THESIS PROPOSAL IMPROVING STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION USING DIRECTED READING-THINKING ACTIVITY (DRTA) AT TENTH GRADE OF SMK NEGERI

1 PURWOSARI

By: Dwi Windawati 080401090132 Class D

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT KANJURUHAN UNIVERSITY OF MALANG 2011

IMPROVING STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION USING DIRECTED READING-THINKING ACTIVITY (DRTA) AT TENTH GRADE OF SMK NEGERI 1 PURWOSARI

I.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the introduction of the study. It consists of Background of Study, Statement of Problem, Objective of Study, Significance of Study, Scope and Limitation of Study, and Definition of Key Term.

1.1 Background of Study Reading is one of the skills in using language. it is not deniable that the ability of reading is important. By reading, we can get a lot of information, broaden our knowledge, and communicate with others. Getting the advantages of reading as above is not quite easy, to take the message or information of a text, sometimes, becomes difficult. We need to comprehend the text first. Moreover if the text is not in our native language, in this case in English, it will be more difficult for us to comprehend what the text means actually. Reading is activity which is fundamental to all learning and one of the language skills which should be gotten by students. The teaching of English is established on the basis of knowledge and skill of English, which are divided into two parts, namely aspects of language, involves, reading, spelling pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure and Language activities, involves, reading, speaking, listening, and writing. (Khoiriyah, 2009) Those language activities are categorized into two kinds of skill, those are productive skills and receptive skills. Productive skills involve speaking and writing, while reading and listening included in receptive skills. From this category, it seems that reading is also an active activity. It makes the readers have to think to get the meaning of the text. Goodman (1970) states that reading is a selective process. It involves partial use of available minimal language cues selected from perceptual input on the basis of the readers expectation. As this partial information is processed,

tentative decisions are made to be confirmed, rejected, or refined as reading progresses. This statement assumes that reading is an active process. The reader use their proficiency of the language to form their expectation about the text. While they are reading, they will find whether their expectation confirmed, rejected, or refined. It involves interaction between thought and language. As they do the analysis of their expectation, the skill of their reading will develop. In relation to above explanation, in fact, conventionally, reading activity of the students in the classroom is done by only directly read the passage, looking for the difficult words, and answer the questions available. These activities are done repeatedly until the process of teaching and learning ends. This kind of convention seems that it only pays attention on the result. It does no concern in the process of reading. In line with the problems above, the teachers should be able in motivating and guiding the students to read. Sheppered (1978) said that a student who did not get any practice in reading might not have motivation in reading, the teacher should be able to create, format, and maintain motivation. For example, teachers should prepare materials that suitable to the students need and make the material as interesting as possible to attract the students attention. Teacher should also guide the students in reading because sometimes students find difficulties when they find a number of unfamiliar words or when the topic of the reading passage is new for them. In teaching learning process, one factor that contributes to the success of reading comprehensions might be related to the teaching technique used by the teacher. Related to the teachers responsibility for the success of the students, the researcher, then propose Directed Reading Thinking Activitiy (DRTA) strategy as an alternative solution to improve the students reading comprehension. According to the Stauffer (1969), Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy has tree basic steps namely: Predicting, Reading, and Proving. Predicting involves what the students interpretation to the text they will read. Then the students read the text. And proving involves the students and the teacher react to the story based on the students interpretation to the story in the text

whether it is confirmed, rejected, or refined. This method teaches students to acquire and activate their own purpose for reading. By setting their own purposes of reading, students develop their reading and thinking process while the teacher prescribe how the students will interact with the text. Considering the explanation above, the researcher wants to study in the use of DRTA in teaching reading to improve students reading comprehension of the tenth grade of SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari, especially for class 1 TKJ 2 on academic year 2010-2011.

