Improving the Students’ Reading Comprehension through Guided Reading Strategy at the Second Year of SMPN 1.”
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Globalization is new term describing new conditions which all nations, societies or formal state become close one another. In this era our world seems to be smaller before. People agree that globalization is caused by communication and information instrument, particularly those which something to do with technology, for instance, radio, television, internet, etc. Indeed the globalization era cannot be separated from
the concept of information and the role of language such English and Arabic. Whether we like or not, we are obliged to master foreign languages. (Noer: 2006) Language is used to communicate with others and it permits sharing of ideas and experiences. One of those languages is English language which becomes an international language. English is considered in applied as international language. Since then, it is very popular and has been spoken and learnt by almost people in the world. In Indonesia, English has been taught in educational institution as one of the important skill. To know English well, people must be able to speak, read, write, and listen.
Reading is one of the major skills to master English. By reading we can get information, knowledge and pleasure. Today there are so many books are written in English. Since the students study at the Elementary School, Junior High School, Senior High School they have been taught English. The priority of teaching English in school is reading because it can cover the three other skills. The people who always read books are written in English, they will easier to do the other skills as Achsin (1985) states that “reading skills involves the three other skills: listening, speaking and writing.” But, the problem is most of the student cannot catch or comprehend what they are reading. Students may have ability to read English reading material, but it does not mean that they can also comprehend reading material. They are also difficult to read aloud with good pronunciation.
Based on the result of observation before in PPL at SMPN 1 Pallangga, the students’ ability to read or catch what is actually stated in the text (literal) and what is implied or meant in the text (interpretive) is low. Therefore, the students need teaching strategy which can improve their skill in reading comprehension. Many strategies have been applies in schools or collage just to make the students understand what they have learned, and of course each strategy has good values for students. And this research tries to apply a strategy namely “Guided Reading Strategy”.
Williams states that guided reading is concerned with the teaching of reading; it is not just about hearing children read. There should be a specific focus and learning objective for the reading session. Guided reading includes not only the decoding of a text, but also the understanding and interpreting of that text. Students should engage with the text, critically evaluating it and reflecting on their responses to it, bringing prior knowledge to their understanding of the text. In guided reading, students develop the skills of inference, deduction, justification and evaluation.
Based on the statement above, the researcher is interested to study entitled “Improving the Students’ Reading Comprehension through Guided Reading Strategy at the Second Year of SMPN 1 Pallangga.”
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