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IMPROVING STUDENTS’READING ABILITY
USING RECIPROCAL TEACHING
(An Action Research at the Eleventh Year of IPA-2 MAN 2 Bojonegoro
In the Academic Year of 2008/2009)
Muhamad Muslihuddin Budirahardjo
S890208122
Thesis Submitted to Fulfill One of the Requirements for
the Completion of the Graduate Degree in English Education
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
GRADUATE SCHOOL
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
2010
ii
APPROVAL
IMPROVING STUDENTS’READING ABILITY
USING RECIPROCAL TEACHING
(An Action Research at the Eleventh Year of IPA-2 MAN 2 Bojonegoro
in the Academic Year of 2008/2009)
Muhamad Muslihuddin Budirahardjo
S890208122
This thesis has been approved by the Supervisors of English Education of
Graduate School of Sebelas Maret University Surakarta,
On February 5th, 2010
Supervisor I Supervisor II
Dra. Dewi Rochsantiningsih, M.Ed,Ph.D. Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd NIP. 196009181987022001 NIP. 196212311988031009
Approved By
The Head of English Education of Graduate School
Sebelas Maret University Surakarta
Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd NIP. 196212311988031009
iii
LEGITIMATION FROM THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS
IMPROVING STUDENTS’READING ABILITY
USING RECIPROCAL TEACHING
(An Action Research at the Eleventh Year of IPA-2 MAN 2 Bojonegoro
in the Academic Year of 2008/2009)
Muhamad Muslihuddin Budirahardjo
S890208122
This thesis has been examined by the Board of Thesis Examiners of the English
Department of Graduate School of Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, On
February 24th , 2010
Board of Examiners Signature
Chairman : Dr. Sujoko, M.A. NIP. 19510912 198003 1 002 …………………..
Secretary : Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd. NIP. 19520307 198003 1 005 …………………
Member 1 : Dra. Dewi Rochsantiningsih, M.Ed,Ph.D. NIP. 19600918 198702 2 001 ………………….
Member 2 : Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd. NIP. 19621231 198803 1 009 ………………….
Surakarta, February 24th, 2010 The Director of Graduate Program of Sebelas Maret University
The Head of English Education Department of Graduate Program of Sebelas Maret University
Prof. Drs. Suranto, M.Sc., Ph.D. NIP. 19570820 198503 1 004
Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd. NIP. 19621231 198803 1 009
iv
PRONOUNCEMENT
This is to certify that I myself write this thesis entitled: IMPROVING
STUDENTS’READING ABILITY USING RECIPROCAL TEACHING (An
Action Research at the Eleventh Year of IPA-2 MAN 2 Bojonegoro Academic
Year 2008/2009).
It is not plagiarism or made by others. Anything related to others’ work is
written in quotation, the source of which is listed on bibliography.
If then this pronouncement proves incorrect, I am ready to accept
academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic
degree.
Surakarta, February 2010
Muhamad Muslihuddin Budirahardjo
v
ABSTRACT
Muhamad Muslihuddin Budirahardjo. 2010. Improving Students’ Reading Ability Using Reciprocal Teaching (An Action Research at the Eleventh Year of IPA-2 MAN 2 Bojonegoro Academic Year 2008/2009, Thesis, Surakarta: Graduate School Sebelas Maret University.
The research aims to (1) identify whether and to what extent reciprocal teaching can improve students’ reading ability, and (2) describe the situation when reciprocal teaching is implemented in reading class.
This research was conducted at MAN 2 Bojonegoro; the subjects of the
research were the eleventh year of IPA-2 in the academic year 2008/2009.This study was undertaken from March – July 2009 through a Classroom Action Research. It consisted of three cycles which included nine meetings. There are two types of data in this research, namely qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were obtained by conducting direct observation in the classroom and interviewing some students related to their activities in learning, holding regular meeting with the collaborator to find out students’ improvement. Questionnaire, photograph, and field notes were also used in doing the research. Quantitative data were the students’ scores that had been gotten from pre-test and post-test. In analyzing quantitative data, I used descriptive statistics. In analyzing qualitative data, I used constant comparative method. It involved; (1) comparing incidents applicable to each category; (2) integrating categories and their properties; (3) delimiting theory; (4) writing the theory.
The result of the study showed that: 1) Reciprocal Teaching improves students’ reading ability. The improvement of students’ reading ability can be seen that the mean of the pretest is 55,00; the post-test in the first cycle is 58.15 while the mean of the post test in the second cycle is 63.85; and the mean of the post-test in the third cycle is 69.50, and 2) Reciprocal Teaching technique which is implemented in reading class can also improve students’ interaction, confidence, and motivation in classroom activities. They become more active, enthusiastic, and more brave to give their ideas or opinion in using English..
Based on the result of the study, teaching reading using Reciprocal Teaching is suitable technique to improve students’ reading ability. The study can be used as a reference for the teacher in improving the teaching quality by conducting the technique toward improving the students’ reading ability.
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MOTTO
Make Hay When The Sun Shines
vii
DEDICATION
This thesis is dedicated to:
- My mother for her love, patience, and pray
- My beloved wife, Eny Erayanti, for her great love, patience, and affection
- My beloved daughter, Braine Syafa Aziza Maghfira for her love which
reminds me to be better and better
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Alhamdulillahir Robbil ‘Alaamin, I can finish my thesis as one of the
requirements for achieving the Graduate Degree of the English Education
I am aware that it would be impossible for me to finish and complete the
thesis without help and encouragement from other people, therefore, I express my
special gratitude and appreciation to:
1. The Director of Graduate School Sebelas Maret University, who gives
permission to write the thesis,
2. The Head of the English Education Department, Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd., for
giving the writer permission to write the thesis,
3. Dra. Dewi Rochsantiningsih, M.Ed., Ph.D as Supervisor I and Dr. Ngadiso,
M.Pd as Supervisor II for giving me the advice and guidance in accomplishing
this thesis,
4. Drs. H. Imam Ahmad, M.Si., the Headmaster of MAN 2 Bojonegoro, for his
wisdom in giving the writer much time to finish this thesis,
5. Dra. Siti Timur Tritami as my collaborator for help and advice,
6. The students, especially the Eleventh Year Students of IPA 2 class for
cooperation and help.
I realize that my thesis is far from perfect. Therefore, I hope and accept
comment and suggestion. Finally, it is expected that my thesis is beneficial for
those who read it.
Surakarta, Februari 24th, 2010
MMB
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE .......................................................................................... i
APPROVAL …………………………………………………………... ii
LEGITIMATION FROM THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS………….. iii
PRONOUNCEMENT………………………………………………….. iv
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………. v
MOTTO ……………………………………………………………….. vi
DEDICATION ………………………………………………………… vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ………………………………………………. viii
TABLE OF CONTENT ……………………………………………….. ix
LIST OF APPENDICES ………………………………………………. xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS …………………………………………... xii
LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………... xiii
LIST OF GRAPHS …………………………………………………….. xiv
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ………………………… .…………. 1
A. Background of the Study …………………………... 1
B. Statement of the Problem ………………………….. 5
C. The Objective of the Study …………….................... 6
D. The Benefits of the Study ………………………….. 6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ……………... 8
A. Reading ………………………….........................…. 8
1. Definition of Reading …………………………… 8
2. Types of Reading ……………………………….. 12
3. Teaching Reading ……………………………….. 14
4. Interactive Processing………………………...….. 24
5. The Schema Theory ……………………………... 26
B. Reciprocal Teaching................................................... 29
C. Teaching Reading using Reciprocal Teaching
Technique ……………………………………........... 34
D. Review of Related Research ……………………..… 38
x
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ……………………… 40
A. Research Design ……………………………………. 40
B. Setting of the Research ……………………………... 42
C. Subject of the Research……………………………… 44
D. Techniques of Collecting Data …………………….. 44
E. Techniques of Analyzing Data……………………... 45
CHAPTER IV RESULT OF THE STUDY……………………………. 47
A. The Process of the Research…...........................…… 47
1. The Condition before the research ……………… 48
a. Students’ reading ability………………….….. 48
b. Classroom Situation..……………………...…. 49
c. Students Perception about Reading Class……. 51
2. Implementation of the Research............................ 53
a. Cycle 1………………. ………………………. 54
b. Cycle 2……………………………………….. 70
c. Cycle 3 ………………………………………. 84
B. Findings and Discussion ……………………………. 89
1. Findings …………………………………………… 90
2. Discussion ………………………………………… 97
CHAPTE V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion….. ……………………………………. 106
B. Implication…………. …..………………………… 107
C. Suggestion……………….. ……………………….. 107
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………….. 109
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………... 111
xi
LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 Sample of Photographic in Cycle 1 111
Appendix 2 Sample of Photographic in Cycle 2 112
Appendix 3 Sample of Photographic in Cycle 3 113
Appendix 4 Field Note of Observation 1 114
Appendix 5 Field Note of Observation 2 116
Appendix 6 Field Note of Observation 3 117
Appendix 7 Field Note of Observation 4 118
Appendix 8 Field Note of Observation 5 119
Appendix 9 Field Note of Observation 6 120
Appendix 10 Blue Print of Student’s Test-Cycle 1 121
Appendix 11 Blue Print of Student’s Test-Cycle 2 122
Appendix 12 Blue Print of Student’s Test-Cycle 3 123
Appendix 13 The Result of Pre-Test 124
Appendix 14 The Result of Post Test Cycle 1 125
Appendix 15 The Result of Post Test Cycle 2 126
Appendix 16 The Result of Post Test Cycle 3 127
Appendix 17 Total Score 128
Appendix 18 The Development of Students Activities in Cycle 1 129
Appendix 19 The Development of Students Activities in Cycle 2 130
Appendix 20 The Development of Students Activities in Cycle 3 131
Appendix 21 Interview to the Students (question list) 132
Appendix 22 Interview to the Students (question list) 134
Appendix 23 Motivation Questionnaire 136
Appendix 24 Students’ Narrative Text 138
Appendix 25 Lesson Plan Cycle 1 161
Appendix 26 Lesson Plan Cycle 2 163
Appendix 27 Lesson Plan Cycle 3 165
Appendix 28 Students’ Instrument Test Cycle 1 167
Appendix 29 Students’ Instrument Test Cycle 2 172
Appendix 30 Students’ Instrument Test Cycle 3 177
xii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
M : Meeting
C : Cycle
CS : Competence Standard
BC : Basic Competence
RT : Reciprocal Teaching
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Research Schedule …………………………….………… 44
Table 3.2 Techniques of Collecting and Analyzing Data….………. 45
Table 4.1 Process of the Research……………………..…………… 47
Table 4.2 Result of Pre-Research……………………..……………. 48
Table 4.3 Score Level of Pretest…………………… …………….. 49
Table 4.4 Overall Implementation of the Research ………………. 53
Table 4.5 Implementation of Cycle 1………………………………. 54
Table 4.6 Implementation of Cycle 2………………………………. 70
Table 4.7 Implementation of Cycle 3 ……………………………… 84
Table 4.8 Summary of the Research Findings …………………….. 90
xiv
LIST OF GRAPHS
Graph 4.1 Reading Score …………………………….…………….. 92
Graph 4.2 Improvement of Reading Level ……………..….………. 93
Graph 4.3 Activeness in grouping ……………………..…………… 94
Graph 4.4 Improvement of Students’ Participation ..……………. 95
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Curriculum of MAN 2 Bojonegoro as mentioned in Model KTSP
Madrasah Aliyah (2007: 49) intends to obtain the achievement of Competence
Standard in students’ reading ability: (1) to understand the meaning in
transactional and interpersonal conversation formally and sustainably; (2) to
understand the meaning in the short functional and monologue text in the form
of the narrative, spoof, and hortatory; (3) to express the meaning in the
transactional and interpersonal conversation text formally and sustainably; (4)
to express the meaning in the short functional and monologue text in the form
of narrative, spoof, and hortatory accurately, fluently and acceptably; (5) to
understand the written monologue text in the form of narrative accurately,
fluently and acceptably in the daily life context and to access the science; and
(6) to express the meaning in the written monologue text/essay in the form of
narrative in the daily life context. The target of the achievement in English
competence is hoped more than 65 as kriteria ketuntasan minimal (KKM).
However, there are some problems faced by the students of MAN 2
Bojonegoro in reading competence as follows: (1) they get difficulties in
finding main idea of the text; (2) they get difficulties to deduce the meaning;
(3) they get difficulties to retell the text; (4) they have difficulties to state the
generic structure of text; and (5) most students have difficulties to interpret the
text.
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In accordance with the result of pre-test, the researcher finds the score
of the students’ reading achievement.. There are 40 students in the class, 5
students get the score > 75, 6 students get 65 – 75, and 29 others get < 60 in
daily test. So, the result of the students’ English test is less than 30%
achieving KKM.
In addition to the indicator to the reading competence, it can also be
seen that the real situations in reading class are as follows: (1) the students
show their reluctance; (2) they have low motivation; (3) they always chat to
others; (4) they do not care about the reading activity; and (5) mostly they
cannot finish their tasks completely.
From the real situation in reading class above, there are some
indicators such as: (1) some students cannot find main idea in each paragraph;
(2) some students have a difficulty to comprehend the text; (3) it is difficult
for students to find the generic structure of the text; and (4) most of students
get low value in reading test.
There are some causes why the problems emerge as follows: (1)
teaching reading is not enjoyable; (2) the teacher uses a conventional method
in teaching reading; (3) during the teaching learning process, the teacher
transfers information (monotonous approach); (4) the teacher never lets
students express their own opinion freely; and (5) the teacher is dominant in
teaching reading process.
Weistein and Meyer (1986) cited in Arends (1997: 243) state that
“good teaching includes teaching students how to learn, how to remember, and
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how to motivate themselves”. The writer believes what they state will make
students more creative and interested in reading the material. The better
reading text given to the students must be motivating, interesting and
meaningful for the students. It can stimulate them to enjoy and learn better.
In real situation, the researcher does not find the ideal reading teaching
in MAN 2 Bojonegoro because most English teachers still teach using
grammar translation method in reading comprehension. Therefore, it is very
important to provide an alternative technique to improve students’ reading
ability. To improve the students’ reading comprehension, the researcher uses
reciprocal technique in teaching reading as an implementation for improving
the students’ reading ability.
Reciprocal teaching is a very powerful strategy for improving reading
comprehension. Teachers need to explicitly teach and model the four basic
strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing (Palinscar,
1984: 117). Predicting is something most children are familiar with and use
regularly to activate background knowledge and to confirm their hypothesis.
Questioning is the strategy in which students generate questions about what
they are reading. Clarifying supports students in monitoring their own
comprehension-it gets them to think about what is confusing to them as they
read. Summarizing is recalling and arranging information and constructing
overall understanding..
It is important that students understand that skilled readers employ the
reciprocal teaching strategies every time they read something, and that this is a
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great habit to develop as a way to improve their comprehension skills. This
can be accomplished with short pieces of fiction or nonfiction; the entire class
can brainstorm examples of the various types of comprehension strategies.
Small groups can then choose 3-4 questions from each category to answer and
share with the entire class.
According to Alverman and Phelps (1998: 42) in their book, Content
Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today’s Diverse Classroom, reciprocal
teaching has two major features: (1) instruction and practice of the four
comprehension strategies—predicting, question generating, clarifying, and
summarizing; and (2) a special kind of cognitive apprenticeship where
students gradually learn to assume the role of teacher in helping their peers
construct meaning from text.
According to Rosenshine and Meister (1994: 79), there are four
important instructional practices embedded in reciprocal teaching: (1) Direct
teaching of strategies, rather than reliance solely on teacher questioning; (2)
Student practice of reading strategies with real reading, not with worksheets or
contrived exercises; (3) Scaffolding of instruction; students as cognitive
apprentices; and (4) Peer support for learning.
Reciprocal teaching involves a high degree of social interaction and
collaboration, as students gradually learn to assume the role of teacher in
helping their peers construct meaning from text.
The National Education Department has applied the CBC 2004 and
KTSP 2004 revised in 2006, the purpose is developing the communicative
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competence; especially reading comprehension. The reciprocal teaching is
expected to be able to help the students comprehend the text easier. Hence, the
researcher will observe the use of reciprocal teaching to activate the second
year students of MAN 2 Bojonegoro to comprehend and understand such
text.
In doing the research, it is important to establish the target that wanted
to be reached. The target of this research is that the students can improve their
understanding of the text. Based on the target above, the researcher finally
wishes that:
1) 100% of the students can understand in comprehending the text in
terms of: a) finding the main idea; b) getting the content of the text;
and c) raising the reading score.
2) 80% of the students can study more active to interact in the classroom
and have higher motivation to study.
