CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH English as the first international language in the world has got many importance. Firstly, it is the means of communication in the global forum. it is a very essential language in this globalization era where people can communicate using English. Secondly, English is a tool of knowledge of higher education. Almost all of good higher education books are published in English. So, students should master English in order to understand the book they are reading. Realizing that English is very important, the Indonesian governmant has put English as one of the major subjects in the curriculum. Therefore, English has become one of the subject tested in the National Examination. Indonesian students are introduced to English lesson since the very early of education, elementary. And English has become compulsory subject since junior high school to senior high school. Students good ability to read the textbook written in English is one of the main goals which is stressed on in the teaching of English in Indonesia. Reading comprehension plays an important role in the teaching and learning activities in high school of which is the major medium for acquiring knowledge and skills. Therefore, it can be assumed that reading comprehension is highly correlated with the students school performance. In

other words, Reading comprehension seems to be the major common dominators of school learning. (Bloom, 1976 in Witrock et al,1985:512). The English material of National Final Examination (UN) of Senior High School is mostly loaded with reading comprehension test. This is an indication that reading comprehension is considered as an important course of which the students need to have lots of portion of its teaching and leearning in order to prepare students to be fluent in reading English texts. Eventhough English has been one of the compulsory subject taught in Indonesia for so long, the teaching of English is still considered to be a failure. Most of the students in Indonesia are still lack of English competence compare to our neighbour country students. There are many possible factors of this failure. The position of English as Foreign Language. This condition really affects the

implementation of teaching and learning of English. in countries where English is considered to be foriegn language, students are not really exposed to English. they are not used to listening to English, talking in English, reading english texts, or writing in English. They dont have the situation where they can or have to use English in their daily life. Its very clear that they have very little exposure. As it has been mentioned before, Indonesian students are lack of English competence, namely listening competence, reading competence, writing competence, and speaking competence. Meanwhile, Being able to read well in English language seems to be a must for everyone in anticipating

the coming global era of information. Reading is a needed channel of communication with the global community (Bon Guy, 1993:1). There are various kinds of media of information, which are written in english language as the means of transferring information of knowledge and the contact with other countries that should use foreign language for communication. Of course, it requires better skills of reading and good command in English. So that, for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, good ability in reading become necessary in order to be able to follow the remarkable development of the todays world. The existence of books on theories of reading as well as books containing reading exercises and other numerous reports and journal of recent studies on the subject of reading are some of the efforts that have been made to improve the learners reading ability. However we can not deny the fact that learners , in this case, students of senior high school still encounter problems in reading text written in English and they also have poor mastery of spoken English. There are many possible factors that cause the students reading problems or impede the students progress in reading. One of the factors is the right method used by the teacher to teach reading. The teaching method is very important because it deals with techniques and procedures in the classroom. In other words, the teaching method will be the be the basic of what exercises, tasks, and activities given to the students. The use of the right method will be the key to successful learning, in this case successful reading.

One of the method that is widely used nowadays is the Task-Based Language Teaching. This method is based on the Communicative Language Teaching that emerged as a shift of grammar based approaches. This method consider language as tools of expressing meaning or a means for students to be able to communicate . This method is learner-centred in which the language lessons are based on students learning experiences that have nonlinguistic outcomes, so there is a clear connection between the things learners do in the class and the things they will ultimately need to do outside the classroom.its obvious that this method is characterized by the techniques that focused on students need, styles, and goals and not to mention the techniques that give some control to the students, for example teaching reading through group work and teaching reading strategies. The lack of reading strategy is one of the problems encounter by the students. Meanwhile, in reading, a skilled reader certainly knows much and applies selected and effective reading strategies. Reading strategies are considered as one of the fundamental factor that promotes

studentscomprehension improvement in reading. It is the foundation of students regulated reading. A motivated and self-regulated reader of whom encourage himself to settle his own planning in determining his reading strategies contribute a great deal of success to his reading ability (Wenden, 1991: 11). Then Oxford (1990:8) adds that to make learning easier, more enjoyable, more self directed, and more effective, the concept of strategy has become influential in education today. In this case, the teacher plays an

important role in teaching and creating strategic techniques of reading for helping the students improve their understanding on a text. The other reading difficulties possibly come from the physical, cognitive, enviromental and emotional factors (Mcginnis, 1982: 189). These causal factors may be related to each other. In Indonesia, family environment contributes to the lack of reading habits that hamper studentss reading comprehension. Reading habits have great influence on students reading comprehension because it serves as a learning experiences as well as learning through repetition that formulates habit. The family which the members have good reading habit with enough reading materials available at home will give a great impact on the students reading motivation. On the other hand, if the students family member have a bad habit of reading and dont have much reading material at home, it will also give a bad influence on the students reading motivation. Then, Bon Guy (1993:10) also adds that immaturity, low economic status, personal adjustment problems, physical deficiencies and excessive pressure for achievement from home and school are the factors that may cause students reading difficulties.

B. IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEMS

a. What problems of reading do the students encounter? b. What factors causes students difficulties in comprehending a text? c. Whats the right method in teaching reading comprehension?

d. How can teacher teach students to communicate through reading? e. Is there any effect of teaching method to reading comprehension? f. How can teachers teach reading strategy to the students in order to comprehend a reading text? g. Do students have good reading habit? h. Is there any effect of reading habit on reading comprehension?

C. LIMITATION OF THE PROBLEM Based on the background of the problems mentioned above certain limitation of the study need to be explicitly stated. This study was only focused on describing the effect of the teaching method and the students reading habit to students comprehension.

D. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM To gain data needed for this reasearch, the following questions were formulated: a. Is there any effect of teaching method and students reading habit to students reading comprehension?

b. Is there any effect of teaching method and students reading comprehension? c. Is there any effect of students reading habit and students reading comprehension?

E. THE AIM OF THE RESEARCH Due to the statemant of the research problems above, this study aimed at describing: a. The effect of teaching method to students reading comprehension? b. The effect of students reading habit to students reading

comprehension? c. The effect of teaching method and students reading habit to students reading comprehension?

F. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The result of the study would hopefully be of practical value for teachers, especially the teachers of reading comprehension and for students as well.Teachers knowledge of the task-based method, especially the method of teaching reading strategy could help the teachers select and design the

appropriate teaching materials and techniques of teaching reading and simultineously show the students which strategies show the students which

strategies might result in accurate comprehension. The teachers could also show which strategies might facilitate comprehension and how to correctly make use of them.the teachers can also encourage the students to have a good reading habit in order that the students have better reading comprehension.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION, CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS A.Theoretical description 1. The Nature of Teaching Method When a teacher teaches, she or he usually deliver a lesson based on a particular teaching method that the teacher believe will work on students. The teaching method is based on some theory of language and learning theory.to

understand what a teaching method is,lets go through the definition of approach, methods, and techniques according to Anthony which has been quoted by Brown: ...An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning.An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught......Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, not all of which is based upon, the selected approach.An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural,...A technique is implementional, that which actually takes place in a classroom. It is particular trick, strategy, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediateobjective. Technique must be consistent with a method and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.(Brown,2002:9). Nunan (2003:5) elaborates that methods are based on a set of beliefs about the nature of language and learning. in other words, methods are developed based on approaches. Certain approaches may result in different kinds of methods. From the definition above, it can be concluded that the three terms, approach, method, and technique, has a hierarchical relation in which approach as the higher level serves as the level of theories; method, in the next level is the plan of language teaching which is consistent with the theories; and at the bottom level, techniques carry out a method. An approach becomes the basic of the teaching methods. These methods are applied 8 through some techniques of teaching. Therefore,approach is axiomatic, method is procedural, and technique is implementational. An approach as the level at which assumptions and beliefs about a language, language learning, and language teaching. in language teaching, there are diffrent assumptions about language and language teaching. Richard and Rodgers (2001:20-21)states that there are three different views of the nature of language, namely: the structural, the functional, and the interactional view. The

10

structural view emphasizes on the elements of grammar. The second view, the fuctional, emhasizes not only on the grammar, but also on the topics or concepts that language learners need to communicate about. The last view, the interactional view is the view of language as a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal and social interaction between individuals. These three different views of the nature of language will lead people to have different assumptions about what a language is and finally will produce different methods in language teaching. Richard and Rodgers(2001:22) also stated that a learning theory underlying an approach and method responds to two questions. Firstly, what are the psycholinguistics and cognitive processes involved in language learning?. Secondly, what are the conditions that need to be met in order for these learning and processes to be activated. In general, an approach has the answer to these two questions, but a certain methods may only emphasize on one of the two questions. From these assumption of language and learning, a method will be developed. Therefore, there can be many methods within one approach. Brown (1994:7) said that teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn and setting the condition for learning. Therefore, teaching method can best be defined as the types of principles and methods used for instruction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/teaching-method). Teaching methods depends largely on the information or skill thats being taught, and it may also be influenced by the aptitude and enthusiasm of the students. Oemar Hamalik (2008:26) stated that teaching method is the means used to deliver lessons in achieving the curricular objectives. It means that teaching

11

method is a set of procedural learning process packaged in such a way that learning activities are develop into interesting and challenging, and potential learners are able to meet the learning objectives. Different kinds of the definition of the teaching method is proposed by Salamun (2002: 111) in which he defines it as different ways to achieve different learning outcomes under different conditions. A teacher decides to use a certain method for effective teaching. There are many things to consider in deciding effective method for effective teaching. The consideration may include students background knowledge, environment, and learning goals. A teacher may use different kinds of methods for different kinds of learning objectives. The methods can be used eclectically. The teacher needs to be flexible and willing to adjust the learning style according to their students. The right method will contribute to students success in learning. Brown (2007:36) proposed 7 teaching methods. They are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Audiolingual Method Total_Physical Response The Silent Way Community Language Learning The Natural Approach Suggestopedia Communicative Language Teaching

12

Richard and Rodgers (2003) records bigger numbers of language teaching methods. According to them, there are 16 language teaching method. The methods are as mention below: 1. The Oral approach and situational language teaching 2. The audiolingual method 3. Total-Physical Response 4. Silent Way 5. Community Language Teaching 6. Suggestopedia 7. Whole Language 8. Multiple Inteeligence 9. Neurolinguistic Programming 10. The Lexical Approach 11. Competency-Based language teaching 12. Communicative Language Teaching 13. The Natural Approach 14. Cooperative Language Teaching 15. Content-Based Instruction 16. Task-Based Language Teaching The different kinds of methods will be applied in different kinds of techniques. Saksomo (1983: 110) said that there are some techniques of teaching that are commonly used at school. The techniques are:

Lecture Questions and answers

13

Discussion Assign reading Demonstration and experimentation Brainstorming Teaching in labs Inductive, inquiry, and discovery Demonstration, role play, and ostensive Field trips and games Eclectic mix Most of the learning activities above are conventional learning

activities. The activities are dominated by teacher roles. Therefore, the conventional learning activities is teacher-centred. The process of learning in conventional teaching engage a lot with the use of classroom textbook. The teacher rarely develops the material to meet the learner needs. This kind of teaching resulting in the failure to accommodate students to fun learning because the activities are mostly not interesting and very boring . Moreover, it also fails to develop the potential of learners as it does not provide opportunities for students to interact with their environment. Knowing the theory of language and theory of language that underlying teaching methods will distribute to a teachers idea on how to make students learn a language. A teacher will consider the techniques and strategies of teaching suitable to the methods that really meet the students learning needs. Degeng (1989:145) stated that the development of learning strategies can be

14

developed into three components: (1) the content of learning strategy, (2) the strategy or method of learning delivery, and (3) learning management strategy. From the definition of the teaching method above, it can be concluded that the teaching method is the procedure of teaching in which a teacher used for instruction that includes what skill is going to be taught, what material is suitable for the students, and how the teacher deliver the material.

