ELT FORUM 5 (1) (2016)

Journal of English Language Teaching

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING ONLINE NEWSPAPER IN THE

LEARNING OF GRAMMAR

An Experimental Study at Eighth Grade Students of SMP Negeri 8 Batang

Novita Hartoyo; Bambang Purwanto

English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Semarang.

Aticle Info

________________
Article History:

Received in February

2016

Approved in March 2016

Published in April 2016

________________
Keywords:

Online newspaper, the

learning media, grammar.

____________________

Abstract
___________________________________________________________________
This research was conducted because there is a possibility to introduce online newspaper to the students to improve

their ability in grammar mastery due to the rapidity of technology development. Online newspaper and grammar

were chosen because online newspaper contains grammar which was written straightly correct because it will be

read by all of people. The problem of this research is how effective the use of online newspaper in the learning of

grammar is, and the purpose of this research is to find out whether it is effective or not. The subject of this research

is eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 8 Batang. They were chosen because I had been experienced in teach

them and know their grammar mastery is still low. The research design is quasi-experimental design, with post-

test pre-test experimental and control group. The result of this research shows that the gain of experimental group

score is not as high as control group. So, it can be concluded that using online newspaper in the learning of

grammar is not effective because the score gain of experimental group is lower than control group. It was caused

by the level of vocabularies used in online newspaper is not common in students’ daily language and they have

different interests in topic of the online newspaper’s passage.

 Correspondent Address:

B3 Building FBS Unnes

Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229

E-mail: opinovita22@gmail.com

ISSN 2252-6706

Novita / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016)

INTRODUCTION

Based on my observation for three months

in SMP Negeri 8 Batang, eighth grade students’

mastery of grammar is still poor. It was shown

when I asked them about little bit part of

grammar. They often did mistake in answering

test because they did not understand the

grammar. For example when I gave them

questions and they have to answer it using right

preposition, most of them failed to answer it

correctly. Some of them also have not understood

the different use of article. In addition, they did

not understand what adjective and adverb are.

They only knew noun and verb. It may be caused

by some factors, one of them is the materials used

in the learning. The textbook used in the class do

not contain grammar materials explicitly, so that

students cannot learn grammar optimally.

Many of them felt that grammar is a

difficult thing to be understood, because it was

not familiar to them. So, when I explain some

elements of grammar they were confused and

bored. Therefore, I made up my mind to teach

grammar to them in a joyful way. Then, I decided

to use a media that can interest them and help

them to improve and enhance their grammar

knowledge, and hold a study to improve their

mastery of grammar. In this case, grammar is

selected because it is inserted in the curriculum of

KTSP which is used there. The learning of

grammar may be more interesting through

media, so that online newspaper is selected to

teach grammar.

“Newspaper is a regularly printed

document consisting of large sheets of paper that

are folded together, or a website, containing news

reports, articles, photographs, and

advertisements” (Cambridge Online Dictionary

2008). It is commonly distributed daily, so it is

very close to the society. Moreover, people can

get it by buying it per day or per month, it can be

bought in a store or even at their house with

delivery service. It spreads the information to the

world by carrying them in it. People usually read

newspaper with drink a cup of tea in the morning

or evening. Due to the cheapness of newspaper’s

price, everyone can buy it, even read it on the

wrapper of food or something else. Although it is

not as interesting as video because there is no

animation, according to Danim (2010: 28)

“reading passage (books, journals, newspapers,

manual instruction, brochure, etc.) have more

advantages because they can be read again and

again and can be the sources in writing”.

Moreover, people can still receive news when

they are on their way going for work or at outdoor

area, whereas they cannot receive any

information from electronic media, i.e., television

and radio.

However, in Indonesia the reading interest

is still poor. The Central Bureau of Statistics

(BPS) shows that in 2012 the percentage of people

who read newspaper or magazine is only 17.66

that is decrease from year to year. This number is

contrast with the percentage of those who watch

television which is increase from 2003 to 2012. It

is possibly happen because of the development of

technology. People commenced to leave reading,

especially newspaper, because they have their

own modern gadgets which provide a lot of

entertainments. Therefore, the change is needed

to increase reading interest in Indonesia. One of

the ways is by introducing the source of reading

like newspaper to the people especially to the

young generation.

Subasini and Kokilavani (2013: 57) stated

that writing is a complex challenging activity for

many students, so teachers should focus on the

grammatical concepts that are essential for the

clear communication of meaning. In addition,

they stated that grammar is the most important

thing when someone comes to learn English and

the importance of it cannot be neglected.

