Parmawati & Yugafiati : Using authentic…. 1 USING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING INTEREST (A Classroom Action Research in the Second Semester Students of STKIP Siliwangi Bandung) Aseptiana Parmawati aseptianaparmawati@gmail.com Rasi Yugafiati tanya.rasiyugafiati@gmail.com STKIP SILIWANGI BANDUNG ABSTRACT Reading is a complex process that involves generation and getting information, analyzing meaning, and making any decision about content.To improve the students’ learning interest toward reading skill, the lecturer need to know how to teach reading effectively, and what instructional materials is the most suitable for their students. Output required of this research as a scientific publication in local journal that have ISSN. The researchers identify some problems, such as: 1) Doesteaching reading using Authentic Material improve the students’ reading interest?, 2) How is the teaching and learning situation when Authentic Material implemented in the reading class?. From the result of pre-test, we found that the result of students’ reading was under average and still far from what was expected.The finding was supported by the result of students’ reading scores. The average score of pre test was 60.57. After the implementation of Authentic Material in every cycle, the students’ reading score were getting better. It can be seen from the result of students’ average score Cycle 1 was 64.00 and Cycle 2 was 80.87. It can be concluded that Authentic Material can improve students’ reading interest and Authentic Material can improve reading classroom into a better situation. Keywords: Authentic Material, Reading Interest, CAR A. INTRODUCTION One of the purposes of teaching English as a foreign language to Indonesian people is that they can read, grasp the idea, and understand the book written in English. To achieve those purposes, students need a lot of words of English to master. It shows that English has an important role for learner to communicate in their daily life in globalization era and to develop their communication. English teaching and learning is aimed at mastering the four language skills. Namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of the language skills is reading. Harmer (1998: 70) states that, reading is an incredibly active occupation. it means that by reading students are able to understand about something. It could be said that reading is a way to know, to feel, and to understand about the world. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has nowadays become a well recognized approach in the second language teaching. Canale and Swain in Brown (2011: 246) mailto:aseptianaparmawati@gmail.com mailto:tanya.rasiyugafiati@gmail.com ELTIN Journal, Vol 5/1, April 2017 2 states that communicative competence includes four areas of knowledge and skills. These skills refer to the ability to appropriately produce and understand utterances in a meaningful choice of words in any kinds of contexT. Reading is a complex process that involves generation and getting information, analyzing meaning, and making any decision about content. In other words, reading is an open discovery. Reading is a good thing in life because it is a factor of great importance in the individual development and the most important activity in education area. It is needed in every level of field of study. Learning interest, as a supporting element of learning, plays a very important role in teaching and learning process. Students with high learning interest usually perform better than those with low learning interest. The students with high learning interest usually work harder than those with low learning interest. They tend to have low learning interest because of some factors. They are: (1) the teaching materials are far from their surroundings; (2) the teaching materials are monotonous; (3) the class is dominated by the lecturer; and (4) the students do not have opportunity to develop their communicative competence. It seems that the students’ low learning interest is mainly caused by the teaching materials used in the class by the lecturers. In reality, most of the students in second semester at STKIP Siliwangi face some problems related to reading skill. They have difficulties in comprehending reading text. They tend to have low learning interest because of some factors : (1) the teaching materials are far from their surroundings; (2) the teaching materials are monotonous; (3) the class is dominated by lecturer; and (4) the students do not have opportunity to develop their communicative competence. Therefore, lecturers should be able to provide the students with the teaching materials which can increase the students’ learning interest. To improve the students’ learning interest toward reading skill, the lecturer need to know the nature of reading, how to teach reading effectively, and what instructional materials is the most suitable for their students, in addition to pedagogical competencies. Based on the ideas above, the researcher is interested in conducting a research entitled “ USING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING INTEREST (A Classroom Action Research in the Second Semester Students of STKIP Siliwangi Bandung)” The objectives of the study are: 1. Finding out whether or not teaching reading using Authentic Material improves the students’ reading interest. 2. Finding out the teaching and learning situation when Authentic Materialis implemented in the reading class Parmawati & Yugafiati : Using authentic…. 3 B.LITERATURE REVIEW 1.The Nature of Reading Comprehension Reading is the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via the medium of print (Widdowson in Urquhart, 1998: 17). Further, Urquhart (1998: 14) states that reading means dealing with language message in written or printed form. Reading can be defined loosely as the ability to make sense of written and printed symbols. Comprehension is the goal of reading. Bartram and Parry in Regina state that many students who read in a foreign language think, “reading means understanding and/or translating every word”. Good readers do not always try to understand every word, and especially the first time they read for comprehension.The primary purpose for reading is sometimes overlooked when students are asked to read difficult text; raising student’s awareness of main ideas in a text and exploring the organization of a text are essential for good comprehension (Richards, 2002: 277). 