2. The Nature of Task-Based Language Teaching Method Learners learn to communicate by communicating. The most effective way to teach a language is by engaging learners in real language use in the classroom. One of the method widely used nowadays is the Task-Based Language Teaching method which is a development of the Communicative Language Teaching Method. It shares some similarities of several principles of the Communicative Language Teaching Method as in the principles of activities and the language. Both of the method promote activities which involve real communication as they use the language for meaningful tasks in promoting learning. The language in both of the methods are also meaningful for the learner which support the learning process. Richard and Rodgers quoted: Tasksare activities which have meaning as their primary focus. Success in tasks is evaluated in terms of achievement of an outcome, and task generally bear some resemblance to real life language use. So task-based instruction takes a fairly strong view of communicative language teaching. (Skehan, 1996: 20) The Task-Based Language Teaching Method emphasizes the use of Task to make students learn a language. Scenarios that reflect real-world language use are set up by designing tasks discussions, problems, games and so on which

15

require learners to use language for themselves. Richards and Rodgers ( 2003: 223) stated that engaging learners in task work provides a better context for the activation of learning processes than form-focused activities, and hence ultimately provides better learning to take place. This method uses tasks that activate

students to negotiate meaning and engage in naturalistic and meaningful communication. Ellies (2003) said that tasks provide students with opportunities for interaction, thinking, problem solving, and genuine social interactions. The use of task in this method is considered to provide better learning opportunities compared to the learning using the Grammar-Translation method in which students learn focusing on sentence structure or form-focused. Therefore, this method, in which the ultimate objective of learning a language is for communication, is considered to be more effective than the grammar-translation method. Some definitions are given to elaborate the term task which has been the focus of Task-Based Language Teaching Method. David Nunan (1989:10) defines Communicative Task as follow: The communicative task (is) a piece of a classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right. From the definition above, the communicative task is the task which is given to students where students really make use of the target language in communication during the process of learning as well as the end product of the learning.

Peter Skehan (1998: 95) said that tasks are activities in which:

16

Meaning is primary There is some communication problem to solve There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities Task completion has some priority; and The assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.

The definition given by Skehan also emphasizes the use of task as the tools of Communication. but he also highlighted the task criteria of being real-world activities. Tasks should resemble what the students encounter in their real life. Brown (2000: 50) proposed different definition of a task. According to him: Task is really a special form of technique. In some cases, task and technique may be synonymous ( a problem-solving task/technique, a role-play task/technique; for example). But in other cases, a task maybe comprised of several techniques (for example, a problem-solving task may includes: grammatical explanation, teacherinitiated question, a specific turn-taking procedures. Tasks are usually bigger in their ultimate ends than techniques. So, task usually refers to a specific form of techniques or series of techniques related to the Communicative Curricula which must minimally have communicative goals. A task is an activity in which a person engages in order to attain an objective, and which necessitates the use of language. Using language is a means to an end: by understanding language input and by producing language output i.e. by interacting with other people in real-life situations through the use of language, the goals that the learner has in mind can be (better) achieved. Ellis (2003) says that for a LL activity to be called a task it must satisfy several criteria:
1. The primary focus should be on meaning; (learners should be mainly

concerned with processing the semantic and pragmatic meaning of utterances

17

2. There should be some kind of gap; (i.e. a need to convey information, to

express an opinion or to infer meaning) 3. Learners should largely have to rely on their own resources (linguistic and non-linguistic) in order to complete the activity 4. There is a clearly defined outcome other than the use of language (i.e. the language serves as the means for achieving the outcome, not as an end in its own right). From the many definitions above, we can conclude that tasks are any activities which focus on the authentic use of language for meaningful communicative purposes beyond the language classroom.

3. The Nature of Reading Habit a. Definition of Reading Reading is one of the most important activities in human life. By reading, people can get a lot of information and they can also get lots of knowledge that enrich their mind in this globalization era. Samual S. Winneburg (2001:80) said that reading is not merely a way to learn new information but becomes a way to engage in a new kinds of thinking. Through reading, people are open to a new way of thinking, a new paradigm. Reading ability seems to be important acquired by everyone. Logically, it can usually be gained by the process that occurs during the school time or any language classes. Rivers (1981: 259) points out that reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and a pleasure activity, but also asa means of consolidating and extending ones knowledge of the language.

18

Goodman and Burke (1980: 3) said that reading is a problem solving process. It can interpreted that in reading, the readers try to discover what the author means, and at the same time of reading, the readers also negotiate meaning for themselves. In reading, someone can develop critical thinking as the readers are used to find some answers of the questions of what theyve read. The readers use their own language, thoughts, and minds to get the authors purposes. So, reading is a complex cognitive process. Goodman ( in Harris and Sipay, 1975: 5) stated that reading is a selective process. It involves partial use of available language cues from perceptual input on the basis of the readers expectation. According to Horn (in Zints, 1972: 9), reading includes those processes that are involved in approaching, perfecting, and maintaining through the use of printed page. As there are various kinds of processes and the variation of degree, the term must be flexible to apply to all the varieties and gradation of reading involved in the use of books. In addition, Harris and Sipay (1975:4-5)and Horn (1972:9) share something in common about

reading. They stated that reading is simply the recognition or identification of the words represented by the printed symbols. Robert and Marlene (2002:50) stated that reading has to do with apprehension. The meaning and the intuited melodies of written language stored in the brain act to direct the eyes to see upon the page what the brain expects should be there. Lado ( 1964: 132) points out that to read is to grasp language patterns from their written presentation. It can be said that the source of reading is printed or written material. And in reading there are 2 significant elements, namely (1) the language, and (2) the graphic symbolization used to represent it. In reading, the

