BHAKTI 17 JAGAKARSA)
A “Skripsi”
Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher’s Training
In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of S.Pd. (Bachelor of Arts) in English Language Education
By Imam Khasbani 1110014000090
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER’S TRAINING STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
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Grade Students of SMK Bhakti 17 Jagakarsa)
Department of English Education, the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
Advisors: Dr. Farida Hamid, M.Pd, and Teguh Khaerudin M.App.Ling.
Keywords: Think-Aloud, Narrative Text, Students’ Reading Comprehension
The objective of this study is to check the influence of Think-Aloud technique
towards students’ Reading comprehension. The research is also aimed at analyzing if there are significance differences to the students after being taught by using Think-Aloud and also to know whether Think-Aloud is able to enhance students’ awareness
on their Reading strategy.
Afterwards, the obtained data from pre test and post-test on the experimental and the control class were analyzed by using a statistical program namely SPSS 20. The analysis shows that Think-Aloud method has improved the ability of students’
reading. The Pretest of the experiment and the control are 52.54 and 47.37 respectively, and the pretest scores are 62.68 (the experimental class), and 54.60 (the control class).
Then, The Independent t-test shows that the significant score is 0.02 which is
lower than the value of α (0.05). It indicates that Think Aloud has significantly influenced reading comprehension skill on students’ in the experiment class. The
MARSI questionnaire result shows that the mean score achieved by the experimental class is 2.483 (low level of awareness), and after the treatment, the mean score achieved is 2.750 (medium level). It indicates that there is an improvement on
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Grade Students of SMK Bhakti 17 Jagakarsa)
Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan Universitas Islam Negri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
Pembimbing: Dr. Farida Hamid, M.Pd, and Teguh Khaerudin M.App.Ling.
Katakunci: Think-Aloud, Narrative Text, Students’ Reading Comprehension
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah membuktikan keefektifan Think-Aloud
terhadap kemampuan membaca siswa. Selain itu, penelitian ini juga ditujuakan untuk menganalisis ada tidaknya perbedaan yang signifikan antara kemampuan membaca siswa sebelum dan sesudah diberikan perlakuan Think-Aloud, selain itu penelitian ini juga ditujukan untuk mengetahui apakan Think-Aloud mampu meningkatkan kesadaran siswa akan strategi membaca mereka.
Data pretest dan posttest dari kelas eksperiment dan control kemudian dianalisis mengunakan program SPSS 20. Hasil analisis menunjukan bahwa Think-Aloud berhasil meningkatkan kemampuan pemahaman membaca siswa. Hasil dari kelas ekaperiment dan Kontrol secara berurutan adalah 52,54 dan 47,37 untuk pretest,
serta 62,68 dan 54,60 untuk posttest.
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All praises be to Allah, for His blessing upon the writer, so he can finally
complete the “skripsi”. Peace and blessing be upon our prophet Muhammad PBUH,
his family, his companion, and his followers.
Much effort and time has been spent in completing this research. In doing so, a lot of contribution, helps, and supports have been addressed to the writer. Thus, in this occasion, the writer would like to extend his profound gratitude and appreciation to:
1. His beloved parents Masudi and Rasiyem who always give their affection, support and pray that encourage writer to focus in completing this research 2. The advisors, Dr. Farida Hamid, M.Pd, and Teguh Khaerudin M.App.Ling,
for their guidance, suggestion, help, support, and correction during the completion of this research
3. All lectures of English Education who have shared their knowledge during his study in English Education Department
4. Staffs of the main and faculty libraries who let the writer use the “skripsi” room and all of its facilities.
5. Drs. Syauki M.Pd, the head of English Education Department
6. The headmaster and the English teacher of SMK Bhakti 57 Jagakarsa who had allowed the writer to conduct the research on the school
7. All students of class X MM and X AP who have cooperated as participants of the research
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10.The writer roommates that are still focusing on completing their papers, Anton Hilmansyah, Ahmad Noval Subagio, Muhammad Asep, and Ahmad Sofyan.
11.The writer’s classmates, for all priceless moments
12.The writer’s brother and sister, Fajar Shodiq Apriyanto and Mar’atus Sadiah, which have motivated the writer to be a good big brother and complete the paper soon.
The writer humbly realizes that this paper is not perfectly made and there may be some mistakes to be found. Thus, any valuable and reasonable correction and suggestion are warmly welcomed.
Jakarta, April 15, 2015
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………... iii
TABLE OF CONTENT………... vi
CHARTS LIST……… viii
TABLES LIST……… ix
PICTURES LIST……….... x
APPENDIXES LIST……….. xi
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study……….. 1
B. Identification of Problems……… 5
C. Limitation of the Study……… 5
D. Formulation of the Problem………. 5
E. Aim of the Study……….. 6
F. Significance of the Study……….. 6
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Reading……….. 7
1. Definition of Reading……….. 7
2. The Purpose of Reading……….. 8
3. Reading Comprehension………. 9
4. Teaching Reading……… 11
B. Think-Aloud………... 12
1. What is Think-Aloud? ... 12
2. The History of the Use of Think-Aloud Technique……… 13
3. The Procedure in Conducting Think-Aloud……… 14
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B. Method and Design of the Study………. 22
C. The Subject of the Study……….. 23
D. The Technique of Data Collecting……….. 23
E. Instrument……… 23
1. Reading Comprehension Test……… 24
2. Questionnaire………... 25
3. The Validity and Reliability of Reading Comprehension Test…… 25
F. The Technique of Data Analysis………. 29
1. Normality Test……….. 29
2. Homogeneity Test………. 30
3. Hypothesis Test………. 31
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING A. Description of the Data……… 33
1. Data Presentation……….. 33
B. The Homogeneity Test………. 36
C. The Normality Test……….. 37
D. The Hypothesis Test………. 38
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. CONCLUSION……… 43
B. SUGGESTION………. 43
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2. Table 3.2 The Difficulty Level (DL) Criteria………… ………....…. 28
3. Table 3.3 Item Discrimination (ID) Criteria ………..……. 28
4. Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Pre-test Result …..………… 33
5. Table 4.2 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Post-test Result….………… 34
6. Table 4.3 Group Statistics ………..………...……… 36
7. Table 4.4 The Homogeneity Test Result ……… 36
8. Table 4.5 One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test on Pretest Data …..… 37
9. Table 4.6 One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test on Post-test Data ...… 38
10.Table 4.7 The Independent T-test ………..……….………… 39
11.Table 4.8 The Gain Differences Test Result………....………… 39
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2. Picture 4.2 The chart bar of students' pre-test result from experiment class.. 35
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1. Lesson plan and students’ think-aloud sheets
2. Anates analysis result (pilot study), and the test question
3. Students score and data analysis (spss 20)
4. Students’ pretest, pos-test, and questionnaire
1
A.
