Gender Differences in Reading Strategies Among Vocational High School Students

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN READING STRATEGIES AMONG VOCATIONAL HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS

Licha Secaria Dyta Yudistira

English Department, Language and Art Faculty, Surabaya State University
lichayudistira@mhs.unesa.ac.id

Abstrak
Pebelajar bahasa kedua menggunakan teknik membaca yang berbeda untuk memahami teks. Namun, penelitian
tentang teknik membaca menunjukkan bahwa strategi membaca pebelajar laki-laki atau perempuan mempunyai
persamaan maupun perbedaan dengan hasil membaca yang berbeda pula. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan untuk mengetahui
apa saja strategi membaca yang digunakan oleh pebelajar laki-laki dan perempuan ketika mereka diajarkan dengan
menggunakan pendekatakan tiga fase dan apakah mereka menggunakan jenis strategi membaca yang berbeda atau
tidak. Penelitian ini menggunakan survei, dengan kuesioner. Subyek penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas 10 SMKN 1
JOMBANG. Hasil kuesioner diolah secara kuantitatif. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa pebelajar laki-laki dan
perempuan menggunakan beberapa strategi membaca dan siswa laki-laki dan perempuan memiliki persamaan dan
perbedaan strategi membaca.
Kata Kunci: strategi membaca, teknik tiga fase, gender.

Abstract
Second language learners use different reading strategies to comprehend texts. Nevertheless, studies on reading
strategies show that male and female ESL has similar and different reading strategies with different comprehension
results. This research has been conducted to determine reading strategies are reported to be used by male and female
students when they are taught using three-phase approach and whether or not the use of such reading strategies varies
between male and female. This study is a survey, using a questionnaire. The subjects were in 10th grade students of
SMKN 1 JOMBANG. The results of questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively. The results of the study showed that
both male and female students applied some reading strategies in their reading process. Male and female have similarity
and differences in using some reading strategy.
Keywords: reading strategies, three-phase approach, gender.

INTRODUCTION independent learning whether the goal is to perform

Reading is a complex skill that occurs by combining better on academic tasks, learn more about topics or
attention, memory, perceptual processes and processes of improve language skills (Grabe & Stoller, 2001, p.187).
understanding (Kern, 1989, p.135-149). Gaining In the early 1970s and 1980s, a lot of work
knowledge and raising information is also the most contributed to our understanding of reading strategies,
beneficial ability. Reading is a key life skill according to which are part of learning strategies, through student
Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, and Wilkinson, (1985). It's a reports on what they are doing while reading (Olshavsky,
key to the success of a child in school and, indeed, in life. 1997; Block, 1986; Kletzien, 1991; Saricoban, 2002)
Without the ability to read well, there will always be lost suggesting that teaching a set of strategies can help
opportunities for personal fulfilment and work students, especially those who are struggling, to
satisfaction. Therefore it becomes essential for students understand texts more effectively (Pali, 2002). According
to understand and perform a great deal of reading tasks in to Abbott (2006, p.637), reading strategies are "the
speed and with good comprehension. processes of mental operations or understanding that
Many have said reading is the important academic readers select and apply to make sense of what they are
language skill for second language learners in the last reading." The word ‘reading strategy’ is unique ways the
fifteen years. Reading is seen in academic settings as the reader uses to understand the meaning intended. Barnett
fundamental means of learning new information and (1988, pp.150-162) treats reading strategies as the mental
gaining access to alternative explanations and operations that are included when the reader successfully
interpretations. Reading also provides the basis for the follows the text and makes sense of what he reads. Some
competencies of synthesis and' critical assessment.' examples of problem-solving techniques include
Furthermore, reading is the primary means of skimming, scanning, reading for meaning, predicting,

