INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
ISSN: 2528-3804
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HERRINGBONE TECHNIQUE TO
ENHANCE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN COMPREHENDING
NARRATIVE TEXT OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS AT
MTSN TAKENGON II, ACEH TENGAH, ACEH
Cut Dara Ilfa Rahila1 and Halimatus Sakdiah2
1,2
Lecturers of STAIN Gajah Putih Takengon
STAIN Gajah Putih Takengon
Jl. Yos Sudarso/Aman Dimot No. 10 Takengon Bar., Lut Tawar, Aceh Tengah
Tel. (+62643) 23268, Fax (+62643) 22422 e-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: This study was aimed at finding out differences between students who
were taught with and without Herringbone technique and the effectiveness of
applying the technique to enhance students’ ability in comprehending narrative
text Herringbone technique (Deegan, 2006) is a technique that helps students
grow their comprehension of the main idea by scheming who, what, when,
where, why, and how question on a visual diagram of a fish skeleton. The
methodology used in this research was quantitative approach by experimental
method. The subjects of this study were 26 students in experimental class and
26 students in control class of MTSN Takengon II, Aceh Tengah, Aceh. In
collecting data, the researchers used tests and questionnaire. The data were
analyzed by non-parametric statistic, Mc. Nemar test and Chi-square for two
independent samples. Result of the data reveals result of Mc. Nemar test by
which the Chi-Square observed in experimental class was higher than Chi
Square table and Chi Square obtained in control class (21,05 > 3,814 < 12)
and using Chi-square for two independent samples showed that the perceived
score was higher than score of Chi-Square table (4,857>3,814). Moreover,
based on the data from questionnaire, the students stated that Herringbone
technique was fun to help them understand the materials and the time used was
more useful. Hence, the result of Mc. Nemar revealed that there was significant
differences between the students taught with and without Herringbone
technique and Chi Square for two independent samples proved that
Herringbone technique was effective to enhance students’ ability in
comprehending narrative test.
Keywords: Effectiveness, Herringbone Technique, Comprehension, Narrative
Text.
INTRODUCTION
Language
is
a
means
of
which everyone communicate with all
communication to convey and deliver
people in the world. They may face
thoughts, ideas, concepts, and feelings.
some difficulties; however, one of
Every country has its own language by
them is different language. To solve
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INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
ISSN: 2528-3804
the problem, it is necessary to
process of acquiring knowledge from
understand
the
foreign
language,
reading
is
comparable
with
especially English as an international
learning process by a teacher. It helps
language.
a reader know a writer’s feeling and
As an international language,
messages.
it plays an important role in many
aspects of
Teaching
life such as education,
economic,
reading
for
comprehension is not as easy as
technology
and
flipping hand, it needs efforts because
relationship.
Besides,
during the reading activity the reader
English is also very important for
is not only finding the vocabulary
transferring technology, researching,
meanings and grammatical features,
and career opportunities in the public
but
places. That is why English should be
comprehension of a text. Hence, in
learned by all people in the world as a
teaching reading, the teacher has to
key to face the globalization era.
concern about the materials that are
international
also
the
having
a
deep
In Indonesia, English has been
used. The topic and type of reading
taught and learnt from junior high
texts are worth considering too. The
school until university. There are two
topic and reading texts should depend
kinds of skills which should be
on who students are. If the students are
achieved
English,
junior high school students, simple
productive and receptive. The former
reading maybe a priority, one of them
skills are writing and speaking, and the
is narrative text.
in
learning
late skills are reading and listening.
To
From those skills, one that should be
comprehension,
succeeded is reading. Reading is the
methods and techniques which can be
way for someone to get information
applied. One of the methods is
from the written forms of language.
cooperative learning and one of the
The information can help people
techniques is Herringbone technique.
increase
their
intelligence
and
improve
there
the
are
reading
many
Cooperative learning is a method
knowledge.
which makes the student got taken in
A proverb says that reading is
small group activities to acquire
like a teacher. Meaning that, the
information and knowledge. As Larsen
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INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
and
Freeman
that
aiming at finding out the significant
essentially
difference between students who were
involves students learning from each
taught with and without Herringbone
other in group. Moreover, Richards
technique, and the effectiveness of the
and
mention
technique to enhance students’ ability
cooperative learning is an approach to
in comprehending narrative text of the
teaching that makes maximum use of
eighth grade students at MTsN II
cooperative activities involving pairs
Takengon, Aceh Tengah, Aceh.
and small group of learners in the
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
classroom.
