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Jurnal Bilingual p-ISSN.

2088-2858
e-ISSN. 2774-9681

STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION IN READING ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

Jusman A. Sahmal 1, Sutaryo2, Naniek Jusnita3, Suratman Dahlan4


1, 2, 3, 4
English Language Education Study Program, University of Khairun, Ternate, Indonesia
Corresponding author: suratmandahlan@unkhair.ac.id

Abstrak

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pemahaman membaca siswa dalam membaca buku teks bahasa
Inggris salah satu Universitas di Indonesia. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan analisis
statistik deskriptif. Sampel penelitian terdiri dari 30 mahasiswa. Instrumen yang digunakan adalah tes
pemahaman bacaan untuk mengumpulkan data. Data dianalisis dengan menginterpretasikan hasil tes
pemahaman bacaan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa skor pemahaman bacaan dalam membaca buku teks
bahasa Inggris termasuk dalam kategori buruk dengan rata-rata (24,63). Skor tertinggi pemahaman membaca
siswa adalah buruk (53) dan skor terendah juga buruk (7). Kemampuan mereka dalam Literal (L), Inferential
(F), dan Critical Creative (K) juga umumnya buruk.
Kata Kunci: Pemahaman Membaca, Buku teks bahasa Inggris

Abstract

This research objective is to find out the students’ reading comprehension in reading English textbook in one of
State Universities in Indonesia. This research used qualitative method with descriptive statistical analysis. The
sample of the research consisted of 30 students. The instrument was reading comprehension test to collect the
data. The data were analyzed by interpreting the result of reading comprehension test. The result of this research
shows that the score of reading comprehension in reading English textbook were categorized as poor with the
average of (24.63). The highest score of students’ reading comprehension was poor (53) and the lowest score
was also poor (7). Their abilities in Literal (L), Inferential (F), and Critical Creative (K) are also generally poor.
Keywords: reading comprehension, English textbook

INTRODUCTION

Reading is one of the four language skills taught in English language learning process besides
listening, speaking and writing. However, among of all the skills reading is considered as the most
important skill. According to Kartawijaya (2017), reading is known as the language skill that very
important in teaching and learning English. It is the process of getting information from something
that was written, to obtain information and to improve the science and knowledge. In this case, Fitri &
Rozimela (2020) said that the study about students’ reading comprehension is important since it is an
important language skill in Indonesian curriculum.
Therefore it becomes one of the language skills that needed to be mastered by students.
Reading skill give much benefit to students such as increasing personal confidence, reducing social
isolation, fostering a sense of community and encouraging communication skills. Through reading,
students could improve their vocabulary, get new information and learn many things. Reading is a
process of gaining a message which is convey by a writer through words or written language. When
reading, eyes are going to recognize every word meanwhile brain try to analyze and link to the
meaning of the writing.
Textbook is a book which is designed to give material, assessment and evaluation for the
students. It also shapes the process of teaching learning in the class that provides the primary form of
linguistic input. It is very influential in changing students 'mindsets because they can affect students'
knowledge and specific value. It also becomes the main resources in education learning to get
standard competence and the main competence, which means that it has significance role in
Indonesian objective curriculum. In Indonesian’s curriculum textbook has an important role in
teaching and learning process. It is also mentioned in the Indonesian government regulation number

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Jurnal Bilingual p-ISSN. 2088-2858
e-ISSN. 2774-9681

32 in 2013 article 1 section 23 as, stated: “Buku teks pelajaran adalah sumber pembelajaran utama
untuk mencapai kompetensi dasar dan kompetensi inti”. Thus, in order to support English language
teaching, the design materials in a textbook must be appropriate with learning objectives.
English textbooks had been used by the students when they were in high school. However,
Abanda’s (2016) result of his study proved that English Education Study Program of the 3rd semester
students have the average score in reading comprehension of items 1-29 is poor (32) even the average
score in items 30-45 is very poor (25,56). Therefore, the researchers deeply analyzed the students
comprehend English textbook.
Reading Comprehension
Reading is one of language skills that students should know. The readers do reading to get
information and knowledge from a text,. While reading comprehension is an important skill needed
for all areas of school. Subjects, other than reading or literature, where comprehension skills are
significantly important include science, social studies and math (Misra, Jusnita, Ali, & Dahlan
(2021).
According to Klingner, et al (2007), reading comprehension as a complex process to get
meaning from the author including word meaning, word knowledge, and fluency. It refers to the
ability in interpreting the words, understanding the meaning and the relationships between ideas
conveyed in a text. He also added reading comprehension is not only the reader response to the
author’s meaning but multi complex process to involve many interactions between the reader and
what they comprehend from the text. Is not only to understand the text or reading passage but also to
interpret, to problem-solve, to visualize, hypothesizing, to observe, to report, to organize data, to
follow directions, to draw conclusion, and to predict outcomes based on the text.
While, according to Sung, Chang & Huang (2008), for enhancing reading ability, one of the
methods most often recommended by researchers is reading strategy instruction. But this research
focus on students’ reading comprehension in reading English textbook.