19

readers try to understand the authors language that is represented by each of the printed words on the text. Everybody knows that reading can be used as a means of communication. Reading can be a means to understand each others. Reading can link us with our friends and relatives around us. Reading can be a means to share the others insight, joys, or even sorrow. Nuttal (1996:11) contributes his thought about reading. He said that reading is an interactive process. This means that when we converse each other, its very clear that we are interdependent, each participant relies on certain unspoken rules that the other will follow. Thats the idea of communication. Reading is a needed channel of communication with the global community (Bon Guy, 1993:1). To be connected globally, ones must have the skills of reading. Reading brings the world together closer to us. Reading helps us to get an understanding of different kinds of people in the universe. From the various definition of reading above, it can be concluded that theres no absolute definition of reading. However, some experts agreed that there are some aspect of reading that can be highlighted. Firstly; reading is an active cognitive process thats influenced by the readers knowledge and experience. Secondly, reading is very interesting with a language that has been coded into printed or written material. Next, reading is interacting with the coded language would generate comprehension of the message conveyed by the author. Next, reading is communicating which is very important in human lives. From the many aspect of reading, its obvious that reading has got an importance as one of the language skills to be acquired by students. Students need to develop their

20

reading skills to get information fro many kinds of printed media such as books, journals, newspapers, and magazines.

b. Definition of Habit Habit is an interpretation of a regular behavior. It is what ones do again and again. A behavior that can change into a habit is usually acquired through frequent repetition. Lye (2007:1) defines habit as something we picked up and insist upon repeating many times on a conscious level. Habit is something that we like doing and pass through a repetition. The pattern of behavior that shape a habit is usually developed without our notice. It developed in our subconscious. We are not aware of it because it becomes so normal as we encounter it in repetition. Kovler (2006:25) enhanced the definition of habit proposed by Lye (2007:1). He defines habit as a pattern of behavior acquired through repetition. An activity or attitude can be said to be a habit when they exist physically and mentally through frequently repetition and a long process regularly. Covey (1997:35) points out that habit is the most powerful factor in our life. Effective habits will result in effective individual that will be successful in dealing with the individuals and also a broader interaction. Habit is done continuously with its consistency and the unrealized activities. Every habit expresses our own traits and influences our affectivity or non-affectivity. Habit is an action that an individual does regularly and consistently that shapes ones character into effective or ineffective person. Habits will apply to everything we do in our life. Ones may have good habit thats very advantageous for the individual, and bad habit that will be destructive for the individual.

21

C. The Nature of Reading Habit There is no specific definition for the term reading habit has been given by experts, but we can understand from the elaboration of reading and habit in the previous sections. Reading habit is the activity of reading or getting a new information from a printed materials that is done frequently and it creates a joyful activity because the readers enjoys doing it. Richard, et al, (2002:296) stated that lifelong reading habit can be developed by learners reading a large quantities of books and other materials in an environment. Reading habit plays an important role in helping someone to acquire a language competence. Mangal (2007:86) stated the important role of reading habit in developing ones vocabulary: Maintenance of the post and condition of new words in ones vocabulary may continue even till the period of old age depending upon ones reading habit and interests. People with good reading habit will develop the register of new words as they keep on reading. In another words, reading habits contribute to ones vocabulary development. Good reading habit also promotes ones writing skill. Reading as an activity that should be done consciously so it can be used as one ways to improve ones writing skill. Bradfield (2002:32) said that those who do not develop the pleasure reading habit simply do not have a chance they will have a very difficult time reading and writing at a level high enough to deal with the demands of todays world. It means that reading and writing are related to one another. People with good reading habit will have more ideas, more knowledge to be transformed

22

into writing. Therefore, it is very important for teacher to motivate students to develop the students reading habit in order that they can develop the writing competence. The writing is the manifestation of the students reading. Reading habit should be initiated as early as possible. Reading during the early years helps the child in improving his or her language skills. Children should be introduced to reading habit as it will help them to get more knowledge easily compared to adults. As children get used to reading habit, they can get more knowledge from the books independently. Smink, et.al. (2004:132) said that providing a special time for reading at home and in school will give children time to explore books with an adult and independently and will help them develop the reading habit. Studies from Survey of Literary Reading in America prove that reading going to bed helps the child feel secure and comfortable while sleeping. Reading habit can be said as a passport to many different new worlds like the world of past, future, technology, nature, outerspace, other countries and above all the innermost part of human heart, and in children, if developed in the right age, reading habit remains strong and grows continuously throughout life. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/9658987/rearing-a-reading habit). It supports the idea of the importance of developing reading habit in early age as it will open up our vision of the billions of knowledge. From the many definition above, it is very clear that reading habit is a way to grasp the billions of knowledge, including the knowledge of language.

Through reading habit, ones can develop writing skills including each elements of it such as the vocabulary and the structures. And reading habit should be promoted to children as early as possible in order to grow to be a lifelong habit.

23

D. High Reading Habit There are many factors that determine the intensity of reading habits. The factors are influenced by gender, socio-economic backgrounds, individual interests, culture, and occupation. Each of the factors mention above determine the preferences of reading (Ayyildiz et al., 2006:167). Some reports said that a growing number of young people do not read for pleasure; girls enjoys reading more than the boys do; children of privileged social classes have better reading habit than the low economic background children; the nation does not have the reading culture; and some occupation require more readings. A high reading habit should be developed from the individual interests. This can be developed by pleasure reading in which the readers choose what they really want to read based on their own preferences. This way of reading will give more satisfaction to the readers. Problems of individual interest occurs in education. When students are obliged to learn by reading, they are confronted to reading materials that do not have any pleasurable values for them. The materials are merely chosen as the requirement of education process. It gets worse in the foreign language class. The learners do not find pleasure in reading when they deal with a book written in foreign language because they are lack of the knowledge of the language. Trying to get the meaning of the reading through dictionary is considered time consuming activity. However, the reading materials written with foreign language will give students opportunities to be familiar with the culture of the target language, which

24

is apprehended as a constructive factor in second language learning. From the research above, it is very likely to state that reading habit of individuals can be fostered through some arrangements. Reading habit should be developed by students to fulfill individual improvement. Students motivation of improvement is the motivation for text comprehension. When students are motivated, they will read more and more and respectively it increases the intrinsic as well as the extrinsic reading amount. So, its clear that motivation is an important factor for promoting reading habit. Reading is consistent with the comprehension capabilities of individuals (Ozbay, 2006: 161-170). In education, where teaching and training are built on reading, learners can develop their reading habit as well as their reading comprehension. The interaction of educational aim and reading habit can be seen as the requirement of educational process. Reading is very useful for human lives. Reading helps mental growth of students and also stimulates the mind. Based the on http://www. reasons to

