xiv ABSTRACT
Ansaka, J. Thinneke. 2012.Improving Students’ Reading Ability Through Local Text with A Scanning Technique. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
The Papua Province, rich in biodiversity and also representing one of the largest remaining untouched rainforests in Asia, yet its prosperous natural resources, in many other aspects of resources, is left behind by other islands in Indonesia. Two of them are the aspects of education and technology media. The role of technology media is inseparable from the development of teaching and learning process. Learning reading was one of the problems among other learning issues. The use of texts which are not familiar to the junior high school students happen commonly. Most of students likely to lack confidence in their ability to read or even to improve their reading skill. Students tend to notably unmotivated. Many students, especially junior high students find reading activities tiresome, even frustrating at times. This condition has led the children to a halt in their language development.
As an English teacher, the researcher wanted to deepen her understanding of how to improve students reading ability in her professional teaching. She then planned an action research study to investigate: does local text with scanning and skimming can improve students reading.
Ten students of grade seven of State-3 of Junior High School in Jayapura participated in this action research were students who have low interest and familiar text to students who lived nearby that text within any particular situation in teaching learning process.
xv ABSTRAK
Ansaka, J. Thinneke.2012. Improving Students’ Reading Ability through Local Text with A Scanning Technique. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Provinsi Papua kaya dengan aneka ragam hayati juga mewakili sisa hutan tropis terbesar yang yang berada di Asia, masih memiliki sumber daya alam yang makmur, dalam berbagai aspek masih ketinggalan jauh dari pulau lainnya yang ada di Indonesia. Dua diantaranya adalah aspek pendidikan dan media tehnologi. Peran tehnolgi tidak dapat dipisahkan dari proses pembelajaran dan pengjaran. Pembelajaran reading atau membaca merupakan satu dari masalah pembelajaran. Penggunaan text-text yang belum dikenal siswa SMP umumnya terjadi dalam proses pembelajaran. Dengan demikian isu glokalisasi dilupakan. Kebanyakan siswa tidak yakin dengan kemampuan membaca mereka atau ketrampilan membaca mereka. Mereka cenderung tidak termotivasi. Beberapa siswa, khususnya siswa SMP menemukan bahwa kegiatan reading atau membaca membosankan dan bahkan membuat mereka frustrasi. Kondisi ini telah menuntun anak-anak untuk berhenti dalam mengembangkan bahasa mereka.
Sebagai seorang guru bahasa Inggris, peneliti ingin memperdalam pemahamannya dengan tentang bagaiman meningkatkan kemampuan membaca siswa dalam mengajar. Peneliti kemudian merencanakan sebuah kajian penelitian tindakan untuk meneliti apakah local teks dengan tehnik scanning dan skimming dapat meningkatkan kemampuan membaca siswa.
Sepuluh siswa kelas tujuh SMP N 3 Jayapura berpartisipasi dalam penelitian tindakan ini, adalah siswa-siswa yang rendah ketertarikannya dan lemah kemampuannya dalam kompetensi membaca. Dalam proses mereka diajarkan dan mengerjakan tugas-tugas bacaan lokal dalam bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan tehnik scanning. Terdapat juga alat ukur yang digunakan guru untuk mencatat dan merekam hal-hal yang terjadi dalam penelitian tindakan ini. Kuesioner didistribusikan kepada siswa untuk menemukan rasa tertarik siswa terhadap Lokal text. Hasil kuesioner menunjukkan bahwa adalah penting memberikan instruksi tentang tehnik scanning dalam bacaan dan juga penting dalam memperkenalkan Teks Lokal sebagai teks yang dikenal siswa dan tinggal dekat dengan teks tersebut dalam proses belajar mengajar.
i
IMPROVING STUDENTS’
READING ABILITY THROUGH
LOCAL TEXT WITH A SCANNING TECHNIQUE
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M.Hum.)Degree
in English Language Studies
by
Thinneke J. Ansaka Student Number: 07 6332 008
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
A THESIS
IMPROVING STUDENTS’
READING ABILITY
THROUGH LOCAL TEXT WITH A SCANNING TECHNIQUE
by
Thinneke J. Ansaka Student Number: 07 6332 008
Approved by
iii
A THESIS
IMPROVING STUDENTS’
READING ABILITY
THROUGH LOCAL TEXT WITH A SCANNING
TECHNIQUE
Presented by:
Thinneke J. Ansaka/ 07 6332 008
Defended before the Thesis Committee and Declared Acceptable.
THESIS COMMITTEE
Chairperson : F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D ...
Secretary : Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A. ...
Members : Dr. Retno Muljani, M.Pd. ...
Dr. J. Bismoko ...
Yogyakarta,
The Graduate Program Director Sanata Dharma University
iv
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that all the ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise
stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer
understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took
somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without a proper reference.
Yogyakarta, 14 Agustus 2012
v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIK
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Thinneke J. Ansaka
Nomor Mahasiswa : 07 6332 008
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING ABILITY THROUGH LOCAL TEXT WITH A SCANNING TECHNIQUE
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam
bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data,
mendistribusikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin apapun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 14 Agustus 2012
Yang menyatakan
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, my best thanks giving to my Savior-Jesus Christ, because of
His Blessing and His surely goodness, this study has completely written.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the following persons of
my college friends: Pipin, Bunga and Chosak. I am grateful to each for their
advice and support throughout this study. I particularly want to thank both Dr.
Bismoko and Dr. Mokarto for their frank and honest words of wisdom throughout
this process.
I would also like to express my genuine appreciation to my teacher friends
in SMP N 3 Jayapura and for their unending support and words of encouragement.
I would especially like to thank both, my beloved husband, Freddy Lasamahu, and
my beloved son, Jemz Lasamahu, and also my really big family Ansaka who lived
in Jayapura – Santarosa for instilling in me the belief that I could accomplish
anything that I set out to do in life.
