CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is very important language as an international communication tools. As

an international language, it has commonly used in various aspects of life such as

in education, economics, business, politics and so on. Therefore, knowing and

studying English become necessity for most people worldwide to communication

and to get information around the world.

The teaching English activity in SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Lendah applies School

Based Curriculum. English lesson is a must subject for students of Junior High

School especially. In national curriculum that is called KTSP (School Based

Curriculum) 2006, reading is one of English skills that should be mastered by

students. Junior high school is a very important level to reinforce students English

ability.

As we know, Junior high school is a stage before the students enter new level

in education ( Senior High School and University). The students should pay

attention to their English ability because they will find new challenges in higher

level of education. Eventhough in the future they do not take English course in

University, English is very necessary including reading skills. As we know, most

of exercises in the examination was about text. So, it was very important for

students to master reading skill to get high score.

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In English learning, there are four important skills. Reading is one of important

skills that must be learnt. Richards and Renandya (2002:273) state that reading has

special spotlight in many second or foreign language teaching situations. Reading

becomes essential to learn because of the purpose of reading itself. Students need

to learn reading to socialize in the global environment. Students read for some

purposes, like for get information, pleasure, job, and to study.

Even though some information can be obtained without reading, for example

by listening to teacher, seminar, radio, and television, by reading someone may get

wider information than listening. For example, someone who reads a newspaper

will get more information than someone who only watches news on television. In

reading, reader can read the text again when he/she forgets or tries to get detailed

information, but he/she cannot do it in listening.

Although students have learnt reading for many years, some of them still have

low ability in reading. There are many students who find difficulties in reading

comprehension. They are sometimes confused about the meaning of unfamiliar

words. In English, one word has some meanings. So, when they find an unfamiliar

words they do not translate the words based on the context of the text, they cannot

find the meaning correctly. In other words, students find difficult to construct

meaning from the text.

During the reading process, the students just read the text without using

background knowledge to help them predict contents of the text. The students got

difficult to find important ideas of the text. So, they could not comprehend the text

correctly.
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They are difficult to get the important ideas and information from the text. So,

they could not comprehend the text correctly. The students do not enjoy reading

English text because they lack vocabulary. In this case, the students find many

unfamiliar words that make them do not enjoy reading a text. They are also afraid

of making mistakes. Consequently, they cannot share their ideas or ask some

difficulties to the teacher about the text. They felt bored and give up because they

have low motivation to read and learn English.

Based on some problems that have been discussed, it is very important to

conduct a study as an effort to improve students reading skills. To improve

students reading skills the researcher suggests one technique namely Reciprocal

Teaching (RT). It is a teaching technique which has been developed by Klingner

(2007). The technique becomes an instructional procedure designed to enhance

students reading skills.

The Reciprocal Teaching was chosen because it is interesting and can make

students easily construct meaning from the text. The students will get more

opportunities to share their ideas to others. Reciprocal Teaching has four stages,

they are questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting. Each student will

practice all of the stages. Then, the researcher as the teacher and other students can

give opinion or suggestion to her/him.

In other words, they can share or exchange important ideas to their friends easily

and get the point of the text correctly. The teacher as an instructor for the process,

explains and draws a conclusion about the text together with students. They also

identify four basic strategies that may help students recognize and react to signs of
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comprehension breakdown: questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting.

For those reasons, the researcher carried out the research entitled: The Use of

Reciprocal Teaching in Teaching Reading of the Eighth Grade Students of SMP

Muhammadiyah 2 Lendah in Academic Year 2016/2017.

B. Identification of the Problem

According to the background above, the research problems can be identified

as follows:

1. The students were confused about the meaning of unfamiliar words. In

English, one word has some of meaning. So, when students found an

unfamiliar word they do not translate the words based on the context of the

text, they could not find the meaning correctly. In other word, students got

difficult to construct the meaning from the text.

2. During the reading process, the students read the text without background

knowledge to help them predict content of the text.

3. The students got difficult to find important ideas of the text. So, they could

not comprehend the text correctly .

4. The students did not enjoy reading English text because they lacked

vocabulary. In this case, the students found many unfamiliar words that

made students do not enjoy reading a text.

5. The students were afraid of making mistakes during learning process.

Consequently, they could not share their ideas or asked some difficulties to

the teacher about the text.

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6. They felt bored and gave up because they had low motivation to read and

learn English.

C. Limitation of the Problem

From the identification of the problems above, it is clear that there are a lot of

problems in teaching English especially in teaching reading. It is impossible to

discuss all of those problems in this study because of limited time and resources.

Therefore, the researcher limits the study only on the use of Reciprocal Teaching

(RT) in teaching reading for the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2

Lendah in Academic Year 2017/2018.

D. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the background of the study, the identification of the problem, and

limitation of the problem, the reseacher formulated the problem as follows:

1. How is the implementation of Reciprocal Teaching (RT) in teaching reading

for the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Lendah in

Academic Year 2017/2018?

2. How is the result of the implementation of Reciprocal Teaching (RT) in

teaching reading for eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2

Lendah in Academic Year 2017/2018?

E. Objectives of the Study

Based on formulation of the problem above, the objectives of this study are:
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1. To describe the implementation of Reciprocal Teaching (RT) in teaching

reading for the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Lendah in

Academic Year 2017/2018.

2. To reveal the result of implementation of Reciprocal Teaching (RT) in

teaching reading for the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2

Lendah in Academic Year 2017/2018.

F. Significance of the Study

This research hoprfully could give contributions to parties related to English

teaching and learning process.

1. For English Teacher

This research is hoped to encourage English teachers to look for better

strategy of teaching reading and the use of the Reciprocal Teaching (RT) to

improve their teaching methods.

2. For other Researchers

This research can be used as reference for other researchers, especially

related to the technique of teaching aspects or they can conduct the

continuation research related to the use Reciprocal Teaching (RT) strategy

in teaching certainly in wider problems. So, it can be varied more in

research field.

3. For English Department Students

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The finding of this research hopefully, becomes one of the considerable

sources or reading materials either to enrich their reference in writing their

theses or improve their knowledge in English teaching.