i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ...
i
PREFACE ...
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...
iii
ABSTRACT ...
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...
vi
LIST OF TABLES ... . viii
LIST OF APPENDIX ...
ix
Chapter I: Introduction
1.1Background of the Study ...
1
1.2Research Problems ...
5
1.3Research Objectives ...
5
1.4Research Significance and Benefit ...
5
1.5Hypothesis ...
5
1.6Scope of the study ...
6
1.7Definition of key terms ...
6
1.8Time and Research Location ... 6
1.9Research Methodology ...
7
1.9.1 Research Design ... 7
1.9.2 Population and Sampling Procedures ... 8
1.9.3 Data Analysis ... 8
1.10 Thesis Organization ... 8
Chapter II: Review of Related Literature
2.1 The Importance of Reading Skills ... 10
2.2 Definition of Reading ... 12
2.3 Definition of Comprehension ... 15
2.4 Reading Ability ... 16
2.5 Reading Comprehension Ability ... 18
2.6 Reading Purposes ... 20
2.7 Types of Reading ... 22
2.8 Types of Reading Comprehension Questions ... 23
2.9 Implication for Teaching Reading ... 25
2.10 Strategies of Teaching Reading Comprehension ... 26
ii
Chapter III: Research Methodology
3.1 Research Design ... 30
3.2 Population and Sampling Procedures ... 31
3.3 Research Instruments ... 32
3.3.1 Validity of the Test ... 34
3.3.2 Reliability of the Test ... 35
3.3.3 Test Items Difficulty ... 35
3.3.4 Test Items Discriminating Power ... 36
3.4 Variables and Hypothesis ... 38
3.5 Data Collection and Techniques ... 39
3.6 Procedure of the Research ... 40
3.7 Measurement Procedures ... 40
3.7.1 Questionnaire ... 40
3.7.2 Test ... 41
3.8 Data Analysis ... 43
3.8.1 The Analysis of Students’ Problems in Reading ... 44
3.8.2 The Analysis of Correlation between the Students’ Problems
in Reading and their Reading Comprehension Ability ... 46
Chapter IV: Research Findings and Discussions
4.1 Research Findings ... 47
4.1.1 Students’ problems in reading ... 47
4.1.2 Reading comprehension ability ... 64
4.1.3 The correlation between students’ problems in reading and
their reading comprehension ability ... 68
4.2 Discussion ... 68
Chapter V: Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusions ... 73
5.2 Recommendations ... 75
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 77
iii
LIST OF TABLES
3.1 Students’ problems in reading category ... 32
3.2
The characteristics of the selected items of reading test ... 36
3.3
Box diagram showing the characteristics of study ... 38
3.4 The frequency level of the students’ problems in reading ... 45
3.5 The level of problems ... 45
4.1
Test of normality of questionnaire ... 48
4.2
Test of linearity of questionnaire ... 49
4.3
Mean, maximum score, SD, lowest and highest score of
questionnaire ... 49
4.4
Item 1………...50
4.5
Item 2 ... 51
4.6
Item 3 ... 53
4.7
Item 4 ... 54
4.8 Item 5 ... 55
4.9
Item 6 ... 57
4.10 Item7………..
58
4.11
Item 8 ... 59
4.12
Item 9 ... 61
4.13
Item 10 ... 62
4.14
Mean, maximum score, SD, lowest and highest score of reading
test……….64
4.15
Test of normality of reading test ... 65
iv
LIST OF APPENDIX
1
Try-out Score ... 82
2
Reliability Test of Try-out Score ... 83
3
Score of High Group ... 84
4
Score of Low Group ... 85
5
Discriminating Power ... 86
6
Level of Difficulty ... 87
7
Distracter Quality ... 88
8
Result of Questionnaire Score ... 89
9
Result of Reading Test Score ... 92
10
Test of Validity ... 98
11
Test of Reliability ... 99
12
Test of Normality of Questionnaire ... 100
13
Test of Normality of Reading Test ... 101
14
Test of Linearity of Questionnaire and Reading Test ………102
15
Test of Correlation between Reading Problems and Reading
Comprehension ... 104
16
Questionnaire ... 105
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Reading is the skill that is commonly first taught or learnt when someone
studies a second or a foreign language in an educational institution. After they
have been able to read, they can better study the next phases that are more
complicated. In a language lesson, reading is also taught to the students. But
reading in English is still a problem for most Indonesian students although they
have studied English from the elementary school. Only a few of them have good
ability in reading.
