ABSTRACT
UTILIZING SHORT STORY TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT AT THE SECOND GRADE OF SMA NEGERI
1 SINDANG INDRAMAYU
By
NISSA DWIYANTI F.H
This research was conducted in SMAN 1 Sindang Indramayu, West Java because the students have difficulties to comprehend reading text. This quantitative research was intended (1) to find out whether there is any significant difference after being taught through Short Story, (2) to investigate the aspects of reading which is mostly affected by Short Story, and (3) to find out the students’ reaction after being taught Short Story.
The sample of the research was Class XI Social 4 selected randomly. The data were collected through pre-tests, treatments, post-tests, questionnaire, and interview. Time series design was used in conducting the research. The data were analyzed by comparing the mean score of pre-tests and post-pre-tests using Repeated Measure t-test through SPSS for Windows.
Page
1. Level of Difficulty of Try Out ... 37
2. Discrimination Power of Try Out ... 38
3. Mean score of Pre Test ... 39
4. Interval of Pre-Test 1 ... 40
5. Interval of Pre-Test 2 ... 40
6. Interval of Pre-Test 3 ... 40
7. Mean score of Post Test ... 41
8. Interval score of Post-Test 1 ... 42
9. Interval score of Post-Test 2 ... 42
10. Interval score of Post-Test 3 ... 43
11. Determining Reading Aspects in Pre-test 1 and Post-test 1 ... 44
12. Determining Reading Aspects in Pre-test 2 and Post-test 2 ... 45
13. Determining Reading Aspects in Pre-test 3 and post-test 3 ... 47
14. Data of the students’ responses ... 48
15. Interview Result ... 50
16. The Increse of Students’ Comprehension Achievement Pre-test 1 and Post-test 1 .. 52
17. The Increse of Students’ Comprehension Achievement Pre-test 2 and Post-test 2 .. 52
18. The Increse of Students’ Comprehension Achievement Pre-test 3 and Post-test 3 .. 53
I. INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses several points to support the reasons for conducting the research. It includes introduction that deals with the background of the problem, identification of the problem, limitation of the problem, formulation of the problem, objective of the research, uses of the research, scope of the research, and definition of key terms.
1.1 Background of the Problem
Generally, the purpose of teaching English language at school is to develop the
students’ language skill. There are four skills of language that the teacher has to teach in SMA/MA namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. School-Based Curriculum (KTSP 2006) introduces the concepts of some types of English texts where the students are expected to be able to develop their thoughts and idea into texts both in oral and written forms such as descriptive, report, recount, procedure, anecdote, and narrative (Depdiknas, 2006).
where the students are faced with the text written in English then they are hoped to read it in order to gather information from it.
To gather the knowledge from the text, it is important for students to have a good reading comprehension and without which reading would be empty and meaningless. Comprehension is not only intended to know what the letters stand for, but also involved power of fully understanding. Reading involves more than words recognition that is without comprehension, no reading take place.
Good reading means building frameworks in order for connecting words to thought. But not everyone is good at reading. In general, students still have difficulty in comprehending the idea in reading text. When the researcher conducted a Teaching Practice Program (PPL), it was found that students had difficulty in comprehending reading text. There are some factors that cause the students difficulties in comprehending the text: (1) interest in material, (2) ignoring reading material, and (3) be lazy to read the text.
In selecting the material, it is better for the teacher to consider which material is the most effective in teaching reading, so that the teaching of reading comprehension will be useful to help the students to comprehend reading materials.
English syllabus in KTSP for SMA/MA students stated that English reading material should be taken from many sources. So the students can access more
3
Based on the statement above, the writer would like to solve the problem by using short story as reading material because the writer wants to find a better material to teach reading. This material is applicable for teaching reading comprehension.
In 2004 English curriculum for the SMA, it is stated that the aim of teaching English at school specifically in reading skill is to make the students able to understand the meaning and the steps of rhetoric development in written text in form of narration, procedure, spoof, recount, report, and news item.
