CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Reading is one of the language skills that is needed to be mastered by the

student. This allows students to understand information clearly while reading.
However, some people are not interested in reading because they don't have a
good topic to read. Reading is one of the basic english skills for students when
they take english lessons in class. Kenyon (2008:5) states that when the researcher
plan reading sessions with your learners, make sure that there is time to talk about
the text (passage, story and to write).. Thus, the readers can explain what they
have read from a story or passage and they can also write some messages and
explore their ideas in reading.

The activity of reading is an understanding written text to involve

perceptions and thinking of the readers which consist of two process such as
comprehensions and word recognizing. Reading comprehensions is a capability of
understanding meaning, symbol, sentences, and connected words. While word
recognizing refers to the process of perceiving how the written symbols
correspond to one's spoken language (Pang et al.,2003:06). Moreover, word
recognition refers to the process of making sense of words, sentences, and
connected text. Based on the statement it is clear that reading is activity that
involves students' perception and thought in improves the reader's understanding a
written or printed material that they had learnt in the classroom.

Bernhardt (2011:7) states that reading comprehensions as the process of

stimultaniously extracting and constructing meaning thought interaction and
involvement with written language. Assesing fluency, accuracy, and
comprehension will often provide insight as to whether a text is too easy or
difficult. As the student recognize the difficulty of answering comprehension
question, it shows the text might be difficult too for the students, and they will not
memorize the information from the text that being read. Conducting reading
instructions is the best way to lead their understanding of the text that they read.
However, in reality, reading is difficult skill in language especially the students
who are still difficult to understand the content of the reading text. Generally, the
teachers only provide text for students and teachers ask students to read and look
for the answer of the existing text with aids namely English dictionary and the
students do it individually or work with their partner.

Reading comprehension is the ability to read a text, process it, and

understand the meaning (Brassell and Rasinski 2008:18). The students will be
difficult to understand the content of the written or printed material without
vocabulary and grammatical mastery so that the students must master vocabulary
and grammatical features that influence their reading comprehension especially in
understanding the text meaning. In this case the students will master vocabulary
grammatical features to make them easier in understanding reading text especially
in identifying general information, specific information, textual meaning and
textual references which are stated in the reading text.

Based on the interview in preliminary observation with the English

teacher, it was found that the students had low achievement in reading
comprehension. From the four skills, reading has become the problem that was
often faced by the tenth grade students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut. The researcher
found the students have problem in reading especially in identify general
information, specific information, textual meaning and textual references in
reading text. In learning process of students, the students still had problem in
reading comprehension. This problem could affect the students' reading
comprehension and make them fail in answering the question especially about
identifying general information, specific information, textual meaning of
descriptive text.

The technique that used by the English teacher is still conventional

technique the teacher use reading aloud in which the teaching technique was
monotonous. The teacher commonly focused on reading aloud in improve reading
comprehension. For example, the teacher just distributed the reading text and had
the students to repeat after the teacher, and then try one by one read the reading
text. Sometimes, the teacher asked them to silent reading and directly answer the
related question without any additional activities for pre-reading and during
reading. The teacher never applied certain technique that emphasized on
comprehending the text and reading comprehension at the first point in teaching
and learning process.

The teacher technique was not appropriate for teaching which a class have
different characteristic of the students. In the technique the teacher just gave
instruction and did not give more explanations, the teaching and learning process
is unstructured and makes the students become bored. It makes student could not
find out what is the text about and then the reader could not answer the following
questions. They also did not have discussion session to figure out the answer.
Because they work individually and the teacher only focused on the student who
more active or who would not active in the teaching learning process. Therefore,
the teacher should use an appropriate teaching technique in order to improve
students' ability especially in reading comprehension and make teaching learning
process more interested and meaningful; one of the techniques is Numbered
Heads Together technique with picture.

To solve the problem above, the researcher will try to apply one of
cooperative learning technique to improve the students' achievement in reading
comprehension. this present study, the researcher chooses Numbered Heads
Together (NHT) technique with picture. Numbered heads together (NHT)
technique is a reading technique that is used to guide students through a text. NHT
helps students construct meaning before, during and after reading. Students would
connect what they read with what they have learned in the past, the students
would be expected to understand what the topic is about and extent of the
information. The students firstly divided into some groups, where each students' is
given a number. Then the teacher poses a question to the students. After that the
teacher asked the students to discuss with their groups to figure out the answer
finally the teacher calls a specific number to answer the question correctly.

NHT is one of effective technique for engaging the students. It will help
students to learn new material with the use of questioning and heads together to
figure out the answer of the question correctly. NHT will provide the students
with a structure to guide them through the reading material. It will make the
students interested and pay attention to the material. NHT technique guides
students to be more active in teaching learning process. They will easily get clear
and specific information of the text and involve their knowledge in reading
comprehension. The students can also share their opinion to the others about what
they have learnt in discussion session with their group. Furthermore, this
technique gives an opportunity for the students to get knowledge and share their
ideas to the other students. The implementation of NHT technique is easy to be
understand by the students it also gives a new style in reading activity. The new
style is the students have a group and each member of the group have different
number. By making group, the students are assisted in determining ideas which
are used in reading.

Based on the explanation above, NHT technique will greatly help the
students to overcome difficulties in reading comprehension. In reading
comprehension, it is important to conduct the research to improve reading
comprehension through Numbered Heads Together with Picture, Moreover, the
researcher believes that NHT technique will be able to improve the students
reading ability. Teacher can motivate the students to be more active to share their
opinion with others in learning process. Therefore, the researcher wants to
conduct a research with entitled "Improving Students’ Skill in Descriptive Text
Reading Comprehension Through Numbered Heads Together Technique with
Picture of the Tenth Grade of Sma Negeri 1 Susut Academic Year 2019/2020.

