AN INVESTIGATION OF APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING USED BY A TEACHER IN A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN BANDUNG.

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AN INVESTIGATION OF APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING USED BY A TEACHER IN A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN BANDUNG

A Thesis

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain Strata Two (S2) Degree

Written by: Gita Rahmi

1201297

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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AN INVESTIGATION OF APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING USED BY A TEACHER IN A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN BANDUNG

Oleh Gita Rahmi

M.Pd. UPI, 2014

Sebuah Tesis yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Magister Pendidikan (M.Pd.) pada Sekolah Pascasarjana (SPs)

Juli 2014

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

Tesis ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhya atau sebagian,

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An Investigation Of Approaches To Teaching Reading Used By A Teacher In A Junior High School In Bandung

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

ABSTRACT

This thesis reports teacher’s approaches to teaching reading to seventh-graders in a junior high school in Bandung, West Java. The study focuses on analyzing

approaches used by the teacher in teaching reading. The teacher’s problems in teaching reading, the students’ opinions on reading activities and the effect of the

activities to the students’ reading skills were also analyzed. This study has been

informed by theory of teaching reading, including bottom-up, top-down, interactive and new literacy approaches.

This study uses a qualitative descriptive design and adopts characteristics of a case study. The data are collected by using classroom observation for seven meetings where the researcher acts as non-participant observer, open-ended questionnaires which are delivered to the teacher and the students, interview with

the teacher and the students as well and document analysis from students’

progress test (also called ulangan harian). The teaching activities are analyzed and classified based on three teaching stages proposed by Wallace (1992).

The findings reveal that the teacher uses an eclectic approach in teaching reading. The data can be discovered through reading activities conducted by the teacher which show that she teaches reading by applying review, brainstorming, preview and pre-reading questions in her pre-reading stage; silent reading, reading aloud, questioning, showing some texts and discussing the linguistic choices or features, vocabulary study and translating in her while-reading stages; and follow-up activity and retelling activity in her post-reading stages. Further, the teacher’s

problems in teaching reading are students’ lack of participation, teacher’s lack of

theoretical knowledge of EFL teaching, vocabulary-oriented teaching and teacher-centered teaching. Moreover, the students have both positive and negative opinions on the activities. Some students find that the activities are interesting and challenging, while the other students think the activities are difficult and boring. Therefore, the activities affect the students’ reading skills positively and

negatively. The increase and decrease of students’ scores for some skills

presumably occur because texts, number of reading skills and number of questions tested in test 1 and test 2 are different.

Based on the findings, it is suggested that the teacher considers the roles of curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan in teaching reading. Then, teacher should

recognize the students’ needs and conditions so she can apply the right activities

in the appropriate context. Last, government should conduct training for the

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ABSTRAK

Tesis ini membahas tentang pendekatan yang digunakan guru dalam pengajaran reading untuk siswa kelas tujuh di sebuah sekolah menengah pertama di Bandung, Jawa Barat. Penelitian ini fokus pada analisis tentang pendekatan yang digunakan oleh guru dalam pengajaran reading. Permasalahan yang dihadapi guru dalam mengajar reading, pendapat siswa tentang kegiatan reading dan pengaruh kegiatan reading di kelas terhadap kemampuan siswa dalam membaca juga dianalisis. Penelitian ini didukung oleh teori pengajaran reading yang meliputi bottom-up, top-down, interactive dan new literacy approaches.

Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif dan kualitatif dan juga memiliki sifat-sifat seperti studi kasus. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi sebanyak tujuh kali pertemuan yang mana peneliti hanya berperan sebagai pengamat, melalui kuesioner terbuka yang diberikan kepada guru dan para siswa, melalui wawancara yang dilakukan terhadap guru dan para siswa dan melalui dokumen yang diambil dari ulangan harian siswa. Aktivitas pengajaran dianalisis dan diklasifikasikan berdasarkan teori tiga tahapan pembelajaran reading yang dikemukakan oleh Wallace (1992).