Based on the idea above, the researcher conducts the research by utilizing short story as reading material. This material is applicable to be used in Senior High School, especially for the second grade. Meanwhile, the researcher uses narrative text, because narrative text is an imaginative story to entertain people. Utilizing short story as reading material not only entertain the students but also give the message and information to the students from a narrative of human relationship in life.
Short story may promote feeling of well being and it encourages the students to be
active participants and enhances the students’ reading skill. Therefore, the
researcher assumes that using short story is good to increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement.
Based on the statement above, this research is entitled “Utilizing Short Story to
1.2 Identification of the Problems
Based on the background above the researcher states the problem, why second grade students at SMAN 1 Sindang Indramayu should improve their reading comprehension achievement? Identification of the problems as follow:
1. Students do not have book or other sources to study English. 2. The students lack of reading.
3. The students do not have good self confidence in learning English.
1.3 Limitation of the Problem
Based on the identification of the problems above, researcher limits the problem about material that is used by teacher; the researcher is interested in investigating whether there is any difference of reading comprehension achievement of students if they are taught using interesting material in teaching reading. Short story, focusing to narrative text is teaching material that is use to teach reading.
1.4 Formulation of the Problems
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the writer formulates the problem as follows:
1. “Is there any significant difference of the students’ achievement in reading comprehension before and after being taught using short story?”
2. “Which aspect of reading is the most increase after being taught through short story?”
5
1.5 The Objectives of the Research
In relation to the formulation of the problems above, the objectives of this research are:
1. To find out whether there is any significant difference after being taught Short Story.
2. To know the most increase of reading comprehension aspects.
3. To know the students’ reactions after being taught through Short Story.
1.6 Uses of the Research
In relation to the problems and objectives, the findings of the research may be beneficial not only theoretically but also practically:
1. Theoretically, the result of this research is expected to support the previous study and to use as a reference for the further research.
2. Practically, the result of the research can be used for English teacher to expose the students with short story in teaching reading.
1.7 Scope of the Research
This research was conducted at SMA Negeri 1 Sindang Indramayu. The population of this research is the second year students. The writer chooses the senior high school students at the second grade because they have more capability in understanding their own personality and these learners have relatively high performance in language components, so the research will be more reliable. This
comprehension achievement. The source research material was focused on short story, concerning narrative text, since this kind of text can stimulate the students’ motivation.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Short Story
It refers to a simple story that tells the students about something interesting.
Narrative Text
It refers to describe a sequence of real or unreal events.
Reading Comprehension
II. FRAME OF THEORIES
In this chapter the researcher uses several theories to support this research. The theories that are used deals with concepts are review of previous related research, concept of reading comprehension, aspects of reading, concept of short story, characteristics of short story, concept of narrative text, the advantages and disadvantages of using short story, procedure of teaching reading, theoretical assumption and hypotheses.
2.1 Review of Previous Related Research
Clark and Silberstein (1987) states reading as an active cognitive process if interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. It means that reading is an active process in which the readers are active in organizing the text in order to get both explicit and implicit information stated there.
Nurmala (2012) investigates whether there is any significant difference between taught Short Story and Mini Dialogue at the first year of MA Ma’arif 4 Kalirejo.
showed that the value of two-tailed significane was 0.000. Since the sign <α (0.000 <0.05), the value indicated that the numbers represents the significance. It proved that the treatments given through Short Story and Mini Dialogue has better effect on the students’ ability of reading.
Wirnan, (2012) investigates the students’ ability in comprehending English short story at second year students of MTS. Darussalam Beremi in academic year 2010/2011. There are two texts of reading passage and 20 questions in the text and total score of each are different, and there are 17 questionnaires for the students’ to known the difficulties in comprehending short story. Based on the
data collected above, only 80% (32 students) got > 60 and 20% (8 students) got < 60. It seen from the fact that attainment level of students is good. In other words, the students who got the score > 60 is 32 students and students got score < 60 is only 8 students from 40 students as sample.