May God bless you all, always!
vii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN ... v
viii
B. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ... 23
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ... 26
A. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY AND RATIONALE ... 27
1. Action Research ……… 27
2. Working with A Critical Friend ... 32
3. Study Participants and Local Texts Selection Process ... 33
4. Overview of Local Text With Scanning ... 35
B. DATA COLLECTION ... 38
1. Observations ... 40
2. Semi-Structured Interviews ... 41
3. Learning Journal Notes ... 42
4. Students’ Treatment ... 42
5. Learning Outcome Assessment... 43
6. The Learning Process Assessment ... 44
7. Over The Shoulder Miscue Analysis ... 45
A. FINDINGS PERTAINING TO THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS ... 51
1. Amora ... 52
2. Blandina ... 54
3. Christian ... 56
ix
5. Herry ... 62
6. Insorakhi ... 64
7. Olivia ... 67
8. Petronela ... 69
9. Wellem ... 72
10. Zion ... 75
B. FINDING PERTAINING TO THE GROUP ... 78
C. FINDINGS PERTAINING TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ... 79
1. Reading Ability ... 80
2. Students’ Attitudes ... 83
a. Timely feedback ... 83
b. Oral discussion ... 84
c. Use of technology ... 84
D. SUMMARY ... 85
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ... 86
A. CONCLUSION ... 87
B. IMPLICATIONS ... 88
C. SUMMARY ... 89
BIBLIOHRAPHY ... 90
x
LIST OF TABLES
Page
TABLE 4.1 : Data collection summary or Amora ... 52
TABLE 4.2 : Data collection Summary for Blandina ... 54
TABLE 4.3 : Data collection summary for Christian ... 57
TABLE 4.4 : Data Collection Summary for Deki ... 60
TABLE 4.5 : Data Collection Summary for Herry ... 62
TABLE 4.6 : Data Collection Summary for Insorakhi ... 65
TABLE 4.7 : Data Collection Summary for Olivia ... 67
TABLE 4.8 : Data Collection Summary for Petronela ... 70
TABLE 4.9 : Data Collection Summary for Wellem ... 73
TABLE 4.10 : Data Collection Summary for Zion ... 75
TABLE 4.11 : Reading Ability – Learning Process ... 81
xi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
FIGURE 3.1 : The Action Research Spiral ... 29
FIGURE 3.2 : Action Research Study Timeline ... 37
FIGURE 3.3 : Principle of Triangulation in Action Research ... 50
FIGURE 4.1 : Reading Ability – Learning Process ... 81
xii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
IEP : Individual Education Plan LT : Local Text
Sc : Scanning
xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
APPENDIX A : Sample Lesson Plan ... 93
APPENDIX B : Sample Completed Lesson Plan ... 95
APPENDIX C : Sample Learning Reading Interest Survey ... 96
APPENDIX D : Learning Reading Attitude Survey ... 97
APPENDIX E : Sample Miscue Analysis January to March 2011 ... 98
xiv
ABSTRACT
Ansaka, J. Thinneke. 2012.Improving Students’ Reading Ability Through Local Text with A Scanning Technique. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
The Papua Province, rich in biodiversity and also representing one of the largest remaining untouched rainforests in Asia, yet its prosperous natural resources, in many other aspects of resources, is left behind by other islands in Indonesia. Two of them are the aspects of education and technology media. The role of technology media is inseparable from the development of teaching and learning process. Learning reading was one of the problems among other learning issues. The use of texts which are not familiar to the junior high school students happen commonly. Most of students likely to lack confidence in their ability to read or even to improve their reading skill. Students tend to notably unmotivated. Many students, especially junior high students find reading activities tiresome, even frustrating at times. This condition has led the children to a halt in their language development.
As an English teacher, the researcher wanted to deepen her understanding of how to improve students reading ability in her professional teaching. She then planned an action research study to investigate: does local text with scanning and skimming can improve students reading.
Ten students of grade seven of State-3 of Junior High School in Jayapura participated in this action research were students who have low interest and familiar text to students who lived nearby that text within any particular situation in teaching learning process.
xv
ABSTRAK
Ansaka, J. Thinneke.2012. Improving Students’ Reading Ability through Local Text with A Scanning Technique. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Provinsi Papua kaya dengan aneka ragam hayati juga mewakili sisa hutan tropis terbesar yang yang berada di Asia, masih memiliki sumber daya alam yang makmur, dalam berbagai aspek masih ketinggalan jauh dari pulau lainnya yang ada di Indonesia. Dua diantaranya adalah aspek pendidikan dan media tehnologi. Peran tehnolgi tidak dapat dipisahkan dari proses pembelajaran dan pengjaran. Pembelajaran reading atau membaca merupakan satu dari masalah pembelajaran. Penggunaan text-text yang belum dikenal siswa SMP umumnya terjadi dalam proses pembelajaran. Dengan demikian isu glokalisasi dilupakan. Kebanyakan siswa tidak yakin dengan kemampuan membaca mereka atau ketrampilan membaca mereka. Mereka cenderung tidak termotivasi. Beberapa siswa, khususnya siswa SMP menemukan bahwa kegiatan reading atau membaca membosankan dan bahkan membuat mereka frustrasi. Kondisi ini telah menuntun anak-anak untuk berhenti dalam mengembangkan bahasa mereka.
Sebagai seorang guru bahasa Inggris, peneliti ingin memperdalam pemahamannya dengan tentang bagaiman meningkatkan kemampuan membaca siswa dalam mengajar. Peneliti kemudian merencanakan sebuah kajian penelitian tindakan untuk meneliti apakah local teks dengan tehnik scanning dan skimming dapat meningkatkan kemampuan membaca siswa.
