RESEARCH ON THE SECOND-GRADE STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY THROUGH FIX-UP OPTIONS STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

Problems in reading comprehension are usually identified when the information obtained is incongruent with the reading text. Consequently, a reading strategy is made to support the comprehension ability. This study was aimed to determine the impact of reading comprehension ability on students of SMP Pos Keadilan Peduli Ummah (Henceforth called PKPU) and their responses to the implementation of the fix-up options strategy. It focused on improving reading comprehension by identifying the main idea, summarizing, making inferences, and interpreting vocabulary. A mixed-explanatory research design was used as the method of the study. Forty-four students of PKPU junior high school's second grade were involved as samples. They were split into two groups: experimental and control. The reading test was used, with data analyzed using SPSS 20 series for quantitative analysis and questionnaires analyzed using interactive analysis for qualitative analysis. The findings showed a significant improvement in students' reading comprehension. The dominant aspects of improvement were making inferences and interpreting vocabulary. The students' responses were positive to applying fix-up strategies to improve their reading comprehension. Thus, using the fix-up options strategy was found to help students improve their reading comprehension ability. fix-up strategy on the reading comprehension of Indonesian EFL learners. They separated the samples into two groups: control and experiment, and each class was given different treatments. The findings showed that students'


INTRODUCTION
Reading is closely related to comprehension ability. To obtain the information, a reader needs to read the passage carefully. It involves the function of the eyes, voice, and brain for seeing, detecting, vocalizing, and understanding the text's content (Sagirli & Ates, 2016). Further to apprehend a text, a reader is required to deliberate the message delivered by the writer, either implicitly or explicitly. Furthermore, Grabe and Stoller (2002) consider reading comprehension as a process in which the reader and the text material interact to connect prior knowledge, vocabulary, and strategy to understand the meaning. Using appropriate situations and strategies in the reading activity can ease the reader to comprehend the text.
English is taught as a foreign language subject from elementary to high school in Indonesia. Although students have been introduced to English at an early age, comprehending a reading text remains a problem. The teacher has implemented some techniques and methods to fix the students' problems, but it was ineffectual. According to a preliminary study conducted at PKPU Junior High School, the students' difficulties comprised four components of reading comprehension: main idea, summary, inference, and vocabulary. The students were frequently subjected to comprehension loss. This is unsettling because comprehension ability is often considered a fundamental skill for students' academic performance and achievement (Rizqi, Nurkanto, & Asib, 2018). As a result, teachers need to apply a proper reading strategy to help students resolve their problems.
The reading strategy incorporated a set of teaching-learning equipment processes that involves monitoring, questioning, and repredicting (Duffy, 2009). Accordingly, finding a reading strategy is necessary when the focus is failed, and the comprehension is lost. One of many suggestions is the fix-up options strategy, which provides some options and steps as espouse tools for fixing none that makes sense (Herwanis, Zakaria, Renaldi, & Sari, 2021). As a result, students can improve their comprehension skills by applying this strategy.
Referring to the explanation mentioned above, this study investigated the students' reading comprehension improvement after implementing the fix-up options strategy. Additionally, the focus of the study is restricted to the student's capacity to identify the main idea, summary, inference, and interpretation of vocabulary aspects of reading. This study has two hypotheses formulated. First, the alternative hypothesis (Ha): there is a significant improvement in PKPU junior high school students' reading comprehension after applying the fix-up options strategy. Second, the null hypothesis (Ho): there is no significant improvement in PKPU junior high school students' reading comprehension after applying the fix-up options strategy.

