Chapter I
Introduction
1.
Background of Study
In learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one
element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all
together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire
an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately. Students
also can learn English vocabulary from several media like textbook, novel (English
version), reading texts in the internet, magazine, journal, and newspaper. The need of
reading newspaper is the main requirement in the Reading Across Genres class in
English Department. The students in Reading Across Genres are demanded to read
newspaper a lot. Then, as the case of Antasari Azhar is a hot issue in the newspaper
especially in The Jakarta Post that, the students in Reading Across Genre should read
this newspaper also. It is suitable for the students to learn vocabulary through reading
from the Antasari Azhar’s case. These reading texts contain many new vocabulary
words in legal discourse for the students that are not common to use in daily
conversation.
Now, students in the Reading Across Genres class are rarely studying English
vocabulary in the context of law for students in the Reading Across Genres class by
using narrow reading in the Antasari Azhar’s case.
This case has been relatively popular since September 2009-March 2010. It
allegedly involves a Chairman in Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). He
became a suspect of a murdering case that killed Hassanudin Zulkarnaen who is a
director of state-owned pharmaceutical company PT. Putra Rajawali Banjaran. Now,
Antasari Azhar is in jail and gets eighteen years penalty in jail.
To introduce this topic to the students in Reading Across Genres class I used
narrow reading. The students were asked to read ‘narrowly’; that is, they read several
texts which just had one topic. I tried to motivate the students by using narrow
reading which meant that the acquisition of both structure and vocabulary came from
much exposure to a comprehensible context of Antasari Azhar’s case (cf. Krashen,
2004). Narrow reading involves incidental learning which means learning vocabulary
indirectly in a context while reading (Day, Amura, & Hiramatsu, 1991). There was a
claim that the results “demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that incidental learning
of word meanings does take place during normal reading”( Nagy, Anderson, &
Herman, 1987, p. 261). It is also claimed (Krashen, 1989) that part of the input
hypothesis (IH) is that comprehensible input might result in second language
acquisition and IH claims that second or foreign language is acquired by a focus on
the message and not on the form of the message. However, the evidence for second
language students learning vocabulary through narrow reading has yet to be as well
2.
Statement of the Problem
Students in the Reading Across Genres class needed to improve their skill in
reading especially to enrich their vocabulary acquisition in English. Certain words
have different functions if they are used in a legal context. Accordingly, students in
the Reading Across Genres class need to improve their vocabulary to understand the
content of the reading topic on the Antasari Azhar’s case.
3.
Research Question
The study is aimed to answer the question below: Does the vocabulary
learning strategy using narrow reading improve the students’ vocabulary
acquisition?
4.
Research Objective
The objective of this study is:
To investigate the potential contribution of narrow reading in acquiring
5.
Scope of the Study
The study focused on the vocabulary activities related to the reading text of
Antasari Azhar’s case which was taken from The Jakarta Post. Because there were
only two subjects and I attempted to do a research on the subjects, I used the term
pre-experimental to investigate the use of narrow reading in learning English
vocabulary.
6.
Definition of Terms
Reading
According to Anderson (2003) reading is a constant process of guessing,
predicting, checking, and asking oneself questions. Reading is one of an essential
skill to master in learning English. For most learners, reading is the most important
skill to master in order to ensure success in learning English. Students tend to make a
good progress in other area of language learning if they master reading.
Narrow Reading
The case for narrow reading is based on the idea that the acquisition of both
structure and vocabulary comes from much exposure to a comprehensible context in
which learners acquire new structures and words when they understand the main idea
own expressions and a distinctive style, and each topic has its own vocabulary and
discourse, narrow reading familiarizes learners with various styles and vocabulary
words. Second, background knowledge is a tremendous facilitator of comprehension
in reading activity. Narrow readers gain more contextual knowledge when they read:
The more one person read in one area, the more the person learn about the certain
area, and the easier one finds subsequent reading in the area (and the more one
acquires of the language) (Krashen, 2004).
