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30 - Okuma Öğretiminde Karşılıklı Öğretim Yönteminin Uygulanması
30 - Okuma Öğretiminde Karşılıklı Öğretim Yönteminin Uygulanması
Received: May 27, 2017 Accepted: June 20, 2017 Online Published: July 11, 2017
doi:10.22158/sll.v1n2p112 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/sll.v1n2p112
Abstract
Reading is one of English language skills considered more important in this modern world, so reading
gets more emphasize than other skills. Although receiving more attention than other language skills in
English classroom, the result of students’ reading comprehension achievement is still far from
expectation. To help students comprehend English reading texts and have better achievement in reading
skill, Reciprocal Teaching method can be an alternative to offer. The Reciprocal Teaching method as an
instructional activity that takes place in the form of dialogue, which is structured by the use of four
steps: predicting, clarifying, question generating, and summarizing. Students learn to use four
strategies to increase their understanding of the text being read. This method is useful for improving
students’ reading effectiveness, in addition to help students better remember what they read. This paper
highlights the Reciprocal Teaching method and its use as an alternative to improve students’ reading
comprehension achievement.
Keywords
reading, Reciprocal Teaching
1. Introduction
Reading is one of English language skills considered important for students’ growth as an individual in
many aspects of life. Every day we cannot escape from reading activity. We read newspaper, report,
messages, books, notes, and many other writings. So reading has been considered as one of the major
sources of providing students with great amount of information about various subjects (Salehi &
Vafakhah, 2013, p. 148). That is why students are taught reading skill at school. By reading, the
students will know how English is actually used in printed and written forms.
According to Rivers (1981, p. 259) the most important activity in any language class is reading.
Reading is not only a source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also a means of
consolidating one’s knowledge of a language. In other words, reading activities can bring many
benefits for students such as to get information, pleasure and knowledge. Furthermore, Nunan (1991, p.
259) states that reading is the most important activity in any class not only as a source of information, a
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pleasurable activity, but also a means of consolidating and extending one’s knowledge, literature, and
culture. So the knowledge or information which students get from the reading activity in the classroom
hopefully can give meaningful contribution in every aspect of life (Gillet & Temple, 1994, p. 3).
According to Burns et al. (1996, p. 5) the ability to read is vital to functioning effectively in a literate
society. However, students who do not understand the importance of learning to read will not be
motivated to read. Justify Burns’ opinion, Bruder and Henderson (1988) state that the ability to read
can be affected by some factors, such as linguistic aspects, prior knowledge, and reading strategy.
Dealing with the linguistic aspects, mastering relevant vocabulary items and structures become a basis
for which a student decodes meaning from the text. Another factor is prior knowledge that students
bring into reading. When students are reading a text, they are not passive; instead, they bring their prior
knowledge to incorporate with new information within a text. Meanwhile, the use of strategy in reading
brings about some benefits for which the students might adjust their purpose for reading and become
aware of what they were reading.
Referring to the importance of reading, the students should be well prepared with the skill as early as
possible so they are accustomed to comprehending what they read in their daily life. Leipzig (2001, p. 1)
states that in reading activity we are not only reading the text, but also trying to understand what we are
reading. It is based on the fact that reading requires words recognition, comprehension, and fluency.
Djiwandono (1996, p. 63) also states that to understand all types of information in an array of the text
requires not only the reading activity but also ability to understand the content. In addition, he asserts
that without the ability to understand the content, one cannot absorb or comprehend a lot of information
quickly, accurately, and easily. Accordingly, reading should become the main emphasis in English
teaching program in Indonesia, particularly for the senior high school students. Yet it does not mean
that the other skills of English like listening, speaking, and writing are not important.
Unfortunately, reading at the secondary and higher school still becomes problem for students. Alderson
(1984) states that when the students are confronted with a reading text, they seem to read with limited
understanding. Furthermore, Students mostly are still experiencing reading difficulties in reading
learning process. Most problems are lack of vocabularies, lack knowledge of sentence structures,
difficulties in discovering the meaning of words in context and also improper classroom activities.
