A.

Title : ENHANCING THE STUDENTS MOTIVATION

TOWARD
READING COMPREHENSION BY USING HUMOR STORY
B. Background :
Language is a tool of communication. It is use to express ideas, feeling,

suggestion, creation, or emotion that will be much easier to express it in our

mother tongue. Language is therefore a system by which sounds and meanings

are related Rodman (1974:2). Human always use language as grammatically

structure in words form and combine it into a sentence or clause. English is a

foreign language becomes one of the international language that widely use and

spoken all over the word. Since that, English become one of the compulsory

subjects in school from elementary up to university level.

There are four skills in English those are listening, speaking, reading,

and writing. The four skills language supported by grammar and vocabulary,

that skills related to each other so it should be taught as effectively as possible.

The four English language skills are important to improve. But this research

focus on reading skill.

Reading is an exercise dominates by eye and brain, eye look at the

message in the printed pages then sends it to the brain, and then the brain

processes the significance of the message. We can know any information that

we need through reading. Besides that, reading can improve our vocabulary,

knowledge, information and any others to increase our knowledge with reading

(Harmer in Fitriani, 2008:3)

In reading comprehension, the message to be imposed in the written

form is the most important element that the students must recognize, because

the primary purpose of reading is to know the thoughts expressed in the printed
material. Therefore, reading with comprehension is only a way for the students

to arrive at what they want to know from the reading material. However, the

problem is how to make them comprehend. In the teaching reading, English

teacher should introduce the humor stories as an alternative way to give

variation to the students in teaching and learning process.

Related to the explanation above, the researcher do pre-

observation that conduct in SMK Negeri 6 Bulukumba. The researcher

found that students difficult to determine the main idea of the text. The

students also feel bored to involve in learning especially in reading skill.

The researcher also do interview with the English teacher and she say there

are some problem of the students in English learning, First, that students

have difficulties in comprehend English text because the students are lack

of vocabulary, Second the students themselves have no motivation to read,

especially in long written texts, Third students have difficulty to identify

explicit information in a text and students are unable to find the main idea

of the text. Based on the result of interview the researcher use humor story

to enhancing the students motivation toward reading comprehension.

Humor is one instructional tool that teacher can use in the class room to

increase the effectiveness. According to Gorham and christophel (1990) even

highly immediate teachers shot refrain from picking on students in an effort to

be funny because this is view it as behavior that is out of character. Webster

New world Dictionary (1996), humor is the quality that makes something

seems funny or amusing: comicality it also means mood, state of mind humor
 must be funny but it has to be considered that funny element is not the humor

but symptom. Using humor story as materials in reading comprehension class

is beneficial to facilitate a relax atmosphere and enjoyment for the students, so

they will have strong motivation in reading. Thus they will try to comprehend

the content of the reading passage.

Motivation is probably the most important factor that can educators target

in order to improve learning. Motivation refers to reasons that underlie

behavior that is characterized by willingness and volition. Motivation involves

a constellation of closely relate beliefs, perceptions, values, interests, and

actions. Motivation can affect how students a pproach school in general, how

they relate to teachers, how much time and effort they devote to their studies,

how much support they seek when theyre struggling, how much they attempt

to engage or disengage their fellow students from academics, how they perform

on assessments and so on. Additionally, how students conceptualize

knowledge or learning can also influence how motivate they are. If a

student defines knowledge as a fixed quantity a person either has or doesnt

have, that student is less likely to be motivated to learn than one who defines

knowledge as a quantity that can change and grow (Dweck, 2010).

Based on all reason above, the writer is interested in conducting an pre-

experiment research under the title enhancing the students motivation

toward reading comprehension by using humor story of the second grade

of SMK Negeri 6 Bulukumba.

C. Research Problem
According to the statement above, the researcher question is formulate as

follows:
 1. Does the use of humor stories enhance the students motivation toward

reading comprehension at the second grade of SMK Negeri 6 Bullukumba?

