40 TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE READING BY USING SURVEY, QUESTION, READ, WRITE AND (SQRW) STRATEGY TO THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA MUHAMMADIYAH 1 PALEMBANG Marlen Rahmawati UIN Raden Fatah Palembang marlen.rahmawati@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The objectives of this study are to find out whether or not there is a significant improvement before and after the treatment on the tenth grade students‟ reading comprehension scores of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang by using SQRW strategy and to find out whether or not there is a significant difference on the tenth grade students‟ reading comprehension scores of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang between the students who are taught by using SQRW strategy and those who are not. This study used quasi-experimental design using nonequivalent pretest-posttest design. There were 68 students from class X MIPA 4 and X MIPA 6 chosen as the sample. In collecting the data, test was used. The test was given twice to experimental and control groups, for pretest and posttest. To verify the hypotheses, the data of pretest and posttest were analyzed by using independent sample t-test and paired sample t-test in SPSS 18 program. The findings showed that the p-output from paired sample t-test (sig2-tailed) was 0.000 which was lower than 0.05, and t-value 11.294 was higher than t-table (34-1) with df=33 (2.034). The result of p-output from independent sample t-test was 0.003 which was lower that 0.05 and the t-value 3.104 was higher than t-table (68-2) with df=66 (1.996). Therefore it could be stated that teaching reading descriptive text by using SQRW strategy had significant improvement and showed significant difference on the students‟ reading comprehension scores. Keywords: SQRW strategy, reading comprehension, descriptive reading Introduction Many experts believe that language is the core of communication. The language mechanism causes human beings to exchange their idea at all of shape that led to develop whole aspects of life. Richards and Schmdt (2010, p. 311), language is the system of human communication which consists of the structured, arrangement of sounds (or their written representation) into larger units. Therefore, language is very important means of communication among humans. Furthermore, the use of language is very effective as an individual needs to communicate with others both by written and spoken. Crystal (2003, p. 1), English is the global language. This reality encourages many countries to put English into formal school curriculum that will be taught from mailto:marlen.rahmawati@yahoo.com 41 elementary school up to university level, especially in Indonesia. In other words, English plays very important role almost in every aspects of life, especially in term of education. It becomes one of compulsory subjects which determine the students can continue their education to the higher level or not. It can be proven by National examination. Based on Kemendikbud (2013, p. 13-15), English has been compulsory subject which is learned from Junior High School to University that it is classified into one of the most important subjects to both Junior High School (SMP/MTS) and Senior High School (SMA/MA/SMK/MAK). The objective of teaching and learning English is to bring up students to have better understanding in using the language itself. In learning English, there are basic skills which are very important to be mastered. Brown (2000, p. 232), English has “four skills”- listening, speaking, reading and writing as of paramount importance. Each language skills must be corelated to each other. Thus, It is perfectly appropriate to identify language performance. The human race has fashioned two forms of productive performance, oral and written, and two forms of receptive performance, auditory and reading. One of the paramount language skill is reading. McNamara (2007, p. xi), reading can be challenging, particularly when the material is unfamiliar, technical or complex. Moreover, Anderson (2003, p. 2), reading is an essential skill for learners of English. It means that reading is a crucial skill to be mastered in learning English. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that reading plays very important role for the process to achieve a proficiency in English. Therefore, the students must have ability in reading comprehension. Based on the curriculum of 2013, there are several types of reading text have to be comprehended, especially in the tenth grade, they are descriptive, recount and narrative. The descriptive text is chosen because it has been set as a competence standard that must be taught to the tenth grade students as the demand of Curriculum 2013. After conducting a small test to the tenth grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang, the researcher found that the averages score of students reading comprehension in descriptive text was lower than narrative and recount. It was proved that out from 68 students there were only 30 students can reach KKM level (≤ 75). Therefore, the researcher assumed that the students had difficulties in learning descriptive text. For this reason the researcher will focused on the study in