Research findings and discussion

Observing and Monitoring the Action

Observing and monitoring the action was the following phase which should be done by researcher after cycle 1 had been implemented. At this phase, researcher evaluated everything happened during classroom activities. It was aimed to find out the effects of Classroom Action Research for students’ reading competence. The techniques used in measuring the results were classroom observation, interviews, and test. The classroom observation was carried out during teaching and learning processes to know students’ response, psychological changes, and classroom atmosphere related to the implementation of the research. It was done by the researcher and collaborator in each meeting. Since there were five meetings in cycle 1, the observation was done in five times. Meanwhile the interview was carried out after each meetings had been finished. Furthermore, to measure students’ improvements in reading competence, researcher used reading test. Then, the research findings were presented in the following explanations.

1. 
   The improvement on students’ reading competence
   

The research findings related to students’ reading post test showed that students’ reading competence increased after Classroom Action Research had been implemented. It can be seen empirically from the average score of the table 4.6.

Table 4.6

The Result of Post Test 1

No	Reading Competence	The Average Score		Improvement
		Pre Test	Post Test 1
1	Topic & Main Idea	64.4	68.8	4.4
2	Detailed information	43.3	51.6	8.3
3	Transition paragraph	0	43.4	43.4
4	Completing sentence	40	56.6	16.6
5	Organization of the text	60	66.6	6.6
6	Purpose of the text	66.6	80	13.4
7	Vocabulary	36.6	50	13.4
8	Reference	73.3	80	6.7
9	Inference	53.3	60	6.7
10	Tone & Course	66.6	73.3	6.7
11	Irrelevant sentence	64.4	66.6	2.2
TOTAL		51.68	63.35	11.66

Comparing to students’ result in pre test and post test above, it showed that the highest score was in determining the purpose of the text and identifying the reference. The average score was 80 for each, so it had passed the minimum standard required by Ganesha Operation 70 for each reading competence. Meanwhile, the highest improvement was in transition paragraph 43.4 which was previously zero in pre test. It means that none of students were able to answer the question correctly. This condition happened because the whole students misunderstood in understanding the question. But, after Classroom Action Research had been implemented, students’ awareness improved and affected their scores which improved. Another thing which can be seen from the result above was the lowest improvement. It was recorded in identifying the irrelevant sentence. Students’ main difficulty in this reading competence was in finding the gist in each sentence and relating it into a good order.

At this cycle, researcher also noted that there were several reading competences which were low in the average score; these were in detailed information, transition paragraph, completing sentence, and vocabulary elaboration. Reviewing the improvements above, researcher summarized that previously, the average score of the whole materials in pre test was 51.68, then this result increased in the first post test which reached the average score of 63.35.

2. 
   The improvement on students reading score
   

Researcher found that through reading strategies, students’ reading competence improved. Admittedly, students’ reading scores before and after the research also got improvements. Although, some improvements were not significant. It can be seen in table 4.7.

Table 4.7

Students’ improvement on reading score at cycle 1

No	STUDENTS’ NAME	PRE TEST	POST TEST 1
1	L-1	50	60
2	L-2	60	70
3	L-3	45	50
4	L-4	40	55
5	L-5	60	75
6	L-6	55	60
7	L-7	50	60
8	L-8	45	55
9	L-9	60	65
10	L-10	40	60
11	L-11	50	60
12	L-12	45	65
13	L-13	40	60
14	L-14	40	60
15	L-15	40	65

The data above described the comparative result before and after Classroom Action Research had been implemented. Before the action, there were 5 students got 40, 3 students got 45, 3 students got 50, 1 student got 55, and 3 students got 60. These results was far from the minimum standard required. However, students’ scores showed improvement in the first post test. The number of students got 50 was only 1 student, students got 55 were 2 students, and others were above 60. Surprisingly, there were 2 students who required the minimum standard. These result explained that a significant improvement on students’ reading competence was created.

3. 
   The improvement on students’ psychology
   

The implementation of Styles and Strategies Based Instruction showed that students not only got progress in their reading score, but also in their psychology. Students became more enthusiatic and motivated in studying reading. They gave positive response to reading since the first meeting, as student with the data source L-2 who seemed unbelivable when the researcher was able to answer the question in seconds by using reading strategies. He shouted, “Ini yang aku cari dan inginkan,” by pointing his hands to researcher and smiled satisfactorily, meanwhile other students looked amazed and surprised.

