Developing Supplementary Book for Comprehending Narrative Stories by Eki Juvita Prima Wahyuni (State University of Malang 2013)


CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the background of the study, the objective of the study, specification of the product, scope of the study, significant of the product and definition of key terms.
A.  Background of the Study
Narrative text is one of text types which are familiar as a reading material in school. Narrative has various usages in term of building learners’ skill, such as boosting learners' motivation for reading and improving the integration of other skills: listening, speaking and writing (as follow-up activities). Sometimes, when certain concept can be difficult to understand, narrative text, such as a short story, can allow the student to pick up on various important facts that may be difficult to understand without prior knowledge. Narrative explores themes related to deeper human concerns, such as trust and honesty, true love and friendship, good overcoming evil, valuing people and overcoming challenges. Using narrative texts, such as historical fiction can allow the student to immerse themselves in a different world, which covers all the various settings and events as what they just learned about.
However, comprehending narrative text is not easy. It needs more time to catch what the exactly meaning or information of the text. Macalister (2008) states that students like to use their free time for activities rather than reading. Many of them think that reading is bored and wastes time. So, it implies the reason why the factors that make reading is difficult never be solved. Another reason that comprehending text is difficult is learners pay a lot of attention in every single words of the text. They are not success in getting a clear idea of the whole text. Then, some of the learners (especially those who read quickly) do not pay enough attention to the detail. They may have a good idea of the general meaning of the text, but misunderstand particular points. And the last is some of the learners are imaginative readers, especially if they know about the subject or have strong opinion about it. They may interpret the text based on their own experience.
Then, overcoming this problem can be difficult because we had to arrange the technique based on their level. According to Macalister (2008), comprehensive reading agendas seem to be rare in foreign-and second-language classrooms in higher education, presumably because many language teachers at this level feel apprehensive about in cooperating reading time into the course syllabus. It shows that teaching reading is not an easy material to be taught. Reading is the skill that need to be forced in order to make the learners accustom with it. Especially, when we talk about narrative text. Narrative may have difficult vocabulary and diction within the text which lead learners in misunderstanding and confusion. On the other hand, the use of supplementary book is needed in order to help learners learn about it. In supplementary book, the researcher hopes that learners can find the interesting point of reading because this supplementary book has various points in order to encourage learners in reading which will be found in the product specification. We have to strengthen the importance of supplementary material for learners. The use of authentic materials that are related to real life surrounding learners will affect in increasing students reading ability in the target language, developing positive attitudes toward reading, increasing motivation to read and making gains in various aspects of proficiency in target language, including vocabulary and writing (Brown: 2009). The research focuses on some requirements which are hoped can improve learners’ progress through school.
The requirements are the starting point in developing English reading skill. Those are MINUS which stand in M is for focusing in meaning, I is for texts and tasks interest the learners, N is for new learning, U is for understanding which lead the learners to understand the material easily and S is for stress-free tasks (Macalister: 2011). The product has to pass the qualification in order to reach the goal, such as motivate the learners to read the story, select the story carefully based on the vocabulary difficulty (through the level), and can be used both in group and independent activities. Researcher has to look at the detail of every point in order to prevent the lacks. Thus, it will be good to have a product which can completed the learners’ need in order to improve their reading skill in terms of comprehending narrative story.