Students’ good ability to read the textbook written in English is one of the
main goals which are stressed on in the teaching of English in Indonesia. Reading
comprehension plays in an important role in the teaching and learning activities in
high school of which as the major medium for acquiring knowledge and skills.
Therefore, it can be assumed that reading comprehension is highly correlated with
the students’ school performance. In other words, “reading comprehension seems
to be the major common dominators of school learning” (Bloom, 1976 in Witrock
et al. 1985:512).
2
limited, only four hours a week. In a reading lesson, certain students will spend a
rather long time to read a paragraph, even very often, a student who is assigned to
read is laughed by his or her friends when he or she makes mistakes in reading
aloud.
In the National Examination (UN), reading items often appear. The
English material of UN is mostly loaded with reading comprehension test. This is
an indication that reading comprehension is considered as an important course of
which the students need to have lots of portion of its teaching and learning in
order to prepare students to be fluent in reading English texts. Because of lack of
knowledge in reading, most students tend to do the test at will without thinking
which one is correct because usually the items are in the form of multiple choice
items. So they just need to choose which option they want to choose. No wonder
if they go out from the classroom very quickly because some of them do not like
to think something that they do not know.
3
in reading become necessary in order to be able to follow the remarkable
development of the today’s world.
In teaching reading comprehension, teachers should also be aware that
their students must have certain knowledge of grammar, for example, in helping
students to differentiate a noun from a verb or an adjective, especially when
looking up a word in a dictionary. This is a problem we as the teachers have faced
in a class a lot and which contributes to comprehension of a text or part of a text.
When exercising, teachers must ask the students to look for certain words that
they can compare with their mother tongue. When we teach a synonym, antonym,
or any other word, if possible we have to teach there some characteristics of
English language so that they understand better. Another difficulty that we usually
come across in reading comprehension is the interference of the mother tongue
which also affects the process. Verb tense is also important in dealing with certain
complex text.
4
low economic status, personal adjustment problems, physical deficiencies and
excessive pressure for achievement from home and school are the factors that may
cause students’ reading difficulties.
The students’ use of reading is mainly looking for information, so when
teaching them we must guide them how to do it. They must learn how to look for
the main ideas, and details, they should know how to skim and scan from a text,
how to use a dictionary, etc., in general, they should achieve comprehension. All
that depends on a lot of factors such as: previous experience in their foreign
language, certain mastery of the require vocabulary for comprehension, enough
knowledge about grammatical structures used in the text, cultural information,
previous background of knowledge about topics to be used, students’ own abilities
for reading, students’ speed, motivation, interests, desires, etc. they are only able
to use one or two strategies that are very basic. Because they are just read a text
once or twice, they tend to fail in comprehending the content of the text. They also
dislike repeating reading certain parts in a text. This is one of the causes that
created failure in reading comprehension (Paris et al, 1990:609 in Nicaise and
Gettinger, 1995:285). There are also some causes why students fail in reading
lesson, such as their lack of knowledge of pronunciation, structure, and
vocabulary.
5
adds that to make learning easier, more enjoyable, more self-directed and more
effective, the concept of strategy has become influential in education today. In this
case, the teacher plays an important role in teaching and creating strategic
techniques of reading for helping the students improve their understanding on a
text.
1.2 Research Problems
1.
What is the students’ mastery of the reading skills?
2.
Is there any correlation between the students’ problems in reading and
their reading comprehension ability?
1.3 Research Objectives
1.
To find out the students’ mastery of the reading skills.
2.
To know the correlation between the students’ problems in reading and
their reading comprehension ability.
1.4 Research Significance and Benefit
6
students up till now in reading lesson can be solved and they will be able to rule
the reading skill. Also for the teachers hopefully they can facilitate the students to
overcome their problems in reading. So what are hoped by the curriculum for
Junior High School will be able to be achieved.
1.5 Hypothesis
The researcher set the following hypotheses:
There is a significant correlation between students’ problems in reading
and their reading comprehension ability of the second year students of an
SLTP in Lembang.
1.6 Scope of the study
This research was done in the second year students of an SLTP in
Lembang. The lesson that became the focus in this study was English, especially
in reading. The researcher wanted to find out the problems that the students face
in reading a text and the correlation with their reading comprehension ability.
1.7 Definition of Key Terms
7
- Reading problems is the problems that the students face in the process of
teaching and learning of reading.
- Reading comprehension is the ability to construct the meaning from the text,
using both print information and prior knowledge (Christie, 2003).
