The Effect Of Reap Strategy On Students’ Reading Comprehension In Reading Descriptive Text

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
Language is a tool for us to communicate one each another. We know many languages all over in the world. And one of the languages that are very important as international language is English. People in some countries speak English as their first language and others use it as their foreign language like in Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the country in which English is used as a foreign language. Therefore, English is taught from elementary school level until university. 

There are four skills in English, those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing and speaking are as productive skills; and reading and listening are as receptive skills, in this writing the researcher focuses on reading. Reading is a way to know the world because reading can give knowledge as a medium of getting information. According to Hilman (1960:50), reading is a language process requiring the understanding of written language. Some information and knowledge can be achieved through reading. It requires ability to comprehend the text, especially the texts are written in English language. It means the readers are not only able to read the text but also be able to find out the point of information or the idea of the text. Beside, the reader should be able to get and interpret ideas from the text that they read. Reading is important skills in learning English to be mastered by the students besides the other skills. According to Wineburgh (2001:80) in Maya (2011:1), reading is not merely a way to learn new information but becomes a way to engage in new kinds of thinking. It means that when the students reading something (such as; books, article, news, paper and etc) is not a way to get new information. Because, if the students do not understand from what have they read, they cannot get something. So, it can make the students think hard how to get the information from they read based on the way of thinking. 

In educational examination, the students must be able to comprehend the meaning of the texts in form of recount, descriptive, procedure, report and etc in context of daily life. It can be concluded that it is very important for students to master reading comprehension in order to enable them to get success in reading learning process.

Based on the fact, we found that almost students got difficulties and bored in getting information or the main idea of a text in their text book. It caused by some factors such as; first, the teaching method that teacher applied in teaching reading is not effective. The teaching method that the teacher frequently used is translation method. The teacher asks the students to underline some difficult words. Then find the meaning of the difficult words in Indonesian language. After all, the students are asked to translate the meaning of the text, then they are instructed to answer comprehension question in read the reading text. Second, students are not motivated to know about the material given to them. Third, students find that they are still lack of vocabularies and grammar. Another reason why students have to master reading comprehension is most of national examination contents are related to reading, since English as a foreign language any information were shared through reading activity. To make easy in reading comprehension we have many strategies to apply it. One strategy that very famous in reading comprehension is the technique called SQ3R. This stands for survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. By using SQ3R technique we can easy to understanding the text and help the students to get important information and idea of the text.

Another strategy for reading comprehension that the writer interest to use is called REAP strategy. This stands for; Read, Encode, Annotate, and Ponder. According to Eanet and Manzo (1976), REAP was among the earliest strategies develop to stress of thinking and reading. By using this strategy makes the students capable in reading comprehension. This strategy helps the students to understand the text and the students can catch information from the text and get idea of the text which they read. 

By using the REAP strategy the teachers hope if this strategy affect the students’ reading comprehension to get idea and information of the text. It is guaranteed that this strategies effective to affect students’ reading comprehension and explore students’ understanding about the topic as well as detail information from the text by using their own words.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Reading
In study English Reading is important skills to be mastered by the students besides the other skills. According to Heilman, et.al (1981:4), reading is an active and ongoing process that is affected directly by an individual’s interaction with his environment. Nunan (2003:68) states that reading is a fluent process or readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning. Wineburgh (2001:80) in Purba (2012:6) states that reading is not merely a way to learn new information but becomes a way to engage in new kinds of thinking. It means that when the students reading something (such as; books, article, newspaper and etc) is not a way to get new information. Because the students do not understand from what they read, they cannot get something. So, it can make the students think hard how to get the information from they read based on the way of thinking. Othman (2003:3) in Maya (2011:6) states that reading process is interaction between text and reader’s imagination. Therefore, readers need three aspects, making prediction, thinking of the text that it is even of life and having similarity to the human life.

2.2 The Purposes of Reading
Students must have a purpose when they are reading because students who are reading with a purpose they can’t comprehend the text and know what they read better than those who have no purpose in reading. According to Grabe and Stoller (2002:13-15) the purposes of reading are classified into:

2.2.1 Reading to Learn From Text.
Reading to learn typically occurs in academic and professional contexts in which a person needs to learn a considerable amount of information of a text. Reading to learn is usually carried out at a reading rate somewhat slower than general reading comprehension (primarily due to rereading and reflection) strategies to help remember information.

2.2.2 Reading to Search for Simple Information and Reading to Skim.
Reading to search for simple information is a common reading ability though some researchers see it as a relatively independent cognitive process. It is used so often in reading task that it is probably best seen as a type of reading ability. Similarly, reading to skim to is a common part of many reading task and a useful skill in its own right. It involves, in essence a combination of strategies for guessing where important information might be in the text, and then using basic reading comprehension skills on those segments of the text until a general idea is formed.

