A STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN READING INTEREST AND THE ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION OF THE NINETH GRADE STUDENTS

OF SMP NEGERI 1TAMBAKBOYO IN THE 2010 / 2011 ACADEMIC YEAR

Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment July 27, 2011 A STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN READING INTEREST AND THE ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION OF THE NINETH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 1TAMBAKBOYO IN THE 2010 / 2011 ACADEMIC YEAR PROPOSAL By: MOHAMMAD SHOIM NPM: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION UNIVERSITAS PGRI RONGGOLAWE TUBAN 2011 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Language is very important for humans life. It is used to communicative with other people. So they begin to learn both mother tongue and foreign language to enlarge their knowledge and experience. And today the most important to learn English because its an international language and most people all over the world use it as a means of communication. In Indonesia English is the first foreign language that to be taught officially to students from the Elementary School to University. We may therefore say that language includes four skills or complexes of skill: listening, speaking, reading, and writing and two components consisting of structure and vocabulary. From the four language skills, reading ability is the main concern of English to be able to read English text books, journals, and references etc. They cannot rally too much on the Indonesian version of the English text books. Sartono in Saidah (1984: 4) says that since most of textbooks and references are written in English, many students who find difficulties in comprehending them usually have their texts translated or extracted. It will be better if they can do it by

themselves, rather than depend on their English teachers. Unfortunately some research finding indicate that English reading of most Indonesian students is still far from being sufficient. In the other words, they have poor English reading skills. However, reading skill is the basic form to facilitate the absorption and the development advanced science and technology, culture, and enhance international relationship. Having limited English reading ability makes the reads difficult to understand and respond to what they read. It means that the reader cannot comprehend the contents of the reading materials. Therefore we have to improve our reading habit by reading in our leisure time, especially reading activity of English reading materials. As we know that many sources of technology and educational development are written in English. For that matter, we should know the way to how to be able to read them efficiently in order to avoid wasting time in reading to get some information. That is way, it is important for the readers to understand the structure in order to gain something they needs from the reading materials easily. We all know that reading is a process of thinking. Burn and Roe (1980: 8) state that reading is a very complex and complicated process that involves some factors influential upon each other. Because of the students have the lower skills in interferential reading comprehension as stated by Purwantini (1992: 42), the writer has opinion that reading habit supports the student to be able to comprehend the text. That is the reason why the writer wants to show that reading habit is very important to support inferential reading comprehension. Because of the background of the study above the writer considered that this problem is appropriate to be investigated, remembering the benefit which can be taken from the research activity. In this study, the writer decided to design a problem to be researched with the title A STUDY ON THE CORELATION BETWEEN READING INTEREST AND THE ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION OF THE NINETH GRADE STUDENTS AT SMP NEGERI 1 TAMBAKBOYO IN THE 2010- / 2011 ACADEMIC YEAR. 1.2 Statement of the Problem This study meanly concerned with significant correlation in the reading interest and reading comprehension. The Problem can be formulated as follows: What are the significant correlations between studentss reading interest and students reading comprehension of The Eighth Year Students of SMP NEGERI 1? 1.3 Objective of the Study Based on the statement above, so the objective of this study is aimed to findingout whether there is significant correlations between students reading interest and students reading comprehension of The Eighth Year Students of SMP NEGERI 1. 1.4 Significance of the Study The writer expects that result of this study can be used to help teachers in order to improve their quality of teaching and learning process. It can help teachers to measure students achievement, and give the solution to overcome the problems in their learning reading comprehension too. 1.5 Scope and Limitation of The Study In this case, it is important to limit the scope of the study in order to make the discussion more specific. The writer researched on the correlation between students reading interest and students reading comprehension of eighth year students of SMP NEGERI 1 TAMBAKBOYO . 1.6 Definition of The Key Terms

To avoid misunderstanding in the interpretation of the words that are used in this study, the writer gives definitions of the words of the terms of this study as follow: 1. Correlation : according to Hornby, A. S. 1990. On Oxford Advance Dictionary of Current English, correlation is a mutual relation or connection, especially for affecting or depending on each other; (try to) show such a relation or connection something and something else. 2. Reading : according to Wallace and Larsen (1987: 299) reading is a multi faceted process, which can be described at various time and developmental stages as a thinking process. 3. Reading habit : the number of repetitions in given time to read the English text. (Edithia G Simanjuntak in his book Developing Reading Skill for ESL Students,Jakarta. ProyekPengembanganLembagaPendidikanTenagaKependidikan. 1988) 4. Reading Comprehension: understanding of a text written in English as proved by the ability to correctly choose the right answer of the question asked from the text.(Edithia G Simanjuntak in his book Developing Reading Skill for ESL Students,Jakarta. ProyekPengembanganLembagaPendidikanTenagaKependidikan. 1988) CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter is divided into four parts. The first part is nature of reading and process. Second part is the literature dealing with reading comprehension in English, reading comprehension in foreign language learning and levels of comprehension. The third parts deals with the factors influencing comprehension. In the fourth parts presents the literature on interferential comprehension. 2.1 The Definition of Reading The definition of reading in this chapter is includes the definition of reading in general or in the native language, and definition of reading foreign language. 2.1.1 Reading in General or In native Language Strang et A1 (1997: 8) says, Reading is more than seeing words clearly, more than pronouncing that are printed correctly, more then recognizing the meaning of isolated words reading series that you fell and imagine. Effective reading is purposeful. The use one makes of his reading largely determines what he reads, why he reads, and how he reads. The knowledge background and past experience of the students are very important education. In order to understand the reading text, the students need to recall the written material and get new meaning from them. 2.1.2 Reading in Foreign Language It is important for the students to read a new language of passage, as in the following statement by P. Gurrey (1957: 84) there must be question on the text. This is essential. The questions are to help the pupils to understand every detail in the printed words. It means the questions on the passage are to facilitate the students in understanding the content passage. 2.2 The Nature of Reading and Reading Process 2.2.1 The Nature of Reading