2.2 Concept of Reading Comprehension
9
Nuttal (1985) defines reading as the meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols. It means that reading is a result of interaction between the perception of graphic symbols that represent language and the readers’ language skill. Mackey (1979:15) suggests that reading is an active process because it involves an interaction between thought and language. It means that the readers always active their minds to get meaning and information while interacting with the written text.
Clark and Silberstein (1987: 21) also define that reading as an active cognitive process of interacting with printed material and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Reading is the instant recognition of various written symbols, simultaneous association of these symbols with existing knowledge and comprehension of the information and ideas communicated.
It is commonly acknowledged that reading is an active process, in which the reader should formulate the brain by using his previous knowledge in order to understand the text easily. It is supported by Mackey (1979) who said that reading is an active process. The readers form a preliminary expectation about the materials then select the fewest.
In line with the clarification above, it can be understood that reading is a very important skill for students. Actually, reading is an active process. It needs thought and the ability in making sense of the text that is being read.
Just and Carpenter (1987), as Bernhardt, (1991) in Suparman (2007) include several factors in their definition of reading, they are:
1) What information in the text starts the process 2) How long the process takes
3) What information was used during the process
4) What likely sources of comprehension difficulties exist 5) What the reader has learned when the process is finished
Comprehension means relating to what we do not know or new information, to what we already know (Eskey, 1986: 15). Therefore, in comprehending a text, the reader relates new information from the text being read to his previous knowledge that he has stored in his mind. Reading comprehension is a complex intellectual process involving a number of abilities. Two major abilities involve word meanings and verbal reasoning. Without words meaning and verbal reasoning, there could be no reading comprehension; without reading comprehension, there would be no reading (Brown, 1982:6).
11
Reading with comprehension one will recognize the purpose and the important point of the text besides understanding the surface meaning of the text. According to Patricia in Simanjuntak (1988: 6) understanding a text is an interactive process between the readers’ background knowledge and the text.
From this statement it can be concluded that in reading it is not enough for readers to understand a set of words in a sentence only. The readers also must be able to comprehend the reading text in order to get the message and information from what they have read.
According to Milan (1988) there are some essential skills in reading, they are:
1. Comprehension and Retention.
The readers should be able to comprehend the text and memorize what they have read. The ways that can be used by the readers to build comprehension and retention are by determining the main idea of paragraphs and their purpose of reading, comprehending main idea and distinguishing between main ideas and supporting details.
2. Inferences and Conclusion.
In relation to making inferences, McWhorter (1989; 254) defines that an inference is an educational guess or prediction about something unknown based on available facts and information. It is the logical connection that you draw between what you observe and what you do not know. In making inferences the readers are required to “read between the lines” to make
able to do this by making use of the context in which the word occurred, in other to give a rough idea of its meaning. In reading activity the readers should make inferences from what they are reading and also make conclusion toward the text has been read.
3. Critical Thinking and Analysis.
In this term, the readers should distinguish the text they are reading, whether it is text of fact or opinion. In relation to fact, Askew (2005) states that fact is knowledge or information based on real occurrences. From this statement it can be concluded that text of fact is a reading text which is written based on real occurrences or based on something happened. While a text of opinion is a reading text which is written based on someone’s point of view. So in
reading, the reader should analyze whether the text they are reading is a text of fact or opinion, then they also should think critically whether the information or message in that reading text is important for them or not.
2.3 Aspects of Reading
Reading is an astoundingly cognitive process. There are five reading aspects (Nuttal: 1985) which help the students to comprehend the English text well, they are:
1. Main Idea
13
one sentence. It is left to the reader to infer or reason out. So, main idea is the very important idea that the author develops throughout the paragraph. 2. Specific Information
Specific information or supporting sentence develops the topic sentence by giving definitions, examples, facts, an incidents, comparison, analogy, cause and effect statistics and quotation.
3. References
References are words or phrase used either before or after the reference in the reading material. They are used to avoid unnecessary repletion of words or phrases. So, such words are used, they are signals to the reader find the meaning elsewhere in the text.