Reading Comprehension
Comprehending a reading text can be beneficial for a learner since the information and knowledge are mostly provided in written form. Linse and Nunan (2005) defined reading comprehension as gaining and understanding information by interpreting the meaning of the printed word. Furthermore, Hamra and Syatriana (2010) stated that the reading comprehension process includes metacognitive activities such as clarifying the reading objective, explaining a meaningful message, focusing on the actual topic, observing the reading activity, and self-questioning fixing the comprehension problems. Thus, a learner should be aware of deciding the point of interpreting the meaning problem by conducting self-monitoring comprehension.
The reading activity consists of three kinds of the comprehension process. Recognizing the general information to a specific point of reading is known as the top-down comprehension process. The text's message can be illustrated based on enormous aspects and supported by experience and own intelligence (Brown, 2000). The learners' prior knowledge was the basic point in discovering the new information. The top-down process entails interacting with the reader's knowledge and expectations of the text to produce meaning (Liu, 2010). Then, the process of understanding the reading according to a small linguistic unit, namely bottom-up. The process of comprehension begins with the transformation of words into sentences to produce information from the text (Orqez & Rasyid, 2017). Word understanding begins with morphology, pronunciation, and semantic values and then moves to syntax, sentences, and paragraphs (Angosto et al., 2013). It functions to know the whole text, from specific terms to common information. Finally, the other comprehension process is interactive reading. It is the integrating process of the top-down and bottom-up used to construct the meaning while reading the process (Brown, 2000).
Reading comprehension covers the main idea, summary, inference, and vocabulary. The main idea is the point of information delivered in a text. Accordingly, it is considered the most significant point of the author's explanation in the passage (Duffy, 2009). Moreover, a text contains facts, knowledge, and experience information. To summarize the information of a text, a reader should have a good comprehension ability. Shea and Robert (2016) mentioned, "Summarizing is the process for systematically assessing comprehension of text through a reader's self-initiated expression of understanding" (p.117). The reader figures out their understanding of new statement composition incoherent form orally or in writing.
Furthermore, inference-making covers the activity of drawing the meaning of the text. Drawing inferences is a crucial component of reading comprehension (Dole, et al., 1991). A reader tries to look for the implied meaning to make a conclusion. The process needs the connecting prior knowledge strategy to construct the omitted meaning (Shea & Robert, 2016). Thus, the inference closely related to a reader's prior knowledge of the text was being read.
In addition, a reader must have sufficient vocabulary to comprehend the content of the text. This is an important feature of language that refers to a group of words that have meaning. Reading more articles, books, and reading material can expand a reader's knowledge, including vocabulary mastery (Elleman & Oslund, 2019). Therefore, to avoid comprehension failure in reading new text, a reader should know lots of vocabulary.

Fix-up Options Strategy
A reading strategy is a tool for helping the students comprehend the reading passage. Determining the appropriate strategy related to the problem should follow the self-monitoring process. One effective strategy is to encourage learners' comprehension and frequently suggested by scholars is the fix-up options strategy. It consists of options that can assist learners in avoiding becoming lost and perplexed when reading the content (Tovani, 2000). When the comprehension loss occurs, the fix-up options strategy principle stops the thinking process and forces the students to look back and remove the meaning blockage (Duffy, 2009). Learners should be aware of the problem to decide the appropriate options. Some scholars agreed that applying some options provided could ensure a successful comprehension (Bo, 2015). Some options can be used to support students' comprehension ability. Owocki (2003) mentions seven options of fix-up strategy: rereading and reading aloud the confusing sentence, checking punctuation, finding a clue from the structure, searching the definition, doing discussion and asking for someone else. In addition, Moreillon (2007) provided sixteen options of reading strategy that consist of rereading, reading ahead, stopping to think, visualizing, questioning, predicting, illustrating, figuring unknown words, looking at the structure, differencing, connecting prior knowledge, reading the author's note, writing the confusion part, thinking about the message and defining the purpose of reading text. These options, hence, are expected to be beneficial for the students respective to their identified problem.
In addition, the fix-up options strategy was helped navigate the concentration break in comprehending a reading text. Choosing the available options, and applying them when reading is expected to deliver understanding success (Moreillon, 2007). The fix-up strategy also identified the comprehension error and introduced some options as solutions (Tovani, 2000). Thus, with better self-monitoring in the prereading stage, the more beneficial options strategy can be implemented as the supporting tool for fixing the problem encountered.
On the contrary, the influential classroom environment usually determines the students' reading achievement. The students need to be focused on the reading process. In selecting the options of the fix-up strategy, the students need role models to recognize the solving tools (Reutzel & Cooter 2006). Therefore, the fix-up options strategy was occasionally suggested in collaborative model learning.

