A. Theoretical Review
2. The Concept of Reading Narrative Text a. Definition of Narrative Text
Narrative text is a type of text that tells story.14 The purpose of this text is to present a view of the world that entertains or informs the reader or listener. Even, the narrative text can be educating. Means that there must be a lesson or a moral that the writer want to convey from the passage to the writer. In other word, the purpose of narrative text is for entertaining, informing and educating. Narrative text includes any type of writing that relates a series of events. There are some examples of narrative text, such as fables, novels, short stories, poems, memoirs, biographies, and news stories. But in this study the writer limited the passage only for fable text.
b. Characteristics of Narrative Text
In narrative text, there are three main parts :
1) Orientation, tells about the setting of the story, includes time, place and characters.
2) Complication(s), tells the problem (s) in the story that must be solved by characters.
3) Resolution describes the solution to the complication(s) and it also gives ending to the story.
4)
14 Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English, (South Yarra: MacMillan Education, 2003), p. 6.
Below is the example of Narrative text.
Table 2
The Example of Narrative Text
Orientation
The Lion and the Mouse
Once, as a lion was asleep in his den, a naughty little mouse ran up his tail He then run onto his back and up his mane and jumped on his herd. This soon wakened the Lion. The Lion grabbed the mouse and, holding him in his large claws, roared in anger.
Complication
“How dare you wake me up! Don‟t you know that I am King of Beasts? Anyone who disturbs my rest deserves to die! I shall kill you and eat you!” The mouse was terrified. He begged the lion to let him go.
“Please don‟t eat me Your Majesty! I did not mean to wake you, It was a mistake. I was only playing. Please let me go – I promise I will be your friend forever. Who knows but one day I could save your life?”
This lion looked at the tiny nouse and laughed. “You save my life?
What an absurd idea!” he said scornfully. “But you have made me laugh, and put me into a good mood again, so I shall let you go.” And the lion opened his claws and let the mouse go free. “Thank you, your Majesty”, squeaked the mouse, then he run away as fast as he could.
A few days later, the lion was caught in a hunter‟s snare. He tried to struggle, but he couldn‟t break free and became even more entangled in the net of ropes. He let out a roar of anger that shook the forest. Even animal heard it, including the tiny mouse.
“My friend the lion is in trouble,” cried the mouse.
Resolution
He ran as fast as he could in the direction of the lion‟s roar. Soon he found the lion trapped in the hunter‟s snare.
“Hold still, Your Majesty”, squeaked the mouse. “I‟ll have you out of there in a jiffy! And without further delay, the mouse began nibbling through the ropes with his sharp little teeth. Very soon the lion was free.
“I did not believe that you could help me, little mouse. But today you saved my life,” said the lion humbly.
“It was my turn to help you, Your Majesty.” answered the mouse.
c. Teaching Reading Comprehension of Narrative Text
As stated above, reading comprehension is a complex process of understanding the message that the writer try to convey from the printed word. According to Collins and Smith, this skill is usually taught in schools in two ways.15 The first way is students have to read a text, in this case is narrative text, then read comments or answer questions about that narrative text. This method emphasizes the important components of reading comprehension. The second way is reading group. In this method, the students have to engage in reading aloud activity. The teacher will help the students when they had difficulties. Sometimes the teacher also gives comments or asks question about that narrative text.
In teaching reading comprehension, there are two things that must
15 Allan Collins and Edward E. Smith, “Teaching the Process of Reading Comprehension”, Technical Report, No. 182, 1980, pp. 2- 3.
be concerned in choosing the text, in this case is narrative text.16 The first is the teacher have to choose the narrative text which is organized in a familiar structure. It make the students easier to comprehend and remember the narrative text compared to the text structered in not familiar way. The second is the teacher have to use teaching strategies that will help students in comprehending narrative text. Many researchers who have developed strategies for enhancing students understanding of narrative text structure emphasize the connection between reading and writing.
In summary, in teaching reading comprehension of narrative text there two thing that must be concerned. The first is the method that we used in teaching and the second is two things that must be concerned in choosing the narrative text for teaching.
3. The Concept of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) Strategy a. Definition of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) Strategy
Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) is a strategy that was invented by Taffy Raphael on 1986. Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) strategy defined as a strategy that teaches the students to recognize a taxonomy of relationships between specific kinds of questions and their related answers.17 Some researchers have examined this strategy, and the results showed that this strategy is effective in improving students‟ reading comprehension. This strategy required
16 Klinger et al, op. cit., pp. 78 – 79.
17 Farris et al, op. cit., p. 350.
students to complete the task that contains of QAR Question. Taffy Raphael was categorized QAR question into two broad categorizations,
„in the books‟ and „in my head‟. This categorizations are the core of the QAR strategy. It was categorized based on where answer of the question can be found.
Raphael developed QAR as a tool for clarifying how students can approach the task of reading texts and answering questions. It helps them realize the need to consider both information in the texts and information from their own background knowledge. Without QAR instruction, students often over rely on text information or background knowledge.18
The QAR (Question-Answer Relationship) strategy teaches students to categorize questions asked in textbooks according to where and how they find the answer to these questions. By studying the types of questioned asked, students learn to seek answers quickly and accurately. When answering textbook questions, students are usually expected to use explicit information, implicit information, and information from their own experiences.
By employing QAR it is hoped that teacher can help students improve their reading comprehension since QAR provides students with question-answer strategies of reading comprehension. The categories of question provided in QAR enable students to consume much less time.
18 Taffy E. Raphael, Teaching Question Answer Relationship, Revisited. The Reading Teacher, February (1986), pp. 516 – 522.
By using QAR, students need not to spend their many times looking at reading passage in order to find answer that belong to In My Head„
question as the question needs students to answer the question by using their background knowledge or schemata.
From the statements above, it can be inferred that QAR is strategy for clarifying how students approach the task of reading texts and answering questions. It helped them to consider both information in the text and information from their own background knowledge.
b. Categories of QAR
Raphael identified two board categories of QAR for finding information and for answering questions: first category is In the book questions consisting of Right there and Think and Search questions.
These questions require answers that can be found directly in the text.
Another category is In your head questions consisting of Author and you and On your own. These questions require a higher level of thinking.
While details from the text may or may not be used, the primary source of the answer will involve the reader„s own thinking in relation to the text, the author„s meaning, and application of the theme outside the text.
The details of both categories are described as follows:19
19 Taffy E. Raphael, op. cit., pp. 518 – 519.