TEACHING READING BY COMBINING HIGHLIGHTING AND

PAIRED READING STRATEGY AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

By:
Cici Yulia Syaputri *)
**) Yulmiati, S.S, M.Pd Staff Pengajar Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa
Inggris STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat
ABSTRAK
Proses belajar mengajar Bahasa Inggris diperlukan adanya suatu strategi
pengajaran yang tepat dan efektif. Pengajaran yang tepat dan efektif sangat
membantu siswa untuk lebih meningkatkan kemampuan mereka didalam belajar
Bahasa Inggris. Kompetensi siswa didalam belajar Bahasa Inggris tergantung
pemahaman mereka terhadap suatu bacaan baik berupa buku, koran, majalah dan
materi pembelajaran.
Namun, pemahaman siswa terhadap Bahasa Inggris bisa ditingkatkan melalui
strategi pengajaran yang efektif dalam mengevaluasi kemampuan siswa untuk
membaca teks yang dibaca. Dengan menggunakan strategi kombinasi
Highlighting and Paired Reading strategy dalam mengevaluasi kemampuan
membaca siswa, guru dapat mengetahui tingkat kemampuan dan kelancaran siswa
terhadap teks yang dibaca. Dalam penerapan aplikasi pertama guru menerapkan
Highlighting strategi. Strategi ini diawali dengan membagikan materi berupa teks
report untuk mereka baca terlebih dahulu dan dilanjutkan dengan menggaris
bawahi kata-kata yang tidak mereka ketahui. Ini bertujuan untuk memahami teks,
mendapatkan informasi dari teks dan ide. Disini akan jelas terlihat mana siswa
yang bisa memahami teks dengan baik mana yang kurang mengerti dari
pemahaman teks yang dibaca tadi. Pada strategi Paired Reading siswa diminta
untuk berkelompok dalam membaca teks agar mereka bisa membagi ide-ide yang
terlewatkan yang ada dalam teks bacaan. Makalah ini diharapkan mampu
memberi masukan yang efektif bagi guru untuk mengajar Bahasa Inggris dalam
mengetahui kemampuan siswanya dan khususnya bagi siswa dalam memahami
suatu bacaan.
Key word: Highlighting strategy,Paired Reading strategy and Reading
Comprehension
*) Penulis
**) Pembimbing
INTRODUCTION
Reading is a crucial skill for
English students as a second
language (ESL) and as a foreign
language (EFL). Through reading,
the students will get many
advantages, such as: gaining a lot of
information, and improving their
knowledge. By reading, students can
catch the ideas from the text which
they read. If the students read well,
they are able to understand and
comprehend the text.
Based on the writers
experience, there were some
problems in teaching learning
process especially in teaching
reading monolog text. From the
students, most of them felt that
reading is one of difficult skill that to
be mastered. Actually, they can read
the text but they did not understand
what they had been read because
they cannot get the meaning from the
text. They got difficulties in
comprehending the text, such as
report text because the text has many
difficult words. One of factor that
causes this problem is key words
from the text itself. If the students
cannot find the key words from the
text, they cannot get the meaning of
the text and they did not achieved the
reading comprehension yet. In the
other hand, if the students can find
the key words of the text,
automatically they know the content
of the text. So that, the students can
brings the ideas from the text into
their own words or share with others.
Therefore, the teacher can use
the appropriate strategy of learning
for the students in understanding
texts that can makes them more
active, have motivation, and give
opportunity to the students in
teaching and learning process. By
combining both of Highlighting and
Paired reading strategy, the students
flesh out their understandings of key
ideas and point from the text.
Besides that, students are continually
reminded that reading involves a
mental conversation between an
author and a reader because they
bring content of the text into their
own words.
REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
Reading is a process of
getting information of a written text.
It is supported by Nunan (2003:68),
reading is a fluent process of reader
combining information from a text
and their own background
knowledge to build meaning. It
means that the reader get the
meaning in reading text is
combining. During reading activity
the reader get information from a
text and their background
knowledge.
According to Snow
(2002:75), reading comprehension is
as the process of simultaneously
extracting and constructing meaning
through interaction and involvement
with written language. It means that
reading comprehension is difficult to
determine in students because so
much of it occurs in the head and is
not readily observable.
Furthermore , Meyer
(2007:125) states that the teaching of
reading seem to grow increasingly
controversial as teacher, legislators,
researcher, and community member
all seem to know the best way for
children to learn to read. It means
that the teacher and their students are
pulled in one directions and then
another.
