Introduction Thesis

Introduction Thesis

1.      Introduction

In learning English, there are four skills that they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Eventhough, reading comes as the third skill in the recent curriculum of 2013, reading is considered as the most important skill. It is supported by Patel and Jain (2008, p.13) that reading is most useful and important skill for people. This skill is more important than speaking and writing.

 According to Nunan (2006, p.69), reading is a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving meaning from printed word. It means that reading is a process to establish the reader’s comprehension which involves making sense and deriving meaning from printed word with different purposes. Meanwhile, Patel and Jain (2008, p.13) state that reading means to understand the meaning of printed words i.e written symbols. Reading is an active process which consists of recognition and comprehension skill. Lone (2011, p.1) says that reading as the ability to recognize, and examine words or sentences and understand the information within. Further, he adds that reading is a cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message and to examine and grasp the meaning of written or printed characters, words or sentences. Palani (2012, p.92) continues that reading is a process of thinking, evaluating, judging, imagining, reasoning, and problem solving. In short, reading is an active process which involves making sense and deriving meaning from printed or written word as a means of understanding what has been read.

Collins and Collins (2002, p.9) say that reading is an essential skill, perhaps the most important skill, taught in schools. There are many reasons to clarify the important of reading skill, especially, English language. In this case, Rahman (2004, p.1) states that English is the number one library language of the world, a vast majority of world’s library resources are in English, and the biggest publishing industries of the world publish books in English. Overall, it will be impossible to pursue meaningful higher education without the reading skill of English. Meanwhile, Patel and Jain (2008, p.13) clearly state that reading is an important activity in life with which one can update his or her knowledge. Reading skill is an important tool for academic success. Moreover, reading is regarded as the most dominant skill in learning any subject because the ability to read is not only performance to pronounce the passage but also the understanding of the message from a passage or text. Meanwhile, Schoenbach, et.al (2012, p.19) state that it is a complex process of problem solving in which the reader works to make sense of a text not just from the words and sentences on the page but also from the ideas, memories, and knowledge evoked by those words and sentences.As a means of problem solving, reading is considered as an important skill to be taught.

According to Pang, et.al (2003, p.6), reading is about understanding written texts. It is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Based on Department for Education and Skills (2005, p.2) states that reading comprehension is an essential part of the reading process. Nunan (2006, p.71) adds that reading comprehension refers to reading for meaning, understanding, and entertaiment. It involves higher-order thinking skills and is much more complex than merely decoding specific word. Therefore, as the students read they have to understand what the have read as a part of their reading process because the aim of reading is comprehension.

There are several issues related to reading habit and reading comprehension achievement. Cha, Ko, and Tse (2008, p.2) stated that home environment positively correlates with children’s reading comprehension achievement. It has been revealed that positive attitudes and high motivation are associated with reading achievement and reading habit.According to Zwiers (2004, p.3), reading habits more clearly describes the automatic and unconscious processes that are involved in constructing meaning from text. Thus, by this activity the readers can improve their reading ability. Meanwhile, Shen (2006) identifies reading habits, as how often, how much, and what the readers read (in Annamalai and Muniandy, 2013, p.33). It means that to get good understanding about what is read people need to read a lot. Reading a lot refers to the frequency of reading as well as the average time on reading and amount reading materials being read. Moreover, Patel and Jain (2008, p.114) say that reading habits not only help the student to get knowledge and wisdom from the cultural of heritage, but are also very helpful in passing for leisure period. It is supported by the research done by National Endowment for the Art of USA (2007, p.3-4), it is proved that habit of daily reading, for instance, overwhelmingly correlates with better reading skills and higher academic achievement. According to Elias and Ingram (1977, p.23), the child who is unfamiliar with the reading experience, for example, whose home is devoid of reading materials, who has never been read to, or who has never come to see reading as a thing of important in his environment may lack such a realization even after entering school.

The purpose of this study is to describe the reading habit and reading comprehension achievement of 12th grades students of MA.PP.Qodratullah. Findings from this study will provide insights into the reading behaviours of these students. More importantly, constant reading will help students in academic achievement.

2.      Theoretical Background

Concept of Reading

Richards and Renandya (2002, p.273) state that reading, then, is a skill which ishighly  valued by students and teachers. According to Nunan (2006, p.69), reading is a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving meaning from printed word. In short, reading is a process to establish the reader’s comprehension which involves making sense and deriving meaning from printed word with different purposes.

