This chapter presents an introduction to the study
that is going to be carried out. The introduction will be centered on the
discussion about background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of
the study, scope and limitation of the study, significance of the study, basic
assumption, and definition of the key term.
1.1. Background of the Study
Many developing countries recognize the importance of English as an
international language. Having the function of first foreign language, in
Indonesia, English is taught at schools, from elementary school to high schools
as local content subject and university as a compulsory subject. Saukah (2003 :1)
says
‘The function of English instruction in Indonesia used
mainly to absorb science and technology in the content of globalization era and
communicate with other countries in many aspects of international relation of
human life. It is widely used throughout the world of business, science,
culture and education, so on.”
An
integrated curriculum is one of the characteristics of the nine-year curriculum
promoted by the Ministry of Education in the past ten years. In fact,
integrating English with other content subjects has been trendy in the West for
years. Content-based ESL is a method that integrates ESL instruction with
subject matter instruction. This language teaching approach aims not only to
teach the language as a subject, but also to use the target language as a
medium for learning academic subjects.
English has become a
popular option of ESL or EFL instruction. This approach believe that a language
can be learned effectively when it is the medium of instruction, rather than as
just a subject. Based on this belief, the technique focuses not only on
learning English, but also using English as a medium to learn mathematics,
science, social studies, and other academic subjects.
Generally, English as second / foreign language (ESL/EFL) cover four
skills, they are reading, listening, speaking and writing. Among those
important skills, reading is defined as the ability to extract visual
information from the page and comprehend the meaning of the context. 'Reading'
is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols
for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning (reading
comprehension). It is the mastery of basic cognitive processes to
the point where they are automatic analysis the meaning. (Hansen PC: 2010)
Reading is a means
of language acquisition, of
communication, and of sharing information and ideas.
Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader
which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and
language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading
process requires continuous practices, development, and refinement.
Besides it’s also to counter new ideas, fact, and experiences and more, as
conducted by Barbara Abromitis (2009) Reading for information varies greatly
from reading for pleasure, and students must approach the task with a different
set of strategies in order to be successful.
In line with the statement above, reading also
provide many important function, and effective sources. Harmer (1998:68) also
said that many reason for getting students to read. They are helping the
student know the models English writing, and provide opportunities to study
vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, sentence construction, paragraphs and text.
The importance of reading is not similar to the factual research finding.
Mukminatien (2004) explained that after the students have studied English for
the first six years in their elementary school, they do not have the ability to
communicate in their next level (at SLTP and SMU) and their ability is far from
the curriculum’s target. A key early reading skill is
that of “reading for meaning” and prediction. As said by Kelly, Jane (2009)
that the reading
process involves making sense of print by gleaning
meaning from various bits of information.
Middle school teachers who take the time to teach
content area reading skills within the context of their subject areas help
students become strategic learners now, in high school, and beyond.
Teaching English within appropriate media is an area
of language teaching that many English teachers avoid, for instance cue card. While there are many textbooks
and instruction manuals available in the classroom, it is recreating an
accelerated version of the infant’s language learning experience. It’s also
providing examples and stimulus through grammar and vocabulary lessons. The current
approach to early year education encourages children to build their
independence and autonomy, taking responsibility for choices and directing
their own time. There is nothing worse than an eager child asking a
practitioner to read him a story – only to be refused because it is the wrong
time of day or the teacher is too busy. Not only is this frustrating for
practitioners who would dearly love to oblige, but it also sends a damaging
message to the child – that reading is somehow less important than other curricular
activities.
Reading is an active process that can be improved
significantly when the right strategies are used. That includes pre-reading,
active reading, and active monitoring with reinforcing comprehension afterward.
Teaching children to use those strategies can make a measurable difference in
all of their educational achievement. Teaching those strategies has to be a
core component of reading instruction.
A key early reading skill is that of “reading for
meaning” and prediction. The reading
process involves making sense of print by gleaning meaning from various bits of
information, including the relationship between pictures and texts. Children
need to learn to make informed guesses about what the print might say on the
basis of what the story is about (the context) and what is likely to happen
next.
Teachers are often battled with difficulties in
delivering material due to lack of adequate expertise in usage of vocabularies.
Many
teachers still struggle with vocabulary instruction that goes beyond word lists
in every teaching class activity. Effective vocabulary instruction is
particularly vital in the content areas; it’s often creating a barrier to
understanding reading text easily. The key content-area teaching strategies are
to help students understand the textbooks, tests, articles, and other
informational reading texts by using a meaningful method as in cue card.
