THE EFFECT OF USING PRIORITY PYRAMID TECHNIQUE ON

STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION IN PROCEDURE

TEXT AT STATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 21

PEKANBARU

A. Background of the Problem

Reading is one of the important skills that should be learned by
English language learners. Reading is also cognitive process of decoding
symbols to derive meaning from text. It is mean that we try to decoding
the symbol to get the information from the text. According to Kalayo and
Ansyari, reading is an activity with a purpose (Kalayo and Ansyari,
2007:2). Reading is a complex process made up of several interlocking
skill and process (Tankersley, 1952:2).
Reading is very important for people, especially for students.
Reading perceives a written text in order to understand its contents
(Ricards et.al, 1992:305). Its mean that reading comprehension is when we
comprehend the information and knowledge from written from. Reading is
good activity , by reading students can spend their time in good way and
also they can get many information from the texts.
Based on preliminary observation at State Junior High School 21
Pekanbaru as a formal educational institution, this school is also learning
English as one of the basic subjects. State Junior high school 21 uses
School Based Curriculum (KTSP) in the process of teaching and learning
English. In this curriculum, English is one of primary subjects that must be
taught by teachers to students. In the development of English syllabus is
aimed to the development of competency to communicate in both spoken
and written which integrated four skills; Listening, Speaking, Reading, and
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Writing. Teachers creativity in developing learning material and method is

demanded professionally.
The learning activity is a students centered learning and the
teacher as a facilitator. For standard competence, students understand the
functional meaning in written text and simple short form of narrative text.
Thus, the basic competence for the first year students on procedure text
shows that students should be able to read the functional simple short text
by using the utterance, stress and intonation to interact with the
surrounding environment in the form of procedure text (BSNP:2006). The
time allocation is 2 x 40 minutes in one meeting. This school is not
applying supported programs

to increase the students reading

comprehension on procedure text.

Based on preliminary observation at State Junior High School 21
Pekanbaru, reading has been taught and the technique that used by the
teacher is the teacher ask the students to read a whole of paragraph and
answer the question given on procedure text. In fact, some of the students
at State Junior High School 21 Pekanbaru still cannot answer the question
correctly. The students still get many difficulties in reading activity and
their difficulty in comprehending an English text make them slower in
doing task given by the teacher. Some of students are not able to
comprehend the content of the texts, some of students cannot find the main
idea of the text, some of students cannot determine the vocabulary

correctly, some of students cannot determine the reference correctly, and

some of students cannot determine the inference correctly.
The writer assumes some of students are facing problems and
difficulties in reading procedure text because of lack of vocabulary and
uninteresting teaching learning process used by the teacher. So, the writer
will apply one of the technique to improve students reading
comprehension on procedure text. The technique

is Priority Pyramid

Based on Goodlad, Priority Pyramid technique will to consider what points

may be most relevant when considering a key question.
The purpose of Priority Pyramid technique is a technique that helps
students prioritize ideas according to what they believe is most important.
The procedure of this stategy can be seen as follows:
1. Teacher provides the students with a pyramid organizer.
2. The teacher provides a list of ideas (or the students can select their own
ideas). The teacher explains that the most important idea is placed at the
top of the pyramid followed by the next idea, etc., so that the least
important idea is at the base.
3. Students examine items on the list or in the text and rank them
according to importance.
4. Students reflect upon their choices and establish the criteria they used to
determine the rankings.
Meanwile, the benefits of this technique is help students to identify
main topic easyly. Hopefully this technique can help students reading
problem above.

Therefore, the writer are interested in conducted the research entitle

The Effect of Using

Priority Pyramid

on Students Reading

Comprehension in Procedure at State Junior High School 21 Pekanbaru.

B. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the problems above, the writer formulates the problem in
the following questions:
1. How is students reading comprehension on procedure text at State
Junior High School 21 Pekanbaru who taught by using Priority Pyramid
technique?
2. How is students reading comprehension on narrative text at State
Junior High School 21 Pekanbaru who taught without using Priority
Pyramid technique?
3. Is there any significant effect of using Priority Pyramid technique on
students reading comprehension on procedure text at State Junior High
School 21 Pekanbaru?

C. Method of the Research

This research is an experimental research. It means
that testing an idea (or practice or procedure) to determine
whether it influences an outcome or dependent variable
(creswell, 2008:299). There are two variables, they are:
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independent variable (X) and dependent variable (Y).

Independent variable is a category that is influenced by
another category or that consequent. In this research, the
independent variable (X) is catch the words strategy and
the

dependent

variable

(Y)

is

students

reading

comprehension. This research used quasi-experimental

research by using nonequivalent control group design.
This research uses experimental and control class. Therefore, the
experimental class will be treated by using catch the words strategy and
the experimental class will be provided with pre-test, treatment, and posttest. The control class is treated without using catch the words strategy.
Designing is illustrated as follows:
Research Design
Class

Pre-test

Treatment

Post-test

Experimental

T1

T2

Control

T1

T2

Note:
T1
T2
X

: Pre- test to experiment and control class

: Post-test to experiment and control class
: Receiving treatment, that is using Priority Pyramid technique
: without using Priority Pyramid technique
The population of this research will be all the seven grade students

of State Junior High Scool 21 Pekanbaru. They consist of ten classes. The
total number of population is 300 students. The writer will take two classes
as sample by using cluster sampling. The technique of collecting

data will use observation and test, while the technique of

analyzing

data

will

use

statistical

method

that

is

Descriptive and ANOVA by using SPSS 17th version.