JULIET

Learning Styles and Reading Comprehension: A Correlation Study

1
Vialisah, 2Gatot Subroto, 3Nana Raihana Askurny
1
Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji, Tanjungpinang, Kepulauan Riau 29115, Indonesia
2
Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji, Tanjungpinang, Kepulauan Riau 29115, Indonesia
3
Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji, Tanjungpinang, Kepulauan Riau 29115,
Indonesia vialisah98@gmail.com, gatot.subroto21@gmail.com,
m.candra09@gmail.com

Abstract
The purpose of this research was to know whether there was correlation between students’ learning styles and
reading comprehension. The method used of this research was quantitative method. The population in this
research were all the students of class XI IPA by using purposive sampling techniqu. The data collected through
learning styles’ questionnaire and essay test. The questionnaire was used to know about what the learning styles
they have and essay test used to know the score of students’ reading comprehension. In analyzing the data, the
researcher used Pearson Product Moment formula to find out correlation coefficient. Significance of the
correlated is used by r-value and r-table. r-value was compared to r-table. If r-value was higher than r-table, there
was a a significant correlation. Based on the research, it was found that r-value of visual learning was 0.99, for
auditory learning styles also 0.99, while r-value for kinesthetic learning styles was 0.99. The value of r-table was
0.468. Based on the result of the research, It found that there was a significant correlation of visual learning style
toward reading comprehension and there was significant correlation between auditory learning styles and reading
comprehension and also there was significant correlation between kinesthetic learning styles and reading
comprehension.

