1

CONTENTS

COVER .....................................................................................................................

CONTENTS .............................................................................................................

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................

A. Background of The Problem .....................................................................

B. Identification of The Problem ...................................................................

C. Limitation of The Problem........................................................................

D. Formulation of The Problem .....................................................................

E. Purpose of The Research ..........................................................................

F. Significance of The Research ...................................................................

CHAPTER II. FRAME OF THEORIES AND THINKING, AND

HYPOTHESIS .........................................................................................................

A. Concept of Reading...................................................................................

B. Purpose of Reading ...................................................................................

C. Reading Comprehension ...........................................................................

D. Assessing Reading Comprehension ..........................................................

E. Concept of Reading Speed ........................................................................

F. Assessing Reading Speed .........................................................................

G. Kind of Text ..............................................................................................

H. Narrative Text ...........................................................................................

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I. Frame of Thinking ....................................................................................

J. Hypothesis .................................................................................................

CHAPTER III. DATA ANALYSIS .....................................................................

A. Research Design ........................................................................................

B. Population .................................................................................................

C. Sample and Sampling Technique ..............................................................

D. Data Collection .........................................................................................

E. Instrument .................................................................................................

F. Data Analysis ............................................................................................

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 3

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

There are four skills in every language, speaking, writing, listening, and reading.

Speaking and writing is an active skill while listening and reading is passive.Reading

as a passive skill, is one of the skill in language that should be mastered by all, the

students and the societies. Let’s say, when you send a letter to your friend or your

family but they cannot read it; it is useless. To know something new, to increase the

knowledge, to fulfill the desire and curiosity of something, to gain new information;

sometimes we must read; books, notes, manuals, documents, letters and others.

The word "reading" is properly employed for all manner of activities when we

endeavor to make sense of circumstances; its original meaning was "interpretation."

We read the weather, the state of the tides, people's feelings and intentions, stock

market trends, animal tracks, maps, signals, signs, symbols, hands, tea leaves, the

law, music, mathematics, minds, body language, between the lines, and above all—a

point I must come back to—we read faces1.

Everyone reads with variety of speeds, sometimes fast, and sometimes slow. Reading

speed, or in other terms called as a rate of reading, is the speed which a person read.

1
Frank Smith, Understanding Reading A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning
to Read, (London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004), p. 2
 4

The speed is counted in how many words can be read in a minute. There are 5 rates of

reading speed; poor (less than 150 word per minute), average (150 – 300 word per

minute), good (300 – 500 word per minute), excellent (500 – 750 word per minute),

and unbelievable (750 – 1000 word per minute)2.

How fast someone read depends on their situation; motivation, concentration, and

word recognition. Motivation will pull the trigger to start reading something, it turns

up the curiosity to know about the text, and keep the mood when reading. Then

concentration helps to get focus when reading, it helps the reader to stay away from

bothering things while reading. Those two situation will not work if the reader do not

recognize the word. Word recognition avoids spelling when reading; we do not have

to spell well known words, and it plays the most in comprehending the text. Those

three conditions should works together to gain a good rate of reading speed with good

comprehension.

The faster we want to interpret something from what we read, the faster we should

read. Generally, when someone really has curiosity about story, say; a novel, they

will read it as fast as possible in order to find out how will the story goes. Some of the

curious readers whose the speed in reading are awesome, in fact, do not really

understand about the story they read. When they read it one more time in different

2
Mohammad Noer, Speed Reading For Beginners, (Jakarta, PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama,
2012), p. 37
 5

speed, they find that the story is like a little bit different from the first time they read

it; they find a story that they might missed when the first time they read it.

Further, comprehending a text is vital for the reader. We cannot say that someone

really know what the text or the book contains are, when they just mention the

chapters of the book or mention some sentences from the text; they have to be able to

convey the idea of the text or the book, or be able to retell it by their own words, give

explanation and example, and relate it to their real life. Comprehending a text could

also be called as mastering it. Someone who comprehend a text would never confuse

when they are asked about the text they have been comprehended.

