















































135 
 

JOURNAL OF ENGLISH EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY 

Vol. 01 No. 02, June 2020, pp. 135 - 153 

Available online at:  

http://jeet.fkdp.or.id/index.php/jeet/issue/current 

ISSN: 2721-3811 (media online) 

 

Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension Skill Using Fable Story Text 

(A Study First Grade of MTs Miftahul Ulum GondangRejo GondangWetan Pasuruan) 

Ulfah Romdoni 1, Salamun2 

Students of Institut Keislaman Abdullah Faqih Gresik1 

Students of Universitas Islam Malang2 

ulfahromdoni@gmail.com1, salamjamal45@gmail.com2  

 

Abstract 
This study is to examine: (1) to describe the implementation of using fable story to improve reading 

comprehension skill at the first grade of Mts Miftahul Ulum Gondang Rejo Gondang Wetan Pasuruan. (2) To 

know the students’ responses in reading comprehension skill by using fable story at first grade of MTs Miftahul 

Ulum Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan. The researcher is carried out at Mts Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan on 23 April 2019, the method used for the research is descriptive 

qualitative. The data collection technique which is used in this research is observation checklist; it is used to 

obtain the data of the implementation of the fabled story to improve reading comprehension skill. The result 

of students responses that are taken from the interview, most of them gave positive reactions in reading 

comprehension skill by using fable story. And from the score of daily assessment, there are 13 students from 20 

students answer the researcher’s question by the excellent answer in the 1 st meeting and 15 students from 20 

students respond in the 2nd meeting. It's mean that the responses students of MTs Miftahul Ulum Gondangrejo 

Gondangwetan Pasuruan are interested in the implementation of fable story to be the source of learning 

reading comprehension skill. Finally, the research can support further researcher. And it is recommended for 

the English teacher to apply fable story as a source in teaching reading comprehension skill. Moreover, 

students can comprehend simple text easily. 

 Keywords: Fable Story, Reading Comprehension Skill. 

 

http://jeet.fkdp.or.id/index.php/jeet/issue/current
http://u.lipi.go.id/1580741566
mailto:ulfahromdoni@gmail.com1
mailto:salamjamal45@gmail.com


136 
 

I. INTRODUCTION 

Reading is an activity done by people to 

get information out of a text. The texts, 

which have been adapted for level 

appropriateness, allow students to build 

essential reading skills while they examine 

crucial topics in their lives (Richards & 

Eckstut-Didier, 2011). It has been known 

that students tend to face written texts every 

day. The Written documents could be found 

in magazines, newspaper, books, articles on 

paper and internet, and other kinds of 

printed materials. Those Written texts give 

so much information for learners. In some 

schools, documents are widely presented in 

the learners’ textbooks. 

Furthermore, Hadyan states that the 

purpose of teaching reading in the context of 

English learning is comprehension. Reading 

comprehension is the process by which we 

understand the text we read. It is the 

purpose of reading, why we teach it, and why 

we care about it (Hadyan, 2013; Miquel & 

Duran, 2017). Therefore students who have 

excellent comprehension skills can learn and 

understand the text easily. Academic reading 

comprehension is also used to test a 

student’s ability to read critically. These 

higher-order skills are tested not only in 

language exams and comprehension 

exercises but also in other subjects such as 

literature, geography, history and biology 

(Paulson & Holschuh, 2018). Reading 

comprehension is also one of the necessary 

competencies which are related to the goal of 

the 2013 curriculum, namely to create the 

genre-based character building (Aziz, 2019). 

In the curriculum, reading is one of the 

essential skills in English teaching, which 

must be mastered by language learners in 

Indonesia, especially for students’ of junior 

high school. Thereby, they can join the 

language teaching and learning process well. 

Moreover, teaching reading 

comprehension aims to help students to be a 

good reader. Good readers make sense of the 

text by processing the information quickly 

efficiently and automatically (Aziz, 2019). By 

knowing this evidence, the English teacher 

has to prepare students to be able to 

comprehend the book, but many students 

get bored when they start to read. There are 

many experiences which have been shown 

that the students often get failed in 

comprehending a reading text. Therefore, 

students get bored in learning reading 

comprehension and lose their motivation in 

reading comprehension activity. In 

considering the teaching reading 

comprehension skill, an English teacher has 

the critical role in the classroom to encourage 

the students to be motivated in reading 

comprehension skill, especially for them who 

are in the first of junior high school. The 

English teacher must be able to encourage 

the students to make reading as their habit 

and also make them accustomed to reading 

in the classroom activity, from the actions 

which were found. 



137 
 

Language learning has been divided 

some levels of language learners that we 

know as teaching across proficiency level; 

there are teaching beginning levels, 

intermediate levels and advanced levels. In 

this research, the researcher chooses a 

beginning level because this level is intended 

for students who are at a beginning level 

English program in junior high school, 

college or higher education. Especially for 

them who are in the first of junior high 

school.  

To make the young learners enthusiastic 

in learning reading comprehension, the 

English teachers can apply some storybooks. 