Cue cards often make or break the
presentations. The stages and tips for cue cards are highlighted the reading
activity. It’s also one of learning material and the techniques to be used
during learning activity. It has focused on an action exercise where the audience
can involve and learn the preparation of cue cards.
Cue cards were originally used to aid aging actors. One early use is known to
have occurred by John Barrymore
in the late 1930s, Barrymore began to lose his ability to remember his lines,
and his diminished abilities were apparent in a surviving screen test that he
made for an aborted film version of Hamlet in 1934. From then on, he insisted
on reading his dialogue from cue cards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/john_barrymore)
Here are the examples of Cue cards.
|
SET1
In SET 1, the singular/ plural forms of nouns and articles are introduced using question sentences such as, "What does he want ?" and "What does she like ?" Following this, practice moves onto sentences with general verbs such as 'have ‘and ‘need’ |
 |
 |
 |
|
SET 2
In SET 2, we introduce 'this', 'that', 'these', 'those' and sentences containing question words, such as "What's under the bed?", “What is it?” |
Teaching ESL students to use the clarifying cue card strategies when
they come across difficult words will help them learn more new vocabulary on
their own. The best way to develop a rich vocabulary is to read widely. Teachers
can only teach about 300-500 words a year, while an average student learns
about 3000 words per year (Baumann and Kameenui, 1991).An enormous amount of
students’ vocabulary growth happens during independent reading.
Cue card strategies give an alternative of teaching
English to avoid misinterpreted word’s meaning and boring situation. It helps
the student to encounter what they should do in English beside read, write,
speak, and listen. The difficult situation that being faced by many students of
ESL is to understand the English words after they gathered together in a
sentences. To understand the meaning easily without losing the meaning of each
word independently.
The study of Cue card has been done by a researcher.
Lilis Suryani (2010) from University of Pajajaran Bandung. She studied the use of cue cards in teaching spoken descriptive
text. Cue cards were applied in the research to improve the students` speaking
scores. The aims of the research were to improve the progress of the students
in producing spoken descriptive text.
Considering the benefit of cue cards, the writer is
interested in applying this technique to overcome some problems on the teaching
and learning of reading at SMAN 3
PRAYA Central Lombok. Some teaching
problems of reading in middle school students:
1.
The students do not
understand the reading text and its meaning easily, in other word they had
difficulties to comprehend the text
2.
The students usually
lost their attention and always get bored with the teaching activity which is
always reading an ordinary text on the book.
Based on the student needs and the class condition,
the writer intends to find a solution to the problem in the teaching and
learning of reading cue cards, the activities of teaching conducting in the
classroom action research.
In order to enhance the above statements, the writer
takes this writing entitled “Using Cue Card to Teach Reading for The Second
Year Students at SMAN
3 PRAYA Central Lombok”.
1.2 Statement of the
Problem
Concerning to the statement above, the problems of
the study is formulated as “How is cue cards technique used
in teaching activity to improve the students’ ability of reading
comprehension?”
1.3 Purpose of the
Study
Based on the statement of the problem above, the
purpose of the study is to describe the way the use cue cards technique to
improve the student’s ability in English Reading comprehension.
1.4
Scope
and Limitation of the Study
Having reading achievement means that the students
understand each topic of reading material at the cue cards, thus the study
focuses only in using cue cards to teach the student SMAN 3 PRAYA
Central
Lombok, especially on reading
skill and the activities will be conducted in two cycles of classroom action
research.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This
study is conducted through the classroom action research, thus the teacher can
obtain a research base on the feedback for the better of her teaching and
learning. This classroom action research focuses on reading implementation to
improve the first year student’s achievement at SMAN 3 PRAYA Central Lombok. The writer expects
that this research deliver a benefit to persons as follows:
a. The
Student
This study hopes bringing
some advantages for the students to encourage their ability, comprehend a
reading text easily and to improve the reading achievement.
b. The
teacher
The goal of this study
is to increase the prophecy of teaching English in the skill area of reading
through cue cards. Teacher does not only teach the language, but also provides
kind of conducive situation in teaching
and learning process, ask the student to contribute their mind by making their
own chosen cue cards.
c.
The Institution
It can be a reference and literature for all
institution members and the next researcher, concerning with the material about
cue cards and reading skill.
1.6 Basic Assumption
Before formulated the basic assumption it is
necessary to understand what the basic assumption is. According to Surachman
(in Arikunto, 2007: 24) that the basic assumption is a basic of thought which
is truth and can be accepted by the research. Based on the explanation above,
the basic assumption are:
1. Commonly
the students face some problems on their
reading ability
2. The
writer applies the new technique of
teaching using cue cards
3. The
reading ability implies through cue cards.
