The effectiveness of cooperative reading groups in teaching reading viewed from students’ intelligence (an experimental research in the eleventh grade students of SMAN 5 Mataram, NTB in the academic year of 2010/2011)

Oleh :
Dedi Sumarsono - S891002008 - Sekolah Pascasarjana

This research is aimed at finding out whether: (1) cooperative reading groups method is more effective than direct instruction method for teaching reading at the eleventh grade students of SMAN 5 Mataram NTB in the academic year of 2010/2011; (2) the students having high intelligence have better reading skill than those having low intelligence at the eleventh grade students of SMAN 5 Mataram NTB in the academic year of 2010/2011; and (3) there is an interaction between teaching methods and intelligence for teaching reading at the eleventh grade students of SMAN 5 Mataram NTB in the academic year of 2010/2011. The method which was applied in this research was experimental study. It was conducted at the eleventh grade students of SMAN 5 Mataram NTB in the academic year of 2010/2011. The samples were two classes. In taking the sample, a cluster random sampling was used to determine the experimental and control class. Each class was divided into two groups (the students having high and low intelligence). Then, the techniques which were used to collect the data were a multiple choice test for getting the data of the students’ reading skill and documentation about the students’ intelligence score. The instrument of the reading test was tried out to get valid and reliable items. The data were analyzed to by using multifactor analysis of variance 2x2 and tuckey test. The findings of the research show that (1) Cooperative reading groups method is more effective than direct instruction method for teaching reading; (2) The students having high intelligence have better reading skill than those having low intelligence; and (3) There is an interaction between teaching methods and the students’ intelligence for teaching reading; (a) cooperative reading groups method is more effective than direct instruction method for teaching reading for students having high intelligence; and (b) direct instruction method is more effective than cooperative reading groups method for teaching reading for students having low intelligence. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that in general cooperative reading groups method is more effective than direct instruction method for teaching reading. The effectiveness of the teaching method is influenced by the level of the students’ intelligence. Dealing with the above result, the English teacher is expected to apply cooperative reading groups method for teaching reading for students having high intelligence and direct instruction method for those having low intelligence. Key words: Cooperative Reading Groups, Direct Instruction, Reading, and Intelligence