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is type of words that divided into three or four levels largely on
the basis of how often it occurs in the language (its frequency) and how widely if
occurs in the language (its range). The first type is high frequency words which occur
very frequently in all the language and they can be in the formal and informal uses of
the language. Next, is the academic word which is usually possible to find a
vocabulary that consists of words that are not from the most frequent 1000 or 2000
words that come frequent and widely used within that specialized area. Then, the
technical words are very important for anyone who specializes in a particular area
(Nation, 2008, pp. 7-11).
EFL students at least in the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian
University [ED. SWCU Salatiga] rarely read legal related texts because they think
they are very hard to understand. With this preliminary study, it is hoped that some
EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Above all, this idea to the best of my
Chapter II
Review of Literature
This chapter discusses the theories that support this study: reading, narrow
reading, and vocabulary. Here, I explain the relation between learning vocabulary and
narrow reading in order to improve the students’ vocabulary.
A.
Reading
1.
The definition of reading
According to Anderson (2003) reading is a constant process of guessing,
predicting, checking, and asking oneself questions. He also explains that reading is a
process of communication from the writer to the reader which involves recognition,
interpretation, and perception of the linguistics symbols presented in a written
material. Its main purpose is the reader’s comprehension. It includes the
understanding of the meaning of the written materials and covers the reader’s
strategies that lead to understanding. As the end product, comprehension deals with
language content in which the reader negotiates understanding with the writer. Then,
2.
Narrow Reading
The meaning of narrow reading is when the students just read one genre, one
subject matter, or the work from one author. Narrow reading has the advantage of
providing the increase of the reader ability in reading text with a familiar context
which has familiar background knowledge that helps the reading text more
understandable. Another advantage of using narrow reading, students will find
several words which are the same word for many times. Students get more exposure
by learning the new vocabulary words for so many times then, it encourages them to
find the meaning of the words by guessing from the context (Cho, Ahn, & Krashen,
2000).
Narrow reading gives a beneficial effect for the students when reading a
reading context. The teacher gives a reading topic which is familiar for the students or
the topic of the reading passage has become the main issue for some times. It helps
the students to get the background knowledge from the reading passage. Then, it
helps the students to enjoy the reading activity. The students will read different
versions of the same topic for some times. In reading one topic in a one certain area
helps the students to dig more information about the style of the reading passage and
make the students easier to read the next reading passage. It helps the students to
understand the reading passage. The other thing that must be considered in using
narrow reading is that it may motivate the students to read, they read the texts
In the reading process students also learn about vocabulary words which exist
in the reading passage. It helps the students to learn vocabulary words from the
reading passage and below is the explanation about vocabulary learning and
strategies.
B.
Vocabulary
1.
The definition of vocabulary
Vocabulary is the words used in a language or a text. Vocabulary plays an
important role for the learners in studying English. If the learners do not know a
certain vocabulary, then they will have difficulties to understand a certain sentence or
word. Vocabulary is very important to communicate, especially to understand
someone’s language. Biemiller (2001) states that reading comprehension and
vocabulary knowledge are strongly correlated. Students have read to understand the
meanings of new words like understanding words from context. Limited vocabulary
prevents the students from understanding the text. Poor readers often read less,
because reading is difficult and frustrating for them. This means they don’t read
enough to improve their vocabulary, which could, in turn, help them comprehend
more. Learners need to learn vocabulary, especially if they want to communicate or
interact with other people. Beside that it is also important to understand text in
English. In the process of acquiring vocabulary will include the process in learning
2.
Learning vocabulary
Carter and McCarthy (1988) state that there are three kinds of words that
people should learn. They are sight words, which are learnt automatically, personal
words, which come from students’ experience, and basal words, which go along with
the text that students read.
