USING SHORT STORY STRATEGY TO DEVELOP READING

COMPREHENSION OF GRADE EIGHT STUDENTS

Dian Nur Sagita1, Sudarkam R. Mertosono2, Muhammad Arid3
English Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
Tadulako University

ABSTRACT
This research aims at proving if the application of the short story can develop the students’
reading comprehension. The sample of this research was grade eight students of SMP Negeri
3 Palu particularly class D and class E, namely class E as the experimental group and class D
as the control group. The treatment was given to the experimental group using the short
story, while the control group was not. To collect the data, the researcher used test
instrument (pre-test and post-test). The finding confirmed that the mean scores of pre-test in
both groups were different. The control group had a higher score which was 57.19 while the
experimental group was 44.69. This result showed that the students in the experimental
group had problems in reading comprehension which needed to improve. However, after
treatment, the result of the two groups showed significant distinction. The mean score of the
experimental group rose to 71.80 while the control group was 64.45. Moreover, to prove the
hypothesis, the process of calculating the result was continued by comparing the t-counted
and t-table by applying the level of significance (df) at 62 (32+32-2). The result showed that
the value of the t-counted was 8.70 which was higher than the t-table (1.670). It means that
the hypothesis of the research was accepted. In conclusion, using short story can develop the
students reading comprehension.

Keywords: Develop, Reading Skill, Short Story

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk membuktikan apakah penggunaan cerita pendek dapat
meningkatkan kemampuan reading pada siswa kelas delapan D dan E di SMP Negeri 3
Palu. Peneliti menerapkan desain penelitian kuasi eksperimental yang melibatkan kelompok
eksperimen dan kontrol. Sampel penelitian ini adalah kelas VIII E sebagai kelompok
eksperimen dan kelas VIII D sebagai kelompok kontrol. Keduanya dipilih menggunakan
teknik sample acak. Dalam pengumpulan data, peneliti memberikan prates dan pascates
untuk kedua kelompok. Hasil dari analisis data menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan
yang signifikan antara hasil pratest dan pascatest. Nilai rata-rata kelompok eksperimen
sebelum perlakuan adalah 44.69 sementara nilai kelompok kontrol adalah 57.19. Setelah
perlakuan, nilai rata-rata kelompok eksperimen adalah 71.80 dan nilai kelompok kontrol
adalah 64.45. Hal tersebut juga menunjukkan bahwa nilai hitung t (8.70) lebih tinggi
dibandingkan nilai tabel t (1.670) yang mengindikasikan bahwa hipotesis penelitian
diterima. Dengan demikian, penggunaan cerita pendek dapat meningkatkan kemampuan
membaca pada siswa SMP Negeri 3 Palu.

Kata Kunci: Mengembangkan Kemampuan Membaca, Cerita Pendek

INTRODUCTION given texts (Duke & Pearson, 2009). It means

that reading comprehension is a way to
Reading comprehension is defined as
understand the text which involves the
the language learners ability to understand and
readers’ ability to make a relationship between
comprehend a written text to find the main
their background knowledge and their purpose
idea and specific information. During the
of reading with the meanings of the text.
reading process, the good readers are the
Reading comprehension is a
people who use their prior knowledge to
multicomponent, highly complex process that
understand, compare, and integrate with the
involves many interactions between readers
e-mail: dhian_sagita@yahoo.co.id and what they bring to the text (previous
knowledge, strategy use) as well as variables

