IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION

THROUGH EXTENSIVE READING ACTIVITY

( A Classroom Action Research for the Second Grade Students
of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Mlati, Academic Years 2013-2014 )
 

A PAPER

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Attainment of the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
in English Education

By :
Budi Prasetyono
09004347

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS AHMAD DAHLAN
YOGYAKARTA
2014
 IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION
THROUGH EXTENSIVE READING ACTIVITY
( A Classroom Action Research for the Second Grade Students
of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Mlati, Academic Years 2013-2014 )

Budi Prasetyono
Universitas Ahmad Dahlan

Abstract

The title of this research is Improving Reading Comprehension Through

Extensive Reading Activity (A Classroom Action Research for the Second Grade
Students of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Mlati, Academic Years 2013-2014). The
objectives of this research are to improve the quality of teaching and learning
process of reading through Extensive Reading activity, to describe the students’
response in learning reading through Extensive Reading activity, and to improve
the students’ reading comprehension through Extensive Reading activity.
The research belongs to Classroom Action Research (CAR). The subject
and the setting of the research were the eighth grade students of SMP
Muhammadiyah 3 Mlati, Sleman. The research was conducted in two cycles and
there were three meetings in every cycle. The data were collected by doing
observation, conducting interview, distributing questionaire, and giving reading
test (pre-test and post-test). The writer used descriptive qualitative technique to
analyze the data from the result of observations, interviews, and questionaires.
The writer used descriptive quantitative technique to analyze the result of pre-test
and post-test.
The result of the research showed: First, using Extensive Reading activity
was able to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process of reading in
the research setting. The indicator of the improvement was the teaching and
learning process got good response from the students. Second, the students
commonly performed good response in following Extensive Reading activity.
Third, the implementation of Extensive Reading activity had successfully
improved the students’ reading comprehension. Before implementing the action,
the students’ mean score in the pre-test was (56.2). After conducting the action in
the cycle I, the students’ mean score in the post test I increased to (74.8). Then the
students’ mean score had significantly improved in the post test II (83.2) after
conducting the action in the cycle II.

Keywords: CAR, Extensive Reading activity, reading comprehension

Introduction

Mastering reading is very important for students to be able to master

another English’s skills. For example, a student who wants to be a good writer,

he/she needs to be a good reader. In addition, the students need to master reading

in order to comunicate and to receive some information (technology, science,

sport, economic, bussiness, news, etc). The information above is usually

transferred in written material like book, newspaper, magazine, journal,

advertisement, article, blog, social media, short message, etc. To be able to get

good understanding of these written materials above, To be able to get good

comprehension from the written materials above, the students need to read it well

and effectively. The importance of effective reading is also proposed by Greenal

and Michaels (1986: 46). They say, effective reading means being able to read

accurately, and to understand as much of the passage as you need in order to

acieve your purpose.

Unfortunately, common readers, especially young learners, do not have a

good reading comprehension in understanding English passages well and

effectively. There are several problems appear in the field of education. First, the

students usually find difficulties in comprehending the text if they do not know a

lot of the words in the text. This statement is supported by Paran in Harmer (2005:

203). He said, if the readers do not know half of the words in a text, they will have

great difficulty in understanding the text as a whole. Second, the condition is

going worse because teaching reading activity which is usually conducted by

teacher is sometimes still unideal. The teachers do not introduce appropriate

activities and strategies in learning reading to the students.

The second problem above also commonly happens in the teaching and

learning process of reading like what the reseacher found in SMP Muhammadiyah

3, Mlati, Sleman. The unideal teaching and learning process of reading usually

generates a snowball effect of problems. Since the students are not introduced

with appropriate reading varieties and strategies the students usually perform

unappropriate tendency in reading the passages. For example, the students usually

read without objectives and strategies, overanalyze the passages using dictionary,

and perform bad response in following reading activities. As a result, the students

have no good competence and experience in comprehending the passages well. In

other words, the students do not have good enough reading comprehension to help

them become good readers.

