CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the researcher present the background of the study, statement of the problem, hypothesis, and significance of the study, scope and limitation, and definition of key terms. 1. 1 Background of the StudyTeaching English as a Foreign Language is not that easy as the teaching the first language, students tend to face difficulty in understanding text especially for the late learners.
Researcher in 1960s suggests that “ one can never be too old to learn something new, but that the older they are, the harder it is for them to do so.” This is because brain plasticity or neuroplasticity that generally decreases as a person gets older. In Indonesia itself, many Elementary schools have no English subject which is actually very important for a child to start learning it as their foreign language. When they are in the higher education, they are not used to speak nor listen to an English speech. In learning English, students are expected to achieve four basic English skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As one of the receptive skills, reading becomes important to comprehend a text.
Reading is the basis for a child’s success in school and all over the life. Reading is the most important skill in life as it is the basis of all the success in one’s life (Hashemi, 2016). Reading is one of four language skills that should be mastered by students. It is one of the important tools in getting information and common ways to get knowledge from written form.
Reading is the activity to comprehend the text, with comprehending the text, we can get the messages from the writer. That is why reading comprehension skills are so important. Levine et al. (2000) stated that the ability to read academic texts is considered one the most essential skills that students of English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) need to acquire. The problem is, some students who are not too familiar with reading, it means that they rarely read. Reading comprehension is the process of understanding and constructing meaning from a text that involves the ability in finding out main ideas and specific information. Fry (1965) stated that it difficult to define comprehension.
According to Fry (1965), comprehension is the communication process of attaining the thoughts in the author’s mind into the readers’ mind to get the message and meaning in the text. However, the main problem of EFL students in comprehending a text is lack of vocabularies. They also may contain unfamiliar concepts and cultural content that make comprehension difficult. To enhance text comprehension for EFL students have focused on familiarizing the students with the vocabulary to comprehend the text (Bernhardt, 1984). Another problem is the monotonous strategy that teacher used. Students will feel bored and uninterested during the process of teaching and learning in reading class. So they will ignore to comprehend the meaning of the text. With that kind of factors, teacher as the learning media have to know the students competence and also know how to apply the strategy well to the students.
One of the strategies in reading is Pre-reading Activity. The Pre-reading activity are activities that used before teaching of the actual reading materials. Pre-reading activities prepare students for better comprehension by making them with the topic, structures, or vocabulary in the text (Bilokcuoglu, 2011). There are five researchers who had conducted their research by using Pre-Reading Activities. The first is a research conducted by Redouane Madaoui (2013) entitled “ Effects of Pre-Reading Activities on EFL Reading Comprehension by Moroccan College Students”.
This research methodology is experimental research. There were 57 second-semester EFL students selected into two experimental groups; one for vocabulary definitions group and class discussion group, and one control group. The two pre-reading activities produced higher comprehension scores than the control condition. The result of this study suggests that the use of pre-reading activities can significantly aid EFL reading comprehension. The second research conducted by Hannah Onyi Yusuf (2011) entitled “ The Effect of Pre-reading Activities on Students’ Performance in Reading Comprehension in Senior Secondary School”. A Pre test – Post test experimental design was used for the study. The sample of the study comprises twenty-five students were from Government Secondary School Ungwar Sarki as the experimental group and twenty-five students from Government Secondary School Nassawara as the control group. The result of the study indicated that providing pre-reading activities such as pre-reading discussion, pre-viewing, and brainstorming might serve as useful tools for language teachers and reading teachers in facilitating learners’ reading comprehension ability.
The third research is research from Akbar Azizifar, Soghra Roshani, Habib Gowhary, and Ali Jamalinesari (2014) entitled “ The Effect of Pre-reading Activities on the Reading Comprehension Performance of Ilami High School Students”. This research was conducted by using experimental research design. The sixty qualified students were selected to be classified randomly into two experimental groups; one for the pre-reading questioning group and the other for vocabulary group. The result showed that using pre-reading activities while teaching students reading comprehension texts did lead to higher rate of comprehension. It was found that guessing reading content from questioning pre-reading activity was more effective in increasing learners’ reading comprehension ability than vocabulary activity. The fourth research is from Nahid Nemati Moghaddam and Asgar Mahmoudi (2016) entitled “ The Effect of Pre-reading Activities on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners”.
There were three experimental groups and one control group. The groups were called Movie Watching Group (MWG), Vocabulary Presentation Group (VPG), Pre-reading Summarization Group (PSG), and No Treatment Group (NTG). From the discussion of findings, one can conclude that pre-reading activities have positive effects on students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings also show that the most effective pre-reading activity is movie-watching. Using pre-reading strategies that activate students’ prior knowledge, for instance, movie watching, will enable students to connect to the content and comprehend the material.
The fifth research is from Ali Hashemi, Fariba Mobini, and Ghiti Karimkhanlooie (2016) entitled “ The Impact of Content-based Pre-reading Activities on Iranian High School EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension”. This research was conducted by using experimental research design. This study was conducted with 125, both boys and girls.
The entire number of the students participating in the study was divided into four groups, one control group and three experimental groups intended to test the impact of the three pre-reading activities, namely the KWL technique, the Brainstorming technique, and the Pre-questioning technique. The results of data analysis indicated that all the experimental groups that used the pre-reading techniques did significantly better in their comprehension than the control group which received no technique. Meanwhile, the KWL group exceeded the other two groups in their performance. From the previous study, a number of researchers claimed that Pre-reading Activity is an effective strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension. They recommended that teachers could use pre-reading activities as a useful tool to facilitate students’ for better reading. Therefore, it is important to investigate which type of Pre-reading activities that appropriate for students’ reading comprehension. In this study, the researcher will investigate two types of Pre-reading activity, namely pre-reading questioning, and vocabulary definitions.
By conducting this research, the researcher wants to apply kinds of Pre-reading activities for students’ reading comprehension and to know which one of type is more effective by conducting an experimental research. The title of the research is “ The Effect of Pre-Reading Activity on Reading Comprehension of SMAN 1 Gondanglegi Students”. 1. 1 Statement of the ProblemBased on the background of the study above, the problem of the study is:- Is there any significant effect of Pre-reading activity on students’ reading comprehension?- Which type of Pre-reading activity is more effective to facilitate students’ reading comprehension? 1. 2 Objective of the StudyBased on the statement of the problem above, this study aims to get the explanation about the effectiveness of using Pre-reading Activity on students’ reading comprehension, and the objective is to find out which type of Pre-reading activity is more effective to facilitate students’ reading comprehension. 1. 3 Statement of the ProblemIs there any significant difference between students who are taught by using