e-Journal of ELTS (English Language Teaching Society) Vol. 7 No. 1 1

related to the text itself (interest in text and text is essential for the students because they
understanding of text types). Aloqaili (2012) will see that they can read, understand, and
states that representation and arrangement of finish it in English, and it will give the
the knowledge in the text are two factors that students a feeling of achievement and self-
influence students’ comprehension to improve confidence. Moreover, reading a short story
the reading skill. Finally, its process results permits the students to read the entire story.
from a meaning of the text which is being They have a moment to understand the
understood by the readers. sequence and the meaning of the context and
Narrative text is one of the genres taught get the authors’ message across (Boyles,
for the eighth and ninth grade students at 2012). First and foremost, short story
Junior High School. Rebbeca (2003) defines stimulates students with high order thinking to
that narrative text is a text which relates a analyze and create the story. Therefore, the
series of logically and chronologically related students become active learners in developing
events that are caused or experienced by their knowledge as well as good
factors. Duke & Pearson (2009) state that a comprehension in doing exercises.
key to comprehending a narrative is a sense of The researcher uses the short story as
plot (the theme, characters, events, and how one of the strategies in developing students’
they related). The narrative text has character, understanding in reading. In the teaching
setting and action. The characters are usually process, the researcher restricts the kind of
introduced in the beginning. The problem reading passage with the folk tale. Therefore,
reaches its high point in the middle. The the passages that are given to the students are
ending resolves the problem. the familiar story. It is expected to minimize
The narrative is a text that tells a story the complex difficulties that commonly are
and, in doing so, entertains the audience. Also, faced by the students, such as not getting the
The narrative often contains large passage content of the text, getting confused with the
arranging the events in a story strictly in type of story, and getting bored because of
chronological order which the purpose is unfamiliar themes. Besides, the students may
mainly to inform the reader. The narrative can get benefits to improve their vocabulary by
be imaginary or factual (fairy tales, mysteries, reading some passages with varying contents
fables, romances and adventure stories, myths and cultures.
and legends). Shabirin (2012) describes many The advantages of short story in the
different types of narrative; namely humour, classroom as follows:
romance, crime, real-life fiction, historical
fiction, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, diary 1. Short story enhances students reading
novel, and adventure. comprehension.
Using short story has advantages in
creating the students’ interpretations and 2. Short story can improve students’ stores of
analysis by involving their views, experiences vocabulary.
and feelings (Khatib, 2011). The use of a 3. Short story is more entertaining for
short story in English teaching should be students, and makes the students more familiar
aimed to encourage the students to use what with critical thinking.
they have previously learnt. By doing this, the
learning process is student-centred. According 4. Using short story in teaching produces
to Coleman & Primentel (2012), a short story positive outcomes on reading, motivates
can assist EFL learners to enable them with a students, and makes the teaching more
broad range of reading levels. interesting.
In using the short story to teach
English, story selection is indeed one of the 5. The variety of themes will offer different
most critical roles of the teacher. Choosing a things to many individuals’ interests and
short story is enough to handle within course tastes.
hours since the lengths of short-stories are
quite vary. As supported by Pardede (2011), 6. Short story gives the learners a better view
the teachers have the responsibility to provide of other cultures and people.
the short-story text is readability from the
content and the length. The shortness of the

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 The researcher assumes that providing story can develop students’ reading skill or
short story and combining it through the not.
students’ comprehension may give a To measure the students’ score, the
significant difference between the groups. The researcher used the scoring system which is
research question of this research: can using adopted from 2013 Curriculum Kemendikbud:
short story strategy develop reading
comprehension of grade eight students of SMP Table 1 Reading Scoring System
Negeri 3 Palu? In this research, the researcher
Score
focused on reading skill in comprehending
No. of of Total
stories. The material for teaching-learning No Types of the Test
Item each score
process focused on narrative text especially item
fiction genre. The type of fiction story was 1 Reading
folk tales. During the treatment, the researcher Comprehension 5 4 20
did some activities related to the passage. The Question
activities related to the ice-breaking, asking 2 Multiple choice 20 1 20
some questions, doing some exercises, reading Total 40
aloud, and having group discussion. The aims
of this research to assess whether or not using Table 2 Scoring Criteria
short story strategy can develop reading
comprehension of grade eight students.
No Criteria Score Category Qualification
RESEARCH METHOD
In this research, the researcher applied Correct
quasi-experimental design, specifically non- Very
1 content, 4 Successful
good
equivalent control group design. It meant that
there were experimental group and control Grammar
one. Both groups were given pre-test and post-
Correct
test, and the experimental group received the content,
treatment. 2 3 Good Successful
The population is a group consisting of Incorrect
all people to whom a researcher wishes to grammar
apply the findings of a study (Cohen, Manion, Correct
& Morrison, 2007). Based on the statement grammar,
above, the researcher chose grade eight of 3 2 Fair Successful
SMP Negeri 3 Palu as the population of the Incorrect
research. There were 12 classes, and the total content