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa guru menggunakan pendekatan eklektik dalam pengajaran reading. Data bisa dilihat melalui kegiatan-kegiatan reading yang dilakukan guru yang menunjukkan bahwa dia mengajar reading dengan menerapkan review, brainstorming, preview dan pre-reading questions pada kegiatan pendahuluan; silent reading, reading aloud, questioning, showing some texts and discussing the linguistic choices or features, vocabulary study dan

translating dalam kegiatan inti; dan follow-up activity dan retelling activity dalam kegiatan akhir. Selanjutnya, guru memiliki beberapa kendala dalam pengajaran reading seperti kurangnya pengetahuan guru mengenai pengajaran EFL, pengajaran yang berorientasi pada keutamaan penguasaan kosakata dan pengajaran yang terpusat pada guru. Kemudian, para siswa memiliki pendapat yang beragam, baik yang positif maupun negatif, terhadap kegiatan-kegiatan tersebut. Beberapa siswa menganggap kegiatan tersebut menarik dan menantang, namun siswa yang lainnya berpendapat bahwa kegiatan tersebut sulit dan membosankan. Lalu, kegiatan-kegiatan tersebut juga memberikan pengaruh positif dan negatif terhadap kemampuan siswa dalam membaca. Peningkatan dan penurunan nilai para siswa untuk beberapa skill dalam reading diyakini terjadi karena teks, jumlah skill dan jumlah pertanyaan yang diujikan pada tes 1 dan tes 2 berbeda.

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An Investigation Of Approaches To Teaching Reading Used By A Teacher In A Junior High School In Bandung

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL PAGE ... i

DECLARATION PAGE ... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iii

ABSTRACT ... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... v

LIST OF TABLES ... viii

CHAPTER I...1

1.1 Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 Research Questions ... 3

1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 4

1.4 Scope of the Study ... 4

1.5 Significance of the Study ... 5

1.6 Key Terms ... 5

1.7 Organization of Writing ... 6

CHAPTER II ...7

2.1 The Nature of Reading ... 7

2.2 Approaches to Teaching Reading ... 9

2.2.1 Bottom-up Approaches ... 9

2.2.1.1 Nature of Bottom-up Approaches ... 9

2.2.1.2 Teaching Stages ... 12

2.2.1.3 Criticism of Bottom-up Approaches ... 14

2.2.2 Top-down Approaches ... 15

2.2.2.1 Nature of Top-down Approaches ... 15

2.2.2.3 Criticism of Top-down Approaches ... 20

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2.2.3.1 Nature of Interactive Approaches ... 21

2.2.3.3 Criticism of Interactive Approaches ... 26

2.2.4 New Literacy Approaches ... 26

2.2.4.1 Nature of New Literacy Approaches... 26

2.2.4.3 Criticism of New Literacy Approaches... 30

2.3 Eclectic Approach ... 31

2.4 Teacher’s Problems in Teaching Reading in EFL Context ... 32

2.5 Students’ Opinions on the Activities Applied by the Teacher in Teaching Reading ... 33

2.6 Reading Skills ... 35

2.7 Related Researches ... 37

CHAPTER III ...40

3.1 Research Design ... 40

3.2 Site and Participant ... 41

3.3 Techniques of Data Collection ... 41

3.3.1 Observation ... 41

3.3.2 Questionnaire ... 42

3.3.3 Interview ... 43

3.3.4 Document Analysis ... 43

3.4 Techniques of Data Analysis ... 44

CHAPTER IV ...45

4.1 Data from Observation ... 45

4.1.1 Teacher’s Approaches in Teaching Reading ... 45

4.1.1.1 Pre-reading Stage ... 46

4.1.1.2 While-reading Stage ... 52

4.1.1.3 Post-reading Stage ... 62

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4.2 Data from Questionnaire ... 67

4.2.2 Teacher’s Problems in Teaching Reading ... 77

4.2.3 Students’ Opinions on Reading Activities Applied by the Teacher ... 77

4.3 Data from Interview ... 91

4.3.2 Teacher’s Problems in Teaching Reading ... 99

4.3.3 Students’ Opinions on Reading Activities Applied by the Teacher ... 99

4.4 Data from Document Analysis ... 107

CHAPTER V ...112

5.1 Conclusions ... 112

5.2 Limitations of the Research ... 114

5.3 Suggestions ... 115

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...116

APPENDICES ...125

Appendix 1 Samples of Classroom Observation Fieldnotes ...125

Appendix 2 Questionnaire Data ...129

Appendix 2.1 Open-ended Questionnaire for Teacher ...129

Appendix 2.2 Data from Open-ended Questionnaire (Teacher) ...130

Appendix 2.3 Open-ended Questionnaire for Students ...133

Appendix 2.4 Samples of Open-ended Questionnaire Data from Students ...136

Appendix 3 Interview Data ...140

Appendix 3.1 Interview Guide for Teacher ...140

Appendix 3.2 Interview Data (Teacher) ...141

Appendix 3.3 Interview Guide for Students ...144

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Appendix 4 Document Analysis ...148

