Think Aloud Method: Is it effective in Enhancing Indonesian EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills?

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the think-aloud method in teaching reading comprehension skills. The quasi-experimental research used pretest and post-test design involving students of tenth grade at state senior high school Bolano in Parigi-Moutong, Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia in academic 2019-2020 who were selected using probability sampling. The stratified sampling was used to divide the population on some specific characters. Then, a simple random sampling technique was conducted to assign the experimental and control group with 61 total participants. To collect the data, pre-test and post-test were assigned. The tests of reading skills were validated through peer validation and content validity. A splithalf method is used to find the reliability of the instruments. The inferential statistics using SPSS 22 were applied to analyze the data, normality test, homogeneity test, and hypothesis testing result. The findings of this study revealed that the think-aloud method had a significant difference in enhancing students’ reading comprehension skills compare to the grammar-translation method. It was indicated by the value of 0.00 in the reading comprehension test which was lower than 0.05. This means that the use of the think-aloud method is effective to enhance students’ reading comprehension skills and help students to be effective readers.


INTRODUCTION
Reading is a deconstructing competence which incorporates the power to interpret and understand or comprehend the text (Barton, 2007). Ortega (2013) included reading as one of input for comprehension and learning because learners can gain so much information and enlarge their insight through reading. Additionally, comprehension may be a complex set of process that involves the encoding of facts, the activation of data, and therefore the generation of inferences to attach the knowledge in ways in which make it understandable. (Laing, Jamison, and Clair, 2009). Reading marks the utilization of symbols and characters to be decoded and to relate to previous knowledge or experiences for understanding to require place (Gatcho & Hajan, 2019). In another word, reading may be a result of the interaction between the perception of graphic symbols that represent language and therefore the reader's language skill, cognitive skill, and knowledge (Fauzi, 2017). Thus, reading remains considered a difficult skill for a few students, especially for Indonesian learners.
For several students, the great problems are the results of inaccurate or inefficient decoding and word recognition process or the results of deficiencies in language, cognitive, or reasoning processes (Laing & Kamhi, 2002). Laing and Kamhi (2002) argue that some students could also be ready to comprehend simple words and sentences but have difficulty in understanding longer texts while other students are fine in understanding information explicitly within the text but have difficulty going what's explicitly stated so as to form sentence cohere (local coherence) and relate information within the text to world knowledge (global knowledge) and therefore the ability to form inferences that are shown to play important role in understanding and integrating texts.
Those problems appeared within the Indonesian context where English remains stated as a far of language. It is undeniable that sometimes when someone asks about the content of the passage, students sometimes cannot answer it well. It probably happens because students don't fully comprehend the content of the text (Rayanto, 2017). The other study recognized the difficulties that teachers of English in the rural areas may have when conducting reading comprehension session with their students especially in their interactions and discussions during the day due to the students' low proficiency in English (Omar & Saufi, 2015). However, students should have a strong foundation of in language skills to assist them at the secondary and tertiary levels.
Despite the importance of reading comprehension in learning, a preliminary study conducted at senior high school Bolano (hence SMAN Bolano) within the Parigi-Moutong area, there have been found that a lot of students have difficulty in identifying the most conclusions, collating short pieces of data during a text, and gaining information from English texts in signaled from the texts within the exercises which suggests that students reading comprehension were low. The students looked so hard to know the reading English texts and answering the questions regarding the texts. Thus, there's a requirement to supply an appropriate method within the process of teaching and learning activities of the classroom in order that the scholars can enhance reading comprehension skills. The utilization of an appropriate method in teaching and learning will provides a positive impact on their reading achievements.
The interview results with experienced English teachers found that the training process used LKS, but on some occasions, English teachers used a Genre-Based Approach or Grammar-Translation method in teaching. Likewise, most students cannot collate short pieces of data from several sources and summaries from the text. They are trying to find an appropriate method to show reading comprehension skills for enhancing students' reading comprehension skills. Thus, they suggested using an alternate method to show reading, not merely ask the scholars to translate the text given by their teachers but also use a stimulating method. They also recommended exploring more teaching methods because it might intervene in students within the learning process generally altogether aspects of English skills and particularly in teaching.
