TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION BY USING MARKING THE TEXT STRATEGY FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. Oleh: Neci Almani Sari *)

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1 TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION BY USING MARKING THE TEXT STRATEGY FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Oleh: Neci Almani Sari *) **) Titik Hardewi Yani Staf Pengajar Program Studi Bahasa Inggris STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat ABSTRAK Membaca adalah sebuah proses interaksi antara pembaca dengan penulis melalui teks. Oleh karena itu, dengan membaca, pembaca dapat memperoleh informasi yang dibutuhkan. Pengalaman membaca dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan dan menambah ilmu pengetahuan. Namun, banyak siswa tidak bisa mendapatkan informasi yang penting dalam teks. Ditambah lagi siswa sulit memahami isi teks. Seperti, siswa sulit menemukan topik, ide utama dan penjelasan. Selain itu, siswa mempunyai kosa kata yang terbatas. Ini bisa dilihat dari penampilan siswa yang lama dalam membaca. Berdasarkan masalah diatas, guru bisa menyelesaikan masalah ini dengan menggunakan Marking the Text Strategy. Marking the text strategy merupakan salah satu strategi yang membuat siswa aktif dalam membaca yang bertujuan untuk menemukan informasi. Strategi ini memiliki tiga langkah yang harus diperhatikan. Pertama, siswa harus memberikan nomor pada tiap-tiap paragraf dalam teks. Kedua, siswa harus memberikan bulatan pada nama-nama karakter dan tempat atau menggambarkan ide-ide dalam teks. Terakhir, siswa harus menggaris bawahi pendapatpendapat pengarang. Seperti, rentetan cerita dari awal sampai akhir dan menggambarkan kejadian yang sudah terjadi. Sehingga, strategi ini dapat membantu siswa dalam memahami isi teks secara detail. Disamping itu, siswa juga dapat tertarik dan aktif dalam membaca. Key words: Reading, Reading Comprehension and Marking the Text Strategy *) Penulis **) Pembimbing INTRODUCTION Reading is one of important skills that should be learned by Junior High School students. By reading, the students can get information that is given by the teacher in a book or text. So, the information that they get in reading will help and make them easy to understand the topic in their learning. Moreover, by reading a book, the students can improve their knowledge, enrich experience and they can reduce their stress. For instance, if they find an interesting book, so they will feel relax. Therefore, the students can improve their vocabulary. For example, more read a book, they will get a new 1

2 vocabulary. The importance of reading can help the students to solve the reading problem. For example, if they find the difficulties in their study, so they can find it in a book. In fact, when the writer did teaching practice in SMP Negeri 35 Padang, many students cannot get the important information of the text. In this case, there are two factors for possible problem. First is caused of the students. The students were difficult to comprehend the content of the text. Like, the students were difficult to find the topic, main idea and supporting details. Besides, the students have limited vocabulary in the text. It can be seen from the students performance in their reading. Second is caused from the teachers strategy. The teachers strategy is not lead the students comprehend the text well. The teacher only asks the students to read the text and answer the text without giving explanation clearly. It can be assumed that the teachers strategy during teaching learning process is not effective yet. From the problem above, the writer concludes that students cannot find the important information of the text. Therefore, the students cannot comprehend the content of the text. It does not only come from the students, but also teachers strategy which is not effective. Actually, if the teachers strategy is effective, so the students can comprehend the text easily. There are three strategies that can be applied by the teacher. First is KWL Plus, Second is Get the Gist strategy. Finally is marking the text strategy. REVIEW OF RELATED TO LITERATURE Reading Reading is an interaction process between the reader and the text to get information that printed by the writer through the written words. This statement is supported by Nunan (2003:68), he defines reading is a fluent process or readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning. He also says that in reading process, the reader can create meaning of the text with related to their prior knowledge and information in the text. Furthermore, Linse (2005:69) defines reading as a set of skill that involves making sense and deriving meaning from the printed word. In other word, in reading process, the reader should have skill. In this process, the reader can construct meaning of the text that delivered the author. From the explanations experts above, the writer can conclude that reading is an interactive process between the reader and the text to get information that delivered by the author in the text. In 2