1.2 Statement of Problem The problem could be stated from this study as followed: 1. How can Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) improve students comprehension of reading in the tenth grade of SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari 2. How to implement DRTA in teaching reading in the tenth grade of SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari 3. How is the students response toward the use of DRTA in teaching reading in the tenth grade of SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari

1.3 Objective of Study This study is purposed: 1. To know the way to improve students reading comprehension by using DRTA. 2. To know the implementation of using DRTA in teaching reading 3. To know the students response toward the use of DRTA in teaching reading in the tenth grade of SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari

1.4 Significance of Study The researcher hopes that this study will be useful for English teacher especially in high school in using this variety of teaching reading technique. For the students, the writer hopes that it will be helpful to improve their reading comprehension easier.

From this study, the researcher also gets a lot of new knowledge in using DRTA as a technique for teaching reading.

1.5 Scope and Limitation This study will be limited to the discussion about the use of DRTA in teaching reading to improve students reading comprehension at SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari at the 1 TKJ 2 grade.

I.6 Definition of Key Term Improve : become or make something or somebody better. (Oxford Learners Dictionary) Reading : act of reading something, books, articles, etc that are intended to be read. (Oxford Learners Dictionary) Comprehension : understand a language. (Oxford Learners Dictionary) DRTA : the procedures used to teach reading that consist of three specific subsections: predicting, reading, and proving (Stauffer, 1969 in I Kadek Rika Widyantara, 2010) SMK Negeri 1 Purwosari : a state vocational high school located in sub district of Purwosari district of Pasuruan.

II.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter is intended to present some literatures, which are related to the study. It includes the definition of reading comprehension, teaching reading, Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy, and the advantages of DRTA.

2.1 Definition of Reading Reading is actually a complete process. Because of that, there are numerous definition and explanation of reading. Holden (1984) said that reading is a process of creative interaction between the reader and the text. If the information in the text is new to the reader, reading will be a tiresome process. The ease of understanding the text, depends both on what is presented to the reader and on what knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and the readers world already processes before he or she start reading. From the explanation above, reading is an active process. There is an interaction between the reader and the text. It, sometimes, can have difficulty in understanding based on the readers proficiency of the language and the readers world. While Decant (1992) defined reading as a language and communication process, which is a process of reader in contacting and communicating with ideas. Reading, therefore, will not take peace without the accuracy of a reader. It means that the readers will understand or get the result of their reading if they can communicate their idea of the text well. Furthermore, Goodman (1970 in Parviz, 2003) stated that reading is a selective process. It involves partial use of available minimal language cues selected from perceptual input on the basis of the readers expectation. He further said, as this partial information is processed, tentative decisions are made to be confirmed, rejected, or refined as reading progressive. In summary, it can be said that reading is an interaction and communication process between the reader and the text which make the connection of the thought and the language and need an ability to relate the information in the text with the

proficiency of the language and knowledge of the world of the text tell about in order to infer the information conveyed by the writer through the reading text.

2.2 Teaching Reading Teaching reading is not a simple activity. Sometimes, people underestimate about the difficulties of teaching reading. As reading is a complex process, teaching reading might be a complex process too. There are several strategies for teaching comprehension. 1. Making Connections Readers make connections between books they read to their own lives. Children can make these connections with what they read to their lives. Teachers can help their students connect on a larger scale. They can connect things from books to real world happenings. By doing this, it enhances the students' understanding. Teachers can develop their instruction around certain components that help readers find the connections and help them comprehend. The genre can range from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc. When the reader experiences these and become more familiar with each type of genre, they learn the special characteristics and conventions of the genre. The reader also can learn about how authors write about certain themes, topics, or issues. Readers can usually find a topic they can enjoy from an author. Also the style the author writes in can influence an appreciation from the reader. At first, making connections can be difficult. The student learns from modeling by the teacher and peers. The student learns that making connections help with understanding. They learn that prior knowledge helps them make the important connections.

2. Questioning Questions are the key to understanding. They take us into understanding. Students need to feel that their questions are important. We as teachers need to model by asking and answering questions. When students ask questions they have a desire to learn for understanding. This leads to comprehension.

