TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION USING THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
AT SMK BINA BANGSA I SURADE CLASS XI AUTOMOTIVE
Reni Irma Yuniarti
Reg No: 10220236
E-mail:reni.irma83@yahoo.com
Student of English Study Program of STKIP Siliwangi Bandung
ABSTRACT
The objectives of this research entitled “Teaching Reading Comprehension Using the Communicative Approach at SMK Bina Bangsa I Surade Class XI Automotive”, are to find out how well the students’ reading comprehension is, and to find out how far the communicative approach can develop the students’ reading comprehension. The research methodology used in this research is a quantitative research and pretest-posttest design. The instrument used in this research is pretest and posttest. The data of this research was collected by giving pretest and posttest to the student sample. The data was analyzed by using the T-test formula. The result of data analysis showed that the mean score of pretest is 63.62 and the mean score of posttest was 72.41. The t-value was 5.03. The t-critical with degree of freedom (df)28 and level of significance at 5% (0.05) was 2.05. Based on the data analysis, it is clear that the t-value was higher than t-critical (5.03 > 2.05). So, the alternative hypothesis is accepted. It is also means that the teaching reading comprehension using the communicative approach was effective to increase the students’ reading comprehension mastery.
Key words: Communicative Approach/CLT, Reading Comprehension
A. Background of the Study
Language is an important device and a very beneficial tool for human being to communicate with other people. By using language, people can talk and understand each other. They can communicate with other group of people or nations. A successful communication needs communicative language media (communicative competence) that have rules and norms, which should be carried out in communication. Brown (2000:5) states that “Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written or gestural symbols that enable members of given community to communicate intelligibly with one another. Language is systematic and a set of arbitrary symbols. The symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual. They have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.”
Richards (2007:2) states that “English is the
language
of
globalization,
international
communication, commerce and trade, the media
and pop culture, different motivation for learning
it comes in to play.” English is no longer viewed
as
the
property
of
the
English-speaking
countries, but it is an international commodity
sometimes referred to as World English or
English
as
an
International
Language.
In
Indonesia, English language has been introduced
as a foreign language in Elementary School,
Junior High School, Senior High school, and
University level.
In relation to the English language learning in
teaching in
classroom,
reading
in
foreign
language is in early stage of language learning in
order to expand students’ knowledge. It is a way
to
motivate
students
to
learn
about
language.Reading is one of the important ability
in learning and teaching of language next to
language. It is a bridge to understand some or
more things and through language we got also
the information that we need.
how wellthe students’ reading comprehension is,
and to find out how far the communicative
approach
candevelop
the students’
reading
comprehension.
B.
Theoretical Foundation 1. Definition of TeachingAccording to Brown, (2000:7) “Teaching is
showing or helping someone to learn how to do
something, giving instructions, guiding in the
study of something, providing with knowledge,
causing to know or understand.” He further says
that teaching is guiding and facilitating learning,
enabling the learner, setting the conditions for
learning. Our understanding of how the learner
learns
will
determine
our
philosophy
of
education, teaching style, approach, methods,
and classroom technique.
This research focuses on teaching reading comprehension. Teaching reading foreign language or second language contexts is gaining more and more attention, as evidenced by the numerous professional resource books on the topic. This increasing attention is welcome, for reading can be one of the major focuses of learning a second or foreign language (Day: 1993).
1. Teaching Methodology
In this research study, the writer used the communicative approach or the communicative language teaching as a method in her teaching learning process.
a. Communicative Approach/Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
Based on Larsen and Freeman (1986:131), “The communicative approach is an approach which has a goal to have one’s students become communicatively competence.” While this has been the stated goal of many other methods, in the Communicative Approach the notionof what it takes to be communicatively competence is much expanded.
Then, Richards (2006:2) says in Communicative Language Teaching Today says “CLT sets as its goals the teaching of communicative competence.” b. The Role of Teachers and Learners in the
CLT Classroom
The followings are definitions of the teacher and learner’s role propose by some experts:
1) Richards implied (2006:5) new roles in the classroom for teachers and learners. Learners now had to participate in classroom activities that were based on a cooperative rather than individualistic
approach to learning. Teacher now had to assume the role of facilitator and monitor. Rather than being a model for correct speech and writing and one with the primary responsibility of making students produce plenty of error-free sentences, the teacher had to develop a different a view of learners’ errors and of her/his own role in facilitating learning.
2) Larsen and Freeman (1986:131) state that “The teacher is the facilitator of his/her students’ learning. He is a manager of classroom activities. In this role, one of his/her major responsibilities is to establish situation likely to promote communication. Students are, above all, communicators. They are actively engaged in negotiation meaning – in trying to make they understood – even when their knowledge of the target language is incomplete. They learn to communicate by communicating.”