Additionally, the scholars in Parigi-Moutong school had difficulty pertinent to look for a few information from many sources and asked them to summarize. It had been found when the scholars were asked to spot unfamiliar words within the text during which it regarding his/her interest, they still faced difficulty to try to it. Most significantly, when their language teachers asked their students to paraphrase the short-written passages during a simple style because the output of the training process, the students still also gained difficulty to try it.
In the instruction design which was ideally could help students to accumulate language meaningfully, it didn't run well or it had been unsatisfactory design in order that it could decrease students' success to accumulate such language properly. In other words, there had been found some problems regarding comprehending, recognizing, collecting some information, identifying, and even paraphrasing the text given by their language teachers in Parigi-Moutang school. This because the teaching of EFL reading has not met students' needs, and in all likelihood, the content is outdated and/or irrelevant to the advance of prevailing knowledge (Lubis & Sulistyo, 2018). This also means the teachers got to serve their students as their own learning subject by creating the environment and learning processes in order that they will actively develop their full potential (Madya, 2013, p.124).
Previous studies indicated that students got to develop their ability to think and solve problems (Charters, 2003). He suggested using the think-aloud method because it's an efficient method to grasp the texts. The think-aloud method provides not only an in-depth picture of the participants' thought processes but also helps to spotlight individual differences in response (Charters, 2003). Consequently, the think-aloud method engages the participants to talk aloud any words in their mind as they complete a task in reading comprehension during the day.
Previous studies found that the use of think-aloud method has performed a positive effect on learners' reading comprehension in finding inferences, main ideas, and understanding inferences from the texts better than before (Bahri, Nasir, Rohiman, 2018). Furthermore, the think-aloud method has the learners to share their thinking and the strategies with a partner (Jahandar, Khodabandehlou, Sayedi, and Abadi, 2012). At last, Karyawati (2018) found that the use of think aloud in teaching reading can help students to enhance their reading comprehension skills on narrative texts. Whilst Sönmez and Sulak (2018) found that the thinking-aloud process has positively developed the reading comprehension skills of the students for EFL adult learners in Arabia. It should be noticed that the previous studies were focused to use think-aloud method for moderate students reading proficiency but without comparing to the other method. Those reasons make the researcher concern whether the implementation of think-aloud method could be effective for Indonesian EFL struggling readers where they are identified as low reading proficiency compare to the other.
However, this study was focused to investigate the effectiveness of think aloud method in enhancing students reading comprehension in English class at SMAN Bolano in Parigi-Moutong area where the students were identified as low reading proficiency achievement. For this reason, a quasi-experimental study was chosen because a researcher can select and schedule the study, see how nonrandom assignment is executed, compare between the control group and experimental group, and manage some aspects of how the treatment is scheduled (Shadish, Cook, and Campbell, 2002). In an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of think aloud method in enhancing students reading comprehension, the following research questions was addressed in the study: "Is there any statistically significant difference in the term of reading achievement between the students who were taught the thinkaloud method and other students who are thought without using think aloud method?"

Think-Aloud Method
Charters (2003) defined think-aloud as a way in which participants speak aloud any words in their mind as they complete a task. When the participants are instructed to verbalize directly only the thought entering their attention while performing the task, this is often also called think aloud (Sugirin, 2002). During think aloud, readers are periodically asked to comment about the text as they're reading (Laing and Kamhi, 2002). Furthermore, think-aloud is a method in which students verbalize their thoughts as they read (Oster, 2001, p. 64). It can be summaries that the think-aloud process triggers the participants to discuss any sort of inferences meaning of texts with his/her mates in the class which help them to comprehend the English texts better.