Narrow reading, hence, fits into the intention of acquiring basal words in
relation to vocabulary teaching, Baker (1989) mentions two types of vocabulary
instructions. They are direct vocabulary instruction and indirect vocabulary
instruction. The direct vocabulary instruction occurs when the students learn or taught
both individual word and word learning strategies explicitly or directly. On the other
hand, the indirect vocabulary instruction occurs when the students learn vocabulary
when they hear or see the words in many different contexts. For example, they learn
new vocabulary when they talk with other people, hear from the electronic media, or
read an article which contains new vocabulary words It is important for the students
to acquire vocabulary not only in the direct teaching which the students learn directly
from the teacher’s explanation in the classroom. The students need to improve their
vocabulary by learning from the context of the reading passage.
a. Definition and Context
According to Waring (2001), traditionally, vocabulary instruction has focused
memorize new word meaning frequently have trouble applying the information in
definitions and often make mistakes about the meaning.
To know a word meaning, students need to see it in context and learn how its
meaning relates to the words around it (Waring, 2001). Most of the words acquired
through incidental reading are learned through context. Students learn from context
by making connection between the new words and the context in which they appear
(Nation, 1990). They also learn words through repeated exposure, gaining more
comprehension of a word’s meaning and function by seeing it several times in
different contexts. The researcher like Krashen also shows that teaching students how
to identify and use contextual clues is an effective technique for increasing
vocabulary acquisition. When students are given several sentences that use a word in
different ways, they begin to see how a word’s meaning can change and shift
depending on its context. For example, consider the changes in the word got, as it
appears in the following sentences:
John got a cold
John got rich
John got a note from Jenny
Although in most of these examples got convey the idea of receiving, the
meaning is slightly different for each one. Students need to see the word in different
contexts in order to learn them thoroughly.
b. Multiple Exposures to a Word in Different Contexts
Students get benefits from seeing the same words for several times. Word
meanings are accumulated gradually. According to Andrew (2001), a word that is
encountered has about 10 percents chance of being learned from context. When
students see a word repeatedly, they gather more and more information about it until
they acquire an idea of what it means. Andrew (2001) has summarized the four stages
of word knowledge as follows:
1. I never saw it before
2. I’ve heard about it, but I don’t know what it means
3. I recognize it in context – it has something to do with…
4. I know it
The more exposure students have to a word, the more likely it is that they
would be able to define, comprehend, and remember it. Good vocabulary instruction
builds repetition into the learning process, so that students can learn words more
quickly. Using and applying several examples of a word in different context reinforce
Students will encounter new vocabulary words (unfamiliar words) multiple
times in multiple and varied contexts during the reading processes. Arguably, this
results resulted the ‘incidental learning’ when students learn the new vocabulary
words (Garder, 2008). It shows that students get helped from the multiple exposure
during they read various texts with one certain topic or a certain author.
Then, the theory of multiple exposures in different contexts is very suitable
with the theory of narrow reading. The readers will have the same experience when
they read several texts with the same topic and they will get the multiple exposures in
acquiring the new vocabulary words.
C.
Review of Previous Studies on Narrow Reading
Based on Krashen (2004) two things that must be considered in doing narrow
reading is, first multiple exposure to structure and vocabulary from many
comprehensible reading texts with the same topic or the same author. Learners should
read various texts with the same topic or the same author because in the same topic
will come up several words which unfamiliar for the students and the words come
multiple times in the texts so, students get multiple exposure in learning vocabulary.
Second, students’ background knowledge about the topic or the author whether they
Krashen, Cho, and Ahn (2000) wrote their findings in learning vocabulary
through narrow reading. Krashen and Cho (1994, 1995) especially had done it before
and reported it that they got a significant result when learners experienced narrow
reading. They took 12 weeks to do this research, they asked the students to read about
the book series of ‘Clifford’. This story had been filmed in the drama television so
students had known the characters in the book and they quite understand the main
story. It shows that students’ background knowledge is one main role in narrow
reading. Both of them also gave pre-test to students and in the end of the treatment
they gave post-test to the students then, they compared the results. The results gave
them satisfactory that students showed high achievement, students got good point in
answering the questions that being given by Cho and Krashen.