In this grade, they are must be able to 

understand the simple text. And in the 

process of teaching-learning reading 

comprehension which has been used by the 

English teacher, like as, fable story. Fable 

is one in all the narrative texts. Narrative 

text functions to entertain readers or 

listeners. The task is to instruct the readers 

or listeners in these problems should be 

confronted and attempts made to resolve 

them. A fable is the short animal tale, most 

often told or written with moral tagged on in 

the form of a proved. Fable story is one of the 

Narrative texts that should be learned by 

students. And its new writing and the 

students can learn from it. And many schools 

have used the teaching method of using fable 

story, one of them is Mts Miftahul Ulum 

Gondang Rejo Gondang Wetan Pasuruan.  

II. LITERATURE REVIEW 

A. Understanding Reading 

Reading is one of the skills that students 

should learn. The learners have to be able to 

read the text effectively and efficiently to get 

information from the source (Mislaini, n.d.). 

Reading is a process of interactive that goes 

on between the reader and therefore, the text 

(Aziz, 2019), resulting in incomprehension. 

It means that reading has an active and 

interactive process, although it is receptive. 

Trough reading, the reader, get information 

from the text and it is a process of 

negotiating to understand between the 

writer and reader. It means, the reader can 

feel what the writers think when reading 

(Maman & Rajab, 2016). Although there 

have been several definitions of reading, it is 

not easy to define learning in one sentence. 

In summary, reading is an active process 

between the writer, text and the reader. 

There are interactions between them during 

reading. Communication between the writer 

and the version is conducted by the writer in 

which he uses language (semantic, syntactic 

and phonological) to produce text that 

conveys meaning. Then the interaction 

between the reader and the book happens 

when the reader tries to make sense of the 

text to get the writer’s intended purpose 

through their background knowledge (Kim 

& Piper, 2019). Therefore, in this case, the 

researcher presents the nature of Reading 

comprehension skill, the process of reading 



138 
 

and the importance of reading. Reading 

comprehension skill is a very complex task 

involving many different skills. Thinking in 

English, reading does not just understand the 

words or grammar. Thinking, to read well in 

English, you must believe in English (Ceylan 

& Harputlu, 2015). 

Reading comprehension skill is the act 

of understanding of a text. For many 

students, Reading comprehension Skill is a 

problem, but since they can read in their 

language. They tend to attribute their 

difficulties in comprehension of the English 

language, or they may feel that fault lies in 

their stupidity (Mikulecky & Jeffries, 1997). 

Reading comprehension skill can be seen as 

the ability to find the stated or unstated 

writer’s idea in the text. The essence of 

reading comprehension skill is to understand 

all the information delivered by the writer. It 

also refers to the ability to connect between 

the words in a text, to understand text ideas 

and the relationships between ideas 

conveyed in writing (Bell, 2001).  It also can 

be said that reading is not only the process of 

getting the written symbols to correspond to 

one’s spoken language, but it is also the 

process of making the meaning of words, 

sentences and connected text called 

comprehension. 

In classroom activity, the English 

teacher practices the reading activities into 

three interrelated stages. In teaching 

sequence for guided reading, the activities a 

divided as follows: before reading, during 

reading and after reading text. 

B. The Kinds of Fable Story 

In teaching process of reading 

comprehension skill, the English teacher 

needs source from storybook to support the 

teaching and learning as alike fable story. It 

is commonly believed that the use of fable 

story can make teaching and learning reading 

comprehension skill to be exciting, and the 

students enjoy. Especially in the teaching 

process of reading comprehension skill here, 

the English teacher used the fabled story. 

Fable story is a Folk tale. The folk tale is a 

short story that has been passed down from 

generation to generation. The kinds of a folk 

tale:  

1. Legend is a folktale that usually has some 

connection to a real historical person or 

event, combining factual and fictional 

elements. Examples: Robin Hood, King 

Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. 

2. Fairy Tale is a folktale that takes place in 

a magical land ruled by royalty, and the 

characters are either good or evil — 

examples: Cinderella, Snow White, 

Beauty and the Beast. 

3. Myth is a folktale that explains 

something about the world, such as 

frightening or mysterious natural forces 

— examples: Orpheus, Venus, the Midas 

Touch. 

4. Tall Tale is a folktale with unbelievable 

exaggerations told as if it were true and 



139 
 

meant to be humorous. Examples: Pecos 

Bill, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed  

5. Fable: a short folktale that involves 

personified animals and teaches a lesson 

or moral. Case of Aesop’s Fables, The 

Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who 

Cried, Wolf. 

A fable is a short story that conveys a 

moral education (Meyer, Haring, Brandt, & 

Walker, 1980). Sometimes, the animals' 

characters that act and talk like animals. A 

fable is additionally a short story 

illustrating an ethical. Unlike the parables, 

fables include talking animals or animated 

objects because of the principal characters. 

