the effect of directed reading thinking activity and...
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THE EFFECT OF DIRECTED READING THINKING ACTIVITY
AND READING INTEREST ON STUDENTS’ READING
COMPREHENSION
(An Experimental Study in the 8th Grade Students of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah
Pondok Aren)
THESIS
Completed as Partial Requirement for a Completion
of Master’s Degree
at English Department, Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta
By:
Yuliana Friska
2113014000012
GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYA AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
2015
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ABSTRACT
Friska, Yuliana. The Effect of Directed Reading Thinking Activity and
Reading Interest on Students’ Reading Comprehension (An
Experimental Study in the 8th Grade Students of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah
Pondok Aren), 2015
This study was aimed to investigate the effect of Directed Reading
Thinking Activity and reading interest on students’ reading comprehension at
the 8th
students of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah Pd. Aren. This study is
categorized as quasi experimental research in which to investigate the effect
of teaching method (DRTA) and reading interest on students’ reading
comprehension. The sample of this study was two classes of eight grade
students (class 8) of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah. One class as experimental
class comprised with 40 students, and the other class as controlled class
comprised with 40 students as well. The method used in this study is
quantitative method with quasi experimental design. The findings of this
study are: (1) There was no significant difference of reading comprehension
between students who were taught by DRTA and those who were taught by
Conventional method (2) There were interactional effects of teaching method
and reading interest toward students’ reading comprehension (3) There was
significant effect of students’ reading comprehension who were taught by
DRTA was higher than those who were taught by Conventional method for
students who had high reading interest (4) There was no significant
difference of students’ reading comprehension who were taught by DRTA
method and those who were taught by Conventional method for students who
had low reading interest.
Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Directed Reading Thinking Activity
(DRTA), Reading Interest
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ABSTRAK
Friska, Yuliana. The Effect of Directed Reading Thinking Activity and
Reading Interest on Students’ Reading Comprehension (An
Experimental Study in the 8th Grade Students of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah
Pondok Aren), 2015
Penelitian ini ditujukan untuk mengetahui apakah terdapat efek
metode DRTA dan minat membaca terhadap kemampuan membaca siswadi
kelas 8 MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah Pondok Aren. Penelitian ini dikategorikan
sebagai Penelitian Experimen (Quasi-Experiment); untuk mengidentifikasi
apakah terdapat pengaruh metode pembelajaran (DRTA) dan minat membaca
terhadap pemahaman siswa dalam membaca teks narrative. Sampel penelitian
ini adalah dua kelas dari kelas 8 yang berjumlah 40 orang pada masing-
masing kelas. Satu kelas sebagai kelas experimen dan yang lain sebagai kelas
kontrol. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian
kuantitatif dengan disain experimen (quasi-experiment). Hasil yang diperoleh
dari penelitian ini adalah: (1) tidak terdapat perbedaan hasil pemahaman
membaca antara siswa yang diajar dengan metode DRTA dan siswa yang
diajar dengan metode konvensional (2) terdapat pengaruh interaksi metode
pembelajaran dan minat membaca siswa terhadap pemahaman membaca
siswa (3) terdapat pengaruh pemahaman membaca siswa yang diajarkan
dengan metode DRTA lebih tinggi dibanding siswa yang diajar dengan
method konvensional untuk siswa-siswa dengan minat baca tinggi (4) tidak
terdapat perbedaan pemahaman membaca siswa yang diajar dengan metode
DRTA dan siswa yang diajar dengan metode konvensional untuk siswa-siswa
dengan minat baca rendah.
Kata Kunci: Pemahaman membaca, Directed Reading Thinking Activity
(DRTA), minat membaca.
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ملخص البحث
( والميول (DRTAيوليانا، أثر العمليت الفكريت القراءة المباشرة ،فرسكا
طالب المستوى الثامن إلي القراءة عنذ قراءة شاملت )دراست تطبيقيت لذى
5102بمذرست الثانويت المتوسطت في جمعّيت إسالميت فونذوك أرين(،
ويُىل انطالب إنً انقزاءة DRTAكشف عٍ أثز إنً َهدف انبحث
أٌ (Quasi-Experiment)عهً قدرتهى فُها. وانبحث بحث تطبُقٍ
ويُىل انطالب إنً DRTAىجد أثز انًُهج اندراسٍ َنتشخُض هم
انقزاءة عهً فهى انطالب فٍ قزاءة انُظىص. وعُُت انبحث هٍ ثًاَىٌ
طانبا فً انًستىي انثايٍ انذٌ َُقسى إنً فظهٍُ، وطار فظم واحد فظال
تطبقُا واألخز فظم يسُطز. وانًُهج انًستخدو فٍ انبحث هى انًُهج انكًٍ
الَىجد اختالف بٍُ (1يع تظًُى انًُهج تطبُقٍ. وَتُجت انبحث هٍ: )
بطزَقت َدّرسىٌ ٍوانطالب انذَ DRTAبطزَقت َدّرسىٌ ٍانطالب انذَ
( اتظال يُهج اندراسٍ ويُىل انطالب َؤثز عهً 2تقهُدَت فٍ َتُجت انفهى. )
DRTAبًُهج َدّرسىٌ( انطالب انذٍَ 3قدرة انطالب فٍ فهى انًقزوء. )
بًُهج تقهُدٌ وهذا َخض َدّرسىٌثز يٍ انطالب انذٍَ كندَهى انفهى أ
( ال َىجد اختالف بٍُ 4نطالب انذٍَ ندَهى انًُىل إنً انقزاءة كثُزة. )
بطزَقت َدّرسىٌوانطالب انذٌ DRTAبطزَقت َدّرسىٌانطالب انذٌ
نطالب انذٍَ ندَهى يُىل إنً انقزاءة َخض هذاو ،تقهُدَت فٍ فهى انًقزوء
قهُال.
، انًُىل إنً انقزاءة. DRTAت، : انقزاءة انشايه كلماث مفتاحيت
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Praised be to Allah, Lord of the world, who has given the writer His
love and compassion to finish the last assignment in her study. Peace and
salutation be upon to the prophet Muhammad SAW, his family, his
companion, and his adherence.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help and contribution to all of
lecturers, institution, family and friends who have contributed in different
ways hence this thesis is processed until it becomes a complete writing which
will be presented to the Master Program of English Education Faculty of
Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of M.Pd., in English Language Education.
First of all, the writer would like to express her great honor and
deepest gratitude to her advisor, Dr. Alek, M.Pd., and Dr. Kadir, M.Pd.,
whose scholarly suggestions and critical remarks have enabled the writer to
refine this thesis. She conveys special gratitude to her beloved mother and
sister who motivated her in accomplishing this thesis.
The writer’s sincere gratitude also goes to:
1. Prof. Dr. Ahmad Thib Raya, M.A., the dean of Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training.
2. Dr. Fahriany M.Pd., the head of master program, Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training.
3. Dr. Jejen Musfah, M.A., the secretary of master program, Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training.
4. Azkia Muharom Albantani, M.Pd.I., the staff of master program, Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training.
5. All the lecturers in Master Program of English Department who had transferred his/her knowledge and also for the valuable guidance and
encouragement.
6. All the teachers in MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah Pondok Aren for their understanding and support.
7. All of people who participated in the process of the thesis that the writer couldn’t mention one by one. May Allah bless them all.
