CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Theoretical Review

Reading is inevitably considered as the most beneficial avenue in

language learning and the other fields in academic. Considerably, the

teaching English in junior high school mainly focuses on teaching reading

as the preparation for ENE and higher education level. Therefore, teachers

and educational stakeholders always struggle to improve the quality of the

process of teaching and learning to read. One of their efforts is designing

educational facilities, namely reading materials.

Reading materials are used as source for practice reading in the

classroom and for their self-learning beyond the classroom. In addition,

reading materials have to exhibit the individuality of the students fostered

in nowadays learning paradigm, learner-centered paradigm. With this in

mind, students’multiple intelligence type, one of their differences is

appreciated since multiple intelligence theory considers the students’

uniqueness. Therefore, reading materials based on the multiple intelligence

types are necessary to be developed in order to enhance the students’

interest and participation in learning reading comprehension.

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 Moreover, such kind of materials is implemented as supplementary

and complementary materials for both students and teacher. Despite the

conventional teaching reading activities that sound like teaching reading

for testing, applying the students’ multiple intelligence types in teaching

reading gives more opportunities to develop various tasks, to overcome the

students’ boredom due to the monotonous tasks presented in the current

worksheet, and to encourage the students to meaningfully take part in

learning. Thereby, they will feel they are valuable in their strength.

1. Reading

a. General Concepts of Reading

Reading is considered as one of the most fundamental language

skills in this globalizing era. Recently, due to the importance of

reading, Kaplan (2002) in Khaki (2014) summarizes that there has

been a growing focus of reading in recent years. Consequently, the

goals of education allow students to read with a reasonable expectation

of comprehension.

However, many definitions of reading proposed by scholars are

overwhelming. Reading, in fact, belongs to receptive skills enabling

the readers to derive meaning from written text. To put it another way,

Alderson (2000: 8) develops a definition of reading as the active

process to understand both the literal and inferential meanings of a

text. In order to understand the meaning of the text well, reading

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requires the combination between readers’ background knowledge and

text information. As a result, the meaning constructed from the same

text greatly varies among readers. Another definition of reading as

asserted by Sugirin (1997) in Sugirin (2002: 5) that reading entails the

reader’s efforts to comprehend print with the help of reader’s

background knowledge.

Additionally, reading is categorized into the process of reading

and the product of reading. One of the theorists, Alderson (2000: 4)

makes distinction between the process of reading and the product of

reading. He further initially explains that reading is the interaction

between the readers and the text in order to reflect what they are

reading, what they have read and how to relate some text information

and their background knowledge. On the other hand, in viewing the

product of reading, we can hardly monitor whether the students lack

of background knowledge or apply the inadequate strategies or

purpose of reading since the focus is on what understanding the

readers attain. Furthemore, Yamashita (2004) also investigates that the

product of reading is associated with information from tests. However,

in school environment teachers need to emphasize the combination

between those two views by applying variety of learning activities and

assessment.

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 To conclude, reading is cognitive and active process to derive

the meaning of the text appropriately with the help of the readers’

prior knowledge and text information.

b. Purposes of Reading

As aforementioned before, reading belongs to active and

cognitive process to construct meaning from a text. Thus, good readers

are able to decide and specify the purposes of reading in order to draw

an effective interpretation and to reflect reading task. Therefore, it is

important for readers to identify their purposes of reading. The

purposes of reading investigated by Grabe and Stoller (2002:7) are as

follows.

1) Reading to search for simple information

Commonly, reading to search for simple information is

mostly implemented whereby the specific information is scanned

involving guessing the location of the key information until general

idea is formed. The example of reading to search simple

information is that readers search person’s phone number on the

telephone directory by looking at the particular information

needed. In school context, this purpose is usually reflected in the

lateral questions.

2) Reading to learn from texts

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 Reading to learn from texts typically occurs especially in

academic learning. It requires the readers to remember the main

ideas as well as the supporting details and to organize the

necessary information since they have to learn a considerable

amount of information from the particular text. Reading to learn

fro, text allows the readers usually reread the text to present the

stronger inferences.

3) Reading to integrate information, write and critique texts

Reading to integrate information, write and crituque texts

also commonly occurs in academic learning. It means that readers

have to read in order to select, to interpret and to evaluate the

information presented in the text. Hereupon, they are able to decide

what and how to integrate the information as required in many

academic tasks.

4) Reading for general comprehension

The notion of general comprehension of which essence is

constructing meaning is clearly constituted as the most important

purpose for reading. Reading for general comprehension is

complex and necessary because it underlies and supports most

other purposes for reading. This actually is a cognitive process in

order to link the students’ background knowledge and the text

information to find out the main ideas and relevant supporting

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 ideas in the text. In other words, if students do not understand the

meaning of the text, then they are not reading.

However, for junior high school level, the purpose of reading as

required in basic competence is reading for general comprehension

requiring the students to identify the main ideas, supporting details,

vocabulary in context, social function, generic structures and language

features of particular texts. As aforementioned previously, reading

comprehension is also considered as the basic purpose of reading and

the real core for reading (Riswanto, Risnawati & Lismayanti, 2014).

In other words, the complexity of reading comprehension is

reflected in the following processes as Alderson (2009: 9) and Grabe

& Stoller (2002:10) summarize that reading for general

comprehension includes several strategies, for instance: a) specifying

a purpose of reading, b) activating the background knowledge, c)

previewing the text through the title, d) predicting the content of the

text, e) checking prediction, f) recalling word meaning, g) posing

questions about the text explicitly or implicitely, h) finding the

answers of the questions, i) connecting text to background knowledge,

j) recognizing the author’s purpose of the text structure and

summarizing information, k) making inferences from the content, l)

connecting one part of the text to another, m) guessing a new word

from the context and n) reflecting on what has been read from the text.

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 For the sake of simplicity, Grabe and Stoller (2002:12) further

explain that good readers do the following processes of comprehenison

involving the active use of cognitive process as aforementioned above,

such as, recognizing words rapidly, storing word information,

connecting pronoun references, building overall text structure,

integrating and restructuring information, establishing main ideas and

inferences. Therefore, readers are categorized as good readers if they

are able to integrate their background knowledge and text information

through predicting, inferencing and recalling word meaning.

To sum up, the purposes of reading including reading to search

for simple information, reading to learn from texts, reading to integrate

information, write and crituque texts and reading for general

comprehension must be decided carefully before beginning to read. In

school context, especially for junior high school students, reading for

general comprehension is mainly catered.

c. Micro – and Macro- Skills of Reading Comprehension

In eliciting the information of the text completely, readers are

required to master the several skills of reading. Brown (2001: 307)

describes several micro-skills in reading comprehension for instance

discriminating among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic

patterns of English, retaining chunks of language of different lengths in

short-term memory, processing writing at an efficient rate of speed to

suit the purpose, recognizing a core of words. Meanwhile interpreting

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 word order patterns and their significance, recognizing grammatical

word classes and cohesive devices in written text, determining the

rhetorical forms of written text and the communication functions of

written text according to the form and purpose, infering context that is

not explicit by using background knowledge, distinguishing literal and

inferred meanings and detecting culturally specific references and

interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural schemata

develop reading strategies such as scanning and skimming belong to

macro-skills of reading comprehension.

d. Metaphorical Models of Reading

Previously, we have discussed the definition, the purposes and

the processes of reading comprehension. Due to the variety of reading

comprehension processes involving lower and higher-level processes,

Hedgcock and Ferris (2009:19) proposed metaphorical of reading that

can be used as consideration to teach students reading comprehension.

