THE USE OF STORY GRAMMAR IN TEACHING READING NARRATIVE TEXT.

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THE USE OF STORY GRAMMAR

IN TEACHING READING NARRATIVE TEXT (A Case Study at One Junior High School in Kuningan)

A Thesis

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master Degree in English Education

By

Ika Sartika

1102521

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

SCHOOL OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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COPYRIGHT

THE USE OF STORY GRAMMAR

IN TEACHING READING NARRATIVE TEXT (A case Study at One of Junior High School in Kuningan)

oleh:

Ika Sartika S.Pd IKIP Bandung, 1994

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

Indonesia Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

Agustus 2014

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

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Ika Sartika,2014

The use of story grammar in teaching reading narative text Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu

ABSTRACT

This study is concerned with the implementation of story grammar as proposed by Florida Center for Reading Research (2007) and Gardill &Jitendra (1999).The participants of the study were 30 ninth grade students of one junior high school in kuningan. It aims to answer the following research questions: 1) How can story grammar develop students’ reading comprehension of narrative text? 2) What are

the students’ responses towards the use of story grammar in improving their

reading comprehension of narrative text? This study employed a qualitative case study research method. The data were gathered from three resources: a) classroom observation in which the researcher acted teacher in implementing story grammar. These data gained to provide information about the process of implementing story grammar in teaching reading comprehension of narrative text, b) questionnaire

and c) interview to provide information about the process and the students’

responses towards the use of story grammar strategy in teaching reading narrative text. The results of the study show that: 1) the teacher in general was successful in applying the story grammar based on the procedure of teaching instruction suggested by Florida Center for Reading Research (2007) and Gardill & Jitendra

(1999). It can be seen from the development of the students’ comprehension of

narrative text in terms of identifying parts of story, reading comprehension test

and retelling the story, 2) the students’ responses towards the application of story

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

COPYRIGHT………..i

APPROVAL SHEET………..ii

DECLARATION ... iii

PREFACE………...iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... v

ABSTRACT ... vi

TABLE OF CONTENT ... vii

LIST OF TABLES ... x

LIST OF APPENDICES ... xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1Introduction ... 1

1.2Background of the Study ... 1

1.3Research Question ... 3

1.4Purpose of the Study ... 3

1.5Significance of the Study ... 4

1.6Operational Definition of Important Terms ... 4

1.7Organization of Thesis ... 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 2.1 Introduction ... 6

2.2 Reading Comprehension ... 6

2.2.1 Definition of Reading and Reading Comprehension ... 6

2.2.2 Strategies for Reading Comprehension ... 11

2.2.3 Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension ... 14

2.3 Story Grammar ... 16

2.3.1 Definition of Story Grammar ... 17

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2.3.3 Assessment of Story Grammar ... 24

2.4 Narrative Text ... 26

2.4.1 The Characteristics of Narrative Text ... 27

2.4.1.1 Social Function of Narrative Text ... 27

2.4.1.2 Schematic Structure of Narrative Text ... 28

2.4.1.3 Language Feature of Narrative Text ... 30

2.5 Previous Study of Story Grammar ... 33

2.6 Conclusion of the Chapter... 35

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Introduction ... 36

3.2 Research site and Participants ... 36

3.3 Research Design ... 37

3.4 Data Collection... 38

3.4.1 Classroom Observation... 38

3.4.2 Questionnaire ... 39

3.4.3 Interview... 40

3.5 Data Analysis ... 41

3.5.1 Classroom Observation ... 42

3.5.2 Questionnaire ... 43

3.5.3 Interview... 43

3.6 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 44

CHAPTER IV: TEACHING PROGRAM 4.1 Introduction ... 45

4.2 Phases of Study ... 45

4.3 Preliminary Phase... 46

4.3.1 Inducting Teaching Program ... 46

4.3.2 Searching for Reading Material ... 48

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4.4 Teaching Program ... 52

4.4.1 Pre- Reading ... 53

4.4.2 While- Reading ... 54

4.4.3 Post- Reading ... 61

4.5 Post Teaching Phase ... 65

4.6 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 66

CHAPTER V: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION OF DATA FROM QUESTIONNAIRE AND INTERVIEW 5.1 Introduction ... 68

