RECIPROCAL TEACHING FOR IMPROVING ELEVEN GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT

Testiana Deni Wijayatiningsih English Department of MuhammadiyahUniversity of

Semarang testiana_dw@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT This study describes the use of reciprocal teaching to improve eleven grade

students’reading comprehension achievement. Reciprocal teaching is one of the problem-

solving techniques used by English teachers in reading classroom. This study applies the

concept of reciprocal teaching process in the clasroom activities. The analysis is basically

based on quantitative and qualitative method. The concept shows that there are some

strategies to teach reciprocal teaching such as; clarifying, predicting, questioning, and

summarizing strategies in teaching learning process. It gives students opportunity to socially

interact through reading text. This reflects students’ active involvement in the teaching and

learning process. It requires students to work in groups, discussing the material (reading

passage) through some steps of strategies mentioned above. They are supportive towards

students’ engagement in the classroom principle of teaching adolescents. The result shows

that the students’ achievement using reciprocal teaching is 73,66 and the students’

achievement using conventional teaching is 70,33. It can be concluded statistically that

teaching reading using reciprocal teaching is better than using conventionals one. Hopefully, the results of this study will give benefits in teaching learning process such

as; firstly, the strategy training allows them to gain more self confidence and motivation to read

and even expertise as they apply the four strategies to a variety of texts. Secondly, it involves

students in the discussion of text and increases cooperation and greater initiative. Moreover, it

can improve their leadership skills as they play the role as discussion leaders. Finally, the

writer gives tension that reciprocal teaching gives positive effect on students’ reading

comprehension achievement. Hence, all in all, teachers who are interested in this technique

are suggested to conduct it in their teaching learning process especially reading. Key words: reciprocal teaching, reading, students’achievement I. INTRODUCTION 1.1. General Background

Reading is a simple activity which all English learners can do it easily. Based on Nunan

(1989:33), reading needs identification and also interpretation processes which require the

reader’s knowledge about the language structure used in the text and his knowledge about a

given topic. It is this complexity that makes some students less interested in this kind of

activity. They find it difficult to understand what is on the reading passage since they do not

know the technique which can help them to read more effectively and efficiently. With regard to the phenomena, therefore, the writer tries to lessen the problem

encountered by the students in reading English texts by conducting the implementation of reciprocal teaching in reading class. Reciprocal teaching is one of teaching techniques used in reading class. This technique of teaching proposes a problem-solving approach to reading. It helps the students find solutions to the problem they encounter during their reading. In the process of reciprocal teaching, the students work in groups; discuss the material (reading texts) through some steps of strategies which will lead them to be efficient readers (Cotteral, 1990:30).

Moreover, thus technique is also relevant to the KTSP Curriculum in which students’ interaction during the learning process is taken into account. All in all, the writer hopes reciprocal teaching will really make significant improvement to the English learning, especially the reading lesson.

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1.2. Thesis Statement This article explains about the use of reciprocal teaching to improve eleven

grade students’ reading comprehension achievement. II. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching is one of the techniques used by English teachers in reading class. It is comprehension strategy based on the work of Annemarie Palinscar, Ann Brown, and Kathryn Ransom who identified the strategies that good readers use most often when they read (see Cotteral, 1990; Flood et al., 1993). The strategies are clarifying, predicting, questioning, and summarizing.

Reciprocal teaching is a problem-solving approach to reading. Summarized from Cotteral (1990:30), students, through the process of reciprocal teaching, will finally gain the skill they need to solve the problem they encounter during reading. Therefore, they can be efficient readers.

According to Rosenshine and Meister (1994), the technique of reciprocal teaching is designed to improve reading comprehension for the students who have difficulty in understanding what they read. When they can comprehend what they read, it means that they can get the message of the text and therefore, they gain more knowledge. Finally, it improves their learning.

Furthermore, reciprocal teaching is a major instructional strategy that helps readers interact personally with the text and construct meaning as they increase their ability to ask questions, clarify hard parts, make predictions, and summarize what they are reading (see also Cotteral, 1990; Flood and Lapp, 1993). Thus, it means that the strategies of reciprocal teaching can successfully help students especially those who are poor readers to comprehend the text they are dealing with.

From the explanation above, the writer can be concluded that this technique is one of

reading techniques requiring a process of applying the four strategies in group interaction. It

facilitates interactive dialogue between teacher and students, or individual and small group.

