Developing Literacy Skill through Direct and Explicit

Comprehension Strategy Instruction (DECSI)

An Action Research

Elih Sutisna Yanto and Hilmansyah Saefullah

English Education Program, Singaperbangsa University of Karawang, H. S. Ronggo Waluyo St, Karawang, Indonesia
{elihsutisnayanto, hilmansyah.saefullah}@gmail.com

Keywords: Direct and Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction (DECSI), English literature, engaging.

Abstract: This study reports the findings of action research on the development of students’ literacy skill particularly
through Direct and Explicit Comprehension Strategy Insctruction (DECSI) in English literature class of the
English Education Program Department in Indonesia. Drawing on data of students’ reflective journals,
observation and interview, empirical findings showed that the students engaged actively in text identifying,
word defining, class presentation, vocabulary enforcement and reflection through Direct and Explicit
Comprehension Strategy Instruction (DECSI). Empirical data also revealed that through role scaffolding by
teachers and peer support, the student participants engaged in the discovery of English literature vocabulary
by documenting unfamiliar or interesting words from their English literature readings and by exploring
different meanings of vocabulary using electronic dictionaries, corpus software called BNC and
skell.sketchengine.co.uk. The other research findings showed that student teachers had enhanced of being
autonomous learners. The findings suggest that DECSI can be a catalyst for engaging students in post-
reading tasks such as writing a summary of the English literature text and promoting language awareness
and improving comprehension as well.

1 INTRODUCTION contexts has been recommended by professionals

and intellectuals as the literary texts reveal
Teachers often consider that literature is unsuitable comprehensive language use in authentic contexts
for the language classroom. This view reflects how (Pathan, 2013).
the study of language and the study of literature are Traditionally, the teaching of literature has been
separated, which refers to as a border dispute over a teacher-dominated process, allowing for limited
territory between linguists and literary critics. This opportunity for students to do their own ideas
divergence has resulted in the teaching of the two creatively and feelings towards a literary text. This
subjects as ‘disconnected pedagogic practices’ and conventional teaching activity of reading
has, consequently, led to the limited role of literature comprehension on literary text does not afford
in the language classroom. students the opportunity to share what they have
However, the awkward fact that many learners read and what language resources they have learned
want and love literary texts was probably the first from literary reading texts. In short, such process of
driving force which brought literary texts back in the literary text reading activities does not create a
language classrooms. supportive environment where students engage in
In recent research studies, teaching literature has interactive reading tasks and collaborative learning
promoted language learning, cultural awareness, community of reading as a social practice (Widodo,
students’ awareness of a different usage of language, 2014).
and has enriched new vocabulary and imaginative In contrast, a student-centered approach
expression (Krsteva and Kukubajska, 2013; encourages learners to develop their own opinions,
Nasirahmadi, 2014; Tevdovska, 2016). The feelings and responses to a literary text. It is then
importance of literary texts (i.e., short stories) as predicted that learners will be able to apply these
sources of teaching and learning materials for EFL proficiencies to further reading of texts for their own

110
Yanto, E. and Saefullah, H.
Developing Literacy Skill through Direct and Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction (DECSI) - An Action Research.
DOI: 10.5220/0007162901100115
In The Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and The Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with The First International Conference on Language,
Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017), pages 110-115
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
 Developing Literacy Skill through Direct and Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction (DECSI) - An Action Research