5.2 Data from Questionnaire ... 68

5.2.1 Students’ Responses toward Comprehension of Narrative Text .... 69

5.2.2 Students’ Responses toward Retelling the Story ... 73

5.2.3 Students’ Responses toward the Use of Story Grammar ... 73

5.2.4 Summary of Discussion of Data from Questionnaire ... 74

5.3 Data from Interview ... 76

5.3.1 Students’ Responses toward Comprehension of Narrative Text .... 76

5.3.2 Students’ Responses toward Retelling the Story ... 78

5.3.3 Students’ Response toward the Use of Story Grammar ... 80

5.3.4 Summary of Discussion of Data from Interview ... 81

5.4 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 82

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 Introduction ... 83

6.2 Conclusion ... 83

6.3 Limitation of Study ... 84

6.4 Recommendation... 85

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APPENDICES ... 99

LIST OF TABLES AND CHART Table 2.1The characteristics of narrative texts ... 31

Table 4.1The phases of teaching program ... 46

Table 4.2 Narrative texts in teaching program ... 50

Table 4.3 The result of students’ identifying of story parts ... 58

Chart 4.1 The average score of reading comprehension test ... 63

Table 4.4 Summary of the teaching program ... 66

Table 5.1 Students’ responses toward comprehension of narrative texts ... 69

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Lesson plan ... 100

Appendix 2: Schedule for Teaching program ... 103

Appendix 3: Story maps ... 107

Appendix 4: Findings from data questionnaire ... 116

Appendix 5: Question list for students interview ... 120

Appendix 6: Interview transcription ... 121

Appendix 7: Reading assessment during teaching learning ... 134

Appendix 8: Reading comprehension test... 135

Appendix 9: The result of reading comprehension test ... 147

Appendix 10: Reading materials (narrative texts) ... 148

Appendix 11: Comprehension spontaneous and cued retelling .. 153

Appendix 12: Assessment criteria of comprehension spontaneous and Cued retelling ... 154

Appendix 13: List of cued questions ... 155

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1Introduction

This section discusses some aspects including background of the study,

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

definition of important terms, and thesis organization.

1.2 Background of the study

Reading is very important not only for the students but also for

teachers. Reading is believed as a required activity in learning most of all

subjects since reading has been proved in increasing students’ knowledge.

Reading has functions as a means to access information in the global era. It

means that reading is a process of combining information from a text and

reader’s background knowledge to building meaning (Nunan, 2003).

Reading serves the wider role of extending our general knowledge of the

world (Wallace, 1992 p. 7), and also it can use to access written worlds of

ideas (Hood et al. 1996 p.33). Reading is not only for getting information

but also facilities us for language learning. Reading can improve other

general language skills and help to think in the target language, enlarge

English vocabulary, improve writing skill and a good way to find out about

new ideas, facts and experiences (Mikulecky and Jeffries, 1996 p. 1).

Concerning the importance of reading, students of junior high school

are expected to have reading skills. Students are demanded to understand the

content of various types of texts i.e. procedure, descriptive, recount,

narrative and report (English curriculum, 2003). This study concerned how

the students could gain the meaning from narrative text. The researcher

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research site, it was found that most students have difficulties in

understanding and recalling details of narrative text. They have difficulties

when asked to retell the events or response to the questions about the story

to demonstrate their comprehension.

The phenomenon above describes that the strategy of teaching

reading mostly doesn’t provide opportunities for students to be aware of the

thinking process and it doesn’t motivate them to be interested in reading.

There are many factors influencing the failure of teaching reading in class

room. One of them is the lack of the teacher’s understanding of teaching

reading comprehension strategies. Furthermore, Pressley (2000) states that

teacher’s effective strategies will engage students and encourage them to

become active participants in reading process.

Therefore, in order to achieve the objective of teaching reading of

narrative text, the teachers need to use an appropriate approach. For this

reason, story grammar is used as one strategy in teaching reading

comprehension of narrative text. Story grammars are “an attempt to

construct a set of rules that can generate a structure for any story” (Rayner

& Pollatsek, 1989. p.307).

Based on the previous studies it was found that teaching students

about story grammars and how stories are structured will help them to

comprehend better of narrative text, story grammar moves the teacher away

from general explanations of story structure to the more specific story

structure (e.g., that stories have characters, a theme, and a plot (Dymock,

2007 p. 162). Using story map in teaching story grammar can improve

students’ comprehension of narrative text (Baumann and Bergeron, 1993;

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asking questions that focus on story line leads to improve student’s

comprehension of the story (Beck, 1984 cited in Amer, 1992. p. 713). The

research conducted by Stetter and Hughes (2010) continued to study about

story grammar that there is a need and important for educators to teach story

grammar in the classroom along with other comprehension strategies, to

improve reading comprehension of students with and without learning

disabilities.

It is noteworthy that the previous research on story grammar has

been conducted in English as a first language context in grade 3 to 5

students of primary school (Boulineau, et al., 2004). Research on story

grammar conducted in EFL context has not been elaborated. Therefore, this

study attempts to identify how story grammar can improve students’ reading

comprehension of narrative text in ninth grade students at one junior high

school by using case study to provide a detailed description of teaching and

learning process. The study also to identify students’ response toward the

use of story grammar.

1.3 Research Questions

This study addresses to answer the following research questions:

1. How can the use of story grammar develop students’ reading

comprehension of narrative texts?

2. What are the students’ responses towards the use of story grammar

in teaching reading narrative texts?

1.4 Purpose of the Study

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1. To investigate whether the use of story grammar can develop students’

comprehension in reading narrative texts.

2. To find out the students’ responses toward the use of story grammar in

teaching reading narrative texts.

1.5 Significance of the study

There are some contributions that the study can offer for researchers,

practitioners and policy makers (Creswell, 2003 p. 149). At least, the result

of this study is significant for three perspectives:

(1) Theoretically, this study is expected to enrich the existing theories and

literature on the practice of teaching story grammar.

