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THE EFFECT OF TEACHING METHODS AND LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE
ON STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT IN READING NARRATIVE TEXT
AT STATE SENIOR IDGH SCHOOL 8 MEDAN
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program Postgraduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
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Magister Humaniora
By
SYARIFAH AID/I
Registration Number .: 082188310037
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
A THESIS
THE EFFECT OF TEACHING METHODS AND
LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE ON STUDENTS' ACIDEVEMENT
IN READING NARRATIVE TEXT
AT STATE SENIOR IDGH SCHOOL 8 MEDAN
BY
SY ARIF AH AINI
Registration Number: 082188310037
English Applied Linguistics Study Program
State University of Medan
This Thesis was examined on March 3nl, 2011
by the Board of ExaminersApproved by
Adviser Commissi
#
APPROVAL
This Thesis was examined on March 3"I, 2011 by Board of Examiners
Board of Examiners
Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd.
NIP. 19590713 1986011 001
Prof. Hj. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., Ph.D.
NIP. 19440302 196902 2 001
Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd.
NIP. 19610425 198601 2 001
Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed., TESP.
NIP. 19570412 198403 1 001
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is difficult for the writer to start expressing her thanks because so many
people that have assisted her in the process of writing this academic work. Though
there are many people to be thanked, but only some names could be mentioned. First and foremost, she would like to thank Allah SWT, the Almighty, for
it is impossible to complete this thesis without His Guidance and Blessings until
she is able to succeed in presenting it in its present form.
To Prof. Dr. Busmin Guming, M.Pd., her First Adviser, for the valuable
time spent in giving the guidance, comments, and criticisms to qualifY the content
of this thesis.
To Prof. Hj. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., Ph. D., her Second Adviser and
the former Head English Applied Linguistics Study Program who in the process
of completing this thesis deserves her deepest appreciation and cannot be full)'
thanked for all her care, attention, encouragement, and valuable suggestions that
have nurtured her intellectual development.
Her great thankfulness goes to Prof. Dr. Busmin Guming, M.Pd. and Prof.
Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., Head and Secretary of the English Applied
Linguistics Study Program for their suggestions and administrative assistance
during her study.
She is also indebted to Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., Dr. Eddy Setia,
M.Ed., TESP., and Dr. Didik Santoso, M.Pd., as her reviewers and examiners for
their valuable inputs.
In the process of finishing this thesis, the writer should dedicate her
profound and sincere indebtedness to her late husband: Suryo Purwanto Bin
Sumardiono, her beloved mother: Hj. Syarifuan M. Yusuf and her late father: H.
Syarifuddin Al-Hamidy, her sons; M. Syarif Hidayatullah and M. Syahid
Hidayatullah, her daughter; Syari Hidayati and also her brothers; Amar Akbar,
Amk., M.lqbal Syarif, S.Ag., and M. Zaki Mubarok Syarif, her sisters; Syafridah,
S.Ag., M.A., Fitrie Yani, S.Ag., Umi Kalsum, Amkeb., Nurul Ilm iah, S.Ag., Nur
Hamidah, S.Pd.I., and Roudhotul Jannah for their full support and prayers until
she can submit this thesis.
Her very special gratitude also goes to her close friends, Hildani Sari
Harahap, S.Pd., M.Hum., Khalid Ariandi, S.Pd., M.Hum., Windi Astuti, S. Pd.,
M.Hum, Farid Ma'rufand all friends ofBAPPEDA Class for their kind friendship
in happiness and in sorrow.
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May Allah Bless Us!
Medan, Maret 20 II
The Writer
Syarifah Aini
Registration Number: 082188310037
ABSTRACT
1.1 Background of tbe Study
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
English is important because of its position as a dominant international
language. It is used worldwide by various nations in almost every aspect of life
including Indonesia. It has become the language of politics, trades, cultures,
technology and etc. All the sources of technology are written in English.
Therefore, the continuous advancement of commerce, science and technology
have forced students in Indonesia to master English. Without mastering English,
the development of science and technology in Indonesia will be adopted slower by
students since most of the science and technology books are written in English.
In Indonesia, English is taught and learned from the kindergarten to
university level. In cultural field, it is issued as an effective tool of communication
to promote and exhibit our culture in the international show or exhibition. In the
economic field, it has important role for trading and negotiating business matters,
especially in business agreements of exporting and/or importing the goods and
services. By having those considerations, English is very useful in human beings'
daily life.