The metaphorical models are as follows.

1) Bottom-up

Bottom-up model basically views reading as language skill that

must be initiated at the bottom level of text structure, the words.

Liu (2010) portrays that through this model, meaning is

constructed by reading from part to whole. It means that in order to

construct meaning from a text, students work upward to the larger

units or sentence by sentence. Additionally, Hedgecock and Ferris

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 (2009: 17) summarize that in order to make meaning from a text,

students work from word with little reference to background

knowledge to larger level unit. However, one of the drawbacks of

bottom-up view is that students are successful readers when they

decipher linguistic substances. To conclude, bottom- up model

views reading as the process of constructing meaning through

processing the smaller unit of the text to the larger unit with little

help of the readers’ background knowledge.

2) Top-down

The notion of top-down model is often contrasted with the

bottom-up model. One of the theorists of this model, Goodman

(1967) introduces that reading is psycholinguistic guessing games

involving an interaction between thought and written language to

produce guesses with background knowledge support. In addition,

Karlin (1984) adds that readers generate the hypotheses about

meaning and revise them if they are not confirmed. In other words,

this model views reading as a process of reconstructing meanings

and making inferences eventhough readers do not recognize each

word.

However, only few reading specialists actually support strong

top-down view because this model works if only the readers have

sufficient background knowledge. In other words, students who

posses sufficient background knowledge benefit from this model.

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 Meanwhile, Grabe and Stoller (2002:26) question about what

readers learn from text if the reader must have expectation about

all information in the text. Moreover, one of the drawbacks of this

model is that this model is truly difficult for those who have

minimum vocabulary knowledge.

To sum up, the difference between bottom up and top down is

that bottom up process focuses on the linguistic forms while top

down process focuses on the use of readers’ background

knowledge to make complete comprehension. However, Grabe

2009) in Kazami, Hasseini & Kohandani (2013) clearly states that

there is no model of reading merely depicts reading as a bottom-up

or top-down model. Those metaphorical views sometimes are

combined to meet the general strategies.

In other words, Kazami, Hasseini & Kohandani (2013) also

suggest that it is beneficial to integrate the two models, bottom-up

and top down in teaching reading to junior high school students.

3) Interactive model

Alderson (2000: 18) articulates that neither the bottom-up nor

the top-down model is an adequate model for reading but

interactive model as an alternative model that assembles the earlier

two models of reading to reach the optimal comprehension. In line

with Alderson, Grabe and Stoller (2002:26) summarize that this

model takes useful ideas from bottom-up model and combines

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 them with the ideas from top-down model. In other words, word

recognition, the students’ background knowledge, inferencing and

predicting serve a major contributor to the process of teaching

reading.

For Indonesian junior high school students, interactive model

including language knowledge, students’ background knowledge and

text infomation is merely accepted by the students and teacher to be

implemented for practice learning to read in the class (Hamra &

Syatriana, 2010). To put in another way, students use their both

previous knowledge of the topic and linguistic knowledge to

comprehend the text.

To conclude, the metaphorical models of reading proposed by

scholars involve bottom-up, top-down and interactive model. In

Indonesian educational field, interactive model can be an alternative

model to merely emphasize the readers’ text understanding and their

language knowledge with the students’ limited vocaulary.

e. Reading Types

As noted earlier, in the practice of teaching reading in

Indonesian junior high schools, interactive model is suitable to be

implemented. Besides, considering the reading type also an important

way to practice reading. Recently, it is believed that there are two key

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types of reading that are beneficial to help students reach complete

comprehension that teacher chooses, as follows.

1) Extensive Reading

Extensive reading means to connect the students’ choices

with pleasure in reading and to develop their enjoyment in reading.

Indeed, it is undeniable that implementing extensive reading allows

students to develop their reading comprehension. To put in another

way, Haider and Akhter (2012) discover that extensive reading

permits students to read a relatively great number of simpler texts

mainly for getting pleasure without performing any tasks after

reading. Thus, extensive reading goes far beyond the ability to

determine main idea of the text, answer questions about supporting

details, define vocabulary, read the text aloud and so forth.

To expand the concept of extensive reading a bit further,

Day in Hedgecock and Ferris (2009:207) propose the

characteristics of extensive reading in classroom including a) a

large amount of texts is deliberately chosen to encourage reading

for different purposes and different ways and b) reading for

pleasure and general understanding without follow-up exercise is

promoted. Finally, in Day’s study (2015), he ranks those principles

that might be used in extensive reading. The top three core

principles in extensive reading includes: 1) students read as many

texts as possible, 2) students choose what they want to read and 3)

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 a variety of reading materials on a wide range of topics is

available.

2) Intensive reading

Intensive reading, on the other hand, is reading for details

for a comprehension understanding of the text which is mainly

implemented to enhance the students’ reading comprehension

involving inferencing and guessing word meaning from context.

Both Hedgcock and Ferris (2009:161) remain that intensive

reading is aimed to take a selected text, study it line by line by

translating, analyzing, comparing and infering every sentence. In

other words, readers typically read the short texts in their textbook

while the teacher guides them to comprehend every sentence.

Moreover, teacher emphasizes detail study of grammar, vocabulary

items, text structures and meanings. Hence, every text is read

carefully before reading, during reading and after reading stages.

Meanwhile the characteristics of intensive reading include

a) the text read in the class is selected by the teacher, b) all students

read the same text at the same time and complete the exercises

provided by the teacher, c) the teacher highlights specific linguistic

features and content of the text to improve the students’ linguistic

competence and linguistic performance, d) assessment of students’

comprehension is facilitated by the fact that students work with the

same text and activities. In other words, the foci of intensive

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 reading are comprehension, vocabulary development and grammar

knowledge.

Teaching reading for junior high students, in fact, requires the

students to comprehend the text in detail. As a result, intensive reading

is frequently chosen to teach in the class because it allows students to

understand the meaning of every sentence of the texts selected by the

teacher. However, as contemplated by Haider & Akhter (2012) that

both extensive reading that focuses on leading to genuine reading

comprehension and intensive reading that focuses on the manipulation

of language can be mutually combined and implemented to the

students to improve their reading practices in the classroom and

beyond the classroom by providing follow-up tasks.

f. Stages of Intensive Reading

As noted earlier, intensive reading means to reading sentence by

sentence followed by some reading tasks to check whether the students

have complete comprehension or not. In the classroom context, there

are three reading stages as proposed by Hedgcock & Ferris (2009:

162), as follows.

