CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter explains the reason why this research will be conducted. It starts

with background of the study, research questions, objective of the study, scope

and limitations of the study, significance of the study and ends with definition of

key terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

English is one the most important subject nowadays that is being learned by

students all over the whole world regarding to the global need as the international

language. The expectation of better future and the need of good quality human

resources who are able to face the global competition make English teaching

paradigm change. As growing time, the need of English in the human life

increases gradually. English has been many years implemented as one

compulsory subjects in Indonesia Education Curriculum, from Elementary

School to higher education.

In Kurikulum 2013 document, see Kebudayaan (2014), it is clearly stated

that English Teaching process emphasized on the uses of scientific approach

which can engage the students to explore and find (discovery learning). the role

of language teaching is focused on the use of language for communication, to

carry knowledge and to develop logical, systematic and creative thinking. Here,

students are directed to be independent learners who are curious on information,

having ability in problem solving, constructing logical thinking and creative. The
choices and decisions are very logical, strategic and prospective because

English is a lingua franca of international speakers and has extended across the

globe ( Harmer, 2001:1). Therefore, the knowledge and skill of English are

highly valued. Moreover, it is one of the subjects tested in the National

Examination.

Considering the content of curriculum above, it is important for doing some

improvement on the way of teaching English which can go in line with the

challenging future to serve the human needs. English teaching should provide

method and the materials to the students which give opportunity for them to

develop the skills needed to their future. Not only make them understand and

product a language, but they should be also have a critical thinking that make

them to be innovative and creative learner.

Students reading skills are one of the English skills should be mastered well

by students who want to have a further development of English proficiency.

Based on the study of PISA see Kebudayaan (2016b:2, it is shown that the

Indonesian students’ achievements in reading, mathematical and scientific

literacy are very low . based on the assessment, generally the Indonesian students

lack the ability on 1) understanding complex information; 2) theory, analysis and

problem solving; 3) using of tools; and 4) investigation. As the consequence, it

needs improvement of the teaching process as well as in teaching reading. The

teaching should provide the opportunities for students to develop their higher

order thinking skills, creativity, and problem solving ability.

 Regarding to the importance of developing higher order thinking skills, the

revision of Kurikulum 2013 (see Kebudayaan (2016a:4), suggest that the

teaching learning in all stages from elementary school to high school is not

limited to the taxonomy of learning, as in the previous curriculum, the higher

order thinking skills are thaught only in senior high school level. The all

taxonomies of learning: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing,

evaluating and creating can be taught in all stages. However, the implementation

should be appropriate to the stages of development. As the consequences, in the

teaching learning process, teacher should also provide their teaching with the

activities or tasks not only on the lower level thinking but also activities or tasks

which can generate higher order thinking skills. Giving students’ on tasks for

generating higher order thinking skills benefit to the students’ ability in learning.

However, the development of higher order thinking skils should basically

grounded on the teaching of the lower order thinking previously.

Among the four skills, reading becomes an important skill in learning

English since reading gives many good effects to the students as a reader. The

students can explore their knowledge about anything that they want to know

through reading. Reading is also able to help the students accomplish their

assignments. For some reasons, reading can be inferred as a window to come into

all over world. Reading is not only useful to add reader’s knowledge but also

useful to entertain the reader. Then, the students can also get the enjoyment

through having reading as their activity. Seeing these facts, reading becomes a

compulsory skill to be learned by the English language learners.

 Moreover, there are some requirements of reading skill that should

be fulfilled by the students. The first requirement is reading skill does not only

require the students to be able to code the text but also require the students to be

able to obtain the information from what is being read. It is caused by the goal of

reading itself is for comprehension. The second requirement is the students have

to be able to build their understanding from many types of texts.

