CHAPTHER I
INTRODUCTION
A.
Background of the problems
Reading is an interactive process of communication. The
interaction between writer and reader is made possible through the text.
Reading can include as an important part when we analyze a text, because it can
help the students in analyzing what kinds of reading text by them and the
information from the reading itself. In learning reading, students have to
realize that the aim of learning this skill is to enable them to comprehend
reading text and get ideas from that text. They are also expected to read the
text effectively and efficiency, they should understand each paragraph in text
and relate an idea from one paragraph to other paragraph. In junior high
school, the purpose reading is to make them to be able in analyzing of the
text. As a result they still can not analyze text well, because they do not
understand whether the text mean is. So that, they can not answer the questions
are given on the text below.
Interest in learning especially in reading can increase
students’ ability in understanding the subject. Because, with good interest the
students can enjoy in learning, they more active in class, and get many
involving with the activities happening in class such as asking and answering
question. After observation on 23 December 2010, the researcher found that the
real condition about students in junior high school, most of students are lack
of interest in learning especially in learning reading. They think that reading
as a boring task, and they feel sleepy when they do it.
Furthermore, with reading a lot can improve their
understanding with the subject they have learnt, they will be rich of
knowledge, and it can facilitate them to answer the question so that students’
reading interest is very important. Some of cause why the student almost
getting lose with interest in learning such as they difficult to understand
with teachers’ explanation, they feel sleepy because the teacher are not
interesting and using monotonous media in learning, and they think English is
difficult subject and not easy to understand it. By choosing good media in
teaching can increase students’ interesting in learning English. Media means
the method that can support learner more effectively involve in learning. Good
media can help the teacher to be easy in teaching and the students will more
active in class. The students also will be more facilitated to learn English
effectively with god media in teaching and their interest in learning to be
increased significantly. So, the teacher must find the way how to increase
students interest in learning English especially in reading text.
At Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 1 (SMPN 1 hereafter)
Siak Hulu, reading is one of the Standards of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP hereafter). In reading,
the students have to comprehend the meaning on the texts such as recount and
descriptive text. The target of the curriculum in this school especially in
reading comprehension where the students should be able to find main idea,
supporting idea, identify the vocabularies in the text, locating reference, and
make inferences. It means that the
students in SMPN 1 Siak Hulu should be able to read loudly and to respond the
meaning or message on the text that they read. For instance, by using reading the
students will be able to comprehend what text mean.
Based on the observation at SMPN 1 Siak Hulu, most of
the students having problem in reading comprehension and their interest in
learning English such as, the students cannot comprehend what the text has read
by them, the students are lazy in reading any text, the students’ interest is
not so enthusiast in studying process, and the students do not pay attention to
the teacher when teaching process is begun. First, students can not comprehend
what the text has read by them. The students do not know how to find the main
idea or important point of the text. Whereas the students must be forced to
know how to understand any text, it is purposed to make them are able to answer
the question on the text below. If the students do not know how to understand
the text, of course they cannot answer the text.
Second, the students are lazy in reading any text. The
students feel sleepy in doing this task as long as they will be bored. The
result of this problem caused they do not know what information they get from
the text, and they difficult to answer the question on the reading text below.
It can produce their ability in reading lower than the students are always
reading. So that, the students must read a lot to improve their ability in
reading and they will be able to comprehend any text if they do it as much.
Third, the students are not so enthusiastic in studying
process at class. It indicates that their process of studying lower than the
students have good interest in learning English. To improve their interest in
learning English the teacher should have some methods or Medias to increase the
student’s interest in learning process at class. And the last, the students do
not pay attention to the teacher when the learning process is begun. The students do much talk to other friend
than listen to the teacher explanation. It makes the students are not able to
answer the exercises given by the teacher. In order, the students must pay
attention to the teacher explanation, it will help them in answering the
question or exercises. In brief, to help them more active in learning process,
the teacher should find one way to improve their interest in learning English,
especially in reading a text.
