8

CHAPTER II

RELATED LITERATURE

A. The Nature of Reading

Various definitions of reading have been given by many experts.

Reading is one of the basic language skills to be learned, especially by

students. Reading is very necessary for them to make progress in their

academic achievement. People may read in order to get information or

increase their knowledge and sometimes to critique a writer’s idea or

writing style. People also read for pleasure or enhance knowledge of the

language being read. Through reading they will get a lot of information and

knowledge. According to Nunan (2003), reading is a fluent process of

readercombination of word recognition; intellect and emotion interrelated

with prior knowledge to understand the message communicated. It means

that reading is an activity where prior knowledge and text are integrated.

Reading is an essential part of language that needs some aspects to master in

order that the readers are able to think and evaluate what reading focuses on

the activity of getting information of the written form of language.

Reading is a language, and language is made up of words and words

can reflect experiences (Duffy, 2009, p. 10). It means that reading is an

activity that can make people bring their experience in reading.

Furthermore, Moreilon (2007) mentioned that reading is making meaning

from print and from visual

8
 9

information. Based on the experts’ statement above, it can be concluded that

reading is the process to add knowledge by bringing the prior knowledge.

B. The Nature of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension involves much more than readers’ responses

to text. Klingner (2007) stated that reading comprehension is a

multicomponent, highly complex process that involves many interactions

between readers and what they bring to the next (previous knowledge,

strategy use) as well as variables related to the text itself (interest) in text,

understanding of text types). Reading for comprehension is the primary

purpose for reading because reading is an activity with purpose. And the

purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading

comprehension. It means reader can get their comprehension after they

choose the material that is suitable for their purpose in reading process

itself.

Reading invites a contact between the reader and the author. It needs

to concentrate to understand, identify, and comprehend the text. William in

Klingner et al (2007) argued that reading comprehension measured should

help teachers monitor the comprehension of their students over time and

provide information that is useful in designing reading comprehension of

interventionprogram. In addition, Westwood (2008) stated that reading

comprehension can also be defined as an active thinking process through

 10

which a reader intentionally constructs meaning to form a deeper

understanding of concepts and information presented in a text.

Based on the theories and explanation above, the writer concludes that

reading comprehension is not merely easy process, but also interactive

process which entails the readers to comprehend not only literal meaning of

the text, but also text organization and be able to make conclusion from the

text.

C. Teaching Reading Comprehension

Reading is a communicative process. It is also an interactive process

between the reader and the text. It is a means for communication between

the reader and the writer. The process involves the reader, the text, and

interaction between the reader and text. Considering the importance of

reading in English language learning, teacher’s role is important in

improving the students’ ability in reading. According to Harmer (2000),

there are some reasons why reading is taught. As in the following:

a. Many of the students want to be able to read texts in English either

careers, for study purposes or simply for pleasure.

b. Reading is useful for other purposes too: any exposure to English

(provided students understand it more or less) is a good thing for

language students.

c. Good models for English writing.

d. Opportunitiesto study language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and

the way to construct sentences, paragraphs, and texts.

 11

e. Lastly, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate

discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-

rounded, fascinating lessons.

D. The Assessment of Reading Comprehension

In assessing reading, Brown (2000) categorizes reading assessment in

several types, such as; multiple-choice, short-answer, editing (longest texts),

etc. Besides, Hughes also explains about testing reading that will assess,

such as; content, types of text, address and topic. In addition, Nation (2009)

points out that comprehension test can use a variety of question forms, such

as:

a. Pronominal Question

These questions require learners to make a written answer which

can range the lenght form of single word to several paragraphs.

Usually for comprehension, short answers are required and these

forms of questions are called short answer questions.

b. Multiple choice

Multiple choice questions focus on details and more general

aspects of the text. Multiple choices are useful when there are very

large numbers of the test to be marked.

c. Information Transfer

Incomplete information transfer diagrams can be used to measure

comprehension of the text.

 12

Based on the explanation above, the writer concludes that the

assessment of this research is using multiple choice.

