CONTEXT CLUES ON READING COMPREHENSION

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION                            

A.   Background

The meaning of a word, a phrase, a sentence or a paragraph is very closely related to the context. The meaning of a word, for instance, is determined by the context where it is bound up with other words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and even a passage. In line with this, Steinberg said, “It is the context that controls the meaning, and the context is conveyed in units of phrases and sentences” (1978: 6). It is hoped students use their educated or intelegence guessing when they meet unfamiliar words and not to run to the dictionary every time they meet a strange word. They have to wait and see if something else in the context will give them a clue to its meaning.

In most Reading class, it was very common for students of SMPN 1 Lumajang to have dictionary next to them when they had Reading material. They would read the text for getting information, at the same time, they turn to dictionary every time they came upon words they did not recognize. Briefly, their lack of vocabulary made them depended on dictionary very much.

This condition made they lack of enthusiasm to learn new texts because they were unable to comprehend the texts, and moreover they often lose their attention and bored of reading lesson. Students did not understand the meaning of some words in a sentence and they thought too much of the unfamiliar words. They run to the dictionary every time they meet a strange word. It developed more badly when teacher taught in monotonous teaching techniques.

For these reasons, the research intends to help the students to improve their Reading comprehension ability and breaks the monotonous teaching techniques through student-centred approach, they are (1) the way to involve students in Reading learning process through Cooperative Script learning model, (2) the way to improve students in Reading comprehension learning process through Context Clues method and (3) the way to involve students in Reading assessment through peer observation/assessment.

The reasons and findings above lead to the idea to conduct a study to implement an appropriate learning model of Cooperative Script on Context Clues method to improve the students’ Reading comprehension ability. 

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