Hubpages.com/slide/developing-a-reading-habit, inculculate such a wonderful habit as follows.

primary

a. An active mind, a student pick up a book and reads, his minds

receives stimulation. At younger age, the books given to children contain colorful images and large fonts. This helps to stimulate parts of the brain, especially those that deals with vision and creativity.
b. Fundamental skills, by building students fundamentals to read any

kinds of books, they not only improve their attention span and

25

concentration but also their comprehension, reading speed and spelling and grammar. c. Improves vocabulary, reading different kinds of books ensures that students are exposed to to a wide universe that is diverse and exciting at the same time. Getting somenew words is just some of the wonderful gifts that a reader can earn through reading. d. Concentration and focus, when a reader spend hours reading his favorite book, he is inadvertently learning how to keep his mind on something. While this not seem like a conscious effort at the time, it automatically gives the reader the ability to concentrate. e. Increases self-esteem, by reading, a reader learns new things that give him more confident in his ability.an increase in knowledge automatically makes the reader feel more confident as well. f. Creativity, there is scientific evidence that colorful objects, even in books, invigorates a readers mind.

In conclusion, high reading habit is a high frequent activities of reading to gain more knowledge and help students develop their mental and minds. A high reading habit is influenced by various factors which affect students reading comprehension as one of the motivation of reading.

E. Low Reading Habit Children and young people tend to have poor reading habit. They find reading as an irrelevant leisure activity s it does not form part of childrens social

26

interaction and reading is often thought as a solitary pursuit and boring contrasted with interactive activity on the internet. The lack of reading habits resulted in poor grades at school, easily distracted and frustrated students, misbehavior problems, dislikeness of school, and failure to develop students potential. Poor reading skill can be an obstacle in developing students self-esteem later in life. Pisa (2003158) said that low academic self-concepts, additionally, students who lack of confidence in their ability to learn what they judge to be important are exposed to failure, not only at school but also in their adult lives. Knowing the importance of having high reading habit, students need to be motivated to deal with reading activities at school and out of school. Students need to be motivated to make reading a habitual task for them. Therefore, a good reading habit should be encouraged not only in class but also out of class. Sanacore (2002: 67-68) stated that becoming a lifetime reader is predicated on developing a love of reading. This emphasizes the importance of making reading a habit should be one of the main objectives of education policies from the very beginning to the very end. Students should always be motivated to read autonomously anytime and anywhere. With the good reading habit, once established in learners, it will last forever and becomes a toll of life-long learning. Facilitating learners to a reading habit can be done by providing different topics into the course schedule. This can lead to strong positive feelings about reading and create an encouraging circle in which poor reader become good readers. Institution can provide libraries in which easily accessible by the students. Internet access also helps fostering reading habit for students in this technological era.

27

Parents plays an important role in developing their offsprings reading habit. Children do what parents do. Cited from Wang, Xiao Lei (2011:132) said that many multilingual children do not read as well in their heritage language as in their school or mainstream language. As the consequency, parents often choose heritage language reading materials written for younger children to compensate their adolescents low heritage long reading level. Oecd indicators (2011:106) said that reading comic books is generally associated with a low level of reading performance. This could well be because readers find comic books more accessible. In conclusion, an individual tends to have lower reading habit due to the low motivation of reading, lack of facilities, and parents influence. These affected to the individual achievement and attitude.

4 Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension is one of the objectives of reading that the students should master. It is how readers understand the peice of reading they have read. In comprehending a text, the reader use their background knowledge and some reading strategies in order to get what the author really means in the text. Reading comprehension is essentially the ability to understand what has been read (Zimmerman, 2010). As it has been stated in the description above that reading is complex skills process that involves both the acquisition of meanings intended by the writer and the readers contributions in figuring out the meanings. Therefore readers need

28

some qualifications and skills to be able to comprehend the messages that the writer intended in the reading text. In order to complete and clarify the sub skills of reading as previously described, the following seven major areas of skills of reading as previously of sub skill of reading are presented in detrain ; (10 word identification, (2) vocabulary development, (3) literal understanding, (4) interpretive meaning, (5) evaluation, (6) application of the process of reading to study activities, and 97) affective dimension of reading (Barret, 1972 im McGinnis, 1982:14). A broad overview of the skills or attitudes for each of these areas employed by the readers in reading process is given below. I. word identification, 1. Recognition word at sight 2. Identifying and determining the meaning of word through contextual analysis by using syntactic, semantic, pictorial and typographic clues. 3. Analyzing the structural or morphemic element of a printed word. a. inflectional word bindings. (1). Plurals. (2). Tense (3). Comparison (4). Passive form. 4. Analyzing an unfamiliar word through its letter-sound a. Single consonants. b. Consonant blends. correspondence.

29

c. Consonant cluster. d. Consonant diagrams e. Silent letter. f. Short vowel sound. g. R-controlled vowel sound. h. Vowel diagrams. i. Vowel diphthongs. II. Vocabulary development 1. Recognizing word meaning by using context, semantic and syntactic clues. 2. Recognizing word meaning through structural or morphemic analysis. 3. Using dictionary to ascceratate the meaning of an unfamiliar word. 4. Recognizing that two word can have similar meanings. 5. Recognizing that two word can have opposite meanings. 6. Recognizing qualifying word and their effect on meaning. 7. Recognizing that word are often paired because of an attribute relation. 8. Recognizing that a class label has examples that belong to that class. 9. Recognizing and understanding analogies. 10.Understanding the detonative and connotative aspects of word. 11. Recognizing that a word can have many different meanings. 12. Recognizing that word alike in spelling can differ in pronunciation and meaning. 13. Recognizing that word alike in sound can differ in spelling and meaning. 14 Recognizing the relationship between a substitute term and its antecedent.