Inadequate vocabulary makes them stumble at each sentence, and soon they begin to lose their patience
with and interest in reading (Rahman, 2007, pp. 32-33). This is because if the students faced a difficult
text with many unknown words, the students of course will look for it in a dictionary in many times.
This will make the students become boring and lose their interest in reading.
So, Limited knowledge of vocabulary and lack of sentence structure is regarded as the main problem
(Gunning, 2002 in Chawwang, 2008, p. 2). Lacking of sentence structures knowledge also lead the
students to become frustrated in reading activity. As we know, sentence structures will makes the
readers know about what the function of the words are, when the sentence expected by the author to be
happened, and many others. The complex sentences that contain complex sentence structures will break
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the students’ mental down because they cannot gain the real meaning of a sentence and this will intrude
the students’ success in reading. Some students also cannot discover the meaning of words in context.
Actually students need to imply meaning by guessing from sentences or context (Aebersold & Field,
1997 in Chawwang, 2008, p. 2). But the students sometimes only know one meaning of a word. This
will lead a misunderstanding in interpreting the meaning of a sentence. It also causes confusion for
students in understanding a text.
Improper classroom activities are also responsible for students’ poor reading (Rahman, 2007, p. 34). A
proper classroom learning activities should be applied in reading learning process. A proper instruction
in reading learning process will help the students read in a right way.
According to Yaseen (2013, pp. 2-3) in reading class in some schools, teachers ask the whole class to
repeat after them, then one by one to sound out words. Sometimes they read for the class and then ask
the students one by one to read loudly. Sometimes they focus on every single word, how it is
pronounced and what it means. Those explanations by Yaseen are often happened in the reading class.
Those will create an inappropriate interaction between teacher and the students. The students will have
misunderstanding of what reading is and they will think that “just read fast with correct pronunciation,
and you are a good reader”. Those improper reading instructions sometimes will make the students
consider that reading is an unimportant and passive activity than ignore it. Reading is such a passive
activity but actually it is not. Reading is an active activity because it involved our brain to work
consciously or unconsciously to gain information if the right strategy is applied.
Considering the above causes, it is necessary to implement a strategy that can help solve the students’
problems in reading. One of the strategies that helps students understand reading materials is
Reciprocal Teaching (RT) method. RT method is originally developed by Palincsar and Brown (1984)
and they describe it is as problem solving activities that aim to promote thinking while reading,
resulting in better comprehension of the reading passage (Salehi & Vafakhah, 2013). It is a step by step
procedure and emphasize in four reading strategies that a teacher or tutor and a group of students takes
turns leading discussion about specific segment of text through the following strategies: predicting,
clarifying, questioning, and summarizing (Palincsar & Brown, 1984, p. 117).
According to Palincsar & Brown (1984, p. 127), RT Method offers some advantages for the students,
such as providing them a window into the thinking of proficient readers as they problem-solve their
way toward meaning; giving the students a condition to approach reading as an active and strategic
process; and learning behaviors that will help them become more independent readers, capable of
handling increasingly sophisticated material.
Furthermore, it provides explicit teaching through direct instruction that can make obvious what will
the students do in reading learning process. It is a sharing of an active comprehension because it
involves reciprocal dialogue. It is an important factor in Reciprocal Teaching method which is based on
the premise that group participation and dialogue that can aid learning as well as promoting conceptual
change (Meyer, 2010, p. 42). This strategy also provides higher order thinking (Meyer, 2010, pp.
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43-47). This strategy encouraging the students to create their own questions based on the text for
deeper comprehension. When creating and answering the questions, the students will develop critical
thinking ability to engage them in reading and also deepen their understandings that enable all students
to experience success with their learning.
2. Discussion
2.1 Reading Comprehension
Reading is the process of recognizing, interpreting, and perceiving the written or printed material.
According Braunger and Lewis (2001, p. 4) reading is a complex and purposeful socio-cultural,
cognitive, and linguistic process in which readers simultaneously use their knowledge of spoken and
written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to
construct meaning with text.
