THE USE OF HERRINGBONE TECHNIQUE TO THE STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION : a Case of the Eight Grade Students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the Academic Year 2013 / 2014by: Siti ErmawatiAbstract : This Final Project focuses on the research of Herringbone Technique in teaching reading comprehension. The objectives of this study are (1) to find out the students reading achievement of the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan taught without Herringbone Technique, (2) to find out whether there is significant difference of students reading achievement of the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan with and without Herringbone Technique.In this study, the population is the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the academic year of 2013/2014. The number of the population is 137 students. The sample is 67 students from class VIII D as the experimental group and 33 students from class VIII C as the control group.

The writer uses experimental research with quantitative research measurement to find the mean. The experimental group and the control group have no pre-test. But, the two groups are given the different treatments. The experimental group is given a treatment by using Herringbone Technique, and the control group taught without Herringbone Technique. After giving treatments, the two groups are given post-test.

The mean score of the experimental group (85) is higher than the mean score of the control group (64-70). It can be seen that there is significant difference in the achievement of students between those who are taught by using Herringbone Technique (experimental group) and those who are without Herringbone Technique ( control group ) in reading comprehension. The writer offers some suggestions for the teacher. The teacher should give variations in teaching, especially using Herringbone Technique in teaching reading comprehension. For the students, the students should practice a lot of reading English texts in order to increase their knowledge and reading skill.Keywords: Herringbone Technique, reading comprehension, students achievements.INTRODUCTION

In this era, the education world will be getting better by increasing the teachers skill. The teachers should give interesting materials and create enjoyable atmosphere in class, so students will be interesting in the lesson. Especially, in the process of English teaching learning, students have to master all of the four skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reading is one of the important skills that have to be mastered by the students. In fact, it is difficult to make students interested in reading lesson. The students feel the difficulties in reading the English texts because they do not know a lot about the new vocabularies in the text. And they also have problems in understanding the text. In addition, teaching reading comprehension is not easy. Some students perceive that reading is boring. The boredom can lead the students to have low motivation in doing activity. Consequently, teachers should pay attention to how to make reading comprehension activities more amusing and optimally understandable. Generally, during silent reading, students do not have chance to do something which helps them reaching comprehension faster. By inserting the interesting activities before, during reading, and after reading, the boredom may be prevented. In addition, students can get the clues in order to evaluate whether messages they catch are true or false. By doing so, they will be more ready and confident to answer the questions after reading. A common way to discussion of reading is provide a definition of the concept. However, this strategy, while important for clarifying later discussions, is not so easy. Grabe and Stoller (2002:9) state that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately. Accordingly, reading is a complex activity that involves recognition and comprehension process. Comprehension is the goal of the reading. In reading comprehension, the students not only read the text but also they understand what they read. Flash back to talk about teaching reading in English lesson which is not easy to do, because the pronunciation, vocabulary, and the structure are different from reading in mothers tongue such as Indonesian or Javanese language. Sometimes it makes the students get bored because they do not understand the meaning of the text which they read. As a result, the students need something different in teaching reading such as interesting materials, new technique or games to create fun class and the students can feel happy and excited. Therefore, the interesting teaching technique is important. According to a scientist, the use of graphic organizer helps the students internalize what they are learning. Graphic organizers are important and effective pedagogical tools for organizing content and ideas, and facilitating learners comprehension of newly acquired information (McKnight, 2010:1). With graphic organizer students are able to understand new material. The one of graphic organizers is Herringbone Technique. Herringbone Technique is graphic organizers which represent visual information and concepts in teaching learning process. McKnight (2010: 50) states that Herringbone Technique is used for establishing supporting details for a mine idea. It can be used to organize information for all content areas.Those are three reasons why the writer chooses this topic. First of all, reading is one of the important language skills which have to be developed by the students. By reading the students can trainee themselves to pronounce the text that they are reading, thus they can be fluent in reading English words, also they can get much knowledge even which they have not known yet. Later, most of the students have difficulties in reading foreign language texts. Mostly, the students that come from small cities speak with their mother tongue and they seldom speak English, so that they get difficulty when they study English language. Finally, most of the teachers in Junior High School cannot create enjoyable atmosphere and make the students interested in reading class. Mostly, teachers just teach the students with truly explanation and teacher centred. The students maybe get bored and more passive, because there are no feedback from students to the students and it just happen between teacher and students. So, they cannot enjoy the class. Looking at these problems, the writer is going to introduce Herringbone Technique as a technique in teaching English especially in reading.This article investigates the students reading achievement of the eight grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan taught by using Herringbone Technique. Furthermore, it explores the students reading achievement of the eight grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan taught without Herringbone Technique. In addition, it explains significant difference of students reading achievement of the eight grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan with and without Herringbone Technique.