Reading and its Purposes
cooperative
(2000)
state
ISSN: 2528-3804
learning
Rodgers
(2001)
The herringbone technique is a
structured
procedure
reader usually interacts with a text in a
designed to help student organize
close situation. Reading is one of the
important
text.
important skills that should be taught
(2006),
and learnt from school up to university
Herringbone technique is a technique
level. The term of reading is defined
that develops comprehension of the
differently by the experts. According
main idea by plotting who, what,
to Rubin in Barchers (1998), it is a
when, where, why, and how question
complex,
on a visual diagram of a fish skeleton
involves the bringing of meaning to,
in which the students write the main
and the getting of meaning from, the
idea across the backbone of the fish
printed page. Duffy and Roehler in
diagram. Bouchard in Deegan (2006)
Barchers (1998) state that it is a
says that this technique is particularly
purposeful
well suited for expository text but
author’s
can also be used with narrative
recreational, aesthetic, or functional
text. This technique is made to
purposes.
According
outlining
Reading is an activity in which a
information
to
improve
comprehension
in
a
Deegan
students’
by
dynamic
process
reconstruction
printed
of
message
that
an
for
reading
Godman, as quoted by Carrel et
organizing
al (1995), states that reading is
important information in a text.
receptive language process. It is a
Based on the background stated,
psycholinguistic process in that stars
the researchers conducted the research
with a linguistic surface representation
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INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
ISSN: 2528-3804
encoded by a writer and ends with
Reading for application is used to
meaning that the reader constructs. In
describe special task for example
the other hands, there is an interaction
reading the ways of doing yoga.
between
in
Reading for comprehension is an
reading. The writer puts thought as
activity to comprehend the relation
language in printed from and the
between information and knowledge
reader
to
of the subject. They also understand
thought.From the process, the reader
the relation of topics to sentences,
receives the message that the writer
paragraphs and the main idea. In line
conveys.
with this, Harmer (2005) states that
that
language
and
analyzes
tough
language
In addition, Harmer (2004) says
skills
reading is
comprehensions; identifying the topic,
incredibly active
which
indicates
readers’
occupation to do is successfully we
predicting
have to understand what the words
guessing the content from their initial
means, see the pictures the words are
glance or half-hearing, reading for
painting, understand the arguments,
general understanding, reading for
and work out if we agree with them. If
specific
we do not do these things and if we
detailed information, and interpreting
students do not do these things then
text.
we only just scratch the surface of the
Herringbone Technique
text and we quickly forget it.
what
is
coming
information,
Herringbone
and
reading
technique
for
is
a
In short reading is an interaction
technique by which the students
between the reader and the writer
answer the WH questions; who, what,
through the writer language in the
when, why, where, and how, on a
process of exchanging information or
graphical feature like a fish skeleton.
idea from the writer to the reader.
Deegan (2006) states that Herringbone
Reading
some
strategy is a strategy that develops
pleasure,
comprehension of the main idea by
comprehension.
plotting who, what, when, where,
Reading for pleasure is an activity
why, and how question on a visual
which the reader reads to get pleasure
diagram of a fish skeleton.
purposes,
application,
activity
such
and
as
for
has
and entertainment in their reading.
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INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
In addition, According to Thaler
(2008),
Herringbone
ISSN: 2528-3804
students to record the answers to
Technique
the questions on the diagram. They
consists of a short graphic organizer
will look for answers to: 1) who is the
and it is a concrete way of helping
writer talking about? 2) What did they
English
the
do? 3) When did they do it? 4) Where
comprehensive idea in a paragraph
did they do it? 5) How did they do it?
or passage. The students answer the
6) Why did they do it?, the students
questions listed in the fishbone graphic
read the text to find the answers and
organizer. This leads to the synthesis
record the answers on the diagram, the
of all the information in one newly
teacher shows the students how each
created sentence, which becomes the
answer fits into a slot in a main idea
main idea statement.
sentence, the students write a main
Choe
learners
find
(2004)
adds
idea, using the information from the
that
Herringbone diagram.