(2) Practically, this study can provide information for the teachers on the use

of story grammar in teaching reading comprehension, especially teaching

reading narrative text for junior high school students.

(3) Professionally, this study may support the teachers in the research site to

apply story grammar in their teaching reading in the classroom, and

provide policy maker to promote this kind of reading instruction to apply

in the schools of the regency.

1.7 Operational Definition of Important terms

In reporting the study, several terms are required to be clearly defined in

order to avoid misunderstanding. The definitions of the terms in this study

are as follows:

1. Story Grammar is defined as the system of rules used for describing the

consistent features found in narrative text. These rules describe the story parts,

arrangement of the parts, and how the parts are related, i.e. the internal structure

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2. Reading Comprehension is defined as “a process of simultaneously extracting

and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written

language” (Snow, 2002 p.11)

3. Narrative is defined a text type which functions to provide entertainment by

posing a problem that need to be resolved. In process of entertaining, they might

pass on cultural tradition and values or they might provide insights into the

human condition. ( Derewianka & Jones, 2012 p. 63)

1.8 Organization of Thesis

This paper consists of six chapters. Chapter one presents general

description of the introduction to the topic of the study. Chapter two

elaborates the theories to support the study. Chapter three outlines the

methodology of the study, including: research site and participants, data

collection technique and data analysis. Chapter four presents the teaching

program. Chapter five presents findings and discussion of data from

questionnaire and interview. The last chapter presents the conclusions,

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the methods used in this study. It begins with

research site and the participants.This resents the design of the study. Then

it elaborates the way of collecting data and the methods of data analysis.

The design of the present study in this chapter was used to answer

the research questions; 1) can the use of story grammar develop students’ reading comprehension of narrative text? 2) what are the students’

responses toward the use of story grammar in teaching reading narrative

texts?

3.2 Research Site and Participants

This research was conducted at one Junior High School in Kuningan.

There are some reasons why this school was chosen. First, this study wanted

to help this school to promoting the quality of English Education. Second,

this study attempts to give contribution to this school in improving the

students’ English competence through reading ability by implementing story

grammar strategy. Third the researcher has been familiar with the students,

the situation and the condition of the school since the researcher is one of

the English teachers of the school. This research was conducted in class nine

A. The researcher thought in this class regularly. Therefore, from the

perspective of classroom observation in EFL, it would have been much

better if the research had taken place in an ongoing and regular calss, this

can lead to “a natural and undisturbed lesson” (van Lier, 1988 cited in

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The participants of this study were 30 students of ninth grade of the

school above. All participants were between 14-15 years of age. The

researcher applies purposeful sampling in the study. As what Maxwell

(1996) states that in qualitative research, purposeful sampling is suggested

as it is a strategy in which particular settings, person, or events are selected

deliberately in order to provide important information that cannot be gained

as well from other choices.

3.3 Research Design

In line with the objective of the study, to find out the effectiveness of

story grammar in improving students’ comprehension in reading narrative text, this study uses a qualitative research design in the form of case study as

the consideration that the researcher focused on the observing, interpreting,

and understanding of the phenomenon of using story grammar in reading

comprehension of narrative text. This is done to gain an in-depth

understanding of the situation and meaning for those involved (Merriam,

1998). The reason why this study uses a case study is that according to

Anderson (2005) education is a process and it requires a research method

which is process oriented, flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances

and a dynamic context, so given these boundaries, case study method is

appropriate.As what Merriam (1998 p. 16) states that a case study is an

intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance,

phenomenon, or social unit. This means that, a case study provides a

systematic way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information,

and reporting the results and the result may gain a sharpened understanding

of why the instance happened (Flyvbjerg, 2006). In line with educational

research, a case study was carried out in a small single case that focused on

educational experience or practice where the researcher acted as teacher

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Relevant to the statements above, the researcher applied a qualitative

case study method because this study investigated a process of teaching

reading narrative text using story grammar. In this case, the researcher

performed the teaching program and tried to find out how the teaching

stages in the implementation of story grammar help students in

comprehending narrative text.

3.4 Data Collection

Three data collections were employed in this study. These were

observation, questionnaire and interview. The data collections were

conducted from August 2013 to September 2013. Each method of data

collection will be discussed below.

3.4.1 Classroom Observation

The researcher used classroom observation to obtain data on what

the activities done by the researcher and the participants. Marshal (1995)

proposes that observation stage is particularly true for getting at tacit

understanding and theory in use, and participants’ perspective that they are

reluctant to state directly in interview or through questionnaire. Regarding

this, in order to gain more detailed and accurate data the researcher applied

an active participant observation.

The researcher acted as the teacher and to construct validity for this

observation, the researcher invited one of her colleague to get involved in

this study as an observer to record all activities during the process to

contribute “to reducing the researcher’s perceptual biases” (Shimahara, 1988 p.87; van Lier, 1988 p.13 cited in Emilia, 2005, p.115). The

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Silverman, 2005) and audio-recorded which were running descriptions of

the participants and the researcher and their activities. The researcher

observed the classroom activities during the program in four hours per week

for seven weeks.

