121 TEACHING NARRATIVE READING COMPREHENSION BY USING PROBABLE PASSAGE STRATEGY TO THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF MAN 1 PALEMBANG HARIANA AMALIA UIN Raden Fatah Palembang Abstract: The objective of the study was to find out whether or not there was a significant difference in reading comprehension achievement between the tenth grade students of MAN 1 Palembang who were taught by using Probable Passage and those who were not. The population of the study was the tenth grade students of MAN 1 Palembang in the academic year of 2014/2015. In this study, the writer used quasi experimental design. The sample of the study was taken from purposive sampling. The writer selected X IPS 2 as the control group and X IPS 1 as the experimental group. It consisted of 74 students, 37 students for each of control and experimental group. This study was conducted for about almost two months. There were twelve meetings which spent 70 minutes (2x35 minutes) in each meeting. The instrument used in collecting the data was multiple choices reading comprehension test. The test was administered twice, as the pre-test and post-test for both control and experimental group. The results of the test were analyzed by using independent sample t-test. From the result of independent sample t-test, it was found that there was a significant difference from students’ posttest experimental and control group, since the p-output was lower than 0.05 and t-value was higher than t-table (1.66). It means that teaching narrative reading comprehension by using Probable Passage had a significant effect on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. Keywords: reading comprehension achievement, probable passage strategy. Introduction In Indonesia, English is considered as one of foreign language subjects to teach in Indonesia. Based on Kemendikbud (2013, p.91-92), English is a foreign language subject to secondary and higher level. It is learned from junior high school to university that English is classified into class A (compulsory) to both junior high school (SMP/MTS) and senior high school (SMA/MA/SMK/MAK), and English is taught to be extracurricular subject in elementary school. For instance, most of 122 academic books and a lot of electronic appliances such as operating computer and e- mail are set in English. One of the four skills of English is reading that is defined as a constructing process of meaning interacted among reader’s prior knowledge, information, and context. Pearson, et al. in Farrel (2009, p.92) state that reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language, and the context of the reading situation. In addition, reading had been emphasized in the holy-Qur’an thrice that reading is important to teach for human being as follows: “Just as We have sent among you a messenger from yourselves reciting to you Our verses and purifying you and teaching you the Book and wisdom and teaching you that which you did not know” (QS. Al- Baqarah 2:151) Practically, there were difficulties of teaching reading skills. The difficulties were related on the writer’s informal interview to teacher of English of the tenth grade level of MAN 1 Palembang. First, most of students were unable to comprehend what the narrative text was about. Second, the students lacked of vocabulary so that they had difficulty to find the meaning from the sentence. Third, some of the students lacked of motivation in learning reading skill. These problems made the most of students learn narrative reading reluctantly. Last, the teachers did not apply any strategies in teaching reading. They only asked the students to read text aloud or answer the questions of the text. According to Boulware-Gooden et al. in Westwood (2008, p.64), effective learning strategies are necessary to apply in classroom when approaching text to get meaning from it. Moreover, Tindale (2003, p.9) states that reading difficulties are attributed to poor reading strategies, and are remedied by a focus on strategies such as finding main ideas and guessing from context. Therefore, probable passage, one of 123 the reading strategies, can be one of alternative solutions to overcome narrative reading difficulties because Balajthy and Wade (2003, p.112) state that the strategy encourages the sixth to twelfth grade students to find main idea and use predictions on what might happen in the text. Probable passage strategy has some benefits to solve narrative reading difficulties. First, it helps the teacher give them the opportunity to comprehend actively with a template as an easy and visible way. Instead, teacher does not need to spend time directing students to underline the cause and draw an arrow to the effect or circle the response that states the main idea (Beers, 2003, p.92). Second, probable passage strategy also helps students to comprehend the stories and sight word vocabulary (Balajthy & Wade, 2003, p.112). Third, probable passage increases student’s motivation because the strategy helps students to be more active and feel comfortable to learn that learners do not know what some words mean (Berril, et al. 2006, p.79). Fourth, the strategy improves students to integrate predictions, summarization, discussion, and vocabulary instruction (Urquhart & Frazee, 2012, p.148). Fifth, it helps students to scaffold student’s self monitoring abilities, so they can automatically correct their comprehension (Sejnost & Thiese, 2010, p.81). Finally, probable passage features pre- reading prediction to encourage learner’s critical thinking skills (Cecil & Pfeifer, 2011, p.51). Why is it important to ask students how the strategy helped them understand the story? Beers (2003, p.93-94) mentions that students with reading difficulties often say that good readers read fast, read with expression, and know all the words. They do not see skilled readers making predictions, modifying their predictions as they read, monitoring for understanding, making connections between the text and what they already know, or rereading when they have got a problem. Because the students do not see good readers doing those things, they do not believe or understand that good readers actually do