Dealing with this research, the researcher conducts a
correlational research. The type of correlational research in this research is
explanatory design. In this research the
researcher will use the correlation statistical test to describe and measure
the degree of relationship between two variable of this research. So, in
conducting this research, he needs statistical number to correlate two variable
of this research, that is, students’ reading interest and their reading
comprehension.
Based on the problem above, the researcher is interested
in carrying out the research entitled “The
Correlation Between Students’ Reading Interest and Their Reading Comprehension
at the Eight Grade Student of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu”.
B. Identification
of the problem
Based on the background of the problem above researcher
will be identified as follows. First, the students cannot comprehend what the
text has read by them. The students do not know how to find the main idea or
important point of the text. They find difficulties when the teacher asks them
to answer the question on the text below. Second, the students are lazy in
reading any text. To answer and understand the text or answer the question, the
students have to read the text twice or more. If they do not, it is probably
difficult for them to answer the question or understand the text. Third, the
students’ interest is not so enthusiast in studying process. It shows that the
students are not care about English especially for reading subject. It
indicates them are not pay attention to the teacher explanation. And the last,
the students do not pay attention to the teacher. Sometimes the students are
noisy at the back, and also more like to talk with other than pay attention to
the teacher.
C. Limitation
of the problem
Based on
the identification of the problem above, it can be seen that there are four problems
stated in this study. The researcher focuses the problem on the students’
reading comprehension and their interest that will be correlated one another.
D. Formulation
of the problems
The
problem of this research can be formulated in the following questions “how
significant is the correlation between the students’ reading interest and their
reading comprehension at the eighth grade students of the SMPN 1 Siak Hulu?”
E. Aims of
the research
There
is an aim of this research that can be seen in the following sentence; to find
out how significant the correlation between the students’ reading interest and
their reading comprehension at the eighth grade students of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu.
F. Significance
of the research
The finding
of this research is expected to give contribution to the teacher who teaches
the students’ at SMPN 1 Siak Hulu. The teacher will know the students problems
with their reading comprehension and their interest in learning English. Secondly,
the researcher hopes that this research will give significant contribution to
the students where have problem with their reading comprehension. The
researcher hopes the students’ reading comprehension more improve after this
research is completed by the researcher and the students will be more active
involving in learning process. Finally, the researcher hopes this research
result is very useful for whoever teacher in teaching English especially in
reading subject.
G. Definition
of key terms
The terms used in this research are defined as follows;
1. Reading comprehension is the skill that a
reader understands or gets the meaning of a text easily. In this research, reading comprehension is the ability of
students’ to understand reading text
2.
Interest
in this research means the students attention, with emotion and felling.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Review
of related literature
1. The
Interest
English is one of difficult subjects for students, since
they do not have enough vocabulary, and their knowledge is very limit, the
students are not interested in paying attention in English subject especially
when they are reading a text. So that the teacher must try to find the way how
to make students enjoy reading. According to Schiefele in Yong-jun (2009: 61) adopts two
components of the personal interest: a feeling-related and value related.
Iran-Nejad in Young-jun (2009: 61) argues that interest and liking serve
different functions and that the situational interest is not necessarily
accompanied by positive feeling. In brief, interest as a feeling of students,
it comes from their personal and they active in class.
Dewey in
walker (1999) states that two different elements of interest; identification
and absorption. In emphasizing the importance of identification, genuine
principle of interest is the principle of the recognized identity of the fact
to be learned or the action proposed with the growing self, interest as a form
of self-expression that was developmental in nature and therefore varying with
age, prior experiences, social opportunities and ‘individual native endowments’
with the latter incorporating innate individual differences.
Dewey in walker (1999) also states genuine interest’ is
therefore defined as the accompaniment of the identification, through action,
of the self with some object or idea, because of the necessity of that object
or idea for the maintenance of a self-initiated activity.
From the expert ideas above, it means that
the interest as a dynamic, active state based on real objects and the pleasure
associated with them. He emphasizes the place of interest in the maintenance of
an enduring activity that develops over time, and also acknowledged the
interactive relationship between the individual and aspects of the environment
in the creation of interest.