Figure 1. Snowball Effect of Problems in the Research Setting

Hope 
(ideal) 

Unideal condition in teaching and learning reading

( No appropriate and activities and strategies in reading)

Reading without objective&strategies,over-

Gap  analyzing the text, performing unideal
(problem)  response in reading activity.

The students’ reading comprehension

  is not good
Reality 
 The snowball effect of problems identified by the researcher above can

grow greater and greater if there is no solution to cover it. So, it is necessary to

create an appropriate solution in order to stop the problems above growing greater

in the future. By reducing or eliminating some problems above, it is hoped that the

level of students’ reading comprehension can be increased to make them become

the good and effective reader.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher tries to offer a solution by

using Extensive Reading Activity as the main “tool” to improve students’ reading

comprehension in SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Mlati, Sleman through a clasroom

action construction. To improve the quality of teaching and learning process of

reading through Extensive Reading activity. This study aims to: (1) improve the

quality of teaching and learning process of reading through Extensive Reading

activity, (2) describe the students’ response in learning reading using Extensive

Reading activity. (3) describe the improvement of students’ reading

comprehension through Extensive Reading activity.

This research was conducted in the second grade (VIIIA class) of SMP

Muhammadiyah 3, Mlati in the academic year 2013-2014. The class consisted of

21 students. It was held in two cycle started from August 26th 2013 to September

10th 2013. Each cycle of this study consisted three meetings. Two first meeting for

conducting actions and the last meeting for assessing the students’ reading

comprehension improvement.

The data were collected by using several instruments like observation,

conducting interview, distributing questionaire, and giving tests as Arikunto

(2006: 149) stated. The researcher used descriptive qualitative technique to

analyze the data from the result of observations, interviews, and questionaires.

The writer used descriptive quantitative technique to analyze the result of pre-test

and post-test.

Reading

Reading is one of the Basic Skills of English. It is categorized as input

skill. It means when people read something they will get information from it.

Nunan (2004: 68) states, reading is a fluent process of reader combining

information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning.

In the reading, readers combine the infromation from the text and the information

from their exsisting background knowledge.

As a skill, reading can be trained and developed. People who want to be a

good and effective reader, they must master reading skill and its strategies and

technigues. Each reading passage has its own strategies and techniques to read it.

Soedarso (2004: 12) in his book Membaca Cepat (Speed Reading), states that in

the modern era people need to read fast and effective because they have limited

time. They need to select the appropriate strategies and techniques in reading

according to their purpose.

Reading Comprehension

The main purpose of reading is to get comprehension. When the students

read a passage, they decode written information and it is combined with the

students’ background of knowledge in their brains to produce comprehension.

Anderson in McKay (2006: 224) stated, reading is both process and product. The
product of reading is called reading comprehension, or an internal construction of

meaning; that is, there has been understanding of what has been read. Smith and

Robinson (1980:5) defined reading comprehension as the understanding,

evaluating, and utilizing of information and ideas gained through an interaction

between the reader and the author. Furthermore, Harris and Smith (1972:243)

stated, reading is a process intimately linked to think, and there three factors

influencing comprehension, i.e. background experience, ability to use language,

and intelligence.

Reading Comprehension Skills

To comprehend the written forms, there are so many skills that can be used

by the students. According to Johnson (2008:110-111) reading comprehensian

skills are strategies readers use to retrieve information and construct meaning

from expository text. They are thinking process, broked down into steps to

comprehend. These comprehension skills can be easily learned and flexibly

sellected to a varieaty of reading situations. Brown (2001: 308) stated, perhaps the

most valuable strategies for learners (as well as native speaker) are skimming and

scanning strategies. Several skills above can be improved, trained and developed

as the way the students grow. Improving reading comprehension skills is valuable

to make them good reader and effective reader.

Extensive Reading Activity

According to Brown (2001: 301) Extensive Reading activity is carried out

to achieve general understanding of a usually somewhat longer texts (book, long

article, long essay, crowded advertisement, newspaper, magazine, ect). Extensive

reading activity can be conducted in the class time or outside the class time.

