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IMPROVING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT
BY USING FOLKLORE
Oleh:
SRI MULYATI PRIHATININGSIH
Guru Bahasa Inggris SMP Negeri 7 Jember
Abstrak. Beberapa tahun terakhir hasil belajar siswa SMPN 7 Jember pada
mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggris pada skill Reading Comprehension khusus kelas
IX D masih rendah. Mereka kurang bergairah dalam mempelajari reading
comprehension,selain karena keterbatasan kosakata dan jenis teks yang
diajarkan kurang bervariasi sehingga nilai rata-rata yang dicapai hanya 60,
sedangkan standart ketuntasan belajar minimal yang ditetapkan sekolah 65.
Untuk mengatasi permasalahan ini digunakan teks “Folklore” sebagai alternatif
pilihan, karena bahan ini selain memiliki sifat menghibur pembacanya, folklore
juga memiliki keuntungan lain seperti: mudah diingat, universal/umum, penuh
makna, banyak jenisnya dan banyak mengandung pesan moral yang berguna
untuk kehidupan siswa. Hasil penelitian dengan teks “Folklore” dalam
pembelajaran dapat meningkatkan minat baca siswa sehingga nilai rata-rata
hasil belajar mereka pada siklus ke satu 66, 78 atau 80% sudah diatas kriteria
yang ditetapkan. Pada siklus kedua 85% dari mereka sudah diatas kriteria.
Penerapan teks “Folklore” efektif pada pembelajaran reading comprehension
sehingga siswa kelas IX D SMPN 7 Jember semakin bergairah dalam belajar
Bahasa Inggris. Sehingga kosakata mereka semakin bertambah , mereka juga
semakin tergugah untuk mempelajari jenis-jenis teks yang lainnya. Guru
menjadi lebih terampil dalam mengajarkan jenis teks folklore dan lebih
bersemangat untuk mengajarkan jenis teks yang lain diwaktu yang akan datang.
Kata-kata kunci: Folklore, Membaca pemahaman
Introduction
Reading is a process of constructing or developing meaning from printed text
(Cooper, et al at Rosmalina, 2004). In line with this idea, Eskey at Rosmalina
(2004), states that reading is primarily cognitive process. It means that when
reading, students are transferring information from the text into their brain by
understanding the explicit or implicit meaning of the text. Besides, reading is one of
the important skills to master in English. It is the first of the most important factors
that can support the process of mastering the language skills and improving can
improve knowledge (Hanafi, 2000).In conclusion, it can be said that reading is for
meaning. Readers are reading in order to gain information, knowledge, and
understand the meaning of printed text.
The above statements indicates that readingabsolutely needs
comprehension. According to Johnson as quoted in Payani (2003), reading
comprehension is the result of thinking which is triggered by visual symbols. By
reading comprehension, students are doing thinking process deeply in understanding
the meaning of the text. Moreover, reading comprehension can be divided into four
98. JP3 Vol 4 No 1, Maret 2014
categories: understanding vocabulary, specific information, the main idea, and the
ability to infer or to imply Brown (at Payani, 2003).
According to the experiment, many students still have difficulties in
learning English, especially in reading comprehension. It is because students must
study about the vocabularies, grammar, and sentence structure when read a text
(Byrnes, 2008). It makes reading a complex skill. It is not just read but also
understanding other skill or component in English. In addition, there are some
possible factors affecting language teaching. Those factors can be classified into
internal and external factors. According to Hanafi (2000), internal factors are related
to psychological condition of the learners such as motivation, confidence, worry and
interest. External factors are related to some varieties of the ideal condition in
language teaching.
Based on the above fact that reading is one of the important things for
English learners, teacher should find out an effective way to make the reading
comprehension possible to achieve. Nutal and Dupuis (as quoted in Payani, 2003),
say that the important consideration for teachers in selecting reading is that the
materials should be able to raise students’ interest to read.
Then, the result of the daily test which was done on October, 10. 2011, it was
found that the ninth year students’ score of reading comprehension were less than
the pre-determined school score level. The average score of reading comprehension
was sixty (60) whereas the standard score to be achieved was sixty-five (65).