1.2 Research Problem

Based on background of the research above, students of the tenth grade of

Sma Negeri 1 Susut. Students still had problems in English, especially in reading
comprehension, such as identify general information, specific information, textual
meaning and textual reference. The solution that can be offered to overcome the
problems is to change the technique which is used previously by teacher with new
technique which is more effective to teach the students. It will be solve by
implementing a better technique to improve students" reading comprehension.
The technique that can be used to improve students' achievement in reading
comprehension is NHT. Based on the elaboration above, the research problem can
be formulated as follows: can reading comprehension of tenth grade students of
Sma Negeri 1 Susut in academic year 2019/2020 be improved through NHT with
Picture?

1.3 Objective of the Study

There are so many different techniques to improve students' achievement

in reading comprehension. As a study which is strongly related to scientific
investigation, misunderstanding may occur easily due to unclear direction on the
aim of the study. Based on the problems faced by the students, the researcher must
find a solution to solve the problems. Generally, finding a solution of the research
problem is the main objective of the scientific study. The present study will
conducted to answer the research problem. The objective of the present study is to
find out whether or not reading comprehension of tenth grade students of SMA N
1 SUSUT in academic year 2020/2021 can be improved by used the
implementation of NHT with Picture.

1.4 Limitation of the Study

Reading actually have a broad and wide scope of coverage, so limitation of

the study is necessary. There are many things that can be taken as the subject
matters to be observed by people who want to do a research in this field. Since
reading have a lot of things to be observed, the researcher needs to narrow down
the area of this study. Thus, the researcher limited the investigation which is
focused on improving reading comprehension of the tenth grade students of Sma
Negeri 1 Susut in academic year 2019/2020 by using numbered heads together
NHT technique with picture about historical place. Since the school implemented
2013 curriculum, in the present research, the researcher will focus on the third
main competency and basic competency.

The third main competency is understanding, applying, analyzing factual

knowledge, conceptual, procedural based on their curiosity about knowledge,
technology, art, culture, and humanities with humanitarian insight, nationalities,
state, and civilization related to the cause of phenomena and events, and wipe
procedural knowledge in field of specific studies in accordance with their interests
to solve the problem. Besides, the basic competency is focused on the third basic
competency (3.4) distinguish social function, text structure, and language features
of some descriptive text oral and write by giving and asking information related to
famous historical place and historical building, in accordance with the context of
its use. In addition, reading comprehension in the present study particularly
focused on identifying general information, specific information, textual meaning
and textual reference.

1.5 Significance of the study

This research will be concerned with Improving Students’ Skill in

Descriptive Text Reading Comprehension Through Numbered Heads Together
Technique with Picture .The significance will be able to give beneficial
contribution to the tenth grade student of Sma Negeri 1 Susut . The present study
will expected to indicate significance both theoretical and practical information on
the importance of implementing NHT with picture in teaching reading
comprehension. The researcher hopes that this research gives a significance for
both the teacher and the students as well as theoretical and practical In addition to
the target of this research, the research would have both theoretical and practical
significance that is explain as follows:

Theoretically, the findings of this study are expected as a guide study of

reference for the next research. Besides, it can contribute the new research finding
about using NHT technique with picture in teaching reading comprehension. In
other words, this study will give information about the technique that can be
implemented in teaching learning process especially about teaching reading
comprehension by applying the present technique. Besides that, the findings of
this present study are very useful for the English teacher, the students even the
other researchers as well. As known this research will be place in the library, this
study is expected to enrich theories and can be used as reference for future studies
related to NHT technique in improving reading comprehension of tenth grade
students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut in academic year 2019/2020.
 Practically, the outcomes of the present study are expected will be able to
give contribution and feedback to the English teacher, students of Sma Negeri 1
Susut, and the other researcher. First for the English teacher, the finding is hoped
to be able to improving the student reading comprehension. The teacher also can
conduct the lesson well since this technique do and brings a worth finding in
teaching learning process, and the teacher will be easy to solve students' problem
in reading comprehension. Second for the students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut, they
will have new experience and great improvement of reading comprehension when
they join reading class. In addition, the students' ability in reading comprehension
will learn in different learning situation by using NHT technique. This is actually
what they need in reading class and they are expected and able to comprehend the
reading passage. Third for the other researchers, it is hoped that this study will
uses as empirical and reference to do further research in the future especially the
research that uses classroom action research.

1.6 Definition of Key Term

The title of the present study is "Improving Students’ Skill in Descriptive

Text Reading Comprehension Through Numbered Heads Together Technique
with Picture of The Tenth Grade of Sma Negeri 1 Susut Academic Year
2019/2020. The terms of scientific research sound complicated to the readers
because they are to broad, and the definitions does not give clear cut clarification.
As it is aim to give clear explanation to the topic that will be discuss in this study
and to avoid misunderstanding or confusion of the key terms which are used in the
present study on part of the readers. It totally important for the researcher to
define some operational definition related to the variables. Some definitions of the
important key terms are operationally defined in the present research as follows:

A.Descriptive Text Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension will interpreted as the students ability of the tenth

grade of Sma Negeri 1 Susut in academic year of 2019/2020 in understanding
descriptive text reading comprehension especially in finding out general
information, specific information, textual reference, and textual meaning of the
text.

