1 THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH TRANSLATED MANGA TO STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION Wahyu Budi 17611316 English Department. Faculty of Letters. Gunadarma University. Margonda Raya 100 Depok 16424 Telephone (021) 78881112, 7863788. ABSTRACT The massive popularity of manga (Japanese comic) has led it to be translated into different kinds of language in the world, especially English. Here in Indonesia, the translated versions are two; in Indonesian, which are available in printed or online media, and in English, which are available only on the online media. Despites their origins, English translated mangas are authentic English literature. The reason being that the translated versions are written by a team including a bilingual Japanese-English translator and a native English-speaking translator-editor, who ensures that the text is natural and meaningful. Based on relation between manga and English, this research aims to probe the influence of English translated manga to the English reading comprehension among Indonesian High School students who frequently read English translated mangas. By using a questionnaire, 15 students who read English translated mangas in High School 1 in South Tambun were used as respondents. The questionnaire was administered at the end of 2014. The research questions are related to their activity of reading mangas and their reading skills that they acquired from reading mangas. Statistically, the results showed that H1 was rejected. Nevertheless, the result shows that it does not mean that English translated manga does not have any influences at all to the students’ reading comprehension. In descriptive elaborations, it showed that there are influences, yet the influences are so slight that they did not meet the standard adequacy for signifying that a hypothesis is accepted. Keywords: English translated manga, reading comprehension, reading English translated manga, questionnaire, influence. April 10th 2015 INTRODUCTION Reading is a process in which a person recognizes the words that he or she read and knows what they mean, and also understand how they work together in phrases and sentences in order to create meaningful language that can be understood by others. Many kinds of books can be used as a reading material to learn English; such as textbooks, novels, journals, 2 newspapers, magazines, comics, and mangas. One of the most popular reading materials is manga, the comic created in Japan or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language. Because of the massive popularity, this so called Japanese comic is translated into many kinds of languages around the world, one of which is in English. I am interested in conducting a research concerning manga and its influence to student’s reading comprehension entitled “The Influence of English Translated Manga to Student’s Reading Comprehension.” As to the reason why I chose this topic is on consideration that English Translated manga has effect on improving English reading comprehension, and empirically, I would like to find out whether such consideration is valid by having this quantitative based research in surveying High School students in one of High Schools in Bekasi as the respondents and setting of this research. Problem Formulation • Does English translated manga influence students’ English reading comprehension? Aims of the Study • To find out the influence of manga to students’ reading comprehension. Significance of The Study Practically, I hope that this study can be used to give information that reading manga is not like reading normal books. Manga is read from right to left, and up to down, started from the top right panel to top left panel, then down to middle right panel to middle left panel. After that, it is read from left bottom panel to right bottom panel. This is because manga in Japan followed the traditional writing called tategaki (Wikipedia, 2008), which is inspired by traditional Chinese writing system. In this format, the characters are written in columns going from top to bottom, with columns ordered from right to left. After reaching the bottom of each column, the reader continues at the top of the column to the left of the current one. Theoretically, I hope that manga can serve as a way for Indonesian students to understand the narrative text better, which is always used in the English textbook by Indonesian students. Academically, I hope that the findings of this research would offer better insights on the activity of reading mangas as a way of improving one’s English competence. The findings of this research will also help the students understand the possibility of mangas as viable learning tools outside the school. It is also hoped that the findings of this research will contribute to the development of English learning, especially by using online media. For other researchers, they are expected to be able to use the result of this research as an additional reference in carrying out further research. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Reading Comprehension Reading may be one of the most important skills that a person can possibly acquire. It is generally taught at a very young age, beginning before kindergarten. The National Reading Panel (as cited in Prado & Plourde, 2005) has stated that there are five specific practices that teachers should be using when teaching children to read or when helping them improves their reading skills. These practices are phonemic awareness, instruction in phonics, guided oral reading practice with feedback, vocabulary instruction, and comprehension strategy instruction. Of 3 these five practices, the most important may be reading comprehension. The Importance of Reading Noor (as cited in Akarsu & Dariyemez, 2014) claims that in any higher learning environment, reading is valued as the most important academic language skill for all second and foreign language learners. Students learn new information and become more competent in their subject matters through reading. Loan (also cited in Akarsu & Dariyemez, 2014), moreover, stresses the importance of reading by claiming that individuals with good reading habits have the chance to widen their mental horizons and to multiply their opportunities. Noor supports Loan’s idea and adds that reading is essential in teaching individuals how to cope with new knowledge in the technologically changing and developing world of today. Holte (as cited in Akarsu & Dariyemez, 2014) emphasizes the importance of reading in that it increases quality of life as well as creating culture and making cultural heritage available; moreover, he claims that it both strengthens and brings people together. Manga Manga is a term used to describe Japanese comics or their style of artistic expression. In Japan, manga refers to any printed comics including all genres for all generations. Manga combines images and scripts. Ito (as cited in Yuki, 2013) stated that, like any other forms of visual art and literature, “manga is immersed in a social environment including history, language, culture, politics, economy, gender and education”. Nakazawa also stated that Manga is by nature understandable and motivating (as cited in Yuki, 2013). Schodt stated that Japanese manga is a visualized narrative (as cited in Murakami and Bryce, 2009). In Japan, readers can choose not only from stories about “funny animals,” superheroes, crime-fighters, sciencefiction, and fantasy adventures, but also from titles in the categories of business, cooking, politics, romance, horror, travel, suspense, sports, childraising, and more—genres which have largely disappeared or never existed in English-language comics. Strategies on Reading Manga Schwartz and Rubinstein claimed that manga requires multimodal reading skills and a sharp critical inquiry stance (as cited in Yuki, 2013), because meaning is conveyed at different levels, such as layout of pages, illustrations, words, and scripts. Ingulsrud & Allen (as cited in Yuki, 2013) studied Japanese junior and senior high school students in order to investigate their manga reading strategies. Their research in tracking a reader’s eye movement finds that most of the readers focus on the speech balloons and texts when reading manga. On the other hand, the readers responded that their main reason to read manga was because of its graphics. Learning the panel order for reading requires much practice and experience. However, Murakami and Bryce (2009) suggest that multimodal information presented both in verbal and non-verbal format enhances readers’ memory. In addition, illustrations written with thematic focuses promote readers’ understanding. Effective learning occurs by “multiple layers of information in context and project a focused content”. 4 Manga and Language Learning In recent years, the popularity of Japanese popular culture, especially Japanese manga, and anime (animated cartoons), has been seen as a common reason for studying Japanese as a second language. As a result, there has also been a trend towards trying to use manga as an educational resource, with claims that it is “realistic” and “easier”. Kumano stated that, as much as 70 to 80 percent of Japanese learners chose to study Japanese because of their interest in manga and anime (as cited in Unser-Schutz, 2011). Kumano and Hirokaga also assets that these trends have resulted in an increase in interest in using manga and anime as tools for studying Japanese, as demonstrated by the Japan Foundation’s making researching and developing manga and anime learning tools one if its 20072012 mid-term goals (as cited in UnserSchutz, 2011). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Design Research methods are generalized and established ways of approaching research questions. Research methods in education (and the other social sciences) are divided into qualitative and quantitative approaches and involve the specific study activities of collecting and analyzing research data in order to answer the particular research question. To answer the research question in this research, quantitative method of research is employed. The approach used in this research is regression analysis. Regression analysis is a statistical tool for the investigation of relationships between variables. It investigates the effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable. Respondents of the Research The population of the research is the third-years in SMAN 1 Tambun Selatan in Bekasi. The students who are taken as the object of the research are those who read English translated manga frequently. Technique of Collecting Data This research employs Likertscale to allow the object of the research express how much they agree or disagree with a particular statement given in the questionnaire. Technique of Analyzing Data After the data were collected, there were 15 data. The 15 data were then put into Excel program in order to systematically arrange them in proper order so that it was easier for further calculation