Using Answer Question Relationship (QAR) Strategy to Improve the Reading Comprehension of

the First Year Students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi Selatan

Nurul Hasanah
Email: nurul_nuha67@yahoo.co.id
Jurusan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Negeri Makassar

Abstract

The objective of the research was to find out whether or not the use of Question Answer Relationship (QAR)
strategy improved the reading comprehension of students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi Selatan.
The method employed in this research was pre-experimental method involving one group pre-test and post-test of
students. The subject population of the research was the first year students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah
Sulawesi Selatan, academic year 2013-2014. The sample consists of 31 students. The data were collected through a
reading test (pre-test and post-test). The sampling technique used cluster random sampling technique.The result of
the study shared was the students reading comprehension in pre-test and post-test differed significantly. It was
proved by the value of significance 0.000 which was lower than the level of significance () = 0.05. Mean score of
post-test (87.42) was greater than the mean score of the pre-test (73.39). The researcher concluded that QAR
strategy improved the reading comprehension of the first year students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah
Sulawesi Selatan.

Keywords: Question, Question Answer Relationship (QAR), Reading, Reading Comprehension

Introduction

Reading is one of the main skills in English that plays an important role in improving human
development. Through reading we can get a lot of knowledge or ideas, to improve the grade point average, to
change behavior, to gain a good place in any aspect of life and to develop ways of thinking.
Reading across the curriculum should be the real goal of all courses in colleges and universities, in the
public schools and in community programs. The need for reading and critical literacy is clear and it is growing
as the world becomes increasingly and all forms of communication are moved to electronic venues. People
need to read faster because the amount of material is growing exponentially. People need to read better too
because it's not good to read fast if readers cannot recall and use the information.

According to the syllabus, by the end of the course, the students will be aware of and have practiced
certain methods or techniques of reading for determining meaning of unknown words, semantic and syntactic
guessing and make prediction as to the content of a text before and while reading; and begin to read critically.
Thus, the university students should have good comprehension in reading English text to read independently
and critically to gain much information and knowledge.

However, most students have many difficulties in reading. One of the difficulties is find main idea of the
text they read. They can read the words well but they cannot get the main idea. This difficulty occurs because
the students only read the text and answer all the questions without getting any explanation that help the
students in comprehending the text well. Hafsah (2005:35) states that the students find some difficulties to
comprehend such as they do not understand the content of the material, what the text about, and they feel hard
to find main idea of every paragraph.

Another difficulty in reading is most students have difficulties in grasping the content of reading
comprehension text such as topic, main idea, and supporting detail of the texts. Clarke and Silberstein
(1987:92) argue that reading comprehension requires a reader to identify the main point and its supporting
details. The difficulties might be caused by the students having insufficient vocabulary of English, lack of
motivation to read in another language because the given texts in the reading lesson are not interesting, and do
not know how to apply certain techniques of reading in finding the information or content of a text accurately.
The students difficulty of reading comprehension also might be caused by the ineffective strategy applied by
the lectures or teachers in the reading instruction.

a. Definition of Reading

Reading is a communication, in this case, communication between writers that give their ideas in
the text then are read by the readers. The point of reading are on seeing and understanding the content of
the text, spelling or pronouncing what in the text, uttering, knowing, and predicting.
According to Hornby in Rahmawati (2013:8) reading includes those processes that are involved in
approaching, perfecting, and maintaining meaning the use of print page. Since there are such processes and
since one process in degree, the term must be elastic enough to apply the varieties and graduation of
reading involves in the used books.
Alyousef (2006: 64) states that reading is interactive process between a readers and a text to
automaticity or (reading fluency). In this process, the reader interacts and tries to get information of various
kinds of knowledge.
Crawley and Mountai in Rahim (2008:3) stated that reading is combination of perceptual and
cognitive process. Reading as visual process is translating process of symbol to the sound. As a one
thinking process, reading range word recognition, literal understanding, interpretation, critical reading, and
creative reading.
Anderson (1985) states that reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a
complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information.
From the definition above, it can be concluded that reading is an activity for understanding both
explicit and implicit ideas that are provided in a text by involving collaboration of some other language
components.