There are several different ways a teacher can use quesioning in their lessons. One is the teacher can share their own questions they may have when they are reading. By doing this, it shows that even adults have questions about what they read. Another strategy that may work for questioning is the use of a book of questions. When the students are reading and they have a question about something, the students can make a list of questions. When the class is discussing the reading, the class can help answer the students' questions. Teachers seem to focus on questions that quiz the students to see what they know about a topic. Teachers are starting to focus on a different type of question. This question is the question that they may not know the answer to. This question may require research by the teacher and the class. Another question is one that they wonder about. These are the types of questions that are likely to bring about understanding and meaning for the students.

3. Visualizing and Inferring Visualizing is creating pictures in our minds. When students visualize, they create their 'own movie' in their minds. Teachers can use picture books that do not have words to help the students make their mental movies. When we read we create an image in our mind. We create an amalgam - the conclusion we draw, the interpretation we create (Keene, p 126). We read and create this image with what we know or have experienced. Things come alive when we use sensory images. Teachers can help give these images through lessons that evoke the thought processes. Inferring is being able to read body languages and expressions while reading the text. To help the students find inferences in picture books is to focus on the illustrations. The pictures give clues to help gain meaning. Inferring is the process of taking that which is stated in text and extrapolating it to one's life to create a wholly original interpretation that, in turn, becomes part of one's beliefs or knowledge (Keene, p 153). It is also using one's imagination or the use of prediction. Teachers need to have their students try to make conclusions about the reading and make reasonable predictions.

2.3 Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) Directed Reading thinking Activity (DRTA), which is firstly conceptualized and refined by Stauffer (1969), is an effective activity that helps students in understanding the text. According to Stauffer, reading likes thinking metal process. To requires a readers use of experience and knowledge to reconstruct the ideas or concepts procedure by the writer. The process of reconstruction is in continual change as long as a person read. Meanwhile according Hojnacki (2001) DRTA or directed Reading Thinking Activities are designed to get students asking questions to aid in reading comprehension instead of just answering teachers question. He further states that this strategy encourages students to develop their own reading and thinking processes by setting their own purpose for reading. In turn according to Stauffer (2969), DRTA has three basic sets called: Predicting, reading, and proving involve the students and the teacher reacts to the text as a whole. The following descriptions exemplify the stage of DRTA. a. Predicting In the first step, the teacher sets the students for reading and helps them think about what they are going to read before begin. The children learn to predict what they are going to read basically on available clues that in the text, pictures, italic, and bold-face terms and underline word provide in the passage or by skimming. The students learn to pose questions about what they are going to read and to set up hypothesis before reading begins. During this step of the strategy, the teachers role is to both activate and agitate thought by asking students to defend their hypotheses. This is time to guess, anticipate and hypothesize. Ask students What do you think? Why do you think so?

b. Reading The next steps are reading. The students are asked to read the text silently to verify the accuracy of their predictions. Some of their hypotheses will be rejected and some will confirm or rejected by further reading. There are no rights or wrong predictions rather some responses are judged to be less accurate than others are.

c. Proving During this step, students read back through the text and point how they are able to verify their prediction. Students verify the accuracy of their predictions by finding statements in the text and reading them orally to the teacher. The teacher serves as the mentor, refining, and deepening the reading or the thinking process. This step is built on the previous stages, in which the children make prediction and read to find evidence. In this step, the children will confirm or revise their predictions.

2.4 The Advantages of DRTA a. DRTA can helps students become critical readers. In this case, DRTA can give a freedom to the readers to examine their own thinking to raise questions and seeks answer. b. It builds readers self concepts. When readers see that what they predict helps them to understand better, and then everyones speculations are important whether or not they are proven to be what the author concluded, they feel more confident about their reading. c. This strategy can make the process of reading of the reader become a purposeful reading. They have motivation to read the passage because they have a purpose. The purpose is find the information about their prediction and prove it.

2.5 Previous Study Because of the importance of reading skill, many researchers have conducted studies in this problem. Ani Mutadayyinah (2009) had conducted her research in Kediri. She found that DRTA strategy is not only successful in improving the students' reading comprehension but also in enhancing the students' involvement in the learning class. While I Kadek Rika Widyantara (2010) also has implemented DRTA in reading comprehension to improve the students achievements in finding main idea and words meaning. In his research, students achievement in reading comprehension improved.