There are four skills in English, they are listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. Most students consider that reading is the most diffic ult one and boring
activity. They sometimes are unable to get complete understanding of the texts.
This might be caused by the fact that many of those students do not know the
2
combined with other words. 'Younger and poorer readers often rely on a single
criterion for textual understanding: Understanding of individual words' (Garner &
Alexander: 1989)
Reading is considered as one of the most important skills which language students should obtain, particularly as it helps to build vocabulary and leads to
lifelong learning and improvement in first and second language skills. "The ability to read is acknowledged to be the most stable and durable of the second language modalities." (Bernhardt, 1991 cited in Zhang & Guo, 2005, p.111 ). Carrell ( 1989)
states reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language,
particularly in English as a second or foreign language. In other words, reading
represents the role of other skills in English. When a student learns reading, it means
that slhe also learns listening, speaking, and writing at the same time.
Reading is essential to students' academic achievement and involves a
complicated process. Sloat, Beswick & Willms (2007) state that failure to learn
reading during primary level may cause a student to be lacking in the ability to
read well. In addition, students with limited literacy skills may develop poor
self-esteem, lack motivation, display behavioral and academic problems; thus leading
them to be alienated from regular curriculum (Sloat, et al, 2007).
Moreover, it is an essential skill for all students at all levels. The students
are required to be able to read. The most important step to prepare students to
comprehend writing material is to
help
students understand the readingcomprehensions. Sometimes, the students are bored with the materials which are
presented in reading comprehensions task. Although some teachers have used the
3
reading comprehensions task yet they are just cheating or guessing the answer of
the text. Since their concentration is only focused on the individual words not the
wholly context. In other words, the students think that to understand the idea of
the text, they should know meaning of all words written in the text.
Reading is considered as an essential component of a college preparatory
for English language program. There are further reasons to recommend placing
reading as one of the language programs more central in the English as Foreign
Language (EFL) class. First, students can usually perform at a higher level in
reading than in other skills; second, they can understand accurately written
materials that they have not yet prepared to discuss orally or in writing with
excellent accuracy.
In fact, reading is not as easy as people think; it is not easy to have the
ability of drawing meaning from the printed page and interpret the information
appropriately. Consequently, students will need to read the text two or three times
to get even approximate sense. All of these activities take time and many less
motivated students give up. Reading passage is bound to be too difficult for them
and they predict that the whole experience will be frustrating and be motivating. In other words, reading passage can increase students' curiosity to comprehend it
or on the other hand, they will get bored and frustrate and finally they will give up comprehending it. Such attitudes often due to unsuccessful experience in reading.
If in the past students have been given reading text which are too difficult and
have no interest and where teachers failed to gain or encourage their interest then
4
In other words, students may use their productive skills, yet still be able to
comprehend texts with some degrees of proficiency. Reading, whether in the first
or second language context, involves the reader, the text, and the interaction
between the reader and the text.
The fact that must be realized is that to be able to access the world's
scientific and technological information, English teaching in Indonesia has been
started by giving much more attention to the implementation of developing
reading comprehension. However, one of the greatest problems is that reading
comprehension of junior, senior and university students in Indonesia are still poor
(Soejoto, 2002). This indicates that the improvement of the teaching of reading
comprehension is very essential. Consequently, there are several factors affecting
reading comprehension.
Nowadays, the ability to read and understand written materials in a foreign
language is very important. It indicates that reading ability is one of the
requirements to succeed not only in academic life but also in occupation, since
most information and references are written in English. This condition turns out to
be one of the major concerns in developing English teaching in Indonesia. Thus, it
is understandable that reading and speaking ability should be acquired by
Indonesian students. It is the fact that the majority of the students are not
independent readers and do not achieve good ability of it. The fact shows that
when the students face the time-test, some of them cannot use the time wisely and
5
It is said above that m~ Senior High School students have difficulties in
some English test, especially in reading comprehension. They found difficulties to
understand reading text. One oftbe text is Narrative text. Narrative text is defined
as literature written primarily to tell a story. The data are taken from the first and
second semester in three years in State Senior High School 8 Medan. The detail is
presented in the table below.