b. Reading Purposes

Generally, the purpose of reading is to get information as much as possible from text that read that
scoop content and understand meaning of text. To get information that as much as possible, needed a good
and correct way or technique so what we read can understood clearly. Because reading activity not just to
look at written language, but need to compare some responses ability that complex.
There are some purposes of reading. Those are as following:
1. Read to find or to know something that once done by a figure, what the figure was doing, what was
happen to the specific figure, or to solve problems that made by the figure. Reading like this called
reading for to get details of facts;
2. Read to know why that thing be a good and interesting topic, the problem in the story, what figures
learned and happened, and conclude things that figures do to get him/her purpose. Reading like this
called reading for to get main ideas;
3. Read to find or to know what happen in every parts of story, what happen first, second, and next, every
steps made to solve a problem, actions, action for dramatize. This reading called reading for sequence
or organization;
4. Read to find and to know why figures feel like their way, what will be focused by author to the reader,
why figures change, the qualities that figures have that make them success or failed. This reading
called reading for inference;
5. Read to find and to know what things that cannot, unusual about a figure, what is funny in the story, or
is the story real or unreal. This reading called reading to classify;
6. Read to find success or life with specific standards, is we want to do something like figures do, or
work like figure work in that story. This reading called reading to evaluate;
7. Read to find how the way change of figure, how his/her life different with his/her life that we know,
how two stories have the similarity, how the figure look like a reader. This reading called reading to
compare or contrast.
c. Stages of Reading

Graves and Graves (2003: 6-12) defines the stage of reading comprehension in three stages there
are pre-reading, while reading and post reading:

1) Pre-reading

Pre-reading activities prepare students to read an upcoming selection. They can serve a number of
functions, including getting students interested in reading the selection, reminding students of things they
already know that will help them understand and enjoy the selection, and pre-teaching aspects of the
selection that may be difficult. Pre-reading activities are particularly important because with adequate
preparation the experience of reading will be enjoyable, rewarding, and successful.

2) During reading

During reading activities include both things that students themselves do as they are reading and
things that you do to assist them as they are reading. Like pre-reading activities, during-reading activities
are frequently recommended.

3) Post reading

Post reading activities serve a variety of purposes. They provide opportunities for students to
synthesize and organize information gleaned from the text so that they can understand and recall important
points. They provide opportunities for students to evaluate an author's message, his or her stance in
presenting the message, and the quality of the text itself. They provide opportunities for you and your
students to evaluate their understanding of the text. And they provide opportunities for students to respond
to a text in a variety of waysto reflect on the meaning of the text, to compare differing texts and ideas, to
imagine themselves as one of the characters in the text, to synthesize information from different sources, to
engage in a variety of creative activities, and to apply what they have learned within the classroom walls
and in the world beyond the classroom.

Reading Comprehension

According to Oxford dictionary, the verb comprehend means understand fully. Comprehension is
power to understand something or exercise to one understands. The next definition taken from Carnine in
Rahmawati (2013:15) describes reading comprehension as a complex set different skill and types of
knowledge that are activated in a nearly simultaneous a set of our knowledge and skill.
Kintsch in Rahmawati (2013:15) noted that reading comprehension is often discussed in terms of being
& process involving the integration of decoding ability, vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge of the topic
considered, and relevant strategies to make sense of a text and understand it. Then Durkin in Lehr (2005:5)
defined comprehension as intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed through interactions
between text and reader. The point of this is reader thinking involve when they are reading. It means that their
reading effected by their general knowledge and their experience, and also influenced by the content of text
that they are read.
Based on Dechant (1991:439), there are some characteristics where students were strongly
comprehend the reading material (story text), the characteristic are:
1) If they able to know the setting, such as: the location of the event, the time of the event, and the characters
that involved there.
 2) If they able to find the theme, such as: the goal or the main character and the main idea.
3) If they able to know the plot or episode, such as: the initiating event (the beginning), the problem or the
event itself, inner response (the main characters reaction to the initiating event and the formation of a
goal), the action (attempt or plan to reach the goal or to deal with the initiating event), the outcome or
consequence (success or failure of the attempt), the ending or reaction to the earlier action or outcome).
4) If they able to know the resolution (what finally happened).