This reflects students’ active involvement in the teaching and learning process, which is really

in apposite to teacher-centered approach in which students passively go through the lesson

and very scarcely interact with each other in classroom communication. 2.2 Strategies of Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching requires students to work in groups, discussing the material (reading passage) through some steps of strategies. Basically, as it is stated in the previous section, reciprocal teaching encompasses four strategies namely predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing (Cotteral, 1990:30).

The first strategy of reciprocal teaching is predicting. This strategy encourages learners

to actively think ahead. The learner is anticipating what will come next in the text, based on

appropriate prior knowledge and on the structure and the content of the text.

The second strategy that students should carry out is clarifying. When clarifying,

learners are dealing with difficulties in the text by being alert to unfamiliar vocabulary, text

which is structured or set out in an unfamiliar way, new or difficult concept, and losing track of

meaning (Education Ministry of New Zealand, 2004). Obviously, this strategy gives the

students to find any ways to tackle their problems of dealing with the text. Consequently,

communication among them will occur and hence, they will be active thinkers. The third strategy is questioning. In this step of strategy, the learner is exploring the

meaning of the text in depth. This strategy gives the learner an opportunity to identify the kind

of information that provides the substance for an appropriate question and to frame questions

before, during, and after reading (Flood and Lapp, 1993). This is needed to perform deeper 2

processing of what they read, and for the students to be aware of when they do not

understand the material. Finally, the last strategy to be applied is summarizing. In this step of strategy, learner is

identifying and integrating important information presented in the text. Doing this strategy, the

learner needs to initially identify the most important content of the reading section. It is also

necessary to integrate and own the information which indicates understanding. This step of strategy is obviously a clear indication of whether the material has been

understood or not. Based on Rosenshine and Meister (1994), findings for research

studies suggest that the ability to summarize is a measure of implementation and also a

legitimate measure of comprehension. Thus, if students are unable to summarize, it is a

strong cue to the teacher to reprocess the procedure of comprehending the text.

2.3 Benefits of Reciprocal Teaching The benefits of reciprocal teaching that learners get may be classified into two principle

ways. Firstly, the strategy training allows them to gain more self confidence and motivation to

read and even expertise as they apply the four strategies to a variety of texts (see also

Cotteral, 1990). Secondly, other benefits can be gained from the interaction during the

process of reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching involves students in the discussion of

text. This will absolutely increase cooperation and greater initiative. Furthermore, it can

improve their leadership skills as they play the role as discussion leaders (see also Gavelek

and Raphael, 1996). Moreover, it will absolutely increase students’ awareness of the target

language when the interaction is in that language. It is so because during the process they

debate ideas and interpretations using the target language. 2.4 Reading Comprehension

Reading is a very important activity in human’s life. This is due to the fact that people mostly get information through reading (see also Djiwandono, 1996). In this modern era, moreover, when every aspect of human’s life develops faster and faster, it becomes more essential since the development is recorded and issued through media including printed media and internet.

Dechant (1977:9) explains that reading is perceived as a two-fold process. First, it requires identification of the symbols and the association of appropriate meanings with them. In other words, reading requires identification and comprehension (see also Nunan, 1989). Second, reading is a language and communication process. It always involves an interaction between the writer and the reader. It is further explained that reading requires the communication of a message and it requires a language system in which messages are formulated and encoded.

Based on explanation above reading English texts can help them to check the extent of their knowledge of the language. This will automatically improve their sense of the language. Finally, it gives significant effect towards their learning, especially the language they use to communicate effectively and efficiently.

III. METHOD This was a quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research is

one shot case study. It means that the subject chosen is only one class and we give treatment. The subject is eleven grade students of SMK Muhammadiyah 2 Semarang. Firstly, conventional teaching was done. Secondly, reciprocal teaching was done. Then, the researcher gave the tests to them using same recount text after every teaching. She also observed the process of every teaching.

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IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 The Qualitative Result of Reciprocal Teaching Process in Reading

Classroom Activities

Implementing this technique, the teacher firstly leads the dialogue, modeling each of the four strategies in relation to the first paragraph of the text. The students participate by asking the teacher to clarify difficulties, by agreeing or disagreeing with the teacher’s stated main idea, by suggesting modifications to the summary and by adding their own predictions about the content of the next paragraph of the text.