Ciputat, June 2015
The Writer
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Page
Cover Page ............................................................................................................. i
Title Page ................................................................................................................ ii
Statement of Originality ......................................................................................... iii
Approval by Thesis Supervisors ............................................................................. iv
Approval by Examiners .......................................................................................... v
Abstract .................................................................................................................. vi
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................. vii
Table of Content ..................................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of Research ............................................... 1 B. Identification of the Problem ............................................... 4 C. Limitation of the Problem .................................................... 4 D. Formulation of the Problem ................................................. 5 E. The Objectives of Research ................................................. 5 F. The Significance of Research .............................................. 5
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Review A.1. Reading Comprehension .............................................. 7
A.1.1 The General Concept of Reading .......................... 7
A.1.2 The Purposes of Reading ...................................... 9
A.1.3 The Process of Reading ......................................... 11
A.1.4 The Problems of Reading ...................................... 12
A.2. Narrative Text .............................................................. 15
A.2.1 The Understanding of Narrative Text ................... 15
A.2.2 The Purposes of Reading ...................................... 17
A.2.3 The Schematic Structure of Narrative Text........... 17
A.2.4 The Language features of Narrative Text ............. 19
A.3. Teaching Method ......................................................... 20
A.3.1 The Understanding of Teaching Method .............. 20
A.3.2 Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) ...... 20
A.3.3 The Purposes of DRTA ......................................... 21
A.3.4 The Procedure of DRTA ........................................... 22
A.3.5 The Advantages of DRTA..................................... 24
A.3.6 Disadvantages of DRTA method .......................... 24
A.3.7 Teaching Narrative Text Using DRTA ................. 25
A.4. Interest .......................................................................... 25
A.4.1 The Understanding of Interest ............................... 25
A.4.2 The Kinds of Interest ............................................. 27
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A.4.3 Reading Interest..................................................... 28
B. Previous Study........................................................................ 30
C. Conceptual Framework ......................................................... 31 D. Theoretical Hypothesis ......................................................... 33
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design .................................................................. 37 B. Place and Time of Research ................................................. 38 C. The Population and Sample of Research ............................. 38 D. The Techniques of Data Collection ..................................... 39 E. The Instruments of Research ............................................... 40 F. The Techniques of Data Analysis ........................................ 48
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Finding ................................................................................. 51 B. Discussion ............................................................................ 70
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion ........................................................................... 75 B. Suggestion ............................................................................ 76
References
Appendices
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 The schedule of Research ..................................................... 37
Table 3.2 Research Design .................................................................... 38
Table 3.3 Range Score in Students’ Reading Interest ........................... 41
Table 3.4 The Blueprint of Reading Interest Questionnaire ................. 41
Table 3.5 The Formula of Product Moment .......................................... 42
Table 3.6 Validity Test .......................................................................... 43
Table 3.7 The Blueprint of Reading Comprehension ........................... 45
Table 3.8 The Formula of Product Moment .......................................... 46
Table 3.9 Validity test ........................................................................... 46
Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics ............................................................. 51
Table 4.2 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension
by Using DRTA Method ....................................................... 52
Table 4.3 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension by Using
Conventional Method ............................................................ 54
Table 4.4 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension with
High Reading Interest ........................................................... 55
Table 4.5 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension with
Low Reading Interest ............................................................ 57
Table 4.6 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension by Using
DRTA Method with High Reading Interest .......................... 59
Table 4.7 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension by Using
DRTA Method with Low Reading Interest ........................... 60
Table 4.8 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension by Using
Conventional Method with High Reading Interest ............... 62
Table 4.9 Frequency Table of Reading Comprehension by Using
Conventional Method with Low Reading Interest ................ 63
Table 4.10 Recapitulation of Normality Test .......................................... 66
Table 4.11 The Computation of Homogeneity Test for Reading
Comprehension ..................................................................... 66
Table 4.12 ANOVA Test (2 x 2) ............................................................. 68
Table 4.13 Contrast Tests ........................................................................ 68
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Language Features of Narrative Text ....................................... 19
Figure 4.1 Students’ Reading Comprehension Taught by DRTA Method 53
Figure 4.2 Students’ Reading Comprehension Taught by
Conventional Method .............................................................. 55
Figure 4.3 Reading Comprehension with High Reading Interest .............. 56
Figure 4.4 Reading Comprehension with Low Reading Interest ............... 58
Figure 4.5 Reading Comprehension by Using DRTA Method with
High Reading Interest ................................................................ 60
Figure 4.6 Reading Comprehension by Using DRTA Method with
Low Reading Interest ................................................................. 61
Figure 4.7 Reading Comprehension by Using Conventional Method
with High Reading Interest ........................................................ 63
Figure 4.8 Reading Comprehension by Using Conventional Method
with Low Reading Interest......................................................... 64
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Lesson Plan ............................................................................ 83
Appendix 2 Research Instrument Final ..................................................... 102
Appendix 2a Reading Comprehension on Narrative Text Test ................. 102
Appendix 2b Reading Interest Questionnaire ............................................ 112
Appendix 3 Research Instrument Try Out ................................................. 115
Appendix 3a Validity of Narrative Reading Test ....................................... 115
Appendix 3a Reliability of Reading Comprehension on Narrative Text ... 115
Appendix 3b Validity of Reading Interest Questionnaire .......................... 116
Appendix 3b Reliability of Reading Interest Questionnaire ...................... 116
Appendix 4 Data of Research Finding ....................................................... 117
Appendix 4a Data of Reading Comprehension .......................................... 118
Appendix 4b Data of Reading Interest ....................................................... 119
Appendix 5 Data Description of Research Finding ................................... 120
Appendix 5 The Calculation of Normality Test ......................................... 121
Appendix 6 The Calculation of Homogeneity Test ................................... 122
Appendix 7 Hypothesis Test ...................................................................... 123
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the general description of the study. It covers
background of study, identification of problem, limitation of the study,
research questions, research hypothesis, aim of the study, and significance of
the study.
A. The Background of Study
English in Indonesia is considered as a foreign language in which it is
learned by Indonesian students from elementary level up to university level.
Moreover it is included into one of subject to be evaluated to improve
students’ ability in comprehending English. As stated in School-Based
Curriculum-Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendididkan (KTSP) “English lesson
is aimed to develop students ability in communicating by that language either
spoken or written. The ability to communicate in English involves several
skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing” (Pusat Kurikulum,
2003, p. 17).
Based on the explanation of School-Based Curriculum-KTSP above,
it can be interpreted that there are four certain major language skills should
be mastered by a language learner. Those are listening, speaking, reading,
and writing skills. Listening and reading skills are regarded as receptive skills
while speaking and writing skills are considered to be productive skills. As
one of the language skills, reading plays an important role because it helps
students to be able to read English articles, magazines, newspapers, and
nonfiction books, and it also could be the only way to use and to practice
English in non-English speaking countries. Therefore, the ability to read the
text in any form will contribute a great advantage for English learners, for
instance gaining success at school.
There are numerous reading selections found over the world among
fictions or nonfictions literature. One of reading text types that second year of
Junior High School students learn and should be mastered is narrative text. It
has been obviously stated in the curriculum School-Based Curriculum/KTSP.
Narrative text is a kind of text that describes a sequence of fictional or non-
fictional events. It consists of orientation, complication, and resolution.
Ideally, the eighth grade students of Junior High School are conveyed
to learn and to master some genres of texts including narrative text applied in
any aspects of language skills. It has been stated on Standard of Competency
and Basic Competence (SK, KD) in the KTSP curriculum. Besides, the
policy of the school in determining the minimum passing grade score should
be attained; at least the minimal mastery level criterion (KKM) considering
English subject gains score 70 (seventy). However, most of 8th
grade students
at MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah are still difficult to achieve those targets
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because their knowledge of English is still low primarily on reading skill,
then 8th
grade students also has the lowest score in English compared with
other classes.