Psychologists and reading experts have been conducting extensive researches in the nature of reading and sequential development of language skills. Among the discoveries of the researches as stated by Lewis and Sisk (1963:95 96) are: 1. Reading is not a single skills but an interrelated process of many skills. 2. Reading is a developmental process. In other words reading skills develop sequentially as students nature. 3. There are general developmental patterns from grade and from year to year, but wide variation in reading abilities exists among students in any grade or in any age. 4. There are no basic reading skills, which can be taught or learned once and for all, there are merely simpler or more difficult levels of reading proficiencies, which can be taught to students who are ready to learn them. 2.2.2 Reading Process Harris and Sipay write three categories of model reading process, that is: bottom up model, top-down model, and interactive model. The bottom up model of reading process assumes that in understanding a text, the words to form phrase, clause and sentences of the text. This model focuses on the important role linguistics factor possessed by the reader. On the other hand, Simanjuntak (1988: 7) states that the top down model of reading process involves the interaction of language and thought. In this process the background knowledge plays the important role in predicting the meaning of the text. It means that the reader will guess the meanings of the sentences or the large unit: discourse. 2.3 Reading Comprehension Skill What is meant by reading comprehension is obtaining meaning from unit larger than a single word. Grasping the meaning that printed symbols stand for is just as important part of reading as recognizing the words. Tinker and McCullogh (1975: 197) explain that comprehension depends upon grasping word and meaning, grouping words into unitary thought complexes, that is grasping the relation between words in sentences in paragraph, between paragraph in large wholes, they further claim that comprehension skill include the ability to skim, read for the main idea, to follow and anticipate sequence of event, to read to grasp relevant details, to read to follow direction or to draw conclusion, or to evaluate critically. Anderson et al (1969: 106 107) maintain that there are three levels of comprehension, namely reading the lines, interpreting what the author says; reading between the lines, interpreting what is meant by the author; and reading beyond the lines, making generalization of what is read. 2.3.1 Reading Comprehension in English Reading has been defined differently by some experts. This difference is because of its complexity and the many successive satges of its developments. Spaces and Space as quoted by Wallace and Larsen remark that no one simple definition of reading will be accepted unanimously. They say reading as a multi faceted process, which can be described at various time and development stages as a thinking process, (Wallace and Larsen, 1987: 299). 2.3.2 Levels of Comprehension The final goal for all reading instruction is comprehension. It is vital component of the reading process. A current view of reading process perceives reading comprehension as a special kind of

reading process. Having known to complicated process of comprehension, some theories perceive reading comprehension in goal term; while other try to distinguish them into different levels of separable sub skills. 2.4 The Students Interest in Reading English Comprehension and Their factors The writer assumes that the students are not disappointed with their English if they are interest in their English reading. Hananingsih (1984: 45), in her thesis says that the individual makes a variety of choices with respect to activities in which she engages. Each person will not learn anything will unless they are interested in what they are learning. There are two types of interest, they are: intrinsic and extrinsic interest. Intrinsic interest is a said to be favorable condition in learning because it comes out from the circumstances such as the hope of reward fear of non success. 2.4.1 Factors of Students Interest Most of the students can success in their sense because they are interested in something. According to Jokobits in his book, there are some factors in interest in reading comprehension; they are motivation, attitude, and feeling. 2.4.2 Factors influencing Comprehension The success and the failure in comprehending the written text are determined by a lot of factors. Different researches propose different factors, which affect reading comprehension. However, they can be classified into two major factors: the characteristics of the materials and the characteristics of the reader. The first consists of the concept being presented in the text, technical vocabulary; special meaning for word and unfamiliar structure, readers decoding skill, the readers purpose and attitude. . Supporting a habit of reading of English reading material is not easy, and there are many inhibiting factors to do that. Those are problems that must be overcome by the readers if they want to read English materials easily. There are some suggestions for the reader to improve the reading habits as follows: 1. Choose English materials which are appropriate to our ability in English and which attract our interest. 2. Try to realize that to make habit reading from interesting materials will improve our ability in understanding English reading material and we will be to enjoy what we are reading. 3. forming reading habits. 2.4.3 Inferential Comprehension Like reading comprehension that has been defined by the researchers, inferential comprehension also has several definitions suggested by different experts. Inferential is from the word to infer. Means the process of inferring or concluding or deciding from something to Alexander (1988) and Olson and Dulner (1982), involves understanding an authors intent and getting his intended massage, even though they are covered in the sentences. In addition, interference is a process by which the reader uses hints to gather information (Wiener, 1985). All of the definitions above show that in making inferences the reader goes beyond surface details and read between the lines. That is the reader examines all the information the author provides. Besides, the readers themselves supplies meaning by the information and background they possess.

