The improving the students’ reading comprehension through story mapping strategy


CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
           
A.    Background
English consists of four language skills; they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Learning a foreign language in Indonesia is expected to help the students to master these skills. In relation to these skills, the researcher emphasized her attention to the reading skill. The students of English Department are very important to study reading, because there are many advantages from studying reading. By reading, the students will be able to increase their knowledge on culture. If the students read every rule in written English from our country, the students will get more knowledge about the other country with its culture. In English Department, the students study English do not only master of grammar or vocabulary but also master the culture of the target language. If the students do not know about the culture, the students will get difficulties to understand to communicate with a native speaker. Although, the students may learn about English words through the dictionary, the students still need to learn the English culture, so the communication can be understood and avoid misunderstanding.
Through reading, people can improve their own knowledge which ensures the continuing personal growth and adapts the change in the word. Harvey (1998: 2) argues that the purpose or reading in language is to inform ourselves about something we are interested in, or challenge our knowledge on certain matters. In other words, to extend experience of the world in which we live.
Reading has always received the greatest emphasis in teaching English. There are some reasons for this. Firstly, reading takes an important role in learning process. Reading skill is an instrument that can facilitate students to enrich their knowledge. Secondly, reading is important not only because it can give a lot of information but also pleasure and joy. In senior high school level, students face some problems in reading. Most of the students found difficulties in comprehending text, especially narrative text. Based on the researcher's observation, the major problem faced by them is how to comprehend the elements of the story. To overcome the problems, a story mapping strategy is proposed to be applied in teaching reading. The technique is chosen because it is simple and considered suitable for students in the senior high school level. To comprehend the elements of the story the students are assigned to make a story map based on the story given.
The researcher wants to discuss one of the many problems connected with English learning. English learning problems can take place both at home and at school. The teacher and the students are different, and therefore, the teacher might find different motivations for learning as well. At school, the problems may appear when the class consists of a big number of students. The noisy class does not only disturb the students who really want to study, but also influence the students’ concentration to the subject given in class. The condition like this can make the students feel bored and do not like to study. At home, the problems may appear when the student recalls the subjects from school and they still do not understand the lesson and none of the people at home can help them. If this condition continues the students will feel very bored and not interested in studying English. In this case the teacher’s role is very important, that is to encourage them to study harder and better.
In addition, students’ problems are not only from the classroom environment but also from the students themselves. The reality the teacher often sees is that, in fact, many students master the theory better than practice. For example, in speaking, the student may have the knowledge of how to speak, but in practice the student find difficulties. The student lack self confidence. To build their confidence, students need more practice so that teachers are suggested to create and
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