CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

Language is an extremely important way of interacting with

the people around us. We use language to let other know how we feel,

what we need and to ask questions. To communicate effectively, we

send a message with words, gesture or actions that somebody else

receives. Through language we can connect with other people and

make sense of our experiences. Imagine what it must be like for our

children or students to develop these skills that we take for granted.

As a parent or teacher, we form the children’ or students’ language

development to reflect the identity, values and experiences of our

family, class and community. Therefore, it is according to us to create

a warm and comfortable environment in which our children or

students can grow to learn the complexities of language. As Michael

Sendow in Kompasiana (May 2013) said that “language shows a

personality, but a personality in language shows someone’s quality.”

Strong language skills are an asset that will promote their quality of

life time or effective communication.

Language has been used to communicate among the

countries. But, there are many languages in the world. Therefore,

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people need one language to be agreed that is going to be used

together among the countries, the language is English. In recent years,

English is more and more popular in the world. It attracts people due

to its tune and structure. However, beside the tune and structure this

language, this language is learned and studied by the higher number of

people with every passing day because its importance. English has

been a mean to communicate in the interconnected and interdependent

world. Nowadays, English is called international language and also

the second language of many countries in the world. Therefore, we

can realize the importance in communication of this language. When

we know English, we can come to and communicate with the citizens

of most of country in the world. The following statement of English as

an international language as McKay (2002:132) stated that:

“International English is used by native speakers of

English and bilingual users of English for cross-cultural
communication. International English can be used both in a
local sense between speakers of diverse cultures and languages
between one country and in global sense between speakers from
different countries.”
This means, English is learned by speakers from the

advanced and developing country and also English spreads due to the

fact that many people learn it rather than by speakers or migrating to

other countries. Thus two processes happen concurrently, new

varieties are created and unity in the world language is maintained.

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In Indonesia, English has been chosen as a foreign language.

It is taught from lower till higher level of education or from

kindergarten till university. For the reason, Indonesia is one of

developing country. However, it still needs to follow the international

world which made English as an international language. If we ask the

students about their achievement, most of them will answer to be

pilot, doctor, engineer, architect and so on. Many occupations need

people who have English skill, so they can develop themselves to be a

professional.

Since the number of literatures dealing with science and

technology use English as medium, those who want to search for

knowledge and science have to learn the language first. In studying

English, there are four skills that must be mastered by the students.

The four skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The primary objective of language is on reading. Allah SWT

has asked us to read that aims to get more knowledge that we have not

known yet. As the verse below:

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“Read in the name of your God that created you. He

has created the human being from a drop of blood. Read!, and

your God is bountiful. That teaches the human being by a

direction. He teaches the human being that they do not know

(Q.S. Al- Alaq 1-5)”

Actually, the human being needs to read something that they

want to know and get some information. By reading, the human being

can expand their knowledge and get more level at The God’s side.

Because, it which differentiates between the human being and other

creatures.

By the advanced of technology and knowledge which are

getting more and more in this era, undoubtedly that the ability in

foreign language is important thing to communicate among the

countries, especially English that has become one of international

language. It is the language which has been much haunted and learnt

by millions of people worldwide. Reading becomes an important

activity as Padma (6:2002) stated that:

“In the fast changing world today, educational

institutions are confronted with the demand that they prepare the
students directly for living. They must be helped to develop the
intellectual and emotional capacities for a happy and socially,
useful life. They must be given the knowledge, skills and
flexibility which will enable them to meet unpredictable
problem. So many problems worrying the world today, books
are the most variable treasure houses of knowledge. The
efficiency and ability to read play an important role in the life of
a student. So, considerable amount of time of the students can be
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utilized to cultivate in them the habit of reading, which will

enable them to personal and social adjustments.”

Reading is a multifaceted process involving word

recognition, comprehension, fluency and motivation. Reading activity

cannot be separated from reading comprehension, because one of the

important aspects in reading is comprehension, the main purpose of

reading is to get the meaning from what the reader reads.

Comprehension is the only reason for reading.