benefit. For this reason, Direct and Explicit them make sense of texts. These strategies include,
Comprehension Strategy Instruction (DECSI) is but are not limited to, summarizing, asking and
suggested in engaging literary texts through the answering questions, paraphrasing, finding the main
discovery of English literature meaning. idea, text identifying, word defining, and vocabulary
This present study was inspired by the study of enforcement. An important part of comprehension
Haggard (1982), Martin (2002) and Widodo (2015). strategy instruction is the active participation of
The implementation of DECSI has been well students in the comprehension process. In addition,
understood in the ESL context but the explicit instruction involves providing a sufficient
implementation of this instructional method in the amount of support, or scaffolding, to students as
literary class of EFL context remains under- they learn the strategies to ensure success.
explored. To fill this gap, the present study adopts
DECSI. Two research questions guide this study:
1. In what ways do students engage in Direct, 3 RESEARCH METHOD
Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction
(DECSI)? The research was undertaken at a university in
2. What are students’ reactions to these activities? Indonesia. The twenty-six student teachers were the
second year from English language education major.
To address the two research questions, the nature of
2 LITERATURE REVIEW the present study employed an action research. Two
strategies were implemented in this present study:
2.1 Defining and conceptualizing Vocabulary self-collection and learning logs:
literacy reading, grammar, and vocabulary. The reading log
focused on how much time student teachers read and
Literacy is now commonly defined as being able to how much information they learned. The grammar
read and write, including ‘skills enabling access to log was used to record grammatical resources that
knowledge and information’ (UNESCO, 2005b). the student teachers learned. The vocabulary log was
Literacy is not only the decoding and encoding of a employed to record all the lexical items that the
written script; it is also a socioculturally embedded student teachers learned or found useful.
practice, dependent on understandings of the
language, culture, and other texts (those that are
similar and those that are different). 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Comprehensively literacy is a construction and
reconstruction of knowledge, attitude, value, skill The data collected from the students’ interviews and
and experience. Language itself is a key aspect of reflective journals were analysed using Braun and
students’ culture. Through language, students can Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. Driven by the
gain access to the literary heritage of humanity and thematic analysis to the students’ interviews and
develop their appreciation of the richness and reflective journals, four central finding themes were
breadth of world’s literary heritage. identified revealing that DECSI with learning logs
helped the students be autonomous learners, develop
2.2 Direct, Explicit Comprehension vocabulary, promote language awareness, and
Strategy Instruction (DECSI) improve comprehension. These were clearly
portrayed in one of the students’ reflective journals
Literature explains that the explicit-implicit asserting:
dichotomy is applied to three different concepts– “By learning logs we were encouraged to fill up
learning, knowledge, and memory–and it is only the format with some unfamiliar words taken
very rarely explained how these are interconnected. from the short story we read to find out their
Further, Dörnyei (2009) adds that explicit meanings, summarize the story, and analyze the
knowledge is acquired through explicit learning and grammatical structures, so that the learning logs
is stored in explicit memory; and implicit knowledge helped me comprehend the content of the story”
is acquired through implicit learning and is stored in (Haris).
implicit memory. As can be inferred from the student’s response
In this research, comprehension strategies refer above, the learning logs encouraged the student to
to routines and procedures that readers use to help actively and independently learn new words from

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Literature and Culture

the text he read. The learning logs also provided the their grammatical structures. The various activities
student to activate his language awareness by that the students employed with the learning logs
analyzing the structure of the sentences from the promoted autonomous learning for them. It can be
story, and hence he comprehended the story well. inferred that they became autonomous learners
The following discussions reveal the four central during accomplishing the activities in the learning
finding themes elicited from the students’ responses logs.
in their interviews and reflective journals. The benefit LL is also informed in previous
research by Widodo (2015:167) as “the students
4.1 Being autonomous learners were engaged in the act of reading as meaning
making process (ideational meaning, interpersonal
The students’ responses to the use of learning logs meaning, and textual meaning)”. The ideational
while reading a short story revealed that the learning meaning in this reading a short story deals with how
logs facilitated them to be active and independent in a literary text is used to represent student teachers’
comprehending a short story. The following experience in order to organize, understand, and
excerpts, taken from the students’ interviews and express their perceptions of the literary texts. The
reflective journals, demonstrate the students’ interpersonal meaning focuses on how elements of
autonomy in learning. the literary text create patterns of interaction and
evaluation: the type of interaction taking place and
Table 1: Students’ responses reflecting autonomous the way writers take a position in their message
learning. within the literary text. Additionally, the textual
Students Responses meaning refers to with the literary works to create a
Budi Learning logs were quite beneficial for me connected and coherent discourse (Halliday 1975;
because ...hmmm the activities in the Christie & Unsworth, 2000; Bloor & Bloor, 1995).
learning logs encouraged me to input some
unfamiliar words into the learning logs 4.2 Developing vocabulary
format ...hmmm and analyse the
grammatical structures which made me All of the students shared the similar opinions that
actively read and comprehend the story. the activities in the learning logs assisted them to
Dita Ya, hmmm by using learning log I could develop their vocabulary. The following excerpts
be more active to find out every word I
wasn't familiar with, then I searched for
highlighted the students’ responses on how the
their meanings and I input the words into students could develop their vocabulary in using the
the learning logs. learning logs.
Fajar I think some advantages were that we
could understand some unfamiliar words Table 2: Students’ responses reflecting vocabulary
by finding out their meanings and development.
synonyms. We could learn how to
Students Responses
summarize the story and learn to analyse
the grammar of our favourite sentences Dewi I got some new vocabularies after I filled
taken from the short story. up the learning logs while reading
“Teenage Wasteland”
Rani Besides reading activity, we were also
encouraged to find out some unfamiliar Angga I could find out the meanings and
words, our favourite sentences and so on. synonyms in every new word I found in the
From those activities I could understand short story. It helped me the process to add
the story well. new words for me.
Robi I think some advantages of learning log
were that I could understand some
The students’ responses on the use of learning unfamiliar words by finding out their
logs in reading a short story revealed that the meanings and synonyms...
learning logs provided the students with some Siska In learning log I learned to understand new
activities that enabled them to actively and vocabularies by looking for their meanings
independently learn new words and comprehend the and synonyms.
story well. The students actively and independently
utilized the learning logs to record unfamiliar words, As can be inferred from the students’ responses,
to look for their meanings and synonyms from their the learning logs assisted them to obtain some new
dictionaries, to summarize the story, to record some vocabularies during their reading. In the learning
favorite sentences from the text, and even to analyse logs activity dealing with selecting some important

