of
small jerky movements, stopping momentarily on each word or group of words. In
general, good comprehension means recognizing and understanding general idea and
specific fact and seeing how these ideas and facts are organized and developed
(Sonka, 1979: 2). However, the reading process does not deal with the eyes only, it
also concern with our brain. Lado (1964: 119) defines reading comprehension as a
process of gaining meaning from words and sentences as the presentation of the
language through the process decoding the writer symbols. That definition is intended
to emphasize two essential elements in reading, the language itself and the graphic
symbolization used in representing it. It means that reading is a process of
understanding the symbols. Goodman (1967: 104) describes the reading process as
followings:
Reading is psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interacting between thought and language. Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to productive cues necessary to product guesses.
From the statement above it can be concluded that reading is not passive
activity. The reader must make an active contribution if the acquires the available
information. In the case, the reader forms a preliminary expectation about the reading
that expectation. This is a process in which the reader utilizes his knowledge for
vocabulary, syntax, discourse, and experimental background. Here the reader makes
plan and decision, and coordinate number of skill and strategies to facilitate
comprehension. The great emphasis is placed on the importance of background
knowledge.
b. Types of Reading
According to Harris (1998: 13) there are two types of reading such as:
Intensive reading and Extensive reading.
1) In Dictionary of reading (1983: 160) as quoted by Harras, intensive reading
means reading activity that is done accurately. Sonka (1979: 87) adds that intensive
reading refers to the kind of work done in the reading class. It is also the kind of
careful work student may do when studying for an exam.
Intensive reading here means an activity for reading in class where the student
read passage with the help of their teacher. In this reading activity, the role of teacher
as a guide to bring his students’ ability to efficient and skillful reader is very obvious.
Therefore, lesson should be planed so that intensive silent reading is alternated with a
variety of reading related activities. In addition, the student should be encouraged to
read extensively outside class that is to spend a half hour in the evening with
something he chooses to read (a magazine, newspaper, short story, and texts). The
major objective of intensive reading is developing the students’ ability to decode
massage by drawing on syntactic and lexical cues, and it also emphasizes on skill for
recognition.
2) Extensive reading
Extensive reading means reading activity that is done in large way,
(Dictionary of Reading in Han, 1998: 13). Extensive reading refer to the outside
reading that student do on their own with no help or guide dance from the teacher.
These kinds of reading train the students to come to the level of reading for
enjoyment. The students should be train to read directly and fluently in the foregoing
In extensive reading, the reader reads a text without an emphasis on analysis
of word and grammatical points. Although such reading is meant as independent
reading, there should be regular and systematic feedback from it. c. Important Factors to Choosing Directed Reading
1) Receptive Skills
The two receptive skills are reading and listening. There are several
similarities between teaching them so the general description to be given here applies
both to listening and reading. Though reading and listening are receptive skills it does
not mean that the reader or the listener is only a passive participant of
communication, as both skills involve active participation. Reading and listening are
sources of both finely and roughly tuned input.
2) Reasons for Reading
We can divide reasons for reading and listening into two broad categories:
instrumental and pleasurable listening or reading. We can speak about instrumental
reading or listening when we want to achieve some clear aim. For example, we read
instructions on a machine because we want to know how to operate it. A brochure is
read if tourists need some pieces of information about a spot of interest etc.
Pleasurable reading or listening takes place for pleasure. People read magazines or
listen to a talk on the radio to while away their free time. In both types of
reading/listening, readers/listeners are interested in the topics either because they find
them useful or because they find them interesting.
