CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
This chapter introduces the background of the study that investigates the
nature of the study, statement of the problem that describes about the problems
happened in the classroom, and then the limitation of the problem. This chapter
also provides aims of the study, research questions, significances of the study, and
rationale of the study. Clarrification is added to make equal understanding of some
terms.
1.1 Background of The Study
Reading skill becomes very important in the world of education. By
reading, students may get beneficial information that is not given by the teachers
in the classroom. Furthermore, almost all of the national final examination items
consist of reading skill. Therefore, the students should be trained in order to have
good reading skill. Harmer (1998, p.68) states that reading is useful for language
acquisition, because it is needed for career, for study purposes, or simply for
pleasure.Reading also can improve the readers knowledge and give a lot of help

to improve listening, speaking and writing. This is in line with Hadis statement.
He notices that Reading ability contributes to some extent to the development in
other language skills (2006, p.65).So, reading is a key component of learning
language. It can develops in otherlanguage skills such as listening, speaking and
writing.

Reading is not solely a single skill but a combination of many skills and
processes in which the readers interact with printed words and texts for content
and pleasure. In reading students can get information, they can add their
knowledge, they also get idea for write something or retell what they had read
because the basic goals of reading are to enable students to gain an understanding
of the world and themselves, to develop appreciation and interests, and to find
solutions to their personal and group problems.
For the students, the ability to read opens up new worlds and
opportunities. It enables them to gain new knowledge, enjoy literature, and do
everyday activities that are parts of modern life, such as reading the newspapers,
job listings, instruction manuals, maps and so on. In the same respect,
Mikulecky(1986, p.1) reports that reading helps one learn to think in the new
language; it helps one build better vocabulary, be more comfortable with written
English, and practice English when one lives in a non- English-speaking country.
Reading can help anyone who plans to study in an English-speaking country. In
the same respect, it enables man to ponder on the mysteries of the world, explore
accumulated knowledge and contemplate on the unknown (Bedasua, 2006, p.24).
The basic goals of reading are to enable students to gain understanding; for
there is no reading when there is no comprehension. Many students can read
fluently but when asked about what they have just read, they are unable to answer.
Although they may score high marks in terms of reading rate or fluency, they are
not really good readers. In this case, students are just word callers barking at

print (Bolain , 2008, p.2). Therefore, developing comprehension is very essential

in visual discrimination, association, and interpretation.
Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from the
text. The goal of all reading instructions is ultimately targeted at helping a reader
to comprehend a given text. Reading comprehension involves at least two people;
the reader and the writer. The process of comprehending involves decoding the
writer's words, and then using background knowledge to construct an approximate
understanding of the writer's message (Kirby, 2006 p.161).
Reading comprehension is a complex process of constructing meaning by
coordinating a number of skills related to decoding, word reading, and fluency, the
integration of background knowledge, vocabulary, and previous experiences.
During the teaching and learning process in the classroom, the teacher sometime
would find some reading comprehension difficulties and then gave questions then
interview to the students about English course, especially reading. The students
respond that English is very difficult lesson than other subjects. Therefore, they
also get difficulty to recognize a main idea of each paragraph in a text and get
difficulty to recognize a supporting idea/detail in a text, students have difficulty to
recognize a vocabulary, students have difficulty to recognize a reference, and the
students have difficulty to recognize the inference.
In Indonesia, teaching reading is often challenging since the teacher and
students have to deal with cultural issues inside and outside their classes. This is
in line with Hadis statement. He states that learners of English in Indonesia are
only exposed to English when they study this subject, outside the English class

they almost never get exposed to English. In general, this minimum exposure to
English, then, contributes to studentsunsatisfactory performance in the four
language skills (2006, p.62).
Teaching reading in senior high school in Indonesia is conducted based on
the reading objectives in English curriculum. The aim of teaching reading in
senior high school in Indonesia is conducted based on the reading objectives in
English curriculum. It is stated in reading competence that the students are
expected to understand the meaning kinds of short functional text and monologue
and essay in the form of recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, news item,
report, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion,
and review in daily life contexts (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan, 2006:31).
Nurul Falah senior high school of Pekanbaru is one of the school in
indonesia that has been applied curriculum 2013. The students should comprehend
to read kinds of short functional text and monologue and essay in the form of
recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, news item, report, analytical exposition,
hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion, and review.
The preliminary study in Nurul Falah senior high school of Pekanbaru
indicated that the students have low comprehension in reading engllish written
texts especially in narrative text. It can be seen from the test that was given to the
students before this research was conducted. The frequency of students score can
be seen as follow:

