TEACHER’S STRATEGIES IN TEACHING READING
COMPREHENSION PROCEDURE TEXT
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
CANDRA TRI ASWURI
Registration Number:
2123321010ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ABSTRACT
Aswuri, Candra Tri. 2123321010. Teacher’s Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension Procedure Text. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2017.
This study attempts to investigate the phenomenon which occurred in classroom setting dealing with teacher’s strategies in teaching reading. It was designed in descriptive qualitative research. The location of this study was MTs Al-Jam’iyatul Washliyah Tembung and the samples were the English teacher and the students of IX-4 class who were selected by using random sampling technique. The data of this study deals with kinds of teacher’s strategies in teaching reading procedure text. The data were collected from the observation which occurred during the reading procedure text class and the interview with the English teacher. The data were analyzed by three stages : 1) familiarizing and organizing, 2) coding and reducing, and 3) interpreting and representing. From the data analysis and the data verification, it was obtained that the teacher used three strategies in teaching reading comprehension procedure text, namely activating background knowledge strategy, visualizing strategy, and questioning strategy. The strategies not only were beneficial to promote and improve students’ comprehension but also they encouraged the students to be active, enthusiastic, and critical readers.
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Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
In her exploring of knowledge and in the course of completing this thesis,
many individuals have assisted her. She would like to acknowledge whole
heartedly their assistance, cooperation, support, and encouragement which all
contributed in making this thesis possible. Therefore, the writer takes this
opportunity to express her thanks and appreciation to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Languages and Arts Faculty,
State University of Medan
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department
Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English and Literature Department
Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd., S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English Education
Study Program
Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., her Thesis Advisor who has guided her during
the completion of this thesis.
Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., her Thesis Advisor as well as her
Academic Advisor whose professional guidance has given her inspiration to
lead the completion of this thesis.
Drs. Willem Saragih, Dipl, Appl, M.Pd., her Reviewer for the critical
comments and insightful suggestion to revise this thesis.
Rafika Dewi Nasution, S.Pd., M.Hum., her Reviewer who has given her
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All the Lecturers of English and Literature Department who have taught,
guided, and adviced her throughout her study.
Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., the Administration Staff of English
Department, who has assisted her to fulfill the administrative requirements. The most grateful thank goes to her beloved parents, her dad Janu Rubianto
and her mom Sukarti, for the unconditional love, sincere prayings, massive
support, and countless sacrifice throughout her life.
Her sister Neny Tristiani, her brother Wuryanto Herlambang, her brother in law Hermanto, and her sister in law Suharti, who have always bestowed her
with affection, love, and spirit, and also for being the ones who consistently
motivated her to finish her study.
Special thank are given to her most loyal supporter, Nanang Pangestu whose love and motivation have encouraged her to finish her study.
Her extended appreciation goes to All members of Ext A and Ext B 2012, especially her best friends: Shinta Sasmita, Helmi Juliana, Desiana
Nasution, Tika Puspita, and Ade Elvina Harianja who have became her
companions to spend her up and down moments during her study.
The writer considerably believes that this thesis is yet far from being
perfect. Therefore, she welcomes any suggestion, comments or critics to improve
the quality of this thesis.
