CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Language plays an important role in human’s life because it is the medium of communication, thought, and learning. By using language, human can communicate with other people to express the ideas, to facilitate the thinking process, and to recall the information.
One of languages that have an important role in the world is English. English is a foreign language for Indonesian and is used in many international activities such as commerce, sport, science, education, and technology. Therefore, English must be taught and learnt at school.
Teaching English to students needs four skills namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skills must be mastered by the students. Based on 2007 curriculum of Junior High School, reading is one of the skills which should be developed in learning English. The students must be mastered in reading to pass the examination, especially in National Examination of Junior High School. In fact, most of them do not master it, they confuse to answer the question relates the reading passage, however, this reading is the first or main question of the test and they think that reading is difficult. So that, teaching reading comprehension is needed in learning English for Junior High School. Eventually, the teacher should be considered to make the students be able in reading comprehension to get good mark in their last examination.
There are many reasons why getting students to read English text is an important part of teacher’s job. Many students want to be able to read texts in English either for careers, for study purposes or simply for pleasure, besides to pass the examination.
Especially in teaching reading, the researcher will propose a case of study that teaching reading comprehension through The Grammar Translation Method (GTM) at junior high school. This method is used for the purpose of helping read and appreciate foreign language literature. It is hope that, through the study of the grammar of target language, students will become more familiar with the grammar of native language and will help them speak and write in native language better.
Nowadays, it is clear that reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that depends upon a number of ingredients all working together in a synchronous, even automatic way. Vocabulary clearly plays a critical role in understanding what has been read. Because of the vocabulary that students must be mastery to comprehend the reading text, so that according to Diane Larsen-Freeman (2000) the true principle or method of teaching reading is Grammar Translation Method (GTM).
According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979), the salient features of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows:
1. Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language.
2. Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
3. Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.
4. Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words.
5. Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.
6. Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.
7. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
Diane provides some common/typical techniques closely associated with the Grammar Translation Method refers to the reading comprehension teaching:
1. Translation of a Literary Passage (Translating target language to native language)
2. Reading Comprehension Questions (Finding information in a passage, making inferences and relating to personal experience)
3. Antonyms/Synonyms (Finding antonyms and synonyms for words or sets of words)
4. Cognates (Learning spelling/sound patterns that correspond between L1 and the target language)
5. Deductive Application of Rule (Understanding grammar rules and their exceptions, then applying them to new examples)
6. Fill-in-the-blanks (Filling in gaps in sentences with new words or items of a particular grammar type)
7. Memorization (Memorizing vocabulary lists, grammatical rules and grammatical paradigms)
8. Use Words in Sentences (Students create sentences to illustrate they know the meaning and use of new words)
9. Composition (Students write about a topic using the target language).
Based on the explanation above, the use of Grammar Translation Method will be needed to help teacher and students in teaching and learning reading comprehension. One of the experiences of this method is translation the vocabulary. Crystal
1.2 The Identification of the Problem
Based on the background of problem above, the identifications of problem of this study are states as follows:
1.2.1 There are four skills in learning English that students should be mastery, namely; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
1.2.2 The students’ difficulties in understanding the reading comprehension, especially in answering the questions of reading passage.
1.2.3 Some factors that influences the students reading skills.
1.2.4 The effect of using methodology of teaching English in assessment students reading comprehension.
1.3 Scope and Limitation
This study is focused on the effectiveness of using Grammar Translation Method in teaching reading comprehension and is limited on the Junior High School (SMP) students at SMP Muhammadiyah 01 Medan for first grade 2010/2011 academic year.
1.4 The Formulation of The Problem
This problem of this study is stated as follows:
1.4.1 is there any correlation between the use of Grammar Translation Method and teaching reading comprehension?
1.4.2 does the use of Grammar Translation Method significantly affect students’ achievement in reading comprehension?
1.5 The Objective of Study
The objectives of the study are intended:
1.5.1 to describe the data of Grammar Translation Method
1.5.2 to describe the data of reading comprehension
1.5.3 to discover the correlation between GTM and reading comprehension
1.5.4 to find out the effect of using GTM in teaching reading comprehension for SMP students.
