CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents background of
the study, problem of study, purpose of the study, hypothesis, significances of
the study, scope and limitation of the study, and definition of key terms.
1.1 Background
of the study
English as foreign
language is taught in school in Indonesia. It is taught in Indonesia as school
subject start from elementary school to higher education levels. In teaching
and learning English as foreign language in junior high school, teaching
English has four important skills. Those were listening, reading, speaking, and
writing skill. And it is divided into two kinds of component skill; they are
receptive skill (listening and reading) and productive skill (speaking and
writing).
Since English
in Indonesia is a foreign language, most students at any levels of education
have difficulty reading English texts. According to Hamra, Many research
results (Syatriana, 1998; Hamra, 1993 and 1996; Mardiana, 1993; Kweldju, 2001)
indicated that the ability of Indonesian students to read English texts was
very low. Most university graduates are not able to read English with complete
comprehension. The Indonesian students need help with their reading
comprehension. For students, reading is a key to improving learning outcome in
many fields of study. Reading is an inseparable part of any English course.
According to
Hamra (1993), in Indonesia, learning to read English starts at the fourth grade
of elementary schools, and continues to junior and senior high schools up to
the higher education. Learning to read is a process that involves a number of
different skills and experience. It depends on learning to decode individual
words and to comprehend the meaning of a text. The school curriculum in Indonesia
states that by the end of the third grade of junior high school students are
expected to recognize and understand about 1000 English words and about 2500
English words for senior high schools (Depdiknas, 2002). The English students
at higher education are expected to read or comprehend English text books of
different fields of study.
In the junior
high school level, skills for comprehending English texts have been considered
very important. For instance, as Cahyono and Widiati (2006) state prior to the implementation
of the 2004 English curriculum, the objective of teaching was the development
of communicative ability in English embracing four language skills, with
reading skill being given a first priority. The 2004 English curriculum places
reading is equal to other English language skills, those are, listening,
speaking, and writing. According to the 2004 English curriculum, the objectives
of English instruction at the two levels of secondary school (junior and senior
high) are as follows (Translated from Depdiknas, 2004: 9 and Depdiknas, 2003:
7, originally written in slightly different Indonesian wordings):
1)
“Developing communicative competence in spoken
and written English language which comprises listening, speaking, reading, and
writing”. 2) “Raising awareness regarding the nature and importance of English
as a foreign language and as a major means for learning”. 3) “Developing understanding of the
interrelation of language and culture, as well as cross-cultural understanding”.
As we know that
most of learners told the students’ problem in learning reading such as they do
not have enough vocabulary, are lazy to and not used to reading printed
materials. Based on those problems, most of learner has difficulty in reading
the text. According to Gabb (2000) in Alyousef, poses a very important question
why learners face difficulties in moving into fluency stage although they have
had basic decoding skills. She identifies a number of “barriers” for the reader
was limited vocabulary and lack of background knowledge (schematic knowledge).
Teaching
reading comprehension in junior high school needs such kind of communicative
system. In order to make the learner understand the text well, the teacher
should have good method to teach the learner. It is because when the students
are taught using conventional method, the teaching learning processes only
focus on the teacher and the learners do not pay attention to the teacher.
Based on Hamra in his journal, using an interactive model for teaching reading
comprehension is another effort to improve the reading comprehension of EFL
students, especially the Indonesian students.
Teaching reading comprehension in
junior high school needs such kind of communicative system. In order to make
the learner understand the text well, the teacher should have good method to
teach the learner. It is because when the students are taught using
conventional method, the teaching learning processes only focus on the teacher
and the learners do not pay attention to the teacher. Based on Hamra (1993) in
his journal, using an interactive model of teaching reading comprehension is
another effort to improve the reading comprehension of EFL students, especially
the Indonesian students.
According to
Slavin (1995:12) Student teams achievement division (STAD) has been used in a
wide variety of subjects, from mathematics to language arts to social studies,
and has been used from second grade through college. The STAD method is most
appropriate for teaching well-defined objectives with single right answers,
such as mathematical computations and applications, language usage and
mechanics, geography and map skills, and science facts and concepts. However,
it can easily be adapted for use with less well-defined objectives by
incorporating more open-ended assessments, such as essays or performances.