3) Sub-Skills of Receptive Skills
According to (Harmer 2003:14) the processes we go through when reading a
short story or listening to a poem are likely to be different from those we use when
we are looking for some data in a manual or we want to know how to operate a
machine. The use of these different skills will depend on what we are reading or
listening for. While reading a text we use the following sub-skills:
a. Identifying the topic – readers and listeners are able to identify the topic of a
being talked / written about. This identifying ability makes it possible for them to
process the text more effectively.
b. Predictive skills – having identified the topic both readers and listeners guess
what is being written or talked about. They try to predict what is coming. Their
subsequent reading or listening helps them to confirm their expectations of what they
have predicted.
c. Skimming – this term means to get a quick idea of the gist of a text while
running your eyes over it. It is very useful for the teachers to ask their students to
have a quick look at the text before plunging into it for detail to get some specific
pieces of information.
d. Scanning – this term means reading or listening for specific information. In
contrast to reading and listening for gist we often read or listen to a text because we
need specific details. For example, we want to read about the weather or we want to
extract some facts from the news.
e. Extensive reading – means reading/listening for pleasure. We use this type of
reading/listening while reading an interesting model or a short story or an article
taken from a popular paper etc.
f. Intensive reading – means reading/listening for detailed information.
Sometimes we read/listen to a text in order to understand everything we are reading
in detail. We use this technique when we want to understand instructions or directions
or when we are preparing for an exam.
g. Interpreting texts – this sub-skill is used by readers/listeners if they want to
understand the meaning of words beyond the literal meanings. Successful
interpretation of this kind depends on shared schemata between the speaker and the
listener and the writer or the reader. The question ‘Can you tell me the time?’ is not to
be answered in the following way: ‘Yes, I can.’ but the reply must refer to a time
expression such as ‘It’s nine o’clock.’
h. Inferring opinion and attitude – a good reader/listener will know from various
or whether his opinion of the person he is describing is favorable or not. It is based on
the recognition of linguistic style.
4) Methodological Principles for Teaching Receptive Skills
Listening is the skill that children acquire first. When students start to acquire
a foreign language they can pick it up in many ways. They have a lot of
extracurricular sources (songs, films, native speakers, etc) at hand. The same refers to
reading, students can benefit from walking in the street when they read various
boards or signs written in English as well as English food labels at supermarkets. The
reading process can be subdivided into two stages: decoding and interpreting. When
we speak about teaching receptive skills we have to emphasize the importance of
choosing an age-relevant, interesting or useful content which is practicable in
everyday life. Let us focus on the content, purpose of reading/listening and the
expectations of readers and listeners.
5) The content of the texts
As it has already been mentioned, we can distinguish instrumental and
pleasurable reading/listening. In instrumental reading the usefulness of texts is very
significant so we can say that the texts must meet the requirements of communicative
language teaching according to which the texts must be experiential which means
they should contain very useful and practicable words and expressions for everyday
life especially in classroom. Directed texts must be used so that the learners should
not have any difficulty decoding brochures, manuals, instructions in the target
country. To meet the demands of pleasurable reading and listening we have to choose
stories, articles, novels, etc which are age relevant and which deal with the problems
of the target group of learners. The category of interest includes reading and listening
for enjoyment, pleasure and intellectual stimulation. People read/listen to language
because they have a purpose for doing so. The purpose may be to discover how to
operate a hot drinks machine or to have a pleasurable reading. The purpose may be to
6) Methodological Steps of Developing Receptive Skills
In a lesson when the teacher’s aim is to develop receptive skills the first step
to do is to introduce the topic of reading/listening. So the first step to do is planning a
warm-up activity. When we want our students to read a text about London for
example, we are supposed to show a picture of London or to present a song about the
capital of Great Britain etc. Here we have to exploit the following characteristic of
language users; he will have expectations about what he is going to read/hear before
he does so. A reader who sees the headline ‘Storm in the Houses of Parliament’
expects to read about a political debate in the British Parliament. So when we choose
a text we are to activate the predictive skills of our students. The learners are
expected to extract the specific information from the text and they are expected to
find out one or two facts. That is the reason why we always have to set
pre-reading/pre-listening tasks before reading or listening. At this stage the teacher aims
to focus the students’ attention on certain facts mentioned in the reading/listening.