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unfamiliar words, the students were encouraged to to identify the function of words in the sentences and
find out the meanings and the synonyms of the to analyze the structure of the sentences taken from
selected unfamiliar words they needed to understand the text they read. These activities indirectly
from reading a short story. The students most activated their knowledge about language that they
importantly acquired some new vocabularies from already had in their minds in order to gain
their attempts to find out the synonyms of the knowledge and information from the text they read.
selected unfamiliar words facilitated by the learning Therefore, the language awareness activities can be
logs. These indicate that through LL ‘student valuable experience for the students in promoting
teachers increased their reading ability, developed their literacy skills.
positive attitudes toward reading, had increased
motivation to read, and made gains in various aspect 4.4 Improving comprehension
of proficiency in English, including vocabulary and
writing’ (Day & Bamford, 1998, p. 33). Therefore, it The main point of being literate as proposed by
can be inferred that learning logs are really helpful UNESCO is that we are able to access knowledge
tools for developing vocabulary. and information to the text we read (UNESCO,
2005b). During reading a short story, the students
4.3 Promoting language awareness were facilitated by the learning logs in order to gain
meaningful access to the content of the story. After
Besides identifying important unfamiliar words to using the learning logs, the students shared the
find out their meanings and synonyms, in one of the similar opinions that the tools assisted them in
learning logs activities the students were encouraged improving their comprehension on the text they
to identify the word class and the grammar of the read. The following responses show the evidence.
sentences from the story they read. These activities
for the students were considered to help them Table 4: Students’ responses reflecting comprehension
comprehend the text well during their reading of a improvement.
short story. The following students’ responses reveal
Students Responses
the evidence.
Andika ...we were encouraged to select unfamiliar
words, our most favourite sentences, and
Table 3: Students’ responses reflecting language
so on. From those activities in the learning
awareness.
logs I could easily comprehend the short
story "Teenage Wasteland"
Students Responses
Gita Learning logs helped me learn the
Cepi Hmm ... learning logs helped me know
vocabularies and the structure of the
more deeply about the function of words in
sentences from the short story "Teenage
the sentences and the structure of the
Wasteland" which could gradually help me
sentences.
comprehend the content of the story.
Risa I think some advantages (of learning logs)
Mila In the learning logs activities I analysed
were ... and learning to analyze the
the unfamiliar words and sentences. It
grammar used in the selected sentences
really helped me to comprehend the short
from the story.
story "Teenage Wasteland" easily.
Asep The advantages I got in using learning logs
Nuri In the learning logs, for the unfamiliar
were adding more vocabularies, sharpening
words I had to find out their meanings and
my grammar ability, and being able to
synonyms, so that I could understand the
understand well the function of words in
meanings of the sentences from the story.
the sentences.
It helped me more understand and
Widia By learning logs I could know the
comprehend the plot and the content of the
meanings of the unfamiliar words from the
story.
story, then I could understand the grammar
use. Besides that, I also learned to analyze
the structure of the sentences and the Based on the students’ responses, all of the
tenses. I could also train my thoroughness students agreed that the learning logs provided them
to comprehend the story. some activities to improve their comprehension on
the plot and the content of the story they read.
The students’ responses depict how the learning Selecting some important unfamiliar vocabularies to
logs have facilitated the students in promoting find out their meanings and synonyms, summarizing
language awareness. Based on the responses, in the the story, selecting most favourite sentences, and
learning log activities the students were encouraged analyzing the structure of the sentences were

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Literature and Culture

available in the learning logs which gradually ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

enabled the students to comprehend the story better.
Therefore, meaningful access to knowledge and We would like to thank all of learners who have
information occured when the students utilized the participated in our study. We wish to extend our
learning logs during their reading to a short story. sincere thanks to anonymous reviewers for their
useful comments on this manuscript. All lack of
clarity and any omissions remain entirely our
5 CONCLUSION responsibility

Three important instructional implications can be

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