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD The research method has an important role in guiding the research because the method can determine the success of research. Beside that the result of the research will depend on the method which will be used. AriefFurhan (1982:50) says that research method is general strategy that is used to collect and analyze data needed in order to respond the problem faced. Based on the definition above, the writer reports the procedures which is used in this study, they are: The research design, place and the time of research, population and sample of the study, instrument of the study, method of data collecting, and method of data analysis. 3.1 Research Design According to AriefFurhan (1982: 50), there are four categories of the research design, they are: experimental research, ex-post facto research, descriptive research, and historical research. In this case, the study is design to intend assess the students interest in reading comprehension, can be categorized as a descriptive. Arikunto (2002: 9) states descriptive research as that penelitian yang dilakukandenganmenjelaskan / menggambarkan variable masalaludansekarang (yang terjadi), adalahpenilitiandeskriptif (to describe = menggambarkan /membeberkan). The descriptive research is designed to obtain information concerning the current status of phenomenon and it is directed toward determining the nature of situation, as it exists at the time of the study. In this study, the data will be collected are the numbers, so the research design is descriptive quantitative. This study dealt with two kinds of variables, they are the reading interest as the independent variable and the achievement reading comprehension as dependent variable. The ultimate purpose of the study as determines the effect of the independent variable (habit of reading) on the dependent variable (inferential reading comprehension). 3.2 Place and Time of Research At SMP Negeri 1 Tambakboyo. 3.3 Population and Sample According to Prof. Drs. SutrisnoHadi, M.A.: A population is all-individual for whom the truth which are taken from the sample will be generalized. Paulina (1962: 32) says that population is something important for investigation, as it the subject from which the sample is taken. While SuharsimiArikunto (2002: 108) states that populasiadalahkeseluruhansubjekpenelitiandidalamEncyclopedia of Educational Evaluation tertulis: a population is a set (or collection) of all elements possessing one or more attributes of interest. 3.4 Instrument of the Study SuharsimiArikunto (2002: 21) explains that instrument adalahalat yang digunakanpadawaktupenelitiandenganmenggunakansuatumetode. Instrument is equipment which is used when the researcher does the research by suing a certain method. It means that the instrument that will be used have to be based on the method or technique or collecting data. Because the instrument that will be used influence the result of the study, so choosing instrument

must base on the method. In this study, the writer uses two kinds of instrument. They are questionnaire, and the test of reading comprehension. 3.4.1 Questionnaire Questionnaire is the list of question given to the students when the researcher researches them. The purpose of this way is to know how far the students interest with reading, especially in reading comprehension. The researcher does not give a limit for the respondents, but she gives the choice for each questions. The questions used in this study is closed question, it means that the respondents just choose available options (Arikunto, 1992: 125). To know the reading interest, the writer gives score for each option in following way: a. More than three times / week : 4 b. 2 3 times / week : 3 c. 1 2 times / week : 2 d. never : 1 The aim of the option given is to know students interest in reading. Based on the score option, if the student chooses the answer A for each number, it means that the student get the highest score, in other hand if the student does not give for all item or answer D, they get the lowest score. 3.4.2 Reading Test The instrument used in this was in the form of a test on inferential reading comprehension as a mean of measuring the students achievement. Seeing from the type of the test, test can be divided into two types, objectives and subjective test. In this study the researcher uses objectives test to collect the data. It contains 30 items and includes five kinds of reading. They are scanning skill, skimming skill, reading detail information skill, and reading between line skill and reference skill. 3.5 Procedures of Collecting Data In this study, the writer took one day to collect the data. First, the writer gives the students a questionnaire, in order to know the students interest in reading English materials. Then, the writer gives them a test, in order to know the studentsachievement reading comprehension. The result of test will be correlated with the result of questionnaire. 3.6 Data Analysis The data obtained from the subjects were analyzed by using r-test. One of the considerations choosing the Pearson product moment correlation is that the study consist two variables. The writer believes that formula was appropriately chosen. The analysis covered the following steps: 1. Determining the interest in reading which is uses English test as a media of learning comprehension. 2. Correlating the reading habit and achievement reading comprehension.