1) Before Reading Activites

Before the actual stage of reading a text begins, there are

some tenets that should be considered in order raise the students’

interest toward the topic of the text. Eventhough these activities are

important, they are still often neglected.

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 Reading comprehension, as explained earlier, is the

process of constructing meaning from a text that combines

background knowledge and text information. Hence, it is begun

with activating the students’ background knowledge and providing

language needed during reading as the aid and then connect it the

text as Marzano in Valesco (2011:4) argues that background

knowledge is not only essential for acquiring new information but

also for vocabulary development. It can be activated by showing

picture related to the text, asking several questions related to the

text, surveying the text to get a quick understanding of the text’s

main ideas, guessing the content of the text by looking at the topic,

and introducing some vocabulary items. In this stage teacher and

students also discuss the title, pictures, text structure and preview

the text (Alyousef, 2006). To illustrate, the students are going to

comprehend a text entitled A Nice Vacation in the Zoo, then

students must possess either experience or knowledge about

vacation in the zoo. Otherwise, the information about the topic is

difficult to understand.

Therefore, before reading activities are crucial to provide

students’ background knowledge that reinforce to reach optimal

comprehension.

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2) During Reading Activity

In this stage, the students look closely to the text and

determine the structure of the text in order to continually develop

their ability in tackling the texts (Alyousef, 2006). Hedgecock and

Ferris (2009:172) further reflect that teacher is to divide the text

into sections and make prediction about what will come next. This

stage consists of several activities as follows.

a) First reading activity

This activity allows the students to develop the students’

understanding of the main ideas of the text. Alternatively, this

activity also allows the students to read aloud. However, it is

more complex since they have to associate the spoken language

and get the meaning of the text at the same time.

b) Questioning and responding based on the text

If before-reading activities allow the students to pose some

questions about what they are going to learn, this activity, on

the other hand, allows the teacher to pose questions to monitor

their understanding of the text. In addition, by questioning,

teacher is able to check and monitor the students’

understanding since questioning and monitoring are the heart of

the comprehension process (Duffy, 2009:108). As a result,

students are to respond the questions by summarizing or

paraphrasing the text.

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c) Arguing and placing a text within their own experience

In this activity, the students express their opinions and

temporary understanding of the text even they relate the text

with their background knowledge. They are also encouraged to

confirm their previous predictions. Therefore, as the text is

being read, students confirm their previous prediction and think

of the additional information of the text.

d) Utilizing visuals

Besides text, there are usually some visuals in the form of

pictures or illustration that can be used for teaching reading

since those visuals help students conceptualize the content of

the text. Woolley (2010) further mentions that students are able

to derive meaning from the visuals such as illustration,

photograph and drawing. In addition, such kind of visuals help

the students form image of the text. To illustrate, when they

read descriptive text, they understand the description of

particular thing by visualizing the charateristics of that object.

e) Annotation

Annotating means to allow the students to comment and

question the text that they are reading. This activity, actually,

guides the students to evaluate and reflect the types of

information. Accordingly, students can also write information

down while they are reading.

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 f) Predicting - monitoring- repredicting

predicting is constituted as the dominant strategy during

reading stage that enables the students to proceed through text.

To illustrate, in reading narrative text, students use their prior

knowledge to create images then when they come to the

complication, they are allowed to solve it by using their ideas

(Duffy, 2009:22).

As noted at the beginning of this section, during reading activities

are applied to monitor the students’ comprehension.

3) After Reading Activities

Toprak and Gamze (2009) point out that after reading

activities are aimed to evaluate the students’ comprehension and

lead them to a deeper analysis of the text after they comprehend the

text. The students further relate what have been read and their

knowledge or interest. Generally, in this stage the students do

various activities as presented by Hedgcock & Ferris (2009: 185).

a) Discussing the text

Discussing the text after the students finish reading the text

includes predicting for example by asking question will the

cat and the mouse be friends again? Another example is that

students predict what the readers probably do after reading

the text.

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 Similarly, students evaluate whether their predictions are

correct or not and share their results to the whole class.

b) Summarizing the text

Summarizing or making a short version of the text involves

both reading and writing skill as aforementioned earlier that

teaching reading does not mean teachers exclude other

language skills. Thus, it enhances not only the students’

comprehension but also their writing skill. In this activity,

the students write the summary of the text by using their

own words in order to get the meaning of the text.

c) Answering the questions

Students answer various questions from the teacher critically

to check their comprehension. This activity also includes the

instruction that allows students draw pictures or write

sentences about their favorit part of the text.

d) Filling in forms and charts

These activities are suitable to enrich the students’

experience in the process of teaching reading. The forms and

chart include the title and content of the text. The students

then, share the result to the whole class.

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 e) Retelling the text by using their own words

This activity allows the students to summarize the text in

spoken way or have to retell the text in front of the class

assessed by using the speaking rubric.

f) Role-playing

Role-playing after read text means performing the text that

requires the reading and speaking capability. It is usually

done when the students learn about narrative or short stories

in order to make the tasks more real-life.

The after reading stage is beneficial in teaching reading

comprehension in the clssroom. Those various activities are applied to

assess the students’ comprehension through responding, answering,

summarizing and evaluating the text.

2. Teaching Reading

a. Reading in the Second and Foreign Language

There is still an ongoing debate whether first language (L1

hereafter) reading is different from second and foreign language

(L2 hereafter) reading. Hence, Alderson (1984) in Yamashita

(2002) questions whether reading a foreign language is a reading or

a linguistic problem. Linguistic problem relates to the weakness of

linguistic knowledge, but reading problem concerns with the

mental processes of reading for instance predicting, analyzing and

synthesizing the text information.

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 Grabe and Stoller (2002:36) further explain the difference

between L1 and L2 reading. In term of linguistic and processing,

L1 students learn to read after they learn to speak in the very young

age. L2 students, on the contrary, learn to read simple sentences

and texts at the same time they learn to speak. Thus, the L2

students’ vocabulary development and grammar knowledge

differently mark from L1 students’.

Meanwhile, there are two widely known hypotheses

concerning to the relationship between L1 and L2 reading, the

linguistic interdependence hypothesis and the linguistic treshold

hypothesis. Liu (2010) differs that the linguistic interdependence

hypothesis means that there is an automatic transfer L1 to L2.

Meanwhile the linguistic threshold hypothesis means that L2

language ability is needed to enable L1 reading ability transfers to

L2 reading. According to the research conducted by Coady (1979)

and Jolly (1978) in Sugirin (2004) that the success of foreign

language reading is determined by the students’ reading ability in

the first language. In addition, Cummins (1976) notes the

implication of the threshold hypothesis is that students attain high

L2 reading whenever they attain high L2 linguistic proficiency. In

other words, readers who have adequate L2 proficiency are able to

transfer their L1 reading ability to L2 reading. Conversely,

linguistic treshold hypothesis has been criticized, since components

33
determining the success of L2 reading are not only L1 reading skill

and L2 proficiency.

