Improving the students' Reading comprehension Through Think

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH THINK-ALOUDS STRATEGY (A Classroom Action Research At the First Year Students of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU ,Gowa). A Thesis. Submitted to the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Makassar Muhammadiyah University in Part Fulfillment Of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan REZKY PRATAMA 10535 3223 08. ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION MAKASSAR MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY 2014.

UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH MAKASSAR FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN Jl. Sultan Alauddin No. 259 Telp. (0411) 866972 Makassar 90221. APPROVAL SHEET. Title. : Improving the student’s Reading Comprehension Through Think Alouds Strategy ( A classroom Action Research at the second Year Students of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU Kabupaten Gowa ). Name. : REZKY PRATAMA. Reg. Number. : 10535 3223 08. Program. : ENGLISH DEPARTMENT. After being checked and observed this thesis had been fill qualification to be examined.. Makassar,. October 2012. Supervisors. Consultant I. Consultant II. Prof. Dr. H. M. Basri Dalle, MS. Nur Qalby, SS., M. Hum.. Dean of FKIP Unismuh Makassar. Head of English Education Department. Dr. A. Sukri Syamsuri, M.Hum. Erwin Akib, S.Pd., M.Pd.. ii.

UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH MAKASSAR FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN Jl. Sultan Alauddin No. 259 Telp. (0411) 866972 Makassar 90221. COUNSELING SHEET Name Reg. Number Title. : REZKY PRATAMA : 10535 3223 08 : Improving The students’ Reading comprehension Through ThinkAlouds Strategy ( A Classroom Action Research at the second year students of SMAN ! TOMPOBULU, GOWA). Consultant II : Prof.Dr.H.M. Basri Dalle,M.S Day / Date. Chapter. Note. Sign. Makassar, October 2014 Approved by: Head of English Education Department. Erwin Akib, S. Pd, M.Pd NBM: 860 934.

UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH MAKASSAR FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN Jl. Sultan Alauddin No. 259 Telp. (0411) 866972 Makassar 90221. COUNSELING SHEET Name Reg. Number Title. Consultant I Day / Date. :HAERANI : 10535 3236 08 : The Use of Social-Interactive Writing for English Language Learners Method to Develop the Students’ Ability to Write Narrative Text (A Classroom Action Research at XI IPA of SMA Muhammadiyah Sungguminasa, Gowa). : Prof. Dr. H. M. Basri Dalle, MS. Chapter. Note. Sign. Makassar, October 2012 Approved by: Head of English Education Department. Erwin Akib, S. Pd, M.Pd NBM: 860 934.

SURAT PERNYATAAN. Saya yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini: Nama. : REZKY PRATAMA. NIM. : 10535 3223 08. Jurusan. : Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Judul Skripsi. : Improving the student’s Reading Comprehension Through Think Alouds Strategy ( A classroom Action Research at the first Year Students of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU , GOWA ). Dengan ini menyatakan: Skripsi yang saya ajukan di depan tim penguji adalah hasil karya saya sendiri bukan hasil ciplakan dan tidak dibuatkan oleh siapapun. Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenar-benarnya dan bersedia menerima sanksi apabila pernyataan saya tidak benar.. Makassar, 1 7Oktober 2014 Yang membuat pernyataan. REZKY PRATAMA. v.

SURAT PERJANJIAN. Saya yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini: Nama NIM Jurusan Judul Skripsi. : : : :. REZKY PRATAMA 10535 3223 08 Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Improving the student’s Reading Comprehension Through Think Alouds Strategy ( A classroom Action Research at the first Year Students of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU , GOWA ). Dengan ini menyatakan perjanjian sebagai berikut: 1. Mulai dari penyusunan proposal sampai dengan selesainya skripsi saya, saya akan menyusun sendiri skripsi saya, tidak dibuatkan oleh siapapun. 2. Dalam menyusun skripsi, saya akan selalu melakukan konsultasi dengan pembimbing. 3. Saya tidak akan melakukan penjiplakan (plagiat) dalam menyusun skripsi ini. 4. Apabila saya melanggar perjanjian saya seperti yang tertera pada butir 1,2 dan 3 maka saya bersedia menerima sanksi sesuai dengan aturan yang berlaku. Demikian perjanjian ini saya buat dengan penuh kesadaran.. Makassar, 1 7 Oktober 2014 Yang membuat perjanjian. REZKY PRATAMA. Diketahui oleh: Ketua Jurusan Bahasa Inggris. Erwin Akib, S.Pd., M.Pd NBM: 860 934. v.

ABSTRACT. REZKY PRATAMA, 2014. Improving the student’s Reading comprehension through Think- Alouds Strategy (A Classroom Action Research at the first Year Students of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU ), under the thesis of English Education Department, the Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Makassar Muhammadiyah University, guided by H. Muh. Basri Dalle and Nur Qalby. This research aimed to find out the development of the students’ ability to read descriptive text viewed from Literal reading comprehension and Interpretative reading comprehension at X1 of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU, Gowa. The type of this research was a Classroom Action Research consisted of two cycles. One cycle consisted of four meetings. Thus, that there were eight meetings for two cycles. This classroom action research was done at X1 of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU,Gowa. The research subjects were the students of class X1 in 2013/2014 academic year with 31 students. The instruments of this research were reading test and observation. The research findings indicated that the Use of Think- Alouds Strategy could improve the students’ ability to reading comprehension text viewed from Literal Reading comprehension and Interpretative Reading comprehension. It was proved by the students’ mean score in cycle 2 test result was (81.17) which developed 8.18 % from the cycle 1 mean score (75.59). It was highly developed from diagnostic test (D – test) mean score (63.44). The students’ development in cycle 2 indicated that it had met the researcher score target (75), and considered to be successful criteria in developing the students’ ability to reading comprehension text covering Literal reading comprehension and Interpretative reading comprehension. Therefore there was the improvement of the students’ reading comprehension in terms of Literal reading comprehension dealing with main ideas and meaning of words and Interpretative reading comprehension dealing with Supporting details and Drawing inferences. vii.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Alhamdullilahi Robbil ‘Alamin, the writer is grateful for all the bounties that Allah SWT. has showered on one which enabled me to complete this thesis. Shalawat and salam are addressed to the final chosen religious messenger, the Prophet Muhammad SAW who has changed the human life. The writer realizes that many hands had given their helps and useful suggestion for the completion of this thesis. Without the assistance of these people, this thesis would never have existed. Therefore, the writer would like to express her appreciation and sincere thanks to all of them particularly: 1. Dr. Irwan Akib , M. Pd., the Rector of the Muhammadiyah University of Makassar for his advices during the writer studies at the University. 2. Dr. A. Syukri Syamsuri, M. Hum, the dean of the FKIP Unismuh Makassar. 3. Erwin Akib, S.Pd, M.Pd., the head of English Education Department of FKIP UNISMUH Makassar, who gave her valuable authorities and suggestion in doing thesis. 4. My high appreciation and great thankful are due to her first consultant Prof. Dr. H. M. Basri Dalle, MS and Nur Qalby, S. S., M. Hum. as the second consultant who have given their valuable time and guidance to finish this thesis. x.

