THE EFFECT OF THINK ALOUD STRATEGY TOWARD STUDENTS

READING SKILL : STUDY AT 9TH GRADE MTs. NEGERI BINJAI

IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018

Proposal ini diajukan memenuhi tugas pada mata kuliah

Bahasa Inggris

Disusun Oleh:
Miswanto

Program Studi:
Magister Manajemen Pendidikan Islam/I

Dosen Pembimbing:
Dr. Tien Rafida, M. Hum

FAKULTAS ILMU TARBIYAH DAN KEGURUAN

UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI
SUMATERA UTARA
MEDAN
2018
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

English is the International language. English have known by all the

society, begin the child to adult. For the students especially must mastery english

to communicate to the teacher and their friends every day. They must mastery

some skill which are given, such as : speaking, listening, reading and writing. In

this chapter presents the discussion on the background of the study, statement of

the problems, objective of the study, scope and limitation of the study,

significance of the study, assumption of the study, and definition of key terms.

1. Background of the Problem

Language is one of the most important things in communication and it is

used as a tool of communication among the nations in all over the world. As an

international language, English is very important and has many interrelationships

with various aspects of life owned by human being. In Indonesia, English

considered as the first foreign language and taught formally from elementary

school up to the university level.

The most often become to complain is the teachers ability in applying

appropriate approaches, methods, strategies or techniques in teaching or learning.

So, many students are not interest in learning English. Therefore, the English

teach suggested in order to be able mastering of method, such as, Nababan (1991:

4) notices that a qualified teacher is the teacher who is able to suit best method or

technique to the material that is being taught.

In English, there are four skills that should be mastered, they are:

listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The reading skill becomes very
 important in the education field, students need to be exercised and trained in

order to have a good reading skill.

Reading is also something crucial and indispensable for the students

because the success of their study depends on the greater part of their ability to

read. If their reading skill is poor they are very likely to fail in their study or at

least they will have difficulty in making progress. On the other hand, if they have

a good ability in reading, they will have a better chance to succeed in their study.

One of the methods researchers uses to get a clearer picture of what

learners generally do while reading in a foreign language is think aloud. This is

one type of verbal reports, obtained from the readers during reading (Cavalcanti,

1987).

Think-aloud means that readers report their thoughts while reading, but they are

not expected to analyze their behavior as in introspection (Cohen, 1987). By

means of asking their subjects to say out loud whatever goes through their minds,

researchers hope to get a more direct view of the mental processes readers are

engaged in while reading (Rankin, 1988).

In order to master reading skill, a teacher as an educator have to use good

method in teaching learning process. In this case, the researcher concerns with

the effect of think aloud strategy toward students reading skill study at 9th

grade MTs Negeri Binjai in academic year 2017/2018.

2. Statement of Problem

Based on the background of study above, the problem of the study is as

follows:
 1. To what extent is the achievement of students’ Reading skill in study at 9th

grade MTs Negeri Binjai in academic year 2017/2018?

2. To what extent is the effect of think aloud strategy toward students reading

skill study at 9th grade MTs Negeri Binjai in academic year 2017/2018?

3. Objective of the Study

Based on the research statement, this particular study aimed at finding out:

1. The achievement of students’ Reading skill in study at 9th grade MTs Negeri

Binjai in academic year 2017/2018.

2. The effect of think aloud strategy toward students reading skill study at 9th

grade MTS Negeri Binjai in academic year 2017/2018

4. Significance of the Study

The result of the study is expected to be used theoretically and practically:

1. Theoretically

a. The result of this study is expected to be able to widen the skill of teachers in

using think aloud strategy in order to improve student’s reading skill.

b. As a reference to other researchers who want to study think aloud strategy more

intensively in teaching reading.

2. Practically

a. The result of this study is suggested to apply the think aloud strategy to increase

the students’ competence in English reading skill.

b. The use of think aloud strategy in reading can make the students are more

enjoyable in doing their tasks associated with the reading materials.

5. Hypothesis of the Study

A hypothesis is a statement of the research assumption about the

relationship between two variables that the researcher plans to test within the

framework of the researcher study (Kumar, 1993: 9).