To gain the target of the research, the researcher will train the students
to comprehend the text and help them to find main idea, supporting idea,
explicit information, and master vocabulary. When the students are able to
comprehend the text, it is expected that they can reach the understanding of
the text.
B. Statement of the Problem
From the background of the study, the researcher has the research
questions that should be answered:
1. Does and to what extent reciprocal teaching improve students’ reading
ability?
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2. How is the situation when reciprocal teaching is implemented in the
reading class?
C. The Objective of the Study
This research aims to improve the students’ reading ability with a
reciprocal technique. In details, the research has the objectives as follows:
1. To identify whether and to what extent reciprocal teaching can improve
students’ reading ability.
2. To describe the situation when reciprocal teaching is implemented in
reading class.
D. The Benefits of the Study
The result of the study can give the following benefits:
1. For the students:
The students can apply reciprocal teaching strategies in their study club to
improve their reading ability. It helps them become better learner and help
them to evaluate and have responsibility for their own learning.
2. For the teachers:
This study can give a contribution to other teachers to innovate learning
strategy, especially utilizing reciprocal teaching, so that they can increase
both teaching-learning quality and the students’ learning achievement.
3. For the institution of education:
The institution can conduct this study for other subject material especially
by reciprocal teaching. It means for developing and increasing the
students’ learning achievement and learning performance. At last, the
improvement of learning achievement can give a good effect to increase a
credibility of the institution.
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4. For other researcher:
The result of the study can be used as a reference for starting point to
conduct further study about teaching and learning English, especially by
applying reciprocal teaching strategy in every classroom activity. For the
reason, it can be seen from some researches that the application of
Reciprocal Teaching technique shows the improvement of students’
achievement and motivation in learning English.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter talks about the related literature of teaching reading by
using reciprocal teaching. It consists of related theory taken from many sources
which underline the study. They are reviewing of reading, reciprocal teaching,
related research , and teaching reading using reciprocal teaching technique.
A. Reading
1. Definition of Reading
Many people assume that reading is an activity of looking at and
understanding written form. Meanwhile, reading has different definitions
for different people. According to Harris (1962: 9) reading is the
meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols. It also
involves sensing, perceiving, achieving meaning, learning and reacting in
a variety of ways.
Menyan and Leeuw (1965: 49) as quoted by Sabrina (2002: 5) state
that reading is digestive process and it has two principles, firstly they are
learning by understanding, it means selecting, discriminating, and
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organizing. The second principle is flexibility. He must take time to read
slowly when the meaning of word is difficult. Another opinion defines that
reading is combination of word recognition and intellects, and emotion
interrelated with prior knowledge to understand the message
communicated (Callahan and Clark, 1988: 245). Furthermore, Harris
(1962: 10) also explains that the sense of reading starts with focusing of
two eyes so that they center on particular symbols. At this level, reading
requires legible symbols, adequate light so eyes are able to focus clear
patterns on retina. The meaning of perceiving is reading has visual
sensations. The visual sensations are aroused by the printed symbols and
already existing memory traces of visual appearances, of the thing, of the
spoken word and of its meaning.
In addition, Hudgson in Kamidjan (1996: 67) cites that reading is a
process that is done and used by the reader to get message and information
that is obtained by the writer through written form. Meanwhile, Depdikbud
also states that reading in wide meaning is a process of formulating the
text in critical and creative way that is aimed to get comprehension about
the text, the value, the function, and the impact of the text itself
(Depdikbud, 1985: 11).
Based on the definition above, the reader begins reading from letter
to larger units, they read letter by letter to sounds and combine them into
words, then connect the individual words into sentences. It can be
concluded that reading is a silent and individual activity, an active
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cognitive process to establish meaning, word recognition to understand the
message communicated, and the language symbols to represent what
sound shows the writer’s idea.
What is really happening when we are reading? When we are
reading our eyes move from left to right going through a long line of print
and they make a series of small jerky movements, stopping momentarily
on each word or group of words. In general, good comprehension means
recognizing and understanding general idea and specific fact and seeing
how these ideas and facts are organized and developed (Sonka, 1979: 2).
However, the reading process does not deal with the eyes only, it also
concern with our brain. Lado (1964: 119) defines reading comprehension
as a process of gaining meaning from words and sentences as the
representation of the language through a process decoding the written
symbols. That definition is intended to emphasize two essential elements
in reading, the language itself and the graphic symbolization used in
representing it. It means that reading is a process of understanding the
symbols. Goodman (1967: 104) describes the reading process as follows:
Reading is psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interacting between thought and language. 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 productive cues necessary to produce guesses.
From the statement above it can be concluded that reading is not
passive activity. The reader must make an active contribution if he
acquires the available information. In the case, the reader forms a
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preliminary expectation about the reading text, and then selects the fewest
most productive cues necessary to confirm or reject that expectation. This
is a process in which the reader utilizes his knowledge of vocabulary,
syntax, discourse, and the experimental background. Here the reader
makes plan and decision, and coordinate number of skills and strategies to
facilitate comprehension. The great emphasis is placed on the importance
of background knowledge.
Coady (1979) in teaching efficient EFL Reading by Mey-Yun,
presents a model of reading comprehension that involves conceptual
abilities, background knowledge, and process strategies.
Conceptual Background
knowledge
Process Strategies
Taken from Mey-Yun article ( Coady, 1979)
He explains that conceptual abilities refer to intellectual capacity
such as the ability to analyze, synthesize, and infer. Background
knowledge includes, in particular, socio-cultural knowledge of the English
speaking communicates. Here he believes that background knowledge
interacts with conceptual abilities and process strategies to produce
comprehension, while process strategies refer to the abilities and skills to
reconstruct the meaning of the text through sampling based on the
knowledge of grapheme-morpheme correspondences, syllable, morpheme
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information, syntactic information (deep and surface), lexical meaning,
contextual meaning, and cognitive strategies.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that
comprehension is achieved by relating the information derived from the
material being read and concepts already stored in the memories.
Furthermore, Goodman (1973: 26) states the reader of English utilize the
cues system simultaneously in the reading process. The first cue system is
graphonical system of the oral language, the reader’s response to graphic
and phonological system of his English dialect. The second cue system is
syntactic. This is the information implicit in grammatical structures of the
language. The reader is using pattern makers such as function words and
inflectional suffixes as cue to recognize and predict structure. The third
cue system is semantic. In order to derive meaning from language, the
language user must be able to provide semantic input. This is not simply
question of meaning for word but larger question that is where the reader
has sufficient experiences and conceptual background to feed into reading
process so he can make sense out of what he is reading. Thus, the reader
strives to create a meaning of full context. If the reader lacks relevant
knowledge, he cannot supply this semantic component and he cannot read.
2. Types of Reading
According to Harras, et al., (1998: 13) there are two types of
reading: intensive reading and extensive reading.
a. Intensive reading
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In Dictionary of Reading (1983: 160) as quoted by Harras,
intensive reading means reading activity that is done accurately. Sonka
(1979: 87) adds that intensive reading refers to the kind of work done in
the reading class. It is also the kind of careful work a student may do when
studying for an exam.
Intensive reading here means an activity of reading in class
where the students read passage with the help of their teacher. In this
reading activity, the role of teacher as a guide to bring his students to be
efficient and skillful reader is very obvious. Therefore, lesson should be
planed so that intensive silent reading is alternated with a variety of
reading related activities. In addition, the student should be encouraged to
read extensively outside class that is to spend a half hour in the evening
with something he chooses to read (a magazine, short story, or text). The
major objective of intensive reading is developing the students’ ability to
decode message by drawing on syntactic and lexical cues, and it also
emphasizes on skill for recognition.
b. Extensive reading
Extensive reading means reading activity that is done in large way,
(Dictionary of Reading in Han, 1998: 13). Extensive reading refers to the
outside reading that students do on their own with no help or guidance
from the teacher. This kind of reading trains the students to come to the
level of reading for enjoyment. The student should be trained to read
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directly and fluently in the foregoing language without the aid of the
teacher as well as dictionary.
In extensive reading, the reader reads a text without an emphasis
on analysis of word and grammatical points. Although such reading is
meant as independent reading, there should be regular and systematic
feedback from it.
3. Teaching Reading
In teaching English, reading skill is an ability that cannot be
neglected at all. The mastery of reading skill is regarded very important to
be taught because it will influence other skills of English (i.e. listening,
speaking, and writing). For example, while the teacher asks the students to
read the text aloud, they learn reading and speaking. And when the teacher
asks the students to answer the question based on the text they read, they
will learn writing. While the teacher asks them to listen the text that their
friends read, they will learn listening skill.
In addition, Savile – Troika (1979: 302) summarizes an effective
way to teach EFL reading when she says, improving the reading skill of
any student begins with identifying his weakness and then implementing
appropriate method for strengthening these skills (quoted by Mey-Yun,
,1989: 107).
Tay (1979: 8) suggests classroom activities by making five
practical suggestions about how to teach reading skill. The five principals
are: (1) Developing the ability to recognize and state main idea; (2)
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Developing the ability to note details; (3) Developing the ability to
summarize and organize idea; (4) Developing the ability to follow the
sequence of idea; and (5) Developing the ability to predict and anticipate
outcome
Here, Tay makes conclusion that the task in teaching is to try out
the students in the classroom with a ‘skill oriented’ approach and has made
some suggestions about appropriate classroom activities.
a. Principle in Teaching Reading
Related to the teaching reading, (Harmer, 1998: ) suggest five
principles in teaching reading, it purposes to make the efficient
teaching reading. The five principles are:
1) Principles 1: Reading is not a passive skill.
The teacher should motivate the students to be active in
reading. For example, the teacher asks the student to guess what
the word means, see the picture and understand the arguments.
Then, lets then work out in order that they do not forget it quickly.
2) Principle 2: The student needs to be engaged with what they
are reading.
Students who are not engaged with the reading text and not
actively interested in what they are reading will get no benefit from
it. Hence, the teacher should select interesting topic.
3) Principle 3: The student should be encouraged to respond to the
content of reading text, not just to the language.
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In studying reading text, the students not only study the
number of paragraph but also the meaning and the message of the
text. That is why, it is important to give the students chance to
respond the message of the text.
4) Principle 4: Prediction is major factor in reading.
Before we read, we often look at the blurb. It may contain a
summary, a photograph, and headline. It affects us to predict what
we are going to read. The teacher’s note here is giving the students
‘hiat’, so they can predict what is coming.
5) Principle 5: Match to the topic
The teacher should select the reading tasks. For example, if
the topic is restaurant menu, the tasks can be a list of the
ingredients. Another task can be asking questions, filling a puzzles,
game, etc.
b. The Activity of Teaching Reading
The purpose in teaching reading is to develop the students’
reading skill so that they can read English text effectively and
efficiently. According to Abbot, et al., (1981: 29) there are kinds of
activities in relation to reading classroom activities.
1) Pre-reading activity
When they began to read a text, it is to create a positive
attitude in their minds towards the text to be read. Dubbin and
Bycina quoted by Rohman (2004: 17) state that:
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The goals of pre-reading stage are to activate (or build, if necessary) the students’ knowledge of the subject, to provide any languages preparation that might be needed for coping with the passage, and finally, to motivate the learner to want to read. Dubbin and Bycina in Murcia and Abbot (1981: 95)
describe the activities including in pre-reading activities: a) finding
out what the students already know about the subject; b) asking the
students to read only the text and then say or write down what they
expect the text to be about; c) showing the picture to recall the
students’ description about the text they are going to have; and d)
giving some or all the unknown vocabulary as keyword whose
meaning is crucial to understand the text.
2) While-reading activity
This activity requires the teacher’s guidance to ensure that
students assume an active questioning approach to the material.
The types of reading activity depend on the student’s reading and
comprehension skill and their experience with expository reading.
The teacher might also maximize the students’ participation by
having the students read to their partners, and retelling the critical
information to their partner ( Camie, 1990: 377).
Concerning with the explanation above, Abbot describes
the activities involve in the while-reading activity, they are: a)
identifying the main idea; b) finding details in a text; c) following a
sequence; d) inferring from the text with their particular
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difficulties; e) recognizing the writer’s purpose and attitude; f)
recognizing the discourse features; and g) the teacher’s role is
helping the both individual learner with their particular difficulties
and their whole group.
3). Post-reading activity
Camie (1990: 386) says that actually the goal of post-
reading activities is to integrate, synthesis, and consolidate the
information that has been read in the selection. There are some
activities in post-reading such as, filling in the blank concept map,
discussing content in the class notes, and developing a visual
representation of the information. In addition, there are two post-
reading activities which have particular merits, the first is
answering writing questions and the seconds is writing summary of
the content. In both cases, the students have an opportunity to study
and practice the important information once again and formulate a
written product that can be used in subsequent study.
c. Problems in Understanding Text
According to Nuttal (1983: 78) there are some elements that
make readers find problem in understanding text.
1) The code/alphabetic symbols
The reader will find the difficulty in understandings the
text, because he is not familiar with the text. So it entails the
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perquisite to get satisfactory communication that is writer and
reader should shape the same code.
2) Vocabulary and sentence structure
It goes without saying that sizeable vocabulary is crucial to
success in reading. It is possible to get writer’s message without
understanding every words of the text, but it is not possible to be
absolutely certain of it, not to give the fullest response. When the
sentence is not understood although the vocabulary is known, it is
often caused by long and difficulty sentence to unrevealed
syntactically, syntactic complexity coupled with unfamiliar
vocabulary doubles the problem.
3) Cohesive devices and discourse makers
Understanding cohesive devices is very useful to get the
message of the text. A particular kind of devices cohesive is
discourse markers, such as however, although, furthermore, and
namely. These words are extremely useful signals to the readers.
They can help the reader to establish the signification to mark the
functional value of a sentence and tell the reader what the writer
intends to it.
4) Problem beyond the plain sense
Problem beyond the plain sense includes reader’s
background knowledge about the world. A reader who wants to
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understand the plain sense of each sentence may still be unable to
make sense of the text as a whole. It is because he lacks the
background knowledge of the text.
5) The concepts
Concept is part of the message that the text expresses. The
concept may become problem for a reader in understanding a text.
d. The Technique of Reading Process
Reading comprehension focuses on the ability to derive
meaning from what is read. What is meant by deriving meaning from
what is read may differ among theorists, the differences are shown by
the existence of three models of reading process, namely bottom-up,
top-down, and interactive.
1) Top – down Processing
In the early seventies, Goodman’s psycholinguistic model
of reading (later name the top-down or concept driven model)
began to have an impact of second language of reading. In this
model the reader is active, make prediction, process information,
and instruction a message encoded by a writer. The top-down
perspective into second language reading had a profound impact of
the field, to an extent that it was substituted for the bottom-up
perspective rather than its complement, it can also be said that Top-
down processing is making of prediction about the text based on
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the prior knowledge, then text for conformations or refutation of
those predictions (Carrel, 1988: 35).
In top-down processing, we draw our own intelligence and
experience the prediction we can make, based on the schemata we
have acquired to understand the text. This kind of processing is
used when we interpret assumptions and draw inferences (Nuttall,
1982:16). The top-down approach emphasizes reader on bringing
meaning to the text based on their prior knowledge. This model
starts with the hypotheses and prediction then attempts to verify
them by working down to the printed. This view of reading was
called psycholinguistic guessing game. Sometimes it is enough to
know some of the vocabulary in order to understand the text by
guessing and predicting. Here, the background knowledge is
considered very important because with very little vocabulary the
reader is believed to rely on his background knowledge to
understand a text.
Presenting background knowledge can be done by pre-
reading activities. This activity involves introduction and
discussion of key vocabulary to be encountered in the text: prior
reading related text; viewing movies, slides, or pictures; key
concept associations activity.
The top-down model of reading focuses on what the readers
bring to the process. The reader samples the text for information
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and contrast it with their world knowledge, helping to make sense
on what is written. The focus here is on the readers as they give an
attention to the text.
According to Gove (1983: 117) there are six features in top-
down approach, they are: (1) Reader can comprehend a selection
even though they do not recognize each word; (2) Reader should
use meaning and grammatical cues to identify unrecognized cues;
(3) Reading for meaning is the primary objective rather than
mastery of letters, letter / sound relationship and word; (4) Reading
requires the use of meaning activities rather than the mastery of a
series of word recognition skill; (5) The primary focus of
instruction should be the reading of sentence, paragraph, and whole
selection; and (6) the most important aspect about the reading is the
amount and kind of information gained through reading.
On the other hand, Eskey (1988: 92) states the limitation of
top-down models, it tends to emphasize higher level skill as the
prediction of meaning by means of context clues or background
knowledge at the expense of lower skill like the rapid or accurate
identification of lexical and grammatical forms. In making the
perfectly valid point that fluent reading is primarily a cognitive
process, it tends to emphasize the perceptual and decoding
dimension of that process. This model is good for the skillful,
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fluent reader for whom perception and decoding have become
automatic, not for the less proficient reader.