Urquhart and Weir (1998:62) further point out components

in both L1 and L2 reading. The first component is background

knowledge associated with the notion of schemata that completes

the text with the readers’ existing knowledge. The second element

is literacy which consists of text structure and cohesive devices.

Meanwhile cohesive devices mean that beyond individual

sentences are the explicit ways in which a writer ties the ideas

together within the sentence (Hedgecock and Ferris, 2009).

According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004:532), the four ways

by which cohesion is created are conjunction, reference, ellipsis

and lexical organization.

To conclude, the relationship between L1 and L2 reading is

still an ongoing debate. Generally speaking, the issue of the

relationship between L1 and L2 reading has been discussed under

the framwork of the linguistic interdependence hypothesis and the

linguistic treshold hypothesis that involve L1 reading ability and

L2 proficiency to be successful L2 readers that emphasize L2

reading success is determined by L2 proficiency and L1 reading

transfer. However, it is still being debated since there are other

components in L2 reading, background knowledge and the text

structures.

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b. Theories of Teaching Reading Comprehension

In an attempt to succeed the processes of teaching reading

comprehension, Klingner, Vaughn and Boardman (2007: 2) suggest

three theories. The first theory is schema theory emphasizing the

knowledge that students already recognize influences the students’

reading comprehension. The more students know about the topic,

the easier to understand the text on that topic. According to this

theory, to succeed the process of teaching reading in the clssroom,

teachers must strive for an optimum balance between text

information and the students’ backgorund knowledge (Carrell &

Eisterhold, 1983). At a general level, schema theory explains the

knowledge that the readers store and recall.

The second theory is a reader-response theory. This theory

emphasizes the text read should be related to the students’

experiences because the meanings of the text does not come solely

but through the active interaction between the readers and the text

in a particular context (Becker, 1999). Thus, the text given to the

students must suit to their experience about the topic.

The third theory is direct instruction that has been provided

for more explicit and systematic instruction related to the main

ideas. Direct instruction, however expects students to behave in a

way that assists them in reading materials.

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 To sum up, the theories of teaching reading comprehension

lies on the three theories namely schema theory, reader respose

theory and direct instruction.

c. Principles of teaching reading

In order to teach reading effectively, it is important for teachers

to pay great attention to both the nature of reading and the

principles of teaching reading. Harmer (2001:70) poses some

principles of teaching reading to support the reading principles

above, as follows.

1) Reading is not a passive skill

Reading is incredibly active skill which means as readers,

students need to understand the text being read. In order to

make teaching reading more meaningful, students as the

readers are to understand the literal meaning as well as the

inferred meaning unless they just scratch the surface of the text

and look at the pictures supporting the text.

2) Students need to be engaged with what they are reading

Engaging the students with the text and the reading tasks is

vital since they achieve the benefit from the text only if they

are interested in what they are reading. It is done on the before

reading stage by building up the prior knowledge and

correlating the text to their real life.

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3) Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a

reading text

The meaning and the message of the text are important to learn

instead of just teaching reading for the way they use language

for instance how many words belonging to nouns found in the

text or how many times the author cites the relative clause.

However, teaching reading is more meaningful if the students

are allowed to express their feeling as well as judgement and

use personal engagement about the text.

4) Prediction is a major factor in reading

Predicting the text through its title and the pictures before

students actually read the text will make them feel at ease to

comprehend the text. Because of that, teachers should routinely

give students hints from the title and some illustrations so that

students can predict the text.

5) Match the task to the topic

Reading task is used to check and to monitor whether the

students understand the text or not. However, reading tasks

chosen must be exciting with imaginative and challenging

tasks based on the topic that engange their thinkng and

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 problem-solving skills based on their strength, multiple

intelligence types.

6) Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full

It is undeniable that reading text is full of sentences, ideas and

descriptions. However, it does not make sense just to get the

students read, write the answer of the questions and move to

another text. Subsequently, teachers integrate the reading text

into interesting activities through the topic and the tasks.

Moreover, Brown (2001) emphasizes that the students’ reading

comprehension is better if reading is taught in integration with

other skills.

d. Practice of Teaching Reading Comprehension in Indonesia

According to Cahyono and Widiati (2006), the interest in

EFL reading comprehension began along with the implementation

of Grammar Translation Method (GTM) acknowledged as reading

approach of which target was reading ability by translating the

words to the students’ native language. However, the teaching of

English in Indonesia has been revised according to the provision of

curriculum policies as mandated by Ministry of National

Education. In 1975s, English language teaching (ELT) was

oriented to the audio-lingual approach that adapted one of learning

theories, behaviorism, of which curriculum components are

38
teaching objectives, materials, approach and evaluation

(Sahirrudin, 2013). However, still, the dissatisfaction of this

approach had impacted on the change of curriculum since the focus

of this approach is the students’ pronunciation. In other words,

reading skill was preceeded after the speaking skill. Next

curriculum was proclaimed to be communicative approach

curriculum whereby language structure was exhibited the most

dominant content. In this curriculum, reading comprehension or

extracting the meaning of written text is the main focus. Therefore,

it was considered inconsistent since linguistic knowledge was the

priority.

Then in 1994, the meaning-focused communicative

curriculum which focused on the students’ ability to communicate

in four English language skills replaced the 1984 structure-focused

communicative curriculum. Madya (2008) articulates that the

learning of the linguistic elements such as structure is aimed to

support the mastery and development of the four skills including

reading eventhough the skills are developed in integration.

However, still, the national examination mainly focused on the

structure (form-based) rather than the meaning.

Sahirrudin (2013) then summarizes the 2004-competency-

based curriculum was published with the underlying of

communicative language teaching (CLT) to accommodate

39
students’ speaking skill as well as reading skill. But due to the

issues of decentralized system, the 2006 KTSP curriculum that

fostered the students’ communicative competence replaced

Competency based Curriculum. Madya (2008) summarizes in this

curriculum, one of the competences is to understand meanings in

simple written texts.

This curriculum, nevertheless, had some problems for

instance the trend implemented was still teacher-centered.

Responding to the constraints, Indonesian government then decide

to redesign the curriculum into the 2013 curriculum that embrace

learner-centeredness to foster the students’ focus on meaning and

form. In addition, Ahmad (2014) states that in this curriculum,

language skills are not taught in isolation but in integrative

manners in all basic competence with the respect of the students’

differences. For instance, reading comprehension is simultaneously

taught with speaking, so students read the text and answer the

questions orally.

In junior high school level, 2013 curriculum has been

implemented in order to meet the needs of this nation which is

enbling students to continuously communicate in English and to

prepare for the education development. According to the guideline

of this curriculum, students are taught English four hours in a

week. Meanwhile the lesson is based on the core competence and

40
 basic competence as stated in Permendikbud No 24 of 2016 which

allows the eighth grader students to master short functional text,

descriptive text, recount text, narrative text and song lyrics as the

text types for learning to read. In addition, Permendikbud No 23 of

2016 explains that the aspects assessed include knowledge, skill

and attitude.