them. So, a strategy like probable passage makes the invisible visible for them. The more the students practice making 124 predictions, the better the chance that this will eventually become a natural part of their reading process. Based on the previous explanations, the writer is interested in doing a research entitled “Teaching Narrative Reading Comprehension by using Probable passage strategy to the tenth grade students of MAN 1 Palembang” Concept of Teaching Reading Comprehension Teaching correlates with reading, where teacher must provide, plan, and teach the effective reading program for students (Maharaj, 2008, p.7). In addition, reading has been emphasized in the holy-Qur’an thrice that reading is important to teach. It has been carried out since the holy-Qur’an was revealed from God to Muhammad saw as follows: “It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom - although they were before in clear error” (QS. Al-Jumu’ah 62:2) Besides, Caldwell (2008, p.4-5) emphasizes that reading comprehension encompasses three components. They are an active process of comprehending, the skill, knowledge base, motivation of the comprehender, and the difficulty through characteristics of the text that is read. The reader integrates the text with his or her prior knowledge. It can involve visual images, emotions, and personal experiences. In short, the reader constructs inferences based on information present in the text and his or her own prior knowledge. Concept of Narrative texts Narrative text is a story conveyed to entertain the readers or listeners. Browder and Spooner (2011, p.142) state that a narrative text is a composition that tells a story. It is a logical choice to use to introduce the process of reading, because telling stories is a natural human experience. The primary purpose of a narrative text is to 125 entertain the reader. Likewise, Sarwoko (2014, p.109) take the view that a narrative text is a text that tells a story to entertain or amuse the reader. Narrative texts are usually written in past forms. Examples of narrative text include novels, short stories, legend, fable, romance, folktale, so on. In addition, narrative text during learnt in school has been introduced with story grammar or elements (McNamara, 2007, p.481). It encompasses descriptions of setting, characters, and other attributes of the story. The purpose is to facilitate students to retrieve information and sequence the events of a story. The same point, Browder and Spooner (2011, p.142) assume that narrative text comprises story elements to store, match, retrieve information and sequence the events of a story. The story elements consist of characters, setting, problem or conflict, plot, ending or resolutions, main idea, theme and author’s point of view. Therefore, knowing that narrative text follows a sequential line of events, the students are in a good position to process contents related to the story. They can predict how the story may unfold without previewing the text content beforehand. Concept of Probable Passage Strategy As originally developed, probable passage is a reading strategy developed by Beers in 2003, to encourage students to get involved in reading a narrative text. Beers (2003, p.87) mentions that probable passage is a reading strategy which encourages students to become involved inreading a narrative text by making predictions, learning new vocabulary, and seeing relationships among key concepts. Furthermore, McLaughlin and Allen (2009, p.191) assume that probable passage purposes to make predictions using story elements; to introduce vocabulary; and to use vocabulary to make connections with story structure in narrative text. Beers developed the strategy in her book entitled When children can’t read; what teacher can do, Grades 6-12. It is sure that the strategy is appropriate for any levels of students from kindergarten to senior high school. 126 In addition, the strategy provides a template to make predictions by categorizing a list of the selected keywords according to their perceived function in a story (Collins, et al, 2010, p.243). The selected keywords are a categorization such as character, setting, problem, etc. At the last instruction, students create written predictions in the form of a main idea or “gist statements.” Balajthy and Wade (2003, p. 112) emphasize that the teacher ask the students to make some predictions about the selected key words from the text and then asks the students to discuss or to places the key words into the categories. The categories include Characters, Setting, Problems, and Outcomes box. That is great that students referring to their probable passage as they read, then they are thinking about what they are reading while they are reading. That sort of metacognitive reflection is the big goal – getting students to think while they read. It especially wants to redirect them to their comprehension by correcting or revising their template. Instead, it is the way to keep in mind of students easily. Procedures of Probable Passage Strategy There are some procedures of probable passage based on Beers (2003, p. 92- 93). As always, teacher plays an important role such as providing vocabularies, inviting students to use their predictions, encouraging students to write each word in structure elements, and doing discussion to revise their template. The procedures of probable passage are as follows; 1. Teacher chooses eight to fourteen key words. 2. Teacher models the strategy a few times. 3. After the teacher has modeled this once with students, let them try it in different story. 4. After reading the story, the teacher return to the template to see which To Discover questions that can answer. 127 Advantages of Probable Passage Strategy Probable passage strategy has some advantages to solve narrative reading difficulties. According to some experts, the advantages of probable passage strategy are, as follows: 1. Probable passage helps the teacher give them the opportunity to comprehend actively with a template as an easy and visible way. Instead, teacher does not need to spend time directing students to underline the cause and draw an arrow to the effect or circle the response that states the main idea (Beers, 2003, p.92). 