Keywords: Correlation; Learning styles; Reading comprehension

INTRODUCTION
English is an important subject that should be mastered by students. In Indonesia, English is
taught from junior high school up to University, even now it also taught to some elementary school as
an optimal subject. Learning English could not be separated from four basic skills. Those skills are
reading, speaking, writing, and listening. All of these skill must be practiced by students and cannot be
separated from one to another if one expects to able to communicate fluenty in English.
One of the English skills in learning English is reading. According to Sakdiyah & Askurny
(2019) Reading is a key activity we get to master information. Reading is an important activity in the
learning process because it gives knowledge. Through reading, someone can get information, idea,
knowledge and problem solution. Reading also becomes something important for the students because
through reading they can increase their knowledge. Then by reading, students can get many
vocabularies that they need to applied in speaking and writing. Additionally, reading skills are used in
the final examination, and students will face the comprehension task. Therefore, the students must
have good reading comprehension if they want to pass the exams.
According to Gilakjani & Ahmadi (2011) purpose to reading is to get the correct message from a
text – the message the writer intended for the reader to receive. The students do not only have to read a text
but they also have to comprehend the content of the text. For many students, comprehend the text in
English is not an easy thing if the students emphasize understanding the meaning of the text moreover in
longer text. When students read a text, they will face some obstacles, such as vocabulary problems, and
cannot find the main idea of the text. Therefore to increase knowledge in the achievement of reading
comprehension, someone must do the process of learning.
In the learning process, every students has a different habit and different method to make them
comfortable to learn. Every students has a different way to learning. Some of students find it easier to
receive information by looking, some students prefer to learn by listening, others prefer to learn by touching
and moving. The way students learn is often referred to as a learning styles. Oksattridywi & Sudarsono
(2017) states that learning styles is habitual way of processing and transforming knowledge in learning
skills to make individual be more intellectual. Furthermore, as a teacher, it is also needs to implement an
interesting strategy to make students felt not bored in process of learning in the class because one of the
way students absorbs information in learning is to understand the learning strategy given by teacher.
According to Subroto & Andriyani (2018), the teacher must think hard how to make students enjoy
learning English, so they will receive the material well. To make students easy in the process of learning
especially in reading comprehension, teachers have to consider the appropriate strategies in teaching
reading comprehension, teacher have to consider the appropriate learning strategies. The appropriate
strategies in teaching reading comprehension can be decided based on understanding students’ learning
styles because every students has a different method and way to enjoy the learn. It means that very
important for teacher to use a combination of teaching strategies and aware of the students’ learning styles.
When teachers are aware of the importance of students’ learning styles, they can provide a good way to
teach their students because every students has a different way to receive the lessons.
However, in fact, the researcher found the eleventh grade students of MAN Bintan have several
problems related to students’ reading comprehension. Mostly while reading the longer text students feel
difficulties to understand the text due to their lack of vocabulary. Consequently, students had difficulty to
find the main idea. Specific information and statements of the text which they read.
Another problem that occurs in the classroom is most of the learning styles is teacher-centered, like
reading writing and memorize. Students tend to learn by reading notebooks and textbooks, consequently,
some students talked with their friend and other students were sleepy. In other hand, when conduct group
discussion, some students remained to silent and another students choose only to write the result of the
discussion. It means that the teacher needs to use a combination learning method or strategies in students
because the way students learn and easy way they capture the meaning of learning different from one
individual to another.
According to those problem above, as the teacher, it is important to help students to master reading,
The teacher needs to know their student’ learning styles and attention to how to teach in the classroom.
Teacher should try to make changes in their classroom, such combining learning method or strategies in the
class. Based on the reason above, the researcher conducted this research to know the correlation of learning
styles and reading comprehension.
printed symbol and translating it into an appropriate sound (Elizabeth, 2010). The purpose of reading
is not only the students comprehend the reading text, but also knows which skill and technique are
appropriate for the type of text and understand to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.
Comprehension is a constructive process in which the ultimate understanding of the text determining
by combination of what is stated directly in the text (Donna et al., 2010). In reading comprehension,
the message to be imposed in the written form is the most important element that the students must
recognize, because the primary purpose of reading is to know the ideas expressed in the printed
material. Therefore, reading with comprehension is only away for the students to get what they want to
know from the reading material. In teaching and learning English, based on eighth grade syllabus, the
students are learning about kind of texts, one of them is a recount text. According to Palmer (2010),
recount text is a common type of non-fiction writing and includes regular ‘news’ or diary writing
accounts of outings and holiday activities, ‘true story’ of events in history.
Students must be able to comprehend the meaning of the texts in form of recount, narrative,
procedure, descriptive, and report text. The most problem of reading comprehension is the difficulty of
getting information or content of reading text. Unfortunately, the condition explained above also
happened in SMP Negeri 12 Tanjungpinang. The researcher had an observation while doing internship
there and found out most of students have difficulty in the reading process. They had low
comprehension on reading and it shown when they do not understand what they are reading about.
They only read what is written in the text without knowing the meaning and the concept of the text.
In addition, to solve the problem above, there are so many methods can be used in teaching
reading. One of them is Preview, Question, Read, Summarize, and Test (PQRST) method. Researcher
used PQRST method in reading comprehension to helps students to remember the material presented
in textbooks easier becuse the process of understanding the text occurs repeatedly. According to
Papathanasiou & Coppens (2013), PQRST method is a method use to reading and remembering text
that includes the principles of direct and met cognitive instruction. It means that this method can
improve students’ reading comprehension by remember the meaning of the contents from the text.
Related to this research, the researcher was considering some previous studies had been done to
support the research and make sure of the originality of the research, especially in reading
comprehension. The first study is from Nurul Khairunnisa (2019) by the title: The Effect of PQRST
Strategy on Students’ Reading Comprehension at the Eight Grade, the study was aimed to see the
effect of Preview, Question, Read, Summarize, and Test (PQRST) strategy at eight grade of MTs DDI
As-Salman Allakuang. The result of the data analysis by using t-test showed the value of t test (to) was
higher than ttable(tr), to = 1.7769 > ttis 1.684 at 5% significant degree. As the statistical hypotheses
shows, if ttest (to) > ttable(tt) in significant degree of 0.05 (5%), it means that the Alternative Hypotheses
(H1) is accepted and the Null Hypotheses (Ho) is rejected. Next, the study from by Yashinta
NurulInsani (2013) with the title of the study: The Effect of Using PQRST Method on Reading
Comprehension Ability of Seventh Grade Student of SMP Diponegoro Depok. The t-test was used to
know whether the hypothesis was accepted or not. The result of this research is teaching reading using
PQRST method is believed to be an effective strategy to improve the students’ reading ability. The
third study has been done by Nikmatul Khoiriah (2017) with the title “The Implementation of P-Q-R-
S-T Strategy to Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension Ability at Smki Assya’roniyyah Mataram
Baru”. This study using quantitative one group pretest and posttest was used as the design of the
research. The result showed that there was an improvement of students’ reading comprehension ability
after being taught through PQRST strategy. It was proven by the result of mean score from pretest
(44.17) increased to (63.59) in the posttest at the significance level (p < 0.05). In addition, finding
details information was the reading aspect that improved the most.
Therefore, based on the introduction above, the researcher conducted this research to know is
there any significant effect of Preview, Question, Read, Summarize, and Test (PQRST) method on
students’ reading comprehension at the eighth grade student of SMP Negeri 12 Tanjungpinang.