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activating general information, making inferences, made extensive use of a wider range of strategies and
differentiating main ideas from supporting details, demonstrated more conceptual awareness and versatility
noticing cognates and word families, conjecturing word in the use of both cognitive and metacognitive strategies.
meanings from context and evaluating those guesses and No gender differences were observed in either reading
following references. performance or using cognitive and metacognitive
In schools, learners have been suggested to use strategies, Phakiti (2009).Since the result of the previous
different strategies to help them to acquire, store, and studies show contrasting findings, therefore it is
retrieve information (Rigney, 1978). The use of these important to investigate it more about gender differences
reading strategies is therefore considered to be indicators in reading strategies to make sure the result. This study
of how readers perceive a task, how they make sense of tries to apply it in Indonesian context especially
what they read, and what they do when they are incapable Vocational High School. This research is important for
of understanding it. In other words, as Singhal (2001) the student in order to help them to determine which
points out, these methods are the learner's techniques for strategies are the best for them so that they can
improving reading understanding and overcoming comprehend the text easily.
comprehension errors which have been verified by many Based on the background of the study above, the
different studies. Mostly it depends on the deliberate use researcher formulated two questions for this study:
of reading technique. A successful learner is conscious of 1. What reading strategies are reported to be used
his use of strategy and why he uses strategies. They more by male and female students when they are
often make use of strategies than less successful readers taught using three-phase approach?
do. In addition, when necessary they coordinate and shift 2. Do male and female students differ in the use of
those strategies. We can also differentiate what we learn these reading strategies?
from essential information and details (Duffy, 1993;
Farrell, 2001). Less competent readers, however, are not RESEARCH METHODS
well aware of selecting appropriate strategies or deciding A quantitative method has been used in conducting
how to connect them to have a useful chain of strategies this study. The design of this research is survey. Survey
although they can describe their own strategies. research is a study that uses oral interviews or written
questionnaires to gather data on the characteristics and
Even though the importance of reading strategies is
opinions of informants about the nature of language or
widely recognized, some research into whether or not language learning (Mc Kay, 2006).
ESL males and females have similar or different strategic This study was conducted in one vocational high
reading patterns concludes differently. The experiences school in Jombang, East Java in the second semester of
of the students are different; it's challenging for a teacher the academic year of 2018/2019. This school is
to cater to the needs of each student. Knowing the considered as one of the most desirable vocational high
preferences of male and female students regarding schools in Jombang. This school also supports the
learning styles as well as the factors influencing their learning of English by providing the students a number of
reading habits would be helpful to instructors. Teachers meaningful activities that should be done in English.
can therefore make a more educated decision by Besides, the students are also encouraged to use English
understanding the underlying factors between strategic in their daily communication with their teacher in the
reading selections for male and female students. classroom. The time of obtaining the data was conducted
A previous study by Yukselir (2014) showed that during the teaching learning process of English lesson
students tend to use high frequency reading strategies, but during 23-39 April 2019.
she fails to explain which strategies students use most The subjects of this research were students of six
and less, and she also said that these reading strategies for different classes of the tenth grade. They were chosen
Turkish EFL students are not different in terms of their using a non-probability sampling techniques (Dornyei,
gender. Another study by Mei-Ling Lee (2012) found 2007; Ary et all., 2010). In addition these six classes have
that the differences in the types of reading strategies similar number between male and female students. Each
between male and female students were significant, class consist of 16 to 18 male students and 17 to 19
females were only found to report more use of female students This similarity will support the research
metacognitive and social-affective strategies, while male because the researcher wants to know whether or not
students reported greater use of memory, cognitive, male and female differ in the use of reading strategies.
compensation strategies. The total subjects are 212 students.
Griva, Alevriadou, & Geladari (2009), who The data former obtained by using questionnaire of
examined gender differences on the results of using EFL students’ reading strategy. The questionnaire consisted of
reading strategies choices, concluded that female students 31 items grouped into three categories: strategies used in
 Gender Differences in Reading Strategies Among Vocational High School Students

(a) pre-reading strategies, (b) strategies for whilst opinion about the topic, predict the next paragraph of the
reading, and (c) post-reading strategies. Points 1 to 6 text, the reason why the author is writing the topic, how
concern strategies used in the pre-reading phase. Items the writer writes the text, and make my own question
from 7 to 28 refer to the methods used in the lecture about the text.
stage. Lastly, item 29 to 31 is an appropriate strategy for Based on the chart above both male and female
use in post-reading phases. Information about the students have the same preferences in using these reading
reported use of reading strategies by the students is strategies. Strategy 1 “find the answer based on the text”
gathered through Yes or No question. (male students 42%, female students 54%) is the most
The questionnaires were distributed manually in the frequently used reading strategy while the least
school. The researcher decided to visit Vocational High frequently used reading strategy is Strategy 5 “how the
School 1 in Jombang to administer the questionnaire. The writer writes the text” (male students 15%, female
researcher administered the questionnaire to the students 26%). The strategies at this stage are mainly
respondent through face-to face.The researcher used make the students still engage with the topic. At this
student’s questionnaire as the data. Therefore the stage the students have a chance to present their own
researcher needs to verify the accuracy of the data in opinion about the text or the topic and improve their
order to avoid an error after the data was taken. At the communicative competence.
end, the collected responses were prepared to be analyzed. The second point is the result of reading strategies
The researcher analyzed the data already using used in while-reading stage. It was presented on the table
SPSS, in order to answer the research questions. The below..
researcher used SPSS, because it is comprehensive and Table. 2 The Result of Reading Strategies Used in
simple. To address RQ1 "What reading methods male While-Reading
and female students report using a three-phase approach 60
when they are taught." The percentage ratio values of the
50
data collected from the questionnaire was calculated.
Using Percentages and Frequencies, the responses to the 40
questions were quantitatively analyzed. To research 30 male
question 2, chi-square test was used as the responses to 20
female
the questionnaire were nominal (Yes/No). 10
0
RESULT
strategy strategy strategy
Reading strategies reported to be used by male and
7 8 9
female students when they taught using three-phase
approach There are 22 strategies implemented by the students
during while-reading activity. At this stage include
Table. 1 The Result of Reading Strategies Used in strategies such issues as notetaking and analyzing. There
Pre-Reading are some aspect that were analyzed such as analyzing
60 arguments, characters, settings, the use of words (kinds of
50 verbs), and other aspect of language use.
40 Based on the analysis of the charts above, male and
female students are prefer to used strategy 8 “re-read the
30
Male text to get better understanding” (male students 40%,
20 female students 53%) rather than strategy 9 “focusing on
10 Female the most important ideas of the text” (male students 27%,
0 female students 47%) .