Based on Anto, et al (2013) Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) Method is
more effective than conventional method to teach reading.
According to
the statement above, the researcher purposes the Student Teams Achievement
Division (STAD) as the method of teaching reading. We know that reading is one
of important skills in the school; the exams of English usually use text to
measure of students’ understanding about the text. The student should have good
comprehension in the process of reading in order to understand the text and
also pass the exam. According to 2004 curriculum state that at the national
exam of the school in 2004/2005, the form of a junior high English test form of
a written test with multiple choice questions for listening comprehension and
reading comprehension.
Students Teams
Achievement Division (STAD) is one of the cooperative learning that ask the
learner to work in group. The learner should work in a group and solve the
problem together with their group. Based on Slavin (1995) STAD is one of
cooperative learning which have five phases those are teach, study team,
individual quiz, scoring, and recognition. In STAD, each group consists of four
to five students with different characteristic, intelligent, and gender. So,
teaching learning process in the STAD is focus on the learners/students.
For the
background above, the researcher wanted to know the effect of using STAD as a method
of teaching reading. The researcher was interesting in first year students of
MTs Negeri Batu, and used experiment in this research. So, the title of this
research is THE EFFECT OF STAD ON STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY OF
FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF MTs NEGERI BATU.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Based on the background of the study
above, the problem of the research can be stated as follows: “Do the students
who are taught by Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) method have better
reading comprehension than those who are taught by conventional method of first
year students at MTs NEGERI BATU?”
1.3
Purpose of the Study
Related on the statement of the
problem, the purpose of the study is: “To know whether the students who are
taught by Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) method have better reading
comprehension than those who are taught by conventional method”.
1.4 Hypothesis
1.
The
null hypothesis is formulated as = H0 =
A =
B
It
means the students who are taught by using STAD have the same scores in reading
comprehension ability with the students who are taught by using conventional method.
2.
The
alternative (research) hypothesis = H1 =
A >
B
It
means the students who are taught by using STAD have the better scores in
reading comprehension ability than the students who are taught by using
conventional method.
1.5
Significances of the Study
This
study is aimed to give practically and theoretical benefits for teacher and future
researchers.
Practically,
for teacher, this method can be one of alternative method in teaching English
especially reading. For future researchers, this research can be used for
references to conduct or to continue this research with different strategies
that useful for development education.
Theoretically,
the result of this study can be used as additional reference for those who want
to conduct a research in English teaching learning process especially on
reading comprehension ability.
1.6
Scope and Limitation of the Study
In this study,
the researcher has two major variables; they are STAD method as the independent
variable, and reading comprehension as the dependent variable. The population
is the first year students of MTs NEGERI BATU. The researcher takes two classes
from eight classes for sample. In this study the researcher only focuses on the
effect of (using cooperative teaching STAD, conventional teaching) on reading
comprehension.
The limitation
of this study is about the limited time for conducting the research. In this
research, the researcher only have two weeks in conducting the treatment
because school where the researcher conduct the research want to conduct the
final school exam for the students. So the researcher did not have enough time
for conducting the treatment.
1.6 Definition
of Key Terms
1.
Student
Teams Achievement Division (STAD) is one of the cooperative learning systems in
order to make student work together and check that all of the members of each
group understand the text well. In STAD, the learner divided into some group,
each group consist of 4-5 students with different gender, race, and
intelligent.
2.
Reading
Comprehension ability refers to the students’ scores of reading comprehension
in which the teacher teach descriptive text to the students. The teacher gives
some text to the students and then the students analyze the text, such as what
kind of text, how many generic structures of the text, and also the content
(what the text tell about).
3.
Conventional
Teaching method is traditional teaching means that teaching focuses on the
teacher (teacher-center). In teaching learning process, the teacher conveys the
material by explaining all of the material.
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