People are getting familiar with internet

nowadays, even children. They use internet in

many ways. Adults use it to access news, and

children use it to play game on the web or other

entertainment, for instance. Based on the data of

BPS, in Central Java, people over 5 years old who

access the internet are 24.49 (2012). In addition,

Hartoyo (2012: 31) stated that “Extensive and

profitable use of internet as a medium of language

learning is now being made by many language

teachers.” This study combines the interest of

people in using internet by introducing online

newspaper to students, so they can use internet

Novita / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016)

not only for entertainment but also for looking for

information and news. In addition, students can

learn grammar through the passage in the online

newspaper. Finally, this study introduces

technology to the students through media which

are available surround them to help them in the

learning of grammar.

METHOD

In this research, I use quasi-experimental

design with pretest and posttest experimental

control group. According to Tuckman (1978:

136), it is not as adequate as the true experimental

designs, but better than the pre-experimental

designs, with regard to control of the treats to

validity. Quasi-experimental designs exist for

situations in which complete experimental

control is difficult or impossible.By this design,

two groups are given a pretest, followed by

treatments, and finally a posttest. Pretest and

posttest experimental control group design can be

described as follows:

𝐸 01 𝑋 02

𝐶 03 𝑌 04

(Arikunto, 2006: 86)

In which:

E : experimental group

C : control group

01: pretest for the experimental group

02: posttest for the experimental group

03: pretest for the control group

04: posttest for the control group

X : treatment using online newspaper

Y :treatment without using online

newspaper (textbook)

The research was conducted at SMP

Negeri 8 Batang located on Jl. Kyai Sambong,

Batang. In this research, there was one group that

was experimented and the other group was used

to compare based on this design. Therefore, I

used three classes in collecting data, one class was

for experiment, one class to compare, and the last

class was used to measure the validity and

reliability of the test that would be used in the

class experimented. I chose class VIII C for

experimental group, VIII D for comparison

group, and VIII E for try-out group.

The population provided in this research is

the eighth grade (academic year 2015/2016)

students of SMP Negeri 8 Batang located on jl.

Kyai Sambong, Batang. According to Frankel

(1993 in Purwanto 2013) if the population is more

than 100 persons, we may take 20-25 percent

from the population. In this case, the number of

eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 8 Batang is

124 students. So, 20 percent of 124 are 24

students. I took one class as sample; it is class VIII

C which the number of students is 24.

RESEARCH FINDING

The main goal of this research was to find

out the effectiveness of using online newspaper in

the learning of grammar of eighth grade students

of SMP Negeri 8 Batang.

Before collecting the data, the instruments

were tried out to VIII E at July 29th, 2015, and

then they were analyzed to measure the validity

and reliability.

Brown (1988: 101) said that “test validity is

defined as the degree to which a test measures

what it claims to be measuring.” I computed the

item validity by using Pearson Product Moment.

The formula is as follows:

On α = 5% with N= 25 it is obtained =

0,396. The item test is valid if rxy > rtabel. The total

items were 40 items. After the validity was

analyzed the 20 others item belong to be valid

items, and the rests are invalid. The 20 invalid

items could not be used in the pre-test. Then, after

eliminating 20 invalid items, the other 20 valid

items which were used as pre-test consist of 15%

easy items, 70% medium items, and 15% difficult

items based on item facility. Based on item

discrimination, it consists of 65% moderate and

35% high discrimination items.

Tuckman (1978: 160) said that “test

reliability means that a test is consistent.” Before

computing the reliability, the total variance must

be computed first.

})(}{()({(

))((

2222
YYNXXN

YXXYN
r






Novita / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016)

The formula is as follows:

𝜎2 = Ʃ𝑌
2−

(Ʃ𝑌)2

𝑁

= 9994−
(464)2

= 55.2864

The total variance of the test is 55.2864.

After knowing the total variance, the reliability

can be computed. To check whether the test that

I used was good or not, I used K-R20 formula.

The formula is as follows:

𝑟𝐾−𝑅20 = (
𝑛

𝑛 − 1
) (

𝑆 2 − 𝛴𝑝𝑞

𝑆 2
)

= (
40

40−1
) (

55.2864−6.07

55.2864
)

= 0.913

The result of interrater reliability of the try

out test was 0.913. The test is reliable if rvalue >

rtable. Then, the result was consulted with rtable for

α = 5% with N = 25 was 0.396.

rvalue vs rtable = 0.913 > 0.396

Since the results of rvalue > rtable , it can be

concluded that the try out test was reliable and

could be used as the pre test.