Brown (2001: 301) adds, Extensive Reading activity has advantages. First, it

makes the students to read better. Second, it as a key to students gain reading

ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. By stimulating

reading for enjoyment or reading where all concepts, names, dates, and other

details, need not be retained, students gains an appreciation for effective and

cognitive window of reading. Extensive reading can sometimes help learners get

away from their tendency to overanalyze or look up words they do not know, and

read for understanding.

According to Day and Bamford (1998: 7-8) Extensive Reading has several

characteristics, these are: (a). Students read as much as possible, (b). A avariety of

materials on a wide range of topics are available, (c). Students select what they

want to read, (c). The purposes of reading are usually for pleasure, information,

and general understanding, (d). Reading is its own reward, (e). Reading materials

are well within linguistic competence of the students, (f). Reading is individual

and silent, (g). Reading speed is usually faster than slower, (h). Teachers orient

students to the goal of the program, (i). The teacher is a role model of reading for

the students.

Classroom Action Research

Many experts have the same ideas that classroom action research is a study

undertaken by participants of a social situation that concerns in improving

particular outcomes (Hopkins, 2008: 1; Kemmis in Hopkins, 2008: 48; John Elliot

in Hopkins, 2008: 48; Mills in Hopkins, 2008: 48; Lewin in Hopkins 2008: 48-
49). Kemmis and Mc Taggart in Darmadi (2011: 246) action research occurs

through a dynamic and complementary process which consist of four essential

“moments”. They are planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.

According to the definitions above, there are two main ideas in Classroom

Action Research. First, what are the students’ outcomes need to be improved?.

Second, what is the main ‘tool’ to improve it?.

Kemmis and Mc Taggart in Darmadi (2011: 246) action research occurs

through a dynamic and complementary process which consist of four essential

“moments”. They are planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.

Research Findings and Discussion

1. Reconnaissance Process

After collecting and analyzing the data from the research setting by

observing the teaching and learning process, interviewing the English

teacher, distributing questionaire to the students, and giving a reading test,

the findings showed that there were three major problems in the research

setting as follows:

a. The quality of teaching and learning process of reading was unideal. It

needed to be improved in order to create a good reading atmosphere for

the students.

b. The students’ response in following reading activity was not good.

They performed bad interest, enthusiasm, and seriousness. They also

followed the teaching and learning process of reading without cosiness.

Thus, their response in following teaching and learning process of

 reading needed to be improved in order to get their better enthusiasm,

interest, seriousness, and joyness in following the reading activity.

c. The students’ reading comprehension need to be improved because

their mean score was commonly categorized in fair category (56.2). In

other words, their score was clasified under the ideal mean score (60.0)

2. Implementation of the Research

This research was conducted two cycle started from August 26th

2013 to September 10th 2013. Each cycle of this study consisted three

meetings. Two first meeting for conducting actions and the last meeting

for assessing the students’ reading comprehension improvement. The

material that is delivered by the researcher in the first cycle was

descriptive text and recount text in the second cycle. Every cycle of this

research followed four basic steps. They were: planning, acting, observing

and reflecting.

3. The Improvement of the Quality of Teaching and Learning Process of

Reading after Implementing Extensive Reading Activity

After implementing and conducting Extensive Reading activity in

the teaching and learning process, the findings showed several

improvement as follows:

a). The students felt a new atmosphere in reading activity. There were

some beneficial activities and conditions faced by the students. For

 example, the students read with objective: reading for pleasure, for

information, and for global understanding. The students were guided,

tutored, and facilitated by the researcher during the activities. The

students were also presented by outdoor reading activity. This

condition had attracted the students to activate theirself to love their

reading better than before. This condition was very different with the

previous condition of teaching and learning process of reading.

b). The students started using some beneficial strategies and techniques to

help them read and comprehend the text better. The students were

introduced, guided, trained, and facilitated to use them by the

researcher. As a result, the students were able to read and comprehend

the text better and faster.

c). The students were able to develop their competence in using several

strategies and techniques of reading and used them. The students’

competence in analyzing and comprehending the text were trained by

giving them many experiences in reading and by adding much portion

in reading.

d). Another indicator of the improvement of teachng and learning process

of reading in the cycle II was the students performed good response in

following the activity.

