1

THE USE OF JAKARTA POST NEWS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’

READING COMPREHENSION SKILL

A Journal

Submitted to the English Education Program of STKIP Garut in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By

Andri Patrianto

NIM 11221001

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

SEKOLAH TINGGI KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN

(STKIP) GARUT

2015
 2

The use of Jakarta Post News to Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension

Skill
Andri Patrianto, 11221001, English Education Program

Abstract
This research concerned with the use of Jakarta Post news article to improve students’
reading comprehension skill. Using a mixed methods design, this study aims to know how to use
the Jakarta Post news to improve students’ reading skill in learning language. The data gathered
from theory and literary documents for supporting the study. Interview and reading test were used
to collect the data. The result of the study was expected to describe the benefit of using news
articles to improve students’ reading comprehension skill.
Keywords: reading comprehension, Jakarta Post, reading test, and interview
Abstrak
Penelitian ini terkait dengan penggunaan artikel berita Jakarta Post untuk meningkatakan
kemampuan membaca siswa secara komprehensif. Menggunakan desain metode campuran,
penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana penggunaan berita dari Jakarta Post dapat
meningkatkan kemampuan membaca siswa secara komprehensif dalam mempelajari Bahasa. Data
dikumpulkan dari teori dan dokumen kepustakaan untuk mendukung penelitian ini. Wawancara dan
tes membaca dipakai untuk mengumpulkan data penelitan. Hasil dari penelitian ini diharapkan
dapat menjelaskan manfaat penggunaan artikel berita untuk meningkatakan kemampuan membaca
siswa secara komprehensif.
Kata kunci: membaca komprehensif, Jakarta Post, tes membaca dan interview.

1. Introduction
Human beings establish social relation in the
world using language as tool of
communication. By using a language, people
are able to convey their messages, to express
their idea in oral or written language so that
they can communicate with each other.
Learning foreign language, especially English
for students is important as a determining
factor in securing a favorable position and
remuneration in the job competition.
English is the language of international
communication, business and trade, the media
and culture, different purpose for learning it
come in to play in globalization era (Richards,
2007: 2). English in a language of
globalization is widely spoken in almost all of
countries in the world as international
communication. Because of its significance
role, English has been included to Indonesian
National Education System from junior high
school until university level. It is compulsory
and allotted at least four-class hour per week.
At the university level, many non-English
departments require that students take one or
two semesters of English for two hours per
week. Even though English is officially taught
throughout secondary schools and at the
university level in Indonesia, competence in
English as foreign language between high
school and university level is generally not
satisfactory. The problems are in the
academic and professional, English has never
been widely use as the lingua franca in the
majority population of Indonesia.
Learning English should include four skills:
listening, speaking, reading and writing. One
of the four skills in English, reading is an
important educational goal in learning
language. It provides student to understand
more or less based on what they read and
provide good models for writing. If they read
more, they will get at it. Furthermore, reading
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also gives positive effect to students’ lexical
knowledge, on their spelling, and on their
writing. Hence, reading can encourage
students’ vocabulary, grammar, and
punctuation (Harmer, 2007). To improve the
reading skill in English for college students
many kinds of readings are needed. Reading
newspapers, magazine, novels, encyclopedia,
religious, and science materials will broaden
the field of the knowledge of the students.
Choosing material for teaching is not an easy
job and the teacher must be concern of many
aspect before choose specific material for
their students in the class. Textbooks
sometimes do not give complete material for
specific lesson, so teacher should be creative
to discover another source. Using authentic
material in class is not new. According to
Nunan (1989) authentic material is “Any
material which has not been specifically
produced for the purpose of language
teaching”. Moreover, Bacon and Finnemann
(1990) state that “Authentic materials are
texts produced by native speakers for a non-
pedagogical purpose.” Therefore, authentic
text is defined as any text that has not been
produced for English teaching material but it
can be applied in classroom for teaching.
Teaching language using online news is a
good choice. News develops every day and
the content of news in the classroom is fresh
each day. It comes with the latest news and
information. Stories spread out as reporters
discover more information to reconstruct what
happened. There is the fast news in the
world’s happenings is an online news.
For teachers the evolution from newspaper to
online news offers a special content. It can be
called the living textbook and it lives up to
that name. Reading news can help to enhance
skills in reading, writing, listening, speaking,
social studies and natural science. Critical
thinking is the natural outgrowth of using a

