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FOCUSED READING NOTE TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS’ READINGCOMPREHENSION AT ELEVENTH GRADE OF SMAN 3 PARIAMAN

Niza Syaveny

STKIP YDB LubukAlungEmail: syavenyniza@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Reading is important for the students. It is needed to help the students in getting the informationfrom the text. This was an experimental research that aimed to find out whether there was a

significant effect of focused reading note technique toward students’ reading comprehension atthe eleventh grade of SMAN 3 Pariaman. The design of this study was pre-test and post-test

control group design. The population was the students at grade XI of SMAN 3 Pariaman andused cluster sampling technique to choose the sample of the research. The sample was grade of

XI.5 as experimental class (34 students) and grade XI.6 as control class (34 students).Experimental class was taught by using focused reading note technique, and control class wastaught by using conventional technique. The data of the research was analyzed by using t-testformula in order to test the hypothesis of the research. Based on the finding of the research it

was found that t-calculate of students’ reading score in experimental class was 3.04 and t-tablewas 1.66. It means t-calculate bigger that t-table, then Ho was rejected and H1 was accepted. It

can be concluded that using of focused reading note technique gave significant effect onstudents’ reading comprehension at the eleventh grade of SMAN 3 Pariaman.

Key words: Focused Reading Note Technique, reading comprehension

INTRODUCTION

eading is needed in human daily life.According to Harmer (2007) reading is

very important in language acquisition. Itmeans reading gives the positive effect onstudents’ language and knowledge. By readingthe students will get the new vocabulary that isvery crucial in reading. Some new languagesalso find in the kinds of text that is read by thestudents.

Reading comprehension is the processhow to understand the text that is read by thestudents. Snow (2002) explains that readingcomprehension is simultaneously extracting,constructing meaning, and involvementprocess. In line,Linse (2005) argues thatreading comprehension is reading for meaning,understanding, and entertaining. There are

some purposes for reading comprehension thatcan be done by the students. Besides that, bycomprehending the text, the students willknow the message from the students.

Teaching reading comprehension forsenior high school students in Indonesia refersto Kurikulum Tingkat SatuanPendidikan

(KTSP) and/ or K13 curriculum. The studentsare expected to understand kind of text type inreading. Eleventh grade students learn somegenres in reading comprehension such as,descriptive, procedure, recount, and narrativetext. Those texts have the different purpose.According to Wardiman (2008) descriptivetext is describing something; people, building,animal, and so forth, while, the students can

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use procedure text to expose hoe to make or todo something. Recount is used to retell thewriter experience in the past and narrative textfor retell the imagination story such legend,fairy tales, and fable. Based on the rule ofIndonesia minister education 65/2013,teaching reading is starting by pre-readingactivity. It needs to motivate the students inreading process. The second process is whilst-reading activity. Process of teaching reading tocomprehend the text is done in this stage. Thelast is post-reading activity to conclude,evaluate, and give the strength of the learning.

However, teaching reading needs anevaluation to measure students’ achievementin learning. According to Klinger (2007)assessing reading comprehension can be usedto enhance reading comprehensionachievement for students’ difficulties anddisabilities. In addition Patel and Jain (2008)suggest that the material of readingcomprehension tests should be closely relatedto the practical material conducted by theteacher to develop reading skill. It means, inmaking reading test the teacher shouldmeasure what should be measured from thestudents.in order to develop reading questionsto test the students, Brown (2004) suggest toask some components of reading; topic andmain idea, words reference, identificationfactual information, guessing meaning,inference, and analyze the generic structureand social function of the text.

In fact, the students find somedifficulties in reading. The lack of knowledgeof components of reading is one of theproblems that are faced by the students. Next,the most of students do not focus in readingthe text. Getting the idea and information ofthe text is very difficult to the students.Therefore, the teacher asks to apply kind ofstrategies and techniques in teaching English,

especially for reading. Focused reading note isone of alternative techniques that can be usedby the teacher in teaching reading. Bean(1996) states that focused reading notefacilitate the students to take the importantnote while reading. In line, Vegas (2004)argue that making ‘note’ in learning will helpthe students as reader in monitoring theirunderstanding of the passage that they read. Inorder words, the students will focus in theirreading by taking a note from the text. Itavoids the students from unnecessary activityin during reading the text.

Furthermore, Hummel (2011) clarifiesthat focused reading note technique helps thestudents to identify the information of thepassage. The students will direct todifferentiate the main point or the main ideaand the supporting idea of the text. However,in applying this technique effectively, theteacher should attend the appropriate material,time allocation, and students itself.

METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

This research was an experimentalresearch. Pre and post-test are used in thisresearch. The population was the eleventhgrade students of SMAN 3 Pariaman.Normality and homogeneity was tested beforetaking the sample of the research. Clusterrandom sampling was chose as the techniqueof selecting sample, which consist of 68students. Based on data analyzed, it was foundthatLobservedwas 0.044 and Ltablewas 0.151, itcan be concluded that Lobserved<Ltable. Itindicates thatdata was normally distributed.Next, the result of homogeneity testingshowed that Fcalculate was 1.04 and Ftable was1.80, or it can be said Fcalculate<Ftable, the datawas homogeny.

The instrument of the research was areading comprehension test. It was tested the

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validity and reliability of test beforedistributing to sample classes. the test can becategorized into high reliability. The indicatorsof the test involved getting topic/ main idea,word references, identification of theinformation, synonym and antonym, makinginference, and analyzed the generic structureof the text.