a. Level of Comprehension
This research is concern with the explanation about level of comprehension that
comprehension is divided into three levels, (1) literal or reading in the lines, (2) interpretive or
reading between the lines, and (3) extrapolative or reading beyond the lines.
1) Literal comprehension (reading in the line)
Literal comprehension refers to the idea and fact that are directly stated at the printed pages. The
literal level of comprehension is fundamental to all reading skills at any level because a reader must
first understand what the writer said before he can draw inference or make evaluation.
2) Interpretive (reading between the lines)
This category demands a higher level of thinking ability because the questions of interpretation are
concern with answer that is not directly stated in the text but they are suggested or implied. To
answer question in the interpretative level, reader must have ability and able to work at various level of
abstraction.
3) Extrapolative (reading beyond the lines)
Reading beyond the lines involves deriving implications, speculating about consequences, and
drawing generalization that is not stated by the author. The process of analysis also leads to a new
synthesis by the reader, whose initiative and originally leads to new insights and reflections on
the significance of the ideas. Smith (1985: 233) classifies extrapolative reading into two kinds:
a) Critical reading (reading beyond the lines)
Critical reading is evaluating written material comparing the ideas discovered i n the
material with known standards and drawing conclusion about their accuracy, appropriateness and time
lines. Critical reading compares previous experiences t o elements i n the new material such as
content, s t yl e , expression, information, and idea or values of the author. In this level reader must be
an active reader questioning, searching for fact and suspending judgment unt i l he or she has considered
all of the materials.
b) Creative reading
Creative reading uses different thinking skills to go beyond the literal comprehension, interpretation and
critical reading level. In creative reading, the readers try to come up with new or alternate solutions
to this presented by the writer.

b. Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension

Harris and Smith in Rahmawati (2013:17) divided the factor into five categories, namely:
1) Background experience, it refers to previous experience that the readers have already known before
and it refers to the reading materials that they need.
2) Language ability, it refers to readers ability in mastering some elements in language, for example:
vocabulary, transition word, grammar and so forth.
3) Thinking ability, it refers to the readers ability in analyzing the reading materials that they read by
considering some comprehension aids to support their achievement in comprehension.
4) Affection, it refers to the some psychological factors that can affect the readers comprehension. The
factors are interests, motivations, attitudes, beliefs and feelings.
5) Reading purpose, it refers to the readers purpose why they read the reading materials. It is usually
done by making some question before reading process. The questions will be a stepping-stone to get
comprehension.

c. Strategies of Reading Comprehension

Strategy is an activity that must be done by teacher and student so that the goal of learning process can
be achieve as effective and efficient. According to J.R David in Rahmawati (2013:18) in a learning strategy
 there is a plan meaning. It means that basically still conceptually about decisions that will be taken in one
learning process.
According to National Reading Panel in Lehr (2005:15) comprehension strategies are specific
cognitive procedure that guides readers to become aware of how well they comprehend as they attempt to
read and write.
Lehr and Osborn (2005:18) revealed six teaching strategies of reading comprehension, they are:
1) Comprehension Monitoring
Comprehension monitoring is a form of metacognition. It is readers thinking about their
comprehension processes as they read. Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to be
aware of their understanding as they read. Specifically, it teaches them to notice when they do
understand, to identify what they do not understand, and to use appropriate fix-up strategies to
resolve problems when they do not understand something they read. Among these fix-up strategies
that students learn are:
(1) Identifying where in the text the difficulty occurs.
(2) Restating a difficult sentence or passage in their words.
(3) Looking back (or forward) through the text.
2) Recognizing Story Structure
Story structure refers to the way of content and event from one organized story to one plot.
Students who can recognize story structure have a bigger appreciation, understanding, and memory
for story. Story structure recognizing help students learn to identify content of the story, after that, start
event, internal reaction, goal, trying, and result and how the content organized to make one coherent
plot. In addition, instruction can help students to learn conclude cause and effect, compare and
contrast, problem solution, and other relation between text parts. This learning gives students both
knowledge and techniques for reaching one understanding that deeper to the story.
3) Using Graphic and Semantic Organizers
Organizers of graphic and semantic allow reader to represent graphically (write of draw) and to
organizer meaning and relation of idea to text. They come at some forms, like map, graphic, charts,
frame, web, and cluster. The main point of this organizer is to comprehension like their ability to
improve readers memory from the content of what they read. Instruction in the use of organizer and
semantic graphic especially really help in conjunction with text from informational that give voice
with write the name of content area text. Used with writing informational, organizer can help students
to see how to match the concept with special text structure. On the form of story map, organizer also
can be used with narrative writing as a one way to focus students attention to story grammar
components, such as character, setting, problem, event planning, and theme and at the relation of this
component.
4) Question Answering
Questioning answering instruction can help students to get more than their reading with showing
them how to find and to use information from a text to answer teachers question. Learning
questioning answering structure also can help students locate information at one text that relate to the
question.
5) Question Generation
Question generation instruction focus on helping students learn to ask their self about what they
are getting from reading. Teaching students to ask their question, help them to improve their
comprehension and ability. From this instruction, students can realize that they understand or not, also
realize what they get from reading.
6) Summary
Summary helps students to know what it is important in the text that they read, get information,
and put into their own words. This make students realize how the idea is made and how the ideas
related. It is help students to find the main idea in the text and relates that.

Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) Strategy

Preszler (2005: 15) Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) is a reading strategy that is widely used to
aid student comprehension. However, a side benefit of the strategy is that it provides a valuable approach to
test preparation.
In QAR (Question-Answer Relationship) two categories of questions are identified, In the Book and In
My Head. These two categories are further broken-down into four types of questions, Right There, Think and
Search, Author and I, and On My Own. This questioning taxonomy codifies an approach to reading texts and
answering questions and helps students understand the need to consider both information in the text and
information from their own background knowledge. QAR is the basis for three comprehension strategies,
including (1) locating information, (2) determining text structures and how these structures may convey
information, and (3) determining when an inference would be required or invited (Raphael 1986: 516522)
Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR) is one strategy purported as providing students with ways of
dealing with tests of reading comprehension generally encountered in the classroom and Raphael and Au
(2005: 206) have asserted the potential of QAR for helping teachers guide students to higher levels of
literacy
The Question Answer Relationship or QAR helps students understand different levels of questioning
and the relationship between questions and answers. Often students respond to questions with either a literal
answer or by stating that it is not in the text. QAR provides four levels of questions Right There, Think
and Search, You and the Author, and On Your Own to indicate how the question is related to the text. This
strategy allows students to understand their thinking processes and develop their metacognitive abilities.

a. The Advantages of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) Strategy

Raphael & Au (2005:220) explained that the advantage of using QAR strategy as follows:
- It can improve students' reading comprehension.
- It teaches students how to ask questions about their reading and where to find the answers to them.
- It helps students to think about the text they are reading and beyond it, too.
- It inspires them to think creatively and work cooperatively while challenging them to use higher-level
thinking skills.
b. The Categories and Levels of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) Strategy

Raphael and Au (2005: 206) explained basically, questions can be answered by finding the answer in the
book or in my head. In the Book questions can be divided into two levels:

1) Right There

In this level, the answer is usually found in a single sentence within the text. Often the words in the
question are also in the text. The answer is on the sentence of the text. The Question and answer
usually have the same wording. Some examples of phrase used for right there questions:

a) Who is?
b) Where is.?
c) When is..?
d) How many.?
This level of questions can improve literal comprehension of reading. In this level refers to the
idea and fact that are directly stated at the printed pages. To answer this question in the literal
comprehension, a reader must first understand what the writer said before he can draw
inference or make evaluation.

2) Think and Search

In this level, the answer is in the text but might need to be combined with information found in
more than one place.

Examples:

a) What were you can describe..?

b) What is the difference of..with..?

 c) What is the main idea of?

This level of questions can improve interpretive comprehension of reading. In this level is concern
with answer that is not directly stated in the text but they are suggested or implied. To answer
question in the interpretative level, reader must have ability and able to work at various level of
abstraction.

In My Head questions can also be further subdivided into two levels:

1) Author and I

In this level, the answer cannot be found in the text but you need to combine what you know with
what you learned from the author. Students must synthesize the text to fully understand the
question.

a) Would you know about.?

b) Which character..?
c) What did you think of..?
This level of questions can improve interpretive comprehension of reading. In this level is concern
with answer that is not directly stated in the text but they are suggested or implied. To answer
question in the interpretative level, reader must have ability and able to work at various level of
abstraction.