Moreover, based on the unstructured interview result with the teacher
on 3rd
September 2014 concerning students’ reading test, there were some
difficulties probably faced by students in reading activities such as: First,
most of students just have the ability to pronounce and recognize the
individual words without conveying the message what the author extends.
Second, they actually have good knowledge of words and sentence meaning
but they fail to understand longer reading materials such as stories. Third,
they were hardly to concentrate as they read. After students read a story, most
of them were difficult to analyze the schematic structures of the story
concerning orientation, complication, and resolution whereas they had read
the text for several times. Consequently, they had difficulty in figuring out
the plot of the story. Fourth, the students’ attitudes toward reading, some of
them are lazy to read the text. Fifth, the next problems came from the teacher
related to the strategy, the methodology, the technique of teaching reading
used by the teacher. Based on writer’s experience, strategy is a way that used
by teacher in teaching learning process. Next, based on the observation
started from 10th
to 18th
September 2014, it was found that the students’
activity in reading were not very interesting because the teacher usually
asked every students to read orally then asking them to translate the story.
Besides, during teaching and learning activity, the teacher explained the
schematic structures and linguistic features of the story almost all of the time;
hence it made students were seldom to participate in the class. Then the
teacher gave them some minutes to do exercises meanwhile most of students
did not pay attention to the teacher’s explanation even they did not do the
exercises. Furthermore, the teacher rarely let his students tried to analyze the
story.
Those cases were quite problematical one and it should be solved
because it can arise further difficulties to the next reading lesson if their low
degree of reading comprehension was not improved soon. As the effect, they
will be probably continuous difficulty to understand any other texts.
Furthermore, they probably could not pass the policy of minimum passing
grade determined by school. Here, it was assumed that circumstances could
affect their understanding of a text for instance, students’ physical condition,
their interests toward the materials, the difficulty of the text selections, and
hardly sustained attention.
It was considered that it was necessary to find out a suitable and
interesting method related to students’ condition. They needed to be
delivered any practices to assist them in developing reading comprehension.
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For the need of research, it was chosen the second year class because this
class derived the lowest achievement scores based on the test result among
the other classes. Therefore, the students’ reading comprehension needed to
be developed. In this research, the study was focused on narrative text. It was
based on texts that taught in Junior High School. Therefore, the writer and
the teacher focused on reading skill in comprehending the schematic
structures of a story because it was the prior reading problem faced by most
of students grade VIII of Mts Jamiyyah Islamiyyah.
Considering those problems above, this study was not going to
discuss the whole factors. This study only focused on some factors, in this
case, teaching method and reading interest.
Teaching method is one of important factors in determining students’
achievement in reading. The teacher should apply effective and innovative
strategies in teaching reading in order to make students interested to read and
to improve the students reading comprehension. There are many methods that
can be applied by the teacher in teaching reading comprehension for instance
DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity) method. In this case the
researcher tried to apply DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity) to
solve the problems since DRTA method is one of alternative way to improve
reading skills. According to Opitz and Guccione (2009) Directed Reading
Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a strategy that boosts reading comprehension
by making transparent how proficient readers make and confirm predictions
while they read (p. 148). That is why Directed Reading Thinking Activity
(DRTA) was selected as an appropriate method to investigate whether the
students’ reading comprehension primarily on narrative text would improve.
Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) method consists of three main
steps: prediction, reading, and confirmation. It encouraged students to make
predictions and inferences. It also helped students to understand the whole
reading text. In addition, it created a condition in which students could
practice and involve in active comprehension by calling on their personal
prior knowledge and text knowledge.
Further, as it was mentioned previously that the classical problem
encountered by students was their attitude toward reading itself. Interest
becomes one of factors which may affect the students’ reading
comprehension because reading is a skill. A skill cannot only be developed
by learning but it also must be developed by extensive and continual practice.
Moreover, the students’ attitude toward reading is a central factor affecting
reading performance. Therefore, it can be assumed that the more positive the
attitude, the more likely student will engage in reading activities. In addition,
students’ positive attitude toward reading is one of the objectives of the
reading curriculum in most countries. It stated that students who enjoy
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reading and who perceive themselves to be good readers usually read more
frequently and more widely impact which impact to broaden their reading
experience and improves their reading skills. Based on the data of TIMSS 7
PIRLS, on average internationally, in every country, students at the high level
of positive attitude toward reading had substantially got higher average
reading achievement than those at medium or low level.
Therefore, it was important to apply appropriate teaching method in
order to help students comprehend the text easily. Directed Reading Thinking
Activity (DRTA) method would be applied and related it with students’
reading interest to investigate whether students who had high or low interest
in reading would affect their reading comprehension and also to investigate
whether it was effective in this institution. Thus, this study was conducted
under the title: “The Effect of Directed Reading Thinking Activity and
Reading Interest on Students’ Reading Comprehension”.
B. The Identification of Problem
Based on background of study above, it can be identified several
problems as follow:
1. Students of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah grade 8 just had the ability to pronounce and recognize the individual words without conveying the
message what the author extends.
2. Students actually had good knowledge of words and sentence meaning but they failed to understand longer reading materials such
as stories.
3. Students were hardly to concentrate as they read. 4. Students were lack interest in reading 5. Teacher’s method in teaching reading was focused on the explanation
of generic structure of text.
C. The Limitation of Problem
Based on the problems were identified above, the problems of the
present study were limited on teaching method used in teaching reading and
students’ interest in reading whether it would affect their reading
comprehension. Teaching method used in this study was Directed Reading
Thinking Activity (DRTA) method. Besides, the level of students’ interest in
reading divided into high and low. Therefore, this study concerned to
investigate “the effect of directed reading thinking activity and reading
interest on students’ reading comprehension at MTs S Jamiyyah Islamiyyah.”
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D. The Formulation of Problem
Based on the problems were identified above, the problems of the
study can be formulated as follow:
1. Was there any significant difference of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) on students’ reading comprehension between those
who were taught by DRTA and those who were taught by
conventional method?
2. Was there any interactional effect of teaching method and reading interest on students’ reading comprehension?
3. Was there any significant difference in reading comprehension between students who have high reading interest that were taught by
DRTA method and those who were taught by conventional method?
4. Was there any significant difference in reading comprehension between students who have low reading interest that were taught by
DRTA method and those who were taught by conventional method?
E. The Objective of Study
Based on the research questions above, this study aimed to obtain
empirical evidence about:
1. The effect of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) on students’ reading comprehension between those who were taught by
DRTA and those who were taught by conventional method.
2. The interactional effect of teaching method and reading interest on students’ reading comprehension.
3. The significant difference in reading comprehension between students who have high reading interest that were taught by DRTA method
and those who were taught by conventional method.
4. The significant difference in reading comprehension between students who have low reading interest that were taught by DRTA method and
those who were taught by conventional method.
F. The Significance of Study
Generally, the results of this study were expected to improve
education quality, here were two significance of this study:
1. Theoretical Significance Theoretical significance was determined to teacher, students, and
other researcher. First, was for teacher, it gave information related to
teaching method could be used in reading comprehension primarily to
improve teaching quality. Second, was for students to help them to
comprehend narrative text easily through DRTA method. Third, was
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for other researcher, it could increase the knowledge related to
teaching method, reading interest, and reading comprehension.
2. Practical Significance First, was for the teacher. It gave the alternative solution in teaching
reading primarily in narrative text. Second, was for students. It
assisted them to solve their problems in reading activity of narrative
text and it could help them to develop their creative thinking skills.