Recording process employed in this study was consists of audio

recording. This tool recorded what the teacher and the students said in their

interaction during the teaching and learning process. This aimed to obtain

data the way teacher explained the activities which the students would

perform, the way the students gave responses and the way the students did

story retelling.

This study also used field note to capture the setting and the observer

commentaries. The comments were about the factual description of what

was going on, the setting, the participants and the activities done by the

teacher and the students (Merriam, 1998 p. 106). In line with this van Lier

(1998, cited in Emilia, 2008) says that observation notes focused on what

was said and done by both the researcher and students in the interactional

setting.

3.4.2 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was delivered to the students after the whole teaching

process had been conducted. The type of questions designed in the

questionnaire is the mixture of close and open ended types (Nunan, 1992 p.

143). It aimed to facilitate the participants to respond to the questions more

easily and accurately, so that they reflect what the participants want to say

(Nunan, 1992). A questionnaire is relevant to this study to find out the

students’ responses on whether or not story grammar provides students to

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The questionnaire was written in Indonesian to avoid

misunderstanding. There are twelve questions (See appendix 4), question

number one asked the students’ opinion about their comprehension before

the use of story grammar strategy, questions number two to number nine

asked the students’ opinion of their comprehension of narrative text related

to the elements of the story after the use of story grammar strategy in

reading instructions of narrative text, and questions number ten asked the

students related to their opinion about retelling story, questions number

eleven to number twelve asked the students’ opinion towards the

implementation of story grammar in their classroom.

3.4.3 Interview

Interview in this study was conducted as one of instruments to

collect the data. Susan Steinback (1998 as cited in Sugiono, 2006) says that

interviewing provides a mean for a researcher to gain a deeper

understanding of how participants in a study interpret the analyzed issue that

uncover through observation alone. The purpose was to get clear and depth

information about the issue being studied based on the research questions.

The interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia which was intended to

obtain clear understanding of what was uttered by both the researcher and

the participants. Before the interview, the interviewees were informed about

(i) what was going to be discussed; (ii) the release of pseudonyms in the

research report; (iii) the conversation would be tape-recorded to avoid loss

of data, and to enable the researcher to transcribe it later, enabling an

in-depth analysis of the interviewees’ verbatim statements (Cohen, Manion and

Morrison, 2000:279 cited in Emilia, 2005 p.84).

The interview was held individually after the teaching program. An

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depth than is the case with other methods of data collection techniques, as

they could “provide access to what is inside an interviewee’s head, ... what he/she thinks” (Cohen and Manion, 1980 p. 242; 1985 cited in Emilia, 2005 p. 82). There were seven questions asked to the participants, questions

number one to number five related to students’ responses towards their

understanding of narrative text, question number six related to students’

responses towards retelling the story and number seven related to students’

responses towards the implementation of story grammar.

Semi-structure interview was used in this interview. It was used to

enable the researcher to get all information required (without forgetting a

question), while at the same time to permit the participants’ freedom of

responses and description to illustrate the concepts (Field and Morse, 1985,

p.67 cited in Emilia, 2005 p. 83). The interview lasted for 10 to 15 minutes

for each participant and to avoid the loss of the data and to enable the

researcher to transcribe it later, the interview was audio-taped. The

interview questions and the transcriptions are provided as supplement in the

appendices (see Appendices 5-6).

3.5. Data Analysis

This study analyzed data obtained qualitatively. The data were

recorded, summarized and interpreted. Data analysis in this study was

conducted during the study and at the end of the study. The analysis began

with classroom observation, questionnaire and interview. Those instruments

administered altogether to answer the research questions.

Data collected during the research were analyzed to find features to

the feasibility of story grammar provide the students in comprehending

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techniques: observation data, questionnaire data and interview data. Each

category of the data is lead to answer to research questions. Each of them is

elaborated below.

3.5.1 Classroom Observation

The data from observation consisted of audio recording, researcher’s

field note, the result of students reading comprehension test, the result of

students’ performance of retelling story and the result of students’

identifying of story parts. The analysis of the data was conducted during and

after the data collection (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The act of

transcribing all interaction between teacher and students during the process

of teaching was done in the effort of obtaining clear picture of what exactly

happened in the classroom during instruction process. In this case, inductive

analytical approach (Alwasilah, 2002) was employed by which the data

analysis was begun while being gathered. Ongoing data analysis and

interpretation were based on data mainly from observations, in this case the

activities of both teacher and students that occur during the teaching of

reading narrative text were obtained. The activities that observe in teaching

learning process are:

- Teacher’s method in teaching reading of narrative text by using story

grammar strategy.

- The way the teacher presented the lesson, the steps of the learning process

in teaching reading of narrative text by using story grammar strategy.

- The progress of the students’ performance in comprehending narrative text

To observe the development of students’ comprehending of narrative

text the teacher used reading format assessment designed by Jhon Munro

(2011). The reseacher also did reading assessment during teaching learning

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3.5.2 Questionnaire

The questionnaire used in this study as mentioned previously is open

ended questionnaire. In the case of a written questionnaire, the question is

used yes- no question followed by giving the reasons of the choice, the

amount of space or the number of lines provided for the help to determine

the length and the fullness of students’ responses.