5. My heartful thank to all lecturers of the FKIP UNISMUH especially to the lecturers. of. English. Department. and. all. staffs. of. Makassar. Muhammadiyah University. 6. The writer’s deep appreciation for the headmaster and English teacher of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU and all the students of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU especially for the X1 class in academic year 2013/2014 who have spared their time and activities for being subject of this research. 7. Special thanks to the examiners who have taken an important role in finishing her study. 8. The writer would like to express her deepest and affectionate thank to her beloved parents, Bahtiar (father) and Andi fatmawati (mother) who never stop pray for me and special thanks for Mursalim ( My husband ) who support me in finance during My study in college. 9. Special thanks to her best friends Syamsidar, Hasrianti, Nur Ainun Mardiyah, Miftahul Khairiyah, and Nursyamsi. With no exception, thanks to Ikka, Ima, Fina, K’ Yati, Suri, Nurwahidah, Sari, Aldi, Yana and all her friends in E class of English Department 2008. 10. Finally, for all everybody that could not be mentioned one by one, may Allah almighty blesses us now and forever. Billahi Fii Sabilil Haq Fastabiqul Khaerat Makassar,. Oktober 2014. Rezky Pratama x.

LIST OF CONTENTS. TITTLE PAGE .......................................................................................... i. APPROVAL SHEET ................................................................................. ii. COUNSELING SHEET .......................................................................... iii SURAT PERNYATAAN ......................................................................... iv SURAT PERJANJIAN ............................................................................ v ABSTRACT .............................................................................................. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................... vii LIST OF CONTENTS ............................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................... ix LIST OF CHARTS ................................................................................... x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background ...................................................................................... 1. B. Problem Statement ........................................................................... 4. C. Objective of the Study...................................................................... 4. D. Significance of the Study ................................................................. 4. E. Scope of the Study............................................................................ 5. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. The Concepts of Think Alouds Strategy .......................................... 6. B. The Concepts of Reading ................................................................ 15 C. Conceptual Framework ................................................................... 26 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. Research Design.............................................................................. 27.

B. Research Subjects............................................................................ 30 C. Research Variables and Indicators .................................................. 31 D. Research Instrument........................................................................ 31 E. Data Collection................................................................................ 30 F. Data Analysis .................................................................................. 32 CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS A. Findings .......................................................................................... 36 B. Discussions ..................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 61 B. Suggestion ....................................................................................... 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIXES CURRICULUM VITAE.

LIST OF TABLES. Table 1 The Students’ improvement in Literal reading comprehension..... 37 Table 2 The Students ’improvement in Interpretative reading comprehension.................................................................................. 39 Table 3 The Students ’improvement in reading comprehension ................ 41.

LIST OF CHARTS. Chart 1 The Students’ Improvement in Literal reading comprehension..... 38 Chart 2 The Students’ Improvement in Interpretative reading comprehension............................................................................... 40 Chart 3 The Students’ Improvement in Reading comprehension ............... 42.

LIST OF APPENDICES 1. RPP.................................................................................................. 2. Teaching Material .......................................................................... 3. Instruments...................................................................................... 4. Students score ................................................................................ 5. Observation Result .......................................................................... 6. Attendant List................................................................................. 7. Documentation ................................................................................ 7.

LEMBAR PENGESAHAN Skripsi atas nama REZKY PRATAM, NIM: 10535 3223 08 diterima dan disahkan oleh Panitia Ujian Skripsi, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar berdasarkan surat Keputusan Rektor Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar Nomor: 140/Tahun 1434 H/2014 M, sebagai salah satu persyaratan untuk memperoleh gelar Sarjana Pendidikan pada Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris pada hari Selasa tanggal 4 Desember 2012. Makassar, 13 Desember 2012 PANITIA UJIAN Pengawas Umum : Dr. H. Irwan Akib, M.Pd.. (………………………….). Ketua. : Dr. Andi Sukri Syamsuri, M.Hum.. (………………………….). Sekretaris. : Dr. H. Bahrun Amin, M.Hum.. (………………………….). Penguji. : 1. Prof. Dr. H. M. Basri Dalle, MS.. (………………………….). 2. St. Asriati, S.Pd., M.Hum.. (………………………….). 3. Dr. Abd. Muin, M. Hum.. (………………………….). 4. Nur Qalby, SS., M.Hum.. (………………………….). Disahkan Oleh Dekan Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar. Dr. Andi Sukri Syamsuri, M.Hum. NBM: 858 625 ii.

“To get a success , your courage must be greater than your fear”. Untuk mendapatkan kesuksesan, keberanianmu harus lebih besar dari pada ketakutanmu. vi.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. A. Background English is a global language that is used as a communication device among nation of different language. English plays an important role in process of Communication among them and also English can accelerate science and technological development of a nation. English has four skill namely speaking, writing ,listening and reading. Reading is one ways to get information and it can improve people knowledge. By reading, people are able to know many things happen around them even they do not have to see it directly and through reading people can speak and write. Reading can make that people become wide mind. In other words to extend experience of the words in which we live. That is the reason, why reading become a very important thing in learning. Beside that, in informal education , reading is also one way that people shall do to fulfill their education. The researcher found many problems that were faced by the students especially in reading comprehension. Reading does not only read word by word in a sentence, but also to comprehend the ideas composed by the writers through written text (Goodman and Burke, 1978). They are difficult to understand the passage otherwise if they face serious topics such as politics, economics, ect. Here ,teacher play an important role to help understand reading passage .However, comprehending reading or getting answer from the questions in peoples’ mind is. 5.

not easy as people think especially if it is related with English. Most Indonesian learner are acknowledge that reading is a burden for most school ages. This phenomena make them to be not creative readers, that finally will influence their comprehension towards their achievement is categories low. Some students prefer reading novel, magazine, short story, ect. To academic books for pleasure. Whatever they read, it gives than some information about something or certain things , get answer from the question in their mind if they understand or comprehend what they are reading. According Nunan (1997: 72 ) points out that the difficulty of the students to mastery Reading Comprehension of course not only because of the students knowledge factor, but also because of the Factor from the teacher in giving material. The main goal in teaching and learning English reading process is to comprehend the reading material , but the fact shows that the majority of the students are not competent English well, most student encounter the problem in comprehending an English text. They are frustration level although they have been learning English for years. According Jeffrey ,D.W. (2003) in his journal. One of the ways to help students understand English passage if finding good strategies in reading. Teacher can give students strategies or guidelines to understand different types of texts, such as newspaper, fiction book, or academic book. Strategies can help comprehend text. Whatever strategies, the most successful strategies have to make. 5.