To increase the students’ English skills at school. In this case,

Depdiknas in Kepmendiknas no.22 2006 has included English lesson

into national curriculum so that the students are expected to be able to

communicate in English has stipulated in the curriculum KTSP for

Junior High School as follows:

“Bahasa inggris merupakan alat untuk berkomunikasi

secara lisan dan tulisan. Berkomunikasi adalah memahami
dan mengungkapkan informasi, pikiran, perasaan, dan
mengembangkan ilmu pengetahuan teknologi dan budaya.
Kemampuan berkomunikasi dalam pengertian yang utuh
adalah kemampuan berwacana, yakni kemampuan memahami
dan menghasilkan teks lisan dan tulis yang direalisasikan
dalam empat keterampilan berbahasa yaitu mendengarkan,
berbicara, membaca dan menulis. Keempat keterampilan
inilah yang digunakan untuk menanggapi atau menciptakan
wacana dalam kehidupan dalam bermasyarakat. Oleh karena
itu, mata pelajaran bahasa inggris diarahkan untuk
mengembangkan keterampilan-keterampilan tersebut agar
lulusan mampu berkomunikasi dan berwacana dalam bahasa
inggris pada tingkat literasi tertentu” “English is as a tool of
communication both orally and written. Communicating means
understanding and expressing information thought, feeling,
expanding, knowledge, technology and culture. The ability to
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communicate in a full understanding means ability to make

discourses. In the other hand, the ability to understand and
produce oral test, written test which is conducted in four skills
in communicating: they are listening, speaking, reading and
writing. These four skills are used for response or create
discourses in the social life. That’s way English subject is
created to develop those skills for graduates are able to
communicate and discourse in English in certain literacy
levels).”

The primary objective of English learning in Indonesian

education is on reading. Reading instruction (pembelajaran membaca)

is a main learning which has to be done at school. Success or not a

school can be seen from reading learning process which is used at

school. According to Wilson and Trainin on Westwood (2008:257)

stated that “The conerstone of academic achievement and the

foundation for success across the curriculum is learning to read and

write proficiently.” We can say that reading instruction influences

other aspects in learning process.

In reading process, there is reading comprehension in English

at school. It is the ability to comprehend and create written text

without intending other three skills. Indonesian students are expected

to communicate in English with the main competency being focused

on reading comprehension. Reading Comprehension is one of the

students’ learning activities that integrated with grammar, vocabulary,

intonation and spelling that can be learned to support the third

development of skill for language.

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According to Rose (2006) “Reading comprehension is a

highly interactive process that takes place between a reader and text.

Individual readers will bring variable levels of skills and experiences

to these interactions. These include language skills, cognitive

resources and world knowledge.”

But, there are many students’ obstacles in reading English.

This case often happens due to the students don’t comprehend the text

and reading that is still low in Indonesia.

According to United Nation Educational Scientific and

Culture Organization (UNESCO) in 2012 on Lingga Pos (September

2013) stated that:

“Memprihatinkan, begitulah cara menggambarkan

budaya dan minat baca masyarakat Indonesia saat ini.
Menurut data UNESCO, pada 2012, index minat baca
masyarakat Indonesia baru mencapai angka 0,001. Artinya,
dari setiap 1000 orang Indonesia hanya ada 1 orang saja yang
punya minat baca. Atas kondisi itu maka perlu membudayakan
minat baca sejak dini, membaca mestinya jadi gaya hidup
masyarakat Indonesia. Selain itu, siswa-siswa yang menyukai
membaca cenderung unggul pada pelajaran matematika dan
bahasa Inggris”. Dan Dr. Alice Sullivan dari Institut
Pendidikan Universitas London menyatakan: “Hasil penelitian
menyatakan bahwa 14,4 persen siswa-siswa yang tertarik
membaca dapat menguasai matematika dan 9,9 persen siswa-
siswa mudah untuk menguasai kosa kata dan menyerap banyak
informasi dari kurikulum sekolah. Mungkin, tidak mengejutkan
bahwa membaca untuk kesenangan akan membantu
meningkatkan nilai matematika mereka. Tetapi, ia juga
menambahkan bahwa ada kemungkinan kemampuan membaca
yang kuat akan membuat mereka dapat menyerap dan
memahami informasi terbaru dan mempengaruhi pencapaian
mereka dalam semua mata pelajaran.” (“Concern, it is how to
describe Indonesian reading culture and interest now.
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According to UNESCO, in 2012, Indonesian reading interest

just reaches 0,001 that means from 1000 persons there is only
1 person who has reading interest. Upon the condition, it is
necessary to empower reading interest early. Reading must be
Indonesian life style. Besides, students who love reading tend
to be excellent in Math and English”. And Dr. Alice Sullivan
from Educational Institute of London University states “The
result of research states that 14,4 percent students who are
interested in reading are able to master Math and 9,9 percent
students are easier to comprehend vocabularies and absorb
much information from school curriculum. Perhaps, it is not
suprising that reading for pleasure will help to increase the
students’ Math score. But, she adds that there is possibility that
strong reading ability will make students be able to absorb and
comprehend recent information and influence their
achievement in all subjects.”)

