CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter discusses : Reading Fluency, The Factors Affecting

Reading Fluency, Sight Word, and Previous Studies.

A. Reading Fluency

Reading fluency can be defined as reading fast, but fluently and

accuratelly in reading the text. with good pronounciation and adjusting

the reading rate to suit the purpose for reading. It is important to note that

reading fluency doesn’t refer to oral reading, however, because it is

possible for someone to read a passage aloud fluently and not

comprehend it at all. Fluency in silent reading promotes improved

comprehension by allowing the student to read for ideas rather than for

individual words.

Reading fluency encompasses the speed or rate of reading, as well

as the ability to read materials with expression. Based on Mayer and

Felton (1995 : 284) that the ability to read connected text rapidly,

smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically with little conscious attention to

the mechanics of reading, such as decoding. The students successful with

decoding when the process used to identify words is fast and nearly

effortless or automatic. The concept of automaticity refers to a student’s

ability to recognize words rapidly with little attention required to the

word’s appearance. Ability to read words by sight automatically is the

key to skilled reading, Ehri (1998 : 107).

The students have developed accurate word pronounciation skills

but read slowly. For the student’s, decoding is not automatic or fluent,

and their limited fluency may affect performance in the following ways,

based on Mastropieri (1989 : 173) : (1) they read less text than peers and

have less time to remember, review, or comprehend the text. (2) they

expend more cognitive energy than peers trying to identify individual

words, and (3) they may be less able to retain text in their memories and

less likely to integrate those segments with other parts of the text.

According to Mather and Goldstein et al on their journal (2001), In

reading fluency, they are two parts that important in reading fluency :

1. Reading fluency rate.

a. Determining a student’s reading rate.

The student’s reading rate may be calculated by

dividing the number of words read correctly by the total

amount of reading time. The teacher may count out 100

words in a passage and then time the students as he or she

reads the passage. Ex : student 1 was given a passage to

read with 100 words. Student 1 read 92 words correctly in

1.5 minutes, or 61 words per munute (wpm)

b. Adjusting reading rate.

Most of people or student’s have a contant rate when

reading. This rate is the fastest pace at which a person can

understand complete thoughts in successive sentences of

relatively easy material. As long as the material is relatively

easy to read, a person’s or student’s rate stays constant. For

different types of tasks, however, the readers often alter

their rate. Students with slow reading rates are often not

aware that good readers adjust their rate depending on the

purpose of reading.

c. Activities for increasing reading rate.

Based on Chard and Osborn in Mather (2001 : 89)

There are three steps activities for increasing reading rate :

1. The reader’s or student’s listen to text as they follow

along with the book.

2. The reader’s or student’s follow the print using their

fingers as guides.

3. Reading materials are used that students would be

unable to read independently.

d. Speed drill.

For reading list of words with a speed drill and a 1-

minute timing, Fischer (2001 : 92) suggested using the

following general guidelines : 30 correct wpm for first and

 second grade – 40 correct wpm – for third grade – 60

correct wpm for mid-third grade – 80 up wpm in fourth

grade. Every grade calculated with student’s or reader’s

reading rate speed. And this drill are designed to develop

automatic sight recognition of word.

e. Rapid word recognition chart.

According to Hamman (2001 : 114) a way to improve

speed of recognition for words with an irregular element is

the use of rapid word recognition chart. The chart is similar

to rapid serial-naming task. After a brief review of the

words, students are timed for 1 minute as they read the

words in their squares aloud.

f. Choral reading or neurological impress method.

The neurological impress method based on Hamman

(2001 : 127) is a method for choral or concert reading. In

this method, the teacher read aloud with a student for 10-15

minutes daily. For successing and to begin reading aloud

together again, select a high-interest book or a content from

the classroom. Sit next to the students and read aloud as you

point to the words with the index finger. Read at a slightly

faster pace than the student and encourage him or her to try

and keep up with you. Reading aloud with the students can

help them to practice phrasing and intonation.

 g. Repeated readings.

Based on Samuel in Mather (1994 : 234) the repeated

readings technique is designed for the students who read

slowly despite adequate word recognition. For this

procedure, the students read the same passage over and over

again. To begin, select a passage that is 50 – 100 words

long a book that is slightly above the student’s independent

reading level. Have the student read the selection orally

while time them in reading and count the number of words

that are pronounced incorrectly. Record the reading time

and the number of words that are pronounced incorrectly. If

desires, set a realistic goal for speed and number of errors.

2. The impact of fluency on reading ability.

Focus on fluency in the elemnetary years is important

to develop of reading ability in young children. Children in

grades kindergarten through 4th grade show the greatest

gains in fluency when it is included in the reading education

program. Students with reading difficulties continue to

show improvement in reading ability through high school

when their teacher include fluency instruction in their

reading programs.

Fluency has the greatest impact for children. Children

with high fluency rates tend to read more and remember

 more of what they read because they are able to expend less

cognitive energy on decoding individual words and

integrating new information from the texts into their

knowlegde banks.