Herringbone technique is developed
by it is named because resemble a
fish
skeleton
that
for
Narrative text is a fictional text
analyzing a single idea. It contains
that aims to entertain the readers such
six questions that help students to
as legends, myths, fairy tales, science
organize the details of the text.
fictions, roman novels and historical
who
useful
Narrative Text
did what
fiction. Generally, Narrative text uses
when
past tense to tell the story. In line with
this, Andersons (2002) states that a
main idea
narrative text is a text that tells a story
and, in doing so, entertains the
why
where
audience.
how
Source: Deegan J, 2006.
Andersons (1998) also mentions
Deegan (2006) mentions the
the constructions of narrative are
procedure of the technique are The
orientation, complication, sequence of
students work in pairs, the teacher
events, and resolution, and coda (an
selects narrative texts, the teacher
optional step). The writer conveys the
constructs a visual diagram of the
actor, place, and time of the story in
Herringbone, the teacher tells the
orientation. Complication sets off a
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INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
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chain of events that influences what
dependent variables. The independent
will happen in the story. The reaction
variable
of the characters to the complication is
Herringbone
stated in sequence of events. Having
dependent
reacted
ability in comprehending narrative
to
the
complication,
the
characters solved the problem created
of
the
research
technique,
variable
was
and
was
the
students’
text.
in the complication. The comments or
In this research, the researchers
moral based on what has been learned
divided the classes in two classes,
from the story is provided in coda.
experimental and control class in
In addition, the grammatical
which the sample of the study was the
features of the narrative text are the
eighth
grader students
use of past tense, common nouns
Takengon II, Takengon, Aceh Tengah,
(students, teachers, people, etc), and
Aceh consisted of 26 students in
adverb of time (once upon a time, long
experimental class and 26 students in
time ago, etc).
control class.
To
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
experimental
method
(2011)
states
data,
the
posttest, and questionnaire. Pretest
that
was given at the first meeting before
belongs to quantitative approach.
Mahmud
the
MTsN
researchers used test; pretest and
In this research, the researchers
used
collect
at
the
that
Herringbone
applied.
It
technique
was
to
was
know
the
of
the
quantitative approach is a research that
preliminary
the analysis emphases on numerical
students’ capability in comprehending
data.
mentions
narrative text. Posttest was used after
one
of
the application of the technique. It was
research methods that can test truly
to know whether there was any
hypothesis concrete casual relation. In
enhancement after the treatments.
addition, Creswell (2008) verbalize
Questionnaire was given to know
that
students
Emzy
experimental
the
(2010)
method
researcher
is
uses
the
information
response
experimental research when they want
implementation
to establish possible cause and effect
technique.
between
your
independent
and
6
of
after
the
Herringbone
INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
ISSN: 2528-3804
The researchers analyzed the
data by using Mc. Nemar test and Chi
Square for two independent samples.
Sugiyono (2010) states that Mc Nemar
test is used to test the hypothesis of
two samples are comparative correlated data which the data are nominal.
The study design is usually a "before
Source: Research Finding, 2016.
after". So the research hypothesis is
The chart shows that there was a
the ratio between the value before and
difference between pretest and posttest
after. Moreover, Sugiyono (2012) says
in the experimental class. On pretest,
that Chi square for two independent
the lowest score was 30 and the
samples is used to analyze the
highest was 58, while 60 was the
comparative hypothesis which the data
lowest and 75 was the highest on
is nominal and the sample is large.
posttest. Meaning, there were no
The use of Mc. Nemar and Chi Square
students who achieved the same
for two independent samples was due
pretest score on posttest. From the 26
to the abnormal data.
students, five students got 60, one
student received 65, ten people got a
RESEARCH FINDINGS
score of 70 and the rest got 75.
After the researcher got the
Chart 2.