4. The Students Response in Learning Reading using Extensive Reading

Activity
 In finding the improvement of the students’ response in learning

reading after implementing Extensive Reading activity for two cycles, the

researcher used the principles of Triangulation method from Wallace

(2007: 36). The researcher combined the perspective from the result of the

observation checklist, feedback discussion with English teacher, and the

information taken from giving questionaire to the students. Below, there

was a chart that illustrated the students’ response in following the teaching

and learning process of reading through Extensive Reading activity:

Chart 1. The Students’ Response in Learning Reading

through Extensive Reading activity

10
Excelent 
9 Students' Response
8
Good 
7
Axis Title

6
Fair 
5
4
Bad  3
2
Very Bad 
1
0
Interest Enthusiasm Seriousness Comfort

5. The Improvement of the Students’ Reading Comprehension

In increasing the students’ comprehension, implemented Extensive

Reading activity as the main “tool” in this research. After conducting the

treatment for four times in the cycle I and cycle II, the researcher gave

post-tests to measure the students’ improvement. The researcher used

holistic scoring rubric from Brown (2004: 215) and ESL reading rubric
from O’Malley and Pierce (1996: 108) in clasifying the assessment and

scoring the students’ works.

Before conducting the actions, the students’ mean score was

commonly categorized in fair category (56.2). In other words, their score

was clasified under the ideal mean score (60.0). After conducting the

actions in the cycle I and cycle II, the students’ score improved

significantly. Below there was a table that showed the students’ frequency

distribution of the students’ score:

Table 4. The Frequency Distribution of the Students’ Score

on Pre-test, Post Test I, and Post Test II.

Interval Pre-test Post-test Post test Category

Score I II
P (%) f P (%) f P (%) f
≥ 82.5 5.26% 1 26.31% 5 76.68 % 14 Very good

67.5-82.4 36.84% 7 68.40% 13 15.78 % 3 Good

52.5-67.4 31.57% 6 0% 0 3.47 % 1 Fair

37.5-52.4 26.31% 5 10.52% 2 3.47 % 1 Poor

≤ 37.4 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 Very poor

N 100% 19 100% 20 100% 19

Chart 2. The Improvement of Students’ Mean Score

 90 83.2
74.8
80 (Excelent)
(Good)
70
56.2
60 (Fair)

50

40

30

20

10

0
Pre test Post‐test I Post‐test II

The chart above showed the improvement of the students’ mean

score. Before conducting the treatment, the students’ mean score was 56.2.

and it is clasified in fair category. Their mean score improved significantly

into good category 74.8 (14.8 point above the ideal mean score) after the

students following the teaching and learning process in the cycle I. This

good progress continued in the cycle II, the students’ mean score increased

to 83.2 in the post-test II.

Conclusion

Based on the discussion of the research, the researcher proposed some

conclusions related to the result of the research. The conclusions can be

explained as follows:

1. After conducting the research for two cycles, the researcher concluded that

using of Extensive Reading activity was able to improve the quality of the

teaching and learning process of reading in the research setting. Extensive

 Reading activity had created a new atmosphere of reading in which the

students were helped, facilitated, and activated to use beneficial strategies

and techniques in comprehending the text better than before.

2. The students’ response in learning reading through Extensive Reading

activity was very good. They were interested and enthusiased in the

teaching and learning process, especially in the reading activity. The

students enjoyed and felt comfort to read the reading passages given by the

researcher. The students also performed good seriousness during the

activity.

3. The implementation of teaching and learning activity using Extensive

Reading activity have succesfully improved the students’ reading

comprehension. After conducting the action in the cycle I, the students’

mean score had increased into good category (74.8). Then the students’

mean score improved to excelent category after conducting the action of

the cycle II (83.2).

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