The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code The Effectiveness Of Know–Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy in Teaching Reading Comprehension Husnaini Husnaini0884@gmail.com Junior High School Number 8 Palopo Received : 27 Oktober 2018; Accepted : 28 November 2018 URL : http://ejournal.iainpalopo.ac.id/index.php/ideas Abstract The objectives of the research is to find out whether or not the use of KWL strategy is more effective than non KWL strategy in improving students’ interpretive comprehension. The research applied quasi experimental design in which the researcher used two groups namely experimental group with treatment by using KWL strategy and control group non KWL strategy. The subject of this research was the eighth grade students of SMP Neg. 9 Palopo with the number of sample is 60 students, 30 students in experimental group and 30 students in control group. The researcher gave pretest before treatment to both groups and gave treatment to experimental group in six meetings and the last the researcher gave posttest. The data were collected through reading comprehension test in objective test form. The research result indicated that the use of KWL strategy is more effective than non KWL strategy in improving students’ interpretive comprehension. It was proven by the t-test of students’ posttest on this level of comprehension between experimental and control group where Probability value was lower than alpha (.000<0.05). It indicates that null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted because P-value < α. Keywords: Know-Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy, Interpretive Comprehension. 36 Copyright © 2018 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 6, Number 2, December 2018 pp. 36 – 8 http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:Husnaini0884@gmail.com IDEAS, Vol. 6, No. 1, December 2018 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Introduction Reading comprehension is a problem for those whose native language is not English. However, students have to read English texts and journals, since most scientific and technical knowledge is recorded in this language. The problem can be alleviated through strategy or method used by teacher in the classroom that will enable the students to cope with English text on various subjects as stated by William (1991) that part of teacher’s job is to develop within the learner strategies that will help him in this struggle. The role of teacher is as resource manager, by means of working with individuals or groups, pointing out, explaining, and encouraging students to be aware of, discussing with them, describing and developing their own learning strategies. Alwasilah (2000) says that effective teaching should promote learning that implies a teaching technique in the hands of poor EFL teacher does not create learning-no change in the students’ language behavior or even worse, discourages them from learning the target language. EFL teacher is advised to equip themselves with methods and techniques of teaching, as well as professionalism to use them. KWL is a good strategy that can be used to teach reading. As Ogle (1986) states that KWL charts are especially helpful as a pre-reading strategy when reading expository text and may also serve as an assessment of what students have learned during a unit of study. William (1991) states that pre-reading activities can motivate students and arouse their interest in the topic of presented reading text. Jennifer (2006: 150) states that KWL strategy serves several purposes, those are: to elicit students’ prior knowledge of the topic of the text, to set a purpose for reading; to help students to monitor their comprehension; to allow students assessing their comprehension of the text; and to provide an opportunity for students to expand ideas beyond the text. According to Jennifer (2006) there are some steps how to use KWL strategy, they are: 1) Choosing a text; 2) Creating a KWL chart. 3) Asking students to brainstorm words, terms, or phrases they associate with a topic. 4) Asking students what they want to learn about the topic, 5) Having students read the text and fill out the L column of their charts, 6) Discussing the information that students recorded in the L column, 7) Encouraging students to research any questions in the W column that were not answered by the text. Method In this research, the researcher applied quasi-experimental design in the form of nonequivalent control group design. The experimental group received treatment (using KWL strategy) and the control one received the conventional teaching. Both groups were given pretest and posttest. The researcher gave pretest and posttest to both of the two groups. The Pretest was carried out to find out the prior knowledge of students while posttest was done to find out the 37 Husnaini: The Effectiveness of Know–Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy in Teaching Reading Comprehension effect of the treatment on the students’ reading comprehension achievement. The scores of both the Pretest and Posttest were compared to determine the students’ improvement on English reading comprehension by applying KWL strategy. The design was formulated as