2). Bottom – up Processing
In bottom-up processing, the reader builds up a meaning
from the black marks on the page, recognizing letters and words,
working out sentence structure (Nuttal, 1982: 17). In addition,
Goodman (1967: 83) also describes bottom-up technique of
reading process is as precise process, involving exact, detailed,
sequential perception and identification of letters, words, and
spelling pattern and larger language units.
As Goodman states, the reader is assumed to decode or
translate the printed symbols in the text by moving his eyes from
left to right, and recognizing the sentences of the text. Dechant also
adds, a bottom-up reading model emphasizes a single direction,
part to whole processing of the text. In the beginning stages it gives
little word knowledge, contextual information, and other higher-
order processing strategies (1991: 47). This model starts with the
printed stimuli and works it way up to the higher-level stages. The
sequences of processing proceed from the incoming data to the
features of a higher level encoding.
According to Gove (1983: 125) there are five features of a
bottom-up approach in reading, they are: (a) Identifying feature
letter; (b) Linking this feature to recognize letter; (c) Combining
letter to recognize spelling pattern; (d) Linking spelling pattern to
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recognize word; and (e) Then, proceeding to the sentence, text-
level processing.
In this model the reader gets meaning from the text only.
Therefore, it is essential that readers know all the vocabulary and
the grammatical items used in the text in order to get a full
meaning of the text. Sally (1980: 23) states that reader needs to
understand the grammatical structure involved the material.
Consider the following sentence;
- The bird has eaten
- The bird has been eaten
To understand the sentence above, the students need to
understand the grammatical construction of the material. If the
students do not have grammatical knowledge, they will not
understand it only practically, although he knows the words “bird”
and “eat”.
Carrel (1988: 35) describes that vocabulary development
and word recognition is recognized as crucial to successful bottom-
up decoding skill. She also adds that bottom-up skills should
include the teaching of cohesive devices (substitution, ecliptics,
conjunction, and lexical cohesion) and their functions across
sentence and paragraph.
Word recognition skill is only one part of many skills a
competent reader uses, word recognition skill is a variety of
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decoding and perception skill that the reader has to decipher,
pronounce, and form a basic understanding of the word he sees on
the printed page.
4. Interactive Processing
According to McCormick (1988: 78), an interactive model is a
reading model that recognizes the interaction and bottom-up processing
simultaneously throughout the reading process. Eskey adds, interactive
processing refers to the interaction between information obtained by
means of bottom-up decoding and information provided by means of top-
down analysis. Here comprehension of reading text is not only determined
by text to be decoded, but also by prior knowledge of the reader. Carrel
(1988: 65) also states that an efficient reader is coming from linguistic
inputs of the text and the next is coming from knowledge in reader’s mind.
The interactive model (Rumelhart, 1977: 111) stresses both what is
on the written page and the reader bring it using both reciprocal skill. It
views reading as the interaction between reader and text. Following those
conceptions, Eskey introduces model of the interactive reading process.
Cognitive Structure
Knowledge of Flora Knowledge of substance>brain
Expectation
The physical act of reading a text
Process: Process:
Identification Interpretation > eye
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Recognition of Forms Prediction of content
Comprehension
From David Eskey 1988
“Interactive Approach to Second Language Reading
From this diagram, it can be seen that reading comprehension
needs several components, those are cognitive structure in the brain, the
reader knows the language well enough in the written form to insure that
the text gives him a certain expectation. Given expectation during the
physical act of reading, then he makes accurate identification of form from
minimum number of visual cues. And if his reading skill is well
developed, he can do this quickly, automatically, and simultaneously. His
knowledge will also provide him a certain expectation about the larger
conceptual structure of the text. While he is reading, he can make accurate
prediction in interpreting the meaning as a whole.
In conclusion according to interactive processing, a reader cannot
just rely on by itself to get full meaning of the text, but also has to have
enough background knowledge to understand the text.
5. The Schema Theory
A schema theory is a theory which studies background knowledge
that facilities text comprehension. It emphasizes the role of pre-existing
knowledge in providing the reader information which is implicit in a text.
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When readers read a story they use cluster of schema to discover its
meaning. In this theory, the important element in reading is the reader’s
ability to fit the new information in reading selection in his existing
schema or prior knowledge. Then, it can be said that the case and extent of
comprehension is related to the degree to which there is a match between
the incoming information stored in the reader’s long term memory. Seen in
this view, reading becomes an interactive process between the reader’s
long term memory. Seen in this view, reading becomes an interactive
process between the reader’s background knowledge or schema and the
reading text. Rumelhart (1993: 175) says:
The role of background knowledge in language comprehension has been formalized as schema theory, which has as one of the fundamental tunnels that text, any text, either spoken or written, does not by itself carry meaning.
Based on the statement above, a reader has to have enough
background knowledge to understand a text. A reader cannot just rely on
text by itself to get full meaning of text.
According to Carrel, the background knowledge or schema
includes linguistic, formal and content schema. Linguistic schema is the
reader’s prior linguistic knowledge. It is the knowledge of the letters and
their corresponding sounds, both alone and in culture, and the knowledge
of syntax, word or words are following. Formal schema is the reader’s
knowledge of rhetorical structures of the text. It includes the knowledge of
different types of text, newspaper articles, poetry, and so forth. Content
schema is the reader’s prior background knowledge of the content area of
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the text. For instance, a text about washing clothes, celebrating a new
year’s eve in Hawaii or Halloween in Carbondale, or about the economy in
Mexico, problems of nuclear breeder reactor and so forth.
One of the most obvious reasons why a particular content schema
may fail to exist for a reader is that the schema is culturally specific and it
is not part of particular reader’s cultural background. Halloween schema,
for example, fails to exist in Indonesia readers. Since it belong to
American culture and never exist in Indonesia situation. Therefore, it is
difficult for Indonesian readers to read text about Halloween in
Carbondale, except they have read or heard what Halloween is. Many
studies have proved how content schema affects reader’s comprehension.
For instance, Carrel and Eisterhold show that study by Steffenson and
Anderson (1979: 116) find that a text based on the reader’s own culture is
easier to read and understand than syntactically and rhetorically equivalent
text based on less familiar.
According to the above statement, a reader has to have enough
knowledge on phonology. Syntax and vocabulary as well as the structure
text are activated for the purpose of both reciprocal processing. The
content of background knowledge, on the other hand, will be most helpful
in the top-down processing.
The reader can encounter problems during either the top-down or
bottom-up process of comprehension. To overcome this problem the
reader is believe to activate some of his linguistic, formal, or content
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knowledge as his strategy. According to schema theory, there are least
three implicit reasons why sometimes a reader does not understand a
passage correctly.
1. The reader may not have the appropriate schema.
2. The reader may have the appropriate schema but the passage itself
does not contain enough clues for the reader to activate the schema
involved.
3. The reader may find a consistent interpretation of the text but may not
find the one intended by the author. In this case, the readers
misunderstand what is intended by the writer but he is activating the
appropriate for his misunderstood message.
In conclusion, Reading is a complex information processing skill
in which the reader interacts with text so as to create meaningful
discourse in terms of: (1) finding main idea; (2) comprehending the
content; (3) find specific term from the text; and (4) state the generic
structure of the text . Schema theory provides a way of integrating our
understanding of the text with our understanding of the word in general. In
other words, schema theory is kinds of theory which make people relate
previous acquired knowledge and new information in a text. Then a reader
should already know some information about a text, if he wants to reach
meaningful reading.
B. Reciprocal Teaching
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Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to enhance
students' comprehension of text. The procedure was designed by Anne Marie
Palincsar, from Michigan State University and Anne Brown, from the
University of Illinois. It is characterized by: (1) a dialogue between students
and teacher, each taking a turn in the role of dialogue leader, (2) "reciprocal":
interactions where one person acts in response to the other, (3) structured
dialogue using four strategies: questioning, summarizing, clarifying,
predicting.
Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity that takes place
in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of
text. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing,
question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take
turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue.
The purpose of reciprocal teaching is to facilitate a group effort
between teacher and students as well as among students in the task of bringing
meaning to the text. Each strategy was selected for the following purpose: (1)
Summarizing provides the opportunity to identify and integrate the most
important information in the text. Text can be summarized across sentences,
across paragraphs, and across the passage as a whole. When the students first
begin the reciprocal teaching procedure, their efforts are generally focused at
the sentence and paragraph levels. As they become more proficient, they are
able to integrate at the paragraph and passage levels; (2) Question generating
reinforces the summarizing strategy and carries the learner one more step
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along in the comprehension activity. When students generate questions, they
first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the
substance for a question. They then pose this information in question form and
self-test to ascertain that they can indeed answer their own question. Question
generating is a flexible strategy to the extent that students can be taught and
encouraged to generate questions at many levels. For example, some school
situations require that students master supporting detail information; others
require that the students be able to infer or apply new information from text;
(3) Clarifying is an activity that is particularly important when working with
students who have a history of comprehension difficulty. These students may
believe that the purpose of reading is saying the words correctly; they may not
be particularly uncomfortable that the words, and in fact the passage, are not
making sense. When the students are asked to clarify, their attention is called
to the fact that there may be many reasons why text is difficult to understand
(e.g., new vocabulary, unclear reference words, and unfamiliar and perhaps
difficult concepts). They are taught to be alert to the effects of such
impediments to comprehension and to take the necessary measures to restore
meaning (e.g., reread, ask for help); (4) Predicting occurs when students
hypothesize what the author will discuss next in the text. In order to do this
successfully, students must activate the relevant background knowledge that
they already possess regarding the topic. The students have a purpose for
reading: to confirm or disprove their hypotheses. Furthermore, the opportunity
has been created for the students to link the new knowledge they will
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encounter in the text with the knowledge they already possess. The predicting
strategy also facilitates use of text structure as students learn that headings,
subheadings, and questions imbedded in the text are useful means of
anticipating what might occur next.
When reciprocal teaching was developed, it was in response to the
current reading instruction trends isolated practice of individual reading skills.
Reciprocal teaching was an alternative to these trends. Reciprocal teaching
provided instruction that focused on the factors that interact and influence
students’ comprehension. The students applied the strategies in meaningful
contexts use the strategies while reading the text, so it is not on an isolated
practice worksheet. Finally, students are encouraged to use the strategies
flexibly and opportunistically students learn to use the strategies when needed
to assist comprehension, rather than during a specific routine (Palincsar, 2003:
99). Reciprocal teaching parallels with the new concepts of reading
instruction being interactive and it can be used with current reading materials
such as basal series or novel collections (Carter, 1997: 64).
a. Scaffolding and Modeling
Scaffolding is one of the most recommended, versatile, and
powerful instructional techniques (Clark and Graves, 2005: 570).
Reciprocal teaching is a scaffolding discussion technique. This means that
the teacher provides instruction based on the students’ needs but does not
give the exact answers this provides various levels of support and the
teacher is able to gradually release responsibility to the students. Clark
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and Graves (2005: 579) review three aspects of scaffolding and why it is
effective: (1) Scaffolding instruction is flexible, adaptable, and supports
students as they not only acquire basic skills but also higher order
thinking skills as well; (2) Scaffolding allows for explicit instruction
within authentic contexts; and (3) Scaffolding allows teachers to
differentiate instruction to their students’ diverse needs.
One way that reciprocal teaching provides scaffolding is through
modeling the four comprehension strategies. Modeling is a technique that
has been around for a long time (Smolkin & Donovan, 2001: 97).
Researchers feel that teachers should demonstrate the thought processes a
reader goes through, in order to create rich meaning from texts. Students
can easily memorize strategies, but they cannot transfer the strategic
thinking independently teachers need to show students how to do this
through modeling (Block & Johnson, 2002: 55).
b Metacognition
Metacognition is the ability to reflect on our own cognitive
processes. It includes knowledge about ourselves as learners, aspects of
the tasks given to us, and the strategies we use. There is a consensus
among researchers that metacognition is important to reading
comprehension (Baker, 2002: 91). Reciprocal teaching provides several
opportunities for readers to use metacognition. For example, the strategy
of clarifying provides opportunities to reflect on our thinking and helps
promote metacognition. Buehl (as cited in Hashey & Connors, 2003:
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224) stated that reciprocal teaching provides a window into the thinking of
readers as they problem-solve their way toward meaning. The students
become active and strategic readers’ thinking about what they are reading
and how to handle the material.
c. Social Interaction
The National Reading Panel advocates for cooperative and
collaborative learning with multiple strategies and highly recommends
reciprocal teaching as effective due to the active discussions in which the
students participate (Oczkus, 2003: 3). Research on social interactions and
the benefits of this type of instruction is overwhelming. Overall, research
has shown that peer discussion provides opportunities for students to grow
cognitively, socially, and affectively. Social interaction has been found to
improve students ability to recognize and resolve comprehension
dilemmas and improve higher-level thinking and metacognition (Almasi,
2002: 230).
Along with increasing metacognition and comprehension, social
interactions have also been found to improve motivation in students.
Social interaction at home and in the classroom helps students become
motivated as well as helping students construct their identities as readers
(Sweet, et al., 2002: 88).
C. Teaching Reading using Reciprocal Teaching Technique
English, the most widely taught, read, and spoken language the world
has ever known (Kachru & Nelson, 2001: 9), has not only become the
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international language, as it is spoken by a large number of native speakers of
other languages and serves as a language of wider communication (McKay,
2002: 4) but also achieved a genuinely global status owing to its special role
recognized in every country (Crystal, 2001: 2). Under such circumstances,
greater importance has been attached to English teaching. And this means both
challenges and opportunities for the language teachers in Indonesia.
Challenge, because we have to be well informed with the language teaching
approaches and methods for assimilation and application according to our
situation. Opportunities, because we will be able to improve our teaching
practice as well as to develop ourselves professionally with the help of these
language teaching approaches and methods.
Reading is a complex information processing skill in which the reader
interacts with text so as to create meaningful discourse. There are so many
different reasons for reading and that we read in different ways for different
purposes. These different purposes generalized into the following two main
categories: we read for pleasure and for information in order to find out
something or in order to do something with the information you get .
Specifically, they are, to get information, to respond to curiosity about a topic,
to follow instructions to perform a task, for pleasure, amusement, and personal
enjoyment, to keep in touch with friends and colleagues, to know what is
happening in the world, and to find out when and where things are .
We should teach reading in an English class for the following reasons.
First, students want to be able to read texts in English either for study or
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simply for pleasure. Secondly, reading texts also provide good models for
English writing. Thirdly, reading texts also provide opportunities to study
language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way we construct
sentences, paragraphs and texts. What is more, good reading texts can
introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, and excite imaginative
response. Therefore, it is possible for us language teachers to help our
students learn how to read, even though the question whether it is possible to
teach reading is a debatable one, and to get our students to read English texts
is one of the most important parts of a language teacher’ s job. Our students in
a reading program should be to develop fluent, independent readers who set
their own goals and strategies for reading and who learn aspects of the reading
process through reading.
The teachers should teach students the reading strategies, such as,
sensitizing, which is subcategorized into: making inferences through the
context and word formation, understanding relations within the sentence;
linking sentences and ideas , improving reading speed, and from skimming to
scanning, which includes predicting, previewing, anticipation, skimming and
scanning.
Reciprocal teaching is a scaffolded discussion technique that focuses
on four comprehension strategies : predicting, questioning, clarifying, and
summarizing. This model of instruction allows teachers and students to
construct meaning in a social setting by using modeling, think-aloud, and
discussion. Teachers are able to meet their students’ needs. Reciprocal
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teaching allows students to monitor their own thinking, or what is known as
metacognition. Over time, the teacher gradually lets go of control and the
students assume the responsibility of learning.
Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension identifies several
goals of reciprocal teaching: 1) to improve reading comprehension using four
strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing; 2) to
scaffold the four strategies by modeling, guiding, and applying the strategies
while reading; 3) to guide students to become metacognitive and reflective in
their strategy use; 4) to help students monitor their reading comprehension
using the four strategies; 5) to use the social nature of learning to improve and
scaffold reading comprehension; 6) to strengthen instruction in a variety of
classroom settings whole-class settings, guided reading groups, and literature
circles; and 7) to be a part of a broader framework of comprehension and
reading instruction.
Researcher as teacher has been utilizing the instructional style of
reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching is collaborative comprehension
instruction that focuses on the strategies of predicting, questioning, clarifying,
and summarizing. Teacher modeling, student discussions, and connections
with texts are three important aspects of reciprocal teaching. A teacher using
this style of instruction must be willing to transfer responsibility to the
students, focus on process rather than products, and teach students to be
strategic readers . A tremendous part of this style of instruction is the
scaffolding the teacher provides the teacher is not merely giving the answers,
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they are providing their students with the tools and support to master new
skills.