Fables are moral tales, often involving 

animals that represent people. They reveal 

human experiences and show conflicts over 

the issue. They are generally short and 

concise stories. Fables communicate some 

moral message typically through the 

depiction of animals, who speak or otherwise 

take on human characteristics. An allegory is 

another style of story, also passed down from 

generation to generation and told to show a 

lesson about something. The parable is about 

animals that may talk and act like people, or 

plants or forces of nature like the devil or 

wind. The plants could also be able to move 

and even speak, and also the natural forces 

cause things to happen within 

the story thanks to their strength. The 

first famous fables were written by a 

person called Aesop. We all know them as 

Aesop’s fable, and he wrote more than 600 of 

them. The parable is flexible enough to 

implement a wide variety of security policies, 

including access control, information flow, 

provenance, and security automata. The 

story, a core formalism for language in which 

programmers may specify security policies 

and reason that these policies are properly 

enforced (Swamy, Corcoran, & Hicks, 2008). 

Fable Definition: Literary genre that is a brief 

allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, 

illustrating a moral thesis or satirising 

human beings. The characters of a fable are 

animals who talk and act like people while 

retaining their animal traits. Examples: 

Aesop’s Fables, The Tortoise and the Hare, 

The Boy Who Cried Wolf; The city Mouse 

and the Country Mouse; The Lion and the 

Mouse 

C. Fable Story as the Source of Reading 

Comprehension Skill 

Fable story that shows or suggest the 

relationship between objects and or people 

can be perfect for introduction, practising or 

reviewing grammatical structures. Students 

increase the vocabulary and reading 

comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons 

about ethics and behaviour, become familiar 

with the principal elements and parts of a 

story, and acquire cultural literacy (Naidoo, 

2011). In teaching and learning process, most 

of the students, especially students of first of 

junior high school usually last of motivation 

to study English and not all of the students 

like fable story. The English teacher thinks 

that fabled story is an appropriate one as a 



140 
 

source in teaching achieves the aim of 

reading comprehension skill based on the 

curriculum. Besides that, fable story is one of 

the sound causes which can help students to 

understand the lesson quickly, and it can 

make the students enjoy in teaching and 

learning process. 

The English teacher hopes that fabled 

story is helpful in teaching reading 

comprehension skill to improve the student’s 

ability. For instance, the English teacher asks 

the students to read the story. And then to 

increase students’ reading comprehension 

skill about the materials by giving fable story, 

applying text structures and linguistic 

elements to carry out a social function for 

declaring and asking about the ability and 

willingness to act, according to the context 

of its use (Widodo, 2016). 

So that they not only can read but also 

students can understanding discovering 

main ideas, identifying main detail, 

knowledge vocabulary and summarising 

concepts. So the English teacher asks the 

students to guess the difficult word, it makes 

them active during the teaching and learning 

processing. This fable story is considered as 

one of the aids which can simulate the 

students. And to interesting interned read 

book story. 

D. Reading Comprehension Skills to the 

students of Junior High School  

English as a foreign language is taught in 

all school in Indonesia. It has been taught in 

education institution level. Especially in the 

first grade of junior high school. 

In teaching reading comprehension skill, 

the English teacher should have the ability to 

guide students in learning reading 

comprehension skill. The way to teach 

reading to the students first of junior high 

school is not easy for an English teacher 

because the students have different 

characteristics. Curriculum as the 

foundation of teaching and learning process 

covers subject matters and students’ learning 

experience from inside and outside of school 

(Subandi, n.d.). 

Reading comprehension is also one of 

the necessary competencies which are 

related to the goal of the 2013 curriculum, 

namely to create the genre-based character 

building. The curriculum of 2013 is not 

implemented in every school in Indonesia. 

The curriculum of 2013 is used as the guide 

for the teaching and learning 

implementation in all levels of the 

educational institution, including a primary 

school and High School. This new reform is 

believed as the one more effective in 

enhancing the learning process than the 

current curriculum. The English book of 2013 

curriculum for students guide are prepared 

to improve their language skills. The book 

display is using a text-based learning 

approach, whether oral or written, by 

placing the English language as a vehicle of 

communication. A good reader, when 



141 
 

reading, should always keep making 

questions in their mind about information 

presented in the text and try to final the 

answer. It is essential to concentrate their 

mind on comprehending the text being read. 

The purpose is to understand the book rather 

than to acquire meaning from individual 

words or sentences (Pourhosein Gilakjani & 

Sabouri, 2016). 

The English teacher chooses a beginning 

level because this level is intended for 

students who care are in a beginning level 

English program in junior high school, 

college or adult education. 

III. METHOD 
Based on the research, the researcher 

design of this study is qualitative descriptive. 

This research aimed to find the description of 

The Implementation of Fable Story text to 

Improve Reading Comprehension Skill at 

first-grade junior high school. A descriptive 

study was designed to obtain complete 

information about the description of the 

people, object, events, places, conversation, 

concerning the status of phenomena. This 

study was principally observational 

research. In this study, the researcher 

observed the classroom when the teaching 

and learning were processing to find the 

implementation of fable story text. In this 

case, the researcher found the teaching and 

learning process in the classroom; included 

the material and the topic that used in 

teaching and learning process, and also the 

English teachers activity at the school. The 

real English teacher conducted this study. 

