During the Program

The followings were the procedures of how the instrument would be like:

3.3.2.1

For the very first class, the teacher conducted a pre-test in experimental and control group to understand the schema and the background knowledge, and the current reading proficiency of the participants, who would be given a passage of a reading test from the primary level of GEPT, shown as Appendix C. Deno & Marston (2006) discussed disadvantages of adopting CBMs as well, including the variability in difficulty across, and even within, texts. Since GEPT is a standardized test, it may leave out one of the variables. Also, the teacher used WCPM from Timed Reading to record each student’s performance outside the classroom one after another to prevent others from overhearing the content of the selected reading during the recording process. The participants were scheduled to read out the given passage within one minute. The mistakes of pronunciation and intonation were taken into consideration, shown in Appendix F. In addition, after the pre-test, the teacher informed the participants about the reading materials they are about to read, reading tips, the expectations from the teacher, and also the setup for the reading routine for the subsequent 7 classes.

3.3.2.2

The second class served as the first class of the first cycle. The participants from the

experimental group read the selected Manga for their leisure reading. The researcher guided them to finish the first two episodes of the Manga. The first two episodes were Ningen Seizoki, and Noroi-no Camera. As for the control group, the participants read the short stories adapted by the researcher for their leisure reading. (See Appendix D) Since this was the very first class of the leisure reading, the researcher would use 10 minutes to teach them some background and characters mentioned in the chosen Manga to facilitate learners in the process of automaticity and prosody. As Bransford (1994) investigated that ―…difficulties in comprehension may be attributed to the lack of background knowledge presumed by the text. Still, the researcher will adopt one of interesting and facilitative pre-reading activities, Picture Walk, a think-aloud activity that uses only a book’s illustrations. In this technique, the teacher slowly went through the relevant section of the book, showing students the succession of illustrations and engaging them in discussions of new vocabulary and key concepts. Ask students a variety of questions about the pictures they are viewing and have them make hypotheses and predictions about what is happening in the text. Moreover, the researcher observed and monitored their reading process. Through careful examination of error patterns, a teacher can determine which strategies a student is using and which strategies the student is failing to use. For example, observation of a student’s attempts to figure out an unknown word might yield evidence of phonemic blending, guessing based on context, or a combination of decoding and contextual analysis. These observations can provide information about areas in need of further instruction to improve word-reading accuracy. In addition, the researcher also provided further guidance about reading. For instance, before reading the context, they could read and think about the title of the specific episode; if they see a new word or a difficult sentence, try to guess its meaning when they are reading, and so forth. Moreover, the teacher gave some overall feedbacks from the participants at the end

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of the class. In sum, the researcher held that these techniques may give students needed background while building a sense of comfort and familiarity so they could tackle the task of reading on their own.

3.3.2.3

The researcher reviewed some tips from the previous class and also provided them with further guidance within 10 minutes, for instance, before reading the context, look carefully at the picture on the first page of the episode. Read and think about the title;

don’t spend too much time on the vocabulary they don’t comprehend, focusing on the pictures to guess the meaning in the context. The researcher guided them to finish the third and fourth episode of the Manga. The two episodes were surrounded by Tragedy and Nigen Setsudanki. Also, the participants would be asked to use the repeated reading technique during the reading process. The students then read the selected Manga for silent reading for 15 minutes. After that, they were scheduled to team up with three classmates to have the echo reading for 10 minutes. The grouping criterion was based on the academic performance of the previous periodical exam on English, with the first two places and last two place being in the same team. Before the echo reading section, the students could have five minutes to discuss or ask questions about the Manga with partners. Meanwhile, the teacher was scheduled to demonstrate the oral reading to the participants and then moved around the classroom to provide needy assistance and formatively assessed student work by identifying challenging vocabulary and misconceptions (e.g., students’ asking for help with unfamiliar words, identifying nonessential details, misrepresenting concepts from the chosen Manga). For the last 10 minutes, the teacher would give overall suggestions. In addition, the teacher was scheduled to give individual suggestions when necessary.

3.3.2.4

The fourth class was the first class of the second cycle. The researcher would review some tips from the previous class and also provided them with further guidance within 10 minutes, for instance, before reading the context, have the title discussions with partners. The teacher would use scaffolding silent reading and repeated reading for 10 minutes to facilitate students to better comprehend the context and content of Manga, for instance, showing them some English onomatopoeia used in the episodes with PowerPoint or worksheets, shown in Appendix E, frequently used vocabulary training in Manga, the practice of phonics and intonations in the hope of improvement of prosody of reading. Hiebert (2006) asserted that fluency practice must, at some point, provide opportunities for transferring students’ oral reading skills to silent reading. Ito (2005) also observed that the integrative storytelling style of Manga relies heavily on homonyms and onomatopoeia, usually expressed through Japanese characters called katakana, to create dynamics and atmosphere. The researcher guided them to finish the fifth and sixth episode of the Manga. The two episodes were moving to a Haunted Castle and “Akuma-no Passport”. As for the last 10 minutes, the teacher would give overall suggestions. In addition, the teacher was scheduled to give individual suggestions when necessary.

3.3.2.5

The researcher reviewed some tips from the previous class and also provided them with further guidance within 10 minutes. Moreover, the teacher used repeated reading to facilitate students to better comprehend the context and content of Manga, for instance, the practice of phonics and intonations in the hope of improvement of prosody of reading. A fundamental task of fluent reading is to supply the prosodic features in a text, although they are not graphically represented (Schreiber, 1980). Schreiber suggested that fluent readers use the other cues (i.e., morphemic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic)

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present in text to organize the text into meaningful phrases and read with correct prosody (i.e., reading that sounds like speaking). Struggling readers are often characterized as reading in a monotone without expression or with inappropriate phrasing. The researcher guided them to finish the seventh and eighth episode of the Manga. The two episodes were Dokusai Switch and Terrifying “Arakajime Nikki.” For the last 10 minutes, the teacher gave overall suggestions.

3.3.2.6

The researcher reviewed the tips the students learned in the previous classes for five minutes. Moreover, repeated reading, echo and choral reading would be used for 10 minutes separately. The researcher guided them to read aloud and finish the ninth and tenth episode of the Manga. The two episodes were Baibain and Hyakku Timer.

3.3.2.7 Seventh class

For the first 10 minutes, the researcher reviewed some techniques such as onomatopoeia. The students then reviewed the first ten episodes of the Manga they had read, which allowed them to engage with and learn from the material they are reading.

Moreover, learners could establish prosody, identify appropriate phrasing, and determine meaning. Thus difficulties encountered in a text can be successfully solved as the text is read repeatedly and, as a result, similar difficulties are likely to be more readily solved when encountered in another text.

3.3.2.8 Eighth class (Post-test)

For the last class, the teacher conducted a post-test in experimental and control group to see if the reading proficiency of the participants improved. The participants were given a passage of a reading test from the primary level of GEPT, which was the same as those from the pre-test, shown as Appendix C. The teacher used WCPM from

Timed Reading to record each student performance outside the classroom one after another to prevent the possible overhearing of the content of the selected reading during the recording process. The participants read out loud the given passage within one minute. The mistakes of pronunciation and intonation were taken into consideration, shown in Appendix F. This served as the data-collection procedure.