The data was collected throughcollecting students answer sheet of readingtest. It was analyzed by t-test formula to test

the hypothesis of the research. The researchwas begun by preparing application, and finalphase.

RESEARCH FINDING ANDDISCUSSION

Based on the data analysis, it wasfound that the different reading score of bothof sample. The data can be seen in thefollowing table 1 below:

Table 1:The Total Score of Pre-test and Post-test

Class Pre Test Post Test

n X max X min ∑ Mean n X max X min ∑ Mean

Experimental

34 82 33 2050 60,29 34 95 46 2673

78.62

Control 34 82 29 2030 59,71 34 89 46 2344

68.94

Note:N : number of sampleXmax : highest scoreXmin : lowest score∑ : total score

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Based on the table 1 above, it can beseen that, there was a differences of students’score in reading comprehension in pre andpost-test. The students of experimental classwas taught through focused reading notetechnique got better score in post-test ratherthan the students in control class who weretaught through conventional technique.

During analyzing the data, it wasfound that students’ score were different ineach indicator of reading test. Looking fortopic has the different difficulty level with

other indicators by the students, for exampleanalyzing the generic structure, socialfunction, and kind of the text were easier thangetting the main idea in reading. It proves thatstudents’ problem in reading that has beendiscussed on the background of the problembefore. Clearly, the calculations of students’comparison mean score in post-test betweenexperimental and control class for eachindicators of reading test can be figured asfollow:

Figure 1The result of students’ comparisonsmean score in post-test between experimental and

control class forindicators of reading test

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As mention before, the data was testedby using t-test to test the hypothesis testing ofthe research. The summary of the test can beseen in the following table

Table 2The Summary of Hypothesis Testing

Group Experiment Control

Treatment Focusedreading note

Conventional

n 34 34

Varians 176 170

dk 66

T_calculated 3.04

T_table 1.66

Interpretation Tcalculated > Ttable

Based on the result on the table 2,tcalculated was bigger than ttable. The value oftcalculated was 3.04 and ttable was 1.66 at degreeof freedom 66 and level of significanceα=0.05., it means that the alternativehypothesis (Hi) of this research was accepted.It can be concluded that focused reading notetechnique gave significance effect on students’reading comprehension than conventionaltechnique.

Teaching reading is not an easy job forthe teacher. The teacher needs asking thestudents to concentrate and focus in reading.This condition had been improved by applyingfocused reading note technique which asks thestudents to take note to help them to focus onthe text that they read. As Vegas (2004) ideathat making ‘note’ in learning will help thestudents as reader in monitoring theirunderstanding of the passage that they read.The note which was noted by the studentsconsisted of the important information of thetext. The students can refer to their note inorder to remind them about the text.

The knowledge of reading componentssuch as state by Brown (2004) is the crucialaspect in reading. By knowing the indicators,the students will understand the meaning of

the passage that they have read. Furthermore,by applying the appropriate technique inteaching helps the students in readingcomprehension.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Based on finding of the research, it canbe concluded that, focused reading note gavesignificant effect on students’ readingcomprehension at the eleventh grade of SMAN3 Pariaman. The application of this techniquealso gave the contribution not only forstudents’ reading comprehension generally butalso on each aspect of reading indicators. Itmeans there was a positive effect of usingfocused reading note on students readingcomprehension.

Based on the conclusion above, it issuggested to apply the teaching techniqueeffectively. It is better for the teacher tomonitor the note that was taken by the studentsduring whilst reading activity. The teacherneeds to know students’ level before askingthem to take a note in reading. Number ofstudents in class and group also needs to beconsidered. It will help the teacher to evaluatestudents reading comprehension.

REFERENCES

Bean,John C. (1996). Engaging Ideas: TheProfessors Guide to IntegratingWriting Critical Thinking and ActiveLearning in the Classroom.SanFransisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brown, D. H. (2004). Language Assessment:Principles and Classroom Practices.New York: Longman.

Depdikbud. (2013). Kurikulum 2013: StandarKompetensi Mata Pelajaran BahasaInggris Sekolah Menengah Pertama.Jakarta: Pusat Kurikulum BalitbangDepdikbud.

Harmer, Jeremi.(2007). How to teach English.Toltenhan: Ocelot Publising.Hummel, Paul A. (2010).Students Engagement

Tehnique.The Khan Academy and theCollege Classroom.http://adjunctassitance.com/4122/students-engagement-techiques.

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Klinger, Jannet K et all. (2007). TeachingReading Comprehension to studentswith Learning Difficulties. New York :The Guilford Press.

Linse. (2005). Practical English LanguageTeaching Young Learner. New York:Mc Grow Hill.

Patel, M.F. and Jain, P. (2008). EnglishLanguage Teaching (Methods, Toolsand Techniques). Jaipur: SunrisePublisher and Distributors.

Snow, Chatherine E. (2002). Reading forUnderstanding: Toward and theProgram in Reading Comprehension.Santa Monica: RAND.

Vegas, Julie S. (2004). Think Literacy: CrossCurricular Approaches Grades 7-12:Ontario.

Wardiman, Artono. et. al. (2008). English inFocus: for Grade VIII Junior HighSchool (SMP/MTs). Jakarta: Depdiknas.