While the researcher becomes an observer to 

be more focus on the subject that was going 

to be observed. The researcher acts as an 

instrument and the collector of data. In this 

research, the researcher chose the location of 

the study in MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan and 

interviewed with the object of study. The 

researcher did observation toward the 

objective of the survey after consideration. 

So, the researcher wrote the creation of the 

reality of behaviour to carry the data which 

was gotten as the research. The researcher 

used a series process of data analysis. 

1. Data Reduction 

Data reductions will the process of 

differentiating relevant and irrelevant data. A 

data reduction was thinking of the process 

that needed intelligent and knowledgeable. 

With the data reduction, the potential 

universe of data will be reduced in the 

anticipatory way as the research choose a 

conceptual research question and 

instruments. Once actual fields note, and 

interviews. And then, to get information’s 

about teaching reading comprehension skill 

used fable story text, the researcher do 

interview with the students first of junior 

high school of MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan and 

with the English teacher. The purpose of the 

interview with the students was to get the 

responses from all of the students in MTs 

Miftahul Ulum Gondanrejo Gondangwetan 



142 
 

Pasuruan. The researcher will acquire data 

reduction by interviewing some teachers. 

2. Data Display 

For the interview with the English 

teacher redacted until the researcher could 

describe how the implementation of using 

fable story text in reading comprehension 

skill and discussion with the students, the 

researcher redacted the entire data 

interview. From 20 students until eight 

students had interviewed by the researcher. 

And then the reducted data was redisplayed 

by the researcher to be easily understood. 

3. Conclusion Drawing/Verification 

The last of analysing qualitative data 

was conclusion drawing or verification. The 

outcome in qualitative research was the new 

find in study. The conclusion drawing or 

audit involved the researcher in 

interpretation drawing meaning from 

displayed data. After analysing the data, the 

researcher did the data analysing. It means 

that the researcher could analyse the data 

and then could reduce the data if the data 

was unimportant. The parsing of the data 

could be done in the last activity after all the 

data collection finished to be collected. 

After analysing, the research data should 

be carried out to the investigation that was 

verification to validity her finding. The result 

is a reliable verification technique to validity 

data that was based on the criteria were 

used. There were (Readability), 

(Transferability), (Dependability) and 

(Conformability) in this verification to validity 

data the researcher used belief degrees along 

with scarcest that contain: 

The techniques of including extension 

were that the researcher stayed in the object 

of research until being satisfied to collect the 

data. In this matter, the researcher followed 

the process of teaching that was held in MTs 

Miftahul Ulum Gondangrejo Gondangwetan 

Pasuruan.  

Diligences of supervision was searching 

interpretation consistently with many 

methods in the link with constant analyse a 

process or tentative. Searching any influence 

effort, limiting, searching could be counted 

on and what could not be counted on.  

Triangulations with the source were 

comparing and rechecking the information 

gotten through time and different tool in 

qualitative researcher by comparing the 

result of observation data with the outcome 

of interview data. Mathison state that the 

value of triangulation lies in providing 

evidence-whether convergent, inconsistent, 

or contradictory. By related documents, in 

this matter, the researcher reset right the 

information that got through data, the 

researcher’s observation and document list 

from MTs Miftahul Ulum Gondangrejo 

Gondangwetan Pasuruan. 

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

1. The Implementation of Using Fable 

Story Text in the First Meeting and 

Second Meeting 



143 
 

The implementation of fable story text is 

done for two observations. Fable story text is 

used to make the students interested in 

learning and make them be able to read well 

and comprehend the text easily. The view is 

conducted on April 24th until April 29th 2019 

in MTs Miftahul Ulum Gondangrejo 

Gondangwetan Pasuruan with 20 students 

in first grade in academic 2018-2019. The 

light is given during the teaching-learning 

process. The researcher uses checklist 

observation.’ 

a. Pre Reading Activity  

Before the class began, the English 

teacher starts the lesson with an opening 

session consisting of a greeting. The students 

look enthusiastic in learning English; it can 

be known from how the students answer the 

teachers are greeting, and all of them also 

give a good response. 

After giving a greeting, the English 

teacher also introduces the researcher to the 

students and explains to her students that 

the researcher joins in their class for some 

purpose. Then, the English teacher checks 

the attendance list by calling them one by 

one. In the first meeting, all of the students 

can join the class without any absent. 

The English teacher gives homework to 

the students about fable story text entitled 

“the little red hen” (see appendix 5). In this 

fable story text, the students must translate 

this story in Indonesia language and answer 

the question about an account (see appendix 

6) and through this story, the students 

making mini books. The English teacher 

remembers to students about homework. 

Have you done the homework in the last 

week? After that, the English teacher asks 

the researcher to give value and correct the 

fable story text. And the students make 

group, so came forward in front of the class 

to read the book and translate in Indonesia 

language. 

Figure 1 Fable story text entitled “the little red 

hen” Taken from accessible fable story text 

https://www.amazon.com/little-Red-Hen-

Book. 

