My Research Proposal for Introduction to Research (baru rencana) :)

I. Introduction

1.1. Background

Reading is one of the four main skills in learning English besides listening, speaking, and writing. In reading, students are taught by using a text. The text is divided in two categories: nonfiction and fiction. Nonfiction text and fiction text have different content and also different purpose for their readers. Therefore, the ability of students who comprehend nonfiction text and fiction text are different.          

Students who read nonfiction and fiction need to know the structures or the bodies of the texts.  The texts structures in nonfiction are different with fiction, and the achievements after reading them are different too. In nonfiction texts, students gain actual information and gain their knowledge. In fiction texts, students gain an entertainment from the beginning until the end and sometimes, they also can get information and knowledge about the story mentioned.  

Students are taught by using strategies to develop their reading comprehension ability in nonfiction and fiction text. Usually, both nonfiction and fiction have the same strategies in reading comprehension. Generally, students in university can already distinguish nonfiction and fiction texts when they see their text structures. However, the texts that they find are longer and find many unfamiliar words more often than when they are in high school. Of course, the strategies they used in high school are not as much as in university. Therefore, I am interested to compare students' reading comprehension ability when they read nonfiction and fiction text. I want to examine the comparison of university students who comprehend nonfiction and fiction text by applying strategies that they have learned.

1.2. Research Question

The research is focused in this question: “How is the comparison between students who read nonfiction text and students who read fiction text in reading comprehension ability?”

 

1.3. Scope  

            The scopes of this research are concerned as followed:

a. The location of the research is at English Department, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education of Lambung Mangkurat University.

b. The subject of the research is the students’ of English Department, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education of Lambung Mangkurat University academic year 2008/2009 batch 2008.

c. The research focuses only on the comparison of students’ reading comprehension ability between two groups : students who read nonfiction text and students who read fiction text.

1.4. Significances of Research

            The result of this research is expected that it can then be used as valuable information to English Department of Lambung Mangkurat University batch 2008 about every student’s ability in reading and understanding nonfiction and fiction text. Moreover, students can compare and contrast fiction and nonfiction text to sharpen their comprehension skills when reading a variety of literature.

1.5. Operational Definitions

            For this research, there are some operational definitions related to some key words of the research:

          a. Comparison : A consideration or estimate of the similarities or dissimilarities between two things or people.         

b. Fiction : A literary work in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people invented by the imagination and not necessarily on fact and it is designed commonly to amuse, and sometimes to instruct.

c. Nonfiction : True written information in specific ways that gives facts to explain something and help and support us as we gain knowledge and it is all writing or books not fiction, such as biography, history, and the essay (opposed to fiction and distinguished from poetry and drama).

          d. Comprehension : Capacity of the mind to understand, or the ability to understand something or the meaning or importance of something (or the knowledge acquired as a result).

e. Ability : A natural or acquired skill or talent to do something
or a quality of being able to perform that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment

f. Text : The part of a document (printed or electronic) comprising the words, especially the main body of expository words or the main body of a written work, in contrast to the illustrations, pictures, charts, tables, or other formatted material which contain graphic elements as a major component (as distinct from illustrations or footnotes etc.).  

 II. Review of the Literature

This research is important to examine the abilities of every college student in reading and understanding nonfiction and fiction texts. It also can answer which kind of the text they comprehend the most. I also examine, whether there is a difference in achievement between college students who comprehend nonfiction and fiction text. Therefore, “How is the comparison between students who read nonfiction text and students who read fiction text in reading comprehension ability?”

2.1. Reading and Understanding Nonfiction Text

            Kristina Robertson (2008) in Colorado found that "a lot of high school students head to college without ever having learned to interact effectively with nonfiction texts". When I was in high school, junior school, and elementary school, it was true that teachers only explain the texts by using WH-questions and fewer explain the kind of text. However, I am sure this time teachers already have introduced nonfiction and fiction text and already given some techniques to comprehend nonfiction or expository text. I even agree about Kristina's suggestion that the teachers can introduce nonfiction and fiction texts when students in elementary school. I have found many strategies that can be used to comprehend nonfiction texts, and to compare it with fiction.