Previous Scientific Study
Some studies have been conducted in the past related to fix-up options strategy. For instance, Kucokoglu (2013) applied action research to observe the students' development during the strategy implementation to determine the effect of reading strategy in improving reading skills in language classes. The finding of this study indicated a visible improvement in students' reading comprehension. Moreover, Muhassin, Annisa, and Hidayati (2021) conducted an experimental research design study to investigate the impact of a fix-up strategy on the reading comprehension of Indonesian EFL learners. They separated the samples into two groups: control and experiment, and each class was given different treatments. The findings showed that students' comprehension in the class treated with fix-up strategy treatment significantly increased compared to the control class.
More recently, a study conducted by Herwanis et al., (2021) sought to compare the fix-up options strategy to the Surveys, Questioning, Read, Recite, Record, Reflect, and Review (SQ5R) strategy for improving students' reading comprehension. They discovered that both strategies increased students' comprehension when using observation and tests for instruments. Interestingly, the class taught using SQ5R had a better impact than the class treated with a fixup options strategy. Regardless, the implementation of the fix-up options strategy was proven successful, though it did not show significant improvement.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This is a mixed-explanatory study; that is an explanatory sequential design consists of first collecting quantitative data and then collecting qualitative data to help explain or elaborate on the quantitative results (Creswell, 2012, p. 542). The researchers used a nonequivalent control group as the first design to investigate the effect of students' reading comprehension after implementing the fix-up options strategy. The second design was to distribute an open-ended questionnaire to students to determine their reactions to the practice of fix-up options strategy. The participants of this study were secondgrade students from PKPU junior high school in Great Aceh. The samples were divided into experiment and control classes of students.
The researchers used the reading test to collect the quantitative data. There were two kinds of tests used for this study: pre-test and post-test. The researcher committed five meetings during the data collecting process. The fix-up options strategy implemented was proposed by Morellion (2007). The open-ended questionnaire was distributed for collecting the qualitative data after treatment in experiment class to figure out students' responses.
The quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) 20 version. In comparing the students' scores in both classes, the t-test formula of parametric methods was applied. The formula was a dependent paired sample Ttest (2-tailed). Furthermore, the qualitative data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman's interactive models (2014). This process consists of three steps; data condensation, data displays, and data verification or Research on the second-grade students' reading comprehension ability through fix-up options strategy implementation (T. Ulfah & R. Jannah) 178 conclusion. The qualitative data was used to support the result of quantitative data.

The fix-up options strategy implementation
An improvement in students' reading comprehension ability was shown after implementing the fix-up options strategy. The experimental and control classes' average scores increased in the post-test, as shown by the graph below. The ratio of the mean score of the experiment and control classes is shown in Figure 1. This school's cumulative minimal standard score was 70. After applying the fix-up options strategy, the experiment class students mostly reach the minimum standard, according to the average mean score. The students in the control class, on the other hand, show minor improvement. There are only two students who achieve the cumulative minimum standard score.  Table 1 shows that the significant value of the experiment class is 0,000 by using the significant level of 5%. The result indicated that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. Meanwhile, the control class, which was not treated using the fix-up options strategy, showed increased scores, and the significant value was 0,000. However, the similar result of the t-test, both classes have significant differences in calculation scores. The comparison indicates that the experiment's mean result (-19.77) is higher than the control class's mean (-10.45). It can be deduced that the control class's comprehension is slightly better than the experiment class, which applied the fix-up options strategy to understand the text. As a result, second-grade students at PKPU junior high school improved their comprehension abilities due to the implementation of this strategy.
Furthermore, the dominant aspects of reading comprehension that improved after implementing the fix-up strategy were interpreting vocabulary and inference making. Most students can answer the questions correctly on these aspects rather than summary and main idea identification. As a result, the fix-up strategy available options provide additional benefits for improving a student's reading comprehension ability, particularly in inferences and vocabulary.

Students' response to fix-up options strategy implementation
Implementing the fix-up options strategy improved students' reading comprehension. According to the findings, most of the participants mentioned that using a fix-up strategy helped them comprehend the reading texts. However, some students contended that this strategy did not allow them to understand the text thoughtfully. Hence, the students' response was categorized into satisfying and unsatisfying strategy.
Nineteen participants considered the fix-up option strategy was an interesting and helpful strategy to encourage them to understand the text. It proved that students' scores in four aspects of reading comprehension improved after using this strategy. One of the participants said, "This strategy was interesting because it provided some options which can be chosen based on the problem faced". Another participant added, "I am interested in trying the options connected to background knowledge because it was interesting to imagine the events we read with our experience, so we can understand the reading easily". Accordingly, the statements explained how the available options in this strategy encourage students to solve their comprehension problems.
Furthermore, implementing the fix-up strategy can assist students in interpreting the language. One participant stated that some options could be used to know the meaning of the vocabulary. Interpreting the unknown word can be done by matching one word to another and reading the whole sentence. This strategy asked the students to comprehend the text without translating the word precisely. Rereading the sentence many times and using other options provided can establish comprehension successfully. The students did not stick to one activity when they were confused about understanding the text. The strategy suggested applying other options to remove their reading confusion.
The other student mentioned that the fix-up options strategy could help comprehend the reading because it provided the steps and options. In sum, the students considered the strategy makes it easier for them to illustrate the meaning of a sentence rather than translate each word. Using this strategy, the children had a lot of pleasure reading the texts. As a result, it made it easier for students to answer comprehension questions accurately.
However, three participants considered that applying the fix-up options strategy cannot become an alternative to help their comprehension ability. One of them mentioned, "I have used some options provided in this strategy; However, I remain to have difficulty comprehending the meaning conveyed by the text.". The student tried using the options to fix his problem but the sentence he reads still does not make sense.