Present days, the most dominant readers are student. Teacher of all subject are

commonly using books or modules as media in teaching. But the fact, when the

researcher was collecting some data by asking some question to Mrs. Muji as the

English teacher and also the students of SMAN 1 Sumberejo, the researcher found

that the students do not like to read whether it is Bahasa or English text and they lack

in comprehending a text. Further, the researcher gave tests to XI MIA 3 class’

members as the representation of all second grade students of SMA N 1 Sumberejo to

know the students’ speed reading and their comprehension. The text for testing

students reading speed consists of 303 words, then for comprehension test, the

students were asked to retell the story on their own words, they are allowed to retell it

in Bahasa. The result are shown in the tables as follows:

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Table 1
Table of Reading SpeedScores in Preliminary Research Test
N Rate of Speed Precentage
Time Total Students
o Reading
1 ≤ 2 minutes 5 Good 16%
2 3 – 6 minutes 26 Poor 84%
Total 31 100%
(Source: Reading speed test in MIA 3 of SMA N 1 Sumberejo, 2014/2015 academic

year)

The table shows that most of the students did not have a good speed in reading.

There were only 5 (16%) members of the class that have a good rate of reading, and

84% of them rated as poor reader.

Table 2
Table of Reading Comprehension Scores in Preliminary Research Test

No Score Total of Students Percentage

1 ≤72 22 71%
2 =72 5 16%
3 ≥72 4 13%
Total 31 100%
(Source: Reading comprehension test in MIA 3 of SMA N 1 Sumberejo, 2014/2015

academic year)

The second table, shows the comprehension score of the text. The writer give the

score by their ability in retelling the text they have read. Some are good and could

comprehend the text, but 71% of them could not comprehend the text well.
 7

Base on those situations, the researcher interested to make a research about the

correlation between reading speed and reading comprehension in a title “THE

CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ READING SPEED AND THEIR

READING COMPREHENSION IN NARRATIVE TEXT OF THE SECOND

GRADE AT SMAN 1 SUMBEREJO TANGGAMUS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR

OF 2014/2015”.

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of the problem above, the researcher identify the problem

follows:

a. The students’ are still slow in reading

b. The students cannot comprehend a text well

C. Limitation of the Problem

In order to keep the research in its track, the researcher will make a limitation in his

research. There are so many texts that can be read, it means that there are so many

texts can be used in this research. From those texts, the researchers choose narrative

text to be used in his research.

D. Formulation of the Problem

With the explanation in limitation of the problem before, the formulation of the

problem is: “Is there any correlation between students’ reading speed and their

reading comprehension in narrative text?”

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E. Purpose of the Research

The purpose of this research is to know whether there is any correlation or not

between students’ reading speed and their reading comprehension in narrative text.

F. Significance of the Research

a. Theoretically, the research is conducted to know whether any correlation

or not between students’ reading speed and their reading comprehension

in narrative text.

b. Practically, to give information for the English teacher, that students’

reading speed might be related to their reading comprehension, and the

writer expects that by this research could improve both of students reading

speed and students reading comprehension.

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CHAPTER II
FRAME OF THEORY AND THIKING, AND HYPOTHESIS

A. Concept of Reading

Reading is one of the basic skill in language that everyone should has. According to

Longman Dictionary, reading is the processes by which the meaning of a written text

is understood3. Reading is the key of knowledge, because the biggest source of

knowledge are in written form.

Reading is an interactive –constructive process in which readers comprehend,

interpret and respond to the text according to what they already know. Reading is

more than decoding words into sound. In this sense, Nuttal viewed that reading

essentially focuses on meaning, especially delivering meaning from writer to reader4,

getting out the texts as nearly as possible the message that the writer puts into it5.