B. Numbered Heads Together (NHT) with Picture.

NHT technique is define as technique that used to improve reading

comprehension of tenth grade students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut in academic year
2019/2020. Which consist of four steps: numbering, questioning, heads together,
and answering. In numbering, the teacher will divides the students into several
groups which consist of 4 students in each group and have them number of so
each students' in each group has different number between 1,2,3,4 and 5. In
questioning, the teacher will give a task to read a descriptive text with picture
about historical place that can help the reader understand the text. Then the
teacher asks the students a question based on the text that administered by the
teacher. In heads together, the students will put their heads together to figure out
and make sure everyone knows the correct answer. In answering, the teacher will
call a number and the students from each group with that number raise hand and
provide answer to the whole class.
 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Review

Every scientific study should be based on some theoretical background

and empirical evidence and it should contribute practical significance of the
present study. Theoretical review is about related theory that is used in this
research. The researcher will uses relevant theories to give more evidences in this
research. Besides the relevant theories which are taken from some sources to
support the underlying theories are concisely conducted on the ground of the
theoretical basis. The relevant theories that related to the study and support the
research, as the result the researcher will describe and discuss as follows: Reading
Comprehension, Numbered Heads Together Technique, and Assessment of
Reading Comprehension

2.1.1 Reading Comprehension

Reading is a process to get information from a text and also as section of

language skills that is important in improving the students' ability. Reading is one
of skill that students will improve in the class. The important part of reading
comprehension the text as students should have good reading comprehend
because it will help them in learning other skill such as listening, writing and
speaking. Wolley (2011) states that reading comprehension is the process creating
meaning from the text. He continues stating that the goal of reading is to increase
the general understanding of what is described in the text rather than to get
meaning from isolated words or sentences.

Brown (2004: 185) states that reading is likewise a skill that teachers
simply expert learner to acquire. Most formal tests use the written words as a
stimulus for test-taker response even oral interview may require reading
performance for certain tasks. Reading comprehension is the process of
knowledge, and the information found in the text. It involves extending student
vocabularies and knowledge of the word, developing their knowledge of English
grammar and their decoding skill, developing their reading fluency and extending
Their ability to comprehend what they read and view from the literal level to the
inferential and critical levels to improve their knowledge.

In addition, Johnson (2008:4) states that reading is constantly developing

skill. Like others skills, the students get better at reading by practicing
Conversely, if students do not practice, they will not get better and their skills may
deteriorate because reading practice helps the students become better readers.
Reading integrates visual and nonvisual information During the act of reading, the
visual information found on the page is combined with nonvisual information
contained in the head of the students to create meaning of the text that they have
learnt In that way, what is in the head is just as important as what is on the page in
the process of creating meaning (reading) based on the text.

Furthermore, Broughton et al. (2003 89) reading is a complex skill.

Reading is not only reading aloud some words or reading some words silently, but
also as an activity to get information from the text by executing symbol stated in a
text In addition, Johnson (2008 :7) states that reading helps students become
better writer .Through reading, students have incidental contact with the rules of
grammar. Students develop a sense for the structure of the language and grammar
and increase their vocabulary. All of the definitions above suggest that reading
especially reading comprehension is thinking a thinking process in acquiring the
message of the text. One's prior knowledge has an importance role in processing
new information.

Smith (2004:2) states that reading is properly employed for all manner of
activities when people endeavors to make sense of circumstances; its original
meaning is interpretation It means that the readers can achieve many thoughts
about written text that they read. The readers need an understanding for creating
meaning with written text, Therefore, comprehension means the series of action
concurrently putting and building sense by using interaction and participation with
the written text. Thus, reading is comprehending-making sense of what is read.
Reading is important skill that enables someone to find some information for their
knowledge and they can share the information for everyone when they need it.
Learning to read is an important educational goal. For both children and adults,
the ability to read opens up new worlds and opportunities.

Reading comprehension is essentially defined as the ability to understand

the information which has been read. Reading comprehension is a process to
recognize the text and remember information in the text. Without reading
comprehension, the readers could not understand the information on the reading
text. It involves extending students' vocabularies and knowledge of the words,
developing their knowledge of English grammar and their decoding skills,
developing their fluency and extending their ability. When the readers are able to
recognize the words meaning in the text reading, they will be able to comprehend
what they had been read.

Caldwell (2008:177) states that reading comprehension is about relating

background knowledge to new knowledge contained in the written texts. Students'
ability can help them to comprehend and understanding a text quickly If students
know a lot about a topic, then, students will use this knowledge to interpret the
text, to make inferences, to create visual images, and to evaluate the authors point
of view. It can be assumed the wider we have background knowledge, the easier
we comprehend what we are reading. It is because we have been already familiar
with the topic and we do not need to think hard to catch the idea of the text we
have read before.

According to Snow (2002:10) Reading comprehension is a part of reading

elements because understanding the context of the important in reading activity.
Comprehension is meaning construction process, involving integral interaction
between text and reader. Reading comprehension requires motivation, mental
frameworks for holding ideas, concertation and good study technique and
strategies. Good readers recognize and get meaning from word they see in print
and use their knowledge to begin forming a mental nation of the topic. Through
reading, the readers have to relate the information that is written on the text with
their background of knowledge, thus, the students can easily comprehend the text
that they already read in the classroom.
 Klinger et al. (2007:8) describe that reading comprehension is a
multicomponent and highly complex process that involve many interactions
between readers and what they bring to the text (previous knowledge and strategy
use) as well as variables elated to the text itself (interest in reading text and
understanding of the text types). It means that comprehend the reading text, the
readers must have cognitive capacities for instance, attention, critical and analyze
ability, memory visualization ability and various type of knowledge. The
knowledge that should be mastered by the students is in linguistic, topic,
vocabulary and comprehension knowledge.

Snow (2002:11) states that reading comprehension is the process of the

simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and
involvement with written language. Comprehension entails three elements such
as: the students who does the comprehension, the text that is to be comprehend
and the activity in which comprehension is a part. To comprehend the text, the
students must have a wide range of capacity, ability, knowledge and experience
that the students bring to act of reading. The students can understand what the
writer means and they understand not only the meaning but also the context of the
text. Through reading, the readers have to relate the information that is written on
the text with their background of knowledge, thus, the students can easily
comprehend the text that already read in the classroom.

