IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

ACHIEVEMENT IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH TEAM GAMES

TOURNAMENT

*Desi Yusnanda Sari

**Sri Minda Murni

Abstract

This study attempted to improve the students’ reading comprehension

achievement in descriptive text through Team Games Tournament (TGT) method.
This study was conducted by using classroom action research. The subject of the
research was class IX SMP PAB 10 Medan Estate which consisted of 25 students.
The research was conducted in two cycles and the first cycle consisted of four
meetings the second cycle consisted of two meetings. The instruments for
collecting the data were quantitative data (reading evaluation) and qualitative data
(diary note, observation sheet and interview sheet). Based on reading scores,
students’ score kept improving in every evaluation. In the test I the mean was
65,33, in the test II the mean was 71,72 and the test III the mean was 84,54.Based
on diary note, observation sheet and interview sheet, it was found that teaching-
learning process ran well. Students were active, enthusiastic, and interested in
reading. The result of the research showed that Team Games Tournament (TGT)
method significantly improved students’ achievement in reading comprehension
especially in reading descriptive text.

Key Words: reading achivement, descriptive text, Team Games Tournament.

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 Introduction

Background of the Study

Language consists of four skills, namely: listening, speaking, reading and

writing. Each should be achieved by the students who learn English. In this study

reading is the focus. Reading is one of the most important skills in learning

language. In fact, most students find some difficulties in comprehending a text

when they have reading activity. Brown (2000:185) states that reading is argued

the most essential skill in all educational context, remain a skill of paramount

importance as we create assessment of general language ability. It is emphasized

that reading is very important because through reading students can get

knowledge. Reading can be challenging, particularly when the material is

unfamiliar, technical or complex.

Reading, according to Patel and Jain (2008) is an active process which

consists of recognition and comprehension skill, and important skill activity in life

with which one can update his/her knowledge, and important tool for academic

success.

Based on the writer’s experiences during the teaching practice program

(Praktek Program Lapangan/PPL), the writer found that in teaching reading, most

of students were just asked to read the text then they were asked to answer some

question based on the text. When she told them to tell some information from text,

most of them did not have any ideas or opinions to clarify the information from

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the text. This situation happened because the technique that was used was not

suitable.

In PPL, The students scores on reading descriptive text were very low.

They just got the mean of the score 5,5. It was very poor, and it needed to be

improved.

From the data above, students comprehension in reading descriptive text

were very low because the learning method that was adopted by the English

teacher was a method that was not appropriate because the method did not attract

students’ interest and liveliness in the learning process so the students were bored,

and they did not want to continue learning as well as possible.

At this present time, there are already implementations learning

Revolution in teaching and learning that is learning is so longer centered on

teachers. In other words, it is called ‘Teacher Centered Learning (TCL)” but it has

been centered on students. It is called “Student Centered Learning (SCL)”,

theoretically SCL is an approach to education focusing on the needs of the

students, rather than those of others are involved in the educational process.

Based on the theory above, the researcher offers a method that must be

applied in the learning process of reading text. That according to Robert E. Slavin

(1995) Cooperative Learning refers to variety of teaching methods in which

students work in small group to help one another learn academic content. In

cooperative classrooms, students are expected to help each other to discuss and

argue with each other, to assess each other’s current knowledge and fill in gaps in

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each other’s understanding so that the interest and the active of students in the

learning process can be improved not only individually but in groups or together.

Learning method which the research refers to is Team Games Tournament.

In this study, the researcher focuses on the application of Team Games

Tournament (TGT) method because it works best for information that is relatively

objective teaching reading descriptive text and can be used teach foreign language

and any material with single right answer (Slavin, 1995) Team Games

Tournament, in which students play academic games with members of other

teams to contribute points for their team scores. The use of games makes Team

Games Tournament even more exciting and motivating to students.

With the application of this method is expected to enhance students’ skill

in reading descriptive text properly and accordance with the existing elements in

the reading descriptive text.

