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EXCELLENCE Journal of English and English Education p-ISSN: 2807-6389
Volume 2 | Number 2 | December | 2022 e-ISSN: 2807-2103
English Education Study Program, FKIP UNIVA Medan
1
THE EFFECT OF HERRINGBONE TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS’
ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION OF RECOUNT
TEXT OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE
Yusinta Marisca
Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, FKIP, Universitas Alwasliyah, Medan
Email: yusintamarisca9@gmail.com
Meida Rabia Sihite
Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, FKIP, Universitas Alwasliyah, Medan
Email: meidarabia55@gmail.com
Linda Astuti Rangkuti
Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, FKIP, Universitas Alwasliyah, Medan
Email: lindaray003@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research is to find out if Herringbone Technique significantly affects students’
reading comprehension of recount text. The design applied in this research was experimental research.
The population of this research was the eleventh grade of SMA Al-Hidayah Medan. There were two
parallel classes: XI-A and XI-B. Each class consisted of 30 students; thus, the total number of population
was 60 students. The whole population was taken as the sample. Cluster random sampling technique was
applied to select the group as the research sample. Class XI-A was selected as experimental group and
class XI-B was selected as control group. The instrument used to collect the data was multiple-choice test
consisted of 20 items. The data were analyzed by using t-test. It was obtained that tobserved value was
higher than that of ttable (3.46 > 2.00) with the degree of freedom df = 58 at the level of significance α =
0.05. It meant that Ha was accepted and Ho was successfully rejected. Thus, it can be concluded that
Herringbone Technique significantly affected students’ reading comprehension of recount text.
Keywords: herringbone, reading comprehension, recount text
ABSTRAK
Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui jika teknik Herringbone mempengaruhi pemahaman
membaca teks recount siswa secara signifikan. Desain yang diaplikasikan pada penelitian ini adalah
penelitian eksperimen. Populasi penelitian adalah siswa kelas sebelas SMA Al-Hidayah Medan. Ada dua
kelas parallel: XI-A dan XI-B. Masing-masing kelas terdiri dari 30 siswa; sehingga jumlah seluruh
populasi adalah 60 siswa. Seluruh populasi diambil sebagai sampel. Teknik pengambilan sampel kluster
acak diaplikasikan untuk memilih kelomok sebagai sampel penelitian. Kelas XI-A diilih sebagai kelompok
eksperimen dan kelas XI-B dipilih sebagai kelompok kontrol. Instrumen yang digunakan untuk
mengumpulkan data adalah tes pilihan ganda yang terdiri dari 20 item. Data dianalisis menggunakan
uji-t. Diperoleh bahwa nilai thitung lebih tinggi dari nilai ttabel (3.46 > 2.00) dengan derajat kebebasan df =
58 pada level signifikan α = 0.05. Hal ini berarti bahwa Ha diterima dan Ho ditolak. Dengan demikian,
dapat disimulkan bahwa teknik Herringbone mempengaruhi pemahaman membaca teks recount siswa
secara signifikan.
Kata kunci: herringbone, pemahaman membaca, teks recount
EXCELLENCE Journal of English and English Education p-ISSN: 2807-6389
Volume 2 | Number 2 | December | 2022 e-ISSN: 2807-2103
English Education Study Program, FKIP UNIVA Medan
2
A. Introduction
People around the world use language
for communication each other. They have
their own language. Language is a system of
human communication which consists of the
structure arrangement of sounds (or their
written representation) into large units like
the forms, primarily through oral and written
communication as well as using expression
of body language. Therefore, language has
very important role in life because language
is a tool for communication. Without
language, it is impossible for everyone to
communicate, gain knowledge, interact with
each other or learn.
English is one of languages on the
world that people try to master. As a foreign
language, English is nowadays spoken by
many people in formal and non-formal
situation because they realize that learning
English is essential. English is also
important to be studied and mastered by
students. In learning English, there are four
skills that should be mastered by students,
namely listening, speaking, reading, and
writing.
One of the important skills in English
is reading. Patel (2008) stated that reading is
most useful and important skill and this skill
is more important than speaking and writing.