Sepuluh siswa kelas tujuh SMP N 3 Jayapura berpartisipasi dalam penelitian tindakan ini, adalah siswa-siswa yang rendah ketertarikannya dan lemah kemampuannya dalam kompetensi membaca. Dalam proses mereka diajarkan dan mengerjakan tugas-tugas bacaan lokal dalam bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan tehnik scanning. Terdapat juga alat ukur yang digunakan guru untuk mencatat dan merekam hal-hal yang terjadi dalam penelitian tindakan ini. Kuesioner didistribusikan kepada siswa untuk menemukan rasa tertarik siswa terhadap Lokal text. Hasil kuesioner menunjukkan bahwa adalah penting memberikan instruksi tentang tehnik scanning dalam bacaan dan juga penting dalam memperkenalkan Teks Lokal sebagai teks yang dikenal siswa dan tinggal dekat dengan teks tersebut dalam proses belajar mengajar.
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The researcher designed this action research study to investigate how
Local Text with Scanning, could positively influence English Language
development especially students‘ reading ability in school more particularly in
classroom. In researcher‘ opinion, Local Text with Scanning is a potentially
excellent material resource for teacher and students. The teacher researcher select
the learning reading material for classroom and plan to looking for needed to build
a relevant with what teacher has planned before. The researcher actively teaches
English Language skills to four classes of Junior High School. When involved in
team-teaching activities, she then creates opportunities to work with a smaller
grouping of students to enhance learning reading. These activities may contribute
to her school‘s English learning achievement but it is difficult to directly
determine that the two variables, Local Text with Scanning, effectiveness. She
thinks Local Text with Scanning is under-utilized in the area of English language
development, despite her knowledge of learning reading goals across the grades.
Consequently, the researcher wished to investigate Local Text with Scanning,
with the goal of enhancing reading ability to contribute to students‘ learning
reading.
This chapter provides a background of the study formulates the problems,
limitation the scope, the purpose of the study and addresses the benefits of the
understand the chapters that follow this one. The chapter concludes with a brief
overview of the structure of the written report.
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The researcher conducted this action research study from February to
April 2011, in the classroom of the junior high school in which she is the
teacher of English. The school, situated in Jayapura city, namely SMP N 3
Jayapura, opened in 1970 and was well equipped for the more than thousands
students enrolled. Almost 80 (eighty) percent of students were native Papua.
A small group of ten students who low interest and ability were invited to
participate in the study.
The researcher investigated students‘ reading ability to use teaching
and learning strategies effectively to improve reading ability grades. She
decided to teach reading skill that has been successful when used by
well-known researchers. The balanced text-type approach is used in the classrooms
of her school board; she chooses to use local texts with scanning of instruction
with the small group because it would be familiar to them.
Hannay, Wideman, & Seller (2006) describe action research as an
interactive process. It starts with the teacher reviewing data about his/her
students‘ performance and developing a question of the kind, ―How can local
text with scanning improve student reading ability?‖ The teacher then
develops and implements a strategy to attempt to improve results. Further
analysis of the data provides feedback about the effectiveness of the change in
practice. The teacher records his/her observations and findings, draws
conclusions that will shape future practice, and shares what s/he has learned
with colleagues.
In other countries learning reading is more tends to improve their
literacy skill. It is needed to be more surviving in every field of life. In
Indonesia learning reading is more focus on to do the test. Students are faced
on many reading texts inside during national final examination.
Papua especially is the same thing. But students in there are different
with other students in other places in Indonesia. They do not like to read.
Reading is not the culture, reading is not the habit. Spoken culture is stronger.
Many students felt failure to do the test. Students begin to avoid reading from
text book when they found difficulties, getting frustration and give up soon.
Sometimes they showed their antipathy to English teacher such as get in and
out of room, absenteeism on English learning subject. The teacher herself did
nothing to change the situation. What are in teacher‘s mind was she only did
her job as teacher the best.
In the learning process of English, students are forced to be familiar to
additional settings. One fact is that their English text books are, once again,
dominated by different settings. It does not a matter to the students who
stayed at big cities where information and the learning materials are getting
easier to find but it does really a matter to students who lived in a remote area
information from television or internet is also the facts that colorful followed
the minimum of information to acquire the knowledge.
The focus of this study is then exploring English learning in Junior
high school. There is one main reason why the researcher put her choices on
this education level. First, the researcher has spent her professional career
teaching at junior high school and really wants to help classroom to be more
positive climate in teaching learning process.
B. PROBLEM FORMULATION
Reflected to the background of the study then researcher formulate the
problem with important question: How can Local Text with scanning improve
students‘ reading ability?
C. RESEARCH SCOPE AND LIMITATION
In this research the coverage of local text is limited to the learning
reading of English.
This study is action research and the main data were taken from
questionnaire and interview with students and the result were not input into
numbers. Interviews were conducted to ten students. Interpreting result of the
study should also be considered. Firstly, action research study works on
insightful understanding of actual practice of local text, the participants were
limited. The result of interpretation, therefore, cannot be used to draw a
limited time, the interviews were done in Jayapura as the writer‘s address, and
a few participants only were involved. This study did not cover the whole
aspects in doing local text such as gender, geographical region. Thirdly, there
might be misinterpretation in the process of transforming into written English
dialogue occurred, because the interviews are done by using two languages.
D. RESEACH GOAL
It will be clearly define research goal. The goal of this study is to
improve English teaching and learning so that can help students to improve
their reading ability.
E. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study contributed to the teachers‘ experiences as they progress
through the training and implementation cycle of action research in their
classrooms and the subsequent effects on instructional practices.
