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ENCOURAGING QUESTIONING IN ENGLISH READING
COMPREHENSION FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF MAN MODEL
MANADO
Sri Suharti
I. INTRODUCTION
Reading is an activity with purpose. It is an interactive process that goes on
between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The purpose of reading is
to connect the ideas on the page to what we already know. The purpose of reading also
determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. Moreover, teaching
reading will not be successfully if the students can only reads words, without
understanding the message being read. In other words, what ever we read, it should be
understood. Smith and Robinson (1980) argue that “Comprehension means
understanding”. This means that reading comprehension is a process of thought where
the readers understand the writer’s ideas and interpret them into his or her own needs.
And it is generally accepted that the major goal for any reading activity is
comprehension. Comprehension is the essence of reading. The writer creates a text to
communicate a message; the reader’s task is to comprehend that message (Anderson et
all ; 1969 ; Robinson 1975 ; Harmer 1983 ; Suhor 1988). This goal is in line with the
objective of teaching reading in high school. However, the changing of national
curriculum doesn’t describe that it will also change the teachers’ views on how to
improve the teaching style of English in general, specifically in reading. It seems that
the teaching of reading mostly doesn’t give opportunities to students to involve in the
activities since the teachers usually only ask the students to translate and do text based
questions. In other words, students are rarely trained to arouse interest and curiosity
concerning to the topic which is being read. Whereas the curiosity of the students to the
topic discussed can be aroused in simple ways, it is questioning.
Questioning is a critical strategy that helps readers make meaning of literature
by promoting critical thinking about what is being read
( />). Questioning
occurs as a natural part of the classroom routine as teachers encourage students to pose,

Questioning in Reading Activities for the second year students of MAN Model
Manado” to better the students’ ability in reading. It is assumed that this strategy can
develop students’ reading ability, especially their comprehension.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Is questioning strategy effective in teaching reading comprehension?
2. What are students’ attitudes towards the application of questioning strategy?
II. DISCUSSION
In doing her research, she can apply the three approaches, what so called”
Empiricist approach, Interpretive approach and Critical approach”.
EMPIRICIST APPROACH
First, to see the effectiveness of applying Questioning in teaching reading, the
researcher will do a research with quasi experimental design. She will choose two
classes to be samples randomly. One class for experimental group and the other one is
as a control group. Before giving the treatment to the experimental group, the researcher
will give pre-test first for those two groups to get the data of their ability in reading.
Then the experimental group will be given a treatment by applying Questioning strategy
in teaching reading, while the control group does not. At the end of the research, those
two groups will be given post-test to see whether there is significant difference
achievement in their reading between the experiment and control group. The data
gathered will be evaluated using the T-test formula. If it is found that the experiment
group’s result is higher than the control group’s, it can be concluded that the
questioning strategy is effective in teaching reading skill. This theory is in line with the
concept in the Empiric approach. Knowledge is objective, generalisable and can be used
to predict and control future event.
INTERPRETIVE APPROACH
To get more detail data whether the improvement is caused by the questioning
strategy, the researcher can do also a case study. It is done to validate the data gathered
because there might be some factors influence the conditions. In line with the theory in
Interpretive approach that the emphasis is on understanding by the researcher and the
researched rather than prediction and control, she wants to do observation on how the

and the expert. So in this case, the concept of collaborative research will be employed to
better the condition.
III. CONCLUSION
Since the purpose of conducting the research is to find the data whether the
application of questioning is appropriate to develop students’ reading ability, so the
finding can be followed up by the other researcher to find the more appropriate strategy
for students in reading activities. If the finding can prove that questioning strategy is
effective to improve students’ comprehension, it is suggested for English teachers in
senior high school to apply also this strategy rather than using text based questions only.
References:
Anderson, J. Durston B. H., and Poole M.E.1969. Efficient Reading: A Practical Guide.
Sydney: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Smith, Bob. et. all. 1990. Issues and Methods in Research : Study Guide. South
Australia: South Australian College of Advanced Education.
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Smith and Robinson. 1980. Efficient Reading, A partial Guide to Reading
Comprehension Sciences, New York; Cambridge University Press.
Van Der Meij, Hans. 1993. A Case Study of Questioning in Reading.
/>.
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Analyzing Total Educational Program
Muhammad Syukrianto
A. Introduction
It has long been recognized that education is viewed a primary means for
solving social problems. Education provides people with the tools and knowledge
they need to understand and participate in their daily life. It also helps to sustain the
human values that contribute to individual and collective well-being. Therefore,
realizing the important of education, from time to time the quality of education
should be improved.
Most experts in education believe that one of the ways to improve the

C. Program Building (Curriculum Content)
This appears to be a natural phenomenon that the process of curriculum
programming includes a wide range of activities. Print, (1998: 140) states the
starting point for constructing a curriculum lies with the program building or the