There are some steps in a typical reciprocal teaching session; teacher distributes the

day’s reading text, students and teacher look only at the title of the reading passage and then

make predictions about the likely content of the passage based on the title, the groups silently

read the first paragraph of the passage, one member of each group acts as discussion leader

for that paragraph by leading the group through the subsequent steps, the leader seeks or

provides clarification of any difficulties experienced in this section of the text, the leader locates

and states the main idea of that paragraph, the leader summaries the content of the paragraph,

the leader predicts the likely content of the following paragraph (the discussion leader is

encouraged to seek feedback on each of the four steps so that the activities take place within

are as natural dialogue. As possible), the current discussion leader points another student

within the group to lead the discussion of the following paragraph reading the text. This

procedure continues until this group finishes reading the text. During the early phases of reciprocal teaching, the teacher assumes the major

responsibility of the text being read by explicitly modeling the four learning strategies. He gives models of a good reader’s strategies-generating question about the content, summarizing, clarifying points, and predicting.

After giving the model of how to lead the discussion, the teacher then invites one

student of every group to be discussion leaders for the next paragraph of the text. Obviously,

the teacher should provide a lot of support and guidance while the students learn to apply the

four strategies. The students then take over the teacher’s role in small groups as they

assume responsibility for leading the discussion. Then, paragraph by paragraph, students

practice the strategies with the teacher providing feedback to them and continuing to model

and explain the strategies. As the students progress, the teacher gives less and less help and

finally withdraws control until the students can manage the procedure themselves. Each member of every group has a chance to lead a discussion (within the group)

about the text given by the teacher. This procedure is aimed for the participants to

acquire the four strategies and to be able to apply them to any text with ease. One

student asks questions, another student answers and the next one’s comment on the

answer. While one student summarizes, another student comments on or helps to

improve the summary. When one student identifies a difficult word, the other students

help to infer the meaning and give reasons for the inferences they make. The concept of students providing support for one another, the concept of teacher

support as students begin a task, and the gradual fading of the teacher’s support are the

foundation for reciprocal teaching. These concepts reflect what so called ‘teacher

scaffolding’. In teacher scaffolding, the teacher provides support for the new learning but as

the students’ competence increase, the teacher support diminishes. It is merely like a scaffold

which is gradually removed from a building when it is able to support its own weight. 4.2 The Quantitative Result

The students’achievement of reciprocal teaching is 73.66 and the students’achievement using conventional teaching is 70,33. (appendix 1)

V. CONCLUSION 4

Based on the explanation of the use of reciprocal teaching to improve eleven grade

students’ reading comprehension achievement, it can be concluded that reciprocal teaching

is one of the problem-solving techniques used by English teachers in reading classroom. It is

comprehension strategy that uses clarifying, predicting, questioning, and summarizing

strategies in teaching learning process. It gives students opportunity to socially interact

through reading text. This reflects students’ active involvement in the teaching and learning

process. It requires students to work in groups, discussing the material (reading passage)

through some steps of strategies mentioned above. They are supportive towards students’

engagement in the classroom principle of teaching adolescents. The students’ achievement using reciprocal teaching is 73,66 and the students’

achievement using conventional teaching is 70,33. It can be concluded statistically that

teaching reading using reciprocal teaching is better than using conventionals one. It also has some benefits in teaching learning process such as; firstly, the strategy

training allows them to gain more self confidence and motivation to read and even expertise

as they apply the four strategies to a variety of texts. Secondly, it involves students in the

discussion of text and increases cooperation and greater initiative. Moreover, it can improve

their leadership skills as they play the role as discussion leaders. Finally, the writer gives tension that reciprocal teaching gives positive effect on students’

reading comprehension achievement. Hence, all in all, teachers who are interested in this

technique are suggested to conduct it in their teaching learning process especially reading.

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Ministry of Education. Retrieved December 15, 2012 from http://english.unitechnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/reciprocal.html

Flood, J. (Ed.).Handbook Research on Teaching the English Language Arts. New York: Macmillan. Retrieved December 15, 2007 from http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/promising/tips/tipcadun.html

Gavelek and Raphael. (n. d.). Changing Talk About Text: New roles for Teachers and Students. Retrieved December 15, 2012 from http://www.sdcoe.kl12.ca.us/score/promising/tips/tipcadun.html

Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000. Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford University Press.

Lapp, D. (Ed.). 1996. Content Area Reading and Learning Instructional Strategies. Allyn and Bacon. Retrieved December 15, 2012 from http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/promising/tips/tipcadun.html

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