Students’ positive feeling in studying reading also happened in the second meeting, in which several students stated that after researcher explained the implementation of strategies in reading items “Oalah cuma gitu aja, ternyata gampang banget ya cari informasi rinci.” Others replied, “He eh ik cepet banget. Tahu gini aku pasti lulus ujian kemarin.” This positive feeling happened because students felt that studied English is not as difficult as they think, as one of student’s opinion in the third meeting, “Ternyata belajar reading mudah ya bu... gak perlu tahu arti perkata kalo kita pake strategi membaca, jadinya bisa cepat ngerjainnya.” The similar opinion also mentioned by student with the data source L-9 who answered researcher question related to his feeling after studying reading strategies, “Udah lumayan bu sekarang, tahu kalo preceding sama following tu nanyain apa tapi kadang juga masih agak bingung.”

Meanwhile, in the fourth meeting researcher was surprised by one of students statement who said “Asyik, aku sekarang jadi seneng reading karena gak sesulit yang dibayangin, materinya hari ini apa bu?.” This statement was surprising because previously students were unmotivated and unwilling in studying reading, they tended to ask every English teacher to teach them grammar than reading. But, this condition shifted; students became eager and did not mind discussing reading.

4. 
   The improvement on classroom atmosphere
   

Students’ eagerness and positive response related to reading impacted classroom reading performance. Classroom became more lively, comfort, and enjoyable. Students were involved actively during teaching learning process. It was recorded when researcher instructed students in implementing the strategies to find the correct answer quickly and correctly. Students showed their eagerness and attention, they keep focus in the instruction given, and gave response to researcher question positively.

Another changes can be seen from the number of students who raised her hands during teaching learning, as showed in some meetings. Student with the data source L-9 raised her hand in the third meeting and said, “Yang dilihat hanya kalimat pertama aja kan bu kalo cari paragraph preceding?” it also happened in the fourth meeting when students with the data source L-4 raised her hand, “Bu NM coba dilihat, ini bener gak?” These proved that students’ intensity in joining and involving classroom reading performance increased.

5. 
   The improvement on the outside class
   

In outside the class, students also showed improvement in which they wanted to discuss reading materials and strategies which were applied in the classroom. Their enthusiasm was recorded in researcher’s notes, as one of the students with the data source L-6 who followed researcher directly after the classroom had been over. The conversation was started by student’s statement “Bu NM, aku mau tambahan..,” researcher replied, “tambahan apa dek?” students answered by saying, “Reading bu, gak nyangka ternyata semudah dan secepat itu ya bu ngerjain reading. Ini saya bawa soal UM UGM tahun kemarin, aku pengen dibahas kayak tadi..” (October 8th, 2010: 10.32 A.M) and when researcher discussed reading items with L-6 outside the class, there were several students came closer and joined in reading discussion L-9 and L-12.

The similar event happened in the third meeting when students with the data source L-1 approached the researcher and said, “Bu NM tambahan dong bu, kapan kira-kira ada waktu? Pengen belajar reading nih..” these statements showed that students’ eagerness and motivation in studying reading happened both in classroom reading performance and in the outside class.

3. 
   Reflecting
   

Reflection was aimed at analyzing and evaluating the result of action, the strengths, and the weaknesses. Then, the results became basic understanding for drawing recommendation for the next cycle.

1. 
   The strengths
   

According to the reflection of cycle 1, there were strong points related to the research.

1. 
   Students’ reading scores increased. They started to be able to apply certain reading strategies in answering reading items.
   
2. 
   Students problems in understanding the question had been solved, they were able to identify the question and understand what was being asked.
   
3. 
   Reading became an easy and enjoyable subject. Reading strategies gave them a different point of view, they did not think that reading was a difficult subject and boring competence. On the other hand, reading becomes an interesting and challenging material.
   
4. 
   Students’ motivation in studying reading improved. Students became more enthusiastic and motivated to study reading. This positive response reflected on students’ eagerness and involvement both in classroom reading performance and outside the class. These facts showed that students’ high motivation came from inside themselves.
   
5. 
   Classroom’s atmosphere changed during teaching learning process. Classroom reading performance became more lively and active. It was because of students’ participation, attention, enthusiasm, and motivation in joining the class. Students became unawkwardly in raising their hands if they wanted to ask question. They were also eager to do reading items independently and did small talk or discussion related to reading with the researcher when they faced difficulty.
   

2. 
   The Weaknesses
   

Besides the positive effects on empirical, psychological, and emotional aspects. Researcher still found several problems arising during the implementation of Classroom Action Research.

