THE EFFECT OF COOPERATIVE INTEGRATED READING
AND COMPOSITION (CIRC) ON STUDENTS’ READING
COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT
IN NARRATIVE TEXT
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of SarjanaPendidikan
By:
ADE CRISTALINA HUTAGALUNG
Registration Number. 2113121001
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
LANGUAGES AND ARTS FACULTY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all the writer woul like to express her praises to the Almighty God,
Jesus Christ, for the love and blessing so the writer has finally completed this
thesis. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degre of
Sarjana Pendidikan of English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan.
During the process of writing, the writer realizes that she cannot
accomplish this thesis without God’s blessing and supporting from many people,
therefore the writer would like to express her sincere gratitude to:
1. Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of
5. All Lecturers for their support and advice during her academic years.
6. Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed., her First Thesis Advisor for great care,
guidance, and advices during the process of accomplishing this thesis.
7. Drs. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed, her Second Thesis Advisors for great
care, guidance, and advices during the process of accomplishing this
thesis.
8. Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., her Reviewer for his advices and
9. Indra Hartoyo, S.Pd, M.Hum., her Reviewer for his advices and
constructive suggestions for this thesis.
10.Sriwaty Sibuea, S.Pd., The Headmaster of SMP Swasta Nasrani Belawan.
11.Her deepest love and appreciation are delivered to her parents Valens
Hutagalung and Reslina L.Tobing, for their love, prayer, sacrifice,
guidance, advices, motivations, and encouragements, moral, spiritual and
financial support during the completion of her study. Special thanks for
her brothers and sister Jhon Ferdinan Hutagalung, Fernando Juniar
Hutagalung, Marisa Hutagalung, for their love, help, motivation, pray,
and support.
12.Truly deeply thanks to all Sihombing Family (SHB) members who
always support her.
13.Her best of the best friends, Christanti Panjaitan, Connie Aritonang,
Nancy Pratiwi Panjatian, Putra Tua Tambunan, Sartika Desiana Aruan, Nina Tiya Hara Dicky Bastian Siburian, Renol Aprico Siregar
and all Rexyans for their motivation, supports, love, and prayers.
The writer hopes this thesis will be useful for those who read it, especially
for the students of English Department.
Medan, July 2015
ABSTRACT
Hutagalung, Ade Cristalina. 2113121001. The Effect of Cooperative Integrated
Reading Composition (CIRC) on Students’ Reading Comprehension
Achievement in Narrative Text. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2015.
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) on Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement in Narrative Text. It was an experimental research. The population was students of Grade VIII, Junior High School (Sekolah Menengah Pertama) SMP Swasta Nasrani Belawan, which consisted of 50 students. The sample was divided into two groups: experimental and control groups. The instrument used to collect the data was reading comprehension test. To obtain the reliability of the test, the writer applied Kuder Richardon 21 (KR21). The result of the reliability was 0.831, and it was found that the test was high and reliable. The data were analyzed by using t-test formula. The analysis showed that the scores of the students in the experimental group were significantly higher than the scores of the students in the control group at the level of significant = 0.05 with the degree of freedom (df) 48, t-observed value 2.930 > t-table value 2.011. The findings indicated that applying CIRC have significant effect on the students’ reading comprehension. It means that, English teachers are suggested to use CIRC in order to improve students’ reading comprehension achievement in narrative text.
Keywords: Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC), Reading
TABLE OF CONTENTS
E. The Significant of the Study... 5
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Theoretical Framework ... 6
6. Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) ... 19
a. The Definition of CIRC Method ... 19
b. The Principal Features of CIRC ... 20
c. Procedure of CIRC ... 22
B. Conceptual Framework ... 24
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHOD
A. Research Design ... 27
B. Population and Sample... 28
1. Population ... 28
2. Sample ... 28
C. The Instrument of Collecting Data... 29
D. Teaching Procedure ... 29
1. Pre-test ... 29
2. Treatments ... 29
3. Post-test ... 31
E. Scoring the Test ... 31
F. Validity and Reliability ... 32
1. The validity of the test ... 32
2. The reliability of the test ... 32
G. Technique for Analyzing Data ... 33
H. Statistical Hypothesis ... 34
CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS A. The Data ... 35
B. Data Analysis ... 36
C. Testing Validity and Reliability of the test ... 38
LIST OF TABLE
Table 3.1. Research Design ... 27
Table 3.2. Treatment in Experimental Group ... 29
Table 3.3. Teaching Procedure in Control Group ... 31
Table 4.1.Table of Specification ... 38
LIST OF APPENDIX
APPENDIX A ... 47
APPENDIX B ... 49
APPENDIX C ... 51
APPENDIX D ... 54
APPENDIX E ... 57
APPENDIX F ... 60
APPENDIX G ... 63
APPENDIX H ... 66
APPENDIX I ... 67
APPENDIX J ... 68
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language in the natural approach is viewed as a vehicle for
communicating meaning and messages. It is considered as a system to
communicate with other people by using sounds, symbols, and words to express
the meaning, idea or thought. There are four basic language skills; reading,
writing, speaking, and listening. They play important role in language
communication.
Reading is regarded as one important basic language skill that is generally
taught at a very young age beginning before kindergarten. Reading is a process
shaped partly by the text, partly by the reader’s background, and partly by the
situation reading occurs in situation (Hunt 2004:137).
