Contoh Proposal Untuk Mata Kuliah Research

IMPROVING THE STUDENT'S READING COMPREHENSION OF

TEXT CONTENT BY SEMANTIC MAPPING STRATEGY

FOR THE NINTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP DHARMAYASA TIMUHUN

IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2011/2012

1.1. Background of the Study

Reading skill constitutes a most important skill to be taught in school beside three other skill such as listening, speaking, and writing. For Indonesian students, reading has long been developed to prepare them to be able to read books and written in English when they have come to the higher school level. Clark (1982:242) in Suhartana (2002:1) states, "By reading we can enrich our personalities, expand our horizons, be involved in varied experiences, organize our thought and feelings, and the last, by reading our creativity will be stimulated.

In spite of the importance of reading elaborated above, it is often found that many student have problem in reading especially in comprehending  reading text or passage. In other words, we can say they often find that it is difficult to understand the reading text or passages.

To comprehend the reading text, student must acquire some related sub skills like finding main idea, specific idea/information, textual reference and word meaning. Reading experiences strongly influence a student's self image and feeling of competency. Furthermore, as stated by Mercer (1985:334) in Suhartana (2002:2) reading failure may lead to miss behavior, anxiety, and lack of motivation. In line with this condition, it was found that almost all student in The ninth grade of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun in particular have a problem in reading comprehension. A diagnostic test has been administrated to the class III/A in which that cover four sub skill such as finding main idea (MI), finding out the specific idea/information (SI), prescribing reference (F), and getting the meaning (MW).

The result of the diagnostic test shows that the percentage of items answered correctly by the students is very low. The following table presents the complete result of the diagnostic.

No	READING COMPREHENSION'S SUB SKILL	PERCENTAGE (%)
1	Main Idea (MI)	42,3
2	Specific Information (SI)	46
3	Reference (F)	49
4	Word Meaning (WM)	54
	Average (%)	45,3

The student's outcome the reading comprehension is considered unsatisfying, specifically they have low comprehensions of the text's main idea, specific information, reference and word meaning.

Based on the result of interview as well as questioner which was administrated in the class, then the cause of the problem in comprehending the reading texts can elaborated; first, the student are difficult to extract the content of the text which are entirely new for them. They have no background knowledge related to the content of the text. Second, there are exist a number of familiar words that they find on the text makes them frustrated in gaining correct textual references. Third, the number of familiar words that they find on the text made them difficult to dig meaning of the problem faced by students, it is then needed a great effort in order to release them from such kind of problem so that they will have a good reading comprehensions skill.

Theoretically speaking, according to Feitlson (1973) as cited by Badrawi (1992:27), success in learning to read with good comprehensions needs careful mapping out of all stages of learning to read and to attend to co-ordinate materials, method, and procedures. In line with this, it is the proposed a technique called "Semantic Mapping" as an alternative solution to cope with the problem faced by the ninth grade student of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun particularly in reading comprehensions.

Semantic Mapping has been shown to be a beneficial teaching learning technique for native speaker of English at all grade levels in regular and remedial classroom as well as for those are learning-disable. Zaid M. (1995:6) in Suhartana (2002:4) states that students who use Semantic Mapping manifest considered improvement in reading comprehension, written expressions and vocabulary development. He further states that this strategy incorporates many aspect of learning a second language. Furthermore, Abdul Said (1995:6-9) in Sri Ardani (2001:7) said that Semantic Mapping as pre activity can be used to prepare the student's readiness and to activate the student's background knowledge before reading.

Considering to the brief arguments of the Semantic Mapping Strategy above, the research thus believes that Semantic Mapping strategy could improve the reading comprehension of the ninth grade students of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun.

1.2. Statement of Research Questions

Looking at the background of the study above, the problem statement can thus correctly be formulated as follows:           could Semantic Mapping improve the student's comprehensions of reading text at ninth grade students of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun in the academic year 2011/2012?

1.3. Objective of the Study

Related to the problem stated above, this study is aimed at finding whether the use of Semantic Mapping strategy for teaching reading comprehensions could improve the ninth grade student's comprehensions of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun academic year 2011/2012.

