Improving the Students’ Reading Comprehension through
Guided Reading Strategy at the Second Year of SMPN 1.”
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.
Background
Globalization
is new term describing new conditions which all nations, societies or formal
state become close one another. In this era our world seems to be smaller
before. People agree that globalization is caused by communication and
information instrument, particularly those which something to do with
technology, for instance, radio, television, internet, etc. Indeed the
globalization era cannot be separated from the concept of information and the
role of language such English and Arabic. Whether we like or not, we are
obliged to master foreign languages. (Noer: 2006)
Language is used to communicate with others and it permits sharing of
ideas and experiences. One of those languages is English language which becomes
an international language. English is considered in applied as international
language. Since then, it is very popular and has been spoken and learnt by
almost people in the world. In Indonesia, English has been taught in
educational institution as one of the important skill. To know English well,
people must be able to speak, read, write, and listen.
Reading
is one of the major skills to master English. By reading we can get
information, knowledge and pleasure. Today there are so many books are written
in English. Since the students study at the Elementary School, Junior High
School, Senior High School they have been taught English. The priority of
teaching English in school is reading because it can cover the three other
skills. The people who always read books are written in English, they will
easier to do the other skills as Achsin (1985) states that “reading skills
involves the three other skills: listening, speaking and writing.” But, the problem
is most of the student cannot catch or comprehend what they are reading. Students may have ability to read English reading
material, but it does not mean that they can also comprehend reading material.
They are also difficult to read aloud with good pronunciation.
Based on the result of observation before in PPL at
SMPN a, the students’ ability to read or catch what is actually stated in the text (literal) and what is implied or meant in the text (interpretive) is low. Therefore, the students need
teaching strategy which can improve their skill in reading comprehension. Many
strategies have been applies in schools or collage just to make the students
understand what they have learned, and of course each strategy has good values
for students. And this research tries to apply a strategy namely “Guided
Reading Strategy”.
Williams
states that guided reading is concerned with the teaching of reading; it is not
just about hearing children read. There should be a specific focus and learning
objective for the reading session. Guided reading includes not only the
decoding of a text, but also the understanding and interpreting of that text.
Students should engage with the text, critically evaluating it and reflecting
on their responses to it, bringing prior knowledge to their understanding of
the text. In guided reading, students develop the skills of inference,
deduction, justification and evaluation.
Based on the statement above, the researcher is
interested to study entitled “Improving the Students’ Reading
Comprehension through Guided Reading Strategy at the Second Year of SMP”