The hypothesis of this study was prepared as a tentative answer for the

research problem stated previously. In this case the alternative hypothesis as read

follow:

“Think Aloud Strategy has effect toward Students Reading Skill ”

Because of statistical computation the alternative hypothesis need to be change

into null hypothesis (Ho)as follow:

“Think Aloud Strategy has not effect toward Students Reading Skill ”

6. Scope and Limitation of the Study

The scopes of the study are limited to the subject and object investigated.

1. Subject

The subject of this study at 9th grade MTS Negeri Binjai in academic year

2017/2018

2. Object

The object of this study is the effect of Think aloud strategy towards students

reading skill.

7. Definition of Key Terms

In order to clarify the key terms used in this study, some definitions are put
forward.

1. Think-aloud have been described as "eaves dropping on someone's thinking."

With this strategy, teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally.
Their verbalizations include describing things they're doing as they read to
monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to
 model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text. The think-
aloud strategy asks students to say out loud what they are thinking about when
reading, solving math problems, or simply responding to questions posed by
teachers or other students
2. Reading is a kind of activity in translating written symbols into corresponding

sound. Reading skills enable readers to turn writing into meaning and achieve

the goals of independence, comprehension, and fluency.

3. Reading skill is the capability of understanding or getting information from

reading material.
4. Strategies
According to Gony and Kingsmey (1974:12) the strategy is a process of

individual behavior which modified or changed through practice or learning on

the other hand.

5. Effect is words indicate things, which arise out of some antecedent, or follow as

a consequence.
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents about some related information topic of the recent

study. It is intended to provide some theoretical concepts which could support

this investigation.

The discussion is presented under the following sub headings:

1) Theory of think aloud

2) Using of think aloud

3) The nature of reading

4) Concept of reading

5) Aspect of Reading Comprehension

6) Comprehension Skill

7) The related Study and the Role of Background Knowledge in Comprehension

8) Theoretical frame work.

1. Theory of Think aloud

In this research, it was decided to implement the think-aloud strategy because

it was used as an instructional approach, and also because this strategy helped

readers to comprehend more easily what was being read by them. Afflerbach and

Johnston cited by McKeown and Gentilucci (2007), claim that think-aloud serves

firstly as a method of measuring the cognitive reading process, then as

metacognitive tool to monitor comprehension. In that sense, the think aloud is

appropriate for this study because through this strategy the students can monitor

their comprehension process.

 Another definition of this strategy is provided by Pressley et al. in McKeown

and Gentilucci’s (2007) work: “think-aloud is one of the "transactional strategies"

because it is a joint process of teachers and students working together to construct

understandings of text as they interact with it” (p. 1). Through the interactions

that think aloud promotes, a better understanding of the texts may emerge in the

classroom. Think aloud is also a process in which readers report their thoughts

while reading (Wade 1990). It helps students to reflect upon their own reading

process.

In a similar way, Keene & Zimmerman, (1997) declare that “think aloud is a

technique in which students verbalize their thoughts as they read” (p. 1). Thus,

this strategy is useful because students are verbalizing all their thought in order to

create understanding of the reading texts. Another illustration about think aloud is

provided by Tinzmann in Teacher Vision website (2009), he says that:

When students use think out loud with teachers and with one another, they

gradually internalize this dialogue [...] it becomes their inner speech, the means

by which they direct their own behaviours and problem-solving processes.

Therefore, as students think aloud, they learn how to learn, and they develop into

reflective, metacognitive, independent learners, an invaluable step in helping

students understand that learning requires effort and often is difficult.

This argument encloses all the issues that imply think-aloud in a reading

process. Think aloud are also used to model comprehension processes such as

making predictions, creating images, linking information in text with prior

knowledge, monitoring comprehension, and overcoming problems with word

recognition or comprehension (Gunning, 1996 in teacher vision). These sub-

strategies will be defined in the ensuing sections.

 The think-aloud is a technique in which students verbalize their thoughts as

they read and thus bring into the open the strategies they are using to understand

a text (Baumann, Jones, & Seifert-Kessell, 1993; Davey, 1983; Wade, 1990).

Readers' thoughts might include commenting on or questioning the text, bringing

their prior knowledge to bear, or making inferences or predictions.