To resume, the practice of teaching reading in Indonesia

has been revised several times. The current curriculum emphasizes

teaching reading integrated with other skills with the respect of the

students’ difference.

e. Strategies and Techniques for Teaching Reading

Oxford (2003:12) defines strategies as the specific action,

steps or techniques consisting of six strategies that are commonly

used by students in learning in order to achieve the goal of learning

more easily and enjoyably. Furthermore, the strategies are

classified into six main strategies namely memory strategies,

cognitive strategies and compensation strategies as direct

strategies. Meanwhile, metacognitive strategies, affective

straetegies and social strategies belong to indirect strategies.

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 Table 1.
Learning Strategies
Memory Compensation Cognitive
strategies strategies strategies

Memory-related Compensation The strategies

strategies enable strategies allow the enable the students
the students to students to guess from to manipulate the
learn and to the context and to help language materials
retrieve students make up for in direct ways for
information missing knowledge instance predicting,
through rhymes, reasoning,
images, body analyzing, note-
movement, taking, summarizing
mechanical means and synthesizing
or location.

Metacognitive Affective strategies Social strategies

strategies

The strategies The strategies enable Social strategies

allow the students the students to identify significantly
the students’ their mood and associated with L2
learning style feeling. proficiency in
preferences (self- emphasize the
evaluating) and studnets to ask for
needs, gathering clarification,
and organizing aexplore cultural
materials as well and social norms.
as the tasks.

Oxford (2003:41) points out some learning activities

belonging to the six strategies. Memory strategies involve creating

mental images and reviewing the text. Hence, in these strategies,

students classify the information of the text and use imagery in

constructing meanings. Meanwhile in cognitive strategies which

42
are known as the most popular strategies in teaching reading

comprehension implemented to achieve the knowledge, students

quickly get ideas from the text, summarize, reason and analyze the

information deductively. Meanwhile, compensation strategies

enable the students to use the new language for comprehension

through guessing the meaning of what is read in L2 reading since

they probably have limited vocabulary mastery.

Oxford (2003: 152) classifies indirect strategies into three

strategies, namely metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and

social strategies. Applying metacognitive strategies is northworthy

since students have to set their purpose of reading, plan for the

task, and have self- evaluating to check their comprehension by

asking to themselves whether their comprehension has increased or

not. In other words, it implies that metacognitive strategies allow

them to control their own thinking. The next indirect strategies are

affective strategies that related to the students’ feeling such as

lowering anxiety by using music and encouraging the students

through making positive statements. The third indirect strategies

are social strategies that relate to the ability of communication with

others for instance cooperating with peers.

Therefore, in teaching reading, teacher must organize the

lesson with appropriate varied strategies to adjust the students’

needs.

43
f. Media for Teaching Reading

The use of media is aimed to make the students feel comfortable

and easy to undersatand materials. Hence, media must contribute the

creative contents of the materials subconsciously. In addition, Sudjana

and Rivai (2009) in Rokhayani and Utari (2014) pose some advantages of

media into the following.

1) The processes of teaching and learning fosters students’ motivation

to learn. Indeed, as the affective factor, motivation has positive

effects on the students’ reading ability.

2) The content of materials is easily understood

3) Media stimulate students to work on learning activities as the

elements of active learning.

Actually, teachers are able to design their media in the form of the

two-dimensional media and three-dimensional media that consist of

the criteria of good media.

The most common used media, learning materials, do not only

contain the language input but learning tasks that accommoate the

differences of the students. Mc Kenzie (2005) further exemplifies

common media that teachers apply according to the multiple intelligence

types, such as text bridges and worksheet for linguistic intelligence,

problem-solving tasks for logical intelligence, video and picture books

44
 for visual intelligence, physical education equipment for kinesthetic

intelligence, musical instruments and speaker for musical intelligence,

journal and diaries for intrapersonal intelligence, board games and

greeting card for interpersonal intelligence, semantic mapping tools for

naturalist intelligence and classic literature and simulations for existential

intelligence.

To conclude, there is no best media but appropriate media to be

implemented in teaching reading so that the advantages of media can be

attained.

g. Reading Tasks

Besides designing media for teaching reading, teacher also needs to

create reading tasks. However, constructing reading tasks is not an easy

task. Teacher must be aware of some considerations related to the

characteristics of good reading task, as suggested by Nunan (1998:262).

First, task should make use of challenge the students. Second, it provides

the students with a rhetorical or topical framework for processing and

analyzing the text. Third, it involves an oral reading of the text by teacher

followed by silent reading and rereading the text and gives chances for

the students to interact with the text and other students with their own

representation. In addition, Nunan (1998: 47) adds reading tasks require

several components: 1) goals as the intention of the text which deal with

45
the learning objectives, input or the data that form the reading task, and

3) activities that deal with what students do in order to complete the task.

Nunan further (1998:35) mentions forms of reading tasks

involving: 1) text completion which enables students to complete the

text, 2) sequencing or selecting segments of text arranged in logical or

time sequence, 3) prediction which allows students to predict the content

of the text, 4) segmenting and 5) table construction to get students

produce column and row for tables and fill the tables with information

from text.

To conclude, according to Schirmer (2010: 6) there are three major

tasks in reading, as follows.

a) Word Recognition

Word recognition involves the identification of words in the text

involving lateral questions. It also identifies the students’

vocabulary.

b) Fluency

Fluency involves reading accurately, quickly and with appropriate

expression. Welsch in Schirmer (2010:11) views that fluency is a

bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

c) Comprehension

Reading comprehension includes the understanding of the text that

is being read and relating to the previous knowledge. In order to do

46
 that, readers must integrate the knowledge of topic, vocabulary,

text structure and sentence structure.

h. Assessing Reading

Similar to the concept of media, Alderson (2000:203) recommends

that it is important to understand that there is no best method for

evaluating students’ reading comprehension. Grabe and Stoller (2002:

357) outline several major components abilities for reading

comprehension involving search processes, vocabulary knowledge, text

structure awareness, main ideas comprehension, recall of relevant details,

inferences about text information, summarization abilities and evaluation

reading. Therefore, in assessing reading, students are measured on how

well they read through sorts of test or tasks including quizzes, tests and

teacher’s questions. Alderson further introduces several types of format

of questions to assess students’ reading comprehension, for instance: 1)

multiple choice questions which are common sort of task for testing

students’ comprehension, 2) short-answer questions, 3) sentence

completion, 4) notes or table completion, 5) matching list, 6) ordering

task, 7) classification into groups and 8) information transfer through

graphs, tables or maps.

Pearson & Hamm (2009: 83) also emphasize categories to measure

the students’ comprehension including finding main ideas, selecting

47
 details, determining word meanings, drawing conclusions, determining

cause-effet relations and distinguishing fact from opinion with the

formats of questions chosen.

