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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Reading is an essential skill for students in order to cope with new

knowledge in a changing world. Nowadays, the fast growing information is

recorded and issued through media, such as television, internet, magazine, and

e-Book. Therefore, literacy becomes a priority scale that must be mastered by

students. Many benefits are derived from reading. By reading, the students

will acquire a variety information of science and technology, enjoy literature,

and find ideas. This is supported by Willis (2008:22) who stated that by

reading, someone can found the information they needs with specific

information.

In order to get the information needed, the students must have the

ability to comprehend a reading text. According to Klingner, Vaughn, and

Boardman (2007:59), reading is the process of constructing meaning that

achieved through effective instruction taking into account the aspects of

previous reader’s knowledge, the information provided by the text, and the

context of the reading situation. It is aso supported by McEntire (2003:12)

who said that reading as a constructive process of prior knowledge and

experience that effects the reader’s understanding of the text. It concluded that

the prior knowledge and experience of the students is essential to gain a

correct understanding of the information in the text. In consequence, reading

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and comprehension are two things that cannot be separated each other.

Therefore, it is necessary for the students to have the ability of reading

comprehension.

In comprehending a reading text, reading habit viewed as one of the

factors relating the success of reading comprehension. Simanjuntak (1988)

said that reading habit is the number of repetitions in given time to read

English text. He also said that reading comprehension understanding of a text

written in English as proved by habit in reading English and the ability to

correctly choose the right answer of question asked from the text.

Simultaneously, reading comprehension and habit are both interrelated.

Reading habit is the process and comprehension is the essence of it.

Based on the researcher’s experience in SMAN 1 Kramatwatu during

the PPLK program on September 12th to November 19th 2018, the researcher

found many students actually still have reading comprehension problems. The

reading comprehension problems were indicated caused by the negative

attitudes toward reading habit, such as: first, the students often failed in the

English comprehension test in school because they read English content

materials relatively little, second, the students’ interest to visit library is also

quite low, they visited the library only when teacher asked them, third, the

students viewed reading as boring activities. Reading is associated as a boring

task rather than pleasure activities. Most of students said that they prefer

playing games or social media at home. Thus, family and school environment

also bring effects on the students’ perspective about reading. In line with it, in
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gaining an effective reading habit, Cesar (2011) summarized six aspects of

reading habit, they are: reading frequency, reading amounts of books read,

time spent on academic reading, time spent on non academic reading,

motivation in the family environments, and motivation in the academic

environments. It can conclude that the students’ bad reading habit attitudes

show impairment on their reading comprehension.

The main aim of this research was to investigate wether there is a

positive correlation between students’ reading habit and their reading

comprehension or not. The researcher chosen reading habit and reading

comprehension ability in the research because, as mentioned above, the

researcher found the problem of the students in Upper Secondary School

Level in reading especially in SMAN 1 Kramatwatu as the school where the

researcher conducted PPLK program from Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University.

Regarding to the observation that has done by the researcher in SMAN

1 Kramatwatu, the correlation theory with this research is on the result of the

students’ reading habit and the students’ reading comprehension itself. In this

research, the researcher will use questionnaire and reading comprehension

test. Firstly, the researcher will distribute the questionnaire to the students to

know their reading habit score. In determining students’ reading habit score,

the researcher will use close-ended questionnaire in which the respondents

will tick the available responses provided in the questionnaire. The

questionnaire will be given to the students consist of six indicators. The

indicators are taken from Julio Cesar Galicia’s theory about reading habit
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aspects. Secondly, the researcher will distribute a reading comprehension test

to the students. The reading comprehension test focuses on examining

students’ reading comprehension ability. According to Creswell (2012:619)

correlational research are quantitative designs in which investigators use a

correlation statistical technique to describe and measure the degree of

association between two or more variables or sets of scores. Thus, the result of

both reading habit questionnaire and reading comprehension test will be

measured by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation to correlate two

variables and to find out the relationship between students’ reading habit and

their reading comprehension.