Hidi and Harackiewicz in walker (1999) claim
that while most interest theorists concur that ‘interest is a phenomenon that
emerges from individuals’ interaction with their environment, motivational
researchers assign differing significance to the components of this framework.
It means that the students’ interest in learning is affected by their
environment and also with their interaction each other.
Hidi
in Ainley (2002: 546) claims that two types of factors that contribute to situational
interest. The first group includes formal structural characteristics such as
novelty, intensity, and ambiguity. The second group consists of content
features such as human activity, intensity factors, and life themes.
Investigators have argued that situational sources of interest may be
particularly important for educators dealing with students who do not have
preexisting individual interests in their school activities.
Based on the explanation
above, the researcher concludes that the factors influence situational interest
in classroom come from their school environment. If the students are not
feeling comfort in their school environment, it will make them feel bored while
learning, particularly in reading class.
Marsh and Cooper in Abrantes (2006: 962) state that student interest
reflects input into the course, such as attention level in class, interest in
learning the material, perception of a course's intellectual challenge, and
acquired competence in the field. Student interest facilitates effective
teaching and creates a more favorable learning environment.
It means that the students
are not pay attention to the teacher and also lazy to read a text because they
do not interest to the topic and there is no facilities that support their
interest in learning.
2.
The
Components of Interest
Generally, interest can be divided into three part; they are:
1.
Expressed Interest
Someone can express his/her
interest trough certain words. For example by using words like, always, often,
and etc.
2.
Manifest Interest
Someone can manifest his/her
interest trough certain activities. For example, someone who is interested in
reading books, he/she will buy, collect, or borrow books and always has time to
read it (Dewa Ketut Sukardi in Rika Nuryana 2009: 14)
3.
Inventoried Interest
Someone can evaluate their
interest by using answering some questions.
In essential English
dictionary (1995: 500), it is stated that someone can be categorized having
interest in activity if:
a)
Encourage knowing something
interesting deeply, doing that activity or involve in that activity.
b)
Doing the activity with the
pleasure and will prepare much time for that activity.
c)
Have high attention and
curiosity toward activity.
d)
Feeling lucky in doing the
activity.
3.
Reading
Interest
Reading interest is one of
the factors to increase the students’ ability in learning especially in
learning English. According to Ebbers (2011) reading interest is described
as a motivational force that involves the focused allocation of extra attention,
leading to deeper processing, better comprehension, and longer recall in
reading text. It means that reading interest can make the students full
attention and better comprehension to get the meaning of the text that the
students have been read. So, reading interest is an important to increase the
students’ reading skill.
Hidi in
Ebbers (2011) definite that reading interest is as “a unique motivational
variable in reading, as well as a psychological state that occurs during
interactions between persons and their objects of interest, and it is
characterized by increased attention, concentration and affect”. Based on
definition above, reading interest is motivational in reading to comprehend the
meaning of the text so that the students have motivation in reading to develop
their prior knowledge. In short, reading interest is one of the factors that
influence the students’ ability in comprehending a text in reading subject.
Interest is an important aspect of instruction
and assessment. Kamil, et all in Ebbers (2011) included interest as one of five
key recommendations for improving adolescent literacy. Interest may serve to
jumpstart the struggling reader — in any subject area — because when we are
interested we are attentive and focused. Such focus often results in better
strategy use, prompting inference facilitation, and yielding qualitatively
deeper levels of comprehension and more reliable retrieval of information. After
experimenting repeatedly with the effects of interest on reading, Hidi in
Ebbers (2011) concludes that “Interest has a strong positive influence on
readers’ comprehension and recall”. So, interest in reading can improve the
students’ comprehension in reading something.
According to Hildebrandt (2001) readers'
well-formed individual interests and their situational interests (evoked by
topics and text segments) contributed to their reading comprehension and
learning. It means that several studies have demonstrated that personally
interesting text segments and passages written on high-interest topics facilitate
as well as college students' comprehension, children's inference, and retention.