1.6 The Significance of the Study
The findings of the study are expected to be useful for:
1.6.1 the students to improve their reading comprehension achievement
1.6.2 English teachers in their attempts to improve their teaching of reading comprehension
1.6.3 Textbook writers in order to improve the reading passage and its exercises, task, etc.
1.6.4 other researcher in order to get information for further researches.
CHAPTER II
THE REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Theoretical Framework
A set of theories and ideas are needed to explain the relationship between the terms used in this study. The use of theories and ideas are also to clarify the terms themselves in order to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding. The following theories used in this study are as follows:
2.1.1 Effect
According to Hornby (1987), effect means the change produced by an action causes any result or outcome. According to Hold (1956), effect is the impression produced on mind. So, effect means something which changes as the result of certain action or treatment to it.
2.1.2 Method in Language Teaching
Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Richards and Rogers (2002), classifies language teaching methods as the "dominant language of education, commerce, religion and government in the Western world". Latin was once the most widely studied foreign language. Even after French, Italian and English took over its place. The study of classical Latin and an analysis of its grammar and rhetoric became the model for foreign language study until nineteenth century.
2.1.2.1 Types of Teaching English Method
According to Diane Larsen (1986), there are eight methods in teaching English as foreign language, namely:
1. The Grammar Translation Method
2. The Direct Method
3. The Audio Lingual Method
4. The
Silent Way
Silent Way
5. Desuggestopedia
6. Community Language Learning
7. Total Physical Response
8. Communicative Language Teaching.
2.1.3 Grammar Translation Method
The Grammar Translation Method is not new. It has had different names, but it has been used by language teachers for many years. At one time it was called the Classical Method since it was first used in the teaching of the classical language, Latin and Greek (Chastain, 1988). Earlier in this century, this method was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature. It was also hoped that, through the study of the grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and that this familiarity would help them speak and read their native language better.
The Grammar Translation Method derived from traditional approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the nineteenth century. It is "a way of studying a language that approaches the language first thought detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application of this knowledge through the t ask of translating sentences and text into and out of the target language". (Richards and Rogers, 2002).
Students in this method develop the ability to read prestigious literary texts. They also learn to read and write in the target language accurately, which is a necessity. However, this method is a particular analysis of the written target language, especially its grammar and vocabulary that are learned from bilingual word lists which can be boring as a main task. In addition, the mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction, would not work for any form of listening and speaking teaching. It is thought that if the last two points are used as a pre-task, it will be rather enjoyable.
The Grammar- Translation method focuses on translating grammatical forms, memorizing vocabulary, learning rules, and studying conjugations. The purpose of using the GTM is to able to read literature written in the target language. The students are given the grammar rules and examples, are told to memorize them, and then are asked to apply the rules to other examples. They also learn grammatical paradigm such as verb conjugations.
Grammar Translation dominated European and foreign language teaching from the 1840s to the 1940s, and in modified form it continues to be widely used in some parts of the world today. At its best, as Howatt (1984) points out, it was not necessarily the horror that its critics depicted it as. Its worst excesses were introduced by those who wanted to demonstrate that the study of French or German was no less rigorous than the study of classical languages. This resulted in the type of Grammar-Translation courses remembered with distaste by thousands of school learners, for whom foreign language learning meant a tedious experience of memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary and attempting to produce perfect translations of stilted or literary prose. Although the Grammar-Translation Method often creates frustration for students, it makes few demands on teachers. It is still used in situations where understanding literary texts is the primary focus of foreign language study and there is little need for a speaking knowledge of the language. Contemporary texts for the teaching of foreign languages at college level often reflect Grammar-Translation principles. These texts are frequently the products of people trained in literature rather than in language teaching or applied linguistics. Consequently, though it may be true to say that the Grammar-Translation Method is still widely practiced, it has no advocates. It is a method for which there is no theory. There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology, or educational theory.
2.1.3.1 The Characteristic of Grammar Translation Method
The grammar translation method has eihgt caracteristics:
· Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language.
· Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
· Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.
· Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words.
· Reading
· Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.
· Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.
· Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
2.1.3.2 Reviewing the Principles of GTM
The principles of the Grammar-Translation Method are organized below by answering the ten questions:
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Grammar-Translation Method?
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student -student interaction?