Reading involves the recognition of words, but the development of meaning and

comprehension is the essence of reading. According to Karen Tankersley, reading is an

interactive process involving both decoding words and deriving meaning from those

3
Jack C. Richard & Richard Schmidt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and
Applied Linguistics, (Edinburgh, Pearson Publisher, 2010) p. 483
4
Christine Nuttal, Teaching Reading Skill, (London, Macmillan Publisher, 2005) p. 3
5
Christine Nuttal, Teaching Reading Skill in a Foreign Language, (London, Heinemann
Educational Books, 1982) p.5
 10

words6. In this case, reading means analyzing word by word from a text to get the

meaning of it.

In other literature, Grabe says that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the

printed page and interpret this information appropriately7. It means that reading is a

word identification and comprehension process, and it requires an integration of these

two process.

Base on the explanation above, it can be concluded that reading is a process to

understand a text whether printed or not, by decoding words by words and then

interpret what information is in that text as nearly as possible.

B. Purpose of Reading

There are many different purposes for reading. Sometimes you read a text to learn

materials, sometimes you read for pure pleasure, and sometimes you need to follow a

set of directions. You get information from everything you read and yet you don't

read everything for the same reason or in the same way or at the same rate.

6
Karen Tankersley, The Threads of Reading, (Virginia, ASCD Publisher, 2003) p. 92
7
William Grabe& Frederica L. Stoller, Teaching and Researching Reading, (London,
Routledge, 2002) p. 3
 11

Grabe and Stoller classify the reading purposes as follows8:

1. 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 tasks that is probably best seen as a type of reading ability.

2. Reading to learn from texts

Reading to learn typically occurs in academic and professional contexts in

which a person needs to learn a considerable amount of information from a text.

It requires abilities to remember main ideas as well as a number of details that

elaborate the main idea and supporting ideas in text, and link the text to the

reader’s knowledge base.

3. Reading to integrate information, write and critique texts

Reading to integrate information requires additional decisions about the relative

importance of complementary, mutually supporting or conflicting information

to accommodate information from multiple sources.

4. Reading for general comprehension

Reading for general information is the most basic purpose for reading,

underlying and supporting most other purposes for reading. General reading

comprehension is actually more complex than commonly assumed.

8
William Grabe & Frederica L. Stoller, Op.Cit, p. 7
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C. Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension has multiple definitions and explanations. It defines

comprehension as the process of readers interacting and constructing meaning from

text, implementing the use of prior knowledge, and the information found in the text.

Koda (2005: 4) says that comprehension occurs when the reader extracts and

integrates various information from the text and combine it with what is already

know9.

Reading comprehension is defined as ability to “demonstrate” an overall

understanding of the text, providing inferential as well as literal information, drawing

conclusions, and making connections to their own experience10. Further, Grellet

states that reading comprehension is understanding a written text meaning extracting

the required information from it as efficiently as possible. For example, when readers

looking at a notice board to see if there is an advertisement for a particular type of flat

and when carefully reading an article of a special interest in a scientific journal,

readers apply different reading strategies to understand the new information

contained in the article demonstrates that the reading purpose in each case has been

successfully fulfilled.

9
William Grabe, Reading in Second Language, (New York, Cambridge University Press,
2009) p. 14
10
Katherine G. Butler & Elaine R. Silliman, Speaking, Reading and Writing in Children With
Language Learning Disabilities, (London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publisher, 2002) p.
4
 13

In other literature, reading comprehension is the product of two fundamental

processes, word recognition and listening comprehension. If either process is missing,

then no matter how good the other process, reading comprehension will be

nonexistent. Assuming perfect word recognition, then, the reader comprehends

written text as well as he or she would if the same text were spoken11.

In reading there are some criteria that commonly used in measuring students’ reading

comprehension12. They are:

1. Main idea (topic)

2. Inference (implied detail)

3. Detail (scanning for a specifically stated detail)

4. Supporting idea (s)

5. Vocabulary in context.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a

product of reading; understanding a written text meaning, extracting the required

information from it as efficiently as possible, drawing conclusions, and making

connections to the reader’s own experience. In a simple conclusion reading

comprehension means a condition when the reader understand the text, be able to

retell it in their own words, and be able to provide a real life situation.