In the next chapter will explain how I collect the data to investigate the use of
Chapter III
Methodology
A.
Type of Research
This study was a pre-experimental design which used pre-test and post-test for
the first and last meeting.
(http://allpsych.com/researchmethods/preexperimentaldesign.html) Pre-experimental
designs follow basic experimental steps but fail to include a control group. In other
words, there was only a single group studied and there was no comparison between
equivalent non-treatments. The Pre-experimental designs include:
- Case study design
I used case study research method in this research because I wanted to
investigate whether the use of narrow reading in learning vocabulary for
students in Reading Across Genre gave beneficial effect. I would choose the
subject and facilitated them to read several texts how to learn vocabulary
using the new method, which was using narrow reading.
- One group pre-test/post-test design.
This design would show the students’ score before and after taking the
In this present study, there was only one group having a treatment of
reading ‘narrowly’. The goal of this study was to know the effectiveness of
using narrow reading in acquiring new vocabulary words in several reading
texts. Therefore, the result of this study only referred to the particular
participants of this study and might not be applicable to other studies. The
data used in this study are directly collected from the students’ result of the
pre-test and post-test.
B.
Participants
The participants who participate in this research were two (2) students from
the Reading Across Genres course. I took the participants from the course, because it
was a required course before the students took the Academic Reading course which
had more complex vocabulary. It was also chosen, because the activities in the
Reading Across Genres course required the students to read the article in the
newspaper so, they got used to reading newspaper articles. There were only two
participants who participated on this research, because it was not possible to observe
many participants considering the limit of this semester. Therefore, I decided to use a
pre-experimental study in a case study design which allowed two participants in this
research. It was easier for me to check the participant’s progress in learning if the
participants’ were only two students. Both students were chosen from the same class
and input in reading and vocabulary. Both participants had different genders. They
were of the same age and both participants were in average students that their GPA
was between 2.00-2.50.
C.
Instrument
Below is some information about the instrument used in this study.
1.
Materials
The materials in this study were taken from the newspaper of The Jakarta
Post and the topic was the case of Antasari Azhar. Here, the reading passages which
were taken from the newspaper contained a lot of law discourse. In the reading
activity I gave them 12 newspaper articles. The news taken from several dates (see
Table 1)
Table 1. The list of newspaper articles used in this study.
No. Title Date
1. Death Demanded for Antasari January, 20th 2010
2. Antasari Pleads Not Guilty, Maintains Claim of
Conspiracy
January, 29th 2010
3. Antasari Behind Bars for 18 Years February, 12th 2010
4. Editorial: Questioning Justice February, 13th 2010
[image:17.612.76.547.163.693.2]6. Text Your Say: ‘Verdict Against Antasari’ February, 17th 2010
7. Text Your Say: Verdict Against Antasari February, 18th 2010
8. KPK in Jeopardy Again as Court Rules in Favor of
Anggodo
April, 20th 2010
9. KPK – New Leadership on The Way May, 3rd 2010
10. Editorial: Wanted: KPK Chief June, 4th 2010
11. Editorial: Legal (un)Certainty October, 13th 2010
12. Antasari to be Transferred to Cipinang After
Supreme Court Verdict
January, 2nd 2011
Those articles could be divided into three categories, Text your say,
Headlines, and Editorial. Text your say came from the readers’ comments or readers’
forum so, the words choices were simpler than in Headlines or Editorial. Headlines
discussed the recent news that happened to Antasari Azhar and Editorial discussed in
greater detail Antasari Azhar’s case. Total words in those articles are 5,287 words.
2.
