Jurnal Bahasa Inggris
Jurnal Bahasa Inggris
Jurnal Bahasa Inggris
STORIES
By
Hasbaini1
Abdul Manan
ABSTRACT
This research was intended to figure out the effectiveness of the use of
short stories in teaching reading comprehension to enhance the quality
of students’ reading to the first semester students of Tarbiyah of
Muhammadiyah University of Aceh. The mayor principle of
conducting this research was to investigate whether or not the students
in the experimental group taught by using short stories would produce a
higher achievement than those of the control group taught by using
conventional study. To find out the effectiveness of the use of short
stories, the pre-test and the post-test were given for those groups. The
result of data analysis demonstrated that there was a significant
difference on students’ achievement from both groups proved by the
average of the post-test’s score. As a result, the score of the post-test of
the experimental group is higher than that of the control group (80:65)
by which the gained score for t-test was 8 while the value for t-table
was 1,684 at the level of significance 0,05. It means that t-score was
higher than t-table (8 > 1,684). It can be concluded that the students
who were taught by using short stories had a better achievement in
reading comprehension than those who taught by using conventional
study.
INTRODUCTION
1
Corresponding author: [email protected]
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comprehension but also to find the ways orderred that they love reading
English language and to develop great enthusiasm. There are some
kinds of reading used in teaching reading English language, such as
extensive reading, silent reading, reading aloud, and reading
comprehension. Reading comprehension is one of reading skill that
taught in junior and senior high school until at university. Some
teachers complained that their students are often difficult to understand
the English language text that they have already read and they
sometimes can only know a little part of the text, if the students find
difficulty in understanding the text, they are lazy and bored in reading
English language text.
Patker (1965, p. 56) states, “the short story is a protean form. It
may be short indeed or it may stretch until it approaches the short novel
length, short story is always regardless of variation.” Furthermore,
there is a different definition between short story and longer fictional
format. Short stories are one of presented materials in teaching reading
English language of Tarbiyah students of Muhammadiyah University
of Aceh. According to syllabus of reading comprehension of this
faculty, the students are expected to able to criticize writer’s idea in
reading English language text, analyze writer’s argument of writing
ideas and answer or respond the issue taking place in class discussion.
However, there are some obstacles faced the students while
comprehending reading English language materials especially short
stories. Firstly, some teachers tend to teach difficult or unfamiliar
vocabulary before the students read the text because it saves time and
they think it to help students’ understand better. But, by giving “ready
answers”, teachers prevent the students from developing their reading
English language skills and enhancing their comprehension abilities.
Meanwhile, Ellis and Hedge (1993, p. 14) states, “the students
know different words and have different prior knowledge in the topic,
which means that some words are unknown for some of students, but
familiar for others.” As result, this activity continues for a long time.
Sometimes there are vocabulary exercises in the pre-reading but they
include only if the text contains some specific or specialized
vocabulary, terminology, proper nouns, which they helped the students
to understand the idea of the text better.
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Research Questions
1. Is there a significant difference in teaching reading
comprehension between the students who are taught by using
short stories and those who are taught by using conventional
study?
2. What do the students’ responses toward the use of short stories
in teaching reading comprehension?
Research Objectives
1. To find out if there is significant difference in teaching reading
comprehension between the students who are taught by using
short stories and those who are taught by using conventional
study.
2. To find out students’ responses toward the use of short stories in
teaching reading comprehension.
LITERATURE REVIEW
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which our mind translates printed materials into the idea that writer is
trying to tell or communicated with us. Reading is about understanding
the written text and to convey some informations to reader because
reading is a source of knowledge and window of the world.
In the other hand, Frima (1996, p. 12) said, “reading skill needs to
be fostered so that learners can cope more and sophisticated text and
deal with them efficiently, appropriately and skillfully.” Reading is a
complicated skill and reading is not only about how to pronoun words
but also how to understand an author’s idea and perception in his/her
writing. A good reader must be patient while reading is going on until
he/she knows what the writer wants to convey to them and we can get
new knowledge from the materials.
