CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW
A. Theoretical review
2. The Concept of Folklore
A.Taylor, an eminent American Folklorist has succeeded to great extent in defining the term folklore. His definition according to Mazharul Islam is the only one which seems more rational than all others, though this also does not cover all points and lacks in may respect. He defines:9
“Folklore is the material that is handed on by tradition, either by word of mouth or by custom and practice. It may be folk song, folk tales, riddles, proverbs or other materials preserved in words. It may be traditional tools and physical objects like fences or knots, hot cross buns, or Easter eggs;
traditional ornamentation like the walls of troy; or traditional symbols like the Swastika. It may be traditional procedures like throwing salt over ones shoulder or knocking on wood. It may be traditional beliefs like the notion that elder is good for the ailments of the eye. All of these are folklore”.
After studying the definitions of folklore, it may be plausible to express that folklore is the creation of civilization, the creation of the people who live in particular geographical area, share the same language, culture, mechanism or livelihood and living conditions, hose way of life and traditional heritage are bound by a common identity. It is transmitted orally or through one written process from one generation to other and from one century to other.10
It exchanges its position from oral to written traditions with the advancement of knowledge in that society. The knowledge in folklore is the result of experience, experienced by persons, community or society as a whole. The individual gains knowledge through experience and when
9 Taylor, Archer, Folklore and the Student of Literature, quoted by Mazhar-ul-Islam, Op.Cit.,p.12
10
experience and knowledge is combined together it voices the same feeling of the society. This feeling gets its expression in the elements of folklore.
In other words, the creation of an individual when accepted by the society as its own wealth, it becomes folklore.11 The elements of folklore are social products. They are created, retained and transmitted by the folk and such it stands as the mirror of the people and the society-not dead like a piece of glass but a living one.12
As we know that Indonesia has many cultural traditions like folklore, folk art, and people ceremony. When the people passed down from generation to next generation, they chose the folklore to infuse ethics. They believed that from the folklore so many values they get. The values will be use to next generation as life guidelines such as honest, responsible, discipline, religious and so on.
b. Folk Literature
Society as an integrated collectivity of human beings possess the remarkable property of self expression.13 Like creative literature, folk literature too has two broader categories such as prose form and poetry form. Prose literature include folk tales, myths, legends, fairy tales, fables,
11 Allan Dundes, The entry of folklore into the written form does in no way disqualify it from being a piece of folklore.
12 T.F Henderson, The latest theories suggest that even a creation of an indidual; id acknowledged by the society eithrt due to its literary merit or message as its own wealth, ita has no restriction of being treated as a piece of folk literature. The Ballad in Literature,p.95.
13 F.R, Leaves. Literature and Society,p.107.
animal tales, household tales, numskull tales, ghost stories, anecdotes, folk dramas, allusions, proverbs and riddles. 14
c. The Types of Folklore
Indonesian folklore reflects the diverse culture of Indonesia as well as the diversity of ethnic groups in Indonesia. Many ethnic groups have their collection of tales and folklores being told for generations. The stories usually told to children as some kind of bed-time story, and have pedagogical value on kindness, benevolence, modesty, honesty, bravery, patience, persistence, virtue and morality. For example, the popular theme is
"the truth is always prevails, the evil will always defeated".
While most of Indonesian children folklore stories have happy ending plots and a 'happily ever after' theme, some employ tragedy and have rather sad endings.
According to James Danandjaya, in his research book “Indonesia Folklore” that folklore consist 3 types such as mite, legend and fairy tales.
All of the types will be explain bellow:15 a. Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are traditional stories, intended primarily for children, which recount human encounters with supernatural beings such as fairies, witches, ogres, and the like, most often conveying a cautionary message. Many such tales were compiled by the Brothers Grimm. In the modern era, they have become the basis of Disney movies, television, and movies.
14 Forward, M.L.Saqi, Kashir Luka Bath, Vol.5, p.8
15James Danandjaya,1998. Indonesia Folklore. P.59
b. Legends
The legend is a narrative produced and transmitted orally or in writing, about a single, extraordinary, supernatural, or marvelous, true or fictitious, believed or slighted, often dated/localized event (experience), brought up with didactic or entertaining intent; it serves to confirm, or expand the experiential horizon of the recipient and confirm or question a momentarily valid conception of the world.16 c. Myths
A myth is a traditional sacred story, usually featuring gods and heroes which purports to give a cosmic explanation of a natural phenomenon or cultural practice. It is part of the cultural fabric, conveying essential (if not literal) truth and meshing with other stories and beliefs in the society.
d. The Functions of Folklore
According to Dundes,discusses four main functions of folklore.