11
Margaret G. McKeown & Linda Kucan, Bringing Reading Research to Life, (London, The
Guildford Press, 2010), p. 14
12
Brown Douglas.H, Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practices, (San
Fransisco. Pearson Education Longman. 2004) p. 206
 14

D. Assessing Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension assessments are the most common types of published

reading tests that is available. The most common reading comprehension assessment

involves asking students to read a passage that is leveled appropriately for the

students, then asking some explicit questions about the content of the text. There are

some variations on reading comprehension assessments. For example, instead of

explicit questions about facts directly presented in the text, the students could be

asked to answer inferential questions about information which was implied by the

text, or the students’ comprehension might be tested by his or her ability to retell the

story in the students’ own words or to summarize the main idea or the moral of the

story. Another common test is called “cloze” test which some words are omitted from

the text, then the students are asked to fill the blanks with appropriate words.

The assessment requires the students to read (silently and without any assistance) a

text to answer some questions. Reading comprehension asked in some forms of

questions as follow:

a) Multiple choices in which the test takers have to select one of three or

more responses which is the correct answer to the question.

b) Picture-cued items in which the test takers are shown a picture along

with written text and given one of a number of possibilities task to

perform.
 15

c) Gap-filling task in which the test takers have to write a word or a

phrase.

d) Cloze task which is usually have at least two paragraphs. Some of

words are omitted, and the test takers have to predict or choose the

right word to fill the blanks.

e) Short-answer task in which reading passage is presented, and the test

takers read questions that must be answered in sentence or two.

f) Strip story technique in which test takers are given a strip of paper,

each with sentence, and assembling them to a story.

g) Rearrangement items which are particularly useful to test the ability to

understand a sequence of steps in a process or event in a narrative.

E. Reading Speed

There is a technique called speed reading designed by Evelin Wood in 1958 to train

how to increase the reading speed and comprehend a text as fast as possible. Nuriadi

stated that speed reading is a technique that aims to check the ability and speed

whether reading or comprehend the text13.

According to Soedarso, to get the advantages of speed reading technique, a good reader

must omit bad habits such as head movement, lips movement, subvocalizing and

13
Nuriadi, Teknik Jitu Menjadi Pembaca Terampil, (Yogyakarta, PustakaBelajar, 2008) p. 115
 16

regressing, and must attend to some division and this is also become the indicator support

to be a speed reader14.

Reading speed is one of fluency skill in reading. Fluency is the ability to read a text

accurately, smoothly, quickly, and with expression. There are two types of fluency—

oral fluency and silent reading fluency. Silent reading tends to be a better method of

assessing reading comprehension, while oral reading provides important information

about the reader’s proficiency in applying reading strategies15.

Reading speed consist of two words; “reading” and “speed”. The word “reading” as it

has been explained, is a process to understand a text whether printed or not, by

decoding word by word and then interpret what information is in that text as nearly as

possible. Further, the word “speed” could be interpreted as the rate at which

something happen or is done16.

Then, reading speed could be mean as the speed of someone when they read a text. It

is supported by Richard that reading speed, or in another term called rate of reading;

means the speed that the reader use when they read a text, the speed which a person

reads17.

14
Soedarso, Speed Reading, Sistem Membaca Cepatdan Efektif, (Jakarta, PT.
GramediaPustakaUtama, 2004) p. 5
15
Karen Tankersley, Op. Cit, p. 73
16
Sally Wehmeier, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, (New York, Oxford University
Press, 2000) p. 1292
17
Jack C. Richard & Richard Schmidt, Op. Cit, p. 484
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F. Assessing Reading Speed

Reading speed is indicated by words per minute (wpm). Reading time assessed by

counting time from the beginning the reader read the text until he finish read the text.

We need to use timer such as, watch, stopwatch or timer on our mobile phone to get

an accurate time18.

