27
AMONG EFL LEARNERS
ADDIN RO’SY AULIA
Universitas Islam Lamongan
Abstract:
This study aims at investigating the students’ reading habits among EFL Learners.. The researcher uses Descriptive Correlation Design to investigate the existence or non existence of the relationship between
reading habits and the students’ writing ability. Based on the research findings, the mean of total score of the students’ reading habits is 76.27. It shows that the quality of the students’ reading habits among EFL
learners is “Good”. Meanwhile, the mean of total score of the students’ writing ability is 77.79. It shows
that the quality of the students’ writing ability EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 is “Good”. (3) the result of r-value is 0.41. It shows that the correlation between reading habits and the
students’ writing ability among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 is “Quite High
Correlation”. The r-value (0.41) ≥ r-table (0.317) proves that Ha is accepted, so there is significant correlation between reading habits and the students’ writing ability among EFL learners of UNISLA.
Keywords:reading habits, students’ writing ability.
Introduction
In the educational world especially in English teaching, reading is one of the parts in English skill. It must be mastered by the student in order to understand and comprehend English text. English subject provided many kinds of text. Those texts must be understood by the students through reading comprehension. In reading comprehension activity, the students are demanded to comprehend the reading text. However, it is not easy to understand the reading text because the most of the students found many difficulties in understanding the reading text. The students must increase their reading activity in order to get many experiences in understanding and comprehending the reading
text. The students’ reading habit is one of the
behaviors that must be increased by the students. According to Arican, et. al as quoted by Ayhan, et. al (2013), The habit of reading is defined as practicing the act of reading throughout life, constantly and critically as a
result of perceiving reading as a need and a source of pleasure.
Reading habit is one of the behaviors
that will affect the students’ information
mastery. If the students have many times in reading, so the students will have more knowledge and master much information around the world. On the other hand, if the students have high reading habit, the students will have high competence in the writing skill because the students’ reading habit will make them easy to deliver their opinion or ideas about a topic into a written text in the writing activity because through reading habits that started in the earlier stage or in the age of childhood, the students will have many knowledge and information about everything that read in their growing although it is through reading a book or experience in their lives. It means that the reading habits will
affect the students’ writing skill.
28
is a very important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent communication tool. Writing is one of the English skills that involved many components in English, for example the grammar or structure, punctuation, coherence, cohesion, and etcetera. Writing is a complex skill because it is involved all of the English components.
However, the students’ get some
difficulties in writing something especially in English. Writing is one of the English skills that require enough time to express the idea or opinion in general classification to the specific description. It means that the students have to have more knowledge and more material, so the students can express their idea in writing something. One of the habits that will help the students are easy in writing to express their idea is by increasing their reading habits.
Review of Related Theories
The Concept of Reading Habits
Soedarso (2006) states that reading is the complex activity that involved the number of activities. At the age of childhood, the children learn to know words by words, spell those words and differ those words by another words. The children have to read aloud, spell each word completely in order to know whether the reading is true or not. The children are taught reading by structural, from the left to right, and observe each word on the structure that available. The limitation has not to do manipulation the word meaning and the word structure in the sentences. The reading habits that carried out by the children on the age of childhood will be continued to the adult. The adult can know the phrase, sentence, and the structure of idea so the reading habits that carried out on the age of childhood is not to do anymore.
In the educational word especially in English teaching, reading is one of the parts in
English skill must be mastered by the student in order to understand and comprehend English text. English subject provided many kinds of text. Those texts must be understood by the students through reading comprehension. In reading comprehension activity, the students are demanded to comprehend the reading text. However, it is not easy to understand the reading text because the most of the students found many difficulties in understanding the reading text. The students must increase their reading activity in order to get many experiences in understanding and comprehending the reading
text. The students’ reading habit is one of the
behaviors that must be increased by the students. According to Patell and Praveen (2010) reading habits not only help the student to get knowledge and wisdom from the cultural of heritage, but are also very helpful in passing for leisure period. Leisure hours are not only, during the active period of life but also, more significantly, during the period when man has retired from active life. Therefore the learner of English must know reading English. The education of a child is imperfect, unless he is supplied every things needed with the ability of reading.
In addition, according to Arican, et. al as quoted by Ayhan, et. al (2013), The habit of reading is defined as practicing the act of reading throughout life, constantly and critically as a result of perceiving reading as a need and a source of pleasure.
The Nature of Writing
29
The point of writing is that writing what is in mind and making the readers understand what has been written. So, Writing is a very important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent communication tool.