Appendix 4.1 Questions of Test 1 ...148

Appendix 4.2 Questions of Test 2 ...150

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Data from Students’ Reading Test 1 ... 108

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This study attempts to investigate approaches used by a teacher in teaching

reading in a junior high school in Bandung. This chapter covers background of the

study, research questions, purpose of the study, scope of the study, significance of

the study, key term, and organization of writing.

1.1Background of the Study

Reading is an important skill that language learners should master. It is

necessary to develop learners’ ability in understanding information from different

sources, cultures, and countries. It helps them extend their knowledge of world

and particular subjects. As stated by Nuttall (1996: 3), people read because they

want to get meaning from text they read. Further, Nunan (1999: 251) and Nation

(2009: 49) also inform that people read because they want to get information, get

instruction on how to do something, act in play, communicate with friends, know

the condition and location of particular thing, know what is happening or has

happened, and for getting enjoyment or excitement. So, it can be said that reading

brings many advantages to the students.

Reading is defined as a fluent process that involves the reader and the

reading material in building meaning (Anderson, 1999: 1). It is also said as the

ability to understand information in the text and interpret it appropriately (Grabe

& Stoller, 2002: 9). Hence, the students need to have ability to comprehend the

text so they can build the meaning, understand the message that the writer

conveys through the text and answer the questions related to the text.

Furthermore, reading is also a part of language skills that is taught in EFL

teaching in the school (Depdiknas, 2006; Kemendikbud, 2013). In the regulation

of 2013 National Curriculum of Indonesia, teaching reading in the junior high

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texts. The students learn some skills and strategies to comprehend the text like

scanning, skimming, previewing and predicting, finding main ideas and details

and identifying text structures and genres. Additionally, as informed by Susanti

(2009), reading takes the biggest part in national examination in Indonesia which

is up to 70 percents of the questions related to reading comprehension.

In Indonesia, English has been taught since the early ages. As reported by

Sunggiwati and Nguyen (2013: 80), it is a compulsory subject for three years in

grades 7-9 and three years in grade 10-12. Since students have learned English for

many years in the school, it is presumed that they would already have good

reading ability. However, Nur (2004, in Sunggiwati and Nguyen, 2013: 81) found

that most of the students can hardly understand English effectively. This fact is

supported by Nunan (1999: 249-250) that states the students still do not have good

reading ability although the more time has been spent to teaching reading. This

condition might occur because reading in a foreign language is more challenging

as the students do not speak English and have the classroom only as the place to

learn English. Based on the researcher’s previous research in a college, it was also

found that reading was a skill that is hard to do for the students. There were some

problems that students faced in reading like lack of skills and lack of vocabulary

(Rahmi, 2012).

Moreover, teachers have a significant role in order to make students have

good reading skills and abilities like applying teaching approaches that are

suitable for students’ needs and conditions and conducting appropriate activities in the teaching process. This means that producing a good language learner who

has good reading ability is a challenge for the EFL teachers. They must

understand the activities to use in teaching process. As indicated by Wallace

(1992), the teachers can help students in reading by applying some activities such

as brainstorming, previewing and questioning. Therefore, Wallace (1992), Brown

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the classroom; pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading. Teacher can apply

various activities in each stage. In addition, Hudson (2007) classifies the teaching

activities under some approaches like bottom-up approaches, top-down

approaches, interactive approaches and new literacy approaches which cover

whole language approaches, phonics approaches, behaviorist approaches,

cognitive approaches and psycholinguistics approaches.