To sum up, teacher decides the appropriate types of questions to

measure the students’ comprehension.

3. Multiple Intelligence

a. The Nature of Multiple Intelligence

In 1904, Alfred Binet developed test to measure students’

intelligence by using a single score. Almost 80 years after the first

standardized tests were applied, Gardner (1983) as the propounder

of multiple intelligence theory in Gardner (2011) seriously

criticizes the validity of those tests and claims that intelligence was

defined narrowly since it was only measured through isolated test

that students had never done before. Meanwhile, Gardner in Baum,

Viens & Slatin (2005: 10) defines intelligence as the

biopsychological potential to understand the meaning and to solve

the problems that can be activated and developed in a cultural and

educational setting.

The following view of Gardner about intelligence is very

different from the notion of traditional intelligence as a unitary trait

that can be measured by a single IQ test (Baum, Viens & Slatin,

2005). Bearing this in mind, multiple intelligence theory is

introduced and applied in educational system that appreciate all

48
intelligence types. In fact, Gardner (1983) in Sachdeva (2016)

posits that multiple intelligence helps education to revolutionize

the concept of human potential as he previously questioned the

validity and the view traditional intelligence. In addition, Arnold

and Fonseca (2004) impose that multiple intelligence theory

provides an important contribution to the learner-centered

paradigm that accommodates the differences of the students.

With this in view, Gardner in Choudhary (2012) offers some

principles of multiple intelligence in education: 1) emphasizing the

development of certain intelligences, 2) utilizing of all intelligence

types in developing different teaching techniques, 3) helping

teacher review and make sure that their lesson plans are varied and

4) providing students with opportunity to use the dominant

intelligences to develop the weaker intelligences that results active

participation.

Gardner (2011) further classifies different intelligence types, as

follows.

a) Linguistic intelligence

This intelligence means the capacity to use words effectively

both spoken and written language including the ability to

understand the meaning of written text. The students with this

intelligence can be accommodated by giving tasks such as

group discussion, debate, storytelling and summarizing.

49
b) Logical – mathematical intelligence

It is the capacity to use logic and to study problems effectively

including hypothesis testing, logical pattern, cause – effect,

categorization, classification, inferencing and word ordering.

c) Spatial intelligence

It serves the ability to perceive and to recognize both large and

small visual pattern as the visual-spatial world and to perform

the transformation upon that perception. Spatial intelligence

involves sensitivity to color, line, shape, form and space. Thus,

teacher can provide picture or illustration, idea sketching and

mind map design to optimize the students’ intelligence.

d) Kinesthetic intelligence

This intelligence deals with the use of bodymovement in

learning process. Moreover, this intelligence type includes

specific physical skills such as coordination, balance and speed.

Therefore, students with this intelligence can be accommodated

through role-playing for task in teaching and learning.

e) Musical intelligence

It is acknowledged as the intelligence type which is parallel in

structure to linguistic intelligence to perceive musical forms for

50
 instance song and lyrics, to discriminate and express musical

forms. Therefore, providing song or learning by using song can

relax the students with this intelligence as applied in on of

teaching methods, suggestopedia.

f) Interpersonal intelligence

It is the capacity to motivate others, to perceive and to

understand distinction in the moods, intentions, needs, desires,

motivation and feelings of other people. Hence students with

this intelligence should be facilitated more group discussion,

pair work, simulation and other cooperative learning

techniques.

g) Intrapersonal intelligence

This is the ability about self-understanding and self-esteem

including self reflection and awareness of themselves. In

addition, students with high intrapersonal intelligence should

understand their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, any

metacognitive strategies work well for interpersonal students.

h) Naturalistic intelligence

Natural intelligence deals with the capacity to recognize natural

phenomena and access to nature. The students with good

naturalistic intelligence are usually excellent at recognizing and

classifying the numerous species of an individual’s

51
 environment and other tasks dealing with nature. Also, students

are interested to reading texts of which topics are about nature.

i) Existential intelligence

Existential intelligence is the sensitivity and capacity to tackle

deep questions about human existence (Gardner, 2011). Hence

existential intelligence is the great domain of philosophers and

religious leaders who put everything into global perspective.

Eventhough, this intelligence type is still under research, this

intelligence type is automtically cover in the core competence

one (KI 1).

Beyond the description intelligence types, Armstrong (2009)

also mentions several important key points involving each person

possesses all intelligence types and intelligence can be developed

together with another intelligence type. Hence, all students are

endowed with different intelligence types which they are excellent at

in learning. The matter is how teachers facilitate the students’

intelligence types through variety of learning tasks covered in learning

materials to encourage them actively participare and strengthen non-

dominant intelligence types.

In order to implement multiple intelligence theory in learning

process and designing materials, Armstrong (2009) proposes teaching

52
and learning activities based on the students’ multiple intelligence

types, as follows.

Table 2.
Intelligence Types and Teaching Activities
Intelligence Teaching Activities Instructional
Strategies

Linguistic discussion, word games, Read about it, talk

storytelling, journal about it
writing

Logical- Problem solving activites, Think critically about it,

Mathematical number games, experiment with it
experiments, classification
and categorization

Spatial Visual presentation, art See it, draw it, visualize

activities, imagination it, mind-map it
games, mind-mapping

Bodily- Hands-on learning, drama, Act it out, touch it

Kinesthetic dance,treasure hunt

Musical Using song to teach, song Sing it, listen to it

writing

Interpersonal Cooperative learning, Collaborate with

simulation, peer tutoring

Intrapersonal Individualized instruction, Connect it to your

independent study, self- personal life
esteem building

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 To conclude, multiple intelligence theory that belongs to

learner- centeredness paradigm has attracted many educators and other

concerned stakeholders. This theory really emphasizes teacher to

recognize the students’ diversity in the process of teaching and

learning since they learn well and confidently if their strength is

catered so that students are able to perform the taks well through their

strength.

b. Multiple Intelligence in Foreign Language Learning Practice

As aforementioned earlier, multiple intelligence gives some

innovation ideas to teachers that facilitates effective learning as also

supported by Saeidi (2009). In addition Christinson (1999) in

Spirovska (2013) offers several suggestions why multiple intelligence

should be applied in the classroom, including: 1) as a tool to help

students develop a better understanding and appreciation of their

strengths by giving then questionnaire of multiple intelligence or mi

inventory, 2) as a tool to develop better understanding of the students’

intelligences and awareness of intelligence diversity within the

classroom, 3) as a guide to provide a greater variety of ways for

students to learn and to demonstrate their understanding and 4) as a

guide to develop lesson plans that address the full range of learners

needs.

54
 The staple importance of catering the diversity of the students’

intelligence types is to give students opportunity to use their strengths.