students as readers continually set expectations. The strategy that can improve the students reading comprehension is think-aloud strategy. The Think –Alouds Strategy ask students to say out loud what they are thinking about when reading, or simply responding to question posed by teachers or other students. Effective teacher think out loud on a regular basis to model this process for students. In this way, they demonstrate practical ways of approaching difficult problems while bringing to the surface the complex thinking processes that underline reading comprehension, problem solving , and other cognitively demanding tasks. The fact, that still now almost of teaching condition at senior high school in our country is still less emphasis on the learning activity as a process. In reality at SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU Malakaji Gowa. All of the students can be read but only a few of students can comprehend or can understand, they just read the English text, and after that they don’t understand what they have read. It because many factors such as the students consider that English is a subject that very difficult, not interest, make them frustrating and be the scared thing, these are because meaning and letters are different. The other factor is the teacher always use the same method to teach English subject, they do not use interesting strategy and the impact it make the students more bore to study English. As value of observation in the class room the students has score 63.20. This is score as a poor category. In this research the aim is to solve this problem until the students has a good score, while the standard curriculum is 75.. 5.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher intends to develop students’ ability to read. It means that the researcher has target to develop the students’ mean score in reading until more than 75 through Think-Alouds Strategy. These circumstances open the researcher mind to take the method to maximize their potency. In this case, the researcher find a good way to develop the students’ reading ability through Think Alouds Strategy.. B. Problem statement In relation to the various issue putting forward in the background, the research questions were formulated as follows : 1. How is the improvement of the students’ literal reading comprehension by using Think-Alouds Strategy? 2. How is the improvement of the students’ interpretative reading comprehension by using Think-Alouds Strategy? C. Objective of the Study Based on the problem statement above, the objective of this research is to explain: 1. The improvement of the students’ achievement in literal reading comprehension through Think-Alouds Strategy 2. The improvement of the students’ achievement interpretative reading comprehension through Think-Alouds Strategy. 5.

D. Significance of the Study The main purpose of this research is expected to the students can solve their problem in reading comprehension and made the students have good capability in reading English passage. To give information for English teachers to use Think-Alouds Strategy in teaching reading English passaged, to become an alternative strategy in teaching reading materials. It is also expect to be one way to motivate students in reading. E. Scope of The Study This research focused on the students’ reading comprehension through Think-Alouds strategy at the class X1 of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU,GOWA. The scope of this study is restricted to build up the students’ reading comprehension that will focus in the students’ achievement in Literal Reading Comprehension (Main ideas and Meaning of words) and Interpretative Reading Comprehension (Drawing inferences and Supporting details).. 5.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE. A. Think-Alouds Strategy Think –alouds have been described as “eavesdropping on someone’s thinking”. With this strategy, teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalizations include describing things they’re doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the Think –Alouds Strategy is to model for students how skilled strategy readers construct meaning from a text. 1. The Definition of Think - Alouds strategy Jeffrey D.W (2003: 1), states that Think-Aloud is a self-analysis strategy that provides a means for students to identify the types of thought processes/ strategies they experience during reading. In that sense, the think aloud is appropriate for this study because how to connect what they understand in the text to their lives and experience McKeown and Gentilucci (2007: 5) work : Think- Alouds is one of the “ transactional strategies” because it is a joint process of teachers and students working together to construct understanding of text as they interact with it “. Through the interactions that Think-alouds promotes, a better understanding of the texts may emerge in the classroom. Think-Alouds are practical and relatively easy for teachers to use within classroom. Teachers are able to model the think aloud and discuss how good students often re-read a sentences, read ahead to clarify and look for context clues to make sense of what they read. Think-aloud slow down. 35.

the reading process and technique allow students to monitor their understanding of text. Wade (1990: 1) state that, Think-Alouds helps students to reflect upon their own reading proces. During a Think -Aloud you model your thinking (in other words your reading comprehension) out loud as you read. In essence you are modeling to students how to think to themselves as they read independently. Also, you do not ask for feedback from the students during the think aloud by way of turn-and-talks. You simply think aloud as if you were reading the book yourself and at the end of the reading, formulate a summary of the book with the students.. In a similar way, keene & Zimmerman,In Asrawati Thesis ( 1997: 1) declare that “ Think-Alouds is a strategy in which students verbalize their thoughts as they read” or Think-aloud is also process in which readers report their thought while reading. Thus , this strategy is useful because students are verbalizing all their thought in order to create understanding of the reading texts and help students learn to monitor their thinking as they read an assigned passage. where is, students are directed by series of question which they think about and answer aloud while reading. This process reveals how much they understand text. As students become more adept at this technique they learn to generate their own questions to guide comprehension.. Davey (1983) in his journal, Using Think- Alouds help students understand the kind of thinking required by a specific task. The teacher models her thinking process by verbalizing her thoughts as she reads, processes. 35.

information, or performs some learning task. Students see how the teacher attempts to construct meaning for unfamiliar vocabulary, engages in dialogue with the author, or recognizes when she isn't comprehending and selects a fix-up strategy that addresses a problem she is having. Ineffective readers especially benefit from observing what skilled readers think about while reading.. Baumann, et.al (1993: 184). Using Think Alouds to enhance children's comprehension monitoring abilities. -. The intent behind the think-aloud lessons was to help students develop the ability to monitor their reading comprehension and employ strategies to guide or facilitate understanding.. -. Think-Alouds require a reader to stop periodically, reflect on how a text is being processed and understood, and relate orally what reading strategies are being employed.. -. The think-aloud is a technique in which students verbalize their thoughts as they read and thus bring into the open the strategies they are using to understand a text.. -. This meta cognitive awareness (being able to think about one's own thinking) is a crucial component of learning, because it enables learners to assess their level of comprehension and adjust their strategies for greater success.. -. Several studies have shown that students who verbalize their reading strategies and thoughts while reading score significantly higher on comprehension tests.. 35.

The Think- Alouds is one of strategy in which students verbalize their think they read and thus bring into the open the strategies they are using to understand a text. The use of Think – Alouds in conjunction with attempting to help the students’ approach their reading strategically with a meaning orientation is long over due. According to Margaret (1975: 70) in her journal, even when teachers ask some struggling readers a direct question, they do not respond, without thinking the students read the words and don’t construct meaning. Or , if these struggling readers must respond to a ion, ”Elmo learns to fly, in the middle section, the text reads” He leaped a top a sun question about text, they say, “ I don’t know”. These readers have learned that if they refuse to respond, someone else will answer. Other students to revise their understanding, but less frequently than their more active peers. Struggling readers often rely on their initial predictions and ignore contradictory information. Getting students into the habit of thinking out loud enriches classroom discourse and gives teachers an important assessment and diagnostic tool. Baker Lower (1984: 60) Think – Alouds strategy have been use as a means of studying the cognitive processes that readers use as develop meanings. As instructional procedure, however, think- alouds have rarely been used. Davey (1983: 85) in samsah thesis, propose that they might be used as a means of helping poor readers adopt a meaning orientation to print, monitor their comprehension, and apply self correction strategies. With this in mind , Davey identifies five aspect of a skilled reader’s thinking that studies have shown are. 35.