In the previous research, the researcher finds some examples that might

be able to support this research. The first previous research overview was

conducted by Candrawati (2009) with the title “A Correlational Study on

Students’ Translation Ability, Reading Habit, and Students’ Reading

Comprehension of the Tenth Grade Students of SMAN Kebak Kramat

academic year 2008/2009”. From the result of the study, it can be concluded

that (1) There is correlation between students’ translation ability and reading

comprehension; (2) There is correlation between students’ reading habit and

reading comprehension; (3) There is correlation between students’ translation

ability, reading habit toward reading comprehension. The second previous

research overview was conducted by (Septiarini, Rahmat, & Darmahusni,

2018) with the title “The Relationship between Reading Habits and Reading

Comprehension of English Department in UNTIRTA”. The result showed that

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there was a positive correlation between reading habits and reading

comprehension of students in English Department at UNTIRTA.

Therefore, that was made the researcher interested in conducting

research to determine the correlation between reading habit and reading

comprehension of students. However, the researcher focused only on reading

habit in English and reading comprehension. In addition, the researcher

chosen the other level of education that was the eleventh grade students of

SMAN 1 Kramatwatu.

So, based on the description above, the researcher conducted research

with the title “THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SUDENTS’ READING

HABIT AND THEIR READING COMPREHENSION AT THE

ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMAN 1 KRAMATWATU”.

1.2 Identification of the problem

Based on the background of research, the researcher identified some

problems, such as:

1. Students were having low reading habit

2. Students were having difficulties to comprehend a reading text

1.3 Limitation of the problem

Based on the identification of the problem, the problem can be limited

only on the correlation between the students’ reading habit in English and

their reading comprehension at the eleventh grade of SMAN 1 Kramatwatu.

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1.4 Formulation of the problem

Based on the identification problem above, the researcher formulated the

problem as follows:

“Is there any correlation between students’ reading habit and students’ reading

comprehension at the eleventh grade of SMAN 1 Kramatwatu?”

1.5 Objective of the research

Based on the problems above, the objective of this research was to find out

wether there is positive correlation between students’ reading habit and their

reading comprehension at the eleveth grade students of SMAN 1 Kramatwatu.

1.6 Significance of the study

After doing research, the researcher hoped the result could be useful for

English teachers to know the students problems with their reading

comprehension and their reading habit in English. The researcher hopes that

this research can have some benefits in the study of English especially in

teaching reading comprehension. There are two kinds of benefits in this

research as follows:

1) Theoretical Benefit

The result of this research hopefully can be used to improve reading skill,

especially on students’ reading habit in English and reading comprehension

ability.
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2) Practical Benefit

a. For Students

1) The result of this research hopefully can be used as a starting point to

develop students’ understanding about reading habit in English and

reading comprehension ability. The more they read in English the

better their reading ability will be.

2) The result of this research hopefully can be used to increase students’

reading habit in reading English material of various texts.

3) Students hopefully will have a greater habit to read English texts.

b. For English Teachers

1) The result of this research hopefully can be used to improve

student’sability especially in reading comprehension.

2) The process of this research hopefully can be useful for English

teacher in teaching learning reading comprehension.

3) The result of this research hopefully can be used to improve the quality

of teaching learning reading comprehension in terms of reading

English.

c. For Other Researchers

The result of the research can be a reference for other researchers in

conducting further research about correlation between students’ reading habit

and their reading comprehension at different level of students.

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1.7 Hypothesis of Research

According to Arikunto (2010: 112), “Hypothesis is formulating to show

the effect of two variables’ relationship”. Based on the problem and objective

of the research, there were two forms of hypothesis in this research, they were;

Null Hypothesis (Ho) and Alternative hypothesis (Ha) as follows:

Ha: There is a positive correlation between students’ reading habit and

students’ reading comprehension.

Ho: There is no positive correlation between students’ reading habit and

students’ reading comprehension.