Tests
According to Sellinger and Shohami (1998, p. 176) as cited in Megawati
(2008), p. 28) a test meant a procedure to collect the data on the participants’ ability
and knowledge of foreign language vocabulary. The tests that I gave to the students
were to find the effectiveness of finding the meanings of new vocabulary words in
know the students’ knowledge before the treatment. The materials of the tests were
taken from the reading texts which appeared in the newspaper of Antasari Azhar’s
case. I managed to find 20 words from the reading texts, the 20 words selected by the
frequency in the texts and I selected them using a corpus software namely antconc 3.1
version. I took the 20 words because most of the words had not been heard before
(especially the participants in this study) and the frequency counted by the corpus
software to choose the words to be tested and the words should appear often in the
reading texts. The time allotted for each test was 45 minutes. Both the pre-test and the
post-test had the same word items. This was important, because the purpose of this
research was to find how many new words that the students had learned during the
treatment.
After giving the pre-test and before giving the post-test to the students, I gave
them some treatments. During treatments, the students were asked to read the reading
materials. The materials contained several words which appeared in the reading text.
D.
Research Procedure
The research was conducted for about six weeks from March 8th, 20011 until
March 24th, 2011 and I gave them twelve reading articles. The research started with
Then, I started to give the pre-test to the participants. Both of the participants
were tested at the same time. The test was held outside the class, because I did not
involve the whole students in the class. The reading processes were done in campus
under my control. The pre-test and post-test were also administered at campus. In
this section, both participants were asked to answer all of the vocabulary questions in
both tests in 45 minutes.
After giving the pre-test to the participants, I gave the participants the first
reading material which was taken from Text Your Say in The Jakarta Post newspaper
and I asked them to read it. It helped me to see their real reading activity outside the
class. The next meeting, I gave the other reading materials which taken from
Headline in The Jakarta Post newspaper. I also took control of the reading activity of
my participants by supervising them to keep reading the texts. Then, I gave the other
reading materials which were taken from Editorial in The Jakarta Post newspaper
and again I supervised both participants to read it in campus. After giving all the
reading materials to participants I gave them the post-test on the March 24th, 2011.
The purpose in giving the post-test was to know whether there was any
improvement in the participants’ vocabulary acquisition. The results of the pre-test
would be compared with the results from the post-test to see whether there was any
E.
Data Analysis
After collecting the data using several methods and instruments mentioned
above, I analyzed and interpreted the data descriptively and it would be in the chapter
four of the study. First, I would like to find out how much vocabulary that the
participants could master after reading several texts ‘narrowly’. Then, I would check
what strategies they used in acquiring the new vocabulary words while they were
reading the texts by asking them in the end of the meeting after taking the post-test.
Chapter 4
Analysis and Discussion
This chapter presents and discusses the analysis of the data and findings
obtained from the administrations of the vocabulary tests. The vocabulary tests are
based on the objectives and research question of the study, which are to investigate
students’ vocabulary improvement in using narrow reading to learn the English
language vocabulary.
This chapter reveals the data analysis, following the research question. Firstly,
it includes the answer for the research question, which is the students’ vocabulary
improvement after learning using narrow reading, including the explanation about the
findings of the tests results.
A.
Vocabulary Improvement
The data obtained from the pre-test and the post-test are arranged in tables.
The discussion starts with a comparison between the pre-test and post-test results
followed by the analysis for the details in each test.
1.
Vocabulary Test Result
The following discussion was based on the vocabulary tests which were
vocabulary. All vocabulary items were selected from The Jakarta Post newspaper
[image:23.612.74.549.165.690.2]which was selected with the same topic, about Antasari Azhar’s case.
Table 2 Comparison between Pre-test and Post-test result.
2.a Pre-test result
Subject Number of
Questions
Students heard about
the words at least
once in their lives
Students could
mention the
meaning of the
words
Students could
apply the
meaning in a
sentence
Student 1 20 Prosecutor (no. 2),
attorney (no. 3), hit
men (no. 6), deputy
(no. 7), mastermind
(no. 18), blackmail
(no. 19) ( =6)
None None
Student 2 20 Prosecutor (no. 2),
alleged (no. 13),
testify (no. 20),
prominent (no. 12),
blackmail (no. 19)
( =5)
2.b Post-test result
Subject Number of
Question
Students heard about
the words at least
once in their lives
Students could
mention the
meaning of the
words
Students
could apply
the meaning
in a sentence
Student 1 20 Verdict (no.1),
prosecutor (no. 2),
attorney (no. 3), graft
(no. 4), dossier (no.