30

III.LITERAL UNDERSTANDING Literal understanding requires the readers to recognize or recall facts and ideas that are explicitly in the material. 1. Recognizing or recalling main ideas. 2. Recognizing or recalling detail. 3. Recognizing or recalling sequence. 4. Recognizing or recalling comparisons. 5. Recognizing or recalling cause and effect relationship. 6. Recognizing or recalling character traits.

IV. Interpretive meaning Interpreative requires the reader to infer the meaning from information that is imply city stated in the material. It requires a synthesis of the literal content of a selection with the students personal knowledge and experience. 1. Inferring the main ideas 2. inferring significant and supporting details. 3. inferring sequence. 4. inferring comparisons. 5. inferring cause and effect relationship. 6. inferring or predicting outcomes. 7. inferring the meaning of figurative language.

V. Evaluation

31

Evaluation requires the students to make judgements about the content of a reading selections by comparing it with internal or external criteria. 1. making judgements of fact or opinion. 2. making judgements of reality or fantasy. 3. making judgements of adequacy or validity. 4. making judgements of worth and acceptability.

VI. Application of the process of reading to study activities 1. Understanding the specialized vocabulary. 2. following direction. 3. selecting and evaluation important part of the text. 4. organizing information. 5. summarizing information. 6. locating information in textbooks, reference books and periodical. 7. interpreting chart, maps, graphs, diagrams. 8. skimming and scanning. 9. outlining and note taking. 10. using the thesaurus. 11. using the dictionary. a. Alphabetizing word. b. Using guide words. c. Interpreting syllable. d. Interpreting accent or stress.

32

e. Selecting word meaning appropriate to context. f. Interpreting pronunciation key. g. Determining part of speech. h. Investigating word origin.

VII. Affective dimension of reading. The affective dimension of reading involves the way interest, attitude and values are involved in and related to the reading process. It is an important aspect because the students interest in, attitude toward, and the value he or she places on reading play an important role in how and what the student read as well as the amount of effort the student is willing to put fort in learning to read ( Krathwohl, 1996 in McGinnis, 1982:17 ). The application of the components of sub-skills required in reading above are not separated from one another but are related and must be integrated in the reasoning process or in the act of reading. Because reading is a function of the total organism with a very complex and integrated process that involves constant interaction between the reader and the author, each of whom has his or her own language pattern and experiences. So that, in reading, the reader must be actively and selectively involved in using past knowledge about language and past experiences simultaneously to comprehend the text. The important thing in reading activity is how a persons skills or his language background function as he reads, not how well he performs on isolated aspects of the reading process.

33

C. THEORIES OF READING The concept of the development of reading process in individual from pre-reading to mature reading, and to the model proficient reading was proposed by Mitzel (1982:1536). He proposed that the process of reading comprehension was dependent on three major component; language; cognition and decoding and that deficiencies in comprehension may stem from deficiencies in any of these areas. He then clarifies that the early stages of reading process are mainly concerned with acquiring the skills to read the text already within the readers knowledge and linguistic capability, while the next stages, reading became more skillful and can be used for learning new knowledge, ideas, values, feeling in more linguistically, cognitively and experientially complex forms (p.1537). in the process of reading that readers employ top-down, bottom-up processes are involved and interacted with each other in understanding of the text. 1. Bottom-up model In reading, the notion of Bottom-up model, reading is basically defined as a translating, decoding and encoding process. The reader perceives individual letters and word then transforms these into a phonic code. From these code, meaning of individual word are ascertained; then syntactic and semantic rules are applied until the text ends up where sentences go when they are understood or in other word, in reading the reader start with smaller unit such as letters, word, and move to larger unit, such as phrases, clauses and sentences (Gough 1972 in Mitzel 1982 :

34

1536). In this model, a text ins believed to be aoutonomous; the reader gets meaning from the text only. Therefore, it is essential that the reader know all vocabulary and grammatical item used in the text in order to get a full meaning of the text. Meanwhile Samuel (1976),Eisenberg (1981) postulate a similar bottom up model, except that they emphasize the role pf attention and automaticity. They also give greater importance to prior knowledge, which permits the reader to bypass some of the lower processes. They also emphasize that for a reader to be proficient, the lower processes, such as a letter and word recognition must be automatized or be done quickly without conscious attention. As a model of reading, bottom-up has its limitation. According to Mccarthy (1999:3) the bottom-up processing has the following limitations. It tend to depict the information flow in a series of discrete stage. This implies that what is understood first becomes input for the next stage of comprehension and this process goes on to still a higher stage. First, it lacks feedback because of what has come later is believed not to influence understanding of what has come before. Second, it cannot explain sentence context effect and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension. 2. Top-Down Model Top-down model emphasize the importance of higher process such as the readers prior knowledge in controlling the reading process (Mitzel 1982;1536). In this model Singha, (1998;7) suggests that reader go trough

35

an on going process while reading which involves the continuous process of sampling from the input text, predicting what will come next and confirming prediction and so on. Readers do not read word for but rather use their background. There are some research findings on first language readers which be of some use to describe and explain second language learners use of reading strategies. The result of some studies according to Goetz (1993;179) suggest that that good readers are more able to monitor their comprehension than poor readers are. That they are more aware of the strategies they use than are poor readers, and that they use strategies more flexibly, specifically, good readers adjust their strategies to the type of text they are reading and to the purpose for which they are reading. Furthermore, they distinguish between important information and details as they read and are able to use clues in the text. To anticipate information and relate new information with information already stated. Also they are able to notice inconsistencies in a text and employ strategies to make these inconsistencies understandable (p.465) Successful readers use strategies to obtain meaning from printed text. These readers kept meaning of the passage in mind, read in broad phrases, skip unessential words, and guess from the context the meaning of new words. In contrast, unsuccessful readers lost the meaning of a sentence as soon as they decode them, read word by word or in short phrases, rarely skipped unessential words, and turn to the glossary of new words.