The data from the questionnaire were analyzed in two steps. First,

the questions in the questionnaire were categorized into the central themes

(Cresswell, 2008 p.251). The data from the questionnaire were categorized

based on students’ responses towards the implementation of story grammar

in teaching reading of narrative text. Second, simple computation and

percentage were conducted. Every answer of each question is counted, if the

percentage of students’ positive answer is more than 50%, then it is

regarded as positive response.

3.5.3 Interview

The data from the interview were transcribed, categorized and

interpreted to answer the research questions. All the interview data were

analyzed in steps. First, the interview questions were put into categories.

Next, the thematic analysis was developed referring to each research

question. After that the data from interview were presented in condensed

body of information.

Furthermore, the data from interview supported the data obtained

from observation. The data from interview were intended to verify the data

on what activities done in teaching learning process and validate the finding

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In the present study, ongoing data analysis and interpretation were

based on data mainly from observation, questionnaire and interview. In

categorizing the data finding, some process of selecting, focusing, and

simplifying the data into research questions was done when the data were

completely collected (Merriam, 1998). In the conclusion process, some

activities were done by the researcher such as; deciding what the data

meant, explaining them and also providing some possible configurations on

the findings (Miles and Huberman, 1984, p.22 cited in Silverman, 2005, p.

176).

3.6 Conclusion of the Chapter

This chapter has presented the information about the methods used

in this study. It begins with research site and the participants. Presents

design of the study. Then it elaborates the way of collecting data and the

methods of data analysis employed in this study, including observation and

questionnaire and interview. The overview of teaching program will be

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CHAPTER V

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA FROM QUESTIONNAIRE AND INTERVIEW

Chapter 4 has provided the description of the teaching program used

in this study. It presented how the implementation of story grammar strategy

in teaching reading narrative text.

This chapter presents the data analysis gained from the questionnaire

and interview. It aims to answer the second research questions regarding the students’ responses toward the use of story grammar strategy.

5.2 Data from Questionnaire

The questionnaire was distributed after the teaching program. It was

needed to answer the second research question. For this purpose, the

questionnaire was given to the students in terms of yes, no questions and

followed by the students reasons toward their chosen (Wray, et al., 1998 p.

174)

In the analysis of the result, the statements were categorized based on the theme. The first category was related to the students’ opinion related to their understanding of narrative text before and after implementing story grammar. The second category was related to students’ opinion of retelling the story. The third category was related to students’ opinion towards the implementation of story grammar. The data was presented with the

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of percented. The result of the questionnaire will be discussed in following

sections.

5.2.1 Students’ Responses toward Their Comprehension of Narrative Text

The table below is the data from the questionnaire that is related to the students’ responses to their understanding of narrative text.

Table 5.1

Students’ Responses toward comprehension of Narrative Texts No Aspect asked Description of Students’

Responses

the setting of the story. It is

easier to find the setting of

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No 2 6,7%

of the events of the story

Yes, it helps us to find the

responses related to their understanding of narrative text before

implementing story grammar and after implementing of story grammar.

From the result of the questionnaire, most students answered that narrative text is difficult to understand. It’s about 73.3% of the total of 30 students. They said they could not easily understand the content of the story in

narrative text. Therefore, it can be said that before implementing story

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This is consistent with previous research in which stated that they found

many students experience comprehension problem (Cornoldi and Oakhill,

1996; Pressley, 2006, cited in Dymock, 2007).

Questions number two to nine are related to the students’ opinion about their understandings of narrative text after the teacher implemented

story grammar. The questions asked were based on the parts of the story.

Questions number two and three are related to the students’ understanding

of the setting and the character of the story. The result of the questionnaire

shows that all the students (100%) said that story grammar help them to

understand about the setting and the characters of the story.

Questions number four and five are related to the characteristic of

the main character and the problem of the story. Two students (6.7%) found

difficulties in understanding the characteristic of the main character and

eight students (26.7%) found difficulties in understanding the problem of

the story. They said that they still confused to determine the problem of the

story.

In this case the researcher implemented “error correction” according to Gardill and Jitendra (1999). When students commits errors, direct them to

the appropriate section of narrative text to reread it for correct answer, use

guiding questions and modeling as necessary to help students to come up

with an appropriate responses (Gardill and Jitendra, 1999).

The others 93.3% students responded to the questions by saying yes,

which they understood easily about the characteristics of the main

characters, and the others 73.33% students said that story grammar helps

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Questions number 6 and 7 are related to students’ understanding of resolution and events of the story. The result of the questionnaire show that

27 (90%) students gave positive responses. They said that story grammar

helps them in understanding resolution and events of the story, while the

others, three students (10%) gave negative response.

Questions number 8 and 9 deal with the students’ understanding of ending of the story and moral value. Most of the students gave positive

response. 96.7% of 30 students said that story grammar helps them in

understanding ending of the story and 86.7% of 30 students gave positive

response too in understanding moral value or the lesson can get from the

story.