The researcher expects that the product will be accepted and effective after reviewing some previous research which give inspiration, such as Developing Cross Cultural Understanding (CCU) Material by Incorporate Character Building for English Program at MA Bilingual Batu written by Risky Ayu Dewi Cahyani (2012) and Developing Board Game for Speaking Activities of Grade VIII Junior High School Students written by Nuzula Mega Jayanti (2012) which give the inspiration in the form of the model of the product development, and then A Study on Reading Strategies by English Teachers of SMPN 2 Kepanjen and SMPN 4 Kepanjen written by Dian Indrianis Fitri (2011) which gives the inspiration in the form of reading strategies conducting in school.
B.  Objective of the Study
The study is intended to develop supplementary book for reading in order to help the learners in comprehending narrative stories and know the proper of narrative page: supplementary book for comprehending narrative stories.
C.  Specification of the Product
The product that will be developed in the form of compilation of narrative stories based on certain learners’ level with some edited parts. It has some parts which are expected to be effective in order to improve students’ reading skill in comprehending narrative text. The product which has MINUS requirement consists of technique, example, narrative stories and exercises section, illustration pictures, column idea and games. Technique will be the important point because it leads learners in analyzing the information within the stories. The technique will be a shortcut to comprehend narrative stories because it provides story map and list of points that have to be filled in order to catch the important things in stories. The example is used as the guidance for the learners when they analyze the stories. The supplementary book also contains illustration pictures which will help learners in order to raise their imagination of the narrative text. Narrative stories and its exercises section provide narrative stories in various themes. In this product, the narrative stories will be divided into three stages of level of difficulty. The first stages will serve the texts which are suitable for their level. As long as doing the activities, they will come to the next stages where they will find it more difficult in terms of vocabulary. The exercises are used to measure and assess the comprehending of the student after having technique while analyzing narrative stories. There is column idea in each short story which is used for students’ opinion and comment about the story that had read. And the last is games which are used to build students’ interest and creativity. It is used to prevent students’ bored also.
D.   Significance of the Product
The significance of this study is to produce an effective media in form of supplementary book for comprehending narrative story, develop narrative material, help teachers in order to solve the problem in teaching narrative text in school, help students in independent learning and be a reference for others researcher in order to conduct a similar research but in the different design of supplementary book.
E.   The Scope and Limitation of the Study
The object of the study is students in eight grades of Junior High School who are in the pre-Intermediate level. The research has limitation which will be the interfering among the research process. The research uses questionnaire in order to collect the data. The checklist is also used in order to collect the validation data from the expert. Thus, researcher cannot control the experts’ mood when fill the questionnaire and the checklist given.
F.    Definition of the Key Terms
There are two terms that should be defined because they are used in the context of the study. It is expected that the definitions may help the readers to have better understanding.
Supplementary book is book which is used to give more information about the material in the form of additional information or suitable way to make learners understand certain material easily. The goal of using supplementary book is completing and enriching learners’ material in order to improve their skill. In this case, the supplementary book is focused on reading comprehension skill.
MINUS which is the requirement in developing the supplementary book stands in M is for focusing in meaning, I is for texts and tasks interest the learners, N is for new learning, U is for understanding which lead the learners to understand the material easily and S is for stress-free tasks (Macalister: 2011)