The point of writing is that writing what is in mind and making the readers understand what has been written. So, Writing is a very important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent communication tool. Writing is one of the English skills that involved many components in English, for example the grammar or structure, punctuation, coherence, cohesion, and etcetera. Writing is a complex skill because it is involved all of the English components.
The Correlation between Reading and Writing
Patel and Praveen (2008) state that thus reading and writing reinforce each other and consolidate the aural-oral learning. The teaching and speaking, provides for greater variety of classroom activity for both teacher and students than a purely aural-oralprogram.
According to Jakobs & Perrin as quoted by Gruyter (2008) reading also takes place in processes, predominantly purposeful processes that create mental representations from physical representations. In written communication, reading is the counterpart of writing: people perceive an offer of communication by reading a text. Reading can occur in isolation from writing, but communicative reading processes often include minor writing processes, such as when people make notes about a text they are reading. Conversely, every writing process includes reading processes, since people always read parts of what they have just written.
The point of writing is that writing what is in mind and making the readers
understand what has been written. So, Writing is a very important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent communication tool. Writing is one of the English skills that involved many components in English, for example the grammar or structure, punctuation, coherence, cohesion, and etcetera. Writing is a complex skill because it is involved all of the English components.
However, the students’ get some difficulties in writing something especially in English. Writing is one of the English skills that require enough time to express the idea or opinion in general classification to the specific description. It means that the students have to have more knowledge and more material, so the students can express their idea in writing something. One of the habits that will help the students are easy in writing to express their idea is by increasing their reading habits.
The Influence of Reading Habits to the
Students’ Writing Ability
According to Patell and Praveen (2010) reading habits not only help the student to get knowledge and wisdom from the cultural of heritage, but are also very helpful in passing for leisure period. Leisure hours are not only, during the active period of life but also, more significantly, during the period when man has retired from active life. Therefore the learner of English must know reading English. The education of a child is imperfect, unless he is supplied every things needed with the ability of reading.
Reading habit is one of the behaviors
that will affect the students’ information
30
because the students’ reading habit will make
them easy to deliver their opinion or ideas about a topic into a written text in the writing activity because through reading habits that started in the earlier stage or in the age of childhood, the students will have many knowledge and information about everything that read in their growing although it is through reading a book or experience in their lives.
Method
The descriptive design describes the current status of the subjects in the study. The correlation study carries out to investigate the existence or non existence of the relationship between the variables of the study in order to make predictions or suggestions. The design of the correlation study can be seen as follows:
Where:
Variable X : the Students’ Reading Habits Variable Y : the Students’ Writing Ability Symbol : the Correlation between
Reading Habits and the Students’ Writing Ability
In this study, the population is all of the students of the second semester of English Department in Lamongan Islamic University in the academic year 2014/2015. The population consists of two class, namely II A and II B class. The total member of population is 68 students. The researcher uses all of the subjects on the population as the sample of this study. It means that the researcher uses II A and II B as the sample of this study. II A class consists of 25 students and II B class consists of 43 students, so the total of sample is 68 students. The researcher takes the sample by using quota sampling because the population is less than one hundred respondents, so the
sample that used is all of the respondents on the population.
Findings and Discussion
The Result of the Students’ Reading Habits of “A” Class at the Second Semester of English
Department in UNISLA in the Academic Year 2014/2015
Based on the calculation above, the researcher got the total score of overall
students’ reading habit was 5187 and mean score was 76.27. It was located on the Good
category. It meant that the students’ reading
habit at the second semester of English Department of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was “Good”.
The Result of the Students’ Writing Ability
The researcher used documentation to
know the students’ writing ability during the
writing course in the teaching and learning process. The documentation is in the form of
students’ report mark for several meetings for
March up to May. The researcher got the value
of the students’ writing ability by taking
consultation with the writing lecturer, Uzlifatul Masruroh, M.Pd. The researcher also asked about the assessment of the writing in order to
measure the students’ writing ability, the
researcher got the data that the assessment criteria used in the writing ability is Portfolio-Based Assessment.
The Result of the Students’ Writing Ability of “A” Class at the Second Semester of English
Department in UNISLA in the Academic Year 2014/2015
In this study, the researcher found the
scores of the students’ writing ability on “A”
class at the second semester of English Department in UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015. After gaining the result of the
students’ writing ability, the researcher
Variable X
31
determined the quality of the students’ writing
ability on “A” class by using the scale criteria
that offered by Purwanto. Then, the researcher
got the result of the quality of the students’ writing ability on “A” class as follows:
Based on the calculation above, the researcher got the total score of overall
students’ writing ability was 1941.25 with the
mean of total score was 77.65. It was located on the Good category. It meant that the
students’ writing ability on “A” class at the
second semester of English Department of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was
“Good”.