E. The Principles of Teaching Reading

In teaching reading in the classroom, there are some principles that

teachers should know. According to Anderson in Nunan (2003), the

principles of teaching reading are:

1. Exploit The Reader’s Background Knowledge

The reader’s background knowledge can influence reading

comprehension. Background knowledge includes all of the experiences that a

reader brings to a text. Reading comprehension can be significantly enhanced

if background knowledge can be activated by setting goals, asking questions,

making predictions, teaching text structure, and so on.

2. Build a Strong Vocabulary Base

Levine and Reves in Nunan (2003) stress the great need for a teaching

program that builds generaland basic vocabulary. It means that vocabulary is

the importance factor in reading.

3. Teach for Comprehension

In teaching reading, the teacher monitors their children to verify that the

students’ prediction about the information they have is correct and check that

the reader is making necessary adjustment when meaning is not obtained.

 13

4. Work on Increasing Reading Rate

The teacher must work towards finding a balance between assisting

students to improve their reading rate and developing reading comprehension

skills. It is very important to understand that focuses on fluent readers.

Anderson in Nunan (2003) said that a fluent reader is one who reads at a rate of

200 words-per-minute with at least 70 percent comprehension.

5. Teach Reading Strategies

To achieve the desired results, students need to learn how to use a range of

reading strategies that match their purposes for reading. “Teaching them how

to do this (strategy) should be a prime consideration in the reading classroom”

(Anderson, et.al in Nunan, 2003, p. 76).

6. Encourage Readers to Transform Strategies into Skills

Strategies can be defined as conscious actions that learners take to achieve

desired goals or objectives, while a skill is a strategy that has become

automatic (Anderson in Nunan, 2003).

7. Build Assessment and Evaluation into Your Teaching

In teaching reading, teacher has to provide assessment to develop student’s

reading comprehension from both a formal and an informal perspective

requires time and training.

8. Strive for Continuous Improvement as a Reading Teacher

Reading teachers need to be passionate about their work. They should

view themselves as facilitators, helping each students discover what works

best.
 14

Based on the explanation above, the writer concludes that teaching

reading is not only asking students to read the text, but also to guide them to

comprehend the message of the text itself.

F. The Processes of Teaching Reading

According to Irwin in Syahputra (2014), there are five reading

processes that should be considered by the teacher, namely:

1) Microprocesses

This process is to derive meaning from the individual idea units

in each sentence and to decide which of these ideas to remember.

There are two processing skills that are required for the

understanding of individual sentences. The first is the ability to

group word into meaningful phrases. And the second is the ability

to select what idea units to remember.

2) Integrative Process

Integrative processing requires the ability to do such things as

identifying pronoun referents, inferring causation and sequence,

and making other relevant inferences about the total situation being

described.

3) Macroprocesses

The process of synthesizing and organizing individual idea units

into summary or organized series of related general ideas can be

called macroprocessing. At least two skills require for organizing

and synthesizing the idea. First is the ability to select general idea
 15

and to summarize the passage. And the second is the ability to use

the author’s general organizational pattern to organize one own

memory.

4) Elaborative Process

The process of making inferences not necessarily intended by

author can be called elaborative process. For example, we interpret

what might happen or we think about how the information

correlates to our similar experience.

5) Metacognitive Process

This process is the process of adjusting one strategy to control

comprehension and long-term recall. Metacognitive may define as

conscious awareness and control of one’s own cognitive process.

G. Reading Comprehension on Recount Text

Roison et al (2004) say that “a recount is the retelling or recounting

past experiences”. Besides, the purpose of the recount text is either to

inform or to entertain the reader. Coogan (2004) reveals that “a recount text

consists of three parts, they are: orientation, series of events, and re-

orientation”. Firstly, the orientation is giving the reader the background

information needed to understand the text. Secondly, series of events

include chronological sequences. Eventis describing series of event that

happened in the past. The last part is re-orientation, it is optional in which

the writer deal with their feeling or attitude toward actions or series of

events happened.
 16

According to Blake (2011), the purpose of recount text is remind and

recreate events, experiences and achievements from the past time

chronologically. It means that the purpose of recount text is to inform or

entertain the reader.