Researcher finds reciprocal teaching to be a powerful technique; however, it
should not stand alone as a method for teaching reading comprehension.
Reciprocal teaching was designed to focus on four important strategies but
reading is a complex process that has many facets . Reciprocal teaching can be
highly effective when used as a part of a balanced literacy instructional
framework.
D. Review of Related Research
The first previous research which has a relation to this thesis is written
by Sugiono in 2005. He is a graduate program student of UNESA Surabaya.
He applies Reciprocal teaching in improving students’ reading comprehension
in informational text in SMK Negeri 1 Sidoarjo. In his research, he also
observes the obstacles found by teacher, students-teacher in implementing
lessons plans and doing activities in teaching and learning process in
reciprocal teaching with the observation sheet provided. The obstacles occurs
in the previous cycle are as implements for the next cycle. Finally, he
concludes that reciprocal teaching can improve students’ reading ability for
the third year students of SMK Negeri 1 Sidoarjo.
Rosita’s research shows that Reciprocal Teaching not only improves
students’ interaction but also improves students’ activities and motivation in
learning process. They become more active and enthusiastic. They seem brave
to give their opinion using English. Her research is focused on how the
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students of English Department IKIP PGRI Madiun understand the short story.
Moreover, she finds that Reciprocal Teaching can improve students’
understanding of short story. She recommends that teacher should be patient
in introducing Reciprocal teaching. It is said that it is important to train the
students intensively to apply the steps of Reciprocal Teaching and the teacher
must give a special attention to the students who gets difficulties in learning
process. Students have to study seriously. They must be brave and active in
practicing Reciprocal Teaching.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METODOLOGY
This chapter gives research methodology involving: research design,
setting of the research, techniques of collecting data, and techniques of analyzing
data.
A. Research Design
The research deals with the teaching reading comprehension by
using reciprocal teaching in senior high school student. It describes the
technique that can be used as teaching reading comprehension. Travers (1978)
in Sevilla, et al, (1993: 71) state that the main aim of the describe situation
while the research is done, and examine the reason of certain phenomenon.
Researcher use Classroom Action Research in doing this research.
Classroom Action Research is a research applied in classroom to improve the
quality of educational practice. Action Research is a form of self-reflective
enquiry undertaken by participants in social (including education) situations in
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order to improve the rationality and justice of (a) their own social or
educational practices, (b) their understanding of these practices, and (c) the
situation in which the practices are carried out. It is most rationally
empowering when undertaken by that action research is the study of a social
situation with a view to improve the quality of action within it. It aims at
practical judgment in concrete situation, and the validity of the theories or
hypothesis it generates deepens not so much on scientific tests of truth, as on
their usefulness in helping people to act more intelligently and skillfully
(Kemmis, 1990: 6).
Researcher applies four steps in procedure of the study: planning of
the action, doing the action, doing the observation (collaborative), and doing
reflection (cycles).
1. Planning of the action.
To make students more active in reading activities to improve
reading ability, the writer does a planning of the action. The general plan
of actions should contain:
(a) a revising statement of the general idea, (b) a statement of the factors
the writer is going to change or modify in order to improve the situation,
and the action one will undertake in this direction, (c) a statement of
negotiation the writer has had, or will have to conduct with others before
undertaking the proposed courses of action, (d) a statement of ethical
framework which will govern access to and release of information (Elliot,
1991: 75)
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2. Doing the action.
Researcher divides the students into some groups consisting of 5
students each. Students are placed in a group based on their ability. Next,
he monitors them by asking them to write students group diaries and make
a plan to monitor the result of the changes. In every subject, he writes his
thoughts about the effectiveness of the teaching. The collaborator is
invited to give an aid in observing the class. The instructional activities of
Reciprocal teaching are conducted as follows:
1. Teacher ( researcher) : presenting the subject material
2. Team study: students do worksheets in their groups to learn and master
the material
3. Test item : students take individual quizzes and other assessments
3. Doing the observation
During the research, researcher observes the students’ activity and
their progress. Besides, he uses a filed note or diary, and make interview
with the students. In conducting the action plan, he asks the collaborator to
observe and give some suggestions to make up and revise the plan.
4. Doing reflection
After getting information from the collaborator and the observation
result, researcher reviews the action and revise plan becoming cycles. The
revision of cycles involves time and learning management, the strategy,
kinds of materials, and tests.
B. Setting of the Research
Setting of the research is divided in three points, they are as follows:
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1. Location of the research
The research is conducted in MAN 2 Bojonegoro. This institution
has been established since 1991 as changing of State Religion Teacher
Education (PGAN) accordance to Keputusan Menteri Agama No.64/1990.
MAN 2 Bojonegoro is located on Wolter Monginsidi street 158
Bojonegoro. The area of the school is about 3.5 hectares. It is not in the
downtown but it is in the suburban area. It is easy to reach there. The
students who come from out of town can reach the place by public
transportation.
MAN 2 Bojonegoro includes three grades of class. The first year
class consists of 325 pupils, the second is 360, and the third is 305
students. On the second year class and the third year class, it involves three
programs, they are Language, Social and Science Program. Besides, there
are some special programs concerning with vocational education: clothing
science, electronics, and automotive.
There are some considerations why the researcher chooses the
place.
a. The researcher teaches at the school so that it is easy for him to make
research.
b. There are enough data available so that if there are mistakes it will be
very easy for the researcher to correct them and easy to make
coordination with the other collaborator.
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c. For time being, there are three main programs, language program,
science program and social program. The research will give an
information about the students’ reading ability in the students’ science
program.
2. Time of the Research
The research is conducted in four months beginning in March 2009 to July
2009. The following is the time schedule for the research.
Tabel 3.1 Research Schedule
No Activity March April May June July 1 Observation x 2 Participant Enlisting x 3 Writing Proposal X x 4 Revising proposal x 5 Seminar on proposal x 6 Conducting the research x x X x x x 7 Collecting Data x x 8 Analyzing Data X x 9 Report Writing X x X
C. Subject of the Research
In this research, the subjects are the students of eleventh year of MAN
2 Bojonegoro. Actually there are eight classes of the eleventh year but the
researcher chooses one only that is class XI-IA2. There are 41 students in the
classroom. The condition of the class is noisy in every lesson, so teachers get
difficulty in handling the class. They don’t have high spirit in learning
process. Chatting is their habitual activity in doing the assignments.
In teaching learning process, especially in reading comprehension they
get difficulties in understanding the text. Some of them are always silent and
waiting their friend in doing the task. They have low motivation to read and
find the way how to solve their problem in their lesson. That’s why it is very
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necessary to improve their spirit and to make high motivation in learning
reading.
D. Techniques of Collecting Data
To find quantitative data the researcher gives a pre-test first and post-
test after some teaching learning process to the students or at the end of a
cycle.
In finding qualitative data, he does direct observation in the classroom,
interview some students related to their activities in learning, and hold regular
meeting with the collaborator to find out the students’ improvement.
Questionnaire, photograph, and field notes are used in doing the research.
The data are collected by using some techniques as follows:
Table 3.2. Techniques of Collecting and Analyzing Data
No STAGES AIMS Who/what is involved
Techniques of Collecting Data
Kinds of Collecting Data
Techniques of Analyzing Data
1 Pre-Research a. Gaining baseline data
Students Test Score Scoring
b. Obtaining additional data
Students Observation Interview
Field note Interview data
Reflective
2 Whilst-Research
a. Preparing teaching instrument
Teacher lesson plan Lesson plan sheet Descriptive
b. Preparing research instrument
Teacher Observation Observation sheet Descriptive
c. Implementing the research
Teacher Student
Assessment Score Scoring
E. Techniques of Analyzing Data
There are two techniques in analyzing the data, quantitatively and
qualitatively.
1. Analyzing qualitative data.
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The researcher analyzes the improvement of teaching learning
process by using constant comparative method. Strauss and Glasser (1980:
104) states that constant comparative method is more likely to be applied
in the same study to any kind of qualitative information, including
observations, interviews, documents, articles, books, and so forth.
Moreover, constant comparative method consists of four stages,
namely:
a. Comparing incidents applicable to each category
The researcher starts by coding every incident in his data into
many categories.
b. Integrating categories and their properties
In this part the researcher compares the data taken during
observation and from questionnaire. And then, the researcher starts to
find the relationship between them.
c. Delimiting Theory
The researcher constructs the theory based on the result of daily
observation.
d. Writing Theory
The researcher arranges the research findings based on the
daily observation.
2. Analyzing in quantitative data
The researcher applies students’ previous marks (pre-test) and in
the end, the students are given post-test to know whether reciprocal
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teaching can improve the students’ reading ability. The result of the test
are analyzed by using descriptive statistics. It analyzes the result of
teaching and learning process to know the difference between before and
after the cycle.
CHAPTER IV
RESULT OF THE STUDY
The aims of the research are to find out whether the use of Reciprocal
Teaching improves students’ reading ability and to identify to what extent the
improvement is. Besides, the research is also aimed to describe the teaching
learning situation when Reciprocal Teaching is implemented in reading class. The
research was conducted collaboratively at MAN 2 Bojonegoro.
This chapter is divided into two sections. Section A relates to the process
of the research which includes the condition before the research, the
implementation of the research, and the final reflection. Section B relates to
finding and discussion. The summary of the research is provided in Table 4.1.
A. Proces of the research
Table 4.1. Process of the Research
I. Pre-research: Gaining base-line data
► Observing teaching and learning process ► Conducting pre-test ► Interviewing students II. Research Implementation
Cycle Task Activity
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ONE: Understanding of Narrative Text (Modelling of Reciprocal Teaching) M1: The Legend of Roro Jonggrang M2: A story about Red, M3: The Fox and The Crow
1. Predict the story 2. Make questions 3. Clarify the words 4. Summarize the story
1. Predicting the content of the story 2. Making questions with question words 3. Clarifying the difficult words 4. Making a summary of the story.
TWO: Understanding of Reciprocal Teaching and the elements of Narrative Text M1: Rapunzel M2: The Magic Candle M3: Mr. Tappit’s Giant Toy
1. Write the setting of the story 2. Who is the main character 3. Describe the generic structure of the story 4. What is the theme
1. Writing the setting of the story 2. Describing the main character 3. Describing the generic structure of the story 4.Telling the point of view of the
story. THREE: Consistency of Using Reciprocal Teaching
1. Analyze the story 2. Present the analysis
1. Analyzing the content of the story 2. Presenting the analysis of the story in front of class
In more detail, Table 4.1 is described in the following section.
This section in divided into three parts, namely the condition before the
research, the implementation of the research consisting of 1, Cycle 2, Cycle 3, and
final reflection, and the research findings.
1. The Condition before the Research
The condition before the research was identified in pre-research stage. The
pre-research was held to gain base-line data of the research. The result of pre-
research activity can be seen in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2 Result of Pre-research Issues Indicators
1. Students’ ability
in reading
1. Low achievement in reading : Mean = 55
2. Difficulty to find main idea
3. Difficulty to understand the text.
4. Difficulty to find specific term from the
text
5. Difficulty to state the generic structure of
the text.
2. Classroom situation 1. Not enjoyable atmosphere
2. Low motivation to stud
3. Monotonous teacher
4. Low exploration of students’ potentials
5. Teacher domination
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In more details, the condition before the research is described in the following
sections:
a. Students’ Reading Ability
To identify the students’ reading ability, the pre-test was conducted in the
reading comprehension test. In Reading Comprehension test, students were given
task to analyze a text in narrative form. Narrative text is given with a
consideration that narrative text includes fairy story, and students’ English ability
was still low and was not enough to analyze more difficult material. Most of the
students explained that they could not understand the sentence. So, it influenced
them in their learning process. They did not do the task to analyze narrative text
because they did not master the content of the story. In scoring process, I did not
base only on written test. It is accumulated with the task given and students’
participation in the classroom.
Table 4.3. Score Level of Pretest
Score Level Based on KK
Sum of Students Percentage
< 65
=>65
29
11
72,5%
17,5%
Based on the pretest result, it was found that students’ achievement was
low. Their average score was 55. It was found that the total score of students
mark was: those who got more than or the same as 65 were only 11 students (27.5
%), while students who got less than 65 were 29 students (72.5 %) from the total
of the students in class (40 students).
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The instrument of the test had been arranged and prepared before, under
the guidance of my supervisor I and supervisor II. The questions which were
given based on the reading comprehension syllabus.
b. Classroom Situation
Before conducting the research, the teaching and learning process was not
alive. The description of the teaching is as follows: in teaching reading for the
students of XI-IPA2 in MAN 2 Bojonegoro I, as the teacher, used to apply
conventional technique. I usually taught my students using material printed on the
students’ handbooks. The class used Lembar Kerja Siswa (LKS) in daily learning.
The reading lesson usually started with reading the text presented in LKS
and then followed by translation activity. The text was translated into Indonesian
language. After the translation activity, I explained the key points of the text,
including, grammar and the features of the text. When I thought that the students
had already mastered the form, I asked the students to answer the following
questions individually or in pairs. Students would do it.
The result of the observation showed that the classroom situation was not
enjoyable, the reading class was always noisy, because the students chatted one to
another. Another indicator is that the students showed their reluctance, low
motivation in doing the task as they did not care about the reading class. When I
gave them the chances of answering the questions turn, the students tried to avoid
the turn.. They usually said “ Belum pak.”, and some other expressions to avoid
the turn, such as “ Tidak bisa pak’, and “ Yang lain aja dulu, pak”.
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The fact of the class condition was also described by one of the teachers
who taught in XI-IPA-2. In the morning, when I sat in the office to prepare
material for meeting in the afternoon, I chatted with her. She grumbled and
seemed angry. I asked her why, what happened to her? She said,
“ Alah pak pak, rasane ngajar kelas 11 IPA-2, jan ngentekne ati. Diterangake tenanan e bocahe ono sing podo ngomong dewe-dewe, ono sing ngantukan. Ditakoni wis jelas podo meneng wae. E bareng di wenehi soal plonga-plongo ngono kae, Rasane metu soko kelas ki plong banget, donga muga di wenehi sabar “ I said and smiled,
“Iyo bu bedo banget karo jaman awake dhewe sekolah mbiyen. Perasaan awake yo sabar banget lek nerangke luwih detail timbang gurune dhewe biyen. Mbiyen yen ono murid ngantuk ya keno thuthuk, lha saiki dipencerengi lapor pulisi, ha ha ha “ I thought I had dominated the reading activities. The activities such as
translating the dialog, explaining vocabularies and the key point of the text took
the biggest portion of the time; as a result students were passive. The situation was
worsening by the limited time for students in exploring their ideas because of
main point of comprehending the text had been applied by the teacher such as
translating or understanding the content of the text and finding the key points of
the text. The situation above showed that the teacher was monotonous in teaching
reading. Teacher merely depended on the material on LKS without trying to
arrange the material suitable for the students’ need. Teacher applied an activity
that did not give students a chance to explore their potential in comprehending the
text.
c. Students’ Perception about Reading Class
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Beside conducting pre-test and observation, I also conducted in-depth
interview with the students. The purpose of the interview was exploring the
students’ perception about reading class. The material for interview was the
students’ condition and their learning process in reading comprehension. I took
some students as sampling for interview. I chose 5 of 40 students to come to the
teacher office after school time had finished. It was done by considering that the
time after teaching finished would make the student free and comfortable. They
could do the interview without being worried in attending the lesson. I called the
first student to do the interview. His name is PT, then I asked what he felt in
Reading Comprehension class, was she satisfied with his achievement in Reading
Comprehension? What did he want in Reading Comprehension? The answer of
PT could be described as follows:
“ Menurut saya mata pelajaran Reading itu termasuk sulit pak. Ya memang saya sadar saya banyak kekurangannya. Saya sulit memahami kalimat yang ada di bacaan. Kadang sudah buka kamus tapi kok nggak cocok diartikan. Guru kalo nerangkan kurang mendetail. Akhirnya saya bingung gimana ngerjakannya.” ( 13.38 )
The second, third and fourth student had the same opinion. They got
difficulties in analyzing text. They felt confused to determine generic structure.
“ Bagaimana ya pak kadang itu kita ngira ini komplikasi-nya. Tapi setelah dibahas kok beda. Kita sering keliru, ya kita kira klimaks ternyata sudah masuk ke resolution. Belum lagi malas baca karena ada kata-katanya sulit dipahami. Ya grammar kita masih sangat lemah pak ” (13.45)
Meanwhile, another student gave his difficulties to study because he must work.