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. PREVIOUS STUDY

The research that related to this study has been done by some experts with different findings. The research paper entitled The Effect of Herringbone Technique on students reading comprehension in Recount Text at Second Grade of SMPN 2 Enam Lingkung Padang Priaman has been done by Desima Rafain, Zainuddin Amir, and Yuli Triana (2013:28). According to this research, the herringbone technique has a good potential to improve the students reading comprehension skills in recount texts. They said when the teachers face problems in reading comprehension class, they need to change the way they taught in the following meeting. The result of their research is that teaching reading comprehension by using Herringbone Technique is better than using text questions. From the result of their research finding at SMP N 2 Enam Lingkung Padang Pariaman, it can be found that the mean of the students post-test score in experimental class was higher than the mean of the student post-test score in control class. The result of analysing the students post-test data by using statistical analysis showed that the alternative hypothesis was accepted and the null hypothesis was rejected. Desima Rafain, Zinuddin Amir, and Yuli Triana concluded that the use of Herringbone Technique gave effect to the indicators of understanding the text such as topic / main idea, supporting idea, and vocabulary. The mean of those indicators got increase in post-test. 2. THEORITICAL REVIEW

a. General Concept of Herringbone Technique

1) Herringbone TechniqueGraphic organizers is important and effective pedagogical tools for organizing content and ideas, and facilitating learners comprehension of newly acquired information (McKnight, 2010 :1). It is an effective teaching and learning tool for all types of learners. Supporting McKnights idea Richardson, Morgan, and Fleener (2009:52) state Student or teacher produced visual representations of learned concepts and relationships are called graphic organizers.One of graphic organizers is Herringbone Technique. According to McKnight (2010: 50) Herringbone technique is used for establishing supporting details for a main idea. It can be used to organize information for all contents areas.

Bouchard (2005: 54) states the purpose of Herringbone Technique is to supports comprehension of text by providing a framework upon which the who, what, when, why, where, and how questions can be visually organized in relation to the main idea. This strategy is particularly well suited for expository text but can also be used with narrative text. In this research, Herringbone Technique helps the students understand the connections between supporting details, so that the students will be able to identify the main idea. 2) Procedure of Herringbone TechniqueAccording to Bouchard (2005: 54) there are some procedures of Herringbone Techniques, in following:

1) Select a text for students to read2) Draw a diagram of the herringbone on the board or copy the visual of the herringbone diagram

3) Discuss how the smaller bones (details) are attached to the backbone (main idea) of the fish, which serves as the foundation. Then explain how they all work together to provide structure ( comprehension) to the whole body (text)

4) Explain to students that they will be asked to look for information that answer the following questions :Who is the text talking about?What did they do?

When did they do it?

Where did they do it?

How did they do it?

Why did they do it?