2) On My Own: These questions are less common on a standardized test because they do not require
the student to use information from the text itself. On My Own questions are question that can be
answered without reading the text. Some examples of phrase used for on my own questions:

a) Why do you think that..?

b)How do you know.?
c) How would you.?
This level of questions can improve extrapolative comprehension of reading. To answer question in
the extrapolative level, a reader reads beyond the lines involves deriving implications,
speculating about consequences, and drawing generalization that is not stated by the author. In
this level, the reader should be a critical and creative reader.

c. The Procedure of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy

According to Raphael (1986: 516522), the procedure of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy
as follow:
1) Begin with the two broad categories, In the Book and In My Head.
2) Select a short passage with one or two related questions, one In the Book question and one In My
Head question, to model the strategy. Present the text on chart paper or on the overhead, and read it.
3) Have students answer the related questions. As answers are given, focus on locating the information,
using the text.
4) For an In the Book question, continue to prompt students with questions, such as
a) How do you know that answer?
b) Does the text tell us the answer?
c) Where in the text does it says?
d) Can you point to where in the story it tells you?
e) What does the story say about?
f) Can you prove your answer from what youve read? How?
5) For an In My Head question, begin with questions such as
a) How do you know? Does the text tell you?
b) What helps you decide on your answer?
 6) When students have recognized that the answer does not come from the story but from what they
already know, say something like:
a) You used a good source of information for that answer your own experiences.
b) When were answering questions, remember to think about information we know already. Its in
our heads.

Research Method

Based on the title, the researcher used pre-experimental design within one group pretest-posttest design. This
design involved only one group that was an experimental group. This group was given a treatment, which was the
teaching of reading through the use of Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) Strategy. The design of the
experiment is presented as follow:
O1 X O2

Where:
O1 : Pre-test
X : Treatment using Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR) Strategy
O2 : Post- test
(Gay, 2006)
a. Variables of the Research and Their Operational Definitions
This research had one independent variable and one dependent variable:
1. The independent variable of this research was the use of Question Answer Relationship (QAR) Strategy.
Procedures:
a. The researcher gave explanation about QAR strategy. Explained to the students that there are
essentially two categories of questions:
In The Book: the answer can be found in the text.
In My Head: the answer cannot be found in the text and must come from the readers own
knowledge or experiences.
b. The researcher demonstrated this strategy by using QAR Poster to show the students each category
of questions, there were two types of questions and simple descriptive text to make the students
clearly distinguishes between the different types of questions.
c. The researcher asked the students each question from QAR. Then showed them the difference of
questions and kinds of answer needed.
d. The researcher divided students into group of four and let them practice using QAR.
e. The researcher gave a descriptive text and asked them by using those four kinds question of QAR
strategy. Then gave them explanation how to answer it and identifying those questions.
f. The last, the students were instructed to read again the text and the questions, after that they
identified the questions based on the categories of question.
2. The dependent variable of this research was the students reading comprehension.
The indicators were:
a. Being able in comprehending the text.
b. Being able to identify the main idea of the text.
c. Being able to recognize possible answer locations by classifying questions by type.

b. Population and Sample

Population
The population of this research was the first year students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi
Selatan, with 5 classes. Each class consists of approximately 31 students, so there are about 155 students in the
first year classes.
Sample
 The researcher used cluster random sampling, because the school arranged the class in mix level ability.
The sample was the class X.B as sample, consist of 31 students.

c. Instrument of the research

In collecting data, the research used some tests. The pre-test was given to find out the initial ability before
present the materials in the Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR) Strategy. And the post-test was given to
find out the improvement of the students after materials in Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR) Strategy.
The tests in treatment consisted of 10 items identifying questions, 20 items multiple choice, 20 items essay
questions and 10 items essay questions which made by the students.

d. Procedures of Collecting Data

The procedures of collecting data consisted of three steps; pre-test, treatment, and post-test.
1. Pre-test
Before doing the treatment, the researcher gave pre-test to the students to know their prior
knowledge. The pre-test conducted in one meeting within 80 minutes. The test consisted of 12 items
multiple choices and 13 items essay questions.

2. Treatment
The sample of the research gave treatment by using Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR)
Strategy. The treatment was given for 6 meetings, the procedure of treatment as follows:
1st meeting
a. The researcher explained about QAR Strategy by using QAR Poster and the text to be learned.
In this case, the types of texts that to be learned based on the curriculum was descriptive text.
b. The researcher gave explanation about QAR strategy. Explained to the students that there are
essentially two categories of questions:
In The Book: the answer can be found in the text.
In My Head: the answer cannot be found in the text and must come from the readers own
knowledge or experiences.
c. The researcher showed the students each category of questions, there were two levels of
questions through a simple descriptive text to make the students clearly distinguishes between
the different levels of questions.
d. The researcher asked the students each question from QAR. Then showed them the difference
of questions and kinds of answer needed.
e. The researcher divided students into group of four and let them practice using QAR.
f. The researcher gave a descriptive text and asked them by using those four levels question of
QAR strategy. Then gave them explanation how to answer it and identified those questions.
g. The last, the student were instructed to read again the text and the questions, after that they
identified the questions based on the categories of question.