1.4. Limitation of the Study

This study is delimited on the following issues: (1) the subject is a class of the students of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun who are in the ninth grade, on the academic year 2011/2012. (2) the problem in reading comprehension is handled through "Semantic Mapping" strategy in which the problem is specified into four sub skills such as main idea, specific information, reference, and word meaning.

1.5. Assumptions

For the purpose of underlying the present study, the research think necessary to assume the following things.

1.      The ninth grade students of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun are assumed to have been learning and acquiring about reading comprehensions through both formal and informal exposures in different quality of language environment.

2.      The ninth students are also assumed to have the same strength of motivation in learning  reading comprehensions. Because learning motivations is widely recognized as a significant factor determining the success or the failure of the students in learning and acquiring English for communicative purpose.

3.      The English teachers of the ninth grade students of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun are assumed to have the same linguistic qualification in teaching English as a foreign language in a foreign language settings. In additions, they further assumed to have been using the same textbook, method strategy and techniques in teaching reading.

  1.6. Significance of the Study

Since the present study deals with improving the student's reading comprehension, the result of the study is expected to be beneficial for the student's and the teachers.

1.      For the students, this study is directly intended to improve their reading comprehensions toward reading text.

2.      For the teacher, this strategy proposed here can be used as a comprehensible input to enrich their knowledge in teaching specifically in teaching reading.

1.7. Hypothesis

Semantic Mapping strategy can improve the student's comprehensions of reading text at ninth grade students of SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun in the academic year 2011/2012.

1.8. Definitions of Key Terms

·         Reading

Reading can be defined as the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the readers, exiting knowledge, the information by the written language, and the context of the reading situation. (Durkin:1981)

·         Comprehensions

Comprehensions is an exercise aimed at improving or testing one's understanding of a language (written or spoken). (Oxford, Advance Learner's Dictionary; 1995:235)

·         Reading Comprehension

Goodman in Otto et al (1979:151) defined reading comprehensions as an interaction between thought and language and based evaluation of success in comprehension on the extent to which the reader's reconstructed massage agrees with the writer's intended message.

·         Semantic Mapping

Semantic Mapping is a strategy, which involves arranging concepts and relationship on paper to create the semantic map in which the key concepts are highlighted and linked with related concepts via arrow or lines. (Oxford, 1990:61)

1.9. Theoretical Framework

In relation to this study, several studies reported semantic mapping was good to be applied to teach reading comprehensions. According to Bowerman (2002), the use of this strategy will allow the students to think with much more depth about the content of whatever they are reading. In addition, the research saw evidence of better comprehension because this class discussions wewr intensively involve and interactive.

1.10. Research Methodology

Since the research aimed at improvement, the most appropriate method develop for this study is thus an action based classroom research method. An action based classroom research is actually a small-scale intervention to the real world and detail examination of the result of the intervention (Madya, 1994:67). There are four steps in each cycle namely planning, action, observation and reflection.

In the planning, the research is supposed to plan all the things required for a successful research. The planning itself should be flexible and future oriented. To carry the planning out, an action need in line to the planning, then the observation need also to be carried out in order to record the effect of the action. The result of the observation could be further applied in concluding a reflection. The reflection is intended to analyze the action on the basis of the result of the observation. As an addition, it was through reflection the research could decide whether to stop or continue the research.

In this research, two cycles will be carried out in which each cycle will be completed in three sessions. Before the first cycle is implemented, the researcher conduct pre observation and pre reflection. In the pre observation, the researcher conduct a diagnostic test for the students in order to know specific problem faced by them. While in the pre reflection, the activity is conducted through an interview to the students, and by implementing questionnaire in order to know the specific reason of the problem faced by the students.

1.10.1. Research Design

In accordance with the problem faced by the students, an action-based research will be conducted. There are two cycles in the whole process, where in each cycle there are four steps followed through namely planning, action, observation, and reflection. Each cycle completed in three sessions. The pre test will be conducted before the implementation of the action to obtain the preliminary data about student's reading comprehension toward text content. The post test will be administrated at the end of every cycle.