The next purpose of the teacher will be to sustain the students’ attention while they
are reading / listening to the extract. As a while reading/listening task a teacher can
ask the students to underline certain words or phrases or on hearing certain facts or
data the students can clap or raise their hands. After reading/listening to a text the
students are expected to do some post reading/ listening tasks. They have to get the
general picture which means that they have to infer the opinion or attitude of the
writer or the speaker. The ability to infer opinion and attitude is largely based on the
recognition of linguistic style and its use to achieve appropriate purposes. Another
post reading/listening task for the teacher can be to make students deduce meaning
from context. The point is that the deducing of meaning is important for a language
user who will often mean unknown words and we will try to train students in the
same way to guess the meaning of unknown words. Teachers can make students
recognize discourse markers, styles and registers as well. It is important for the
teachers to develop students’ discourse competence in addition to their
the intercultural aspects of language teaching. This is the way how social-linguistic
competence of students can be developed. For example, London can be compared to
Budapest as a post-reading/listening task. On requiring our students to use synonyms,
antonyms and circum locution the teachers can develop students’ strategic
competence as well. This is the way how we can develop reading/listening skills in a
communicative way. Bloom's Taxonomy has been one of the most influential books
in planning reading tasks and has been widely used by American educators in
planning their teaching programmed. The following categories can be used to develop
students’ thinking skills while they are reading a story. This is the way how teachers
can make reading a story a holistic activity.
Category Thinking process cues
Knowledge
(remembering and retaining)
Say what you know, what you remember.
What happened in the story?
Comprehension
(interpreting and understanding)
Describe in your own words, say what it means, explain, compare, relate.
Why did it happen that way!
Application
(making use of the story)
How can you use it? Where does it lead to? What would you have done in a situation like this?
Analysis
(taking apart)
What are the parts, the order, the reason, and the solutions? Which part did you like best?
Synthesis
( putting together)
Develop; create in your own way. What did you think of the story!
Evaluation
(judging and assessing)
How would you judge it? Will it work?
7) What are the Essential Components of Reading Instruction?
Scientifically based reading research has identified five essential components
of effective reading instruction. To ensure that children learn to read well, explicit
and systematic instruction must be provided in these five areas:
a) Phonemic Awareness – The ability to hear, identify and manipulate the
individual sounds – phonemes – in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is the
understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words.
b) Phonics – The understanding that there is a predictable relationship between
phonemes – the sounds of spoken language – and graphemes – the letters and
spellings that represent those sounds in written language. Readers use these
relationships to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically and to decode
unfamiliar words.
c) Vocabulary Development – Development of stored information about the
meanings and pronunciation of words necessary for communication. There are four
types of vocabulary:
Listening vocabulary – the words needed to understand what is heard
Speaking vocabulary – the words used when speaking
Reading vocabulary – the words needed to understand what is read
Writing vocabulary – the words used in writing
d) Reading Fluency, Including Oral Reading Skills – Fluency is the ability to
read text accurately and quickly. It provides a bridge between word recognition and
comprehension. Fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time.
e) Reading Comprehension Strategies – Strategies for understanding,
remembering, and communicating with others about what has been read.
Comprehension strategies are sets of steps that purposeful, active readers use to make
2. Reading Comprehension
a) Definition of Reading Comprehension.
Reading comprehension is the degree to understand the text that one reads.
Retrieved from “http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/reading comprehension” when
reader pick up the newspaper and read about the latest election results, call up a web
site and read directions on installing a new light switch or grab a novel off the shelf
of the local bookstore, readers are using their reading comprehension skill to gather
information from text.
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of writing
(Adams, Marilyn Jager, 1990: 27). Proficient reading depends on the ability to
recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use
too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which infers with
their ability to comprehend what it read.
Reading comprehension is tied to listening comprehension in a basic and
intuitive way (Pressley, 2006: 71). Most people perceive reading as a process of
talking coded, written language and transforming it in to recoded, spoken language.
Although the details of this remain unresolved, and many experts question that the
process involves so simple a translation, it is fair to say that for young children up to
second grade students, reading really is direct recoding of written text into spoken
words, which are then processed as spoken language via the same mechanisms that
make listening comprehension possible.