According to Manzo and Manzo (1995, p.9), the act of reading is said to be composed of two parts: the process and the product. The process refers to the functions, or operations, that ones goes through in deriving meaning, whereas the “product”-or more appropriately “products” refers to the actual information and insights reached as a result of reading. Meanwhile, Collins and Collins (2002, p.8) say reading is a mental process. Although the eyes are involved in sending information about print to the brain, the brain performs the real act of reading. Then, reading is a mental process which involves deriving meaning and sending information about print to the brain till being the real action of reading.

Concept of Reading Habit

According to Andrew (1903, p.121), a habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or felling through previous repetition of a mantal experience. It means that, a habit is a mental process as a means of thinking. Moreover, Wood and Neal (2007, p.843) state habits are learned dispositions to repeat past responses. They are treagered by features of the context that have covaried frequently with past performance, including performance locations, preceding actions in a squence, and particular people.

According to Zwiers (2004, p.3), reading habits more clearly describes the automatic and unconscious processes that are involved in constructing meaning from text. Then, reading habit refers to the automatic process as the readers read the textual material and deriving meaning unconsciously. Zwiers (2004, p.3), adds comprehension habits are the split-second thought that kick in constantly to help a proficient reader actively construct meaning. Then, by building reading habit will constantly help the readers construct meaning actively. On the other side, Patel and Jain (2008, p.114) state that reading habits not only help the student to get knowledge and wisdom from the cultural of heritage, but are also very helpful in passing for leisure period.

3.      Method

In this study, the writer implements Descriptive Quantitative method. This research is classified as a descriptive quantitative method because this type of research involves either identifying the characteristics of an observed phenomenon or exploring possible correlation among two or more phenomena (in Leedy, 2001, p.191). The researcher used this method because he wanted to describe the data and analyzed them based on the problems and objectives of the study. The procedures were, first, the writer measured the students’ reading habit by using questionnaire, second, the writer used reading test to find out the students’ reading comprehension. After that the writer made correlation between two variables by Pearson Product Moment in SPSS 16 based on the result of questionnaires and test.

Population and Sample

Fraenkel (2012, p.91) states that population is the larger group to which one hopes to apply the result. Furthermore, Creswell (2012, p.142) adds that it is a group of individuals who have some common characteristic that the researcher can identify and study. In this case, the target populations were 12th grade students of MA. PP. Qodratullah.

The sample of this research was taken by using purposive sampling technique. According to Leedy (2001, p.219), in purposive sampling, people or other units are choosen, as the name implies, for a particular purpose. It is supported by Singh (2006, p.91) that the purposive sampling is selected by some arbitrary method because it is known to be representative of the total population, or it is known that it will produce well matched groups. The writer chose the samples based on the different of knowledge background. Thus, the sample was chosen to correlate their reading habit and their reading comprehension achievement. The total number of the samples are 168 students of 12th grade students of MA.PP.Qodratullah.

4.      Result and Discussion

Validity Test

Fraenkel, et. al (2012, p.147) state that validity has been defined as referring to the appropriateness, correctness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the specific inferencesresearchers make based on the data they collect.Then, to find out the validity of questionnaire, the writer analyzed the data based on the theory and judgement of the experts by using Pearson Product-Moment coeficient in SPSS 16. Meanwhile, the researcher applied the Pearson Product-Moment coeficient to know the validity of the test.

In this study, the writer did try out the test items to 12th grade students of MA. PP. Qodratullah Langkan. The items were reading test and questionnaire. The reading test consisted of 50 questions, while the questionnaire consisted 20 question items. Pearson Product Moment in SPSS 16was used to find out the validity of reading test and questionnaire. According to Basrowi (2007, p.24), if the result of the test shows the rcount is higher than rtable (0.381), it means that the items is valid. Then it was found that there were 42 questions for reading test and 15 questions for questionnaire considered valid.