These comments reveal readers' weaknesses as well as their strengths as

comprehenders and allow the teacher to assess their needs in order to plan more

effective instruction

2. Using of Think Aloud

How to use this strategy

a. Explain that reading is a complex process that involves thinking and sense-

making; the skilled reader's mind is alive with questions she asks herself in order

to understand what she reads.

b. Select a passage to read aloud that contains points that students might find

difficult, unknown vocabulary terms, or ambiguous wording. Develop questions

you can ask yourself that will show what you think as you confront these

problems while reading.

c. While students read this passage silently, read it aloud. As you read, verbalize

your thoughts, the questions you develop, and the process you use to solve

comprehension problems. It is helpful if you alter the tone of your voice, so

students know when you are reading and at what points you begin and end

thinking aloud.

d. Coping strategies you can model include:

 Making predictions or hypotheses as you read: "From what he's said so far, I'll

bet that the author is going to give some examples of poor eating habits."
 Describing the mental pictures you " see" : "When the author talks about

vegetables I should include in my diet, I can see our salad bowl at home filled

with fresh, green spinach leaves."

 Demonstrating how you connect this information with prior knowledge:

"'Saturated fat'? I know I've heard that term before. I learned it last year when we

studied nutrition."

 Creating analogies: "That description of clogged arteries sounds like traffic

clogging up the interstate during rush hour."

 Verbalizing obstacles and fix-up strategies: "Now what does 'angiogram' mean?

Maybe if I reread that section, I'll get the meaning from the other sentences

around it: I know I can't skip it because it's in bold-faced print, so it must be

important. If I still don't understand, I know I can ask the teacher for help,"

e. Have students work with partners to practice "think-aloud" when reading short

passages of text. Periodically revisit this strategy or have students complete the

assessment that follows so these metacomprehension skills become second

nature.

3. The Nature of Reading

Reading is an active cognitive process of interaction with print and

monitoring comprehension of establishing meaning which means the brain does

not work in reading, the pupils get information by comprehending the massage

and the teacher motivate the pupils to read (Lado, 1961: 65). Furthermore, Gloria

(1988: 43) States that the definition of reading comprehension is most likely to

occur when pupils are reading what they want to read, or at least what they see

some good reasons to read.

 Lado (1961: 56): Reading in the foreign language consists of grasping

meaning in the written language. In this case, reading foreign language is the

grasping of full linguistics meaning of what is to read in subject within the

common experience of the culture of which the language is a central part. He

further maintains that linguistics means to include the denotation conveyed by

language to all speakers of it is as opposed to meaning that are receptive only by

those have specific background information not known by the other speakers in

general. In other word, there are some purposes of reading such as reading for

specific items of information, for general and detail information in a given field,

etc. other types of reading, for example readings for literary appreciation are

properly the real of reading in the native language.

Learning to read a new language, the pupils must read carefully, some

aloud; moreover some questions are also important of the passages, as in the

following statement by Berry (1956: 44):

There must be question on the text, this essential. The questions are to help the

pupils understanding every detail on the passage, for example, the passage is

about “hide and seek”. It means that the questions on the passage are able to

facilitate the pupils understanding of the passage; the children are playing hide

and seek in the playground, and the question are (1) who is playing hide and seek

in the playground ? (2) What are the children playing in the playground? (3)

What are they doing in the playground and where are they playing hide and seek?

Psychologists and the reading experts have been conducting extensive research

in the nature of reading and the sequential development of language skill. Among
 discoveries of the researchers, as stated by Lewis and Sisk in Gerry (1956: 34)

are:

(a) reading is not a single skill but an interrelated process of many skill, (b)

reading is development process, in other words, reading comprehension develops

sequentially as pupils nature, (c) there are developmental pattern from grade to

grade and from year to year, but wide variations in reading ability exist among

pupils in any grade or of any age, and (d) there are no basic reading

comprehension which can be taught or learned once or for all, they are merely

simpler or more difficult levels of reading proficiencies, which can be taught to

pupils who are ready to learn.