Furthermore, the think-aloud method asks the students to speak aloud, while solving a drag and this request is repeated if it is necessary during the problem-solving process thus encouraging the topic to inform what he or she is thinking (Someran, Barnard, and Sandberg,1994). Additionally, teacher modeling and students' practice of cognitive processes through think-aloud provides an interesting opportunity for college kids not only to experience effective reading and problem solving but to maneuver these strategies into their independent reading (Davey, 1983). Jahandar, Khodabandehlou, Sayedi, and Abadi (2012) describe the think-aloud as verbal reports aimed at studying the mental processes of readers in different situations which ideally could help learners to effective readers. Based on this term, the students would be trained to be effective readers. In line with this term, Sönmez and Sulak (2018) state that the think-aloud is the cognitive tool for the teachers by expresses his / her thoughts to his / her students on how comprehension occurs while reading a text and improves their awareness of their comprehension processes. Consequently, students are trained to adequate reading comprehension process.
In Think Aloud, students are encouraged to be fully aware of the differences between reading words and comprehending the texts by uttering what they think about the texts (Bahri, Nasir, and Rohiman, 2018). Alqahtani (2015) state that think aloud refers to a learning method that requires learners to state loudly what they think as they read. The verbalization that occurs while the participant is performing the task is, in effect, a real reflection of the cognitive processes (Zhang and Zhang, 2020). Through verbalization, students keep track of their thinking as they read and develop comprehension during the day. In this sense, the meta-cognition awareness process is an essential part of learning since it allows students to know how well they understand the English texts which by then they are able to regulate their strategies to exceed.
Richard and Vacca (2017, p. 172) introduced procedures on how the think-aloud method is implemented within the classrooms. The primary procedure is making a prediction; students make predictions by using the chapter title or subheadings found within the chapter. The second is developing images; students get mental pictures of data found within the text. The third is share analogies -students use analogies to link new information to prior knowledge. The fourth is monitor comprehension; students believe their confusion over difficult information. The last is to manage comprehension; students read beyond a confusing section to ascertain if the knowledge that comes next will clear up their confusion.
Based on the review of literature above, the researcher used the think-aloud method in teaching reading for the experimental groups. It is aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Think-Aloud Method in enhancing students' reading comprehension skills. As comparison, the control group used Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) where it will be described in the next section.

Grammar-Translation Method
The grammar-translation method is a method of teaching foreign languages derived from classical method. Mackey (1965. p. 153) defined Grammar Translation Method (GTM) is simplest arrangement of the activities of grammar and translation. Some EFL teachers especially in Indonesia perceive the GTM is the easiest method for English teacher to achieve their target language through the importance of the vocabulary and grammar rules (Milawati, 2019). The most features of the method are the overview of formal grammar, the selected vocabularies, the teaching rules, paradigms and translation. While the pronunciation is not taught or it is narrow to a number of introducing notes.
Grammar Translation is a method of studying a language that stresses the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application of this data to the task of translating sentences and text into out of the target language (Richards, 2006. p. 5). It is assumed that grammar translation method is studying target language. Trough grammar-translation method, students can utilize grammar rules, keep a watch on by application of this data through the task of translating sentences and text into and out of the target language (Megawati, 2017). Thus, in the GTM students require to know syntax and apply the grammar knowledge in translating (Milawati, 2019) Since the goal of foreign language is to find out a language so as to read its literature or so as to take advantage of the inner discipline and intellectual progress that outcome from foreign language study (Richards, 2006). There are some principles as the characteristic of the Grammar Translation Method that Richards (2006, p. 6) purposed as consideration for conveying GTM. They are reading and writing are the major focus; little or no systematic attention is compensated to speaking or listening, vocabulary selection is based on the reading texts used, and words are taught through bilingual word list, dictionary study and memorization, the sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice, the accuracy is emphasized, grammar is taught deductively that is, presentation and study of grammar rules, which are then practiced through translation exercises, the student's native language is the medium of instruction. It is used to explain new items and to enable comparison to be made between the foreign language and student's native language It is recognized that Grammar Translation Method has some principles. The main characteristic is the using of first language as conveying the language. Reading is the major focus that taught by the teacher also reading texts used. This translation method is very useful for the regular and below regular students. Brown (1987. p. 78) ordered the characteristic of the Grammar Translation Method are: classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language, much vocabulary is taught in the form of list of isolated words. Long elaborate explanations of grammar are given, grammar provides the rules of putting word together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words, reading of difficulties classical texts is begun early, little attention is paid to the content of the text, which are treated as exercise in grammatically analysis, often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue, little or no attention is given to pronunciation, the focus is on accuracy and not fluency.