follows : EG O1X1¬O2 CG O1X1¬O2 (Adapted from Gay, et al., 2006) Figure 1 Research Design Notation: EG = Experimental group O1 = Pretest CG = Control group O2 = Posttest X1 = The treatment by using KWL strategy X2 = The treatment by using non-KWL strategy (conventional) The population of this research was the first semester of the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 9 Palopo academic year 2011/2012. This population consisted of six classes with the total number was 180 students. Each class consisted of 30 students. In taking the sample, the researcher used cluster random sampling technique. The researcher took two classes as the sample that became experimental group and control group. The number of the sample for each class was 30 students, thus the total number of the sample was 60 students. It means that researcher selected group rather than individual. The instrument employed in this research was reading comprehension test. The test consisted of two kinds of test: pretest and posttest. The instrument was intended to measure the students’ achievement of language skill particularly reading comprehension. The model of reading comprehension test was objective test. The procedures of collecting data from both experimental and control groups were presented in chronological order as follows: 1. Pretest Both experimental and control groups were given Pretest. This test was delivered by answering the questions in the form of multiple choices. It is intended to identify the students’ prior knowledge or to see the reading comprehension achievement of students before the treatment. 2. Treatment The researcher gave treatment by using Know-Want-Learn (KWL) strategy for experimental group and using conventional teaching for control group. The reading texts that used in every single meeting were the same for both groups. The researcher gave treatment to the students for six meetings in which each meeting lasts for 80 minutes. a. Experimental group In experimental group, the researcher gave treatment by applying KWL strategy in the form of group diccussion in learning reading comprehension. The treatments of the research were conducted for six meetings. 38 IDEAS, Vol. 6, No. 1, December 2018 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) b. Control Group The control group was taught with conventional way for five meetings. This group learned the same kind of reading material namely expository text with the same comprehension levels were measured as experimental group. The process of traditional way in this control group was done by explaining the objectives of the teaching and learning process to the students, introduced the topic of the reading text and asked the students to read the text. 3. Posttest After doing treatments for six meetings, the posttest was given to the students. The result of pretest and posttest were calculated in order to measure whether or not the students got progress by using KWL strategy in improving students’ reading comprehension and conventional strategy. The Posttest was similar with the Pretest. Before analyzing the data, the researcher collected and analyzed the data by using the following procedures: 1) Scoring and converting the students’ answers of pretest and posttest; 2) Classifying the scores of the students’ answer. The scores were classified into seven level classifications which adapted to the scoring system from Depdiknas (2006:38); 3) Calculating the mean score of the students’ answer. To find out the mean score, standard deviation and the t-test value between the pretest and the posttest of both experimental and control group, the researcher used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 17.0. (Gay et al, 2006:378). Results The findings that the researcher reports in this chapter are based on the analysis of data collected by using tests, they were pretest and posttest for both experimental and control groups. a. Students' reading comprehension achievement on interpretive level The tabulation data for the students' achievement on interpretive level of both groups in overall can be seen as follows: Table 1. Students’ reading comprehension achievement on interpretive level of experimental and control groups: Experimental Control Pretest Posttest Sig.(2- tailed) Pretest Posttest Sig.(2- tailed) Mean 44.00 65.33 .000 46.00 47.67 .258 Table 1. shown that there was a significant difference between the mean score pretest and posttest in experimental group. The mean score of the students' posttest in experimental group was 65.33. It means that the mean 39 Husnaini: The Effectiveness of Know–Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy in Teaching Reading Comprehension score of pretest is lower than posttest (44.00 < 65.33). In other words, there was a significant improvement after conducting the treatment of KWL strategy. While the mean score of the students' posttest in control group was 47.67. It means that the mean score of the posttest was increased than before, but it was still lower than the mean score of experimental group (65.33 > 47.67). It is concluded that KWL strategy is much better than non KWL strategy in improving students' reading comprehension on interpretive level. This result is relevant with the statement of Billerica (2005) that students can comprehend the interpretive level when they are able to rearrange the ideas or topic discussed in the text summarize the main idea when this is not explicitly stated in the text, and also make clear conclusion which can be deduced from the text they have read. b. Students' reading comprehension achievement on extrapolative level The tabulation data for the students' achievement on extrapolative level of both groups in overall can be seen as follows: Table 2. Students’ reading comprehension achievement on extrapolative level of experimental and control groups Experimental Control Pretest Posttest Sig.