descriptive reading text. 42 After conducted a small test, the lack of understanding reading passage is one of the factors causing not good enough reading descriptive score to the tenth grade students at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang. To solve the problems, teachers should have an innovative strategy that can be applied to motivate students to „‟be more interested in reading. The researcher intended to apply certain strategy in teaching reading at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang. One of the strategies that can be used by a teacher of English is SQRW strategy. SQRW (surveying, questioning, reading and writing) is a reading strategy which is done among pre-reading, while- reading and post-reading activity. It test students comprehension skill in a reading passage related to the specific information intended. According to Mayer and Strengman (2002, p. 20), SQRW is a strategy used for reading and taking notes from textbook. It focuses on the steps that supposed to develop students reading descriptive in detail. The SQRW strategy can help student easier in analyzing descriptive text since identification and description are the generic structure of descriptive text. It supported by Mayer and Strangman who state that using SQRW will help the students to understand what they read and to prepare a written record of what they learned. Based on those facts, doing the research entitled “Teaching Descriptive Reading by Using SQRW Strategy to the Tenth Grade Students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang” seemed interesting, therefore the study was conducted. Literature Review A. Concept of Reading As a receptive skill, reading involves highly complex thinking processes. Alyousef (2005, p.144) states that reading can be seen as an “interactive” process between a reader and a text which leads to automaticity or (reading fluency). Reading involves recognizing and comprehending words and sentence patterns (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 161). It means that comprehension is the important role to recognize the words and sentence pattern in order to get the interpretation well. Wooley (2011, p. 15) adds reading comprehension is process of making meaning from text. The goal, therefore, is to gain an overall understanding of what is described in the text rather than to obtain meaning from isolated words or sentences. The readers require comprehension to be an active constructor of meaning. 43 The concept of reading has ever been explained in the holy Qur‟an as stated in surah (Al-„Alaq 1-5): “Read the name of God that creating. Creating humans are from clod- blood. Read, God is honor that had preached us. God preached human to read some lesson that they don’t know yet”. Based on those verses, the words “read” are repeated in the imperative forms to emphasize that as people want to explore any knowledge they need to read, because reading is an essential tool for lifelong learning for all learners. Moreover reading has enormous benefits for people because it contains a lot of good reading for them. Even reading a single word can give kindness. A lot of words are better, such as a paragraph. It makes readers become good readers and gives a lot of information for them. The people demanded to enrich knowledge through reading, in order to broaden insight and get much information. Maharaj (2008, p. 11) assumes that there are five components of teaching reading. They are phonemic awareness, word recognition, comprehension, vocabulary and fluency. First, phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with individual sounds in spoken words (Maharaj, 2008, p. 11). Second, word recognition refers to the skills that reader needs in order to read unknown words. According to Alyousef (2005 p.151) word recognition is an essential component in the mastery of reading. Third, comprehension means understanding and interpreting what reader read. Fourth, vocabulary is wide range of words from the context of the text understand, and the last is fluency in reading is the ability to read the text smoothly, accurately and with understanding, fluency is the key indicator of comprehension (Maharaj, 2008, p. 17). The teacher is supposed to follow the principle in teaching reading in order to achieve the purpose teaching learning process. Harmer (2003, p. 70) states that teaching reading consists of three principles such as; (1) reading is not a passive skill, (2) students need to be engaged with what they are reading, and (3) students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language. It means that the teacher and students have strong relationship in teaching reading process. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that in teaching reading, appropriate and possible principle strategies should be applied based on the purpose of reading in order to get the comprehension. 