IMPROVING THE STUDENTS READING ABILITY THROUGH

EXTENSIVE READING AT SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 22

KISARAN GRADE VII SCHOOL YEAR 2014/ 2015
BY. MUHAMMAD RIDWAN AK

ABSTRACT
The title of this research is Improving Reading Comprehension Through
Extensive Reading Activity (A Classroom Action Research for the Second Grade
Students of SMP Muhammadiyah 22 Kisaran, Academic Years 2014/ 2015). The
objectives of this research are to improve the quality of teaching and learning
process of reading through Extensive Reading activity, to describe the students
response in learning reading through Extensive Reading activity, and to improve
the students reading comprehension through Extensive Reading activity. The
research belongs to Classroom Action Research (CAR). The subject and the
setting of the research were the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 22
Kisaran. The research was conducted in two cycles and there were three meetings
in every cycle. The data were collected by doing observation, conducting
interview, distributing questionnaire, and giving reading test (pre-test and post-
test). The writer used descriptive qualitative technique to analyze the data from
the result of observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The writer used
descriptive quantitative technique to analyze the result of pre-test and post-test.
The result of the research showed: First, using Extensive Reading activity was
able to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process of reading in the
research setting. The indicator of the improvement was the teaching and learning
process got good response from the students. Second, the students commonly
performed good response in following Extensive Reading activity. Third, the
implementation of Extensive Reading activity had successfully improved the
students reading comprehension. Before implementing the action, the students
mean score in the pre-test was (56.2). After conducting the action in the cycle I,
the students mean score in the post test I increased to (74.8). Then the students
mean score had significantly improved in the post test II (83.2) after conducting
the action in the cycle II.

ABSTRAK
Judul penelitian ini adalah Meningkatkan Pemahaman Membaca Melalui
ekstensif Reading Activity (Penelitian Tindakan Kelas untuk Siswa Kelas II SMP
Muhammadiyah 22 Kisaran, Akademik Tahun 2014/2015). Tujuan dari penelitian
ini adalah untuk meningkatkan kualitas proses belajar mengajar membaca melalui
kegiatan membaca ekstensif, untuk menggambarkan siswa respon dalam belajar
membaca melalui kegiatan membaca ekstensif, dan untuk meningkatkan siswa
membaca pemahaman melalui kegiatan Reading luas. Penelitian ini milik
Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK). Subjek dan pengaturan penelitian adalah siswa
kelas VIII SMP Muhammadiyah 22 Kisaran. Penelitian ini dilakukan dalam dua
siklus dan ada tiga pertemuan dalam setiap siklus. Data dikumpulkan dengan
melakukan observasi, melakukan wawancara, penyebaran kuesioner, dan
memberikan membaca tes (pre-test dan post-test). Penulis menggunakan teknik
deskriptif kualitatif untuk menganalisis data dari hasil pengamatan, wawancara,
dan kuesioner. Penulis menggunakan teknik deskriptif kuantitatif untuk
menganalisis hasil pre-test dan post-test. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan: Pertama,
menggunakan aktivitas Membaca Ekstensif mampu meningkatkan kualitas
pengajaran dan proses belajar membaca dalam pengaturan penelitian. Indikator
perbaikan itu proses belajar mengajar mendapat respon yang baik dari para siswa.
Kedua, siswa yang biasa dilakukan respon yang baik dalam mengikuti kegiatan
Reading luas. Ketiga, pelaksanaan kegiatan Membaca Ekstensif telah berhasil
meningkatkan membaca pemahaman siswa. Sebelum melaksanakan tindakan,
nilai rata-rata siswa dalam pre-test adalah (56,2). Setelah melakukan aksi di siklus
I, nilai rata-rata siswa dalam post test I meningkat menjadi (74,8). Kemudian nilai
rata-rata siswa telah meningkat secara signifikan dalam post test II (83,2) setelah
melakukan tindakan pada siklus II.

