Perbandingan kaedah pengajaran berasaskan tema dengan kaedah konvensional dalam pembelajaran kefahaman membaca Bahasa Inggeris

Abstract

There are two kinds of instruction methods used in the teaching of English reading comprehension, namely Grammar Translation (GT) as a conventional instruction method and Theme-Based Instruction Method (TBI) as a communicative method. Use of local culture-based curriculum content as a source of instruction content incorporated in these two methods is assumed to be able to facilitate English reading comprehension. This study compared GT with TBI instruction method to determine students’ English reading comprehension achievement. Besides, the study identified the contribution of TBI method towards English reading comprehension achievement and students’ problems in the learning of English reading comprehension. An experimental design using nonequivalent control groups from which quantitative data followed by qualitative data were gathered to explain the phenomena of the study sequentially. Sample of the study comprised two classes of the students from grade nine at State JuniorP High School of Thirteen of Makassar. One class, the control group was taught using GT method and the other class, the treatment group was taught using the TBI method. Instruments to obtain the quantitative data were questions of performance about the groups’ English reading comprehension, and questionnaires concerning contribution of TBI method towards English reading comprehension. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews of the control and treatment groups. The quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially, while the qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Findings showed that the TBI method produced an increase in achievement and better performance of students’ English reading comprehension compared with the conventional instruction method. Results of multiple linear regression found that the theme-based instruction method contributed 91.6% towards the students’ English reading comprehension performance. Furthermore, interview results showed the problems that students have in the learning of English reading comprehension are limited vocabulary, knowledge of structure, and difficulty in pronunciation of the words. Based on the findings, this study has developed a framework for improvement of the teaching method of English reading comprehension which can be used as a guide and reference by teachers, schools, local education authorities and education faculties in universities or teacher training institutions.