Furthermore, Brassell and Rasinski (2008:18) state that reading

comprehension is the ability in taking information from written text after that
doing something with it, in a way that demonstrates knowledge or understanding
on the information. The reader can be categorized if they are able to act on,
respond to, get the meaning and transform the information that is implicitly
described in the text though a demonstrated understanding. One way that could be
used to check the students' comprehension is through short answer task. Besides,
Johnson (2008:3) states that reading is practice of using text to create meaning;
therefore, if there is no meaning being created, there is no reading taking place.
Reading is constantly developing skill; reading especially reading comprehension
will be better with more practice.
 In conclusion, reading comprehension is useful for gaining information
from text and the skills can evaluate the student vocabulary and then they will
easy to understand and interpret the meaning. In the present study, reading
comprehension is defined as the process of constructing meaning from the
especially in identifying general information, specific information, textual
meaning and textual reference in descriptive text. It is an active activity that will
try to catch or identify the idea of the passage. Furthermore, reading makes
students understand and they can comprehend what they read and the student will
get a new information or knowledge to improve the developed their reading
ability in reading comprehension.

2.1.2 Numbered Heads Together (NHT) with Picture

NHT is a technique that will help reader to learn new material with the
use of questioning and heads together from reliable source. NHT will help the
readers comprehend what they read. This technique is interesting and wonderful at
the start of any unit of work, meeting discussion. It elevates thinking and
discussion, open up opportunities for possible investigation and the formation of
hypotheses. NHT will help the reader comprehend what they read and understand
what they have already read. The teacher can easily modify material to meet
students' learning needs any level in any content area and it can keep the students'
attention on reading comprehension. It will make the students easier to develop
their knowledge and they also can share it to the others.

Slavin in Arends (2012:361) states that group focus of cooperative

learning can change the norm of youth culture and make it more acceptable to
excel in academic learning task. Cooperative learning can benefit both low and
high achievers, thus providing specials will help for peers who share youth-
oriented interest and language. And the second important effect of the cooperative
learning is wider tolerance and acceptance of people who are different by virtue of
their race, culture, social class, or ability. The other important effect of the
cooperative learning is to teach students' skills and students ability of cooperation
and collaboration.
 Furthermore, Jolliffe (2007:39) explain that cooperative learning strategy
require the students to work together in small group to support each other to
improve their own learning. To work effectively certain five key elements needed
to be in place. The five elements include: the first positive independence (the
student must feel that they need each other, the second individual accountability
(every member has learned the material), the third group processing ( it helps all
group members achieve while maintaining effective working relationship among
members), the fourth small group and interpersonal skill (provide the motivation
to use the individual skill in order for group to function effectively), and the last
face to face interaction(build an effective communication between the students).

NHT technique is aimed to reinforce learning, foster the sharing of

successful responses to the whole class or entire group, decide how information
will be shared among learning members as well as to create the students to be
independent, responsible, and to be cooperative learner at the same time. Mandal
(2009:99) state that NHT technique is one of cooperative teaching technique
where a team of four students is established by the teacher. Each member is given
different number between 1,2,3,4 and 5. Question are asked of the all group.
Group work together to answer the question so that all can verbally answer the
questions to the whole of the class. This will used for comprehension exercises
and if the members of each group cannot answer the question, so the other
members can help them to give the answer of the question and make sure
everyone knows the correct answer.

Based on Richards and Rodgers (2007:199), there are some step for
implementing of NHT technique. The first is called students number off in item.
The teacher will divide students in some group and the teacher gives number of
each member in a group. The second is the teacher will asking a question based on
the material that they had learnt and the questions are usually easy and difficult
based on their level agreement. The third is heads together in which student put
their heads together to figure out and make sure that everyone knows the answer
and can explain the answer. And the last one is the teacher calls a number and
students with that number raise hands and provide answer to the whole class.
 According to Kagan (2009:6-20), NHT is a technique to convey the idea
that each student has a number and that all the students in the team put their best
answer. NHT is learning method when each student is given a number and they
make a group work. These cooperative learning strategies will promote discussion
on both individual and group accountability. Cooperative learning method forces
to do an interaction instead of self-understanding. Learning cooperatively will
help students communicate about what they do not know as well as what they
have known that based on the text that has been read.

On the other hand, teaching reading comprehension by using numbered

heads together will more interesting when the teacher can combine media in
teaching learning process. It will help students in developing reading
comprehension. picture is a media which is can help in implemented the
technique. Picture can help student to imagine what the real meaning of a text. For
example, descriptive text. Turk (2003:181) stated that people are naturally more
interested in things and picture than in abstract words. Event adults look through
books for picture. Therefore, visual aids have a greater impact, the people
especially the students will be easy to imagine the meaning of picture.

In addition, add that picture can be used to provoke questions and answer
which can develop into a very involved conversation. In order words picture
actually good tools to help teacher in teaching and improving students in reading
comprehension it will make the reader easy to understand the text if helped with
picture and also the picture will help student in finding the real meaning of the
text. According to Wright (1989:136) picture have major role to play in
development of students' skills listening and reading. It can be used more
effectively to develop and sustain motivation in producing positive attitudes
towards English and to teach reinforce language skills.

In this present study the researcher will using NHT technique. NHT
techniques will more interesting when the teacher can combine the technique with
picture as a media in the teaching learning process. It will help assist students in
developing reading comprehension. Picture is one of learning media that can be
used to explain the subject matter. The use of picture as a media or means of
delivery of the lesson, not only interesting but also can pay attention of students
clarify information of the text. Picture that are used in reading text not explain the
text completely, but it can be used motivate the reader. In order picture are
actually good media to help teacher in teaching learning process to improve the
students' ability in reading comprehension.

In addition, NHT technique with picture is an effective way to be used in

improving the students' reading comprehension this is one of cooperative learning
techniques. Macpherson (2002:62) states that objective of the technique is
encourage individual accountability of the group's members. It indirectly trains
the students to share information to each other, listen and speak accurately so that
they will be more productive in the teaching learning process. Besides, this
technique also helps the students to be able to work cooperatively in a team or
group. According to Arends (2012:371), there are four steps of NHT namely
numbering, questioning, heads together, and answering.