Since English is widely used now and reading is one of the important

skills that should be mastered, teacher is expected to teach reading by applying

theories proposed by experts. Conversely, based on observation and interview to

some teachers, it was found that some teachers still applied the traditional

approach to teaching reading. They still focused on developing the students’

vocabulary and preparing the students to face examination. This fact reflects the

teachers’ view in teaching reading. As stated by Vacca, et al., (2006: 35), the way teachers teach in the classroom reflects their belief or view on teaching reading.

This means that teachers’ view on teaching reading is very important to find out.

Therefore, based on the explanation above, it can be said that reading is an

important skill that the students need to master. The students need to have good

reading skills in order to have good reading ability and the teachers have

significant role to make the students achieve that ability. The teachers might apply

various teaching activities in teaching reading as her application of approaches

that she believed in. For these reasons, this research investigated approaches used

by the teacher in teaching reading in a junior high school in Bandung that were

reflected in the application of reading activities from some approaches;

bottom-up, top-down, interactive and new literacy approaches. Further, the teacher’s

problems and the students’ opinions on the activities were also analyzed and the effects of the activities to the students’ reading skills were also investigated

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu 1.2Research Questions

This research was conducted to answer the questions below:

1. What approaches were used by the teacher in teaching reading?

2. What were the teacher’s problems in teaching reading?

3. What were the students’ opinions on reading activities applied by the

teacher?

4. How did reading activities applied by the teacher affect students’ reading

skills?

1.3Purpose of the Study

This research was set to find out:

1. The approaches used by the teacher in teaching reading.

2. The teacher’s problems in teaching reading.

3. The students’ opinions on reading activities applied by the teacher.

4. The effect of reading activities applied by the teacher to students’ reading

skills.

1.4Scope of the Study

The focus of the study was on analyzing the teacher’s approaches and

problems in teaching reading in junior high school, the students’ opinions on

reading activities applied by the teacher and the influence of the activities to the

students’ reading skills. Reading activities conducted by the teacher were observed in order to know what approaches that she applied in the teaching

process. The approaches were seen through the application of reading activities

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Anderson (1999), Nunan (1999), Brown (2001), Grabe & Stoller (2002), NCLRC

(2003) and Hudson (2007). The students’ opinions were also investigated in order

to find how the students viewed reading activities applied by the teacher.

Therefore, the influence of the activities to the students’ reading skills was viewed

by analyzing the students’ progress tests called “Ujian Harian” qualitatively.

Since the role of researcher was as a non-participant observer, the students’

reading skills analyzed were genuinely based on tests provided by the teacher. The

setting was a junior high school in Bandung. The subjects were one EFL teacher

and a group of students from her class.

1.5Significance of the Study

Theoretically, it is very important to find out the teacher’s approaches and

problems in teaching process, the students’ opinions on reading activities and the

influence of the activities to the students’ reading skills. By investigating those problems, this research is expected to show and socialize the better ways and

activities applied by the teacher in teaching reading. This research can also be

reference for further research about the same research problem. Professionally,

this research is expected to give contribution to teaching reading in school level

and university level as well. Hopefully, the result of this research will show the

activities commonly used and the problems frequently faced by the teacher in

teaching reading. Practically, besides giving contribution to the researcher, the

students, and the teacher, the result of this research is assumed to contribute to the

improvement of teaching reading in the school because it revealed the approaches

that the teacher mostly used and the problems that she often faced.

1.6Key Terms

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1. Reading: a source of knowledge and enjoyment which needs complex

process and interactive process between the writer and readers in order to get

comprehension of the text.

2. Approach: a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning

and teaching (Anthony as cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Brown, 2001)

3. Teaching activities: the activities used by teachers in teaching.

4. Opinions: evaluative belief and view that involve a person’s judgment about

the likelihood of events or relationships regarding some object and involve

evaluations of an event or object on specific dimensions.

1.7Organization of Writing

The background of the problems has been already explained. The next

chapter discusses literature related to reading, approaches to teaching reading,

problems in teaching reading, opinions and reading skills. The third chapter is

about research methodology that elaborates research design, the participant and

setting of the research, research instrumentation, and data collection and analysis.