number of the population is 406 students. The Incorrect

samples of this research were class VIII E as contect
4 1 Poor Failed
the experimental group and class VIII D as the and
control group. The dependent variable in this grammar
research was reading comprehension of the
No
grade eight students at SMP Negeri 3 Palu, 5
answer
0 Very poor Failed
and the independent variable was the short
story strategy.
To collect the data, tests were used.
Tests are expected to measure the student’s FINDINGS
result in reading skill before and after the After conducting the pre-test to the two
treatment and to find out if the technique can groups, the researcher provided the treatment.
develop the students’ reading skill. In this The treatment was given to the experimental
study, two kinds of test were applied. The test group, but both experimental and control
was given to the students twice, before groups received the tests which had similar
treatment (pre-test) and after treatment (post- content. In the first meeting, the students from
test). Pre-test is used to measure students’ both groups were given the pre-test. Then, in
reading skill before treatment while post-test the eighth meeting, both groups were
is used to find out whether the use of short
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conducted the post-test. In the experimental group is 44.69. The highest score is 65 and
group, the researcher did the treatment by the lowest score is 30. The highest score of the
applying the short story strategy for six post-test of experimental group is 87.5 and the
meetings. The themes of short story were lowest score is 47.5. Furthermore, the mean
various. The researcher chose to combine score of the post-test of experimental group is
between the local story and the story from 71.80. It means that the improvement of the
abroad to trigger students’ interest and result of the experimental group is 27.11. It is
motivation. In addition, it was an increased from 44.69 to 71.80.
entertainment to the readers to enjoy their The result of the pre-test and post-test
reading and to learn the culture as the of control group is presented on table 4.
advantages of short story. Each meeting spent
80 minutes. The result of the pre-test and post- Table 4 The Result of Pre-test and Post-test of
test of experimental group is presented on Control Group
table 3. Individual Score
No Name Pre-test Post-test
Table 3 The Result of the Pre-test and Post- (x1) (x2)
test of Experimental Group 1 APR 40.0 60.0
Individual Score 2 AAC 57.5 62.5
No 3 AJA 47.5 67.5
Initials Pre-test Post-test
. 4 AO 57.5 62.5
(x1) (x2)
1 AI 30.0 80.0 5 AF 60.0 72.5
2 AD 32.5 82.5 6 AS 47.5 50.0
3 ACO 32.5 70.0 7 AP 65.0 67.5
4 AA 32.5 62.5 8 DSP 55.0 67.5
5 AY 52.5 65.0 9 ES 47.5 55.0
6 AW 47.5 75.0 10 FMZ 70.0 72.5
7 ADP 65.0 77.5 11 FR 57.5 62.5
8 DSF 32.5 77.5 12 FRD 47.5 57.5
9 EY 47.5 70.0 13 IFS 57.5 65.0
10 FHY 35.0 55.0 14 IS 60.0 65.0
11 FR 52.5 75.0 15 LF 70.0 75.0
12 FRI 37.5 75.0 16 MA 72.5 75.0
13 IGC 52.5 80.0 17 MF 67.5 72.5
14 JFH 55.0 75.0 18 MR 47.5 62.5
15 LFA 40.0 77.5 19 MS 60.0 65.0
16 MAS 35.0 72.5 20 MRS 67.5 72.5
17 MF 57.5 82.5 21 MW 42.5 52.5
18 MR 37.5 87.5 22 MN 52.5 67.5
19 MAK 40.0 62.5 23 NMD 50.0 55.0
20 MA 57.5 65.0 24 NHS 52.5 60.0
21 MDY 42.5 70.0 25 NH 55.0 67.5
22 NN 52.5 75.0 26 RA 65.0 67.5
23 NAY 42.5 77.5 27 RAD 50.0 55.0
24 NK 42.5 65.0 28 SD 47.5 52.5
25 PAA 45.0 47.5 29 SAD 60.0 67.5
26 RAF 55.0 70.0 67.5
30 SR 67.5
27 SS 47.5 72.5
31 TY 57.5 62.5
28 SA 50.0 65.0
32 YSQ 75.0 77.5
29 SAD 45.0 75.0
30 SR 42.5 67.5 Total 1.830 2.062.5
31 TSL 47.5 70.0 Mean Score 57.19 64.53
32 YL 47.5 75.0
Total 1.433 2.298 In calculating the students’ individual
MeanScore 44.69 71.80 score of the control group, the researcher
employed the same formula used in
After counting the pre-test score of the experimental group. As a result, the researcher
experimental group, the researcher finds that finds that the mean score of pre-test of control
the mean score of pre-test of experimental group is 57.19. The highest score is 75 and the