1. Numbering

In this step, the teacher divides the students into several groups which
consist of 4/5 students in each group and teacher give them number off so each
student on team has different number between 1, 2, 3, and 4 , 5 .

2. Questioning

In questioning, the teacher gives a task to read a descriptive text with

picture that can help the reader understand the text. Then the teacher asks the
students a question based on the text that administered by the teacher. The
question can be varied. They can be very specific and in question form.

3. Heads Together

In this part, the students put their heads together to figure out and make
sure everyone knows the answer.
 4. Answering

In this case, the teacher calls a number and students from each group with
the number, raise their hands and provide answer to the whole class.

2.1.3 Assessment of Reading Comprehension

Assessment is process of collection and information analysis to measure

achievement of students' learning result. In order to know the students'
achievement, teacher can administer a test and a result can be used as a feedback.
Brown (2004:185) stated that the assessment of the reading ability does not end
with the measurement of comprehension. Method of assessment varies with the
type of responses students and student's responses can be spoken or written.
Assessment of reading should be ideally be authentic. Assessment shows how
well they are will be able to extract information and analyze that they are reading.

Caldwell (2008:8) states that assessment can happen at any points in a

lesson. It can be a planned and carefully thought-out procedure. It is also
applicable in reading class. Commonly, people will think that assessment is done
after students read a certain reading passage then they will have some question
that have been prepared to be answered. In fact, the assessment and be done
before student read the reading passage. They do not need the whole text, but they
just need to activate their prior knowledge and try to relate to the topic. This kind
to assessment will require students to actively join the class since the question,
that is going to pose, is thought-out procedure.

Brown (2004:4) states that assessment is.Ongoing process to encompasses

a much wider domain whenever a student responds to a question, offers a
comment, or tries out a new word or structure the teacher subconsciously makes
an assessment of the students' performance. So that, it can be said that assessment
will used to determine the quality of the student work. According to Hammer
(2001:100), assessment can be explicit when the teacher says "that is good" while
assessing the students' performance. On the other hand, it can be implicit when the
teacher pass on the next students without any comments or corrections. They may
misconstrue with silence as something else. As the result, when the teacher gave a
test which cannot make the students misconstrue and decrease their motivation in
learning those materials in reading comprehension.

Pang et al. (2003:18) states that "There are two forms of reading
assessment. The first is to find out how well children are reading in order to help
them improve(diagnosis)". Diagnostic assessment is about giving feedback and
assistance to learners. The second is to measure how much progress has been
made. Both assessments are needed for effective reading instruction. In the
beginning reading, assessment is normally done by listening to students' reading
aloud. The teacher will assesses word recognition and fluency in this way. Beyond
this stage, assessment should focus primarily on text comprehension.

There is a purpose in doing the assessment. According to Caldwell

(2008:43), the basic purpose of any assessment is to gather the information in
order to decide if students comprehend and learn about the material which they
have learned. Besides, there are two more assessment purpose for school and
students. For school, assessment will used to judge the effectiveness of the school.
for the students, it is for measuring and monitoring learning progress of the
students cross a school year. When the teacher gives an assessment for their
students, the assessment will be appropriate with the material which has been
taught by the teacher to the students. In regard with the reading comprehension,
there are some design for assessing the students' comprehension.

According to N'Namdi (2005:57) states that assessment is one of important

a tool that measure a learner's knowledge and ability. It will shows the areas in the
reading program where learners will have weakness and strength in reading text. It
shows they are able to extract information and analyze from a text that is being
read. On the other hand, it will usually used by the teacher to help them
evaluation. According to Brown (2001:384) test in plain words is a method of
measuring a person's ability or knowledge in given domain. A test has the purpose
of measuring. Some measurements are rather board and inexact, while others are
quantified in mathematically precise terms.
 Furthermore, McNamara (2007:107-108) states the assessment of reading
comprehension is a critical part of designing and implementing programs that
teach reading strategies, such as assessing students, reading comprehension ability
and skills before an intervention allows potential weakness of and individual
reader to be diagnosed. Training can be adjusted to meet the needs of that reader
to maximize the impact of the intervention. Effective interventions will assess
and monitor students' progress in the development or improvement of reading
comprehension skills. An assessment needs to consider who is undertaking the
test and when the best time to do the test. Caldwell (2008:26) states that there is a
tendency to think of assessment as something that happens after instruction.

Alderson (2000:1) states that all of the aspect of reading is important, but
will probably never be brought together into a coherent and comprehensive
account of what is we do when we read. The inevitable complication when we
consider the complexities of analyzing text since the nature of what we read must
have some relation to how we read, then text analysis must be relevant to theories
of reading. Furthermore, Caldwell (2008:26) states that there is tendency to think
of assessment as something that happen after instruction, something part apart
from instruction such as asking students to answer question after they have read
the textbook chapter or story. There is also tendency to think of all measure as
paper, pencil, and eraser rests. Assessment and evaluation of students
understanding and ability is an ongoing process.

Assessing reading can be done by administering a series of test that the

researcher gave to the students. When students taking a reading test, the effect will
increasing and decreasing students' comprehension especially in reading texts. In
addition, As stated by Brown (2004) assessing reading can be done by some kinds
of reading tasks, they are reading aloud, written response, multiple-choice, short
answer task, picture-cued items, matching task, editing task, gap filling task, cloze
task, impromptu reading plus comprehension question, skimming, scanning,
editing, ordering task, information transfer, summarizing and responding the last
one is note-taking and outlining. All of those kinds of reading tasks will used
based un the reading comprehension types.
 In this present study, the researcher will admninistered short answer task
to assess the students' achievement in reading comprehension after being taught
through NHT technique with picture. Moreover, purpura (2004:136) states that
short answer task can be used to test several areas of grammatical ability, and are
usually scored as right or wrong with one or more criteria for correctness or
partial credit. Furthermore, the researcher in the present study will assess the
students' reading comprehension by using short answer test. By using short
answer task, the students should give the answer or idea about the test. They
directly answer the question by using a complete and grammatical sentence. This
kind of test is a good way for measuring the students' reading comprehension.