From the definitions above, it can be concluded that the teachers and learners in the classroom are; the teachers are facilitator and monitor, where they facilitate the language learning. Then, learners are as participation, when they participate in classroom activity.
c. The Techniques in the Classroom Activities Richards (2006:14-15) explains classroom activities in Communicative Language teaching as followed:
1) Accuracy Versus Fluency Activities
2) Mechanical, Meaningful, and Communicative Practice
3) Information – Gap Activities 4) Jigsaw Activities
5) Task – Completion Activities 6) Information – Gathering Activities 7) Opinion – Sharing Activities 8) Information – Transfer Activities 9) Reasoning – Gap Activities 10) Role Plays activities.
In this case, the writer decided to use the “Role – Plays Activities” as a technique in teaching reading comprehension, because “Role – Plays Activities” give students opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and different social roles 2. Definition of Reading and Reading
Comprehension
According to Moyle (1968:25), “Reading is strategies employed to encourage the reader to the read with expectancy and anticipate the author’s though.”
from the interaction between the words that are words that are written and how trigger knowledge outside the text.”
2. Research Methodology
This part discusses the research methodology.
1.
Research Design
In the research design, the writer used pre-experimental method with one group pretest and posttest design as her research designs, because in her research only took one group and the comparator group did not exist.
2 Research Method
This is a quantitative research, which relies on quantitative data based on computation and measurement. “Quantitative research methods are used to examine questions that can be answered by collecting statistically analyzing data that are in numerical form” (Crowl, 1996:10). The data measured are in the form of numbers.
The method of the research is pre-experiment. Pre-experiment is the simplest form of research design. In a pre-experiment either a single group or multiple groups are observed subsequent to some agent or treatment presumed to cause change. It was meant to find out the level of significance of the treatment (communicative approach) on students’ achievement in her research. The test was given to the students twice, before treatment and after treatment to measure the influence or benefit of the treatment in teaching reading comprehension.
3.
Research Population and sampleCrowl (1996:8) states “populations are groups consisting of all people to whom researchers wish to apply their findings”. The population of this research is all the students of SMK Bina Bangsa 1 Surade. The total population is 422 students.
Further, Crowl (1996:8) states “samples are subsets of people used to represent populations”. The sample of this research is 29 students of class XI Automotive at SMK Bina Bangsa 1 Surade, The sample was took by random sampling.
4. Research Instrument
The instrument used in this research is a
reading comprehension materials in collecting
the data; the writer used multiple choices items,
the total number of items is 20.
5. Research Data Collection
For collecting the data, the writer used one-group pretest and posttest designs through following the steps:
a. Pretestof reading comprehension material b. Posttest of reading comprehension material c. At last, the writer made a list of the students’
score of reading comprehension material both in pre-test and post-test to be analyzed later.
6.
Research Data AnalysisAccording to Crowl (1996:174), “the t test for non-independent means is the appropriate for analyzing two sets of data from the same group of people”. In this case, the writer analyzed one group to get the data before treatment and after treatment. So, the appropriate formula is the t test for non-independent (or correlated) means.
Crowl (1996:179) calculated the t test for non-independent (or correlated) means as followed:
=
∑ (∑ )
( )
Where = The mean difference between the two groups
∑ = Summation (Sum Up)
= The difference between the scores of one person
= The squared difference between the scores of one person
∑ = Square each difference and sum the squares (∑ )2 = Sum the differences and square the sum
=The number of differences
The formula is used to find out the significant difference between the two scores.
C. Findings and Discussions 1. Findings
a. The Results of pretest and posttest
[image:3.595.301.560.663.775.2]Here are the results of pretest and posttest. Income score then can be test use statistic, to know what income score from pretest to posttest according to statistic or not. Test hypothesis process of account statistic can show as follow:
Table 1 Table Accounting sample (1)
N
(2) Pre-test
(3) Post-test
(4) D
(5) D2
1 50 70 20 400
2 70 85 15 225
3 50 60 10 100
4 50 80 30 900
5 70 90 20 400
7 80 85 5 25
8 65 60 -5 25
9 60 65 5 25
10 75 90 15 225
11 70 70 0 0
12 55 50 -5 225
13 55 60 5 225
14 80 70 -10 100
15 65 65 0 0
16 65 65 0 0
17 65 70 5 25
18 75 70 5 25
19 60 70 10 100
20 60 75 15 225
21 75 85 10 100
22 60 75 15 225
23 50 70 20 40
24 70 75 5 25
25 75 85 10 100
26 80 80 0 0
27 60 70 10 100
28 50 60 10 100
29 65 80 15 225
Nominal 1845 2100 235 4015
Mean 63.62 72.41 8.10 138.44
From the table above, we can see that the summation of test is 1845 and the mean of pre-test is 63.62. Meanwhile, the summation of post-pre-test is 2100 and the mean of post-test is 72.41. The mean of differences between the two sets of scores is 8.10 and the squared difference between the scores of one person is 4015.