frequently lacking among poor comprehended (making prediction, visualizing, linking with prior knowledge, monitoring, and self correction). Furthermore , she contends that recent work on self monitoring and problem solving suggest that the teachers can help the students acquire these skill through modeling by the teacher follow up by ample practice by the students. 2. The Basic Steps of Think-Alouds Strategy According to Davey (1983: 86) in Samsah thesis, there is four basic steps of Think-Alouds strategy, such as : a.. Teacher modeling The teacher select the passage that” contain points of difficulty,. contradiction, ambiguities, or unknown words. These materials are reads together with the use of Think-Alouds strategy by the teacher by the teacher ( with the students’ following along silently). b. Students partnerships for practice Students may work to gather with partner to practice. Each students take a turn reading and think aloud with short passage. The partner listens and offers his or her think. c. Independent students practice with checklist After working with partners, the students will practice independently with the use of checklists to ensure students involvement and verify the use procedure. d. Integrated use with other materials After initial experience with modeling and think aloud, the teachers need to give example practice with school material and integrate the use of Think-. 35.

Alouds with other lessons and content reading. To this and occasional demonstration of how to read and why and when to use certain strategy. For example the teacher may illustrate his or her thinking prior to reading a content book. 3. Aspect of Think-Alouds Strategy According to Davey (1983: 87), there is five aspect of think alouds strategy, such as : a.Making prediction The students’ understanding of what they read will improve as they make prediction about what will they read in the passage. For example now read the passage paragraph by paragraph, and make prediction what will you read. According to Rog & Rog (2007: 117) in Rajab thesis , predicting involves making educated guesses about what will come next in the story. It is , in a way, a form of offering as readers must apply what they read n the text to what they already known in order to formulate their predictions. During the process of predicting, readers compare what the already learned from a completed book to what they think is going to be read. At the same time readers continuously connect their prior knowledge to the text. Duta (1994: 95) in Elekes Katalin journal, in order to make predictions some elements such as : the title of the text, illustrations, warmers and key words are used for drawing inferences about the content or topic of the text. Then the title can be a starting point to engage and connect students to the text by making predictions about what think might occur in the story. Predicting has to do with. 35.

anticipating what will happen next in the text. Students can use predictin in their thinking process to help them in making. Here, this strategy is very useful for this project since as it has been stated , reading comprehension involves making meaning from a text. According Jeffrey ,D.W.( 2003 ) in his Journal, states that poor readers often plow right a reading, decoding words but not comprehending the text. Think -Alouds can help because they require the reader to slow down and to reflect on how they are understanding ,interpreting text, and make prediction what they read.. Cathy ,P.M.( 2000) in his journal, state that to provide a relevant explanation about what predicting means ‘ when readers predict they must engage with the text. They use their prior knowledge and the text to set up expectations of what will happen or what information the text will contain. Likewise , with predictions students may set a purpose to read and they can anticipate what they will read. In short, predictions take students to be engaged when reading the text, giving them a strong reason to keep reading and thinking what is about to come in the reading passage. b. Describing Visual Imagines The students try to get mental picture of information that find in the text. For example I have picture of this man in my mind. He looks a mold mannered well-dressed business man. Rog & Rog (2001: 117) in Rajab thesis state that “ when students visualize what they read, they are making meaning of the text by combining the words of. 35.

the page with what they already know to create a picture in their minds. In fact, visualizing is a form of making inferences with mental pictures instead of words. Visualizations involve recreating with mental picture what is happening in the written text. Through this reading comprehension tool, the reader becomes an inferential thinker for understanding more easily what is being read. When text becomes understandable for the reader , this not only facilities the comprehension process but also keeps the reader motivated with the text. In similar way. Harvey & Goudvis (2007: 97) in Rajab thesis state that “ visualizing personalize reading, keeps us engaged, and often prevents us from abandoning a book. If the reader thinks of stopping reading the text because this is boring, probably he needs to make visualization to be motivated for keeping reading. Another definition regarding visualizing is that it allows students the ability to become more engaged in their reading and use their imagery to draw conclusions, create interpretations of the text , and bring to mind details and elements from the text. c. Sharing an Analogy or Showing Prior Knowledge Prior knowledge is a comprehension strategy which is modeled when using the think aloud. Harvey and Goudvis (2000: 92) in Rajab thesis state that, ‘ when children understand how to connect the text they read to their lives, they begin to make connections between what they read and the larger world”. This is very important because learner start to make connections about what they already known in order to construct meaning. An individual’s prior knowledge is known to be an important prerequisite for individual learning material to knowledge. 35.

construction and learning outcome. Theoretical approaches stress the importance of learners’ prior knowledge when acquiring new. Bernhard & Heinz, (2009: 87) empirical studies show the influence of prior knowledge on individual learning outcomes. These authors, explicit the importance that prior knowledge has when learning unknown content because a person can make connections to what they already know so that they can create meaning easier. Moreover, several studies have shown that when students activate their prior knowledge they are successful in school additionally, when students make connections about the content of the texts their reading comprehension increase. Prior knowledge is defined as all of an individual’s previous learning and experience. The connecting between an individuals prior knowledge and reading comprehension has been clearly demonstrated over time. For example this like time when I am late for school and it began to thunderstone. d. Monitoring The students try to think about their confusion over difficult information and shown the monitor developing understanding. According Adler, C.R (2001: 4954), state that students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to “fix” problem in their understanding as the problem arise. Comprehension monitoring instruction students to: -. Be aware of what they do understand. -. Identify what they don’t understand. 35.

-. Use appropriate strategies to resolve problem in comprehension. e. Self -correction Self correction or checking on oneself to make sure that what is read make sense. In reading , the ability to self monitor meaning enables students to select and use strategies to improve comprehension . Readers who self correction know when their reading make sense and when it does not. If comprehension is blocked, they know what strategies to use to repair it. The students read beyond confusing section to see if the information that comes will clear up their confusion. For example I need to check this out. I will read a head for a moment. 4. Procedure of Think-Aloud Strategy in Teaching Reading According Wilhelm ( 2001) the think-aloud strategy is basically a reader vocalizing his or her thoughts to another person or audience. It involves telling what you see in your mind as you read, the connections that you are making, what you think might happen or even a word or passage that you don’t understand. For some readers, skilled readers, the steps that are used for comprehending a passage are natural and automatically a part of their thought process. Steps of Think aloud are : 1. Start by choosing an interesting short story to read to the students 2. Decide on a few general reading processes/ strategies that you want to focus on modeling:  Predict : try to figure out what might happen next.  Visualize: picture the people, place, and events being described. 35.