2nd meeting
a. The researcher explained again about the text and QAR Strategy briefly.
b. Read again the text to enhance their understanding about the text by using QAR
Strategy.
c. Let the students to answer the multiple choice questions individually.
d. Discussed about the answer together and gave feedback or explanation to the students to
make the material is clear.

3rd meeting
The students did the same activities such as in the second meeting but the difference was the
students answer the essay questions.

4th meeting and 5th meeting

The students did the same activities such as in the third meeting but the difference was the
students answer the multiple choice and essay questions.
 6th meeting
The students did the same activities such as in the fourth and fifth meeting but the difference
was the students will be given a text and then make 10 essay questions based on the text.

3. Post-test
After giving treatment, the researcher gave post-test. The test consisted of 12 items multiple
choice and 13 items essay questions. The purpose of the post-test was to find out the value of treatment
whether the result of the post-test is better than the result of the pretest. The researcher gave the test to
measure the students reading comprehension in pre-test and post-test.

Research Result

Table 1. The Frequency and Rate Percentage of Students Score in Pre-test

No. Classification Score Frequenc Percentag
y e
(%)
1 Very Good 86 100 - -
2 Good 71 85 19 61.3
3 Fair 56 70 11 35.5
4 Poor 41 55 1 3.2
5 Very Poor 0 40 - -
Total 31 100

Table 1 shows the rate frequency and percentage of the students pre-test, none of the students got very
good score, 19 students (61.3%) got good score, 11 students (35.5%) got fair score, and 1 student (3.2%)
got poor score and none of students got very poor score.
Then, the distribution of frequency and percentage score of the students reading comprehension in post-
test is shown in table below.

Table 2. The Frequency and Rate Percentage of Students Score in Post-test

No. Classification Score Frequenc Percentag
y e
(%)
1 Very Good 86 100 14 45.2
2 Good 71 85 17 54.8
3 Fair 56 70 - -
4 Poor 41 55 - -
5 Very Poor 0 40
Total 31 100

Table 2 shows the rate frequency and percentage of the result of students score after giving the treatment.
It shows the great improvement of students score in post-test. 14 students (45.2%) got very good score, and
17 students (54.8%) got good score. None of students were in fair, poor and very poor score. It can be
concluded that the rate percentage in the post-test was higher than the rate percentage in the pre-test.