In this paper the writer used
Highlighting combined with Paired
Reading strategy in teaching reading
comprehension. According to
Williams, Brown and Hood (2012:
116) explain that highlighting is a
useful strategy for quickly marking
important information in a text when
you are studying for a test or doing
research. It means that highlighting
strategy has benefit for the students
when they read a text. Besides that,
the students will get important
information from a text through this
strategy. So, the students can easy
when they studying for a test.
There are five ways for
highlighting strategy according to
Ellis (2012: 130): 1.Read carefully
first. Read an entire chapter or
section at least once before you
begin highlighting. 2. Make choices
up front about what to highlight. 3.
Recite first. Talking about what you
read to yourself or with other people
can help you grasp the essence of a
text. 4. Underline, then highlight.
Underline key passage lightly in
pencil. 5. Use highlighting to
monitor your comprehension. When
highlighting, youre making moment
by moment decision about what you
want to remember from a text.
According to Rasinski
(2003:68), paired reading is an
activity shared by two readers, one
stronger than other. It works best
with students who are experiencing
difficulty with decoding and general
fluency. It means that the teacher
needs one reader who has best
experiencing than other to help other
students when they read the text.
According to Rasinski
(2003:68), there are some steps of
this strategy: 1. Do paired reading at
least five times per week, 10 to 20
minutes per session, for at least six
consecutive weeks. 2. Allow the
student to choose the material to
read. 3. Find a comfortable, quite
place to sit side by side. Position the
text so that it can be easily viewed by
both readers. 4. If the text is a
continuation of a previous days
reading, quickly review what was
read. 5. Begin reading together. 6.
Have the student follow the text with
a finger as you read.7. If the students
makes an error (or hesitates for a few
seconds on a word), wait to see if he
corrects it. 8. Decide on a non verbal
signal with the student, (e.g., a gentle
elbow nudge to your side) that he can
use to tell you that he wants to read
independently. a) If the student
encounters difficulty during solo
reading, provide helps and resume
reading aloud. b) If the students
wishes to read independently again
later, if should use the agreed-upon
signal. 9. At the end of the session,
chat with the student about the
reading behaviors that are improving.
Praise his efforts. Discuss the
meaning of the text. 10. Complete
the paired reading record sheet and
response form.
DISCUSSION
Highlighting strategy and
Paired Reading strategy can be used
in exploration and elaboration part.
The procedure Highlighting strategy
combining with Paired Reading
strategy:
a. Do paired reading.
b. Allow the student to choose the
material to read.
c. Find a comfortable, quite place to
sit side by side. Position the text
so that it can be easily viewed by
both readers.
d. Read carefully first. Read an
entire chapter or section at least
once before students begin
highlighting.
e. Make choices up front about
what to highlight.
f. Begin reading together. Adjust
your intonation and rate the
students level of proficiency.
g. Underline, then highlight.
Underline key passage lightly in
pencil.
h. If the students makes an error (or
hesitates for a few seconds on a
word), wait to see if he corrects
it. If he doesnt pronounce the
word and have the student repeat
it. The continue reading. Review
and discuss errors at the end of
the session.
i. Use highlighting to monitor
students comprehension.
CONCLUSSION
Based on the activity above,
the writer concludes that to make this
strategy more interesting to the
students in the reading activity, the
writer tries to combine the
Highlighting Strategy and Paired
Reading Strategy. Talking about
Paired Reading Strategy, this
strategy can motivate the students in
reading the text, because they not
work alone but they working
together with their friend. This
strategy can help students to activate
their background knowledge and
persuade working together with
another. The students can share their
idea with their friend after they read
the text. For example, gives
comment, questions, connection and
so on.
REFFERENCES
Ellis, Dave. 2012. Becoming a
Master Students. Fourteen
Edition. California: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Meyer, Richard J. 2007. Reading and
Teaching. New Jersey:
Lawrence Earlbaum
Associates, Inc.
Nunan, David. 2003. Practical
English Language
Teaching. Singapore:
McGraw Hill.
Rasinski, Timothy V. 2003. The
Fluent Reader: Oral
Reading Strategies For
Building Word Recognition
Fluency and
Comprehension. New York:
Harper Collins Publisher.
Snow, Chaterine E. 2002. Reading
For understanding: Toward
A Research and
Development in Reading
Comprehension.
Pittsburgh:RAND.
Williams, Jessica, Brown Kristine
and Susan Hood. 2012.
Academic Encounters.
Second Edition. New York:
Cambridge University
Press.