In conclusion, reading interest can increase the students’ comprehension in
reading text.
Schraw, Flowerday,
and Lehman in Ebbers (2001) claims that there are some components of reading
interest:
1.
Curiosity
(provide a mystery, a puzzle, and a provocative question or a secret).
2.
Novelty
(provide something unusual, different, new, and including artifact).
3.
Prior knowledge
(develop topic knowledge. Provide a variety of topic-specific learning
material, of increasing difficulty level, and over time).
4.
Explicitness
and coherence (a solution to limited background knowledge).
5.
Purpose
(this type of task will “fabricate” interest to help readers focus attention,
where they might otherwise feel adrift in a sea of words).
6.
Perspective
(this type of reading task helps focus attention and interest on a certain
character).
4.
Reading Comprehension
a. The
Reading Concepts
Reading
is one of skill that should be mastered by the students. Students’ will be able
to understand a text if they master in reading. Nunan (1991: 65) explains that Bottom-up is the process to
find the information only after the act of reading activities. It means that
the readers’ understanding of the text will depend only on the meaning of the
word, sentence, and paragraph. The meaning of the words will contribute to the
meaning of a sentence, a sentence to a paragraph and so on.
According to Nunan
(1991: 66) top-down reading is the process where the reader can find the
information of the text and understanding the text based on their knowledge
about the text. Many readers do not understand all of the text, not because
they do not know the meaning of the words and sentence in the text but because
they do not have appropriate background knowledge about the text.
Harmer
(1995: 190) defines that reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and
brain. It means that the eyes receive messages and brain then has to work out
the significance of these messages. Indeed, reading is an activity of the eyes
and brain to delivery information or message to the reader. Richards and
Renandya (2002:277) define that reading for comprehension is the primary
purpose for reading (though this is sometimes overlooked when students are
asked to read overly difficult texts); raising students’ awareness of main ideas in a text and exploring
the organization of a text are essential for good comprehension. It means that
reading comprehension is the primary purpose for reading by the reader to get
the meaning of the text which they are reading. So, reading comprehension is
important for the students in understanding a text.
Alyousef (2006: 64) states that “reading can be seen as
an “interactive” process between a reader and a text which leads to
automaticity or reading fluency”. It means that reader should understand the
text well. It is purposed to make him/her get the point of the text and whether
the text means.
After that, Ziegler (2005:3) defines
that “reading is the process of understanding speech written down”. Harris (1984:12) also defines
that reading is a result of the interaction between: the perception of graphic
symbol that represent language and the reader’s language skills, cognitive
skills, and knowledge of the word. It means that students’ who mastering in
reading they can understand to gain information from the text. The students’
can be easy to enrich their ability in reading.
According
to Nunan (1990:33) reading is an interactive process between what a reader
already knows about given topic or subject and what the writer writes. Reading
is a process of understanding of the symbol. It means that the reader which
wants to understand any text he/she should know whether the text means is.
b.
Reading
Approaches
Some of
the teaching approaches used to develop reading are given below.
Definitions were mainly taken from
Harris and Hodges in Al-Jarf (2007: 6-7):
1. Alphabetic approach: a synthetic method of teaching reading and spelling in use from
ancient times until the early part of the 19th century. In this method,
students first identified letters by their names; next spelled out syllable;
then words containing from one to eight syllables.
2. Linguistic approach: It is based upon regular sound-symbol patterns.
3. Phonics: It
stresses symbol-sound relationships especially in beginning reading
instruction. In synthetic phonics, the student learns the sounds
represented by letters and letter combinations, blends these sounds together to
pronounce words and is taught the phonic generalizations that apply in learning
symbol-sound correspondences. In analytical phonics, the student learns
a number of key sight words, is taught the relevant phonic generalizations to
particular examples in learning symbol-sound correspondences. In whole-word
phonics, the sounds represented by certain letters and groups of letters
within whole words are compared and contrasted to those in other whole words,
avoiding the separate sounding of word parts.