1.7 Definition
of Key Term
In
order to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the word used in this
study, the following definitions of the key term are explained:
1. Reading
is one of language skills that play an important role in people’s life. The
action of a person who reads (Hornsby, 1995:968). Reading is an intensive
process in which the eye quickly moves to assimilate text. Very little is
actually seen accurately. It is necessary to understand visual perception
and eye movement
in order to understand the reading process.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki)
2. Cue
cards are clue cards and these will play a crucial role in future, also known
as note cards or idiot cards,
are cards with words written on them that help actors and speakers remember
what they have to say ( Barney Mcnulty, 2008). In education cue cards is as a
card to help the student to learn more about words, verb, or sentences and it
has an easy function either to learn and remember.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the research design, research
setting subject of the study, and the research procedure. All the methods are
described in the following details.
3.1. Research Design
The design of the
research was CAR
adapted the Kemmis and Taggart model (1992 in Arikunto 2002: 84). This Class Room Action Research is
conducted to know the students ability in reading skill. Before conducting the
research The model consists of Cycle 1 , Cycle 2 and Cycle N, where as the cycle N
can be more cycle depend on the students result in the first cycle. The CAR has four steps named : planning,
acting, observing, and reflecting which goes to some cycles depend on how many
times the treatments are given to the students. The description of each step
can be seen from the following figures:
1.
Planning : Preparation steps of the actions in which the
problem is analyzed, making lesson plan, administering the instruments of CAR,
research implementation, and other materials related to improvement action that
is determined before.
2.
Acting : an activity or action that is done, a plan for
improvement action, and procedure of the action that is conducted.
3.
Observing and evaluating : is an activity of observing
teaching and learning process.
4.
Analyzing and reflecting : an explanation about result of
teaching and learning process and preparing what is going to be done later.
The following diagram
(figure 3.1) showed the procedure of class room action research as illustrated by Kemmis and Taggart (1992
in Arikunto 2002:84)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
|||
CYCLE 2
 |
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
3.2. Research Setting
and Subject.
The area
determination method which is used in this research is purposive. Arikunto
(1997:117) says that purposive sampling is done by determining subject which is
not based on strata, random or area but based on the particular purpose.
This classroom action research
was conducted at SMAN 3 PRAYA, Jl. Jendral Akhmad Yani No. 19 Telp (0341)364572
Central Lombok. This school has 6 classes and each class consist of 34 -35
student. There were two English teachers whose most of time spoke in English.
Time allotment for English lesson in this school is 4 x 40 minutes a week (2 x
40 minutes for each meeting)
The researcher chose this
school as the setting of her study based on the following reasons :
1.
SMAN 3 PRAYA is always open to new innovation in
education progress.
2.
The English and non English teacher in the school are
highly motivated in searching for new technique in the way of teaching.
3.
There was a problem in the teaching – learning English in
certain classes due to the monotonous way of teaching.
4.
As one of English teacher, the researcher recomended that
some inovation of teaching reading used Cue
Cards is needed to help the students improve their English skills.
The result of the study is expected to be a great and successful
research and useful for the development of teaching and learning process at SMAN 3 PRAYA, Jl. Jendral
Akhmad yani No. 19 Telp (0341)364572 Central Lombok.
3.3. Research
Procedures
Referring to the procedure of CAR, the researcher’s activities are following the four steps:
preliminary study, planning, acting, observing, and reflecting The preliminary
observation was conducted from October, 31th to November, 3rd 2011. It was done by making an observation to the classroom
activites and interviewing the students and the English teacher as a partner.
The data obtained from this kind of
observation were used as the basic consideration in planning the action to be
applied.
The
result of preliminary study is to describe the reason for conducting CAR
complemeted with both quantitative and qualitative data.
3.3.1. Preliminary Study
The purpose of preliminary
study is to gain some information about the effectiveness of strategy of
teaching reading applied by the teachers. From this preliminary study, the
researcher has collected a large amount of information of English of teaching
in the classroom.
3.3.2 Planning
In relation to the
application of the classroom action research. The research and the teacher made
a preparation prior to the implementation of the action based in the result of
the preliminary study, at this stage, both of them prepared a suitable model of
cue card technique in teaching
reading and
narrative, designed a lesson plan, prepared instructional materials and media,
prepared the instrument, prepared the criteria of success and prepared the
formative test.
3.3.1.1. Preparing Teaching
Strategy
In conducting this
study, the researcher using media (cue cards) as technique or strategy of teaching consider to facilitate the students reading activity.