Background of the Study
Reading, as one of four skills in English, offers several benefit for language
learners. Jeremy Harmers in his book “The Practice of English Language Teaching” stated that reader has several purpose while they are reading. They are reading for specific information, in this case they are reading for studying a specific material, or they are reading for pleasure. Moreover, Harmer also states that reading provides students a good model for English writing, an opportunity to study vocabulary, grammar, punctuations, and also gives a real illustration on how to construct sentences, paragraphs, or a passage1.In Indonesia, Teaching reading as an English skill has more special attention than teaching the other three English skills namely listening, speaking, and writing. The purpose of teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia has primarily emphasized to develop reading ability as a means of helping students to gain an access to information or to read references2. As it is known that most references, such as books, articles, or journals concerning on sciences and technology are written in English.
As the main purpose of teaching English in Indonesia is focused on developing reading skill, then, purposes of the teaching learning activities conducted in classes are emphasized on how students are finally able to comprehend an English text. Unfortunately, teaching reading English in Indonesian schools is not without a problem. According to Eny Syatriana, Indonesian students at any level has difficulties
1 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (New York: Longman Publishing:1996) Page 183
2Allan Lauder, “The status and Function of English in Indonesia: A Review of Key Factors”,
in learning Reading an English Text3. She mentions that many Indonesian Junior and Senior high school students failed to call an active cognitive process of interacting with printing and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Moreover, difficulties encountered on Indonesian students‟ reading is that they are not capable to relate between their background knowledge and the text they are reading. Thus, the process that many effective readers do in the first stage of reading that is making prediction of the text cannot be performed by them.
Inability to predict unfamiliar word or phrase is another difficulty encountered by students in their reading. Occasionally, when reading a text, students may find a part of the text, which could be a word or phrase that is unfamiliar to them. Unfortunately, instead of trying to predict its meaning from the context of the text they are reading, students will get easily stressed of it.
Furthermore, concerning on the difficulty of students‟ reading, researchers from Indonesia Education University who are Didi Sukyadi and Eneng Uswatun Hasanah reveal that around 37.6% of 15-year-old students are merely able to read the texts without understanding the meaning carried by the text. Only 24.8% out of them are able to correlate the texts with their prior knowledge.4 Prior knowledge that is also known as schema, relevant background knowledge or students‟ experience is important for students to make connection to the text they are reading and to increase their comprehension toward the text. Students that are not able or do not know how to use their prior knowledge will make a less sense out of what they read and worse they cannot make a deep understanding of the text they are reading and they cannot be an independent reader. As independent readers are they that think about what they are reading and consider how it fits with what they already know.
3 Eny Syatriana, “Developing Students‟ Reading Comprehension through Cognitive Reading Strategies of the First Year Students of SMAN 16 Makassar” accesed on 9th
January 2014 from http://www.niu.edu/international/_images/Eny%20Syatriana.pdf. Page 2
4Didi Sukyadi and Eneng Uswatun Hasanah “Scaffolding Students‟ Reading Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategy” accesed on 9th January 2014 from http://file.upi.edu/Direktori/FPBS/JUR._PEND._BAHASA_INGGRIS/196706091994031
Students‟ factor is not the only factor that trigger the difficulty in students‟ reading. Teachers‟ factor play equal role in influencing students‟ reading comprehension. Teachers who do not give their supports to students to help them in their reading nor do teachers who give students opportunity to support one another in their reading learning will likely to demotivate students in reading.5 Teachers who seems to be a kind of teacher-centered person in the class will hardly conduct a teaching reading strategy that involve students‟ awareness to participate in reading. A teacher-centered teacher also makes less feedback to students in the class whereas giving feedback to students in the class toward their reading is important as students will know their weakness in their reading and also by giving feedback, teacher can give their students an advice of reading strategy that seems fit to their students to overcome their reading difficulty.
Due to the researchers‟ statements on Indonesian students‟ reading difficulty in the previous paragraphs, selecting appropriate teaching technique that is able to make students to be a skillful reader that are able to use their prior knowledge toward the text, predict as well grasp explicit meaning of a text and able to call an active cognitive process and enable teacher to make students more engage students in class and enable possibilities to give them feedback is also crucial to do. Didi Sukyadi and Eneng Uswatun Hasanah state in their article that teaching teaching that is able to cover those stated needs is Think-aloud. It is basically applied in two ways: as an informal assessment of students‟ reading strategies or comprehension and as a teaching strategy aimed at assisting readers of all ages in developing the essential comprehension self-monitoring skills necessary for effective learning.
Didi Sukyadi and Eneng Uswatun Hasanah state some reasons why think-aloud strategy is good and appropriate to be applied in the class to increase students‟ reading comprehension.6 First, by using Think-aloud students are able to learn to
5Ariffudin Hamra and Eny Syatriana, “A Model of Reading for University EFL Students: Need Analysis and Model Decision.”English Language Teaching.Vol.5 No.10. 16 August 2012. Page 3
control or monitor their own comprehension. Next, by using think aloud students can learn to use reading strategies. Third, it increases the level of students‟ interest and participation. The last, Think-Aloud is considered as a valuable tool to assess students‟ comprehension in the classroom and enable teacher to give them feedbacks.
Next, Leslie Oster Maarten W. van Someren in different articles also argue why Think-Aloud is suitable to be applied in the class whose reading problems are like what have been stated above. Oster mentioned that Think-Aloud technique is a technique that enables students to verbalize their thoughts as they read and thus students are able to make their own strategy so that in the further reading activity, they can choose by themselves the best technique in reading7. Think-Aloud also provide the data that can be interrogated and investigated by teachers in the class8. Thus, teachers can analyze the difficulty experienced by students reading. Then, teachers are also able to help students to overcome their students by giving advices in their reading.