From definition above, it can be concluded that reading in English is like
reading in native language. This means that it is not always necessary to read and
understand each and every word in English. Owing to the fact that reading skills in
native language and English are basically the same, that owns a final purpose
“reading understanding”
b) Skill in reading comprehension.
Duke and Pearson in Teele (2004: 93) state that good readers must have the
examine the structure of the text prior to reading. Again, they make predictions about
the outcome of the text.
Further, Spear (2000: xxvi) states that there are eight important reading
comprehension skill that help learner to read more systematically. They are
comprehension the main idea, determining the authors’ purpose, distinguishing
between the main idea and supporting details, making inference, distinguishing facts
and opinion, analyzing structure, annotating, paraphrasing and summarizing.
The main concern of the research is about how to find the main idea,
vocabulary, detail, and inference. There for the writer would like to discuss further on
those aspects:
1) Main idea.
Spears (2000: 17) define the main idea as the author’s main point, a sentence,
or perhaps two that state what the whole thing is about. The main idea may take play
in the beginning paragraph, the end of the paragraph, combination between the
beginning and the end of the paragraph, or even omitted from the entire paragraph.
2) Vocabulary.
According to Schwartz and Raphael (1985: 39) vocabulary is the knowledge
of words and word meaning. Knowledge of words is critical to reading
comprehension, because it supports to comprehension. Students are expected to learn
the meaning of new words. They acquire these words by reading books, magazine,
newspaper or hearing them read aloud from books by other.
3) Detail.
Spears (2000: 12) defines detail is a single piece of information or fact about
something. Students must get information when they read the reading. The indicator,
they can find the factual information stated in a passage or retell the reading well.
This condition shows that they understand the reading.
4) Inference.
McNeil (1992: 77) defines inference as the derivation of some idea that is not
ways to infer. They are from subtleties of the verbal expression, reasoning, making
involvement of the reader experience to determine how the character in the text might
fell.
c) Elements of Reading Comprehension.
According to Snow (2002: 13) comprehension need three important
elements. They are reader, text and activity.
The first important element of reading comprehension is the reader. In the
purpose of comprehending the reader must have a wide range of capacity and
abilities. They include cognitive capacity include attention and various types of
knowledge. The cognitive capacity include attention, memory, critical analytic,
inference, visualization ability, etc. meanwhile, motivation refer to the purpose of the
reader. Finally, various type of the knowledge, linguistic and discourse knowledge
and knowledge for certain comprehension strategies.
The second element of reading, the reading comprehension is the text. During
reading, the reader constructs different representations of the text that are important
for comprehension. These representations include, for example, the surface code (the
ex-act wording of the text), the text base (idea units representation the meaning), and
the representation of the mental models embedded in the text.
The last important element in reading comprehension is the activity. A
reading activity involves one or more purpose, some operations to process the text at
the hand and the consequences of performing the activity. The purpose is influenced
by the cluster of motivational variables, including interest and prior knowledge.
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand the text and to get the
meaning from text. It involves the ability to find main ideas, find details, make
inferences, and predict word meaning from context.
According to (Kelner and Flynn 2006: 200) make what is implicit to
lists, photos, and ideas for use with students in grades one through eight. Readers will
find in-depth explanations of the layers of effective educational drama experiences
based on classroom texts. Kelner and Flynn devote individual chapters to each of four
drama strategies story dramatization, character interviews, tableau, and human slide
shows-with a step-by-step process for integration of the drama strategy and reading
comprehension.
In addition, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension includes a comprehensive treatment of assessment in both drama and reading comprehension.
Readers will find a variety of assessment guidelines, tasks, tools, and definitions of
terms.