Discussion
 This part presents the discussion of the result of the data analysis. It describes how Question Answer
Relationship (QAR) strategy could improve the students reading comprehension of the first year students of
SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi Selatan.
Reading is a complex process, which involves not only the readers ability to read the text but also their
ability to comprehend it. However, most students have many difficulties in reading. One of the difficulties is
find main idea of the text they read. They can read the words well but they cannot get the main idea. This
difficulty occurs because the students only read the text and answer all the questions without getting any
explanation that help the students in comprehending the text well. Hafsah (2005:35) states that the students
find some difficulties to comprehend such as they do not understand the content of the material, what the text
about, and they feel hard to find main idea of every paragraph. In line with this, the researcher used questioning
strategy, so the students could find main idea and supporting details of the text. It made students easier in
comprehending the text well. Based on the research done by Sulistyo, (2010:65), it is found that the advantage
of applying the QAR strategy in reading instruction is that the students are able to identify the levels of
questions and the relationship between question and answer to determine the content of the text.
The process of collecting data in this research applies in to eight meetings consist of one meeting for
pre-test, one meeting for post-test, and six meetings for treatment. The result of the pre-test and post-test as
explained in the previous section show and describe the improvement of the students reading comprehension
through QAR strategy. It is supported by the frequency and rate percentage of the result of students pre-test
and post-test. One of the students got a poor score in the pre-test. This was shown by the mean scores, in which
the mean score of the post-test was 87.49, while in the pre-test only 73.39. So, the students score after
presenting materials by using QAR strategy in teaching reading comprehension was better than before the
treatment was given to the students.
Before giving the treatment, the researcher conducted pre-test. The content of pre-test and post-test was
same based on literal, interpretative and extrapolative level. The description of the data collected in pre-test as
explained in the previous section shows that students reading comprehension was categorized into fair. Most
of the students showed difficulty to comprehend the content of a text because they did not know how to be an
efficient and effective reader and they were in efficient in time to read and answer the reading test.
In treatment, the researcher gave the students QAR strategy as a way in comprehending the text. The
researcher used QAR strategy to avoid students boredom or more fun through the level of questions strategy
that researcher used in this giving treatment.
Based on the result of students pre-test, the researcher conducted treatment for six times. On the first
treatment the researcher made the students familiar with QAR strategy by using QAR Poster. On the second
until sixth treatment, the researcher asked the students to discussed descriptive text based on QAR roles. In
doing this treatment, the researcher was very easy to teach reading by using QAR strategy for the students
because the students had motivation to learn English.
The strength of using Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy is able to help students in
comprehending the text well. According to Raphael & Au (2005:220) explained that the advantage of using
QAR strategy as follows:
- It can improve students' reading comprehension.
- It teaches students how to ask questions about their reading and where to find the answers to them.
- It helps students to think about the text they are reading and beyond it, too.
- It inspires them to think creatively and work cooperatively while challenging them to use higher-level
thinking skills.
It also could be concluded specificly that QAR strategy can solve some difficulties as explained in
background. During the treatment process the students showed their motivation to read because they can
interact with the text. They made the questions by themselves to know where they can find the answers to them
and measure their comprehension about the text. Then their vocabulary was enhanced because QAR helped the
students to think about the text they are reading and to find right answer of the questions. This role helped the
students to find difficult words from the text and then they felt easy to find main idea of the text so that they
can understand the text well. Futhermore, this strategy inspires them to think creatively and work cooperatively
while challenging them to use higher-level thinking skills.
After giving the treatment, the researcher conducted post-test. The result of post-test showed that
reading comprehension of the students was improved. It was categorized as good. It indicates that most
students could achieve the successful minimal criteria (KKM) of English lesson for the first year students of
SMA Ummul Mukminin Sulawesi Selatan. The students score could get score above 70 after giving the
treatment by using QAR strategy.
 The data of this research also shows minimum and maximum score of students pre-test and post-test. In
pre-test, the minimum score of students was 55 and the maximum score was 85. While in post-test, the score
was improve become 75 for the minimum score and 100 for the maximum score. The students score in pre-test
and post-test indicates that QAR strategy influent the students improvement in reading comprehension. This
significant improvement is also proven by the fact that comparing p value and level of significant ( ) . The

p value (0.000) is lower than level significance ( ) = 0.05. It means that there is a statistically significant
difference between how the group scored on pre-test and how the group scored on post-test. It also conveys the
use of Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy significantly improves the reading comprehension of
the first year students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi Selatan.
From the discussion above, it could be concluded that using QAR strategy was effective to improve
reading comprehension of the first year students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi Selatan. In
addition, it is suggested for future researchers that they conduct the same research in other level of study with
different setting, subject, skills (speaking, listening, writing), other text types (procedures, narrative, recounts,
reports, etc), other functional texts (announcements, brochures, notices, etc.), and other media (graphs,
pictures, songs, poems, etc). In order to make a better research in improving students skill because this
research still had a lot of lack.

Conclusion & Suggestions

a. Conclusion

Based on the result of data analysis and the discussion of the result in the previous chapter, the researcher
concluded that the improvement of the first year students of SMA Ummul Mukminin Aisyiyah Sulawesi
Selatan in reading comprehension by using Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy was good, it was
proved by P value = 0.000 < =0.05 which was classified as a good score, the researcher also concluded that
there is a significant difference between the reading comprehension of the students of SMA Ummul Mukminin
Aisyiyah Sulawesi Selatan before and after using QAR strategy. So, QAR strategy can improve the students
reading comprehension.

b. Suggestions
Based on the conclusion above, the researcher put forward some suggestions as follows:

1. It is suggested for English teachers to apply Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy in teaching
and learning process especially in teaching reading.
2. It is suggested for English teachers to be more creative and to enrich their teaching materials. They can use
QAR strategy to stimulate the students attention and motivate them in learning English.
3. It is suggested for the English teacher to use interesting descriptive text for improving the reading
comprehension of the students.
4. For the English teacher and other researchers, it is suggested to apply QAR strategy for different types of
text and modify the activities in the QAR strategy for improving students reading comprehension.

5. The teacher has to establish a good relation with all the students in class firmly to create a good atmosphere
in learning and reinforce them with a good motivation to get success.

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