THE EFFECT OF USING MACROMEDIA FLASH ON STUDENTS’

READING COMPREHENSION AT STATE SENIOR

HIGH SCHOOL 10 PEKANBARU

A. The Background of the Problem

Learning English is very important because English is an international language

which used by people in the world in order to communicate. In learning English,

there are four main skills that should be mastered by the learners; speaking, writing,

listening and reading. Reading is one of the important skills. According to Richards

& Schmidt, (2010) Reading is the processes by which the meaning of a written text

is understood. In reading activity, students should be able to comprehend the

meaning of the text to get the information and also knowledge from the text. So,

the writer can conclude that the reader not only should know the meaning but also

be able to comprehend the meaning of the text.

According to Broughton, et.al (1980) Reading is a complex skill, that is to say

that it involves a whole series of lesser skills. Reading is the important skill that

should be mastered by English learners. Moreillon (2007) also states that reading is

making meaning from print and from visual information. It means that in reading

activity, students should be able to get the information from the reading text that

can be in printed or visual forms. Reading is a very complex process that requires

mental interactions and engagement to create meaning. This process is dynamic and

unique for individual readers. According to Patel & Jain (2008) Reading is an active

process which consists of recognition and comprehension skill. Reading is an

1
 2

important activity in life with which one can update his/her knowledge. So, reading

skill is an important tool for academic success.

The purposes of teaching reading in classroom are they can read, get the idea,

and understand the book written in English. In order to achieve the goal of reading

in classroom, teacher should be able to teach students effectively and efficiently.

So, the teacher has to use appropriate strategy, technique and tools or media in

teaching reading.

In order to fulfill students’ necessity on reading comprehension, School Based

Curriculum (KTSP) provides reading as one of the skills that must be taught and

learned in State Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru. This school is one of the schools

that also uses School Based Curriculum (KTSP) as guidance in teaching and

learning process. In this school, English has been taught since the first year of

English teaching period. Based on the syllabus, in teaching reading teacher have to

ask students to read the text aloud and discuss the aspects of a text in group. The

basic competence also stated in the syllabus of this school is that the students have

to read the text aloud, respond and comprehend meanings of a text. Then, in the end

of learning process the students will be able to identify the aspects of a text such as

main idea, generic structures, language features, meaning of word or sentence and

communicative purpose.

In this school, teachers usually use conventional media in teaching and learning

process. The teacher uses the textbook to explain the materials. The students are

given text in the book to be read. In reading activity, the teacher asked the students

to read the passage and find out the meaning of difficult words, then asked the
 3

students to answer the questions based on reading text. Teacher has explained the

material very clear. But in fact some students are still unable to get complete

understanding of the text. The problems that still faced by the students are indicated

in some symptoms as follows:

1. Some of the students are not able to identify the main idea of the text

2. Some of the students are not able to locate the meaning of the text

3. Some of the students are not able to identify generic structure of the text.

4. Some of the students are not able to find communicative purpose of the text.

5. Some of the students are not able to find language feature of the text

Based on the situation above, researcher assumed that one factor of students’

failure is the media that used by teacher. The students feel bored when the model

of text in a paper were given to them. It is not interesting for them. To solve the

problems, teacher has to use various media to make the students interesting in

teaching and learning activity. Media is very useful in learning the English

language. Teachers instructors and learners are helped by using media to achieve

the learning goals. In order to help teacher in creating a good teaching media in

classroom, researcher offers one kind of multimedia technology for teaching

reading called Macromedia Flash.

Saputra & Tiarina (2013) on their research said that Macromedia Flash is

combination of learning concept with the audiovisual technology capable of

generating new features that can be used in education. Hosea (2006) also stated that

Flash is also used to create stand-alone CD-ROMS and presentations, animation for

TV, content for PDAs, interactive television, kiosks and mobile phones. So
 4

Macromedia Flash is kind of interactive multimedia which include animation,

audiovisual technology and can be used to create presentation in education.