Based on the ideas above, the researcher selected to utilize Grammar-Translation Method in teaching reading comprehension in the control groups for this study. The implementation of Grammar-Translation Method in control groups is used to compare the implementation of Think-Aloud method in experimental. However, the focused of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the think-aloud method in enhancing students' reading comprehension in English class where the students were identified as low reading proficiency achievement. For this reason, a quasiexperimental study was chosen because a researcher can select and schedule the study, see how nonrandom assignment is executed, compare between the control group and experimental group, and manage some aspects of how the treatment is scheduled (Shadish, Cook, and Campbell, 2002). The hypothesis of the study is mentioned below: (Ho) There is no significant different on students' reading achievements between the treatment group students who were thought using think-aloud method and control group students who were thought using grammar-translation method.
(Ha) There is significant different on students' reading achievements between the treatment group students who were thought using think-aloud method and control group students who were thought using grammar-translation method.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A quasi-experimental design is applied in this study in which the researcher investigates the effectiveness of learning to read using the think-aloud method on students' achievement in reading comprehension skills of 10th grade students of state senior high school Bolano (SMAN) Bolano. This design is chosen because a researcher can select and schedule the study, see how nonrandom assignment is executed, compare between the control group and experimental group, and manage some aspects of how the treatment is scheduled (Shadish, Cook, and Campbell, 2002). It includes an assignment, but not a random assignment of participants to group (Creswell, 2012, p.309). As the research design, there would be pre-test and post-test experimental was applied.
Control group Pre-test Grammar-translation method Post-test Therefore, the participants were divided into groups, experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught by Think Aloud Method to teach reading skill while control group was taught by grammar-translation method to be applied in teaching and learning process. However, before giving the treatments, students were given pre-test in order to know their prior knowledge in reading English text. Students were given post-test to assess students' reading skill after treatment. Then, post-test score was used to compare the students' reading comprehension achievements which lead to find the effectiveness of each method used in teaching and learning process.
Based on the design used in this study, the participants of the research were chosen by probability sampling. The stratified sampling was used to divide the population on some specific characters and then, using simple random sampling, the sample from each subgroup of the population (Creswell, 2012). This study was conducted at state senior high school of Bolano in the Parigi-Moutong Regency, Central Celebes Province, Indonesia where the think-aloud method has not been applied. Some considerations are taken due to the state of this regency includes in SM3T, its' limited resources, and the need to increase students' awareness about the important of reading and literacy in digital era especially English subject as providing the better human recourses for the future. The study was conducted between Augusts to December, 2019 in the first term of academic year 2019/2020. The total participants were 61 students which divided into two classes. The sample of the research was assigned using stratified random sampling technique and simple random sampling using coin to choose the experiment group and control group from two classes. The experiment group was called a group A and control group was called group B.
The data collection employed in this study was reading tests in the form of multiple choices developed by the researcher and some English teachers involved in the study and validated by expert judgment (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011). A test is an instrument of tool that is used to determine the skills or abilities possessed by an individual or group (Arikunto, 2013). Researcher used split-half method to measure reliability of research instrument (Hughes, 2003, p.40). The test items were designed based on the standard competence and core competence of English for first-grade students of senior high school in the 2013 Indonesian curriculum which validated by Dr. Agus Widiantoro as an expert in evaluation of English learning at Yogyakarta State University. Students were tested by these instruments to obtain a score in reading tests which assessed their comprehension ability. At last, the inferential statistics using SPSS 22 were applied to analyze the data, normality test, homogeneity test, and hypothesis testing result 4. FINDINGS

The description and inferential statistic results of pre-test.
