EXPLORING
EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION
a.
Title :
EXPLORING EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN TEACHING
READING COMPREHENSION
b.
Name : Nurman Antoni
c.
University :
Indonesia University of Education
a.
Concept : This study is aimed to explore EFL
teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension and the students’
responses toward their teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension
at one junior high school in Riau.
b.
Subject : Three English teachers
and their students who were learning reading comprehension in appropriate texts
at one junior high school in Riau.
c.
Method : This study employed a
qualitative research design which is a case study using three data collection
techniques; observation, interview and questionnaire.
d.
Theory : The data were analyzed
by using three major phases of analyses: data reduction, data display, and
conclusion drawing and verification (Miles and Huberman: 1994).
e.
The
findings : These
findings recommend that the three teachers need to increase their knowledge and
experiences in order to understand the concepts, implementations and the
reasons in using the strategies in teaching reading comprehension. They are
also suggested to give instructions of teaching strategies to students with
lowlevel association responses before starting the reading activities, and give
some guidance to students with partly-formed knowledge.
f.
Words : 190 words
g.
Key
words : EFL,
Reading, Teaching Reading Comprehension, Teachers’ Strategy
Introduction :
a.
Background
and Research Problems :
Teaching strategies used by teachers in
reading comprehension, and student responses to teacher strategies in reading
b.
Literature
Review :
§ Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension skills are
important for English language learners, especially for students who learn
English as a foreign language. Reading comprehension is a process that involves
the orchestration of the readers’ prior knowledge about the world and about
language.
§ The Strategies of Teaching Reading
Comprehension
This study focuses on teaching reading
comprehension strategies which are divided into three reading, this includes:
pre-reading stage, while reading stage, and post reading stage. (Hood
et al, 2005; Gibbon, 2002; Brown, 2001; Wallace, 1992; and Barnet 1988).
-
Pre-Reading
Stage
In this stage, activities
is brainstorming (Wallace, 1992: 91). Crawford et al (2005:
29) define brainstorming as a method for creating many ideas
about a topic. The next activity which can be applied is sequencing picture
(Hood et al, 2005; Gibbon, 2002; Barnet, 1988; Wallace, 1992).
-
While
Reading Stage
In this reading stage, a teacher can generate
appropriate strategies to help students in comprehending the text.
*Gibbons, (2002); Hancock and Leaver
(2006); Nuttal, (1996: 2) recommended to kinds of reading; Aloud, reading aloud.
*Anderson (2003) in Nunan (2003: 69) recommended
to reading silently, because it focuses on getting meaning from print.
*NCLRC (2007) also propose reread to
check comprehension as one of while-activities in reading comprehension.
-
Post Reading Stage
For this stage, a teacher’s activity is primarily
to evaluate the students’ comprehension.
§ The Role of Student’s Responses in
Learning
In this study, as one of the aspects
that to be explored is the students’ response toward their teachers’ strategies
in teaching reading comprehension.
Methodology
:
1.
Research
Design :
This present study employed a
qualitative case study design. A case study was chosen because this study was
to observe and to explore the teachers’ strategies on teaching reading
comprehension and the student’s responses.
2.
Research
Participants :
The participants of this study were
taken from all of EFL teachers who teach in SMPN 1 Gunung Toar in Riau. There
are three English teachers in this school with different experiences and the
degree of background knowledge.
3.
Data
Collection Techniques :
Classroom observation, questionnaire,
and interviews.
-
Classroom
observation :
The classroom observation was conducted in
order to identify the strategies used by EFL teachers and also to identify the
students’ responses
toward their teachers’ strategies in
teaching reading comprehension.
-
Questionnaire
:
In the present study, the researcher used
Likert Scale Questionnaire method to indicate the extent to which they agree or
disagree with this items by marking one of the responses ranging from ‘strongly
agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’.
-
Interviews
:
The interview was carried out before and
after the classroom observation. Kvale (1996: 35), and Cohen and Manion (1994)
define interview as an interaction between two-person with the interviewer for
the specific purpose of obtaining
c.
Research
findings and discussions :
1. The
Teachers’ Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension. The strategy in
teaching reading comprehension is in three stages of teaching; pre-reading, while
reading and after reading.
a.