2.2 Empirical Review

The focus of the present study is to investigate the application of

numbered heads together particularly whether or not the reading comprehension
of the tenth grade of Sma Negeri 1 Susut will be improve by using numbered
heads together. The empirical review is provided to show the use of numbered
neads together. In order to show the strength of the present study, the researcher
made this empirical review to review studies that had been previously conducted
by other researcher that might be similar with this study. In this part, the
researcher will describes two empirical review that explained about researcher
which were related to the present study. They are the empirical review as follows:

For the first similar research is conducted by juniawati (2016) entitled

"improving reading comprehension through numbered heads together of the eight
grade students of Smp Negeri 4 Petang in academic year 2015/2016". The main
purpose of the research was to figure out whether or not numbered heads together
to improve students reading comprehension. The result of the study had proven
that numbered heads together was an effective technique to improve reading
ability especially in reading comprehension. It could be seen from the progressing
in mean score of the pre-test and post-tests from the first cycle until the last cycle
after the researcher applied NHT technique to the eight grade students of SMP
Negeri 4 petang.
 The second research was done by brahmanda (2016) entitled "improving
reading comprehension of the eight grade students of SMP N Sila Chandra
batubulan in academic year 2015/2016 through numbered heads together". The
objective of the present study was to know whether or not reading comprehension
of the eight grade students of SMPN sila Chandra batubulan can be improve
through numbered heads together technique. The result of the present study had
proven that numbered heads together was effective technique to improve students'
reading comprehension. It could be seen from progressing of the mean score.

The strength of both researchers showed the students were successful to

improve their reading comprehension by using numbered heads together. The
students will get the score more than the minimum passing grade in that school
from cycle I and cycle II after they had been taught through numbered heads
together. The weakness both of researcher is in implementing of the technique
both of the researcher implemented the steps unclear that can make the students
confused about the activity that the researcher gave to them. Furthermore, when
they arranged lesson plan, the steps in the lesson plan and the theory did not
match with the real teaching. In the present study, the researcher used NHT with
picture and also with clear steps in lesson plan to avoid the students' reading
comprehension confusion about learning how to find general information, specific
information, textual meaning, and textual reference of the text. In addition, the
researcher made the lesson plan that had clear steps in which the steps in whilst
activity based on theory of Kagan in Arends(2007:355).
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Subject of The Study

The present study will be conducted at Sma Negeri 1 Susut especially the
tenth grade student of X IPA class in academic year 2019/2020. The X IPA 1
class consisted of 36 students in which 15 males and 21 females. The researcher
will chooses this class because based on interview that had been done to English
teacher in Sma Negeri 1 Susut. The result of the interview suggested the student's
ability in reading comprehension was still poor. The students in this class are still
difficult to comprehend reading text, especially in finding out general information,
specific information, textual meaning of the text. It meant the subjects, ability in
reading comprehension was poor. Therefore, immediate improvement is really
needed by using effective technique in reading comprehension.

3.2 Research Design

The design of the present study is a classroom action research that will
improving reading comprehension through numbered heads together (NHT)
technique with picture to improve student reading comprehension. Ary et al.
(2008:512) state that action research is about talking action based on research and
researching the action taken. It can be used to enhance everyday work practice to
resolve specific problems and to develop special projects and programs, in
education, action research can be applied to such areas as curriculum
development, teaching strategies, and school reform.

Ferrance. (2000:1) stated that action research is a process in which

participants examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully,
using the technique of research. This research is carry-out within the context of
the teacher's environment on questions that dealt with educational matters at hand.
The teacher as researcher will began the research with a cycle from question,
gathering data, reflection and then deciding the course of action. The solution
from the problem which is attempt to solve led the action research into other areas
of study. In conducting classroom action research, the teacher will work alone in
conducting the research or might be supported by the administrators in school,
university scholar, and others.

Dawson (2007:18) states that action research begins with a process of

communication and agreement between people who want to change something
together. It means that three must be an agreement between the researcher and the
participant to solve a certain problem that occurs within the community. This can
be summarized that the action research is used to give changes of result in
teaching and learning process whether to find out solution for problems exist or to
develop more understanding of our teaching and learning process.

Ary et al. (2008:519) stated that there are some steps in conducting the
teaching and learning process such as planning, action, observation, and
reflection. In planning, the researcher will makes the instrument to collect the
data. In action, the researcher implements the plan or changes a practice and
collect data that collected from a variety of source. In observation the researcher
synthesizes and analyzes the data and key issues related to the problem which is
identified. In reflection, the researcher reflection on and interprets the information
and communicates or reports it into others. It is simple process and if teachers
learn how to use it , it would meet many of their teaching goals.

In relation to this present study, classroom action research will concern on

improving reading comprehension of the subject under study through numbered
heads together. A classroom action research is stopped when it has achieved a
satisfactory outcome. The present research will divided into two cycle that
consisted of two session in each cycle. In each cycle, there are four steps:
planning, action, observation, and reflection. The result of post-test in cycle 1 is
used to a basis to revise the planning in the next cycle. Thus, revising planning
began in the next cycles. Revising planning was expected to achieve the
satisfactory outcome. To make it clear, the figure of the steps in each cycle could
be seen in the following figure. The figure was adapted from the book Kemmis
and Mc Taggart (2010).
 Initial reflection

Cycle I : Planning Action Observation Reflection

Cycle II: Revised Action Observation Reflection

Next cycle

3.3 Research Procedure

The research procedure is the procedure that will be used in this classroom
action research. It is divided into some cycle and each cycle consisted of four
interconnected activities. The purpose of research procedure is to make it easy for
the researcher in finding data which is valid and accurate. In this classroom action
study, the researcher will explaining the research procedure referred to the real
activities which are done by the researcher for this research in every step of initial
reflection, planning, action, observation, reflection of the research. In this study,
the researcher and subjects will apply some process which is expected to improve
reading comprehension of the tenth grade students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut read
2019/2020. All of the activities took place repeatedly in the four of cycle. The
research procedure briefly describe as follows:

3.3.1 Initial Reflection

In this classroom action study will be conducted by interview,

observation, administering pre-test. initial reflection will be carried out to find out
how the ability of the subjects' pre-exiting ability in reading comprehension. It is
will be done through the interview to the english teacher and observation to the
students of the classroom during teaching and learning process. Moreover, in
order to know exactly the subject's ability, it will be done through pre-test which
is administer to obtain the real problem of the subjects under study. The result of
the pre-test will be used by the researcher as the basic consideration in making
planning which is done in next steps. This test is aimed to know how far the
subjects know and understood about the topic that is given by the teacher and also
to check the score of the subject before applied the NHT technique with picture.

