Investigating the Effect of Buzz Group Technique on Students’ Reading Comprehension

This experimental research aims to find out the effect of buzz group technique on students’reading comprehension at seventh grade of SMPN 5 Padang Panjang academic year 2018/2019. The research approach was quantitative approach and the technique of this research was experimental research. The population was 154 students of grade seventh. The samples, which were selected by using cluster random sampling, were categorized as the experimental and control class. The experimental class was taught by using buzz group technique and the control group was taught by using conventional teaching technique. The data were collected through a reading comprehension test. The result of this research was showed by comparing tobserved and t-table. The researcher found that t-observed was 0.744 which is higher thant-table was 0.1671. It means that buzz group technique gives more significant effect on students’ reading comprehension than conventional teaching technique. From the result of the research, it can be concluded that buzz group technique gave very significant effect to the students’ reading comprehension. English teacher is suggested to apply buzz group technique in teaching reading comprehension in order that the students’ability in reading comprehension can improve.


Introduction
Reading is one skill that commonly used for Indonesian students, who learn English as foreign language. It cannot be denied that in Indonesian students' real life, the portion for applying their reading skill is bigger than the other skills. Having conversation or oral communication in English becomes a part of classroom activities only for students. It is not every student get the chance to apply their speaking skill in their daily life or to speak with native speakers. Besides, reading is also considered as essential for students because of several factors. First, reading will influence their ability in communication in both oral and written form. Knowledge is acquired from reading is one key point of fluency in communicating. Second, in the academic context, it is used to learn and gain access to explanation and information which then used to be interpreted in academic settings, for example in academic writing and presentation. Last, US Department of Education, (2005) emphasizes that through reading, one has access to a wide range of knowledge found in various reading materials like academic books, magazines, newspapers and journals. This statement implies the wide area of reading skill to be used by the students. The above reasons are enough to put the reading as the main skill to be mastered by the students, especially foreign language students. However, reading is not a simple activity. It is more than pronouncing words in the text correctly or knowing the translation of words in a passage, but understanding all the components of the texts.
According to Dennis (2008), reading comprehension is a complex process between identifying printed symbols and interpreting the meaning behind the symbols. He also states some factors affect reading comprehension skill. They are complexity of the reading text, environmental influences, and anxiety during reading comprehension, interest and motivation, decoding or word recognition speed, and medical problems. The complexity of the texts factor is influenced by the readers' strength and fluency in language and their comprehending of its applications and different meanings. The second factor related to the environmental conditions. Readers may have a lot of problems to understand a text in an unorganized environment than those who read in a calm and controlled place. The third factor is pertinent to the anxiety during reading comprehension. Learners who experience this anxiety may not completely understand the instructions and this may lead to confusion and poor comprehension of the reading task. The fourth factor is interest and motivation. Learners' interest and motivation are very important in developing reading comprehension skill. EFL teachers should motivate their learners through providing interesting reading materials during their class time. The fifth factor is related to decoding or word recognition speed. Readers who have problems in decoding and recognizing words read slowly and find it more difficult to understand the meaning of passages than those without decoding problems. The last factor is concerned with the medical problems. According to Hollowell (2013), poor reading comprehension skill may be related to the medical difficulty that does not get addressed until the child is older. These factors should be recognized and considered by the teachers in teaching reading comprehension because of their great influences on students reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension becomes increasingly important in the basic language curriculum, and for English learners in Indonesia. Thus, Indonesia considers reading comprehension skill as a priority. It can be seen in National Final Examination (UN) which the questions are dominated by reading comprehension text (National Education Department, Depdiknas: 2012). Ironically, the students often failed in answering the questions after giving a particular text, because they could not understand the text itself.
Most students found difficulties in comprehending reading texts. Sometimes they only paid attention to the meaning of word one by one rather than understood the whole sentences. Moreover, they said teacher only asked them to read silently without discussing with friends and do some exercises. The teacher also used to provide the vocabulary meaning related to the passage given. Thus the students become passive learners. The teachers usually teach the students without specific teaching reading procedures proposed by the experts. As a result, some students were not interested in reading class. In this case, the technique used by the teachers is ineffective for students. They do not have interest in participating during the reading class. In fact, reading interest is essential for students in reading comprehension.
In a study conducted by Eidswick 2009, he found that interest has a strong influence on learning. This study found a significant positive relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension of the sample. This finding supports the assertions of Miranda et al. (2011) who noted that several studies have shown evidence supporting the hypothesis that reading interest and engagement are the key factors that determine reading comprehension. In other words, when individuals are more interested in reading, they become more successful readers. Thus the problem of students reading interest should be solved by the teachers in teaching reading comprehension.
The students' problems above prove that the students failed in reading comprehension and their low reading interest are caused by inappropriate teaching technique applied by teachers. Teachers should find out appropriate techniques to make the students get more interested in reading activity and to make students read and comprehend the text. According to Mentz (2013), success in teaching and learning can be achieved by carefully plan and use appropriate teaching reading strategy. Good teacher must employ strategies before, during, and after reading which can help readers comprehend text easily. Interesting strategy is intended to make students begin or continue reading themselves.
One of the best techniques considered encouraging interest and comprehension of learning reading for Junior High School students besides the strategies above is Buzz Group Technique. A Buzz Group is a small group technique designed to allow the students to work on a problem and report solutions. This technique triggers the active and total participation, stimulates the responsibility and enthusiasm of the students in reading class. In addition, speed and few minutes for each phase are given develops the time effectiveness. To initiate the buzz group, teachers need to pose a question and ask the students to discuss their answers in group (Jeffries and Huggett 2010). TheBuzz Group Technique is a small groupthat requires students to find solutions and report back to entire class.It is used to engage learners and re-energize the group. In a research conducted by Milaningrum(2013) on the effectiveness of Buzz Group Technique to teach reading comprehension viewed from students' learning motivation. The data analysis shows the following findings: (1) Buzz Groups is more effective than Direct Instruction Method to teach reading comprehension to the mechanical engineering department students; (2) The students having high motivation have better reading comprehension than those having low-one; and (3) There is an interaction between the teaching methods and students' learning motivation for teaching reading comprehension. It means that the effectiveness of the teaching methods depends on the degree of the students' learning motivation to the mechanical engineering department students.Thus,the Buzz Group Technique gives positive effect on students' reading interest and students' reading comprehension.
Regarding the explanations and argumentations above, the researcher carried out the research to find the effect of Buzz Group Technique towards students' reading interest and students' reading comprehension at seventh grade students of SMPN 5 Padang Panjang.