- Reading ability is the skill of readers to understand and to process
information in the text (Anderson, 2000).
- Reading skills are the ten skills that the students’ mastery proposed by
Ullman and Geva (1981) as given in Appendix 16.
1.8 Time and Research Location
To collect the data, the researcher held a research at an SLTP in Lembang.
The samples are the second year students. The research was done in three weeks
around April to May 2009. In academic year of 2008 – 2009, this school has 10
classes of the second grade which consists of 469 students.
1.9 Research Method
1.9.1 Research Design
8
and the strength of the connection without considering what went before and just
to know what is going on. No treatment involved in the research (Hatch Evelyn,
1991:99).
1.9.2
Populations and Sampling Procedures
The populations of this study were the students in the second year of an
SLTP in Lembang. Some of the students were involved in this research through
cluster random sampling. Every group of the population has an equal and
independent chance of being randomly selected and representative of the
population (Fraenkel, 1990: 72). The amount of the samples involved from this
school were obtained after grouping all the second year students of 469 students
from ten classes into high achievement students and low achievement students
based on their academic reports. Then 20% of both high and low achievement
students were randomly taken as the sample. So, about 92 students of the second
year of this school were the sample of this research.
1.9.3
Data Analysis
9
1.10
Thesis Organization
This thesis consisted of five chapters. Chapter I talked about background of
this study, presented problems, objective of the study, significance of the study,
hypotheses, scope of the study, research methodology which consisted of research
design, population and samples, and data analysis.
Chapter II discussed the review of related literature. It consisted of the
importance of reading skills, definition of reading, definition of comprehension,
reading ability, reading comprehension ability, reading purposes, types of reading,
the test of reading comprehension, types of reading comprehension questions, the
role of reading as a resource for learning, implication for teaching reading, and the
previous research.
30
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter discussed the steps and the method that was used to answer
the research problems of the study. This chapter consists of five parts; the research
design, population and sampling procedures, research instruments, variables and
hypothesis, data collection techniques, procedure of the research, measurement
procedures, and data analysis.
3.1 Research Design
Deal with problems of the study stated previously, this research used the
descriptive analysis method by using an ex post facto design. The descriptive
method with an ex post facto design was used to find out the students’ problems
in reading and their reading achievement and then to see the correlation between
independent variable (reading comprehension ability) and dependent variable
(students’ problems in reading) and the strength of the connection without
considering what went before and just to know what is going on. No treatment
involved in the research (Hatch Evelyn, 1991:99).
31
Descriptive research, sometimes known as non-experimental research, deal
with the relation between variables, testing of hypotheses, and the
development of the generalization, principles or theories that have
universal validity. It is concerned with functional relationship. The
expectation is that if variable A is systematically associated with variable
B, prediction of future phenomena may be possible and the result may
suggest additional hypotheses to test.
The above statement not only state that the descriptive research is
sometimes called non-experimental research but also deals with the relationship
between variables, hypotheses testing, and developing generalization or theory
that has universal validity. This type of research design was used to answer and
analyze the research problems in this study.
3.2 Populations and Sampling Procedures
32
3.3 Research Instruments
[image:16.595.111.513.237.715.2]In order to obtain adequate data for the study, there are two instruments
used in this research; they were questionnaires and test. The questionnaires were
given to the students. The questionnaires talks about the problems that are faced
by the students in reading a text. The questionnaire used in this research was
modified from Ullman and Geva (1981) in Lynch (1996:113) as cited in Gunawan
(2004). It was simplified based on the situation and the condition of the
respondents. The questionnaire consisted of 10 statements with five response
categories. The simplification was done under the suggestion of the advisor;
considering the clarity, efficiency and practicality of the questionnaire and also
considering the characteristics of the respondents and in line with the problems
investigated. To avoid students’ misunderstanding, the questionnaires are in
Bahasa Indonesia and clear instructions were given both orally and written in the
first part of the questionnaire. Each items of statement has its ranged score based
on Likert Scale (see Setiasih, 2006: 58) which was used with the criteria
exemplified in the table below. Students’ scores will show their problems in
reading. The questionnaire can be seen in Appendix 16.