Then, the time of reading could be convert to second19; if you get a minute, means 60

seconds, and so on. Further, we need to know how much words in the text. The

amount of words will be divided with the time of reading. The clear formula to get

the speed of reading is as below:

𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠
𝑥 60
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒

G. Genre

Genre is a term used to describe the classification of written materials. The word

genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for “kind” or “class”. A

genre can be defined as a culturally specific text type which results from using

language (written or spoken) to (help) accomplish something (Gerrot and P. Wignell,

1994: 56). The term is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, and more recently

linguistics to refer to a distinctive type of text. Saragih (2006) in his book says that a

18
Mohammad Noer, Op. Cit, p.31
19
Mohammad Noer, Op. Cit, p. 36
 18

text is any linguistic unit which is functional in a context. Linguistics unit means any

unit of the language such as a sound, word, phrase or group, clause, paragraph, even a

book and so on. Functional means meaningful and context is anything accompanying

a text.

1) Narrative

A narrative paragraph tells a story, either fiction or non-fiction, of an event of some

events. Its purpose is to present a view of the world that entertains or informs readers

or listeners.

2) Exposition

An exposition is used to argue for or against a social issue.

3) Description

Description I a kind of paragraph used to describe a particular person, place, or thing.

The genre of description is commonly used in the police interrogation in which a

person is asked to describe a suspect.

4) Explanation

An explanation is used to describe or explain process or activities

5) Procedure

Procedure is a text which gives instructions. Anderson (1997: 50) state, procedure as

a type of paragraph in which writers give a piece of text that gives someone

instructions to follow or to ask the readers to do something.

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6) Discussion

A discussion is applied to present points of view about an issue at least from two

sides namely protagonist and antagonist.

7) Recount

A recount is a writing text to document and to tell a series of events in a

chronological way so that it entertains or informs a reader.

8) Report

A report describes the way things are with reference to a range of natural, man-made

and social phenomena in our environment.

9) Anecdote

An anecdote is the social function to share with others an account of an unusual or

amusing incident.

10) Academic Text/Essay

An academic text is constituted by paragraphs. Further, a paragraph consists of three

elements, namely a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.

11) Spoof

Spoof is a kind of genre used to retell an event with a humorous twist.

12) Scientific Articles

Scientific article is one published in a journal, which is a printed or electronically

displayed matter covering publications of one discipline or branch of knowledge.

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H. Narrative Text

Narrative is one of the text types that tells a story of someone or something. The

notion of text types is based on the assumption that texts are structured in particular

ways in order to achieve certain communicative and socio-cultural purposes. The

different stages in the schematic structure of a text make a particular contribution to

the text achieving its communicative purpose. Recognizing the features of different

text types plays an important role in both reading and writing.

Richard says that narrative is the written account of a real or fictional story, the genre

structure underlying stories. Further, according to Kirszner, narrative text is writing

that tells a story. For example, a narrative paragraph could tell how an experience you

had as a child changed you or how the life of someone is inspiring20.

In his book, RR. Jordan defines narrative text as a piece of academic writing contains

some kinds of historical background or development that usually in the form of

account or description in the past which entails following a time sequence or

chronological order21.

So that, it can be concluded that narrative text is a writing which tells a story whether

it is a real or a fiction, takes a past form and aims to entertain, gain and hold the

reader interest.

20
Laurie G. Kirszner& Stephen R. Mandell, Writing First, (New York, Bedford / St. Martin’s,
2009) p. 60
21
RR. Jordan, Academic Writing Course, (London and Glasgow: Collins ELR, 19900 p. 26
 21

I. Hypothesis

Before doing a research, every researcher must has an argument about the result of

the research, called hypothesis. Hypothesis defined by Verma and Beard in the book

of Judith Bell (2005:32) as

A tentative proposition which is subject to verification through

subsequent investigation. It may also be seen as the guide to the
researcher in that it depicts and describes the method to be followed
in studying the problem. In many cases hypotheses are hunches that
the researcher has about the existence of relationship between
variables.