Third, was for the institution of MTs Jamiyyah Islamiyyah. It could
be beneficial regarding to improve the education quality. Fourth, was
for other researcher to provide information in conducting research
related to reading comprehension.
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter covers some theories related to the study. The discussion
focuses on theoretical review including the reading comprehension, narrative
text, teaching method, Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA), reading
interest, previous related study, conceptual framework, and theoretical
hypotheses.
A. Theoretical Review
A.1. Reading Comprehension
A.1.1 The General Concept of Reading
Reading is regarded as one of English skills that need relatively
mechanical skills. In this sense, Linse (2005) assumed that reading is viewed
as not merely taking written information on the printed matter but also
attributing a meaning-extracting process as the essence of the act of reading
(p. 69). It means that reading is not only to get the information from the text
passively but also to process it on mind to understand the meaning. That
assumption is in line with a linguist expert, Walker (2000) who defined that
reading as active process in which readers shift between sources of
information, elaborate meaning and strategies, monitor their comprehension,
and use the social context to reflect their response (pp. 203—243).
Regarding those definitions above, it can be seen that learning to read
is a complex and it has been acknowledged that reading strategies can be
taught to learners and that reading strategy instruction can benefit all students
(Carol, 2002, pp. 498—513). When a reader reads to get the meaning of the
printed written selection, it is obviously needed a great number of mechanical
skills and comprehension skills as thinking process. Therefore, it can be said
that reading includes many aspects of skills. Davis in Alderson (2000)
divided those skills involves recalling, drawing, finding, weaving,
recognizing, identifying, and following which are considered toward the
readers in understanding the printed symbols as a mental process (p. 14).
That is why the readers have to integrate their skills when reading texts
because as a complex process, reading needs understanding to process the
information on mind.
According to Bernhardt (1991), reading is regarded as a cognitive
process in which it demands a process to apprehend the meaning, to gain
information, and to learn in which those should be considered to the process
of mind (p. 17). Therefore, to understand the meaning of a text in reading
activity, the reader makes use of interaction among eyes and mind to grasp
the message related to what the author is trying to communicate.
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Based on those statements above, clearly, reading is a complex
process in getting meaning or in understanding the message. It is commonly
what we call as reading comprehension. It is in line with Daniel and Samuels
(1998) who stated that “The actively understanding of the message to
construct the meaning concerning the transaction between what the author is
trying to convey through his words and the mind of a reader is called as
reading comprehension” (p. 30).
However, in comprehending a printed language, it is quite difficult as
the reader must accomplish multiple things simultaneously in constructing
the meaning from a text. Here, Ur (1996) explained that:
Our aims in (real-life) reading usually go beyond mere understanding.
We may wish to understand something in order to learn from it (in a
course of study), in order to find out how to act (instructions,
directions), in order to express an opinion about it (a letter requesting
advice), or for many other purposes. Other pieces of writing, into
which the writer has invested thought and care, demand a personal
response from the reader to the ideas in the text, such as
interpretation, application to other contexts, criticism, or evaluation
(p. 150).
The illustration above shows how the complexity of reading.
However, these abilities are the important things that should be mastered to
completely understand in getting the meaning of a text.
Moreover, in reading comprehension the readers also need to combine
the information from the text with their background knowledge to
comprehend the text. Lewin (2003) considered this as “prior knowledge”. He
said that;
Prior knowledge is regarded as what the readers know toward
incoming topic concerning their past knowledge which is stored in the
brain then occurring the integration of newly information to evoke
retrieving the existing information to save them into their memories in
categories called as schemata or it is widely known as „schema
theory‟ (p. 23).
Hence, to grasp the meaning of the text, a reader is sought to gain the ability
in interpreting the text meaningfully where he needs prior knowledge to
assist him in making sense of the author‟s message. It is in line with Linse
(2005) stated that the reading comprehension refers to for meaning,
understanding, and entertainment (p. 71).
Thus, in preparing reading activities the readers mentally access their
schemata toward current reading topic then recalling to evoke what they
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already know. It really helps facilitating their comprehension when that
knowledge is tapped. Shortly, reading comprehension involves the whole
experiences which a reader has.
In sum up, reading comprehension involves many activities,
interpretation, convert, and reproduction. For each definition has its own
activity, it depends on the reading purpose of the reader.
A.1.2 The Purposes of Reading
In real life, people generally read something because they want to or
have a desire to do so and a purpose to achieve. The goal for establishing a
purpose for reading is to identify the appropriate motive for reading and to
determine the appropriate reading style to fit that purpose (Graves, 2004).
Whatever the purpose, it is important to have a purpose set prior to reading.
Pressley (2004) express the importance of establishing a purpose for reading
by stating “reading is a conscious, deliberate act prompted by plausible
purpose, it is what motivates us, helps us focus our attention, or gives us a
goal, something tangible to work toward” (p. 267).
Establishing a purpose for reading is also important for monitoring
comprehension. A reader will be more alert to certain aspects of the reading
if they know their goal. They will be more aware of confusing or unclear
sections of the text. When students are aware of their goals prior to reading,
they become more motivated to read.
Based on the statement above, clearly, people read for many
purposes. Some of them read for pleasure and some read for getting
information in which different purposes gain different technique used.
In addition, Nuttal (2005) stated that “whatever your reasons for
reading (excluding any reading for language learning), it is not very likely
that you were interested in the pronunciation of what you read, and even less
likely that you more interested in the grammatical structure used. You read
because you wanted to get something from the writing” (p. 3). This statement
also emphasizes on no matter the reader‟s technique used in reading, it aims
to convey the message of the text.
The different purpose of reading is also stated by Harmer. He divided
it into some areas such as predictive skills, extracting specific information,
getting the general picture, extracting detailed information, recognizing
function and discourse patterns, and deducing meaning from context.
(Harmer, 1983,pp. 183—184).
Generally, reading purposes mentioned above is to understand or to
comprehend the reading passage from the printed text whether there is an
action or not after reading a text. It emphasizes on reading is not a general
ability. Related to the purpose of reading itself, it embraces a wide variety of
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tasks, activities, skills, and mental process. For instance, when reading for
getting specific information, a reader needs to consider the accuracy of words
meaning in order to comprehend the information in the text.
In sum up, those definitions above conclude that the general purpose
of the reading is to be able to use any techniques of reading activity and to
reach the meaning or message toward kinds of reading.
Based on the purpose of reading classified by Harmer, there are two
types of reading related to its purpose. Those are extensive and intensive
reading. For the detail description of the two reading types are as follows:
a. Intensive reading Nuttal (2005) stated, “Intensive reading involves approaching the text
under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus on
the text and the aim is to arrive at an understanding not only of what the text
means but also of how the meaning is produced” (p. 38).
In other words, intensive reading is used to gain a deep understanding
of a text which is important for readers. To reach the comprehension in
reading, it is necessary to pay attention of reading accuracy concerning
reading text, vocabulary, and organization. So that comprehension of the
content may be facilitated.
a. Extensive reading One of the best ways to improve knowledge of a foreign language is
to go and live among its speakers. However many people are hardly to have
that opportunity to live in other countries. Therefore, there is another way to
improve knowledge that is to read extensively in that language. According to
Nuttal (2005), extensive reading is assumed as follow;
It is assumed that in order to understand the whole (e.g., book), we
must first understand the parts (sentences, paragraph, chapters) of
which it is made up. However, we can in fact often understand a text
adequately without grasping every part of it; students have to be
encouraged to develop this facility (p. 38).