36

Oxford (1989;406) studied which strategies successful language learners used in deriving meaning from a written text. She reported, interestingly, the following suggestion made by successful readers for their peers: know the topic of the text, read around unknown words, make use of available information in the paragraph to comprehend unfamiliar words, take chances and predict meaning from the context, remember that all words in a reading passager are not equal importance, skip unfamiliar words that seem to be trivial in deciding meaning of the total phrase or paragraph, find meaning that is determined by the syntax of the sentence, expect the text to make sense, translate only when really necessary, look for cognates, consult dictionary if needed badly. A skillful reader used many strategies to attach meaning to the printed text, among them were: examining the illustration and using information contained in them when decoding, reading the title and drawing inference, circling back purposely in the text to check on meaning, and identfying the grammatical function of an unfamiliar word before guessing its meaning. Tierney (1984;630) who define reading-related LLS as those cognitive activities which good readers engage into foster comprehension, include the following strategies; engaging background knowledge, setting goal, identfying task demands, allocating attention, evaluatng content, self-appraisal, selfcorrection, predicting and self-questioning. It can be seen that the different list from various studies are, to a certain extent, overlapping. Some include similar strategies but use different terms. In order for the list of readerscomprehension to function as a guide for identfying and explaining strategies employed by learners, a summary has been made. They

37

are divided into two categories; successful reading-related LLS and unsuccessful reading-related LLS.successful reading-related LLS are those employed by good learners which yield successful results. Poor readers might employ some of them with the possibility ofyielding unsuccessful results. Poor readers with unsuccessful results, on the other hand, employ unsuccessful strategies. Successful reading-related LLS characterized by (1) monitoring

comprehension, (2) being aware of the strategies used, (3) using strategies flexibly, (4) adjusting strategies to type of the text and purpose of reading, (5) distinguishing between important information and detaiol, (6) using clues to predict information, (7) using clues to relate new information and information already stated, (8) employing strategies to make inconsistencies understandable, (9) keeping meaning of passage in mind, (10) reading in broad phrases, (11) skipping unessential words, (12) finding meaning with the help of syntax, (13) keeping translation at the minimum, (14) identfying grammatical function of words before guessing its meaning and (15) engaging background knowledge. While unsuccessful comprehension strategies characterized by reading word by word or in short phrases, rarely skipping unessential words,, being unaware of the strategies used, keeping translation at the maximum, and not engaging background knowledge. Turning to glossary for unfamiliar words in reading strategies, sometimes the readers encounter the facts that they may find a consistent intepretation or prediction of the text but may not find the one intended by the author. In this case the reader misunderstands what is intended by the writer but is activating the

38

appropriate schemata for this misunderstood message. The top down activation which is conceptualy driven or starting from something general going to details and the bottom-up activation which is data driven or starting from parts going to the whole. Both arethe basic sources schemata of which certain a unit of knowledge and information about how knowledge is to be used. A schema is an abstract knowledge structure (Tierneyy, 1984:641). It is abstract in the sense that it summarizes what is known about a varieties of cases that differ many particular. Its structure in the sense tthat it represents the relationship among its bcomponent parts. When learning or any other activities take place, the previous schemata have to be activated. It is important to note that in schemata directed processing activation go in both directions, that is top-down and bottom-up. Furthermore, Mcneil(1992) categorizes that there are three main cognitive theories underlying the intrractive conception: schema, active learning, and metacognitive theoris. In shema theory, there are mental processes of how readers prior knowledge influences the newly obtained information in the text, how this is organized to facilitate the interaction and how readers schemata (the mental structure; readers concept , belief or prior knowledge) affects the processing of the textual information. Next, active learning means that a reader has his autonomy in setting his own reading purposes such as for information and for interest or pleasure as well as developing his reading strategies (Weinstein, 1986). So, active learning is based on the idea that the learner is being the source of plans, intentionm

39

memories, strategies, and emotion that necessary for constructing the meaning of the text. While metacognitive theory underlines the awareness of ones own cognitive processes and self regulation in reading comprehension. Therefore, there exist high level mental activities. As such regularity the reading activities by using compensatory strategies, monitoring by having purpose for reading as a guide for comprehension, making prediction and checking comprehension. Of the cognitive theories and top-down and bottom-up model, Rebecca L. Oxford (1990:10) devices her classification learning strategies covering all strategies for the language skills, of which the two previous theories can be accelerated. She classified two major classes, direct strategies: memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies and indirect strategies: metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies in which the reading-related language learning strategies (reading-related LLS) are covered. 1. Memory Strategy Memory strategy is the reading-related LLS used by readers, which enable them both to storage and retrieve the information. It helps the readers to store in their memory the important things they read when they are reading in new language, thus enlarging their knowledge base. Then this strategy also enable the readers to retrieve information from memory when they need to use for comprehending or reproducing information gathered from what they have read in reading text. 2. Cognitive strategy

40

Cognitive strategy is the reading-related LLS used by the readers which involves mental processing; starting from analyzing, reasoning, reapeating, then summarising the language transformation to enable the readers understanding and producing new information in reading.

3. Compensation strategy Compensation strategy is the reading-related LLS used by the readers which due to their ability to overcome their knowledge limitation in reading by guessing intelligently or by using synonim. It helps the readers to comprehend information exist in the text when they are reading in new language.

4. Metacognitive strategy Metacognitive strategies is the reading-related LLS used by the readers which allow them to control their own cognition that is to coordinate the reading process by using procedures such as centering, arranging, planning, and evaluating.

5. Affective strategy Affective refers to emotion, attitude, motivation, and values. Affective strategy is the reading-related LLS used by the readers which

41

help them to regulate their emotion, motivation and attitude in reading or before reading. Positive emotions and attitude can make reading activity more effective and enjoyable.

6. Social strategy Social strategy is the reading-related LLS used by the readers which enable them to learn interactions between the readers and the authors. Understands the readers point of view, readers characteristics and culture of the authors.