4. Word method: A
substantial number of words is learned as whole units for reading before word
analysis is started.
5. Analytic approach: It starts with whole units of language as words, phrases or
sentences, and later breaks these down into their parts.
6. Synthetic approach: It starts with word parts or elements as letters, sounds, or
syllables, and later combines them into words.
7. Language experience approach: Here, the student's own words or oral composition are written down
and used as materials of instruction for reading, writing and spelling,
speaking and listening.
8. Whole language approach: It is a "top-down" theory of reading which emphasizes
the importance of teaching language as a whole entity as contrasted with a
skills oriented approach associated with the "bottom-up" model of
reading. It includes the teaching and learning of skills and/or strategies
within a setting in order to accomplish a goal that cements, extends, and
expands learning. It is frequently coupled with an integrated or thematic
approach to learning.
9. Balanced approach: draws on both phonics and whole-language methods.
From the experts’ ideas above can be
concluded that there are some approach in developing reading comprehension. if
we know the approach of reading well, it will improve our ability in reading and
understand any text.
c.
The Strategies of Reading Comprehension
According to Bordman (2007: 3-4) there are some strategies
and good reader:
1.
Rapid and
accurate word reading
2.
Setting
goals for reading
3.
Noting the
structure and organization of text
4.
Monitoring
their understanding while reading
5.
Creating
mental notes and summaries
6.
Making
predictions about what will happen, checking them as they go along, and revising
and evaluating them as needed
7.
Capitalizing
on what they know about the topic and integrating that with new learning
8.
Making
inferences
9.
Using
mental images such as visualization to assist them in remembering or understanding
events or characters
From Bordman’s ideas above, the researcher takes conclusion that
there are some strategies to measure the students’ ability in reading. The
teacher can know what aspect that should be measured from the students’ ability
in reading. If the students do all strategies they will more careful in
understanding reading a text in getting ideas about whether the text mean
is.
d.
Three Phases in Teaching Reading
There
are some steps in teaching reading that should be known by teacher to
successful in teaching reading. According to Avery & Graves in
Duplass (2005) there are three phases of reading, pre-reading, whilst-reading,
and post-reading as in the following:
1.
Pre reading
Pre reading
activity is the activity before reading process, the aims of this phase are:
a.
To introduce and
arouse the interest of the students to the topic. In this phase, the teacher
introduce to the students about the topic which they will discuss in the
reading class.
b.
To motivate the
students to give a reaction for the reading. Teacher can ask the students some
questions related to the topic.
c.
To provide some
languages preparation for the text. In this term, teacher can show some
language preparation, such as the word, phrases, or sentences that can be used
to lead the student attention to the material.
2.
Whilst-reading
Whilst-reading
activity is the chore of the lesson. In this phase the students divided into
small groups. A group consists of three or four members to discuss the task.
Through whilst reading tasks, students are trained how to read the text
effectively and efficiently.
3.
Post-reading
This phase is the
last activities for reading class which the aim as follows:
a. To
consolidate or reflect up on has been read
b.To relate the text
to the students’ knowledge interest or views.
According
to Hedge (2000:221) the reading lesson should aim to build learners’ ability to
engage in purposeful reading, to adopt a range of reading style necessary for
interacting successfully with authentic texts, and to develop critical
awareness. It means that reading is one of important subjects in English
learning, with reading the students can easy to get new information and
knowledge, in reading process the students can be used some steps so that they
are not boring when they read.
Hedge in
Alyousef (2006: 67) states that any reading component of an English language
course may include a set of learning goals for:
- The ability to read a wide range of texts in English. This is the long-range goal most teachers seek to develop through independent readers outside EFL/ESL classroom.
- Building a knowledge of language which will facilitate reading ability
- Building schematic knowledge.
