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STUDENTS’ READING STRATEGIES AND THEIR COMPREHENSION

Yulia NugrahiniDosen STKIP PGRI Tulungagung

ABSTRACT

Reading is an essential skill for English as second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master (Anderson, 1999). Anderson also states that with good reading skills, ESL/EFL readers will make great progress and attain great development in all academic areas (1999:2). In a junior high school in Indonesia, reading skill is a first priority. The study is aimed at investigating the junior high school students’ reading strategies and their reading comprehension. Furthermore, this study is intended to find the correlation between the junior high school students’ reading strategies and their reading comprehension.

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Reading is an essential skill for

English as second/foreign language

(ESL/EFL) learners; and for many,

reading is the most important skill to

master (Anderson, 1999). Anderson

also states that with good reading skills,

ESL/EFL readers will make great

progress and attain great development

in all academic areas (1999:2). In

a junior high school in Indonesia,

reading skill is a first priority. The goal

of reading in Indonesia English

curriculum is to make the students

comprehend what they read, and

enhance students’ oral and written

communication ability (SMP-SBI

curriculum 2007 the third grade of a

junior high school). Further, SMP-SBI

curriculum 2007 the third grade of a

junior high school clarifies that the

communication in this case is the ability

to understand and to express the feeling,

thought and information, to develop

science, culture and technology

(Depdiknas, 2007). It is also stated that

standard competence of reading is to

understand a meaning of procedural,

report, explanatory written text or short

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essay, narrative, and news items, in

order that students are able to

communicate in daily and academic

context (ibid.). In the last decade, many

reading experts have investigated

English reading strategies in order to

solve the reading problems. Reading

strategies are considered one of the

fundamental factors that promote

students’ comprehension improvement

in reading. Furthermore, reading

strategy “is the foundation of students’

self-regulated reading” (Syafrizal,

2000:4). A motivated and self-regulated

reader will encourage himself to set his

own planning in determining his

reading strategies which contribute a

great deal of success to his reading

comprehension (Wenden, 1987:11).

Based on the description above,

it can be said that reading strategies

play an important role in reading

English texts, especially in a junior high

school. In line with this, the present

study focuses on the investigation of

students’ reading strategies and their

reading comprehension, a case study at

a junior high school.

Research Problems

The study is aimed at

investigating the junior high school


reading comprehension. Specifically,

this study investigates the following

questions:

1.What reading strategies are used by

the third grade students of the junior

high school?

2.Is there any correlation between the


reading comprehensions?

Purposes of the Study

The study was conducted in order to:

1. discover the reading strategies

used by third grade students of

the junior high school.

2. find the correlation between the

students’ reading strategies and

their reading comprehension

Significance of the Study

This study is intended to find the

correlation between the junior high

school students’ reading strategies and

their reading comprehension.

Hopefully, the study will be valuable

for teachers and students, for improving

the teaching learning process. By

knowing the students’ reading strategies

and their reading comprehension, the


teachers could also select and design the

appropriate teaching materials and

techniques. Besides, by identifying

reading and its strategies.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Reading Strategies

Reading strategies are of interest

not only for what they reveal about the

ways readers manage their interactions

with written text, but also for how the

use of strategies is related to effective

reading comprehension. Reading

strategies helpreaders comprehend what

the text of reading is about. In

discussing reading strategies, it is

necessary to understand whatstrategies

are. According to Brown (2001:217),

“strategies are defined as

specificmethods of approaching a

problem or task, modes of operation for

achieving a particular end, or planned

designs for controlling and

manipulating certain information”.

Furthermore, Oxford and Crookall

(1989, cited in Phan, 2006:2) state that

“strategies can be operationalized as

learning techniques, behaviors, and

problem-solving or study skills

that enhance learning more effectively

andefficiently”. Reading strategies are

parts of language learning strategies

which areusually used by people who

learn a language in order to make their

learningeffective. Since the strategies

are taken by the people/students, each

student willapply different reading

strategies.

According to Amanda (2007:22)

reading strategies are “techniques

andmethods that readers use to make

their reading successful. They are

regarded as an important aspect of

language learning since they can help

students to overcomereading problems”.

Relating to reading strategies, Baker

and Boonkit (2004:299)defines:

Reading strategies are

techniques and methods that readers

useto make their reading successful.

Some of reading strategies include

skimming, scanning, summarizing,

guessing, predicting,making inference,

underlying words or phrases, and taking

note.To support the definition above,

Brantmeier (cited in Phan, 2006:2

summarizes the reading

strategies as follows: The reading

strategies may involve skimming,

scanning,guessing, recognizing

cognates and word families, reading


formeaning, predicting, activating

general knowledge, makinginferences,

following references, and separating

main ideas fromsupporting ideas.From

the statements above, it can be implied

that reading strategies aretools to make

a successful reading in order to

comprehend the text and the readers

themselves who decide the strategies

they employ to make them comprehend

thetext (Amanda, 2007). These points

become the focus on this study.