Some pre-reading strategies were implemented by

the students during the pre-reading stage. There were six
pre-reading strategies that the students applied. There are
find the answer based on the text, give my personal

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Table. 2.1 The Result of Reading Strategies Used in Whether or not male and female students differ in the
While-Reading use of these reading strategies
60 Research hypotheses:
50 H0: male and female students do not differ in the use of
40 this reading strategy
30 Ha: male and female students differ in the use of this
20 male reading strategy
10 Assumption:
0 female
if Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi Square < 0.05 (Ha accepted)
strategy 10
strategy 12
strategy 14
strategy 16
strategy 18
strategy 20
strategy 22
strategy 24
strategy 26
strategy 28
if Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi Square > 0.05 (H0 accepted)

Strategy Pearson Chi-square

Based on the table.1 above, it showed that male and
1 0.297
female have their own preferences in using the reading
strategies for male students the most frequently used 2 0.000*
reading strategy is strategy 16 “question everything that 3 0.875
does not make a sense to me” (37%) while for female 4 0.002*
students the most frequently used reading strategy is 5 0.085
strategy 28 “the use of connectors: and, next, however, 6 0.162
but, etc”(53%). Both of them are rarely used strategy 15
7 0.139
“do not believe everything I read” (male students 19%,
8 0.073
female students 22%)
9 0.000*
The third point is the result of reading strategies used
in post-reading stage. It was presented in the table 3 10 0.156
below. 11 0.575
Table. 3 The Result of Reading Strategies Used in 12 0.918
Post-Reading 13 0.091
35 14 0.004*
30 15 0.561
25 16 0.955
20 17 0.610
15 Male 18 0.000*
10 Female 19 0.015*
5 20 0.925
0 21 0.327
Strategy Strategy Strategy 22 0.001*
29 30 31
23 0.824
At this stage there are 3 strategies included and 24 0.000*
implemented by the students in post-reading stage such 25 0.039*
issues as summarizing, evaluating and commenting. 26 0.142
Based on the analysis of the table above, male and
27 0.398
female students have a similarity about the most
28 0.000*
frequently used strategy which are Strategy 29
29 0.508
“summarizing” (male students 22%, female students
30%) and Strategy 30 “evaluating”(male students 22%, 30 0.508
female students 30%). Both of them are rarely used 31 0.660
Strategy 31 “commenting” (male students 21%, female *) significant different
students 28%). The strategies at this stage are mainly From the table above, it can be concluded that H0 is
used to evaluate themselves do they already understand accepted it means that male and female students do not
about the text. differ in the use of these reading strategies. The table
showed that both male and female students differ in the
 Gender Differences in Reading Strategies Among Vocational High School Students