The findings above indicated that students succeeded in the

maintenance phase in the areas of character, setting (place and time), but

had trouble in theme, outcome, and reaction in the first phase, at last it

showed positive effects of story grammar/story map training in accordance

with Boulineau et al (2004) research/findings.

Based on the data above, it can be explained that most of the

students believed that before they were involved in the study they found

difficulties in understanding narrative text but after their involvement in the

study they realized that story grammar strategy can help them to understand

parts of the story. As what some writers argue that explicit instruction of

story structure or story grammar can help students with or without learning

disabilities make gains in their comprehension (Dimino, Taylor, & Gersten,

1995; Duke & Pearson, 2002; Williams, 2002; Arthaud and Goracke, 2006)

Furthermore, this explicit steps help students organize their thinking and

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5.2.2 Students’ Responses toward Retelling the Story

The table below is the data from the questionnaire that is related to the students’ responses towards retelling the story.

Table 5.2

Students’ Responses toward retelling the story NO. Aspect asked Description of students

responses

F %

10 By knowing story parts

in story grammar does it

In the data given, it can be seen that 66,7% of 30 students consider

using story grammar to retell the story, by using their own language to tell

the story, the most important thing is they could remember the parts of the

story. The other 33,3% of 30 students say even they can retell the story they

still have difficulties in retelling it using English. As the previous research

has shown the structure of narrative text can facilitate first and second or

EFL readers recall of events (Carrel 1984) and found that after teaching a

story grammar model the students not only increased their recall of events ,

but also their oral fluency (Falencia, 1997; Gonzales, 1997).

5.2.3 Students’ Responses toward the Use of Story Grammar

The table below is the data from questionnaire that is related to the students’ responses towards the implementation of story grammar.

Table. 5.3 The Students’ Responses toward the Use of Story Grammar

No. Aspect asked Description of

students’ Responses

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11. Students’ opinion of

They said story grammar strategy was more interesting and exciting. While

93,3% of 30 students gave positive responses to the question by saying yes

toward the applying of story grammar for future time, they said that it could

help them to understand the parts of the story easily.

5.2.4 Summary of Discussion of Data from Questionnaire

Data from questionnaire showed that generally students gave

positive responses towards the implementation of story grammar. They said

that story grammar helped them in understanding narrative text. This could be seen from the students’ answer to the questions related to their understanding of narrative text, retelling the story and the implementation of

the teaching program. By comparing the result of questionnaire some

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First, in relation to the understanding of narrative text most of the students responded “yes” that story grammar using story map increased their comprehension. This finding in line with what the previous researchers

said that for students with LD who read below grade level, even older

students can benefit from explicit, effective instruction in story grammar

and how to use it (Boulineau, et al, 2004; Dickson, Simmons, et al., 1998;

Dimino, et al., 1990; Gardill & Jitendra, 1999). Research also supports the

use of story mapping, the graphic counterpart of story grammar, as a tool for

improving comprehension of narrative text by students with LD or reading

problems.(Boulineau, et al., 2004; Gardill & Jitendra, 1999; Idol & Croll,

1987; Vallecorsa & deBettencourt, 1997).

Second, the students responses towards retelling the story after using story grammar also gave positive response, it’s about 66,7% of 30 students. It is indicated that the students could retell the story because they

understood the story after identifying the parts of the story. According to

other research, the different between student with and without LD in oral

retelling is demonstrating knowledge of story structure (Griffith et al, 1985).

Third, 100% of students gave positive respons toward the

implementation of story grammar. They said that in teaching reading of

narrative text by using story grammar was more interesting and exciting.

They said that the teacher should apply this strategy in teaching reading of

narrative text for future time. This findings support the findings from the

interview (it will be discussed in section 5.4.3) that the implementation of story grammar tend to increase the students’ understanding of narrative text and the process of teaching learning was more interesting ( Reutzel, 1986;

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5.3 Data from Interview

As outlined in Chapter 3 that the interview was conducted after the

teaching program and the questionnaire. It was intended to find out their

responses towards the teaching programs and to verify the finding from

observation and questionnaire (Creswell, 2008; McMillan and Schumacher,

2001).

The data from the interview were transcribed, categorized and

interpreted to answer the research questions. All the interview data were

analyzed in steps. First, the interview questions were put into categories.

Next, the thematic analysis was developed referring to each research

question. After that the data from interview were presented in condensed

body of information (Kvale, 1996; cited in Emilia, 2005).

5.3.1 Students’ Responses toward Comprehension of Narrative Text

Most students said that before using story grammar strategy, it was

difficult to understand narrative text but then they found it was easier to

understand the story after using story grammar. First the parts of the story

were introduced to the students then they identified parts of the story

together with their friends. All the interviewees said that their understanding

of narrative text increased. As what R#1 and R#4 explained:

It’s helpful in understanding narrative texts. It is also help me in identifying the parts of the story (R#1).

