Reader Response Strategy

Applying Reader Response Strategy in Appreciating Literary Works

The appreciation of the short story applies seven reader response strategies posed by Beach and Marshall (1990); they are describing, conceiving, explaining, interpreting, engaging, connecting and judging. The guiding questions are constructed based on the responses.

No	Responses	Indicators	Questions to Guide
1	Describing	Character, characterization, setting, theme, style,	1.   What do you think of the character of the story? Is he/she good or bad? Do you like or dislike him/her? 2.   Where does the story happen? Do you like the setting? Why? 3.   Does the story tell about good things? 4.   Is the story reasonable? Is the style of the story communicative of figurative? Explain it. 5.   What event in the story do you think is very important? Why?
2	Engaging	Feeling, imagination, thought	6.   Can you feel what is felt by the character? What does he/she feel? 7.   Would you do the same thing if you were the character? Explain it. 8.   Can you imagine what happens? Explain it.
3	Conceiving	Reason	9.   Why is the character forbidden to do something?
4	Explaining	Character’s action, agreement	10.  A character is extremely hated by someone but he/she keeps patient and obeys. What do you think of the character’s action? 11.  Do you agree or disagree of the bad action done by anyone to the character? Why?
5	Interpreting	Opinion	12.  In your point of view, what does the story talk about?
6	Connecting	Experience, Other story, Film, Social life, Culture, Religion	13.  Do you have the same experience with the character? Your brother? Parents? Neighbor? Friend? 14.  Have you ever read book or watched film which is similar to the story read? Tell the story and connect it. 15.  Can you connect this story to social life? Culture? Religion? How do you connect it?
7	Judging	Story line, Moral values, The author	16.  Is the story interesting? 17.  Is the story valuable? What values do you get from reading the story? 18.            What do you think of the author?

Source: Rudy (2007)

1. Include (Engaging): 

Readers are always trying to engage his feelings to literature they read. Readers immerse themselves into the text, imagine what happened and feel what is perceived by the characters.Purves, et al. (1990) adds the definition above that when reading works of literary readers include not only feelings but to include the mind and imagination as well as those quoted from the statement "Literature and the arts exist in the curriculum as a means for students to learn to express Their emotions, Their thought, and Their imaginations. "
 According Kimtafsirah (2003:6) readers who are "engaged" with the text, merged with the text in terms of applying Rosenblatt is an aesthetic reading. In aesthetic reading, as if the reader into the text and live there in order to understand the behavior of the characters.Thus, readers can respond emotionally with ease so that the understanding reached.

2. Detailing (describing):

Readers back detailing or describing information contained in the text.Readers detailing the characters, characterizations, background story, and story lines.That is, the reader retells the story he had read and detailing the events that are considered important to understand. When reading a literary text, will be found different things in the same text. Students tell the parts that interest them, at least in three sentences. Previously, they can specify all the elements of the building is structurally literary works such as: character and penokohannya, background, and the storyline.

            Application of this response can facilitate learners in achieving honesty, compassion, and caring. After reading Malin Kundang, the first question put to them. Malin Kundang as a rebellious figure in the story's sharp criticism of the appreciation. Learners are not going to like the character's actions and behavior. They learn honesty, compassion, and care after appreciating and exploring the story.

3. Understanding (conceiving): 

The reader understands the characters, background stories, and the language used in a story and memaknainya.In this activity, students understand the characters by applying their knowledge of social behavior in society and cultural backgrounds. Understanding of the characters is also supported by the opinion Kimtafsirah (2003:7) that knowledge of the text can not be separated with the understanding of social behavior and cultural background is reflected from the text. For example, when students read the story with the customs of different cultures and backgrounds with them then they can understand the behavior of the characters are not from their culture.

4. Explained (Explaining): 

Students try to explain best why characters might perform an action.

5. Connect (connecting):

Students connect their experiences with what happens to the characters.

            Other activities in this strategy is to connect the story with another story or never read or watch movies. Kimtafsirah (2003:8) illustrates as the following example: after reading the works of Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, students can compare it with the film Hanggara Ari. Likewise with Oemarjati (2005) that suggest teachers "asked the students if anyone ever read a similar story, or watch a movie or a soap opera with the same basic problem with the literature being discussed is Siti Nurbaya."