3.3.2 Planning

As previously mentioned, the subject of the present classroom action study

is the tenth grade students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut. The understanding of the
present study is substantially based on the fact the subjects under study had still
low in reading comprehension ability. Before the present classroom action study
could be successfully carried out, the researcher will prepare planning for all the
session. With the planning it can help the researcher in applying and application in
numbered heads together. Planning is arranged for doing something in this stage,
there will be many activities organized in action phases related to identifying
problems, such as;

1. Making lesson plan based on the syllabus used in Sma Negeri 1 Susut and
topic in every cycle of this classroom action study. The lesson plan will be as the
controller in teaching learning process by using numbered heads together with
picture.

2. Preparing teaching material which can be appropriately used in teaching

reading comprehension for the tenth grade students of Sma Negeri 1 Susut.
Researcher will prepare that are suitable for teaching reading skill through
numbered heads together with picture.

3. Preparing the teaching media picture that will be used by the teacher. The
picture will be taken from internet about historical place.

4. Constructing post-test at the end of each cycle that researcher will

administering questionnaire to the subject under study. Post-test focused on
figuring out students' achievement in reading comprehension.
 5. Constructing the questionnaire that researcher will administered in the end of
the last cycle to know the subjects' responses toward the implementation of
numbered heads together with picture.

3.3.3 Action

Action refers to what the researcher will do in the classroom and how the
classroom would be managed. This is an important activity that will be carried out
by researchers in this study. Action could be defined as the real form for the
planning. The action of the present study is the activity that researcher will do in
the teaching and learning process. The activity that is done by the researcher in the
classroom related to improving the subjects' reading comprehension by using
NHT. The researcher will be conducted the lesson plan in the classroom. Based on
the lesson plan during learning activities, there are three phases such as pre-
activity, whilst- activity, and post-activity. Those activity can be described as
follows:

In pre-activity, some activities will be conducted in order to get subjects

attention. In this part, the activities included greeting the subjects before the
learning process started. The researcher will ask one of the subjects to lead the
prayer and than checking the subjects' attendance. The researcher give motivation
for the student to make the student interest in teaching learning process. After that
the researcher ask some questions to brainstorm the material which has been
studied previously. The researcher also explain the indicator of competency
achievement which should be achieved by the subjects in the teaching learning
process and delivered the outline of the materials about how to identify general
information, specific information, textual meaning, and textual reference of the
reading text.

In whilst-activity, the researcher will apply numbered heads together with

picture. Based on 2013 curriculum, there are four main activities namely
observing, questioning, exploring, associating and communicating. In observing
the researcher will give a material then the subject observing a descriptive text
with picture related to the topic. In questioning the researcher will simulate the
subject to ask a question what they did not know about the material. In exploring
and associating the researcher will apply the step of numbered heads together
Then teacher divides the students into several groups which consist of 4 students
in each group and gives them number of so each student. In each group has
different number between 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then the teacher will administer a
descriptive text about historical place with picture and ask the subject to observe
it. Next the teacher asks a question based on the text that administered by the
teacher. Then the students to put their heads together to discuss and to figure out
and make sure everyone knows the correct answer of the question. In
communicating, the researcher calls a number and the students from each group
with that number raise hand and provide answer to the whole class.

In post-activity, the researcher reviewed the topic through briefly

conclusion to remind the subjects' memory about what they have learned and ask
the subjects difficulties during the teaching learning process by using NHT
technique with picture. In the post-activity, the researcher administered post-test
that is given at the end of each cycle. This session is used to measure the subjects
progressing reading comprehension after discussed in the next session; thus; the
subjects learned from the mistakes they have made in the first cycle during the
teaching learning. The teacher also tell to the students about the next material And
the last the researcher make a conclusion in the end of the teaching learning
process and the teacher close the class saying good bye to the students.

3.3.4 Observation

In the observation, the researcher observed the subjects' responses on the

application of numbered heads together with picture in teaching reading
comprehension. Observation is also aimed to know the effectiveness of numbered
heads together with picture in improving the subject reading comprehension and
also to know whether the technique being apply is able to improve reading
comprehension of grade tenth of Sma Negeri 1 Susut in academic year
2019/2020. In this part, the researcher will observed the subject progress after
being taught through question answer relationship with picture in teaching and
learning process especially in learning comprehension and also their responses
toward numbered heads together. The researcher will collect the subjects' progress
and responses by using research instrument.

