SMART Journal , Volume 3 No. 1, Januari 2017 Page. 20-27 ISSN Cetak : 2356-2048 ISSN Online : 2356-203X 20 Received 7 December 2016, Published 30 January 2017 Creation is distributed under the Creative Commons License Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Published in: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart SMART Journal : Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. LOCAL CULTURE STORIES AS ALTERNATIVE READING MATERIALS FOR STUDENTS (A CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR HIGH AND LOW INTEREST) Ahmad Fitri Al Amin Semarang State University, Indonesia email: al.am13n@gmail.com Abstract This study aims to examine the effectiveness of contextual learning using local culture based stories to improve the skill in reading comprehension especially for narrative texts for students with higher and lower interest in MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin Kudus. The study was conducted using factorial design with two research groups and two control groups. The participants of this study were two classes. The number of subjects was 30 in a class. The data were collected by using a pretest and a posttest. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for analyzing the tabulated data. The result shows that there was a significance improvement between pretest and posttest in both control and experimental group with the level of significance 0.000. This means both methods are effective in improving the students’ reading skills both for the students with higher and lower interest. The analysis of covariance shows that there was no significant interaction between the contextual learning using local and non-local culture based stories, students’ interest, and reading comprehension skills with the level of significance 0.380. Keywords: Local Culture, Reading Comprehension, Narrative 1. INTRODUCTION The growing importance of English as an international language and as a global lingua franca is observable in nearly all countries around the world. In learning English, it involves the mastery of four language skills. Reading skill takes a big role for students in learning English because they can get good understanding about a certain text through their ability in reading. Reading is known as a process of interaction among the reader, the text, and Ahmad Fitri Al Amin…… 21 the context. Reading is an active process in which the readers interact with the text to reconstruct the message of the author. In addition, Nunan (2003:8) defines that reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their background knowledge to build meaning. In Indonesia, teaching and learning English mostly emphasizes on the reading skill. It is proven in English National Examination. Reading text becomes the major part of test. Reading is the dominant skill which is tested in teaching and learning process because reading proficiency is regarded as a major objective in teaching English. According to the book entitled Pusat Kurikulum (2007) published by Ministry of Education of Indonesia, in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) subject, students should be able to read and write many kinds of texts or genres. The term genres or texts here refer to the definition according to the theory of Systemic Linguistic Functional (SFL). Genres are defined as kinds of text, such as narrative, procedure, and exposition (Paltridge, 2001). According to Anderson and Anderson (1997:8) a narrative is a piece of text which tells a story, and in doing so, entertains or informs the reader or listener”. The social function of narrative text is to amuse, to entertain and to deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways. Narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turns finds a resolution. The generic structures of narrative text are orientation, evaluation, complication, resolution, and reorientation. Reading is very essential in teaching and learning process because the source of knowledge is derived from reading literatures. But reading is not an easy skill, especially in English. Many students get some difficulties when they read English texts. Regarding the importance of reading comprehension skill, an English teacher has significant roles to make the students interested in reading. There are many different definitions of interest, especially in language learning. Harmer (1991:3) explains the meaning of interest as “the internal drive” that pushes somebody to do something. If we that our goal is worth doing and attractive for us, then we try to reach that goal; this is called “the action driven by interest”. Lightbown and Spada (1999:56- 57) note that interest in second language learning is quite complicated to study which can be explained in terms of two factors; learners’ communicative needs Local Culture Stories … 22 and their attitudes towards the second language community. Here, it is not enough for the teacher asking the students to read any reading material and answer the questions following the text. The teachers must be active and creative in searching and finding innovative teaching learning strategies to help the students in improving their reading skill. The teachers must provide good and interesting teaching materials using local culture. Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) is a constructivist approach to learning in that it focuses on knowledge that s highly contextualized and relevant to students (Driver et al., 1994; Johnson, 2002; Morrel, 2003) CTL emphasizes using concepts and process skills in real world contexts that are relevant to students from diverse backgrounds. This approach “motivates students to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members, citizens, and workers and to engage in the hard work that learning requires” (Sears & Hersh, 2000, p.4). CTL includes (1) inquiry learning, (2) Problem-based learning, (3) cooperative learning, (4) project-based learning, and (5) authentic assessment. The previous research was conducted in MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin Undaan Kudus in the academic year 2014/2015. The subject of this study is eighth graders. For the material which is used in the study, the researcher determines narrative text as the main material because it is adapted from standard competence for grade eighth. As general, this study aims to enhance students’ reading performance through using local culture based stories of eighth graders of MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin Undaan Kudus. The detail objectives of the study are (1) To explain the effectiveness of the contextual teaching using local culture based stories in teaching reading comprehension of narrative texts for high interest students in MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin Undaan Kudus. (2) to explain the effectiveness of the contextual teaching using local culture based stories for low interest students. (3) to explain the effectiveness of contextual teaching using non-local culture based stories or high interest students. (4) to explain the effectiveness of contextual teaching using non-local culture based stories for low interest students. (5) to explain the effectiveness of the contextual teaching using local culture based stories for high and low interest students. (6) to explain the effectiveness of the contextual Ahmad Fitri Al Amin…… 23 teaching using non-local culture based stories for high and low interest students. (7) to explain the interaction among the contextual teaching using local and non- local culture based stories, students’ interest, and reading skill in MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin Undaan Kudus. 2. RESEARCH METHOD Research Design This study will use quantitative approach wich uses statistical data. This study will be conducted using factorial design. It is one kind of experimental method. Population and Sample This study will be conducted in MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin Undaan Kudus because the researcher is an English teacher in this school. The population of the study is the students of MTs Nahdlatul Muslimin in eighth grade. The numbers of them are 220 students. They are divided into seven classes. The sample of this study is eighth graders A and B with 30 students in each class. It was determined using purposive sampling technique. Technique of Obtaining Data In obtaining the data, the researcher used three instruments. They are questionnaire, pre-test, and post test. Students’ interest was identified using Guilloteaux’s Questionnaire (2007). This determined students with higher and lower interest. Technique of Data Analysis The researcher analyzed the data using the Statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSS) for analyzing the tabulated data. The results of pretest and posttest were input into the software. The descriptive statistics were reported for the experimental group to compare the pretest scores and post test score. The result of this study was a description of the implementation of stories based on local culture on the improvement of students’ reading skills based on the numerical data. 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Research Findings The Students’ Interest Students’ interest was identified using Guilloteaux’s Questionnaire (2007). The results of the students’ interest were showed in the table below. Table 1 Students’ interest. Group High- Interest Low- Interest Total Control 15 15 30 Experiment 15 15 30 Try out of the instruments The instruments of pretest and posttest were tried out to 35 eighth grader Local Culture Stories … 24 students in class C of MTs Nahdlatul MusliminUndaan Kudus in Academic Year of 2014/2015 which have same level and characteristic. It consisted of 30 items of multiple choice of reading comprehension test. The time allotment was 60 minutes. In this study, 5% of the significance level was taken. The value r table with n=35 (number of try out participants) was 0.482. The Result of Validity and Reliability in Try out the Pre-test Pretest instrument consists of 30 multiple choices items. The validity test of the pretest instrument shows several items which the rxy are higher than r table=0.482, are number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28 and 29. The KR-20 reliability test of the pretest instrument shows rxy = 0.872 which is higher than r table = 0.482. Based on the result, it could be concluded that the instrument is reliable which 87.2% are. The Result of Validity and Reliability in Try Out the Postest Post-test instrument consists of 30 multiple choices items. The validity test of the post-test instrument shows several items which the rxy were higher than r table = 0.482, are number 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 and 30. The KR-20 reliability test of the pre-test instrument shows rxy =0.914 which is higher than r table = 0.482. Based on the result, it could be concluded that the instrument is reliable which 91.4% are. The homogeneity of the data The homogeneity test is conducted to find out whether the samples of the data were homogenous or heterogeneous. This test is used only to find out the data from the population, so only pretest score will be used. However, since the number of control and experimental group were the same, without SPSS calculation, it can be concluded that the populations of control and experimental group in this research are homogenous. The normality of the data Table 2 The results of tests of normality. Groups Pretest Posttest Experiment High 0.361 – normal 0.539 – normal Low 0.689 – normal 0.938 – normal High- low 0.937 – normal 0.573 – normal Control High 0.378 – normal 0.364 – normal Low 0.930 – normal 0.549 – normal High- low 0.886 – normal 0.023 – not normal Ahmad Fitri