CHAPTER II
RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter describes the method used in conducting this developmental research. It is divided into two main parts: research and development model and research and development procedure. In the research and development procedure, there are six sub parts that will be discussed. Those are research and information collecting, develop preliminary form of the product, preliminary product testing, main product revision, operational product testing, final product revision.
A.  Research and Development Model
This Research and Development study is aimed to develop a supplementary book in order to improve learners’ comprehending through narrative stories. Researcher uses development method from Borg and Gall (1983). The method consists of a cycle in which a version of the product is developed, field will be tested and revised on the basis of field-test data. Then, the primary goal of the Research and Development is to take the knowledge and incorporate it into a product which can be used in teaching and learning activities.
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Researcher adapts Borg and Gall’s (1983) method in order to develop supplementary book for comprehending narrative stories. Borg and Gall’s method consist of ten phases: research and information collecting, planning, develop preliminary form of the product, preliminary product testing, main product revision, main field testing, operational product revision, operational product testing, final product revision and dissemination and distribution. However, this research will only adapt some of the phases in Borg and Gall concept because of the condition of the research. The phases that will be used are research and information collecting, develop preliminary form of the product, preliminary product testing, main product revision, operational product testing, final product revision.
Figure 2.1 Procedure of Research and Development in Narrative Page: Supplementary Book for Comprehending Narrative Stories
B.   Research and Development Procedures
The procedures of development consists of some steps, such as research and information collecting, develop preliminary form of the product, preliminary product testing, main product revision, operational product testing and final product revision.
1.    Research and Information Collecting
Research and information collection have an important role in designing and carrying out any language course. In order to observe the target needs, there are three point that have to be filled, such as necessities; the type of the need determined by the demands of the target situation (what the learners need to know in order to function effectively in the target situation), lack; the gap between what the learners know and what the learners have to know, and wants; the learners’ view as to what they need are.
Then, it is not enough just to know the necessities. It is also important to know what the learners already know, so the lack can be decided. However, in order to fill the gap, researcher reviews and evaluates the specification of the data. The result of research and information collecting will be the base of research in order to avoid wrong focus of the material development.
2.    Developing Preliminary of the Product
The product that will be developed in the form of compilation of narrative stories based on certain learners’ level with some edited parts. It has some parts which are expected to be effective in order to improve students’ reading skill in comprehending narrative text. The product which has MINUS requirement consists of technique, example, narrative stories and exercises section, illustration pictures, column idea and games.
a.    Technique
The techniques will be the important point because it leads learners in analyzing the information within the stories. The technique will be a shortcut to comprehend narrative stories because it provides story map and list of points that have to be filled in order to catch the important things in stories.
b.    Example
The example is used as the guidance for the learners when they analyze the stories. Students can follow how to arrange the analysis based on the example given.
c.    Narrative stories and its exercises section
Narrative stories and its exercises section provide narrative stories in various themes. In this product, the narrative stories will be divided into three stages of level of difficulty. The first stages will serve the texts which are suitable for their level. As long as doing the activities, they will come to the next stages where they will find it more difficult in terms of vocabulary. The exercises are used to measure and assess the comprehending of the student after having technique while analyzing narrative stories.
d.   Column idea
There is column idea in each short story which is used for students’ opinion and comment about the story that had read. This side can be the reflection side that leads students to be creative and critical in giving opinion.
e.    Illustration pictures
The illustration pictures are used to enhance students’ imagination when reading the narrative stories. The supplementary book will provide the suitable and challenging pictures. It means that not only help learner in comprehending the story but also challenge them to guess what is going on within the story.
f.     Games
Games are used to build students’ interest and creativity. It is used to prevent students’ bored also. The researcher chooses the games which relate with the aims of product development.
The process of developing product involves three main stages, such as writing the draft, designing the draft and organizing the materials.
a.    Writing the draft
The first stage which is writing the draft has some steps, such as identifying the objective of reading skill, selecting the narrative stories, and arranging the activities. In this stage, researcher has to plan what kinds of story that will be appropriate for the learners based on the result of research and information collecting. Also, researcher has to consider about the activities that support the learners’ comprehension through narrative stories.
b.    Designing the Draft
The following stage is designing draft. The researcher has to take the responsibility in designing texts, activities and answer keys. The text which is in the form of narrative stories will be given in various genres, such as fairy tales, legend, myth and others which are compiled in several themes. For example, there are heroes, friendship, good overcoming evil and others. The activities will be provided into two forms. Those are for independent learning and class activities. For example, when the learners do independent learning, they are allowed to follow the instruction for self learning, such as silent reading or filling the column organizer. When they are responsible to do class activities, they can follow the instruction for gathering learning. Here, the activities can be done in both group or independently, such as class discussion of certain problem, critical thinking of reflection and others. Then, the answer keys are also provided in the last section. It is used to avoid the misunderstanding after finishing the activities provided because in reading, learners can find some similar point within different text. It is also used as the reflection where they can measure and check their own gain. So, the learners are better to see the answer keys after finishing the materials.
c.    Organizing the Material