Comprehension is a process that involves thinking, teaching, past
experiences, and knowledge (Prado &Plorde, 2005). Reading comprehension is
also granted as the important skill which has a strong correlation in academic
success. The main benefit of comprehension is to make the reader is able to
remember the information. As early as kindergarten, children learn how to
comprehend the text. Comprehension knowledge increases as children read more
advanced text. It also improves skills in other academic subjects and in everyday
Teaching reading in English has purpose not only to encourage students to
read fluently and clearly but also to comprehend text. Reading skill is not a single
step or easily acquired skill. It is a very complex that teacher may find it difficult
to teach. Despite the importance of this skill for academic success, a teacher
seldom teaches the students maximally. They generally take them for granted, as
they tend to presuppose that all students already acquired the reading as the part of
their primary school.
There are multiple reasons why some students have difficulty in reading
comprehension. Some students have difficulties because they have not truly
mastered reading fluently. When a student who is struggling to read words and
focus so hard on just saying the words correctly, they are not focusing on what
they are reading. All of their cognitive ability is put into properly calling out the
correct words and little effort is put into the meaning of what is being read. When
children have trouble comprehending what they read, teachers are faced to
especially difficult responsibility. It is not easy to improve students’ reading skill
and there is no instant method to improve students’ skill.
Reading strategies are tools that teachers can use to help students learn to
read and comprehend what they are reading. There are hundreds of reading
strategies available to help students with their comprehension at different levels
and with different types of text. It is found that some students with reading or
comprehension difficulties are either not taught strategies at all or they do not
strategies but they do not know how to recall that strategies when they are
engaged in reading (Jitendra & Gajria, 2011).
Cooperative learning is a group learning strategy to encourage students to
learn collaboratively to solve their problem in learning, share idea and help each
other in achieving their goal. Cooperative learning had been researched and use in
a wide variety of subject. Borich (2004) states that in general, cooperative
learning can be said to lead the information of attitude and values, provision of
models of prosocial behavior, presentation of alternative perspective and
viewpoints, building a coherent and integrated identity, and promotion of critical
thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.
Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) is one of the
learning technique based on cooperation. It is a comprehensive approach which is
designed to develop reading, writing, and other language skills among eighth
grade. CIRC is group of study that consists of students from different levels to
work of a series cooperative activities, partner reading, making predictions, etc. In
CIRC, students are taught to work cooperatively. They will work together until all
the members of group understand the text. In order to encourage the students or
successfully understand comprehending the text, the group work can be good
choice. Because in a group in CIRC, the students can help their partner each other,
share the ideas and learn collaboratively in achieving their goal.
According to the researcher’s experience during the observation in junior
high school in eighth grade at SMP NASRANI BELAWAN, almost a half of
difficulties and got bored in reading activity. There were several problems faced
by students in reading activities. In school, most of the students were not able to
read and to comprehend the text, although some students could read and
pronounce the text well, they did not understand and comprehend the text well
because the students could not identify the meaning of difficult words.
The researcher hopes by using CIRC for teaching reading, students will be
more motivated, relaxed, and interested so that they can be able to comprehend
the text, more active in the classroom and makes the teaching-learning process
satisfying, momentous, enjoyable and effective.
B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problem of this study is
formulated as follows:
“Does CIRC have significant effect on students’ achievement in reading
comprehension?”
C. The Objective of Study
The objective of this study is to find out whether the using of CIRC on
students’ reading comprehension of reading narrative text can improve the
D. The Scope of Study
This scope of the study is limited on the using of Cooperative Integrated
Reading and Composition (CIRC) in eighth grade in reading comprehension of
narrative text.
E. Significance of the Study
The finding of this study was intended to give contribution in teaching
English both theoretically and practically
1. Theoritically
The finding of this study is expected to be a basic knowledge for further
research of Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) in reading
and as reference to other researcher who wants to study more about descriptive
writing text by using CIRC.
2 Practically
a. For the teacher
The finding of this study is expected to be able to help teachers in
providing active learning, creative, effective, and fun and teacher solve the
problem in teaching especially reading skill.
b. For the students’
The finding of this study is expected as guidance for English teacher to
motivate the students’ in learning English better and to increase the students’
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that teaching reading
narrative text by Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC)
significantly affects on the students’ achievement on reading narrative text. It can
be seen from the data which had been obtained in the post-test of experimental
group, the total score was 2135 and the mean score was was 85.4, while the data
in control group, the total score was 1805 and the mean score was 72.2. Thus, the
students’ score in experimental group was higher than the students’ score in
control group. The calculation of the data in the testing hypothesis showed that
t-observed 2.930 was higher than t-table 2.011, it means that the alternative
hypothesis ( is acceptable.
B. Suggestions
In line with the conclusion of the study, some suggestions are offered to the
English teachers that it is wiser to apply CIRC. This study showed that CIRC
could improve students’ achievement in reading narrative text. In relation above,
some points are suggested.
First, English teachers at Junior High Schools should be creative in selecting
teaching technique to teach reading skills especially reading narrative text. It can
attract the students’ interest and also encourage the students to learn cooperatively
Second, the students can improve their reading skill by using cooperative
learning. CIRC is a group learning strategy to encourage students to learn collaboratively
to solve their problem in learning, share idea and help each other in achieving their goal.
Several activities such as partner reading, Story structured and story-related writing,
word out aloud, word meaning, story retell, and spelling can help students to wide
their new vocabulary, and to help them to comprehend the text well
Finally, it is necessary to another researcher to conduct a further research, in
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