B. Conceptual Framework Based on the theoretical view above, Certain teaching method will work sucessfully on different objective.The Task-Based Language Teaching Method is very appropriate to make students be able to communicate inEnglish as it provides the opportunities to make use the real target language in the real- life activities. This kinds of task activities can also be applied in reading. So, students are able to comprehend the text as well to communicate it. There are many reading skills that readers should have in order to comprehend reading texts. The reading skills can be acquire through the teaching of reading strategy. The strategies of reading comprehension is really a tool to comprehend reading. The stratgies which include vocabulary context,

42

scanning,skimming, inference making, pronoun reference are very useful to be taught to students. Reading habit plays a vey important role in the reading comprehension of the students. It distributes on students vocabulary and interests that eventually be very beneficial in reading processes. Someone with a good habit of reading will have better comprehension inreading.on the other hand, someone who are not use to read or have little exposure on reading will find reading difficult to understand.

C. Hypothesis Referring to the theoretical background and conceptual framework, the research hypothesis are as mention below: 1. There is the effect of teaching mehod toward students reading comprehension at state senior high school. 2. There is the effect of reading habit towards the studentsreading comprehension at state senior high school.
3. There are effects of teaching method and reading habit towards

students reading comprehension at state senior high school.

43

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. PLACE AND TIME OF THE RESEARCH This research is conducted st the first grade students of state senior high school in Tangerang in March 2013. B. RESEARCH METHOD Methodology of research methodology or research methods derived from the word meaning a way and logy meaning science. So the research methodology means the study of the method todo research. In Websters New World Dictionary,the research methodology is defined as the investigation of a field that is executed to obtain facts or principles patiently, carefully, and systematically. And Arikunto (2002,160) defines reasearch method as the means used by researchers in collecting research data. Based on definitions above, we can conclude that research methodology is the process to solve a problem with a patiet, planned, systematic,and scientific way trying to discover facts or principles, developans test a knowlrdge of scientific truth. The method which is used is the research survey method. The survey is iintended to see the effects of the task-based method towards

43

44

students the reading comprehension of news item text at the first grade students of SMAN 4 TANGERANG, SMAN 11 TANGERANG,and SMAN 11 TANGERANG. In this study, the teacher divided the sample into two groups, consisting of the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group is the group given the teaching method, in this case using the Taskbased teaching method. The control group is given the conventional teaching. At the end of the teaching,the students are assess using the same test of reading comprehension. The results of the test is used as research data,which then be analyzed and compared to whether there are any influence of the different teaching methods on reading comprehension of those students in experimental and control group. This research is also an experimental reasearch. This method treated students in two different classess, the experimental which is given treatment using the task-based method, and the control class which is taught using the conventional method.The designin this study is a factorial design 2x2 as follows: Table 3.1 Design of 2 x 2 Factorial Design TM RH B -1 Y11 Y12 K1 K2

45

B- 2

Y21

Y22

Remarks: TM RH K-1 K- 2 B-1 : Teaching Method : Reading Habit : Task-Based Language Teaching : Conventioanal Method : High reading habit

B 2 : low reading habit Y11 : students reading comprehension with task-based method and high reading habit Y12 : studentsreading comprehension with conventional method and low reading habit Y21 : students reading comprehension with task-based method and highr reading habit Y22 : studentsreading comprehension with conventional method and low reading habit

In this experimental study the researcher uses two groups, namely the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group is students of

46

X. 3 which consist of 20 students which are treated with the task-based method. The control group consist of 20 students of class x.2, which are given the conventional method. The group received the materialon reading that is the news item text. The material provided is the appropriate material of specified curriculum used at school. To get the score of students reading comprehension, the reasearcher uses multiple choice test. The data in this study were obtained by giving the final test in each of the students who worked individually either in the experimental groupand control group. Frequency of meetings inthis study were as many three times.twice to give the subject matter and once to give the final test, each meeting is conducted for 90 minutes.

C. POPULATION AND SAMPLING METHOD 1. Target Population The population of the research is allof the first grade students of state senior high schools in Tangerang.

2. Sample

47

In

this

research,

the

writer

uses

randomsampling

technique.

RandomSampling technique is Cara pengambilan sample berdasarkan sekelompok individu atau perorangan Sudjono (1989:93). The sample of this research is the first grade students of15 state senior high school Tangerang which consist of 40 students. The 40 students are derived from 4 classes that are become 4 groups. Each of the group consist of 10 students. Firstly, 10 students with task-based method and high reading habit; secondly, 10 students with conventional method and high reading habit; thirdly, 10 students of task-based method and low reading habit; lastly, 10 students of conventional method and low reading habit.

D. DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE 1. The research variables a. The independent variables: there are two independent variables namely the teaching method, the task-based language teaching method, and the reading habit b. The dependent variable:the students reading comprehension is the dependent variable of the research

2. Source of data a. Primary data

48

Primary data is the data obtainedby direct measurements of the source object of students, schools, teachers in this reasearch is the need materials completely. b. Secondary data Not only taking data from the field, the researcher also takes the data fromthe literature, theoretical means using multiple sources of books relevant to the issues discussed by the researcher. Some of the books, the researcher analyzes in particular on research development and learning problems through the implementationof the task-based language teaching method.

3.Data Collection Techniques a. conduct a pre-test of reading comprehension of news item text to both of experimental and control class. b. teach matrials mastery on reading comprehension to control class using conventional methods. c.teach the experimental class using the task-based method. d.hold apost test on reading comprehension tothe two classes and observed the score.

49

E. DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH RESEARCH INSTRUMENT The instruments for this study are students reading comprehension skill and questionnaire on studentsreading habit. 1. The instrument for students reading comprehension. a. Conceptual definition Skimming is reading a text to get the gist,the basic overall idea,rather that concentrating on observing allthe details.for example,many people skim reading a newspaper article to get an overview, or a text could be skimmed to see whether it is worth reading. Scanning is finding specific or detailed information froma text. Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning (reading comprehension).it is the mastery of basic cognitive processes to the point where they are automatic so that attention is freed for the analysis of meaning.

50

51

Brown, H. Douglas.Principlesof Language Learning and Teachng,NY: Addison Wesley Ltd.2000 Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang.teaching English as Foreign Language.

Yogyakarta:Penerbit Graha Ilmu,2006

52