5) Allow time for students to read the text

6) Give them copies of the diagram and ask them to record the answers to the questions on it. This can be done as a whole-class discussion activity7) Show students how the information is organized around a main idea

8) Using the information on the diagram, students formulate a main idea. The main idea is written on the diagram

9) After the students learn the procedure, they can complete the diagram on their own. This can then be used as a basis for comparison and class discussion. It can also serve as a springboard to writing10) The strategy can be reserved and students can first formulate the main idea and then identify the supporting details

According to Balajthy and Wade (2003:183) the procedures of Herringbone Technique are:1) Teacher preparationSelect a story appropriate for the student, perhaps a chapter book or an expository selection. Be sure that who, what, where, when, why, and how questions can be answered by reading or listening to the selection.

2) Read the selection

The teacher or student reads the selection and they discuss it, using the wh questions to structure the discussion. Answers to each question should be written on a post it.

1) Complete the Herringbone Diagram

Show the students the Herringbone diagram that have constructed. After rereading the responses to the wh questions, the students should place the post its on the appropriate herringbone categories

2) Summarizing

Help the students write a summary of the story by using sentence stem. The implementation of the herringbone technique can be changed from finding the fact first to writing the main idea and then looking for the facts that support the main idea.3) The Advantage of Herringbone Technique

According to Bouchard (2005: 54) the benefit or advantage of Herringbone Technique is the students are being able to answer and understand the questions who, what, when, why, where, and how can greatly aid when reading and comprehending text. This strategy also shows the relationship of the details to the main idea, which is often a troublesome concept. b. Reading Comprehension

Grabe and Stoller (2002 : 29) explain reading comprehension is an extraordinary feat of balancing and coordinating many abilities in a very complex and rapid set of routines that makes comprehension a seemingly effortless and enjoyable activity for fluent readers.

A reading comprehension strategy is a cognitive or behavioural action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions, with the goal of improving some aspect of comprehension. Consider a very simple-minded strategy for purposes of illustration (McNamara, 2007: 6).

Snow (2002: 11) defines reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. Moreover, Klingner, Vaughn, and Boardman (2007: 8) state reading comprehension is a multicomponent, highly complex process that involves many interactions between readers and what they bring to the text (previous knowledge, strategy use) as well as variables related to the text itself (interest in text, understanding of text type). In conclusion, reading comprehension is the process of using prior knowledge to infer the authors meaning. Doing reading comprehension means doing something which involves the interaction between the perception of graphic symbols that represent language and the readers language skills and knowledge of the world.c. Teaching Reading comprehension with Herringbone Technique

Teaching reading is not easy to do, especially in reading comprehension. Mostly, the students are bored to do the exercises based on reading comprehension. Usually they are lazy to read the texts and find the main ideas of the texts.

The writer wants to introduce the herringbone technique in teaching reading especially in reading comprehension. The writer did the research with the procedure of Herringbone Technique:a. The teacher select the text to the students and give one of the Herringbone diagram on each table

b. The students make a group with their friend beside them

c. The teacher ask to the students to read the text and find the answer of the Herringbone diagram based on the text which they have already read

d. The students should fill all of the answer that they have already found based on the text in Herringbone diagrame. The students discuss their answers to other friends

f. The teacher review the right answers on the herringbone diagram

According to the research, the result showed that the students can join the class happily with new atmosphere in their class. Also the students can be centred and more active in teaching learning process.

RESEARCH METHOD

1. Research Design

The study used an experimental research. In this study, the writer divided the sample into two groups, namely experimental group and control group. The experimental group was taught by using Herringbone Technique. The other one is the control group was taught without Herringbone Technique. The writer used The Post-Test Control and Experimental Group Design. In this design, participants are randomly assigned to a control group and an experimental group, but there is no pre-test. But, the two groups are given the different treatments. The experimental group was given a treatment by using Herringbone Technique, and the control one was given without Herringbone Technique. After being given treatments, the two groups were given post-test.2. Subject of the study The population of this study were all of the eight grade students (137 students) of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan Pekalongan