The fourth chapter talks about findings and discussions of the research. Finally,

the last chapter or chapter five is about the conclusions of the research and the

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research methodology that was used in the

study. It covers research design, site and participant, techniques of data collection

and techniques of data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

This research used qualitative descriptive design because of several

reasons. First, it described and investigated teacher’s approaches to teaching

reading and the problems they experienced in the teaching process and the

students’ opinions on the activities applied by the teacher. It is in line with

McMillan& Schumacher (2006) that say descriptive designs are used to

summarize the current and the past status of phenomena and Gay (2009) that

states descriptive research involves collecting data in order to test hypothesis or to

answer questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study. So, the

phenomena that were described here were the teacher’s approaches and problems

in teaching reading, the students’ opinions about reading activities and the effects

of the activities to the students’ reading skills.

Then, since this kind of study determines and reports the way things are,

this study explained and explored the approaches used by the teachers in teaching

reading to the students. The problems were perceived through the observation and

the participants’ view. As argued by Cresswell (1998: 15), McMillan &

Schumacher (2001), Holliday (2002), Gray (2004: 320) and Snape & Spencer

(2003), a qualitative research is an investigation process of comprehension based

on discrete methodological traditions of inquiry that examine people’s problem,

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students’ opinions on teaching reading activities were also analyzed qualitatively

because the data were collected by using open–ended questions.

3.2 Site and Participant

This research was conducted in a school in Bandung. This school was

selected as the setting because it was established as the model school under the

policy of a university. Therefore, it was chosen as the setting of the research

because it was also accessible. The participants were one EFL teacher that taught

in grade seven and a group of students from her class. It was presumed that the

students also had the same ability level. The students chosen as participant were

about 25 students. The participants were selected by using purposeful sampling.

As stated by Maxwell (1996: 70) and Alwasilah (2011: 103), the participants

chosen are the ones who can give the important and appropriate information that

the other people cannot provide.

3.3 Techniques of Data Collection

In collecting the data in qualitative research, as stated by Maxwell (1996:

76), Alwasilah (2011: 105-106) and Silverman (2012: 212), it is better to use

triangulation strategy because the data will be valid and reliable. Triangulation

strategy in collecting data is a strategy that combines more than one method of

collecting data for research. Using only a single method in gaining the data cannot

provide enough data and description of the phenomena happen in doing

qualitative research. Therefore, in this study, the data were collected through:

3.3.1 Observation

Observation was done to get data about the teacher’s approaches and

problems in teaching reading. So, the approaches that teacher used were reflected

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conducted because it could help researcher record information as it occurred in a

setting and observed actual behavior of the teacher in teaching reading and the

students in responding and learning. What teachers did to teach reading was the

reflection of their knowledge and belief in teaching reading. So, observation is

one way to define teachers in teaching reading because it can inform what they do

and why they do it (Vacca, et al., 2006: 35). Observation is the process of

collecting open-ended, firsthand data through observing people and places at a

research site (Creswell, 2009: 181; Creswell, 2012: 213). In this study, the

researcher had role as a nonparticipant observer because she only visited the site

and recorded the data without involving or participating in the activities

(McMillan & Schumacher, 2001; Creswell, 2012: 213; Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun,

2012: 446).

The observation was done for seven meetings and it was adjusted to the

teacher’s schedule in teaching reading in the class. The observation was

conducted in the first half semester. The data were gathered by using video tape

and an observational protocol. As stated by Creswell (2012: 216), an

observational protocol is a form made to note information during an observation.

The information noted or field notes can be chronology of events, a detailed

portrait of individuals, and situation in the setting. By conducting the observation,

teacher’s approaches and problems in teaching reading were unveiled.

3.3.2 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was used to find teacher’s approaches and problems in

teaching reading and the students’ opinions on reading activities applied by the

teacher. As stated by Wallace (2001: 124), Gray (2004: 187), Cohen et al., (2007:

317) and Dornyei & Taguchi (2010: 3), questionnaire is a written instrument with

series of questions that is used to gather information about participants’

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because this research aimed to explore the teacher’s reasons to employ the

activities in teaching reading and the students’ opinions on the activities used by

the teacher.Further, teacher’s teaching approaches could be reflected through her

answer of questionnaire. Additionally, the students’ opinions were categorized to

be positive and negative opinions later.