Then, according to the problems encountered in students reading and the strength of Think-Aloud to overcome them, the writer put his interest on conducting a research focusing on the use of Think-Aloud. Also, as the experience the writer had while the writer conducted a teaching practice in a senior high school shows that many students still have difficulty to answer a question focusing on interpreting a meaning from a text, the writer is eager to know the influence of Think-Aloud toward senior high school students‟ reading comprehension. The research that is going to be conducted is entitled as “Applying Think-Loud Technique in Improving Students Reading Comprehension of Narrative Text.
7Leslie Oster, “Using Think-Aloud for Reading Instruction”, The Reading Teacher, Vol.55, No.1, 1st September 2001, p.64
B.
Identification of Problems
Problem related to reading and teaching are found from the explanation above and the following statements are the identification of the problem.
1. Students are incapable to reconnect their prior knowledge towards texts they are reading
2. Students cannot predict or grasp implicit meaning from a text 3. Students are merely able to read a text without understanding it 4. Students are not capable of interpreting implicit meaning from a text
5. Students find it is hard to predict a meaning from unfamiliar word or phrase of a test
C.
Limitation of the Study
This study is focused and limited on the developing of students‟ reading comprehension of narrative texts of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan (SMK) 57 Jagakarsa. This study will examine and analyze how effective the use of Think-Aloud technique in teaching narrative texts in class to enhance students‟ performance in comprehending a text and also their awareness toward their reading strategies.
D.
Formulation of the Problem
In the research, the writer plans to analyze the use of
Think-Aloud technique in teaching reading of narrative text of students in the level of senior high school. Thus, the writers would like to formulate the problem as follows:1. Is Think-Aloud technique able to enhance the students‟ reading comprehension toward a reading text?
E.
Aim of the Study
The aim of study is to find out whether Think-Aloud technique can be effectively conducted in senior high school and to know how effective it is to use Think-Aloud to enhance students‟ comprehension towards a reading text and in this case is a narrative text. In addition, the aim of the study is also to seek the answer whether Think-Aloud
is able to enhance students‟ awareness towards their reading strategies.
F.
Significance of the Study
The result of the study is expected to be able to provide a needed and useful information of a teaching technique. So according to the writer expectation, this study‟s results, ipso facto, are aimed to first, English teacher who develop a strategy and a technique in teaching reading. The result will give them information about technique in teaching reading, which can be an alternative solution they can use in the class.
Second, students who want to solve their difficulty in comprehending text. Along with teachers, the students can practice this technique in their reading activity in the class and it also give them a possible opportunity to develop their reading skill through a different technique and also to gain their awareness towards reading strategies..
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
A.
READING
1.
Definition of Reading
Reading as one of four language skills plays an important role in our lives. Since
most languages, even though not all in this world, are divided in two forms, which are oral and written language, thence a good ability of reading is needed to comprehend languages, particularly those that are written.
While we are reading we are not merely doing a passive process. Deane Spears tells us that when we take a book and we begin to read the words, the reading process starts at the same time. The reading process is called decoding words9.
Furthermore, Deane Spears defines that decoding words is decrypting the letters that make up individual word and processing the letters and sounds. Moreover, Spears fences that in getting the message of a text from a reading process, we are not simply processing the letters and sound but we also need to understand the relationship that the words have with other words in text. By understanding the text, we will be able to put the meaning of words together.
While we are talking about reading, we will also talk about the fluency in reading. In speaking, fluency is important because it can influence the process of communication, so is in reading. Fluency in language skills, especially in speaking and reading, is frequently used as an indicator of a person that has been successfully learning the target language.
In speaking, the term of fluency is related to how well a person is able to speak in target language mindlessly. Being fluent in reading is no more than we can read a text fluently without spelling the letter one by one. The concept of fluency in reading is
9
Deanne Spears, Developing Critical Reading Skills (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), Pg.2
more complex than that. Being able to recognize the words and also comprehending the text at the same time while we are reading is the indicator of fluency in reading. This statement is supported by Kristin Lems in the book Teaching Reading to English Language Learner. Lems stated that fluency is about being able to recognize words and at the same time construct meaning from the text. In another term, we can also define fluency as the ability to decode and comprehend a written text simultaneously. Furthermore, Lems added that the core of fluency is the ability of comprehending a text.10
If fluency in reading has a close meaning to reading comprehension, then we have to know that the core of reading comprehension is understanding and getting the message of what a writer tries to deliver.
Pamela J. Farris in her book Teaching Reading defined reading comprehension as a skill that enables us in getting a message from a text. The essence of reading is a transaction, between the words of an author and the mind of a reader, during which a meaning is constructed11.
2.
The Purpose of Reading
As we read a text, we actually have an intention in our mind of what we want to
get by reading. For Instance, by reading texts in advertisement board telling about a brand new of iPhone that are going to be released, we actually want to get an information when the iPhone is going to be released, what features that the iPhone has, and etc.
Another purpose may come along while we are reading a Hunger Games Novel. Instead of getting an important information inside the novel, we may want to get ourselves enjoyed by reading the novel. According to the stated illustrations, we
10 Kristin Lems, Leah D.Miller, and Tenena M.Soro. Teaching Reading to English Language Learner (New York: The Guildford Press, 2010). Pg.148
11Pamela J. Farris, Carol J. Fuhler, and Maria P. Walther, Teaching Reading: A Balanced
clearly acknowledge that the purpose of reading are vary; it is based on the reader‟s intention from reading.
American philosopher and educator, Mortimer J. Adler with his friend Charles Van Doren in How to Read a Book proposed the purpose of reading into two: reading for information and reading for understanding12.
Reading for information is a reading activity at which by reading a text we can gain the quantity of our information store. In the other way, reading for information seems not to deepen our understanding toward topic that we read. For instance, while we are reading about the information telling the release of a brand new iPhone
product in the advertisement board, we can clearly catch the information about when it will be released but we can get enough information to understand about the detail of that brand new phone.
Reading for understanding gives the idea that the reader starts to read a book that he does not really or completely understand. The material written in the text is usually higher than the reader‟s background knowledge. The activity of reading enables a reader a chance to gain knowledge from a text and at last it will gain the reading‟s understanding.