Reading is an active process to get information through written language. In
other word it can be said that reading is an interactive process that goes on between
the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents latter, words,
sentences and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader use knowledge, skills, and
strategies to determine what the meaning is. Urghart state that reading involves
processing language messages 1998: 15). Widdoson in Urguhart all so states that
reading is the getting linguistic information via print. Further he states that getting
information is fairly one way process from writer or text to reader. Further Urhart
states that reading is a process of receiving and interpreting information encode in
language via the medium of print (1998: 22). Ruddinle suggests four states of word
analysis development:
1. The logographic state, in which children use visual context or graphic features to read words (reading “Mc Donalds” by looking at the logo, for example); 2. The traditional state from logo graphic to beginning alphabetic, in which
children begin to read words by shifting from visual context and specific latter associations to use of the alphabetic principle (the initial sound /d/ in dog associated with the latter d);
3. The alphabetic stage, in which children rely on latter-sound or grapheme-phoneme relationship to read words (dog is sounded out and blended using phonological recoding process that accesses the children mental lexicon); and 4. The orthographic stage, in which children use a phonetic principle, predictable
pronunciation that, fat, mat, hate, hate, for example, and analogy ( in rain to read the new word train) to read. (1994: 92)
From the able statements, it can be concluded that reading is an activity which
need a process. It is impossible to read fluently without practice to read something
every day. When people want to get information from written message, they should
make it as a habit for our daily activity is an individual activity. Reader can interpret
what they read. And it needs process to interpret the right message from written
language. Actually studying all the subject matter is a process. Reader cannot
understand the meaning from language written instantly.
Pearson and stephens in Ruddle states that reading is a complex, orchestrated,
constructive process through which individuals make meaning (1994: x). It is stated
by Urguhart in reading a second language: process, product and practice that reading
means dealing with language messages in written or painted from (1998: 13).
Furthermore Urguhart considers reading as a language activity involving at same time
or another all the cognitive processing related to language performance. They
consider that any valid account of reading process must consider such cognitive
aspect as reading, and obvious language aspects as syntax and lexical meaning. Nuttal
state that are some word that relate with the definition of reading, those are
understanding, interpreting and meaning sense, decoding, deciphering, identifying,
articulating, speaking and pronouncing (1989: 2). The definition of reading reflects
the ideas that reading is the process of identifying written words. Besides that in a
great many classrooms, the reading lesson is used as an opportunity to teach
pronunciations, encourage fluent and expressive speaking. Reading as interpreting
means to a written text as a piece of communication. Reading is a part of daily life for
those of us who live in literate communities that much of the time we hardly consider
either the purpose or the process involved.
Reading is fluent process of reader combining information from a text and
their own background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is
language. It begins with a flutter of patterns on the retina and ends (when successful)
with a definite idea about the author’s intended message. Thus reading is at once a
“perceptual” and a “cognitive” process. It is a process that bridges and blurs these two
traditional distinctions (Rumelhart, 1994: 864). From the statement above it can be
concluded that reading is a process of getting information and message from written
language. In understanding the message from written language, the reader much has
background knowledge. Hence in the process of reading the reader much combine
their background knowledge and the content of the text. Besides, they should
combine their interference, memory and the strategy of reading. Urguhart states any
valid account of reading process much consider such cognitive aspect as reading
strategies, inference, memory, relating text to background knowledge, or well as
decoding and obvious language aspects as syntax and lexical knowledge (1998: 18)
3. Directed Reading in the Classroom
One of the mean ideas of using dramatic reading in the classroom is to make
reading more memorable. The modeling dramatic reading and then asking students to
read important passages aloud with as much dramatic flair as they can manage, (Rose
and Nicholl 1997: 200) remind us that we tend to remember more than twice as much
as of what we say aloud then what we read silently. This suggests the advisability of
frequently asking students to talk about what they are reading, as by using directed
reading to give student highly engaged and focused on directed reading. Actively
guiding students through a reading frequently requesting student responses, offering
comments when appropriate rather than asking students to read text and rather than
presenting the information to them orally, we can intersperse the reading and oral
discussion in a way that produces high-participation lessons. This is especially useful
for poor readers and poor listeners.
Consider this segment from the science lesson. The teacher begins by asking
the students to find a particular page in their science text. “What is the heading of that
section?” she asks “susan, please read it for us,” after susan reads the heading, the
animals. I would like you to now scan the first paragraph and find the definition of
warm-blooded.”
