CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language has been a part of human life. The language is used to

communicate one to another either in spoken or written language. Language is

the system of arbitrary, symbol and meaning. Every language has its own

arbitrary symbols or words to express the meaning of an object or an idea. The

arbitrary symbols and the words are purposed to communicate, to speak, to

understand each other, to hear, to respond, or react spoken words.

English is an international language which is learned by many people

to catch up with the development of the world, especially in education,

science, and technology. Therefore, it is very important to master it in order to

be able to perform smooth communication with other people from other

countries. Realizing the importance of English, the government of Indonesia

has declared English as the first foreign language which is taught in Indonesia,

starting from elementary school until university levels.

In learning English there are four basic skills that must be mastered by

the students. Reading is one of those basic skills. Reading is the process of

reading and understanding a text or written language. In other word, reading is

human capability to understand and to get information from written text. But,

it is not as simple as that. Reading is a multi-component and complex process

that involves many interactions between the readers and the text.
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Reading comprehension is the interaction between the readers and the

text in order to form a meaning from the text which is involved a complex

process, word knowledge, and world knowledge. It means that the reader who

has capability in knowing how to read words has a little value if they cannot

construct the meaning from the text. In other hand, the goal of reading is able

to construct meaning from a written text with comprehension.

Text is may be longer than a sentence. The text is constructed by a

group of sentences that links and fit together. Those sentences are linked by a

word or expression that make it coherent and form an acceptable text. In other

word, it has word and expression that link the sentences within the text. In any

addition, the using of cohesive devices within the text links the sentences

together and makes it coherent. It is the key word that links the different parts

of the text together. There are two kinds of cohesion, they are grammatical

cohesion and lexical cohesion. Grammatical cohesion includes repetition,

substitution, and ellipsis. Beside, lexical cohesion includes synonym,

antonym, and hyponym. Those kinds of cohesion that are applied within text

are known as cohesive devices. In other word, cohesive device is certain key

words or expression that links the sentences within the text together.

It has been stated above that reading comprehension is a complex

process that doesn’t only involve the ability in reading words and sentences

correctly but also involves word and world knowledge to form meaning from

the text. Then, the text is the set of language that may be longer than a

sentence. It means that in comprehending a text the readers is not only form a
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meaning from one sentence only but from the set of sentences that links and

hold together in the different part of the text. Therefore, the cohesion

understanding is necessary in order to support readers’ comprehension in

reading text.

Based on the pre-survey at 10th May 2016 towards 206 students using

documentation method, from the students reading 4 final test score the writer

got the data of student’s reading comprehension among the fourth semester

students of English Education Program of State Islamic College of Jurai Siwo

Metro. Below is the survey data.

Table 1

Data of Reading 4 final test among the seventh semester students

of English Education Program of State Islamic College of Jurai Siwo Metro
No. Score Criteria Frequency Percentage
1. 81-100 Excellent 7 3%
2. 71-80 Good 76 37%
3. 61-70 Fair 98 48%
4. 51-60 Poor 21 10%
5. 0-50 Bad 4 2%
Total 206
Source: The Ledger of Academic and Students Bureau of STAIN Metro
Pre-Survey at May 10th 2016.

Table 2

Data of Discourse Analysis final test among the seventh semester students
of English Education Program of State Islamic College of Jurai Siwo Metro
No. Score Criteria Frequency Percentage
1. 81-100 Excellent 10 5%
2. 71-80 Good 49 24%
3. 61-70 Fair 62 30%
4. 51-60 Poor 56 27%
5. 0-50 Bad 29 14%
Total 206
Source: The Ledger of Academic and Students Bureau of STAIN Metro
Pre-Survey at May 10th 2016.
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Based on the data of pre-survey above, the writer found that 4 students

or 2% overall have bad comprehension in reading, 21 students or 10% overall

have poor comprehension in reading, 98 students or 48% overall have fair

comprehension in reading, 76 students or 37% overall have good

comprehension in reading, and 7 students or 3% overall have excellent

comprehension in reading. It means that most of students among the fourth

semester have problem in comprehending reading text.

After getting information about the students reading comprehension

from The Ledger of Academic and Students Bureau of STAIN Metro, the

writer try to find the other information from the student itself. The writer try to

ask the problems that the students have in comprehending reading text. Many

of student said that they have low motivation to read. Besides, the students get

difficulty in understanding the sentences structure. Moreover, the students are

lack of background knowledge and miss many meaning of linked words. The

student also difficult in understanding cohesion and coherent meaning that

built in the whole of the text. The last is that students don’t know the strategy

and process in comprehending reading text.

Base on the condition above, the writer is interested to investigate the

problem by doing a research entitled “The correlation between cohesion

understanding and reading comprehension among the seventh semester

students of English education program of state Islamic college of Jurai Siwo

Metro in academic year 2016/2017”.

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B. Problem Identification

Base on the background explained above, consequently the problems

of the study are identified bellow:

1. The students have low motivation to read.

2. The students get difficulty in understanding the sentences structure.

3. The students are lack of background knowledge and miss many meaning

of linked words.

4. The students get difficult in understanding cohesive device and coherent

meaning that built in the whole of the text.

5. The students are lack of cohesion understanding while reading the whole

of the text.

6. The students don’t know the strategy and process in comprehending

reading text.

C. Problem Limitation

The writer realizes that it will not be possible to investigate all of the

problems concerned with the cohesion understanding, and reading

comprehension among the seventh semester students of English Education

Department Program of State Islamic College Jurai Siwo Metro. Therefore,

for the cohesion understanding, this research will be focused on grammatical

cohesion (repetition, substitution and ellipsis) and lexical cohesion (synonym,

antonym, hyponym, and meronym). Also, this research will be focused on the

strategy and process of reading comprehension.

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In addition, the object of this research will be the Seventh Semester

Students of English Education Program of State Islamic College of Jurai Siwo

Metro in the academic year 2016/ 2017.

D. Problem Formulation

The problems that will be studied in this research is formulated as

follows:

“Is there any correlation between cohesion understanding and reading

comprehension among the seventh semester students of English Education

Programs of State Islamic College of Jurai Siwo Metro in Academic year

2016/ 2017?”

E. The Objective and the Benefits of the Study

1. Objective

Based on the formulation above, the objectives of this research are

aimed at:

a. Knowing the level reading comprehension among the seventh semester

students of English Education Programs of State Islamic College of

Jurai Siwo Metro in Academic year 2016/ 2017.

b. Knowing the level cohesion understanding among the seventh

semester students of English Education Programs of State Islamic

College of Jurai Siwo Metro in Academic year 2016/ 2017.

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c. Knowing the correlation between cohesion understanding and reading

comprehension among the seventh semester students of English

Education Programs of State Islamic College of Jurai Siwo Metro in

Academic year 2016/ 2017?

2. Benefits

The study will be expected to be beneficial for:

a. For the Lectures

The benefit of this research for the lecturers is as support theory

in developing reading comprehension by guiding student’s cohesion

understanding.

b. For the Students

The benefit of this research for the students is as information

about how to form meaning from the text with comprehension.

c. For the Head of Study Program

The benefit of this research for the Head of Study Program is as

an information for taking policies.