44 B. The Concept of Descriptive Text According to Kane (2000, p. 352), description is about sensory experience— how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception. Related with Kane‟s opinion descriptive text is a text which tell experience connect with the sense, such a visual, feeling, smell and others. In addition, Darjis, et. al. (2013, p. 232) define descriptive text is used to create a vivid impression of person, place, object, or event. Such as describe a special place and explain why it is special, describe the most of important person in your life, describe the animal habitat in your report. The purpose of descriptive text is to admire something, to introduce, criticize or promote something. According to Doddy, et. al. (2008, p. 117), the structure of descriptive text is divided into two parts; Identification and description. The identification part is the part where writers of descriptive text identifies phenomenon to be described. The description part describes parts, qualities, and characteristics. Description text focuses on specific participants. It normally uses simple present tense. C. The Concept of SQRW Strategy There are some steps of SQRW strategy, According to Strichart and Mangrum (2002, p. 20), the procedures of SQRW strategy are: 1. Survey: the first step, before starting the reading a chapter should be surveying that the chapter such as title, introduction, headings and summary or conclusion at the end of the chapter. And also survey if also any picture, graphs, maps, or tables in the chapter and caption. The purpose of surveying the chapter is to quickly learn what the chapter is about before reading it in its entirety. Brown (2000, p. 315) also states that survey the text of an overview of main ideas is one effective series for approaching a reading text. In addition by Nicoleta state that “surveying will make the reader feel comfortable and familiarize with the text (2008, p.61). 2. Question: the second steps, the reader should formulate questions. Ask questions about title, headings and subheadings by changing them into Question-forming words such WH Questions, i.e. question that start with who, what, why where, when and how (Strichart, et. al,. 1998, p. 19). According to Eggen and Kauchak (2009, p. 172), basic principles in the whole effective teaching strategy is create some questions or questioning related with the study contentment in the class. In 45 addition According to Scarino and Liddicoat (2009, p. 42), Questioning is a central part of developing interactive language in the classroom. Students‟ questions tend to be less frequent and are often restricted to clarification or confirmation functions. Therefore, questioning is one of the effective teaching strategy can be apply in any subjects. In addition, the experts also states that by creating questions also help the student force to create student- centered learning environment and oversee a goal-focused activity. 3. Read: In this step, the students find the answers of the questions. They need to read the information that follows each paragraph to find the answer to each question they formed. As the students do this, they may decide they need to change a question or turn it into several questions to be answered. They need to stay focused and flexible so they can gather as much information as they need to answer each question. Nicolate states that the reader should read attentively. Concentrate on what readers are reading, and then read the information that comes after each heading. Next, try to find answers to the question you asked. Finally, if necessary, change your questions or add other questions. 4. Write. It is final step in the SQRW reading strategy for reading textbooks is Write. Make sure to write each of the questions you form along with its answer in a notebook. After written down each question as well as the answer to each question review each question again to make sure you have completely answered each question. Method of Study A. Research Method In this research, quantitative research design based on experimental methods was used. Experimental research is the most conclusive of scientific methods, because the researcher actually establishes different treatments and then studies their effects, results from this type of research are likely to lead to the most clear-cut interpretations (Fraenkel, et. al., 2012, p. 11). This study used quasi-experimental designs or the design that manipulates the independent variable to observe the effect on dependent variable and the type used was Pretest-Posttest Non-Equivalent Group Design. Cohen, et. al. (2007, p. 283) formulate pretest-posttest Non-Equivalent Group design as follows: 46 Diagram Key: O1 = Pretest for experimental group design X = Treatments (SQRW strategy) O2 = Posttest for experimental group design O3 = Pretest for Control group design O4 = Posttest for Control group design --- = Dashed line (Non random) B. Variables of Research Variable is a characteristic or attribute of an individual or an organization that (a) researchers can measure or observe and (b) varies among individuals or organizations studied Creswell (2012, p. 112). There are two kinds of variables; independent and dependent variable. According to Marczyk, et. al. (2005, p. 42), independent variable is the factor that is manipulated or controlled by the researcher. Creswell also mentions that dependent variable is an attribute or characteristic that is dependent on or influenced by the independent variable (Creswell, 2012, p. 115). In this research, the independent variable is SQRW strategy and dependent variable is student descriptive reading achievement. C. Population