Comprehension is necessary if one wishes to learn from textbooks and manuals, enjoy great literature,
or simply follow directions in a cookbook. It constitutes an activity of associating or connecting a
reader’s ideas or thoughts with what an author states in print. Blair-Larsen and Williams (1999, p. 37)
state that comprehension is a multidimensional thinking process; it is the interaction of the reader, the
text, and the context. They further point out that comprehension occurs when readers make critical
connections between their prior knowledge and new-found knowledge in the text. While reading a text,
readers activate their prior knowledge or schemata about a topic. In other words, when a reader or
student encounters a reading text, he tries to associate his prior knowledge and what has been written in
print. If this happens, it can be said that reading conveys understanding. Otherwise, reading without
comprehension cannot be associated as reading since reading is directed to achieve comprehension.
2.1.1 Models of Reading Process
To understand the content of a particular text, one must go through a process. During the reading
process, a reader might use one, two, or combination of the two models. The models of reading process
are bottom-up, top-down, and interactive model.
Bottom-up Model
The bottom-up model of reading ability is primarily concerned with the recognition of individual letters,
phonemes and words. Gough, La Berge and Samuels as quoted by Cox (1999) state that bottom-up
reading model views reading as a part to whole process. First, the reader learns to recognize letters,
followed by words, and then words in context, until he or she finally begins to understand what is read.
This model believes that the reading process begins with individual recognition of letter and phonemic
counterparts. This knowledge then leads to the recognition of individual words of the text presented to
the reader. Meaning of the whole text is a process of building understanding of individual letters to the
word level, then to the sentential level, and finally the text level.
Top-down Model
The top-down model of reading process places the emphasis on the reader’s active participation in the
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reconstruction of the meaning in the text. Stanovich as quoted by O’Malley and Pierce (1996) states
that the model by starting with the reader’s hypotheses and predictions about the text and his or her
attempts to confirm them by working down to the smallest units of the printed page. Similarly, Cox
(1999, p. 270) states that top-down reading views reading as part of language development and a
process of hypothesis testing in which the reader’s job is to make predictions about the meaning of
what is being read.
Interactive Model
Cox (1999, p. 270) points out that interactive model views the reading process as an interaction
between the reader and the text. The model allows for both bottom-up and top-down processing and is
reflected in teaching approaches that emphasize direct reading instruction of word identification skills,
vocabulary, and word meaning and comprehension. Interactive model is suitable for skilled readers. For
them, both bottom-up and top-down models of reading can occur simultaneously. It means that when
such readers are confronted with the reading texts, they must activate both their linguistic competences
and their schemata related to the text contents.
2.1.2 Levels of Reading Comprehension
To know to what extent students have understood the content of the text, some experts have proposed
some levels of reading comprehension. Four levels of comprehension as identified by Burns, Roe, and
Ross (1996) are discussed. They are reading the lines (literal comprehension), reading between the
lines (interpretive or inferential comprehension), reading for evaluation (critical reading), and reading
beyond the lines (creative comprehension) each of which can be described in the following section.
Literal Comprehension
Burns et al. (1996, p. 255) explain that literal reading comprehension involves acquiring information
that is directly stated in the text. It is a prerequisite for higher level understanding. To be better in this
comprehension one should have a thorough understanding of vocabulary, sentence meaning, and
paragraph meaning. They also say that the basis of the literal comprehension is recognizing stated main
idea and details. Details in reading mean the specific explicitly-stated parts of a paragraph or passage
that contains the basic information. Main idea is the central thought around which a whole paragraph is
organized. It is often expressed in a topic sentence. Moreover, it is stated that recognizing and
understanding the cause and effect relationship as well as sequence in a written passage is also
important to be the basis of literal reading comprehension. Finding out the cause and effect relationship
in the reading text is considered as literal skill when the relationship is explicitly stated. Sequence, the
order in which events in a paragraph or passage occur, can be identified by time-order words, for
example now, before, when, while, yet, after, and so on.
Furthermore, they say that the next basis for literal reading comprehension is direction. The ability to
read and follow directions is prerequisite for successful school work. It involves understanding details
and sequence; therefore, the exercises under the headings are appropriate to use in teaching students to
follow written direction.
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