2. Levels of Reading Comprehension Burns (1996: 177) divides reading comprehension into four levels. They are: literal comprehension, interpretive comprehension, critical reading, and creative reading. The basis ofliteral comprehension is recognizing stated main ideas, details causes and effect, and sequences. It is important because it is a prerequisite for higher level of understanding. The second level is interpretive comprehension. Here, the skill include : (1) inferring the main ideas of passage in which the main idea are not directly stated; (2) inferring the cause and effect relationship when they are not directly stated; (3) inferring referent of pronouns; (4) inferring referent of adverb; (5) inferring the omit words and (6) drawing conclusion. The third is critical reading. It is evaluating written material, comparing the ideas discovered with known standard and drawing conclusion about their accuracy, appropriateness and timeliness. The critical reading must be an active reader, questioning, searching for the facts, and suspending the judgment until he or she considered all materials. The last level is creating reading. It involves going beyond the material presented by authors. It requires readers to think as they read. To help the students acquire the skill of reading creatively, lecturers should model the thought process involved. 3. The Nature of Authentic Materials Authentic materials refer to the use of texts, photographs, video selections, and other teaching resources that were not specially prepared for pedagogical purposes in teaching. The advantages of authentic materials are stated by Philips and Shettlesworth; Clarke; Peacock in Richards (2001: 252) as follows: a. They have a positive effect on learner motivation, because they are itrinsically more interesting and motivating than created materials. There is a huge supply of interesting sources for language learning that relate closely to the interest of many language learners. b. They provide authentic cultural information about the target language. Materials can be selected to illustrate many aspects of the target language culture, including culturally based practices and belief and both linguistic and non linguistic behavior. ELTIN Journal, Vol 5/1, April 2017 4 c. They provide exposure to real language rather than the artificial texts found in created materials that have been specially written to illustrate particular grammatical rules or discourse types. d. They relate closely to the learners needs and hence provide a link between the classroom and students' needs in the real world. e. They support a more creative approach to teaching. In using authentic materials as a source for teaching activities, lecturer can develop their full potential as lecturers, developing activities and tasks that better match their teaching styles and the learning styles of their students. 4. Learning Interest Interest is an important thing in one’s activity in the daily life, includingin the field of education. According to Witherington, interest is one’s consciousness that an object, person, problem or situation has relation to him. James says: ”Interest is a form of selective awareness or attention that produces meaning out of the mass of one’s experiences”. Based on the definition of interest above, it can be stated that some aspects of interest are: a. Interest is active psyche intentness. b. Interest is always in accordance with consciousness or awareness, willingness, pleasure, and attention. c. Consciousness, willingness, pleasure, and attention are potential factors that enable the individual to reach objects from his/her environment. From the definition above, it is constructed that interest is an active psychological intentness that relates to consciousness, willingness, attention, and pleasure to respond a given object that attracts people. C.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research conducted in the second semester students at STKIP Siliwangi. The campus is located at jl.Terusan Jenderal Sudirman no.3, Baros Cimahi Tengah, West Java.There are three steps in this research: preparation, implementation, analysis of the data, and research report. The details of each activity are as follows: This research used Collaborative Classroom Action Research(Wiriaatmaja, Rochiati. 2005). This researchcomposed for two or more cycles then itobserved and evaluated to identify all facts including the success and the failure of the action. It means that the action should be stopped or continued and revised to the next cycle based on the selected criteria of success. The techniques of collecting data in this research can be seen in the following table: 6 Parmawati & Yugafiati : Using authentic…. 5 N X M   Table 1 Technique of Collecting Data Technique Target Purpose Data Observation Students To watch and record action Field note Lecturer’s diary Teaching and Learning activity Lecturer Questionnaire Students To get response in non-face-to-face Interaction Questionnaire scoring Test Students To get information About the current and previous mark, judgment and situation Reading scores The score analyzed with comparing the mean of each test to find out the improvement of students’ achievement in reading. The type of data is in the form of qualitative data. The data will be analyzed by using the constant comparative method as suggested by Strauss and Glasser in Lincoln and Guba (2013). The process includes the following steps: 1. Observe the students during the reading process, starting from pre-reading activities by using observation sheet. The observation sheet contains some indicators that show the students’ interest. 2. Analyze the result of the interview to find out the information about the implementation of Authentic Material in teaching reading. 