(a.)Function of folklore is that it serves as a form of amusement or entertainment. (b.)The role it plays in validating culture. (c.)Folklore is found in the role that it plays in education. (d.)Consist in maintaining the stability of a culture. As Dundes says, different genres of folklore can fulfil similar functions despite their forms being different. However, he also says that the functions of different genres are to some extent distinctive.17
16 Richard Nordquist,2017.Legend (Narration) Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms.
TaughtCo.p.2
17Alan Dundes, 1965.The Study of Folklore.p.279-298
The first function of folklore, that is of amusing both people who tell it and those who listen to it, is very important. Most folklore is told at leisure time, after a hard working day, in order to amuse both the teller and the listeners and as Thompson says, to relieve the overpowering monotony of one’s life.
As the second function which consists in validating culture, it is, according to Dundes fulfilled by ‘justifying its rituals and institutions to those who perform and observe them. Malinowski illustrates this function by saying that myths, for instance, serve as a ‘warrant, a character, and often even practical guide’ to magic, ceremony, ritual and social structure. This is, however, not only applicable tp myth. It also applies to many other genre of folklore.
As far as the third function is concerned, it also important in the sense that most folklore is intended for younger generations in order to teach them manners, customs, beliefs, practices, and so forth. As an example, Dundes says that ogre tales serve the purpose of disciplining young children, and lullabies are sung in order to put them in good humour. Fables and folktales are used to teach general attitudes and principles and to ridicule vices and misbehavior, proverbs are used as a means to warn them against what is bad and as Dundes puts it, to warn the dissatisfied or over-ambitious individual to be content with his lot, to accept the world as it is and thus to conform to the accepted patterns.
e. Psychoanalytic Reading Folklore
Folklore as a new field of learning emerged, relatively new in the nineteenth century when the scholars both in England and Germany began to observe closely at the cultural ways of the lower classes. The Grimm brothers began publishing volumes of oral folk narratives and the interpretation of German Mythology.
Psychoanalytic analysis involves the interpretation of the symbols in the tales to reflect the collective consciousness of the people. This interpretation studies a cultural folk tale to interpret the psyche of its people. Psychoanalysis offers deeper insight into the cultural and psychological aspect of the folklore as it attempts to decipher the symbolic meaning inherent in the folktales. This approach not only helps to understand the tales but also the people by applying the concept of sexuality, power and gender relations.
The knowledge and learning of people can be deciphered through the process of psychoanalysis where one can understand the hopes, aspiration and the psychological makeup of the people. Folktales are the products of the human imagination, creativity, and also reflects the unconscious needs of the society.18
f. Benefit of Reading Folklore
Folklore can be used to help students develop strong vocabulary mastery, study other cultures, model positive character traits, and discover a
18Farhain Khan,”The Concept of Folklore: An Overview of the Psychoanalytic Reading of Folklores”,International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS), Patna University, India.Vol-3,Issue-6,2018.P 1059-1060
love of stories. Since folklore has been passed down through the oral tradition, they were honed for listening so they were easy to remember and share. As a result, folklore made it easier for students to differentiate characters, follow a plotline or recall a sequence of events. Not surprisingly, working with folklore can also help students develop the vocabulary mastery.19
Based on the explaining above, the researcher assumes that folklore is ways to know how about old generations teach a lesson to younger generation by stories. The researcher gives the student an Indonesia Folktales stories, that why the student more motivate to reading and will be more enjoying in vocabulary learning.
a. Hypothesis Formulation
Concerning to the concept and theoretical assumption above, the researcher would like to formulate the hypothesis as follows:
1. There is positive and significant influence of reading folklore towards student’s vocabulary mastery at eight grade students of SMPN 6 metro.
2. There is no positive and significant significant influence of reading folklore towards student’s vocabulary mastery at eight grade students of SMPN 6 metro.