Al Amin…… 25 The effectiveness of Contextual Teaching using Local Culture based Stories for Students with Higher and Lower Interest (Experimental group). Table 3 The significance score for the students with higher and lower interest in experimental group Grou ps Descripti ve statistic The results of significan ce (p) Experime nt High Paired samples T-test 0.000 Low Paired samples T-test 0.000 High- low Paired samples T-test 0.000 The results show that in descriptive statistic, the results can be said as significant if p < 0,05. So, it can be said that according to the results, all the results of experimental groups are significant. The Effectiveness of Contextual Teaching using non-Local Culture based Stories for the students with high and low interest (Control group). Table 4 The significance score for the students with higher and lower interest in control group. Group Descriptive statistic The results of significance (p) Control High Paired samples T- test 0 Low Paired samples T- test 0 High- low Paired samples T- test 0 The results show that the significance score of students in all groups is 0,000. In descriptive statistic, the results can be said as significant if p < 0,05. So, it can be said that according to the results, all the results of control groups are significant. The interaction between Contextual Teaching using Local Culture based Stories and using non Local Culture based Stories, the Students’ Interest and Reading Comprehension Skills. To find out the interaction between control group, experimental group and also the students’ interest, the analysis of variance or it is widely known as ANOVA was used. ANOVA is used to compare more than two means, or more than two groups. Since both control group and experimental group consists of 2 groups, so there will Local Culture Stories … 26 be four groups of analysis. To calculate ANOVA or F-test, the SPSS was used. The table below shows the result of the analysis of variance. Table 5 The analysis of variance. Tests of Between-Subjects Effects Dependent Variable: pretest_posttest Source Type III Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. Partial Eta Squared Corrected Model 480599.844 a 5 96.119.969 444.785 .000 .927 Intercept 1.807.608.022 1 1.807.608.022 8.364.520 .000 .980 Method 480.173.144 2 240.086.572 1.110.976 .000 .927 high_low interest 5.689 1 5.689 .026 .871 .000 method * high_low interest 421.011 2 210.506 .974 .380 .011 Error 37.602.133 174 216.104 Total 2.325.810.000 180 Corrected Total 518.201.978 179 According to the table, it can be seen that the significance score for the method is 0.000 which means there was a significant interaction between methods (Contextual teaching using local and non- local culture based stories) and the reading comprehension skills which was represented by the pretest and posttest scores. On the other hand, the significant score for higher and lower interest was 0.871 which shows it was not significant since it was above 0.05. This means there was no interaction between interest and the reading comprehension skills. Then, the significance score for the methods (experimental and control group) and the interest was 0.380. Since P > 0.05, that means there was no interaction between the methods, students’ interest and reading comprehension skills. 4. CONCLUSION Based on the data analysis which was discussed in the previous chapter, it can be concluded that firstly, contextual teaching using local culture based stories was effective to improve the skill of students with higher interest in reading comprehension of narrative text with the significance result 0.000 < 0.05. The mean score of pretest was 55.5 and the posttest was 72.8. Secondly, contextual teaching using local culture based stories was also effective to improve the skill of students with lower interest in reading narrative text with the significance result 0.000 < 0.05. The mean score of pretest was 53.5 and the posttest was 75.6. Third, contextual teaching using non-local culture based stories was effective to improve the skill of students with higher interest’ in reading skill with the significance result 0.000 < 0.05. The mean score of pretest was 55.9 and the posttest was 67.2. Fourth, contextual teaching using non-local culture based stories was also effective to improve the skill of students with lower interest in comprehending narrative text with the Ahmad Fitri Al Amin…… 27 significance result 0.000 < 0.05. The mean score of pretest was 56.7 and the posttest was 72.3. The fifth conclusion was contextual teaching using local culture based stories was effective to improve both the students with higher interest and students with lower interest. This is shown in the significance score of both groups with 0.000. Sixth, contextual teaching using non-local culture based stories was also effective to improve the writing skills of students with higher and lower interest. The significance score of these methods was also 0.000. The last, there is no big difference between the effectiveness of contextual teachings using local and non- local culture based stories for students with higher interest. Furthermore, according to the analysis of variance, there was no significance interaction between contextual teaching using local and non-local culture based stories, the students’ interest, and reading comprehension skills. 5. REFERENCES Anderson, M, and Anderson, K. (1997). Text Types in English 2. South Yarra: Macmillan Education Australia. Driver R., Asoko, H., Leach, J., Mortimer, E., & Scott, P. (1994). Constructing scientific knowledge in the classroom. Educational Researcer, 23(7), 5-12. Guilloteaux, M.J. (2007). Motivating language learners: A classroom- oriented investigation of teachers’ interestal practices and students’ interest. (Unpublished master’s thesis). The University of Nottingham. Harmer, J. (1991). 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