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ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Improving Reading Comprehension using SQRW.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of the Study
Reading comprehension is an essential skill for learners of English. For most of
learners, it is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning.
With strengthened reading skills, learners of English tend to make greater progress in
other areas of language learning. Reading should be an active, fluent process that
involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning.
Teaching pupils on how to utilize the skills and knowledge that they carry from
their first language, develop vocabulary skills, improve reading comprehension and rate,
and monitor pupils improvement are just some of the elements that teachers must bear
and consider in preparing for an English language reading class. Learning to read in a
second or foreign language is a process that involves learning skills, learning new
vocabulary and patterns, and cultivating the ability to transfer skills from the classroom
to the real world, where English may be used.
English has been taught as a second language throughout all level of education
in Malaysia. Based on the content and learning standards built and assembled by
Ministry of Education, in accordance to KBSR and KSSR syllabus used by primary
schools around Malaysia, it is projected that pupils should master and have reliable
proficiency in English language skills namely listening, speaking, reading, writing,
language arts and to have communicative competence in using it. Having
communicative competence means students should have competencies in
understanding and producing discourse in spoken and written under meaningful context
which influenced by situation and culture.
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The basic competency of reading skill mentioned in English Syllabus (2003),
mentioned that by the end of pupils primary schooling, they should be able to read a
variety of the texts both in print and in the electronic media for information and
enjoyment such as notices, warnings, instructions, directions, messages, simple
passages, letters, poems, stories, descriptions, recounts; and maps, charts, graphs and
time tables. It is also emphasized that pupils should be able to read and understand
phrases, sentences, paragraphs and whole texts suitable to their level of development.
However, the thing that many pupils find difficulties in reading activity is to
comprehend or understanding the information of the reading material. The fact of the
pupils problem in comprehending reading text above also become the problem
encountered by the pupils of Year 5 Bestari in Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar.
Almost all pupils are having a problem in comprehending reading text, in the four
reading sub skills. The reading class bores them because of in the process of teaching
reading skill, there are limited varieties of activity and it only involves tasks in the text
book, reading the text, and answering the questions following the text.
In line with the above reality, it is important to take a consideration in order to
solve the problem and to improve the students achievement in reading comprehension.
One thing that must be taken into account is the strategy in teaching reading. The
strategy that will be implemented in my study is called SQRW, a reading strategy mostly
used in reading printed reading materials, such as books and excerpt from newspapers
and magazines.
This study is an action research where it is a practical approach to professional
inquiry in any social situation. The examples in this component relate much to education
and are therefore of particular relevance to teachers engaged in their daily contact with
children or pupils. Action research did not specially built for field of education, but was
applied to the development of teaching as its potential was identified.


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Taking this into account, I will conduct this study for the purpose of improving the
Year 5 Bestari pupils of Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar in reading
comprehension, especially in comprehending main idea, specific information, word
meaning and textual reference of a text using SQRW. This study will cover all the
process and practices that I will conduct and implemented in order to achieve my focus
of study, improving reading comprehension of Year 5 Bestari pupils of Sekolah
Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar.
This study will also focus on finding out if the SQRW strategy could improve the
students achievement on reading comprehension, especially on the four sub reading
skills, or not. The genre of the reading text will use in this study is in the form of
narrative and is limited to the Year 5 Bestari pupils of Sekolah kebangsaan Haji Idris,
Tajar.












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1.2 Reflection of Past Teaching Experiences
After two period of practicum, expanding of three months time in total, I have
been assigned to two different school altogether. I also have experienced being
assigned to all classes in school, excluding Year 1 and 6. This gives me new exposures
in comprehending pupils level of English proficiency and their learning development.
From my teaching experience, it is undeniable that the most obvious problem that
arises when it comes to teaching reading skills is pupils inability to understand and
comprehend information related to the reading materials such as textbooks or articles.
Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading. (Joelle Brummitt-
Yale).
Most pupils that I came across with were able to read in any level of language;
words, phrases and sentences with good pronunciation and intonations. But all the
reading skills development was held back by pupils inability to understand what they
were reading. This causes pupils to lose their interest and focus to read in time. It is
stated that when students are able to use comprehension methods successfully, they
perform better in recall, answering questions, generating questions, and summarizing
texts. (NRP, 1997) This proves that with increasing reading comprehension, pupils will
perform much better, develop their proficiency and participate in classroom more
actively.