1. Background
Language is a very complex human phenomenon; all attempts to define it
have proved inadequate. In a nut shell, language is an organized noise used in
actual social situation. That is why it also been defined ascontextualised
systematic sounds. Language a set of conventional communicative signals use by
humans for communication in a community. Language in this sense is a
possession of social group, an indispensable set of rules which permits its
members to relate to each other, to interact with each other to co-operate with
each other, it is a social institution.
English is language of England, used in Britain, most countries in the
British common wealth, the USA and some other countries, but in Indonesia
English is foreign language, since it is not used officially Indonesian language. In
study language we must ability read so reading is an important activity in every
language. Reading enables people to find out information from a variety of texts,
written or printed information news papers, magazine, advertisements, brochures,
etc. Reading is the instantaneous recognition of various written symbols with
existing knowledge, and comprehension of the information and idea
communication. Reading may be define as the attaining of meaning as result of
the interplay between perceptions of graphic symbols that represent language, and
the memory traces of the readers past verbal and non verbal experiences. As a part
of language skills reading plays an important role for the success of language
learning. In reading activity, we are not only reading the next, but also trying to
extensive reading.
Ability or skill of comprehend a message in the text is the goal of reading
in a language instruction. However, comprehend a text message is not easy,
especially in English. It can be seen from the students reading comprehension
that is still far from what is being expected. The based on the above explanation,
It can be conclude that the students still fail to extensive reading the English text
and there are many reason underlying this problem. First, students vocabulary is
not ample. Students are not able to understand tests when they encounter words
that have actually been though or told to them, not to mention if they find new
words. Second, teachers tend to emphasize more on students reading result, not on
the learning process. Teachers usually do not pay attention to the learning process
but the result of the learning. Teachers are more concerned with the scores
students obtain rather than the process of making students understand. Third, the
reading teaching and learning activities is more teacher centered in a way that the
reading instruction is based on what the teachers tell, and students are only
required to answer questions, without any sharing idea or discussion with their
pairs or groups. Fourth, the strategy the teachers is still conventional, meaning
that students sometimes read the text silently or aloud, and after that the teacher
translates the text for students. In other times the teacher reads the text, and
afterwards, one or two students read text again prior to answering the question
provided. Fifth, the reading teaching and learning process is sometimes boring,
student are not motivated to do it and sometimes keep silent listening to what the
teacher is reading. Finally, students are seldom engaged in cooperative and
interesting work. Students work competitively and individually which triggers
them to give up when dealing with difficult task. As a result, they end up feeling
bored and unmotivated.
Referring to the problems above, it is essential to implement a method or
strategy that can solve the problem, that is the method that can bring students out
boredom, competitive and individual class atmosphere, and is more student-
centered, and that can improving students ability extensive reading. There is a
variety of strategy to involve and engage students in reading activities.
Cooperative learning is one of the strategy. This study, process to improving the
students reading ability extensive reading is chosen to be applied in the
classroom to improving students reading ability extensive reading.
The writer focuses on improving students reading ability through
extensive reading at SMP Muhammadiyah 22 Kisaran Grade VII school year
2014/2015. Based on the problem would formulated in a question form as follow
How is students reading ability developed through extensive reading at SMP
Muhammadiyah 22 Kisaran Grade VII school year 2014/2015?

2. The Review of Related Literature

Reading is complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the
intension of deriving meaning and constructing meaning it is the mastery of basic
cognitive process to the point where they are automatic so that attention Is freed
four language skill (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) is important to be
learned and mastered by every individual. By Reading, one can relax, interact
with feelings and thought, obtains information and improve the science
knowledge.
Bowman (1991; 265) states reading is an appropriate means to promote a
lifelong learning. Reading involves the introduction of symbol that make up a
language. Young and Bowers in Breznits (2006: 15) state that reading is a
complex ability in which the readers is required to use a number of different
cognitive process including word recognition, access to words meaning, syntactic
division, semantic, analysis of sentence, and interpretation of the overall text-all
of which need to occur rapidly. Sometimes we read and listen in order to
understand everything we are reading in detail (Harmer, 2003:202). Reading is the
first of the most important factor that can support the process of mastering the
other skill and improving knowledge. Reading also is an activity with a purpose.
A person may read in order to gain information or verify exiting knowledge, or in
order to critique a writers ideas or writing style, a person may also read for
enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purposes for
reading guide the readers selection of texts. The task of teaching reading can be
divided into parts as follow, (1) Pre reading, (2) Fit, (3) Habit, (4) Reading aloud,
(5) Reading for information, (6) Diversification, (7) Reading power, (8)
Literature. (Lado, 2003:134).
In getting maximum benefit from the reading students need to be involved
in both extensive reading. Whereas with the former a teacher encourages students
to choose for themselves what they read and to do so for pleasure and general
language improvement, the a letter is often ( but not exclusive ) teacher chosen
and directed, and is designed to enable students to develop specific receptive
skills. We have discussed the importance of extensive reading for the
development of our students word recognition and for the their improvement as
reader overall. But it is not enough to tell students to read a lot, we need to offer
them a programmer which includes appropriate materials, guidance, tasks, and
facilities, such as permanent, or portable libraries of books.
Extensive reading materials is one of the fundamental conditions of a
successful extensive reading programmer is that the students should be reading
material which they can understand. If they are struggling to understand every
word, they we need to provide books which either by chance or because they have
been specially written, are readily accessible to our students.
The procedure or steps of conducting extensive reading is taken from
Andrew (2004) in instructional strategies online as follows. First, with students
seated in teams of 4, the teacher has them number form 1 to 4. second, the teacher
announces a discussion topic or problem to solve, and gives students at least 10
second of extensive reading of their own answer, the using students numbers, the
teachers announces, discussion partners. Example : For this discussion, students 1
and 2 will be partners. At the same time, students 3 and 4 will talk over their
ideas. After that, the students are asked to extensive reading with their partner to
discussion the topic or solution. Finally, the teacher randomly. By calls on a few
students to extensive reading their ideas with the class.

