CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background of the study, research problem,

significance of the study, the scope of the study, and definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

Nowadays, English as an international language has important role in

many aspects. English is increasingly used as a tool for international interaction.

According to Brown (2000 : 118), well over one half of the billion English

speakers of the world learned English as a second (or foreign) language. English

has also becomes a tool for international communication in transportation,

commerce, banking, tourism, technology, diplomacy, and scientific research

(Brown, 2000 : 118).

Due to the importance of English, many countries introduce English in

education including Indonesia. In Indonesia, English is taught in elementary

school to university level. For secondary school students English is taught as a

compulsory subject and it also use for national examination. Due to the fact,

students had required to master English. There are four skills that are foreign

learners should achieve in order to mastered English. They are speaking, listening,

writing and reading. From those four skills reading is the most important skill in

English.

Reading is an essential skill for the basic education and the higher

education level (Chhabra & McCardle, 2004). Murdibjono (2010) stated that

reading English text seems to be, to a certain extent, unavoidable. She mentioned
that there are three important reasons why students need to enhance their reading

skill in reading English texts. First, many students need to be able to read English

texts for present study, for further study, for future career or simply for pleasure.

Second, better readers usually gain more vocabulary from their reading activities

and are more familiar with the grammar of the language they are reading, which is

useful for language acquisition. Third, reading text provide good models for

English writing. Finally, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics,

stimulate discussions, excite creative respons, and provide trigger or springboard

for interesting language lessons involving various language skills.

Linse & Nunan (2006 : 86) stated that reading is set of skills that involves

making sense and deriving meaning from the printed text. In other words, the

readers have to be able comprehend what they read. According to Grabe and

Stoller (2002), there are seven purpose for reading such as reading to search for

simple information, reading to skim quickly, reading to learn fom the texts,

reading to integrate information, reading to write, reading to critique texts, and

reading for general comprehension.

Based on the standard competence of curriculum 2013 for Junior High

School of the seventh grade in reading as stated in Permendikbud no.24 tahun

2016, students should be able to understand the context of descriptive text.

Students are also expected to get detailed information and main idea from the text.

It proves that reading comprehension is the important part in reading skill. The

aim of reading is comprehension (Anderson, 2003) . In addition, Snow (2002:11)

defines reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and

constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.

According to Davis (1944 : 186), there are eight comprehension skill. They are

recalling word meanings, making inferences about the meaning of a word from a

context, findings answer to question, understanding the content, making

inferences from the content, recognizing writers purpose, identifying writers

technique, and following the structure of passage. In short, reading

comprehension is more complex and harder than general reading because the

readers should be able to identify the main idea and supporting details for each

paragraph or passage. (Kotdok, Ruangpaisan & Jarat, 2016)

As English Foreign Learner, Indonesian student find it difficult to read

English texts. Wicaksono (2010) stated that Indonesian students have difficulty in

reading comprehension. The cause may be varied. The difficulty in reading

comprehension of Indonesian students because they had low motivation, they had

lack of background knowledge, and they had limited vocabulary. The students had

low motivation and did not actively participate in any activity undertaken in the

reading class. According Hamra and Syatriana (2010) the Indonesian students

need help in reading comprehension because most of students are not able to read

English with complete comprehension. The difficulty of comprehending a text

that faced by students it could be about their background knowledge of the text.

According to Gebhard (1996 in Afrilianti 2014) students ability to comprehend

the content of reading material depends in part on their knowledge about the topic

of the reading selection. The students are not familiar with the words used in text.

Students of SMPN 17 Malang faced reading problems too. The English

teacher who was the researchers relative discussed the students problem that

faced in the classroom with the researcher. According to the English teacher,
some students had problem in reading comprehension. It was because they had

limited vocabulary so that the students always asked the meaning of difficult word

to the teacher. The teacher also said that the difficulty ability of the students in

the class were different. Therefore, the teacher was confused in giving the right

texts to the students.

A preliminary study was conducted by giving reading comprehension test

to students on 22nd February 2017. The result of the test indicated that the

average of students in the class got low scores which under minimum standard

score. From 32 students in the class only 18 students that got score above 70.

Meanwhile, the 14 students got score under 70. The highest score of the test was

98 and the lowest score was 65. It showed that class was considered a

heterogeneous class because the gap between the lowest and the highest score was

high. Due to this, many students need guidance and strategies to help them

increase their reading ability.

