In this research, the researcher uses quantitative research. This research is a quantitative research design. According to Cresswell (2009:48), “quantitative research is an approach for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables.”
Quantitative research deals to measure the ability on comprehending the text and to find out the effect of Students Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique on students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text. In this research, the researcher uses quasi experimental design in which there are experimental and control groups. The researcher gives different treatments to experimental and control groups. In experimental group, the researcher gives the treatment using STAD, but in control group conventional teaching is used.
310 Table 3.1.Research Design
Group Pre-Test Treatment Post-Test
Control Group X - X2
Experimental Group Y √ Y2
The instrument that will be used in this research is a test. The test takes from the text given by the researcher. It is multiple choices that consist of 20 items and consist of four options. The data will be collected by conducting pre-test and post-test to both groups, the experimental group and control group. Pre-test is a test conduct before conducting the treatment. Post-test is a test conducted after conducting the treatment. Researcher will give the text and determine the questions based on the level of reading comprehension to make sure that students can be mastered on reading comprehension. The validity of the test uses the other class.
The population in this research is the students of SMP Negeri 2 Tanah Jawa grade eight. Grade eight students have eight classes and every class consist of 30 students and all the students grade consists of 240 students. The sample of this research is grade VIII1 as experimental group and grade VIII2 as control group. The researcher are using pre-test and post-test for both of the groups to collect the data.
IV.Findings and Discussion
This section focused on pre-test and post-test scores analysis of both experimental group and control group and the hypothesis testing. The result of pre-test scores of the experimental and control groups were presented in Appendix 1 and 2.The data came from the students’ scores of reading comprehension test. The scores were obtained simply by counting the total scores of the correct answer. In collecting the data, the researcher gave the test in multiple choice forms about reading comprehension in descriptive text to the students. The test consists of 20 items.After analyzing the data, the researcher found that the average scores group was different. The pre-test score of experimental group was 61.33 and control group was 60. The post test score of experimental was 80.16 whereas, the control group was 71.66.
From the data after the researcher found score of students in experimental and control group, then the researcher found that the t-test was 5.35.
Then, the researcher tested the null hypothesis (Ho) and the alternative hypothesis (H1) whether the score is rejected or accepted.After gaining the result of t-test, the researcher calculated the degree of freedom (df) with the formula as followed:
df = (Nx + Ny) - 2 = (30 + 30) – 2 = 58
This t-test was later compared to that t-table in 5% = 1.67 and df = 58. Since the value of t- test was higher than t-table (t-test > t-table). It means that 5.35 > 1.67. From the result, it can be seen that there was the significant effect of using Student Team Achievement Division Technique (STAD) Technique that used to teach reading. It can be proved by t-test is higher than t-table.Based on the calculating above, the result shows that is higher than it could be seen as follow:
> or 5.35 > 1.67
Based on calculation of t-test, it was found out that t-observed (5.35) was higher than t- table (1.67) at the level significance (0.05). It means that there was a significant effect of using Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique on the students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text.From the result of calculation above, the total t-test obtained value of the research was 5.35 with degree of freedom (df) is (30 + 30) – 2 = 58 and level of significant 5% (0.05), so the value table of t-table was 1.67. It showed that t-obtained
311 value was higher than t-table (5.35 > 1.67). Therefore, the Alternative Hypothesis (ha) was accepted and Null Hypothesis (h0) was rejected.
Based on the data analysis the researcher found that the effect of Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique on students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text was good enough and successful. This technique was suitable to increase students’
comprehending in comprehend the text well. In experimental group using Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique, the students were more active and they can share their feeling, idea, and arguments when completed their task that had given by the researcher.
By using (STAD) technique, every student had the chance to give their idea and if there were the students did not understand about the lesson the other students in that group must helped them. So, this technique will make them easy to understand the lesson with their teammates.
The research showed the score of the students that use Student Team Achievement Division Technique (STAD) Technique was higher than the student’s score without Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) Technique. It can be proved from the mean of post-test in experimental group was 80.16 and the mean of post-test in control group was 71.66. It showed that the score of the students in experimental group was higher than control group. So based on the analysis of the data, T-observed was higher that T-table (5.35 > 1.67) at the level of significant. It showed that there was an effect of using Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique on students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text at grade eight of SMP Negeri 2 Tanah Jawa.
The purpose of this research was to find out whether teaching by using Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique was more significant than without using Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique on students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text. From the result that the researcher got after doing the research it could be concluded that STAD technique was suitable as the teaching technique for the students especially in teaching reading comprehension in descriptive text. It could be seen from the score that the students got in experimental group was higher than the students in control group. This technique was suitable to increase students’ comprehending in comprehend the text well. In experimental group using Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique, the students were more active and they can share their feeling, idea, and arguments when completed their task that had given by the researcher. By using (STAD) technique, every student had the chance to give their idea and if there were the students did not understand about the lesson the other students in that group must helped them. During the activity, the students needed to discuss certain on topics in a group. Each student should share their ideas when doing the work in group. However, when they already used their opportunity to speak, they needed to be patient and turned to listen the others members’ ideas. It indicated that by applying STAD technique, the students’ reading comprehension had improved and the problem of students in reading comprehension had been solved.
V.Conclusions
The analysis shows that there are significant difference students’ score in reading comprehension both experimental and control group. From the result of analysis in chapter IV, overall, the researcher conclude that there was a significant difference on students’
reading comprehension taught by using STAD and those taught by using conventional teaching. It means that the null hypothesis is rejected and the research hypothesis is accepted.
From the explanation above, it could be said that teaching English using STAD is more effective than using conventional teaching. In making variation of the activities, the teacher can improve from the original one combine with the new one that is STAD method.