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2. 0 MY FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION
2.1 Issue of my research
My research issue revolves in the process of improving reading comprehension
of Year 5 pupils using SQRW. Nowadays, pupils are not able to achieve much
comprehension from their reading. This causes them to read with almost no knowledge
of what information that they are gaining from the reading materials they go through.
This issue should be taken into main consideration because this issue affects pupils
development in achieving better English language proficiency.
Gillet and Temple (2003:9) stated that reading comprehension is a search for
meaning, actively using our word knowledge and the text to understand new things we
read. We need knowledge of the world to understand new things, need to be familiar
with various text structure encountered and need to be active in seeking meaning to rise
up from the passage. It is important that pupils know what they are reading and
understand the information they required wholly. Reading comprehension is also stated
as a process of understanding written text or information presented by the author and
affected by many factors. Those are factors within the readers, factor within the written
message, and factors within the reading environment (Pearson Johnson, 1991:156).

Simanjutak (2004:9), also agreed on reading as a cognitive process of making
interaction with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning which
involves the process of identification (the ability of the reader to identify or determine
what the text says) and the process of interpretation (the readers activity to make sense
or to draw out the meaning of the reading text they read). This is nothing but the truth, to
my opinion. Reading comprehension enables pupils to relate with their reading
materials much better, increasing their language interpretation skill and making
association and connections to real life problems.


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2.2 What have I learnt about my research issue?
There are plenty of effective ways in improving pupils reading comprehension,
ranging from exposure to variety of reading materials, reading time and vocabulary
acquisition in isolation. However, I opted to implement a method as my main strategy to
improve pupils reading comprehension.
SQRW is a four-step strategy for reading and taking notes from any kind of
reading materials such as textbooks, newspapers and magazines. Each letter stands for
one step in the strategy. By using SQRW, it will help you to understand what you read
and to prepare a written record of what you learned. The written record will be in most
valuable when you have to participate in a class discussion. It is an effective reading
process that can be related to some techniques that usually help the readers not only to
enjoy their reading but also to read and remember the main information from his or her
reading.
There were other strategies with the same basis had been empirically tested by
some researchers. One of them is called SQ3R which stands for Survey, Question,
Read, Recite, and Review. Putri (2002), as one of the researchers, conducted a study
for the purpose of improving the students ability in reading comprehension through
SQ3R strategy. Her study showed that the strategy could improve the students ability in
reading comprehension. It could be seen from the mean score of the achievement test
conducted in every cycle which showed gradual improvement.
SQRW and SQ3R are similar. Both of them devote the students to survey or
preview the title and introductory paragraph of the text, read, answer the questions,
identify the important information and summarize the information in ones own words.




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Narrative text is reading for story. It is often called fiction in which the values are
used to describe, explain human behavior (citied in
http;//www.ksde.org/outcomes/texttype.doc). Meanwhile, Tonjes, et al. (1990), as citied
in http;//cps.uswp.edu/courses /EDUC310/textstruct/narrative.asp, stated that
narrative text is the text used to entertain, to tell a story, or to provide as aesthetic
literary experience. They also said that narrative text is based on life experience and is
person oriented using dialogue and familiar language.
















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3.0 MY RESEARCH QUESTION/S
The hypothesis of the study is that SQRW strategy could improve and
consolidate Year 5 Bestari pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajars
development in comprehending reading text, especially in finding out the main idea,
specific information, word meaning and textual referent.
Therefore the questions that should arise from this study are:
Could SQRW strategy improve the reading comprehension of Year 5 Bestari
pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar?
Sub-questions of this study should also be arranged in this according order.
1) Could SQRW strategy improve the development of reading comprehension of
Year 5 Bestari pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar in finding out the main
idea of reading text?
It may be helpful to first explain what the main idea is not. It is not the information
obtained during the introduction to the text when the title, headings, illustrations etc. are
briefly considered, and linked to background knowledge, prior to reading. Although
these text features are often useful in scaffolding pupils towards finding the main idea,
on their own, they are not enough. Pupils need to explore the text at a deeper level in
order to confirm or put aside any tentative thoughts about the main idea that the text
introduction may prompt.
2) Could SQRW strategy improve the development of reading comprehension of
Year 5 Bestari pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar in finding out the specific
information of reading text?
When you read to find specific information in text, you are usually looking to
answer questions, learn how to do something, or locate material that will help you make
a decision or draw a conclusion about something. Stating your purpose clearly will help
you keep on task as you begin your research and thus save you time. This is especially
true when researching information in factual reading text.
3) Could SQRW strategy improve the development of reading comprehension of
Year Bestari pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar in finding out the word
meaning of reading text?
Words can change their meaning depending on how they are used. Sometimes
the meaning of a word cannot be guessed if you do not know the rest of the sentence.
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This would be the context that it is used in. Learning how to find the word meaning of
reading text is essential for pupils because it avoids any confusion and helps pupils in
learning new vocabulary meaning of words.



