Classifications of Reading Strategies

There are a lot of reading

strategies offered by many experts;

however this studytakes the reading

strategies presented by Oxford (1990).

There are 62 strategies;divided into

direct and indirect strategies. The

strategies used directly in dealinwith a

new language are called direct

strategies. The three groups that belong

to the direct strategies are memory,

cognitive, and compensation. The

indirect strategies are used for general

management of learning. The three

groups belonging to this category are

metacognitive, affective, and social

strategies. Here is a brief

introduction of each group.

Direct Strategies

The direct strategies are beneficial

to the students because they help

students store and recover information.

These strategies help learners produce

language even when there is

gap in knowledge. They also help

students to understand and use the

new language. As mentioned above,

direct strategies consists of memory,

cognitive, and compensation strategies,

each of which will be discussed below

Memory strategies are based on simple

principles like laying things out in

order, making association, and

reviewing. These principles are

employed when alearner faces challenge

of vocabulary learning. The words and

phrases can be associated with visual

images that can be stored and retrieved

for communication.

Many learners make use of visual

images, but some find it easy to connect

words and phrases with sound, motion

or touch. The use of memory strategies

are most frequently applied in the

beginning process of language learning.


As the learners are advance to higher

level of proficiency memory strategies

are mentioned very less.

Memory strategies are sometimes

called mnemonics or means “aiding

memory”. They are those that help the

learner to remember and recall key

items. Thesestrategies include grouping,

associating/elaborating, placing new

words into a context, using imagery,

semantic mapping, and representing

sounds in memory,structured reviewing,

using physical response or sensation,

and using mechanicaltechniques. These

strategies help students store in their

memory the importantthings they hear

or read in new language which enlarge

their knowledge base.These strategies

also enable the students to retrieve

information from memorywhen they

need to use for comprehending or

reproducing information gathered from

what they have read in the reading text

(Oxford, 1990). Cognitive

strategies are commonly found and

used by students. These areperhaps the

most popular strategies with language

learners. The target language

ismanipulated or transformed by

repeating, analyzing or summarizing

(Oxford,1990). This is in line with

Browns and Palicar (as cited in

O’Malley and Chamot,1990) who claim

that cognitive strategies are more

directly related to individual

Arningmaterials. The four sets in this

group are: Practicing (repeating,

recognizing and using formulas and

patterns, recombining, and practicing

naturalistically), Receiving and

Sending Messages (getting the idea

quickly and using resources for

receiving and sending messages),

Analyzing and Reasoning (reasoning

deductively, analyzing expressions,

analyzing contrastively across language,

translating, and transferring), and

Creating Structure for Input and Output

(taking notes, summarizing, and

highlighting). Practicing is the most

important in this group which can be

achieved by repeating, working with

sounds and writing, and using patterns.

The tools of receiving and sending

messages are used when learners try to

find the main idea through skimming

and scanning..

Compensation strategies are also

used in production when grammatical

knowledge is incomplete. Oxford

(1990) states when a student does not

know the subjunctive form of verb, a


different form may be used to convey

the message. These strategies consist of

using linguistic clues, using other clues,

getting help, avoiding communication

partially or totally, selecting topic, and

using a circumlocution or synonym.

These strategies help students overcome

knowledge gaps because of a limitation

of the knowledge which might appear in

the second or foreign language learner

situation and to comprehend

information existing in the text when

they are reading in new language (ibid.).

Indirect Strategies

Indirect strategies work together

with the direct strategies. These

strategies not only help students

regulate the learning process, but also

support and manage language learning

without direct engagement. Therefore,

these strategies called indirect

strategies. As mentioned earlier, indirect

strategies consist of metacognitive,

affective, and social strategies, each of

which will be discussed below. One set

of important indirect strategies is

metacognitive strategies.These

strategies go beyond the cognitive

mechanism and give students to

coordinate their learning. This strategy

helps the students to plan language

learning in an efficient way. As Yu-Xia

(2008), metacognitive strategies are

intended to help learners to control and

coordinate their own leaning process by

the use of centering, arranging, planning

and evaluating (ibid.). When new

vocabulary, rules, and writing system

confuse the learner, these strategies

become vital for successful language

learning. This is in line with O’Malley

and Chamot (1990) who say that

metacognitive strategies are higher

order executive skills that consist of

planning for monitoring or evaluating

the success of mental activity.