Furthermore, Mortimer J. Adler appended the information that reading to understand only possible under two conditions which are there must be initial inequality in understanding. It means that the writer knowledge is superior that the reader‟s and the second is there must be the reader’s ability to overcome that
inequality. It means that with his pervious knowledge or background knowledge, the reader can facilitate himself in understanding the new topic he reads in a book.
3.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is an ability of a reader to comprehend the text that they are reading. There are six types of reading comprehension according to Richard R.
Day and Jeong-suk Park. They are Literal, reorganization, inference, prediction, evaluation, and personal response.13
Literal Comprehension
Literal comprehension is an understanding of the straight forward meaning of an information of s text such a facts, vocabulary, dates, time, and locations. Question of literal comprehension is able to be answer directly and explicitly from the text.
Reorganization
Reorganization is an understanding that is based on a literal understanding of a text that is combined with various part of the text for additional understanding. For instance students may read at the beginning of a text “TransJakarta began to operate in Indonesia capital city since 2008” and
later in the end of paragraph students may read “Until 2014, Jakarta still uses
this public transportation and will improve the quality service of it.”
Then the question is “How Long has Transjakarta been operating?” To answer the question, students have to put together two pieces of information that are from various parts of the text.
Inference
Inference is an understanding of a text that is more than literal understanding. Inference understanding is not only an understanding of an explicit meaning stated in the text but an understanding of it implicit meaning which is unstated in the text.
Prediction
Prediction is an understanding that requires a reader to use both their understanding of a passage and their own knowledge of the topic and related
13Richard R. day and Jeong-suk Park “Developing Reading Comprehension Questions”,
matters in a systematic fashion to determine what might happen next or after a story ends.
Evaluation
Evaluation is an understanding that requires the learner to give a global or comprehensive judgment about some aspect of the text. For example, a comprehension question that requires the reader to give an evaluation of an article is: How will the information in this article be useful to you?
Personal Response
The sixth type of comprehension, personal response, requires readers to respond with their feelings for the text and the subject. The answers are not found in the text; they come strictly from the readers.
While no personal responses are incorrect, they cannot be unfounded; they must relate to the content of the text and reflect a literal understanding of the material. An example of a comprehension question that requires a personal response is: What do you like or dislike about this article? Like an evaluation question, In Personal Respond, students have to use both their literal understanding and their own knowledge to respond.
4.
Teaching Reading
Teaching reading in Indonesia becomes important as the purpose of teaching
English in Indonesia is primarily emphasized on the achieving of reading skill fluency. Due to the status of English in Indonesia is a foreign language, hence the status of teaching English in Indonesia is Teaching English a Foreign Language (EFL).
through a variety of exercises and activities to students to develop English skill must be conducted by teachers14. Moreover, she also states that teaching method and technique that help students to use their language skills repeatedly are to be applied to support the activity in the class.
Besides the need of repetition learning, Holesinska also mentions another aspect should be considered in teaching English as a foreign language, which is motivation. While Holesinska proposed motivation as an important aspect of teaching English, Clare Lavery in his book Language Assist provides a way to motivate students in the foreign language class. The fact that most English Teacher in non-English speaking country uses their mother tongue while they are teaching may become an issue in the class. Lavery advices that if this issue comes about, then the teachers should starts using English in the class to motivate students in learning English.
B.
THINK ALOUD
1.
What is Think-Aloud?
One of techniques used by English teachers and tested by researchers to test a
reading comprehension is Think-Aloud. Think-Aloud is defined as a technique in which students verbalize their thoughts as they read. In Think-Aloud students are encouraged to recognize the differences between reading the words and comprehending the text by uttering about what they thought. This metacognition awareness is a crucial component of learning, because it enables learners to assess their level of comprehension and adjust strategies for a greater success.15
Another researcher, Sharok Jahadar and his other fellows, stated that Think-Aloud is a technique used in an interview context to dig students‟ better view of mental process in which readers are engaged. Moreover, Jahadar also mentioned that
14 Ing.Andre Holensinska, “Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Students with Learning Difficulties” (Bachelor Thesis, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, Masaryk University). Pg. 10
conducting Think-Aloud technique in teaching reading will give students first step in raising their awareness of what it means to be a strategic reader16. Also for teacher, Think-Aloud will give students‟ information about individual students‟ need and provide appropriate instruction for students in learning reading. Jahadar added that while conducting Think-Aloud, students will gain insight into complexities of reading, and hence expand their understanding of what it means to be a good reader. According to the opinions taken from two researchers concerning on Think-Aloud, it can be concluded that Think-Aloud is a technique used in teaching reading at which the concern of this technique is to make student verbalize or say what is in their mind while they are reading the text. Think-Aloud will lead students to extend their understanding on the text and not merely on the words.
Furthermore, it also will enable teachers to check and re-check whether students understand a text they are reading or not. Hence, it will lead teachers to find most appropriate ways in teaching reading.
2.
The History of the Use of Think-Aloud Technique
Think-Aloud is not a new product of education research even though its
effectiveness toward students‟ learning is still being investigated. The history of the use of Think-Aloud began in psychological research. The Think-Aloud is developed from an old method called Introspection Method whose idea is that a student can observe events that take place in consciousness, more or less as one can observe events in the outside world17.Marteen and Jacobiin stated in their book that in 1992, Tichener conducted a research and went as far as to claim that the events in consciousness were the actual object of psychology in contrast to the outside world which is the object of the
16 Shahrokh Jahadar, Morteza Khodabandehlou, Gohar Seyedi, and Reza Mousavi Dolat Abadi, “The Think-Aloud Method in EFL Reading Comprehension” International Journal of Scientific and Engineering, Vol.3, No.9, 9th September 2012. Pg.1
natural sciences. In this view, psychologists study the type of events that take place in human consciousness and their casual structure just as other scientists study the events that occur in the outside world.
By the end of 1960s, the interest in internal cognitive processes grew very fast and thereby the interest in this method. A major result was the work by Newell and Simon (1972), who used the Think-Aloud protocols in combination with computer models of problem solving processes to build very detailed models.
Using this methodology, Newell and Simon were able to explain protocol data from a theory of human memory and assumption about knowledge that subjects could bring to bear a task. T is work had a major influence, because it showed that very detailed explanations of verbal data can be obtained. Although many psychologists were skeptical, the method gained more and more acceptance especially in the period from 198018.