4. Inference
Inference is an educational guess or prediction about something unknown based on available facts and information. It is the logical connection that the reader draw between his observes or known and what he does not know.
5. Vocabulary
2.4 Concept of Short Story
According to Poe (1842) a short story is a short narrative text in prose designed to produce a single dominant effect. Short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such as novellas and also novels. In common, short story consists of about 1.500 until 5.000 words that has a clear beginning, middle, and ending.
Keegan (2003) defines short story as a narrative, rarely over 10,000 words or below 500 words, more commonly 1,500-5, 00 words-a single-sitting read, but with enough time and weight to move the reader.
The students that have no much about vocabulary still can imagine and enjoy the story because short story consists of words that familiar to them.
2.5 Characteristics of Short Story
As a fictional narrative short story has some characteristics, they are:
1. Short story has its own elements to build its organization.
Short story is systematic account of something happening that has a setting, a plot on purpose, characters and meaning.
2. Short story has unity.
15
character, a single event, a single emotion, or the scores of emotions called forth by a single situation. From this statement we can see that a unity in a short story collaborate the incidents in that story so that it can be built into a unified story that will give a final impression to its reader even though it is only in a single sitting.
3. Short story has limited scope.
Short story is a kind of story shorter than the novel or novelette characteristically developing a single central theme and limited in scope and number of characters. It means that as a narrative form, the scope and the characters in short story is limited, not as broad as in novel or novelette. 4. Short story has theme.
In relation to the theme or what the story is about, theme contains idea but could not state as an idea. It suggests morality but offers no moral. Here the writer sees that in short story theme has definitelyimportant role, it gives the soul of the story, since theme decides how the story should be. Besides, there is always a message behind a theme of a short story in the form of narrative human relationship in life.
In this research, the researcher selected short story to be applied as reading material based on the criteria that short story should match ‘the students’ level and
2.6 Concept of Narrative Text
According to School Based Curriculum (KTSP), there are many kinds of text. They are descriptive, procedure, recount, narrative and report. A narrative is a construct created in a suitable medium (speech, writing, images) that describes a sequence of real or unreal events. It derives from the Latin verb narrare, which means “to recount” and is related to the adjective gnarrs, meaning “knowing” or
“skilled”.
Narrative text has function to amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or various experience in different ways. It is important to know that the social function of the narrative text is to inform and entertain. Narrative text will tell the story with amusing way.
According to Madison smart Bell, the narrative design, or what we call form or structure, is of first and final importance to any work of fiction. In that structure, we will find elements of story; characterization, point of view, theme and plot. Plot is the way of the story constructed.
Narrative has a generic structure inside the text;
Orientation: (beginning). The introduction of what is inside the text. What text talking in general or the characters of the story. Who involves in the text. When and where it happen. Orientation actually exists in every text type though it has different term.
Complication: (middle). This part tells the beginning of the problem
17
other problems. What happens with the participant? It explores the conflict among the participants. Complication is the main elements of narrative. The conflict can be shown as natural, social or psychological conflict.
Resolution: (ending). It is the final series of the events which happen in
the story. This is the phase where the participants solve the problem aroused by the conflict. It is not matter whether the participants succeed or fail. The point is the conflict becomes ended. The crisis is resolved, for better or for worse, either in a happy ending or in a sad (tragic) ending.
And here is the example of the organization of narrative text: Orientation:
There was once a little fly that thought he was very important. He felt proud of himself. One sunny morning, he flew around looking for someone to talk to. He saw a bull grazing in a field. He decided to fly down to talk to him.
Complication:
The little fly flew down and buzzed around the bull’s head. The bull did not bother him. He went on chewing grass. The fly then buzzed right inside the bull’s ear. The bull continued chewing grass. The fly thought, “What a stupid animal!”
Now the fly decided to land on one of the bull’s horn to make the bull notice him. He waited for the bull to say something, but the bull kept quiet. The fly then shouted angrily, “Oh Bull, if you find that I am too heavy for you, let me know and I will fly away!”