(Verma and Beard 19981:184)

Based on the explanation and also the quotation above the researcher formulates the

hypothesis as follows:

1. Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): There is a correlation between students’

reading speed and their reading comprehension in narrative text.

2. Null Hypothesis (Ho): There is no correlation between students’ reading

speed and their reading comprehension in narrative text.

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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design

In order to know the correlation between students’ speed reading and their reading

comprehension, the researcher will use a correlational research. In their simplest

form, correlational research investigate the possibility of relationships between only

two variables, although investigations of more than two variables are common. In

contrast to experimental research, however, there is no manipulation of variables in

correlational research22. Further, correlation is a statistical term referring to the size

and direction of the relationship between two measures. Correlations vary between -

1.00 and +1.00. Correlations that are negative show that when one measure goes up,

the other tends to go down. Positive correlations mean that the two measures both go

up or down together.23

There are two designs of correlation research, explanatory design which clarify and

explain our understanding of important phenomena by identifying relationships

among variables, and prediction design where the focus of the research will be on one

22
Jack R. Fraenkel, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education, McGraw Hill, New
York, 2009, Page 328
23
Paticia L. Lin, Handbook for Research in Cooperative Education and Internship, Laurence
Erlbaum Associates, London, 2004, Page 36
 23

variable that may influence another variables24. In this research, the researcher use

explanatory design.

B. Population

A research is impossible to do when there is no subject of the research. The subject of

the research should proper with the research itself, say, we cannot doing a research of

what a woman do while pregnant to non-pregnant woman.

The subject of the research is also called a population. Population is a large group to

which one hopes to apply the result of the research25. In this research, the population

chosen by the research are the eleventh grade students’ SMA N 1 Sumberejo

Tanggamus in academic year of 2014/2015.

C. Sample and Sampling Technique

Doing a research in a large group is possible but, it will take a long time to finish, but

the researcher will take a little group that represent the large one to shorten and easier

the research to do. This little group chosen from the large group called as sample. It is

relevant to Suharsimi Arikunto (2006:108), “sample is the representative the

population to be research”. Moreover, Suharsimi Arikunto (2006:134) also said that if

the total population is less than 100, it is better to take all of them as the sample but if

the total population is more than 100 students, the sample can be taken between 10 -

15% or 20 - 25% or more.

24
Jack R. Fraenkel, Op.cit, Page 329
25
Jack R. Fraenkel, Op.cit, Page 90
 24

There are 200 eleventh grade students of SMA N 1 Sumberejo, divided into 6 classes,

so that, there are 33 - 34 students each class. In order to choose the sample, in this

case is in which class the researcher will do his research, researcher will use a simple

random sampling technique. Marguerite G. Lodico states that simple random

sampling involves the random selection of individuals from the realistic population as

a whole. The researcher will chose one of six classes randomly.

D. Data Collection

In this research, the data which is used is quantitative (numeral). To collect the data,

the researcher will use tests to assess the students’ reading speed, and also their

reading comprehension in narrative text.

The reading speed test and reading comprehension test are using same text; narrative

text. The researcher will give the students a narrative text consist of at least 800

words to test the students’ reading speed. Then, to test students’ reading

comprehension, the researcher will ask them to answer some questions about the text.

E. Instrument

Research instrument is a device used by the researcher to collect the data to make the

research easier and get better result, complete and systematic in order to make the

data easy to be processed26.

26
SuharsimiArikunto, Prosedure Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktik, Jakarta, RinekaCipta,
2006. Page 192.
 25

a. Reading Speed Test

Reading speed test given to get the students’ reading speed score. They

will read a text given by the researcher. The text is a narrative that consist

of more than 800 words. The test will be done twice; the first test is that

students should read the text as fast as they can, then the second test, the

students should read the text slowly. Those two tests will be used to

differ when the students read the text quickly, and slowly. To get the rate

of reading, the researcher use a formula as follows:

𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠
𝑥 60
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒

b. Time Counter

The time counter is used to count the time when the students read the

text. It can be stopwatch or mobile phone.

c. Comprehension test

The comprehension test consist of 15 multiple choices questions. Each

question has 3 selection of the answer. The score of each item is 1 (one)

for the correct answer and 0 (zero) for the incorrect answer. The score

will be measured by using the following formula. Hence, the total score if

all answers are correct is 100.