After a pause, she asks a different student to read the definition. Then she
invited the class to read the definition in unison with her. “Again, please about this
time and read it like you mean it!” The teacher asks the students to look at the next
paragraph and find three examples of worm-blooded animals. “Who can tell us the
first, second and the last?” she writes each example on the board as volunteers
respond. “Based on these examples, who can think of some other animals that would
be classified as worm-blooded?” she adds to the list on the board as students offer
examples. “Now I would read you to silently read page 214 to find out…”
Note how the teacher intersperses scanning, reading, questions, and
comments. From time to time she writes key points on the board. In addition, she
occasionally asks students to write a response and share with a partner. And
sometimes she presents a mini-lecture about the animals.
This style of directed reading can we use with fiction as well as nonfiction.
For example, imagine a teacher dramatically reading aloud the first page of a story
and then saying something like this:
Think about you know so far. On scrap paper, writer a prediction telling two things you think might happen in this story. The read the text paragraph of find out what time of year is it…Let’s: How many think it is winter, spring and summer? Fall? The correct answer is spring. What words gave you a clue it was spring? Now please continue reading until you find out the name of…
Finally, we learn directed reading texts can be improved in vocalizing more
memorable when the words are spoken dramatically, with emotion. We can take
advantage of this by, first, modeling for the students to read dramatically; we might
demonstrate by reading an important definition or the key text passage. Then we ask a
few students to read a sentence or two aloud dramatically; with as much felling as
they can generate. Finally we might commend that all students take any portion of a
reading that they want to remember and say it dramatically, aloud or silently to
always invite a few students to read it aloud to the class, being as outrageously
dramatic as they dare. Invite students to fun with the strategy. And expect them to
remember more of what they read. Teacher report it almost always works out that
way.
a. Indicator of reading Comprehension Competence.
To comprehend information in the reading, it can be viewed from some
indicators that students are able to:
1. Finding main idea. The indicator, they can show or find the author’s main
point, one or two sentences from that state what the whole thing is about.
2. Find vocabulary. The indicator, they can find the words meaning, synonym,
and antonym.
3. Find detail. The indicator, they can find the factual information state in a
passage or retell the reading well.
4. Find inference. The indicator, they can infer how the character in the text.
b. Stages in teaching Reading
Another possible is to give text related tasks. They are three basic types:
1) Pre-Reading: used not just to test or compensate for linguistic/socio-cultural inadequacies but also used to activate exiting schemata;
2) While-Reading: used to encourage the learner to be a flexible, active reader also to promote a dialogue between reader and writer;
3) Post-Reading: often are read questions that follow a text, used to test understanding but sometimes a good schema will be enough. Rather than just
simplifying the text by changing its language, it can be made more approachable by
eliciting students’ existing knowledge in pre-reading discussion, reviewing new
vocabulary before situations where it would take place outside reading and asking to
get the mean idea or scanning for specific information, before they begin intensive
reading. The reading approach must be directed too. Students should read the text in a
way that matches the read purpose, the type of text, and the way people normally
Reading is an activity with a purpose for reading guides the reader’s selection of
texts. The purpose for reading also determines the approach to reading
comprehension.
B. Rationale
Reading comprehension is a process of simultaneously extracting and
constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. In
doing so, the reader involve so many reading skills. Among them are finding mean
idea, inference and paraphrasing.
In fact, some students encounter problems to activate those skills in reading
comprehension. These difficulties were indicated as student’s incorrectly interpreted
mean idea with specific details; they could not relate between one clue to another;
and they failed in determining the key point of sentence. The classroom situation
made these situations even worse. The students were passive during the lecturing.