Media was selected
based on the English material book by TH. M. Sudarwati and Eudia Grace Look Ahead for SMAN class XI Erlangga Publiser and taken from
internet.
The media was made by the
researcher that can facilitate the students to increase their reading activity in different themes of monologue text entitle : Tornados, King
Lir, Alice in The Wonderland and A Boy and an Apple Tree
The researcher
prepared lesson plan related to the material that was studied with in the
cycles of the research. In the order to support the data collection, also
designed the research instruments.
3.3.1.2. Designing The Lesson
Plan
The researcher
designed a lesson plan. It includes the following items : (a) specific
instructional objectives, (b) intructional material and media. (c) teaching and
learning activity and (d) evaluation. It was guideline for the teacher to
conduct the teaching activity. It comprised some components, namely : lesson
identity, basic competence, indicator, learning objective, procedure,
instructional material media and evaluation.
The lesson plan was
implemented by using three procedures : pre-activity, whilst-activity and past
activity. The pre-activity covered greeting the students, checking the students
attendance, explaining, classifying and giving the objectives of the lesson and
asking some questions to brainstorm and lead them to topic. The whilst-activity
phase is giving clear instruction on how to work in learn reading using cue card, asked the students to read narrative monolog text and giving
explanation about cue cards and the examples. Last, in the post-reading activity, the teacher checked the
students ability by
making the simple cue cards the material and asking questions based on the given text.
3.3.1.3. Preparing
Instructional Media And Materials
In doing the reserach,
the researcher prepared instructional materials and media which were relevant
the topic for the eleven
grade students of senior high schools.
Both the material and
media were taken from text books, magazines, newspaper or other available
sourches and selected by the researcher. The media materials as used were cue cards related to the topic prepare by the
researcher on the bases of inctructional objectives stated in lesson plan.
It is choosen under
the following consideration : (1) it was in line with the theme, (2) it matched
with the students level of proficiency. While the media used where (1)
interesting, (2) varied, (3) in line with the theme, (4) supporting the
teaching-learning activity.
3.3.1.4
The Instrument
During
the teaching and learning of cue cards, the researcher prepared the following
instrument such as observation, interview, documentation (field notes,
questionnaires) and reading test.
A.
Observation
In
this class room action research, observation is needed to gain the supporting
data. The class observation or monitoring is conducted by the researcher when
teaching reading using cue cards. The first and second cycle are being
conducted in this time. Observation is done in each cycle and contains the
indicator observed in the first and second cycle. Arikunto (2001:204) notes
that the most effective way in observation is using checklist as an
instruments. A checklist contained some items of events that might appear in
the classrooms. In this case, the researcher notes the students activity
whether they are active or passive. The result of observation in the first
cycle is used as the information to revise the lesson plans of the second
cycle. Evaluations are carried out to know whether the use of picture could
improve the students’ achievement.
B.
Interview
In
this action research interview was also applied for collecting the supporting
data about the techniques used by the researcher in teaching reading using cue cards in SMAN 3 PRAYA Central
Lombok.
Arikunto (2002:202) classifies interview into three categories, namely structured
interview of this research was semi structured interview. It means that a list
of questions were prepared and developed to get information needed. The
interview was concluded with the English teacher and the second year students
as the subject.
C.
Documentation
Arikunto
(2002:206) states that documentation was a method in searching data about
variables in the form of notes, transcripts, books, news, magazines, and the
like. In this research, documentation was used to get the supporting data about
the names of the research subjects. It consists of field notes and
questionnaires.
1.
Field Notes
In this research, the researcher notes the
students’ activity in asking question to the teacher, the students/activity in
answering the teacher/s questions, the situation during the teaching learning
activity by using cue cards, the reaction of the students to study trough cue
cards. This is an observation guide to the success of the action.
2.
Questionnaires
The
questionnaires were given to the students’ after the completion of size
meeting. It consist of ten questions and made to find the students opinion
about the students interest toward reading through cue cards technique, the
students’ perception and attitude during the lesson. And also the teacher way
of teaching, the difficulties in applying cue cards, the student’s
participation, comprehension and opinion about learning English with and without
cue cards.
D.
Reading Test
According
to Arikunto (2002:198), test could be used to measure the basic ability and
achievement. Hughes (1996:9) states that these are four types of test namely:
proficiency test, achievement test, and placement test in this research,
achievement test was intended to know the students’ reading achievement. After
they were given the action in two cycles, which was teaching reading using cue
cards.
Arikunto
(2002:144) also said that test must be valid and reliable and divided into two
kinds based on the person who makes it. The standardized into objective test
and subjective test. In this action research the reading test is containing of
cue cards used to measure the student’s reading achievement.