3.
The Procedure in Conducting Think-Aloud
In order to apply the Think-Aloud effectively in the class, there are some procedures to be done. Many experts have their own procedure in conducting Think Aloud methods.
In the book of The Think Aloud Controversy in Second Language Research,
Melissa A. Bowels stated the procedures on conducting Think-Aloud19. They are: Provide the students with a clear instruction of Think Aloud in a plain language Give students first or two sentences of Think Aloud instructions reiterates why
students being asked to Think Aloud. For instance, “In this chance, I am interested in what you think about when you complete these task. In order to find out, I am going out to ask you to think aloud as you work through the mazes.”
18Ibid.,Pg.40
Provide the student with a verbalization instruction. The verbalization instructions should detail specifically what the teacher intend the students to do. Minimally, this set of instruction should include (1) a description of what is meant by “Think Aloud”, (2) the language(s) students are allowed to use to verbalize their thoughts, and (3) the level of detail and reflection required in the Think Aloud.
If at all possible, it is advisable to pilot-test the verbalization instructions (as well as all other task materials) on a small number of students. Pilot-testing helps to ensure that the verbalization instructions are written clearly, in a way that participants understand and can follow
Chart 3.1 Think-Aloud Procedure by Melissa A. Bowel
In the other chance, a research, Leslie Oster, mentions the other procedures she did when conducting Think Aloud Research20. They are:
The Think Aloud can be done in an individual or a pair set.
20 Leslie Oster. loc.cit.
Step 1 Provide the students with a clear instruction of Think Aloud in a plain language
Step 2: Gives students one or two sentence of think aloud instruction reiterates why students being asked to Think Aloud
Step 3 : Provide the student with a verbalization instruction
Direct students to write down their questions and comments as they read. Written comments provides the teacher with valuable information on students‟ comprehension abilities in areas such as basic knowledge, vocabulary, relating new to old information, literal comprehension.
The teacher should give an example of Think Aloud by modelling it in the front of the class. A modelling of Think Aloud will give students a better understanding of it.
After this demonstration, the teacher may ask the students what kinds of comments the teacher just made, and the teacher and students are possible to talk about how those comments could help them to understand the story. The teacher emphasizes that his thoughts at this points might be incorrect, and the teacher might have revise them later on.
The example of the teacher‟s Think Aloud could be as follow:
The day Professor Herbert [Professor-that must be mean this is a college] started talking about the project for each member of our general science class, I was more excited than I had ever been. [“I” this is the first person narration, the main character in the story is telling it himself. Also, he must like science. Well, it might not be a he, I don’t know yet.] I wanted to have an outstanding project. I wanted it to be a greater, to be more unusual than those of my classmate. [He has high hopes! or, he is ambitious.]. I wanted to do something worthwhile, and something to make them respect me. [I wonder why he needs their respect].
After that, the teacher can ask student to give their Think Aloud toward a sentence or more chosen by the teacher.
The teacher may ask students to write their Think Aloud in the white-board to choose appropriate responses among their response or their Think Aloud.
The Think Aloud can be done in an individual or a pair set.
Direct students to write down their questions and comments as they read.
The teacher should give an example of Think Aloud by modelling it in the front of the class.
The teacher may ask the students what kinds of comments the teacher just made
The teacher can ask student to give their Think Aloud toward a sentence chosen by the teacher.
The teacher may ask students to write their Think Aloud
The teacher asks students to compare their comments or responses with other
The procedure suggested by Leslie Oster can be illustrated by the chart below.
Chart 3.2 Think-Aloud Procedure
by Leslie Oster
From the two different procedures of conducting Think Aloud by two different researchers, it can be pulled a conclusion that in conducting Think Aloud, we are to explain the nature of Think Aloud to the students at first time. In explaining, we can specifically explain what the students are to do in doing Think Aloud or we can demonstrate it before we ask them to do it.
4.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of Think Aloud Technique
Every technique has its own strength and weakness and so does the Think
According to Jahadar, one of benefits of Think Aloud is that it enables students to assess their own comprehension in reading21. By conducting Think Aloud, students are able to know how deep their understanding toward a text, and hence they can make their own reading strategy for greater success. Moreover, Jahadar also states that by talking about their own strategy, students gain insights into the complexities of reading, and hence expand their understanding of what it means to be a “good reader.”
Another researcher, Elizabeth Charters, stated that Think Aloud will enable the teacher to see a detailed picture of students‟ thought process and also help the teacher to highlight individual differences in response to a text22. Moreover, Charters also mentions that the Think Aloud technique will provide a data that are thoroughly reliable as a source of information about thought process.
From the two opinions proposed by Jahadar and Charters, it can be concluded that Think Aloud has several advantages that is mainly about thought process. The thought process that commonly hardly to be seen in learning process, can be analyzed by using Think-aloud. Think-Aloud enables students to express their thinking process they have in their mind while they are reading a text. Thus, for teachers, Think Aloud will give a reliable data that can be used for analyzing students‟ comprehension and difficulty in reading activity and for students, it will give them information about their difficulties so that they can make their own strategy for their reading activity. According to J. Mark Rankin in his article “Designing Thinking-Aloud Students
in ESL Reading”, it is stated that the weakness of Think Aloud is focused on the participants that are non-native English. Rankin states that the research involving non-native English participants in reading using Think-Aloud technique is still rare. The lack of a readily available guide to its use is the reason why.
21 Shahrokh Jahadar, Morteza Khodabandehlou. loc.cit
The next issue on Think Aloud as stated by Melissa A. Bowles in the book “The
Think Aloud Controversy in Second Language Research” is about the validity of its data. The potential threats happen to validity both retrospective and concurrent verbal reports23. For retrospective reports, since participants verbalize sometime after completing a task, there is a potential for veridicality. In other words, retrospective verbal reports may not accurately reflect participants‟ thought process because they simply may not recall what they were thinking as they completed the given task. The report may be incomplete as a result. However, this threat can be minimized if there is only a short delay between task performance and verbalization.
For concurrent verbal reports, the main threat to validity does not have to do with veridicality, since verbalization and task performance are concomitant. Rather, their validity is questioned because it is known whether the act of verbalizing while completing a task is reactive, acting as an additional task and altering cognitive process rather than providing a true reflection of thought.