4. Concept of Reading

Although, on the world wide level, the format of teaching reading skill may

differ according to local circumstances, the 1994 English GBPP Stresses the

implementation of teaching reading skill in an integrated skill unit. It means that

reading is thought integrated with the other language skill. Such as, teaching

vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and the way construct sentences, paragraphs

and texts.

The development of reading skills mostly occurs in this stage. To be effective

reader, the pupils should be able to (1) scan; (2) skim; (3) read between the lines;

(4) read intensively; and (5) deduce meaning from the context.

a. Reading Process

In very real sense, reading process is a progress report. It means that a

major reason for the lack of forward motion in attempts to develop more effective

reading in striation was a common failure to examine and articulate a clear view

of the reading process it self. Knowledge is non-cumulative in improving reading

instruction largely because either ignore the reading process and focus on the

manipulation of teacher or pupils behaviors of because they related reading as an

unknowable mystery.

Goodman, in Long, H Michael and Jack C Richards (1988: 11) says that: “(1)

Reading is what reading is and everybody knows that; usually this translates to

‘reading is matching sounds to letters’; (2)’Nobody knows how reading works’”.

This view usually leads to a next premise; therefore, in instruction, whatever

’works’ is its justification.

Both views are non-productive at best and the worst seriously impede

progress. Furthermore, the effort has been to create a model of the reading

process powerful enough to explain and predicate reading behavior and sound

enough to be a base on which to build and examine the effectiveness of reading

instruction. This model has been developed using the concepts, scientific

methodology, and terminology of psycholinguistics, the interdisciplinary science

that is concerned with how thought and language are interrelated.

b. Reading as a Language Skill

From the four integrated skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing

skill), the writer is interested to come up with a more elaborate description about

reading skill as what Tarigan (1987) cited from Huda (2000) calls that reading

skill as the third skill that the children have gained after speaking and before

writing.

To the same extent reading should be stimulated when the students need

to create the sense condition. In other words, the students will be guided to find

the real answers of question they have in mind. Purposeful reading is encouraged
 by creating an interest in content, by trying in the new experience with personal

background of the learning, by systematically extending the reading vocabulary

(Betts).

Ying (2001) states that “reading is the process of recognition,

interpretation and perception of written or printed material. Meanwhile Godman

says reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game, consisting of cycle of sampling,

predicting, testing and confirming.

Ying continues her statement that “reading is a process of hypothesis

formation and verification, it is communicative act between a writer and reader.

Consequently, the reader’s understanding is unlikely to be 100% accurate, as

Wallace (1982) cited from Ying (2001) puts it: “The mother tongue speaker

learns to be content with approximate meaning…. (H)e is satisfied with a

meaning which makes sense of the context.”

According to Grellet (1981) reading may be classified as four simply

categories, intensive reading, extensive reading, skimming and scanning (Cited in

Ommagio, 1986) Suhirman (2002) further mentions as follows:

 Firstly, intensive reading is reading activity that is being related to further

progress in language learning under the teacher guidance. In this type of reading,

control from a teacher is compulsory and it will provide a basis for elucidation of

difficulties of structure, and for the extension of vocabulary. To the same extent,

Finnonchiro (1983) also glanced that the intensive reading when the student’s

attention should be focused on all expression, nations sound, structure and

cultural allusions will be unfamiliar to them in passage.

 Secondly, extensive reading is developed at the student’s own pace according to

his individual ability (Rivers, 1968 and Suhirman, 2002). In this extent, the
 activity is not completely controlled by the teacher. The students have learner to

read without the teacher’s role. The extensive reading activity is mostly

concerned with the purpose of training students to read directly and fluently by

his/her own employment, without the aid of the teacher. Structures in the test will

be already familiar to him and new vocabulary will be introduced slowly in such

a way that its meaning can be deduced from the context.

 The third is skimming

There are great many materials related to each professional area, the students

must be taught to be selective. Skimming techniques will enable them to select

the worth reading.

Method of Skimming

 Preview

By previewing, the student can find out whether a specialist in a certain fields

written book or article and whether it contains the information he/she is seeking.

 Overview

In over viewing, the student can discover the purpose and scope of the material,

and can find sections that are the special interest to him.

 Survey

Through survey, the student will get the general idea of what the material

contains.

In short, skimming is the skill that helps the students read quickly and selectively

in order to obtain a general idea of the material.

