Putri Anggraeni, et al / Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (1) (2017) 47 ELT FORUM 7 (2) (2018) Journal of English Language Teaching http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LISTEN-READ-DISCUSS (LRD) AND GRAPHIC ORGANIZER COMBINATION TECHNIQUE TO TEACH READING COMPREHENSION OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT Akhmad Maemun, Sri Wuli Fitriati, Alief Noor Farida  English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia Article Info ________________ Article History: Received in October 2018 Approved in November 2018 Published in January 2019 ________________ Keywords: Combination Technique, Listen-Read- Discuss, Graphic Organizer Reading Comprehension, Quasi-Experimental Research. ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ This paper is to investigate the effectiveness of the combination technique of LRD (Listen-Read-Discuss) and graphic organizer in teaching reading comprehension. I used quasi-experimental design in this research. The population of this study was the eighth year students of SMP Negeri 1 Dukuhwaru,Tegal in the academic year of 2016/2017. Meanwhile, the sample consisted of 70 students from two classes. The study was started by giving pre-test, treatments, and post-test to both groups. The experimental group (VIII D) was taught by LRD and graphic organizer combination technique, while the control group (VIII F) was taught by using conventional method. The data were obtained by giving a reading test to both groups. In addition, the questionnaire and observation were also conducted for the experimental group to obtain more data. The result of the study indicated that the group taught by LRD and graphic organizer combination technique has better score in the test than the group taught by conventional method. In the pretest, the mean score of the control group was 56.65 and the experimental group was 58.11. The mean of posttest of experimental group (82.05) was higher than control groups (70.11). Then, the t-test showed that the tvalue (5.756) was higher than ttable (1.998). It can be concluded that the working hypothesis is accepted. It means that there is a significant difference of effectiveness and reading comprehension achievement in reading descriptive text of students who are taught by LRD and graphic organizer combination technique and those who are not taught by using that technique. Therefore, that combination technique is effective and convenient for students to improve their achievement reading comprehension of descriptive text. © 2018 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Correspondent Address: ISSN 2252-6706 B3 Building FBS Unnes Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: amanzsyoi@gmail.com A. Maemun, S. W. Fitriati, A. N. Farida / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 48 INTRODUCTION English is international language. In this globalization era, English has been scattered all over the world. It plays an important role in the global communication. In learning English, we need to have at least ability in writing, speaking, listening and reading. People learn English because they have their own motivation that depends on their needs, interest and sense values. In order to master English, people should sharpen those four basic skills. One of those skills which is primary to master is reading skill. It is not simply identifying and translating written words but also understanding and acquiring. According to Finnochiaro (1984:10), „„for many students around the world, reading is the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language‟‟. As one of language skills, reading skill plays a central role in the teaching and learning process at all educational stages. Moreover, Trelease (2010:30) states reading is the key of the world and key of the success. He claims “The more we read, the better we get at it, the better we get at it, the more we like it, and the more we like it, the more we do it”. The reading skill becomes very important in educational field. The reading focused in this study is that reading descriptive text. Descriptive text is one of the reading materials taught at eighth grade of Junior High School. It becomes the focus of this research because the comprehension of students in reading is low. Based on my observation in SMPN 1 Dukuhwaru Kab.Tegal, I interviewed the English teacher and some eighth year-student. In SMPN 1 Dukuhwaru, a teacher especially who teaches eighth grade use conventional methods (lecturing and reading aloud) to teach reading. The students said that the teacher just asked the students to read the text and pointed several students to read aloud. In addition, the classroom situation was not alive during the teaching and learning process. Most of the students did not actively participate in class discussion and they were not active to respond to the teacher‟s questions. They are not used to facing new vocabulary and structures that are different from their mother tongue. Moreover, they were afraid to ask the teacher about the difficulties in reading. Based on this preliminary finding, they frustrated and lose their motivation to learn reading. From this situation, the teachers should try to motivate the students to read and to develop skills aimed at improving their reading ability. I assume that by providing an appropriate reading technique to teach reading, it would be very useful to improve students reading comprehension. As a medium for teaching and learning process, appropriate techniques also make teachers have new experience in their career as a teacher. Based on the background above, I am interested in introducing LRD (Listen-Read-Discuss) and graphic organizer combination technique to the teachers to teach reading comprehension. LRD is a method developed by Manzo and Casale in 1985. Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) is a comprehension strategy that builds students‟ prior knowledge before they read a text. During the first stage, students listen as we present the content of their reading through a lecture, often paired with a graphic organizer. Graphic organizers are visual representation of knowledge that structures information by arranging important aspects of a concept or topic into a pattern using labels Bromley, DeVitis & Modlo (1999). Their main function is to help presenting information in concise ways that highlight the organization and relationships of concepts. Next, students read the text and compare what they learned during the lecture to their understanding of reading the text on their own. Finally, students discuss their understanding of the text with other students in their small group or large group. In this study I used combination between LRD and graphic organizer technique for teaching English especially for teaching reading descriptive text. From the finding of some previous studies, L-R-D helped students to better recall and develop relevant background information and appropriate anticipation, both of which are of great value in effective comprehension. Those students lacking prior knowledge about the content gaining. During A. Maemun, S. W. Fitriati, A. N. Farida / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 49 the listening stage, allowing them to more easily comprehend the text during the reading stage. It helped students comprehend material presented orally. It built students' prior knowledge before they read a text. It engaged struggling readers in classroom discussions. Therefore, using graphic organizers is effective in reading questions like (1) identifying the main idea, (2) finding the supporting details, (3) dealing with vocabulary and (4) fact and opinion and (5) making inferences. This simple, flexible strategy can be used across all curriculum areas with almost any text. Graphic organizer improves students‟ reading comprehension a content learning in both weak and proficient. By designing this study, I hope that by using the LRD (Listen-Read- Discuss) and graphic organizer combination technique, students‟ reading comprehension can be achieved and the result of this investigation will give the answer to the problem above. By designing this study, I hope that by using combination technique of Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer, the students enjoy teaching and learning process and through the technique they improve their achievement in reading comprehension of descriptive text. METHODS In this study I used the form of quasi-experimental research. In this method I divided one group as the experimental group and another as the control group. Both of the groups received pre- test to obtain first data. Then, twice treatments were given to both groups. The experimental group received treatment while the control group received another treatment. The experimental group used combination of LRD (Listen-Read-Discuss) and graphic organizer technique and the control group used conventional method to improve students’ reading comprehension. Finally, both of the groups were given a post-test to obtain the second data and the results were computed statistically. The subjects in this study were the students of SMP Negeri 1 Dukuhwaru, Tegal in the academic year of 2016/2017. In this study, I used cluster random sampling. This technique needs groups or clusters in choosing the sample based on the groups that have already existed in the population. The sample was chosen based on some considerations: (1) the students were taught by the same English teacher, (2) there was no superior class, the placement of the students in each class were set randomly without considering the level, gender, or strata. I took two classes of eighth year students as experimental group and control group. The first group as the experimental group (EG) and the second one as the control group (CG). The sample of this research was the students of VIII D and VIII F of SMP N 1 Dukuhwaru. The total sample is 70 students. They were divided into two groups. The first group was VIII D as the experimental group (EG) which consisted of 35 students, and the second one was VIII F as the control group (CG)) consisted of 35 students. In this study, I used some research instruments to collect the data. The instruments are: 1.1 Test Based on the research problems, I used reading test as an instrument. In this study, the students‟ achievement in reading descriptive text was measured by using tests, namely pretest and posttest. The pretest was used to find out the students‟ reading achievement before the treatment and posttest was used to find out the students‟ reading achievement after the treatment. The instrument used in this research is a multiple choice test type. It was chosen because it made scorer reliability is nearly perfect. Moreover, it was easy to administer and could be scored quickly. I used the multiple choice test type in chosen forms of “A, B, C, D” and the total number were 25 questions. 1.2 Questionnaire This present study used two checklist questionnaires in which respondents just directly put check mark (√) on the given statement whether they agreed or disagreed. The questionnaire was given to the students after they finished doing the post test. There are some questions used to A. Maemun, S. W. Fitriati, A. N. Farida / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 50 analyze the students‟ interest and achievement in teaching and learning process by using LRD (Listen-Read-Discuss) and Graphic Organizer technique. This questionnaire was given to the experimental group. 1.3 Observation Sheet I used observation sheets in order to get the detail description of the study. I used three observation sheets which were filled by the English teacher. The observation sheets were used to find out the students‟ performance in the classroom, students‟ behaviors during the teaching and learning process, and the students‟ response in the teaching and learning process through Listen-Read- Discuss (LRD) and Graphic Organizer combination technique. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The course of this study is to answer the research problems. Generally, this study explains how effective the combination of Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer technique to teach reading comprehension, and the second is the description of the students‟ responses towards the Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique. In this study, after giving the treatment by using Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique for experimental group, I analyzed the data of the post-test result. The post-test was administered to measure the students‟ reading comprehension after getting the treatment. The post test was similar to pre-test in the present study. There were 25 questions that related to descriptive text in this post-test. The students did the post-test in 40 minutes. The results showed that the total mean score of experimental group posttest (82.05) was higher than that control group (70.11). Through a brief observation, there was a significant difference in students‟ reading comprehension between the experimental group and control group after getting the treatment by using Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique. Based on the result of post-test score between experimental and control group, it can be seen that LRD and graphic organizer combination technique was more effective than lecturing and reading aloud technique (conventional method). Besides, to give the additional proof of the significant difference in the experimental and control group post-test score, if tvalue was higher than ttable, it indicated that there were significant differences between the result of treatment in control and experimental group. Before that, I determined the score of df (degree of freedom). The number of participants in each group were 35, so df = 35 + 35 – 2 = 68, with the level of significance (α) = 5%. Then, I got the ttable 1.996. Based on the paired sample test result, tvalue was 5.756, it showed that there was a significant difference on post-test result between experimental and control group because tvalue was higher than ttable (5.756 > 1.996). Since tvalue > ttable, the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) that stated, There is significant difference of reading comprehension in descriptive text of students who are taught by using Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique and those who are not taught by using that technique was accepted. Finally after analyzing all of the results of t-test calculation, it can be concluded that teaching reading descriptive by using Listen-Read-Discus (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique is more effective to improve reading comprehension of the eighth grade students of SMPN 1 Dukuhwaru, Tegal in the academic year of 2016/2017. The questionnaire was given to the students of the experimental group after giving treatments. It was given after the students had the post-test. There were nine questions related to English and the treatments which they had got. The questionnaire was written in Bahasa Indonesia in order to help the students understand in responding to the questions. Furthermore, the observation was undertaken for the purpose of getting supporting data for the primary data of the study. Observation in this study was held on each treatment in the experimental group. Then, the English teacher played role as an observer, the job of the observer was to observe the students‟ performance in the A. Maemun, S. W. Fitriati, A. N. Farida / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 51 classroom, students‟ behaviors during the teaching and learning process, and their responses in the teaching and learning process through Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) technique. The observer only gave checkmark in the observation sheet. The result of the questionnaire and observation were described and analyzed. I divided into four aspects to describe the result of questionnaire and observation. The aspects are suitability, enjoyment, responsibility, and improvement. Those aspects are representative of the students‟ response towards the teaching and learning process using combination of Listen-Read-Discuss and graphic organizer technique to teach reading comprehension of descriptive text for the eighth year students of SMP N 1 Dukuhwaru, Tegal in the academic year of 2016/2017. The analyses of the result could be shown as follows: 1) Suitability All the students of experimental group agreed that Listen-Read-Discuss and Graphic Organizer are suitable for teaching reading. (Questionnaire, 14 November 2016). The students seemed enthusiastic about the researcher‟s instruction. The result showed that from two meeting were high see appendix 18. Almost all students paid attention when I gave instructions. I guided the students to follow the steps of LRD technique in reading descriptive comprehension, they obeyed the instruction carefully. (Observation sheets, 7 and 9 November 2016) 2) Enjoyment 33 from 35 students chose yes which meant almost all the students enjoyed learning process about descriptive text material using Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique and they agreed by using Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) technique learning process about descriptive text became more fun. (Questionnaire, 14 November 2016). Most the students showed initiative during the teaching learning process when I was treating them using LRD technique. For example when the students found a new word in reading, they immediately tried to find the meaning on the dictionary without the researcher asked. They showed good response towards the learning reading descriptive text that I did. (Observation sheets, 7 and 9 November 2016). 3) Responsibility Almost all the students did not experience difficulties in learning reading descriptive text using LRD and graphic organizer combination technique. They followed the steps of LRD technique carefully. (Questionnaire, 14 November 2016). Based on observation which done by the English teacher, they followed my instruction. I asked the students to write down what they got in graphic organizer while I was reading the descriptive text. Then, the students were asked to compare their work with the descriptive text that I gave after listening step. In doing those activities, Almost all students did their work appropriate with the instruction. (Observation sheets, 7 and 9 November 2016). 