news to learn. Unlike textbook, which are
several years outdated by the time get they get
into students’ hands, the news comes alive
with new information. The news expands the
curriculum with an unlimited amount of
information to use as background for learning
activities. Finally, the readers can enjoy
online news service to find specific news of
interest.
The reading news activities will help students
improve their skills in reading and writing.
These skills are among the ones they will
practice by using newspaper: how to find
main idea, how to increase vocabulary how to
compare readings, how to form sentences,
how to ask a good question and how to write
great summary. They will employ many
critical thinking skills, as they are required to
interact with the authentic text found in the
news. Teachers have to be creative teaching in
the classroom. They do not only use textbook
but also use another material for example
news from internet.
2. Research Problem
To achieve the previously mentioned aims,
this study guided by the following research
question:
1. Can authentic text of Jakarta Post help
students to improve their reading
skill?
2. How can using the Jakarta Post help
students to improve their reading
skill?
3. Review of Literature
3. 1 Reading
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There are various definitions of reading from
the experts. Nunan (2003: 68) says that
reading is an intensive process of readers
combining information from a text and their
personal knowledge to build meaning. The
purpose of reading is comprehension skill.
According to Pang et al, (2003: 6) reading
consists of two related processes, word
recognition and comprehension. Word
comprehension refers to the process of
perceiving how written symbols correspond to
spoken language and comprehension refers to
the process of making sense of words,
sentences, and connected text. Harmer (2007:
99) states that reading is useful for second
language acquisition. If students read more,
the better reading ability they get from it.
From brief explanation above, Reading is an
activity to comprehend written information
and it is a skill of language to get information
from written text. Reading is also a process of
communication between the writer and reader
indirectly.
3.2 Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension according to Hoover
and Tuner in Urquhart and Weir (1998) is to
extract complete meanings from presented
material. From the definition, the focus on
comprehension is what reading about and
getting information from written texts.
Reading comprehension is the ability to
discern meaning from the written text. Skilled
readers are purposeful and active and apply
comprehension strategies to the text.
The reading comprehension process involves
an understanding of words and how those are
used to create meaning. A large majority of
authors on reading comprehension suggest
that there are several critical elements: (1) the
text, (2) the reader, (3) the interaction
between the reader and the text, and (4) the
mental state of the reader after the text
interaction.

Those critical elements are the important
elements that for consideration of the teacher
to establish the students to comprehend in
reading. The students or the reader of a
certain text should know and sort every single
word in a text which one they get the meaning
of that word or they should look for the
meaning of word to understand the meaning
of the whole text. If the students understand
the text, it means that the student integrates
with the text.
The students who are the successful reader
can mention the elements of the text such
as events, facts, setting or other element
which is connected with the whole text.
The teacher sometimes gives the students a
question related to the element of the text.
The teacher will know which student who
masters the text well or not from the answers
to the questions.
Reading comprehension is an important
aspect to develop students’ ability to read
with understanding. Barr, Sadow, and
Blachwicz (1990) emphasized that reading is
an active process in which readers interact
with the text to reconstruct the message
of the author or writer. In sum,
Reading comprehension is the reading activity
which more thorough to understand the
meaning, find the message of the text and
reconstruct the idea of the reader. Hence, in
reading process the reader or the students
should understand the meaning of language
that is used in text in order to they can
comprehend to analyze and explain the
content of the text by using their own
language.
3.3 Authentic Text
According to Hutchinson (1986), authentic
text is the text that has taken from real
situation and not originally constructed for
language teaching in the classroom. Besides,
Stubbs (1996) defines authentic texts as
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actual, attested, and such that they have real
authentic instances of use. Jordan (1997)
defines authentic texts as the ones that are not
designed for pedagogical purpose.
Furthermore, Jacobson et al (2003: 1) sees
authentic text as printed materials, which are
used in classroom in the same way they
would be used in real world. Then, Herrington
and Oliver (2000) suggested a new term,
called “authentic learning”. It is related to the
students’ real life and prepares them to face
and deal with real world situations. On other
hand, Herod (2002) says that authentic
learning includes materials and activities
designed to imitate the real world situations.
3.4 News article as Authentic Text
Using a news article text in teaching
English can bring lively and contemporary
subject into the classroom and at the same
time motivate the students. They also provide
English learners most kinds of genres of
writing written in authentic language, such as
narratives, stories, letters, reports, and
advertisements, etc., often rich in
collocations, latest vocabulary and idioms.
News article can serve as examples of writing
and use to help train students’ writing,
reading and oral communication. Moreover,
news article provide various materials for
students to broaden their knowledge, as they
contain a wide range of topics, including
politics, sport, economy, education, health,
entertainment, science and technology.
3.4 The Advantages of Using Authentic
Text
In modern methodology, it seems to
be necessary to use authentic text in the
English language lesson. It is important to
realize that teachers must make selection from
course books although writers and publishers
would argue that the material they include in
their books is the best for learners of English
as it has been prepared and designed by