when using SPSS-17. SPSS 17 Program is used to calculate the result of the questionnaire administered to the 15 respondents which are in the form of numbers that they chose during the survey. The data which are put into the SPSS program are the score that the respondents answered in the form of Likert-scale. The results of SPSS 17 revealed the F-Test and t-Test. F-Test is used to determine the significance level or linearity of the regression. The purpose of t-Test is to assess the partial influence and correlation of each independent variable on the dependent variable. Statistically, in order for the hypothesis (H1) to be accepted in the model of simple linear regression, the significant value has to be ≤ 0.05. RESULTS OF THE STUDY English Translated Manga Reading Indicator The majority of the responses were positive for every question related to manga reading. Regarding the question, I read a lot of English translated manga, 5 all of the respondents indicated a positive response of either strongly agree or agree. Likewise, 13 responses were positive for the question on whether or not the students read English translated manga in a long time. One response was negative, and the rest is neutral. A related question asking if the students read many genres of English translated manga drew similar responses. A majority of 12 responses were positive while 3 responses were neutral. The last indicator, however, indicated that the majority of the students do not like to look up to the dictionary if they found unknown words. Only 5 students use dictionary when they discover unknown words to them, 3 of them were neutral, and the rest of the students are not fond of looking up into dictionary. Reading Skills Acquired from English Translated Manga Indicators Questions related to the reading skills acquired from manga also brought largely positive results. Almost every respondent committed to a positive response when asked if the manga that they read contributed in their reading comprehension skills. There are no negative responses, only 10 students who are being neutral in their opinion. All responses are positive regarding the English vocabulary enrichment and English language context understanding. 9 agreed that English translated manga improved their grammar, while 6 were neutral. Finally, the last question is related to whether or not students thought that the English translated manga has a contribution in their English reading comprehension. 11 responses were positive while 4 responses were neutral. Statistical Result Based on the coefficient of determination (R Square), the magnitude of the influence of X (manga reading) to Y (reading comprehension) is equal to 9.3%. Other factor which influences the students’ reading skills which is not in this study is equal to 90.7%. This 90.7% means that, there are still many ways to improve reading skills by using different kinds of methods or tools. By using F-test (ANOVA) and t-test (Coefficients), the Significance probability shows the value of 0.270. This value is above 0.05, which means that X does not influence Y. Therefore, it can be concluded that my research hypothesis (H1), statistically, is rejected. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion In this research, the hypothesis stated is that English translated manga has influence towards students comprehension of reading English text, specifically in terms of improving enrichment of English vocabulary, understanding of context, understanding of English grammar and understanding of reading itself. By administering the questionnaire to the respondents, who were High School students who read the English translated manga, it seems that from statistical calculation the hypothesis (H1) is rejected, which means that English translated manga does not influence students’ reading comprehension. Though statistically, the results did not meet the expected hypothesis, it does not mean that English translated manga does not have any influence at all to variables of improving reading comprehension as set in this research. In details, descriptive relationships between X to Y showed that there are influences of X to Y yet the influences are so slight that they did not meet the standard adequacy for signifying that a hypothesis is accepted. 6 One significant weakness in this research which may contribute to the fact that the hypothesis is rejected is the number of respondents which are below the minimum requirement which is 30 respondents. In this research, the number of the respondents were only 15 as in the setting, those who read English translated manga were only 15. Should only there had been more that 15, the results would have been different, though might also be the same. Regardless the fact that the hypothesis was rejected, it does not mean that this research indicates that in general English translated manga does not have influence towards English reading comprehension. It is possible that within different setting and different items of statements in the questionnaire, such hypothesis would be accepted. It is only that this research, within the setting and items of statements in the questionnaire showed that English translated manga does not influence the reading comprehension. Suggestion As stated above that the weakness of this research is the lack of respondents. Thus, it is suggested that the further research should be carried out with more respondents, and if it is possible, in many schools. 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