Resolution:
The bull laughed and said, “Little fly, I don’t care if you stay or leave. You are so tiny that your weight does not make any difference to me, so please be quiet and leave me alone”.
2.7 The Procedure of Teaching Reading Comprehension using Short Story The researcher’s purpose is to make it easier for students to improve their reading
1. Pre-activities
The teacher greets students.
The teacher checks students’ attendance list.
The teacher motivates students to be active. The teacher introduces the topic about short story.
The teacher leads the students to the topic by asking some questions related to the topic presented, and then she asks them to answer those questions together.
2. While-activities
The teacher explains the elements of narrative text. The teacher asks students to read the short story silently.
The teacher explains about the main idea of each paragraph and then she asks students to discuss in group to find out the main idea of each paragraph.
The teacher explains characters in a short story and also the role of these characters in a short story, then she asks students to discuss in group to find out the characters in short story they are reading including how many characters are there and who are they.
The teacher explains plot and setting in a short story, then she asks students to discuss in group about plot and setting in short story they are reading related to the content of their short story.
19
the story. After that she asks the students to discuss the result of the group discussion together.
3. Post-activities
The teacher gives some tests of reading comprehension to the students based on the short story they read, and then she asks the students to discuss the result together.
The teacher asks students the difficulties related to the topic The teacher summarizes the materials.
The teacher closes the meeting.
2.8 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Short Story
The advantages of utilizing short story in teaching reading comprehension according to Carter and Mc. Rae are as follows:
1. Promote introspection and self-awareness.
It is proven by the fourth finding which states that the session of class discussion of the students’ answer helped the students realize their mistakes
in answering the test.
2. Encourage exploitation of reading resources.
3. Promote greater language awareness.
It is proven by the third finding. In the session of class discussion every student wanted to express his/her opinion about the short story they read by using the target language.
4. Promote planning for individual reading.
This statement is proven by the fourth finding. The mistake made by the students in answering the test encouraged them to work better on the next test.
And the disadvantages are:
1. Short story may be above the student’s reading level
When choosing short story for students, the teacher must give in-depth consideration to the reading level of the students, which can be very difficult to gauge. Although the teacher can obviously tell what grammar and vocabulary has been covered in the lesson thus far, there is virtually no way to know what the students have learned or absorbed outside of the class. Making too many assumptions about what students should know at their grade level could lead to unnecessary confusion on the part of the students.
2. Students may not connect with the short story
21
all of these conflicts, like a children’s book, for example, may appear dull and trite to some students.
2.9 Theoretical Assumption
The researcher thinks that short story is interesting and easy to understand and theme of short story which is interesting and easy to be understood by SMA students are short story in theme which close to the students’ life like romance and
short story which is well known among the community like folk tales.
Teaching reading comprehension by utilizing short story as reading material then explaining its supporting elements during the teaching learning process such as plot, characters and setting will help the readers comprehend the material more, so that they can easily get the message and information from that short story based on theme of short story itself. In reading activity, in the process receiving message, the readers use their schemata or background knowledge. Therefore, the researcher assumes that after students doing reading comprehension activity by using short story as reading material, the students will get message and information based on theme of short story they read which will add the knowledge of the students, so as their understanding of the text, and as the result the students’
2.10 The Hypothesis
Based on the theoretical assumption above, the researcher formulates the hypothesis as follows:
1. There is a significant difference after being taught through Short Story. 2. The most increase of reading comprehension aspects is on getting specific
information.
III. RESEARCH METHODS
This chapter discusses about the methods of research used in this study, they are: research design, population and sample, data collecting technique, research procedures, scoring system, and data analysis.
3.1 Research Design
In this research, the researcher intended to find out the significant difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement after being taught through Short Story in narrative text. It could be found by using pre-test before the treatment and post-test after the treatment. This research was a quantitative study which used one group time series design in order to find out the significant difference of students’ reading comprehension achievement. The researcher only selected one
T1 T2 T3 X T4 T5 T6
Where:
T1 T2 T3 : Pretest, which is administered before receiving the treatment. X : Treatment, which is teaching reading by using short story. T4 T5 T6 : Posttest, which is administered after receiving the treatment.