Based on that statement above, the reading selection which
appropriate related to extensive reading is reading for pleasure. In reading
activity, a reader does not need to understand every word because the aim is
merely needs to get an overall understanding of the text.
In thus, it is necessary to determine the reader‟s purpose in reading
beforehand and know for certain what a reader is looking for. In this case,
both intensive and extensive reading have the own technique in reading skill.
The techniques involve skimming and scanning (Maxwell, 2000, p. 2).
Moreover, Maxwell (2000) viewed skimming is as “the ability to
process large quantities of materials very rapidly in order to read for a
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specific purpose, the location of the main idea” (p. 1). In some texts, students
can glance a notion of the content or even learn the main ideas just by
skimming topic headings and looking at charts and graphs. Skimming would
be helpful when we want to find out quickly about the writer‟s point of view.
We may want to find out what the writer thinks about something. When we
want to know the writer‟s point of view or how a book or article is organized,
we do not need to read a whole text or we do not need to know the details for
this instead of we just need to read only a few important words.
On the other hand, scanning refers to the ability to locate facts
quickly. For instance, when we look up a person‟s telephone number, we do
not start reading started from alphabet A. Rather, we scan down the column
until we locate the first letter of that person exactly. In addition, according to
Maxwell (2000) “scanning is an excellent technique for reviewing to make
sure that you have mastered and understood the relevant supporting details
(p. 2).” For example, in finding out the supporting details of a text, we need
to focus on the facts we want and locate them quickly with a minimum effort.
Based on the illustration above, skimming is a part of total reading
processes and will help a reader greatly to enhance his speed and
understanding in reading. Meanwhile, scanning will lead you to develop
confidence and skill in locating main ideas and details quickly.
In conclusion, the purpose of reading will ease the readers in reading
appropriate text. That is why they have to decide and know exactly what kind
of purposes they have in reading text because in one reading text may have
multiple purposes in which for each purpose has its own reading technique.
A.1.3 The Process of Reading
According to Patel and Jain (2008, pp 114—116) there are some process
of reading, they are:
1. The first stage is „the recognition stage‟. At this stage the learner simply recognizes the graphic counterparts of the phonological items.
For instance, one recognizes the spoken words in its written form.
The difficulty at this stage depends upon the difference between the
script of the learner‟s mother tongue and English and between the
spelling conventions of two languages.
2. The second stage is „the structuring stage‟. The learner sees the syntactic relationship of the items and understands the structural
meaning of the syntactical units.
3. The third is „the interpretation stage‟. This is the highest level in the process of the reading. The learner comprehends the significance of a
word, a phrase, or a sentence in the overall context of the discards.
For instance, one comprehends the serious and jocular use of words,
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distinguishes between a statement of fact and a statement of opinion.
It is stage at which a person really reads for information or for
pleasure.
In addition, there are three stages of reading activities which should be
consider by the teacher when teaching reading, namely pre-reading, whilst-
reading, and post-reading activities (Wallace, 1993, p. 86).
Pre-reading activities which simply consist of questions to which the
reader is required to find the answer from the text. The objective of pre-
reading activities is to activate students‟ background knowledge, to provide
any language preparation that might be needed for coping with the passage,
and finally to motivate the learners to read the text. Some activities which can
be done in this stage are brainstorming such as content mapping or semantic
mapping, predicting from words to title, sequencing illustration, storytelling,
sharing existing knowledge, etc (Gibbons, 2002, p. 34) .
Whilst-reading activity refers to activity which intended to help students
to understand the specific content and to perceive the rhetorical structure of
the text. Activities can be done in this stage are modeled reading, skimming
and scanning the text, rereading for detail, summarizing the text etc. one of
the activities can be done in pairs or group is to give learners jumbled
sentences or sections of text and asked to do the task, but also to give their
reasons for ordering the sentences or sections in a particular way, thus
making it useful discussion exercise.
Post-reading activity traditionally refers to activities consist of questions
which follow a text which offer the chance to evaluate students‟
understanding of text. Activities can be done in this stage are cloze test,
jumbled sentences, true/false questions, and questioning the text (Gibbons,
2002, p. 68).
A.1.4 The Problems of Reading
There are many problems faced by a reader as reading. According to
Chard (2008), to comprehend a text is not a simple process, there are some
typical causes which then arise toward students‟ difficulty in reading such as:
language delay and difficulties, early reading difficulties leading to fluency
problems, lack of knowledge about the world and about the words, lack of
knowledge of comprehension strategies and lack of skill in applying
strategies appropriately, and difficulties understanding text structures (pp.
396—408).
The five problems above would be explained further concerning the
causes and how to overcome those shortcomings in order a reader is able to
comprehend kinds of reading selections. In the first problem area, it is known
that a fairly close relationship exists between intelligence and the ability to
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read. Since general intelligence is the most important factor in readiness for
reading, it is obvious that intelligence tests are useful for appraising certain
phases of readiness to read (Alderson, 2000, p. 34).
When we illustrate that correlation, it can be understood that there is a
substantial correlation between intelligence and reading ability. It is true that
a child who is intelligent enough to go to school is intelligent enough to learn
to read simple materials. Nevertheless, a child‟s ability to comprehend in
reading is limited by the conceptual load that his mental ability enables him
to carry. Thus, as a teacher, we should never underestimate a student‟s
mental development, but we should adjust the task to his capabilities to grow
his power toward reading.
Next, the second problem area is word recognition. Students may get
difficulty in recognizing the word as they read. It is caused by the differences
in syntactical patterns of the students‟ native language and the target
language (Aebersold, 1997, pp. 12-13). In order students are able to understand
the text, they have to know the words meaning based on the context of the
sentence. However, students usually look up the dictionary to find out the
words meaning. It will make them confuse if the meaning is not appropriate
with a sentence. That is why the teacher may explain to introduce new words
through illustrating toward familiar words which students have known first.
The third problem is oral reading, if not done well, it can have an
undesirable effect on comprehension. The reader is able to become so
conscious of his audience that he will fail to understand what he is reading.
This is strengthened by an assumption that “the general aim for a reading
development program is to enable students to enjoy (or at least feel
comfortable with) reading in the foreign language, and to read without help
unfamiliar authentic texts, at appropriate speed, silently and with adequate
understanding (Nuttal, 2005, p. 31).” In short, reading orally of a selection is
particularly difficult for the reader to increase his understanding, since he not
only sees but also hears what he reads. Thus, overemphasis on oral reading
may also make a reader so self-conscious while reading to others that his
concentration may be on how, rather than on what, he is reading.
In the fourth problem area is related to insufficient background for
reading a selection. It means that lack of experience background may cause
poor comprehension of what is being read. Alderson (2000) stated that “It
may seem self-evident that, if readers do not know the language of the text,
then they will have great difficulty in processing the text; indeed in studies of
first language reading the language knowledge of the reader is often taken for
granted” (p. 34). Considering the experience background is then what we call
„schema theory‟. In preparing for reading, students mentally access their
schemata on the incoming reading topic and consider what they already
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know. Of course, some students come to the class already knowing quite a bit
about the topic; perhaps they remember it from an earlier grade, or they
watched educational television shows about it, or they recently read
something about it. Typically, the students who gain sufficient knowledge
about many reading selections, then, they are able to connect the information
they have with the incoming text, so it would be helpful to construct their
comprehension in reading.