 

  

https://www.amazon.com/little-Red-Hen-Book
https://www.amazon.com/little-Red-Hen-Book
https://www.amazon.com/little-Red-Hen-Book


144 
 

b. While-Reading Activity 

After doing pre-activity, the English 

teacher asks one of her students to distribute 

the text of fable story text entitled “The 

goose that laid golden eggs’’ to her friends. 

(See appendix 8) the fable story text is 

simple text and full of colours, so it looked 

interesting. The fable storey entitled “The 

goose that laid golden eggs’’ then, the English 

teacher implements the fable story text in 

front of the class. The fable story is simple 

text and also can be seen clearly. So, it can 

make the students can discovering the main 

idea, identifying detail, understanding 

vocabulary, summarising concepts and the 

students comprehend the fable story text in 

more easily. The fable storey text adapted 

from the famous storybook. 

Figure 2 Fable story text entitled “the goose 

that laid golden eggs” Taken from popular fable 

story text ©www.kids-pages.com. 

 

 

The English teacher ready with the 

reading text and this fable story text actually, 

it is not the first time for the teacher uses 

fable story text as a source to teach English, 

especially in teaching reading 

comprehension skill. It is expected to help 

the students to increase their vocabularies 

and of course, understand the reading text 

easily. 

Before the first fable story text is 

implemented, the English teacher stimulates 

the students by giving some questions 

related to the topic. She provides some 

questions about “The goose that laid golden 

eggs’’ to the students. Do you know this 

story? Do you like this story? And this story 

has been displayed on the television because 

of many children like it. 

The English teacher then asks some 

students to read the text. And translate to 

Indonesia language. After that, if they don’t 

know the meaning of the words, they guess 

the meaning of those words by looking at the 

picture (fable story). However, if they still 

don’t know the meaning of those words, the 

teacher helps them to get the meaning of 

those words. Besides, at that time, some of 

them find difficult concepts, and then the 

English teacher only gives them the clues of 

those words so that they try to guess the 

meaning of those words and the English 

teacher asks another student who may know 

the meaning of those words. After all of them 

have done to read the text, the English 

teacher asks them about the moral story. 



145 
 

After that, the English teacher asks them 

to do exercise. After they have finished doing 

their practice, the English teacher asks them 

to submit their work and discuss it together 

to know the correct answer to the questions. 

c. Post Reading Activity  

At the end of the first meeting. The 

English teacher asks the students about their 

difficulties in comprehending the text and 

also gives a conclusion about the lesson that 

they have been learned at that time. Before 

the students left the classroom, the English 

teacher gives homework to students. To 

translate in Indonesia language and do 

exercise, Entitle “the ugly duckling” (see 

appendix 11) and do exercise (see appendix 

12) through this story, the students make 

mini-book.  After that, the English teacher 

said good-bye and left the classroom. 

Figure 4 Fable story text entitled “the ugly 

duckling” Taken from accessible fable story 

text https://www.amazon.com/Ugly-
Duckling-Little-Golden-Book 

 
 

In the second meeting, the result of 

observation is the same as the first meeting 

but different topics, the fable story text and 

the implementation in every session. 

The teaching material, which gives 

about the narrative text and the English 

teacher shows fable story text. The first 

meeting the fable story text entitles “The 

goose that laid golden eggs’’ and the second 

meeting entitles “The lion and the mouse” It’s 

narrative text, and the story text engaging 

and makes fun to the student. So it can 

motivate them to read it, the materials are 

about human animals, the lion and the 

mouse.   

During observation in MTs Miftahul 

Ulum Gondangrejo Gondangwetan 

Pasuruan, the source story which used in 

teaching reading comprehension skill is 

implemented well. Because the researcher 

means that the fable story text can make the 

students interested, because the story text is 

full colours, and can motivate the student to 

read. So in this story source, they could share 

each other’s to comprehend it. 

According to Miss Puji Astutik as 

English teacher, the improving students 

reading comprehension skill using fable 

story text in MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan is 

good, because the students are looked 

enthusiastic and give attention in learning 

English. It can be known from how the 

students answer the teachers are greeting, 



146 
 

and all of them provide a good response. The 

English teacher uses fable story text as a 

source and gives some opening question 

related to the topic. So the students answer 

the English teacher and provide seriously. 

Besides that, they also ask when they don’t 

understand the explanation. After 

explaining, the English teacher asks the 

students to read the fable story text, which 

has been distributed, and the researcher 

means the entire student looked happy and 

fun. As a good teacher, the English teacher 

gives motivation to the students to be 

enthusiastic about reading and active in the 

teaching-learning process. So, the students 

are not bored. 

After the students read the fable story 

text, then the English teacher corrects and 

explants their mistake, and the students give 

attention. The students are ordered to repeat 

to read the book, and the English teacher 

helps the students to translate the text by 

responding to some question.  