 26

∑C
Score = × 100
N

Notes:

∑C = Total of the correct item

N = Total of items test

The comprehension test will be done after the reading speed test. It

means that the comprehension test will be done twice as the reading

speed test. The first comprehension test follows the first test of reading

speed, and so on. The questions of the first comprehension test will be

different with the second comprehension test because the researcher use a

same text. Giving two comprehension tests is purposed to differ the

comprehension score; how their comprehension are when the students

read the text quickly, and how their comprehension are when they read

slowly.

F. Validity of the Test

According to Gronlun quoted by Brown, validity is that the extent to switch

inferences made from assessment results should be appropriate, meaningful, and

useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment27. A test is valid when it measures

27
H. Douglas Brown, Principle of language and Teaching, Longman, New Jersey, fourth
edition, 2007, p.19
 27

effectively what it is supposed to measure whether it can be achievement, aptitude or

proficiency in the language, for instance, to measure writing ability, one may give

students writing test. There are three kinds of validity measured here as follows:

1. Content validity

To get content validity, the test is suited with the material taught to the students. In

other words, the researcher will make the test based on the material in the syllabus

used in SMA N 1 Sumberejo for the first semester of the second grade.

2. Construct validity

The items of the test should show whether the students have been taught about

narrative or not, for the test items should really measure the students’ comprehension

of the narrative text. Construct validity focuses on the kind of the test used to

measure the mastery and the ability. In other word, the test can measure what need to

be measured. To make sure the construct validity of the test, in this research, the

researcher will consult the instrument to the competent lecturer to decide whether the

instruments are valid or not. In this case, the researcher will choose the English

teacher, Mrs. Mujiasih, S.Pd as the instruments validator.

 28

3. Internal validity

To measure internal validity of the reading comprehension test, the researcher will

use formula of point biserial correlation as follows28:

Mp − M t P
rpbis = √
St Q

Notes:
rpbis = coefficient point biserial correlation
Mp = the average score of all subjects with true answer
Mt = the total average score
St = standard deviation
P = proportion of students with correct answer
Q = proportion of students with incorrect answer

According to Sudijono, an item is considered valid if the score of the validity is

higher than 0.3529. Meanwhile, to measure internal validity of reading comprehension

test’s instrument, the researcher will measure readability of the instrument.

Readability tests are indicators that measure how easy a document to read and

understand. For evaluators, readability statistics can be solid predictors of the

language difficulty level of particular documents. The essential information in an

evaluation document should be easily understood30.

28
Suharsimi Arikunto, Op. Cit., p. 326
29
Anas Sudijono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, Rajawali Press, Jakarta, 2011, p.185
30
Julien B. Kouamé, Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation Vol. VI No. 14 August 2010:
Using Readability Tests to Improve the Accuracy of Evaluation Documents Intended for Low-Literate
Participants, Western Michigan University, Michigan, p. 133
 29

In addition, according to Jornes and Bartllet, the best way to know whether

documents are truly easy to read is by asking for feedback from readers representing

the intended audience31.

To know readability of the reading comprehension test’s instrument, the researcher

will follow Kouamé’s research. Participants will be asked to evaluate instructions and

the understandability of each item on a scale of 1 to 10, where, 1 describes an item

that is easy to read and 10 describes an item that is difficult to read 32. The questions

will be tested individually. The participants may not have difficulty understanding

because they take the context of the writing into consideration. After that, the

researcher will measure mean of each item. Based on the finding of Kouamé’s

research, if the mean of all items of the instrument text has mean under 4.46, the

instrument is quite readable and understandable by the readers or test takers33.