specialists. Thus, apart from following a
course book, teachers should feel like
introducing certain novelties, since they know
not only their students and their level of
proficiency, but also their needs, their
weaknesses and strong points. As a result,
they are perfectly able of selecting the most
appropriate material to be used in class.
According to Shrum and Glisan (2000: 133),
“Authentic text provides an effective means
for presenting real language, integrating
culture, and heightening comprehension.”
They bring two reasons for believing that
authentic texts are beneficial. Firstly, by
exposure to such materials, students will be
provided with the opportunity to see language
as is used in real world to serve a real
purpose. Secondly, such materials can be
considered as a rich source of cultural content.
Many researcher have confirmed the role of
authentic texts in developing reading skills
through introducing learners to new
vocabulary and expressions.
3.5 The Disadvantages of Using Authentic
Text
Although many experts argue that authentic
texts have made many contributions in
foreign language teaching and learning, some
researchers are against the use of authentic
materials. For example, authentic texts add a
burden on teachers, as they may contain
difficult vocabulary and grammar, which need
more effort to be simplified and explained to
students in order to make them understand
and appropriate for students. In addition, there
is no significant differences in students’
performance, between students using
authentic materials and other that use
traditional materials (Kienbaum et al, 1986).
Miller (2005) also states that authentic texts
are too difficult and time consuming to select,
edit and prepare as teaching materials.
Martinez (2002) states that students may be
too culturally biased, hence it is unnecessarily
and difficult to understand outside the
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language community. Then, vocabulary might
not be relevant to the student's needs.
4. Research Method
4.1 Research Design
This research combines quantitative and
qualitative research method in form a mixed
methods design. The procedures are library
research and field research. In library
research, the author tries to find out previous
research either teaching using newspaper
printed or online from internet. In the field
research, researcher gives a reading test to a
class after treatment and giving some
interview to teachers and students at grade XI
3, senior high school 11 Garut about reading
newspaper The Jakarta Post in order to
strength the result of reading test.
According to Cresswell (2003: 16) a mixed
methods approach was one in which the
researcher tended to base knowledge claims
on pragmatic grounds. The first steps of
research, the researcher carried out to
interview to teachers at grade XI. Second,
Researcher used reading test to a class to get
data from students. In order to strength the
data result, data from interview was used to
support the result of reading test.
4.2 Population and Sample
The population can be all the individuals of a
particular type or a more restricted part of that
group.A sample is a definite plan for
obtaining a sample from a given population. It
refers to the technique or the procedure the
researcher adopt in selecting items for the
sample from the population for the research
(Sundayana, 2014:16). The population of
class XI MIPA is about 320 students. This
study was done with 42 participants from
class XI MIPA 3 as the sample. There would