It is however in line with the reading scores achieved by the students of SMP
Negeri 7. The evarage of reading comprehension score is still less than predetermined criterion, such as 5.6. Most of them have not achieved the determined
criterion, yet.
Yet, the teaching instruction employing the chosen folklore provides better reading
comprehension. Here, folklore is considered as the teaching material that can be
applied in the teaching and learning process in the classroom.
Dundes (1965), folklore is oral tradition including myths, legends, folktales
and jokes. They are rich of vocabularies that will help the students understand about
English text. They are so short and memorable that the students easy to understand
and comprehend the English text
Also, it is based on the research conducted by Mansur (2004), it was found
that folklore could improve the students’ reading comprehension. The aveage score
increased from 5.2 up to 5.8. Again, It was proved that folklore could improve the
interest of reading comprehension. Another study by Lestari (2004), proved that
folklore could help the students in learning English. In her research, she used fable
as the material to improve the reading comprehension achievement 5.6 up to 6.1.It
was briefly concluded that one kind of folklore that is fable could improve the
students’ reading comprehension achievement of the respondents.
Problem
The problem of this research is formulated as follows: how can the use of
folklore as teaching material improve the students’ reading comprehension
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Objective
The objective of the research is to improve the students’ reading
comprehension achievement
Significance
It is hopefully expected that the result of this classroom research will give
valuable significance for helping the students to 1) overcome the difficulties and
problems in comprehending reading text, 2) to give new experience in teaching
reading comprehension, 3) increases the students’ interest and motivation in learning
English.
Literature
According to Grellet (1996), reading comprehension is considered as an
active process involving predicting, checking, guessing, and asking one’s selfquestion, so that it is possible to develop the students’ power of inference through
systematic practice or introduce questions that encourage students to anticipate the
content of text from its title and illustration or at the end of story from preceding
paragraph. While students are reading, they transfer the information from the text
into their brain. They activate their reading skill in order to get the meaning of the
text and get the information from the text.
Further, he states that reading comprehension is the process of understanding
a reading text. It means that when students read a reading material, they must be able
to get information from the text. Furthermore, they must comprehend the words,
phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs in order to gain the meaning of the
whole text (1996).
The purposes of reading comprehension are as follows: 1) to gain
information; 2) To verify existing knowledge; 3) To critique one’s ideas; 4) To
enhance knowledge of the language being read and 5) to get enjoyment or pleasure
(Byrnes, 2008).
According to Hanlon (1999), there are ten advantages of folklore such as
short; fun; memorable; universal; infinitely meaningful; infinite variety; linking to
oral and written literatures, popular culture with many academic subjects and skills;
enhancing transtitions from childhood to adult life and uniting children and adults.
Method
This research has already applied a classroom action research (CAR) in
which the cycle covers the activities of planning the action, implementing the action,
class observation and evaluation, and reflection (Elliott, 1991). Planning becomes
the most important step before carrying out the action. It consists of constructing the
lesson plans for the cycles, preparing the material and instructional material and test
items.
Implementing the action of cycles during the school hours as the schedule of
English. It is planned to be done for about 2 weeks. The action given was teaching
and learning reading comprehension by using folklore as the reading material.
Observation is done to monitor the students’ activities in the classroom. It is done
during the teaching learning reading comprehension process by using folklore.
Reflection becomes the last step of the cycle. It belongs to the crucial step to decide
whether or not the action continues or not.
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The area of this research was SMP Negeri 7 Jember. It lies on Jln.
Cendrawasih 22 Jember. The research subjects of this research were the ninth year
students of SMP Negeri 7 Jember especially the class IX-D which has 45 students.
Among the seven existing classes, the researcher took one class purposively based
on the scores of reading test.