In addition, the finding of this study can help teachers to predict how
the local text takes part in their students‘ reading improvement. If those
benefits are reached, the problem of students‘ reading can be controlled by the
teachers or students themselves. Schlechty (1990) stated, ―to improve
[schooling], one must invest in people, support people, and develop people‖
(p. 38). Teachers can be liberated to improve their profession with
opportunities that promote systemic, collaborative teacher research conducted
research to uncover explanations to their own questions about the best way to
improve English teaching and learning practices. Johnson (1993) stated
―teacher research will force the reevaluation of current theories and will
significantly influence what is known about teaching, learning, and
schooling‖ (p. 3). Likewise, Freeman (1998) stated ―[teacher research] is an
important step in transforming education from a practice of implementation to
a practice devoted to understanding learning‖ (p. 15). This study will help
teachers to understand how local text influences the processes of teaching and
learning. It is critical that teachers base their decisions about teaching and
learning practices in data-driven, classroom-based research findings.
Educators know that English language rates must improve to better
students‘ chances of future success.
Ultimately, the most important issues on this study are because of
students awareness to improve their learning reading, because of teacher
awareness to select reading texts and technique to teach and also the
researcher was ready to know and together with students and teacher to effort
to solve the problem in this research.
The researcher believes all teachers in a school can positively
influence student achievement and that English teacher can play a significant
role in English language development. The school community may also
benefit from this study because improving English language rates is this
Pleasure readers are proficient readers; thus, voluntary reading is an
indicator of a successful, literate future.
This action research focused on improving students‘ reading ability
and helped the teacher researcher identify practical strategies that she can use
as an English teacher to contribute to English language development. Action
research uses data to improve practice (Delong, Black & Wideman, 2005). In
this school committee and across the province, teachers and English teachers
are encouraged to collect data to inform their practice.
Action research uses cycles of action, data collection and reflection to
generate new questions about practice and areas for improvement. In this
study, the periodic collection of students‘ achievement results was used to
help assess the teacher researcher effective teaching of the targeted reading
strategies.
8
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
As background to the action research study, the writer investigated
literature related to general areas that were directly relevant to the major research
questions: the reading learning process, and learning outcome, the importance of
reading ability, meaning of Local Text, and Scanning. This chapter will address
literature pertaining to each of these areas, in turn.
A. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
1. The Reading Process
There are many theories about how students learn to read. Marie
Clay (1991) defined reading, ―as a message-getting, problem-solving activity
which increases in power and flexibility the more it is practiced‖ (p.6). Based
on the researcher‘ experiences with students in junior high school settings, I
believe this statement is true.
In 1993, Louise Rosenblatt‘s theory also described reading as an
interactive process. She used the terms aesthetic and efferent (nonaesthetic)
reading. Aesthetic reading refers to the act of reading for enjoyment. It is
important to foster reading for pleasure in this level school-aged children
because it can promote a life-long habit of reading.
Efferent reading is also important, particularly for junior-aged
science and social studies. It occurs when the student is reading for a
specific purpose; it is employed, for example, when reading procedure
text materials or analyzing a text in English class. ―The distinction
between aesthetic and nonaesthetic reading then derives ultimately from
what the learner does, the stance the learner adopts and the activities she
carries out in the relation to the text‖ (Rosenblatt, 1994, p.27). Extracting
relevant information from a variety of text forms and formats is essential
for academic and personal success.
―Reading is a thinking process, is part of everything that happens
to learner as a person and comprehending a text is intimately related to
her/his life‖ (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006, p. 7). This definition reinforces
Rosenblatt‘s theory that reading comprehension requires the reader to
interact with the text. The Ministry of Education for Ontario (2004) used
a similar definition of the reading process in its latest publications:
―Reading in the junior grades is an interactive, problem-solving process,
with the primary purpose of making meaning‖ (p.61). The researcher
based her research on the concept that reading is an interactive,
transactional process that requires the application of a variety of strategies
for proficiency.
In Indonesian traditional classrooms, which practice English as a
foreign language, teachers insist that students understand every word in a
text to get the general idea for the purpose of looking for required
understand each and every word they are somehow not completing the
task (Ismini, 2000). This phenomenon reveals the practice of a
conventional teaching reading strategies and the writer assumes that those
kinds of situations will not help the students to overcome the difficulties
they encounter and will not improve their reading abilities. In addition,
Wiryodijoyo (1989) stated that the national examination in English
subject put a large emphasis on reading aspect, and this situation will
assure students who cannot read or comprehend the text and answered the
question in the examination to face tremendous difficulties and
overwhelm the students.
A study on reading and its strategies conducted by Amanda (2007)
found that students apply several strategies such as making prediction of
the strategies from the students in overcoming their reading task. The
complete process in this study tended to use Hammond Steps in teaching
learning process. The clear picture of this process will be put on chapter
IV. The words that students do not know, search for words in the
dictionary, and many others to help overcome the obstacle in their reading
task. This shows the implementation of a conventional reading techniques
and the lack of reading.
The Teaching Reading for SMP Students
According to English Syllabus of School Based Curriculum
(KTSP), the teaching of reading for SMP students involves the
descriptive, procedure, recount and report. Descriptive text is a kind
of text that is usually found or presented in journals, diary, personal
letter, biography, travel report, police report, sport report, brochure,
etc. The main elements of descriptive are identification and
description. In the identification step the writer identifies
phenomenon to be describe. In the description step the writer
describes parts, qualities and characteristics.
Recount text is a kind of text that is usually found or presented
in journals, diary, personal letter, biography, travel report, police
report, sport report, history, etc. The main elements of recount are
orientation, list of events, and reorientation. In the orientation step the
writer mentions people and things that are involved, time of the event,
the place, and the situation. In the list of events, the writer tells the
events happen chronologically. In the reorientation, the writer
concludes the story by giving comments. Narrative text is a kind of
text that tells a story. It is developed in some steps: orientation,
complication, resolution, evaluation, and reorientation. In the step of
orientation, the writer tells the characters in the story, their names and
the place they live, their ages, their condition, and their willing. In the
complication step, the writer presents the unexpected event that
happens to the characters. In the resolution step, the writer tells how
the complication is solved. In the evaluation step, the writer invites
story. In the reorientation step, the writer concludes the story by
giving comments.