5), hit men (no. 6),
deputy (no. 7),
indictment (no. 8),
supreme court (no. 9),
jeopardy (no. 10),
procurement (no.
11),prosecution (12),
alleged (no. 13),
prominent (no. 14),
premeditated (no. 15),
mitigating (no. 16),
undermine (17),
Verdict (no.1),
prosecutor
(no.2), attorney
(no.3), graft
(no. 4), hit men
(no. 6), deputy
(no. 7), indictment (no. 8), jeopardy (no. 10), procurement (no. 11), prosecution (no. 12), alleged (no. 13), prominent Verdict (no.1), prosecutor (no.2), attorney (no.3), graft
(no. 4), hit
men (no. 6),
mastermind (18),
blackmail (19), testify
(no. 20) ( =20)
(no. 14), premeditated (no. 15), mitigating (no. 16), undermine (no. 17), blackmail (no.
19), testify (no.
20) ( =16)
(no. 12), alleged (no. 13), prominent (no. 14), premeditated (no. 15), mitigating (no. 16), undermine (no. 17), blackmail (no. 19), testify (no. 20) ( =16)
Student 2 20 Verdict (no.1),
prosecutor (no. 2),
attorney (no. 3), graft
(no. 4), dossier (no.
5), hit men (no. 6),
deputy (no. 7),
Verdict (no. 1),
prosecutor (no.
2), attorney
(no. 3), graft
(no. 4), hit men
(no. 6),
Verdict (no.
1), prosecutor
(no. 2),
attorney (no.
3), graft (no.
indictment (no. 8),
supreme court (no. 9),
jeopardy (no. 10),
procurement (no.
11),prosecution (12),
alleged (no. 13),
prominent (no. 14),
premeditated (no. 15),
mitigating (no. 16),
undermine (17),
mastermind (18),
blackmail (19), testify
(no. 20) ( =20)
indictment (no.
8), supreme
court (no. 9),
jeopardy (no. 10), procurement (no. 11) prosecution (no. 12), alleged (no. 13), premeditated (no. 15), mastermind (no. 18), blackmail (no.
19), testify (no.
20) ( =15)
(no. 6), indictment (no. 8), supreme court (no. 9), prosecution (no. 12), alleged (no. 13), premeditated (no. 15), mastermind (no. 18), blackmail (no. 19), testify (no. 20) ( =13)
Table 2.a and 2.b showed that the students improved after being exposed to
[image:26.612.72.548.110.627.2]words out of 20 words. In the post-test she improved by 14 words in terms of
familiarity with vocabulary words. The second participant significantly improved the
number of vocabulary after the post test; in the pre-test the second participant only
knew 5 words out of 20 words and yet in the post-test he became familiar with all the
20 words occurring in selected narrow reading materials.
In the next stage of both the pre-test and the post-test, students were asked to
predict the meaning of the words by supplying English synonyms or in Indonesian
equivalents. The first participant in the pre-test could answer nothing of the questions
and could not give any meaning of the words in the questions out of 20 questions.
However, in the post-test the first participant could supply the meanings (16 numbers
out of 20 numbers of questions). Likewise, the second participant who could not
answer anything in the pre-test, in the post-test he could supply the meaning of 15
words out of 20 questions. Next, I would explain about the words which were used in
the pre-test and post-test.
The vocabulary pre-test consisted of 20 vocabulary words with three variants
of questions totaling 60 questions. The first variant asked the students whether they
had heard about the words at least once. They could answer it with ‘Y’ for yes and
‘N’ for no. Then, the second variant of question asked the students to guess the
meaning of the words, in English synonyms or in Indonesia equivalent. Then, the
Appendix C gives the detail about the words, it shows the information about
the meaning of the words and the frequency of the words. The frequency of the words
was obtained by using a corpus program and the meanings of the words were
generated from Webster’s Online Dictionary with Multilingual Thesaurus
Translation.