use of these reading strategies in some strategies but strategy 16 “question everything that does not make a
mostly they are similar in other ways. Male and female sense to me” (37%) and 20 “repetitions of words,
students differ in strategy 2 ”give my personal opinion phrases, examples, or illustrations” (36%) as the most
about the topic”, 9 “focusing on the most important ideas frequently used and strategy 15 “do not believe
of the text”, 14 “how I should accept his or her opinion”, everything I read” (19%) as the least frequently used. In
18 “do not believe arguments based on wrong reasoning”, other side female students tend to use strategy 28 “the use
19 “has a good reason for believing some things and do of connectors: and, next, however, but, etc”(53%) and 19
not believing others”, 22 “use of different ideas to show “has a good reason for believing some things and not
contrasting perspectives”, 24 “the author writes believing others” (50%) as the most frequently used by
emotionally”, 25 “the way nouns function”, and strategy female students and strategy 15 Strategy 15 “do not
28 “the use of connectors: and, next, however, but, etc”. believe everything I read” (22%) as the least frequently
Male and female students mostly do not differ in the use used. In post-reading both male and female students are
of these reading strategies so that genders do not affect rarely to used strategy 31 “commenting” (male students
their preferences in using the reading strategy. 21%, female students 28%). Male and female students
DISCUSSION may use the same number of the strategy maybe because
Reading Strategies that are reported to be used by the strategies is easiest to understand for them. They also
male and female students when they taught using differ in the use of this strategy because male and female
three-phase approach. have different ability in understanding a text so that they
The results of this study revealed that some reading have their own preferences in choosing the reading
strategies were deliberately implemented in their reading strategies that appropriate for them. It is suggested for the
process by both male and female students. Questionnaire teacher should be aware of the reading strategies that the
gained the data. In using any reading strategies, male and students tend to use. The teacher will introduce the useful
female students have similarities, and vary in other reading strategies to the students that can improve
respects. That student used a number of strategies to help comprehension when reading academic materials in
them understand the text. According to Rigney (1978) it English. As stated by Clarke and Silberstein (1977), the
was suggested that learners use different strategies to goal of reading instruction should be "to provide students
enable them to acquire, store, and retrieve the with a variety of successful approaches to texts including
information in terms of strategic use in reading. The use helping students identify objectives and strategies for
of these reading strategies is therefore known to be reading, to use pre-reading strategy to improve mental
measures of how readers interpret a task how they make preparation and to provide students with strategies to deal
sense of what they read, and what they do when they are with difficult syntax, vocabulary and organizational
incapable of understanding it. Strategies are the structure" (cited in Grabe, 1991, p.377)
techniques that the students used to increase their Whether or not male and female students differ in
understanding of reading and how to overcome it, and the use of these reading strategy
many different studies, Singhal (2001), have confirmed The result of the pearson chi-square showed that in
this. pre-reading, male and female students differ in the use of
In addition, each student has their own preferences in reading strategy 2 (0.000) and strategy 4 because the
using the reading strategies in order to comprehend the result of the pearson chi-square 0.002 which is lower than
text. As a teacher we cannot force students to have same 0.05. While-reading, male and female students differ in
preferences. Male and female students tend to use the the use of reading strategy 9 (0.000), strategy 14 (0.004),
same reading strategies in pre-reading activity such as strategy 18 (0.000), strategy 19 (0.015), strategy 22
strategy 1” focusing on the most important ideas of the (0.001), strategy 24 (0.000), and strategy 25 (0.039) that
text” (male students 42%, female students 54%) and are also lower than 0.05. Furthermore, in post reading
strategy 5 “how the writer writes the text” (male students male and female students do not significantly differ in the
15%, female students 26%) as the least frequently used use of the strategies. In conclusion both male and female
by male and female students. In while-reading especially students reported to use the same reading strategies in
notetaking parts both male and female students tends to their reading process in some ways in different in other
use strategy 8“re-read the text to get better ways. As stated by Phakiti (2009) males and females
understanding” (male students 40% and female students student did not differ in their reading comprehension
53%) as the most frequently used by male and female performance and the use of strategies. However, it can be
students, and less used strategy 9 ”focusing on the most concluded that there were no gender differences in either
important idea” (male students 27% and female students reading strategies use. In addition, male and female
47%) while in analyzing part male students tend to use

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students may use the same number of strategies in The first of all, reading strategies can help both male
learning a language Osborne & Akerman (2008). and female students to get better understanding while
The use of strategies among students might be reading a text. The teacher can make more educated
different because students’ perspectives are different; decision by understanding the underlying factors for male
each student has different learning abilities that are and female students. The teacher cannot push them to
related to different levels and types of intelligence. That always use the same strategies in their reading processes.
is way the teacher cannot expect the students will get the It is also suggested that to further researcher or teacher to
same understanding about the text it is because they have do a research about gender differences in reading
their own preferences reading strategies that they use to strategies among students. There are some things that
understand the text. Male and female students might be should be revised by the next researchers to make this
different not because of gender but because of their research better in the future.
intelligence. As stated by Gardner (1983) points out that Furthermore, the second suggestion is addressed for
human being do not share the same types and levels of the next researchers who wants to conduct the similar
intelligences, which are referred to as “multiple study. It is suggested to do more preparation,
intelligences”. In other words, individual differences and modification, and revisions. Other researchers can also
ability are emphasized. conduct this research with different level of the students,
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION different skill, or different material.
Conclusion
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