4) Reading comprehension improvement 34 from 35 students chose yes column which meant there was any improvement about their reading comprehension in descriptive text after Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique being applied in their class. (Questionnaire, 14 November 2016). The objective of this study was to find out whether the Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique was effective to improve the students‟ reading comprehension of descriptive text or not and to identify and explain what the student‟ responses towards Listen-Read-Discuss and graphic organizer combination technique at the eighth year- students of SMP N 1 Dukuhwaru,Tegal to master reading comprehension. A. Maemun, S. W. Fitriati, A. N. Farida / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 52 First, I would like to see the quantitative data analysis. The quantitative data analysis showed the score of students‟ reading comprehension improved after they got the treatment. In the pre-test both of groups got average scores which were not quite different. It was 58.11 for experimental group and 56.65 for control group. The average score of both groups score was slightly different and not too significant. It could be said that both of the groups had almost same ability in reading comprehension of descriptive text before the treatment. Then, after the students received treatments, the average scores of the two groups were increased. Nonetheless, the mean score of experimental group post-test was higher than the control group. The experimental group post-test score was 82.05 meanwhile the control group was 70.11. The percentage of students‟ improvement in experimental group was 41.30% and in control group was 23.86%. The score showed that after getting a treatment by using Listen-Read- Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique, the experimental group achieved a better score than the control group. Then, to determine the significant score between the two groups, I calculated the scores using t-test. The result showed that the score of tvalue 5.756 was higher than ttable 1.996 and sig. (2 tailed) value 0.000 was lower than 0.05. It was proven by using SPSS. In line with the computation above, it can be concluded that there is a significance improvement of the students‟ achievement dealing with reading comprehension mastery after receiving the treatments by using Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique. The next was the result of qualitative data analysis which was the result of observation sheet and questionnaire. While teaching reading comprehension of descriptive text using Listen Read- Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique, the students showed positive behaviors. Their motivation in the first meeting and the second meeting showed the improvements on every indicator. The students also enjoyed the activities that made them love the reading learning. It can be proved by the positive responses that they had given along the study. From the questionnaire given, the data showed that most of the students in experimental group enjoyed the process of the study. They were really enthusiastic with the Listen-Read-Discuss and graphic organizer combination technique and expecting to get the similar technique for the other subject. Overall, there were improvements on student‟s motivation using Listen-Read-Discuss and graphic organizer combination technique as an appropriate technique to teach reading comprehension of descriptive text. Listen-Read-Discuss is a strategy that helps students comprehend text by building their prior knowledge of the topic in advance to reading the text, moreover Listen- Read-Discuss and graphic organizer technique is good alternative technique for teaching reading. CONCLUSIONS Based on the analysis, I make some conclusions. First, the prominent objective of this study was to find out whether or not the Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique was significantly effective to improve the eighth year students‟ reading comprehension of descriptive text . The result showed that the mean scores of the experimental group pre-test and post-test increased significantly from 58.11 to 82.05. It increased 41.30%, while the control group which was taught by conventional method increased only from 56.65 to be 70.11. It increased 23.86%. Second, there is a significance improvement of the students‟ achievement dealing with reading comprehension mastery after they received the treatments by using the Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) technique. It is showed in the calculation by using t-test in SPSS 16.0 program. The result indicated that the score of tvalue (5.756) was higher than ttable (1.996). Then, the result from independent t-test showed that sig. (2 tailed) value 0.000 was lower than 0.05. Therefore, the use of A. Maemun, S. W. Fitriati, A. N. Farida / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 53 Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) technique is effective for teaching reading and improving students‟ reading comprehension of descriptive text. The findings of questionnaire and observation also indicated the Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique can be applied in teaching reading comprehension of descriptive text to the eighth grade of junior high school students. Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) and graphic organizer combination technique made students interested in learning reading descriptive text. In addition, using this technique to teach reading comprehension made the students enjoyed more and facilitated their tasks associated with the reading materials because they learned not only individually but also in group. From the analysis result in the previous chapter that the students‟ motivation on reading comprehension was excellent. It is shown by the students‟ behavior while learning. According to the questionnaire, most of the students in the experimental group felt that the Listen-Read- Discuss technique were interesting, so it can be conclude that LRD technique improves their motivation to learn reading comprehension of descriptive text. REFERENCES Bromley, K., DeVitis, L. I. and Modlo, M. (1995). Graphic Organizers: Visual Strategies for Active Learning. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. Finnochiaro, M. (1984). English as a Second Language from Theory to Practice. New York: Regent Publishing Company. Manzo, A. V., & Casale, U. P. (1985). Listen-Read-Discuss. A content reading heuristic. Journal of Reading, 28: 372-734. Trelease, J. (2013). The Read-Aloud Handbook : Seventh Edition . New York: Penguin Books.