The sample was two classes of 8th grade students. They were VIII C and VIII D. There were 67 students (33 = VIII C as the control group and 34 = VIII D the experimental group). 3. Data CollectionIn concluding the study, the writer used two kinds of method of collecting the data. They were library research and field research. To tell about library research, the writer searched some references of text books of related subject matters. Thus, about second method is field research. Field research used activities referred to writers efforts in obtaining the empirical data from her study. During obtain the empirical data the writer did some steps. First, the writer came to school as the place of the research in SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan. Then, the writer chose classes of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan as the population and the sample. Third, the writer gave the students treatment by using Herringbone Technique and without Herringbone Technique. Next, the writer gave the students a test (post-test) of reading comprehension. Last step is the writer analysed the test4. Data AnalysisAfter getting the result of post-test from each class, the next was putting the data into T-test formula. The intention was to know whether there was any significant improvement of English reading ability among the Eight Grade Students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in Academic Year 2013/2014 by using herringbone technique. Then, the writer finding out the t-test score using the following formula:Statistical Analysis (Finding out the t-test) There were some steps to analyse the data as follows:

1) The writer made a table for the groups to found the t-testSubjectGroup

Experimental Class ( X1)Control Class ( X2)

CodeScoreCodeScore

1.----

2.----

Total x1- x2-

Mean1- 2-

Number of Subjectn1-n2-

VarianceS12-S22-

2) The writer calculated the mean of each group based on Urdans formula (2010:14).

The formula for calculating Experimental Group and Control Groupa) Experimental Group

1 = x1 : n1The mean scores of the experimental group = the sum of scores in experimental group divide number of subjects in experimental group

b) Control Group

2 = x2 : n1The mean scores of the control group = the sum of scores in control group divide number of subjects in control group3) The writer calculated the variance of each group

According to Urdan (2010: 22), the formula stated as follows:

a) Experimental Group

S12 = (x1 - 1 ) : n1Variance of experimental group = the sum of the score of the experimental group minus the sum of the mean scores of the experimental group. Then it divides number of subjects in experimental group.

b) Control Group

S22 = (x2 2 ) : n2Variance of control group = the sum of the score of control group minus the sum of the mean scores of the control group. Then it divides number of subjects in control group

4) The writer calculated the variance of two groupsAccording to Urdan (2010: 22), the formula stated as follows:

S2 = ((n1-1) S12 + (n2 1)) S22): (n1 + n2 2)The variance of two groups = number of subjects in experimental group minus one, then it times variance of experimental group. After that, it plus number of subjects in control group minus one, next it times variance of control group and it will appear total. Continue, total divides the sum of number of subjects in experimental group plus number of subjects in control group minus two.5) The writer applied all of formula into t-test. According to Urdan (2010 : 95) :t -test = 1 2 : s(1/n1 + 1/n2 )6) The writer found the score df.

After finding out the T-test, the writer used T-table to compare the T-test at the level of significance 5%. If the value of T-test is higher than the value of T-table, it can be concluded that there is a significant improvement of the students reading skill in SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan after Herringbone Technique is being implemented. But, if the value of T-test is lower than the value of T-table, it can be concluded that there is no significant improvement of the students reading comprehension skill in SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan after Herringbone Technique is being implemented.IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1. Findings

a. The Achievement of Students taught by using Herringbone Technique in Reading ComprehensionAfter conducting the post-test to the experimental group, the writer identified the data and gave score to the students. The test consisted of 20 items of multiple choices, in which each item had four options A, B, C, D, and it had one point. The formula which was used as follows :Score = right answer 100%

Total item

After getting the students score in experimental group, the writer consulted to the level of achievement as follows:

ScoreGradeCategory

86-100AExcellent

71-85BGood

56-70CFair

41-55DPoor

0-40EVery Poor

(Brown, 2004: 287)By virtue of table the result of post-test from the experimental group, it shows that there were 15 students who got grade A, 17 students who got grade B, 2 students who got grade C, and none of the students who got grade D and grade E. To obtain the percentage of the students letter grade, the writer applied them into the following formula:P = f: N 100%

P: the percentage of the achievement of student in readingN: the number of students

f: frequency of each criteria

The percentage of grade A:

P = 15: 34 100%

= 44.12%

The percentage of grade B:

P = 17: 34 100%

= 50%

The percentage of grade C:

P = 2: 34 100%

= 5.88%

The percentage of grade D:

P = 0: 34 100%

= 0%

The percentage of grade E:

P = 0: 34 100%

= 0%

For obtain explanation, it can be seen in the following table :

GradeNumber of StudentsPercentage

A1544.12%

B1750%

C25.88%

D00%

E00%

Based on the classification has done, the writer classified the percentage of the students letter grade in reading comprehension test of post-test from experimental group as follows:

a) There were 15 students who got A of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 44.12%

b) There were 17 students who got B of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 50%

c) There were 2 students who got C of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 5.88%

d) There was not students who got D of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 0%

e) There was not students who got E of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 0% From the result of the percentage of the students letter grade, it shows that there were 44.12% of the eight grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the academic year of 2013/2014 were Excellent in achievement of reading comprehension who were taught by using Herringbone Technique.b. The Achievement of Students who are taught by using Direct Instruction in Reading Comprehension

After conducting the post-test to the control group, the writer identified the data and gave score to the students. The test consisted of 20 items of multiple choices, which each item had four options A, B, C, D, and it had one point. The formula which was used as follows:Score = right answer 100%

Total item

By virtue of table the result of post-test from the control group, it shows that there was 1 student who got grade A, 6 students who got grade B, 18 students who got grade C, 4 students who got grade D, and 4 students who got grade E. The formula as follows:P = f: N 100%

P: the percentage of the achievement of student in reading

N: the number of students

f: frequency of each criteria

The percentage of grade A:

P = 1: 33 100%

= 3.03%

The percentage of grade B:

P = 6: 33 100%

= 18.19%

The percentage of grade C:

P = 18: 33 100%

= 54.54%

The percentage of grade D:

P = 4: 33 100%

= 12.12%

The percentage of grade E:

P = 4: 33 100%

= 12.12%

For clearer explanation, it can be seen in the following table:

GradeNumber of StudentsPercentage

A13.03%

B618.19%

C1854.54%

D412.12%

E412.12%

Based on the classification, the writer classified the percentage of the students letter grade in reading comprehension test of post-test from control group as follows:

a) There was 1 student who got A of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 3.03%

b) There were 6 students who got B of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 18.19%

c) There were 18 students who got C of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 54.54%

d) There were 4 students who got D of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 12.12%

e) There were 4 students who got D of the students achievement in reading comprehension or 12.12% From the result of percentage of students letter grade, it shows that there were 54.54% of the eight grade of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the academic year of 2013/2014 were Fair in achievement of reading comprehension who were taught by using Direct Instruction.c. Significant Difference in the Achievement of Students between those taught by using Herringbone Technique and by using Direct Instruction in Reading Comprehension

Before finding the difference in the achievement of students between those who are taught by using Herringbone Technique and by using Direct Instruction in reading comprehension, the writer calculated the mean of each groups.

a) The mean of each group

To determine the mean score of the experimental group and control group, the writer used the following formula proposed by Urdan (2010: 14) as follows:

1. Experimental Group2 = x2 : n2

=2890: 34

= 852. Control Group

2 = x2 : n2

=2135: 33

= 64.70

b) The variance of each group

Before calculating the variance of each group, the writer made a table of variance.

1. Experimental Group

S12 = (X1 1)2: n1

= 2.805: 34

= 82.52. Control Group

S22 = (X2 2)2: n2

= 2070.3: 33

= 62.74

c) The variance of two groups

S2 = (n1-1) S12 + (n2-1) S22

n1+ n2 2S= 72.77

= 8.53

d) The computation of t-testt test = 1 2

S1/n1 + 1/n2

= 9.739

Df = (n1 + n2) 2

= (34+33) 2

= 652. Discussion

After getting the result of the study, the writer discussed the data. Based on the teaching learning processed, it could be seen that Herringbone Technique was effective in reading comprehension. By using Herringbone Technique, the teacher could create an interesting teaching learning process in the classroom because the students could be happy and they would not get bored. Herringbone Technique is a technique in teaching learning process which helped the students focus on the lesson, the students would not get bored and it made the classroom to be more cheerful place for their lesson. Therefore, the existence of the teaching technique was important.