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 20) The first activity has done by researcher is to administer try out to make the instrument more valid and then the researcher administers pretest to the experimental class in order to find out the input of the students before they get the treatment. After that, the researcher conducts the treatment that is using short story to stimulate and increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement. The treatment was given three times in assumption three times treatment will be enough. The next step is administering the posttest to experimental class to know the result of the treatment.
3.2 Population and Sample
The population of this research was the second grade of the stuednts of SMAN 1 Sindang Indramayu. Class XI that consists of 30 students in 2nd semester, academic year 2012/2013 was taken as the sample of this research. This class was chosen by selected randomly.
3.3 Data Collecting Technique
25
comprehension achievement before and after being taught through Short Story. In collecting the data, the research procedure administered pre-tests, treatments and post-tests. Then, the researcher analyzed the result of those activities which could be clarified as follows:
1.Try-out
The try-out test was applied to know the quality of the test as the instrument of the research. The try-out test was conducted in another class which was chosen purposively in the pre observation, out of experimental class. The numbers of the tests items were 75 items of multiple choice that consist of four options of each answer (A, B, C and D). Time allocated was 90 minutes. This test was given to the students in order to have a good quality which has not only good reliability and good validity, but also it was not too easy and too difficult.
2.Pre-tests
3. Treatments
After having the pre-test, the students in the experimental class were given three treatments. The treatmenst was teaching reading comprehension through Short Story. There were three different topics every meeting that consists of 90 minutes.
4.Post-tests
The post-tests was given three times to the students after the treatments to find out the significant difference between the score of the students’ reading
comprehension achievement after being taught Short Story. The result of post-tests was compared with the result of pre-post-tests. The test consists of 20 multiple choices items consisting of four options (A, B, C, and D).
5. Questionnaire and Interview
Questionnaire and Interview was given to know the students’ reaction after being taught through Short Story. The questionnaire consists of ten statements about the use of Short Story and interview consists of ten questions about the use of narrative text in teaching learning reading comprehension.
3.4 Research Procedures
In constructing the research, the research procedures used these following steps:
1. Determining the population and sample of the research
27
2. Administering the tryout to know the quality of the test
Tryout test was in multiple choice tests that consist of 75 items with four options. This test was administered to measure the level of difficulty (LD) and discrimination power (DP) as well to find out the reliability and validity of the test.
3. Preparing the material which will be taught
The researcher will use two kinds of reading text. The materials are from English text book for the second year of SMA students that will be used as reading material in pre-test and short story texts that will be used as reading material in post-test.
4. Administering the pretest and finding the result
The pre-test was conducted before the treatment, to see the students’ base reading comprehension. The pre-test was given as an objective test in the form of multiple choices. The numbers of the items in the test are20 items of multiple choice tests with four options of answers, (A, B, C and D). The pre-test took 60 minutes.
5. Giving treatment
After having the pre-test, the students in the experimental class was given three treatments. The treatment was teaching reading comprehension through Short Story. There were three different topics in each meeting.
6. Administering the post-test
60 minutes and used 20 items of multiple choice tests with four options (A, B, C and D).
7. Analyzing the test result
After conducting pre-test and post-test, the researcher analyzed the data by using t-test. It was used to know whether Short Story is able to increase students’ reading comprehension or not. It was computed through SPSS.
3.5 Research Instrument
The instruments of this research were:
1. Objective reading test of narrative text that was used for tryout and post-test. Those tests were in form of multiple choices that consists of four options (A, B, C and D). The multiple choice test is used since its marking is rapid, simple and most importantly reliable, not subjective or influenced by the marker’s judgment (Heaton, 1991).
2. Questionnaire consisting of the students’ arguments about the use of Short Story in teaching learning reading comprehension. The questionnaire consists of ten statements. Every student chooses the answer based on their arguments on the questionnaire sheet given. The questionnaire has five answers, dislike, almost dislike, neutral, like, strongly like.