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4.0 MY RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
The selected participants of my action research are a Year 5 class in Sekolah
Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajar. This Year 5 class of 24 pupils consists of 16 average
pupils with average English proficiency and 8 below-average pupils with beginner
English proficiency. This school is a rural school, located outside the town of Kota Setar,
Kedah Darul Aman. The participants involved are mostly do not have great exposure of
English language outside the school environment thus making it hard for them to have
good English language proficiency.
Pupils of Year 5 Bestari were having difficulties in gaining understanding of what
information they have read during reading lesson. Most of them can read with
appropriate pronunciation and intonation (with little guidance) but almost all of the class
members were having difficulties in comprehending and understanding English
language.











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5.0 MY RECOMMENDED INTERVENTION
My recommended intervention for improving Year 5 Bestari pupils of Sekolah
Kebangsaan Haji Idris, Tajars reading comprehension is a reading strategy named
SQRW. SQRW strategy is a strategy used in teaching reading which is based on the
strategies the good readers use when they are reading.
SQRW is actually quite simple and straight forward teaching strategy. SQRW is a
four-step strategy for reading and taking notes from reading materials. SQRW is a four-
step strategy for reading and taking notes from textbooks that will help you better
prepared for exams, better prepared for class discussion, improve your reading
comprehension and help you learn better using textbooks. SQRW stands for Survey,
Question, Read and Write.
Here are the detailed descriptions of each step in SQRW strategy:
Survey : The first step in the SQRW reading strategy is Survey. Before you actually
start reading a reading text, you must first survey the text. You read the text title,
introduction, headings and the summary or conclusion at the end of the reading text.
When you survey you should also review any pictures, graphs, maps, or tables in the
reading materials and the caption (text explanation that goes with each). The purpose of
surveying the reading materials is to quickly learn what the materials are about before
reading it in its entirety.

Question : The second step in the SQRW reading strategy is to ask questions along
your reading. Questions help you to focus and give your reading purpose. Instead of
simply reading without purpose, now you are searching for useful, applicable
information. Use each heading included in reading text to develop questions for that
chapter. For example, for text titled Delicious Food in School you might develop the
question How many types of food are there in the school? or What is the name of the
foods sold in school? If a heading contains several ideas you may want to form a
question for each idea. Always remember to use the reading text headings to develop
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questions dont use the conclusion, summary, introduction or the text to develop your
questions.

Read : The R in the SQRW stands for Read and represents the third step in the
SQRW reading strategy. Once youve surveyed the chapter and developed questions
based on the chapter titles you should then read the information contained in the
chapter to answer the questions you developed. As you read the chapter in an attempt
to answer the questions you developed you may find it necessary to modify your
question(s) or you may think of more questions that need to be answered. Make sure to
focus as you read and take time to thoroughly answer each question you develop.

Write : The final step in the SQRW reading strategy for reading texts is Write.
Make sure to write each of the questions you form along with its answer in a notebook.
After youve written down each question as well as the answer to each question, review
each question again to make sure you have completely answered the question.









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6.0 COLLECTION OF DATA
Post-activity:
Assessment and feedback will be done progressively with pupils development. There
will be direct feedback, both from teacher and pupils involved in the study.
Task-sheet:
Task sheets consisting of WH-Questions related to topics learned will be distributed to
pupils right after teaching and learning process ended. This collection of pupils
development data will be accumulated and analyze into a systematic table/ record to
ease teachers observation of pupils develepment and improvement.
Some instruments use to obtain the data are:
1) Reading task and reading cards.
Reading tasks are used in each session during the action of the cycle.
Reading cards are prepared by teacher according to the topics taught in the time period
of the study.
2) Test
There are two kinds of test administered in this study, those are pre-test and post-test.
The pre-test is conducted to see the problems faced by the students. The post-test is
conducted at the end of each cycle to find the students improvement in reading skill.
3) Teachers diary
Teachers diary is designed in the form of unstructured observation sheet. It is used to
identify extra finding, like students behavior and attitude during the teaching learning
process.


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4) Questionnaires
Questionnaires are conducted when the post-test are administrated to the students. The
purpose is to see the students opinion as well as their feeling during the teaching
learning activity.
Observation :
To note the class situation during the activity, the teacher uses the teachers diary.The
questionnaire is given to find out their attitude toward the strategy used and the result of
post test is used to measure the weakness of the strategy used.
The process of comparing the result of the pre-test and the post-test in order to know
whether there is an improvement of the students ability in reading comprehension
through the use of SQRW strategy will also be held in time.
Reflections :
o Analyzing the first meeting with steps of planning, action and the observation in
order to decide whether to continue the investigation by conducting other cycle or stop.