The next problem is failure to adjust reading techniques to reading
purpose and type of reading material. Appropriate techniques should be
taught for the reading of specific types of material whenever new material is
assigned. In the previously, the writer has discussed two kinds of reading
technique; those are skimming and scanning. Beside of those techniques, as a
teacher, he should recognize his students‟ other ways in reading technique,
that is through bottom-up approaches and top-down approaches. In term of
bottom-up approaches or the parts-to-whole method, (Hudson, 2007)
assumed as follows:
A reader constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases, clauses,
and sentences by processing the text into phonemic units that
represent lexical meaning, and then builds meaning in a linear
manner. This approach assumes that the reading task can be
understood by examining it as a series of stages that proceed in a
fixed order, from sensory input to comprehension and appropriate
response. (p. 33)
Based on the definition above, it can be seen that when a reader learns
to read, he processes the simplest units that make up a word first, learning
letter shapes, names, and sounds. Next, he blends letters together in a left to
right sequence to create more complete units. Then words are formed as he
studiously sounds out the letters. Words grow into phrases, and eventually a
simple sentence is read. So it would continue in a prescribed sequence of
steps. In this model, learning is regarded as a one-way process, from the text
to the reader, and progress is made one skill at a time. The top-down
approaches, on the other hand, assumed:
A reader approaches a text with conceptualizations above the textual
level already in operation and then works down to the text itself.
Consequently, the reader makes continually changing hypotheses
about the incoming information. This reader applies background
knowledge, both formal and content, to the text in order to create
meaning that is personally and contextually sensible (Hudson, 2007,
pp. 33—34).
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In this way, reading is an active process in which the reader brings to
bear not only knowledge of the language, but also internal concepts of how
language is processed, past experiential background, and general conceptual
background. In this approach, efficient reading is not the result of close
perception and identification of all textual features.
The last problem regarding ability in reading is lack of appropriate
teacher guidance. Normally students should learn to approach a reading
assignment in the content fields with clearly conceived purpose. They must
know what they are looking and why. Such purposes may arise out of
previous class discussions, demonstrations, or experiments. In this sense,
Penny Ur stated that:
Sometimes no actual task is necessary, if the passage is easy and
motivating to read: the learner reads, as in his or her own mother
tongue, for enjoyment or information. But a task is useful for two
reasons: first, it may provide the learners with a purpose in reading
and make the whole activity more interesting and effective; second,
we need to know how well our learners are reading, and we can get
this information conveniently through looking at the results of
comprehension tasks (Boer and Dallmann, 1964, p.134)
Therefore, if the student‟s purpose for reading arises out of a keen
interest of his own, the prospects of successful reading are greatest.
Moreover, of course, the problems related to reading comprehension might
be prevented earlier.
A.2. Narrative Text
A.2.1 The Understanding of Narrative Text
In order to make the discussion of literature more manageable, it is
sensible to view the categories or genres that simply mean a type of literature
with similar characteristic. Thus, when one understands a particular genre, he
can anticipate what type of content will be found within a volume in that
category. “Readers will notice that literature selections are divided into one
of two large general genres, that of fiction or nonfiction” (Farris, 2004, p. 439).
One of genres that Junior High School students learn is narrative text.
Chatman and Attebery (1993) defined “the narrative text is a kind of story
either fictive or real which contain a series of events in which how the story
is told and how the context is presented as aspects of the story construction”
(p. 15). Thus, special features of narrative text could be found in its sequence
of events to attract the readers in order to build their curiosity throughout the
story. In addition, based on Longman (2004), narrative means a description
of events in a story.
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Farris (2004) stated that “some think that reading narrative text is
often referred to as aesthetic reading because one reads it for enjoyment and
pleasure” (p. 490). Narrative text also enables students to make connections
such as they may figure out similarities among the text and their own lives,
they make links between the text they are current reading and another text
they have previously read, they also see connections between the text and the
real world. In short, the fact that reading narrative is a cooperative venture
between the author and the reader.
Indeed, narrative text requires a content background for
understanding. According to Farris (2004), “reading a narrative text in a
historical period or related to a scientific finding usually necessitates having
some related knowledge in that specific area” (p. 496). Consequently, readers
need to develop background knowledge for literary elements in order to make
connections. Students who are reading narrative text need to become familiar
with the previously reviewed literary elements of character, setting, problem
and solution, theme, and writing style.
As students read quality narrative text, they naturally become
involved with the characters who may possess similar feelings or may find
themselves in like situations. There are numerous types of narrative. They are
fairy stories, mysteries, science fiction, horrors, romances, fables, myths,
legends, ballads, etc (Anderson, 2003, p.18). Those can be classified into
imaginary and factual, or even combination of both.
Beside of various of narrative texts, Chatman (1993) classified
“narrative text into four basic elements” (p. 23). Those are as following:
(a) Characters There are two characters take place within a story. They are main
characters and secondary characters. Character is the single most important
element in the narrative text. It describes physical of the character such as
age, weight, height, even personality traits including the strength and
weaknesses. This who plays action in kinds of different situation or reacts the
problems in the story. The author can also depict character into dialogue. It
tells a reader what the character says or thinks.
(b) Settings The setting addresses the location (where) and the period (when) of
the story whether the story tells a reader among realistic, historical fiction or
fantasy. At times, the author gives details in any imagination to tell where
and when the story takes place.
(c) Plot The plot includes a series of episodes or events written by the author
to hold the reader‟s attention and to build excitement as the story progresses.
The plot contains an initiating event, starting the main character of the series
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of events toward problem solving. The excitement builds until the climax or
tension; the high point in the story where the problem is solved.
(d) Conclusion At the end of a story, the writer ends up the story through figuring out
all the important things happened in the story led to a “conclusion”. This is
the most exciting point in the whole story and tells how the events work out
for the characters.
A.2.2 The Purposes of Narrative Text
People read narrative text might be basically for enjoyment and
pleasure; to gain a reader‟s interest. It means they like enjoying themselves to
read any kinds of stories because they may possess similar feelings or find
themselves in like situations. This is in line with Anderson‟s (2003) statement
“the purpose of narrative text is to present a view of the world that entertains
or informs the reader or listener” (p. 6). In sum up, the purpose of narrative
text is the readers as if involved within story to get the pleasure.
A.2.3 The Schematic Structure of Narrative Text
An effective narrative text has several significant characteristics
which a reader may use as standard to guide his reading. In a traditional
narrative, Alderson stated that the focus of the text is on series of actions.
Those are as following:
(a) Orientation Josephine (2007) stated that orientation tells about “the setting in time
and place, and characters” (p. 123). Thus, in the first paragraph the narrator
tells the audience who is in the story, when it is happening, where it is
happening and what is going on.
(b) Complication This is the part of the story where the narrator tells about something
that will begin a chain of events. These events will affect one or more of the
characters. Then, telling the problems to be solved by characters.
(c) Sequence of events This is where the narrator tells how the characters react to the
complication. It includes their feelings and what they do. The events can be
told in chronological order (the order in which they happen) or with
flashbacks. The audience is given the narrator‟s point of view.
(d) Resolution In this part of the narrative where the complication is sorted out or the
problem is solved. It means that how is the problem that is created in the
complication finally solved.
In the following is the example of schematic structure of narrative text:
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Takatuliang, the Woodcarver
Long time ago on the island of Simbau, in the
Sulawesi Sea, there lived a king and his beautiful
daughter. The princess was not only beautiful, but she
was also wise and kind.
Many princes wanted to marry the king‟s daughter
and this made the king confused. He, then, announced a
contest: whoever presented the princess with the most
valuable gift would marry her.
Takatuliang, a poor woodcarver, wanted to join
the contest but he was so poor that he had nothing to
present. Then, he went far into the forest. There he chose
the best tree and carved it into a doll. Next, he took an old
piece of cloth and sewed it into a dress for the doll. After
that, he cut his own hair and glued it to the doll‟s head.