In analyzing the data, the researcher used descriptive quantitative method to
analyze the data from reading comprehension test and questionnaire. The reading
comprehension score was calculated by dividing the score with the total score then
timed with 100% as following formula:
X=
X = mean score of the students
Σx = the total scores of the students
n = the total number of the students
Table 1. Classification of the score level
Score
80-100
70-79
60-69
50-59
0-49
Category
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Failed
(Depdikbud, 2004)
Result
Cycle I
The action of the firt cycle has been done in five meetings including the
reading comprehension test. In this case, other English teacher became the observer
while the researcher became the doer of the action. The first meeting has been done
on October 17th 2013 and the second on October, 18th 2013. Meanwhile, the test was
done on October 24th and 25th 2013. The result shows that most of the respondents
(80%) have absolutely achieved the determined criteria. It means that most of them
have got the score more than or the same as sixty-five (65). There are only 20% or 9
students having not achieved the criteria. More detail see the following table.
Table 2. Reading comprehension achievement
No.
1
2
3
4
5
Score Range
80 – 100
70 – 79
60 – 69
40 – 59
0 – 39
Frequency
5
17
16
5
2
Percentage (%)
11.11 %
37.78 %
35.56 %
11.11 %
4.44 %
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Based on the above data, it is important to carry out the last step of this
action research; that is reflection. It is being done as soo as the first cycle has bee
done for the sake of preparing the next cycle or not. Since, the mean score of the
reading comprehension test after being taught by using folklore is 66,78 and there
are 80 % of the students who got the score at least 65.
It means that the standard score requirement of reading comprehension
achievement in this action research has been achieved since there is an improvement
of the students score in reading comprehension. Their score improved from 60 to
66.78. But, second cycle was absolutely needed to know the consistency of the result
in the first cycle.
That’s why; the writer has already proposed to have another cycle for the
sake of knowing the consistency of the research result. It is important that the
research result become an alternative model of English reading instruction for the
writer and other English teacher at SMPN 7 Jember.
Cycle II
Based on the previous plan, second cycle was done together between the
writer and the other English teacher. As usual, the researcher became the doer of the
action while the other became the observer. As soon as the collected data was being
analyzed, the result shows that 38 respondents or (85 %) achieved the criteria. There
are only 15 % or 7 students having not achieved the criteria yet. The following is the
gained data taken from the cycle II.
Table 3. Reading comprehension achievement
No.
1
2
3
4
5
Score Range
80 - 100
70 – 79
60 – 69
40 – 59
0 – 39
Frequency
7
16
15
6
1
Percentage(%)
15.56 %
35.56 %
33.33 %
13.33 %
2.22 %
Based on the above data, it is briefly assumed that the result showed its
consistency. There is however any improvement of reading comprehension
achievement. The average score has increased from 66, 78 up to 67, 74. Again, the
number of respondents achieving the determined criteria has also increased from 9
up to 7 students.
Discussion
The analysis of the action results has been done as reported in the previous
explanation. Here, the result of the reading comprehension test has improved in
cycle 1. The mean score of the students’ reading comprehension test was 66,78, it
has fulfilled the standard mean score requirement of the mean score that was 65.
There are at leastr 80 % of the students got score at least 65.
Further, the result of the reading comprehension test in cycle II has improved
as well. The mean score of the students’ reading comprehension test was 67,74. It
means that teaching of reading by using folklore as the material showed its
consistency. This statement was supported by Baynham (1986), “using folklore as
102. JP3 Vol 4 No 1, Maret 2014
educational material helps the students to develop their reading achievement and
interest.
On the other hand, the instructional materials has absolutely motivated the
students’ learning interests. During the reading instruction, the respondents have
actively involved in the classroom discussion, participation such as having responses
to the available questions. It is briefly assumed that the chosen materials make the
students interested to the reading instruction.
Conclusion
Based on the above research result, it is concluded that folklore improves the
students’ reading comprehension achievement. The result of the reading
comprehension test is 67.74 and there are about 85 % of them achieving higher
score that 65 as the determined criteria. And, there are only 15% not achieving the
criteria anymore.
Suggestion
Considering the result of this classroom action research, some suggestions
are proposed to maily English teacher and other researcher. It is suggested to
English teacher that more folklore becomes significant instructional material for
teaching reading comprehension. It is however suggested that English teachers
hopefully expected to conduct further research in the same topic but using different
type of folklore,
Bibliography
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