19 August House Publisher,”Why are Folklore Important?”, Piedmont Road Northeast, Atlanta,Georgia 30305.P.310
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. Research Design
This research is use the quantitative research. “Quantitative research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics).”20 It means that quantitative research was illustrating the fact or event by using numbers in gathering information.
This research is an experimental research in the form descriptive quantitative. This research will be conducted in SMP N6 Metro. In this research, the writer will investigate the eighth grades of students SMPN 6 Metro.
This influence research focuses on the influence between independent variable and dependent variable. This research contained two variables, the independent variable that is using Reading Folklore (X) and the dependent variable that is Vocabulary Mastery (Y).
This is Constelasion of design research experiment:
This research is experiment research by using true experimental design which consist of control group pretest posttest design. Therefore, in this research the researcher use two classes, the first classes the experimental class which receive treatment that is teaching reading folklore and the second class as the control class which doesn’t received the special treatment.
20 Daniel Muijs. Doing quantitative research in education. (London:Sage Publication,2004),p.1 Variable X
(Reading Folklore)
Variable Y (Vocabulary Mastery)
B. Population, Sample and Sampling Technique 1. Population
According to Creswell, a population is a group of individuals who have the same characteristic21. Moreover, Donald Ary stated that a population is defined as all members of any well-defined class of people, events, or objects.22 Population is an individual or group that represents all the members of a certain group or category of interest.23 It means that population is total number of subject or unit of analysis who has gather characteristics to contrast with others.
The Population of the research is the students at eight grade of SMPN 6 Metro. The total population is 248 students, divided by eight classes and each class consist of class 8.1 is 32 students, class 8.2 is 30 students, class 8.3 is 31 students, class 8.4 is 31 students, class 8.5 is 31 students, class 8.6 is 31 students, class 8.7 is 31 students, and class 8.8 is 31 students.
2. Sample
Donald Ary stated that a sample is a portion of a population, whereas Creswell explained that a sample is a subgroup of the target population that the researcher plans to study for generalizing about the target population. 24 It means that sample is small unit of population The sample of this research is two classes. Class 8.1 as an experimental class that consist of 32 students
21John W. Creswell, Educational Research Methodology: 4thEditionn, p. 142.
22Donald Ary, et al., Introduction to Research in Education: 8th Edition, p. 148.
23Timothy C. Urdan, Statistics in Plain English, Second Edition, (London: LEA publisher, 2005), p.1.
24 John W. Creswell, Educational Research Methodology: 4thEditionn, p. 142.
and class 8.2 as control class consist of 30 students at the eighth grade of SMP N6 Metro.
Table 2
The Population at Eight Grade of SMP N 6 Metro
No Grade Numbers
1. VIII.1 32
2. VIII.2 30
Total Numbers 62
Source: The School Archives, taken on February 28, 2018.
From the table above, the population consists of two classes there are 62 students.
3. Sampling Technique
Sample is needed in this research to describe population condition.
Marczyket.al defined sample as” a subset of the population.” It means that sample is the part of population which will be researched.
In this research, the writer uses purposive cluster sampling as the method in choosing a sample. Purposive cluster sampling is deciding a sample with certain opinion or some which can give the maximum data. The reason is based on the grade of the data pre-survey on the student’s vocabulary mastery, the student’s score in the class 8.1 can be categorized into poor category than the other class.
C. The Operational Definitions of Variables a. Independent Variable
The independent variable are variable (probably) cause, influence or effect outcome. They are also called treatment. Independent variable of this research is Reading Folklore as a strategy in teaching vocabulary that make student more active in learning process.
In this research, researcher used observation to know about the condition of the student, especially in the score of vocabulary subject and also to know the treatment that uses by teacher when they are teaching vocabulary. Then, the researcher analyzed the data and write in the observation list, as the result of pre-survey data.
The researcher used the quantitative research, which pre-test and post- test design. In this design, the pre-test and post-test intend to investigate whether using reading folklore can be use to influence vocabulary ability.
Reading folklore is oral tradition including myths, legends, folktales and jokes.
The researcher used objective test to know about student’s vocabulary mastery. Objective tests are tests that are arranged in such a way and alternative answers have been provided. This test consists of various forms, such as (1) Multiple Choice Test, and (2) Matching Test. Include in the excellent category (80-100) and the good category (66-79). Furthermore, in the fair category (59-65), the poor category (40-55) and then the failed category (30-39).