While reading, we have to understand and summarize what the
reading English language about. Then, we can apply the informations
or message from reading English language materials in our daily life, if
it is suitable for us. Because, the guide line of reading involves reading
intergration and promotes the development of the reader himself.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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In testing, by using the pre-test and the post-test in each class at the
end of the meeting, the researcher used the questionnaire to analyze
students’ responses in teaching reading English language materials,
teaching methods, and it is also hoped that students in the process of
teaching reading specially reading comprehension by using short
stories. When the results of this study obtained the great results and the
researcher recommended to teachers of English language to use the
short stories as one of the subjects taught in their classroom, especially
in teaching reading comprehension.
In doing this, the researcher attempted to determine or predict what
occurred. The steps in doing this were to identity the problems and to
define the problems of teacher or the students in teaching learning
process, in this case was reading comprehension. The researcher made
the hypotheses and constructed an instrumental design that represented
all the elements, condition, and relations of the consequences by
selecting sample of the subject to select or construct, and validate
instruments to measure. This study tried to describe the application of
short stories in teaching reading comprehension.
Sample
Sample is a small part of total population taken for representative
of all population. Arikunto (1997, p. 25) said, “population is the whole
subject of the research, while sample is a part of the studied population.
He also explained sample as a representative of the majority group
where further investigation needed. For the sample of the study, the
writer took the first semester students of Tarbiyah of Muhammadiyah
University of Aceh. There are three groups in this semester. The
researcher took two class that are samples of 46 students.
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Research Setting
This study was conducted at Muhammadiyah University of Aceh
which took place in Lheung Bata, Banda Aceh. Futhermore, Tarbiyah
faculty which was now led by Drs. H. Umar Ali Aziz, MA focused on
education and teacher training in which the students prepared to be
good teachers in the future. It consists of four departements, namely,
English Departement (TEN), Religious Education Departement (TPA),
Biologi Education Departement (TBL), and Mathematic Education
Departement (TMA). Likewise, at Tarbiyah faculty, this study was
conducted. This departement aimed to produce students who were not
only qualified in academic and able to improve the knowledge for the
sake of society but also credible to have good behaviour. This
department was currently chaired by Mrs. Yuniarti, S.S., M.Pd.
According to the document in her office, it have 12 lecturers who
worked for in manifesting its goal.
They graduated from various international universities overseas
such as Australia, Malaysia, The United Kingdom, The United State
and so forth. Additionally, the study was conducted at Tarbiyah faculty
and the population was taken from all students who were in the first
semester is talking reading comprehension I in the academic year
2015/2016.
Research Instruments
Fraenkel and Wallen (2007, p. 113) stated, “Instrument as whole
process of preparing to collect data in research.” This research was
conducted by means of data collection in order to test the hypotheses.
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In this writing, the test was used to collect the needed data through field
research by conducting some techniques as follows:
Test
Kubiszyn and Boriszyn (2001, p. 47) stated, “a test is a tool that
can contribute importantly to the proses of evaluate students, the
curriculum and teaching method.” Test defined as a series of
questioner, problems, or physical responses designed to determine
knowledge, intelligence, or ability. The test was used to get data and
information in the research.
The researcher gave short stories to the students in order to know
how far the students’ improvement of reading comprehension by using
short stories. In this case, the students were asked to comprehend the
text by answering the questions concerning the given text and the
researcher focused in evaluating the students’ comprehension, they are
main idea, supporting details, vocabulary, and inference. At the
experimental class the researcher gave reading English language texts
with short stories as the pre-test to the students in the first meeting
while at the control class the researcher gave the long stories text. In
the test, the students were asked to read short stories and answer the
questions based on the given short stories. The test was given in written
form.
