Page 178 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2020

& Ambigapathy, 2001; Newspaper Association of America Foundation, 2012; Pastina &
Landy, 2010; Pennsylvania State University, 2008; Vavla, 2009).
Based on a survey which examines the effectiveness of Newspaper Readership Program
conducted by Pennsylvania State University (2008), reading newspaper does not only enhance
students’ language but also produces other favourable outcomes such as being informed and
being able to articulate views on current issues as well as being engaged on campus and in the
community. Besides, it also found that the data overwhelmingly support the relationship
between newspaper readership and developing cognitive skills; increasing one’s awareness,
understanding, and ability to articulate views on current issues; and developing civic
mindedness. Furthermore, 72.2% respondents in the Penn State Study indicated that reading
the newspaper for class has enhanced their educational experience. In addition, Akbari and
Razavi's (2016) research which investigated Iranian EFL teachers’ attitudes and beliefs
regarding the use of authentic materials at high school level in Iran found that the English
teachers have a positive attitude toward presenting authentic materials in the classroom.
The use of newspaper is essential for language development as it can enhance students’
vocabulary as mentioned in Azadeh and Ghazali (2011); and improve reading skills in
Berardo's (2006) study. In Malaysia, the NIE programme initiated in 1985 by the New Straits
Times. Though newspaper in classroom is not something new, it is still popular being used in
education or learning process. This is proven by Kaplan International College's (2013) survey
and it has revealed that 75% of 503 ESL educators form 40 countries were still using
newspapers to teach English and help their students improve their knowledge in this digital era.
Hence, PBL using newspaper also needs to incorporate online learning in this study due to the
st
awareness of 21 century learning, an integral part of teaching and learning.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The rationale for selecting reading over the other three skills in MUET – Writing,
Speaking and Listening, is mainly because reading component in MUET has higher weightage
compared to other skills (40%). Moreover, Ong et al. (2015) substantiated the point by
mentioning that reading tests have great potential to inform researchers, teachers, educational
professionals, administrators, and policy makers the areas that need improvement and rate the
curriculum or instructional methods. Consequently, it is important to find ways to help the
students’ reading performance as this skill is important in Malaysian curriculum. In view of
this matter, some researchers have discussed about PBL in their studies to investigate whether
it can assist the students in reading and other skills (i.e. speaking, listening and writing) as they
are inter-dependent (e.g. Adzura Elier Ahmad & Li, 2014; Faridah Musa, Norlaila Mufti,
Rozmel Abdul Latiff, & Maryam Mohamed Amin, 2011). However, to the best of my
knowledge, education practitioners have not studied either NiE PBL-online or NiE PBL-book
is better to enhance the matriculation students’ reading achievement.
Many matriculation students do not like reading as they would say that it is a boring
activity. Students who are reluctant to read have no effort doing more than what is required
(Guo, 2012). Concerning about my learners’ disinterest, I endeavoured to find ways and sources
to encourage and help students to read in this study. Due to the positive effects of PBL and the
benefits of NiE, this study will employ newspaper articles as authentic materials in PBL
activities. Akbari and Razavi (2016); Berardo (2006); and Ghilani Nour (2015) state that
authentic materials can promote reading skills and reflect how a language is used. Through
PBL, which requires students to do collaboratively outside the classroom, it is hoped that
students would spend time to read the articles from newspaper online as Bradley-levine (2012)
and Cervantes (2013) agree that collaborative learning in PBL with authentic materials can

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