29
3.6 Scoring System
The researcher uses multiple choices in order to gain the objectivity of the results. There were 75 items in tryout test, 20 items in pre-test and 20 items in post-test. Each correct answer is scored one. In scoring the students result of the test, the researcher used Arikunto`s formula. The ideal higher score was 100. The score of pretest and post tests were calculated by using formula as follows:
S = 100
N R
Where:
S: The score of the test
R: The total of the right answers N: The total items
(Arikunto, 2003:212)
3.7 Try-out Test
test could be said has a good quality if it has a good validity, reliability, level of difficulty and discrimination power.
3.7.1 Validity of the Test
The test can be said as the valid one if the test measures the object to be measured and it is suitable with the criteria (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:250). There are two basic types of validity (Hatch & Farhady, 1982: 250). They are content and construct validity. To measure whether the test has a good quality or not, the researcher used content and construct validity.
a. Content Validity
31
b. Construct Validity
Construct validity is concerned with whether the test is actually in line with the theory of what it means to know the language that is being measured. To achieve the construct validity, the test was adopted from the student’s hand book based on
KTSP 2006 curriculum of senior high school. Then, the test was determined according to the material that was taught to the students.
3.7.2 Reliability of the Test
Reliability of the test can be defined as the extent to which a test produces consistent result when administrated under similar conditions (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:243). Pearson Product Moment formula that was used as follows:
rl=
2
2
y x
xy
Where:
rl: Coefficient of reliability between odd and even numbers items
x: Odd number
y: Even number
To know the coefficient correlation of whole items, “Spearmen Brown`s prophecy
formula” will be used. The formula is as follows:
=
Where:
rk: The reliability of the whole test : The reliability of the half test
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982:246)
3.7.3 Level of Difficulty
The difficulty level of an item shows how easy or difficult that particular item done by the participants, (Heaton, 1991: 182). Level of difficulty is generally expressed as the fraction of the students who answered the item correctly. It is calculated by the following formula:
LD = N
R
Where:
LD: Level of difficulty
33
Here are the criteria:
<0.30 = difficult 0.30-0.70 = average <0.70 = easy
3.7.4 Discrimination Power
The discrimination power refers to the extent to which the item differentiates between high and low level students on the test. A good item according to the criteria is one which good students will do well and bad students will fail.
To know the discrimination power of the test, the formula that was used:
DP = N
L U
2 1
Where:
DP: Discrimination power
U: The proportion of upper group students
L: The proportion of lower group students
The criteria are:
0.00 – 0.20 = poor
0.21 – 0.40 = satisfied
0.41 – 0.70 = good
0.71 – 1.00 = excellent
(Negative) = bad items (should be omitted)
(Heaton, 1991: 182)
3.8 Data Analysis
The data gained from pre-test and post-test was analyzed through the following steps:
1. Scoring the pre-test and post-test.
2. Tabulating the resulst of pre-test and post-test and calculating of both means.
35
3.9 Hypothesis Testing
The hypothesis statistically tested using Repeated measures t-test. It was used as the data came from the same sample or known as paired data (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 114). The data was calculated through computing with Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0 for Windows. It was used to draw the conclusion in significant level of 0, 05 (p<0, 05). It means that the probability of error in the hypothesis was only about 5%.
To determine whether the first hypothesis is accepted or rejected, the following criteria acceptance that used:
H0 : There is no significant difference of the students’ reading
comprehension achievement after being taught through Short Story.
H1 : There is a significant difference of the students’ reading
V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presented the conclusion and suggestion based on the finding and discussion of the data analysis.
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the results of the data analysis after conducting the researcher at the second grade of SMA N 1 Sindang Indramayu and analyzing the data, the researcher draws the conclusion as follows:
61
2. This research was focused on five reading comprehension aspects. Then, from the calculation, it can be seen that the most increase was on getting the specific information aspect and the lowest increase was inference.