To improve students reading ability, the teacher should have strategies

that can help students in comprehending a text. The strategies should be

appropriate with the condition of the students. Because the class had

heterogeneous ability, the researcher decided to use Peer-Assisted Learning

Strategy (PALS) as the strategy. PALS itself was designed to help lower reader in

improving their reading comprehension skill (Sporer & Brunstain, 2009). PALS

was hybrid form of class-wide peer tutoring that was developed by educators from

Vanderbilt University (Fuchs, Fuchs, Mathes, & Simmons, 1997). According to

Kotdok, Ruangpaisan, & Jarat (2016) Peer Assisted Learning is a reading program
in which students are paired according to reading ability. The stronger reader are

paired with the lower reader.

In addition, the process of PALS focuses on working with peer which

provides opportunities for positive social interactions. Social interactions help the

students become better reader (Irvin, 1998). There are some previous findings

related the implementaion of PALS on improving students reading

comprehension. The first study was conducted by Swan (2014) with the seventh

grade students as the subjects. This research investigated the effectiveness of

PALS on the reading fluency and comprehension. The research revealed that there

was no improvement in reading fluency with PALS program, but there was

improvement in reading comprehension. It could be concluded that PALS is

effective since it can make the students achieve higher scores.

Another study that conducted by Wijaya (2015) found that the use of

PALS program can improve the student reading skill. After using the PALS, the

students can have better understanding than before. The result of his research

showed that the mean of students score improved from 64 on pretest become 75

on posttest. By using PALS, students have the opportunity to develop their

reading skill. It also can develop their social interaction among other students. In

order to use this strategy, the teacher divided students into pairs in each

classroom. Each pairs consists of one higher achieving students and one lower

achieving students.

There are some activities in implementing PALS which has to be done by

the students. They are partner reading with retelling, paragraph shrinking, and

prediction relay.
 First is partner reading with retelling activity, each pair take turns reading

aloud for five minutes in this activity. The higher performing student read aloud

first for five minutes. After five minutes, the lower reader starts to read the same

text which the higher reader read. Then, the lower performing students will do

retell what the text is talking about for 2 minutes. In retelling stage, the higher

performing student ask to the reader by saying What the text is talking about?

and What happened next?

The second step is paragraph shrinking activity. Each pair take turns

reading in one paragraph starting where the second reader left off in Partner

Reading. At the end of each paragraph, the coach ask to the reader about who or

what the paragraph about and say the main idea in 10 words or less.

The last activity is prediction relay. The reader makes a prediction about

what will happen on the next half page. Then, the reader reads the half page. The

reader determines whether the prediction was correct. After that the reader

identifies and summarizes the main idea of the half page in 10 words or less.

Based on the above evidence given, Peer-Assisted Learning Strategy

(PALS) is useful for students and can enhance students reading comprehension,

so the researcher decided to choose this strategy to be implemented in the class.

1.2 Research Problem

Referring to the background of the study, the research problem of this

study as follows:

How can the peer-assisted learning strategy improve junior high school students

ability in reading comprehension?

1.3 Significance of The Study

This study was conducted for the purpose improving junior high school

students ability in reading comprehension. In addition to that, the result of this

study will be useful for the English teachers and further researchers. For English

teacher, the strategy implemented in this study was expected to give another

alternative that can be used as solutions of reading problem. For further

researchers, this study can be one of reference in conducting the same strategy in

different text genre.

1.4 The Scope of the Study

This research was conducted in SMPN 17 Malang, grade VII-3. This class

was chosen based on the recommendation of the English teacher. The skill that

was targeted in this research was students reading comprehension. Descriptive

text was chosen to apply in this PALS strategy. Descriptive text which is used

consisted of approximately 400 words which adopted from course book and

internet.

1.5 Definition of Key Terms

Definition of key terms was made in order to avoid misunderstanding and

misinterpretation of the terms stated in this research. Here are the definition of key

terms which are used:

Peer Assisted Learning Strategy (PALS) is a peer reading activity to help

students in comprehending the text. Students have to work in pairs on

 reading activities to improve their comprehension skill. There are three

activities in this strategy, which are partner reading with retell, paragraph

shrinking, and prediction relay.

Reading comprehension is students ability in order to gain knowledge and

detailed information from the text. In this study, the comprehension skill

that wants to be trained through PALS is related to regognizing the main

ideas and recognizing factual information in the given descriptive text.