- The ability to adapt the reading style according to reading purpose (i.e. skimming, scanning)
- Developing an awareness of the structure of written texts in English
- Taking a critical stance to the contents of the texts
It
means that the component reading will facilitate the students in understanding
any text. They can improve their ability in reading lesson and the teacher
expected to them in order that can give improvement for the students.
e.
The Factors Influence Reading Ability
According
to Kathlen in Nuryana (2009: 18) there are many factors that influence
students’ reading ability it can be seen as follows:
1.
Internal Factors
Internal factors
mean factors that influence the students come from inside.
a)
Background
Knowledge
The amount of
knowledge we have about topic influence how easily and how fast we will able to
read about it. Suppose we were asked to read as excerpt from an organic
chemistry text. If we have completed several chemistry courses, the excerpt
would be fairly easy to understand. On the other hand, if we have never taken
chemistry difficult to read, and we would probably understand very little.
b)
Physical and Mental
State
How we fell, how
much sleep we had, whether we are recovering from a cold, and whether we are
happy or relaxed after enjoying a dinner, can all affect our ability to read
and concentrate. Ideally, try to complete analytic or careful reading
assignments when we are at our physical peak and can maintain an optimum level
of concentrate.
c)
Interest Level
Most of people have
little difficult understanding and remembering material if the subject is
highly interesting. Interest, then, can facilitate comprehension and rate;
also, a lack of interest or motivation can have an adverse affect.
d)
Reading Skill
Our ability to
comprehend directly influences how well and how fast we are able to read a
given page: our vocabulary is also an important factor. If our vocabulary is
limited, for example, we will encounter numerous unfamiliar words that will
impair our comprehension and slow down. On the other hand, an extensive,
well-develop vocabulary will enable us to grasp meanings accurately and
rapidly.
2.
External Factors
External factors
means factors that come from outside of the students, for example: reading
facility, reading purpose, parent motivation, economic background, reading
habit, teacher, environment, etc.
f.
Components of
reading Paragraphs
According
to Syafi‘i et al, (2007:2) states that
three are three components of paragraph that may help students to read
carefully. They are:
a.
Topic
sentence or main idea
The main idea of a paragraph is what the author wants students to
know about the topic. Identifying the topic can generally help the reader to
understand the main idea. The main idea makes a particular statement or emphasizes
a special aspect of the topic. The main idea is usually expressed as complete
thought, and the main idea usually indicates the author’s reason or purpose for
writing and the message he or she wants to share with the reader. The main idea
is not only in the beginning of the paragraph, but also in the middle and at
the end of the paragraph.
b.
Supporting
Sentences
Supporting sentences/supporting details should also help students
from an impression that will reveal the topic. The support can take the from of
examples, reasons, statistics, explanations, or simply relevant information. It
is also support of main idea in order that all contents of text can be
understood easily.
c.
Making
inferences/Concluding
The problem including the test of English as a foreign language is
making inferences. In this question type, students need to use the evidence
students have to make an inference. It means that after students have evidence
from reading a passage, students can make a logical conclusion based on the
evidences; it can be about the author’s viewpoints.
In addition, Brown (2004:
206) stated that there are some reading comprehension question features that
can be evaluated:
1.
Main ideas
2.
Expressions/idiom/phrase
in context
3.
Inference
(implied detail)
4.
Grammatical
features
5.
Detail
(scanning for a specifically stated detail)
6.
Excluding
fact not written (unstated detail)
7.
Supporting
idea
8.
Vocabulary
in context
9.
Locating
reference
From the components of
reading above, it can be known that the students will understand the paragraphs
and they must master the components of reading first. Related to the 2006
curriculum, the components of reading that should be learned are main idea,
supporting idea, vocabulary in context, locating reference and inference. Thus,
the writer used these components as indicator of this research.
B.