Procedure text is a kind of text that tells a procedure of
making something. Meanwhile, report text is a kind of text to report
an event, things in the world, animals, and flora. In this study, the
focus is only how the reading scanning using local text improves
students ‗learning of English especially reading skill.
In the process of reading using local text, students learn how
to read the local texts. Indeed, many students master the process of
how to read the local text to grade seven. But, even though students
have mastered the process of reading, they will have to learn how to
pronounce and read technical terms, symbols, and other features of
text strange. It can also be taught by reading guide: paragraph
structure can be taught as a means of showing students how to locate
main idea. In the process of reading guide, students are given the
information shown below by teacher‘s words:
2. The Importance of Reading Ability
Reading is a fundamental skill. Without this essential skill intact
students will not be able to meet the demands of the greater society.
According to Scott and Shearer-Longo (2002) academic failure,
specifically reading failure is a ―major predictor of larger failures‖ (p.
168) including grade level retention, dropping out and juvenile
delinquency (Jimerson & Kaufman, 2003). Students who are retained
generally share similar characteristics; most often poor reading ability is
present. Other characteristics of retained students often include low
socio-economic status, learning problems, minority status, gender (usually male
though pregnancy is also a factor of girls), and limited English
proficiency (Martin, Tobin & Sugai, 2000). The similarity of
characteristics (minority status, economic status, etc.) may indicate that
poor reading ability an issue of equity that must be addressed. ―Reading is
a crucial tool in the effort to build equity and excellence in society as a
whole‖ (Jackson & Davis, 2002, p. 87). This difficulty can generally be
traced to early schooling, which is another argument to support aggressive
early intervention efforts.
Student Acquisition of Reading Ability
The acquisition of reading ability is complex process.
Typically, junior students learn to speak and to understand spoken
language within the first three year of junior high. This ability is the
begin to realize that what is in written text is made up of individual
understanding. Early instruction, whether offered at home or in
school, begins with teaching that the clear instruction to do task.
During the first year in this level, students continue to have to answer
the wh-questions from the text sharply. As the student begins to
expand this knowledge, and begins to know this strategy to find the
answers from the text. Reading instruction is deliberate and
complicated and blends several processes.
Based on the students‘ background, it is taught early in a
student‘s understanding through direct instruction and practice. The
students able to read effectively acquires of skills simultaneously
including phonological awareness, decoding, word identification and
reading comprehension (McCardle, Scarborough, & Catts, 2001;
Shaywitz, 2003). Students must develop a sight vocabulary otherwise
they will laboriously find the information from the text. They must
also build background so they have a context for what is being read.
Students on this level need to know what they are reading for. By
looking at questions before they read, they are better able to
understand the text and scan for the necessary information. Marc
Helgesen as citied in Richard R. Day (1993: 131) described the three
procedures for involving unmotivated students or difficulty
1)Divide the reading in half. Post enlarge copies of first half on the
front wall and the second half on the back wall.
2)Divide the class into pairs. Divide the questions and assign half to
the groups. (―e.g., this group, you must answer the questions 1
through 5. The answer in this part of the reading.‖ (point to the
copies on the front wall) that group, you answer 6 through 10.
The answers are in that part.‖ (point to the copies on the back
wall).
3)When you tell them to start, all this group ask the first question to
their partners. The partners run to the texts posted on the front
wall and scan for the answer. When they find the answer, they
run back to the first group and tell the answer. This group writes
it, and then asks the next question. Half-way, through the activity,
they change roles; the next group asks while the previous one
reads and runs.
3. Learning Outcome
In order to set the research analysis of Local Text with Scanning
in the context of curriculum design it is first necessary to consider the
nature of the learning outcomes that are sought through educational
innovation.
Bloom‘s (1956) taxonomy was originally developed to classify the
complexity of questions asked in assessment, but has become used as a
competences to be demonstrated are: knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation (see Bloom 1956 for the
full schema). There are also competences for psychomotor and affective
learning. Teachersare often encouraged to use Local Text with Scanning
from Bloom‘s taxonomy to define the desired outcomes of a course or
learning session. This is often carried out as a post-hoc justification for
teaching decisions that have already been taken and is quite inadequate as
a basis for thinking through fundamental pedagogic issues. As students
learn, the outcomes of their learning display increasing structural
complexity, both quantitatively (the detail in their responses increases)
and qualitatively (the detail becomes integrated into a more complex
pattern). Biggs (1999) adopts the view that real understanding is
performative – the constructivist challenge is to describe what the
students can do differently as a result of their developing understanding,
which then specifies the assessment and allows us to measure the
alignment of learning objectives and learning outcomes.
4. The Meaning of Local Text
A word, when used in a piece of text, usually denotes only one
meaning out of multiple meanings it inherently carries. Although it is still
unknown to us how does it happen, the general observation is that it is the
context that determines which meaning of the word should be considered.
variation of a word. The general conviction is that identification of
context depends heavily on intuitive ability of a language user. The
researcher argues that natural language texts are the best resources for the
task, since words are usually represented within these texts with all kinds
of context-based information. Language corpora, made with different
kinds of natural text, contain numerous examples of contextual use of
words to provide useful information for understanding meaning variation
of words as well as for deciphering their actual context-based meaning.
In this study the researcher used the term context to refer to an
immediate linguistic environment (rarely detached or isolated) in which a
particular word occurs. Since it is not always explicit, it may be hidden
within the neighboring members of a word used in a piece of text. Taking
these factors into consideration, Miller and Leacock (2000) have
classified context into two types: (a) local context, and (b) topical context.
According to Miller and Leacock (2002), reference to the two contexts is
more of less sufficient in understanding the actual contextual meaning
used in any text.