Reliability Test

Another characteristic of a good test is relability. According to Fraenkel, et. al (2012, p.154), reliability refers to the consistency of the scores obtained—how consistent they are for each individual from one administration of an instrument to another and from one set of items to another. Cronbach Alpha was used to find out the reliability of reading test, while the writer used Split Half method to find out the reliability of questionnaire. Fraenkel and Wallen (2012: 163) state that the score is considered reliable if the score of significance is at least or preferably higher than 0.70. Therefore, it was found that the reading test score was 0.974 and the questionnaire score was 0.904 (<0.70). it meant the items were reliable for the real research.

Analysis on Students’ Reading Habits Questionnaire

In this study, the questionnaire items were given to the samples of 12th grade students of MA. PP. Qodratullah Langkan that consist of 168 students. Th questionnaire comprised 15 questions item which dealt with their reading habits. From the result of students’ questionnaire, the writer found that the mean score was 55.58 with the standard deviation was 7.942. The minimum score was 36 (5 students), and the maximum score was 69 (9 students). There were 46 students had a very good reading habit (27.4%), the majority of them had a good reading habits 109 students (64.9%), and only a few number of students had an average reading habit 13 students (7.7%), at last, none of them had a poor and very poor reading habit.

Analysis on Students’ Reading Comprehension

After computing the students’ reading comprehension achievement test, the writer found that the students’ mean score for their reading comprehension achievement was 39.55 with the standard deviation was 13.062. There were 2 students had good reading comprehension achievement (1.2 %), 18 students had average (10.7%), the majority of them 148 students had poor reading achievement (88.1%), and none of them had excellent reading achievement. The minimum score of this term was 12 (2 students), and the maximum score was 80 (1 student).

Normality Test

Normality test was used to know whether the population model which becomes the sample of the research from each variable procedures, there was still possibility that the standard deviation in the data from the result calculation was still not normal. Therefore, by using Kolmogorov Smornov in SPSS version 16.0, it was be known whether the deviations in the measurement of the samples from each variables were still normal or not. Based on the analysis of the questionnaire, the result was 2.058. The p-output (Asymptotic significance) was 0.367. It means that the data distribution was normal because the p-output (Asymptotic significance) was

higher than mean significant different at 0.05.

Meanwhile, based on the analysis of the reading test, the result was 2.058. The p-output (Asymptotic significance) was 0.115. It means that the data distribution was normal because the p-output (Asymptotic significance) was higher than mean significant different at 0.05.

Homogeneity Test

Homogeneity test was used to know the population variances which becomes the sample of the research from each variables. Although the sample was taken procedurally through purposive sampling procedure, there was still possibility that the variances from the result calculation was still not homogeny. Therefore, by using Chi-Square Test in SPSS 16.0, it was known whether the variance in measurement of the sample from each variable still homogeny or not. Based on the analysis of the questionnaire, the result was 60.286. After consulting Chi-Square table with df 23, on the 0.05 level significant, the p-output (Asymptotic significance) was 0.078. It means that the data distribution was homogeny because the p-output (Asymptotic significance) was higher than mean significant different at 0.05. Meanwhile, based on the analysis of the reading test, the result was 82.000. After consulting Chi-Square table with df 24, on the 0.05 level significant, the poutput (Asymptotic significance) was 0.115. It means that the data distribution was homogeny because the p-output (Asymptotic significance) was higher than mean significant different at 0.05.

Hypothesis Testing in Measuring Significance Correlation

To find out the correlation of students’ reading habit and their reading comprehension achievement, Pearson Product Moment was applied. It was found that the correlation between the two variables was .000 with significance level .309. It meant that there was a very weak correlation between the students’ reading habits and their reading comprehension achievement. Therefore, the correlation was not significant ( sig.2 tailed = .309 or > 0.05).

5.      Conclusion and Remark

In this study, the writer concluded that there was low correlation between 12th grade students’ reading habit of MA. PP. Qodratullah and their reading comprehension achievement. This phenomenon was caused by several reasons such as; 1) the misperception of the students’ point of view in their comprehension toward good reading habit, 2) the students wanted to look good, though they were expected to answer the questionnaire honestly, and 3) the students preferred to read for pleasure, while the tests of this research were taken from reading for academic purpose materials. In fact, this study showed that the majority of 12th grade students of MA. PP. Qodratullah had good reading habits (65%), but they had low reading comprehension achievement (86.5%). Consequently, the alternative hypothesis(Ha) is rejected and the null hypothesis (H0)is accepted. It means, the correlation between the students’ reading habits and their reading comprehension achievement was not significant.