Review of Related Finding
There are some researcher had done their
research entitled to the correlation between students’ reading interest and
their reading comprehension. First, Nuryana (2009: iii) found that “there is
positive correlation between students’ interest in reading and their reading
comprehension ability in learning English at SMPN 3 Ukui. It means that between
students interest in learning and their reading comprehension have positive
correlation. Zam
(2009: 65) found that: the correlation between motivation towards English and the
speaking ability of the female students of English Study Program FKIP-UNRI are
in good level. It means that most of the students have good motivation to speak
English, especially in term of presentation. Motivation is needed, motivation
is one of influence factor that can change behavior, so with motivation can
make the speaking ability of the students be well.
Haji (2004: 49) found that there is significant correlation between the
students’ motivation and their achievement in attending English course for the
sixth year students of SD Santa Maria in Pekanbaru. It means that in fact the
most of students do not want to follow courses. Salwa (2010: 53) found that
“There are two hypothesis needed to be answered from her research, the
hypotheses are: there is no correlation between the motivation towards speaking
and the speaking achievement of the fifth semester students of English study
program FKIP Riau University and there is a correlation between the motivation
towards and the speaking achievement of the fifth semester students of English
study program FKIP Riau University. It means that only a few of English
students use English in communication while others seldom practices in real
environment, this problem caused by lack of students motivation, so that
motivation is very important for students with motivation can easy to get the
goal of learning process.
C.
Conceptual Framework
Interest is persisting tendency to attention an object, with emotion and
felling. The students’ interest in learning is very influencing their ability
in reading. Most of students are lazy to read, because they have low interest
in learning. We are as a teacher should know how to improve the students’
interest in learning English especially in reading class. Reading comprehension
is the way of students to understand about text. In short in this research the
researcher concludes that there are some factors that needed to be operated in
conceptual framework. Hornby in Nuryana
(2009: 21) says that a concept is an idea underlying something general
nation.
There are two variable in this research. They are variable X and Y,
variable X means the students’ interest, and variable Y means the students’ ability
in reading comprehension.
Variable
X:
a)
The indicators of the Interest in learning
1.
curiosity
2.
novelty
3.
prior knowledge
4.
purpose
5.
perspective
6.
explicitness and coherence
Variable
Y:
b)
The indicators of students’ ability in
Reading Comprehension Ability
1. Students are
able to find main
2. Students are
able to find supporting idea
3. Students are
able to find identify the vocabularies in the text
4. Students are
able to find locating reference
5. Students are
able to make inferences
D.
Hypothesis
The hypotheses will be resulted in this
research, such as:
Alternative
Hypothesis (Ha): There is a correlation between students’ interest in learning
English and their reading
comprehension ability at grade eight of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu.
Null
Hypothesis (Ho): There is no correlation between students’ interest in learning English and their reading comprehension ability at
grade eight of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Kind of the Research
This research was
designed as correlational research as one of quantitative research. Creswell
(2005: 325) defines that correlational research is statistical test to
determine the tendency or pattern for two (or more) variables or two sets of
data to vary consistently. It means that the researcher used the correlation
statistical test to describe and measure the degree of relationship between two
variable of this research. In correlational research there were two parts of
design, that were explanatory design and prediction design. But, in this
research the researcher used explanatory design because he explained the two
variable of this research. Creswell (2005: 327) defines that explanatory
research design is a correlational research design in which the researcher is
interested in the extent to which two variables (or more) co-vary, that is,
where changes in one variable are reflected in changes in the other.
B.
Population
and Sample
The
population of this research was all of students at the eighth grade of SMPN 1
Siak Hulu. There were eight classes for grade eight of the students at this
school. Each of class (VIII.A up to VIII.H) consists of (34, 37, 36, 32, 38,
37, 36, and 33 students). So, the amount all of the students were 283 students.
Since of the number was large, it was necessary to have sample.
With regard
to the population number, the researcher has been taken sample because the
total of population was large number. Gay (2000: 121) defines that sampling is
the process of selecting a number of individuals for a study in such a way that
they represent the larger group from which they are selected. It means that the
researcher used purposive sampling to collect the data. The researcher was not
presented all of the students but he takes one class as delegation from all of
the students. Gay (2000:138) also states that purposive sampling is the
researcher selects a sample based on his or her experience or knowledge of the
group to be sample. In addition, according to Arikunto (2006: 131) sample adalah sebagian atau wakil populasi
yang diteliti. Indeed, the researcher took one class as the participants in
getting the data. The sample in this research was the students at class VIII D
of Junior High School 1 Siak Hulu.