Table l.l T he Students' Achievement in Reading Narrative Text
Science Class XIIPA I XIIPA2 XI IPA 3 XI IPA4 XI IPS I XI IPS 2
Semester
~
r/
I II I II I II I II I II
~
~~
School'
,___
Years r ~
200012007 66 67 66 66 65 66 60 66 66 66 65 66
2007/2008 66 68 66 68 65 67 63 65 66 65 65 67
200812009 67 69 67 68 60 65 65 66 67 66 60 65
Table l.l shows that there are six different classes, Grade XI IPA I, 2, 3,
4, and IPS 1, 2. The score of each class is divided by the total number of the
student that results the average scores of each class and semester.
Finally, reading is a productive skill. Although one may read fictions for
pleasure, one often reads nonfictions with eyes to perform the pleasure reading
therefore serves to integrate a variety of language activities and purposes.
Scientific and technological information written in English are available in large
[image:12.527.28.472.153.594.2]6
read and understand written sources. One of the requirements of understanding the
text is having linguistic competence. Linguistic competence is the system of rules
that governs an individual's tacit understanding of what is acceptable and what is
not in the language they use.
Considering the importance of reading in mastering English, government
expects the students' achievement in each skill of English as global language
including reading by detennining the graduation standard of high school students
that is called National Examination (Ujian Nasional: UN), and reading is included
in one skill to be tested.
In line with the above consideration, the improvement of teaching reading
comprehension has long been a challenge to the teachers of English and
researchers as well. Reading is the basic skill in mastering a foreign language
since reading is an English proficiency beside listening, speaking and writing.
Moreover, the Senior High School Curriculum concentrates on the use of
genre. According to 2007/2008 the Competency Standard for Senior High School
(Depdiknas, 2007 :2) the students should be able to comprehend short functional
text, dialogue and monologue text in fonn of Narrative, recount, news item,
descriptive, report, exposition, explanation and discussion. They are not hoped to
write a text in a certain genre, but they are expected to be able to comprehend
some sorts of text and answer some questions related to the text. Therefore, it is
important for the students to master genres, besides language profic iency, because
7
By having some facts related to reading comprehension, students need
methods in order to overcome their lack desire of reading comprehension. By
having those methods, students are expected to achieve good comprehension in
reading. There are many methods can be used to increase students' reading comprehension. Two of them are Task-Based Language Learning Method and
Cooperative Learning Method.
Task-Based Language Learning (TBLL) foc uses on the use of authentic
language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language.
It functions to activate students to master the material they learn. This method
puts the teacher's role not as teacher but merely as facilitator. In this way, students
are encouraged to be more active. Meanwhile, Cooperative Learning (CL) is defined as students working together to attain group goals that cannot be obtained by working alone or competitively. It facilitates students to work in a group. It is
very good to use because students will feel more comfortable to learn wben they
are among their friends. They will not feel shy when they make mistakes anytime
they propose their point of view. So, this method will help students to
increase-their self confidence.
These two methods actually are not new anymore. They apply students
centered approach where the students are in active learning while the teacher is
just a facilitator. These two methods will be treated to different linguistic competence students because students must have different linguistic competence
8
Senior High School syllabus developed by government, Narrative is taught in all
grades of Senior High School. That is why the researcher considers that Narrative
is the most important genre since it is taught in all grades of Senior High School.
1.2 Problems of the Study
The problems of this study are form ulated in questions as follows.
I) Is the students' achievement in reading Narrative text taught by Task-Based
Language Learning (TBLL) higher than that is taught by using Cooperative
Learning (CL) ?
2) Is the students' achievement in reading Narrative text with high linguistic
competence higher than that of low linguistic competence ?
3) Is there any interaction between teaching methods and linguistic competence
on the students' achievement in reading Narrative text?
1.3 Objectives oftbe Study
The objectives ofthe study can be described as follows.
I) To find out the different effect of Task-Based Language Learning and
Cooperative Learning on the students' achievement in reading Narrative text.
2) To find out the different effect of high and low Linguistic Competence on the
students' achievement of reading Narrative text.
3) To find out the interaction between the Teaching Methods and Linguistic
Competence on the students' achievement of reading Narrative text.
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PERPUSTAKAAN
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1.4 Scope of the Study
There are some teaching methods that can be used in enhancing the
students' competence in reading Narrative text. But in this case the researcher just concerns this study on the use of two methods, namely Task-Based Language
Learning and Cooperative Learning. These two methods are the methods that can
help the students in mastering English specifically in reading skill.