C.
Previous Studies
Study relating to the implementation Think Aloud in teaching Reading has been
done by researcher in many countries including in Indonesia like Didi Sukyadi and Eneng Uswatu Hasanah24. In their study, they chose students in Indonesia that is students of EFL as an object of research. Students of 10th grade from a state senior high school in Banten Province are chosen as their research sample. The purpose of their research is to find out whether the think-aloud protocol given in reading will give a significance difference. They compare Think-aloud method with conventional method used by teacher in the school.
It is stated in the article that while Think-Aloud protocol enabled students to conduct before, during, and after-reading activity that help students to increase their
23 Melissa A. Bowels,op.cit.,Pg.13
comprehension, the conventional method simply led the students to read the text, translate, and then answer the questions related to the text.
Samples in their research are put in two classes namely experimental and control group. Pre-test as well as post-test is distributed to each class. Beside the test, researches also distribute Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) questionnaire. The test is intended to check the influence of Think-Aloud towards students‟ reading comprehension, while the questionnaire is used to analyze students‟ strategy to help themselves in understanding a text.
The finding of the research shows that Think Aloud has improved students‟ reading comprehension by improving students reading strategy in general. Also, Think-Aloud had improved students‟ awareness to use reading strategies.
The next study is conducted by Leslie Oster25. In this study, Oster chose high school learners as the participants. The first thing Oster did in the research was modelling Think-aloud in the front of the class. Oster told students some of things that readers should consider in their reading which are: (a) what they notice-information they think might be important, (b) facts and possible facts about characters or the story-things they are figuring out, (c) predictions-what might happen next, (d) questions they have about words or phrases, or about what characters do or say, and (e) personal reactions-how they feel about what the character did or what happened in the story.
After the process was done, Oster discussed his thinking-aloud he just did with students in the class. Oster told the students what kind of comments he had made, and ho these comments could help him understand the story. Next, Oster conducted Think-aloud in class, in pair, and at last individually.
By conducting Think-aloud, Oster revealed that Think-aloud can trigger students to give more advanced interpretation such as the meaning of a metaphor. Moreover, Think-aloud can help students to relate students‟ background knowledge with a text
they are reading. Finally, to analyze students‟ Think-aloud, Oster asked students to write their comments towards a chosen text in a paper. Then, he analyzed them. The analysis he made were used as a reference to set a lesson plan in the further reading activities.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A.
Time and Place of the Study
This study will be conducted in Sekolah Menegah Kejuruan (Vocational School)
57 Jagakarsa. The research is going to be conducted on March 2015.
B.
Method and Design of the Study
This study is a quantitative study research that uses a quasi-experimental method
as its design. It concerns with two variables, namely Think Aloud as dependent variable and students‟ reading comprehension on narrative reading as its independent variable.
As a quantitative research researcher decides what to study; asks specific questions; collects quantifiable data from participants; analyzes these numbers using statistics; and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased, objective manner.26 The design used in this quantitative research was a quasi-experimental study. This kind of study allows the researcher to look at the effects of at least one independent variable and one or more dependent variables.27
This study is intended to analyze and interpret the data by examining the differences between the teaching reading Narrative texts by using Think Aloud method in experimental group and teaching reading Narrative texts without using it in controlled group.
In this research, the researcher wanted to see whether the treatment made a difference on students‟ comprehension in Narrative Reading or not. This research included pre-test and post-test to measure the students‟ achievement.
26
John W. Creswell, Educational Research; Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, (New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2008), p. 46
27
Jack R Fraenkel and Norman E. Wallen, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (Fifth Edition), (New York: McGraw- Hill, 2003), p. 268
C.
The Subject of the Study
The population of this study is 10
thgrade students of SMK 57 Jagakarsa. Then, the writer takes a sample from 2 classes of tenth grade students of academic year 2014/2015. The sample of this research is seventy students which divided into two classes, namely experimental group and controlled group that consists 35 students for each.
The samples in this study are not chosen randomly, the writer chose them purposively. Hence, the techniques sampling used by writer in this study is purposive technique sampling as this technique sampling relies on the researchers‟ judgment when it comes to selecting the units that are going to be studied.
D.
Technique of Data Collecting
The technique of data collection that is used in this research is pre-test and
post-test for both classes; experimental classes and controlled classes and also questionnaire for the experimental class. The pre-test will be distributed to students in the beginning of the research before Think-Aloud is applied, while the post-test will be given at the end of the research. The post-test is intended to find out the significance of the treatment to both classes. The distribution of questionnaire is also done before and after treatment
E.
Instrument
According to Didi Sukyadi and Eneng Uwastun Hasanah in their article, the instruments used in Think Aloud study is divided in two form which are reading comprehension questions and a standardized questioner of metacognitive awareness of reading strategy.
strategy is intended to check students‟ ability to use Think Aloud in their reading activity28. The Standardized questioner is adopted from Mokhtari and Reichard.
As the questionnaire is aimed to check students‟ ability to use Think Aloud, thus this instruments is only distributed to the experimental class before and after treatment.
Thus, it can be summed up that the instruments of this study are Reading
comprehension test and a questionnaire
1) Reading Comprehension Test
Based on Richard R. Day and Jeong-suk Park in Reading in a Foreign Language Journal, there are six types of reading question comprehension, which are literal, reorganization, inference, prediction, evaluation, personal response. They stated that the level of comprehension of them is different. For instance: The level of literal is lower than inference. It means, to answer an inference question, students more than literal understanding in the text29. According to them, the writer will develop reading question whose type are literal, reorganization, inference, and prediction. Evaluation and personal response will not be included as they are not suitable as the form of reading question used in this study is multiple choice questions.
Before being distributed to both control and experimental group, the reading comprehension test is distributed, the test is pilot-studied. The objective of pilot study is to check validity and reliability of the instrument. The pilot study is conducted before doing pre-test and post-test. The questions of a pilot study applied out of control and experimental classes.
In this researcher, the writers use 30 questions concerning on narrative texts as the instrument. As the pilot study has been conducted and the participants‟ answer has been collected, the validity and reliability of the questions will be analyzed based on the answers.