3.3.3 Interview

Interview was done to get more information as clearly as possible about

the teacher’s approaches and problems in teaching reading and the students’

opinions on their teacher’s teaching activities. It can enable the participants to

discuss and share phenomena from their point of view (Cohen, 2007: 349).

Interview is a purposeful interaction in which a person gets information from

other people (Gay, 2009:36). It can also be said as the interaction that occurs

between interviewer and interviewee (Gillham, 2000: 1; Kvale 2007 in

Liamputtong, 2009: 43). This research used semi structured interview where

researcher only used the important points or general ideas as the guide to

interview the interviewee (Nunan, 1992: 149; Emilia, 2011). This kind of

interview combines a certain degree of control with a certain degree of freedom to

develop the interview (Wallace, 2001: 147). Semi structured was chosen because

the purpose of the research was to find the approaches used by the teacher in

teaching reading and the problems she encountered during the process.

Before doing the interview, several questions were discussed with advisors

so that the questions chosen were really appropriate with the topic. During

interview, the researcher asked the teacher to explain her view about teaching

reading, her reasons for applying certain teaching activities and the problems she

faced during teaching process. The questions were developed during the

interview. The interview was recorded by using recorder and also noted in written

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu 3.3.4 Document Analysis

Document analysis was used to find the students’ reading skills after being

taught by the teachers by using particular activities from some approaches.

Document analysis is a technique to collect data by investigating the contents that

are relevant to the research (Connole, Smith and Wiseman, 1993; Emilia, 2011).

The documents used were the students’ answer sheets. Since the role of researcher

was as non-participant observer, the reading skills analyzed were just the ones that

the teacher tested to the students. Consequently, the explanation in this research

was limited to be about some certain skills only.

3.4 Techniques of Data Analysis

The data were analyzed during and after data collection to avoid delay and

decrease memories. This is in line with the principles of data analysis that are

proposed by Krueger (1998) in Murni (2011) about data analysis to avoid

‘jeopardized by delay’. The data were analyzed based on the instruments (Cohen,

2007: 468) because it makes the analysis become more comprehensive (Emilia,

2012: 204). Then, the data were connected to the theories about teaching

approaches and teaching activities from some experts. The data from

observational protocol, field notes, questionnaires, interview transcripts and

document analysis were analyzed qualitatively and given overview as initial step

in qualitative analysis.

Furthermore, the data were analyzed by conducting three steps (Maxwell,

1996: 78-79). First, the researcher wrote important thing in memo during

analyzing the data. It was very useful since the researcher could write down and

analyze the important things. After that, the researcher did categorizing or coding.

The purpose of coding in qualitative research is to compare the data within and

between the categories and to help in developing the theoretical concepts of the

data. Then, it can help to sort the data into broader themes and issues. The last one

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Then, the data were described and teachers’ approaches and problems in teaching

reading and students’ opinions were revealed.

Moreover, descriptive statistics was also used in analysis the data from

document analysis to see the percentage of the students’ score in each skill. The

formula suggested by Sudjana (1991) was used.

P=

Where: P= percentage F= Frequency

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter contains three parts. The first part is about the conclusions of

the research, the second part is about the limitations of the research and the last

part is about the suggestions for teachers who are concerned with teaching

English, especially teaching reading and the future researchers that will discuss

the same topic.

5.1 Conclusions

This research was conducted to find out the teacher’s approaches and problems in teaching reading, students’ opinions on the activities conducted by the teacher and the effect of the activities to the students’ reading skills. This study was conducted in one junior high school in Bandung and the participants

were an English teacher and a group of students of one class that she taught.

Based on the findings, there are some conclusions that can be drawn from this

research. With regard to research questions, the data are concluded as follow.

First, the data reveal that the teacher tended to use eclectic approach to

teaching reading in that she conducted the activities adopted from bottom-up,

top-down, interactive and new literacy approaches in her teaching process. Based on

the observation, teacher applied review, brainstorming, preview and pre-reading

questions in her pre-reading stages; applied silent reading, reading aloud,

questioning, showing some text and discussing the linguistic choices or features,

vocabulary study and translating in her whilst-reading stages; and applied

follow-up activity and retelling activity in her post-reading stages. These activities are in

line with the approaches mentioned above.