The Result of the Students’ Writing Ability of “B” Class at the Second Semester of English
Department in UNISLA in the Academic Year 2014/2015
In this study, the researcher found the scores of the students’ writing ability on “B” class at the second semester of English Department in UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015. After gaining the result of the
students’ writing ability, the researcher determined the quality of the students’ writing
ability on “B” class. Based on the calculation above, the researcher got the total score of
overall students’ writing ability was 3348.5 with the mean of total score was 77.87. It was located on the Good category. It meant that the
students’ writing ability on “A” class at the second semester of English Department of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was
“Good”.
Discussion
The researcher presented the discussion to answer the problems of this study. The
result of the students’ reading habits among
EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 showed that the mean ( ) of the
total score of the students’ reading habits
among EFL learners of UNISLA at the second
semester was 76.27 with the total score (∑x)
was 5187 . The mean of total score of the
students’ reading habits was 76.27 was located
on the scale 76-85. It meant that the quality of
the students’ reading habits among EFL
learners of UNISLA at the second semester in the academic year 2014/2015 was “Good”.
The researcher correlate the result of
the students’ reading habits among EFL
learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 with the explanation that stated by Mrs. Tiara Retno, a reading lecturer through open questionnaire on 4th of July 2015thatthe
quality of overall the students’ reading habits was “Good”. It showed that it relevant between Mrs. Tiara’s statement and the data
analysis of the students’ reading habits among
EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015.
The result of data analysis of
documentation of the students’ writing ability
among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 showed that the mean ( ) of the total score of the students’ writing ability among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was 77.79 with the total score (∑y) was 5829.75.
The score of the students’ writing ability
among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was 77.79 was located on the scale 76-85. It meant that the
quality of the students’ writing ability among
EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was “Good”.
The researcher related the result of the
students’ writing ability among EFL learners
of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 with the explanation that stated by Mrs. Uzlifatul Masruroh, English writing lecturer through open questionnaire on 5h of July 2015
that the quality of overall the students’ writing
32
between Mrs. Uzlifatul Masruroh’s statement and the data analysis of the students’ writing
ability among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 201/2015.
The result of r-value that calculated by using Pearson Product Moment showed that the result of value was 0.41. It meant that r-value (0.41) was located on the r-scale 0.41 – 0.70. It showed that the correlation between
reading habits and the students’ writing ability
at the second semester among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was
“Quite High Correlation”.
Based on the value of “r” was 0.41
which the r-table 0.317 where significant level
(α) was 0.01 and degree of freedom (df) was
66. It showed that the r-value was higher than r-table, in the significant level 1%. The significant level 1% was taken because the sample of this study was more than 30 students. The researcher concluded that Ha was accepted and Ho was rejected. It meant that there is significant correlation between the
reading habits and the students’ writing ability
among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015.
Conclusion
The students’ reading habits at the
second semester among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was
“Good”. It can be seen on the mean ( ) of the total score was 76.27 with the total score (∑x) was 5187. The mean of total score of the
students’ reading habit was 76.27 was located
on the scale 76-85. The students’ writing ability among EFL learners of UNISLA at the second semester in the academic year 2014/2015 was “Good”. It can be seen on the mean ( ) of the total score was 77.79 with the
total score (∑y) was 5289.75. The score of the students’ writing ability was 77.79 was located
on the scale 76-85. The correlation between
students’ reading habits and the students’ writing ability at the second semester among EFL learners of UNISLA in the academic year 2014/2015 was “Quite High Correlation”. It can be seen on the result of r-value was 0.41. It meant that value (0.41) was located on the r-scale 0.41 – 0.70 (quite high category). The
r-value (0.41) ≥ r-table (0.317) proved that Ha was accepted, so there was a significant correlation between reading habits and the
students’ writing ability among EFL learners
of UNISLA.
References
Ayhan, Butun, Aynur, et.al. 2013. An Analysis
of Children’s Attitudes towards Reading
Habits. Turkey: European Journal of Research on Education.
Fachrurrazy. 2012. Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Teachers in Indonesia. Malang: State University of Malang Press.
Fraenkel, Jack R. 2012. How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education. New York: The MC Grow Hill Company. Groth, Cheryl, et.al. 2013. Essay Writing
English For Academic Purposes (CheryL Groth, E.d.). Yogyakarta: Andi Offset
Gruyter, De, Mouton. 2006. Handbook of Communication Competence. New York: ANSI
Patel, M.F, & Jain, M. Praveen. 2008. English Language Teaching. Jaipur: Sunrise Publisher and Distributors