Medan, April 2017 The Researcher,
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E. The Significance of the Study... 6
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 7
A.Theoretical Framework ... 7
1. Reading ... 7
a. Purposes of Reading ... 8
b. Processes of Reading ... 10
2. Reading Comprehension ... 11
a. Levels of Comprehension ... 13
b. Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension ... 14
3. Teaching Reading ... 16
a. Principles in Teaching Reading ... 17
b. Goals of Teaching Reading ... 20
4. Strategies ... 22
5. Reading Comprehension Strategies ... 23
a. Activating Background Knowledge Strategy ... 23
b. Using Sensory Images Strategy ... 24
c. Questioning Strategy ... 24
d. Making Predictions and Inferences Strategies ... 25
e. Determining Main Ideas Strategy ... 25
f. Using Fix-up Options Strategy ... 26
g. Synthesizing Strategy ... 27
h. Visualizing Strategy ... 27
i. Comprehension Monitoring Strategy ... 28
j. Summarizing Strategy ... 29
k. Coding Text Strategy ... 29
l. Question and Answer Relationship ... 30
m.Think-Aloud Strategy ... 31
n. Reciprocal Teaching Strategy ... 32
6. Procedure Text ... 33
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C.Conceptual Framework ... 36
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 38
A.Research Design ... 38
B. Location and Sample of the Research ... 39
C.Data and Data Sources ... 39
1. Data ... 39
2. Data Sources ... 39
D.Instrument and Procedure for Collecting the Data ... 40
1. Observation ... 40
2. Interview ... 41
E. Technique of Data Analysis ... 42
1.Familiarizing and Organizing ... 42
2.Coding and Reducing ... 43
3.Interpreting and Representing ... 44
F. Technique of Data Verification ... 44
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 46
A.Data ... 46
B. Research Findings and Data Presentation... 47
1. Activating Background Knowledge Strategy ... 47
2. Visualizing Strategy ... 49
3. Questioning Strategy ... 50
C.Discussion ... 51
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... 54
A.Conclusion ... 54
B. Suggestions ... 54
REFERENCES ... 54
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.The Background of the Study
Reading arguably stands as the most essential skill for success in all
educational contexts (Brown, 2004:185). It is considered as the most important skill
that most students need to employ if they want to succeed during their academic
years in school or throughout their life. However, in English foreign language
setting, teaching reading still remains a topic of intense debate. This mainly
occurs as many students constantly encounter difficulties to comprehend a text
and teachers still can not help them to overcome those difficulties.
Based on the observation conducted in MTs Al-Jami’yatul Washliyah
Tembung, it was found that in many reading classes, the teachers put the students
into passive learning. The teachers believe that reading is a vacuum activity which
only requires the interaction between the students and the text. Common
procedure occurring in passive reading classes sets the teachers to give the
students time to read and comprehend the text, afterwards they enable the students
to answer the questions regarding the text. During the process of comprehending,
only students who interact with the text, the teachers just help by facilitating the
students to use the dictionaries, in case the students find unfamiliar vocabularies.
As the result, when students find difficulties to comprehend the text, only
themselves who struggle to solve the difficulties. The teachers are not aware of
students’ problems to comprehend the text as they do not participatively engage or
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students to discuss their problems with. Finally, this leads to their failure to
identify their students’ comprehension difficulties and it results their failure to
teach the students how to break the difficulties as well.
In general, the difficulties students commonly may encounter while
comprehending a text are: 1) appropriate use of background knowledge, 2)
vocabulary, 3) fluency, and 4) Strategy (Wong, 2004:253). Lems et al.,
(2009:170) state that reading is an involving interaction between the text and the
background knowledge of the readers. The background knowledge students have
of certain text may help them to easily access the information as they are familiar
with the text, so they have already had the concept of the text in their mind. On
the other hand, when students are not familiar with the topic of the text, they are
likely to find concepts in it difficult and confusing.
Vocabulary knowledge is one of the strongest predictors that may
influence students’ comprehension. Students can not understand what they read
without understanding what most of the words mean (Moore, 2012). Vocabularies
enable the readers to assemble and integrate proposition from text and make sense
of what is read. In conclusion, knowing the meanings of many words provides
students access to countless worlds of ideas and information to comprehend a text.
Whereas, lack of vocabularies may block students’ attempt to integrate the
information to understand the text.
Barr (2006:13) claims that fluency requires efficient word recognition so
the reader can gain meaning from the text with little conscious effort. Fluency
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interpret every word. Students who are lack of reading fluency fail to extract
meaning from previous reading materials (National Reading Panel, 2000).
Lastly, comprehension problem students frequently encounter is lack of
strategies. This is due to the fact that while reading a text, students who do not
apply any reading strategies, can not use or even integrate a number of ways of
thinking to understand what they are reading. Many students are lack of reading
strategies because they are not familiar with reading strategies. Teachers who
become instructors in reading class, should introduce the students about reading
strategies, explain how each strategy works, and how to model them. Strategies
are very crucial for reading comprehension, applying reading strategies can help
students to breaks any difficulties particularly aforementioned difficulties. For
instance, while students have some problems of appropriate background
knowledge, teachers may teach them questioning, predicting, and activating
background knowledge strategies. Or when the students face problem of fluency,
teachers may teach them scanning strategy. And to overcome such problem like
lack of vocabularies, teachers may teach them coding text strategy.