(2- tailed) Pretest Posttest Sig.(2- tailed) Mean 40.33 62.00 .000 40.00 44.00 .005 Table 2.shows that there was significant difference between the mean score of pretest and posttest in experimental group. The mean score of the students' posttest in experimental group was 62.00. It means that the mean score of pretest is lower than posttest (40.33 < 62.00). In other words, there was significant improvement after conducting the treatment by using KWL strategy. While the mean score of the students' posttest in control group was 44.00. It means that the mean score of pretest lower than the posttest (40.00 < 44.00) as shown in Table 4.21, in control group there was also the improvement but it was not as significant as experimental group. Most of students are still in poor and very poor classification. After comparing the result of the experimental and control group, the researcher concluded that KWL strategy is better than non- KWL strategy in improving students' reading comprehension on extrapolative level. This conclusion is with the statement of Ogle, (1986) that KWL charts help students to be active thinkers while they read, giving them specific things to look 40 IDEAS, Vol. 6, No. 1, December 2018 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) for and having them reflect on what they learned when they are finished reading. Conclusion KWL strategy is more effective than non-KWL strategy in improving students’ interpretive reading comprehension. It was proven by the posttest mean score on interpretive level of both group, there was a significant difference between the result of posttest of experimental and control group. The mean score of posttest of experimental group was higher than the mean score of posttest of control group (65.33 > 47.67). While the mean scores of pretest of both groups were not significantly different, where the mean score of pretest of experimental group was 44.00 and the mean score of pretest of control group was 46.00. The final score of probability value (sig. 2 tailed) in students reading comprehension was lower than alpha (.000 > 0.05). KWL strategy is more effective than non-KWL strategy in improving students’ extrapolative reading comprehension. It was proven by the posttest mean score on extrapolative level of both group, there was a significant difference between the result of posttest of experimental and control group. The mean score of posttest of experimental group was higher than the mean score of posttest of control group (62.00 > 44.00). While the mean scores of pretest of both groups were not significantly different, where the mean score of pretest of experimental group was 40.33 and the mean score of pretest of control group was 40.33. The final score of probability value (sig. 2 tailed) in students reading comprehension was lower than alpha (.000 > 0.05). Referring to the conclusion of the research, some suggestion could be given. First, It is suggested that the teacher of SMP N 9 Palopo and other teachers to apply KWL strategy as one of the alternative way to improve students reading comprehension. It is suggested to other researchers to conduct a research on other moderator variables such as reading motivation, reading self-efficacy, or reading interest. Lastly, as this research was only limited on hortatory exposition text, it s suggested to other researcher to attempt conducting a research about students’ reading comprehension on other kinds of the texts like narrative, report, descriptive, discussion or review. References William, Edie. 1991. Reading in the Language Classroom. London: Modern English Publisher. Alwasilah, Chaedar. 2000. Politik Bahasa dan Pendidikan. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya Ogle, Donna M. 1986. KWL : A Teaching Model that Develop Active Reading the Heading Teacher. Evanston: Illinois (1986) 41 Husnaini: The Effectiveness of Know–Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy in Teaching Reading Comprehension Jennifer, Conner. 2006. Instructional Reading Strategy: KWL (Know, Want To Know, Learned) URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~l517/KWL.htm Comments: jmconner@indiana.edu Accessed on January (2011) Gay, L.R., E. Millis, Peter Airasian. 2006. Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application. New Jersey. Prentise Hall Depdiknas. 2006. Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris. Jakarta: Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan Billerica, North. 2005. Building Levels of Comprehension: Multiple – choice and short- Response Reading Questions. New Jersey: Curriculum Associates, Inc. 42