Table 1.1 Students Scores before Conducting Research

No

Indicator

1
2
3
4
5

Identifying Main Idea

Identifying Detail Information
Identifying Vocabulary
Identifying References
Identifying Inferences
Mean

Students Correct
Frequency
8
5
10
3
4
6

Percentage of
Students Correct
32 %
20 %
40 %
12 %
16 %
24 %

It is indicated that some of students are not able to identify the main idea
in narrative text; only 8 students answer correctly and the percentage of students
correct is 32 %. They also are not able to identify identify the detail information in
narrative text; 5 students are able to answer correctly and the percentage of
students correct is 20 %. The other reality is they are not able to identify the
vocabulary in narrative text; 10 students are able to answer correctly and the
percentage of students correct is 40 %. And also they are not able to identify the
references in narrative text; only 3 students can answer correctly and the
percentage of students correct is 40 %. Finally, it is found that the students are
not able to determine the references in narrative text; only 4 students can answer
correctly and the percentage of students correct is 16 %. So, it can be inferred that
the students reading comprehension in english written text was low.
The interview with English teachers Nurul Falah senior high school of
Pekanbaru that was conducted on Saturday 17 October 2015 also indicated that
there were many strategies and methods were used in teaching reading such as Jig
Saw, Round Table, Story Telling, Story Mapping, Whispered Game, Total

Physical Response, and Reading Aloud. The reality of teaching reading

comprehension in Nurul Falah senior high school of Pekanbaru revealed that
students had problems and tended to find many difficulties in improving reading
comprehension. There were number of crucial issues concerning the teaching and
learning reading comprehension. First of all, the students always feel bored when
they are studying reading because they cannot comprehend the reading material. It
is caused of the students have lack vocabulary, in short of reading comprehension
skills, and they have lack ability to comprehend their reading textbook selections
or even to answer the factual questions. Secondly, students prior knowledge
becomes one cause that makes them difficult to comprehend the reading text.
Next, the students condition during learning process is low motivation in
comprehending the text.
One of the factors that can improve the students reading comprehension is
the strategies in learning English. It is supported by Suwanarak (2012, p.3) that
language learning strategies are what learners do to learn language and relate to
learners characteristics, learning styles and learning achievement. Then,
according to Green & Oxford, 1995; Khaldieh, 2000; Wharton, 2000 states that
language learning achievement or proficiency had also been consistently linked to
strategy use.
Learning strategies is one of essential part in learning process for the
students in achieving the learning objectives. Learning strategies have some
techniques, and approaches are used during learning. In accordance with Oxford
(1990) stating that learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to

make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective,
and more transferable to new situations. Learning strategies are defined as
systematic plans, design, procedure or maneuvers used during learning.
Learning strategies deal with all aspects of subject which are learned in all
levels of education and become one of the aspects in getting achievement. It
includes English proficiency and achievement. Language learning strategies
research has consistently established a positive link between language proficiency
and strategy use. This is in line with Khalil (2005); Magogwe& Oliver (2007);
Park (1997);Shmais (2003). They states that language learning strategy also
showed strong, positive correlations between strategy use and EFL proficiency.
Realizing on the phenomenon above, the collaborative strategies and
metacognitive strategies are considered in teaching and learning reading
comprehension. In this casethe strategies arecalledCollaborative Strategy Reading
(CSR) and Know Want Learn strategy Plus (KWL Plus).
Collaborative Strategy Reading (CSR) is cooperative learning strategy that
can help the students to solve their problem in reading comprehension. By using
this strategy, the students learning process can be very effective, constructive, and
valuable. This strategy also can improve the quality of students comprehending
in reading comprehension.
Concerning CSR used by students who learn English, Janette et al.(1996
and 1998) suggested the four strategies in teaching reading comprehension:
preview (brainstorming or prior knowledge), click and clunk (identify the
difficulty and understanding material), get the gist (find out or identify the main