Based on the purpose of recount text, there are several types of

recount text:

a. Personal recount

Personal recount is retelling an event that the writer has

experienced before by his or herself. The purposes of personal recount

are to inform, entertain the audience, or both. This personal recount

may be used to communicate or to build the relationship between the

writer and the reader. The examples of this type are: personal letter,

diary and biography or autobiography.

b. Factual recount

Factual recount is record the details of an event by

reconstructing some factual event or information. The purpose of this

factual recount is to tell factual information or events. The examples of

factual recount are a historical recount, a science experiment, a terrific

report, a sport report, eye witness, and speech.

c. Imaginative recount

Imaginative recount is kinds of recount that are telling

imaginative story related to the real life. It also has an imaginary role

and creates imaginary details by applying factual knowledge or

 17

situation in order to interpret recount event or to educate the reader,

such as My life as a Roman Emperor.

H. The Nature of Fix-Up Strategy

Fix-up strategy is what you use to help yourself get unstuck when you

are reading confusing text. According to Neufeld in Beyer (2007), fix-up

strategy is used to help students deal with information they have questions

about. Furthermore, in the study of Moreillon (2007), He stated that fix-up

options are tools that readers can rely upon to find their way home, to make

sense of what they read. In brief, fix-up strategy is one of strategies in

reading comprehension that is used to help the readers get unstuck in

reading text to make sense about what they read.

In addition, Duffy (2009) stated that fix-up strategy is also frequently

referred to a strategy in which readers search backward and sometimes

forward in a text to remove a meaning blockage encountered while

reading.The procedures of teaching reading by using Fix-up strategy are as

follows: The teacher asks the students to read and let the students tell the

problem found, The teacher has the students stop in the word that is

considered not to make sense, The teacher asks the students to figure out

and let them use the look back or fix-up strategy, The teacher instructs the

students to identify the problem and to think if the students know anything

about the problem (unknown words) to help them resolve the problem, The

teacher asks the students to use context strategy that can resolve their

problem by looking back the text to find the words related to the words in
 18

problem (using clues), The teacher lets the students test if the words make

sense or not, The students can continue reading and do the fix-up strategy if

they find more problems.

To use it, readers first need to understand that it is essential to

monitor meaning getting as you read and that good readers stop when a

problem is encountered. In short, a reader first should realize that he/she

does not understand about the particular word meaning in the text, and then

try to find the meaning by rereading, using prior knowledge, thinking, and

reflecting, to find out the problem. After finding the problem, the reader can

visualize, retell, and notice about what is already understood from the text.

According to Moreillon(2007), there are several steps of using Fix-up

Strategy used by the reader or students as follows:

a. Make a connection between the text and:

Your life

Your knowledge of the world.

Another text.

b. Make a prediction.

c. Stop and think about what you have already read.

d. Ask yourself a question and try to answer it.

e. Reflect in writing on what you have read.

f. Visualize

g. Use print conventions.

h. Retell what you’ve read

 19

i. Reread

j. Notice patterns in text structure

k. Adjust your reading rate : slow down or speed up.

When the students or readers have difficulty or confusing in

comprehending the text, the Fix-up strategy can help them. Because, the

Fix-up strategy has some advantages. As mentioned by Orehovec & Alley

(2003:78) that the Fix-up strategy will help readers when they come to a

word that there are not sure of, and will help the readers if get confused to

do re-reading.

Furthermore, Fix-up strategy helps students in improving their reading

comprehension, because the Fix-up strategy has some supporting

components for reading. Morreillon (2007:120) says in use Fix-up options

to regain comprehension of an informational book and also this strategy of

the important tools students can develop to improve reading

comprehension.

Based on the explanation above, the writer pointed out that Fix-Up

strategy helps student to read easily.

I. Relevant Research

The research can be accepted, and continued because it is relevant to

several researches that had been conducted by the previous researchers.

