TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION BY USING ECHO READING STRATEGYTO THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SETIA DARMA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF PALEMBANG

1. Background

Language as a main tool of communication takes an important function for human interaction. According to Brown (2007:6), language is a means of communication. It also brings them into relationship with the interaction. Without language, it will be difficult for someone to communicate or interact with other people. There are so many languages in this world. Every country or every area has its own language for example, Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, French, Arabic, Spanish, English and etc. In term of communication, English in its widespread development has become an international language.

English as an international language (Richards, 1992:124) consequently plays an important role in real-life communication and almost all aspect of human life. English is also used as for cross-cultural or cross-linguistics communication. English is being an objective of requirements for people around the world who want to get occupational value in their job. Therefore, people start to realize that English is important and consider learning English more seriously. English has become a language which is learnt by students at school and university. In Indonesia, for example, English has a status as a foreign language. English is a compulsory subject for elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and university. Students are hoped to master English both oral and written form fluently.

There are some language skills that must be taught at school, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reading is one of the most important academic skills in learning English. Reading also provides access to information due to the fact that it can give valuable knowledge to the reader who wants to get information. It is important to learn reading because a person who can read well would be able to increase his or her knowledge through reading.

Indonesian students often find it difficult to comprehend English reading text, find the mean ideas of paragraph, identify key supporting points, make inference, and understand vocabulary items in context. There are several reasons why the students have such difficulties. According to Armstrong (2003:20) students can decode individual words but encounter obstacles in comprehending whole text, some individuals have problems primarily with the underlying grammatical-logical structures of sentences, others have difficulties visualizing what they have read, or understanding what the authors intent may be.

In teaching and learning process as well as the materials are being taught have important rules. Teacher of English should use the appropriate strategies which can improve the quality of teaching and learning process. Sutjipto (2003:1) stated that the success of learning is determined by the exact use of learning strategies. Therefore, reading strategies play important rule in teaching and learning reading because the fact that they facilitate students to read efficiently. The use of appropriate strategy may influence that is the success or failure of teaching and learning process. Teaching students to read using an appropriate strategy will make a good result and can improve students reading comprehension.

There are some strategies which are usually used by the teacher; one of them is Echo reading strategy. According to Smith (2004:108) Echo reading strategy is when a teacher reads a line of the text the students repeat or echo the same line. This strategy can help struggling readers with fluency, reading orally, new vocabulary, and comprehension. According to Herron (2005:22) Echo reading is another form of supported reading.

Based on description above a research has been concluded entitled: Teaching Reading Comprehension by Using Echo Strategy to the Tenth Grade Students of Setia Darma Vocational School of Palembang.

2. The Problem of the study

Based on the background above, the main problem of this study is the use of strategy to help students to find mains idea, interpret meanings of the words, and specific information from the texts. To make the problem clear, it is necessary to limit the problem in order to focus on the point of discussion. As guide in doing the study, the limitation and the formulation of the problem are presented below.

2.1 Limitation of the problem

This study deals with teaching reading comprehension by using echo reading strategy to the tenth grade students of Setia Darma Vocational school of Palembang, in the theme Folklore

2.2 Formulation of the Problem

The problem in this study is formulated as follows: Is it effective to teach reading comprehension by using echo reading strategy to the tenth grade students of Setia DarmaVocational school of Palembang?

3. The Objective of the Study

The objective of doing this study is to find out whether or not it is effective to used echo reading strategy in teaching reading comprehension to the tenth grade the students of Setia Darma Vocational school of Palembang.

4. The Significance of the Study

The significance of this study are described in the following:

1. The result of the research can be taken as contribution for better teaching.

2. The result of this study could give a contribution for the teacher of English, especially at Setia Darma Vocational school of Palembang in improving the quality of achievement in teaching learning process,

3. The result of this study also becomes source information for the students in using Echo reading strategy in understanding the material of the reading comprehension.

4. For the writer herself, it can enlarge her knowledge about teaching reading strategy especially about Echo reading strategy and get experience in doing a research.

5. Hypothesis

Hypothesis is simply put, a prediction of some sort regarding the possible out-comes of a study (see Fraenkel and Wallen , 2001:39). Based on the problem and the objective above, the writer uses two hypotheses in this study. They are null hypothesis (Ho) and alternative hypothesis (Ha).

The null hypothesis (Ho): is it not effective to use echo reading strategy in teaching reading comprehension to the tenth grade the students of Setia Darma Vocational school of Palembang.

The alternative hypothesis (Ha): it is effective to use echo reading strategy in teaching reading comprehension to the tenth grade the students of Setia Darma Vocational school of Palembang.

6. The Criteria for Testing Hypothesis

To find out whether the experiment is significant or not, the writer will compare the result of pre-test and post-test between the experimental group and control group to get the value of t with the value of t table. The value of t-table is 1.671 at significance level of 5% and df is 44. Therefore, to reject the null hypothesis the t obtained should be same or higher than 1.671. If the t obtained is less than 1.671 the null hypothesis (Ho) would be accepted and consequently, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) should be rejected.

7. Literature Review

In this part, the writer will discuss about (1) the concept of teaching, (2) the concept of reading, (3) the purpose of reading , (4) the concept of comprehension, (5) the concept of teaching reading comprehension, (6) the concept of strategy (7) the advantages of strategy, (8) teaching procedure of Echo reading strategy, and (9) related previous study.

7.1 The Concept of Teaching

Brown (2007:8) stated that teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the condition for learning. Its means a teacher can play important roles of a facilitator, guide, motivator, and manager. As a facilitator, the teacher provides the facilities such as circumstances, equipment, aid, etc. As guide, the teacher shows or help learners to learn how to do something and understand knowledge. And a motivator, a teacher stimulates the interest of learner, and the last, as manager, the teacher arranges information and environment for the students to learn.

7.2 The Concept of Reading

Reading is one of four language skills that the students have. Macceca (2007:4) stated reading is a complex act for human. According to Goodman (1998:9) reading is a process in which information is dealt with and meaning constructed continuously, it can be usefully represented as a series of cycles. Above all, reading is process of understanding the meaning of printed texts, through the interaction among the reader, text and the context situations.

7.3 The Purpose of Reading

Zwiers (2004:3) state that the purpose of reading is construct meaning. To average literate person, reading appears to be quite simple. We look at the letters to make sounds to make words to make sentences, and then we understand. However, even a basic understanding of text depends on countless invisible thought processes that work together at lightning speed. From this statement, we can conclude that as a reader we should understand what we read and can get information or knowledge from text.

7.4. The Concept of Comprehension

Comprehension is a highly individual process, and assessing it is far more complex than many decision makers leads us to believe Zwiers (2004:10).

Zwiers (2010:4) shows that he analyzed hundred of resources on comprehension strategies and synthesized them into the following six habits:

1. Organizing text information by sculpting the idea and summarizing

2. Connecting to background knowledge

3. Making inferences and predictions

4. Generating and answering questions

5. Understanding and remembering word meanings

6. Monitoring ones own comprehension

7.5 The Concept of Teaching Reading Comprehension

Based on (Pinnell and Scharer, 2003:8-9) Children learn to understand texts in just about every context in which they encounter them-hearing them read aloud, reading them as independent work, exploring them at productive work centers, discussing them as literature, and reading together in small groups. Teaching children to comprehend is challenging because reading is complex. Students who are good comprehend use strategies in reading to learn new concept, get deeply involved in what they are reading, critically evaluate what they read, and apply their knowledge to solve practical as well as intellectual problems