and Sample The term of population is whole number of research objects which is going to be investigated in a research study (Creswell, 2012, p. 29). The population of this research is the tenth grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang. The total of population is 497 students consist of fourteen classes. A sample in a research study is the group on which information is obtained (Fraenkel, et. al., 2012, p. 106). This research needed two classes as a sample to collect the data. One was for experimental group and another class was for control group. In this study the researcher used non random sampling type of convenience sampling. Fraenkel, et. al. (2012, p. 99) state that a convenience sampling is a group of individuals who (conveniently) are available for study. Then, the researcher O1 X O2 Experiment group - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - O3 O4 Control group 47 determined the class of sample by using teacher recommendation. The teacher recommended to take X MIPA 4 class and XMIPA 6 class as sample. The number of students of XMIPA 4 class was 34 students and X IPA 6 class was 34 students. So, the total number of sample was 68 students. Then, the sample was divided into two groups, XMIPA 4 class as the experimental group and XMIPA 6 class as the control group. D. Techniques for Collecting Data In collecting the data, the test was used; test is method of measuring a person‟s ability, knowledge, and performance in a given domain. In this study, there were two kinds of test that were given to the students. The purpose of giving test is to know the situation, knowledge, ability and performance of the students. They were pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was given before doing the treatment to the experimental and control groups. Pre-test was given to find out the students ability in responding the conducted before the treatment was given. Post-test was given at the end of treatment to the experimental and control groups. Post-test was given to find out the students ability in responding the conducted after the treatment was given. E. Validity and Reliability of the Research E.1 Validity Test The analysis is done to the instrument of the research before used in pretest and posttest activity. The researcher did construct validity of the test to judge or measure whether or not a test instrument well to measure student ability. The format of the instrument test was measured by three validators before doing tryout. Fraenkel et al. (2012, p.150) assumes that a common way is to have someone look at the content and format of the instrument and judge whether or not is appropriate. The “someone” of course, should be an individual who knows enough about what is to be measured the format of the instrument test. The validators measured including such things as the clarity of printing, size of type, adequacy of work space (if needed), appropriateness of language, clarity of directions, and so on regardless of the adequacy of the question in an instrument that it must be measured by giving test or tryout to students later on. After measuring the format of the instrument test, the three validators accepted it to continue doing tryout to the tenth grade students. 48 Validity of each question item test is used to indicate whether the test items of each question are valid or not. To find out the validity of each question item by analyzed the items of the test by doing try-out. To know whether the instruments of each questions valid or not, the score of significance (r-output) should be compared with the score of r-table product moment. In this case Pearson Product Moment in SPSS 18.0 was used. To find out the validity of the test each question items, the researcher analyzed the items of the tests by doing try-out. The try-out of the test was carried out on Friday, 03 rd of June 2016 at 09.50-10.20 a.m. The instrument of the test was tested to 33 students (X.2) of the tenth grade students at SMA Nurul Iman Palembang. There were 60 multiple choice items that were given to the students. The result analysis of validity in each question items in the table, it was found that there were 18 questions considered invalid since the score of significant (routput) were lower than 0, 344 and 42 questions item are considered valid, since the score of significant were higher than (rtable) 0, 344. The last kind of measuring validity is content validity, To know if the content of the test item given are appropriate, the test material to the curriculum was checked. The validity of the content can be done by comparing the contents of the instrument with the subject matter that has been taught, (Sugiyono, 2012, p. 177). In order to judge whether or not the test has content validity, a specification of the skill or structures were made based on the curriculum and syllabus. Validity of each question item was identified by number and the correct option indicated. The group of the students taking the test was divided in tryout to the basis of students‟ score on the test. The researcher did tryout to find validity of question items. The tryout of the test was held on Tuesday, 4 th of August 2015 at 12.40 p.m- 14.00 p.m. The instruments of the test were tested to 37 students (VIII. 4) to the