 Connect: connect what you are reading to other text and the read world  Question: ask question about the material you are reading  Clarify: investigate identify main points and summarize  Evaluate : judge the story and the actions of the characters Wilhelm (2001) also includes the following on his list of general reading g process: - Decode text into words and meanings - Set purpose for reading ( for pleasure or information ) - Monitor understanding / self correction - Reflect on meaning ( consolidate knowledge with what was previously known) - Prepare to apply what has been learned( create new knowledge or ways of thinking and use these in new situations). 3. State your purpose for reading and learning some strategies. Let the students know that you will be stopping at different points to think about what you have read. Use a visual cue to signal that you are no longer reading( example : turn the book over in your lap) 4. Introduce the story to the students. Tell the students what predictions you are going to make about the story based on the title and cover illustration 5. Begin reading the story and model your thinking as you read. Think about what parts may be confusing for your students and model how you would handle the issue. For example, “ I don’t know this word. Does it have a prefix. 35.

or suffix that might help me figure out what it means/are there any clues in the sentences or paragraph that may help?” 6. Tell the students what thoughts and images are going through your mind as you read every paragraph or two. Talk about how you are analyzing what happened in the story, making sense of what you have read and giving it meaning. 7. Report some of your thoughts. Once students are done reading, have students decide if you were predicting, nothing something that confused student, making a picture in their head, making inferences and connection to something you already know. 8. After doing a number of think-aloud strategy as a class, have students read a story with a partner and take turns thinking aloud while they read to each other. Walk around and listen to students to gauge their understanding and see who is struggling. Offer prompts to students as needed 9. Offer time for students to reflect on how this strategy has helped them to become better readers 5. The Advantages of Think-Aloud Strategy According to Jeffrey, D.W.(2003) Think-aloud strategy has several advantages, they are: 1.. Easy to use and research-based. 2. Helps students reflect on what they’ve read. 35.

3. Can be used ( teacher to students, students to teacher, student to students) and expressed ( on paper/on the board, large/small group) in a variety of ways) 4. Allows the opportunity for teachers to informally assess how students think and comprehend material 5. Students are given a purpose and s a result able to read more effectively. 6. Students are encouraged to pause while they are reading and think about whether they understand and what steps they should take if they don’t. 7. Can be used with students of varying reading skills/levels 8. Able to differentiate instruction 9. Follows universal design for learning principles ( provides multiple, varied, and flexible options for representation, expression, and engagement) 10. Reduces barriers to learning. B. Concept of Reading Reading is one of the most important skills in learning language besides listening, speaking, and writing. There are many definition of reading given by some experts as follow: 1. Definition of Reading The goal any reading is to get information or knowledge in a book. Nuttal (1988: 21) defines reading as the meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbol. It means that reading is result of interaction between the. 35.

perception of graphic symbol that represent language and the reader language skill, cognitive skill, and the knowledge of the world. According to Mikulecky and Jeffirs (1986: 1) that reading helps the students learn to think in the new language, builds a better vocabulary, and makes them more comfortable with writing English. As ability in reading increase, individual learn to adapt their reading strategies in matching with the purpose for reading and the limiting material. The reading activity reader must understand or comprehends what the reader read. Kustaryo (1988: 11) says that reading are a complex process in which recognition and comprehension of written symbol are influenced by readers’ language background, mind sets, reasoning abilities, and they anticipate meaning based on what has been read and the instantaneous recognition of various writing symbol with existing knowledge and comprehension of information and ideas communicated. From this point of new some expert formulated definition of reading comprehension. Based on the definition above, the researcher concludes that the definition of reading is interactive process of getting information and ideas from the writer with the writing text. 2. Kinds of Reading Heni (2010: 14) in saiful thesis there are three kinds of reading, namely: reading aloud, reading silent, speed reading.. 35.

a. Reading aloud Reading aloud is a important thing to do in reading process where he students who knows as the reader re required to red aloud to practice their pronunciation of every word found in text no to understand the idea. During reading aloud, teacher also can identify the difficulty. The students encounter in pronouncing the words. When such things happen he can help to correct them directly. If the teacher wants the students to read text individually, he can check weather they can pronounce every word in sentences properly or not. b. Silent reading Silent reading is kind of reading that requires the reader to find out the meaning of words or sentences and the ideas written in the text. In silent reading the students are expected to be able to comprehend the text to answer the comprehension question we will as possible. During silent reading, teacher can ask the students to draw the conclusion because through silent reading every students can comprehend the text well and they will be able not only to draw the conclusions but also to retell again what is stated in the text by their own words. c. Speed reading Speed reading is kind of reading that requires the students to be able to read a text speedly and comprehend it at once. Between reading comprehension and speed reading should run side by side where students is required no only to read faster but also how to understand the idea. Theoretically speed reading of narration ( narrative reading) need feeling and mind, but reading scientific need. 35.

creative thinking skill so in reading science the students need reading ability and reading skill for a successful comprehension. 3. Reading Process According to Jeffrey, D.W.(2003), put forward some stages on reading process as follow : b. Perception The perception here indicators the ability to read word a significant word. c. Comprehension The comprehension refers to the ability to make the authors or writers’ word conductive to useful through as read in context. d. Reaction The reaction is the action that requires consideration in connection with what has been by the reader. e. Integration The integration refers to the ability comprehend or understand through concept towards he experienced background of the writer that can be useful as a part of the readers’ experiences. e. Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading Teacher wants to produce students who, even if they do not complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In this case reading, this means producing students who can use reading strategies to maximize their comprehension of text, identify relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.. 35.

Byrnes (1998: 12) states that to accomplish this goal, instructor focus on the process of reading rather than on it is product. a. They develop students’ awareness of reading strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they read in native language. b. They allow students to practice the full repertoire of reading strategies by using authentic reading tasks. They encourage students to read to learn an have authentic purpose of reading by giving students some choice of reading material. c. When working with reading tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for reading assignments. They explain how and why students should use the strategies d. They have students practice reading strategy in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their reading assignments; they encourage students to be conscious of what are they are doing while they complete reading assignments. e. They encourage students evaluation their comprehension and self-report their use strategies. They build comprehension checks into in class reading assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies. f. They encourage development of reading skill and the use of reading strategies by using the target language to convoy instructions and course related information in written form : office hours, homework, assignments, and test content.. 35.

g. They do not assume that the students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. The explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of reading task of with another skill. f. The Definition of Reading Comprehension Nevertheless Brigham (2007: 1) argue that ‘ reading comprehension is not only concerning with written language but is a process of involving the integration of decoding ability, vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge of the topic considered, and relevant strategies to make sense of a text and understand it. As reading comprehension is more than understanding the written language, understanding text involves a series of strategies that the reader should use in order to make sense of the text. Simply put, reading comprehension is the ability to understand what one is reading. However, for many students, reading comprehension is anything but simple. In fact, a finding that children may have difficulty understanding what they are reading for different reasons. There is no single approach to teaching reading comprehension because there is no single reason why students fail at it. Therefore, it is important to recognize the many language and cognitive processes that come into play when an individual sits down to read. The concept of reading comprehension could be bottom-up and top-down approaches. Nunan (1989: 33) mentions that with the bottom-up approach, the reading is viewed as a process of decoding written symbols, working from smaller units (individual letter) to larger ones (words, clauses and sentences).. 35.