D. Research Objective
The objective of the research is to find out whether the use of humor

stories in teaching reading can enhancing the students motivation toward

reading comprehension at the second grade of SMK Negeri 6 Bulukumba

E. Research Restriction

The restriction of this research is at the second grade of SMK Negeri 6

Bulukumba that focus on enhancing the students motivation toward reading

comprehension by using humor story. This research is limited to use text types

of anecdote text namely humor story by giving 4 humor stories like three birds

on a tree branch, book tickets at a station, snake in the bath, a new married

couple.

F. Research Theory
1. Definition of reading

The word read means look at and understand something written or

printed (oxforddictionary). Dr.H. Dalman, M.Pd. (2014) Reading is an activity

or process of applying a number of reading text processing skills in order to

understand the content of the reading. Therefore, reading requires a schemata,

the knowledge and experience that the reader has so that the reader is able to

understand the content of the text he is reading. Moreover, he explains that

understanding in reading does not necessary mean knowing the dictionary

meaning of every word but the ability to make sense of it through personal

meaning Gregory (2008).

a. Kinds of Reading
Three kinds of reading, they are:
a) Reading Aloud

In reading aloud, the students will get experience in producing the sound,

which should be practice as many as possible. Reading aloud is divided in two

kinds. They are unison is done with whole group. It is done to check

pronunciation, intonation, the students ability to read and helps teacher to find

out who among his students has difficulty in reading.

b) Silent Reading
Silent reading is reinforcing the readers to find out the meaning of the

words. This kind of reading leads the readers to the better comprehension.

This reading is skill to criticize what is written, to discuss written meaning and

to draw inference and conciliation as well as to tell new ideas on thesis of

what is read.
c) Reading Fast

Reading fast use to improve speed and comprehension in reading. This

skill must sun side with the main purpose of reading that is comprehension

it depends on the kinds of reading material.

2. Humor
According to Webster New world Dictionary (1996), humor is the

quality that makes something seems funny or amusing: comicality, it also

means mood, state of mind humor must be funny but it has to be considered

that funny element is not the humor but symptom of it. Funny is use in the

little to refer to humor and act, which can cause laughter. The text humor story

like Three Birds On a Tree Branch, Book Tickets At A Station, TIT FOR TAT

and Snake in The Bath

 Sudjoko in Hamka (2001) says that humor can function to do all

intention and all goals in every facet, humor can make someone to see

problem in any different sides, humor can entertain, humor can swift mind,

humor can increase someone smartness, humor can make someone tolerate

something and humor also can help some one to comprehend any complex

matters.
Setiawan in Ha mka (2001) categorize humor according to its expression

form he states the kinds of humor as in the following:

1. Performing comedy. Such as jest, pantomime, etc, graphic humor such

as caricature funny picture etc.

2. Literature humor such as funny story humor stories, anecdote etc.

Example

Snake in The Bath

How would you like to find a snake in your bath? A nasty one too!

We had just moved into a new house, which had been empty for so long that
everything was in a terrible mess. Anna and I decided we would clean the bath
first, so we set to, and turned on the tap.

Suddenly to my horror, a snakes head appeared in the plug-hole. Then out

slithered the rest of his long thin body. He twisted and turned on the slippery
bottom of the bath, spitting and hissing at us.

For an instant I stood there quite paralyzed. Then I yelled for my husband, who
luckily came running and killed the snake with the handle of a broom. Anna, who
was only three at the time, was quite interested in the whole business. Indeed I
had to pull her out of the way or shed probably have leant over the bath to get a
better look!
Ever since then Ive always put the plug in firmly before running the bath water.

3. Motivation
Sardiman (2006: 73), Understanding Motivation is a change of energy in a

person characterized by the emergence of felling and preceded by a response

to the existence of goals.Motivation is a critically important factor for

learning. Why students learn and how they learn is influence by their level of

motivation to learn. Many authors consider that there are different levels of

motivation, and these different levels affect what students learn and how much

they learn (McCombs & Miller, 2007). Motivation is an internal force which

encourages students to achieve their own goals. It is what drives a students

participation in the learning process. The concept of motivation also includes

the students reasons for learning and the learning achievement goals they set

for themselves.
a. Types of motivation

There are two types Intrinsic and Extrinsic

a) Extrinsic Motivation is geared toward external rewards and rein

forcer's. Some examples of external rewards are money, praise,

awards, etc. Some examples of external rein forcer's are policy and

pro cedures, disciplinary action, speeding tickets, boundary-setting,

etc.
b) Intrinsic Motivation is geared toward internal rewards and reinforcer's.