eighth grade students of SMP Nurul Iman Palembang. If the result of the test shows that rcount is higher than rtabel (0,325), it means that the item is valid. It was found that there were 42 test items from 60 test items provided by the researcher which could be used as the instrument since the scores of significance were higher that 0,325. The result indicated that 18 items were invalid and 42 items were valid. E.2 Reliability Test To know the reliability of the test used in this study, calculated the using spearman brown formula prophecy formula found in SPSS program version 18.0 was 49 used to calculate students‟ scores. The scores of reliability were obtained from tryout analysis which. The school where the tryout analysis is different from the school where the research study will be done. In this part, split half test method was used to obtain the scores of tryout analysis. To measure the reliability test using split half method, the result shows that p- output of Gutman split half coefficient was 0,881 which was higher than 0.70. Since the result of reliability of test was higher than 0.70, it can be concluded that reading test was reliable for this study. F. Techniques for Analyzing Data Before analyzing the data, distribution of the data will use to see distribution of frequency data and descriptive statistics. In distributions of frequency data, the students‟ score frequency, percentage will be achieved. The distributions of frequency data are obtained from students‟ pretest score in control group, students‟ posttest score in control group, the students‟ pretest score in experimental group, and students‟ posttest score in experimental group. Meanwhile, in descriptive statistics, number of sample, the score of minimal, maximal, mean, standard deviation, and standard error of mean are obtained. Descriptive statistics are obtained from students‟ pretest and posttest scores in control and experimental groups. In prerequisite analysis, there were two analyses to be done. They were normality test and homogeneity test were analyzed. The function of normality test is to know whether the sample is normal or not. In this study to know the normality of the sample was used one sample Kolmogronov-Smrinov in using SPSS 18. The data are obtained from students‟ pre-test and post-test scores in control group, pre-test and post-test scores in experimental group. The researcher used 1-sample Kolmogorov- Smirnov test to analyze the normality. The result showed that the pretest in control and experimental groups were 0.680 and 0.911 and posttest in control and experimental groups were 0.495 and 0.771. It can be concluded that the data were considered normal since they are higher than 0.05. Meanwhile, the function of homogeneity test is to determine the students‟ scores are homogeneous or not. In this study to know the homogeneity of the sample was used Levene statistics by using SPSS 18. The homogeneity test to measure students‟ pretest and posttest score in control and experimental group in analyzing the homogeneity, the researcher used Levene statistic. The result showed that the pretest scores was 1.192 and posttest 50 scores 2.856 it can be concluded that the data was homogeneous since the score was higher than 0.05. A significant improvement is found from testing students‟ pretest to posttest scores in experimental group, and a significant different is found from testing students‟ posttest to posttest score in control and experimental group using paired sample t-test, and a significant different is found from testing student‟s posttest to posttest score and significant difference on students‟ reading comprehension score taught by using SQRW strategy and strategy that usually used by teacher at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang. It was found that the p-output is 0.000 with df=33 (2.034), and t-value=11.294. It can be stated that there is a significant improvement from students‟ prettest to posttest score in experimental and control group taught by using SQRW strategy since output is lower than 0.05 and t-value was higher than t- table(34-1) df=33 (2.034). It can be stated that the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected, and alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. And it was found that there was significant difference on students‟ reading comprehension score before taught by using SQRW strategy since the p-output was higher than 0.05 and t-value was lower that t-table(68-2)=df 66=1.996). therefore, it was concluded that the null hypothesis (Ho) was accepted, and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was rejected. Conclusions Based on the findings and interpretations presented in the previous chapter, it can be drawn two conclusions. First, based on the result of prettest to posttest, SQRW strategy significantly improves students‟ reading comprehension achievement to the tenth grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang. Second, there was a significant difference on students‟ reading comprehension score who were taught by using SQRW strategy and those who were taught by using strategy that usually used by the teacher of English at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang. 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