idea(s) and information(s) and wrap up (ask and answer questions). The four
strategies are related to students interaction with other people in English language
teaching.
Collaborative Strategy Reading (CSR) is intended to enhance students
motivation and improve students proficiency in reading comprehension. CSR
strategy can be potential to solve the problems in improving students reading
comprehension. It can be seen from the previous studies that many researchers
have investigated on CSR. It has a positive response on the use of CSR in reading
classroom because it can improve students students reading comprehension.(See
Appendix 6)
In comparing with CSR strategy, Know Want Learn Plus (KWL-Plus) is
considered to solve the problems in improving students reading comprehension.
KWL Plus strategy is one of the meta-cognitive strategies intended to provide
students with better opportunities of comprehending reading texts. This in line
with Ogle (1987) states that KWL-Plus is one of the reading meta-cognitive
strategies that prompt the reader to think critically while interacting with the
reading text.
In accordance with Amy S. Pattee (2008, p.34) Know Want Learn Plus
(K.W.L-Plus) is a way for students to specifically note their prior knowledge,
questions, and findings from reading a nonfiction book. Many researchers affirm
the success of the K.W.L-Plus because it activates students prior knowledge and
helps them set a purpose for reading and recording what they have learned. The
researcher agrees that using the Know Want Learn Plus (K.W.L-Plus) chart as an

instructional strategy can activate knowledge and improve the reading

comprehension levels (See Appendix 6). According to Glazer (1998, p.62), this
strategy can help students feel more comfortable with their comprehension of a
subject since it goes through each step separately so that comprehension comes
easier.
The KWL-Plus strategy initially was introduced with three letters that
represent the strategy main components. The first letter, "K" stands for "What I
KNOW", "W" stands for "What I NEED to Learn", and finally the letter L
stands for what I LEARNED (Ogle, 1987). The "K", the first component, is an
excellent way to activate the prior knowledge of readers. It raises student's
awareness of the target text. Thus, students begin to make connections between
their prior knowledge and newly acquired information. Finally, Ogle (1987) added
the fourth component with the word "Plus" to include the writing skill by mapping
the information and summarizing the text. Writing a review of the mapped
information represented in the "Plus" component involves the students in writing a
summary in their own language of the text. The "PLUS" engages readers in
constructing meaning from text and helps them to become independent readers.
Based on the problems that illustrated above, there is indication that CSR
strategy and KWL-Plus Strategy can give positive effecton students English
reading comprehension. So, it is necessary to conduct a research entitled The
Comparative Study on the Effects of Using Collaborative Strategy Reading
and Know Want Learn Plus on The Reading Comprehension at The Second
Year Students at SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru

1.2 Statement of the Problem

As stated in the background of the research in the previous sections, in
teaching and learning English at the second year students SMA Nurul Falah
Pekanbaru revealed that students had problems and tended to find many
difficulties in reading comprehension. The students have low comprehension in
reading interpersonal and transactional written textsespecially in narrative text.
The students are difficult to identify some components of reading comprehension
such as the main idea of the text, detail information of the text, vocabulary of the
text, references of the text, and inferences of the text. The teacher has been
applied many strategies and methods were used to solve those problems such as
Jig Saw, Round Table, Story Telling, Story Mapping, Whispered Game, Total
Physical Response, and Reading Aloud. But the students still have problems and
tended to find many difficulties in improving reading comprehension. The
problems are the students always feel bored when they are studying reading, the
students cannot comprehend the reading text. It is caused of the students have lack
vocabulary, in short of reading comprehension skills, and they have lack ability to
comprehend their reading textbook selections or even to answer the factual
questions. Then, students prior knowledge becomes one because that makes them
difficult to comprehend the reading text. Next, the students condition during
learning process is low motivation in comprehending the text.