“ Saya sudah berusaha pak tapi ya itu saya sekali lagi mohon maaf sebab
di kelas saya sering mengantuk dan pada saat pelajaran. Ketika ditanya
saya sering tidak bisa menjawab. Saya harus bantu kerja ortu jual kopi
sampai jam 12 malam, ya .. kalau saya tidak bantu kerja. Saya kasihan
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sama orang tua saya. Karena hanya dari jualan itu ortu bisa biayai saya
sekolah, “. (13.50)
The interview revealed the causes of students’ denial of the answering
question turns. They said that they were afraid of making mistakes, they were
afraid of being humiliated by their friends or even by the teacher. Their friends
usually laughed at them when they made mistakes. Students DD stated:
‘Sebenarnya saya senang kalau disuruh jawab pertanyaan, tapi saya takut salah pak. Malu diketawain sama teman’ In line with this statement, Student NN stated: ‘Kalau disuruh sebenarnya mau, tapi kadang takut kalo jawaban salah’ The feeling of shyness was underlined by Student DN who stated ‘Ada perasaan takut salah pak. Saya takut diketawain teman-teman’.
2. Implementation of the Research
Table 4.4 Overall Implementation of the Research
Problem Students had low reading ability Solution Teaching reading using Reciprocal Teaching Students XI IPA-2 No of Cycle 3 Cycle 1 : Understanding of Narrative Text and Reciprocal Teaching Planning Choosing topic, making general instruction, arranging observation form,
selecting teaching material and teaching aid, and determining the criteria of learning achievement. Arranging the students placement in group. Giving a task in each meeting using Reciprocal Teaching technique to analyze the narrative text
Action M1, M2, M3: Introduction and modeling to analyze the text using Reciprocal Teaching; M4: Post test.
Observation SS : active, less mastery the text, still nervous to make question, doubtful, attentive T : Worksheet, still guiding using Reciprocal Teaching, lack of modeling and monitoring, explain too fast CS : more alive, enjoyable, but crowded
Reflections (+) Raise SR ability and active participation in group work (-) Lack of monitoring, modeling, not clear explanation, new technique
Cycle 2: Impression of Analyzing Narrative Text using Reciprocal Teaching Planning Giving a task in each meeting using Reciprocal Teaching technique to analyze
the narrative text Changing the teacher role as facilitator, and enhancing the role the teacher as sole source who was ready to help the students Explaining the understanding of Reciprocal Teaching and the features of narrative text Making scenario of learning activities by re-arranging the students placement in group.
Action M1, M2, M3: Conducting Reciprocal Teaching by giving more motivation; M4:
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Post test. Observations SS : active, more master the text, brave to make question, more attentive
T : Worksheet, still guiding using RT, patient to guide CS : more alive, enjoyable, and conducive
Reflection (+) Raise SR ability, more active and brave express their ideas in group work (-) Some Ss still passive, not clearly understand the text given
Cycle 3 : Consistency using Reciprocal Teaching for analyzing the narrative text Planning Preparing the lesson plan, material, students’ worksheet and instrument of
evaluation Giving a task in each meeting using Reciprocal Teaching technique to analyze the narrative text
Action M1, M2: Analyze the text using Reciprocal Teaching and Giving more motivation than Cycle 2; M3: Post test.
Observation SS : more active, master the text, brave to make question, more attentive T : Worksheet, still guiding using RT, Raise motivation in group work, explain patiently CS : better, alive, enjoyable, and conducive
Reflection (+) Raise SR ability, more active and brave express their ideas in group work (-) Some Ss are still passive, less than not clearly understand the text given
Final reflection Ss’ reading ability raised, Reciprocal Teaching is effective model CS ; alive, Ss’ participation increased, bigger chances for exploring ideas, T more innovative, T explored students’ potentials
The implementation of the research in its cycle is described on the following
section.
a. Cycle 1
The overall description of Cycle 1 can be seen in the table 4.5:
Table 4.5 The implementation of Cycle 1
Pla
ning
Topic : Understanding of Narrative Text - Choosing topic, making general instruction, arranging observation form,
selecting teaching material and teaching aid, and determining the criteria of learning achievement.
- Presenting Instructional Objective - Arranging the students placement in group. - Giving a task in each meeting - Using Reciprocal Teaching technique to analyze the narrative text
A c
t i
o n First meeting – third meeting
Ø Introducing and modeling in using Reciprocal Teaching Ø Using predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing steps
Fourth meeting Ø Having a test of reading comprehension
Obs
erva
tion
Students Ø active, mastery the text, Ø still nervous to make question, doubtful, Ø attentive
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Teacher Ø Preparing the work sheets: narrative text Ø Less patient Ø Not giving written model and grammar discussion, Ø Lack of monitoring in group work Ø Explaining too fast
Classroom situation Ø Alive, crowded in conducting the group work Ø Enjoyable for various types of activities
Ref
lect
ion
Strength Ø Using RT can increase students’ motivation in reading class Ø There was an improvement of students’ reading ability Ø RT can accommodate various types of activities which are
motivating the students to express their ideas. Ø Some of the students were active in learning process.
Weaknesses Ø Less control of the teacher in group work Ø Not clear in giving an explanation Ø Lack of modeling from teacher Ø New technique
The process of Cycle 1 is described in the following section.
1) Planning the Action
Based on the reality that is proven by the pre-test result and the result of
the observation, it can be concluded that students had difficulties in understanding
reading text. Students still got difficulties in comprehending the text so Reciprocal
Teaching was implemented to solve the problem. To know the improvement of
learning process, students were given post test at the end of cycle. The plans or
preparations used before implementing the action are cooperating with
collaborator for doing the action. The general plan consisted of; (1) choosing the
topic and items of learning; (2) arranging Competence Standard and Basic
Competence; (3) arranging observation form of students and teacher’s activities
the process and the result of the action; (4) selecting teaching material and
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teaching aid; and (5) determining the criteria or measurement of the learning
achievement.
Each cycle was implemented in 2 weeks. Every meeting is focused on
understanding narrative by using reading strategy that is so called Reciprocal
Teaching which is built on 4 steps: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and
summarizing. In this stage, students were given the explanation about Reciprocal
Teaching and the procedures in implementing reciprocal teaching to comprehend
the text. In cycle I students were given the narrative text entitled “The Legend of
Princess Loro Jonggrang” adapted from http/www.geatindonesia.com for the first
meeting, “A story about Red” taken from LKS material in the second meeting, and
“Villager’s Champion” also taken from LKS material in the third meeting Students
were divided into 8 groups. They were grouped based on their pre-test score and
based on my observation when I taught reading comprehension. At the end of the
cycle, I gave test to know the students improvement in understanding of narrative
text.
2) Implementation of the Action
In this stage, I implemented the plan and collaborator observed the
teacher’s and the students’ activities and interaction in the classroom. The
activities in implementing the action could be described as follows;
a) First Meeting
(1) Introduction
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I and the collaborator entered to classroom. I as the teacher put my
teaching material in the teacher’s table, while collaborator took a seat in the back
side.
Meanwhile, the students seemed lazy to do the lesson. It was assumed
that they were not enthusiastic in doing the task. The teacher smiled and tried to
look at all the students intensively, then moved forward by greeting them friendly.
After greeting, I called the students names one by one,. In this meeting,
only a student did not follow the lesson. The total number of students was 40.
After that, I asked the students to explain three things that the readers
should do in reading. One of students answered: (1) we should use background
knowledge; and (2) find main idea. Then teacher said that the student’s answer
was correct and he explained that most of what he had said could be categorized
into one of the strategies in Reciprocal Teaching that is predicting. To make his
students more active in teaching learning process, he motivated them by giving
the suggestion about the importance of reading and students listened to the teacher
attentively. Teacher seemed very enthusiastic in motivating the students.
After presenting learning objectives according to (CS and BC), I
distributed learning material and the student’s work sheet. When I explained (CS
and BC), the students seemed serious and active to know (CS and BC) of the
lesson.
(2) The main activity
Teacher clarified the steps of Reciprocal Teaching, and then applied
Reciprocal Teaching to the students. Students followed the direction that was
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shown by the teacher through learning material. The teacher guided the students to
predict the story by looking at the title of the short story. The teacher gave the
student questions. OK, students, look first at the title of the story, exactly you
have known the name in the title, what you predicted about the story. (NR)
answered that from the title we know that the character was a princess named
Loro Jonggrang, while (JJ) said,” Dalam cerita ini menggambarkan suatu
peristiwa yang terjadi pada putri Loro Jonggrang.” Furthermore, (DA) added,
“Legend menurut saya itu berarti legenda atau cerita dari mulut ke mulut”.
While listening to the students’ answer the teacher moved the right side and asked
(DD) who looked silent then asked him, “Do you agree mas?” The student did
not say anything. “OK students, we will try to prove your prediction, now read
silently the first and second paragraph.” The teacher walked around the
classroom to observe students activity.
After reading one paragraph, the teacher guided the student and showed
the second step of Reciprocal Teaching (Questioning). he asked the student, who
was the character? What did he do? When did he do? Two students looked active
answering the questions, while others only kept silent. Two boys who sat behind
smiled and hit each other. He asked the students to read the next paragraph. He
moved and got closer to the two boys who didn’t pay attention to the lesson and
asked them, “Ayo (FA) baca, jangan bergurau terus! Kamu tadi tahu nggak isi
paragraph satu, ayo jelaskan!” Two boys looked confused and tried to read the
story. One of them answered, “Kisah candi Prambanan, pak”.
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Five minutes later, the teacher asked “who are the characters raised in
first paragraph? How is the description of the characters? Where is the setting?”
Students did not answer the questions. They still read the text although the teacher
has ordered to stop their activity. The teacher asked them again “who are the
characters?” GS answered the question. The situation of the class was quiet. The
teacher, then gave the explanation that what he has done, making questions of
using questions word (who, when, what) to guide students in understanding the
story. Unfortunately, students looked confused; the teacher explained again about
the procedure of questioning. Next, he continued to the other step. “Do you find
the difficult words?” One student asked “gathered artinya apa pak?” The teacher
explained, how to clarify the difficult word, “Coba hubungkan kata itu dengan
kalimat sebelumnya, gathered itu termasuk jenis kata apa? Who knows the
meaning of gathered?” (NR) answered” gathered is “mengumpulkan, bener
ndak?”. ‘ Good, ya arti tepatnya menyusun. Bila digabung gathered the power
berarti menyusun kekuatan ”. Students asked more than one word, such as,
suffered, starvation, etc. Then the teacher gave the model how to clarify the
difficult word. After applying questioning and clarifying, the teacher asked the
summary or the main idea of the story to know the content of the text in each
paragraph. “So, what is the main idea? “ Jadi kesimpulan paragraph II apa? “
VR answered “ Terjadinya perang antara Prabu Boko dan kerajaan Pengging.“
The teacher praised him “good” then he said, “please read the next paragraph”.
In the third paragraph, the teacher asked the students to do the same as
previous step. The students have to predict what would happen with Pengging and
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Prabu Boko. In the next paragraph after the students read, the teacher asked the
students, “Do you have the same prediction with the story you read? Why did
Prabu Damar Moyo send his son, Raden Bandung Bondowoso? Could Raden
Bandung Bondowoso defeat Prabu Boko? What does chase mean?” The students
were only silent. Only two students (NR) and (DA) answered while (AN) said
loudly “wah ( NR ) njawab terus soale difotoni“ The situation of the class was
crowded, most of the students laughed. The teacher controlled the students by
asking the student to continue to read. (JJ) he…… he.. silent please!”
The activities were continued until last paragraph. All the activities were
conducted by the teacher’s guidance.
(3) Production
To check the students result toward what they had just learned, I gave
some written exercises as the production of learning process which had been done
using Reciprocal Teaching. The written questions were given on the paper. The
number of written questions were 2 in the form of essay in the time given was 15
minutes.
The written test was given in the form of paper. I asked them to answer on
the answer sheet directly. The following was the example of the written test:
1. Analyze the story in the text intrinsically!
2. Explain briefly the content of the story!
The situation of the class when the student did the exercise was not quiet.
Some of the students didn’t do seriously. When the students had finished doing
the exercise, I asked them to submit.
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(4) Closing
This part showed how the teacher closed the meeting. He reflected the
result of learning activities. Some students followed the teacher’s instruction but
other students talked with others, the teacher praised students who worked hard
during the lesson, he reminded the class to study harder and remembered
Reciprocal Teaching strategy to prepare for the next meeting, student would be
divided into group of discussion and one member of the group would be a leader
or “teacher”. The teacher leader should know how to guide his friends in applying
Reciprocal Teaching Strategy. I would do as a teacher. “Any questions?” The
students answered “no. sir”. “ If there is no question, I closed the meeting, thank
you very much for attending and your attention, see you, Wassalamu’alaikum”.
The students responded him, Waalaikumsalam.”
b) Second meeting
In this meeting I didn’t play as a leader in learning process. After modeling
how to apply the four strategies of Reciprocal Teaching, I hoped that the students
could apply them in the discussion. The students were hoped to be active and be
independent learners. Firstly, I divided class into 8 groups. The students were
grouped the same as the previous meeting. The students with the same score or
almost the same score were grouped together.
The steps were introduction, the main activities, production, and the last
was closing. They would be explained in the following parts.
(1) Introduction
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I began the lesson by giving questions about previous lesson they had
studied. In this session the students were expected to memorize the steps of
Reciprocal Teaching and remembered how to apply them (predicting, questioning,
clarifying, and summarizing)
When I entered the classroom with her collaborator, some students had not
come yet. Ten minutes later, they all came. Then, I opened the class by saying
Assalamu’alaikum and students answered Waalaikum salam. The students seemed
ready to join the lesson. They sat and paid attention to their teacher’s speaking.
But on the right side two students made a little conversation and looked busy to
open the book.
Next I checked their attendance and called the students one by one. The
total of the students were 40 students.
Meanwhile, I gave question to check their memorization about the
previous lesson. Not all the students answered the questions. Most of them were
only silent.
(2) Main Activity
Considering the students’ condition in beginning that not all students
answered when I asked them in the opening class, so I repeated the previous
material by giving explanation about Reciprocal teaching. I began to explain and
gave suggestions. For details information, it can be described from my
explanation:
“ Predictions should come as you read the title or headline, or other
predictions might happen when you read heading or subtitles, when the
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author of the story asks a question, or when a character in story did
something. Then, while reading the story you were confused about
information or get a word that you didn’t know you should find and
clarify this word. You could look for little word in big word or finding
word parts such as bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes. After you have
predicted and clarified, you should ask good questions about what you
have read and last you should make summary”.
I asked to my students again “do you understand? yes Sir.” Next, I
divided the students in group, it was named by group A, B, C, D, E, F,G, and H.
After that I distributed the material including the narrative text and
student’s written test, and then I chose one student to be a leader “teacher”.
Student “teacher” will lead the discussion while I walked around the room to
know closer the student’ activity and listen to the student’s interaction and in
responding during whole group instruction. The first step was a student “ teacher”
reading aloud the text A Story about Red taken from LKS material.
Before reading student “teacher” asked her friends to predict the story. She
asked the title, “ According to your opinion what does the story tell about? (HP)
said, “I think it tells about something with red color. Saya kira ceritanya nanti
mungkin berhubungan karakter yang ada di cerita yang punya masalah dengan
warna merah”, Then she asked her friends to predict the story by looking the title
but now all the members answer it. Teacher of group C asked in Indonesian
language, “Coba dari judul itu kira-kira nanti apa isi ceritanya?” (AW) answered,
“ kisah asal warna merah,” (MR) said “idem” and (RE) said “idem”, too.
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The three groups D, E, are observed by collaborator (TT) written on the
field note. It could be illustrated group D, E, asked the member of their group to
predict the story by observing the title, all the members of group E were active,
while in group D, only one student was active.
During reading students of group B seemed tired and didn’t give attention
to the lesson. I got closer to this group and asked about the discussion, “ the
teacher” said that this group still found difficulties in clarifying the word or
sentence, then I gave the explanation to this group. Then, I continued to observe
another group I reminded the student (DV) as a teacher to guide her friend to
summarize what they have read.
(3) Production
In this part, the students of group E must present the analysis result of the
narrative in front of the class. This group is chosen to present the analysis firstly
based on the teacher observation. It was seen that most of the members of this
group gave more attention to the learning activity. In the end of the presentation
the teacher explained again the analysis of the short story.
(4) Closure
Having finished all the activities on the day, then I closed the class by
saying thanks for the students’ attention and cooperation. I reminded the students
to prepare the next meeting, Finally, I said Assalamu’alaikum.
c) Third Meeting
In this part, the teacher did a set of activities which consisted of
introduction, main activity and closure. The detail information would be explained
in the following parts:
(1) Opening the class
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I and the collaborator entered to the classroom. Meanwhile, the students
seemed happy to do the lesson. I smiled and saw the students. After greeting, the
writer called the students’ name one by one. Total students were 41. After that, I
reminded the students’ prior knowledge related to the material that would be
discussed. To make the students more active in teaching learning process, I
motivated them by giving the suggestion about the importance of reading and
students listened to the teacher attentively.
