A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY ON THE GENDER-BASED DIFFERENCE OF THE EIGHTH YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AT SMPN 3 TANGGUL JEMBER

Abstract

n language learning, male students have lower ability as compared to female students. This occurrence is caused by the left hemisphere of girl’s brain develop more rapidly than that of a boy. This phenomenon also happens in SMPN 3 Tanggul Jember. The result of the reading test that was conducted in the previous semester showed that the eighth year male students at SMPN 3 Tanggul in 2010/2011 academic year had the lower mean score than that of female students. These male students’ poor scores were aggravated by the lack of the male students’ active participation during the teaching and learning process. This research was intended to seek answer of the difference between the eighth year female students reading ability and the male students’ that requires: understanding the meaning of unfamiliar words found in a text (subskill 1), finding the general information (subskill 2), finding the specific information (subskill 3), recognizing the order of information or events (subskill 4), and understanding the relations between parts of a text through the use of logical connectors (subskill 5). The objective of this research was also to know the difference between the female students’ active participation and the male students’ active participation during the teaching and learning process. The design of this research was descriptive-quantitative. It used cluster randomized sampling and the total number of the research respondents/sample was 40 students of class VIII D at SMPN 3 Tanggul Jember. It consisted of 21 female students and 19 male students. This sample represents the research population, which were 239 eighth year students at SMPN 3 Tanggul Jember. The data resources were also the English teacher and the documentation. The data were collected by interview, documentation, observation and reading tests. In analyzing the data, it used t-test formula, and Pa (Percentage of Students’ Active Participation). The data were then presented through the chart. The results on the analysis showed that there was consistent difference between the female students’ mean score and the male students’ in test 1 (descriptive text), test 2 (recount text), and test 3 (narrative text), and the female students consistently got the higher mean score than male students did. Meanwhile, the results of analysis on the students’ reading test 1 by using t-test showed that the statistical t value was 2.65. It was higher than the table t-value (2.021). So there was a significant difference between the female students’ and the male students’ mean score in test 1. On the contrary, there were no significant differences in test 2 and test 3. The statistical t value in test 2 was 1.58 while in test 3 was 0.57. Both were less than 2.021. In addition, the consistent differences occurs in subskill 4 and subskill 5 of test 1,2 and 3, where the female students’ mean score was higher than that of male students’. The result of observation 1 indicated that the percentage of male students’ active participation was 21% while the percentage of female students’ was 39.15%. In observation 2, the percentage of male students’ active participation was 28.66% while the female students’ was 42.85.%. Then in observation 3, the male students’ active participation was 29.22 % while the female students’ was 43.38 %. In conclusion, the eighth year female students at SMPN 3 Tanggul were better than the male students in comprehending the texts. Moreover, they were significantly better than the male students in comprehending the descriptive text. The difference mostly occured on two reading subskills, they were recognizing the order of information or events and understanding the relations between parts of a text through the use of logical connectors. In line with this, the female students were also more active than the male students during the teaching and learning process.