According to Admin, Friday 17 February 2012.The research findings show

that the students‟ reading comprehension improved after implementing TGT. The

improvement of students reading comprehension includes students could find: (1)

general idea of the text; (2) stated detail information of the text; (3) implied

information of the text; (4) the meaning of unfamiliar word of the text (5)

reference of pronouns of the text; (6) social purpose of recount text; and (7)

generic structure of recount text.

Besides, the class situation also increased during TL process. The

improvement of class situation includes: (1) students were active in answering

teachers questions; (2) students paid attention to the teachers explanation; (3)

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students were active in discussing the material; (4) students felt enjoyable during

TL process.

The writer comes to the conclusion that TGT is able to improve the

students‟ reading comprehension and the class situation. TGT can create an

enjoyable and active class environment. Therefore, teacher can choose TGT to

overcome students. Problems in learning reading and to improve class situation.

Then, according to me in Team Games Tournament makes the students work in

their groups and have a competition in the tournament. In each team, there are

students who have different ability in learning English. So the students who have

the higher ability can motivate their other friends.

Research Question

Based on the background of the study, the problem of this study can be

formulated as the following: “Does the Team Games Tournament technique

students’ ability in reading comprehension ?”

Research Method

This research is conducted as an action research procedure since involved

a substantive act with a research procedure to find the improvement. Stringer

(2007) maintains that action research is systematic approach to investigation that

enables people to find effective solutions to problems they confront in their

everyday life. Action research focused on specific and localized solutions. Action

research provides the means by which people in schools, business and community

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organizations; teachers; and health and human services may increase the

effectiveness of the work in which they are engaged.

Furthermore, Aqib, Maftuh, Sujak & Kawentar (2008) state that action

research is research that is done by the teacher in his/her class through reflection

of his/her self with the aim for preparing the effort so that the students’

achievement can be improved.

On the other hand, Stringer (2007) in Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1999), for

instance present action research as a spiral activity: plan, act, observe and reflect.

Different formulations of action research reflect the diverse ways in which the

same set of activities may be described, although the process they delineate are

similar. There are, after all, many ways of cutting a cake.

Result and Discussion

The writer organized all the quantitative and qualitative data from all

meeting s. In every two meetings, the writer conducted reading evaluation. From

the first evaluation, it was found that students’ achievement in reading

comprehension was still low in the level imperative reading. They were confused

how to analyze the text and what are the parts of the descriptive text. Next, the

first cycle of class room action research was conducted and students were given

treatment of TGT (Team Games Tournament) method at the first time. Although

they still had problem, the result of second evaluation was better than first

evaluation. After the writer did the second cycle, the result was better than first

cycle.

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 The researcher also analyzed data to support this research finding beside

the quantitative data (reading evaluation score) the qualitative data were taken

from observation sheet and questionnaire sheet. Observation result showed that

the students gave their good attitudes and responses during the teaching and

learning process. Even though they got problem at the first time but they could

handle their difficulties and enjoyed their lesson by the process of time. They

became more active and interested in reading. The questionnaire showed that

students agree that the application of TGT (Team Games Tournament) method had

helped them in reading comprehension in descriptive text. These all qualitative

data supported the research findings which based on the quantitative data. Based

on the result of quantitative and qualitative data, in found that the application of

TGT (Team Games Tournament) method had successfully improved students’

achievement in reading comprehension especially reading descriptive text.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Conclusion

After analyzing the data, the writer founded that the students’ score increase

during the cycles. It is shown from the improvement of the mean of the students’

score namely the mean of the pre test (65,33), the mean of the test of cycle I

( 71,72 ) and the mean of the test of cycle II (84,54). it can be stated that the score

continuously improved from the pre test until the test of the second cycle.

Therefore , it can be concluded that Team Games Tournament Technique

improved students’ achievement on reading comprehension.

Suggestions

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 The result of this study showed that the application of TGT method could

improve students’ reading comprehension in descriptive text, In relation to the

conclusion above; some points are suggested, as follows:

1. The English teacher are suggested to use TGT (Team Games Tournament)

method as teaching method to stimulate the students’ learning reading spirit in

teaching reading process.

2. For the readers who are interested for further study (university students)

related to this research should explore the knowledge to enlarge the

understanding about how to improve students’ reading comprehension in

descriptive text and search another reference.

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