In the researcher point of view, the two contexts mentioned above
are not enough for understanding the intended meaning of a word, as
these contexts often fail to provide the necessary information required for
the purpose. In certain readings, information acquired from the local
context may be sufficient, but this is not enough for understanding all
researcher, therefore, argue to classify context into four broad types (Dash
2005a) actually, but the researcher limit them in order to more focus on
local context. The local context refers to the immediate circle of text.
Based on the meaning above, then, the researcher used local text
in the same term and positions with local context. So, the local text more
refers to the immediate environment in where texts used, familiar with
people who nearby that text and within any particular situation. Local text
and language learning are not separable. In the process of learning
reading, texts are the main role. Texts are structured in different ways to
achieve their purpose.
In relation to the term ‗genre‘, it should be discussed first about
the distinction of the term ‗text‘ and ‗genre‘. According to Macken and
Horarol (1997: 305) text is considered as a social construct in which the
structure is identified and as a construct, its structure and social function
can be deconstruct and analyzed. Text has many kinds of genres in it. Lee
(2001: 38) underlies that one way of making a distinction and between
‗genre‘ and ‗text‘ is that the former is based on external, non- linguistic,
―traditional‖ criteria while the latter is based on the internal, linguistic
characteristics of texts themselves. . Biber (1988) as cited in Lee (2001:
38) has his own opinion about the definition of genre by statement as
follows,
A ‗genre‘, in this view, is defined as a category assigned on the
recognized grouping of texts based on properties other than lexical or grammatical (co-) occurrence features, which are, instead, the internal (linguistic) criteria forming the basis of
‗text type‘ categories.
Meanwhile, besides defining the term ‗genre‘, Biber also
explicates the genre in relation to the external criteria. In his opinion,
genre categories are determined on the basis of external criteria relating to
speaker‘s purpose. Thus, genre is considered as the level of organization
which is theoretically and pedagogically most useful and practical to
work with since it takes more on the function of communication itself.
Moreover, those two terms, text and genre, are imperative to
discuss since sometimes they are confusedly used and thus needs to
clarify the relation between two. Therefore, in this research, the definition
of ‗genre‘ follows Biber‘s definition. ‗Genre‘ is then understood as a
category assigned on the basis of three external criteria which are related
to speakers‘ point of view‘s consideration, such as intended audience,
purpose, and activity type. ‗Genre‘ is not only defined as a category, but
also a level of organization which is considered the most useful and
practical level to work theoretically and pedagogically. While genre is on
the basis of external criteria, text is built on the basis of internal criteria
with linguistic characteristics in it.
Feez and Joyce (1998: 6) point out the difference between those
two terms in a simpler way. While text is defined as any stretch of
to the patterns tied from recognizable patterns of structure and language
within texts which have evolved in cultural context to achieve particular
purposes and the same general patterns which recur in texts to achieve
similar purposes. Thus, this research defines ‗text‘ as any stretch of
language formed by a social construct which its structure and social
function can be deconstructed and analyzed as well as held together
cohesively through meaning.
Using Local Text for Learning Reading to Junior Students
When engaging in reading activities, to avoid boredom, teachers
almost always implement collaborative techniques which sometimes
proved to be unsuccessful. This condition has spurred from students‘ lack
of responsibility and involvement in the activity thus encouraging only
clever students to complete the task. Consequently, using Local text is
the best way in guarantying the success of collaborative activities in the
teaching of reading.
Local text is seen not as something possessed as a skill, but
something done or performed as a contextualized practice (Barton
1994, Baynham 1995). Within reading local text, students of junior
high level discuss the questions in their own language, assist their
student friends who disabilities in read English text. Each student in
the team is responsible not only for learning the material being taught,
but also for helping teammates learn. The most important goal of
knowledge, concept, skills, and understanding they need to become
happy and contributing members of the society.
5. Scanning
Particular reading techniques are needed not only to overcome
student difficulties, but also to improve their reading abilities. Those
techniques are skimming and scanning. Scanning is the technique for
quickly finding specific information in a text while ignoring its broader
meaning, it searches for keywords or ideas in a written text (Brown, 2001
: 308). Meanwhile, skimming is a technique in looking over a text to get a
quick idea of the gist of a text (Harmer, 2001). By encouraging the
students to glance their eyes and take a short look at a text and searching
for specific piece of information, it will help them get the general
understanding and detail information of the text itself (Harmer, 2001).
Moreover, Anderson et al. (1969: 62) states that scanning skills is
using when we want to collect the main ideas from a text quickly, and
efficiently. By using scanning skills, the efficiency is occurred. Its aim are
getting the work and doing it with minimum wastage of resources ((1969:
4). On the other words, by scanning skills, students can answer the
questions in the shortest period of time and will not wasting time.
Students only read and take a piece of information that needed.
Scanning skills can also define as a technique to locate specific
believes that scanning ―is a kind of skimming to see if a particular points
is present in the text or to locate it‖. This theory indicates that scanning
and skimming have the same purposes; both of them only take the
specific information of text.
From the definition above, scanning and reading purpose have a
relation. Reading by scanning the local text can be save the time, because
it only needs a shortest period of time to take the specific information
from the local text. On the other words, reading purpose will be
accomplished. So, the purpose of scanning is to extract specific
information without reading the whole local text.
Based on that explanation, therefore, scanning technique is
required in helping students in comprehending a text, getting detailed
information and other reading tasks. Scanning technique is also intended
to help students in overcome the junior high school curriculum task in
Indonesia, which is to understand the meaning of short functional text and
simple essay in the form of report, narrative and descriptive text in the
context of everyday situation and also to access knowledge (KTSP,
2005).
Learning Reading Using Scanning
The main purpose for reading is to comprehend the ideas in
the materials. Without comprehension, reading would be empty and
read the words, but face much difficulty in expressing their
comprehension.