 The fourth is scanning

Scanning helps the student search quickly of the specific information he

wishes to get from the material, such as finding the meaning of a word in a
 dictionary, finding the heading under which required information appears an

index, finding statistical information in tables, charts, or graph, and finding the

answers to certain questions from the text.

The procedures for scanning are as follows. First, specific information

must be located. Next the clues which will help to find the required information

have to be decided, then, find the clues. Finally, read the section containing the

clues to get information needed. In this technique, the students are trained to

think of clues to help them find the specific information. These clues may be a

word or words, punctuation, alphabetical order, numbers, etc.

From linguistics point of views, reading is recording and decoding

process. Not like speaking which just involves an encoding process reading

applies decoding process by which a reader must grasp and guess the meaning of

written words used in writing scripts, reading the symbols to the oral language

meaning (Anderson in Tarigan (1991) and Suhirman (2002)). In short, reading

can be defined as “bringing meaning to and get meaning from points or written

materials” (Finnochiro and Banama in Tarigan, 1987, and Suhirman, 2002). It is

true by reading people get to know the other people scientific achievement, or

some happening in other region of the country. Through reading we can improve

our skill and enlarge our human development achievement.

5. Aspects of Reading Comprehension

According to Sheng (2003) reading comprehension questions measure

student’s ability to read with understanding, insight and discrimination. This type

of question explores the ability to analyze a written passage from several

perspectives, including student’s ability to recognize both explicitly stated

elements in the passage and assumptions underlying statements or arguments in

 the passage as well as the implications of those statements or arguments. Because

the written passage upon which the questions are based presents a sustained

discussion of a particular topic.

There are six types of reading comprehension questions. These types focus

on these aspects.

(1) The main idea or primary purpose of the passage;

(2) Information explicitly stated in the passage;

(3) Information or ideas implied or suggested by the author;

(4) Possible applications of the author’s ideas to other situations, including the

identification of situations or processes analogous to those described in the

passage;

(5) The author’s logic, reasoning, or persuasive technique;

(6) The tone of the passage or the author’s attitude as it is revealed in the

language used.

6. Comprehension Skill

According to Hilerachi (1983) most of the reading professional list three

categories of reading comprehension.

 Literal comprehension has to do with understanding or with answering questions

about what an author said.

 Inferential comprehension refers to understanding what an author want by what

was said.

 Critical reading has to do with evaluating or making judgments about what an

author said and meant. Edgar put it well when he referred to these three

categories as “reading the lines ….reading between the lines…..and reading

beyond the lines.”

7. The Related of Study

As the comparison of this research, here are some researches of The Effect

Think Aloud Strategy Toward Students Reading Skill. The first researcher is

Alexander Moreno cardenas ( 2009 ) with title “The Impact Of The Think-Aloud

Strategy In The English Reading Comprehension Of Efl 10th Graders, he found

that the students increased their engagement in the activities because of the think-

aloud strategy. Through the use this strategy they could interact and construct

meaning from the texts at once when they developed the reading tasks. Second, it

is important to highlight that the role of the teacher as a guide was crucial in

think-alouds because he could assist and foster students to use reading strategies

such as predicting, visualizing, and prior knowledge in order to comprehend the

reading texts. Being the teacher’s role only as a guide, students then are the main

protagonists of the reading process. Third, another positive impact of the think-

aloud strategy, is that students constantly mentioned that they had an

enhancement in some specific aspects of English language such as:

pronunciation, vocabulary, and listening skill.

8. The Role of Background Knowledge in Comprehension

Ommagio (1986) writes that cognitive psychologist in the late 1960s

place great emphasis on the importance of meaningfulness and organization of

background knowledge in the learning process. Ommagio (1986) quotes

Ausubel’s (1968) views that learning which involve active mental process must

be meaningful to be effective and permanent. In the second language

comprehension process, at least three types of background knowledge are

potentially activated:
 Godman describes that reading as a “psycholinguistic guessing game”

involving the interaction between thought and language. Efficient readers do not

need to perceive precisely or identify all elements of the text. Rather, they select

the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses about the meaning

of the passage and verify the hypothesis as the process discourse further (In

Ommagio, 1986).