According to Olson and Diller (1982: 42) what is meant by reading comprehension is a term used to identify those skills needed to understand and apply information contained in a written material. This statement is supported by Harris and Sipay (1980: 179) who say that reading comprehension ability is taught to be a set of generalized knowledge acquisition skills that permits people to acquire and exhibit information gained as a consequence of reading printed language Gilliam, et.al (2009) in their journal, cite several authors to illustrate that comprehension is a complex set of processes that involves the encoding of facts, the activation of knowledge, and the generation of inferences to connect information in ways that make it understandable and memorable. Thus , reading comprehension is a matter of providing accurate responses but taking into account vocabulary and prior knowledge with the purpose of giving meaning to text. Clymer (1968: 7) defines with giving a unique or limited emphasis or focus to the reading program are not restricted to pupils. Weather reading involves only the translation of printed symbols to the spoken word, or reading involves understanding of those words as well. Snow (2002: 11), in which says that “reading comprehension is a process extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. According to this definition, we believe that through interactive activities is much easier to comprehend the readings. Song (1998: 1) states that ‘ reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task, what textual cues they attend to how they make sense to what they read,. 35.

and what they do when they do not understand. Hence , before implementing any reading strategy, teachers should be aware of knowing first the term meta cognition, which is merely to understand how ( not just what ) the process of what this term implies, it is also very important to be familiarized with the concept of knowing and perceiving is given in readers. One known meta cognitive awareness which is the process that enables learners to assess their level of comprehension and adjust their strategies for greater success. Baker & Brown (1984: 123), The implementation of reading strategies should be linked to a meta cognitive process because students should be able to use the reading strategies when necessary. Reading and Comprehension can not be separated even though, each of them has their own meaning but related each other. Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interaction between think and language. While comprehension is the act of understanding the meaning of print or speak language. Comprehension the information that words and sentences are communicating. Furthermore, Taylor and Brown (1998: 201) state that reading comprehension is a meta cognitive process in which reader are aware of and have control over their comprehension. Thus, comprehension plays an important part in reading. It is the reason for reading and also the main goal of learning to read. If readers it is can read the words but do not understand what they are reading , they are not really reading of comprehension, it makes the question in readers’ mind get answer. Taylor (1988: 200) state the successful comprehended of text generally understand that the purpose of reading.. 35.

A number of studies mentioned in the previous section of this part have the same conclusion that using good strategy is the way to improve students reading comprehension. Beside that, this current study, the researches gives addition is the communication of thought and emotion by the reader and writer through printed. Material weather silently or loudly, and also students have to be given authentic materials to improve students’ reading comprehension and using this strategy effectively and efficiently to improve students’ reading comprehension ability and easy to be apply in students’ reading comprehension. g. Level of Reading Comprehension The following are levels of reading comprehension according to Smith (1973) in Rajab thesis : a. Literal Comprehension. Literal reading is the skill of getting the primary, direct literal meaning of a words or a sentence in context. It is a little thinking of reasoning for it is merely a skill of finding what the author says. Literal reading refers to the ideas and fact that directly stated on the printed pages. Literal reading is the skill of getting the primary directly literal meaning if words, ideas or sentence in context. The basic of literal comprehension are recognizing stated main ideas or sentence in context. The basic of literal comprehension are recognizing stated main ideas, details, cause and effect and sequences. Literal level of comprehension is fundamental to all reading skill at any levels because a reader must first understand what the author says before he can draw and inference or make an evaluation. So, literal comprehension is the lowest level of skill in reading.. 35.

Literal comprehension is the lowest level of comprehension. According to Smith and Robinson (1980), literal comprehension is getting the meaning of a text only on its surface. They state that ”there is no depth in this kind of reading” (1980:216). Usually to check the students’ comprehension, teachers give questions constructed from words in the text. Other practices that are commonly used are: factual questions based on the text, true-false statements, completion sentences, and multiple choice exercises (Smith, 1980). These kinds of practices require no deep thinking. They simply demand students to recall from memory what the text says and to repeat parrot-like the words that are in the text. Meanwhile, Burns & Roe, (2002) state that literal comprehension involves acquiring information that is directly stated in a selection. Eventhough it is the primary one, still it has an important role in comprehension. In their opinion, reading for literal comprehension is important in and of itself and is also prerequisite for higher-level understanding. Most practices in literal comprehension involve meaning-getting skills. Recognizing stated main ideas, details, causes and effects, and sequence is the basis of literal comprehension. A thorough understanding of vocabulary, sentence meaning, and paragraph meaning is also important (Burns & Roe, 2002). 1. Finding main idea The main idea is the point of the paragraph. It is the most important thought about the topic. To figure out the main idea, ask yourself this question: What is being said about the person, thing, or idea (the topic)?. 35.

The author can locate the main idea in different places within a paragraph. The main idea is usually a sentence, and it is usually the first sentence. The writer then uses the rest of the paragraph to support the main idea. Let's use the paragraph below as an example. First find the topic, then look for the main idea. Summer is a wonderful time to spend at West Beach. It is a beach with light- colored, soft sand. The coastline goes on for a long way and many people enjoy walking along it. Children like to play in the surf and walk along the rocks that are visible at low tide. This is a fun beach for people of all ages. In this paragraph: . The topic is West Beach. . The main idea (what the writer is saying about the topic) is that summer is a wonderful time at West Beach. Here is another example: The movie Apollo 13 was a blockbuster for the summer of 1995. It is an exciting story about space exploration. In the movie, the astronauts get in trouble while they are trying to return to Earth. People in the audience are on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens. What makes it even more exciting is that it is a true story. In this paragraph: . The topic is the movie Apollo 13. . The main idea is in the first sentence: Apollo 13 was a blockbuster for the summer of 1995. 35.