(2) The main activity
I applied Reciprocal Teaching to the students. Students followed the
direction shown through learning material. I asked the students to make a group of
discussion based on teacher’s note about the composition of the member in a
group.
I guided the students to predict the story by looking the title of the short
narrative text. I wrote it on the white board “The Fox and The Crow”. I gave the
students questions, “What do you think about the title”? Then, MW said that from
the title she predicted “The Fox and The Crow” was the name of the character in
the story. I continued to apply Reciprocal teaching to remind the students the
procedure of Reciprocal teaching. I gave the explanation and guided the students
in making question, clarifying, predicting, and summarizing.
In this cycle, I also chose students in each group as “Teacher Model”. For
this research it was called “ Student “Teacher”. Student “teacher” would guide the
members of a group to apply Reciprocal teaching. I tried to motivate a student
‘teacher” to do better. In the beginning, I guided the student ‘teacher” to ask the
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member of the group how to predict the story by looking at the title and guide
him in answering the question and it could be shown that most of student
”teacher” still did the discussion by using Indonesian. I motivated the students to
be brave to express their ideas in teaching learning process. During the activities,
I moved to each group to observe and give explanation the students when they
were confused or they were wrong in applying Reciprocal Teaching strategy. I
created a mini lesson in a group which got problems.
About what they had learned, I gave the task to do. They had to write the
analysis of the story intrinsically in a piece of paper. The detail about the task was
as follows: (1) Write the setting of the story!, (2) Who is the main character?, (3)
Describe the story from the beginning till the end!, and (4) What is the theme?
(3) Closing
Having finished all the activities in that day, I then reflected the learning
activities and asked the students which part of Reciprocal teaching they didn’t
understand. Before parting, I reminded them to study hard and never give up in
studying English. At last, I closed the meeting by saying “Assalamu’alaikum Wr.
Wb”
d) Fourth Meeting
In this third stage, I would do the activities consisted of opening the class,
main activity, and the last was closure. The following were detail information:
(1) Opening the class
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I came to the classroom alone. I smiled happily because all the students
have sat neatly, then I opened attendance list and gave a check mark. On that day
all the students were present.
Before doing the main activity. I explained what the students were going
to do on that occasion. In details I said that they would give a test to evaluate what
they have learned before. The form of the test was written test. In the test students
had to answer the questions on the paper sheet which had been provided. To know
improvement of student’s understanding short story after they had been trained by
Reciprocal Teaching I used multiple choice test, which was made based on the
blue print from the operational definition of the research. The number of the item
test were composed the same with the number of items of pre-test. The total
number of item was 20 and the time allotment to do the written test was 70
minutes
(2) Main activity
Firstly, I distributed the test. Student read the story 35 minutes then they
did the test 25 minutes, I reminded that time to do the test was only 70 minutes
and I also asked the students to do it individually.
During the test, I kept my eyes on students’ activity seriously, I wanted to
convince that the students’ achievement was valid. After 70 minutes was over, the
collaborator and I asked the students to submit their work’s sheet paper, but
students still did their work. Finally I gave a warning to the students by saying
1,2,3,4,5 and this way made the students afraid to break the warning.
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Before the time was up, I needed collaborator’s help to correct the
student’s work. I gave the answer of each item and student’s work. I gave the
answer of each item and students corrected and counter the correct and false
answer.
(3) Closing
Having done all the activities, then I closed the class by saying thanks to
the student’s attending and participating. Finally I said “good bye” and
Assalamu’alaikum.
3) Observing and monitoring the action
Having implemented the action, it was very important to observe and
monitor the progress of the implementation, observing and monitoring have been
done by me as a researcher and the observer (collaborator) during the
implementation of the action whole the students were doing their activities in the
classroom.
By observing and monitoring the action in cycle I, I would found, the
effectiveness of learning strategy (Reciprocal Teaching) that was used to improve
students understanding the text especially narrative text. In this part, I would like
to describe about what I has observed and noticed for the teaching learning
process which was on going at every meeting. It would be divided into 2 parts.
The first part was observing for teacher’s activity and the second one is for
students’ activity at every meeting.
In the first meeting observation, I observed the activities in teaching and
learning process was going on the class. Firstly, when I opened the class, I had
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tried to each well. It means that I realize my role in Teaching Learning process. I
not only taught my students, but I also tried to know students’ condition. My
students seemed lazy to study and did not have higher motivation, so I tried to
smile friendly to attract their attention to be comfortable in doing the lesson. I also
give motivation to the students. After greeting them and the students responded
me then I checked students’ attendance one by one.
When I presented the material, some of the students were active to pay full
attention and followed teacher activities. During the lesson, I moved from one
place to another to control the students. I explained the teaching steps clearly and
loudly and students are active to follow teacher’s instruction. I guided the students
to apply steps of Reciprocal Teaching, but some of the students found the
difficulties. They got difficulties in answering, predicting, clarifying, and
summarizing.
According to collaborator’s field note the students did not use English
language in teaching and learning process. Some students were busy with their
own activity. It can be seen that there were students who did not pay attention
well to the teacher, then I warned them to be silent and gave more attention to the
teaching and learning process.
4) Reflecting
Based on the observation and interview result I made a reflection about
the strength and weaknesses of first cycle, as follows:
(1) Strength
- RT can increase students’ ability in reading especially in understanding
narrative text.
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- RT can accommodate various types of activities which are motivating the
students to express their ideas.
- Some of the students were active in learning process.
(2) Weaknesses
- Less control of the teacher in group work
- Not clear in giving an explanation
- Lack of modeling from teacher
- New technique
Based on the weaknesses happening in cycle I and adding some things
which were necessary to support the students’ learning to be more active and
interactive, it was important to improve students’ condition by planning some
actions in the second cycle as follows:
(1) Enhancing the role of the teacher to keep the class active and interactive. It
means that the teacher had to approach and guide students,
(2) The teacher also had to motivate the students in learning by using Reciprocal
Teaching little by little.
2). Cycle 2
The overall description of Cycle 2 can be seen in the table 4.6:
Table 4.6 The Implementation of Cycle 2
Pla
ning
Topic : Understanding of Narrative Text - Giving a task in each meeting using Reciprocal Teaching technique to
analyze the narrative text - Changing the teacher role as facilitator, and enhancing the role the
teacher as sole source who was ready to help the students - Explaining the understanding of Reciprocal Teaching and the features
of narrative text - Making scenario of learning activities by re-arranging the students
placement in group.
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A c
t i
o n First meeting – third meeting
Ø Conducting reciprocal teaching. Ø Giving motivation to be active applying all steps.
Fourth meeting Ø Having a test of reading comprehension
Obs
erva
tion
Students Ø active, master the text, Ø brave to make question, Ø more attentive
Teacher Ø Preparing the work sheets: narrative text Ø Be patient to guide using Reciprocal Teaching Ø Raising motivation in group work Ø Explaining too fast
Classroom situation Ø More alive, Ø conducive Ø Enjoyable for various types of activities
Ref
lect
ion
Strength Ø RT can increase students’ motivation in reading class Ø There was an improvement of students’ reading ability Ø RT can accommodate various types of activities which are
motivating the students to brave expressing their ideas. Ø The students were more active in learning process.
Weaknesses Ø Improvement less than target achievement (KKM) Ø Still being few students using Indonesia in learning process Ø Few students still passive
In the second cycle, the teacher did some activities that had been planned
after doing the action in cycle I. These activities consist of introduction, main
activities, and closure. The following were the detail information about the action:
1) Planning the Action
Having realized that the implementation of Reciprocal Teaching to
improve understanding of narrative text in the first cycle had not satisfied yet,
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based on the result of reflecting and evaluating the implementation of the action, I
arranged the action plan for the second cycle.
The action plan helped the teacher to guide in implementing the action.
It was arranged to solve the problems happening in the classroom. The solutions
which were done: (1) Giving a high motivation, and guiding the students to learn
patiently; (2) changing the teacher’s role as an instructor to be facilitator and
enhancing the role of the teacher as a sole source who was ready to help the
students; (3) Explaining the understanding of Reciprocal Teaching and the
features of narrative text; and (4) Making scenario of learning activities by re-
arranging the students placement in group. The learning action plan for cycle two
was arranged as follows:
a) Explaining the understanding of Reciprocal Teaching and the features of
narrative text.
b) Determining the materials which would be conducted in cycle two.
c) Making scenario of learning activities by using Reciprocal Teaching.
d) Preparing the facilities which were needed to practice. The teacher made
guidance book in applying Reciprocal teaching and making summary or
generic structure and features which covered the intrinsic factors.
e) Rearranging the student’s placement in group. To make all the students in a
group more active. The teacher placed an active and clever student in each
group. It was done by consideration that selected students would help their
friends in implementing Reciprocal Teaching and they would assist their
friend in understanding narrative text.
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2) Implementing the Action
In this second cycle, the actions were divided into: Introduction, main
activity, and closure. These steps were conducted in three meeting. The fourth
meeting was carried out to give a post-test to know the result of implementing
Reciprocal Teaching.
a) First Meeting
In this part, the teacher did a set of activities which consisted of
introduction, main activity and closure. The detail information would be explained
in the following parts:
(1) Opening the class
I and the collaborator entered the classroom after discussing the action
that would be done. Meanwhile, the students seemed happy to do the lesson. I
smiled and saw the students. After greeting, the writer called the students’ name
one by one. Total students were 40. After that, I reminded the students’ prior
knowledge related to the material that would be discussed. To make the students
more active in teaching learning process, I motivated them by giving the
suggestion about the importance of reading and students listened to the teacher
attentively.
After presenting learning objective, I distributed learning material and
the student’s work sheet. When I explained (CS and BC) I saw the students seem
serious and active to know (CS and BC) of the lesson.
(2) The main activity
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I asked the students to make a group of discussion based on teacher’s
note about the composition of the member in a group. One of the students (DV)
called his friend’s name one by one and the student who was called moved to
another seat to meet his/her own member. I guided the students to predict the story
by looking the title of the short narrative text. I wrote it on the white board
“Rapunzel”. I gave the students questions, “What do you think about the title”?
Then, AA said that from the title he predicted “Rapunzel” was the name of the
character in the story. I continued to apply Reciprocal teaching to remind the
students the procedure of Reciprocal teaching. I gave the explanation and guided
the students in making question, clarifying, predicting, and summarizing.
In this cycle, I chose students in each group as “Teacher Model”. For this
research it was called “ Student “Teacher”. Student “teacher” would guide the
members of a group to apply Reciprocal teaching. I tried to motivate a student
‘teacher” to do better and actively. In the beginning, I guided the student ‘teacher”
to ask the member of the group how to predict the story by looking at the title and
guide him in answering the question and it could be shown that most of student
”teacher” still did the discussion by using Indonesian. I motivated the students to
be brave to express their ideas using English in teaching learning process. During
the activities, I moved to each group to observe and give explanation the students
when they were confused or they were wrong in applying Reciprocal Teaching
strategy. I created a mini lesson in a group which got problems.
After they had learned , I gave the task to do. They had to write the
analysis of the story intrinsically in a piece of paper. The detail about the task was
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as follows: (1) Write the setting of the story!, (2) Who is the main character?, (3)
Describe the story from the beginning till the end!, and (4) What is the theme?
(3) Closing
Having finished all the activities in that day, I then reflected the learning
activities and asked the students which part of Reciprocal teaching they didn’t
understand. Before parting, I reminded them to study hard and never give up in
studying English. At last, I closed the meeting by saying “Assalamu’alaikum Wr.
Wb”
b) Second Meeting
In this part, I did some activities consist of planning the action,
implementing the action conducted in three meetings and each meeting consisted
of introduction, main activities, and closure. The following were the detail
information about the action:
(1) Opening the Class
I and the collaborator entered the classroom. I greeted the students
“Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullohi Wabarokatuh” and they answered
enthusiastically. Then, I asked them to give signature in attendance list and I
called students’ name who had signed the attendance list. In this meeting, there
were two students who were absent.
After that, I reminded the students’ prior knowledge related to the
material. I asked them randomly to remember the previous lesson.
After presenting learning objective suitable with (CS and BC), I
distributed learning material and the student’s work sheet.
(2) Main Activity
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In order to be clear, I asked which steps of Reciprocal Teaching has not
been taught clearly. PT asked “Clarifying, Sir, I am still confused to clarify. Sebab
kalau ada kata-kata yang sulit ya bisanya hanya kalau buka kamus. Kalau gak
ngerti ya sudah ndak bisa njawab”. I gave her appraisal, “Good Question! I asked
the students to open their bookmark given and find the discussion of clarifying.
While opening the book, I asked to PT:
“ Do you still remember the story “Rapunzel”? In the beginning it was told that there lived a young couple, a man and his wife. His wife was expecting their baby. She wanted a plant that only grew in her neighbor’s garden. To clarify the word “only grew” we can relate this word with sentence structure. Only refers to quantity one. So the word only grew can be defined as quantity of plant is just one.
After that, I continued giving more examples. I tried to show how to
clarify the word “golden hair”. I divided this word into two parts, golden and hair.
Golden means keemasan and hair is rambut, so golden hair is condition that the
girl in the story has hair with gold color.
I repeated to ask PT, ”Bagaimana sudah jelas?. She said,” Sudah , pak”.
Afterwards, I started the lesson. That day students were given short story in
narrative text entitled “The Magic Candle”. This story was gotten from LKS
material. Most of the students had opened the story without my instruction.
Students seemed busy in their group. I asked a student “teacher” to begin the first
step. All groups did the activity seriously. Most of students “teacher” asked the
member of the group about their prediction based on the title. I closed up to the
collaborator and smiled to her while saying, “ Panas bu ya, duh sumuk banget”.
She walked around classroom to observe the discussion of each group. In her
observation, group A did better the steps of Reciprocal Teaching although it was
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still conducted in two languages, Indonesian and English. The description of their
activities can be illustrated as follows:
Student “teacher” : What is your prediction? Student A : Magic itu artinya sihir atau sulap, sedang adalah
lilin, jadi ceritanya mungkin akan menggambarkan salah seorang character dalam cerita itu mempunyai lilin untuk menyihir..
Students “teacher” : Ok, now read the first paragraph Bagaimana, is your prediction correct? Student A : No, it does not tell Student “teacher” : How many characters? Student B : Three characters Student “teacher” : What are they? Student B : Old woman, wanderer and princess Student “teacher” : What does wanderer do? Student C : He took magic candle from the devil, but for himself. Student “teacher” : Do you get difficult word? Student A : Grapped itu artinya apa? Student “teacher” : Who can answer? Student D : Grapped itu merebut, because in this story, the
magic candle had been stolen by the devil, so the wanderer took cruelly.
Student C : Ya, agree Student “teacher” : So, What is the main idea?
Student B : Perebutan magic candle Student “teacher” : Ok, you are right. what is your prediction about
story?. What will happen to these characters? Student D : The characters get an importance to magic candle Student “teacher” : Ok, now…… I interrupted and reminded this group that student “teacher” should be
changed , so all the members of the group took turn to be a student “teacher”.
Then, I moved to group B. When I stood close to this group, the students were
silent. They stopped their discussion. Then I said:
I : Come on, speak up please! Student C : Hi hi hi hi ….. I : Which paragraph do you read? Student A : Ini, pak I : Ok, who is the teacher?
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Student A : Me, pak I : OK, continue your discussion! Student A : Is her prediction correct? Student B : Ya, magic candle. All characters wanted to it.
Student A : What do they do? Student C : They tried to get it. Student A : Do you get a difficult sentence or word? Student B : No Student A : What is the topic? You! (pointed student D to answer) Student D : Magic candle can give whatever we ask. Student C : Maybe, but it also can make someone suffer Student A : Ok, ganti ya pak yang jadi guru? Teacher : yes.
The collaborator reminded me. She said that the time in conducting main
activity finished. Then I asked the students to do the task given. Students were
given writing test. This task must be done in group. The tasks were showed as
follows: (1) Write the setting of the story! (2) Who is the main character? (3)
Describe the story from the beginning till the end! (4) What is the theme?