Defining the Reading Comprehension Levels


Dagostino, Carifio, Bauer, Zhao, & Hashim (2014) stated that the reading comprehension levels
and the reading skills determine the difficulty and the nature of the reading texts and the test items.
a. Literal (Message extraction)
Literal Reading Comprehension, which refers to the memorization of facts in texts where
information is explicitly stated at a basic level of thinking.
b. Inferential (Message Interpretation)
Inferential Reading Comprehension, which refers to the ability of students to interpret meaning
where they need to use overt information along with intuition, reasoning, and experience to attain
the higher level of thinking assessed, and
c. Critical/Creative (Message Evaluation)
Critical/creative Reading Comprehension, which refers to the student’s ability to do an overall
critical evaluation of certain information or an idea that has been read in terms of the precision
and/or suitability of the given information of a new idea, encountered. This critical evaluation
may require some divergent thinking and depend to some degree upon the knowledge and
personal experience of the student, but it focuses mostly on convergent critical thinking being
done by the student.
In summary, reading comprehension strategy is a way which will help students to read and
understand what have they read. Students will start to set their goals before read a text, keep on

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Jurnal Bilingual p-ISSN. 2088-2858
e-ISSN. 2774-9681

reading text, then at the end students are ask to focus on showing their understanding of reading the
text.
English Textbook
A textbook is a book used for the study of a subject. People use a textbook to learn facts and
methods about a certain subject. According to Bojanić & Topalov (2016), textbooks are undoubtedly
the most popular teaching materials used in foreign language classes. Therefore, it is highly
significant that textbooks include the essential elements of language and culture and that they
correspond to learners’ needs, cultural background and level of linguistic proficiency.
Textbooks sometimes have questions to test the knowledge and understanding of the learner. A
workbook is a type of textbook that has only practice questions and exercises. Workbooks are
designed not to teach but to provide practice and to highlight areas which need more learning. A
revision guide is a type of textbook that is used to remind the learner about the subject and give
him/her extra practice, especially before an examination. According Sulistiyana (2020), a textbook is
a media as source of material in teaching learning, which is based on the curriculum used in current
by single writer or a group of writers and used in schools. Then, an English textbook is primary
resource to teach English in classroom.
A Textbook is defined as “a book that teaches a particular subject and that is used especially in
schools and colleges” Textbooks usually combine contemporary and traditional approaches to
language teaching. They incorporate concepts such as ‘learner development’, a ‘task-based
methodology’, and ‘cross-curricular themes’ while providing a grammar framework and a thorough
practice of vocabulary, grammatical structures and functions (Hutchinson & Gault, 2009; Bojanić &
Topalov, 2016).
Cunningsworth (cited in Sulistiyana, 2020) claims that “no course book will be totally suited to
a particular teaching situation. The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if
necessary. That is why, we should not be looking for the perfect course book which meets all our
requirements, but rather for the best possible fit between what the course book offers and what we as
teachers and our students need”.

RESEARCH METHOD

This research applied qualitative method with descriptive statistic analysis which describes
research problem through a description. The method is to gather information about research variable
that is students’ reading comprehension in reading English textbook.
This research was conducted at one of the state Universities in Indonesia. This research
involves 30 students of the fifth semester as the subjects of the research and are taken purposively. In
particularly, the researcher is going to involve the subjects who have passed all reading courses at
English Education Study Program and they are more active in the class based on the observation.
To collect the data, the students were asked to do the test, which dealt with the students’
reading comprehension in reading English textbook. The test consisted of 15 questions; each question
contained one reading skill analysis. The test was multiple choices/objective, based on the indicators
of reading comprehension from English textbook. The length of time to do the test is approximately
30 minutes. The constructs of the test included the passage taken from English textbook. The
assessment of a reading comprehension instrument refers to cognitive abilities as defined by Bloom’s
revised taxonomy (cited in Abbas, 2016).
After collecting the data, the researcher counted the number of correct answers, then concluded
the total score from the result of the test. Each student’s scores were calculated by using the
following formula:

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Jurnal Bilingual p-ISSN. 2088-2858
e-ISSN. 2774-9681

𝑋
M = 𝑁 × 100
Where:
M = Individual score
X = The number of correct answer
N = The number of item (Wayan and Sumartana, 1986)
In order to find out the categories of scores, the following are classification of the score.
Table 1. Score Categories
No Scores Categories
1 90 – 100 Very good
2 80 – 89 Good
3 70 – 79 Sufficient
4 <70 Poor

