Reading is an important skill in learning English especially in countries where English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL). Browton in Nursucianty (2007:1) states that reading is very important to the students because reading helps to solidify the students’ grasp of vocabulary, structure, and complements of other language skills. Reading is necessary when students continue their study, especially at the university level. They need good reading skill for acquiring knowledge and learning new information.
Nowdays, the existence of the importance of reading will hopefully continue to increase our knowledge in the future (Fitriyaningsih, 2009:1). Nevertheless, there are still many people who never interest to read the books. So, they rarely to do reading activities. Reading activities may help students develop other their language skills.
In addition, people or students must be able to master English language and they need a competence in understanding the English text. It means that reading is very important skill in learning English. It is supported by Saukah (2002:17) who says that” Reading is the most important language skill to be devoted in the teaching and learning process”. Furthermore, Krashen and Carrel (1983:131) stated that reading is one of English language skills which can serve as an important source of comprehensible input and may take a significant contribution to the development of overall proficiencies.
In Indonesia education field, teaching reading is one important thing. Reading is the most emphasized in teaching and learning process. The main goal of teaching English is to make students able to read (Ria, 2007). It means that the main goal of English teaching and learning for Indonesian students is to comprehend the text that they must understand the written or printed information. Furthermore, considering the needs of mastering reading is as one of the ways for mastering English. Reading skill is always given the main emphasis. Huda (1997:149) states that reading becomes the main point in curriculum 1994 in Indonesia that has to be mastered by students. For the realization, the 1994 curriculum, 2004 curriculum, and Competency Based Curriculum, emphasize that the students should master four components of language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, where puts the reading skill first to be presented. Thus, reading skill is still given as a first priority.
However, reading skill was still difficult to be mastered by the students of Senior High School 1 Pomalaa, especially in grade XI IA 3. Based on the preliminary test conducted by the researcher shown that the reading achievement of students’ grade XI IA 3 at that school are only 25%. It shows that they did not reach 75 % of the target achivement which based on the curriculum of this school of the students can reach minimum achievement 6.3.The researcher observed that most students got difficulties when doing the task and answer the question that are related to the narrative text. Therefore, they could not search general information about the story. Beside, Mrs Amriani as English teacher said that the students usually got difficulties to comprehend the reading materials because they lack of vocabulary. Students found some unfamiliar words in the text. Therefore, they did not know the meaning in the reading passage.
In addition, they could not identify the generic structure (orientation, complication, and resolution) of narrative text. It based on the daily experiences from the teacher. They could not determine well between orientation, complication, and resolution from the story. A student who is poor in vocabulary can not read well and they cannot get the important idea from the reading passage. The larger vocabulary of students more accurately they will understand what they read (Kurniawati: 2004). When they asked about the features of narrative text, most of them just keep silent. So the learners needs to have more vocabulary aspect in order they able to read well and get information in the reading text. While, grammatical aspect is closely related with reading comprehension for both authors/writers and the readers. This supported by Alex (1988) that grammar in reading skill can help the readers to easily understand the information in the text.
From some student of class XI IA 3, the researcher had got information that they did not have enough background knowledge about the text because they were adopted from western story and they never hear or read before which different culture with them has. Therefore, students confused to the material because they lack of experience or poor prior knowledge about the reading text. The good readers combine the knowledge of the language (grammar and vocabulary) and knowledge of the world (background knowledge) through the use of reading strategies (Eskey, 1988; Carrell,1988).
Furthermore, based on pre observation activity conducted by the researcher found that the students did not pay attention to the teachers’ explanation and they did not focus toward reading material. Therefore, students could not appear their brainstorming before reading the text, so that they could not understand about what they read. Then, students got problem to determine the main idea in the text. They find difficulties to search information in each paragraph.
On the other hand, the teacher becomes more dominant than students in the teaching and learning process. In the other words, students learned more passive in the class. They rarely ask question of what they do not understand about reading text. As a result, students’ reading achievement is very low so that they can not achieve the standard target of the curriculum from this school.
Therefore, deal with the students’ problem, Students Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique would be one of good solutions because it has main idea to motivate students and help each other to master the skill that is presented by the teacher. In other words, this technique could make students more active, have high self confidence, and high motivation when do the task. In which they have to work hard to become the best team, as Ur (1976:279) says that learners will often be motivated to give their best not for the sake of the learning it self but in order to beat their opponents in a completion. Group contents tend on the whole to get better result than individual ones. They are more enjoyable, less tense and equally motivating. Furthermore, STAD allows students to work together and share their answer between they who have high level, average and low level in groups. They can get information what they found in reading text after the teacher’s lesson, but may not help each other with quizzes, so every students must know the material (individual accountability). Students may work in pair and compare answer, help each other if they found difficult task, discuss any discrepancies, and discuss to solving the problems.
Previous research conducted by Nursuciati (2007) shows that one of Cooperative learning techniques, namely STAD has good contribution in developing the students’ reading comprehension. She investigated the effect of STAD technique on the reading achievement of year two students of SMA Negeri 2 Bau-Bau. She took 41 students as the sample of the research and used multiple choice questions which consisted of 29 items. She applied one group pretest and posttest design giving treatment by using STAD technique five times, she found that reading achievement in post-test (6.93) was higher than in pre-test (4.69). Another researcher is Ranti (2010). She investigated of second year of SMP Negeri 3 Lainea. She took 23 students as the sample and used multiple choice, true false questions, and essay text. She found that the students’ reading comprehension who taught by STAD technique had a significant effect to improve students’ reading comprehension. The result is post test (6.36) was higher than pre test (5,02).
Both of the two previous researchers showed that STAD is a successful technique in learning because it is very useful to improve students reading achievement, the students can work together to practice their language ability. In which, they can change and share information, reinforce each other, give feedback and they are also responsible for their answers group. STAD is a simple technique of cooperative learning which consists of five major components, namely class presentation, teams, quizzes, individual improvement score and team recognition. Furthermore, students discuss and work together to get a good mark for their item. Using this technique, the students become learner center on teaching and learning process.
Therefore, the researcher is interested in applying the Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique to improve students’ reading achievement and to provide practical and theoretical solution on the teaching of reading in ESL/EFL context in general, and particularly in Senior High School 1 Pomalaa.
1.2 Research Question
Research question of this study is “Can STAD technique improve student’s reading achievement at grade XI IA 3 of Senior High School 1 Pomalaa “?
1.3 Objective of the Study
The objective of this study is to improve students’ reading achievement at grade XI IA 3 of Senior High School 1 Pomalaa under STAD technique
1.4 Significant of the study
The significances of this study are as follows:
1. To improve students’ reading achievement at the Grade XI IA 3 of Senior High School 1 Pomalaa.
2. To provide useful information for English teacher about the alternative method on teaching reading in English
3. To provide reliable resource for further researcher who want to conduct a research by using STAD technique
1.5 Scope of the study
The scope of this study focuses on students’ reading achievement, particularly in narrative text. The narrative texts include determining generic structure, language features, main idea, and general information from narrative text. The reading text is taken from school teaching learning material at Grade XI IA 3 Senior High School 1 Pomalaa.
1.6 Definition of Term
To obtain a good understanding to this study, it’s important to give definition of terms related to this study. The terms are as follow:
- STAD stands for (S is student, T is team, A is achievement, and D is Divisions). STAD is made up of five interlocking components: class presentations, teams, quizzes, individual improvement scores, and team recognition, (Slavin in Kagan 1994, p.17).
- Reading achievement is successful of assignment; it refers to someone’s proficiency which has obtained (Darta, 2002:20).