Dr. Harriette J. Arrington (2010) in Virginia, Leigh A. Hall (2004) in Michigan, and Nicolle Gillis (2009) in Nevada state that to introduce and explain those strategies, teachers should know their students' difficulty and then select which strategies that encourage their students the most. It is needed to measure their students' ability. To comprehend nonfiction, teachers should explain kinds of nonfiction text. There are five most common nonfiction text structures include: information texts, recount texts, instruction texts, explanation texts, persuasion texts, and argument texts. In explain the strategies to comprehend nonfiction text; I think Boynton and Blevins (2003) can conclude that the strategies are "SCAN RUN". It is an abbreviation from many strategies and easily to do. Before reading the text, students will use SCAN strategy and while reading the text, the students will use the RUN strategy. These strategies have given in universities and I think in high school, too.

2.2. Reading and Understanding Fiction Text

Susan Stein (2001) states that "fiction occupies a particularly important role in your students' lives, it will expose them to experiences they may never have, places they will never see, and people they will never meet". I think that a fiction text is a story that can influence the readers to a world they have never met before. They expect by reading fiction text, it can encourage their imagination. It seems like easier than when reading nonfiction, but it does not mean fiction does not have strategies as Susan said, "how to read well so that they gather the most they can from their reading". Susan explains some steps to successful reading fiction that she found in many sources, and she divide kinds of fiction text in five categories: myth, short story, folktale, mystery, and poetry. Susan’s explanation is similar with Debbie Stein and Penny L. Beed (2004), they state the elements of fiction text include theme, character, conflict, setting, style, and plotting.

2.3. The Comparison between Nonfiction and Fiction Text in Students’ Reading Comprehension Ability

Gregory Currie (1990) assumes that "fictional texts, like texts of other kinds, can have the semantic properties of truth value and reference, and this result will be extremely important to us, but it can't help to distinguish fiction from nonfiction". Both nonfiction and fiction have the difficulty to comprehend. Dr. Harriette state that "as students get older, the texts we use to teach them get increasingly more difficult, and teachers rely more heavily on nonfiction texts to teach higher-level concepts". However, the state that nonfiction text is more difficult to comprehend than fictional text as Katy Collis (2006) and Adrienne Gear (2008) can’t be accepted at all. Students who comprehend nonfiction well, they do not necessarily comprehend fiction well, too. When students were still in school, especially elementary and junior school, fiction was easier to comprehend than nonfiction text because teachers didn't teach kinds of nonfiction texts directly. When students are in university, they will find more difficult texts; nonfiction and fiction, but they are also taught many strategies that can be used in understanding the texts. Therefore, the skills students use to comprehend nonfiction are different than for fictional texts. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis (2007) explain the differences between reading nonfiction and fiction text that usually students do. "In reading nonfiction text, it is read slowly and deliberately. In reading fiction, literature (fiction) is read quickly.  It is usually read one time through and it is usually read for pleasure". In this research, it can be used as guidance to compare students’ ability in comprehends nonfiction and fiction text.

2.4. Summary and Conclusion

            The research problem in this research is the comparison between college students' ability who read nonfiction and fiction text. From the research question, there are three variables that have explained in other literature before. These variables are reading and understanding nonfiction and fiction texts, and the comparison between them in students' reading comprehension. In reading nonfiction text, some writers and researchers state that students need to comprehend the structures of nonfiction text by using some strategies reading comprehension. In reading fiction text, some writers and researchers state that students also need to use strategies and it has taught by their teachers. The comparison between them can be seen in the structures and bodies of the text. The literatures that I have found only include the results of students' reading comprehension ability in high, junior, and elementary school. Some of the literature state that the comparison of those students is students comprehend fiction better than nonfiction. Therefore, I will develop the research of Dr. Harriette J. Arrington (2010), who explains that “the skills students use to comprehend nonfiction are different than for fictional texts”, and I will examine the comparison of students' ability and achievement for nonfiction and fiction text.

           

III. Methodology

            In this chapter, I will explain the ways for collecting data in my research. By determining the population and the number of sample, I can determine the instrument and the procedure. This chapter will also estimate the result and the answer of my research. 

           

3.1. Research Design

            In research design, I will determine the variables based on my research problem. Because the constant is students, the variable is students' reading comprehension ability in nonfiction text and fiction text. The variable contains independent variable and dependent variable. The independent variable is reading nonfiction text and fiction text, and the dependent variable is students' reading comprehension ability. Because I will use both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this research is one categorical variable and one quantitative variable. The variables are used to compare two groups of students: students who comprehend nonfiction text and students who comprehend fiction text. Therefore, for this research, I will use causal-comparative research.