METHOD
The researcher conducted the research at SMP Negeri 12 Tanjungpinang. It is located at Jl. WR.
Supratman Km. 12, Tanjungpinang. The method used in this study is an experimental design. It means
that the researcher investigated and analyzed the data which would be obtained after giving the
treatment to the subject (Subroto, 2018). According to Sugiyono (2015), it is said as pre-experimental
design, because it follows basic experimental steps but did not to include a control group. In other
words, a single group is often studied but no comparison between no-equivalent non-treatment groups
is made. In this study, the researcher used “one group pre-test and post-test design”, where the
researcher did an experiment in a single group only. Sugiyono (2015) said that pre-experimental one
group pre-test and post-test design will give more accurate result because there is comparison between
pre-test and post-test.
In this research, sampling technique used to take sample was purposive sampling. According to
Arikunto (2010), purposive sampling is the process of selecting sample by taking subject that is not
based on the level or area, but it is taken based on the specific purpose. The subject of this research
was class eighth E (VIII.E) of SMP Negeri 12 Tanjungpinang, which consisted of 28 students. The
instrument of this research is test, which are pre-test and post-test to get the data. The design of the
question consisted of 20 items of multiple choices with 4 options (a, b, c, and d) from the student’s
work book (Lembar Kerja Siswa Bahasa Inggris Kelas VIII). The data was analyzed through SPSS
22.0.

RESULT
After the data was collected, next is measure the data by using several test, such as normality test
to find out whether the data in the population met the normal distribution requirement or not the
descriptive analysis, and the paired sample t-test. The result of data analysis shows that the pre-test
score is 63.75. While in the post-testscore is 76.61, the score showed that post-test was higher than
pre-test. Meanwhile, the result of calculation of significance 2-tailed shows that significant value
lower than significant level (0.000 < 0.05). It is mean that the alternative hypothesis (H a) is accepted
and null hypothesis (H0) is rejected. The result of data analysis of t compare is t count bigger than ttest
(11.646 > 2.052). It shows that there is significant different score of the students’ between before and
after taught by using PQRST method on students’ reading comprehension.

Normality test of this research showed on the table below.

Tests of Normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic Df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
PRE-TEST .100 28 .200* .970 28 .570
POST-TEST .150 28 .105 .966 28 .483
*. This is a lower bound of the true significance.
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction
Table 1. Normality test
Based on the normality test using Shapiro-Wilk on the table above, the significant value of pre-test is
0.570 that is mean 0.570 > 0.05 and the significant value of post-test is 0.483 that is mean 0.483 >
0.05. Both of the significant value is greater than 0.05, then it can be concluded that pre-test and post-
test data are normally distributed.

The result of data analysis o the table shows that the pre-test score mean was 63.75.
Student number Score Student number Score
1 50 15 80
2 65 16 50
3 60 17 55
4 60 18 70
5 45 19 65
6 55 20 90
7 70 21 45
8 70 22 55
9 55 23 65
10 75 24 60
 11 85 25 70
12 50 26 65
13 65 27 60
14 75 28 75
Mean 63.75
Table 2. Pre-test score

While in the post-test score was 76.61, the score showed that post-test was higher than pre-test.
Student number Score Student number Score
1 70 15 80
2 75 16 75
3 70 17 70
4 75 18 75
5 65 19 85
6 75 20 95
7 85 21 60
8 80 22 70
9 70 23 80
10 80 24 75
11 90 25 85
12 65 26 80
13 70 27 75
14 85 28 85
Mean 76.61
Table 3. Post-test score

From the table 2 and 3, it is found that the average or mean score of pre-test was 63.75. and
the post-test was 76.61. The score showed that post-test was higher than pre-test. Meanwhile,
the result of calculation of paired sample T-test processed and described by using SPSS ver.22. of
significance 2-tailed shows that significant value lower than significant level (0.000 < 0.05). The result
of the paired sample t-test calculation showed on the table below.