Furthermore, referring to Christinson (1996), Saedi (2009) summarizes

steps how multiple intelligence theory is applied including to identify

the activities frequentyly used in our classes and categorize them to

each particular type of intelligence and to make lesson plan by

selecting appropriate classroom activities and tasks. Larsen – Freeman

(2008: 170) also exemplifies the implementation of multiple

intelligence in foreign language learning eventhough not all

intelligence types should be included in one period. To illustrate, the

first activity is giving the students word riddle or pictures related to the

text to discuss in pair, then they are guided to do guided imagery or

visualize the text they read while playing song, after that, students act

out the imagery in group or present to the class, finally students write

if they have learned anything new. Those activities definitely cater the

students who possess linguistic, logical – mathematical, spatial,

musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence.

Another implementation of multiple intelligence in language

teaching is through facilitating the students with materials including

texts and tasks based on multiple intelligence for instance lingusitic

and musical students summarize the text in the form of song, spatial

students create mind map or venn diagram that consists of information

from the text, logical – mathematical students categorize the

55
 information and make deduction, kinaesthetic students are in charge of

performing the song or simulation as well as interpersonal students

will stimulate the classroom interaction. It is expected that by

promoting reading materials based on the students’ multiple

intelligence, the students learn in meaningful and various ways and

feel comfortable in learning since all students are considered do the

successful task and not being compared to others.

Finally, Spirovska (2013) also exemplifies set of activities that

can be applied in teaching reading English in order to cater the

students’ multiple intelligence types, as follows.

1) Linguistic intelligence: reading written text, filling the gap and

memorizing the content of text

2) Logical- Mathematical intelligence: sequencing events in a

chronological order, finding errors in sentences, comparing different

texts with the same topic.

3) Spatial intelligence: describing pictures or illustration, using

concept maps, and matching pictures with words. Moreover, Arnold

and Fonseca (2004) reflect that scrutinizing visual elements is

useful for providing comprehensible and meaningful input for

foreign language learners.

4) Musical intelligence: playing and listening songs in order to

introduce topic (ice-breaker), transforming lyrics into a text

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 5) Bodily kinesthetic intelligence: playing roleplay, presenting the text

in front of the class, doing simulation and using realia

6) Interpersonal intelligence: analyzing characters, retelling text from

another’s point of view, group working

7) Intrapersonal intelligence: keeping journal, doing self assessment

and sharing personal experiences

8) Naturalistic intelligence: making projects, comparing two kinds of

text, categorizing and analyzing setting related to nature.

9) Spiritual intelligence : problem solving activities related to moral

value which is automatically reflected in all lessons.

To conclude, teaching by catering students’ multiple intelligence

encounter advantages such as promoting the learner-centeredness in the

class, enhancing the students’ participation through variety of tasks by

using their strength and raising the teacher’s awareness of the potential

differences of students.

c. The Integration of Multiple Intelligence in Learner- Centeredness

The essential feature of learner-centeredness to language

teaching as implemented in nowadays curriculum is that it encourages

students’ active participation in their learning through respecting the

plurality of students’ intelligence (Tudor, 1992). In other words, the

plurality of intelligence types is emphasized in foreign language

learning including in the process of teaching reading through a

collection of learning tasks and forms of assessment. Conversely, the

57
 role of the teacher is the refelctive practicioner and facilitator. Thus, in

order to engage the students’ active participation, they feel confident

whenever they are given chances to use their strengths as fostered

through their multiple intelligence types.

d. The Integration of Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence and the learning style

models as proposed by Silver et al (1997) that consist of 1) the

mastery style, 2) the understanding style, 3) the self-expressive style

and 4) the interpersonal style are two distinct areas of research.

However, they can be linked and used together to improve learning.

Silver et al (1997) further spells out the differences among the

four models of learning styles. The mastery learning style absorbs

information concretely. Meanwhile the understanding style tends to

allow the students to learn through questioning, reasoning and testing.

The self- expressive style enables the students to use their feeling and

emotion to construct ideas. The interpersonal tyle, on the contrary,

focuses on learning socially. Those models of learning style

emphasize the individual learning process. However, without

implementing multiple intelligence types in teaching, style is rather

abstract since it generally undervalues context.

Therefore, unlike learning styles which focus on the process,

multiple intelligence focuses on the content of learning covered in

learning materials as the staple resource for learning.

58
e. The Implementation of Multiple Intelligence in Reading Materials

Reading materials developed in this research are based on the

students’ multiple intelligence types with learner-centred paradigm as

focused in the current curriculum. Moreover, the materials adapting

learner-centered paradigm cater the students’needs and strength

(Brown, 2007). Meanwhile it is undeniable that every student

possesses different intelligence types as their strenthg that consists of

at least eight types of intelligence. Therefore, the students’ multiple

intelligence types are developed in the reading materials.

At the beginning, before reading activities, students are

encouraged to activate their background knowledge by previewing the

text from the title or illustration to accommodate the students’ visual

intelligence types. Next activity, students are enganged to discover the

ideas of the text and to predict the content by discussing the title and

the illustration with their deskmate or pairwork. Indeed, the texts in

one unit contains variety of topic which students are familiar with. So

that students are able to easily relate their background knowledge and

the text information to optimize the process of reading comprehension

Those activities actually facilitate the linguistic, interpersonal and

visual students.

During reading activities, students read the text while

summarizing or listing important ideas from the text by using mind-

map or graphic organizer. Furthermore, students confirm their

59
previous prediction. Those activities cater the linguistic, visual,

kinesthetic and interpersonal intelligence type.

After reading activities, students work cooperatively to

complete the various reading tasks presented in the various forms such

as inferencing or ordering sentences. Furthermore, there is also match

activity that allow students match several statements introduced in the

text, picture and the vocabulary items. Otherwise, students match the

questions and the response stated in the table. Lastly, students write

what ther learn as their reflection to monitor their comprehension.

This is merit for facilitating students’ intrapersonal intelligence type.

Those activities merely stimulate interpersonal, logical-mathematical,

visual, kinesthetic and intrapersonal students.

Implementing reading tasks based on the students’ multiple

intelligence types is also merit to the tenet of teaching and learning

process in 2013 curriculum which is integrating all language skills. In

addition, reading activities in the developed materials are not specific

to reading as stipulated by Alderson (2009: 49) that reading is a

general cognitive process which underlies all language skills

processing.

To conclude, Richards (2001: 65) summarize the nature of

language as interactional view between the students and the text in the

reading materials also the sequence of applying multiple intelligence

theory in foreign language learning including awaken the intelligence

60
 through multisensory experiences, teach with intelligence by using

worksheet or small – group project based on one or more intelligence

types.

4. Communicative Competence

The main goal of teaching English in Indonesia is to obtain

communicative competence. However, due to the dissatisfaction of the

traditional communicative language teaching, Murcia (2007)

summarizes the model of communicative competence including

linguistic competence, discourse competence, socio cultural

competence, formulaic competence, interactional competence and

strategic competence.

Linguistic competence referred to as grammatical competence has

been the primary focus in foreign language teaching and learning. This

competence interrelates the nature of grammar including vocabulary,

pronunciation, spelling and word formation.