2.
Pre-test Result
The results of the pre-test could be seen in Table 2.b that both participants
could answer few of the questions in the pre-test. The first participant could answer 6
numbers out of 20 numbers of questions for the first variant of question. The words
that could be answered by the first participant were prosecutor (no. 2), attorney (no.
3), hit men (no. 6), deputy (no. 7), mastermind (no. 19), and blackmail (no. 20). Here,
the words were brand new for the participants so, they could only answer few of the
questions. Then, for the second section the first participant was asked to give the
meaning of the words or the synonym of the words or it could be in Indonesia
meaning but, the first participant could not give any meaning for the six numbers of
questions that she had already answered in the first variant of the questions. It meant
that the first participant might have heard the words, but she was not sure about the
the first participant could not supply any meaning of the words in the pre-test; she
only knew the words but, was not able to mention the meaning of the words.
The second participant answered 5 numbers only out of 20 numbers of
questions for the first variant of questions. In the first variant of questions the words
that could be answered by the second participant were prosecutor (no. 2), alleged (no.
12), testify (no. 13), prominent (no. 14), and blackmail (no. 20). Then, in the second
variant of questions the second participant was asked to give the meanings of the
words or the synonym of the words, or the meanings in Indonesia but, the second
participant was not sure about them. The second participant let the table of questions
in the second variant of questions in blank or he could not answer all the questions in
the second variant of questions. It happened with the third variant of questions which
allowed him to write down the words in a sentence. Because he did not know the
meaning of the words, he could not answer all of the questions in the third variant of
questions.
However, in the pre-test both participants could answer the same number for
number 2 and 20 in the first variant of questions. It might happen because the words
3.
Post-test Result
The results of the post-test could be seen in the Table 2.b that both
participants got good results in the post-test. The first participant could answer all of
the questions. The first participant in the pre-test just could answer 6 questions for the
first variant and in the post-test could answer all the questions. It showed the first
participant had heard the words after six weeks started from March 8th, 2011 until
March 24th, 2011, treatment by reading the texts in narrow reading. It was probably
influenced by the frequency of the words in the texts (see Appendix C). The first
participant in the post-test could supply 16 meanings out of 20 questions by giving
the English synonyms or Indonesian equivalent. Some numbers (5, 9, 14, and 19)
were still blank. In the third variant the first participant could supply 16 sentences out
of 20 questions and left the same numbers (5, 9, 14, and 19) in blank. Overall, the
first participant got some exposure to read the same topic of reading texts which
contained words repetition.
The same improvement was achieved by the second participant that he could
heard only knew 5 words out of 20 questions then; in the post-test he could know 20
words out of 20 questions. Next, the second variant of question in the pre-test the
second participant could not supply any meanings of the words but, in the post-test he
could supply 15 meanings of the words out of 20 questions. In the third variant of the
question the second participant could write down 13 sentences out of 20 questions
words in reading texts encouraged him to find the meaning of the words by guessing
from the context or asked it to his friend. It helped both participants to answer the
questions in the post-test.
Overall, after giving the post-test to the participants the results of pre-test and
post-test will be discussed in the discussion that I wanted to review the participants’
results with the theories that have been mentioned before.
B.
Discussion
I want to recall my memory again about narrow reading. In narrow reading the
multiple exposures to learning new vocabulary words come up from the words which
come many times in several reading texts with the same topic or the same author.
Here, I gave both participants the same topic of texts which discussed Antasari
Azhar’s case that I selected from The Jakarta Post newspaper. The texts that I gave to
the participants contained many words which came up so many times in the text for
example the word verdict in the reading texts (i.e. 25 times; see Appendix C).
• Your comments on the verdict against former chairman of the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK).
• The Supreme Court recently upheld the district and high court verdict that
sentenced Antasari to 18 years in prison for the murder of Nasrudin
• The South Jakarta District Court issued a verdict on Monday retracting the
letter of order to stop the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
• The same as an earlier verdict given to one of the five hit men in the same
case.