Hasibuan (2022) wrote that reading is not
only just reciting written symbols, but it also
requires the readers to understand number of
information exists in the text they read.
While Rangkuti and Rahmawati (2022)
stated that reading are a number of
interactive processes between reader and
text, in which readers use their knowledge to
build, to create, and to construct meaning. In
addition, Holden (2004) said reading is one
of the important skills to be mastered in
learning English and it is considered as the
basic skill to recognize the small part of
language e.g. words, phrases and sentences.
Reading is a source of joys. Good
reading keeps students regular in reading
which provide him/her both pleasure and
profit. It means that reading is the most
important activity in language class. As
stated by Rahmawati, Harahap, and Ramlah
(2022) that the goals of the reading are to get
information about the content and to
understand the meaning of the text. Thus,
comprehending the content of the English
reading text is a must for students of
English. It can be said as well that reading
comprehension is a certain process by
readers to create meaning through
interaction with the text by using prior
knowledge to obtain information in the text.
In addition, reading comprehension is very
important to be mastered by the students
because it is the basic of nearly all learning,
and a basic requirement to progress in life
since the purpose of all reading is to
comprehend meaning from the text
(Rahmawati, Harahap, and Ramlah, 2022).
Indonesia government has arranged a
program that is designed in the 2013
Curriculum for the eleventh grade senior
high school students regarding reading
comprehension. It is written that students are
expected to comprehend reading text
particularly recount text. Considering the
importance of reading comprehension in
language learning as discussed above, the
Ministry of Education inserts reading as one
of important skills in Curriculum 2013.
Based on this curriculum, the basic
competence of reading at senior high school
is a skill to comprehend the text.
Recount text is one of the genres that
should be learned by the students in senior
high school level. Studying this genre also
has its own difficulties. A recount is a piece
of text that retells past events, usually in the
order in which they happened as written by
Anderson and Anderson (1997) in Mustofa
(2016). Knapp and Watkins (2005) in
Yuliana (2018) said that recount text is a
sequential text that does little more than
sequencing a series of events. Recount text
itself has the main goal to retell an event
happened in the past according to Yuliana
(2018). While according to Mustofa (2016),
the purpose of a recount is to give the
audience a description of what occurred and
when it occurred. Generally, recount text
will follow the generic structures (Mustofa,
2016) such as orientation (a first paragraph
that gives background information about
who, what, where and when), events
(describe series of event that happened in the
EXCELLENCE Journal of English and English Education p-ISSN: 2807-6389
Volume 2 | Number 2 | December | 2022 e-ISSN: 2807-2103
English Education Study Program, FKIP UNIVA Medan
3
past), and reorientation (optional part which
stating personal comment of the writer to the
story). The language features (Mustofa,
2016) of recount text will use personal
participant (I, my group, etc), use
chronological connection (then, first, etc),
use linking verb (was, were, saw, heard,
etc), use action verb (look, go, change, etc),
and use simple past tense.
Students of eleventh grade at SMA
Al-Hidayah Medan also face the difficulties
when they study this genre. Here, the
students reading comprehension particularly
in recount text was low. It was showed by
the students’ scores that almost 50% score of
the students was under the KKM (75). The
problems found that they couldn’t
comprehend the text well. They also
possessed less vocabulary in English.
Therefore, they have difficulties in
comprehending the text. Almost all students
in reading lesson cannot read fluently. That
also added their problem to comprehend the
text. They did not know what they have
read. As pointed out previously that the
purpose of reading comprehension is to get
an understanding of the text rather than to
acquire the meaning from individual words
or sentences. In short, reading
comprehension is the interaction between
the readers with the written text to get
meaning and message or information from
the text. Reading comprehension means the
students understand what they have read.
To solve the reading comprehension
problem particularly in recount text, English
teacher must look for a suitable technique in
teaching learning process. One strategy that
can be used is Herringbone Technique.