These strategies involve

thinking about the comprehension

process, planning for comprehension,

monitoring the reading task, and

evaluating how well one has

understood. Three sets of

metacognitive strategies belong

to this group are: Centering Your

Learning (overviewing and linking with

already known materials and paying

attention), Arranging and Planning

Your Learning (finding about language

learning, organizing, setting goals and

objectives, identifying the purpose of

language task, planning for a language


task, and seeking practice

opportunities), and Evaluating Your

Learning (self-monitoring, and self-

evaluating). The aim of centering

learning is to give a focus to the learner

so that the attention could be directed

toward certain language activities or

skills.


METHODOLOGY

3.2 The Research Design

The study is largely descriptive in

nature and is also correlational, since it

describes the strategies used by the

students in reading English texts, and

investigates whether there was a

correlation between the students’

readingstrategies and their reading

comprehension. As stated by Gay

(1990:220), “a descriptive method

involves collecting data in order to test

hypotheses or to answer questions

concerning the current status of the

subject of the study”.

In accordance with the statement

above, this study used a descriptive

method, in which there is no treatment

and experiment in this study; therefore,

thedata gathered from this study was

not be affected by others, except

therespondents themselves. This study

also uses the Pearson Product Moment

Correlation for examining the

correlation between students’ reading

strategy andtheir reading

comprehension.

3.3 Data Collection

This section discusses the location

and participants of the study, and

theinstruments of collecting the data.

The detail information about data

collection is

discusses below.

3.3.1 Location and Participants

Considering the limited fund,

time, and schedule, this study applied

purposive sampling, in which the

samples are taken based on specific

purposes. According to Alwasilah

(2003:145) purposive sampling is “the

strategy in which particular settings,

persons, or events, are selected

deliberately in order to provide

important information that can not be

gotten from other choices”.

The present study focuses on

high achievers. Accordingly, the

subjects are students who are at the top.

In the context of the school under

investigation, these students are

grouped in class A. Therefore, the

subjects of this study are all students of

class A which consist of 45

members.The sample, then, were

classified into higher and lower

achievers based on


the reading test scores to calculate

discriminating power index. There were

12 students for each group. The reading

test given is in line with the material

that theparticipant learned, i.e., those of

the third grade of a junior high school.

3.3.2 Instruments

As indicated in Chapter One, the

data of this study were collected using

twoinstruments; questionnaires and

reading comprehension test. The detail

information about the instruments is

discusses below.

The questionnaire deals with the

participants’ strategies in reading

English texts. The questionnaire was

adapted from SILL 7.0 (Strategy

Inventory forLanguage Learning)

developed by Oxford (1990). The SILL

is a structured survey(Oxford,

1990:199), which has been extensively

field-tested, demonstrated to behighly

valid and reliable, and used for both

research and classroom

practice.According to Oxford (1990),

SILL has been used in many parts of the

world withlearners of many different

languages, including Chinese, English,

French, German, Italian, Japanese,

Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and

Turkish.

To measure the achievement of

reading comprehension, the researcher

developed a test. The reading

comprehension test used to test the

respondents’ reading comprehension.

This is the ready made test of reading

that was based on the level of reading

material for third grade of junior high

school, taken from Student’s Book Real

Time Standar Isi KTSP 2006: An

Interactive English course for Junior

High School Student Year IX (Bates,

2007:16, 69), and Make Yourself a

Master of English for Grade IX Junior

High School (SMP/MTs) (Wardiman,

2005:149).

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Memory Strategies

Memory strategies used by the students in this study include associating/elaborating (Item 3), using imagery (Item 9), and placing new words into a context (Item 24). These strategies, as Oxford (1990) suggested, can aid in entering information into the long-term memory and retrieving information when needed for communication. The students in this study used those strategies in different levels of frequency. Table 4.1 shows the mean of the total average score of the three items is 3.24. It indicates a


medium use of reading strategies among the students (see Oxford, 1990:291). This finding supports the research by Amanda (2007) that memory strategies

are in the medium level. It means the students sometimes used memory strategy in reading English text.

I find new English words, I try

to make those words in sentence so I

can remember them), which has a mean

of 2.93, the associating/elaborating

strategy can make students understand

more deeply and clearly in reading

English texts. Besides, as Oxford (1990)

proposes, associating/elaborating

strategy can also make the students

retrieve information from memory

when they need to use it for

comprehending or reproducing

information gathered from what they

have read in reading a text. In addition,

the high score of

‘Associating/elaborating’ reflect that

among the three categories of memories

strategies’, ‘Associating/elaborating is

the most popular.

Cognitive Strategies

Cognitive strategies used by the

students in this study include skimming

(Item 1), translating (Item 2),

summarizing (Item 6), scanning (Item

8), analyzing expressions (Item 11),

using resources for receiving and

sending messages (Item 12),

reasoning deductively (Item 13),

highlighting (Item 14), taking note

(Item 15), recognizing and using

formulas and patterns (Item 17),

repeating/rereading (Item 20), and

practicing naturalistically (Item 27).

The strategies, as Oxford (1990:71)

classifies, can form and revise internal

mental models and receive and produce

messages in the target language.