The organizing of the material has to be appropriate with the level of difficulty. The researcher has to be considered between the difficulty and genre of the stories. In addition, it is also important to spread the stories variously because it can help the learners to prevent their boredom. The assessment which is covered in the activities in the form of exercises, also have to be various. The researcher will consider of having comprehending assessment which covers grammatical structure, vocabulary building and intrinsic material within the stories.
3.    Preliminary Product Testing
The preliminary product testing phase is used to know the lack of the product. Then, it is important to control the focus of the development whether it is still base on the research and information collecting result or not. Here, the researcher conducts the expert validation for evaluating the preliminary product. The expert will give the evaluation of the product, whether the product has filled the requirement or not in the form of checklist. They also can give the comments and suggestions about the product on the space among the checklist sheet provided.
4.    Main Product Revision
After conducting preliminary product testing, the research will revise the product based on the result of the expert validation. The revision here will be the main product. It means that the product is ready to be tried out to the students. The product will be half-done because the product will be revised again after trying out to the students.
5.    Operational Product Testing
In operational product testing or can be say as try out, the product will be not on final product because the product still needs to be developed. The data gathered from the operational product testing is used to know the opinion and ideas of the learners in form of questionnaire. Learners will assess the product when they had been experiencing and finishing the activity within the product. Then, the questionnaire which consists of the appearance, the attractiveness, the coverage, substance of the narrative and the level of difficulty of the product will be answered. The researcher also has to check the appropriateness of the product with MINUS which has meaning that the product will focus to the learners’ improvement in comprehending, has interest to encourage the learners’ feeling, has new learning strategy, has good understanding which lead the learners to understand the material easily and has stress-free tasks which serve clear instruction and focus on learners’ competence, not to make learners confusion. However, for checking the appropriateness, researcher will put the categories in the questionnaire list. The researcher’ turn is describing that data. The data is used be the base in developing the final product.
a.    The Subject
The subject of the research is the learners who are in per-intermediate level. At the pre-intermediate level, the learners can read and understand simple instructions and stories and can write short compositions though errors will be common. The subject has to learn and experience the activities within the supplementary book. Then, they fill the questionnaire as the data gathering.
b.    The Data Collection
Researcher has to collect the data as the base for the development of the product. The data gathered are the result of research and information collecting, the result of preliminary product testing and the result of operational product testing. Those data will be analyzed and described by the researcher.
The data gathered are in the form of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data will be in the form of suggestion and comment that are given by the expert and learners on questionnaire and interview. However, in quantitative, the data will be of score within the supplementary book in the form of number on rating scale.
c.    The Data Analysis
All data gathered in the research, included the data from research and information collecting, preliminary product revision and operational product testing will be analyzed. The data obtained from the research and information collecting is assessed in order to describe the actual learners’ necessities, lack and want. The results of that phase are used as the base to develop the supplementary book.
The data from research and information collecting which is in the form of questionnaire will be analyzed in order to know the target need. However, the result will show what the learners need to be improved. Then, the researcher will develop the supplementary book based on the analysis of the target needs. The data received from the expert in the form of checklist will be used as the guidance in improving the materials before trying out. The data from the operational product testing or try out which are in the form of questionnaire are analyzed in order to know the appearance, level of difficulty, attractiveness, coverage and the substance of the materials. On the other hand, before the product will be done in each revision phase, all of data gathered have to be analyzed in order to keep the focus of developing supplementary book based on need analysis.
d.   The Data Instrument
The instruments that are used in this research are checklist for the research and information collecting and questionnaire for the operational product testing. The checklist contains of seventeen components, such as cover design, letters, typing, spacing, layout, organization of the material, instructional objectives, texts, vocabulary, comprehension question, grammar review, activities, directions, answer key, coverage of the materials, content of the materials and amount of the materials. However, some components will have more that one criterion. The experts will be provided with four choices where they can choose the appropriate chosen. Also, the experts will be provided with spaces where they can put comments and suggestion.
Another instrument is in the form of questionnaire. The questionnaire will be given during the product try out phase. Then, the questionnaire is given in order to gather ideas, opinion about the appearance, the attractiveness, the coverage, substance of the narrative and the level of difficulty of the product. The result of try out process which is done by giving the learners questionnaire which will be the guide for developing final product because the researcher had already known about the opinion and ideas of the learners through the product. That data implies the interest and effectiveness of learners after experiencing and finishing the activity with the product.
6.    Final Product Revision
Final product revision is the last part of the research and development phases. Here, the product will be revised based on operational product testing result. Researcher has to make sure that the final product has filled the MINUS requirement. It is also important to consider about the learners appropriateness as the result of analyzing the students try out.



 REFERENCES

Borg, Walter R. & Gall, M. D. 1979. Education Research (3rd edition). London: Longman

Brown, Dale. 2009.  Why and How Textbooks should Encourage Extensive Reading, 63/3: page. 239, (Online), in ELT Journal (doi:10.1093/elt/ccn041), accessed on March, 23rd 2013

Macalister, John. 2008. Implementing Extensive Reading in an EAP Programme, 62/3: page 249, (Online) in ELT Journal (doi:10.1093/elt/ccm021), accessed on March, 23rd 2013

Macalister, John. 2011. Today’s Teaching, Tomorrow’s Text: Exploring the Teaching of Reading, 65/2: page. 162, (Online), in ELT Journal (doi:10.1093/elt/ccq023 161), accessed on March, 23rd 2013

1 comments:

Unknown said...

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