From the studies the previous researchers above, it can be said that DRTA strategy is effective to be used in teaching reading. Based on statement above, the research was necessary to be continued in order to know whether DRTA Strategy is still effective if it is applied for other students. Because of that, the writer is intended to conduct a research at SMK N 1 Purwosari with the purpose to improve the students reading comprehension through Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) Strategy.

III.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter outlines the research methodology to examine the use of DRTA strategy to improve reading comprehension. It includes research design, subject of the study, data and sources of data, research procedure, detailed procedure, and data analysis

3.1 Research Design The design of this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR). As Adapted by Julian Hermida from Gwyn Mettetal, 2001, in Classroom Action Research is a method of finding out what works best in your own classroom so that you can improve student learning. There are many ways to improve knowledge about teaching. Many teachers practice personal reflection on teaching, others conduct formal empirical studies on teaching and learning. Classroom Action Research is more systematic than personal reflection but it is more informal and personal than formal educational research. The goal of Classroom Action Research is to improve your own teaching in your own classroom, department, or school. While there is no requirement that the findings be generalized to other situations the results can add to knowledge base. Classroom Action Research goes beyond personal reflection to use informal research practices such as a brief literature review, group comparisons, and data collection and analysis. Validity is achieved through the triangulation of data. The focus is on the practical significance of findings, rather than statistical or theoretical significance. Findings are usually disseminated through brief reports or presentations to local colleagues or administrators. While Kemmis and Taggart (1998) (in I Kadek Rika Widyantara, 2010) stated that an action based research is a cyclonic of process of planning, action, observation, and reflection. The aim of the study is to improve the students reading comprehension.

3.2 Subject of the Study This classroom action research will be conducted at SMKN 1 Purwosari Pasuruan, located on Jl. Raya Purwosari Pasuruan. The subjects of this study are the students in the class X-1 in academic year 2010/2011. The total number of the students is 41 students consists of 19 males and 22 females.

3.3 Data and Sources of Data 3.3.1 Data In conducting this research, the researcher uses qualitative and quantitative data. This qualitative data are taken from the result of interview with the teacher and the questionnaire, those is used to describe the students reading comprehension. While the quantitative data are taken from students score.

3.3.2 Data Sources The data taken from the students as the subject of the research are collected in the form of students scores in reading, students answer for questionnaire and their behavior in the classroom. Besides, there are observation and questionnaire from the English teacher.

3.4 Instruments of Data Collection In collecting the data above, the researcher used several instruments such as test, questionnaire, interview, and observation.

3.4.1 Test In this research, there will be two tests, they are pre-test that is conducted before the method applied to know how far the students ability in reading comprehension and post-test to know whether the method is done well or not. That is conducted after the method applied.

3.4.2 Questionnaire Questionnaire is a set of questions to be answered by responding concerning any particular matter. The questionnaire is used to get information about the difficulties of the students.

3.4.3 Interview There will be interview with the teacher to know the difficulties faced by the teacher in teaching and learning process. Using interview with the teacher will help the researcher to find the problem in teaching English especially in teaching reading.

3.4.4 Observation Checklist This observation encompasses the important components in observing students behavior towards the teachers instruction, pre-reading activities, whilst reading, and post-reading.

3.5 Research Procedure As stated by Kemmis and Taggart (1998), an action based research is a cyclonic of process of planning, action, observation, and reflection. The cyclic process could be figured out as follows:

The Beginning of the Study Identify the problem by conducting class observation. Analysis and Discovery Analysis : Analyze the first observation and pre test result Discovery : Students have low ability and motivation in reading Cause : (1) Lack of strategy in teaching reading (2) Low motivation

Implementing Doing the process of teaching by conducting outdoor activities

Planning Preparing the teaching plans

Observing Collecting the data about implementing the strategy (conducting indoor activities)

Analyzing and Reflecting

Failed

Succeed

Revised the plan and continue to the next cycle

Conclusion and report

Figure 1. Class Action Research Procedure (Adapted from Kemmis and Mc Taggart, 1998)

3.6 Detailed Procedure This research is designed in the action based research. There will be more than one cycle in this research. A cycle had four steps; planning, action, observation, and reflection. Before giving the treatment, the pre-test was conducted in order to measure the initial achievement of the students. The activities covered in each step of the two cycles were presented as follow; 1. Planning Before implementing the DRTA strategy, the researcher planned some preparation such as: a. Designing the pre-test to diagnose the students problem. b. Making instructional planning (teachers scenario) for action c. Preparing reading materials d. Constructing post test for respective cycle e. Setting up the questionnaire.