Unfortunately, it is still difficult for the students to master all requirements

from what is reading exactly and from what is being expected by curriculum. In

fact, some problems emerge in the process of developing students’ reading ability

in the form of teaching and learning process. It is also proved by writer’s

experience when writer did practice teaching in Junior High School. The students

got some problems when they had to be involved in accomplishing such reading

activity. They were not able to read the text that was given by the teacher in the

contexts of accurate pronunciation, intonation, and also pause. It might be caused

by poor reading practice. Besides, they could not catch the messages that writer

wanted to convey to the readers. The students did not realize that a word may

have some different meanings. As a result, they sometimes got miss

understanding of a sentence even paragraph. The common problem came from

their vocabulary. It will limit their understanding because vocabulary is the main

thing in building comprehension.

In this study, the researcher would like to use Gallery Walk technique

to teach reading descriptive text . Based on the competence standard of the eighth

grade of Junior High School, in the fourth competence standard, it is stated that
“Menangkap makna secara kontekstual terkait fungsi sosial, struktur teks dan

unsur kebahasaan teks deskriptif lisan dan tulis, sangat pendek dan sederhana

terkait orang, binatang dan benda..” And in the point 4.7.1 of basic competence,

it is stated that “Menyusun teks deskriptif lisan dan tulis sangat pendek dan

sederhana terkait orang, binatang dan benda, dengan memperhatikan fungsi

sosial, struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan secara benar dan sesuai konteks.”

Based on the competence standard and basic competence above, the

students of junior high school should master descriptive texts. There are some

kinds of text that is called genre. One of the texts is descriptive text. Wishon and

Burks (1968: 322) states: “Description text gives sense impressions – the feel,

sound, taste, smell, and look of things. Emotion may be described, too – feeling

such as happiness, fear, loneliness, gloom, joy. Description helps the reader,

through his imagination, to visualize a scene or a person or to understand a

sensation or an emotion”. In order to help students in reading descriptive text,

the researcher will try to use Gallery Walk technique.

“Gallery Walk is a discussion technique that gets students out of their chair

and actively involved in synthesizing important science concept, writing, and

public speaking” (Francek, 2006). In this technique, the researcher will divide the

students into five groups. Each group will rotate and answer some questions based

on the announcement given. Here, the group will practice as a small group

discussion. After they have finished answering all questions, there will be a class

discussion. By using Gallery Walk, each group also can leave a comment or

feedback to other groups’ works. In this research, the researcher wants to see the
different achievement in reading descriptive text between the students who are

taught using Gallery Walk technique and those who are taught using conventional

method. It is hoped that using Gallery Walk technique can improve the students’

skill in reading descriptive text.

Some researchers have done several investigations on the Gallery walk

classroom. Mochlisin.(2016) found that there is a significant difference between

pretest and posttest scores in teaching reading comprehension by using Gallery

Walk technique to the extroverted students. A’in Ratna (2014), in her study, shows

that the use of Gallery Walk technique in teaching writing announcement text

brought about significant improvement. In addition, Gallery Walk technique also

gave some advantages in its application such as giving chance to move around the

classroom, directing students’ focus and interrupting the lethargy. Dewa Ayu

(2016) stated that the students agreed toward the implementation of Gallery Walk

collaborated with Graffiti in speaking class. This study revealed the importance of

using innovative teaching techniques in teaching language students to enhance

English speaking competence.

Dewi (2015) also conducted study in using gallery walk in teaching

Reading she stated that They are two strategies that emphasize to the learner

activity and activeness in the classroom. Text Rendering can be used to guide the

students finding three representatives of a text. They are, word, phrase, and

sentence which can present the idea of the text. It is supported by Gallery Walk

strategy in which provides an opportunity to the students to walk around the class

to share the idea of their own. The students will share and compare their idea with
their friends before discussing it together. As a result, the teacher is also able to

include the other skills in this reading activity. That is why Text Rendering strategy

can be combined with Gallery Walk strategy.

