ENGLISH RESEARCH PROPOSAL
TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHOD TO THE EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP DWIJENDRA GIANYAR
IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2010-2011
1.1 Background of the Study
English is used as a means of communication
among people throughout the world. In this globalization era, where competition
among people throughout the world is strong, mastering English is a must.
Further, the rapid development of science and technology, in particular
telecommunication tools, makes the mastery of English essential. It is now
becoming a necessity to have effective communication skills and resources.
Knowing the important role of English in the world today, students need to be
sufficiently equipped with English communication skills, both oral and written.
There are several reasons for learning English.
First, the high school curriculum has determined that English is a compulsory
subject. Second, some people learn English because they want to be effective in
an English speaking society. Third, some people learn English because they
realize that they will have a better chance for advancement in their future and
get a better job more easily with two languages rather than one language.
Fourth, people learn English because they want to continue their studies in an
English speaking country where English is used as a national language and
during formal classroom instruction, such as in New Zealand, Australia,
England, and USA etc.
Listening, speaking, reading and writing are
four major language skills. Reading is an important language skill because
without it one cannot obtain the diversity of information acquired through
reading textbooks, novels, newspapers and magazines. Through reading one can
grasp a large amount of knowledge. Furthermore, students can obtain a wide
range of information by reading books in English because English is recognised
as an international language.
The English teaching syllabus of Junior high
school states that reading is one of the most important of the four language
skills. Therefore, the teacher needs to put an emphasis on teaching reading.
This is a continuing challenge because the need for students to increase their
reading capability to get the benefits of reading is ongoing. The teachers need
to use many different kinds of techniques and to continuously renew their
efforts to have the students attain the highest achievements.
Brown in Simanjuntak (2004: 8) advocated that motivation is
the key to being successful in learning. Motivation is commonly understood as
an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to particular
action. One of the ways to motivate students to read is through implementing
the right techniques in teaching reading. There are many effective techniques
for teaching reading. One of them is Cooperative Learning Method.
The purpose of implementing Cooperative Learning
Method is to generate opportunities for the students to become more active in
learning. In this case study, the
students will be engaged in pairs, group discussion and whole class discussion activities,
therefore the students will have much deeper understanding on the reading text
they have read.
Harmer (1991) writes that the group discussion
and whole class discussion is an extremely attractive technique in a number of
reasons: the students talking time is increased, it gives the students more
opportunities to really use the language to communicate with each other,
students will experience both teaching and learning in the group, thereby
exhibiting a degree of self-reliance that simply is not possible when the
teacher is acting as the controller.
Therefore, corresponding to the above facts, the researcher
is highly motivated in investigating the students’ achievement in reading
comprehension through Cooperative Learning Method.
1.2 Statement of Research Question
Based on the background of the research, the research question can
be formulated as follows: to what extent can
the students’ reading comprehension ability of the eight grade students of SMP
Dwijendra Gianyar in the academic year 2010-2011
be improved through Cooperative
Learning Method ?
1.3 Objective of the Study
Methodologically
speaking, any scientific study intends to answer the research question that has
been previously formulated and determined. In line with this rationale, the
present study intends to improve the reading comprehension of the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar through Cooperative learning Method.
1.4 Limitations of the Study
On account of
this fact, challenges related to reading comprehension faced by the subjects of
this study are definitely too broad and complex to be dealt with in a single
study. Accordingly, in the present class action study the researcher, while
acknowledging that there are many other useful strategies, limits her
investigation on teaching reading comprehension through shared reading to the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar
in the academic year 2010-2011.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This research is concerned with teaching and in reading
comprehension, using Cooperative learning Method to improve the students’
comprehension. It can improve the students’ reading ability and students will
find the tasks very challenging and interesting. The teachers will find shared
reading to be another effective resource for teaching reading. In the reading
classroom, the teacher is a motivator/stimulator. Therefore, the findings of
the present research are expected to indicate significant theoretical and
practical information on the importance of implementing Cooperative learning Method in teaching reading,
described as follows:
Theoretically, Cooperative learning Method can
be used to improve students’ comprehension of a reading passage. The findings
are expected to be used as evidence that shared reading is an effective
technique in teaching reading.
Practically, the outcome of this research study
is expected to give feedback to English language teachers, especially those who
teach at eight grade students of SMP
Dwijendra Gianyar.
1.6 Assumption
Because of the limitation of time, finance, and investigator’s ability,
not all variable can be controlled. In order to neutralize the compounding
variables, it is essential to state some assumption as follows: (1) all subjects
under study are assumed to have learnt English for the same period of time, (2)
all subjects under study are assumed to have similar learning motivation, (3)
all subjects under study are assumed to have similar language experience and
language exposure, (4) the instruments used for collecting the data are
constructed in such a way that they are supposed to be valid and reliable.
1.7 Hypothesis
On attempting to give a tentative solution to the problem, the hypothesis
will be stated as the following: the students’ reading comprehension ability
can be improved through Cooperative Learning Method.
1.8 Definition of the Key Terms
There
are some terms, which are defined operationally so as to avoid misunderstanding
on the part of the readers, that is, Cooperative Learning Method, reading comprehension
and SMP Dwijendra Gianyar
Cooperative
Learning Method is defined as a technique of teaching reading comprehension to the
eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar
in which the students are assigned to read a reading text discusses
with their other students and they retell to the other students the content of
the text they have read. The teaching session is always completed with group
discussion and whole class discussion and the students’ reading comprehension
is improved in a series of teaching session which are divided into several
teaching cycles.