2. The result of the second observation: 

a. Pre Reading Activity 

The English teacher starts to begin the 

lesson with the opening session. As usual, 

the English teacher greets the students and 

then checks the students’ attendance. In the 

second meeting, one of the students is absent 

because she is sick, so there are 19 students 

left in the class. After checking the students’ 

attendance, shortly, the teacher asks the 

students about the previous lesson that they 

have studied. It means that the English 

teacher wants to know whether their 

students still remember the material in the 

last experience or not. Fable story text, the 

students must translate this story in 

Indonesia language and answer the question 

about the story and through this story, the 

students making mini books. The English 

teacher remembers to students about 

homework. Have you done the homework in 

the last week? And please collect in front of 

the class! After that, the English teacher asks 

the researcher to give value and correct the 

fable story text. 

b. While-Reading Activity 

Like the first meeting, in this activity, 

the English teacher asks one of the students 

to distribute the text of fable storey entitles 

“The lion and the mouse”. The teacher has 

prepared the story that is still a fable story. 

But it is a different topic. The title is “The lion 

and the mouse” (see appendix 14). It is a little 

bit more complicated than before. And she 

gives some questions about the “The lion and 

the mouse” To the students, for example: 

“who has ever seen a lion?”, “who has ever 

 

 

 



147 
 

listened to this fable story?” etc. .the English 

teacher uses bilingual language at that time. 

 The fable story is simple text and the 

picture, so it looks funny and exciting. The 

fable storey text tells about everyone has 

talent and abilities. In this case, the English 

teacher shows the fabled story in front of the 

class. The English teacher asks the students 

to give an opinion about the situation of the 

picture. The fable story is adapted from the 

famous storybook. After all of the students 

have got it, the English teacher reads the text 

sentence by sentence loudly with proper 

pronunciation and expression. The students 

are asked to listen while looking at the 

reading text that has been gotten, and then 

they are asked to repeat the sentence what 

the English teacher read. So the students can 

follow readings and understand the text. 

Then the English teacher helps the 

students to translate the content of the text 

sentence by sentence. After that, the English 

teacher asked them to do exercise. But in this 

case, she helps her students to comprehend 

and translate the questions together because 

some of them still don’t understand yet about 

the problems. The students then do the 

exercise. After they have finished doing their 

practice, the English teacher asks them to 

submit their work and discuss it together to 

know the correct answer to the questions. 

c. Post Reading Activity 

Because the time was limited, so the 

English teacher directly gave a conclusion 

about material shortly. After that, the 

English teacher said goodbye and left the 

classroom. 

3. The Students’ Responses to the 

Teaching by Using Fable Story Text 

The researcher uses the interview as the 

instrument to get the data for finding the 

answer of the second research question that 

is to find the students’ responses to the 

teaching reading comprehension skill using 

fable story text. The interview is held on the 

last day of observation. At that time, the 

researcher interviews the English teacher 

and students. 

Firstly, the researcher does unstructured 

interviews with English. The items of the 

interview sheet show and describe the 

response of the students to the teaching 

reading comprehension skill using fable 

story text. The English teacher says that the 

students fell enjoying the class by using fable 

story. The students are motivated to read by 

using fable storey text which can be seen 

when they know that the English teacher 

brings some story text. The English teacher 

then says that the students can comprehend 

the text easily using fable story text because 

when they don’t know the meaning of some 

words in the book, they can see the story so 

understand the meaning of those words or 

they can find the meaning of words in the 

dictionary. 

Secondly, interview the students. It 

shows that most of the students say that they 



148 
 

love to study English, especially reading 

comprehension skill by using fable story 

text.  

Ria Ariyani As one of the students from 

the first grade of MTs Miftahul Ulum says 

that “fable story is one of the stories that has 

full of entertainment elements. Some of the 

stories are funny and interesting presented in 

these tales. By doing so, fable story is one of 

their entertainment for the reader and makes 

the reader can feel happy”. 

Diana Wakhidatul Kholidah, She says 

that “if the English teacher uses fable story 

text for teaching reading comprehension 

skill. Fable story will be outstanding in 

helping improve the understanding and 

knowledge of the students with new 

vocabularies. The vocabularies which are 

might not be found on the subjects in the 

school curriculum”.  

The researcher also interviews with Siti 

Mutmainah; she says that if we can 

understand the contents of a fable story 

genuinely and thoroughly, we will find a 

variety of moral values and guidances to the 

goodness. Hence, fable story, as bedtime 

activities are essential to bringing lessons in 

comfort ways”. 

According to Eliya, says that “One the 

important aspect of fable story is emotion. 

Almost all stories on the fabled story require 

deep emotions, such as sadness, anger, and 

also happy. With the many reading fable 

story, this will increase the ability of one’s 

affection and emotional sensitivity. Thus, 

telling a fable story to a kid will bring out the 

sense of sympathy, which brings the feeling 

to be more sensitive and capable of feeling 

what is perceived by others ”.  

Shinta Dwi Nurriya Also says that “fable 

story is as one method or act as vessels for 

one’s hobby. Especially for those who have 

reading and writing hobbies, fable storey 

considered as one of the things that are 

important to their hobby as making up fairy 

tale, storytelling, etc. While for those who 

have a hobby of reading, they can be, of 

course, spend their time reading fable story.” 