According to Firda, Rasyidah, and Kasyulita
(2016), Herringbone Technique is a
technique that develops comprehension of
the main idea by plotting Who, What, When,
Where, Why, and How questions on a visual
diagram of a fish skeleton. Using the
answers to the WH questions, graphic
organizer is important and effective
educational tools for organizing content and
ideas, and facilitating learners’
comprehension of newly acquired
information (McKnight, 2010). This
technique is made to improve students’
reading comprehension by organizing
important information in a text. Furthermore
McKnight (2010) stated that Herringbone
Technique is used to establish supporting
details for main idea. This is because the
interesting patterns of graphic diagram can
attract students’ interest and help students to
organize and classify information from the
text. Herringbone pattern can help students
for encoding the information in a manner
that increase the ability to answer multiple
choice questions.
In short, Herringbone Technique is
used for reading comprehension through
WH questions or 5W plus 1H. Students must
fill the questions in the diagram of fish
skeleton. Students read the text material then
answer the questions through 5W plus 1H.
After that, they comprehend the content.
B. Research Method
This research was conducted at SMA
Al-Hidayah Medan. The reason in choosing
this location was because similar research
has never been conducted at this school.
Experimental research design was applied
for this research design with two groups
involved. They were experimental and
control groups. The experimental group was
treated by using Herringbone Technique,
while control group was treated by applying
the descriptive technique. Both of the groups
were given the pre-test and post-test in order
to know the different effect.
The population in this research was
the eleventh grade students of SMA Al-
Hidayah Medan which consisted of two
parallel classes: XI-A and XI-B. Each class
consisted of 30 students. Therefore, the total
number of population was 60 students. The
sample consisted of two groups namely
experimental and control groups. Cluster
random sampling was applied in drawing the
sample. Classes XI-A was the experimental
group and XI-B was the control group. Each
group consisted of 30 students. The total
number of sample was 60 students.
The procedures for collecting the
data was divided into three parts, namely:
pre-test, treatment, and post-test. Before
EXCELLENCE Journal of English and English Education p-ISSN: 2807-6389
Volume 2 | Number 2 | December | 2022 e-ISSN: 2807-2103
English Education Study Program, FKIP UNIVA Medan
4
giving treatment, a pre-test was administered
to experimental and control groups. Pre-test
was used to find out the homogeneity of the
sample and the mean score of each group.
After administering pre-test, the treatment
was conducted. The experimental group was
treated by applying Herringbone Technique
while the control group was taught by
applying descriptive technique.
C. Research Finding and Discussion
As stated previously, the objective of
this research was to find out whether
Herringbone Technique affected students’
reading comprehension in recount text.
Based on the calculation of score achieved
by the students in pre-test and post-test for
both groups, the result showed that the mean
score of experimental group was higher than
control group. The difference was tested by
using t-test formula. The result of the test
calculation showed that t-obs value (3.46)
was higher than that of t-table (2.00).
Comparing the value obtain and
testing the hypothesis set up before
conducting the research, the research finding
showed that there was a significant effect on
students’ achievement in reading
comprehension of recount text by using
Herringbone Technique. The students who
were taught by Herringbone Technique
achieved higher scores than those who
taught using descriptive technique. Thus, it
was concluded that Ha was accepted and Ho
was rejected.
Based on the finding described above,
Herringbone Technique can be an effective
technique to help students in achieving
higher score in reading comprehension of
recount text. This technique can help
students in constructing and organizing ideas
into a comprehend recount text. Students had
opportunities to work collaboratively with
their friends in the group and shared their
knowledge with other friends and discussed
about recount text. It had impact on their
scores that the scores in experimental group
were higher than those in the control group.
D. Conclusion and Suggestion
In line with the research finding, it is
concluded that Herringbone Technique
significantly affected on students’
achievement in reading comprehension of
recount text. It can be seen through the result
of calculation by using t-test formula which
resulted that t-observed value was higher
than that of t-table (3.46 > 2.00) with the
degree of freedom (df) 58. It means that Ha
was accepted and Ho was rejected.
In addition to the conclusion, it is
suggested to English teacher to apply
Herringbone Technique as an alternative
technique in teaching reading
comprehension of recount text since this
technique can make students feel more
interested in reading.
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EXCELLENCE Journal of English and English Education p-ISSN: 2807-6389
Volume 2 | Number 2 | December | 2022 e-ISSN: 2807-2103
English Education Study Program, FKIP UNIVA Medan
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