A STUDY ON READING COMPREHENSION OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENT OF MAN TEMPURSARI NGAWI IN 2007/2008 ACADEMIC YEAR

ACHMAD, LAILA MUNFARIDA (2008)
Abstract
The aims of this research is to describe reading comprehension ability of the second year students of MAN Tempursari Ngawi in 2007/2008 academic year. The main objectives of the study are to know the student’s ability in reading comprehension and to know the most dominant reading skills mastered by the students. The writer uses descriptive quantitative method to present the data. In this research, the writer gets the data by using a test. The test is in the form of multiple choice and essay test. In analyzing the data, the writer uses numerical devices and category system. The result of this research shows that : (a) the students answer 70,4% of literal comprehension questions correctly which belongs to good category, (b)students answer 53,5% of inferential comprehension questions correctly which belongs to fair category, and (c) students answer 54,3% of evaluation questions correctly which belongs to fair category. The total amount of student’s correct answer for reading comprehension is 61 % which belongs to good category. The most dominant reading skill mastered by the students in reading comprehension is literal comprehension. However, even though the result of the test is good but the reading skills mastered by the students is only in literal comprehension. This implies that the students’ skills should be improved because to have a good reading comprehension, they have to master all of those reading skills.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language is one of the subjects taught at school. People learn many
languages to communicate with people from other countries. It is a vital area
of study for a better understanding of us. Learning language especially English
is a window outside the world. It has an important role in all aspects of human
life such as in science, technology, education and economics. From this
reason, the government of Indonesia decides that English is the first foreign
language to put in the school curriculum. English as a subject matter in school
covers the four basic language skill namely speaking, listening, reading and
writing.
Reading, one of the language skills, is a complex language skill. It is
such kind of activity to comprehend the writer's ideas or the way the writer
communicates with the readers by way of the written or printed words (2007.
www.if.ia.org). Reading is important for everybody in order to cope with new
knowledge in the changing world of technological age. The existence of the
importance of reading will hopefully continue to increase in the years to come.
Nevertheless, there are still some people who never have much initial interest
or lasting interest in book and readings, so they cannot access reading
activities and reading programs.
Because mastering reading is important, English teacher should
prepare her or his students to be competent in reading. To do this in teaching
reading, teachers have to be able to make interesting materials for the students
in the process of teaching and they have to know how to apply it. The teacher
should revive the students attention and make them creative and active.
To reach a good achievement in reading comprehension, the students
need more time to practice it. A good achievement in reading helps the
students achieve the ability of other aspects of English language such as good
speaking, enriching students’ vocabulary and ideas. A good reading will
improve the student’s ability in gathering ideas to communicate. However,
sometimes the language learners have difficulties in reading comprehension.
So, they have the same problems in learning English especially in reading
comprehension. The problems may arise from the learners, teacher and the
facilities.
The problems faced by the students in reading comprehension are
caused by the language, the facilities, and the reading strategies. Learners
problem is usually in mastering vocabularies. English and Indonesian
language are different. There is no guarantee that the students who have good
understanding of Indonesian text will have good understanding of English
text. The other reason is students can not increase their knowledge in reading
comprehension if they have limited facilities. It is also the problem usually
faced by the student, the facilities do not support them to increase their skill in
reading comprehension. The last is the mastery reading strategies. It is an
important aspect which influences the skill of the students in comprehending
the reading text (2008 www.pbs.org). The strategies that should be mastered
are, (1) previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to
get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection, (2) predicting:
using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and
vocabulary and check comprehension, (3) skimming and scanning, (4)
guessing from context using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in
the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to
look them up, (5) paraphrasing: stopping the end of a section to check
comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text.
Reading strategies are needed to master a variety of skills, which
constitute a key to comprehend the text. Mastering the skill, students will get
many information and ideas which can enrich the student’s vocabulary and
ideas. Barrett’s taxonomy categorizes reading skills into three levels of
comprehension. Barrett’s taxonomy presented in the hierarchy from the least
to the most difficult level of reading. The skills of this reading are, (1) literal
comprehension, it is the ability to read the line to understand the plain sense of
what is stated in the text. Understanding literal meaning is the first step toward
a deeper meaning. (2) inferential comprehension, obliges the readers to read
between the lines, to consider what is implied but not explicitly stated. It
requires the reader to understand the text well enough to work out its
implications and (3) evaluation, this level of comprehension involves reader in
making judgment about the content of a text by comparing it with information
provided by the author on the subject, or with his own experience, knowledge,
or values related to the subject.
Mastering the skills is quite difficult. As a matter of fact the student’s
ability in applying the skills helps them understand the English reading text
easier. Student often get various problems in mastering the skills, just like in
MAN Tempursari Ngawi, in which sometimes the students get difficulty in
understanding the text. However the teacher does not know that the skill is the
source of the student’s problems. To know the student’s problems, in reading
comprehension, the writer uses test as her instrument. So, the student’s
difficulties becomes the reason of the writer’s interests.
Based on the background above, the writer wants to know the student’s
ability in reading comprehension and the problems faced by the second year
students in reading comprehension for the best result of the teaching. Reading
test is used to be a base together with the knowledge about the technique,
theory, and evaluation of the teaching. The result of research can be used as an
input in teaching learning process especially in teaching reading. Therefore the
writer is interested in conducting a research entitled “A Study on Reading
Comprehension ability of the Second Year Students of MAN Tempursari
Ngawi in 2007/2008 Academic Year”.
B. Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problems can be formulated
as follows:
1. How is reading comprehension ability of the second year students of MAN
Tempursari Ngawi in 2007/2008 Academic Year?
2. What is the most dominant reading skill mastered by the second students
of MAN Tempursari Ngawi in 2007/2008 Academic Year?
C. Objective of the Study
The study is aimed:
1. to describe reading comprehension ability of the second year students of
MAN Tempursari Ngawi in 2007/2008 Academic Year.
2. to describe most dominant reading skill mastered by the second students of
MAN Tempursari Ngawi in 2007/2008 Academic Year.
D. Limitation of the Study
1. The reading comprehension ability is seen from the result of the test.
2. The most dominant reading skill is seen from the test items related to
reading skills.
E. Benefit of the Study
The writer hopes that this research will have some benefits in the study
of English especially in reading skills. There are two kinds of benefits in this
research, those are:
1. Theoretical Benefit
a. The result of the research can be used for those who want to conduct a
research in analyzing teaching English language especially in reading
subject.
b. This research will enrich the study on English teaching learning,
especially for teaching reading in senior high school.
2. Practical Benefit
a. This research will give the information about the student’s ability in
reading comprehension.
b. This research will give the information about problem in reading
comprehension so that the teacher in the school can find some
techniques to teach reading.
F. Research Paper Organization
To enable the writer in arranging the research and to make it easy to
understand, the writer divides this research paper into five chapters, they are
as follow:
Chapter I is introduction. It deals with background of the study,
problem of the study, objective of the study, limitation of the study, benefit of
the study, and research paper organization.
Chapter II is review of related literature that consists of previous study;
underlying theory: notion of reading, fluent readers, the reading technique, the
notion of comprehension, factor affecting comprehension skill, reading
comprehension; and theoretical framework.
Chapter III is research method. This chapter consists of research
design; population, sample, sampling; research instrument; validity and
reliability of the instrument, data and methods collecting data; and data analysis.
Chapter IV is research result and discussion. It consists of description
of the data presentation, data analysis and discussion.
Chapter V is the last chapter. It consists of conclusion and suggestion.