Reading Printed versus screen texts

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter presented several subtopics. They are background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, hypothesis, significances of the study, scope and limitation of the study, and definition of the key terms.

1.1  Background of the Study

Nowadays in the 21th century technology is very common to all people all over the world. It is not strength anymore in this era that technology has become our daily activities in our life. Every day we use technology such as a computer, hand phone and others. It is different from the past that people do their activities manually without any modern technology. This also gives effects to the way students learn.

In the past students learnt and read only from the printed text such as book, magazine, newspaper and other printed texts from their teacher. But with the development of technology and information, people’s life had changed. Many people used technology in their life. They used computer to type, read, and watch film and to do many things. Consequently, the way of teaching and learning had changed too. Many teachers and students interested to use technology specially computer to support their teaching and learning. They also used computer or laptop to read their material. So many students today use technology in their learning in order to support their learning process.

By the development of information explained above it is already known that text is not only in form of printed but also in form of screen, which can be electronic tools such as a computer in which it is commonly a place where people access their information through it. Learners usually can read their lesson on it easily so that it hasn’t been strength anymore for learners.

From the explanation above related with technology, the researcher wanted to study about students of English who used technology in learning and who didn’t. In this study the researcher wanted to analyze students who learnt English using computer to support their learning comparing with students who didn’t use computer in their learning. This research focused only on reading skill. Researcher wanted to compare the students who read English text using computer and those who read text of English in printed form.

Reading is one of the four skills that learners have to acquire in order that they are able to master English. Related to reading skill, Uso, E and Ruiz N. M (2009) stated that good readers who were able to become strategic, which as summarized by Ediger (2006: 310), means that they: a) focus on meaning; b) have a purpose for reading and tailor strategies to tasks; c) overview a text to identify the most relevant portions; d) use multiple strategies and evaluate their effectiveness; e) use prior knowledge to make sense of the text; f) make effective use of “higher level thinking” g) make use of varying strategies for handling unknown vocabulary or h) differ in their use of strategies, depending on their gender, language and cultural background, age, beliefs motivation or learning styles, among many others”.

All of the explanation above is a summary about how students read the text and comprehend it. However it is general whether it can be for the students who read the printed text or on screen too. Anderson (2003) stated the urgent need to collect reading strategy data from readers on screen and in hard copy contexts in order to gain a better understanding of the possible differences or similarities between these two reading contexts. Overall, the main purpose of reading is to comprehend what the readers read although they use different strategies.

In this research, the researcher only focused on comprehension of the both group, whether they had different or the same comprehension. The researcher didn’t analyze the different strategies used by students in print and screen. In this research, the researcher wanted to study the English reading skill of EFL learner because reading is a habit that should be accustomed by students. As known students in Indonesia had not accustomed yet with reading texts even in English texts such as English magazine, newspaper and books, which could give effects on their knowledge.  The researcher tried to study whether reading using modern technology would give effects on students’ comprehension or not. The researcher tried to study the students who read texts using computer and who didn’t. So the first model, the students used the screen of computer and laptop to read the text and answer the given question. The second one, the students used paper or printed form to read and answer the given questions. Then researcher compared the scores of reading using screen and print.

Furthermore, the researcher did not discuss the different strategies which were used in these two reading contexts. The researcher focused on students’ comprehension on reading text in these two models; printed and on screen. Students who read the text on screen were faced with modern media of technology which was different from the students who read texts in print or traditional.  They also had different way in their reading text in which they operated computer and it was different from the printed text which has no modern media except the paper itself. So by these differences the researcher wanted to know whether both of them had different comprehension or not in reading same texts but different models. The first model was reading using traditional media such as paper which is called printed model. The other was modern model in which students used computer or laptop in reading the texts.

Based on explanation above the researcher conducts an experimental research in order to know the different comprehensions of students who read texts using computer and printed form. The researcher would compare them whether they had different comprehension or the same. The researcher conducted the study in the second semester of English department in Islamic University of Malang academic year 2012-2013.

1.2  Statement of the Problem

Based on the research background above, the researcher stated the problem of the study “do students who read text on screen have better comprehension than students who read printed text?”

1.3  Purpose of the Study

From the statement of the problem, the purpose of this paper was to know the comprehension of the two groups of learners whether the learners who read text on screen have better reading comprehension than learners who read text in hard copy or they have the same comprehension or they who read in hard copy had better reading comprehension than the learners who read on screen.

1.4  Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this study was formulated as follows: “the students who read text through on screen have better comprehension than the students who read text in hard copy”. So the researcher hypothesized that students who read texts on screen got better comprehension than students who read in print.

The researcher assumed that technology like computer would give good effects on students reading comprehension. The researcher thought that technology such as computer or laptop would increase students’ interest to use it to read texts. So researcher hypothesized that students who used technology such as computer or laptop in their learning would give better result. Beside that the null hypothesis was formulated that there was no different comprehension between the two groups.

1.5  Significances of the Study

The researcher expects that the result of this study could give more benefits both theoretically and practically.

First, the result of this research would give contribution theoretically as reference for teachers who wanted to conduct their teaching reading in on screen method and also for students who wanted to develop their way of study specially for students of Islamic University of Malang as the subjects of the research to make different model of teaching in order to give different result for their study. This method could be held by using computer or laptop or other kind of technology.

Second in practically, the result of this research could motivate students and teachers to develop their learning-teaching method to use screen method in their class specially in reading class to make the learning and teaching process develop as the development of technology today in life.

1.6  Scope and Limitation of the Study

The researcher conducted the research to EFL students at second semester in the Islamic University of Malang academic year 2012-2013. The researcher analyzed only the reading comprehensions in the reading class with two groups. In the first group the students were given the material in the form of printed text, and the second group the students were given material in on screen.

There were two models of texts in this research. The first was text on paper or it was called printed text which was used by first group. Second was screen text which was used by second group. Screen text in this study meant that the text was on the screen of computer or laptop so that the students in this group used computer or laptop to read the texts.

Both of the groups were given the same material and same test. They completed the test given and then their answers would be analyzed to know how deep the comprehension of these two different groups was.

1.7  Definition of the Key Terms

            These following definitions were intended to give more insight to readers and to avoid misunderstanding towards the terms used in this study.

Ø  Reading text on screen is reading texts using computer to access it. So students read the text in the screen of computer.

Ø  Reading printed text is reading texts typed on paper or book.

Ø  Reading comprehension, a measurement of the understanding of a passage of text.

Ø  EFL learners are second semester students of English department of Islamic University of Malang which were the subjects of this study.