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
6. How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills areemphasized?
8. What is the role of the students' native language?
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
2.1.3.3 Reviewing the Techniques of GTM
There are some useful techniques associated with the Grammar-Translation Method. Below is an expanded description of some of these techniques.
- Translation of a Literary Passage
Students translate a reading passage from the target language into their native language. Students should not translate idioms and the like literally, but rather in a way that shows that they understand their meaning.
- Reading Comprehension Questions
Students answer questions in the target language based on their understanding of the reading passage.
- Antonyms/Synonyms
Students are given one set of words and are asked to find antonyms in the reading passage. A similar exercise could be done by asking students to find synonyms for a particular set of words. Or students might be asked to define a set of words based on their understanding of them as they occur in the reading passage. Other exercises that ask students to work with the vocabulary of the passage are also possible (Allen 1983).
- Cognates
Students are taught to recognize cognates by learning the spelling or sound patterns that correspond between the languages.
- Deductive Application of Rule
Grammar rules are presented with examples. Exceptions to each rule are also noted. Once students understand a rule, they are asked to apply it to some different examples.
- Fill-in-the-blanks
Students are given a series of sentences with words missing. They fill in the blanks with new vocabulary items or with items of a particular grammar type, such as prepositions or verbs with different tenses.
- Memorization
Students are given lists of target language vocabulary words and their native language equivalents and are asked to memorize them.
- Use Words in Sentences
In order to show that students understand the meaning and use of a new vocabulary item, they make up sentences in which they use the new words.
- Composition
The teacher gives the students a topic to write about in the target language.
2.1.4 Achievement
Achievement means recognition granted to a learner when all required learning outcomes have been successfully demonstrated. (www.eveconsult.nl/english/glossary).
Ability to demonstrate accomplishment of outcome for which learning experiences which are designed is called as achievement. (www.artswork.asu.edu/arts/teachers/assessment/glossary.htm)
2.1.5 Reading Comprehension
Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may use morpheme, semantics, syntax, and context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema (schemata theory).
Other types of reading are not speech based writing systems, such as music notation or pictograms. The common link is the interpretation of symbols to extract the meaning from the visual notations.
Reading comprehension is essentially the ability to understand what has been read. It’s clear that reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that depends upon a number of ingredients all working together in a synchronous, even automatic way. Vocabulary clearly plays a critical role in understanding what has been read. The reader must also be intentional and thoughtful while reading, monitoring the words and their meaning as reading progresses. And the reader must apply reading comprehension strategies as ways to be sure that what is being read matches their expectations and builds on their growing body of knowledge that is being stored for immediate or future reference.
Great progress has been made during the past 15 years in the area of reading, and particularly, in our understanding of the underlying skills needed to be an efficient reader. Beginning readers must master a set of phonemic awareness and phonics skills that allow for new words to be "unlocked’. Research has demonstrated that:
· children are more likely to have trouble reading in the later grades if they lack phonemic awareness (as early as in kindergarten)
· simple tests of children's skill at working with phonemes could predict later reading problems and failure; and
· children's reading can be improved using simple techniques to show them how to identify the phonemes in words.
2.2 Conceptual Framework
At the curriculum of Junior High School students, reading is divided into two parts, namely reading aloud and reading comprehension. As usual reading aloud is applied in practicing how the students read the text by correct intonation, pronunciation, and other punctuation, meanwhile reading comprehension is applied in comprehending skill of the reading passage by answer the question relates the reading passage. In fact, many students especially in Junior High School think that reading comprehension is difficult because they do not know what the text talk about does. However, the reading passage with understanding question is the main point of SMP last examination, and they always get confuse how to answer it.
To decrease the difficulty of learning English especially reading comprehension, the English teacher should make reading comprehension easier and more interesting. So, the teachers need to attract their students’ attention. One way to attract the students’ attention is by using teaching method when they are teaching in the classroom. The teachers also should know what the best method in teaching reading comprehension, because there are many methods in teaching English.