1.10.2. Population and Sample

The subject of this study are the student at ninth grade students in SMP Dharmayasa Timuhun. The total subject are 20 students consisting of 8 males and 12 females. The students are chosen as the subject of the study based on the prior observation conducted in which the students encounter problem in comprehending the reading text's content especially in comprehending the reading text's word meaning.

1.10.3. Research Instrument

1. Instrumentations

There are some instruments that will be used in collecting the intended data. They are:

a.       Teaching Scenario

It will be used as guidance in conducting the research so that the activities will be conducted systematically.

b.      Observation Sheet

It will be used to observed the process of the implementation of the action. The form of the observation sheet can be shown as follows:

Table 1 Observation Sheet

No	Teacher's Activities	Student's Activities	Time		Student's Response	Classroom's Situation	Note
			Planning	Action

c.       Questionnaire

The questionnaire will be written in Bahasa Indonesia and given to the student in order to get subject's response toward their reading comprehension with or without guidance. The obtained data from the questionnaires will give some positive contributions in planning the action for the next cycle.

d.      Test

There will be three types of test administrated. The first is pre test that will be administered to know the preliminary data about student's reading comprehension. The second is post test 1 that will be administered to know the result of their learning after semantic mapping strategy is implemented in a group discussions. The last post test will be administrated to know the final result after implementing this strategy individually in the classroom.

2. Implementing Action Based Research

a.       Planning

Before implementing the Semantic Mapping strategy, a number of activities are conducted. They are as follow:

·         Designing and administering the pre test to diagnose the student's problem.

·         Setting up the teaching-learning scenario

·         Preparing instrument such as reading texts, observation sheet, and questionnaire.

b.      Action

Action refers to the treatment conducted by the researcher to the classroom activity based on the planning designed.

c.       Observation

An observation is conducted by observing the student's learning process by using an observation sheet. The student's improvement is also being observed by implementing the pre test and post for the two cycles described above. The test (pre test and post test) are in the form of true false type and multiple choice. Each test consist of 45 items covered the four sub skill of reading comprehension; main idea, specific information, reference and word meaning.  The items represent the sub skills as follows:

Table 2 : Total number of test item

Sub Skills	True-False	Multiple Choice	Total
Main Idea	1	2	3
Specific Information	6	9	15
Reference	6	9	15
Word Meaning	6	6	12
Total			45

 The result of pre test, post test 1, and post test 2 are compared in order to gain an obvious outcome on the student's improvement after the implementation of the Semantic Mapping strategy.

d.      Reflection is the stage of stage of assessing all outcomes gained whether or not the teaching reading is satisfying after the chosen technique is implemented. The result of the diagnostic test and the post test will show whether or not the students have achieved an improvement in reading comprehension specifically in comprehending the text main idea, specific information, reference, and word meaning. Besides, in this stage the researcher has to find out an affective solution for further cycle if it is considered important to be held. In this section, the researcher also conduct informal interview to the students at the end of the action.

1.10.4.  Item Analysis 

The data will be taken from the result of pre test. Interval data will be obtained and it will be analyzed by using descriptive analysis. The data collected are gained from the result of the test, and then analyzed descriptively. The mean of the pre test as compared to the mean of the post test for the purpose of knowing the effectiveness of the action. Each test covers 45 items in which it consist of 3 items for main idea, 15 items for specific information, and 15 items for textual reference, and 12 items for word meaning. Each item of test scores one. After the result gains, then it is changed into a standard score is as follows:

·         For comprehensions of text's main idea (MI)

·         For comprehensions of text's specific information (SI)

·         For comprehensions of textual reference

·         For comprehensions of text's word meaning (WM)

For standard score gained, then it is calculated by the subsequent formulas;

       

x = mean

∑x = sum of score

n = number of student

s = standard deviation

For the final assessment, the criteria used as follows:

Score	Criteria	Score	Criteria
0	Fail	6	Fair
1	Very Bad	7	More than average
2	Bad	8	Good
3	Very Low	9	Very Good
4	Low	10	Exellent
5	Almost Average