The indicators of this variable are:
a) The competence to determine the main idea of the reading text.
b) The competence to mention the difficult word the reading text.
c) The competence to determine the topic sentence and supporting sentence.
b. Dependent Variables
Dependent variable of this research is the response or the criterion variable that is presumed to be caused by or influences by the independent treatment conditions and any other independent variable.25 It means that variable which is observed and measured to determine the effect of the independent variable. Dependent variable of this research is Vocabulary mastery.
In this research the student can explore their ideas with a good vocabulary. This variable can be measured by using objective test, that are (1) Multiple Choice Test, and (2) Matching Test. The tests have been given two times, which are before the treatment or called as pre-test and after the treatment or called as post test.
The test consists of 10 questions correlate with the material which is given by researcher. The vocabulary is focused on verb, noun, adverb and adjective which are used in folktale story. And each category has vocabulary score criteria include, good, fair, and bad. So the highest score is 100 as the total of the score vocabulary ability.
The indicators of Vocabulary mastery are:
25Ibid,. p.165-166
a. Forming a general understanding of text.
b. Developing an interpretation of the text.
c. Developing a pronunciation of the word.
Table 3
Passing grade criteria
Grade Letter Categories
80-100 66-79 59-65 40-55 30-39
A B C D E
Excellent Good
Fair Poor Failed
In addition, to measure of the student’s vocabulary mastery the researcher used scale of measurement 0-100. The scale used on the result of pre-test and posttest of vocabulary mastery which are consists of 10 questions, with each question has 10 point if answer the true question. Maximal score is 100 and the minimal is 0.
D. Data Collection Method
In collecting the data, the researcher had the following steps:
1. Test
According to Creswell, a test is a set of stimuli presented to an individual in order to elicit responses on the basis of which a numerical score can be assigned.26 Anderson with Arsenault assume that “instrument includes test and questionnaire, observation schedule and any other tool used to collect
26 Ibid, p. 201.
data”.27 Thus, in this research used test as data collecting method of measuring both variables. The research would use folklore text to measure student’s vocabulary mastery. Moreover, the researcher would use test of collecting the data which consist of pre-test and post-test to measure of the student’s vocabulary mastery.
a. Pre-test
The pre-test had be done in the first meeting before doing treatment.
That is to know vocabulary mastery of the students before doing the action research.
b. Post-test
Post-test had be down in the last meeting after doing treatments to find out whether the treatment gave influence to the student’s achievement in the class or not.
2. Documentation
Donald Ary state that “Documentation be of written or text-based artifacts (textbooks, novels, journals, etc.28 Documentation is one of instruments to collect some data and informations in the form of written source or documenter such as book, encyclopedia, daily note, etc. The researcher used the documentation method to know detail condition of the school, students, teacher, and history of SMP Negeri 6 Metro.
27 Gary Anderson With Nancy Arsenault, Fundamental Of Education Research, (USA: Falmer Press, 2005), p. 94.
28 Donald Ary, et.al, p.442
E. Research Instrument
The research instrument is a tool or facility used by researcher to collect data in order to work more easily and better result, in terms of more accurate, complete and systematic so that more easily processed.29 Furthermore, the researcher instrument involves:
1. Instrument Blueprint
Instrument blueprint is a way to get the data that useful the researcher has done to college information the field. Instrument includes test and questionnaires, observation schedules any other tool used to call data. The instrument which used to measure the student’s vocabulary mastery was test.
The kind of test was multiple choice test and matching test that are consist of 10 item questions, each item consist of four option: A,B,C,D.
2. Instrument Calibration
Instrument is the scale of measurement which will be used to decide the instrument standard will be used. Furthermore, instrument calibration is screening or examination of items of instrument that made by the researcher.
From the question above, it can be inferred that instruments calibration is scale of measurement which will used to screening or examination of items instrument that made by the researcher.
a. Validity
To know whether the test have a good quality or not, the researcher should know the validity of the test. Validity is another critical aspect of measurement that must be considered as part of an overall measurement
29 A.S. Homby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,(New York: Oxford University Press,2000),P.203.