The difference between pretest
and posttest of control class
result of test from control group and
experimental group, the researchers
analyzed the data. To know the
difference between the control group
0
and experimental group, the writer
following
charts
class. The
describe
PRETEST
10
5
2 1
1
POSTTEST
8
8
01
3
30 40 45 46 48 50 55 60 65
used comparative analysis technique
between the two of
7
6
Source: Research Finding, 2016.
the
Based on chart shows, there was
difference between pretest and posttest
a difference between pretest and
of both classes:
posttest in control class. The lowest
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INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
ISSN: 2528-3804
and the highest score of pretest in
technique affected the students’ ability
control class were 30 and 48, while the
in comprehending narrative text.
lowest and highest of posttest were 50
By Mc. Nemar, the researchers
and 65. No students received 30, 46,
found that the chi square observed in
and 48 on posttest, but there was one
experimental class is higher than chi
student who earned 40 and 55. Five
square table (21.5>3.814) in the level
got 45, eight students were 50 and 60,
of significance 5%. In control class, it
one remains scored 65.
is found that chi square observed was
higher
than
chi
square
table
(12>3.814) in the 5% lever of
significance and 1 degree of freedom.
By comparing the chi square
observed in experimental and control
class to chi square table, the chi square
observed in experimental was higher
than chi square observed in control
Source: Research Finding, 2016.
class (21,05<3.814<12). It means that
The chart above tells that the
there
was
significant
difference
difference between the students who
between the students who were taught
were
Herringbone technique without taught
taught
with
and
without
Herringbone technique were much not
with Herringbone technique.
the same. There were some students of
Based on the calculation of Chi
experimental class got the same score
Square for two independent samples
as posttest of control class. Only six
where the value of Chi Square table is
five students of experimental class got
3.841 with the 5% level of significant
60, while eight students of control
and 1 degree of freedom (df), the
class obtained 60. One student of the
researchers found that the chi square
treated class achieved 65, while 3
observed was higher than Chi Square
students of control class reached 65.
table (4,857>3,814). Therefore, it ca
The rest of experimental students
be
attained 70 and 75. Hence, it can be
Technique was effective to enhance
concluded that seemingly Herringbone
students’ ability in comprehending
8
concluded
that
Herringbone
INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
ISSN: 2528-3804
narrative text to the eight grader
some advantages of using herringbone
students of MTsN Takengon II, Aceh
technique in the teaching reading
Tengah, Aceh.
comprehension especially narrative
Form
the
of
text; 1) Herringbone technique helps
students
t h e s t u d e n t s t o t h i n k q u i c k l y,
Herringbone
a c c u r a t e l y , a n d c r e a t i v e l y, 2 )
technique. As many 89,3% of the
Herringbone technique is fun to be
students believed that Herringbone
applied in teaching reading
technique helped them to comprehend
comprehension , 3) Students are
the narrative text, the time used was
motivated to learn and do the task by
more effective, and it was fun.
using Herringbone Technique because
DISCUSSION
of the competition therein, thus
questionnaire
confirmed
data
found
analysis
the
towards
implemented
fostering the spirit to be the best, and
Herringbone Technique in teaching
4) the time used is more useful.
reading
CONCLUSION
Having
comprehension
especially
narrative text, the researchers got the
After analyzing the data, the
data showing the significant difference
researchers concluded that there was
between the students who were taught
significant difference between the
with
students who were treated with and
and
technique
without
and
proved
Herringbone
the
without herringbone technique. It was
improvements happened to student’s
shown by Mc. Nemar test which Chi
understanding
text.
Square observed in experimental class
Students were being enthusiastic in
was higher than Chi Square table and
teaching and learning process by using
Chi-square obtained in control class
herringbone
(21,05>3,814<12).
on
that
narrative
Technique.
Most
of
In
addition,
students were active in responding to
Herringbone Technique was effective
students’ or teacher’s questions.
to
Eve r y m et hod , s t r at e g y or
enhance
students’
ability
in
comprehending narrative text of the
learning model has the advantage in
eight
the learning process, as well as the
Takengon II, Aceh Tengah, Aceh. It
herringbone technique. After
was because Chi Square observed
implementing the research, there were
score was higher than Chi Square table
9
grade
students
at
MTsN
INOVISH JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016
score (4,857>3,814). Moreover, 89.3%
ISSN: 2528-3804
Qualitative. Jakarta:
grafindo Persada.
of the students responded that the
technique helped them to understand
Raja
Hamer, J .2004. How to teach
English an Introduction to the
Practice of English Language
Teaching. Kuala Lumpur:
Longman.
the text and was fun, and the time used
more useful.
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