Meanwhile discourse competence concerns the selection, sequence

and arrangement of words, structures and utterances including

cohesion and coherence. To summarize, discourse competence is the

ability to interpret a series of sentences in order to form a meaningful

whole and to achieve coherent texts that are relevant to the context

(Savignon, 1997).

Sociocultural competence refers to the readers’ knowledge of how

to convey meaning in the written texts within social and cultural

61
 context for instance descibing, persuading and apologizing. While

strategic competence is conceptulized as the ability to use strategies

like gestures in order to overcome limitation in language knowledge.

Therefore, reading materials must provide input that cover

communicative competence to attain the main goal of teaching

reading.

5. Material Development

a. Research and Development

This research used research and development. There are three

models of research and development discussed in this study. The

first model is ADDIE model (Dick & Carey, 1996). According to

Dick and Carey (1996), this model consists of five steps: (1)

analyze, (2) design, (3) develop, (4) implement, and (5) evaluate.

The first step is analyzing the instructional objectives and the

discrepancy between the learning needs and the present knowledge.

The second step is designing the objectives to address the issues in

the learning objectives. The third step is developing the educational

product. Next, the educational product is implemented after being

validated. It is considered as the most challenging step of all steps

in ADDIE model since this step includes scrutinizing the

instructional needs, objectives and strategies. Last, the product is

evaluated to find out the suitability of the product and the needs.

62
 The second model of research and development is Kemp

model. Morrison, Ross, Kemp (2004) propose nine steps of this

model, as follows, (1) identifying instructional problems and goals,

(2) examining learner characteristics, (3) identifying subject

content and analyzing task components, (4) stating instructional

objectives, (5) sequencing content within each instructional unit,

(6) designing instructional strategies that support the learners

master the learning objectives, (7) planning the instructional

message, (8) developing evaluation instrument, and (9) selecting

resources to support the learning activities.

The third model is suggested by Gall, Gall & Borg (2003:

571). There are ten steps in this model, namely, (1) research and

information collecting, (2) planning, (3) developing preliminary

form of the product, (4) preliminary field testing, (5) main product

revision, (6) main field testing, (7) operational product revision, (8)

operational field testing, (9) final product revision, and (10)

dissemination and implementation.

b. Criteria of Good Material

Tomlinson (1998:2) defines materials development as efforts

conducted by writers and teachers to provide sources of language

input. In this case, reading materials developed must follow the

criteria of good reading materials as proposed by Tomlinson (1998:

63
 7) as follows (1) materials should be relevant and adequate to

achieve the competencies. It means that the choice of the topics

and tasks must be relevant and useful; (2) materials should achieve

impact through novelty, variety, appealing content and achievable

challenge; (3) materials should help learners feel at ease for

instance author provides illustration to help students comprehend

the text; (4) materials should help learners develop confidence. In

order to do so, materials learned are not too difficult.; (5) materials

should facilitate learners’ self investment or self - learning and (6)

materials should expose learners to language in authentic use.

c. Stages of Material Development

Tomlinson (1998:96) points out some stages of material

development as illustrated in the following figure.

Identification by teacher or learners of a need to fulfil or a

problem to solve by the creation of materials including the
students’ multiple intelligences as the students’ differences to
cater.

Exploration of the area of need or problem in terms of what

language, what meanings , what function and what skills to
be learnt.

Contextual Realisation of the proposed new materials based

on the students’ multiple intelligence types by the finding of
suitable ideas, contexts or texts which to work

64
 Pedagogical Realisation of materials by the finding of
appropriate forms of task and the writing of appropriate for
use that foster the students’ multiple intelligence types based
on the result of the previous needs analysis

Physiscal Production of materials, involving consideration of

layout, type, size, visuals, tape lengths

With this in view, this research is aimed to design reading

materials based on multiple intelligence put forward by Gardner.

Therefore, some tasks in the processes teaching and learning reading

are employed through the multiple intelligence types existing in the

class. Therefore, such kinds of reading materials, in fact, allow the

students to demonstrate multiple ways of learning by optimizing their

strength and uniqueness as supported by Taase (2012) that it is

necessary that learning materials cater various intelligence types

existing in the class.

d. Materials Evaluation

As aforementioned previously, materials influence the quality of

foreign language teaching and learning so particular and serious

attention must be paid to evaluate the materials based on valid and

reliable instruments. Material evaluation also enables researcher and

65
 teacher to predict the potential strength and weaknesses of the

materials developed.

This study considers learning materials from different points of

view with instrument adapted from Badan Standar Nasional

Pendidikan (henceforth BSNP). The instrument involves the

evaluation of the elements of materials namely the appropriatenss of

the content, language, presentation and design.

B. Review of the Previous Study

Previously, there were some research conducted with the similar field

to this research.

1. The first research was conducted by Derakhsan & Faribi (2015)

entitled “Multiple Intelligence: Language Learning and Teaching”.

This research presents the effect of multiple intelligence on English

language learning. According to this research, there is a positive

relationship that accommodating the students’ multiple intelligence

types improve their mind in learning.

2. The next research was conducted by Celik (2012) of which title is

“The Influence of Multiple Intelligences on Teaching Reading in

Foreign Language”. According to the research, the experimental group

who were treated through multiple intelligence theory achieved higher

scores in reading test than the control group who were treated by using

conventional teaching technique. Moreover, through implementing

66
 multiple intelligence theory in teaching reading, it increased the

students’ motivation and cooperative learning skills.

The research above shows that there is a gap for the researcher to

conduct the research on developing reading materials based on the

multiple intelligence for junior high school.

C. Conceptual Framework

In line with the literature review, reading is one of the most

important language skills that must be mastered by junior high school

students to succeed their language learning and to optimize their learning

in other disciplines. However, it is not easy to make them be enthusiastic

in reading as many students face difficulties in reading English texts. In

order to encourage their participation during the process of teaching and

learning, teachers must provide reading materials that accommodate their

diffrences. However, the junior high school students in Magelang lack of

reading materials that accommodate their differences.

The appropriate reading text must accommodate the differences of the

students namely multiple intelligences types which deal with the way of

learning knowledge. Thus, the researcher develops reading materials that

help the students in reading.

67
 The importance of reading comprehension for junior
high school students

The limited availability of reading materials that

accommodate the students’ multiple intelligence types

Developing reading materials that accommodate the

students’ multiple intelligence types

Product: reading materials based on the students’

multiple intelligence types

The above figure shows that the important role of reading comprehension for

junior high school students and the limited availability of reading materials that

accommodate the students’ multiple intelligence types as their predominance

encourage the researcher to develop reading materials that accommodate the

students’ multiple intelligence types to support their learning.

D. Research Questions
1. What are the needs of junior high school students in reading lesson in

terms of necessities, lacks and wants?

2. What are the appropriate stages to develop the reading materials based on

multiple intelligence?

3. To what extent the reading materials based on multiple intelligence the

expert’s review, the teacher’s and the students’ response?

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