Muhammad (2013) The Use of Mind Mapping Technique to Improve

Students’ Writing of Recount Text, under graduated thesis, FITK faculty of

Walisongo State Islamic University. This study was classroom action research.

The aim of this study was to improve students’ writing skill on recount text by

using mind mapping. The result of study shows that using Mind Mapping

technique can improve students’ achievement in writing .

In line with the background of the study, the reasons for choosing the topic are as

follows , Gallery Walk technique is still seldom used in teaching learning. We

know that teaching learning process can not be separated from the teaching method

and technique because the achievement of teaching learning itself is affected by the

method and technique that the teacher use. In this study, the researcher chooses

Gallery Walk technique because recently, the teaching learning in many schools

still uses the conventional method.

1.2 Research Questions

This research addresses the following questions:

a. How is gallery walk implemented in teaching reading descriptive text?

b. How does gallery walk strategy promote students’ higher order thinking

skills in reading descriptive text?

c. What types of students’ activities are promoted when gallery walk method

is used?

1.3 Objective of the Study

Based on the statements above, the objectives of this study are as follows:

1. To describe how gallery walk strategy are implemented in teaching reading

descriptive text

2. To explain how gallery walk method promote student’s higher order

thinking skills in reading descriptive text

3. To describe the types of students activities promoted when gallery walk

strategy is used.

1.4 Significances of the Study

This study is expected to give some contributions in developing English

teaching in Indonesia , especially on giving information on the Gallery Walk

method applied by teachers in teaching reading descriptive text which can

promote higher order thinking. This study is expected to provide theory and

practice of using Gallery Walk which can develop students higher order thinking

and the strategy used.

1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study

 The scope of this study was about reading activities that was limited into

Gallery Walk strategy to promote students’ higher order thinking skills in

reading descriptive text for 7th graders. It will be conducted at SMP Negeri in

Surabaya. Especially on the two basic basic competencies of English reading:

understanding the social function, structure, and language feature of descriptive

text and getting meaning on descriptive text. This study will focus on the use of

Gallery walk in teaching reading of the short essays especially on teaching

descriptive text. Below are the basic competencies.

4.7. Teks Descriptif

4.7.1 “Menangkap makna secara kontekstual terkait fungsi sosial, struktur

teks dan unsur kebahasaan teks deskriptif lisan dan tulis, sangat pendek dan
sederhana terkait orang, binatang dan benda..”

4.7.1 “Menyusun teks deskriptif lisan dan tulis sangat pendek dan
sederhana terkait orang, binatang dan benda, dengan memperhatikan
fungsi sosial, struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan secara benar dan sesuai
konteks.”

1.6 Definitions of Key Terms

This research study used the following key terms to focus on and limit the

discussion:

1. Gallery walk

Brown and Johnson (2010:65) state that “gallery walk” is a pre-reading strategy,

i.e. it is designed to take place before students begin reading the text passages or

right as they start reading. For example, when the focus of reading
comprehension it to get students to consider censorship, the students are exposed

with what it means, what it affects, if it exists, and what their notions of

censorship are. In line with this, Fernandez and Rogers (2010:10) state that

Gallery Walk is one of cooperative learning strategy in which the instructor

devises several questions/problem and posts each question/problem at a different

table or at a different place on the walls.

2. Students’ higher order thinking skills

Critical , logical, reflektive, metacognitive, and creative thinking which are

activated when someone encounter with unfamiliar problems and question.

3. Reading descriptive text

Descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is

to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing.

 References

Kebudayaan, Kementerian Pendidikan dan. 2014. Rasional Pengembangan dan

elemen perubahan Kurikulum 2013. Jakarta.

Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson:

Longman

Wood, Karen D and Janis M. Harmon. 2001. Strategies for Integrating Reading

and Writing in Middle and High School Classrooms. New York: National

Middle School Association

Wishon George.E& Burk, Julia.M. 1968.

Taken from Let’s Write English. Litton Educational

Publishing, Inc