They even showed on interest toward the subject. Then, their low cooperation
completed their negative response to reading class. The students’ passivity in the
classroom was indicated as students kept silent during lecturing and they also had no
response when they were asked questions. In addition to the passivity, the students
also showed no interest toward reading classroom; many of them make the class
noisy, play with their mobile phone, talk to another topic and often go out of the
class. Furthermore, they low cooperation was identified as they had no courage to
share ideas with friends; tended to work individually, and talk with their topic out of
the discussion.
Teacher had also contribution for such students’ difficulties. The teaching
learning process showed that, it was monotonous. Teacher less monitored the
students’ activity. The technique which was applied during teaching learning process
made the students in such passive situation as they often got broad oral explanation
from their teacher. Besides, the teacher broad oral explanation is even considered fast
Knowing this condition, students have to have sufficient strategy to be
successful in mean idea, inference, and paraphrasing. Directed reading is selected as
they can function at portraying the valuable information from the given text. In this
way, they can provide the bridge from the abstract concepts of the text to more visible
idea that eases readers getting the intended meaning. As the answer of students’
passivity, directed reading also enhance the students’ participation in class interaction
since that the students should be more active in the text-interaction with the given
directed reading. This model are very helpful both in individual and group work
tasks. From the characteristics of directed reading above, it is believed that directed
reading can improve students’ reading comprehension in term of finding mean idea,
inference and paraphrasing. Furthermore, directed reading also enhances the students’
participation in class interaction both in individual and group work tasks.
The chief danger of this approach is that the reader may try to read in to the
text what he thinks ought to be there than what the writer intended. To counteract
this, students should be trained to:
1) will help students develop reading skill
2) shows them how ideas can be discovered in the process of reading
comprehension
3) gives them immediate deep and critical feedback – from a peer
4) can lead students to have new experience of reading comprehension
A reader can often produce a reasonable hypothesis about a text after only a
superficial reading. To do this, he must use resources such as common sense, general
knowledge and experience, which has already, has. Encouraging him to make use of
them mean that you can start work on positive note (‘what do we know about this
text? So what do you think this message is likely to be?). This is more encouraging
than starting with the negative factors such as unfamiliar vocabulary. It is also good
strategy, for students much learn to utilize all their resources in order to make sense
You can start by making hypothesis based on the title alone, if that is one, or
the title of the book from which the text come. Or you can ask your students to skim
through the text and tell you very approximately what it is about. If there are several
different views, subsequent closer reading can be focused on establishing which is the
most accurate. If none of the views are appropriate, ask the class to try again when
the detailed work has progressed far enough.
Active experience of forming prediction about a text (i.e. hypothesis), and
confirming, rejecting or reformulating them, is as important for a reader as it is for a
scientist. You need to be particularly on your guard when the text involves matters of
opinion or emotion, because inexperienced readers often assume that the text will
echo their own views; or where that is clearly not the case, that the writer is
hostile-which may be equally false.
Base on the theoretical principles and the related research, the researcher
proposes the following hypothesis which is teaching English using directed reading
can improve student reading comprehension.
Directed reading in the classroom I do hopefully that students’ comprehension
is will improve and their attitudes toward reading because they are taught using
directed reading that is theoretically effective for improving students’ reading
comprehension. Students have positive idea in reading skill. In addition, through
directed reading, the student can make and learn which help them to interesting and
have a best understanding in learning process. For other lectures, they will get large
knowledge about teaching leaning directed reading and the result of the research can
be the useful input in English teaching learning process especially for improving
reading comprehension. For the researcher, this research will improve the researcher
himself in mastering English and knowing the plan which is appropriate to use. As
we know that reading is one of important skill for students and their future. I expect a
lot in every cycle there are interesting activities which are including students’
improvement in reading comprehension. Finally, for the institution, this research will
C. Action hypothesis
As stated in the previous explanation that directed reading can improve the
bridge from the abstract concepts of the text to more visible idea that make readers
easy to obtain the intended meaning, the researcher formulates the action hypothesis
Chapter III Research methodology
In this chapter gives the research methodology involving setting of the
research, research method, procedure of the research, and data collecting and data
analyzing technique.