3.3.1.5 The Criteria of Success
The
criteria are set up in order to judge whether the implementation of the action
is being effective or not (Mc. Niffet al, 1996:32). Therefore, the criteria are
used to reading succeeded or failed. It was done to decide whether another
cycle of action is needed. The target of CAR are to measure the success of the CAR : (1) the teaching- learning
process in conducted cue cards plan, (2) the teacher performance in
implementing the reading activity trough cue cards, (3) the students’ behavior
during the teaching-learning process, (4) the students’ score in doing the
examination. And (5) The students
improvement of reading text using cue cards.
Figure 3.3.2.1 The Implementation of
teaching and learning of reading through cue
cards.
|
Phase
|
Focus
|
Teaching
and Learning
|
Action
|
|
Planning
|
Gearing
Students to the topic
|
1. Opening the Lesson
2. Stimulating Student’s
Schemata
|
1.
Telling the student objective of the meeting.
2.
Gaining students’ prior knowledge by brainstorming or
predicting.
3.
Showing the cue cards with one theme.
4.
Classifying the information.
|
|
Acting
|
Improving
the student reading
skill by using cue cards
|
1.
Giving time for
The students to comprehend the cue cards according to the reading text
2. Asking them to transforming what they
understand about cue cards
3. giving the further explanation of cue cards
|
1. Asking the students to read the narrative / monolog
text.
2.
Asking them to content cue cards and what it used to be.
3.
Asking the student whether they understand the cue cards.
|
|
Observation
|
Checking
the students achievement of remembering the reading text.
|
1.
Discussing the cue cards with the students.
2.
Checking their attendant
3.
Memorize of each model of cue cards
|
1.Asking the students to answer the
question orally.
2.Asking them whether they understand the
meaning of each cue card
|
3.3.2
Implementation.
In
conducting the study, the research was implemented in the classroom during
school hours. It was done for about a month. The action was done in two cycles.
In each cycle there were four meeting and covers two themes of reading text convey
cue cards. The
action was considered successful if at least 70% of students get a good
category of reading test (70-80). The second cycle was conducted because the
first cycle had not achieved the objective of the research or as distinct
action. The action of second cycle were also planned twice (each section
considered of two meetings, thus the total meeting is four. The researcher
strengthening this cycle with the different theme the implementation of the
technique is in the following stage of performance. The Implementation of the action was done
in two cycles. Each cycle was done into four meetings. The time and schedule of
the implementation of this classroom action research are represented in figure
3.3.1
|
No.
|
Cycle/Meeting
|
Date
|
Theme
|
Activities
|
|
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
|
Obsevation
I/First
I/Second
II/First
Last Meeting
|
October 31th –
November 3rd 2011
November ,4th 2011
November, 11st 2011
November, 18th 2011
November, 25th 2011
|
Monolog text from
Text book.
Tornados
King Lir
Alice In Wonderland
A Boy And An Apple Three
|
Preliminary-Observation.
Pre,-Whilst,-post activity
Pre,-Whilst,-Post activity
Pre,-Whilst,-Post activity
Pre,-Whilst,-Post activity
|
3.3.3
Observation and Evaluation.
In
this classroom action research, the function of observation was to observe the
activities when the action was being by the researcher in the classroom. In
other words, observation was done to see the student’s activities while the
teaching of reading through
cue cards was done. The researcher used checklist to
observe the students’ activities in the teaching learning process through cue cards in each cycle. There were three indicators
of evaluation during observation.
1.
The Student’s activities in asking questions to the
teacher.
2.
The Student’s activities in answering the teacher’s
questions.
3.
The student’s correctness in doing the test given.
If the students fulfill at least two
indicators, it means they are active on the teaching learning process.
3.3.4
Analysis.
1.
Analysis.
The collected data was analyzed based on the form of data. The primary
data in this research that were obtained from the students’ cue cards test in the first and second cycle will be
analyzed quantitatively to find whether the students’ reading achievement increase or not, it using the
formula of the mean score:
E = n / N x 100%
Notes:
E
= The Percentage of the students’ reading achievement of each indicator.
n
= The reading scores of each indicator obtained by
students.
N=
The total number of test items of each indicator.
(Adapted from Ali, 1998:86).
Then, the results of the data
analysis were classified based on the following score level;
v
Score 81 – 100 = Excellence
v
Score 70 – 80 = Good.
v
Score 60 – 69 = Fair.
v
Score 26 - 59 = Poor.
v
Score 0 - 25 = Failed.
It was expected that the lesson plan
reached the score of 75 or in the category of good.