3. Analyze the result of the questionnaire to know the students personal impression about the use of Authentic Material in teaching reading 4. Analyze the students’ reading progress based on the result of analytic scoring rubric. There are six elements to score the students’ comprehension skills , they are main idea, facts, context, sequence, inference, and conclusion. The value of each element ranged from 1 to 5. The final score is one hundred derived from the maximum of range score times the total score of each element is one hundred. After analyzing the scores of the reading test, we use statistical technique to find the mean score. The formula to find the mean as stated by Ngadiso (2013: 5-7) is follows: M=Mean score X = Total score N = Total students If the mean score increases, the students’ reading interest is considered improving. ELTIN Journal, Vol 5/1, April 2017 6 D.FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION There are two sections in this research. Section A relates to the research which includes the condition before the research, and section B relates to the research which includes the condition after the research. Section A Table 2Result of Pre-research Issues Indicators Students’ reading interest 1. Low achievement in reading 2. Difficulty to choose topic, theme, and main idea of the text 3. Does not know reading elements 4. Low reading level Classroom situation 1. Not alive atmosphere 2. Low participation of students 3. Lecturer domination 4. Limited reading practice 5. Low exploration of students’ potentials Based on Table 2 above, there are two issues: Students’ reading interest and Classroom situation. Students’ reading interest has four indicators. There are: low achievement in reading; difficulty to choose topic, theme, and main idea of the text; does not know reading elements; and low reading level. Classroom situation has five indicators. There are:not alive atmosphere, low participation of students, lecturer domination, limited reading practice, low exploration of students’ potentials. Section B As long as the researchers applied “Authentic Material” in reading class, the researchers find that “ Authentic Material” can improve the students’ reading interest at the second semester studets of STKIP SILIWANGI in the academic year of 2016/2017. The result of each cycle can be seen on the table below: Table 3 Result of Cycle 1 Issues Indicators Students’ reading interest 1. Active in doing the task, brave to tell the ideas in group 2. Could perform the text (topic sentence is achieved) but they made mistake to find topic, theme, and main idea of the text 3. Still low in reading level Classroom situation 1. Alive, crowded in conducting the group work 2. Enjoyable for various types of activities Based on Table 3 above, there are two issues: Students’ reading interest and Classroom situation. Students’ reading interest has three indicators. there are: active in doing the task, brave to tell the ideas in group; could perform the text (topic sentence is achieved) but they made mistake to find topic, theme, and main idea of the text; and still low in reading level.Classroom situation has two indicators. There are: Alive, crowded in conducting the group work; and enjoyable for various types of activities. Parmawati & Yugafiati : Using authentic…. 7 Table 4 Result of Cycle 2 Issues Indicators Students’ reading interest 1. Students showed improvement in reading interest 2. Students’ self-confidence was increased 3. Students were not afraid of making mistakes 4. Ability in describing text was increased Classroom situation 1. More alive 2. The enjoyment indoing the tasks was indreased Based on Table 4 above, there are two issues: Students’ reading interest and Classroom situation. Students’ reading interest has four indicators. there are: Students showed improvement in reading interest; Students’ self-confidence was increased; Students were not afraid of making mistakes; and Ability in describing text was increased. Classroom situation has two indicators. There are: More alive; and the enjoyment in doing the tasks was increased. E.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Having conducted the research in using Authentic Material to improve students’ reading interest, it can be drawn some conclusions as follows: 1. Authentic Material can improve students’ reading interest. The improvement of students’ reading interest can be identified from the improvement of reading achievement. It shows that there is a comparison between the students’ reading interest during the intervention and the performance criteria of success. 2. Authentic Material can improve reading classroom into a better situation. They were motivated in joining reading class. Their motivation is reflected in their efforts in providing sources – the information materials – to support their reading interest. 3. The strength of the implementation of Authentic Material in reading classroom is that can rise student’s participation in reading class and it can enhance students’ readinginterest. And researcher would also propose some suggestion as follow : 1. For lecturer a. Before conducting the teaching and learning process, it is recommended to implement the plan for other rhetoric modes like cause-effect, logical division, classification, and others. b. Lecturer should be able to recognize the students’ potential and problem to choose the right method to apply in reading class. c. Lecturer should be creative to use various method in teaching reading. d. The reading activity should be enjoyable because the enjoyment will increase students’ participation in reading class. 2. For students a. Students should realize that reading is not as difficult as they think. There are many ways to be able to read, as long as they want work hard. b. Students should realize that they have potentials to be good reader. They should open themselves to any chances of self-development in reading. c. Students should not feel confuse in reading. Besides, they do not have to be afraid of making mistakes because making mistakes is a part of learning. ELTIN Journal, Vol 5/1, April 2017 8 F. REFERENCES Brown, H Douglas. (2011). Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. San Francisco University: Longman. Burn, Anne. (1999). Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teacher. London: Cambridge University Press. Harmer, Jeremy. (1998). How to teach English: An Introduction to Practise of English Language teaching. England: Longman. Ngadiso. 2013. StatisticMateri Matakuliah Pascasarjana UNS Surakarta. Richards. JC. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. Strauss, A & Cobin, J. (2013) Basics of Qualitative Research Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques.Newbury Park, CA: Oxford Journal Publication. Urguhart, Sandy and Wair, Cyrill. 1998. Reading in A Second Language Process. Product and Practice. London: Longman Wiriaatmaja, Rochiati. 2005. Metode Penelitian Tindakan Kelas. PT Remaja Rosdakarya. Bandung