Muslimin, Afif Ikhwanul. 2014. The Effectiveness of the PQ4R and MindMapping Strategies in the Teaching of Reading Comprehension. Thesis. English Language Teaching, Postgraduate Program of State University of Malang. Advisors: (I) Prof. Utami Widiati, M.A., Ph.D., (II) Dr. Suharmanto, M.Pd.

Keywords: PQ4R strategy, Mind-Mapping strategy, effectiveness, literal and inferential comprehension

The study aims at proving the effectiveness of the PQ4R and Mind-Mapping strategies in helping students to achieve higher reading comprehension score. To be more detailed, the study investigated the effectiveness of PQ4R and mind-Mapping towards literal and inferential comprehension. The study involved two groups of Electrical Engineering department of UMM which were drawn using random sampling technique. The experimental group was taught using PQ4R (Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, Review) and Mind-Mapping strategies meanwhile the control group was taught using Direct Reading Activity (DRA) strategy. As the subjects of the study were freshmen of non-English Department, the texts selected were expository texts which were provided by the institution. The data source was gathered from reading comprehension tests consisting of 30 items of multiple choices. The tests were developed carefully based on Brown’s test development procedure.

Before rejecting or not rejecting the null hypothesis, independent t-test was used statistically. Meanwhile, Levene’s test was used beforehand to check the homogeneity of the groups. The findings indicated that the observed significant for Lavene’s test was higher than the significant set (0.533 > 0.05). It meant that the groups were homogeneous and thus independent sample t-test was used. Then, the result the test values tcount= 15,946 was higher than ttable = 1,995. It meant that the hypothesis of the study was accepted. In other words, PQ4R and Mind-Mapping strategies were significantly effective in helping students to achieve higher comprehension score in reading.

To be more detailed, it was proven that PQ4R and Mind-Mapping strategies were more effective in helping students achieve higher literal comprehension score in reading since the different marginal means of post-test between control and experimental groups was 33.67 and the students were trained to be more active learners. However, PQ4R and Mind-Mapping strategies were effective in helping students to achieve higher inferential comprehension although not more effective than if those were used to comprehend literal meaning. Since, the different marginal means of post-test between control and experimental groups was 19.22. It may be caused by three reasons: First, the strategy was too rigid and almost overwhelmed the students. Second, the students mostly created literal questions instead of inferential questions. It was because creating inferential questions required higher-level of thinking. Third, the text selected for the instructional materials were too difficult for students that it would discourage students’ motivation. Moreover, PQ4R strategy contribute more to help students to achieve higher reading comprehension since they worked more with text to fulfill the PQ4R strategy checklist which consisted of six steps than mind-mapping that only in “Read” step of PQ4R strategy.

In short, teachers or lecturers should adapt or adopt the stages in PQ4R and Mind-Mapping strategies in teaching reading comprehension rather than DRA strategy. It is further suggested to start training students to create inferential questions more and provide extended time to finish each step of strategies since combining two strategies made the steps longer. For the future researchers, it is suggested to investigate PQ4R and Mind-Mapping strategies in different subject or different English skills. Also, it is recommended to add more variables to gain better investigation result.

 

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