Pre-test
The pre-test was given to find out the students’ competence in
reading English language before presenting the materials, it consisted
of 10 items (10 questions in multiple choice and others are in true-false
items). Indeed, its purpose was to know the student’s ability in
comprehending reading English language text before the treatment was
given. In addition, the genre used in the pre-test was short stories. In
the pre-test, the printed of the short story text was entitle “The Regret
I”. The questions were concerned about main idea, detail information,
plot, and moral values and the time allocated for the test was 30
minutes.
Post-test
The post-test was given to the students by using short stories in 30
minutes (10 questions in multiple choice and others are in true-false
items). A post-test was used to measure how the students mastered the
materials after short stories were applied in the class. The goal of the
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post-test was to find out whether short stories developed the students’
reading comprehension or not. Here, the genre usedin the post-test was
also about short stories. In the post-test, the printed of the short story
text was entitle “The Nightingale and Rose II”. The questions were
concerned about main idea, detail information, plot, and moral values.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire was used to see the obstacles faced by the
students in improving their reading comprehension through short
stories. The researcher distributed questionnaire for the students and
analyzed the answers by using percentage as mentioned in the
questionnaire items. To analyzed students’ answer of these
questionnaires, the researcher used the percentage system as mentioned
in Sudjana (2002, p. 67) and the formula is as follows:
Explanation:
P = Percentage
F = Frequency of respondents
N = Number of sample
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51 – 56 0.1636 4.05 3
56.5 -0.52 0.1985
57 – 62 0.1825 4.5625 5
62.5 0.04 0.0160
63 – 68 0.2131 5.3275 4
68.5 0.61 0.2291
69 – 74 0.1539 3.8375 4
74.5 1.19 0.3830
75 - 80 0.0778 1.945 4
80.5 1.76 0.4608
The significant scores that are illustrated above are derived from
statistical technique. Besides statements, there is a special criteria
which identify whether its hypotheses is accepted or rejected, the latter
being: if thus H0 is rejected, and Ha is accepted if
.
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The result of the pre-test both the experimental and the control
groups, they can besummed up as essential report based on t-test and t-
table scores, that there is a significant difference between the data from
two groups. It can be clearly seen from this short quotation
“ > ” in which 4 > 1.684. On the other hand, these two scores
imply that all students in both groups had not the same competence.
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Discussion
After examining, the research findings and data analysis, there are
several significant points that can be informed about the use of the
short stories in teaching reading comprehension namely: the students
who were taught through the use of short stories in teaching reading
comprehension achieve a better attainment compared to the students
who were taught by using the long stories. The use of short stories in
teaching reading comprehension enables to show a positive impact on
the students to develop their reading comprehension ability, and it plays
the important roles of enchancing the students’ competence and
motivating them to study reading comprehension. To support and prove
these arguments, here are some needed elaborations. Firsly, according
to the statistical analysis on the previous page that is the result of
quantitative analysis which analyzes the score of test, either the score
of the pre-test of the experimental group and the control group. They
needs to know about the mean of the pre-test of both clases to get a
description about the comparison of both groups, namely the
experimental group gets 62 and the control group gets 53.
It can be seen the result of a deeply analyzed data of the pre-test
through independent sample t-test where t-test score is 4 while t-table
with the level of significant level of 0,05 is 1,684. It shows that t-test is
higher than t-table which can be denoted that the difference of both
group is a significant because t-test (4) > t-table (1,684). In other
words, the result reveals that there is a different performance between
the data of both groups which infers that the ability of reading
comprehension between the students in the experimental group and
those in the control class. It means that both samples taken are assumed
that is not at the same level of competence.