10

Since the phenomena also affect learners at the second year students of
SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru, the teacher need an appropriate strategy which
emphasizes the function of teacher as instructor to engage the students in the
teaching and learning process. The strategy should activate the students prior
knowledge and their thinking to help them become effective language learner.To
resolve the problems, cooperative learning and metacognitive strategy are offered
to improve students reading comprehension especially in narrative text.
Cooperative learning strategy can help the students to solve their problem
in reading comprehension. Referring to Brown (2001), interaction is the heart of
communication where everything about communication happens in interaction,
moreover, Oxford suggests that involvement other people in the process of
learning a language is very important because language is communication
(Oxford, 1990). Bandura agrees with the concept regarding the role of interaction
in learning process by saying that people cannot achieve their accomplishment on
their own ability, they need others help (Bandura, 2001). The role of social
interaction in language learning is actually an important element of constructing
knowledge and understanding of the target language (Tobias et al., 2009,
Suryabrata, 2011).
Variety of cooperative learning strategies have been developed in response
to the need for effective reading comprehension instruction (Klingner and Vaughn
1996; Palincsar and Brown 1984). Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is a set
of instructional strategies designed to help students with diverse abilities acquire
and practice comprehension strategies for use with informational text (Klingner

11

and Vaughn 1996). They also suggest that CSR is effective because the peer
interaction that occurs during cooperative learning is intended to increase
students opportunity to discuss informational text in a non-threatening, low
anxiety atmosphere.
Tracey and Morrow (2002) point out good readers who use metacognitive reading strategies before, during, and after reading can monitor better
reading skills such as understanding and making predictions as they read. They
are also more capable to summarize after they read. The KWL Plus strategy is one
of the meta-cognitive strategies intended to provide students with better
opportunities of comprehending reading texts. Pressley (2000) suggests that
proficient readers use appropriate comprehension techniques. Tracey and Morrow
(2002) along with Pearson and Duke (2002) maintain that comprehension is a skill
that enhances other language arts components such as decoding meaning,
vocabulary development and spelling acquisition.
1.3 The Limitation of the Problem
There

are

many

problems

in

learning

reading

comprehension in indonesia especially in second year students of

SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru. The first problem is the students have low
comprehension in reading english written texts in form of of recount, narrative,
procedure, descriptive, and news item. The second problem is the students always
feel bored when they are studying reading. Then, the students cannot comprehend
the reading text. It is caused of the students have lack vocabulary, in short of
reading comprehension skills, and they have lack ability to comprehend their
12

reading textbook selections or even to answer the factual questions. Then,

students prior knowledge becomes one because that makes them difficult to
comprehend the reading text. Next, the students condition during learning process
is low motivation in comprehending the text.
The writer limits the problems the students difficulties in
comprehending english reading text especially in narrative
text.Therefore,

this

study

focuses

on

investigating

the

comparison of two appropriate strategies to help the students

comprehend reading English written texts especially innarrative text. There are
five components of reading comprehension of narrative text that
are focused in this research such as identifying the main idea,
identifying the detail information, identifying the vocabulary, identifying the
references, and identifying the inferences.
1.4 The Purpose and Objective of the Research
The purpose of this research is to investigate what is useful strategy that can
be used in teaching and learning process and how to improve reading
comprehension and at the second year students of SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru.
Based on the research questions formulas, the objectives of the research are stated
as follows:
a. To find out whether there is any significant difference of students reading
comprehension between before being taught by using CSR strategy and before
being taught by using KWL-Plus strategy at the second year students of SMA
Nurul Falah Pekanbaru
13

b.To find out whether there is any significance difference between before and after
the use of CSR strategy on students reading comprehension.
c. To find out whether there is any significant difference between before and after
the use of KWL-Plus strategy on students reading comprehension.
d. To find out whether there is any significant difference of students reading
comprehension between the students after being taught by using CSR strategy and
after being taught by using KWL-Plus strategy at the second year students of
SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru.
1.1 The Research Questions
a. is there any significant difference of students reading comprehension between
before being taught by using CSR strategy and before being taught by using
KWL-Plus strategy at the second year students of SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru?
b. Is there any significant effect in students reading comprehension before and
after the use of CSR strategy?
c. is there any significant difference between before and after the use of KWLPlus strategy on students reading comprehension?
d. is there any significant difference of students reading comprehension between
after being taught by using CSR strategy and after being taught by using KWLPlus strategy at the second year of SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru?
1.2 The Significance of the Research