In addition, Davis (1995: 133) defines reading into five
purposes, which are reading for pleasure, for general impression, for
organizing reading and study, for learning content or procedures, and
the last for language learning. Reading for general impression is
meant to gain an idea of the writer‘ point of view and overall
impression of the ‗tone‘ of a text. Reading for organizing reading and
study is to identify the important content of a text, answer the specific
question(s), and decide which section of a text to start studying.
Reading for learning content or procedures means that it is aimed to
gain an understanding of new concepts, to learn certain facts from a
text and to follow instructions. Reading for language learning means
that it is aimed to ‗translate‘ the text, literally, to learn new
vocabulary, to identify ‗useful‘ structures, to use the text as a model
for writing, and to practice pronunciation.
B. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Reading is the act of responding with appropriate meaning to printed
or written symbols. It is not a passive activity but it is an active activity that
involves the readers, act to be active in the process of able to read effectively
the written materials. The goal of reading is to comprehend the meaning from
interrelated. They are texts and readers. Good reading comprehension ability
is affected by the quality of the reading materials that can be read. Then, the
selection of the materials becomes an important thing to determine the success
in able to read effectively.
In the teaching learning process, all students are served by many kinds
of learning materials. It is hoped that it can increase students‘ knowledge and
experience; of course, they are going to be successful in learning English
well. However, all students come from different background, of course, they
have brought with them into the classroom a variety of feeling, values, and
concept about school, books includes Local Texts, as the learning materials,
teachers‘ especially English teachers, and also themselves. Then, it can
courage and encourage students‘ motivation to learn and achieve their
learning goals.
Each student has their own perception to the learning materials
especially learning reading material that they learned. Perhaps, they have
different perception in the same learning reading materials. These perceptions
support their motivation to learn the materials. If the learning materials are
teacher‘ perception-based, they will consider the material difficult to able to
read effectively. Then, they will get hard to learn materials. Meanwhile, if the
materials are students‘ finding their selves from other resources, they will get
bored and tended to think that the materials are not challenging to them.
Therefore, the researcher suggested to use Local Text for reading and with
The students‘ reading ability refers to learning process and learning
outcome. In the learning process, it is important to students ensure the goal of
the course, the reason for the way it is organized and taught, and the
approaches to learning they will be encouraged to take. Students enter a
course with their own views of teaching learning and these may not be
identical to those of their teacher. How do students see the roles of teachers
and them, what do students feel about such things such as memorization
based on their content map, share worked, the importance of grammar and
pronunciation, are how students viewed of learning. One more important
thing is motivation. It is needed to students to do the task. As mentioned
earlier that if students do not have motivation to read effectively, they won‘t
able to do the task through Local Text with scanning and skimming or to do
the test.
In the learning process, many reading texts include local texts with
scanning and skimming is given to check students understanding of texts. As
much questions from texts as possible is better also to see students‘
26
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
The action research study involved working with a group of ten students to
see if Local Text with Scanning could improve their reading ability. The students
in this study attended this school in a large-sized of Papuan native. The majority
of students walk to school and there is a sense of community even though the
school is located in average of students‘ parents‘ educational background are
junior and senior school. Approximately more than 300 students attended the
school, in grades Junior to Grade 7, at the time of the research. A small percentage
(20%) of the students speaks Indonesian language than English at home.
This chapter describes the methodology used in the study. It begins with
an overview of, and rationale for, the action research that the researcher employed
to conduct the study. There is also information about the selection of participants,
and how ethical considerations were addressed. A significant portion of the
chapter describes the program the researcher used with the students during the
study and the process by which quantitative and qualitative data were collected.
A. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY AND RATIONALE
This section provides an overview of the action research upon which
based this study. Action research was the process that the researcher used to
study students‘ reading ability, teacher works with a group of two struggling
student learners and will apply empirical research by doing action research in
conducting this study. In order to reach the goal and the answers of the
research formulation, the research methodology section outlines participants,
instrument, and data analysis procedure.
1. Action Research
Action Research is an effective media in improving the quality of
English teacher researchers‘ performance in instruction as well as students‘
achievement in learning English in real field. In Action Research, the
researcher assesses the effectiveness of her own teaching activities and plan
the improvement based on the result of the assessment. The results are
innovations in English instructions. Very often, teachers‘ innovations in
English instructions are accepted more (bottom up) than innovations forced
from outsiders (Top down). Action Research starts from researcher‘ serious
concern about her success in her own instructions, her students‘ learning
progress, her students‘ behavior, her students‘ learning problems, and the
learning environment, which she assess throughout the whole process of
instruction for the purpose of planning, implementing, and evaluating
Action Research for English Instruction is aimed at developing
innovative instructional strategy that can help enhance the success in students‘
learning English. English teachers believe that every student can succeed in
learning English if appropriate learning strategy is provided. When students
fail in learning English, the blame is on the teachers who do not provide
appropriate help to the students. When the students fail in learning English, it
must be because the teachers have failed in helping them. And this is the
teachers‘ problem. Identifying student and teacher problems and trying to
solve the problems can be done through the process of Action research. It is
the job of professional teacher researchers to identify their field problems and
to try to solve the problems.
The researcher completed her study using an action research
approach because it suited the investigation of her own practice as an English
teacher. Using local text with scanning to inform the way in which the teacher
supports students as an English teacher is of interest not only to her as an
individual, but also to other English teachers. The action research model
required the writer to reflect upon her practice and consider ways to improve,
so that she could become a more effective teacher.
Action Research activities involve repeated cycles, each
consisting of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The result of one
cycle is used to determine the need for the following cycle, until the problems
get solved by the strategy. To prove the significance of the improvement of
―Questionnaire‖ is used to determine junior learners‘ enjoyable experience in
learning reading using local text with scanning. See the below figure that will
show the action research.