Grammar Translation Method focuses on translating grammatical forms, memorizing vocabulary, learning rules, and studying conjugations. The purpose of using the GTM is to able to read literature written in the target language. The students are given the grammar rules and examples, are told to memorize them, and then are asked to apply the rules to other examples. They also learn grammatical paradigm such as verb conjugations. In the experience, the teachers read the text first and the students follow them. After that the teachers ask the students to find out the difficult words, and match them into the things that the students know in their daily life to give the new vocabulary. By using this method, the teachers can be easy to make students understand the reading passage and are not confuse again to answer the relating questions, because they have mastered the reading. So, the use of Grammar Translation Method is needed by the students to comprehend the reading passage and it is needed by the teachers to teach reading comprehension.
2.3 Hypothesis
Hypothesis is a tentative explanation for certain behavior, phenomena, or events that have occurred or will occur (Gay, 1981). A hypothesis is needed to show the researcher’s thinking and expectation about what the outcomes of the researcher will be.
Based on the theoretical framework and the conceptual framework above, the hypothesis can be stated as follows: “The use of Grammar Translation Method gives a significant effect on students’ achievement in reading comprehension.”
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 Location and Time
This study will be conducted at SMP Muhammadiyah 1, Jalan Demak No. 3 Medan. The researcher will research this study to students who are grade VII 2011 academic year, that will be done at June 2011.
3.2 Population and Sample
The population of this study is grade VII of SMP Muhammadiyah 01 Medan. According to Arikunto (2002:112), if there are large amount of subject of the population, the sample can be taken between 10% - 15% or 20% - 25%. It depends on the ability of the writer based on the time, energy, and fund. There are 4 classes of regular grade VII and 3 classes of excellent grade of SMP Muhammadiyah 01, where every regular class has 43 students and every excellent class has 20 students, so that the total of students in grade VII is 232 students. The researcher will choose the sample randomly as random sampling, so that the sample of this study is 10% from 232 is 20 students as sample. 10 students from regular class will be as the experimental group and 10 excellent class students will be as the control group.
3.3 Research Design
The type of this study is Associative. Based on the level of explanation the research can be taken classified such as, descriptive, assosiative, and comparative (Sugiono, 2009). For design, this study will use an experimental research. It wil be applied in order to investigate the effect of Grammar Translation Method in teaching reading comprehension. There are two groups in the experimental research, namely control group and experimental group.
Table 3.1
Research Design
Group | Pre-test | Treatment | Post-Test |
Experimental Group | X1 | √ | X2 |
Control Group | Y1 | X | Y2 |
Where: X1 = pre-test of the experimental group
X2 = post-test of the experimental group
Y1 = pre-test of the control group
Y2 = post-test of the control group
√ = teaching reading comprehension by using GTM
X = teaching reading comprehension without using GTM
3.4 Research Instrument
To collect the data, a reading test will be used. The instrument of collecting data will be conducted a reading comprehension and its questions relates the reading test. In pre-test and post-test, there will be the same test with the same topic. From both groups will be asked to read the reading passage and answer the questions relates the reading text.
3.5 Try out of Instrument
A test is good if it is valid and reliable. To ensure that the test is good, its validity and reliability should be established.
3.5.1 Validity of the Test
Validity of the test is the extend to which the test measures what is suppossed to measure. This study will use content validity as the validity of the test. The test will be made based on the content of curriculum.
3.5.2 Reliability of the Test
The reliability of the test refers to the consistency of the test from one time to another time. Reading test involves subjectivity, so according to Vockel (1983:34) inter score (inter rater) will be used to know wheter the test is reliable or not and Pearson Product Moment will be used in this study. The formula is as follows:
Where: rxy : the coefficient of correlation between rater
N : the number of sample
∑xy : total sum of x and y
∑X : the score of first scorer
∑y : the score of second scorer
Tinambunan (1988) says that the categories of coefficient correlation are as follows:
00 – 0,20 : the reliability is very low
0,21 – 0,40 : the reliability is low
0,41 – 0,60 : the reliability is significant
0,61 – 0,80 : the reliability is high
0,81 – 1,00 : the reliability is very high
3.6 The Technique of Data Analysis
In order to know whether there will be any effect of using Grammar Translation Method (GTM) on students’ achievement in reading comprehension, the difference of mean scores of the two groups will be calculated by using t-test. The formula of t-test is as follows:
Where: t : total score
Mx : the mean of experimental group
My : the mean of control group
dx : standard deviation of experimental group
dy : standard deviation of control group
Nx : the total sample of experimental group
Ny : the total sample of control group
