“The Effect of Using Retelling Strategy toward Students’ Reading Comprehension at the Second Year Students of SMPN 02 Tambusai Utara”. EXPERIMENTAL

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Problem

Strategies refer to ways that students use to learn. This ranges from techniques for improved memory to better studying or test-taking strategies. It involves making associations between facts to be remembered and particular locations. In order to remember something, you simply visualize places and the associated facts. Some learning strategies involve changes to the design of instruction. For example, the use of questions before, during or after instruction has been shown to increase the degree of learning.

A language learning strategy is an overall plan for learning a second language, based on thetheoretical approach selected. It involves the design of a syllabus for the course, which in turn consists of learning objectives and techniques for achieving those objectives. The success of a particular method is based on a number of factors, including age, personality, budget, and the amount of time one has to spare. What works for one person might not work for another, and therefore it is worth considering each of the three technique set out below to determine the technique best suited to class circumstances.

Strategy is one of the importants things in learning reading. Reading is the way to understand print and graphic texts. It is used to get information, for pleasure or for interest. It is used to interact between the reader and the text. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that contain meaning. It is complex skills requiring many things including specification, ability, and certain skill.

Reading comprehension means perceiving a written text in order to understand its contexts. This can be done silently, (Richards, 1992:302). In addition, Kalayo and Fauzan 2007:128) stated that reading comprehension is an activity with a purpose. It is very useful for all people. It is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to review a writer’s ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read.

Reading comprehension is very important subject that should be learned by all students. It is one of the language skills to get information, for pleasure or for interest. It is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text.  It is the process to understand written texts. It is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text.

Reading is one of the subject that also taught in SMPN 02 Tambusai Utara. SMPN 02 Tambusai Utara on Mahato Sakti Village, Tambusai Utara, Rokan Hulu Riau Province. The English teacher implements KTSP (2006 curriculum) in the school. It was used from 2006 acdemic year to now. In the curriculum, reading is taught 2 meetings x 40 minutes in a week. It is taught relate to the syllabus, based and standard competencies.     

In the syllabus, reading has at least three basic competences. The first is responding the meaning of functional short text accurately, fluently and accepting the relation to closest environment. The second is responding the meaning and step of rhetoric accurately, fluently and accepting a simple essay of closest environment in descriptive and procedure text, and the third is reading aloud that have a meaning of functional text, descriptive and procedure short essay with utterance, intonation and pressure accurately, (Depdiknas, 2006:25).

Based on the writer’s observation at the second year students of SMPN 02 Tambusai Utara, it is found the students have many problems in reading comprehension such as, the problems those come from the teacher, such as the methods or strategies that used in teaching reading. Usually, the teacher only uses translation method such as the students are ordered to read the text loudly then translate the texts into Indonesian language. This method make students bored in reading material. Finally, the students are lazy to read.

Furthermore, the problems come from students such as, the first, students always have problem to comprehend the text such as they cannot identify orientation, complication, resolution, re-orientation and evaluation. These conditions influence the students’ score in reading. The second, the students cannot read loudly by using correct pronunciation. The third, the students feel bore in reading English texts. The fourth, the students are lazy to read English texts.

The reasons of choosing this title becuase the writer wants to help the students in reading comprehension by using retelling strategy. By using retelling strategy, the writer hopes that it allows students to enjoy materials that they may not be able to read on their own. It provides an opportunity for readers to process what they have read by organizing and explaining it to others. Retelling develops students’ story grammar because they must identify crucial points and the support information. It also reinforces sequencing since it demands remembering information, events, and processes. It encourages interacting with the text from a variety of perspectives: their own, their audience’s, and the author’s.

The writer believes that this research differs from the others. The others used strategies to mprove the students’ reading comprehesnion in descriptive but in this research, the writer will use shared reading strategy to improve the students’ reading comprehension especially in narrative texts such as in identifying orientation, complication, resolution, re-orientation and evaluation and indefiying synonym or anthonym of the vocabuary in the narrative texts or pessages.

According to Slater (2004), retelling strategy is an important skill often overlooked in regular reading instruction. Students’ retellings give teachers insight into their language levels, comprehension, vocabulary, and background knowledge. Retelling improves critical thinking skills and develops understanding of story structure. This presentation will explain a developmental approach to retelling. It gives solutions to the problem of accessing age-appropriate literature, improving language skills, and increasing opportunities and skill-levels in written language.

Based on the information above it can be concluded that there are many problems found at the second year students of SMPN 02 Tambusai Utara in learning reading comprehension. The writer will try to overcome the students’ problems by using retelling strategy. However the writer is interesting to do research entitled: “The Effect of Using Retelling Strategy toward Students’ Reading Comprehension at the Second Year Students of SMP”.