Therefore, the teacher admitted that her goal to teach reading was to

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that she believed that the students must master vocabulary before they could be

able to get comprehension of text that they will read. For this belief, she

conducted some activities above in teaching reading and tried to emphasize the

importance of mastering vocabulary to the students.

Further, there were some problems that the teacher faced in teaching reading. First of all was the students’ lack of participation during reading activity. Based on the data from observation, it was clear that not all students participated

during reading activity in the class. There was also a tendency that male students

were more active than female students. The teacher also admitted this case was a

problem in her class.

Then, the teacher seemed to have problem in EFL knowledge. She refused

to show her lesson plan to the researcher. Then, her teaching process was also

teacher-controlled teaching. Consequently, she talked much more than the

students. This might happen because the students did not actively participate in

the class so the teacher might think to explain much more. Further, she employed

many activities during teaching reading in a meeting and did not focus on certain

activities that can be used to develop students’ ability. For example, teacher used

brainstorming, silent reading, pre-reading questions, vocabulary study,

questioning, translating and retelling activity in a meeting (Observation 1,

February 18, 2014).

Moreover, the teacher also highly emphasized the importance of

vocabulary during the class so it seemed that her teaching process was

vocabulary-oriented. She included vocabulary activity in some activities that she

used in teaching reading. For example, she included vocabulary study in

questioning activity, reading aloud, translating, showing some texts and retelling

activity. She also asked the students to find certain verbs and translate them into

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problem in this study. Since the teacher mainly talked in English, the students

admitted that it was hard for them to understand the lesson when the teacher used

full English in the class.

Therefore, based on the data from questionnaire and interview, the

students actually had positive opinions on reading activities applied by the teacher

in teaching reading. They admitted that they understood when the teacher taught

them by using some activities that involved media (picture and PowerPoint) and

the students themselves. The students admitted that some activities were

interesting, fun and challenging. However, there were also some students that had

negative opinions on the activities. They felt embarrassed when the teacher

corrected their mistakes directly in front of their friends. They also had negative

opinions because the teacher often used full English during teaching and it made

them feel confused of the lesson. These opinions imply that the activities were

actually good and interesting for teaching reading but the teacher needed to adjust the activities to the students’ condition and needs.

5.2 Limitations of the Research

There are some limitations of this study. First, this study only observed

one teacher so there were no other teachers that can be used as the comparison.

Second, there was no lesson plan or syllabus from the teacher that can be used to

help analyze data because she rejected to show these documents to the researcher.

Third, since the role of the researcher was as a non-participant observer, the

researcher was not involved in preparing the material and test. As a result,

documents for analyzing the influences of teaching reading activities to students’

reading skills were purely taken from the tests conducted by the teacher. It means

that reading skills analyzed were only the ones tested in the examination.

Nevertheless, the researcher used triangulation strategy in collecting the

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observation, questionnaire, interview and document analysis. The data were

recorded by using video tape and observational protocol. Data from questionnaire

were checked and validated by conducting interview.

5.3 Suggestions

Regarding the results of the research, the teacher should consider the roles

of curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan in teaching reading. These will help the teacher prepare and teach well in the class and improve the students’ ability in reading.

Further, since the activities applied in teaching process have big influences

on students’ reading ability, it is highly recommended that the teacher can apply

the appropriate activities in teaching reading and adjust it to the students’ needs

and condition. This means that she should consider the students’ ability and needs

before applying certain activities. She should also understand the theoretical

knowledge of teaching like knowledge about teaching approaches, strategies and

techniques. Additionally, teacher also needs to review and improve her

application of the activities so the students will actively participate in the learning

process. Then, the teacher should not always teach in English but sometimes she should use students’ first language because not all students understand English.

Moreover, the teacher is suggested to be able to compose well-designed

materials and exercise that can lead the students to become critical readers. Then,

in order to make teaching process runs successfully, she should prepare the

material and media before teaching and make sure whether the material is

available and safe and the teaching media works properly.

Furthermore, since the teacher has known many activities to teach reading,

it is very recommended that she gets training for English teacher. It is expected

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in a suitable situation. Therefore, the training can also increase the teacher’s ability and can improve her teaching later.

Lastly, for other researchers who want to conduct the same study, it is

suggested that they conduct the study in deeper and more comprehensive ways so

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