Multimedia technology has important roles in learning process. Rai (2014) in

his paper said that multimedia reading materials and environments have an edge

over textbooks as they offer a variety of flexible supports including text-to-speech,

voice recognition, animation, music and sound effects, embedded dictionaries,

linked videos to boost background knowledge and vocabulary, study tools such as

highlighters and annotation capabilities, and animated agent tutors. So, researcher

considers that Macromedia Flash can be useful, more effective, interactive and

interesting in teaching reading in some level of education. It can increase the

students’ interest in reading and improve their reading comprehension. The

procedures of using Macromedia Flash in teaching reading are:

1. Teacher prepares the material for students in Macromedia Flash application.

2. Teacher provides students the text in printed form.

3. Teacher explains the material in multimedia form.

4. The teacher and students discuss some difficult words found on the text

together. Students guess the meaning of those difficult words.

5. After reading, students work together to comprehend the texts in getting the

detail information related to the text that they read.

6. In the end of the materials, teacher provides some questions in multimedia

form. Then the students answer the question together

Based on phenomena above, the researcher is interested in conducting this

research to help teacher in creating an interactive media in teaching reading. The

 5

research title is The Effect of Using Macromedia Flash on Students’ Reading

Comprehension at State Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru.

B. Problem

1. Formulation of the Problem

Based on limitations of the problem, the researcher formulated the problem

of the study as follows:

a. How is the students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text taught

by using Macromedia Flash at State Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru?

b. How is the students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text taught

without using Macromedia Flash at State Senior High School 10

Pekanbaru?

c. Is there any significant effect of students’ reading comprehension in

descriptive text which is taught by Macromedia Flash and not at State

Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru?

C. Research Methodology

This research is an experimental research. According to Creswell (2012)

experiment is testing an idea (or practice or procedure) to determine whether or not

it influences an outcome or dependent variable. In this research, the researcher will

use quasi experimental design. Creswell (2012) also stated that quasi experiment

includes assignment, but not random assignment of participants to groups because

the experimenter cannot artificially create groups for the experiment. Therefore, the

researcher will use quasi experiment due to the limitation of the participants that

consisted of two classes only.

 6

This research will be conducted in State Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru. It

is located at Bukit Barisan Street. It will be conducted on December 2016. The

target of the population of this research is the second grade students in science

major of State Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru. They consist of 5 classes (154

students). Considering the population of this research is larger, the researcher

should take the sample of the population. In this research, the researcher will take

2 classes of 5 classes of the population (60 students).

The first class will be used as control class which is taught by using

conventional media and another will be used as an experimental class which is

taught by Macromedia Flash. The two classes get different treatment to measure

the effect of using Macromedia Flash as media toward reading comprehension at

Sate Senior High School 10 Pekanbaru. Both of the classes will be given the same

pre-test and post-test, but without giving the same treatment with the control class

and the experimental class.

The technique of the data analysis that is used in this research is Independent

T-test formula.

𝑥̅1 − 𝑥̅2
𝑡=
𝑠12 𝑠22
√ +
𝑛1 𝑛2

Note:

𝑥̅1 : Mean of the experimental class score

𝑥̅2 : Mean of the control class score

𝑠12 : Variance of the experimental class score

 7

𝑠22 : Variance of the control class score

𝑛1 : The number of experimental class

𝑛2 : The number of control class

After finding the difference, the researcher will find out the effect size of the

phenomenon using the formula below:

𝑡2
𝜂2 =
𝑡 2 + (𝑛1 + 𝑛2 − 2)

Where:

𝜂2 : Eta Square

𝑡 : t obtained

𝑛1 : The number of experimental class

𝑛2 : The number of control class

 REFERENCES

Broughton, G., Brumfit, C., Flavell, R., Hill, P., & Pincas, A. (1980). Teaching
English as a Foreign Language (Second). USA and Canada: Routledge
Education Books. http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and

Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Educational Research
(Vol. 4). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Hosea, B. (2006). The Focal Easy Guide to Macromedia Flash 8 (Vol. 1).
Burlington: Focal Press. http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

Moreillon, J. (2007). Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading

Comprehension. Chicago: American Library Association.

Patel, M. F., & Jain, P. M. (2008). English Language: Methods, Tools &
Techniques. Jaipur: Sunrise Publisher.

Rai, A. (2014). Role of Multimedia Laboratories in Language Teaching. IRC’S

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Social & Management
Sciences, 2(3), 154–156.

Richards, J., & Schmidt, R. W. (2010). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching

& Applied Linguistics (Fourth). Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.

Saputra, H. J. A., & Tiarina, Y. (2013). Using Macromedia Flas 8 to Help English
Teacher to Build Media Toward Teaching Reading. Journal of English
Language Teaching, 1.