Along with Godman’s idea, Ommagio (1986) also maintains that the

efficient language users will take the most direct routine to their goal

comprehension. He describes reading as a sampling process in which readers

predict structures. Clearly, Ommagio (1996) included as in the comprehension

process all three types of background knowledge: comprehenders make use not

only of the linguistic information of the text, but also of their knowledge of the

world and their understanding of discourse structure to make sense out the

passage. In line with the above statement, as Ommagio (1986) cited from Kolers

(1973) also maintains that reading is only incidently visual. Thus, the reader then

contributes more information by the print on the page.

Finally, Ommagio (1986) presents Yorio’s statement who isolates the

following factors in reading process, those are:

1. Knowledge of the language.

2. Ability to predict or guess in order to make correct choice.
3. Ability to remember the previous cues, and

4. Ability to make the necessary associations between the different cues selected.
9. Theoretical Frame Work

Based n the theoretical description and result of the relevant studies, the

writer arrives at theoretical framework of this study.

In teaching and learning process, especially in English, many problems

and activities face by the students and also the teachers. But, mostly the success

of the students in learning the English should be determined by themselves.

Beside the students study the English at the school, they should hard at home,

that is by repeating again what they are getting at the school from the teacher to

recognize or memorize the materials.

In English language teaching in Indonesian, reading is placed in high

priority, we can see it from the curriculums. Senior high school curriculums,

junior high school curriculum, even at elementary school emphasize the English

language teaching on the reading comprehension ability.

Therefore, reading is the most important language skills for students t

study hard, by reading the knowledge of the pupils will gradually increase, beside

developing their ability in other language skills. But reading without

comprehension is means nothing because reading comprehension is an active

process to get the information from the text.

By teaching four language skill in interactively, that is involves reading,

listening, speaking and writing. In this case is limited for the reading skills itself

to involve the pupils in learning activities i.e.; (1) To expands the pupils

knowledge and art; (2) to motivates the student to be a good personality in their

country; (3) to expands the pupils social intercourse. So that in this case, the

ability of the pupils will be increased by using textbook with are published by

Depdikbud (Government) and Yudistira (Private Publishing Company).

 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. Method of The Study

The recent study was an experimental research to find out the result of a

certain technique. According to hadi (1988: 56) that is an experimental design is

one of the precise methods to examine the cause and effect because of the fact,

instruction toward a group and experimental sample. The instructional activity

was designed only to teach reading skill students by using Think aloud strategy as

a techniques toward the experimental group, the group of sample would have test

to measure the effect that students get after treatment. The result of the test would

be analyzed and compare using statistical computation.

This study tries to describe the effect of treatment of two distinction, Think aloud

strategy and reading skill, the research design is pre-test and post-test. Therefore,

the design is called a pre-test and post-test control group design. The study design

is adopted from Ary, et.al (2002: 308).

Table 3.1 Randomized group, pre-test and post-test

Independent
Group Pre-test Post-test
variable
E Y1 X Y2
C Y1 - Y2
Notes :

E = experimental group
C = control group
Y1 = pre-test
X = treatment on the experiment group
Y2 = post-test
 This research design will present several characteristics; (1) it has

two groups of experimental subjects or treatment group and control group; (2) the

two groups compared with respect two measurements of observation on the

dependent variable; (3) both groups will be measured twice, the first

measurement serve as the pre-test and the second as the post-test; (4)

measurement on the dependent variable for both groups will be done at the same

time with the same test; and (5) the experimental group manipulated with

particular treatment.

2. Population and Sample

2.1 Population

Population is represent entire/all subject research. Nawawi ( 2003) in Iskandar

( 2009 : 118) population is grand total of subject research which can be consisted

of by the human being, object, animal, flora, symptom, assess the test or event as

data source owning certain characteristic in a research. While according to

Sudjana ( 2005 : 74) population is totality of all value which possible, result of

counting/calculating or measurement, quantitative and also qualitative hit the

certain characteristic from all clear and complete corps member is which wish

learned by the nature

In this study, the population of the study includes all nine grade students

of the MTs Negeri Binjai in the academic year 2012/2013. there are as the

population and for observation the samples are only 40 students consist of 2

classes namely experimented class and control class MTs Negeri Binjai.