2.2.2 Reading for General Comprehension.
Reading for general comprehension is the most basic purpose for general. Underlying and supporting most other purposes for reading. General reading comprehension is actually more complex than commonly assumed. Reading for general information requires very rapid automatic processing of word, strong skills in forming a general meaning representation of main ideas and efficient coordination of many processes under very limited time constraints.

2.2.4 Reading to Integrate Information, Write and Critique Text.
Reading to integrate information requires additional decisions about the relative importance of complementary, mutually supporting or conflicting information and the likely restructuring of a rhetorical frame to accommodate information from multiple sources. Both reading to write and reading to critique text require abilities to compose, select and critique information from a text.

2.3 The Process of Reading
The process of reading is refer to the process a person goes through to learn how to read. According to Nunan (2003:70), the models of reading processes can divided into three categories: Bottom-up Modes, Top-Down Models, and Interactive Models. 

1. Bottom-up Model
The bottom up model typically consist of lower-level reading processes. Students start with the fundamental basics of letter and sound recognition, which in turn allows for morpheme recognition followed by word recognition, building up to the identification of grammatical features, sentences, and longer texts. Letters, letter clusters, words, phrases, sentences, longer text, and finally meaning is the order in achieving comprehension.

2. Top-Down Model
The top down model, on the other hand, begin with the idea that comprehension resides in the reader. The reader uses background knowledge, makes prediction, and searches the text to confirm or reject the predictions that are made. A passage can thus be understood even if all of the individual words are not understood. Within a top-down approach to reading the teacher should focus on meaning generating activities rather than on mastery of word recognition. In top-down model the reader begins with the largest elements and works down towards smaller elements to build comprehension of what is being read.

3. Interactive Model
This third type combines elements of both bottom-up and top-down models assuming “that a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources” (Stanovich and Murtagh (1989) as quoted by Nunan (2003:70) stresses that the best second language readers are those who can “efficiently integrate” both bottom-up and top-down processes.

2.4 Reading Comprehension 
We know many purposes of Reading, and one the purpose of reading program is should be aimed to increase students’ comprehension abilities. The important factor that influences the ability students reading comprehension is based on their background experience. Anderson and Pearson (1984) as quoted by cook (2003:12) that comprehension involves connecting text material with facts, concepts, and beliefs already held by the reader and ordering the information into categorized variously termed frames, scripts, or schema. Langer and Smith-Burke (1982) as quoted by Cook (2003:11) stated that the comprehension process is thus active and dynamic, with readers making inferences accommodating new understanding to previous learning, and adjusting reading rate and strategies to varying requirements of the text, the reading context, and the purpose for reading.

According to Cook (2003:11), reading comprehension is determined by: what the reader brings to the act of reading comprehension, ways the printed text has been written and organized by the author, the learning context that defines the task and purpose of the reader and reading environment, strategies the reader consciously applies to achieve comprehension. Heilman, Blair, et al (1981:242) stated that reading comprehension is best viewed as a multifaceted process affected by several thinking and language abilities.

The reader may comprehend a text when they can: recognize the words and sentences of the text and know what the meaning is (obtain literal meaning), associate meaning both denotative and connotative from personal experiences and prior knowledge with the printed text, recognize how all these meanings and/or his perceptions of them fit together contextually, make value judgment about the reading experience. Reader has to find the idea that influence of the quality of their reading comprehension. In another word, reading comprehension is as the interaction between thought and language.

2.5 Levels of Reading Comprehension
The following levels of Reading comprehension can tell us about how the students understand teaching materials and which level that has been achieved when they are reading. And levels that very suitable in students’ reading comprehension in senior high school is literal comprehension because in literal comprehension students able to understand the ideas of information from the passage or the text. According to Heilman et.al (1981:246) there are three levels of comprehension that must be achieved in reading comprehension. Three levels of reading comprehension are identified as below:

1. Literal Comprehension
Reading for literal comprehension emphasizes the understanding the ideas of information clearly stated in the passage. It requires the ability of: 1. Knowledge of words meanings, 2. Recall of details directly stated or paraphrased in own words. 3. Understanding of grammatical clues-subject, verb, pronouns, conjunction, 4. Recall of main idea clearly and, 5. Knowledge of sequence of information presented in passage.

2. Interpretive Comprehension
Reading for interpretative comprehension emphasizes the understanding of ideas and information not clearly stated in the passage of the text. It requires the ability of: 1. Reason with information presented to understand the author’s tone, purpose, and attitude, 2. Infer factual information, main ideas, comparisons, cause-effect relationship not explicitly stated in the passage, 3. Summarization of story in the content.