From the data above we hope that the students can improve

their English skills especially in reading comprehension. Ideally

students’ reading ability is good. But, as a matter of fact that it is still

low due to they are lack of interest in reading and tend to be

uninterested in reading English text. Whereas, if they are interested in

reading they can absorb much information from school curriculum

and influence their achievement in all subject include English.

Reading is a skill that is used in all subject areas and can increase or

decrease a students’ success in the classroom.

According to Kintsch and Rawson (2005:209) “In formal

term, successful reading comprehension depends on the construction

of a rich and elaborate mental model of the text that is read, this is

often referred to as the situation model. The situation model can be

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thought of as an integrated summary of the content of the text, which

can be scrutinized in response to questioning.”

It indicates that the students can be successful in reading

comprehension by using situation model of the text. Such as, learning

approach, method, technique and media are used to attract the students

with the text.

In teaching reading, there are many teaching approaches,

methods, techniques and medias. In this case, the researcher uses a

media in teaching named Storyboard. Actually, it has been used by

language teachers to engage the students with reading. It is an

interesting media and part of the comic pages in daily newspapers, in

comic books and graphic novels. The researcher helps the students

visualize the text and combines the text with image in teaching

reading comprehension.

According to Beers (2003:45) “Storyboard helps readers

visualize a print text.” We know that in teaching reading, a key

element of reading a print text is the ability to visualize the reading,

something Jeffrey D. Wilhelm calls (1997:117) “Seeing the visual

possibility”. Creating Storyboard becomes a way representing the

students’ thought processes, detailing visual record of their reading.

In using Storyboard, the students learn a strategy that allows

them to closely read a text. The activity provides an alternative for

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visual learners to show, improve and attract their comprehension to

the text. Based on the statement, it can be concluded that the

Storyboard is one of teaching media which can be used in the class.

The researcher would like to know how significant the influence of

using Storyboard on the students’ reading comprehension

achievement.

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of the research above and the

identification of the problem that should be solved, related to reading

comprehension achievement through Storyboard and finally the

problems are indentified as follow:

1. Is the Storyboard an effective way to increase students’ reading

comprehension achievement?

2. How do the teacher use Storyboard in teaching?

3. How does the Storyboard make the students interested in

reading and comprehend the text?

4. How is the learning process of reading comprehension

achievement by Storyboard?

5. Is there any influence of using Storyboard on the students’

reading comprehension achievement?

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C. Limitation of the Problem

According to the problems that have been identified above,

the researcher makes a limitation of problem on the influence of using

Storyboard on the students’ reading comprehension achievement at

grade eight of SMP Negeri 80 Jakarta.

D. Formulation of the Research

Based on the identification and limitation of the problem, this

research is formulated by considering “Is there any influence of using

Storyboard on the students’ reading comprehension achievement at

grade eight of SMP Negeri 80 Jakarta?”

E. Purpose of the Research

The research is purposed to find out whether there is an

influence of using Storyboard on students’ reading comprehension

achievement or not.
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F. Advantages of the Research

The researcher also hopes that this research can give some

contributions to the following:

1. The researcher

By doing this research, the researcher hopes that he

can study and develop more information to identify the

problem in reading comprehension achievement and to fulfill

the requirement for S-1 degree in English Education

Department.

2. The teacher

This research is expected to be used by the teacher to

help the students when dealing with some problems in

reading comprehension and the teacher can use the result of

the study as a feedback in teaching reading so that the

objective of English teaching process can be achieved.

3. The students

This research can be a motivation in developing

students’ English comprehension achievement especially in

reading and show the students that reading English is

amusing by using Storyboard.

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4. School

This research is as a suggestion for school to be better

in developing quality in teaching English.

5. University

As additional references of scientific research in

English Teaching Department that can be useful for other

colleges and as a media those who want to know about one of

the ways in improving students’ reading comprehension

achievement.