Reading comprehension is defined in the reading
comprehension ability or achievement of the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar measured by administering reflection or post test by the
end of each session.
1.9 Theoretical
Framework
A scientific investigation is expected to contribute
practical significance and should be conducted on the basis of some relevant
theoretical constructs and empirical evidences. The present investigation is
based on the following theoretical framework: (1) the concept of reading
comprehension, (2) types of reading, (3)
components of reading, (4) Techniques of teaching reading, and (5) assessment
of reading comprehension. Each of these headings is briefly discussed in
Chapter II, which deals with ‘Review of Related Literature’.
1.10.
Research Methodology.
1.10.1 Subject
of the study
This study is conducted to the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar. There are 7 classes of the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar
with the total of the students are 280 students. The students of Class II A is
selected as the subjects of the study which consists of 40 students. The subject of the study which total of 40 students
are considered to be representative enough for the purpose of this study. The
students of Class II A is selected as the subjects of the study because based
on the preliminary study and the result of pre test or the initial reflection
showed their ability in reading comprehension is very poor, therefore immediate
improvement is really needed.
1.10.2
Research Design
Classroom action research design will
be used in this investigation. It makes use of a collection of pre-test
post-test research design. Hence, this classroom action study is concerned with
teaching reading comprehension by using two kinds of tests, that is, initial
refection or pre-test and reflection or post-test. Initial reflection (IR) is intended
to evaluate the pre-existing reading comprehension while reflection (R) which
is administered at the end of each session, is meant to reveal the expected
increase in the students’ reading comprehension achievement after they have
been taught reading comprehension through Cooperative
Learning Method.
In this classroom action study, the teaching and learning processes are
divided into two cycles where each cycle consists of four sessions. Each
session consists of four interconnected activities, namely: planning (P),
action (A), observation (O), and reflection (R). It is necessary to note that
IR is a term normally used in a classroom action study, which refers to a
pre-test in reading comprehension. The IR was administered to the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar,
in order to measure the real pre-existing reading comprehension ability of the
subjects. The mean scores of the IR was compared to the corresponding mean
scores of the R administered at the end of each session for the sake of establishing
the degree of the increasing reading comprehension ability of the subjects.
This classroom action investigation
makes use of a collection of pre-test post-test research design. Hence, this
classroom action study is concerned with teaching reading comprehension by
using two kinds of tests, that is, initial refection or pre-test and reflection
or post-test. Initial reflection (IR) is intended to evaluate the pre-existing
reading comprehension ability while reflection (R) which is administered at the
end of each session, is meant to reveal the expected increase in the students’
reading comprehension achievement after they have been taught reading
comprehension through Cooperative
learning Method.
In this classroom action study, the
teaching and learning processes are divided into two cycles where each cycle
consists of four sessions. Each session consists of four interconnected
activities, namely: planning (P), action (A), observation (O), and reflection
(R). It is necessary to note that IR is a term normally used in a classroom
action study which refers to a pre-test in reading comprehension. The IR was
administered to class IIA students of the eight
grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar, in order to measure the real
pre-existing reading comprehension ability of the subjects. The mean scores of
the IR was compared to the corresponding mean scores of the R administered at
the end of each session for the sake of establishing the degree of the reading
comprehension ability of the subjects.
1.10.3 Instrumentation
The selection and construction of
appropriate, valid and reliable research instrument are very essential step of
a scientific investigation, this is on account of the fact merely valid and
reliable research instruments can be used to collect the valid and reliable
required data for the study being undertaken. The
study deals with research question: to what extent is the effectiveness of Cooperative learning Method in
improving the reading comprehension ability of the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar.
This research question logically suggests
that there are three sets of data or raw scores, which are required for the
study. They are pre-test, post-test and questionnaire.
1.10.4. Data Collection
There are three
kinds of instruments used to gather the data of this classroom action study;
they are pre-test, post-tests and questionnaires. Thus, the data required to
answer the research question are gathered through administering pretest,
post-tests and questionnaires to the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar. The pre-test of IR is administered to the
subjects under study to obtain their pre-existing reading comprehension
ability. In pre-test the subjects were asked to answer 10 multiple-choice test
items to determine their ability in reading comprehension. Post test or reflection is administered for
eight times (four times in cycle I and four more times in cycle II).
1.10.5.
Data Analysis
The most important data required to
answer the research question under study was collected through administering IR
and post-tests, some supporting additional data are gathered through
administering questionnaires to the subjects under study, that is, the eight grade students of SMP Dwijendra Gianyar.
Thus, there are considerably three kinds of raw scores obtained for the present
class action study, that is:
(1)
scores indicating the subjects’
pre-existing reading comprehension ability,
(2)
scores showing the subjects’
progress achievement in reading comprehension; and
(3) scores showing the subjects’ changing learning behaviours.
The data then
are analyzed in percentage as follows:
- The average score of each student will be counted
using this formula:
Total
of the right answers
Mean =
_____________________________ x
100 %
Total
of test items
The average score of
the whole students will be counted using this formula:
The total score of all the test takers
Mean =
______________________________
100 %
Total of
test takers
The students’
achievement will be calculated into the following criteria:
Excellent :
those students who are able to answer the test items between 80% - 100%
correctly
Good : those students who are able to
answer the test items between 70% - 79% correctly
Fair :
those students who are able to answer the test items between 60% - 69%
correctly
Poor :
those students who are able to answer the test items between 50% - 59%
correctly
Failure :
those students who are able to answer the test items between 0% - 49% correctly
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