B. The Factors Affecting Reading Fluency

There are some factors that effect reading fluency, the factors

troughly into the two broad categories, (1) speech phonologic, (2) non

speech phonologic factors. The students may face some problem in the

reading fluency when they read the text caused by speech phonologic.

That are, in term of speed and accuracy. While non speech phonologic

factor in term of prosody (expression). This categories based on Chabot

et al (1984 : 105).

1. Speed.

Speed in reading means that the reader read the text with ritme

and irama. So to make the read have a good ritme and irama, the

reader must be recognition word in reading text. According to Perfetti

in Bellareta (1984 ; 26) Speed of word recognition is an important

marker for reading skill. Based on Fashel in Chabot (1984 : 115)

Development of rapid word recognition skills is primary factor when

distinguishing skilled from less skilled reading performance.

In another definition of speed that speed refers to how quickly

the student can read. It has a huge impact on their fluency, this
 statement based on Roman in Chabot (1984 : 119). To increase their

speed when reading, the students need to be able to recognize and

decode words effortlessly.

2. Accuracy.

According to Jim in Chabot (1984 : 122) accuracy refers to

reading words without mistakes. To improve the students accuracy in

fluency, have the students listen to themselves read a passage and

evaluate it. It is difficult to improve upon something if the reader

don’t recognize what the reader are doing wrong in reading.

In fluency, accuracy its occur the students accurate in reading

the text. Students with good accuracy can read the text with good

pronounciation too, so accuracy in fluency means that the students

read the text without mistake, without mistake in here in speech,

especially in their pronounciation.

3. Prosody (Expression)

Expression in reading means that the readers express the feeling

in reading the passage. Based on Roman in Chabot ( 1984 : 132)

expression refers to the ability to change the voice to show the feeling

when reading. Based on the result of discussion in Chabot et al, to

build the students or the readers feeling in reading, the students or the

readers have to learn about Readers Theater. Readers theater gives the

students or the readers multiple opportunities to read the text with

emotion and to practice reading the same words over and over again.
 As the students’ or the readers’ fluency increases, so does their

confidence with the text. The students begin to give a voice to their

character by reading with emotion, excitement, or even sorrow,

depending on their role.

C. Sight Word.

1. Definition of Sight Words.

Sight words are common words that are often not spelled

phonetically but must be read fluently and automatically at first sight.

Many educators recommend instantly recognizing these high frequency

words. In fact, automatic word recognize is a key to becoming a fluent

reader.

According to Torgesen (2002 ; 32) Sight words refer to the words

that are most frequently used and repeated in books, which is why sight

words are also sometimes called “core words” or “popcorn words”. The

phrase popcorn words refers to the fact that students should be able to

just pop those words out every time they see them.

Teachers wants students to read these as whole words so they are

read automatically at first sight. Decoding each word can be frustrating

and an emergent reader can quickly lose the meaning of the text.

Recognizing sight words immediately allows a reader to focus on

decoding the more challenging words and understanding the text. More

importantly, knowing sight words instills confidence when learning to

read.
 The following are characteristics and statistics of sight words :

2. Common Characteristics of Sight Words

While the exact number precise words vary depending upon the

curriculum, a sight words list generally contains between one and

three hundred words. Based on Rath (2006) on his article, The

characteristics as follow ;

a. They are commonly found in English text, e.g. and, the.

b. Many do not follow typical spelling rules ; they are

phonetically irregular, e.g. of, the.

c. Sight words are mostly pronouns, adjectives, adverbs,

prepositions, conjuctions, and common verbs. Generally

speaking, they are service words; they give meaning and

direction.

d. They are difficult or impossible to represent with pictures, e.g.

that, was. Typically nouns are excluded from sight words lists.

As always, there are few exception, e.g. time, thing.

3. Sight Words Statistics

This Sight Words Stats based on Rath (2006) on his article, the Stats as

follow;

It is estimated that the English language contains a quarter of

million “distinct” words. However, like most languages, English

print is highly concentrated among a very small number of

common words. Here are some sight words statistics;

 a. Ten words make up about a quarter of all printed material.

b. Half of the ten most common words are phonetically irregular.

c. Twenty-five words make up about a third of all printed

material.

d. Almost half of the most common twenty-five words are

phonetically irregular.

e. One hundred words represent about half of written material.

f. Three hundred words make up about 65% of all printed

material.

4. Procedures or Steps of teaching using Sight Words Strategy.

Procedure is the act, method, or manner of proceeding in some

action. To get the maximum result of using strategy, the procedures or

steps is very important, because by following the procedures or steps,

the strategy can easy to implement and it can successful the

implementing strategy.