The lesson is easier to understand although sometimes I open the dictionary to make sure about the meaning of the words. But at least it is more interesting and I felt my understanding progress. (R#4).

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Asking the students about the parts of the story, which parts of the

story were regarded easy to identify and which parts were difficult. In

relation to the parts of the story all the interviewees said that setting,

character, resolution and ending were easy to understand while problem of

the main characters, and moral value were difficult to understand. As

explained by R#3 and R#9:

In general I could identify the parts of the story but I felt hesitation in identifying the problem of the main character because there were several problems in the story.(R#3).

To find setting, character, problem, resolution, and ending were easy because it was written in the story while moral value was difficult to identify because we had to understand the story and then made the conclusion of the story in order to find moral value.(R#9).

These comments, that the students found difficulties in identifying

moral value is parallel with what Arthaud & Goracke (2006) claimed that

students with LD recall fewer elements of a story and seem to have trouble

in identifying the more abstract elements of a story, such as theme. The

previous studies suggested that interventions involving expansion of students’ knowledge of story structure, might improve their reading comprehension (Arthaud & Goracke, 2006; Dimino, Taylor, & Gersten,

1995; Duke & Pearson, 2002; NRP, 2000; RAND, 2002).

Further, when they were asked about the lesson could they get from

the stories, they said that they got many lessons especially they could learn

about the good characteristics of the characters and the moral values existed

in the story. First they learned about the good characters and then they could

apply it in their daily life. See what the respondents said below.

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I learned not only the good character and attitude of the main character but also learned about bad character. Good character to be applied in my life while bad character uses for self evaluation. (R#7)

The data above indicate that the students can get the lesson from the

story. It is related to what Derewianka & Jones (2012) states that students

learn from narrative text about various kinds of experience, the expression

of emotion, the evaluation of qualities positively or negatively, and the

judgment of human behavior.

5.3.2 Students’ Responses towards Retelling the Story

In relation to the students’ responses towards retelling the story, six

of nine students said that they could retell the story after using story

grammar strategy. According to them they could retell the story based on

the parts of story and they used their own language to tell it simply. The

evidences are as what they revealed in the excerpt below.

I could retell the story. First I had understood about the parts of the story then I retold it by using my own language.(R#8)

Yes, after using story grammar I could retell the story. It needn’t to tell it in detail we just told it what we have written in story map.(R#2)

By identifying the elements of story then I understood the content of the story. Therefore I could retell it directly. (R#1)

The data from interview above indicate that story grammar helped

student in retelling the story. Although some of them still felt hesitation they

could retell it or not. There are three of nine students who said that they still

found difficulties in retelling the story because they had limited

vocabularies when they had to retell it using English. This fact also found in

the previous research that in the beginning few students had trouble but at

last they showed positive effects of this activities (Boulineau, et al.,2004).

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I thought I wasn’t able to retell the story. I felt hesitation to retell the story I have

red. Moreover it was hard for me if I was asked to retell it in English because I have limited vocabularies. (R#6)

I sometimes have difficulties in retelling the story using English, I prefer to retell it in Indonesian. (R#4)

I couldn’t retell the story because I felt not confidence to retell it.(R#9)

The data above has shown that a few students still had difficulties in

retelling the story because of their limited vocabularies and their self

confidence. This fact showed that the teacher should give more

opportunities and support to the students who used a number of hesitations,

pauses, or repetitions in retelling the story because of their limited of

vocabularies and lack of confidence.

First the teacher should explore more about vocabularies in the first

session of the lesson. Discussing about vocabularies is important. This is

parallel with what Hudson (2007) claims that vocabulary is a considerable

factor in reading ability and facilitates comprehension. Regarding to students’ lack of confidence when retelling the story, Gebhard (2000) states that providing chances for the students to express themselves in meaningful

ways potentially contributes to creating an interactive classroom.

Furthermore, he explains:

Genuine communicative interaction is enhanced if there is an appreciation for the uniqueness of individuals in the class. Each student brings to the classroom unique language-learning and life experiences (both successful and un successful), as well as feelings about these experiences (including joy, anxiety, and fear). As teachers, we need to be sensitive to each individual’s background and affective state, to increase a classroom atmosphere conducive to interaction.

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error. The teacher must let him continue his retelling in order to provide a

classroom atmosphere conducive for students to express their ideas freely

without being distructed. This is in line with what Thornburry (2005) states

that one of the speaking task criteria is to provide a convenient classroom

atmosphere for learners to feel confident in order that they may use a target

language autonomously without being distracted of over-correction from the

teacher.

5.3.3 Students’ Responses towards the Use of Story Grammar

Referring to the questions related to students’ responses towards the

implementation of story grammar, all students said that story grammar

helped them to understand the content of narrative text and they said it was

important to use story grammar to make the learning process interesting and

exciting. See what they said in the excerpt below.

The implementation of story grammar helped us to understand the story through identifying the parts of it, so the implementation of story grammar in teaching narrative text was very good. (R#2)

Teaching reading of narrative text using story grammar was more interesting and exciting and also the students were easier to understand the story by identifying the parts of story and wrote it in story map.. (R#4)

I wanted story grammar strategy was always applied in teaching reading narrative text because it was made us more understand the content of the text. (R#8)

The data above indicate that the students could understand the

general content of the text after using the implementation of story grammar.