In addition, the effectiveness of Herringbone Technique was showed by the statistical analysis. The data was reading comprehension test score in the form of multiple choices at the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the academic year of 2013/2014, the data computation showed that t-value > t-table (9.739 > 1.667) so, the alternative hypothesis stated that there was significant difference in the achievement of the students between those who were taught with and without Herringbone Technique in reading comprehension was accepted, and teaching using Herringbone Technique was more effective than without Herringbone Technique. It means that teaching using Herringbone Technique had advantages in learning process, especially in reading comprehension. The strategy of using Herringbone Technique could help the students solve their problem in reading. Besides, it also encouraged the students to be more active and motivated.According to the means score of the both groups, the mean score of experimental group (85) was higher than the mean score of control group (64.70). It also means that achievement of reading comprehension by using Herringbone Technique was more effective.

From the computation above, the writer found that there was significant difference in the achievement of students between those who were taught by using Herringbone Technique and who were taught without Herringbone Technique in reading comprehension to the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the academic year of 2013/2014.CONCLUSION

From the discussion in the previous chapter, according to the means score of both groups, the mean score of experimental group (85) was higher than the mean score of control group (64.70). It also means that students achievement who were taught with Herringbone Technique was more effective than students achievement who were taught without Herringbone Technique. It can be concluded that Herringbone Technique provides an effective study when it was applied to reading material. It means that teaching reading comprehension with using Herringbone Technique is more effective than teaching reading comprehension without Herringbone Technique to the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Pekajangan in the academic year of 2013/2014.BIBLIOGRAPHYBalajthy, Ernest and Sally Lipa-Wade. 2003. Struggling Readers: Assessment and Instruction in Grade K-6. New York: Guilford Press.Bouchard, Margaret. 2005.Comprehension Strategies for English Language Learners. USA: Scholastic, Inc.Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assesment: Principles and Classroom Practices. New York : Pearson Education, Inc.Cohen, Louis, Lawrence Manion, and Keith Marrison. 2007. Research Methods in Education. London: Routledge.Creswell, John. W. 2012. Educational Research : Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. USA: Pearson Education, Inc.Davies, Paul and Eric Pearse.2000. Success in English Teaching. Oxford University Press.Grabe, William and Fredricka L. Stoller. 2002. Teaching and Researching Reading. Pearson Education.Klingner, Janette K, Sharon Vaughn, and Alison Boardman. 2007. Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Learning Difficulties. New York : Guilford Press.Kothari, C. R. 2004. Research Methodology :Methods & Techniques ( Second Revised Edition). New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd. Publishers.McKnight, Katherine S. 2010. The Teachers Big Book of Graphic Organizers 100 Reproducible Organizers that Help Kids with Reading, Writing and the Content Areas. San Francisco : Jossey Bass.

McNamara, Danielle S. 2007. Reading Comprehension Strategies : Theories, Interventions, Technologies. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Oxford Dictionary. 2008. Oxford Learners Pocket Dictionary. London : Oxford University Press. Rafain, Desima, Zainuddin Amir, and Yuli Triana. 2013. The Effect of Herringbone Technique on Students Reading Comprehension in Recount Text at Second Grade of SMP N 2 Enam Lingkung Padam Pariaman. Journal of English Language Teaching. Vol. 2 No. 1, Seri A.Richardson, Judy S, Raymond F. Morgan, and Charlene Fleener. 2009. Reading to Learn in the Content Areas. USA : Wadsworth Cengage Learning.Snow, Chaterine E. 2002. Reading for Understanding : Toward an R & D Program in Reading Comprehension . RAND.Urdan, Timothy C. 2010. Statistics in Plain English. New York : Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.