Discussions
This study aims to see how the implementation of the fix-up options strategy affects second-grade students at PKPU junior high school and how they react to it. It was discovered that using the fix-up options strategy can help students enhance their reading comprehension. Students encountered challenging parts of words or sentences during the reading process and struggled to comprehend the passage's meaning; as a result, they chose the fix-up options strategy to address those problems. For example, when facing difficulties in interpreting vocabulary, they reread, read aloud, figure out the unknown meaning, and underline it.
The current study's findings corresponded to the previous research conducted by Muhassin, Annisa, and Hidayati (2021), stating that the fix-up options strategy implementation has a significant impact on students' comprehension ability. In addition, Moreillon (2007) argued that this strategy is a prominent tool to make the students comprehend the text easily. The students can freely choose the options based on their problems encountered in the reading activity. Nevertheless, implementing the fix-up options strategy cannot solve all four reading comprehension aspects.
There are four reading comprehension improvement aspects focused on in this study. The two dominantly improved aspects recorded in this study were making inferences and interpreting vocabulary. The fix-up options strategy is a part of collaborative learning models, and it is best applied in a group study. Collaborative learning can inspire students to express themselves and negotiate the meaning of the text to draw conclusions. (Rojas & Vargas, 2017). In making inferences, the students like to connect the text to their prior knowledge. In the group study, the students shared their experiences and discussed them to obtain new information. Then, they exchange opinions to draw inferences.
Moreover, another dominant aspect significantly improved in this study is the student's ability to interpret the vocabulary. The students identified the unknown word and used the options "stop to think", "read aloud", "predict the meaning", and "try to visualize". The finding indicated that students could answer the questions correctly after applying those options. The finding was in line with Herwanis et al. (2021) which claimed that this strategy could help students understand certain words and sentences.
Although the fix-up options strategy provided sixteen options for supporting the comprehension ability, it was slightly less beneficial to support the two other aspects: summary making and main idea identifying. The students' response toward using the fix-up options strategy correlated with the result of students' achievement scores. Applying some options of fix-up strategy trained the students to focus on reading to subtract any confusing parts. Duffy (2009) explained that this strategy asked the readers to look back to the passage when they got stuck and find the meaningless comprehension ability.
In addition, the student's achievement in each aspect of reading comprehension indicated improvement. The finding follows the theory supposed by Morellion (2007) that stated the fix-up strategy is a support mechanism for comprehension loss. Yet, according to the students' scores and responses, this strategy cannot cover all improvement aspects of reading comprehension. Therefore, it showed the finding was not in line with Kucokoglu (2013), which found a visible improvement in reading comprehension of student achievement after using the fix-up options strategy.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
Based on the finding and discussion, the researchers inferred that most students' reading comprehension improved after implementing the fix-up options strategy. Also, this strategy made a better contribution and impact on the student's comprehension ability. The average students' score mostly reached the cumulative standard score. Moreover, interpreting vocabulary and making inferences were the most prominently improved elements. When comparing the pre-test and post-test scores, it is clear that the students' comprehension capacity has improved.
Furthermore, the students' responses revealed a favorable result for using the fix-up strategy to improve reading comprehension. As a result, the students' argument validated the test results. Most opinions agree that the fix-up options strategy is a helpful tool for improving their reading comprehension. Then, the opinion toward improvement aspects was appropriate with the students' score dominant result.
Finally, the author hopes that this research can benefit the pedagogical process. The teacher can use this strategy as a good reference for supporting students in overcoming their reading comprehension difficulties. Furthermore, students can try to apply the options concerning the comprehension difficulty encountered, and future researchers can investigate further scientific research toward fixup options strategy.