Cooperative Learning is a successful teaching method in which small
teams, each student of different levels of ability, use a variety oflearning activities
to improve their understanding of a subject. According to Kagan ( 1991 : 116),
there are over fifty forms of cooperative learning. Each has its appropriate
depending on the nature of the student population and the type of educational outcome to be fostered. But, there are some forms of cooperative learning that
have received the most empirical attention. They are Student Teams Achievement
Division (ST AD), Jigsaw, Constructive Controversy or Structured Controversy
Group Investigation, Learning Together, and MURDER. But in this case, the
writer will concern only to one of cooperative learning form namely jigsaw.
On the other hand, in Task-Based Language Learning, the writer will
concern to one type of task only namely problem solving. The writer c hooses this
type of task since it is the complete task that involves expressing Hypothesis,
describing experiences, comparing alternatives, and evaluating and agreeing a
solution.
Beside the knowledge of Task-Based Language Learning and Cooperative
CHAPTERV
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusion
Based on the data analysis and hypothesis testing, it can be concluded
that:
I. Students' achievement taught by using Task-Based Language Learning
Method is higher than that taught by using Cooperative Learning Method.
This conclusion is obtained from the calculation result of the average score
reached by the students taught by using Task-Based Language Learning is
higher than that taught by Cooperative Learning.
The high linguistic competence students' achievement in reading Narrative
text is higher than the low linguistic competence students' achievement. This
conclusion is obtained from the calculation result of the average score
reached by the students with high linguistic competence is higher than
students with low linguistic competence. This second conclusion also
supports the first conclusion. High linguistic competence students taught by
Task-Based Language Learning get higher average score that high linguistic
competence students taught by Cooperative Learning. And also low linguistic
competence students taught by Task-Based Language Learning got higher
average score than low linguistic competence students taught by Cooperative
Learning.
3. There is significant interaction between teaching methods and linguistic
competence on students' achievement in reading Narrative text. In other
109
words, students' achievement in reading Narrative text is influenced by
teaching methods and linguistic competence.
5.2 Implication
The findings of this study give implication to English teachers in reaching
the goal of the teaching-learning process. While for students, it implies the
students' achievement in reading Narrative text. This study had been tested on reading Narrative text by having two teaching methods namely Task-Based
Language Learning and Cooperative Learning. Those methods are applied on high
linguistic competence and low linguistic competence students.
The first result of this research reveals that students' achievement in
reading Narrative text taught by using Task-Based Language Learning is higher
than those taught by using Cooperative Learning methods. Therefore, it implies
the English teachers to apply this method in teaching reading because it involves
students' activeness in the teaching-learning process and also increases the
students' confident in producing language.
The second result of this research reveals that students' achievement with
high linguistic competence in reading Narrative text is higher than students'
achievement with low linguistic competence. It gives implication to the English
teachers that they should be aware of students' competence in linguistic. The
identification of students' linguistic competence can be a positive step in
achieving teaching-learning process goal. Knowing that students have different
110
the teachers can decide which teaching method is suitable to be applied for
students.
And the last result of this research is there is significant interaction
between teaching methods and linguistic competence. It leads to the implication that teaching methods applied by teachers should have a relationship with
students' linguistic competence. The success of teaching methods' application is
based on students' competence in linguistic. Thus, it also implies that teacher
should improve students' competence in linguistic as basic competence in
learning a language. Moreover, it also implies the English teacher to apply
Task-Based Language Learning method to high linguistic competence students and
Cooperative Learning method to low linguistic competence students.
5.3 Suggestion
In connection with the conclusion, there are some suggestions.
1. English teachers should apply Task-Based Language Learning Method and Cooperative Learning Method to enhance and retrieve foreign language in
teaching so students can improve their reading achievement in reading
Narrative text. Relate to the conclusion that Task-Based Language Learning is
much more effective in increasing students' achievement in reading Narrative
text. it is suggested to the teachers to apply this method more often since this
method is more flexible that can be applied individually or in group. While in
tit
must be able to determine the task whether it is suitable to be done in a group
or individually.
2. English teachers should know that linguistic competence affect students'
achievement in reading Narrative text so both teacher and students should test
their linguistic competence in order to understand how to teach and learn better
and more effective. By knowing students' linguistic competence, teachers will
be easy to determine what method they will use. For example for the low
linguistic competence students. It is suggested for the teachers to have
Cooperative Learning method since by having this method, students with low
linguistic competence will have friends to discuss what they do not know and the goal of the teaching-learning process will be reached.
3. Other researchers can develop further study in the area of Task-Based
Language Learning Method and Cooperative Learning Method that will
ll2
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