September AND READING COMPREHENSION IN NARRATIVE TEXT 1 ELT FORUM 2 (2) (2013) Journal of English Language Teaching http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt THE USE OF THREE PHASES TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION Ana Setiyaningsih Department of English, Faculty Language and Arts, Semarang State University, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ Sejarah Artikel: Diterima 2013 Disetujui Oktober 2013 Dipublikasikan November 2013 ________________ Keywords: Three phases technique, students’ participation, reading comprehension, action research. ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ This article is about the use of three phases technique to improve students’ participation and reading comprehension in narrative text. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, the writer adopted and action research design. The subject of this research was class 8G of SMP N 30 Semarang in the academic year 2012/2013 which consist of 37 students. There were two cycles with four phases in each cycle. They were planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The instrument for collecting data, the writer used observation checklist, field notes, test, questionnaire and documentation. The result of this study showed that three phases technique could improve students’ participation and reading comprehension in narrative text. Three phases technique namely pre reading, while reading and post reading can lead the students be more active and enthusiastic during teaching and learning process. By using three phases technique, students easily understand the content of the text and also they were active asking and giving their argument about narrative text. © 2013 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Alamat korespondensi: Gedung B3 Lantai 3 FBS Unnes Kampus Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: anasetiyaningsih@rocketmail.com ISSN 2252-6706 Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 2 INTRODUCTION English is one of important languages in this world. People use English to communicate with others in this world, express their idea and their mind. Basically, learning English is very important for junior and senior high school students, especially in Indonesia. There are four skills in English that have to be improved by students, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. In English, reading is not only read the text but understand contain of the text. Vocabulary and grammar are also important in English. However, the main goal of reading is to understand the ideas of the text.Reading will mean dealing with language messages in written or printed form. Based on Finochiarro (1973:119), reading is defined as a process of bringing meaning to and getting meaning from printed or written material. Thus Nuttal in Urquhart (1998: 17), having considered definitions of reading in terms of reading aloud, or decoding, settles for the extraction of meaning from written messages. Based on the result of observation in SMP N 30 Semarang, the process of teaching reading was less effective. The teacher still used conventional method that was lecturing and structure task in teaching reading. The teacher never gave the students chance to understand the material by themselves. In addition, the teacher still explained the material without having interaction with the students. Beside the teacher still used conventional method, the students got bored with the teacher‟s method and they were not interest in doing the activity. They were also lazy in reading the material because of the contain of the text that was so long to be read by themselves. Furthermore, the teacher never explained the material in details. The teacher didn‟t have any other technique in teaching. The teacher just read the material based on the hand out without having another sources, just focus on the hand out without having variation in teaching. The teacher just sat down on his chair and never closed with the students. This case made the students was not attracted to join the class and had difficulty to understand the teacher‟s explanation. There are many cooperative learning techniques which can be used to teach reading such as think pair share, jigsaw, and round robin. All cooperative learning techniques has their own advantages and disadvantages. The general advantages of a cooperative learning technique are it can make students be more active and cooperative in teaching learning process. On the other hand, the general disadvantages of a cooperative learning technique are time consuming and difficult in controlling the class during lesson. Based on the observation in SMP 30 Semarang, the average students in each class are 37 students. Consequently, there is a difficulty in managing the class such as in grouping the students and using cooperative learning such as Jigsaw technique which usually makes the class situation become noisy that teacher cannot monitor all groups at once. Besides using cooperative learning to change the conventional method, the researcher has a solution in teaching reading. Three-phase technique can be used to change the technique before which is lecturing and structure tasks. Three-phase technique namely pre-reading, while-reading, and post reading. This technique is almost same with cooperative learning. Three phase technique has some phases which can involve students to easily understand the material without consuming too much time as in cooperative learning. Finally, the students will be more active in comprehending their reading text. REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE General Concept of Reading According to Tickou (1995) in Yusuf (2012), “Reading is a process of looking at and understanding written language. English texts enrich the readers‟ new vocabulary, structures of English, sentences and new knowledge.” We can enrich our vocabulary and also get more new knowledge from reading. It means that if Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 3 we are not reading, we will not get new information. In addition, we will be stuck in our mindset and will not improve our knowledge. Then, by reading we get new vocabulary, sentences and knowledge. Moreover, based on Finochiarro (1973:119), reading is defined as a process of bringing meaning to and getting meaning from printed or written material. Thus Nuttal in Urquhart (1998: 17), having considered definitions of reading in terms of reading aloud, or decoding, settles for the extraction of meaning from written messages. In conclusion, reading is the process of bring and get information either reading aloud or decoding the extraction of meaning form written message. Reading are also involved the readers in interpreting what the writers means. However, the function of reading is to enrich our vocabulary and our information. Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension is the process of understanding and constructing meaning from a piece of text. According to Olson and Diller (1982:42), what is meant by reading comprehension is a term used to identify those skills needed to understand and apply information contained in a written material. Other than that, Harris and Sipay (1980:179) say that reading comprehension ability is learned to be a set of generalized knowledge acquisition skills which permits people to acquire and exhibit information gained as a consequence of reading printed language. Reading comprehension is the ability to gain information from the texts for the purpose to know the whole information deeply. So that it will force the readers to read the whole texts to gain the covert information. However, Comprehension is a highly complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between the reader and the text to create meaning. In other words, comprehension doesn‟t just happen; it requires effort. Readers must intentionally and purposefully work to create meaning from what they read (David Chard, 2008). Literacy Level at High School Level For the students of Junior high school students, there are four literacy levels including performative, functional, informational, and epistemic (Wells in Hamashima 2011). They are, performative, functional, informational, and epistemic. The literacy level of Junior High School is the functional level which students can communicate both orally and written to solve their daily problems (KTSP, 2006 : 277). For the eighth grade students of Junior High School, based on the the Standart competence and basic competence which was stated on the curriculum, it mentions that students are expected to give response towards the meaning of the text accurately related with the neighboorhood. So that, this study conducted a research about the students of eighth grade students of Junior high School in the developments of students‟ communicative competence in the functional level of literacy in order to think logically, critically, cratively, and innovatively about their environtment. Narrative Text Anderson and Anderson (1997: 8) say that a narrative is a piece of text which tells a story and, in doing so, entertains or informs the reader or listener. In addition, based on Gerot and Wignell (1994), the social function of narrative text is to amuse the reader and to deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways; Narrative deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn find a resolution. Then, based on Gerot and Wignell (1994: 204), the significant lexicogrammatical features of narrative texts are: focus on specific and usually individualized participants; use of material process; use of relational process and mental process; use of temporal conjunctions; and the use of past tense. In conclusion, the function of narrative text is to amuse the reader with actual or vicarious experience in different ways which have generic structure of orientation, complication, resolution and re-orientation. Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 4 Three Phases Technique Based on Ruth Crilly (2002), The Three Stages of Reading strategy involves teaching students to examine into text. The Before Reading stage provides a scaffold for new concepts and vocabulary promotes engagement and provides a means for prediction. The second stage, During Reading, allows students to integrate the knowledge and information they bring to the text with „new‟ information in the text. The last stage, After Reading, allows students to articulate and process their understanding of what they have read and to think critically about the validity of the text. In addition, Elif Leyla Toprak (2009) says that three phase technique in reading are namely, pre-reading, while reading and post reading. In pre reading (warm-up, into, before reading) activities introduce students to a particular text, elicit or provide appropriate background knowledge. Then, in while reading (during, through reading) exercises help students develop reading strategies, improve their control of the foreign language, and decode problematic text passages. And then, in post reading (after, follow-up, beyond reading) exercises first check students' comprehension and then lead students to a deeper analysis of the text. Each of phases in Three Phases technique is involved students to have activities when having teaching and learning process. In pre reading activity which is also called warm up activity, students are lead to get the background knowledge of the text. Then, while reading activity students are given exercises to develop their knowledge about the text. The last is post reading which is also called post reading activity where students have deeper analysis about the text in a whole. According to Ringler and Weber, 1984 (in Ajideh, 2003), students can be encouraged to do a number things. The aims of the pre-reading phase are arousing the students‟ interest in the topic or type of text, motivating students to read the text by providing a purpose for reading, and activating students‟ existing background knowledge in relation to the topic and getting familiar with some language in the text. Pre- reading activity (warm up), in this stage include discussing the author or text type, brainstorming, considering illustrations and titles. In pre reading activity, the teacher gives motivation to the students by giving some question related to the topic with gives the visual aids of the text. While reading activity (during, through reading), in this stage include guessing word meaning by using context clues, word information and predicting text content. In while reading activity, the teacher asked the students to read aloud the material, and mention the participants of the text, after that, the teacher led the student to predict the text contain by asking them some question orally. Post reading activity (follow up), in this stage, exercise is very needed to check the students‟ comprehension and then led students to a deeper analysis of the text. In post