On the day of the contest, all of the princes
gathered before the king and the princess. One by one,
they presented their gifts: diamonds, silk, gold, jewelry.
Then came Takatuliang‟s turn.
“What do you have?” asked the princess.
“I bring only a doll,” said Takatuliang softly.
“How many dolls like this do you have?” asked the
princess.
“Only this one. I carved it by myself and decorated it with
my own hair and my father‟s old cloth. He died and this is
the only thing he left me.” answered Takatuliang.
The princess was very touched to hear
Takatuliang‟s story. She decided to marry Takatuliang
because he had presented her everything he had.
Together, Takatuliang and the princess lived happily ever
after.
(Adapted from Josephine S.M., 2007)
Orientation
Complications
Resolution
Title
Sequence of
Events
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A.2.4 The Language Features of Narrative Text
According to Anderson (2003) the language features usually found in
a narrative text include: Specific characters or participants, time words that
connect events to tell when they occur, the use of simple past tense and past
continuous tense, Verbs to show the actions that occur in the story, relational
verbs to describe the characters and settings, connectives or conjunctions to
sequence the story (p. 8). In the following is the example of language features
of narrative text related to the story above:
Figure 2.1
Language Features of Narrative Text
No Linguistic Features Examples
1 Specific Participants Takatuliang
2 Generic Participant
King daughter
Prince Princess
Father
3 Past Tense
There lived a king….. Many princes wanted to marry ….. This made the king confused. He went far into the forest. He chose the best tree and carved it.
4 Past Perfect Tense He had presented her everything he
had.
5 Action Verb
Came announced glued
Presented went cut
Chose carved
decorated
Took sewed left
6 Adverb of Time Long time ago
On the day
7 Adverb of Place
On the island of Simbau
In the Sulawesi sea
Into the forest
8 Coordinate Conjunction But
And
9 Temporal Conjunction
Then, next, after that
Next
After that
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10 Saying Verb
Asked
Answered
Said
11 Linking Verb Was
12 Modality Would
(Adapted from Josephine S.M., 2007)
In conclusion, the language features play significant role to assist in
getting the meaning of a story. For instance, through past tense appeared, it
tells the readers exactly as a major feature of a story used. Next, the use of
conjunction is relatively necessary to describe the characters and settings.
Hence, all of the language features are conveyed to construct the story more
alive.
A.3. Teaching Method
A.3.1The Understanding of Teaching Method
For centuries, the language teaching profession may be aptly
characterized by series methods that rose and decline in popularity. It appears
that some practitioners in this period tried to define the ultimate meaning of
“method” that could be generalized widely with various audiences, context,
and languages. According to Richards (2002), reading has a specials focus in teaching;
there are three reasons for this. First, many foreign language students often
assume reading as one of their most important goals. Second, written texts can
accept various pedagogical purposes. Then, reading is a skill which has
something value from students and teacher. In other word, teaching reading is
very important in learning process to get information and knowledge (p. 273).
Richard and Rodgers stated in Brown‟s book, Teaching by Principles
on Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, method is a generalized set
of classroom specification for accomplishing linguistics objectives. Methods
tend to be concerned primarily with teacher and student roles and behaviors
and secondarily with such features as linguistic and subject matter objectives,
sequencing, and materials.
A.3.2 Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) In teaching reading, actually there are many kinds of strategy that can
be used by teacher to comprehend the text, one of them is Directed Reading
Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy. Directed Reading Thinking Activity is
one of strategy that can be used by the teacher in teaching learning reading.
According to Stauffer in Bainbridge and Sylvia (1999), DRTA is one of
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strategy to show the active role of readers. Prior to reading, the students are
asked to generate prediction of story development based on some limited
information such as the title of the reading selection, the author‟s name, or a
few illustrations (p. 164).
The Directed Reading Thinking Activity is a much stronger model for
building independent readers and learners. DRTA is designed to help
students in setting a purpose for reading; making justifying, and verifying
prediction and coming conclusion. The students will survey the text to be
read, make prediction and justify their prediction (Schumm, 2006, p. 241).
Further, Block and Sheri (2008) confirm that DRTA focuses more
directly on developing reading skill. In this strategy, the students examined
text by looking at the title, illustrations, and the first few pages, and then
make prediction what the text would be about. Subsequently, they read the
text and confirmers or disconfirm their prediction (p.160).
Furthermore, Odwan (2012) defined Directed Reading Thinking
Activity as follows:
The origin of DRTA is intended to develop students‟ ability to read
critically and reflectively. The directed reading thinking activity
attempts to equip readers with the ability to determine the purposes
of reading, the ability to extract, comprehend, and assimilate
information, the ability to make predictions to examine reading
materials based on the purposes of reading, the ability to pass
judgments, and finally the ability to make decisions based upon
information gleaned from reading.
According to Opitz and Guccione (2009) stated that Directed Reading
Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a strategy that boosts reading comprehension
by making transparent how proficient readers make and confirm predictions
while they read. It means that in teaching reading by use DRTA strategy, ask
students to make and confirm predictions while they read (p. 148). Based on theories above, the writer concludes that Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a strategy which serves the students to be active
in reading. Besides, this strategy can help the students determine a purpose of
reading. In this strategy, the students will make prediction about the text by
limited information such as title, the author‟s name or a few illustrations.
A.3.3 The Purposes of DRTA
According to Allen (2004), the power of Directed Reading Thinking
Activity strategy increases when the teacher guides students to check their
predictions after reading. The value of Directed Reading Thinking Activity is
to make predictions before reading each section. Requiring students to make
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predictions encourage use of context clues and establishes a purpose for
reading. This cycle requires students to use their background knowledge to
set purposes for reading and develop their questioning ability. Verifying
predictions while reading extend thoughts and promotes interactive learning.
Specifically, the purposes of using Directed Reading Thinking
Activity are: To encourage readers to be more aware of the strategies they
use to interpret text, to help students understand the reading process, to
develop prediction skills, to stimulate thinking and develop hypotheses about
text which aid interpretation and comprehension, to increase understanding
the purposes and effects of the structures and features of particular text, to
increase curiosity about particular texts and text-types, and to encourage
students to listen to the opinions of others and modify their own in light of
additional information.
In short, the purpose of using Directed Reading Thinking Activity
could ease the readers to understand whole parts of a story.
A.3.4 The Procedure of DRTA
The general procedure to follow when preparing a basic story map
includes the following steps: The Directed Reading Thinking Activity
engages students in a step by step process that guides them through
informational text. It is designed to move students through the process of
reading text. Questions are asked and answered, and predictions are made
and tested throughout the reading. Additionally, new questions and
predictions are formulated as the students‟ progress through the text.
According to Stauffer in Bainbridge and Sylvia DRTA strategy has several
steps:
(a) Prior to reading, choose a text. This strategy works well with both fiction and non-fiction texts.
(b) Then, activate students‟ prior knowledge. Have the students read the title of the text, or tell them the topic of the text. Ask students to brainstorm a
list of ideas that come to mind when they think about the title or topic.
Write those ideas on the board. When using this strategy with a piece of
fiction, you might have students brainstorm a list of ideas that they
associate with an overriding theme of the story, the story‟s setting, or the
author of the story (if the author is someone with whom your students are
familiar). Students will be making predictions about what they will read
about in the text, so it is important that you activate their prior knowledge
on a topic that will allow them to make predictions about what might be
included in the text.
(c) The predictions are recorded on the board, a transparency, or a chart. Have students make predictions about what they will read about the text.