use Jakarta Post news text for the subjects
reading as the material lesson in classroom.
4.3 Data Collection
The test was given at the end students
meeting of the study. The test asked to read
an English news text and answer the question
based on the text in reading test. The test
aimed to know the reading skill ability.
The interview is used to find out data
information from the students and teachers
about Jakarta Post. Then, the information
collected from teacher is used to determine
the teacher perception and experience about
teaching authentic text. Interview to students
is used to determine how they understand the
Jakarta Post news.
4.4 Technique of Data Analysis
The techniques used in analyzing the data
were normality test and t-test. The result t-test
and t-table were for data interpretation. The
normality test was used to know whether the
data that will be analyzed have normal
distribution or not. Here, it used Lilliefors test
formula (Kolomogorov-Smirnov). If
significant value is higher than significant
error (α), the data was normally distributed.
The t-test was used to see the means
reading test for statistically significant, the t-
value should be obtained and compared with
the critical value in t-table.
5. Result and Analysis of Research
This research objective is to investigate
whether using Jakarta Post is significantly
effective to improve students’ reading
comprehension skill of senior high school by
applying t-test. T-test was used to test the
hypothesis.
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In treatment to get maximum benefit from
reading, students should be involved in both
extensive and intensive reading (Harmer,
2007:210). The first activity was pre-reading
Activities. These tasks were intended to
construct background knowledge. The teacher
built a bridge builder between what students
already know about a concept and what they
need to know in order to understand a text. In
pre-reading, teacher gave key words and some
questions e.g. : do you know the hot news
now?, what do you think about that news
news?. The questions were given as opening
before students read the Jakarta Post news in
order to bring students to world of news
reading. Pre-reading were intended to prepare
the learners for a reading selection, or to give
them the first steps in order to develop skills
in anticipation and prediction for the reading.
In while reading activities, students tried to
apply reading techniques that had been taught
(skimming and scanning) and some tools
(using similar news title in Indonesia
newspaper, using picture, smartphone
application, google translator and dictionary).
Example of question for while reading were
where did the accident happen?, who were the
victims? Etc. The aims of this stage were to
help students to understand the main idea and
specific information of the news text. With
these tasks teacher took the learners through
the reading and they interacted in the text.
Post-reading activities were intended to verify
and expand the knowledge acquired in the
reading. These last tasks also led the learners
to discuss and analyze issues presented in the
reading. Post-activities were tasks in which
learners, after interacting with the reading,
reflect, argue and give their points of view
(making conclusion).
The reading technique that introduced in class
treatment to students were skimming and
scanning. Skimming was used to help

students to find main idea. Second, scanning
was taught them to find specific information
quickly. Therefore, some techniques that
introduced in treatment to help students in
reading exercise that were using similar news
title in Indonesia newspaper, using picture,
smartphone application, google translator and
dictionary. From the result of the test, the
students who pass the exam 38 students and 4
students were failed. The mean score (84.52)
was higher than passing grade (75), hence it
could be concluded that the treatment was
success implemented in class.
In conclusion, there score of students’ reading
comprehension skill in reading Jakarta Post
was statistically significant. Therefore, using
Jakarta Post can improve students’ reading
comprehension skill. In addition, from
interview, those teachers of English SMAN
11 Garut have ever used Jakarta Post or
authentic text as teaching material. Students
use some ways to read The Jakarta Post, there
are using similar news title in Indonesia
newspaper, using picture, smartphone
application, google translator and dictionary.
6. Conclusion
The objective of this research was to find out
whether using Jakarta Post article as reading
material is significantly effective to improve
students’ reading comprehension skill.
The method used was a mixed methods
design. The research was supported by
Indonesian news text, treatments (pre-, while-
, and post-) reading activities, reading test and
data from interview. From interview showed
that the Jakarta Post was good authentic text
and could enrich students’ vocabulary,
grammar, and their motivation to train
learning English. For example, the benefits of
using Jakarta Post from teachers’ interview:
Teacher 1 said it gave the students newest
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information about the real material.
Moreover, from students’ interview for
example S4 answered that reading Jakarta
Post with similar news text in Bahasa could
help her to understand English news. The
result showed that was significant the students
who pass the exam 38 students and 4 students
were failed with passing grade score is 75.
The mean score (84.52) was higher than
passing grade (75), hence it concluded that
Jakarta Post had significant influence.
Moreover, from teachers’ interview, teachers
of English SMAN 11 Garut have used Jakarta
Post or authentic text as teaching material.
The technique that student use to read Jakarta
Post are using similar news title in Indonesia
newspaper, using picture, smartphone
application, google translator and dictionary.
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