After that, pre-test was given to the

students in the experimental and the control

group. Based on the pre-test score, both the

students of experimental and control group’s

scores are low averagely. Then they were given

treatments. The special treatments were given to

the experimental group in form of applying

English online newspaper as media in the

learning of grammar by me. In addition, the

control group was given treatments without

English online newspaper by the teacher. They

were taught by textbook instead. Each group was

given treatments for 8 x 40 minutes which

consisted of four meetings. In each meeting, the

learning process was divided into three main

parts, they were opening, main activity, and

closing. After they were given treatments, post-

test was conducted. The data were obtained from

the students’ scores of multiple choices test. They

were pretest and posttest scores from the

experimental and the control groups. The total

score for the experimental group were 790 for the

pretest and 875 for the posttest. Therefore, the

score difference between the pretest and posttest

for the experimental group was 85. While the

total scores for the control group were 980 for the

pretest and 1200 for the posttest. Therefore, the

difference of the total scores between the pretest

and the posttest for the control group was 200.

The following is the simple table for the pretest

and posttest students’ scores:

Table 1 Different Score between Experimental

and Control Group

Group
Total score of pre-

test

Total score of

post-test

Difference between pre-test and

post-test

Experimental

group

790 875 85

Control group 980 1200 220

Most of students of both groups

understand the use of article, preposition, and the

difference between adjective and adverb. It was

shown by the result of the test because there are

gains between the score of pretest and posttest.

Unfortunately, the use of online newspaper did

not affect the test result because the control group

which did not learn grammar through online

newspaper got the better improvement rather

than the experimental group.

The result of the average score in pre-test,

post-test of experiment and control group were

presented in the chart below.

Novita / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016)

Figure 1 The Result of the Average Score in Pre-

test and Post-test of the Experimental and

Control Group

The average pre test’s score of control

group was 37.69 and experimental group was

32.91. From the score, it can be concluded that

the two groups were homogenous because there

was only slight difference in the pre-test result

between the experimental group and the control

group. After both groups received different

treatments, the score of the experimental group

was lower than the score of the control group.

The average post test’s score of control group was

45.38, and the average post test’s score of

experimental group was 33.65. It can be

concluded that using online newspaper is not

effective in the learning of grammar because there

is no significant difference of the post-test result

between the experimental group and the control

group, and the score of control group is higher.

Therefore, Ho (null hypothesis) was

accepted, which meant “using online newspaper

is not effective to teach grammar”. Then Ha

(using online newspaper is effective to teach

grammar) was rejected.

And finally, based on the research that has

been conducted, it was not proved that using

English online newspaper in the learning of

grammar is effective.

The use of English online newspaper in

improving students’ grammar is not more

effective than using textbook. The measurement

showed that the posttest score of the grammar

achievement of the experimental group was lower

than the control group’s. From this statement, it

can be said that English online newspaper is not

effective enough to be used in improving

students’ grammar. However, the grammar

improvement of the experimental group is lower

than the control group. It may be caused by some

factors. The first is the language level of English

online newspaper and textbook is quite different.

The language used in English online newspaper

is more sophisticated than textbook, so that the

students got difficulties in understanding the

passage. Vocabularies used in English online

newspaper are general, whereas textbook’s

vocabularies are agreed with students’ ability.

The second reason is the different interests of the

students. It causes their willingness to read are

different. It is also caused by the interestingness

of textbook is higher than English online

newspaper. The third reason is different interest

of students. According to Asgari (2013) students

who are updated by the newest issue enjoy

learning through what they have known, whereas

student who are not updated are not interested in

the issue that is discussed in the class.

The forth factor is I did not do difficulty

level analysis in selecting passages from online

newspaper that I gave to the students, so that it

was possible the passages were too difficult for

them. The passages should be analyzed the

difficulty level by particular formula to match the

difficulty level to the students level. The last

factor is the media that I chose is not suitable for

junior high school students. I chose Jakarta Post

which is adults reading, so it was too heavy for

Cont Exp

Pre Test
Post Test

Novita / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016)

junior high school students. Online newspaper

for kids should be chosen because it was suitable

for children.

In addition, based on the interview the

students were not familiar with the learning

media. Most of them usually read Indonesian

reading. Few of them were interested in English

because they do not understand some

vocabularies, so there were difficulties in catching

the massage. Many of them like reading

Indonesian novels and teen magazines, and they

do not like read newspapers. They read novellas

and magazines just for fun and entertainment,

whereas they read newspaper if only there were

school assignments and it needed newspaper as

the source to finish.

However they said that reading online

newspaper has advantages because it can

improve their skill in translating the sentences in

the passage of online newspaper into Indonesian.

Some of them also said that they understand

English sentences and utterances by reading

online newspaper.

CONCLUSION

Based on the detailed analysis and research

findings discussed in previous section, the

conclusion can be derived as follows.

There was no significant difference of

students’ achievement in grammar ability

between the students who were taught by using

English online newspaper and those who were

taught by using textbook for the eight year

students of SMP Negeri 8 Batang in the academic

year of 2015/2016.

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