reading activity, the teacher asked the students some questions related to the material without look at the material, then teacher gives question in written answer to check the result of the student in understanding the materials. In addition, at this stage, the students review the story, determine the generic structure of the text and also mention the moral value of the text. Moreover, checking students‟ vocabulary is also needed in this stage. METHODS In this study, I used Classroom Action Research (CAR). Based on Valsa Koshy (2005:1-2), action research is defined as an enquiry, undertaken with rigour and understanding so as to constantly refine practice, the emerging evidence-based outcomes will then contribute to the researching practitioner‟s continuing professional development. An action research is used to solve the problems faced in the classroom teaching and learning process, so that the students‟ achievement and participation improvement in reading comprehension can be seen after using three phases technique as the technique in teaching and learning process. The subjects of this study were 8G students of eight eleven of SMP N 30 Semarang in the academic 2012/2013. There were 37 Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 5 students consist of 16 male students and 21 female students. In this study, there were two cycles in which each cycle consisted four phases. They were planning, action, observation, and reflection. In planning, I make an appropriate lesson plan and choose text type that would be used in delivering the material. In acting I applied three phases technique in teaching reading narrative text. Then, in observing, I used field notes, observation checklist, tests, and documentation in assessing the students‟ participation and reading comprehension during teaching reading narrative text. DISCUSSION This study was conducted to investigate the implementation of three phases technique to improve students‟ participation and reading comprehension in narrative text. The data found during the treatment in cycle one and cycle two. The schedules of having this research were 9th, 11th, 16th, 18th, 23rd, and 30th of May 2013. Three phases technique was namely pre reading, while reading amd post reading. In each of the phase, students have activities that can lead them to be more active. In the pre reading, students were given the text then I asked them some questions related to the title. The visual aids were also given to the students in order to catch their attention about the lesson. In while reading, the students read aloud the text. After that, the teacher asked them about the participants of the text. Then in the post reading, the students have to think critically to determine the moral value of the text. Vocabulary and grammatical feature were also check at this phase. The implementation of three phases technique in cycle one was run well. The students enjoyed the reading class. The students were more active in delivering their arguments. Then, the field notes, observation checklist and documentation did in order to observe students‟ participation during the lesson. The reflection of the cycle 1 was made before did the cycle 2 activities. The result of the cycle test showed that the students have understood about narrative text. The difficulty of the students was about the vocabulary and the simple past tense. However, some of the students still had difficulty in determined the moral value of the text. Then, the implementation of three phases technique in cycle two emphasized on vocabulary, moral value and simple past tense. The field notes and observation checklist filled during the meetings of cycle 2 in order to observe the students‟ improvement. The analysis of the field note was done to find out and describe the students‟ participation during the learning process. They were: (1) The situation during the teaching and learning process The situation of the class in the first time meeting was inconvenient. The male students were very crowded in the corner of the class. The second meeting, the class situation was good enough, only five male students made a noise. They didn‟t respect to me. Then, I moved them to seat in the front of the class. The third meeting, the situation in the class was good. All of the students gave attention and joined my lesson. For the next meeting, the situation in the class was getting much better. The students were active to ask some questions about their difficulty and share their opinion about the material. This kind of situation last until the end of our meeting. (2) The students‟ participation during the lesson The first meeting, their participation was very poor. They thought that this meeting would be as boring as the one when their teacher taught them. The second meeting, the students enjoyed my class. Their attention was good and they joined my class actively. They excited with three phase technique that was used during lesson that helped them easily understanding the material. Their good participants last until the last meeting. (3) The interaction between the students and the teacher The interaction between the student and the teacher was effective. Although they were difficult to be controlled, they were fast to get used to me. The interaction happened normally as the students and the teacher. The teacher Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 6 acted as the facilitator whenever the students needed to ask anything about the lesson. Besides used field notes, I used observation checklist in order to measure the students‟ participation during teaching and learning process by using three phases technique. According to Burns (2009:63), the information from behavior checklist allows the researcher to see which particular type of behavior the student keeps repeating most (interrupting neighbor’s work). The observation check list used in this study was consisted of seven statements to measure students‟ good and bad behavior during the teaching and learning process. In the first meeting of this research, the students had low participation to learn narrative reading comprehension. It was proved by the behavior that most of them were cheating and chatting with their friends. Some of them showed their laziness that proved by crossing directly the answer of the pre test without thought it first. Then, in the second meeting, I applied three phases technique during teaching reading narrative text, the students‟ participation was good enough. It