However, this present research has the same objects as the previous

researches but they have different problems. According to Syafi’i (2015),

 20

relevant research is required to observe some previous researches that are

conducted by other researchers in which they are relevant to our research.

He also says that relevant research is intended to avoid plagiarism toward

the designs and findings of the previous researchers. This research is

relevant to:

1. Nunun indrasari. (2012). Conducted a research entitled The

effectiveness of using Fix-up strategy to teach reading viewed from

students’ self-confidence (an experimental research at the eighth grade

students of SMP N 2 Temanggung in the academic year of 2011/2012).

2. Yovi Ramadani. (2014). Conducted a research entitled Teaching reading

comprehension of narrative text by combining fix-up and get the

gist(generating interactions schemata and text) strategy for IX grade at

Junior High School.

J. Operational Concept

Operational concept is a concept as a guidance used to avoid

misunderstanding in carrying out the research, it is necessary to clarify

briefly the variables used in this study. Syafi’i (2014) said that operational

concept is derived related theoretical concept on all of the variables that

should be practically and empirically operated in an academic writing of a

research paper.

.In order to clarify the theories used in this research, the writer would

like to explain briefly about variable of this research. This research is an

experimental research in which focuses gaining of using Fix-Up Strategy on

 21

students’ reading comprehension of recount text at the eighth grade students

of State Junior High School 5 Kampar Kiri Hilir. Therefore, in analyzing the

problems in this research, there are two variables used, they are variable X

and variable Y. Fix-Up Strategy as Variable X is anindependent variablethat

is given the effect on students’ reading comprehension as variable Y is a

dependent variable. The indicators that are compared are about the students’

reading comprehension before and after being taught by using Fix-Up

Strategy. The indicators are as follows:

1. Using Fix-Up Strategy (Variable X)

According to Duffy (2009), the procedures of teaching reading by

using Fix-up strategy are as follows:

a. The teacher asks the students to read and let the students tell the

problem found

b. The teacher has the students stop in the word that is considered not

to make sense.

c. The teacher asks the students to figure out and let them use the look

back or fix-up strategy.

d. The teacher instructs the students to identify the problem and to

think if the students know anything about the problem (unknown

words) to help them resolve the problem.

e. The teacher asks the students to use context strategy that can resolve

their problem by looking back the text to find the words related to

the words in problem (using clues).

 22

f. The teacher lets the students test if the words make sense or not.

g. The students can continue reading and do the fix-up strategy if they

find more problems.

2. Reading Comprehension (Variable Y)

Variable Y is reading comprehension. It was used to make the

instruments about reading comprehension (syllabus atthe eighth grade

students of State Junior High School 5 Kampar Kiri Hilir).

a. Students are able to identify the communicative purpose of recount

text.

b. Students are able to identify the generic structure of recount text.

c. Students are able to identify the language features of recount text.

d. Students are able to identify the various kinds information of the recount

text.

e. Students are able to identify the reference of recount text.

K. Assumption

In this research, the writer assumes that the use of Fix-Up strategy is

effective in English teaching process, especially for teaching reading. It can

make materials easier to understand and help the students think actively and

become personally engaged in the reading. Moreover, the students can

communicate what they read through their reading.

 23

L. Hypothesis

Based on the above assumption, it is hypothesized that:

Ha1: There is a significant differencebetween students’ reading

comprehension of recount text before and after being taught by

usingfix-up strategy at the eighth grade students of State Junior

High School 5 Kampar Kiri Hilir.

Ho1: There is no significant difference between students’ reading

comprehension of recount text before and after being taught by

usingfix-up strategy at the eighth grade students of State Junior

High School 5 Kampar Kiri Hilir.

Ha2: There is a large effect sizeon students’ reading comprehension of

recount text before and after being taught by usingfix-up strategy at

the eighth grade students of State Junior High School 5 Kampar

Kiri Hilir.

Ho2: There is no large effect sizeon students’ reading comprehension of

recount text before and after being taught by usingfix-up strategy at

the eighth grade students of State Junior High School 5 Kampar

Kiri Hilir.