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7.0 ANALYSIS OF DATA
The data will be analyzed based on the result of the pre-test and the post-test
conducted. It is analyzed in descriptive analysis.
1) Questionnaires, teachers diary and interview result are analyzed in qualitative
descriptive.
2) The interval data are analyzed in quantitative descriptive, based on the students
production of correct answers. Descriptive analysis means that the researcher notes
score of the students in term of the number of correct answer as well as the mean
scores of the whole students in pre-test and the post-test in the cycle conducted. The
score of each reading sub skill, finding out the main idea, finding out the specific
information, finding out the word meaning and finding out the textual referent, will be
collected and calculated in specific formula.
Students level of mastery in reading comprehension is determined based on
criteria proposed by Masidjo (1995:153) that will use PAP (Criterion Referenced
Evaluation). Furthermore, Masidjo states that the students would be considered
successful if the students score could attain at least 6.5 of the maximum score (10). It
means the ideal passing score is at least 65%. This study will be stopped when 90% of
the students, subject of this study, get 65 as the minimal score for their reading
comprehension according to the SKBM (the passing criterion). The criteria could be
seen in the following table.

90% - 100% = excellent
80% - 89% = very good
65 - 75% = good
55 - 64% = sufficient
Less than 55% = insufficient





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It means:
Excellent : those students who are able to answer the test items between 90% -
100% correctly.
Very good : those students who are able to answer the test items between 80% -
89% correctly
Good : those students who are able to answer the test items between 65% -
79% correctly
Sufficient : those students who are able to answer the test items between 55% -
64% correctly
Insufficient : those students who are able to answer the test items less than 55%
correctly














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8.0 MY PLAN OF ACTION
I will arrange and implement a classroom action research. Carr and Kemmis
stated that Classroom Action Research is a form of self-reflective inquiry undertaken by
participants in social (including educational) situation in 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 practices are carried out. (McNiff, 2005:6),
Classroom action research is conducted in cyclic process, involving the process
of planning, action, observation and reflection (Kemmis and Taggart, 1998:10).The
cycle figure can be seen below.

Figure 1.0




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This present study conducts in order to improve students ability in reading
comprehension through SQRW strategy to encourage them to read and feel confident
about their ability to understand written text. Due to the aim of this study, an action-
based research, is the one that proposed by Kemmis and Taggart (1998, in Sandiani,
2005:14).

1) Pre-test
The teacher observes the students attitude and behaviors toward the test given
during the pre-test. This pre observation was conducted in order to find out whether
they find any difficulties or not. Based on the result of the pre-test and the pre
observation, the researcher then decide whether to stop or continue this study and
conducting a treatment by applying SQRW (Survey, Question, Read, Respond, Review
and reflect) strategy in teaching learning reading.
2) Cycle
The treatment is going to be conducted in cyclic process and the cycle consists
of three meetings. The cycle is started with reflection. Based on the result of that
reflection, then making a plan, action and observation, evaluation and get reflection
again the action before based on the result of the observation the evaluation.
The action procedure that will be implemented in this study as follows:
Planning :
o Making a teaching scenario for each meeting.
o Preparing the reading material will be used in the exercise and post test.
o Preparing the teaching media (pictures, photos and slides)
o Preparing the work sheet.
o Preparing the test.
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o Preparing the observation instruments ( teachers diary and questionnaire)

Action :
Steps in the teaching and learning process
o Pre-activity
Engagement (gives short brainstorming related to the topic for focusing the students
attention).
o While-activity
Exploration (giving student a chance to train)
Elaboration (giving a challenge to reinforce the student to enlarge their knowledge)
Confirmation (to generalize the material learned: sentence pattern, phrases, and new
words)

8.1 SCHEDULE
This study will be conducted in a time frame of one month. The time allotment for the
implementation is tabulated in the schedule shown.

Schedule 1 : The schedule for planning and intervention of action
Date Action
Internship Diagnostic Test (Oral and Writing)
Week 1 Pre-Test
Week 2 Classroom Implementation ( Intervention)
Week 3 Classroom Implementation ( Intervention)
Week 4 Post Test
Observation Session

8.2 BUDGET
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This research will be carried out with certain budget. The table below is the table form of the
estimation of budget for the action research.
Items Total Unit Price per unit Total Price




Total Cost :




















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9.0 REFERENCES OF ACTION RESEARCH

Adrienne L. Herrell and Michael Jordan. (2004) Fifty Strategies for Teaching English language learners.
New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Diana Pulido and David Z. Hambrick. 2008. The Virtuous Article: Modeling Individual differences in L2
Reading and Vocabulary Development. http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl.

Gipe, J. P., 1991. Creative Reading Technique. 2nd Ed. USA : Gorsuch Scarisbrick Publishers.

Kemmis, Stephen, and Robin Mc Taggart. 1988. The Action Research Planner. Deakin University.
Melbourne.

Masidjo,Ing. 1995. Penilaian Pencapaian Hasil Belajar Siswa di Sekolah.

Herndon, Lynne D. 2004. Strategies for Reading Success. USA. Scholastic Inc

Krashen,S.D. 1982. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition.
New York: Pergamon Press.

Krashen, S.D. 1988. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning. New York: Prentice- Hall International, Inc.




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10.0 APPENDICES