In addition, it is also essential to know the result of analyzing the
data of the post-test of both groups. The prosedure applied is the same
as analysis on the score of the pre-test. Specifically, the experimental
group gets 80 of mean whereas the control groups gets 65 of mean
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8
6 1.684
4
t-
2
0 t-
t- t-
score table
Figure1. Comparison of t-score and t-table
As we can been in figure 4.5 above, the t-score was higher than the
t-table. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and the
null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. It indicates that there is a significant
difference between the two groups. It can be concluded that the
students in the experimental group who were taught by using short
stories gained a better improvement than those in the control group who
were taught by using the long stories. This finding is supported by other
researchers’ findings related to the teaching reading comprehension by
using short stories. Lindawati (2011) found the result of her research is
that the use of short stories in teaching reading comprehension was
more effective for English as compared to the traditional learning
method. Furthermore, cooperative learning appeared to be more
favorable for overcrowded groups. It is suitable with the experimental
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study conducted by the researcher. Yuliana (2013) found also the result
of her research concluded that the use of short stories is more effective
in increasing the students’ achievement in teaching reading
comprehension.
Munarwati (2012) found her research was give good effects to the
students’ ability in reading comprehension and motivates them in
learning English language. Thus, in the process of learning, they get
better improvement in learning reading and get positive outcomes on
social relationships with their friends. They can give and share their
idea with each other and they get positive interdependence while
learning together in a group. As a result, their achievement in reading
comprehension.
This finding is supported by Suasti (2003) that group strategy is an
approach that gave priority to teach the students to work together with
each other to understand and do all their learning. In group strategy, the
students work with their peers to accomplish a shared or common goal.
The goal is reached through interpendence among all group members
rather member or working alone. Each member is responsible for the
outcome of shared goal.
The group learning is an educational approach. The group work
has to be carefully planned and frequently requires a facilitator to
ensure group progress. In addition the group function and the learning
that takes place needs to be assessed and evaluated. The material
learned is just as important as the group’s ability to achieve a common
goal. Facilitatory skills are important and require the teacher to ensure
that both the task is achieved and the group functioning is maintained.
The group learning allows the students to develop problem solving,
interpersonal, presentational and communication skills, all beneficial to
life outside the classroom. These generic skills are difficult to develop
in isolation and require feedback and interaction with other individuals.
Although this practice is not the best way for students to develop and
improve on these skills, there are some ways to make this effective for
both students and the instructor.
By group strategy is expected to enchance the students’
understanding of the material being taught, learning to cooperate,
respecting others’ opinions and responsibility among fellow students to
obtain the best for the group in learning and completing tasks (Davis,
1993). Learning with the opportunity to express ideas, listen to the
opinions of others, and together make sense, becomes very important in
learning because it has a useful element to challenge thingking and
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Conclusions
This study focuses on implementation of short stories in teaching
reading comprehension. Based on the result of the study, it can be
concluded that teaching reading comprehension by using short stories is
better than t-score of post-test both group is 8 (t-table = 1,684). Based
on the level of significance with is 0,05 and df =
= = 46, it is found that in the t distribution is
1,684. It is compared to t-test which is 8 and therefore t-test > t-table,
that is 8 > 1,684. Based on the criteria, if t-test < t-table which indicates
Ho is rejected and in other words Ha is accepted which states that the
students who were taught by using short stories in the experimental
group got good achievement in teaching reading comprehension with
applying group strategy than the students who were taught by using
long stories used conventional strategy.
Based on the questionnaire data, the students gave positive
responses related to the strategy, positive relationship, motivation and
material given after teaching reading comprehension by using short
stories by applying group strategy. It can increase their self-confidence,
social interaction, individual accountability, and group skill. Moreover,
the students can learn more activelly and got benefits from group work
than they who were studied from individual learning or conventional
strategy.
Suggestions
Based on the research that has been done, the writer providers
suggestions that could be beneficial for the researcher himself, and for
all readers who care about the issue of education, especially the English
language teacher and the researchers are as follows:
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For Schools
In schools, English language teacher is suggested to apply an
effective learning approach, method in order to increase or to improve
the students motivation in learning English language specifically for
reading comprehension.
REFERENCES
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