Reconnaissance
(Assessing classroom problems)
Figure 3.1
The Action Research Spiral (Kemmis, S., McTaggert, R. (1988)
Action Research is done by teachers in their own field or classroom.
As an English teacher, the writer has to solve her classroom problems or
improve the quality of her classroom practices to result in better English
achievement of their students. As researcher, she has to produce an innovative
classroom strategy that contributes to the improvement of English
teaching-learning practices in schools of the same level.
The research starts with observing and identifying classroom
problems. A classroom problem refers to a classroom practice that can still be
professional teacher can always see which classroom practice can still be
improved. Then the teacher-researcher searches for alternative instructional
strategies from references, by discussing with their colleagues, or by joining
seminars or workshops.
The writer likes investigating new ways to improve her teaching; by
focusing in on one aspect—students‘ reading ability —she was able to be
reflective of her work and become more aware of her teaching practices. For
example, through this knowledge creation approach the researcher was able to
make tacit assumptions explicit and to reflect on their continued relevance
(Hannay et al., 2006). Some of these assumptions had developed during the
researcher years teaching in a junior classroom and needed a review to see if
they were still relevant to Grade 7 students today. Moreover, the researcher
likes to work from first-hand discoveries, as Whitehead (2000) suggests, and
then look for research to provide perspective on her discoveries.
By creating a question or identifying a problem to solve, the
researcher created an authentic reason to learn about current reading ability
research (Hannay, et al., 2006). The researcher knew there were a great many
reading ability resources available to teachers. The action research approach
prevented the writer from becoming overwhelmed by the mass of
information; it allowed her, instead, to apply it to the area of investigation
and, thus, to connect it to her daily practice.
There is a great deal of interest in, and emerging information about,
Action research can be an effective approach to change, because the
investigator focuses on a personal challenge. ―There is a need for educators to
take charge of their own professional learning‖ (Hannay et al., 2006, p.16).
The researcher sees the benefits of this when she participates in the English
teacher meetings in this school board. We are a well-connected association of
English teachers who have created our own professional learning community
thorough the use of English instruction. Our focus for professional growth is
based on the needs of the group.
One best alternative strategy is then selected, and translated into an
instructional scenario. All necessary instructional media and assessment
instrument are developed to implement the instructional scenario. The
teacher-researcher has to learn well how to implement the scenario in the
classroom before the action is started. At this stage, there should no question
anymore about how well the teacher researcher can implement the
instructional planning otherwise the action cannot be started. The researcher is
recommended to choose a collaborator to help in observing the
implementation of the scenario. Then the action is started with the
collaborator observing the process of instruction to record any information
indicating the success or the failure of the strategy in solving the classroom
problems. The result of the observation is analyzed to reflect how successfully
the implemented strategy has solved the classroom problems. When the
revised in the best possible way to make sure that when implemented again in
the following cycle the problems can completely be solved.
2. Working With A Critical Friend
A critical friend is a respected and trusted peer who can bring
objectivity to own questions or add insight into potential obstacles that
arise when conducting research in the form of critical feedback (Delong et
al., 2005). The researcher chose a colleague who taught same subject at
the school. The researcher valued her teaching style and she chose her to
support her because of her experience as a classroom teacher in the junior
level. The writer approached her because she was not directly associated
with the students in researcher‘ group and she could rely on her to assist
the researcher of teaching reading skill to junior-aged students.
This was the area where the researcher felt the least comfortable
because—unlike a classroom teacher—she had no training when she
began the study. The school has a strong sense of teamwork, so the
researcher received constructive comments and assistance when things
were not going smoothly. Her colleague was helpful when she was
struggling to keep the students interested in reading. She offered some
good suggestions and reminded me that the students need to be engaged
in what they are reading. The researcher conversations with her led the
researcher to build computer time into the study group‘s lessons, which
3. Study Participants and Local Texts Selection Process
The researcher chose to share with Grade 7 students for three
reasons. Firstly, those Grade 7 students are in the middle of the junior
years and so they are low interest and ability in reading learning process.
Finally, the researcher felt that Grade 7 students are not able to read
effectively in doing task or test, and these students needed extra time to
consolidate their reading ability. The participants are chosen with only
one reason; they need to improve their learning ability especially reading.
The participants are really wanted to know how to do the task and the test
successfully.
In the classroom, students read a passage of local text and then
answer questions about what they have read. The questions are designed
to test the students‘ abilities in organization a text by answering the
questions. In this study, the researcher used the content map to remind
students how to organize a text. The content map contained of students
writing about how to organize a text and other things which are relevant
to learning genre-based. The researcher met the all ten students twice in a
week based on time schedule in school.
Principal permission to allow the students to participate in this
study was necessary. Even though the researcher is an English teacher in
students. In the parental information letter especially in taking students‘
picture/ photo, the researcher emphasized that she was completing this
thesis to improve her own practice and that the anonymity of all
participants would be protected. Parents were informed that each student
would be assigned during the investigation and that their names would not
be used; that data would be securely filed; and that all data would be
destroyed when the thesis paper was completed.
The researcher followed the ethical considerations written in
Delong et al.‘s 2005 publication, as they mirrored her school board‘s
expectations. ―It is necessary to respect and protect those who participated
in the research‖ (Delong et al., 2005. p. 52). Parents were able to
withdraw their sons from the study at any time; however, none elected to
do so.
Cooperation with the principal and the English teacher of the
students was very important. The scheduling of the sessions occurred
outside of the students‘ extracurricular classes and the researcher
considered the English teachers‘ needs when the researcher designed the
schedule. It can be very hard to keep a consistent schedule in a busy
school where the students are involved in many different events. The
writer accommodated the student and English teachers‘ schedules without
compromising the students‘ opportunity to learn in their regular