Browns & Palicar (cited in O’Malley &

Chamot, 1990) also say that cognitive

strategies more directly related to


Category Reading Strategy Average riteria

Memory Associating/elaborating 3.56 High Strategy Using imagery 3.22 Medium

Placing new words into a context 2.93 Medium Total Average Mean 3.24 Medium

individual learning tasks and entail

direct manipulation or transformation of

learning material.

The students used those

strategies in different levels of

frequency. Table 4.2 shows the mean of

the total average score of the 12 items is

3.41. It indicates a medium use of

reading strategies among the students

(see Oxford, 1990:291). This finding is

in line with Syafrizal’s (2000) study

which investigated cognitive strategies

in medium level. It means the students

sometimes used cognitive strategy ‘I

reading English text’. Further, Baker

and Boonkit (2004) also found that

cognitive strategies were frequently

used bthe students in their study

.

Table 4.2 Total Average Mean of Cognitive Strategy

Category Reading Strategy Item Average riteria

Cognitive Repeating/rereading 4.31 High Strategy Highlighting 4.27 High

Using resources for 3.96 High messages Scanning 3.73 High Taking note 3.47 Medium Recognizing and using formulas and patterns

3.40 Medium Reasoning deductively 3.36 Medium Skimming 3.22 Medium Translating 3.04 Medium Analyzing expressions 2.91 Medium Summarizing 2.76 Medium Practicing naturalistically 2.44 Low

To

3.41 Medium

Among the 12 cognitive

strategies, ‘Repeating/rereading’ (If I

don’understand the text, I repeat to read

the part of that text), has the highest

score, with an average of 4.31 (high

criteria, see Table 3.4 in Chapter 3). It

means that probably by

repeating/rereading students can pick up

information or explanations that might

have been missed. This strategy as

Oxford (1990) says, can be applied by

reading a passage several times, each

for different purposes; for example to

get the general drift or main ideas, to


predict, to read for detail, and to write

down questions. Meanwhile Item 27,

which measures ‘Practicing

naturalistically strategy, (I say or write

new English words several times) has

the lowest score with an average of

2.44. This value is categorized into

low level of frequenc which

indicated that the respondents rarely

used the strategy (see also Table

3.4 Chapter 3). Similarly, among the 12

categories of cognitive

strategies,‘Repeating/rereading’ is the

most popular.

CONCLUSIONS

First, it is related to the

strategies used by the third grade

students of a junior high school. It was

found that the students used all of

reading strategies. The data showed that

the students used cognitive strategies

most frequently, followed by

metacognitive strategies, compensation

strategies, social strategies, memory

strategies, and affective strategies. The

study identified 12 popular strategies

among students. Those strategies are:

repeating/rereading, highlighting, self-

monitoring, taking risks wisely, using

resources for receiving and sending a

message, using progressive relaxation,

setting goals objectives, scanning,

planning for a language task,

associating/elaborating, asking for

clarification and verification, and

cooperating with peers. It was also

found that out of the 30 reading

strategies, repeating/rereading (average

score 4.31) is the most popular.

Second, to do with the

correlation, it was found that students’

reading strategies and their reading

comprehension were significantly

correlated. This means that the students

whose score was high in reading

strategies generally tended to be more

likely to achieve higher reading

comprehension and vice versa. The high

score of reading strategy means that

students are always/usually use the

strategy. The result of this study goes

with the theories and findings suggested

by some reading experts and researchers

that reading strategies contributes a

great deal of success to improve reading

comprehension.

REFERENCES

Alwasilah, A. Chaedar. 2003. Pokonya

Qualitative: Dasar-


dasar merancang dan

melakukan penelitian

kualitatif. Bandung:

Pustaka Jaya.

Amanda, R. Aska. 2007. Reading

Strategies Used by

Second Grade Students

of Junior High School.

Unpublished

Undergraduate Thesis,

Department of English

Education, Indonesia

University of

Education.

Anderson, J. Neil. (2002). The Role of

Metacognition in

Second Language

Teaching and Learning.

Retrieved February 28,

2008, from

http://www.cal.org/reso

urces/digest/0110anders

on.html.

Anderson, J. Neil. (1999). Exploring

Second language

Reading: Issues and

Strategies. Brigham

Young University:

Newbury House

Teacher Development.

Arikunto, Suharsimi.

(2003). Dasar dasar

Evaluasi Pendidikan.

Revised eds. Jakarta:

Bumi Aksara.

Baker, William, and Kamonpan

Boonkit. (2004).

Learning strategies in

reading and writing:

EAP contexts. Regional

Language Centre

Journal,

35(3),pp.299-

328.

Barnett, Marva A. (1988). Teaching

reading in a foreign

language. Washington

DC, IN: ERIC/REC.


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