• The court’s verdict on the high-profile murder case is arguably controversial.
Those are some sentences which contain the word verdict that I took from
several reading texts. Based on Andrew (2001), multiple exposures to a word
especially in different contexts helped the subjects to gather more and more
information about the word. Following Andrew, I hypothesize that the learners using
narrow reading might have undergone this following process when they were exposed
to the word verdict:
1. I never saw verdict before
2. I’ve heard about verdict, but I don’t know what verdict means
3. I recognize verdict in context – verdict has something to do with…
4. I know verdict
That is the process of how the participants might learn about new vocabulary
words trough multiple exposures and they learned it step by step like I had mentioned
it above.
The word verdict is an uncommon word for both participants because they did
participants’ background knowledge of Antasari Azhar’s case helped them to gain
information about the word verdict in the reading texts. It was because both
participants had known Antasari Azhar’s case before by listening to it from television
and it helped them to go deeper to get more information about this case.
To find out the effectiveness of using narrow reading in acquiring new
vocabulary words it is suggested to give pre-test and post-test to the participants
(Cho, Ahn, & Krashen, 2000). Before giving the reading materials to the participants,
first I gave pre-test to them to get the information whether they had heard the words
in the pre-test questions. As I have mentioned before both participants in pre-test
results could not answer most of the questions that they just knew few of the words in
the questions. To prove that narrow reading is effective I gave some treatments to
participants to read several reading texts that I took from The Jakarta Post newspaper
which was taken from Text Your Say (readers forum), Headline, and Editorial. When,
they read the texts I took control of them to know whether they still kept reading the
texts and we did it in the campus outside the class. Then, I let the participants to get
more time to understand whole texts in one more week.
After giving some treatment to the participants I gave them the post-test in the
end of the meeting. The test took 45 minutes to answer all of the questions. When I
saw the results, I felt very happy because both participants could do the post-test very
well. I got a satisfactory result that they were almost answered all the questions. They
sentences. It seems to support the hypothesis that narrow reading is effective to learn
new vocabulary words.
In the next chapter I will discuss the conclusion of this research and some
suggestions that will beneficial for the further research.
Chapter 5
Conclusion and Recommendations
This chapter presents an overview of the major findings and examines the
implication for language learning and teaching. The chapter also provides
recommendation for further research.
Conclusion
The main focus of this study is to investigate the benefits of using narrow
reading to learn English language vocabulary. The data were collected by using
vocabulary tests which were the instrument of this research. The results have shown
that narrow reading is an effective way in learning English language vocabulary.
Students improved after being exposed to narrow reading.
Based on the comparison between pre-test and post-test, the participants
significantly improved after they read ‘narrowly’. In narrow reading the participants
just read one genre, one subject matter, or the work from one author. It is hoped the
words repetition helps participants to remember the words and gain participants’
curiosity to find the meaning of the words. The performances of the research
participants from this study can be seen in the vocabulary test. Participants got
treatment. The overall performance of the participants showed positive results after
reading ‘narrowly’
Suggestion
Based on the comments and suggestions made by the participants and also the
data obtained through this study, few recommendations could be suggested for further
research. It is suggested that a researcher should decide the participants first, find the
reading topic which fits with the participants’ interests, it is important to gain the
learners’ interest to keep reading the texts. The choice of the participants should
consider some aspects; the participants should have to read several reading texts
because participants will be asked to read a lot of in the reading activity. Then, the
researcher can take more than two participants. It helps the researcher to get more
data to be compared in the pre-test and post-test. If the researcher can involve all of
the students in one class then the data can be more complex and the results can be
more varied. It can create more findings in the data collection because the further
researcher can gain more data to investigate the participants in acquiring new
vocabulary words and he/she can compare more data in analyzing the data. On the
other hand, the weakness of this research was the correctness of the sentences which
were written by the participants that the correctness of the sentences did not examine
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