E. Research setting 4. Time of Research
This classroom action research is carried in Eight months started in June 2010
up to February 2011, designing research proposal is done in July-August, conducting
proposal seminar in September, making research instrument and collecting the data in
October and November, analyzing the collected data and discussing the data analysis
in December, and the writing the research report in January 2011. The research’s
schedule is follows:
Table 3.1 Research Schedule
No activity Aug/Sep Oct/Nov Dec/Jan Feb/Mar Apr/May June
1 Participant Enlisting
2 Writing proposal
3 Revising proposal
4 Seminar on proposal
5 Conducting the research
6 Collecting data
7 Analyzing data
8 Report writing
5. Place of Research
The National University of Laos-Champasak Branch was established by
decree of the Prime Minister, 214⁄PM, dated 28⁄11⁄2002. After establishment, the
leaders and staff of the branch university worked diligently according to the political
the branch. In recognition of this progress, the government then approved the change
from branch status to that of Champasak University. This was according to the decree
of the Prime Minister, 95⁄PM, dated 05⁄07⁄2004. And since then the university has
gradually grown.
Champasak University consists of the Rector, two Vice-Rectors, five offices:
Organization and Personnel, Administration, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs,
Research and Technology Transfer, then divided into five faculties: Faculty of
Agriculture, Economic and Management, Law and Political Sciences, Engineering
Faculty, The School of Foundation Studies and Faculty of Education.
Faculty of Education commences teaching and learning activities for normal
and special course at bachelor degree that consists of three departments as follows:
(1) Mathematics Department: (2) Literature Department: (3) English Department.
Most of the students who study at 3rd year of English Department are the students who studied from learning bachelor curriculum at the School of Foundation Studies
Faculty (SFS) for 64-68 credits because the bachelor degree program is five years of
study: two years of general studies in the SFS and three years of specialized study in
one of the faculties. The students come from different provinces in all parts of Laos.
The subjects of the study are the third year students of English Department in
2010⁄2011 academic year and randomly chosen by researcher himself. There are 40
students in class (EN 3B). They consist of 18 boys and 22 girls. Some of them were
selected and given Quota by Provincial Education Services. This first category of
student is selected based on their High School achievement and a quota fixed by the
Ministry of Education. Some of students are selected by examination. The entrance
examination is organized simultaneously in all provinces and also some students were
selected by special privilege. These applicants will be selected according to decree of
government 108⁄PM, dated 31⁄07⁄2000 and 52⁄PM, dated 05⁄09⁄2003.
Some students are citizen and some are from remote area, so they have
to learn English. For some of them, studying is a must which they have to do, not a
need. Teaching English in such situation needs extra patience and effort.
6. Research Subjects
The subject of this classroom action research is 3En 3/2 third grade students
of English department, faculty of teacher training and education academic year
2010-2011 that consists of 30 students includes recourse students. The subject of this
research is the regular students which is 30 students. In general 3B class has a good
reading. The other reason of selecting this class, it has lowest average reading score
among its parallel class. In the previous semester exam too much of them got F and
the average score was lower than 60 is just a point above the class because in reading
teaching learning process the students are very passive. The never ask questions about
related topic, they rarely ask about new vocabulary. Furthermore, they rarely bring
their text books and they are reluctant to join in reading class. Even worse they
cannot answer WH-questions, reference questions and they cannot indentify
paragraph topic, important massage, and the mean idea. The researcher did interview
and questionnaire the course it the text book. They said that the text book it too
difficult; there are many difficult words in the text and the text is too long and the text
has no connection with their lives so they had no motivation to read. The researcher is
the reading teacher in this class has tries to overcome the problem by changing the
text book by different author by the class atmosphere remains the same. So in this
class action research uses directed reading material in solving students’ problem in
comprehending text and their motivation to read. By using directed reading materials,
it is hoped can increase their motivation as the result their reading comprehension
improves as well.
This research is also carried out with the collaborator. He is an English
lecturer from the same faculty with researcher. The collaborator and the researcher
discussed together before, during and after the treatment to contribute ideas, opinions,