Table 3.1
Population and sample of the Eight
|
SEX
|
POPULATION
|
SAMPLE
|
|
Male
|
123
|
14
|
|
Female
|
160
|
18
|
|
Total
|
283
|
32
|
C.
Instrumentations
There
were some instruments have been used by the researcher in this research, they
were test and questionnaire it can be seen as follows:
1.
Test
To measure students’ ability was using test. We could know how was their understanding
with material have been learnt by the students if the test was used. Test was
important point in this research because the researcher wants to know the
students’ ability in reading comprehension. The researcher also used this
instrument to identify the percentage of the students’ ability in reading
comprehension.
2.
Questionnaire
It has been
used by the researcher in identifying and knowing the percentage of students’
reading interest. Creswell (2005: 217) states that: “on questionnaires, you ask some questions that are close ended and
some that open-ended”. So, the researcher has been given some question to the
students, and the students have been guided by the researcher to checklist on
the blank box of the table. The form of table can be seen in the following:
Table 3.2
The questionnaire
|
No
|
The questionnaire
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A :
Always = 5 C :
Sometime = 3 E :
Never = 1
B :
Often = 4 D : Seldom
= 2
(Gay 2000: 158)
D.
Data
Collection Technique
There were some techniques in collecting the data for this research they
were test and questionnaire.
1.
Test
This instrument was used by the
researcher to get the data about the students’ ability in reading comprehension.
The researcher used this instrument to know the percentage of their reading
comprehension. In reading test, the
researcher gave descriptive and recount text. The form of the
test was multiple-choice as a form of assessment in which the students were
asked to select one of correct answer among a, b, c, and d. In this test, the students read two or
three paragraphs that were provided by the researcher, after that the students
answered 20 questions that were related to the paragraph. Each of correct
answer was made by the students have been scored 5 point. In short, if the
students were correct the entire test, they have been getting 100 point.
2.
Questionnaire
This instrument
was as supporting instruments for the test. The researcher gave close-ended
questions to the students that correlate to the research problems. In this
instrument contained 20 items that indicated the students’ interest, they were going to
select one of the choices of any single items such as always, often, sometime,
seldom, and never.
E. Techniques
of Analyzing the Data
The data were
gathered from the participants of this research by using test and questionnaire
have been analyzed by the researcher to identify the correlation between the
students’ reading interest and their reading comprehension and to know what factors
that influenced the correlation between the students’ reading interest and
their reading comprehension.
The data that
were gained from test and questionnaire have been analyzed
simultaneously with quantitative data by using formula can be seen as follows:
Rtris = 
Where:
Rtris = coefficient of correlation
Or = the lower
ordinate
Ot = the higher ordinate
M = mean
SD tot = the total of standard
deviation
P = individual
proportion
(Arikunto, 2006 : 280)
Then, to interpret the
level of students’
reading interest has been interpreted based on the following
terms:
Tabel
3.3
Level of the students’ interest
|
Score
|
Categories
|
|
76-100
|
High
|
|
60-75
|
Midle
|
|
0-59
|
Low
|
(Arikunto,
1996: 244)
In order to get the
description of the answer that was given
by the students, the data have been analyzed as in the following formula:
N = 
x 100
x 100
Where : N= Score
The students’ reading
comprehension has been classified
according to the score they got from the test. Then, their ability has been classified into
four level. The levels of ability were follow:
Table 3.4
The Participants Score
|
Interval
|
Categorizes
|
|
76 – 100
|
Good
|
|
56 – 75
|
Fair
|
|
40 – 55
|
Less
|
|
0 – 39
|
Bad
|
(Arikunto, 1996: 244)