The next suggestion is directed to future researchers. First, the future researchers are expected to take longer time to conduct such study in order to enlarge the treatment and to be
312 able to improve reading comprehension, besides that she or he should do the research intensively so that the result can be reliable and valid. Then, for the future researchers who use STAD should enlarge his or her understanding about STAD and change the supplementary materials correlated to its classroom activities.The suggestion for the English teacher should think about using STAD in order to get better comprehension as proven from the result of this study. Then the teacher should choose the appropriate materials related to the topic to improve the students’ interest and active in the learning process.To make the students become enjoy in learning English.
References
Cresswell, John. W. 2009. Research Design-Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. USA: Sage Publication.
Grabe, W, &Stoller, F, L. 2002. Teaching and Researching Reading.Longman.
Knapp, Peter &Watkins.Megan. 2005. Genre, Text, Grammar Technologies for Teaching and Assessing Writing. Australia: University of New South Wales Press Sidney.
Johnson, D. W, &Johnson, R. T. 2008. Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning: The Teacher's Role. In R. M. Gillies, A. Ashman & J. Terwel (Eds.), Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (pp. 9-37).
New York, U.S.A: Springer.
Nuttal, C. 2000.Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language.Oxford: Macmillan Heineman.
Nunan, David. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. Singapore: McGraw Hill.
Slavin, 1991, Student Team Learning: A Practical Guide to Cooperative Learning, 3rd edition, Washington, D.C: National Education Association
Westwood, Peter. 2001. Reading and Learning Difficulties Approaches to Teaching and Assessment. Australia: The Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell, Victoria, 3124.
Woolley, G. 2011. Reading Comprehension: Assisting Children with Learning Difficulties, Springer Science Business Media B.V.
313 STUDENTS’ READING STRATEGIES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE IN
COMPREHENDING NEWS ITEM TEXT
Kotnia Riwanti Tampubolon
English Department, Nommensen HKBP University, Indonesia [email protected]
Abstract
This research was aimed to find out reading strategies used by female and male students in comprehending news item text at grade twelve in SMA N 4 Pematangsiantar and to find out whether there was any differences between male and female students in using reading stategies. The design was descriptive qualitative research. The population was students at grade twelve in SMA N 4 Pematangsiantar. The instrument which used was questionnaires which adopted from Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory by Sheory and Mokhtari. They devided reading strategies into 3 parts, global reading strategies, problem solving reading strategies and support reading strategies The results were shown that male and female students mostly used problem solving reading strategies, followed by global reading strategies and support reading strategies.
From overall strategies, female studens were more significant users than male students.
Keywords: comprehending text, male and female, news item text, reading strategies
I.Introduction
Reading can open up a new world for the students; it enables to gain the new knowledge and enjoy many kinds of literature, magazine and newspaper. This is in line with the statement of Mariane Celce Murcia (2000: 118) that “reading is very essential for us in order to increase our knowledge. Even in this modern age of multimedia and high-tech environment, it is still the case that most of us rely on our reading ability in order to gain information or expand our knowledge”. By reading, people are able to produce the idea through the writing that describes their comprehension about what they have read before. So, reading process not only involve physical processing (by using eyes) but also mental processing (by using brain and prior knowledge).Armbruster (2006: 41) defined that “reading comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really “reading”, as reading comprehension is also the ability to identify the meaning of the words and work out between the words to draw meaning from the texts”. It involves using prior knowledge, making predictions and drawing out valuable information, among other factors. On the other hand, Jeffries &
Mikulecky(2004:259) stated that “reading comprehension is the problem when the teacher asks them to read English text, but since they can read in their own native language”.
Therefore, they tend to attribute their dificulties in comprehending the English language or they feel the fault lies in their own lack of ability.Many reseachers have investigated the use of EFL/ESL reading strategies among learners. For example Gorsuch & Taguchi (2008: 262 ) found that Vietnamese college EFL students mostly used bottom-up, top-down, and cognitive strategies to assist comprehension in repeated reading sessions. Kummin & Rahman (2010:
8) reported that ESL Univesity students from Kebangsaan, Malaysia, who were proficient in English often used a variety of strategies, but those who were less proficient had little knowledge of metacognition. They were not able to use appropiate strategies to evaluate their own reading comprehension performance. The differences of male and female in
314 comprehending text is not a new phenomenon. Tannen (1990: 8) has compared gender differences in language as more similar to ‘cultural’ differences. Comparing conversational goals, she argued that males have report style, aiming to communicate factual information, whereas females have a rapport style, more concerned with building and maintaining relationships. Most studies show that, on overage, females do better in school than boys.
Lehto and Anttila (2003: 136) found specific differences in listening comprehension, which, according to theses researchers, can be a good predictor of an individual’s skills in reading comprehension. Second-, fourth-, and sixth-graders listened to six passages read on a compact disk. Then, participants listened to 12 sentences related to the passages and were told to mark on their answer sheers whether each sentence was correct or incorrect. Females’
listening comprehension scores were significantly higher than boys’ scores, and the difference was comparable to those typically found for females in reading comprehension.
While doing teaching practice, the researcher also found the fact that females students are higher than boys in English language class. When, the researcher asked the students to do reading comprehension, she found that the result of students reading comprehension were different one another. It was caused since every students had their own way to interpret the meaning of the text. Furthermore, female students often did their work in reading well and felt interested in reading text, while male students were not so interested and did it perfunctorily. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the learners reading strategies that high school students currently use in order to find out what reading strategies the students need to use in reading strategies, to comprehend what they read, to develop reading skills, and to unconsciously inrease their vocabularies and syntactic knowledge.
II.Literature Review