Methods
This research was an experimental research design. Thepopulationwas 154 students of grade seventh at SMPN 5 Padang Panjang registered in 2018/2019 academic year. The samples, which wereselectedbyusingclusterrandomsampling, were categorized asthe experimentaland control class. The experimental class was taught byusingbuzz group techniqueand thecontrolgroup wastaughtby using conventional teaching technique. Both groups had the same topic and the same length of time. After having Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 411 ten meetings of treatment, experimental group and control group did post-tests. The post-test scores of the two groups were compared to determine the effectiveness of the treatment that was given in teaching reading. It was given to both classes after the treatment to measure students' reading comprehension. Before the post test was given, the researcher did content validity, construct validity and item validity in order to make sure the test was valid. After collecting the data, the researcher made sure that those data were collected from a normal distribution and homogenous research sample. Then, the data was analyzed by usingindependent sample t-test in SPSS.

Results and Discussion
H1 : Buzz Group Technique gives more significant effect on students' reading comprehension than Conventional teaching technique H0 : Buzz Group Technique does not give more significant effect on students' reading comprehension than Conventional teaching technique Since the data was normal and homogenous, the data could be calculated by using parametric statistic. The data was calculated by using independent sample T-test which the value of tobserved was compared to the value of ttable. If the value of tobserved is higher than ttable, it means that Ha will be accepted. However, if the value of tobserved is lower than ttable, it means that Ha will be rejected.The statistical analysis of students' reading comprehension test in experimental and control class by using independent sample T-test through SPSS program is described in the table below: Table 1. The summary of T-test Analysis of students' reading comprehension in experimental class and control class The table above shows that Ho was accepted if tobserved was lower than ttable, and Ho was rejected when tobserved was higher than ttable..After analysing, the mean of students' reading comprehension test in experimental class was 68.63; meanwhile the mean score of control class was 49.24. Then, tobserved was 7.443, which is higher than ttable was 1.671. It shows that Buzz Group Technique gives more significant effect on students' reading comprehension than conventional teaching technique.
Based on the statistical analysis of the hypothesis testing, it was found that the students' mean score in the experimental class was higher than the students in the control class. It means that Buzz Group Technique gave significant effect on students' reading comprehension. It is in line with the findings of research which were conducted by Millaningrum (2011) andAji (2012).They also found that this technique was effective in comprehending reading text through Buzz Group Technique.
The previous study of Milaningrum (2011) showed that teaching reading comprehension by using Buzz Group Technique could develop and motivate students in learning English, especially reading comprehension. It was proven by several result found in this research; the students' response was very good, and their scores was improved, the students showed their contribution in the discussion and participated well in teaching learning process by giving some opinion and asking questions, the students could solve the difficult text by using the discussion. The result of this research also showed that this technique gave positive effects in improving students' reading comprehension achievement and students' interest in learning reading comprehension. The finding of this research also supported the research that was done byAji (2012) who found that Buzz Group Technique was the effective way to improve students' readingcomprehension achievement.
Buzz Group Technique is teaching in which small groups that consists of 3-6students to find solutions and report back to entire class. This group discusses a specific question or issue in order to come up with many ideas in short period of time. This technique can make the students interact one to others to solve the problems given by the teacher. This technique also produces the active and total participation and stimulates the responsibility of students. On the other hand, the speed (few minutes for each phase are given) develops the time effectiveness. It means, it iseffective for generating information and ideas in short period time. After applying this strategy in this research, the researcher found that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control class. The achievement of the students in experimental class was greater than the students' achievement in control class. It can be concluded that the buzz group technique could be used in improving students' reading comprehension.

Conclusions
There is a significant difference on theeffect between teaching reading usingbuzz groups technique and teachingreading using conventional teachingtechnique.Teaching reading using buzz groupstechnique is more effectivethan the one of those having conventional teachingtechnique. Buzz grouptechnique as one of many techniques incooperative learning. Buzz groupstechnique allows students to be activelyinvolved in reading discussion, fosteringpositive interdependence among groups,and developing communicative skill. Thestudents can elaborate their knowledge tosolve the reading problems within thegroups. Buzz groups technique isparticularly useful in larger classes andalso encourages shyer students toparticipate since some students havetrouble participating in large groupdiscussions or meetings. Therefore, bydividing the whole class into smallgroups, more students have theopportunity to express their thoughtsbecause students have a chance topractice their comments and to increasetheir repertoire of ideas in their buzzgroups. Moreover, Buzz grouptechnique is very useful for large groups to getfeedback from a large number ofstudents on specific topic in a formalizedway and within specific time.