Table 3.1
Students’ problems in reading category
CATEGORY
SCORE
Always
1
Often
2
Sometimes
3
Seldom
4
33
The test was given to the students to know their competence in reading
comprehension. The reading-matter consisted of four texts of recount and
narrative which related to the second year of Junior High School curriculum. The
topics of the texts are about narrative and recount texts. Each of text consisted of
ten multiple choice questions. At first, the test consists of 50 items. Before they
were used, the reading comprehension test was tried out to 30 students from
population with the students involved in this study. The result shows that the test
is valid and reliable (Appendix 10 and 11). However, not all items can be used
because some items were not good at discriminating power, too easy or too
difficult, thus the number of items was dropped into 40. So, there were 40
questions in the reading test. The test material can be seen in Appendix 17.
For the test instrument, the multiple choice form is chosen for some
reasons. First, the scoring is easier, faster and more objective than the other form
of tests. Second, this is very efficient when the number of students is large while
the allocated time is very short. Third, the reliability of this type of test is higher
than the essay test (Surapranata, 2004 in Syafrizal, 2000). Although it has some
disadvantages, i.e. it takes longer time to construct the test and the students have
chance for guessing in answering the items, but this can be eliminated by
providing enough time and providing some options for each item (Grondlund,
1982).
34
the students’ scores attained from the reading test would be the variable X,
meanwhile the close-ended questionnaire (Likert-type) would be the variable Y.
These two variables, then, will be calculated using the Pearson correlation.
3.3.1
Validity of the Test
According to Heaton (1988), a good test should have at least three
characteristics namely validity, reliability, and practicality. In terms of validity, he
proposes that there are several types of validity. Some of them which are related
to this study are face validity, content validity and external validity. He explains
that a test has faced validity if its appearance, the composition of its items, its
organization and contents make the test look valid. In terms of multiple choice
test, face validity can be fulfilled by having more or less similar length of answer
options, having the same number of answer options, using the same numbering
(for example A, B, C, D for the whole items), and similar organization, i.e. once
the options are written orderly from the left to right, the rest should also written in
the same way. The test used in this study has the characteristics above, thus the
face validity has been fulfilled.
35
Meanwhile, the external validity of the instruments in this study is reached
by correlating the results of try-out with the students’ English scores they gained
in the first semester. Here, the statistical analysis of Pearson Product Moment
Correlation coefficient is used (Evelyn, 1991:434) to analyze the data. The value
of the correlation coefficient was obtained calculated by using SPSS (Statistical
Package for Social Sciences).
The computation shows the result is .882 for the test, which means that the
test is valid since r table with .01 and df = 28 is .4487 (Appendix 10).
3.3.2
Reliability of the Test
The reliability of the test items also was calculated by using SPSS by
stating the total of odd score and even sore of the items. From the calculation, it is
shown that the reliability index is .666 for the test, while r table with df= 28 and
= 0.01 is .4487 (Appendix 11). It means that the r of the test is greater than that of
the table. Thus, the test items can be said to be reliable.
3.3.3
Test Items Difficulty
36
3.3.4
Test Items Discriminating Power
The indexes of items discriminating power are also calculated using the
analysis of test item ANATES Version 4.0.2. From the analysis, it can be seen
that from 50 items for the test, 1 item has very good discriminating power , 10
items are good, 29 items are medium, 6 items are bad, and 4 are very bad
(Appendix 5). So, of all, there are only 40 items can be chosen.
[image:20.595.110.514.241.752.2]Having analyzed the try out result, 40 items were selected for the test. The
items selected are those which have level difficulty range from easy, medium and
difficult and level of discriminating power range from 12.50 to 75.00 with
distracter quality level of good and very good (Appendix 7). The characteristics of
the selected items for the reading test are in the following table:
Table 3.2
The Characteristics of the Selected Items of Reading Test
Question
Item Difficulty
Discrimination Power
Distracter Quality
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Medium
Easy
Difficult
Medium
Easy
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Easy
Easy
Medium
Medium
25.00
37.50
62.50
50.00
37.50
25.00
12.50
37.50
12.50
37.50
25.00
75.00
50.00
Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good
37
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Medium
Medium
Difficult
Medium
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Difficult
Medium
Easy
Medium
Easy
Medium
Medium
Medium
Easy
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
50.00
37.50
25.00
12.50
25.00
50.00
25.00
37.50
62.50
12.50
25.00
37.50
25.00
37.50
37.50
62.50
25.00
25.00
25.00
37.50
50.00
37.50
50.00
37.50
37.50
25.00
25.00
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good
Good and Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
Good and Very Good
Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
Good and Very Good
38
From the table of the characteristics of the selected items for the reading
test above can be seen that for the level of difficulty, there were 11 easy items, 26
medium items, and 3 difficult items. For the discriminating power, there were 4
items in the range of 12.50, 13 items in the range of 25.00, 13 items in the range
of 37.50, 6 items in the range of 50.00, 3 items in the range of 62.50, and 1 item in
the range of 75.00. While for the distracter quality, there were 2 items in the level
of good, 8 items in the level of very good, and 30 items in the level of good and
very good.