3.3.5 Reflection

In reflection, the researcher will reflect the implementation of each cycle

which is to know the weaknesses and the strengths of her teaching. In addition, to
know how far the subjects' success, the researcher will collect the data from the
observation and the result of post-test since they are the important part of
reflection. The purpose of reflection is to evaluate the effectiveness of numbered
heads together in improving the subjects' reading comprehension. The researcher
collected data and try to investigate the strength and weakness of the action to
consider the next action whether the researcher should stop the study. Based on
the result the researcher needed to revise some part of planning in order to get
improvement and better result in the next cycle

3.4 Research Instrument

The research instrument refers to tools which are used by the researcher in
collecting data. Research instrument can be defined as all instrument, which are
used by a teacher to simulate, activate or encourage the teaching and learning
process to achieve the teaching and learning objectives. The selection and
construction of appropriate, valid and reliable research instrument very essential
step of a scientific investigation. Without the instruments, the researcher cannot be
done this researcher because, the instruments are crucial and important in the
research. In this study, the research instrument that will apply in the form of test
(pre-test and post-test) and questionnaire. The research instrument of this
classroom action study will be briefly explained as follows:

3.4.1 Test

Test is an instrument use to measure the extent of the subjects'

understanding of the material provided. There are two kinds of test in this
research. They are pre-test and post-test. The result of the pre-test is to know pre-
existing achievement of reading comprehension and that will use as consideration
in conducting the present study. The data of pre-test will used to guide the
researcher to make the lesson plan in the first cycle. Meanwhile, the post-test is
given in the end of each cycle. The post-test is given to the subject in order to
know the improvement of reading comprehension by using NHT technique with
picture and determine whether the research should be continue or not to the next
cycle.

The test is in form of short answer task. The subjects are given four texts
in pre-test and post-test. Each text consisted of 5 questions of each text. The
subjects will answer totally 20 questions. The test focused on finding out general
information, specific information, textual meaning and textual reference of
descriptive text. The subjects answer the question with correct grammar the
answer of the pre-test and post-test are scoring by using the scoring rubric which
was adapted from Brown (2004:157). The scoring rubric that is used in the present
study can be seen in the following table.

Table 3.1

The Scoring Rubric of Short Answer Task

Scoring Criteria Score

The answer and grammar are correct 2
The answer is correct but the grammar incorrect 1
The answer and grammar are incorrect 0

3.4.2 Questionnaire

In order to get the additional data, the researcher will administered the
questionnaire to the subjects. The questionnaire is gives to find out the subjects
responses toward the implementation of numbered heads together (NHT)
technique in teaching learning process of reading comprehension. The
questionnaire is administering at the end of the last cycle with 5 choices in order
to know whether the subjects' responses toward the numbered heads together
positively changed through the cycles. The 5 choices as follow: strongly agree
(Sangat Setuju/SS), agree (Setuju /S), undecided (Ragu Ragu/RR), disagree
(Tidak Setuju /TS), and strongly disagree (Sangat Tidak Setuju /STS). Those
choice were analyzed by using like rating scale ranging from 5 to 1, all answer
from the subjects are accumulate to get total of each item answer and it is count in
data analysis.

3.5 Data Collection

Collecting the data in present study is the important step in order to answer
the research problem under the study especially in reading comprehension at Sma
Negeri 1 Susut in academic year 2019/2020. In order to get the data, the
researcher used the research instrument which is divided into two different kinds
of instrument test, and questionnaire. There are two kinds of tests that will
conduct in the present study, pre-test and post-test. The process of collecting data
in the present study could be explaining as the following:

Firstly, the Pre-test is conduct before the implementation of NHT

technique with picture in teaching learning process the score of the pre-test is used
to find the pre-existing subjects' ability in reading comprehension and to know the
problem that the subject faced. Secondly, post-test will be given in the end of each
cycle after teaching learning reading by using NHT technique with picture will be
applied to improve the ability of grade tenth of Sma Negeri 1 Susut in reading
comprehension. Pre-test score indicated the subjects' improvement in reading
comprehension and post-test is use to know the result of the action. Finally, at the
end of the last cycle, the researcher administered the questionnaire to know the
subjects' responses toward the use of NHT technique with picture in teaching and
learning process especially in reading comprehension.

The primary data that are require to answer the research problem will be
collected through administering the pre-test and post-test. Meanwhile, the
supporting data are collected by administering questionnaire to the subject at the
end of the cycle. The questionnaire administered in order to know the subject
responses toward the implementation of numbered heads together (NHT)
technique with picture in teaching learning process. Therefore, there are
considerably three kinds of instrument use by the researcher to gather the data of
this present study, they are pre-test, post-test and questionnaire. They can be
described as follows:

1. Data showing the subject pre-existing ability in reading comprehension;

2. Data showing the subject progress in reading comprehension after the

implementation of NHT technique with picture; and

3. Data showing the subject response toward the implementation of NHT

technique with picture in teaching learning.

3.6 Data Analysis

The research data is obtained from the research instrument which are given
to the subject under the study. Pre-test will be used to know the pre-existing
reading comprehension of the subjects and post-test that will used to know the
achievement of the subjects after being taught reading through numbered heads
together (NHT) technique with picture. The questionnaire is administering to
know the subject responses about the use of numbered heads together (NHT)
technique with picture in teaching reading comprehension. Then the research
should analyze to figure out the achievement the subjects in reading ability
especially in reading comprehension. The procedures of data analysis are
describing as follows:

1. The researcher will use mean score formula when the data from the pre-
test and post-test are analyzing. The subjects' data obtained from the test which
are given by the researcher in pre-test and post-test should be calculated through
the mean score formula. The formula data analysis is as follows:

M= x
N
Where :

M = Mean score

 x = The sum of the total score

 N = The total number of the subjects

2. Moreover, data showing the subject responses on the implementation of

numbered heads together with picture in teaching reading comprehension is
quantified by administering questionnaire. The result of the questionnaire is
quantitatively analyzed through the following formula:

Percentage = total responses in an item = x 100 %

total responses on all item

3.7 Success Indicator

The success indicator in this study will be considered successful if 75% of

the subject can achieve the minimum passing grade. In which had been defined in
that school there are 36 students in classroom. it means that 29 of 36 subject
should achieve the minimum passing grade of english lesson Based on the
curriculum that is use in the school the minimum passing grade is 70. It means
that the present classroom action research will be stopped if 29 of all subjects
could achieve the minimum passing grade. As result, the research considered as
successful. Moreover, this study will considered successful if the students respond
toward the teaching learning is positive.