Some examples of internal rewards are enjoyment, achievement, a

sense of competence. Some examples of internal reinforcer's are

"Shoulds", "Musts", & "Oughts", a guilty conscience, and Toxic

Shame.
G. Review of Related literature

There are some previous finding related of the research as the following.

Halimah (2002) in her research she concluded that the students have positive

attitude toward the use of written humor in learning speaking because the

written humor can motivate and activate students in learning speaking beside

that students dont feel stress in learning by using written humor.

A journal research written by A. Majid Hayati, Zohreh Gooniband

Shooshtari and Nahid Shakeri (2011) about using humorous texts in

improving reading comprehension of EFL learners that using humor in

language courses, in addition to making class more enjoyable, can contribute to

improving students' proficiency. By humor teachers can motivate students and

attract their attention toward reading the text.

Olufolake Sophia Orekoya, Edmund SS Chan and Maria PY Chik (2014)

in his journal Humor and Reading Motivation in Children: Does the Tickling

Work? they conclude that the benefits and significance of humor socially, and

cognitively through the facilitation of playful learning environment , reduction

of learning anxiety, and the stimulation of students learning motivation, are

liable of creating in children the desire for the tickling sensation that

accompanies humorous reading materials.

Jovita Magdalena S. (1998) using humorous stories as supplementary

materials in the teaching of reading comprehensions that by giving humorous

stories as supplementary reading materials, teacher motivates the students to

 read, improves their reading speed, increases their vocabulary, and broaden

their knowledge.

Based on explanation above, the researcher can conclude that by using

humor story as material in learning process it may be effective and efficient to

enhance the students motivation toward reading comprehension because humor

story can make the students to interest, enjoyable, and funny to read.

H. Research Method

The research employed a pre-experimental method with one class pre-test

and post-test design. The diagram is give below:

Pre-test Treatment Post-test

01 x 02

Where :

01 = Pretest

X = Treatment

02 = Posttest

(Gay, 1981 : 225)

I. Research Instrument

In collecting data, the researcher use consists of text. The reading

test was administrated in the pre-test and the post-test. The test consist of 30

essay tests (10 pre-test and 10 post-test) . The researcher choose essay test

because the students can comprehend the material while the post-test was

intended to know the students reading comprehension.

 The pre-test is given to find out the students ability before present the

reading materials about humor story and post-test is given to find out the

improvement of the students after materials. The humor story is reading

materials from text book in English lesson. In this research the researcher use

pre-test and post-test after the researcher give treatment to know what is the

humor story can enhance the students motivation toward reading

comprehension or not .

In assessing the students reading comprehension by using humor

story, the researcher gives reading comprehension assessment in scoring

the performance of the students reading comprehension skill.

SCORES CRITERIA
4

J. Indicator of assessment
 To calculate the students motivation in reading comprehension the

researcher use questioner consist 35 questioner and the types is use in this

questioner namely close questioner

K. Reference
A. Majid Hayati, Zohreh Gooniband Shooshtari and Nahid Shakeri. 2011.
using humorous texts in improving reading comprehension of EFL
learners. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp.
652-661.

Dalman. 2014. Keterampilan membaca. Jakarta: rajawali pers

Dewck. 2010 Motivation for language Learning. New York : Chapman and
Hall. Inc.
Gregory, e. 2008. Learning to rad in a new language: Making since of word
and worlds, secound edition. London: sage publication

Halimah. 2000. The Students Interest in Learning Speaking by Using Written

Humor Thesis FBS UNM Makassar.

Hamza B. Uno. 2016. Teori motivasi dan penngukurannya. Analisis dibidang

pendidikan. Jakarta: Bumi aksara

Harmer Jeremy. 1987. Practice of Language Teaching: Longman. London and

New York

Olufolake Sophia Orekoya, Edmund SS Chan and Maria PY Chik. 2014.

Humor and Reading Motivation in Children: Does the Tickling
Work?. International Journal of Education. Vol. 6, No. 1

Sugiyono. (2015) Metode penelitian pendidikan. Bandung: Alfabeta