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

Finding
The data of students’ reading comprehension test scores with the classifications are as follows;
in the test four students (13.3%) obtained 7 score, five students (16.67%) obtained 13 score, six
students (20%) obtained 27 score, four students (13.3%) obtained 20 score, seven students (23.3%)
obtained 33 score, three students (10%) obtained 40, and one student (3%) obtained 53 score. All
scores were categories less.
The data of students’ reading comprehension in reading English Textbook test based on the
category are as follows; in terms of Literal (L) Reading comprehension Category, there were six
questions of the test. As the result, more than 20% of the respondents were able to obtain 2 correct
numbers of the test (Nine students or 30%), Eight students or (26.67%) obtained 3 correct numbers of
the test, and Seven students or (23.33%) obtained 1 correct number of the test. More than 10% of the
respondents did not obtain any correct numbers of the test (Five students or 16.67%). Below than 5%
of the respondents were able to obtain 4 correct numbers of the test (One student or 3.33%) and no
students obtain 5 and 6 correct numbers of the test.
In terms of Inferential (F) Reading Comprehension Category, there were five questions of the
test. As the result, more than 30% of the respondents obtained 1 correct number of the test (10
students or 33.33%) and Nine students or (30%) did not obtain any correct numbers of the test. More
than 20% of the respondents obtained 2 correct numbers of the test (Seven students or 23.33%).
Below 15% of the respondents obtained 3 correct numbers of the test (Four students or 13.33%), and
no students obtained 4 and 5 correct numbers of the test.
In terms of Critical Creative (K) Reading Comprehension Category, there were four questions
of the test. As the result, there were 15 students or (50%) of the respondents did not obtain any correct
numbers of the test. Nine students or (30%) of the respondents obtained 1 correct number of the test.
More than 15% of the respondents obtained 2 correct number of the test (Five students or 16.67%).
Below that 5% of the respondents obtained 3 correct numbers of the test (1 student or 3.33%), and no
students obtained 4 correct numbers of the test.
In terms of Literal Category of reading comprehension, more than 30% of the respondents were
able to identify main idea (14 students or 47%), to make comparison (14 students or 47%), and to
identify the meaning of word/ phrase/ sentence (10 students or 33%). More than 20% of the
respondents were able to identify the important point (Seven students or 23%) and to identify the

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Jurnal Bilingual p-ISSN. 2088-2858
e-ISSN. 2774-9681

cause-effect (Six students or 20%). Then, below 10% of the respondents were able to identify the
sequence of ideas/events (Two students or 7%).
In terms of Inferential Category of reading comprehension, more than 30% of the respondents
were able to interpret the cause-effect (10 students or 33%). More than 20% of the respondents were
able to interpret the comparison (Eight students or 27%), to make conclusion (Eight students or 27%),
and to interpret the important point (Seven students or 23%). Below 20% of the respondents were able
to interpret the main idea (Three students or 10%).
In terms of Critical Creative Category of reading comprehension, more than 20% of the
respondents were able to do evaluation of the reading passage (Seven students or 23%) and to do
internalize of the reading passage (Six students or 20%). Below 20% of the respondents were able to
draw conclusion (Four students or 13%) and to identify the moral of the lesson/story (Four students or
13%).
Based on the findings, it can be concluded that 30 students’ reading comprehension test result
were categorized as poor. Referring to the categories of scores, below 70 is categorized as poor.
Meanwhile, the highest score of the students was 53 and the lowest score was 7. This suggests that the
students had poor ability in reading comprehension in reading English textbook.
Discussion
The calculated result of this research revealed that students’ reading comprehension in reading
English textbook was poor. The result of this research is in line with Abanda (2016) and Kartawijaya
(2016) who found that students’ reading comprehension score were low or poor. According to
Klingner, et al (2007), reading comprehension as a complex process to get meaning from the author
including word meaning, word knowledge, and fluency. It refers to the ability in interpreting the
words, understanding the meaning and the relationships between ideas conveyed in a text. He also
added reading comprehension is not only the reader response to the author’s meaning but multi-
complex process to involve many interactions between the reader and what they comprehend from the
text.
All the questions obtained from the textbook entitled “Reading Comprehension Startegies;
Theories, Interventions, and Technology”. Where textbook is defined as “a book that teaches a
particular subject and that is used especially in schools and colleges.
The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary. So we should
not be looking for the perfect course book which meets all our requirements, but rather for the best
possible fit between what the course book offers and what we as teachers and our students need”. To
sum up, reading comprehension textbook is not totally suited to all students in reading comprehension
subject, however if the teacher’s way of teaching is suitable to the students’ necessary then it will
possible fit to them.

CONCLUSION

It was found that students involved in this research score of reading comprehension in reading
English textbook at the English Language Education Study Program were categorized as poor with
the average of (24.63). The highest score of students’ reading comprehension was poor (53) and the
lowest score was also poor (7). Their abilities in Literal (L), Inferential (F), and Critical Creative (K)
are also generally poor. The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if
necessary. So we should not be looking for the perfect course book which meets all our requirements,
but rather for the best possible fit between what the course book offers and what we as teachers and
our students need”. To sum up, reading comprehension textbook is not totally suited to all students in

Vol. 12 No.1 MEI 2022 61


Jurnal Bilingual p-ISSN. 2088-2858
e-ISSN. 2774-9681

reading comprehension subject, however if the teacher’s way of teaching is suitable to the students’
necessary.

REFERENCES

Abanda, Basra. 2016. Students’Reading Comprehension at English Language Education Study


Program of Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Khairun University. Ternate:
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Abbas, PourhoseinGilakjani. 2016. How Can Students’ Improve Their Reading Comprehension Skill?
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Bimmel, Peter E. et.al. 2001. Effects of Strategy Training on Reading Comprehension in First and
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