A. Reliability of the Test

A reliable test is consistent and dependable34. If we give the same test to the student

or matched students on two different occasions, the test should field similar results. It

is concerning with the degree to which it can be trusted to produce the same result

upon repeated administration to the some individual, or to give consistent information

above the value of a learning variable.

31
Jones and Bartlett, Assessing Readability with Grade Level Formula, 2014, p. 20
32
Julien B. Kouamé, Loc. Cit., p. 133
33
Ibid, p. 134
34
H. Douglas Brown, Op. Cit., p.19
 30

To know whether the result has been designed well or not, the researcher use the

product moment formula as follows:

n ∑ xy − (∑ x) (∑ y)
rxy =
√{n ∑ x 2 − (∑ x)2 } {n ∑ y 2 − (∑ y)2 }

Notes:
rxy = the coefficient correlation between x and y

x = the odd items test

y = the even items test

After doing so, the researcher will try to find out the reliability of the test items by

using Spearman-Brown formula as follows:35

2𝑥𝑟1/ 21/ 2
𝑟11 =
(1 + 𝑟1/21/2 )

Notes:
r11 = reliability of the test
r1/21/2 = Pearson correlation of odd and even value

Furthermore, the researcher will consult the result of test instrument with table below.

Criteria of Reliability36
0.800 – 1.000 Very high reliability
0.600 – 0.800 High reliability
0.400 – 0.600 Fair reliability
0.200 – 0.400 Low reliability
0.00 – 0.200 Very low reliability

35
Suharsimi Arikunto, Op. Cit., p. 223
36
Ibid, p. 319
 31

To estimate the reliability of the argumentative reading comprehension test, the

researcher will use rank order correlation as follows37:

6 ∑ 𝐷2
𝜌=1−
𝑁 (𝑁 2 − 1)
Notes:
ρ = the number of rank order correlation (rho)
6 and 1 = constant number
D = different of rank correlation (D = R1 – R2)
N = the number of students

G. Data Analysis

After the data collected, it will be analyzed to determine is there any correlation

between students’ speed reading and their reading comprehension. To know about the

correlation, the researcher will calculate the data using a product moment

correlational data formula as follows38:

∑ 𝑥𝑦
𝑟𝑥𝑦 =
𝑁. 𝑆𝐷𝑥. 𝑆𝐷𝑦

𝑟𝑥𝑦 = Correlation index between variable X and variable Y

∑ 𝑥𝑦 = Total of multiplication result between deviation’s score of

variable X and variable Y

𝑁 = Number of cases/data

𝑆𝐷𝑥 = Standard deviation of variable X

𝑆𝐷𝑦 = Standard deviation of variable Y

37
Elva Fitri Karolina, Op. Cit., p. 45
38
Anas Sudijono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, Raja grafindo Persada, Jakarta, 2012, Page
196
 32

Where:

∑ 𝑥2 ∑ 𝑦2
𝑆𝐷𝑥 = √ And 𝑆𝐷𝑦 = √
𝑁 𝑁

∑ 𝑥2 = Total of quadrate result from variable X’s data.

∑𝑦 = Total of quadrate result from variable Y’s data.

The result of 𝑟𝑥𝑦 should between -1 and 1. The result is positive if the correlation

between variables is one way, and the result is negative when the correlation between

variables is opposite.

After 𝑟𝑥𝑦 value is found, it need to be interpreted. The interpretation is as follow39:

Correlation Interpretation
Index
0.0 – 0.199 Very low correlation

0.2 – 0.399 Low correlation

0.4 – 0.599 Medium

0.6 – 0.799 Strong correlation

0.8 – 1.00 Very strong correlation

Based on the interpretation above, it can be concluded whether any correlation or not

between students’ reading speed and their reading comprehension.

39
Sugiyono, Metode Penelitian Administrasi, Alfabeta, Bandung, 2005, Page 149
 33

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