2.2 Sample

Sample is shares or proxy from accurate population ( Arikunto, 2006 : 87).

While in big dictionary of Indonesian, sampel is an used by example of from the

 lion's share. While according to Sugiyono ( 2003 : 56) sampel is " some of

amount and characteristic owned by population, As for becoming sampel of at

this research is all student of nine grade class.

Suharsimi (2006) stated that if the subject is less than one hundred it is

better to take the entire subject. Furthermore, if the subject is more than one

hundred it can be taken between 10-15% or 20-25% or more that it. in this

research the writer take 40 students as the sample. 20 students is students who

join who experimental group and 20 students as a control group.

2.3 Instrument

In any scientific research, instrument for collecting data was absolutely

important. The accuracy of the result of research was mostly dependent on how

accurate the use of instrument. Before research carried out, the instrument for the

data collection should be well prepared.

Related to the research problems, the writer used reading test as an

instrument. Ary (1979: 216) states that a test is a set of stimuli present to an

individual in order to elicit responses on the basic of which a numerical score can

be designed. Moreover, Heaton (1975: 89) states that the test used must be

appropriate in term of our object, the dependable in the evidence provides, and

applicable to our particular situation. In this case, the researcher gave the students

reading test in using Think aloud strategy.

This study aimed at knowing the students achievement in Reading skill,

where the students was asked to tell by using Think aloud Strategy was used to

make the students achievement in reading skill (Nurgiantoro, 1995: 229).

2.4 Technique of Data Collection

 The method of collecting data for this research is used testing. A test is a

group of questions, tasks or exercises for measuring individual or groups skill.

The contents or the reading task include factual question, determining a title and

determining the main idea.

The test of those three aspects of reading comprehension was compiled

by the writer herself collecting information about the subjects, which are learned

at MTs Negeri Binjai. For those reason, the writer has compiled 25 items of

multiple choice and 10 items of essay question taken from various sources. Those

choices from multiple choice questions are as follows:

a. Factual questions : 16 items

b. Determining a title : 4 items

c. Determining the main idea : 5 items

Every question is valued at 4 points, thus a total of 100 points.

So, the essay questions are described a follows.

a. Determining a title : 4 items

b. Determining the main idea : 6 items

There are 4 band scales to measure reading comprehension test in essay

questions described by Lucky Prang, an Australian PhD candidate (2003), the are
as follows:
4 - Suitable title of reading passage given
- Idea of the text understood
3 - Title of reading passage suitable but not perfect
- Some difficulties in understanding some of the passage
2 - Title of reading passage is not very fitting
- Difficulties in connecting the different passage
1 - Not able to create a title
- Main idea of the text lost
2.5 Technique of Data Analysis

The technique of data analysis, will be used here is statistical analysis that is

descriptive analysis.

2.6 Hypothesis Testing

Before hypothesis testing, the researcher got the students scores of the

experimental and control group. The score check for the pre-test and post-test.

The first step was the researcher calculated the mean score of experimental

group. For the purposes, to test the hypothesis, it was used t-test with the level of

significance 0.05 (5%).

Before testing the proposed hypothesis, the writer took students’ score of

experimental and control groups, which is the score for pre-test and post-test.

Thus, the writer calculated the mean score of the experimental group. For the

purpose, the following formula is used:

Notes:

M = the mean score of experimental group

X = the deviation of score pre-test

N = the number of sample

 = the sum of (sigma)

(Arikunto, 1998: 124)

Then, the formula that was used for the control group as follows:

Notes:

My = the mean score of control group

 Y = the deviation score of pre-test and post-test

N = the number of sample

 = the sum of (sigma)

(Arikunto, 1998: 124)

The mean score that obtain through the above formula was analyzed and

interpreted. Finally, the writer computed the hypothesis significant. It was to

know whether the Ho was accepted or not. For the sake of computation, it was

used formula recommended by Arikunto (1998: 300), the formula was as follows:

Where:

M = mean deviation of each group

N = number of subject

X = deviation between pre-test and post-test (the experimental group)

Y = deviation between pre-test and post-test (the control group)

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