While the main idea is usually in the first sentence, the next most common placement is in the last sentence of a paragraph. The author gives supporting information first and then makes the point in the last sentence. Here's a paragraph we can use as an example. Try to locate the topic and the main idea. Most teenagers and young adults do not know what they want to do for the rest of heir lives. It is a big decision. There are a number of things you can do to narrow the choices. For example you can take an interest test, do some research on your own about a career, try volunteer work in the field in which you are interested, or "job-shadow", in which you spend a day with a person who is working in a field that interests you. These are just a few helpful ideas as you begin to choose a career. In this paragraph: . The topic is jobs or career choices. . The main idea is a few ideas to help the reader choose a career.. Finally, an author might put the main idea in the middle of a paragraph. The author will spend a few sentences introducing the topic, present the main idea, then spend the rest of the paragraph supporting it. This can make the main idea more difficult to find. See if you can find the topic and main idea in the paragraph below. The United States seems to be in love with the idea of going out to eat. Because of this, a real variety of restaurants has come about specializing in all kinds of foods. McDonald's is the king of a subgroup of restaurants called fastfood restaurants. Chances are, no matter where you live, there is a McDonald's. 35.

restaurant near you. There are even McDonald's in the Soviet Union. Now McDonald's is trying something new. It is called McDonald's Express and there is a test site in Peabody, Massachusetts. It is part of a Mobil gas station. This allows you to fill up with gas and fill up on food at the same time. What will they think of next? In this paragraph:  . The topic is McDonald's The main idea is in the middle of the paragraph, in the third sentence: McDonald's is the king of fast food. 2. Meaning of words A dictionary is an important tool for literal comprehension, but alone , it may not be enough. According Diana huggins (2009) In his articles identify the meaning of words is a specific word as it is used within the context of reading passage. All of students know the common definition of a word, but the word’s meaning can change based on the context in which it is used. Using vocabulary in context is important because it allows you to read without having to continually look up the meanings of words in a dictionary. To answer vocabulary in context question, you should think about the context in which the word is used within the passage. For determine what the meaning of a words is, these include synonym, antonym, general sense and knowledge about the topic. Readers use context to predict word meaning or select missing word. The context may actually define words to prior knowledge or provide information to build concept.. 35.

b.. Interpretative Reading comprehension Interpretative reading means read between the lines are making inferences.. Interpretative that is to do identify ideas and meaning that are not explicitly stated in writing especially drawing inferences (The reader brings knowledge and experience to the act of reading ) and supporting details. 1. Drawing inferences Drawing inferences are what we figure out based on experience. Helping students understand when information is implied ( for not Directly stated) will improve her skill in drawing conclusion and making inferences. How to make an inferences :  Observe all the facts, arguments, and information given by author  Consider what you already know from your own experience  Think about the facts of the passage and what may result from them  May be there are information missing from the things you read, so you have to draw your own 2. Supporting details Supporting details asks the reader to find information that is printed explicitly in the text. It is commonly signed by words such as : According to the another…..;According to the passage….; who, what, when, where, why, how, which. Here are some example of question to ask about supporting details: -. Which of the following question does the passage answer?. -. According to the passage, which statement is true?. 35.

-. When did “something” happen?. -. Who did something? Determining Supporting Details 1. Decide which details help to further the story line. 2. Decide which details help you to understand the main idea. 3. Answer question raised by the main idea (who, what, when, why or how).. -. The term ‘level’ does no mean simply different degrees of difficulty. It refers to the attitude and reaction to what is read.. c. Critical Reading comprehension is reading beyond the lines in which a reader interprets a text in light of his or her own personal value. It requires a reader to react in terms of its relevance and significance and her or she is also involved in creating new insight about the material. That is to evaluate what is read, and to examine critically the thoughts of the writer. d. Creative Reading comprehension, that is to apply ideas from the text to new situation and recombine author’s ideas with others idea to from new concept or o expand old ones. e. Sequencing Reading comprehension is the material written in English generally appears on a page in a left-to-right , top-to-bottom, reader’s eyes must follow this sequence when reading. f. Summarization is a brief statement or set of statement used to show how a reader can condenser information to get to the central message of a large information.. 35.

h. How to improve Reading Comprehension Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time. The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading . Goodman (2007:19) in rajab thesis based on Goodman explanation, it infers that readers have to find some ways to improve their reading comprehension. One of them is finding good strategies. Relax to improve reading comprehension, Davey (1983) state that reading at first, may appear to be routine activity in which individual words are combined to produced meaning. Consequently, many students approach reading as a single process, but a complex set of skill involving activities before, during and after reading. a.. b.. Before Reading . Determining the subject of the material. . Determining how the material is organized. . Deciding what need to remember from the material. . Defining purpose for reading. During Reading . Drawing connection among ideas. . Anticipating what is come next. . Relating ideas to what already know. 35.

c.. After Reading . Identifying the author’s purpose for writing. . Analyzing the writer’s technique and language. . Asking critical questions. 35.

C. Conceptual framework The conceptual framework underlying in this research is given below : Think Aloud- Strategy. Making prediction. Describing Visual imagines. Showing prior Knowledge. Monitoring. Self correction. A Classroom Action Research. Reading comprehension. Interpretative Reading comprehension. Literal Reading comprehension. Main ideas. Meaning of words. Drawing inferences. Supporting details. In this conceptual frame work the researches would solve the problem that is faced by the students in English especially in their reading comprehension in focusing on the literal and Interpretative comprehension through Think-Alouds strategy. The strategy would be applied in a classroom action research and finally the problem would be solved and the student’s reading comprehension would be improved.. 35.

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. Research Design The method this research followed the principal working of Classroom Action Research ( C.A.R ). That contained of four stages ; they were : planning, action, observation and reflection. It is conducted through two Cycles to observed the Students’ ability to read English text through Think- Aloud Strategy. This research was held around two cycles. They are first and second cycle and each cycle is the series of activities which has close relation. Where, the realization of the second cycle is continued and repaired from the first cycle. CYCLE I The activity in this research consisted of two weeks in four meeting and has stages as follows : 1. Planning 1. Studying and understanding the material that would be taught. 2. The teacher made lesson planning for the first meeting, the second meeting, the third meeting, and the fourth meeting about reading comprehension material. 3. The teacher prepared the material about reading comprehension that would be gave to the students. 4. The teacher choose an interesting text, such as a news story same book source, materials or an editorial from the newspaper, and distribute copies to students.. 44.

5. Making the sheet for observation to see the condition to see the condition of teaching and learning process when it was being continued. 2. Action 1. The teacher introduced the topic and explained how to find the main idea, meaning of word, supporting details and making inferences. 2. The teacher gave the students text for read 3. The students wrote their thoughts in the paper 4. The teacher control the students in learning process 5. The teacher mentions name of students one by one for report their thought after reading 6. The teacher gave the chance to the students what kind that haven’t known. 3. Observation 1. In this phase, the teacher observing the students’ activity and response during teaching and learning process. 2. After applying Think Aloud Strategy in action Fourth meeting, the teacher gave evaluation to the students to know the students’ Reading comprehension achievement in cycle I. 3. Identificated and made note about problems that the teacher got in carrying out Think Aloud Strategy and gave solution.. 44.

4. Reflection Result of data that have been done it would be continued in the analysis until can be reflection after action research. The reflection it would be discussed as well as a guidance while teacher and should made research planning for the next cycle. The research plan was the plan for next cycle which repair from cycle I. CYCLE II In cycle II conducted four times meeting included once time for test in cycle II. The main activities were : 1.. Planning The way have be done : 1. Continued the activities that have been done in first cycle 2. Improved the weakness in the first cycle 3. Made planning again in the scenario learning process from the result of cycle I reflection 4. Action research repair. 2.. Action The steps of the action were explained as follows: 1. The teacher paired the students based on their reading level. Students might work together with partner to practice. Each students turn reading and think aloud with short passage. The partner listening and offering his or her think. 2. The teacher gave pairs the text. 44.