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Use all available clues, including the index, table of contents pictures,
charts, and tables in the text. Ask students to explain how they came up
with their predictions.
(d) After that, have students read a section of a text. Once students have read a certain amount of text, they return to their prediction to see which have
been realized, which seem unlikely to be fulfilled, and which may still
possibly occur.
(e) Ask students to confirm or revise prior predictions and make new predictions. Students should be encouraged to explain what in the text is
causing them to confirm and /or revise prior predictions, and what is
causing them to make the new predictions they are making.
(f) The last, students are encouraged to support their opinions and to make further predictions based on their literary and life experience. When
students have finished reading, ask questions that promote thinking and
discussion (Bainbridge and Sylvia, 1999, p. 164).
Thus, Schumm (2006) stated that there are several steps in DRTA
strategy. First, the students survey the text to be read. Second, students
should make predictions based on the survey to have students justify their
predictions, or give a reason why they think their predictions are correct. The
third set a purpose by reading having students read to find out if their
predictions are correct. Fourth, ask the students confirm their predictions
based on the new information read and create new prediction. The last, ask
students read the next section and continue with confirming or altering and
creating new prediction until the reading is complete (p. 241).
Furthermore, Brunner (2011) stated that DRTA have some steps in
process, there are: Read the selection to select predetermined stopping points,
and then tell the students they will need a cover sheet. After that ask students
to cover everything but the title of the selection and tell students to read the
title and make prediction about the story contents. After reading the title ask
students make predictions; ask for “evidence” supporting their belief that
their predictions are correct and then tell them that they will review their
initial predictions, as well as make a new predictions based upon the reading,
After students have finished reading the designated text (p. 56).
From the steps above, it can be concluded that DRTA guides the
students through information the text. This method requires the students to
make new prediction about text by the cover (title, illustration), give evidence
about their prediction, reread text and make conclusions.
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A.3.5 The Advantages of DRTA
Any strategy that is used by the teacher in teaching learning process
give purposes to the teacher and students. According to Adlit (2008), there
are reasons why using Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy
in reading class such as: It encourages students to be active and thoughtful
readers. The process of predicting, reading, and proving make the students
are not passive in reading class. They use their mind to be more aware about
the topic given may be known yet by the students. In addition, it activates
students‟ prior knowledge. It will appear prior knowledge by predicting the
topic and new information will add students‟ knowledge.
Further, it also teaches students to monitor their understanding of the
text as they are reading. The students understand the content of the text step
by step. It began from activating prior knowledge, then predicting what they
will learn about the topic and the last is proving. From that step, the students
will practice how to understand the text accurately. Furthermore, it helps
students strengthen reading and critical thinking skills. Reading skill is not
passive skill, so that readers must think about the topic accurately.
Moreover, any strategy that is used by the teacher in teaching learning
process give purposes to the teacher and students. According Bainbridge
(1999) Directed reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy encourages
reader/ students to be actively involved in the constructions of meaning (p.
164). It‟s mean that through student‟s predictions in the text to make their
active in reading. Thus, Brunner (2011) said that strategy help students read
critically and reflect upon what they read. Besides, this strategy help students
determine a purpose for reading, carefully examine the text, and remain
engaged throughout the lesson (p. 56).
In summary, Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) used to
make students actively read the text, carefully examine and remain engaged
in reading by student‟s prediction for the text and constructions of meaning
the text. So, the teacher can designed this activity as creative as possible to
make student enjoy in the learning process.
A.3.6 Disadvantages of DRTA method
The disadvantages of DRTA method indeed it is only useful if
students have read or heard the text being used. Besides, classroom
management may become a problem if it is a big class (the students more
than thirty) because the teacher could not control the students personally.
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A.3.7 Teaching Narrative Text Using DRTA
These following steps concerning teaching narrative text using DRTA
method are modified and adapted from (Wilhelm, 2001). Those steps are:
Step 1: Determine goals and objectives for the text and choose an
accessible text for students to read. Goals and objectives should be
immediately transferable and useful. In this study, narrative text considered
as a purposeful text to DRTA method. (Selecting)
Step 2: Activate students‟ prior knowledge. Use think-aloud strategies
and set the purpose of reading. (Connecting)
Step 3: Direct them to make prediction about the text. Preview the
entire text including tables, contents, introductions, headings, indices, etc. ask
students to make predictions about the text based on the text preview and
prior knowledge. (Predicting)
Step 4: Have students read independently. Guide them through the
text. As students read, help them work through a text in terms of main ideas
and supporting details, how a text is structured and the role text structure
plays in the organization of details. It is at this point in the lesson that readers
begin to make personal connections to text and text to world connections. In
order to help students understand the text, determine students‟ stopping
points for students to reflect and monitor comprehension, to employ fix-up
strategies, and make connections beyond the text. Teachers need to know
how well the reader is using fix-up strategies and making those connections
beyond the text. (Reading)
Step 5: After reading, ask students to reflect on what was read.
Readers should verify justify predictions while continuing to make text-to-
self, text to text, and text-to-world connections. (Verifying)
Step 6: Give students an evaluation. Provide students with
opportunities to synthesize the text and move the reader beyond the text in
terms of addressing the question, “so what?” how is what was learned in the
text important to students‟ live? To the world? It is necessary to check their
reading comprehension of a story using a printed test to gain working
individually. (Reflecting)
A.4. Interest
A.4.1 The Understanding of Interest
Interest is one of a number of motivational variables that has been
investigated in relation to student engagement and learning outcomes.
Research specifically concerned with interest and learning (e.g., Hoffmann,
Krapp, Renninger, & Baumert, 1998; Krapp, Renninger, & Hidi, 1992;
Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992) has focused on both individual interest,
relatively stable orientations that have developed over time, and situational
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interest that refers to interest generated by the specific features of the
environment/task.
Interest is one of factors which determines as attitude in working or
studying actively. Hidi (2006) defined interest as, “a unique motivational
variable, as well as psychological state that occurs during interactions
between persons and their objects of interest, and it is characterized by
increasing attention, concentration and affect.” (p. 549). The assumption is
that individuals are more likely to attend to and learn from interesting
materials as opposed to uninteresting materials.
Researchers have distinguished two types of interest that reflect
distinct areas of research focus: individual interest and situational interest.
According to Hidi (2001) individual interest “develops slowly, tends to be
long lasting, and is associated with increased knowledge and value” (p. 103).
Wade et al. (1999) associate individual interest with “personal significance,
positive emotions, high value, and increased knowledge” (p. 197).
It has also been equated with “intrinsic” motivation. Many studies
cited by Hidi & Baird (1988) have shown that cognitive performance as
measured by many different indicators improved with personal interest.
Typical indicators of interest are increased attention, greater concentration,
pleasant feelings, and increased willingness to learn (Krapp et al., 1992).
Situational interest, on the other hand, is “evoked by something in the
immediate environment, and consequently may or may not have a long-term
effect on individual‟s knowledge and value” (Hidi, 2001, p. 193). It focuses
on the environment and contextual factors. In the case of reading, these
include “characteristics of the text, inducements, and social activities
surrounding the reading event” (Wade et al., 1999, p. 197). Situational
interest has been associated with “extrinsic” motivation and has been called
“externally triggered motivation” (Hidi, 2001, p. 203).
Personal and situational interests are not mutually exclusive. Both
involve “increased attention and cognitive functioning, persistence, and have
an affective component” (Hidi, 2001, p. 193). Hidi and Harackiewicz (2000)
argue that situational interest can lead to “continued and persistent activity
that becomes self-initiated, self-determined and autonomous” and that
“creating enviro