3.4 Variables and Hypothesis
[image:22.595.107.518.237.758.2]The characteristics of this study including the variables and hypothesis are shown
in following table.
Table 3.3
Box Diagram Showing the Characteristics of the Study
Null Hypothesis (H0)
There is no significant correlation between students’
mastery of reading skills and their reading
comprehension ability.
Research hypothesis (H1)
There is a significant correlation between students’
mastery of reading skills and their reading
comprehension ability.
Significance Level
0.1; two-tailed
Dependent Variable
Reading comprehension ability
Independent Variable
Students’ mastery of reading skills
Design
Ex post facto design
39
Statistical procedures
Pearson Product Moment, SPSS 12
3.5 Data Collection Techniques
The two kinds of data, questionnaire and reading test were administered
twice to the second year students of an SLTP in Lembang. It was done twice in
order to see the consistency of the respondents in answering the questions.
Reading test was administered first then followed by questionnaire. Both required
90 minutes for administering.
The result of administering the questionnaire is expected to know the
students’ mastery of the reading skills. The questionnaire consisted of ten
statements which correlated to the questions from the reading test. Before they
were given to the students, the researcher explained about the use of the
questionnaires that were going to be filled by them. In this activity, the English
teacher also helped. During the activity, the researcher and the English teacher
stayed in the classroom to watch the students who were answering the
questionnaires and to help them when they found difficulties in responding the
questionnaires.
40
3.6 Procedure of the Research
Valid and reliable instruments used to collect the data. For the sake of
objectivity and natural setting test, English teacher at the school distributed them.
For ethical issue, the participants informed about the research and, therefore, their
test score would not influence their school English achievement. However, their
truly and honesty in answering the questions on the test and questionnaire was
appreciated for the sake of valid research. After that, the researcher checked the
assumptions of data.
3.7 Measurement Procedures
3.7.1 Questionnaire
The researcher prepared five options to respond to the statements in the
questionnaire. They were always, often, sometimes, seldom, and never. The
scores of the statements in the questionnaire were as follows:
Always = 1
Often = 2
Sometimes = 3
Seldom = 4
Never = 5
41
After the mean had been got, the students’ problems in reading could be
known by looking at the following rule:
Always
=
41 – 50,
Often
=
31 – 40,
Sometimes
=
21 – 30,
Seldom
=
11 – 20, and
Never
=
0 – 10.
3.7.2 Test
The data was got from the test was also counted like the above calculation.
The highest score was 100. The category was as follows:
A
=
81 – 100
=
excellent,
B
=
61 – 80
=
good,
C
=
41 – 60
=
fair,
D
=
21 – 40
=
low, and
E
=
0 – 20
=
extremely low.
The test scoring was as follows:
1
correct
=
2.5
=
E
2
correct
=
5
=
E
3
correct
=
7.5
=
E
4
correct
=
10
=
E
5
correct
=
12.5
=
E
42
7
correct
=
17.5
=
E
8
correct
=
20
=
E
9
correct
=
22.5
=
D
10
correct
=
25
=
D
11
correct
=
27.5
=
D
12
correct
=
30
=
D
13
correct
=
32.5
=
D
14
correct
=
35
=
D
15
correct
=
37.5
=
D
16
correct
=
40
=
D
17
correct
=
42.5
=
C
18
correct
=
45
=
C
19
correct
=
47.5
=
C
20
correct
=
50
=
C
21
correct
=
52.5
=
C
22
correct
=
55
=
C
23
correct
=
57.5
=
C
24
correct
=
60
=
C
25
correct
=
62.5
=
B
26
correct
=
65
=
B
27
correct
=
67.5
=
B
28
correct
=
70
=
B
43
30
correct
=
75
=
B
31
correct
=
77.5
=
B
32
correct
=
80
=
B
33
correct
=
82.5
=
A
34
correct
=
85
=
A
35
correct
=
87.5
=
A
36
correct
=
90
=
A
37
correct
=
92.5
=
A
38
correct
=
95
=
A
39
correct
=
97.5
=
A
40
correct
=
100
=
A
3.8 Data Analysis
44
H1 : There is correlation between the two variables
3.8.1
The analysis of students’ mastery of reading skills
Analyzing this aspect means to answer the research questions; what
problems were faced by the students of an SLTP in Lembang in reading
comprehension and their ability in reading comprehension.