The instrument that has been analyzed will be distributed to students in control and experimental class before and after treatment. The pretest is aimed to check students‟ comprehension before given a treatment the posttest is aimed to obtain the data of the students reading comprehension achievement after conducting Think Aloud technique in experimental class and without Think Aloud technique in the control class.
2) Questionnaire
The questionnaire used in this research is named as Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). The questionnaire consists of 30 questions. The questionnaire that is developed by Koider Mokhtari and Carla Reichard will check students‟ awareness of their reading strategy before and after the treatment is given. The questionnaire are given only to the experiment class as the Think-Aloud is also only given to that class.
3) The Validity and Reliability of Reading Comprehension Test
Before being distributed to the research participants, the reading comprehension test has to be checked for its validity and reliability.
The Validity
To check the content validity of the test, the writer ask an expert in this case is the writer‟s researcher advisor. The writer conducted the pilot study twice. The first pilot study showed that the instrument the writer made failed to meet the goal. According to the writer‟s advisor, he stated that there were some of the items that needed revising. In this case, he highlighted the text number 4. The text is shown below.
is Katniss, but when I first told him, I had barely whispered it. So he thought I‟d said Catnip.
Then when this crazy lynx started following me around the woods looking for handouts, it became his official nickname for me. I finally had to kill the lynx because he scared off game. I almost regretted it because he wasn‟t bad company. But I got a decent price for his pelt. “Look what I shot,” Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it, and I laugh. It‟s real bakery bread, not the flat, dense loaves we make from our grain rations. I take it in my hands, pull out the arrow, and hold the puncture in the crust to my nose, inhaling the fragrance that makes my mouth flood with saliva. Fine bread like this is for special occasions.
“Mm, still warm,” I say. He must have been at the bakery at the crack of dawn to trade for it. “What did it cost you?”
“Just a squirrel. Think the old man was feeling sentimental this morning,” says Gale. “Even wished me luck.” “Well, we all feel a little closer today, don‟t we?” I say, not even bothering to roll my eyes. “Prim left us a cheese.” I pull it out He explained that the text was too difficult to be understood by students in 10th grader level as the text was directly adapted from Hunger Games novel, by the writer which used some of words that were too unfamiliar and difficult for 10th grader students.
Moreover, He also advised the writer to give some revises on test items that had a negative item discrimination. For example is the item test number 16. This item test gained 0.00 in the item discrimination level, which means bad. The test item is shown below.
16.Where did Katniss Everdean usually hide in the wood? (A). In the hills
(B). In the trees (C). In the forest
(D). In the perennial plant (E). In rock ledge
that the writer used “Perennial plant” which was too unfamiliar to students. The advisor suggested to use more familiar word such as, evergreen plant, or bushes. Finally, he suggested the writer to either revise the item question or find new texts that use more familiar and easy-to-understand words.
Furthermore, to check the reliability of the test, the writer conducts a pilot study to 55 students. The obtained data from the pilot study is analyzed by using program namely Anatest Pilihan Ganda.
The information shown in the Anatest result includes the difficulty level the item discrimination, and the reliability of the test. The description about how to read the difficulty level the item discrimination, and the reliability of the test will be explained below.
The Reliability
[image:40.612.132.510.249.612.2]Reliability is the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent results. Test-retest reliability is a measure of reliability of a teat instrument. The criteria of the reliability test will be shown in the table below.
Tabel 3.1 The Reliability Criteria Reliability Score (RS) Reliability Level
0.00 <RS≤0.20 Very low
0..20 <RS≤0.40 Low
0.40 <RS≤0.60 Average
0.60 <RS≤0.80 High
0.80 <RS≤1.00 Very High
significant items were 20 items) the advisor suggested the writer to conduct the second pilot study, and also to increase the number of the item questions
The second pilot study result showed that the reliability level was 0.74. It indicated that the instrument reliability was high. Moreover, the significant items from the second pilot study were 31 items. It exceeded from the expected number of significant items, which was 30 significant items.
The difficulty level
[image:41.612.127.519.237.522.2]The difficulty level provides the information of the difficultness of the test item. The score of difficulty level will determine whether the test item is too difficult, difficult, average, easy, or too easy. The criteria of the difficulty level will be shown in the table below.
Table 3.2 The Difficulty Level (DL) Criteria
DL = 0,00 Too difficult
0,00 < DL ≤ 0,30 Difficult 0,30 < DL ≤ 0,70 Average
0,70 <DL < 1,00 Easy
DL = 1,00 Too Easy
The Item Discrimination
The item discrimination is aimed at determining whether or not a test item is able to differentiate a group of test participants into high-ability test participants with low-ability test participants. This index shows the correspondence between the function of an item and the overall function of a test. The criteria of the item discrimination will be shown in the table below.
Table 3.3 Item Discrimination (ID) Criteria
ID Score Criteria
Good
Enough
Bad
F.
The Technique of Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the researcher uses the comparative technique. This
technique is useful to prove statistically whether there us any significant different between two variables. After getting the data from pretest and posttest, the writer analyzes it by using SPSS 20. The tests that the writer conducted to analyze the data are shown below.
1. Normality Test
The normality test is aimed at analyzing whether the sample distribution of the research comes from a normal population distribution. The Normality test is a prerequisite of a hypothesis test.
There are four ways in conducting a normality test, which are: Lilliefors Test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, Chi-Square Test, and Q-Q Plot Test. The writer chooses the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test as the participant of the research are bigger than 30.
The hypothesis to express the normality of the sample distribution of the research is shown below
Ho : The sample of the research has a normal distribution
H1: The sample of the research has not a normal distribution
If the value of Sig=p-value is higher than 0.05 the sample has a normal distribution (Sig. > 0.05). It also means that Ho is accepted (Retain the null hypothesis)
If the value of Sig=p-value is lower than 0.05 the sample has not a normal distribution (Sig. < 0.05). It also means that Ho is rejected (Reject the null
hypothesis)
2. Homogeneity Test
Homogeneity test on a research is aimed at analyzing the variable of the research. This test will reveal whether the variables of the research has the same variants.