Pre-Reading
Stage :
During this stage, there were some
techniques and instructions done by the three teachers as their strategies in
teaching reading comprehension. In general, the three teachers have used
brainstorming, encouraging the use of dictionaries, discussing text types, and
predicting.
-
Brainstorming
:
Brainstorming is activities asking
questions of related words within text or to the title given.
-
Encouraging
the use of dictionaries :
This strategy is used when their
students have problems in finding the meaning of the new or difficult words in
the pre-reading stage.
-
Discussing
text types :
Based on the data gathered, one of the most
frequent strategies which chosen by the three teachers in the pre-reading stage
is the discussion on text types. Based on the data, it seems that the teachers
had done a strategy of discussing text type or text structure strategy.
-
Predicting
:
The teachers used predicting strategy,
is one way of to ask students to
predict the kind of text and what the
text is about.
b.
While-Reading
Stage :
Based on data gathered, there were some
strategies used by the three EFL teachers in teaching reading comprehension in
the while-reading stage. In general the three teachers have used read aloud,
reread strategy, directed reading strategy, vocabulary collection and
redefinition strategy, and Gist strategy.
-
Reading
aloud :
It is in line with Gibbon’s (2002) ideas
that reading aloud plays an important role in the development of reading
competence and helps
students in making meaning.
-
Reread
strategy :
The teachers asked students to check or monitor
their comprehension while rereading the text in teaching reading comprehension
as suggested by Anderson (1999: 47) and The National Capital Language Resource
Center (2007).
-
Direct
Reading Activity :
In this strategy, the students are asked
to read the text silently and the teacher should prepare one or two
comprehension-level questions for their reading. In this case, the teachers
used silent reading as a procedure of Direct Reading Activity (DRA).
-
Discussing
of Unknown words :
In doing this strategy, the teachers
tried to lead the students to identify the difficult words to understand the
text.
-
Retelling
the text :
The teachers asked them to retell the
text by using their own words in their first language (L1). After students
write the retelling, she asked some students to read and discuss it.
c.
Post-Reading
Stage :
In
this stage, the teachers had done the activities which include: questioning,
clarifying and justifying comprehension, asking for specific questions,
reviewing and follow-up strategy.
-
Evaluating
Comprehension in Particular Tasks :
Evaluate comprehension in the
post-reading stage; evaluation of comprehension in a particular task,
evaluation of overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading
tasks and deciding if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose.
-
Clarifying
and Justifying the Students’ Answer :
In this study, one of the teachers
created the activity which aimed to ask the students with comprehension
questions and clarified their answer to the class to make sure that they
understand the text.
-
Asking
Questions for Specific Information/ Scanning Strategy :
Scanning activities, as a very important
useful skill for all readers, are used to find specific information quickly
without reading every word of a text.
-
Reviewing
:
Reviewing as one of techniques for
series of approaching in a reading text which is used to assess the importance
of what one has just read.
Students’
Responses toward Their Teacher Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension :
This section discusses
the data gathered from the classroom observation that is focused on the
findings about students’ responses toward their teacher’s strategies in
teaching reading comprehension.
Conclusions
:
For the first research
problem, teachers’ strategies focused on the implementation, concepts, and the
reasons in doing the strategies. Based on the results and analysis from
classroom observation, it can concluded that all of the teachers have used
teaching reading strategies to encourage the students in comprehend the text
that formulated in the pre-, while-, and post-reading stages.
Second, it was focused
in exploring the teachers’ concept about their strategies in teaching reading
comprehension. they proposed the theories of strategy based on their own
knowledge and their experiences in teaching reading.Although they have proposed
some relevant and unique theories, their understanding was not comprehensive
yet. Therefore, those three teachers need to learn more theories in enlarging
their knowledge.
For
the second research problem, it has to do with the students’ responses toward
their teacher strategies in teaching reading comprehension The students’
responses can be classified as the low-level association responses or
ill-formed knowledge which need direct instruction concept from their teachers,
and also as some prior information about a concept or partly formed knowledge
structure which need some teacher guidance but quite capable of the reading
selection
From
the analysis above, it can be inferred that the teachers should tell the
students about the instructions to some students before they read the text.