3. The students read the text and used skill Think-Alouds, finding the familiar words and then looked for the meaning it and also answered the questions in the text. 4. The teacher selected pairs and explained to the class about what say in the text. 5. The teacher gave them evaluation 3. Observation In the reality, while teaching the lesson plan, the teacher also observed the students’ activeness and competence in answer question about the reading text during teaching and learning process by checklist. 4. Reflection Observation was collecting data activity related with the learning English process which had solving problem and learning strategy. So, in this stage the researcher asked the students to collect their final writing, to measure the students’ ability after implementing the Think –aloud Strategy B. Research Subjects The research subject of this classroom action research was the first grade student in class XI IPA1 in 2013 – 2014 academic years. The class consisted of 31 students.. 44.

C. Research Variables and Indicators 1. Variables Remembering that variable was one of the very important elements of research. This research consisted in the Literal Reading comprehension and Interpretative Reading comprehension. 2. Indicators a. The indicators of Literal Reading comprehension were identifying main idea and meaning of words. b. The indicators of Interpretative Reading comprehension were identifying supporting details and drawing inferences . D. Instrument of the Research In this Classroom Action , The researcher used two instruments. There were used : 1. Test The test consisted D-Test, test of cycle: a.. D-Test was used in the first meeting to measure how far the students know about Descriptive text.. b.. Test of Cycle It was designed to measure the students’ ability in English Reading. in each cycle. The test format was test to make Descriptive text that had been learned by using Think-Alouds Strategy. The test was administered in the last meeting of each cycle.. 44.

2. Observation Sheet It was used to observe and to record the students’ activities during the teaching and learning process for each cycle in applying Think- Aloud Strategy. The format of the observation sheet was checklist format whether the students were actively participated or not, how is the students’ behavior, attitude, and motivation in teaching and learning process. E. Data Collections The researcher used two procedures in collecting the data, such in the following : 1.. The researcher gave test to students to find out their development in Reading comprehension by using Think- Aloud Strategy.. 2.. The researcher used observation sheet to find out the participation, motivation, attitude or the activity of the students (active or not active) in teaching and learning process through Think- Aloud Strategy. It was done in every cycle. It was summed at the end of cycle one and cycle two.. F.. Data analysis. 1. The data got from Cycle I and Cycle II is analyzed through the following steps : a. Rubric assessment of Literal reading comprehension ( main idea and meaning of words ) Indicator Clear, understandable, and. Score. Classification. 96 - 100. Excellent. 86 – 95. Very good. completely with the text. Clear, understandable, but break. 44.

in several item Clear, understandable, but miss. 76 – 85. Good. 66 – 75. Fairly good. Unclear and not understandable. 56 – 65. Fair. Not complete information. 36 – 55. Poor. No answer. 0 – 35. Very poor. of information. Unclear, not understandable, and miss information.. b. Rubric assessment of Interpretative Reading comprehension ( Supporting details & Drawing inferences ) Indicator Understandable the explicit. Score. Classification. 96 - 100. Excellent. 86 – 95. Very good. 76 - 85. Good. 66 – 75. Fairly good. 56 – 65. Fair. information completely and very well Understandable enough the explicit it information Understanding the explicit information, but it is bewildering Understanding the explicit information, but not complete Miss understanding the explicit. 44.

information Not understanding the explicit. 36 – 55. Poor. 0 – 35. Very poor. information No answer. ( Clarke in Rajab, 2010 : 37) 2. Calculating the students’ correct answer of text…. Score = Total correct answer x 10 Total test item 3. Calculating the mean score of the students’ ability in reading text by using formula : =. ∑. Notes : X = Mean Score ∑x = the sum of all score N = the number of students (Gay in Asrawati, 2009:30) 4. To know development of the students’ writing skill, the researcer used percentage technique as follows : P=. 100. Notes: P. : Percentage of the students. X1. : The mean score of the cycle I. X2. : The mean score of the cycle II. 44.

5. To know students’ participation in teaching and learning process through Think – Aloud Strategy, researcher used percentage formula as follows :. Where :. =. x 100 %. P. = Percentage. F. = Number of correct. N. = Number of sample ( Sudjana in Asrawati, 2009 : 30 ). 6. After collection the data of the students, we could classify the score of then students. We could classify the score of the students into the following criteria: a.. 9.6 to 10 is classified as excellent. b.. 8.6 to 9.5 is classified as very good. c.. 7.6 to 8.5 is classified as good. d.. 6.6 to 7.5 is classified as fairy good. e.. 5.6 to 6.5 5 is classified as fairy. f.. 3.6 to 5.5 5 is classified as poor. g.. 0.0 to 3.5 5 is classified as very poor ( Direktorat Pendidikan, 2009:29). 44.

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. This chapter particularly presents the findings of the research and discussion. The finding consist of the data obtained through achievement test to see the students’ achievement after being taught the materials of reading comprehension through Think –Aloud Strategy at X1 of SMAN 1 TOMPOBULU. The findings of the research cover the result of cycle 1 and cycle 2 data. The discussions of the research cover further explanation of the findings. A. Findings The results of the data findings found that teaching reading comprehension through Think- Aloud Strategy can improve the students’ achievement in literal comprehension and also can improve the students’ achievement in interpretive comprehension. In the further interpretation of the data analysis were given below: 1.. The Improvement of the Students’ ability to reading comprehension in Descriptive text viewed from Literal Comprehension The students’ ability reading comprehension in Descriptive text viewed from. Literal Reading comprehension has been developed; it is indicated by the difference mean score and improvement between D-test, cycle 1 and cycle 2 tests. The following table shows the students’ improvement in Descriptive text which consists of two indicators; Main Idea and Meaning of words:.

The Student’ Score. Improvement. Indicators Cycle I Main Ideas. Cycle II. CI - CII (%). 77.41. 81.12. 4.79. 90.32. 93.77. 3.81. 167.73. 174.89. 8.6. 83.86. 87.44. 4.3. Meaning of words. X. Table 1. The Students’ improvement in Literal Reading comprehension The data in the table above shows the students’ ability to reading comprehension Descriptive text viewed from Literal Reading comprehension as the calculating result of the diagnostic test and students’ test at the students’ reading comprehension ability through Think-Alouds Strategy. The mean score in the students’ test in cycle I is 83.86 and cycle II is 87.44. The achievement of cycle II is greater than cycle I and diagnostic test (87.44 >83.86). Based on the percentages above there are significant developments of the students’ ability to reading comprehension Descriptive text viewed from Literal Reading comprehension through Think-Alouds Strategy. To see clearly the improvement of the students’ ability to reading comprehension Descriptive text viewed from its Literal Reading comprehension, the following chart is presented.. 70.