3. Teaching reading through Short Story as reading materialis suitable to the students’ level and interest because can makes the students enjoy reading
comprehension activity. It can be seen from enthusiasm in reading short story given by the researcher. The interesting reading material also encouraged the students to express their idea by using the target language related to the story they read.
5.2 Suggestions
Based on the result of data analysis, some suggestions are put forward by the teacher in teaching learning process using short story.
1. Since short story can give better result, it is suggested that English teacher apply short story as a variation of material in teaching reading.
2. The teacher should be careful in selecting the short story. Short story given to the students should suitable to the students’ level and interest. Level
here deals with the age of the students and also the theme of the story, while interest here deals with the type of the text, such as narrative text. 3. Since inference was the lowest increase of the aspects of reading
comprehension, the teacher should be given more exercise about how to finding the inference.
REFERENCES
Arikunto, S. 2003. Dasar-DasarEvaluasiPendidikan. Jakarta-Indonesia: PT Rineka.
Baldwin Scoot R, Bruckner ZivaPeleg, Mcclintock Ann H. 1985. Effects of Topic Interest and Prior Knowledge on Reading Comprehension.Reading Research Quarterly XX/4.
Brown, J. D. 1982. Understanding Research in second language learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, R and Mc Rae, J. 1999. Language, Literature, and the Learner. New York: Longman.
Charters, A. 1983.The Story and its Writer.An Introduction to Short Fiction. New York: A Bedford. St. Martin.
Clark, M.A. and Silberstein. S. 1987. Toward a Realization of Psycholinguistic Principles in ESL Reading Classroom. New York: New Burry House Publisher.
Dallman, R. I. 1982. Teaching of Reading. New York: CBS College Publishing. Depdiknas. 2006.Kurikulum Tingkat SatuanPendidikan. Jakarta: Depdiknas. Eskey, D. 1986. A New Technique for the Teaching of Reading to Advanced
Students.TESOL Quarterly.
Grellet, F. 1981. Developing Reading Skills a Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hatch, E. and Farhady. 1982. Research Design and Statistic for Applied
Linguistics. London: New Bury House Production, Inc.
Heaton, J.B. 1991. English Language Tests: A Practical Guide for Teachers of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Virginia: Longman. Keegan, A. 2003. What is A short Story? London: Writers Write, Inc.
63
Mackey, R. 1979. Teaching the Information Gathering Skills in Reading in A Second Language. Los Angeles: Newbury House Publisher.
Malkina, N. 1995.Story Telling in Early Language Teaching.Vol.33, No.1, January-March 1995 pp.38, March 28th, 2007.
http://exchanges.stage.gov/forum/vols/vol33/nol/p38.htm
Millan, D K. 1988. Improving Reading Skills. New York: Random House. Nurmala, R. 2012. A Comparative Study of Students’ Reading Achievement
between Those Who are Taught Through Short Story and Those Through
Mini Dialogue at The First Year of MA Ma’arif Kalirejo. (Unpublish S1
Research Report). Bandar Lampung: Lampung University. Nuttal, C. 1985.Teaching Reading Skills in Foreign Language. London:
Heineman Education Book.
Poe, E.A.1842. Definition of the Short Story. (Online),
(m.schuelerlexicon.de/eng_abi2011/Edgar_Allan_Poe_and_the_Definitio n_of_the_Short_Story.htm, accesed May 4th, 2013).
Simanjuntak, E G. 1988. Developing Reading Skills for English Foreign language Students. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan Kebudayaan.
Smith, F. 1983. Understanding Reading.New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. Strang, P C. 1984.Teaching Reading in Today’s Elementary School. London: The
Open University Press.
Suparman, U.2007. Reading Strategies of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Tangerang: Matabaca Press.
Wadsworth, J. 1978. Piagiet for The Classroom Teacher. London: Longman. Wirman. 2012. The Students’Ability in Comperehending English Short Story at
Second Year Student’s of Mts. Darussalam Beremi in Academic Year 2010/2011. (Online),