This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the think-aloud method in enhancing students' reading comprehension skills. This study was conducted from 5th Augusts to 31st December 2019. The data was collected using a reading test which was given before and after treatments in two classes at SMAN Bolano, Parigi-Moutong, Sulawesi Tengah. The treatments were conducted 11 meetings for all the groups according to the schedule of the English lesson for each class at the school. Furthermore, the data are conveyed as follows. From the table above, it could be seen that in the group A, the average score was 56.83 with the standard deviation of 8.8. Additionally, the test statistic was .185 which meant higher than .05. Therefore, the distribution of data from the students' reading achievement of the group A in the pre-test was indicated normally. Meanwhile, in the group B, the average score was 59.19 with the standard deviation of 5.01. Furthermore, the test statistic was .243 which meant higher than .05. Thus, the distribution of data from the students' reading achievement of the group B in the pre-test was indicated normally. It can be concluded that the test distribution for group A and group B were normally distributed. The table above demonstrates the homogeneity of variance test of pretest of reading skills in the Levene test. As the Sig. value is greater than 0.05, it can be concluded that the score of pre-test and post-test of reading skills for the group A and the group B are homogeneous. To meet the assumption that the score obtained by the students were alike in the pre-test conducted before giving the treatment, the students' scores in experimental group and those in control group were compared to find out whether their difference was significant or not. Table 3 below presents the results of the independent sample t-test that was used for that purpose.
According to the result of both normality and homogeneity test, it could be assumed that the data obtained from students' scores in reading test were normally distributed and their variance was also homogenous. Therefore, the independent sample t-test was able to be used to prove the hypothesis.  Table 4 showed that the value of t in equal variances assumed which was -1.286. Moreover, the value of sig. (p) which is presented in that table was .203. It meant that the value of p (.203) was higher than 0.050 or p > 0.05. Therefore, it could be concluded that there was no significant difference between students' scores who participated in the experimental group and those scores who participated in the control group in the pre-test. The assumption of the pre-test in both groups should be started at the same level or similar was met.
It was mentioned before that the results of data was aimed to accept or to reject the alternative hypothesis. The hypothesis is "There is no significant difference between the gain scores of the experimental group students who were taught the reading comprehension by the thinking-aloud method and other group who were taught without think aloud method". If the value of sig (p) is higher than 0.05, Ho is accepted while Ha is accepted if the value of sig (p) is lower than 0.05. The students' reading scores in both the experimental and the control group will be compared by using an independent sample t-test. In doing that, SPSS was used in which the results were presented as follows: The able 5 showed the results of the independent sample t-test. From the results, it could be seen that the value of t was 5.482 and the value of sig (p) was .000. This meant that p is lower than 0.05. It also could be concluded that the Hypothesis alternative was accepted and the Null Hypothesis was rejected or it meant that there is a significant difference in students' reading achievement between those who were taught using think-aloud and those who were taught using the grammar-translation method in learning to read. It can be concluded that the think-aloud method is an effective method to enhance students' reading comprehension skills and help students to be effective readers.

DISCUSSION
According to findings, it can be seen that the utilization of the thinking-aloud method in learning to read has positively developed the reading comprehension skills of the students. The difference was seen by the results of the independent sample T-Test in reading achievements which showed that the importance value is less than p < .05 that indicates the choice hypothesis is accepted. Moreover, the mean score of scholars who learned reading using the think-aloud method is above those that learned through non-think-aloud. In short, this method is effective to develop students' reading comprehension skills.
The findings showed that the think-aloud method can help students to encourage the generation of explanatory inferences within the text since their achievements within the post-test expand better than within the pre-test. In support to the present finding, Bahri, Nasir, and Rohiman (2018) found that the think-aloud method makes students comprehend the texts better by finding the most idea, the detailed information, the inferences, the references, and understanding the vocabulary from English texts. In line with the present finding, Laing and Kamhi (2002) claimed that the think-aloud method is additionally useful for identifying the frequency and kinds of inferences. However, the results of significantly better achievement depend on the teacher and students' interaction during the training process.