For example of one of the statement in the questionnaire that they can find
the main idea of the text, has some item of statements to be chosen by the
respondents naturally based on what they do or their habit in reading the English
reading text. Each item of statements was ranged based on Likert scale labeled 1
to 5. 1 = always, 2 = often, 3 = sometimes, 4 = seldom, and 5 = never. If the
respondents choose score 1, it means that the respondents always find the main
idea of the text. Score 2 indicates that the respondents often find the main idea of
the text. Score 3 indicates that the respondents sometimes find the main idea of
the text about 50%. Score 4 indicates that the respondents seldom find the main
idea of the text about 75%. While score 5 indicates that the respondents never find
the main idea of the text. By using this scale, the score chosen by the students can
be analyzed to know the information about their problems in reading
comprehension.
45
[image:29.595.115.515.168.730.2]Then low and high criteria are divided become low and very low, high and very
high as being described in the following figure.
Table 3.4
The Frequency Level of the Students’ Problems in Reading
Criteria
Frequency
Score
Very high
High
Medium
Low
Very low
Always
Often
Sometimes
Seldom
Never
4.50 – 5.00
3.50 – 4.49
2.50 – 3.49
1.50 – 2.49
1.00 – 1.49
The scores above would place the problems that students’ face in reading
to what level of frequency or how often the students’ face that problems in
reading.
While to know how problematic of each problem to the students, the
problems of the questionnaire are categorized with the range score of the students
who choose it as in the following table.
Table 3.5
The level of problems
Category
Score
Very problematic
Problematic
Less problematic
Not problematic
46
3.8.2 The analysis of correlation between the students’ mastery of reading
skills and their reading achievement
After the raw data had been collected, the researcher then analyzed it using
the descriptive computation to calculate the correlation coefficient between the
students’ mastery of reading skills and their reading comprehension ability. But to
ease the computation and to get the more precise result, the correlation coefficient
whether it is significant or not significant, the analysis was established through the
available program of statistical analysis SPSS, since this means is much more
practical, efficient as well as provide more accurate result of analysis.
73
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the result of the discussion derived from the data analysis
presented in the previous chapters, some conclusions and recommendations are
formulated. It is expected that observing the two important variables of the present
study: students’ mastery of reading skills and their reading comprehension ability
of the second year students of an SLTP in Lembang gives useful contributions to
the English teachers and others who concern with English education, especially
the area of teaching reading comprehension.
5.1 Conclusions
Based on data from the questionnaire and the reading test given to the
samples, some conclusions can be drawn.
74
information of the text. It is also same with the result of the total score which was
indicated that this item was categorized as not problematic.
By knowing the problems that students faced in reading comprehension,
the students have to get more practice in learning English, especially reading. The
teachers also play the important role in helping them to overcome the problems.
In teaching students to read, it is valuable for the teachers to help them develop
strategies for approaching reading as both a product and a process (as cited in
Hood, et al., 1996:24). Besides using the strategies proposed with Tierney (1995:
251) as mentioned in the findings and discussions, the teachers can help the
students by teaching and guiding them to:
-
understand that reading is an active process involving comprehension of
meaning;
-
appreciate that reading involves testing and confirming our predictions and
using our social knowledge;
-
recognize that we use different reading strategies depending on our
purpose for reading;
-
identify the overall structures of different pieces of text, discussing with
them, for example, how the structure of an instructional text differs from a
newspaper report, a short story, or an academic article;
-
recognize different sections of the text, and the kind of language that may
be used;
75
-
recognize that the patterns of language use differ between written and
spoken text.
There are also some principles that the teachers should do; encouraging
students to read as often and as much as possible, students need to be engaged
with what they are reading, encouraging students to respond to the content of a
text and explore their feelings about it, not just concentrate on its construction,
prediction is a major factor in reading, matching the task to the topic when using
extensive reading texts, and exploiting reading texts to the full.
Finally, concerning with the second research question, “Is there any
correlation between students’ mastery of reading skills and their reading
comprehension ability?.” it was found that the correlation coefficient of the two
variables is -.765 with df = 90 at the level of significant .01 is .2422. It indicates
that both variables had significantly a reverse correlation. By means that the
students who face less problems in reading in general are more likely to achieve
higher reading comprehension ability than the students who face more problems in
reading.
76
5.2 Recommendations
77
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