This is parallel with what Stetter and Hughes (2010) said that one way for teachers to support students’ comprehension of narrative text is to actively instruct them in using story grammar strategies. Story grammar provides

students with a framework to help them understand narrative text and

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students said that they were more focus in understanding the content of the

story when they identified the parts of story using story map. These findings

also show that the implementation of story grammar by using story map led

to better comprehension of narrative text by students with learning

disabilities or reading difficulties (Boulineau, et al., 2004; Gardill &

Jitendra, 1999; Idol, 1987; Vallecorsa & deBettencourt, 1997).

5.3.4 Summary of Discussion of Data from Interview

This section is to summarize data from the interview. It was found that students’ responses toward the teaching program are positive. The Responses are related to three main points, they are students’ responses

regarding to their understanding of narrative text including what the lessons

they could get from the story, their responses about retelling the story based

on the story map and their responses toward the implementation of the story

grammar.

First, related to the students’ understanding of narrative text. According to the students, story maps helped them understand narrative text

by identifying part of the story. Through these activities not only were they

more focus on the content but it was also easier to understand the text. They

also got many good lessons from the story. By identifying the moral values

of each story they could learn good characters and they could apply them in

their daily life.

Second, related to their responses about retelling the story based on

the story map. Six of nine students said that they could retell the story

because they had known the parts of the story and they claimed that it was

not necessary to tell the story in detailed, they could tell it simply by using

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hesitatant to retell the story because of their limited vocabularies and their

lack of self confidence.

Third, their responses toward the implementation of story grammar,

all the students said that story grammar strategy was good to be applied in

teaching reading of narrative text because it made them more focus and

easier to understand the text. They also said that the process of teaching and

learning were more interesting and exciting.

5.4 Conclusion of the Chapter

This chapter has focused on detailed description of the findings from observation regarding to the development of students’ reading comprehension and questionnaire and interview regarding to the students’

responses toward the teaching program. The following chapter will present

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CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION, LIMITATION OF THE STUDY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The previous chapter has presented the findings and the discussion

regarding the effect of story grammar on the students’ comprehension of

narrative text. It has also presented the findings and the discussion of the

data collected from questionnaire and interview.

This chapter discusses the conclusion of the present study which

deal with findings resulted from the analyses of classroom observation,

questionnaire as well as interview. This chapter also exposes the suggestion

concerning in this study.

6.2 Conclusion

This study investigated whether story grammar could be used to

develop students’ ability in comprehending narrative text and what the students’ responses towards the use of story grammar strategy. Based on the theories, the findings and the analysis described in the previous chapters, the

present study comes to the conclusions as follows.

First, it is found that, the findings of the study indicated that story

grammar strategy could develop students’ reading ability. It could be seen from the result of students’reading comprehension test in three session of teaching program, the students’ performance of retelling the story and in

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Once the students were able to identify the story parts as guided in story

grammar then they could understand what the story about even they could

retell the story by using their own language.

Second, the students’ responses toward the use of story grammar

were mostly positive.The data from questionnaire showed that in general the

students gave positive responses toward story grammar strategy. They

agreed that story grammar strategy was suitable for them.They regarded that

it was very helpful for them in term of enhancing their reading

comprehension. They found that the use of story grammar not only

increased their ability in comprehending narrative text but also increased

their speaking ability through retelling the story they was read. They liked to

identify the parts of the story then discussed it with their friends. They said

that they got many things from the discussion with their teacher and their

friends especially related to the lesson (moral value) they got from the story.

Everybody had different lesson, this happened depend on their different

experiences toward the story.

6.3 Limitation of the Study

There are some limitations of the study. They are related to the

object of investigation, the instruments, participants and the result of the

study.

The first limitation is related to the objects of the study. This study

only investigated the implementation of story grammar strategy in teaching

reading of narrative text and the students’ responses.

The second one is related to the instruments used in this study. They

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be more comprehensive if the researcher used mix method in doing the

research.

The third one is related to the number of participants, the present

study only investigated 30 students. The result could be different if it

involved a large number of the students from different schools and also

involved more teachers in the same regency. Those could be strengthened

the present findings.

6.4 Recommendations

Based on the above limitation of the study, there are some

recommendations proposed for future research. The recommendations are

intended to enrich and find the best way of teaching reading.

Some recommendations can be suggested: First, it will be beneficial

if further research enlarge the object of the study not only reading skill of

narrative text but also involving writing skill of narrative text.

Second, related to the instruments of data collection this study only

used three data collections. It is suggested for future research use mix

method in doing the research to gain more comprehensive and valid result.

They completed the real students’ ability in reading comprehension of

narrative text.

Third, it would be better if further research get involved more

teachers and more students to gain different result of the same study and to

examine the strength effectiveness of story grammar strategy.

Fourth, referring to the weaknesses in this study that the students

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theme of the story, it will be better if the other researcher investigating

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