3.2. Population and Samples of Research

            The subjects for this study are college students from Faculty of Teachers Training and Education in University of Lambung Mangkurat in Banjarmasin who are majoring in English. The students must have taken Reading III in the fourth semester, because the strategies of reading comprehension are taught when they were in the fourth semester. Generally, they are English Department students in academic year 2008, 2007 and 2006, and they know these strategies although they did not pass in Reading III. I take only one group from 3 groups of academic randomly, and the result is students in academic year 2008. The population is estimated 160 students, and I will take 50 percents from 160 students = 80 students. Therefore, I will examine 80 students from English Department of Lambung Mangkurat University in academic year 2008 by using two-stage random for sampling method.  

3.3. Technique and Data Collection

            For collecting data, I will go to English Department of Faculty of Teachers Training and Education in University of Lambung Mangkurat. The data will be collected in the classrooms. Students are divided in two groups. The data will be collected in two days; first day is for the group of nonfiction text and second day for the group of fiction text. They are given a written-response instrument in the classroom only once and I will also watch them so that they will answer the test on their own. Students answer the questions in 90 minutes. After that, as a researcher, I will collect the data if time has run out.

3.4. Instrument

            The instrument for this research is subject-completed instrument. In subject-completed instrument, I will use achievement test. Achievement test is used to measure the ability of every student in understanding nonfiction and fiction text. The achievement test contains some short texts and objective tests that contain strategies of reading comprehension. By using achievement test, I will determine kind of text who have better grades after I give them the test, whether nonfiction or fiction.

3.5. Technique of Data Analysis

            For answering my research question about "the comparison between students who read nonfiction text and students who read fiction text in their reading comprehension ability", I will use achievement test. There are no pretest and post-test, because I will give them only once. To examine their tests, I will use standard scores by using ordinal measurement scales. I will gather the answer sheets and analyze the scores of the two groups; group of nonfiction and group of fiction. Fiction and nonfiction are coded as 1 and 2. To answer “how is the comparison in their reading comprehension”, I will determine which strategies they difficult to answer the most. I will make two columns to compare the scores of fiction and nonfiction. Then, I will compare the scores between group of students who comprehend nonfiction and group of students who comprehend fiction, to see the comparison of students' achievement. Therefore, it will answer the question, if the scores show students’ achievement in nonfiction higher than in fiction or not.

           

           

           

References

1. Arrington, Harriette J. 2010. Helping Students Comprehend Nonfiction Texts. Virginia: HJA@LibraLiteracy.com.
2. Boynton and Blevins. 2003. Teaching Students to read Nonfiction. New York:  Scholastic Professional Books. www.amazon.com.
3. Collis, Katy. 2006. Non Fiction Text Types 10 plus Blackline Masters: Discover, Explore and Read Nonfiction. Australia: Macmillan Education Australia. http://books.google.co.id.
4. Currie, Gregory. 1990. The Nature of Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://books.google.co.id.
5. Gear, Adrienne. 2008. Nonfiction Reading Power. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 21-24. http://books.google.co.id.
6. Gillis, Nicolle. 2009. Strategies to Increase Reading Comprehension with Nonfiction Text. Nevada: Sierra Nevada College, 2-3. www.sierranevada.edu.
7. Hall, Leigh A. 2004. Comprehending Expository Text: Promising Strategies for Struggling Readers and Students with Reading Disabilities? Reading Research and Instruction. Michigan: Michigan State University, 2-3. www.eric.ed.gov.
8. Harvey & Goudvis, Anne. 2007. Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers. http://www.books.google.co.id.
9. Robertson, Kristina. 2008. Increasing ELL Student Reading Comprehension with Non-fiction Text. www.colorincolorado.org/article.
10. Stein, Debbie and Penny L. Beed. 2004. Bridging the Gap between Fiction and Nonfiction in the Literature Circle Setting. The Reading Teacher Vol.57 No.6. www.jstor.org.  
11. Stein, Susan. 2001. Steps to Successful Reading: Fiction. Portland: J. Weston Walch Publisher, 5-6. http://www.books.google.co.id.