3. Critical Comprehension
In the level of critical reading comprehension; the students can analyze, evaluate, and personally reaching to information presented in a passage. And also there are two abilities, namely personally reaching to information in a passage indicating its meaning to the reader and also analyzing and evaluating the quality of written information in terms of some standard. It can be concluded that critical reading includes the ability into distinguish between the fact and opinion, to evaluate the accuracy and the appropriateness of the information given in the text, to recognize persuasive statement.

In this study there will be limited and focused on literal and interpretative comprehension because of based on curriculum that both these levels appropriate for the students in order students can understand about reading material and achieve literal and interpretative comprehension.

2.6 Descriptive Text
Pardiyono (2006:165) states that descriptive is one of the writing types, besides of narrative, recount, report, discussion, explanation, exposition, procedure, anecdote and exposition. Descriptive text is a description of an object, both living things and dead things, including human and animals.

According to Stanley (1988), mentions that description presents the appearance of things that occupy space, whether they are objects, people, buildings or cities. According to Gerot (1994), descriptive text is a kind of text with a purpose to give information and to describe. Social function of descriptive text is to present (at least) two points of view about an issue or to describe a particular person, place or things or to describe the characteristic or condition of an object either person or thing by using adjective or attribute. 

And generic structure of the descriptive text, they are: Identification (Identifies phenomenon to be described), description (describes parts, qualities, characteristics). From the explanation above, it can be concluded that descriptive text is a text which describes one object or thing clearly based of view, experience, and feeling of the writer to bring the reader can see, feel, and understand about the object. According to Siahaan and Shinoda (2008:89), there are four language features of descriptive text, they are:
1. Focus on specific participants.
2. Use of attribute and identifying process
3. Frequent use of Epithets and classifiers in nominal group.
4. Use of simple present tense.

2.7 Read-Encode-Annotate-Ponder (REAP) Strategy
Then, Manzo and Manzo (1990:221) in Susanti (2011:2), says that REAP this strategy provides the concept to make bridge comprehension between the author’s words and their own words to enable them to communicate their understanding of the text. Steps in students use of REAP: R: Read to discern the writer’s message, E: Encode the message by translating it into your own language, A: Annotate by cogently writing the message in notes for yourself or in a thought book to share with others, P: Ponder, or reflect, on what you have read and written, first introspectively and then by sharing and discussing it with others and as a story aid in test preparation. 

According to Manzo and Albee (2002) in Marantika (2013:72), the REAP strategy has four steps to be followed. First Read, when students read the text, the second Encode, when students take the main ideas in their own language. The next step is annotated, when the students, take a note in a piece of paper about the text. The last step is ponder, in this step the students discuss with the friends or the member of the group and make the brief summary and moral value from the text they have read. Here, by using REAP strategy, the readers do not need to understand all of the meaning of every word in the text. In REAP strategy the students can use their own language in take the content of a Descriptive text.

In conclusion, this strategy guides the students to understanding the text and to make the connections about what they have read. In order to this strategy synthesize the students thinking to improve their comprehension for active reading.

2.8 The Advantages of Applying REAP Strategy
According Marantika (2013:76), the uses of the REAP strategy in teaching reading have some advantages as follow:
  • By using REAP strategy the students can comprehend the text with the new innovation in reading, not just by answering question like before.
  • In REAP strategy the students can understand Descriptive without trying hard to understand the meaning of each word in that text.
  • In this strategy the students can develop their ability in encoding a text in their own language in Encode phase.
  • In this strategy the student also can develop their skill in writing the annotation in annotate phase.
  • By using REAP strategy the student can share their idea with their friend in group about the content of text in Ponder activity.
2.9 Theoretical Framework
Reading is one of the language skills of language learning. So, reading is one of English language skills considered important for students’ growth as an individual in many aspects of life. Based on its importance, it is taught more emphasize compared to other language skills. In reading comprehension, the students are served as many instruction tasks varies in levels of comprehension from the lower into higher as it is stated previously. Many students feel if reading subject is very difficult. This information came from the teachers that teaching English. So, many students’ reading score is low. To solve this problem the teacher must use a strategy to increase reading comprehension of the students.

Strategy is expected to minimize the difficulties faced when the students are provided with this kind of reading. In this study, REAP is one of some strategy selected to use. In REAP, the students help themselves to read well and more rapidly by selected what is important idea that they get in the text.

In conclusion, this strategy guides the students to understanding the text and to make the connections about what they have read. In order to this strategy synthesize the students thinking to improve their comprehension for active reading. In another word by use the interactive REAP Strategy develops students’ reading comprehension

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