proved by the students‟ enthusiasm in following the teaching and learning process. Some of the students especially the female students answered my oral questions related to the material. In addition, in the third meeting, the students paid attention to the lesson. They were also enthusiastic in asking questions that they have known about the material yet. In the fourth and fifth meeting were the cycle 2 of this research. The others example of narrative text and material was given to the students. Simple past tense and moral value of the text were emphasized at this meeting. The Power Point Slide was used to attract the students‟ attention. Three phases technique was still applied to make the students comprehended the material. All of the students pay attention to lesson and enthusiasm answering my questions about the text. Beside that, some of students asking some questions related with narrative text and the material. Since the teacher gave new classroom‟s rules, the students gave attention and no one had chatting with others and also they did not show their laziness again. The students had determined the generic structure of the text and six students shared their argument about the moral value of the text. Three students asked some questions that they did not understand about the material. Almost all of the students showed their active participation at this cycle. For the end of this research, the students did the post test. Of course everyone focused on the test. No one was cheating and chatting. Everyone was seriously in doing the post test. Then, at the end of this meeting, I gave a questionnaire to the students. In addition, the questionnaire that I used in this study is closed questions or closed ended designs will have predetermined answers, which are often „Yes‟, „No‟, „True‟ or „False‟ (Taylor, Wilkie, and Baser : 2006). So that, in this research I provided short answer responses consisting of two choices: Yes and No. This questionnaire consisted of 8 questions to answer the problem of the study. The result of the questionnaire, before having the treatment, the writer gave clear explanation about three phases technique in teaching narrative text. Then, students thought that three phases technique was important in teaching narrative text. It was proven by 33 (89.2%) students answered “yes”. This technique was also interesting and could the students more enthusiasm also active participated in learning narrative text. it was proven by 32 (86.5%) students answered “yes”. Moreover, three phases technique helped students to understand the narrative text was proven by 31 (83.8%) students answered “yes”. Three phases technique also increased the students‟ participations during lesson. In addition, the students more independent and did not cheating with their friend in studying English, especially narrative text was proven by 32 (86.5%) students answered “yes”. Beside that, the students hoped that three phases technique also applied in the next teaching and learning text type was proven by 34 (91.9%) students answered “yes”. Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 7 The Students’ Improvement The students‟ reading improvement measured from the mean of pre test, cycle one test, cycle two test and post test. Here the result of the students‟ achievement in did the tests: Pre Test Cycle 1 Test Cycle 2 Test Post Test 58,48 73,13 79,73 83,89 In the pre test, the average achievement of the students‟ pre test was 58, 48. It was lower than the SMP N 30 Semarang standard competence of English lesson, which states 70 is required pass. So that, it could be concluded that the students‟ pre test achievement was below the standard competence of SMP N 30 Semarang. Then, the result of the students‟ cycle test was good enough. There were 13 students that could not reach the standard competence of English lesson. Five students got 64 and 8 students got 68 for their test score. This result showed that there were some improvements in reading comprehension skill after given treatment by using three phases technique. The treatment was continued to make sure that all of the students could reach the standard competence of English lesson in SMP N 30 Semarang. The next treatment was in the cycle 2 with the same treatment in cycle 1 but with the different management class and different focus of the lessons. Then, in the cycle two test, there was little increased of the mean of the test cycle 1 and the test cycle 2. It was better than previous one; all of the students reach the standard competence of English lesson in SMP N 30 Semarang. For the post test result, the mean (average) score of the students was 83, 89. It could be concluded that the students‟ achievement in learning narrative reading comprehension skills using three phases technique had improvement. Therefore, it could be said that the students‟ reading comprehension was successful. In addition, to know the significant improvement of the pre test and post test result, t test was used to compare the student‟s result. t= = = 5.70 The result of the t-test was 5.70 and the d.b value was 36. Ttable 5% alpha level of significance for 36 value was 2.021. Since the t value was higher than the t-critical value on the table, the improvement was said to be significant. CONCLUSION After conducting the research, there are two points which can be taken as the conclusion: (1) The implementation of Three Phase Technique in the class was successful. It is argued that three phase technique could improve students‟ reading comprehension in narrative text. The students easily comprehend the text without depends on their friends. They could analyze the generic structure of narrative text well. In addition, using Three Phases Technique in teaching reading narrative could lead the students eagerly shared their opinion about the text. Moreover, they attract to read the whole text by using three phases technique in reading text. These could be drawn from the mean of the pre-test and the post-test. The mean of the pre test was 58.48 and the post test was 83.89. By using t test, the significant improvement of Ajideh, Parziv. Schema Theory Ana Setiyaningsih / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 8 the students‟ ability in reading narrative text was 5.70. (2) The students‟ participation during teaching and learning process had good improvement. The students were enthusiastic in delivering their questions to the teacher. 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