3 reading process, the readers try to comprehend and understand what they read. Reading Comprehension The result of reading is comprehending what the reader gets from the text that printed by author. Reading comprehension is a process of the reading to get information and create the meaning related to context of reading situation. As a result, reading comprehension is a process that involve the reader and author in written language. The reader understand the author means in the written language. This reflectes in the idea reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language (Snow, 2002:11). Therefore, the writer conclude that reading comprehension is a process to comprehend the topic. In this case, the reader should have higher thinking skill to comprehend and remember what they read. Moreover, reading comprehesion is an ability obtain information of written word or printed word. Marking the Text Strategy The teacher should have strategy in teaching reading, because strategy is very important in teaching learning process. There are some strategy that are good to be applied in teaching learning process and one of them is marking the text. In preparing marking the text, the teacher should consider the genre and purpose of reading. The Same idea, Dixon and Sue (2012:28) they state that marking the text is an active reading strategy to cite/ identify information in the text relevant to the reading purpose. In other words, marking the text is active reading strategy to find the important information of the text. Moreover, it can make the students active in reading. Therefore, they can find the important information in the text specificly. Based on definition above, it can be concluded that marking the text is a strategy that used to read in order to reader can find information in the text that relevant of reading purpose. In this strategy, the students asked to think critically in their reading. Besides, this strategy can make the students active in reading to identify the important information. Procedure of Marking the Text Strategy Marking the text strategy is important to solve the problem of the students reading comprehension. Marking the text can help the student to find information that present in the text. In this strategy, it must be considereate following procedure: 3

4 On the same way, Dixon and Sue (2012:28) state that the strategy has three steps: 1. Number the paragraphs in the section you are reading. Like, page numbers, paragraph numbers will act as a reference so you can easily refer to specific sections of the text 2. Circle key terms, names of people, names of places and dates. In order to identify a key term, consider if the word is repeated, defined by the author, used to explain or represent an idea 3. Underline an authors argument/ claim. Consider the following statements: a. A claim may appear anywhere in the text b. A claim may not appear explicitly in the argument, so the reader must infer it from the evidence presented in the text c. Often, an author will make several claims throughout his/ her argument d. An author may signal his/ her claim, letting you know that this is his/ her position From the procedure above, the writer interests to use the procedures that states by Dixon and Sue that ask the students to numbering, circle and underline the authors argument. This procedure is effective to apply in the classroom, because it makes students to be active in reading and it can make the students easily to find the important information in the text. DISCUSSION In this chapter the writer discusses about the application of marking the text strategy in the classroom before coming to the class. There are some points that should be prepared by the teacher. There are preparation and procedure. Preparation Before begin learning, the teacher should prepare some points that are needed in learning activity. Those points consist of: 1. Timing Distribution The time that be used is 2x45 minutes. Pre activities are 15 minutes, whilst activities are 60 minutes and post activities are 15 minutes. 2. Material In this paper, the writer chooses recount text at eight grades. 3. Media The writer uses chart and text in teaching learning process as media. 4. Lesson Plan In lesson plan should consider several categories such as timing distribution, topic, material, language 4

5 skill, media, basic competence, standard competence, indicator, and teaching activities 5. Assessment The teacher asks the students to answer of the question in recount text and the teacher asks the students to do reading test. Procedure They are pre-activities, Whilstactivities, and Post-activities. 1. Pre-activities (15 ) There are several steps of preteaching activities. They are as follow: a. The teacher prepares the students to be involved in the teaching and learning process physically and mentally b. The teacher activates the student s prior knowledge related to the material by asking some questions c. The teacher tells the aim or the standard competence that should be achieved 2. Whilst-Activities (60 ) Exploration a. The teacher leads the students to do brainstorming first, and activates the students knowledge related to the material by asking some question b. The teacher explains the material c. The teacher explains the instruction about Marking the text strategy. The teacher explains as clearly as possible. d. The teacher distributes the text about recount text to the students e. The teacher asks the students to use pencil or pen in marking the text Elaboration a. The teacher asks the students to give number of the paragraph after the teacher asks the students to read the text b. The teacher asks the students to circle key terms, names of people, names of places and dates or represent an idea. c. The teacher asks the students to underline an authors claim that relevant information (i.e., a process, evidence, definitions, explanations, descriptions, data/ statistics) Confirmation a. The teacher gives question based on the text and asks the students to do the task b. The teacher asks the students to discuss the answer of the question c. The students and teacher discuss about the generic structure of recount text 5

6 d. The teacher asks the students to get feedback of this material e. The teacher gives reward of the students comprehension 3. Post-Activities (15 ) a. The teacher asks the students to make conclusion of material in which they had been learned b. The teacher gives evaluation of students achivement c. The teacher closes the activity Linse, Caroline T Practical English Language Teaching: Young Learners (D. Nunan, Ed.). New York: Mc.Graw Hill. Nunan, David Practical English Language Teaching. Singapore: Mc.Graw Hill. Snow, Catherine Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension. Santa Monica: RAND. CONCLUSION In this paper, the writer discusses about teaching reading comprehension by using marking the text strategy. Marking the text strategy is an active reading strategy to find information in reading text. Then, this strategy has three steps. The first is numbering paragraph. Second is circling key words based on the text. Finally is underlining the essential information. Thus, this strategy could make the students interest and active in reading of the text. Moreover, the students could identify information easily. REFERENCES Dixon, Brenda and Sue Mainville Common Core Teaching and Learning Strategies. Chicago: Illinois State Board of Education. 6