In conclusion, teachers should teach students comprehension strategies.
They need to be taught early on so that students can grow into effective readers.
McNamara (2009:34) argues that teaching reading strategies is one of the most
effective means of helping students to overcome number of roadblocks in the path
to comprehension. Strategies provide the means to tackle complex problems in
more efficient ways and, with practice, the strategies lead to skills that become
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mental actions, or routines that are used before, during, or after reading a text. As
mentioned by Wong (2003:253), comprehension strategies can explicitly teach
students how to draw inferences from text, summarize information, predict what
will happen next in a narrative, formulate and answer question about text, and
visualize what they read in order to improve comprehension. Strategies are the
tools for active, self-directed involvement that is necessary for developing
communicative ability (Nunan, 2003:76). They are not a single event, but rather a
creative sequence of events that learners actively use to comprehend a text.
However, many teachers are not aware of the use of comprehension
strategies. They mostly assume that students can grow their comprehension
strategies naturally, so that they do not have to teach them explicitly in teaching
reading. Some of them, even do not have much knowledge regarding kinds of
comprehension strategies and how comprehension strategies purposely can be
taught. It was also revealed from the English teachers of MTs Al-Jam’iyatul
Washliyah Tembung. They did not concern with applying reading comprehension
strategies in teaching reading. Some of the teachers basically have applied reading
comprehension strategies, but they did not realize that they have already done.
Some of them even did not how to apply reading comprehension strategies in
teaching reading. As the result, the students did not know what comprehension
strategies are, what functions they stand for, and when to apply reading
comprehension strategies.
Considering this phenomenon, the researcher would like to carry out a
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comprehension to the ninth grade students of MTs Al-Jam’iyatul Washliyah
Tembung.
B.The Problem of the Study
Based on the explanation above, the problems of this study can be
formulated as follows: “What are the teacher’s strategies in teaching reading
comprehension to ninth grade students of MTs Al-Jam’iyatul Washliyah
Tembung?”
C.The Scope of the Study
This study will focuses on seeking out teachers’ strategies in teaching
reading comprehension particularly in teaching reading of procedure text. The
study will deal with the ninth grade students of MTs Al-Jam’iyatul Washliyah
Tembung which will involve both the students and the teacher. The study will
describe what kinds of teaching strategies are used by the teacher.
D.The Objective of the Study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of this study is to find out what
kinds of reading strategy are used by the teacher in teaching procedure text to the
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E.The Significance of the Study
The result of this study is expected to give some theoretical as well as
practical contributions.
1. Theoretically
The result of this study will provide and expand theoretical explanations of
reading comprehension strategies used by teachers in teaching reading.
2. Practically
a. The English teachers, to be more aware of using and teaching reading
comprehension strategies in reading class.
b. The Students, to be more aware of understanding and applying reading
comprehension strategies while approaching texts.
c. Other researchers, to use this study as reference to conduct similar
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A.Conclusion
Based on the data analysis and also proved by the data verification, it can
be concluded that there were three strategies that the teacher used in teaching
reading procedure text to the IX-4 class of MTs Al-Jami’yatul Washliyah
Tembung, they were activating background knowledge, visualizing, and
questioning strategies. The three strategies were all beneficial to assist the
students approached reading and better understood the texts. They were also
effective to change the vacuum reading class into interactive process, moreover,
these strategies encouraged students to be more involved in teaching as well as
they became active, enthusiastic, and critical learners.
B.Suggestions
Based on the findings and conclusion of this study, some suggestions are
staged as following:
1. Teachers
It is advisable that English teachers should expand their knowledge
regarding reading strategies so that they can understand how to teach their
students various reading strategies in reading class. Teachers are also suggested to
raise their awareness to more teach reading strategies to their students in order to
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2. Students
Students are encouraged to apply reading strategies before, during, and
after reading so that whenever they find any difficulties to comprehend a text,
they can easily decode and break down the meanings, they are also motivated to
more deliberate practice with many kinds of reading strategies that can make their
skills more automatic.
3. Other researchers
Other researcher are suggested to explore more knowledge about reading
strategies and to find other references that have similar topic of this study in order