14

This study focuses on the effects of CSR strategy and KWL-Plus strategy
on the students reading comprehension. This study also contributes to the
collaborative and metacognitive strategy that using in the classroom. It is hoped
that the use of those strategies will increase the second year students ability in
comprehending text, especially narrative text.
This study could have significance on the students reading comprehension
of second year students of SMA Nurul Falah Pekanbaru and any school with
similar demographics implementing reading standards.This research will
benefit to any institution for any aspects or findings that may
influence students reading comprehension. The teacher can determine
which strategy is better to implement in teaching reading comprehension between
Collaborative Strategy Reading (CSR) and Know Want Learn Plus (KWL-Plus)
strategies.
1.3 The Rationale of the Research
It is believed that there is a general dissatisfaction among school teachers
regarding the low level of reading comprehension achievement of second year
students in reading English texts (Mo'minahMahmmoud: 2013). In spite of such
an emphasis on the reading comprehension skill, many teachers have always
complained that their students in first year are slow readers and poor in
comprehension. The teachers argue that their students lack the ability to
comprehend their reading text book or even to answer the factual questions.
Teachers have also complained that the students spend much time on reading

15

comprehension lessons. Hence, it is important to carry out Collaborative Strategy

Reading (CSR) and Know Want Learn Plus (K.W.L-Plus) strategies as steps
towards improving students reading skills and increasing their performance
through implementing those strategy that could help them access information and
comprehension.
Nowadays, using appropriate strategy in teaching and learning process
especially in reading comprehension is very important to enhance the students
capability to achieve certain the learning objectives. Learning strategies help to
make language learning easier, faster, more self-directed, more effective and more
transferable to new situations (Rubin :1987 and Oxford: 1990). Language
Learning Strategies refer to conscious or unconscious mental steps, procedures,
techniques or specific actions employed by learners to aid in the acquisition,
storage, retrieval and the use of information to regulate ones effort in learning a
target language.
The research findings are expected to enrich the existing theories and
literature on the practice of teaching collaborative strategic reading and know
want learn plus strategies. Practically this research can provide information for the
teachers on the use of collaborative strategic reading and know want learn plus
strategies in teaching reading comprehension, especially in teaching reading
narrative text for senior high school students.
1.4 The Definition of Key Terms

16

In this research, the researcher tries to give simple definition of the title.
So, it does not become a far ranging discussion. The title of this research is A
Comparative Study on the Effects of Collaborative Strategy Reading (CSR)
Strategy and Know Want Learn Plus (K.W.L-Plus) Strategy towards students
Reading Comprehension of Narrative Text of the second Year Students of SMA
Nurul Falah Pekanbaru. The definition of key term is as follows :
a

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is a set of instructional strategies

designed to help students with diverse abilities acquire and practice
comprehension strategies for use with informational text. Those are
preview (brainstorming or prior knowledge), click and clunk (identify the
difficulty and understanding material), get the gist (find out or identify the
main idea(s) and information(s) and wrap up (ask and answer questions)

(Klingner and Vaughn 1996).

Know Want Learn Plus (K.W.L-Plus) is one of the meta-cognitive
strategies intended to provide students with better opportunities of
comprehending reading texts. The KWL-Plus strategy initially was
introduced with three letters that represent the strategy main components.
The first letter, "K" stands for "What I KNOW", "W" stands for "What I
NEED to Learn", and finally the letter L stands for what I LEARNED.
Writing a review of the mapped information represented in the "Plus"

component. Ogle (1987)

c Reading Comprehension is a fluent process of readers combining
information from a text and their background knowledge to build meaning
(Nunan, 2003: 68). Reading comprehension requires an interaction

17

between the text and the readers knowledge. In addition, reading

comprehension is determined by readers access to language, prior
d

knowledge and reading ability.

Reading Comprehension in Senior High School is to develop the
students ability to comprehend and create kinds of short functional text
and monologue and essay in formed of procedure, descriptive, recount,
narrative, report, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof,
explanation, discussion, and review in daily life contexts. (Badan Standar
Nasional Pendidikan, 2006:31). The students also are expected can read
the texts which have meaning of word, phrase and sentence with the
utterance, stress and intonation related with the near area.

18