Table 4. Paired Samples Test

The result of the result of paired sample t-test run by SPSS 22 showed the data analysis of t count
bigger than ttest (11.646 > 2.052). It shows that there is significant different score of the students’
between before and after taught by using PQRST method on students’ reading comprehension.From
the explanation above, it can be concluded that the students got the good achievement on reading
comprehension after taught by using PQRST method. From the achievement above, the researcher
concluded that there is significant effect of PQRST method on students’ reading comprehension.
DISCUSSION
As it was stated that the T-test is used to check the significant different in scores achieved by one
group. The data analysis of significance 2-tailed shows that significant value lower than significant
level (0.000 < 0.05). It is mean that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted and null hypothesis
(H0) is rejected. The result of data analysis of t compare is tcountbigger than ttest(11.646 > 2.052). It
shows that there is significant different score of the students’ between before and after taught by using
PQRST method on students’ reading comprehension.
The data analysis of significance 2-tailed shows that significant value lower than significant level
(0.000 < 0.05). When the significant value (0.000) < significant level (0.05), the alternative hypothesis
(Ha) was accepted and the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. While the significant value (0.000) >
significant level (0.05) null hypothesis (H0) was accepted and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was
rejected.
The researcher applied some steps in doing research. In the first meeting, the researcher gave the
pre-test to the students. And then, the researcher gave motivation about the importance of English to
the students, introduced the treatment (PQRST method), and described the steps of the activities to the
students. After gave the pre-test and introduced the PQRST method to the students, the researcher
applying the treatment by using PQRST method in experimental class for about 4 times (not including
the pre-test and post-test section) with the time about 3 weeks. In the last meeting, the researcher gave
the post-test to the experimental class in order to know students’ reading comprehension after taught
with or without the treatment.
According to Papathanasiou & Coppens (2013), PQRST method is a method use to reading and
remembering text that includes the principles of direct and met cognitive instruction. It means that this
method can improve students’ reading comprehension by remember the meaning of the contents from
the text. The PQRST method helps to improve students’ comprehension of the text (Susanti, 2013). It
helps the students arrange the steps of reading. The students will have a good interest to the text
because they had preview before they analyze the whole text. Moreover, this method made the
students well-planed in reading the text. It made the reading process more effective in order to reach
the goals. By knowing this ahead of time, the students able to look for and recognize the most
important points when they do read for details. They did not waste time stumbling through the book
and finding a starting point (Staton, 1982).
In the pre-test, the average is 63.75. While in the post-test, the average is 76.61. The score
showed that post-test was higher than pre-test. From the explanation above, it can be concluded that
the students got the good achievement on reading comprehension after taught by using PQRST
method. After conducting this research, the researcher found that the PQRST method was suitable in
teaching reading comprehension because PQRST method makes student be focus on reading and
create the curiosity toward the text so it motivates the students to read and the students had a good
interest to the text because they had preview before they analyze the whole text.
After doing the hypothesis testing, the researcher found out there is significant effect of PQRST
(Preview, Question, Read, Summarize, and Test) method on students’ reading comprehension at the
eighth grade student of SMP Negeri 12 Tanjungpinang.

CONCLUSION
Based on the result and discussion in the previous section, the researcher can make the
concluded that there is significant effect of PQRST method on students’ reading comprehension.The
scores obtained from the result of calculating, the result of calculation on this research is the t c(tcount) is
higher than the tt (ttable). It means that the alternative hypothesis is accepted and the null hypothesis is
rejected.As the explanation above, the researcher conclude that there is significant effect of PQRST
(Preview, Question, Read, Summarize, and Test) method on students’ reading comprehension at the
eighth grade student of SMP Negeri 12 Tanjungpinang.

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