Since reading may be a process, the investigation of the utilization think-aloud method in enhancing reading comprehension skills has helped students to realize the essential information from the text by the problem-solving process using 5W+1H because the basis in understanding the text (Aveyard, Sharp, & Woolliams, 2011:15). Both the structure of the problem-solving process and therefore the results of the problem-solving steps that appear within the protocol are often used as a basis for a knowledge-based to perform or support a comprehension. Thus, the thinkaloud method may be a unique source of data on cognitive processes and promotes problem-solving processes (Someran et al, 1994).
In the teaching through the think-aloud method, students are given reading activities, like answering driving questions and delivering what they need in mind after reading the section. These steps are in line with Charters (2003) who defined think-aloud as a way during which participants speak aloud any words in their mind as they complete a task. Furthermore, the participants are instructed to verbalize directly only the thought of entering their attention while performing the task (Sugirin, 2002). Consequently, students are required to seek out and explore information so as to gather and build ideas from the text. Then, the teacher provides some driving questions that help students collecting important information from the text they attained. All of the processes above can help students to create their comprehension skills towards English texts. The mental processes of readers in different situations help learners to effective readers. These statements are in line with the previous study (Jahandar et al, 2012, Karyawati, 2018, Sönmez & Sulak, 2018 Taking into consideration the results of the above-mentioned, the researcher reveals the importance of learning to read using the think-aloud method in teaching comprehension skills. The importance of the utilization of the think-aloud method are often better understood considering its benefits such as; this improves the social interaction of the scholars (Kucan & Beck, 1997), it activates self-regulation strategy of scholars when encountered with comprehension difficulties (Baumann, Jones, & Kessel, 1993), students encouraged to think-aloud are more successful than other students in summarizing (Seng, 2007), students gain a far better understanding of the most idea of the text (Bahri et al, 2018, Alqahtani, 2015. Thus, the acceptable texts should be considered also to enhance the reading comprehension skills of the students. In advance, students are ready to plan to develop their social autonomy by seeking their teacher intervention to urge adequate feedback on areas of difficulty and to unravel the issues, collaborating with others to pool information, and taking advantage of opportunities to speak with the competent speakers. It refers to "the incontrovertible fact that among strategies and activities related to increasing metacognitive awareness and learning management skills are some that involve interaction with others" (Broadly, Kenning, 1996, p. 16). These activities contribute to students to realize a way of responsibility for aiding their own learning and develop a degree of sensitivity and understanding toward other learners who could also be more or less competent than they're (Kumaravadivelu, 2001). Consequently, students start to understand their learning and that they are ready to pick the acceptable way to develop their own learning process.
On the opposite hand, during a grammar-translation method, reading English texts within the target language was the central activity in teaching (Cahyono and Widiati, 2006). The stress of teaching was on word knowledge in teaching that is, matching words within the foreign language text with the meanings within the students' native tongue (Dublin and Bycina, 1991). Little attention was given to the method of arriving at an understanding of longer texts. Additionally, the spoken characteristics and communicative purposes of language were overlooked, causing the tactic less effective during the day.
However, the results of the study support the thought that the think-aloud method are often used to scaffold students reading comprehension skills within the classroom. By using the think-aloud method, students have more experiences in learning to read which lead them to be effective readers. Once students understand to use the think-aloud method, they will develop their reading in accordance with their learning types. Consequently, when students understand the initial step to grasp the text, they're ready to develop their learning which leads them to be efficient readers.

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this research is to investigate of use the think-aloud method in enhancing students' reading comprehension skills for tenth-grade students of senior high school Bolano. The conclusion revealed that there is a big difference in students' reading achievement between students who were taught using the thinkaloud method and people who were taught without employing a think-aloud method (grammar-translation method). This means that the utilization of the think-aloud method in teaching comprehension is effective to reinforce students' reading skills. Additionally, learning to read using the think-aloud method has an impression on students to develop their learning which led them to be effective readers. Students' learning experience during the day has become a meaningful learning process since they will take advantage to develop their learning. However, it should be noted that the implementation of the think-aloud method is acceptable for the students who have low reading comprehension skills where they need a scaffold by their teacher.

REFERENCES
Alqahtani M. A. (2015). The effects of think-aloud strategy to improve reading comprehension of 6th grade students in Saudi Arabia. (Unpublished master