1. 
   Students still had difficulty in several reading items and lacked of understanding in some reading materials which were discussed, these were detailed information, transition paragraph, completing sentence, and vocabulary. According to the evaluation of students reading score both in pre test and post test, it showed that improvement in students reading score was still under the minimum standard required. These were because of some reasons: (1) researcher found that students still confused in determining specific information because they lack of time in understanding the reading. (2) students were often trapped by transition questions, (3) students often confused in determining the beginning and ending of the text, (4) students often confused in drawing inference because they were difficult in deciding the gist and key words. It because of the limited vocabulary they had. and (5) students mostly did not have enough vocabulary in answering vocabulary items. So they often left it and did not answered it.
   
2. 
   Students score in the first reading post test was far from the standard minimum which want to be achieved although every student had got improvement.
   
3. 
   Classroom atmosphere actually changed after Classroom Action Research had been implemented. Students become more active, enthusiastic, and motivated to learn English reading. But it did not happen for the whole students. Because there were several students who were passive during teaching learning process and several times seem confused when discussing reading items.
   

3. 
   Recommendation
   

All weaknesses and strengths after the action would be the consideration to make correction or revision in order to get better result in the next cycle. Based on the weaknesses which was found in cycle 1, researcher applied drilling technique to improve students’ reading competence. This kind of drilling was applied by giving students various reading exercises in improving their understanding in transition paragraph, completing sentence, and detailed information. Meanwhile in improving students’ understanding in vocabulary, researcher drilled students by giving them different level of vocabulary, both in basic and advance vocabularies. These vocabularies were presented and completed by the pronunciation, several examples, and its part of speech. Those were aimed to ease students in catching the meaning.

Meanwhile, for classroom reading performance which was dominated by several students, researcher decided to give passive and silent students extra-attention by giving them motivation, making priority in classroom activity especially in reading evaluation, and inviting them to join in additional meetings.

2. 
   Cycle 2
   

Having identified the strengths and weaknesses of cycle 1 (see page 155-158), researcher tried to solve those weaknesses and increase the students’ achivements by implementing the next cycle which was conducted in 5 meetings. These were presented as follows:

a. Planning

Before implementing the action, researcher planned some activities first. (1) Sharing and discussing the previous classroom research with collaborator. It was done to make any correction and revision about teaching learning process using Styles and Strategies Based Instruction in the second cycle. (2) Preparing lesson plans. At this cycle, reading materials given were similar to the previous cycle. However, this cycle was focused on drilling students with various reading items. So the number of reading items were doubled than the previous. Its meant to train students sensitivity, sharpness, and understanding in analyzing reading items. (3) Implementing teaching learning process using reading strategies. (4) Giving reading post test to measure students ability after meetings had been applied. (see appendix 5) It was done to assess and measure students’ progress. (5) Interview. It was the last step used to dig more about students' feeling, thinking, and opinion on the strategies.

b. Acting

1) The First Meeting

The first meeting was conducted on Wednesday, January 5th 2011. The class was conducted in 90 minutes, started from 08.00 and ended at 09.30 A.M. Meanwhile, the materials for the meeting were (1) finding the topic and main idea, (2) determining the purpose of the text, and (3) identifying the organization of the text. Moreover, the activities were divided into pre activities, main activities, and post activities. At this meeting, researcher gave students explanation related to the materials and strategies given. Then, it was continued by giving students several reading exercise. In cycle 2, researcher added the number of students exercises, gave them various reading items, and increased the level of difficulty.

At 09.00 A.M the bell was ringing, students entered the classroom then researcher greeted the students “Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh” enthusiastically and full of smile. The students replied the researcher’s greeting by saying “Waalaikumsalam Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh” enthusiastically. After long holiday, researcher asked several questions related to students’ activity, “How was your holiday? And what did you do?” students replied altogether, “Tidurrrr...” then researcher and students laughed together. Next, researcher asked students memory related to reading strategies, “Did you still remember with the reading strategies that we have been ever discussed?” students answeres, “Eum little little mam, diulang lagi aja biar tambah mudeng.” Listening to students’ answer, researcher smiled and agreed to explain the materials first before going to discuss the reading items.

In main activities, teacher explained the reading materials. But these were not as complete as the previous cycle, because students’ problems in understanding the question had been solved in cycle 1. The first material which was discussed in cycle 2 was finding the topic and main idea (see page 89-91). And the applying of reading strategies was recorded as follows:

Short Reading
A new hearing device is now available for some hearing impaired people. This device uses a magnet to hold the detachable sound-processing portion in place. Like other aids, it converts sound into vibrations. But it is unique in that can transmit the vibrations directly to the magnet, and then to the iner ear. This produces a clearer sound. The new device will not help all hearing-impaired people, only those with a hearing loss caused by infection or other problems in the middle ear. It will probably help no more than 20 percent of all people with hearing problems. Those people, however, who often have ersistent ear infections should find relief and restored hearing with the new device.