3. Method
An action research design was conducted by the researcher. This study
applied Classroom Action research (CAR). Basrowi and Suwandi state,
Classroom Action Research is one of action in education sector what do in class
area and have the goal to repair and or to increase the learning quality. It means
that classroom action research is a kind of research that has quality with specific
action so it can repair or increase the learning practices in classroom with more
professional.
 There are four steps of classroom action research that is planning, action,
observation and reflection. These steps will be applied to each cycle, because
action research is cyclical process. If the result of the first cycle is fail, it can be
continued to the next cycle. If there is any alteration significantly or it means that
the students ability in reading comprehension text is improved, the cycle has
been stopped. If it did not show up the improvement students achievement in
reading comprehension, the cycle should continue on and on to the next cycle
until the result was achieved. In this classroom action research, the writer planned
to conduct two cycles through Think Pair Share in improve reading
comprehension, which is each cycle consists of four stages, they are: planning,
acting, observing, and reflecting. The four stages of the classroom action cycle
were conducted integrated like spiral.

4. Data Analysis
Based on the result of students quizzes, it is found out that the students
reading comprehension was gradually improving. It means that there was a
positive impact of extensive reading strategy toward the increase of student
answering the quiz based on the reading text. In other words, the use of extensive
reading could increasingly help and motivate them to learn for better text
understanding. For clear comparison, figure 4.1 shows the increase of the number
of students who shared ideas, asked and answered questions during the teaching
and learning process.

30

25

20

15 percentage
number
10

0
Rc test quiz
5.
6.
Number 1 26
 percentage 3,33 86,67

Figure 4.1 the number and percentage of students who got score 60 or
more in reading comprehension test Quiz.
25

20

15
1 St cycle
2nd Cycle
10
3rd Cycle

0
1 St Cycle 2nd Cycle 3rd Cycle

1st cycle 5 11 5
2nd cycle 8 17 10
3rd cycle 11 23 11

Furthermore, the result of questionnaire revealed that (1) students like to

study reading ability using extensive reading (90%), (2) extensive reading helped
students improving students reading ability (83.33%), (3) extensive reading
helped students share ideas with others (73.33%), (4) extensive reading helped
students improving their ability in answering the question (90%), (5) extensive
reading helped student improving their ability to ask question (83.33%), (6)
extensive reading needed to be continuously applied in reading ability lesson
(66.67%), and (7) extensive reading did not burden the students in reading ability
activities (80%).
Extensive reading is a cooperative learning strategy that is effective in
changing the discourse pattern in classroom. It challenges the assumption that all
recitations or discussions need to be held in whole group settings, and it has built
in procedures for giving students more time to think, to think, to respond, and to
help each other. Besides, it encourages individual participation and applicable
across all grade levels and class sizes in addition to being helpful in organizing
students knowledge and motivating in learning new topics. As one of the
cooperative learning strategies, extensive reading strategy encourages students to
work collaboratively faster and more efficiently, have greater retention, and feel
more positive about the learning experience. The result of the using extensive
reading strategy indicated that there was an increase in students average scores,
76.00 point in the quiz. Besides, the number of students who got 60 or more was
improved (86.67%).
Besides, the result of the study using extensive reading strategy showed
that the students active participation was increased. The number of students
shared, asked and answered questions was increased. This occurred since the
technique encouraged students to share ideas, asking questions as well as
answering questions between pairs. Thus, simultaneous interactions between pairs
and among class were apparent.
The success of the implementation of extensive reading strategy that had
been proven to improving the students reading ability as well as enhancing
students participation in terms of sharing ideas, asking and answering the
questions was closely related to the role of the teacher. Although the main core of
extensive reading strategy was in the whilst reading activities, the teacher did not
only revise the strategy in whilst reading activities, but also in pre-reading
activities and post reading activities, because the whole procedures of extensive
reading are conducted into three phases, pre-reading activities, whilst reading
activities and post reading activities.

5. Conclusions and Suggestions

After the extensive reading strategy was implemented and developed, it is
concluded that this strategy can to improving or progress students reading ability
of the second year student of SMP Muhammadiyah 22 Kisaran. Moreover,
students were active in the class using extensive reading strategy in terms of
sharing ideas, asking and answering questions. In addition, the students opinions
toward the implementation of extensive reading strategy were positive.
There are some suggestions to offer to the English teachers and the
students based on the research findings and discussion.
1. Based on the effectiveness of the implementation of the extensive reading
strategy in the teaching reading ability and improving students learning
motivation, particularly in sharing ideas, answering questions and asking
questions, it is suggested that the English teachers implement the strategy as
an alternative strategy in English instruction in addition to other strategies and
create the student centered instruction.
2. It is recommended that the students employ extensive reading strategy as a
learning strategy to practice their reading ability, which can be done for their
intra curricular activities or extracurricular activities.

6. References
Andrew, Stephen. 2004. Instruction Strategies Online. Saskatoon Public School
Division.

Bowman.1991. Introduction Reading. First Edition : New York.

Breznits. 2006. States That Reading Is Complex. Limited : Malaysia.

Harmer, Jeremy. 2003. The Practice Of English Language Teaching. Third

Edition Person Education Limited : Malaysia.

Lado, Robert. 2003. Language Teaching : A Scientific Approach, New York.

Mcgraw-Gill, Inc.