2. Probable passage strategy also helps students to comprehend the stories and sight word vocabulary (Balajthy & Wade, 2003, p.112). 3. Probable passage increases student’s motivation because the strategy helps students to be more active and feel comfortable to learn that learners do not know what some words mean (Berril, et al. 2006, p.79). 4. Probable passage improves students to integrate predictions, summarization, discussion, and vocabulary instruction (Urquhart & Frazee, 2012, p.148). 5. Probable passage helps students to scaffold student’s self monitoring abilities, so they can automatically correct their comprehension (Sejnost & Thiese, 2010, p.81). 6. Probable passage features pre- reading prediction to encourage learner’s critical thinking skills (Cecil & Pfeifer, 2011, p.51). Method of the study The method of the research is quasi experimental method. According to Fraenkel et al. (2012, p.275), quasi experimental design does not include the use of random assignment. Thus, the writer used the pre-test post-test non-equivalent groups design. This design, one of the most commonly used quasi experimental designs in educational research, is such naturally assembly groups as intact classes or 128 samples which may be similar. Model of the pretest-posttest non - equivalent group design suggested by Cohen et al. (2007, p.283) is as follows: Treatment O1 X O2 Control O3 C O4 Where: : Dash line indicated that the experimental and control group have not been equated by randomization. O1 : The pretest of the experinmental group O2 : The posttest of the experimental group O3 : The pretest of the control group O4 : The posttest of the control group X : Treatment in the experimental group taught using Probable Passage strategy. C : Treatment for control group taught by using conventional strategy. Population and Sample The population of this study was the number of the tenth grade students of MAN 1 Palembang in the first semester of academic year 2014/2015. There were 230 students which consist of six classes. In this study, the writer took 2 classes to be the sample by using purposive sampling. In purposive sampling, researcher chose sample related to characteristic being sought or specific purpose of the research. Therefore, the writer took two classes X. IPS 1 and X. IPS 2 that both had similarities such as both were from social class, similar in quantity (37 students), almost similar in male and female quantity, and similar had difficulties in reading. Having been given pretest, the students from class X. IPS 1 belonged to the experimental group that were taught by using probable passage strategy, and the students from X. IPS 2 belonged to the control group that were not. 129 Technique for Collecting Data In collecting data, the writer conducted narrative reading comprehension test; pretest and posttest. The test was consisted of 40 multiple choice questions. The instrument test was the same for both pretest and posttest. A test or instrument test should be considered reliability, validity, and readability. The result showed that the instrument test was reliable, valid, and readable of the text. This study used construct, validity of each questions item, and content validity. Meanwhile, reliability was conducted to determined the test was reliable or not, and readability was to determine the difficulty level of text and to structure their passages from easy to more difficult. Normality Test The result of analyzing of normality on students’ pretest and posttest scores in the experimental and control groups, they showed that the distributed populations in both of groups were normal. In pretest, it showed that the significance in experimental group was 1.110 and in control group showed the significance was 0.746. Since p value was higher than 0.05, it can be concluded that the data obtained were considered normal. In posttest, it showed that the significance of the posttest in experimental group was 0.584 and the significance of the posttest in control group was 0.764. it means that the data was in normally distributed population. Homogeneity Test Furthermore, the result of homogeneity test on students’ pretest scores of the experimental and control group showed that were homogeneous or the sample are from the same capability. In pretest, the writer found that the significance was 0.170. Since p (0.170) value it was higher than 0.05, it means that the students’ pretest scores in control and experimental groups were considered homogeneous. In other words, the samples are in the same capability. In posttest, the writer found out that the 130 p was 0.942. Since it was higher than 0.05, it means that the students’ posttest scores in control and experimental group were considered homogeneous. Hypothesis Testing In this study, to measure the significance difference, the writes used the independent sample t- test. In this part, it described that there were 37 students responded to the experimental group, and they had been on average 72.0946 and the standard deviation was 5.99518. Meanwhile, there were also 37 students responded to the control group, and they had been on average 60.8108 and the standard deviation was 5.56071. The estimation on the independent statistics shows that the t- obtained was 8.394. At the significance level of p < 0.05 in two tailed testing and df =72, the critical value of t- table is 1.666. Since the value of t- obtained exceeded the critical value of t- table, the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected and the research hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. It means that there was a significant difference in the students’ narrative reading comprehension achievement between the students who were taught by using probable passage strategy and those who were not. Conclusion Based on the findings presented in previous chapter, the writer concluded that there was any significant difference on student’s narrative reading comprehension achievement taught by using probable passage and those who are not of tenth grade of MAN 1 Palembang. 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