So, Wardatun Nafisa says that reading is 

a key to a better future since it has so many 

knowledge for those who are doing it. And by 

telling a fairy tales is one way to stimulate the 

hobby of reading. Eventually, as they grow 

up, they’ll love to read since the very early 

age. Hence, the benefits of telling fairy tales 

to students will bring the next generation to 

be better generation by default.” 

And  Siti Muzillah Says that she is not 

too like English, but she like if the English 

teacher applies fable story text in teaching 

reading comprehension skill, during the 

English teacher applies fable story, all of the 

students are interested with the story.  

The last student who was interviewed 

by the researcher is Zumrotul Faidah, says 

that improving students reading 

comprehension skill using fable story text 

makes all of the students of the first grade of 



149 
 

MTs Miftahul Ulum Gondangrejo 

Gondangwetan Pasuruan enthusiastic with 

this story. So, the researcher can conclude 

that all of the students of MTs Miftahul 

Ulum are happy and have much spirit and 

motivated to study reading comprehension 

skill by using fable story. It means that the 

students like fable story text very much. So 

the student’s responses towards the use of 

fable story text to be the source learning in 

reading comprehension skill are good. 

4. The Students’ Reading Work after the 

Use Fable Story text is Applied to the 

Students as Documentation 

Students’ reading work in teaching 

reading comprehension skill as 

documentation. To know the result of the 

students’ reading work by using fable story 

text, the English teacher gives them an 

exercise consisting of some questions in 

every meeting and modify existing material. 

From that, the English teacher tries to 

analyse the students’ reading work that is 

submitted at the end of class. And the 

analysis is focused on their understanding 

and the grammatical. The English teacher 

asks them to answer the questions by the 

complete answer. Most of them understand 

the text. But some of them cannot answer the 

questions by the correct grammatical and 

uncompleted answer. So, this study tries to 

describe the result of the students’ reading 

work when the use of fable story text is 

applied to the students as documentation. It 

is scored based on the scoring criteria. 

Besides, the result of the students’ reading 

work is presented into a table consist of their 

scores from the first until the last meeting. 

In the first meeting, the exercise is the 

form of question-answer in the form of easy 

based on the text, including fable story text. 

Based on the first students’ reading work of 

the first meeting, some students are making 

some mistakes in grammatical. Here are the 

examples of the students’ reading work that 

categorised bad, good, outstanding and 

excellent reading comprehension skill. 

The following is one of the examples of 

the students’ reading work gets the “bad” 

category. The students reading work above is 

one of the results of two students who get a 

terrible score in the first meeting. Here, the 

student can answer question number one, 

three, four, five and number six. Most of 

them almost answer completely and well 

grammar. It influences their score. 

But she is wrong to answer eight 

numbers. It may be she does not understand 

the questions and the mean of it so that she 

does not get the score in those numbers. So, 

it shows that her comprehension of the text 

given by English teacher by poorly 

categorised. 

The student’s reading work above 

shows that the student comprehends the 

text and of course, the questions very well. 

So, her reading work is categorised “very 

good”. In this case, she answers all of the 



150 
 

items, and no one does not respond. But most 

of them were the almost unperfected answer, 

number two and eight. One of the examples 

of the students’ reading work gets “excellent” 

category is the Zumrotul Faidah reading 

work above which is analysed by scoring 

method, it is categorized “excellent” because 

almost all of the questions are answered 

thoroughly and correct grammatically. 

So in this the first students’ reading 

work, it can be concluded that the students 

actually understand and comprehend the 

story text well. It is showed that most of 

them get “excellent” score. Some of them are 

“very good” and “good” rating. And only a few 

of them, two students get a “bad” score. It 

means that they have a good comprehension 

of the Text, although they often make 

mistakes in grammatical, their 

understanding is good enough. 

It is the last students’ reading work that 

is done in the previous meeting. The topic of 

the reading text is different from the previous 

ones; the item in the last session is “the lion 

and the mouse. After that, the students are 

asked to do the exercise. And it is still same 

as the first and the second exercise that is 

consisted of some questions. 

In the last meeting, 15 students have got 

excellent, three students very good and two 

students have got right. The mistakes made 

by most of the students are still about logical 

and uncompleted answer although the 

English teacher has told the students about 

it to answer all of the questions by using 

complete response which could influence 

their score. But, the result still shows that 

they get an excellent rating. It means that 

their comprehension skill is always 

outstanding. 

Here, the third simple narrative text was 

the longest one entitle “the lion and the 

mouse”. Then, one of the examples of the 

students’ reading work who get the first 

category, some of the questions answered, 

but they are used uncompleted sentence and 

incorrect grammatical. So, the student is 

categorised “very good” in comprehending 

the text and also understanding the 

questions. 