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lowest score is 42.5. The highest score of the the research. In her research, the researcher
post-test of control group is 77.5 and the conducted two kinds of exercises; multiple
lowest score is 52.5. Furthermore, the choice and essay, in order to know their prior
researcher finds that the mean score of post- knowledge in the pre-test and to identify their
test of control group is 64.45. There is also an improvement after the treatment by giving the
improvement of the result of the control post-test.
group. The improvement of the control group The two classes had been selected
is 7.26. It rises up from 57.19 to 64.45. from 12 classes of the eighth grade by using
To find the total deviation, the total purposive sampling. Each class consisted of
score in post-test is deducted by the total score 32 students. They were named as experimental
in pre-test after that the total deviation is group and control group. After calculating the
squared to get the square deviation. Based on data from pre-test, the researcher did the
the calculation, it was found that the total treatment which focused on reading skill by
deviation score of the experimental group is using one of the narrative text as the strategy,
867.5 and the square deviation score of the short story. During the treatment, the
experimental group is 27.856.25. On the other researcher provided a different short story in
hand, the total deviation score and the square every meeting and did various activities
deviation score of control group are 232.5 and individual students and groups to identify the
2.488.25 respectively. generic structure and elements of the narrative
The total deviation is divided into the text. The passage encouraged students’
number of students in each group in order to interest because they felt familiar when they
find the mean deviation score for both read the title of the stories. However, they
experimental and control groups. The mean found difficulties because the stories presented
deviation of the experimental group is 27.11 in English. Therefore, one of the activities in
and the mean deviation of the control group is the classroom was asking the students to
7.27 while the sum of square deviation score underline the unfamiliar vocabulary. Then, the
of the experimental group is 4.338.87, and the meanings were given in the discussion section.
sum of square deviation score of the control It was useful to lead them understood the
group is 791.99. After the computation of the setting, the plot, and the characters in the
significance between the experimental and story. It also built their confidence to explain
control groups by using formula from the content of the story in English because of
Arikunto (2006), the result of the data analysis the stories of the vocabulary that they received
shows that the t-counted is 8.70. For the t-table during the treatment.
value, the researcher applied interpolation Based on the data, applying the short
formula because the degree of freedom (df) of story as the strategy is effective to improve the
the table is Nx + Ny – 2 = 32 + 32 -2 =62 students’ reading skill in the narrative text.
with the level significance 0.05. Based on the This research has the same conclusion as the
data, the researcher concludes that the research two previous studies from Setyani (2009) and
hypothesis is totally accepted. In other words, Jessica (2017). Short story is a good technique
the use of short story can develop students to develop students’ comprehension in
reading comprehension. reading. Therefore, the researcher defines
three reasons to support this successful
DISCUSSION research. Firstly, the students’ interest in the
themes of the short story because the
The main focus on this study was the researcher provided familiar themes to attract
students’ improvement in reading the narrative
students’ attention and to trigger the students’
text by using the short story as the strategy. motivation in reading the English version.
The teaching and learning process style was Alptekin & Erçetin (2011) describe the
student-centered, so the students did the whole students build their comprehension when they
learning activities in the classroom, while have the connection through the reading
teacher was the facilitator in the classroom. passage in the stated idea, inferences and
The researcher previously did the observation conclusion, and emotional reaction.
to the school by interviewing one of the Furthermore, Aloqaili (2012) states that
English teachers. The information from the representation and arrangement of the
teacher became the primary issue to conduct knowledge in the text are two factors that

e-Journal of ELTS (English Language Teaching Society) Vol. 7 No. 1 5

influence students’ comprehension to improve confident about their English progress. In
the reading skill. Secondly, the length of the other words, reading short story is one of the
short story is efficient to read in one session. effective techniques in teaching reading for
The researcher selected the story which is the students.
adaptive and adaptable regarding the word The result clarifies that the value of
count. It is in line with Pardede (2010) who the t-counted is 8.70 which is higher than t-
states the responsibility of the teachers to table (1.670). It means that using short story
provide the short story texts which have strategy can develop reading comprehension
readability from the content and the length. of grade eight students of SMP Negeri 3 Palu.
The last, the short story is an effective strategy It is concluded that using short story is
to motivate students in reading because of the effective.
various contents, vocabulary, and grammar.
These elements assist the students to broaden REFFERENCES
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