(3) Closing
After finishing teaching and learning process, teacher then reflected the
learning activities and asked the students which part of Reciprocal teaching they
didn’t understand. Before parting, teacher reminded them to study hard and never
give up in studying English. She also warned her students that they would get
evaluation test at the next meeting. She asked her students to prepare well. At last,
she closed the meeting by saying “ Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb. “
3) Third Meeting
In this part, the teacher did a set of activities which consisted of
introduction, main activity and closure. The detail information would be explained
in the following parts:
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(1) Opening the class
I and the collaborator entered to the classroom. Meanwhile, the students
seemed happy to do the lesson. I smiled and saw the students. After greeting, the
writer called the students’ name one by one. Total students were 41. After that, I
reminded the students’ prior knowledge related to the material that would be
discussed. To make the students more active in teaching learning process, I
motivated them by giving the suggestion about the importance of reading and
students listened to the teacher attentively.
(2) The main activity
I applied Reciprocal Teaching to the students. Students followed the
direction shown through learning material. I asked the students to make a group of
discussion based on teacher’s note about the composition of the member in a
group.
I guided the students to predict the story by looking the title of the short
narrative text. I wrote it on the white board “Mr. Taggit’s Giant Toy”. I gave the
students questions, “What do you think about the title”? Then, VR said that from
the title he predicted “Mr. Taggit’s Giant Toy” was the name of the thing because
of being the word meant “mainan” in the story.
I continued to apply Reciprocal Teaching to remind the students the
procedure of Reciprocal teaching. I gave the explanation and guided the students
in making question, clarifying, predicting, and summarizing.
In this cycle, I had an attempt to motivate a student ‘teacher” to do better.
Firstly, I said the student ‘teacher” to ask the member of the group to apply the
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steps of Reciprocal Teaching to know the content of the story by predicting at the
title, answering the question, clarifying the difficult words, making a conclusion
of the content of the story.
It could be shown that most of student ”teacher” had used English to
discuss the text. I motivated the students to be brave to express their ideas in
teaching learning process in English. During the activities, I and collaborator
moved to each group to observe and gave explanation the students when they
were confused or they were wrong in applying Reciprocal Teaching strategy. I
created a mini lesson in a group which got problems.
After they had discussed and learned the story of Mr. Tappit’s Giant Toy, I
gave the task to do. They had to write the analysis of the story intrinsically in a
piece of paper. The detail about the task was as follows: (1) Write the setting of
the story!, (2) Who is the main character?, (3) Describe the story from the
beginning till the end!, and (4) What is the theme?
(3) Closing
Having finished all the activities in that day, I then reflected the learning
activities and asked the students which part of Reciprocal teaching they hadn’t
understood. Before leaving the classroom, I reminded them to study hard and
never give up in studying English. At last, I closed the meeting by saying
“Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb”
4) Fourth Meeting
In this part, there were only three activities would be done. There were
opening the class, main activity (doing the evaluation), and closure. The detail
activities were described as follows:
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1) Opening the Class
I entered the classroom, and said “Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb”. Before
giving attendance list to the students, I asked the students to arrange the seat and I
placed three students to sit in front of teacher’s seat. It was done because I knew
that the three students were tricky.
Before doing the main activity, I explained what they were going to do on
that occasion. In details I said that they would be given a test to evaluate what
they have learned before. The form of the test was multiple choice. In the test
students had to answer the questions on the paper which had been provided. This
evaluation was always done at the end of the cycle to know the improvement of
students’ understanding of short story after they had been trained by Reciprocal
Teaching. It was made based on the blue print from the operational definition of
the research. The item’s number of the test was arranged the same as the number
of item of pre-test. The total number of item was 20 and the time allotment to do
the written test was only 70 minutes.
2) Main Activity
During the test, students seemed serious doing the test. I always reminded
the students to do the test by themselves.
Before the time was up, I needed collaborator’s help to correct the
student’s work. I gave the answer of each item and students corrected and counted
the correct and false answer.
3) Closing
Having done all the activities, I closed the class by saying thanks to the
student’s attending and participating, and I never forgot to motivate the students in
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learning English. I continued to arrange the next meeting schedule. Finally, I said
“Assalamu’alaikum, Wr. Wb.
4) Observing and Monitoring the Action
In this stage, the observing and monitoring process was carried out during
the implementation of the action. In general, the teaching and learning process
was better than the first cycle. It could be seen from the class activity which had
been going on to be conductive and enjoyable for the students. The students were
not passive. The class was not dominated by certain students. Students did the
discussion in a group seriously an it seemed that they enjoyed the activity.
By observing and monitoring the action in cycle II, I would find the
effectiveness of learning strategy (Reciprocal Teaching) used to improve students
understanding narrative text and to improve students’ participations to become
mere active and braver to give their ideas. In this part, I would like to describe
about what I had observed and noticed for the teaching learning process which
was on going every meeting.
In the first meeting, I and collaborator still observed my activities in
teaching and learning process based on the collaborator’s field note. Firstly, when
I opened the class, I had tried to teach well. I still realized my role in Teaching
Learning process. I taught patiently. It could be seen when I had to explain the
steps of Reciprocal Teaching frequently. I was never tired to motivate their
students. After greeting them and the students responded then I checked students’
attendance one by one.
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When the teacher presented the material, students were active to pay full
attention and follow the teacher’s activities. During the lesson, I moved from one
place to another to control the students. I explained the teaching steps clearly and
loudly and students were active to follow teacher’s instruction. I guided the
students to apply steps Reciprocal Teaching, but some of the students found
difficulties. They felt difficult in clarifying, and summarizing. So, I clarified the
two steps of Reciprocal Teaching namely, clarifying and summarizing. Students
not only use Indonesian language, but also they mixed English language and
Indonesian in teaching and learning process. In conclusion, the implementation of
Reciprocal Teaching in understanding of narrative text was better, it could be
shown that the situation in teaching and learning process was more conductive,
students were more active.
(a) Reflecting and Evaluating the Result of Observation
Based on the observation data I made a reflection about the strength and
weaknesses of first cycle, as follows:
(1) Strength
Ø RT can increase students’ motivation in reading class
Ø There was an improvement of students’ reading ability
Ø RT can accommodate various types of activities which are motivating the
students to brave expressing their ideas in English.
Ø The students were more active in learning process.
(2) Weaknesses
Ø Improvement less than target achievement (KKM)
Ø Still being few students using Indonesia in learning process
Ø Few students still passive
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I found that the students’ motivation and participation increased
although they were not optimal yet. It was found that some students did their own
activity, such as, playing their mobile and cheating. Few students could not
develop their own words or sentences in doing the steps of Reciprocal Teaching.
For the above purpose, I had to arrange again the groups in the class. It
was done to get better condition. Beside, teacher has to realize her students’ need.
It was necessary to create learning condition more enjoyable and comfortable. To
make sure whether the steps of cycle two were appropriate or not, I tried to do the
same steps in the next action.
3). Cycle 3
The overall description of Cycle 3 can be seen in the table 4.7:
Table 4.7 The implementation of Cycle 3
Pla
ning
Topic : Consistency using Reciprocal Teaching for analyzing the narrative text
- Preparing the lesson plan, material, students’ worksheet and instrument of evaluation
- Giving more motivation and giving a task in each meeting using Reciprocal Teaching technique to analyze the narrative text
A c
t i
o n
First meeting – second meeting Ø Analyzing the narrative text using Reciprocal Teaching Ø Giving more motivation than Cycle 2
Third meeting Ø Having a post-test of reading comprehension
Obs
erva
tion
Students Ø More active, receive the text, Ø brave to make question, Ø more attentive
Teacher Ø Preparing the work sheets: narrative text Ø Be patient to guide using Reciprocal Teaching Ø Raising motivation in group work Ø Explaining patiently
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Classroom situation Ø More alive, Ø conducive Ø Enjoyable for various types of activities
Ref
lect
ion
Strength Ø RT can increase students’ motivation in reading class Ø There was an improvement of students’ reading ability Ø RT can accommodate various types of activities which are motivating
the students to brave expressing their ideas in English. Ø The students were more active in learning process in group work
Weaknesses Ø Less clear understand the text given Ø Few students are still passive
Fin
al R
efle
ctio
n
- Ss’ reading ability raised, - Reciprocal Teaching effective model - CS ; alive, - Ss’ participation increased, - bigger chances for exploring ideas, - Teacher more innovative, - Teacher explored students’ potentials
In this stage, I prepared some steps to do the activities such as; planning
the action, implementing the action which consisted of three meeting in which
each meeting included opening the class, main activity and closure, then
observing and monitoring the action, evaluating and reflecting the action, and the
last was revising the plan. For detail information it would be explained in the
following parts:
a) Planning the Action
Based on the problems found in the second cycle, the writer with the
collaborator prepared the planning of the action which would be done in the third
cycle. It was done to make sure whether the use of Reciprocal Teaching was really
appropriate in improving students to understand narrative text and to achieve the
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target score. The preparations included the lesson plan, material, students’
worksheet, and an instrument of evaluation.
b) Implementing the Action
This third cycle followed up the second cycle action to solve students’
problem in applying step of Reciprocal Teaching namely clarifying. This cycle
was also aimed to make sure the consistency of using Reciprocal Teaching to
improve students understanding short story. It was divided the action into;
Introduction, main activity and closure.
(1) First Meeting
I did asset of activities which consisted of introduction, main activity and
closure. The detail information would be explained in the following parts:
(a) Opening the class
I and the collaborator entered to the classroom then did activities these
had been stated in the scenario of learning. After greeting and reminding the
session, I explained Specific Instructional Objective, then I distributed learning
material and the student’s work sheet.
(b) Main Activity
In this part, I divided the students into 5 groups, I pointed some of the
most active students to be a leader in every group, it was hoped that these students
could encourage the member of their group, and they were given a new short story
entitled “The Strange Porridge”. Students applied Reciprocal Teaching in their
group. Students “teacher” did their role as a leader actively. I walked around the
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classroom to observe students’ activities. I always encouraged the students to
speak English. In this meeting, students looked happy. It could be seen that most
of them always smiled and they were never afraid to ask or answer the questions.
After doing the discussion, I asked group D to present their analysis in front of the
class. In this presentation, students in group D showed a good performance. They
could answer all the questions given well.
c) Closing
Having done all the activities, I closed the class by saying thanks to the
student’s attending and participating, and I never forgot to motivate the students in
learning English. I continued to arrange the next meeting schedule. Finally, I said
“Assalamu’alaikum, Wr. Wb.
(1) Second Meeting
In this activity, the students were given story entitle “A test for the King”
taken from www.indonesianfolklore.com. I did a set of activities namely; opening
the class; practice (main activity); ending the class. As for detail information
would be explained in the following parts:
(a) Opening the Class
After doing the activities such as, greeting and checking students’
attendance, I gave some questions about the previous lessons. The students
answered the questions well. After that, I praised the students, and told them that
they would analyze the interesting story written by a famous writer.
(b) Main Activity
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As I did before those students were divided into small group, then they
had to practice Reciprocal Teaching. In the beginning of the lesson, I asked (AS)
he was a trouble maker in the classroom, “Wik, look at the title, what is your
prediction?. His friend (AN) said, “Kowe wik.” All students smiled, then he
answered, “Ockok is an animal and I think one of the characters in the story is
characterized as an owl. He always changes.” After those students did their
activities seriously, finally, I asked one group to presents their analysis in front of
the class.
(c) Closing
Before leaving the class, I always reminded the students to study harder
and prepare for the next meeting. Finally, she closed the class and saying,
“Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.”.
(3) The Third Meeting
(a) Opening the Class
In this part, I only gave an evaluation. The form of the test was multiple
choice test. The total number of item was 20 and the time to do the written test
was 70 minutes.
(b) Main Activity
During the test, students seemed serious doing the test. I always
reminded her students to do the test by themselves. After 70 minutes was over, I
comments the students to submit their work’s sheet.
(c) Closing
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Having done all the activities, then I closed the class by saying thanks to
the student’s attending and participating, and I never forgot to motivate the
students in learning English.
c) Observing and Monitoring the Action.
In this cycle, the monitoring was carried out during the implementation
the action. In general, the teaching and learning process was better then the second
cycle. It could be seen from the class activity which had been going on to be
conductive and enjoyable for the students. The students’ activity increased.
Students did the discussion in a group seriously and they spoke using English
Language often.
By observing and monitoring the action in Cycle III, I would find the
effectiveness of learning strategy (Reciprocal Teaching) used to improve students
understanding short story. In this part, I would like to describe about what I has
observed and noticed for the teaching learning process which was on going at
every meeting. It would be divided into 2 parts. The first part was observing for
teacher’s activity and the second one is for students ‘ activity at every meeting.
In conclusion, the implementation of Reciprocal Teaching in
understanding of narrative was better, it can be shown that the situation in
teaching and learning process more conducive, Students were more active.
d) Reflecting and evaluating the result of Observation
As it was in the beginning of planning the action in cycle III that the
obtaining of students’ achievement in the school cycle had showed a better and
significant progress, then she wanted to know the consistency of the effectiveness
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of reciprocal Teaching really improved students in understanding of story. Based
on the implementation of the action of the third cycle, it could be found that
Reciprocal Teaching was really effective model to improve students’
understanding narrative text.
B. Findings and Discussion
Analyzing data of this research, I found several findings to answer the
problems of the research: 1) Can and to what extent Reciprocal Teaching improve
students’ reading ability?; 2) How is the classroom situation when Reciprocal
Teaching is implemented in reading class? Besides focusing on answering the
problems of the research, this section also provide findings during the
implementation of action research. The findings and discussion of the research are
presented in the following section.
1. Findings
Analyzing the data of this research, the researcher found several
findings to answer the problems of the research, which are 1) does and to what
extent reciprocal teaching improve students’ reading ability? and 2) how is
the classroom situation when reciprocal teaching is implemented in the
reading class? Besides focusing on answering the problems of research as
stated in Chapter I, this section also provides other findings during the
implementation of action research in this study. The findings are summarized
on Table 4.8.
Table 4.8 Summary of the Research Findings
Research findings Before action research After action research
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Research findings Before action research After action research
1. Improvement in students’ reading skill a. Achievement b. Finding main idea
c. Understanding the text.
d. Finding specific term from the text
e. Stating the generic structure of the text.
Mean of pre test : 55 Most of students get difficulties to find main idea Most of students get difficulties to understand the text Most of students get difficulties to find specific term from the text Most of students get difficulties to state the generic structure of the text
Mean of cycle 1 : 58.17 Mean of cycle 2 : 63.90 Mean of cycle 3 : 67.51 More students can find main idea (C1:4, C2:11, C3:20) More students can understand the text (C1:4, C2:11, C3:20) More students can find specific term from the text (C1:4, C2:11, C3:20) Students can state the generic structure of the text (C1:4, C2:11, C3:20)
2. Improvement of the situation of the classroom
a. Atmosphere
b. Motivation
c. Approach
d. exploration of students’
potentials
e. Domination
Not enjoyable atmosphere
Low motivation to study
Monotonous teacher
Low exploration of students’
potentials
Teacher domination
More enjoyable
High motivation to study
Innovative teacher
High exploration of
students’ potentials
Teacher as fasilitator
The discussion of the research finding is showed in the following
section
a. Improvement of students’ Reading ability
The findings of the study showed that the use of Reciprocal
Teaching in reading class was able to improve students’ reading
ability. The improvement of the students’ reading ability could be
identified from the improvement of reading achievement, the ability to
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find main idea, understand the text, find the idea related the text, and
state the generic structure of the text.
Before conducting the action research, the researcher found that
the students had low reading achievement. The improvement of
reading ability could be seen from the improvement of students’
achievement in each cycle. The improvement of students’ reading
achievement is showed on graph 4.1. The graph showed that the
Reading achievement was increased. The mean of scored in pre-test
was 72, the mean of score in cycle 1 was 77, and the mean of cycle 2
was 82.
Graph 4.1. Reading Score
Besides showing to the reading achievement, the improvement
of students’ reading ability could be identified from the ability of
answering questions in turn. Before conducting research the students
get difficulties to find main idea. They cannot understand the content
of the text. They have not chances to explore their idea. It was caused
either the students were not able to find the generic structure of the
5558.17
63.967.51
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
n=4
0 S
tud
ents
Pre-test Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
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text. After the implementation of reciprocal teaching the students were
able to solve their problems easier using the procedures of reciprocal
teaching.
Another finding of the research showed that there was an
improvement in expressing students’ ideas. After implementing
reciprocal teaching, the students felt free in expressing their ideas
when they conducted reciprocal teaching.
Another finding of the research showed that the students were
able to speak English more. It was caused there were more chances in
practicing their English. It started from the first phase that was how to
make a group to the main activity, they had to practice English most of
time.
Graph 4.2 Improvement of Reading Level
7
11
20
4
1820
29
11
0
45
31
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Pre-test Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Above average
Average
Under
The Reading students’ level in Graph 4.2 revealed the feature
of speech that students gained in the test. From the graph, it could be
said that the students’ Reading level was increased. The total number
n = 40
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of students in under average level and average level decreased. While
the total number of students in above average level increased. .