2. Action Action refers to the treatment conducted. In this study, the actions involved the teaching and learning process through the implementation of DRTA strategy. The activities would be presented as the following; The action covered the following activities; a. The teacher discussed the strategies that were used to understand the passage. b. The teacher asked the students to predict what would the author presented in the passage using the title and any available pictures. c. The teacher asked the students to read the passage. d. The teacher asked the students to stop reading in a certain part of passage. e. The teacher asked the students if their predictions were accurate or not. f. The teacher asked the students to support their answer using the information in the text. g. The teacher asked the students to revise prediction. h. The students read to the text turning point of the passage. i. When the students finished reading, the teacher and the students reacted to the passage as a whole.

j. The teacher asked the students to answer the questions following the passage.

3.

Observation The aim of the observation is to observe the students attitude toward the

teaching learning process through the application of DRTA strategy. It is also to examine the result of the post-test each cycle and find out if there are any weaknesses of the teaching and learning process through DRTA processing. 4. Reflection Reflection was conducted at the end of the action. In steps, the result of the test was analyzed to see whether there is significant improvement or not. In addition, it was also used to decide whether or not the study will be continued.

3.7 Data Analysis The data from the questionnaires are analyzed descriptively in order to know the information pertaining to students motivation, felling, interest, and learning style. While the data that are gathered from the diagnostic-test, post-test and each cycle are in form of interval data, which are represented by scores of the subject. Then the mean of the pre-test is compared with the mean of the all of post-tests have been done in order to know whether there is improvement of the students reading comprehension or not. There will be two types of test to be used to measure the comprehension of the students. The first is comprehension question, and the second is short answer tasks. The comprehension question is a kind of multiple choice. There will be 10 numbers of questions. For each number that is answered correctly, the score will be 2. If the answer is wrong there will be no score. And the second test is short answer tasks. It must be answered in a sentence or two. There will be 5 numbers of it. For each correct answer, the score will be 16. The criteria of scoring is as follow: Score 16 Criteria Accurate (the meaning of the answer is related to the question), the grammar is correct and the vocabulary chosen is proper. 12 Accurate, the grammar is correct but the vocabulary is not proper.

Accurate, the vocabulary is proper but not in the grammatical structure.

The meaning of the answer is related to the question (accurate) but in the wrong grammar and improper vocabulary.

1 0

The answer is not related to the question / wrong answer Not answered

If all answer is correct, the student will get the maximum score from the accumulation of the two tests that is 100.

Furthermore, the following formulas are used in analyzing the data:

Analyzing the score

Analyzing the mean score

Analyzing the questionnaire :

Masidjo (1995:123) The mean scores would show the improvement made by the students. This study will be successful if the main score 80 and it is reached by the half of the number of students or more, the cycle would be stopped. Furthermore, the next step is to find out the percentage of both correct and incorrect answers out from pre-test and the post-test in each cycle by the total number of students. The result then multiplied by one hundred. Finally, the norm of passing score according to Masidjo could be seen in the following table:

Percentage (%) 90 100 80 89 65 79 55 64 0 54

Criteria Excellent Very good Good Sufficient Insufficient

The criteria above means: 1. Excellent : The achievement of the students who are able to answer 90 100 correctly. 2. Very good : The achievement of the students who are able to answer 80 89 correctly. 3. Good : The achievement of the students who are able to answer 65 79 correctly. 4. Sufficient : The achievement of the students who are able to answer 55 64 correctly. 5. Insufficient : The achievement of the students who are able to answer 0 54 correctly.