The homogeneity test in this research is done to know whether the control and the experiment class have a same ability in reading skill before being given any treatment. The hypothesis to express the normality of the sample distribution of the research is shown below:
Ho : The variables of the research are homogenous
H1: The variables of the research are not homogenous
As the data are analyzed by using IBM Statistic SPSS 20 then to check the homogeneity the writer has to look at the Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances table. To know whether the variables have a same skill before being given treatment, the value of Sig. or p-value have to be checked. With a significant values of 5% (0.05), the criteria of the homogeneity test can be described below:
If the value of Sig=p-value is higher than 0.05 the variables of the research are homogenous (Sig. > 0.05). It also means that Ho is accepted (Retain the null
hypothesis)
If the value of Sig=p-value is lower than 0.05 the variables of the research are not homogenous (Sig. < 0.05). It also means that Ho is rejected (Reject the null
3. Hypothesis Test
The hypothesis test are conducted to answer the question:
1. Is there any significance difference on students‟ reading comprehension achievement after they are taught by using Think-Aloud?
2. Does Think-Aloud enhance the awareness of students toward their reading strategy?
Analyzing the obtained data from pre-test and post-test is conducted to answer the question number 1. The data is analyzed by using SPSS 20. The result of the analysis will be used to answer the hypothesis .The hypothesis are described as below:
H0: There is a significant difference of students‟ reading achievement after they are taught using Think-Aloud.
H1: There is no a significant difference of students‟ reading achievement after they are taught using Think-Aloud.
To decide which of the mentioned hypothesis that is accepted, the writer analyzes the data by using independent t test. The value of significant (p) shown by Sig. (2 tailed) score will show whether the hypothesis is accepted or not. The criteria is shown as below
If the value of significant (p) < 0.05, H0 is rejected. It means that There is no a significant difference of students‟ reading achievement after they are taught using Think-Aloud
If the value of significant (p) > 0.05, H0 is accepted. It means that there is a significant difference of students‟ reading achievement after they are taught using Think-Aloud
developed by Koider Mohtari and Carla Reichard consists of 30 question related to reading strategy. To determine the level of reading strategy, the writer use the MARSI score level. There are three levels score which are:
3.5 or higher means reading strategy
2.5-3.4 means medium Reading Strategy
2.4 or lower means low reading strategy
To know the level of the students, the writer has to find the average score of the questionnaire result of the experiment class. If there is an improvement of the mean of the result, it indicates Think-Aloud enhance the students‟ awareness of their
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING
A. Description of the Data
As having mention in the chapter three, the data for the research is obtained from two classes namely control and experiment class. The data is obtained from the pre and post test result from both classes. The obtained data is processed using a SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solution) software. The detail of the data processing will be explained below.
1. Data Presentation
In this research, the researcher used a quasi-experimental research to ascertain the effectiveness of using Think-Aloud towardstudents‟ reading achievement at SMK
57 Jagakarsa in academic year 2015/2016. There are three steps used in this research which are pre-test, treatment using Think-Aloud and post-test. The score obtained from the tests are shown below:
Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Pre-test Result
Statistics Class
Control Experiment
Number of Students (n) 35 35
Maximum (Xmax) 70 70
Minimum (Xmin) 28 34
Mean 47.37 52.54
Median 46 55
Mode 43 55
Variances 102.417 117.608
Standard Deviance 10.120 10.845
The data on the table shows that the lowest score achieved by control class on pretest is 28, it means from the 30 question given on the test, the students only correctly answered the question as many as 6 questions. The highest score achieved from this class group is 70, means that the students has 20 correct answers on the tests. From 35 students, most of them achieved score of 43. It is shown by the mode score from the table is 43
[image:47.612.116.519.247.580.2]Meanwhile, the experiment class achieved a slightly higher score on pretest. The minimum score is 34 which means that students answered 8 out of 30 questions correctly. In the maximum score, the experiment class achieved the same scores as the control class did, that is 70. The mode score is 55, which is higher than the control class.
Table 4.2 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Post-test Result
The result taken from the post-test shows that there is a difference score for both classes. In the control class, the lowest score on post-test is 34 and highest score achieved by this class is 76. The experiment class also achieved a higher score on their post-test‟s score. The lowest score in this class is 37 and then the highest score achieved is 79 which means the students did 23 questions correctly.
Statistics Class
Control Experiment
Number of Students (n) 35 35
Maximum (Xmax) 76 79
Minimum (Xmin) 34 37
Mean 54.60 62.68
Median 52.00 64
Mode 43 64
Variances 113.659 97.597
Picture 4. 1 The chart bar of students' pre-test result from the control class
B. The Homogeneity Test
Homogeneity test on a research is aimed at analyzing the variable of the research. This test will reveal whether the variables of the research has the same variants.
[image:49.612.133.534.219.582.2]The homogeneity test in this research is done to know whether the control and the experiment class have a same ability in reading skill before being given any treatment. To know the classes‟ homogeneity, the writer uses the classes‟ pretest result and analyze it using the SPSS program. The result of this analysis is shown on the table below.
Table 4.3 Group Statistics
Class N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Pre-test Score
The Control Class 35 47.37 10.120 1.711
The Experiment
Class 35 52.54 10.845 1.833
Table 4.4 The Homogeneity Test Result
F
From the table 4.3 above, it is found that the mean of the pre-test result from the control class is 47.37 and mean from the experiment class is 54.60. Being analyzed, it is revealed that the Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances are F=0.962
and Sig.=0.330. It is known that the Sig. value is higher than Significance Level (0,05). It can be assumed that the classes (the control and experiment class) have similarity level of reading before they are given the treatment.
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
F Sig.
Pre-test score
Equal variances
assumed .962 .330
C. The Normality Test
The normality test is aimed at analyzing whether the sample distribution of the research comes from a normal population distribution. The Normality test is a prerequisite of a hypothesis test.
[image:50.612.133.482.284.530.2]There are four ways in conducting a normality test, which are: Lilliefors Test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, Chi-Square Test, and Q-Q Plot Test. The writer chooses the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test as the participant of the research are bigger than 30. The result of the Normality Test using Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test are shown below.
Table 4.5 One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test on Pretest Data
Pretest Experiment
Pretest Control
N 35 35
Normal Parametersa,b
Mean 52.54 47.37
Std.
Deviation 10.845 10.120
Most Extreme Differences
Absolute .132 .124
Positive .098 .124
Negative -.132 -.090
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z .784 .732
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .571 .658
a. Test distribution is Normal. b. Calculated from data.