In implementing Reciprocal Teaching there was an
improvement in the activeness of the students in finding the group. In
pre-test there were only a few of students are active in finding their
members of the group(17.5% or 7 students were active, 10% or 4
students were sufficient, and 72.5% or 29 studentswere passive) but in
cycle three there was significant improvement(50% or 20 students
were active, 50% or 20 students were sufficient. The improvement of
the activeness can be seen in Graph 4.3.
Graph 4.3 Activeness in grouping
18%
10%
73%
10%13%
78%
28%
45%
28%
50%50%
0%0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Pre-test Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Active
Sufficient
Passive
b. Improvement of classroom situation
After implementing Reciprocal Teaching, it showed that there
was some improvement in students’ confidence. When the students
performed their group activity, they had high self-confidence.
Moreover, their motivation increased in English lesson, especially in
n = 40
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reading. During the discussion, the students tried to involve
themselves, so they tried to speak or to share their expressions as often
as possible.
The findings of teaching and learning process showed that there
was a change of classroom situation before and after implementation
Reciprocal Teaching in reading class. The situation of the classroom
using Reciprocal Teaching was more active and alive. Almost the
activities were student – centered. The students implemented the
procedures of reciprocal teaching.
There was a significant improvement in students’ participation
in reading class. The students were eager to conduct the activities in
high spirit. They were not afraid of making mistakes because the class
was for away of humiliating the students and tolerating the students
with various level of ability. The teacher appreciated all of the
students’ effort in Reading, although their sentences were not perfect
in the form. The situation of the class was enjoyfull, the group work
was full of laugh. It indicates the enjoyment.
The improvement of students’ participation can be seen in
Graph 4.4. There were three categories, namely active, sufficient and
passive. The category was based on the students’ frequency of asking
questions, students’ taking turn, students’ activeness in group work,
and students’ attitude in reading class. The number of active students
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increased, while the number of sufficient and passive students
decreased.
Graph 4.4 Improvement of Students’ Participation
74
29
4 5
31
11
18
11
2020
00
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Pre-test Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Above Average
Average
Under Average
Other finding in this research is dealing with Reading practice.
Reciprocal Teaching forced the students to explore their ability in
making group to the main activity. Of course both phases gave more
chances for the students to practice their reading ability.
When Reciprocal Teaching was implemented in Reading
ability, the students tried not to explore their English ability. However,
they are hoped to be able so speak spontaneously. In spite, they
sometimes used their mother tongue.
Other finding in this research was dealing with the teacher. As
a teacher, Reciprocal Teaching asked the teacher to be creative and
innovative to motivate the students. Therefore, the materials should
explore the students’ potentials.
c. Other finding and students responses toward Reciprocal Teaching
When Reciprocal Teaching was implemented in Reading class,
the students feel that they have high motivation in learning English.
n = 40
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Reading is joyful and exciting. Now they feel that reading is not
difficult thing. By conducting the technique, they can share and
explore their ideas or knowledge to their friends. One point to notice is
that the conducive atmosphere of Reciprocal Teaching really motivates
the students to explore their potential in Reading.
Reciprocal Teaching is one of the communicative techniques
in teaching Reading. Reciprocal Teaching has powerful to increase
the students’ Reading ability. The reasons are Reciprocal Teaching
asks the students to be active, brave in Reading, Reciprocal Teaching
makes free atmosphere in class. The students (NV) said : “ I enjoy this
lesson ; we can share and do the task together, so it makes us easy to
understand the story. And I myself feel happy because every member
must be a leader or teacher, so they must be responsible to do the task
and it makes them more active to speak in English”. The statement
shows that there is a positive response from the students toward the
implementation of Reciprocal Teaching.
2. Discussions
After describing the teaching and learning process in implementing
Reciprocal Teaching for understanding narrative text, it can be found that
Reciprocal Teaching can improve the students’ condition in learning process.
Reciprocal Teaching provides the students with the opportunity to be active and
interactive. Moreover, it can improve students’ understanding of narrative text and
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their motivation to study raise. In general, the influence results in implementing
Reciprocal Teaching can be classified as follows :
a. Reciprocal Teaching can improve the students’ reading ability.
Reciprocal Teaching provides the students with the opportunity to acquire
integrated English proficiency. Based on the research findings in MAN 2
Bojonegoro, after the students gained the information the learning and teaching
process in understanding narrative text through Reciprocal Teaching, the students
get an cashier way to understanding the text. Based on the Palinscar’s theory
(2003: 99) that is served in Chapter II, it is stated that Reciprocal Teaching has the
purpose of helping students for improving their understanding of reading. The
students can acquire an integrated English proficiency. It means that the
implementation of Reciprocal Teaching gives opportunity to the students to
explore their language proficiency. Students will listen carefully to the
information that is given by their teacher or their friends, than they write the
information or sometimes they must arrange the message or information by using
their own language. Moreover, they must express their idea in English , so it is
clear that Reciprocal Teaching can improve students’ language proficiency.
The implementation of Reciprocal Teaching provides the students to read
strategically. Before reading, the students stimulate their background knowledge
to predict what the story is about. During reading, they read words accurately and
quickly and simultaneously dealing with the meaning of those words. If they find
unclear words, they use their background knowledge to clarify the meaning of the
words and phrases and sometimes they interact with the text by asking themselves
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some questions about its contents. Based on their prediction about what might
happen next, they will evaluate their prediction and revise them if it is needed.
Based on the explanations above, it can be concluded that students do
some activities to improve their understanding of the text, it means that they use
their cognitive competence actively. Based on Vygotsky’s theory it is explained
that cognitive approach focuses mainly on process such as perception, through,
and consciousness and looks at behavior only to infer laws of mental activities
(1994: 18).
b. Reciprocal Reaching can improve the students’ interaction
Based on the writer’s research findings, it can be said that Reciprocal
Teaching is effective to help the students increase their language ability. Briefly
implementing the four steps of Reciprocal Teaching the students to train actively
their language ability. The theoretical views of language and the nature of
language proficiency that is so called Functional view stated, “ Language is a
vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. The communicative movement
in language teaching subscribes to the view of language”. This theory emphasizes
the semantic and communicative dimension rather than merely the grammatical
characteristics of language.
Related to the fact happening to the students, it can be summarized that
students’ communicative competence raise. As it is defined by Johnson ;
“Communicative competence is defined in terms of students’ knowledge of and competence in the structural, functional, social, and interact ional norms that govern classroom communication. Classroom communicative competence can contribute to successful classroom
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participation, productive classroom learning, increased opportunities for second language acquisition, and development of second language competence. “ (1995: 169)
Clearly, implementing Reciprocal Teaching in the classroom which is
arranged by allowing students to work in small group activities is more conducive
to use language for learning. Further, it is shown when they take turns as a leader ;
the students must be able to conduct the learning process by making questions to
guide their group in understanding the text. Moreover, the students are insisted on
exploring their ability to speak, to listen, to read, and to write. The main goal of
Reciprocal Teaching is to help the students in comprehending the text. In
predicting step, students predict the text by connecting their information given on
the title or picture then generate questions to focus on finding the main idea. After
that, they must clarify the words or sentence which do not make sense. In doing
the act ivies, students are actively to communicate their ideas or opinions to all
numbers of the group. The student’s interactions in learning process promote them
to use their second language (English). The teacher as a learning facilitator
scaffolds and encourages the students to implement the instructional objectives.
By arranging students into small groups, students feel free to give their opinion.
They look happier to do task. As Almasi (2002: 229) stated:
Social interaction has been found to improve students’ ability to recognize and resolve comprehension dilemmas and improve higher-level thinking and metacognition. Meanwhile, Reciprocal Teaching is built under the cooperative language
learning in which it makes maximum use of cooperative activities. Olsen in
Richard defines ;
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“ Cooperative learning is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and its motivated to increase the learning of others.” (2001 ;192) Based on the research findings in XI-IPA2 MAN 2 Bojonegoro, students’
interaction raise. They interact with each other as teammates. They have their own
responsibility to make their group to be the best. Group members feel that what
helps one number helps all and what hurts one member hurts all. So, the students
always try to do the tasks well. Each person wants to show his opinion and idea to
complete the works.
The students (NV) said : “ I enjoy this lesson ; we can share and do the
task together, so it makes us easy to understand the story. And I myself feel
happy because every member must be a leader or teacher, so they must be
responsible to do the task and it makes them more active to speak in English”.
From (NV) statement, it implies that the students enjoy learning to understand
short story through Reciprocal Teaching. Lazarowitz in Johnson (1995 ; 115)
asserts that :
“ Cooperative learning teaching based on group investigation methods focus on problem solving task in which students gather necessary information, engage in the exchange and interpretation of ideas, and produce a final product that is generated collaboratively and may differ from those produced by other groups” In addition, Reciprocal Teaching gives a positive impact on students’
language acquisition. The teacher as a facilitator scaffolds the students in learning
process by lowering the complexity of her classroom language by reformulating
her own language to make it comprehensible for the students. This condition
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contributes opportunities for the students to use language for meaning – focused
communication and to contribute knowledge to the content of the lesson. They are
challenged and have the chance to participate in arrange of language function and
use language in both planned and unplanned. It is coherent with Johnson theory
that such variability in the patterns of communication not only promotes
classroom communication but also creates greater opportunities for students to use
language for second language acquisition. Tudge and Rogoff in Hamilton
summarize the conclusion related to the effects of peer interaction on development
as follows :
1. Young preschool children show limited benefits from peer interaction. They
may be unable to provide each other with the type of scaffolded assistance
that other children and adults can provide.
2. Peer interactions are most beneficial on task involving discussion of issues and
sharing of perspective. Adult-child interactions are more beneficial than peer
interactions on task involving learning of ability and knowledge.
3. The condition that appears to most influence the effectiveness of social
interaction between peers or between adult and child is that the partners
achieve a joint understanding of a tropic by working together and taking each
other’s perspective.
c. Reciprocal Teaching can improve the students’ activities
Reciprocal Teaching is one of reading strategy that is set up as a
discussion teaching. It trains the students become more active in learning
process. Every students must show their ability to guide their friends in
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discussing activity. The National Reading Panel advocates for cooperative and
collaborative learning with multiple strategies and highly recommends
Reciprocal Teaching as effective due to the active discussions in which the
students participate (Ocskus in Richards, 2003:18)
In cycle I, most of the students keep on silent. When they are asked by
the teacher they don’t answer the question. There are only two students who
always answer the question actively. In the second meetings, students look
more active. It can be seen that students ask their friends who is pointed to be
a teacher. During the their friends to predict, to clarify, and to summarize the
story. The situation in the classroom seems busy. Students talk and ask their
friends in analyzing story. In cycle two, student’s activities raise. Students are
divided into 5 groups. Each group has responsibility to do the task given. They
interact to apply four steps of Reciprocal Teaching. In cycle three, students
look more active in doing the discussion. It happens because every student
must take turn as a teacher. It is supported by Harmin. There are some ideas
for maintaining attentive discussion:
1. Create a provocative topic list. Consider making notes of discussions tropics
that have worked well.
2. Appoint a student discussion leader
Create visuals. Writing key words, ideas, and numbers on the chalkboard
during a discussion to help students maintain their focus.
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3. Move to circle seating. Arranging desks in a circle or semicircle for class
discussion so all students are close to the center of action. Students who are
facing one another in the eye as they speak, are more apt to stay involve.
d. Reciprocal Teaching can improve the students’ motivation
Based on the research findings reported in the chapter IV the
implementation of Reciprocal Teaching gives positive impact to the students’
motivation in learning process (DA) gives her opinion about Reciprocal Teaching
“ Dengan bekerja kelompok saya lebih senang dan merasa lebih semangat
belajar, karena ternyata saya juga mampu dan nggak bodo-bodo amat”. Besides,
(NN) added, “ Ya saya merasa model belajar yang ini lain, biasanya kita juga
dapat tugas dan dikerjakan dengan berkelompok, tapi ini kan setiap siswa harus
berperan sebagai leader. Jadi saya pribadi lebih tertantang untuk belajar, malu
lho kalau jadi leader tapi kelihatan bodo”. The illustrations above indicate that
students’ motivation increase. It is suitable with Chamot’s principle (1999 ; 176):
“Several critical components play a role in student motivation, including how much students value the task (value), how much they expect to succeed in the domain (expectancy), how much they believe that they possess what it takes to succeed at the task (self-efficacy), and what (attributions).” In cognitive term, motivation place much more emphasis on the individual’s
decisions. Sweet, et al., (2002:110) said that along with increasing metacognition
and comprehension have also been found to improve motivation in students.
Social interaction at home and in the classroom helps students become motivated
as well as helping students construct their identities as readers. “The choices
people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid, and the
degree of effort they will exert in that respect.“ Keller in Brown (2000 ; 161).
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Students need to be admitted by others. It is supported by Amusable in Brown
(2000: 161). He identified six needs to construct motivation.
1. The need for exploration, for seeing “the other side of the mountain, “for
probing the unknown.
2. The need for manipulation, for operating-to use Skinner’s term-on the
environment and causing change;
3. The need for activity, for movement and exercise, both physical and mental.
4. The need for stimulation, the need to be stimulated by the environment, by
other people, or by ideas, through, and feelings.
5. The need for knowledge, the need to process and internalize the results of
exploration, manipulation, activity, and stimulation, o resolve contradictions,
to quest for solution to problems and for self – consistent system of
knowledge.
6. Finally, he need for ego enhancement, for the self to be known and o be
accepted and approved or by others.
In addition, an intrinsically motivated individual is driven by need to
display competency or exercise some control over the environment. The
extrinsically motivated student is a passive player in the learning situation and
will exhibit opportunity behavior only when attractive incentives are present
(Hamilton, 1994: 329)
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
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Based on Palinscar theory, Reciprocal Teaching is reading teaching
technique that can improve comprehension of the text, so I try to conduct the
technique to improve my students’ reading ability. It was conducted for the reason
that the students’ learning condition is monotonous. The students were passive
and they have low motivation to study. However, after they have been given a
treatment using Reciprocal Teaching it shows the significant improvement on the
students’ motivation. They are more active and they have higher motivation to
study. They become independent or self-regulated learners and there is a rising of
their understanding of narrative text. It can be seen from the result of their test.
The mean scores of pre-test and post-test of the first cycle to the next cycle show
the improvement. Having conducted Reciprocal Teaching Technique in improving
the students’ reading ability proves that it gives the contribution to enhance
students’ achievement in comprehending of narrative text.
Based on the result of the research above, it can be concluded that:
1. Reciprocal Teaching can improve the students’ reading ability. The
students become more active and enthusiastic in learning process.
2. Using Reciprocal Teaching in reading class can raise the students’
participation, activities, and interaction in reading class and they become
brave to give their opinion using English language.
In addition, using Reciprocal Teaching cannot only improve students’
reading ability, but it can also improve students’ motivation to study. However, it
needs much time and it is difficult to conduct when the students do not have prior
knowledge.
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B. Implication
The result of the research shows that teaching reading using Reciprocal
Teaching can improve the students’ reading ability, especially for the eleventh
year class of MAN 2 Bojonegoro. Besides, it can also raise students’ motivation
in learning process. The four strategies of Reciprocal Teaching help them to
comprehend the narrative text. Firstly, they make predictions of the text by
looking at the title and they explore their background knowledge to the topic of
the text. Next, they make questions by questions words to help them on finding
the content of the text. Then, they collaborate to clarify the difficult words. The
collaboration makes them free and comfortable to give their opinion. Finally, they
make a summarizing to conclude the formulation of the text.
Based on the result of the study, teaching reading using Reciprocal
Teaching is suitable technique to improve students’ reading ability. The study can
be used as a reference for the teacher in improving the teaching quality by
conducting the suitable technique toward improving the students’ reading ability.
C. Suggestion
Having conducted the research using Reciprocal Teaching Technique to
improve the students’ reading ability, I would like to give some suggestions as
follows:
1. For English Teacher
Before conducting the teaching and learning process, the teacher
should introduce Reciprocal Teaching to the students to improve their
understanding for the text and he/she must be patient. It is important to
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train the students intensively to conduct the steps of Reciprocal Teaching.
She/he must give special attention to the students who get difficulties in
learning process and it is important to encourage and give praise to them.
2. For Students
The students must realize that they have potentials to be better.
Therefore, they must study hard and seriously. They must be brave and
active in applying Reciprocal Teaching. Never give up to improve your
English.
3. For School
The school can improve the teaching and learning quality by giving
the teachers the bigger chances to develop their teaching technique in
reading comprehension especially using Reciprocal Teaching. The school
must give more attention to the achievement of the reading ability because
it is important to face national examination of which item tests orient in
reading ability.
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