Many researcher used sight word strategy in their research, but

each researcher has their procedures. The first procedures/steps model

made by Julie A. Bettie. In her research, the researcher used Flash Card

to help her to implement the startegy, the procedures as follow :

a. The teacher prepare the media (Flash Cards)

b. The teacher set the media on the table.

c. The teacher call the students one by one to put one of the media

on the table.
 d. The teacher inform the student to open the choosen Flash Card,

and than read the text on Flash Card.

e. If the students correct in read word on Flash Card, the student

can back to sit on his/her chair, but if the student incorrect in

reading the word, the teacher inform the student to drill the

word by giving example of correct word, than the students

continuos the repeat teacher’s example 3-7 times on drilling

words.

f. After the student correct in reading word, the teacher command

the student to write the word on the black/white board, than the

student read the word again 1-3 times.

The second procedures model made by Bramansyah Ariffandana,

his procedures model as follow ;

a. The teacher make a table on board.

b. The teacher give the students text on piece of paper.

c. The teacher inform the students to read the text first, if the

student read unfamiliar word and difficult to read this word, the

student can write down this word on board.

d. If the table full of unfamiliar word who get and write by the

students, the teacher inform the students to pay attention on

teacher’s example in reading the word on the board.

 e. After the teacher finish on giving example and the students pay

attention on teacher’s, the teacher call the students one by one

to come in front of the class to read the text.

In this research, the researcher going to employ on Julie A. Bettie’s

Procedures model by modifate the procedures, the modifate procedures

as follow ;

a. The teacher prepare the text for reading test.

b. The teacher read the text first as the example.

c. The teacher order the students to read the text together.

d. The teacher call students one by one to come and sit down in

front of the teacher.

e. The teacher ask the student to read the text, and the teacher

listen and give direct correction.

f. If the teacher hear the error word of student reading, so directly

the teacher stop the student reading, and inform the student to

drill the error word 3-7 times.

g. If the student well in drilling error word, and the drilling is

right, so the teacher ask to student to continous read the text.

h. After the student finish his/her reading, the teacher give

result/score by using scoring rubric.

D. Previous Studies.

Based on the definition and procedures above, the researcher going to

implemented the Sight Word strategy in his research because this strategy
easy in implementing and the strategy proved successful to improve and to

streamline student’s skill in reading, especially in reading words. The

statement was strenghtness by successful implementing by other researcher.

Other researcher used the same strategy to improve or to effecting students

in reading. The strategy who conducted by other researcher as follow ;

The first researcher using this strategy is Julie A. Bettis. She conducted

a research entitle The Effectiveness of Sight Words to Improve Students

Reading Fluency in Recognizing New Word by Flash Card. This research

implemented in academic years 2008/2009 in Concordian Elementary

School. The findings of the research is Sight word strategy can improve

students in recocnizing new word by using Sight Word Flash Card. She got

a great diffirent result after she treat the students using Sight Word strategy.

It can bee seen that the students can recognize and read the word fluently

after the teacher implemented sight word strategy.

The second researcher is Bramansyah Ariffandana. He conducted a

research entitle Facilitating Reading Comprehension through Sight Words

Recognition Practice. This research was implemented in academic years

2009/2010 in the Fifth grade of SD Negeri Begajah 01 Sukoharjo. The result

of the research show that Sight Words Recognition Practice can effectifely

improve students’ Reading Comprehension. It can be seen that the students

got improvement in the reading tests scores.

Based on research finding above, some English teacher must have

various technique for teaching English, such as Speaking, Reading,

Listening, and Writing skills, especially in Reading Fluency. Therefore,

English teacher should have a creative technique or strategy for teaching or

providing learning activities involving the students’ activities. It can be

concluded that in learning English, especially in reading the teacher should

have variation technique or strategy to make student’s interest in teacher

learning process.

1. The differences between current and previous research. (gabungkan

jadi satu)

1. Current research

In this research, sight word strategy used to improve

student’s in reading the text in mastery reading fluency.

Reading fluency in this research itself is reading fast but

fluently and accurattelly. Fluently its means that the student’s

read the text with good speed and pronounciation. While read

with accurattelly means that the students’ read the text without

mistakes.

In current research, this strategy steps are same with

procedure steps of sight word, but different in purpose and

result of using the stategy. If the procedure of sight word is

drilling and spelling the word, the researcher in current research

only drilling the word in used. Why only drilling word, because

the researcher assume that spelling not exactly for students in

senior high school level. The purpose of the strategy in current

 research itself is to make students fluent in reading the passage

especially in reading the word. While the result of using the

strategy in this current research is the students’ can read the text

with good speed, accuracy, intonation, pronounciation, and can

feel their emotion when their read the text.

2. Previous research

In previous study, this strategy used to improve students on

drilling the word and to teach students to spelling the word. The

most of sight word strategy used in previous study is aimed for

students at Kindergarten level. Because sight word strategy

itselt more suitable to help students in Kindergarten and

students in Elementary grade.

In previous study, sight word strategy more used to

streamline their reading skill so that students ability in reading

word can be smoothly and correctly according to

pronounciation. Beside, the students can gain new vocabulary if

they can read the word correctly.

There are a lot of media to implement this strategy in

previous study. The media as follow, there are Flash Card,

Puzzle, Dominous, and Docth Sight Words List. In previous

study, these media proved successful in previuos studies. In

addition, with the presence of the media, the students can learn

while playing.