b. Research Data Analysis
1) Calculating the t Test for Non-Independent (or Correlated) Means
Crowl (1996:174) formulate the t test for non-independent means as followed:
=
∑ (∑ )
( )
= 8.10
( )
= 8.10
( )
= 8.10 .
= 8.10 .
= 8.10 √2.59
= 8.10 1.61
= 5.03
From the formulation above, the result of t-test is 5.03.
c. The Degree of Freedom (df)
According to Crowl (1996:180) “To determine if the t value is statistically significant, it is first necessary to determine how manydfthere are.” The
df are determine by taking the number of pairs of subject minus 1. In this case, there are 29 pairs of subjects. Consequently thedf= 29 – 1 = 28.
The t values for df = 28 are 2.05 for a non-directional hypothesis.
d. Data Interpretation
After analyzed the data and collect them using one tailed ttest formula on 0.05 level of significant, the t value of data above is 5.03 and the degree of freedom is 28, so, thetcritical value is 2.05.
Based on the data from the test above, it is clear thatt
value is higher than tcritical value. It was based on the criteria:
If t-observed > t-critical value, H (alternative hypothesis) is accepted
If t-observed < t-critical value, H (alternative hypothesis) is rejected
In fact, t-observed > t-critical value (5.03 – 2.05), so the alternative hypothesisis accepted.
(Hatch and Lazaraton, 1991:225)
Based on the criteria, the writer came to conclusion that there were some significant differences between the students’ achievement in teaching reading comprehension by using communicative approach and without any method or approach. Beside the communicative approach has aroused the motivation of the students’ interest, it surely that the communicative approach affected the students’ achievement in English.
The differences of teaching reading comprehension after using the communicative approach and before the communicative approach are caused by the difference of assessment process at that class.
From the result above, the writer summarized that use of teaching reading comprehension using the communicative approach could be applied in teaching reading comprehension because there is a significant difference students’ post-test score of before and after communicative approach.
Similar result were seen when t test revealed a significant for the list, the t value of data above is 5.03 and the degree of freedom is 28, so, thetcritical value is 2.05. It is means that the hypothesis is accepted.
From the explanation above, the writer concluded that in this research the use of the use of the communicative approach can develop the students’ reading comprehension mastery.
D. The Conclusions and Suggestions 1. Conclusions
The Based on the findings and discussions, it can be concluded as follows:
a. The students’ ability based on the writer’s observation in reading comprehension at SMK Bina Bangsa I Surade was still weak. They still were not very interested in reading. However, the expected condition is the students can understand of reading texts. It was proved by the results of pre-test score of reading comprehension test shows that mean of pre-test is 63.62
b. After the students got reading comprehension using the communicative approach, their achievement of reading comprehension was increased. The result shows the mean of posttest is 72.41. The results of the analysis of non-independent means t-test Teaching Reading Comprehension Using Communicative Approach to the students of SMK Bina Bangsa I Surade Class XI Automotive are thetvalue ortobserved is 5.03, meanwhile thetcritical value is 2.05. It is means that thetobserved was higher than thet
critical value (t observed >t critical). It means that alternative hypothesis as accepted.
2. The Suggestions
In this chapter the writer presents some suggestions for English teachers as follows:
1. The teacher of English at Senior High School should be creative in selecting interesting methods and media in teaching learning-process. The appropriate method, approach and technique will help the teacher in order to provide the target or the goal of the curriculum.
2. The teacher should be able to increase the students’ interest in reading by giving motivation, guidance, achievement, and stimulation in their teaching and learning activity.
3. For the schools, it is expected that they provide the media needed for teaching English, particularly for those who concern the improvement of reading comprehension.
4. For the students, they should always increase their interest in reading to improve their ability in reading comprehension.
E. Bibliography
Brown, H. Douglas. 2000. Principle Language
Learning and Teaching. San Fransisco: Longman
Inc
Crowl, K.Thomas. 1996.Fundamental of
Educational Research Second Edition, USA:
Times Mirror Educational Group Inc
Larsen, Diane and Freeman, 1986. Techniques and
Principles in Language Teaching.UK: Oxford
University Press
Richards, Jack C. 2006. Communicative Language
Teaching Today. New York: Cambridge