Based on Khoiriyah’s reading, work 

shows that the student almost gets the 

perfect score. Most of the questions are 

answered correctly. It means that they 

answer the questions by using complete 

sentence and correct grammatical. It can be 

categorised “excellent”. So the student has 

excellent in comprehending the text and the 

also understanding the questions. Thus it 

can be concluded that fable story text is 

suitable for teaching reading comprehension 

skill to the first grade of MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan, 

especially young learners in improving their 

reading ability. According to the 

unstructured interview with the students, 

informal conversation with the English 

teacher and the students’ reading work when 



151 
 

the user of fable story text is applied as 

documentation are very significant. 

5. DISCUSSION 

1. The Discussion of Implementation of 

Using Fable Story Text to Teach 

Reading Comprehension Skill 

In this section, the researcher would like 

to discuss the implementation of using fable 

story text in reading comprehension skill. To 

describe the application of the fable story 

text, the researcher uses the observation 

checklist as an instrument. Before the lesson 

began, the English teacher prepares since the 

fable story text, tools and other need. When 

the English teacher explains about all of the 

material, she read the book loudly with 

excellent pronunciation, while, other 

students listen to the passage carefully. 

Therefore, it can be concluded that use fable 

story text here, help the students to 

comprehend the text easily. From the story 

text, they can understand the meaning of the 

problematic word, when they do not 

understand the book. All of the methods that 

have to apply with the English teacher, 

usually in fable story text are difficult and fell 

as one of the useful visual aid which can help 

the students to understand the lesson 

quickly, and it can make the student active in 

teaching and learning process. 

2. The Discussion about Students’ 

Responses to the Teaching Reading 

Comprehension skill by Using Fable Story 

text 

In the result of students’ responses are 

taken from the unstructured interview. Most 

of them give a positive response in teaching 

reading comprehension skill by using fable 

story text. It means that most of the students 

are interested in using fable story text as a 

source in teaching reading comprehension 

skill. When the English teacher explains 

about the fable story text, many students are 

enthusiastic, and all of them give a good 

response, but some students give an 

inadequate reaction, it is just four Students. 

From it, the researcher can conclude 

that many students of MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan are 

happy and have much spirit and motivated to 

study in reading comprehension skill. The 

students' response toward the use of fable 

story text to be learning in reading 

comprehension skill is excellent. According 

to the result of the unstructured interview 

with the English teacher and students, it 

shows that fable story text is useful in 

teaching-learning to read. 

3. The Discussion about Students’ Reading 

work that Using fable story as 

Documentation 

The result of students reading practice, 

it can be seen from the score good by the 

students in every meeting. It shows that 

most students get excellent, bad and also 

excellent rating in their exercises. In the first 

meeting, 13 students get excellent, three 

students get excellent, two students are 



152 
 

good, and two students get bad. In the last 

session, 15 students get excellent, three 

students get attractive, and two students are 

exceptional. It means that responses of 

students of MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan are 

interested in the fable story text to be the 

source of learning reading comprehension 

skill. Finally, the responses are higher than in 

the first meeting. Although some of the 

students get weak/bad score is that less than 

50. So, by looking at the scores of the 

students, the researcher can say that the 

fable story text is useful to increase the 

students’ reading ability. Fable story text is a 

good source for MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Gondangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan, 

especially the first grade in learning reading 

comprehension skill. In conclusion, fable 

storey texts are beneficial for the students in 

understanding the material and motivated 

the students to learn reading comprehension 

skill.   

V. CONCLUSION 
In this study, two findings are obtained 

from the results of the study of the 

observations in MTs Miftahul Ulum 

Godangrejo Gondangwetan Pasuruan. They 

are described as follows: 

From cycle 1, the implementation of 

fable story text is a useful source to improve 

students reading comprehension skill. The 

English teacher gave them ways of reading. 

The English teacher also explained how to 

use fable story text in the process of reading 

comprehending of a passage in the reading 

activities.  The English teacher invited the 

students to get involved in reading activities 

so that they understand more how to solve 

their reading problem. 

From the cycle 2, the implementation of 

fable story text could improve the students’ 

reading skills. They grasp information from a 

book they read and understood. They 

identify the primary and details ideas of the 

text. The fable storey text also improved the 

students’ creativity and vocabulary mastery. 

The exciting ways of making fable story 

could make the students read documents 

effectively and efficiently. They also became 

good in paraphrasing a sentence which 

represented their understanding of 

information within the sentence.  

The conclusion about the students’ 

responses is different between using fable 

story text and without using fable story text. 

The students' answers are all of student MTs 

Miftahul Ulum Godangrejo Gondangwetan 

Pasuruan are excellent and enthusiastic 

about teaching reading comprehension skill 

by using fable story text. While some 

students give poorly respond. All of the 

students provide good responses toward the 

use of fable story text in teaching reading 

comprehension skill. Because when using 

fable story texts, the students more 

understanding about the version when the 

English teacher began to explain about the 

material. It means that the responses of 



153 
 

students of MTs Miftahul Ulum Godangrejo 

Gondangwetan Pasuruan are interested in 

the fable story text to be the sources of 

reading comprehension skill. 

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