            Based on activities in connecting these, Penzenstadler (1999) warns that with everything that is used as a medium of learning, teachers can help students connect what they read with their world (http://www.ade.org/ade/bulletin/ n123/123036.htm).

6. Interpreting (interpreting):

 Students use the reaction, conception, and the connections they form to articulate the theme.

            Activities involving the determination of interpreting symbolic meanings, themes, or specific events from a text. In making interpretations, usually under discussion is what the text "express." Interpretation involves a generalization, not a statement made that statement in the text but implicit in the text.

7. Assess (Judging):

Students give their opinions about the story text, story writer or storyline.The seventh reader response contains elements that can sharpen cognition (detailing, explain, understand, and interpret) and affection (including, linking, and assess).

1. Menyertakan (engaging): Pembaca selalu berusaha mengikutsertakan perasaannya terhadap karya sastra yang dibacanya. Pembaca meleburkan diri ke dalam teks, membayangkan apa yang terjadi dan merasakan apa yang dirasakan oleh tokoh cerita.

Purves, dkk. (1990) menambahkan definisi di atas bahwa ketika membaca karya sastra pembaca tidak hanya menyertakan perasaan tetapi menyertakan pikiran dan imajinasi juga sebagaimana yang dikutip dari pernyataan mereka “Literature and the arts exist in the curriculum as a means for students to learn to express their emotions, their thought, and their imaginations.”

 Menurut Kimtafsirah (2003:6) pembaca yang sedang “engaged” dengan teks, meleburkan diri dengan teks dalam istilah Rosenblatt sedang menerapkan aesthetic reading. Dalam aestheticreading, pembaca seolah-olah masuk ke dalam teks dan hidup di sana agar dapat memahami tingkah laku para tokoh cerita. Dengan demikian, pembaca dapat merespons secara emosional dengan mudah sehingga pemahaman tercapai.

2. Merinci (describing): Pembaca merinci atau menjelaskan kembali informasi yang tertera di dalam teks. 

Pembaca merinci tokoh-tokoh cerita, penokohan, latar cerita, dan alur cerita. Artinya, pembaca menceritakan kembali cerita yang telah dibacanya dan merinci peristiwa-peristiwa yang dianggap penting untuk dipahami.  Ketika membaca sebuah teks sastra, akan ditemukan hal-hal yang berbeda dalam teks yang sama. Mahasiswa menceritakan bagian-bagian yang menarik perhatian mereka, setidaknya dalam tiga kalimat. Sebelumnya, mereka dapat merinci semua unsur pembangun karya sastra secara struktural seperti: tokoh dan penokohannya, latar, dan alur cerita.

            Penerapan respons ini dapat memfasilitasi peserta didik dalam mencapai kejujuran, kasih sayang, dan kepedulian. Setelah membaca Malin Kundang, pertanyaan pertama diajukan kepada mereka. Malin Kundang sebagai tokoh yang durhaka dalam cerita itu menuai kritik yang tajam dari hasil apresiasi. Peserta didik tidak akan menyukai tindakan dan perilaku sang tokoh. Mereka belajar jujur, kasih sayang, dan peduli setelah mengapresiasi dan mengeksplorasi cerita tersebut.

3. Memahami (conceiving): Pembaca memahami tokoh, latar cerita, dan bahasa yang digunakan dalam sebuah cerita dan memaknainya.      

                     

Dalam kegiatan ini, mahasiswa memahami para tokoh cerita dengan menerapkan pengetahuan mereka tentang tingkah laku sosial dalam masyarakat dan latar belakang budaya. Pemahaman terhadap tokoh cerita tersebut didukung pula oleh pendapat Kimtafsirah (2003:7) bahwa pengetahuan tentang teks tidak dapat dipisahkan dengan pemahaman social behaviour dan cultural backgroundyang direfleksikan dari teks. Sebagai contoh, ketika mahasiswa membaca cerita dengan adat istiadat dan latar budaya yang berbeda dengan mereka maka mereka dapat memahami tingkah laku tokoh cerita tersebut bukan berasal dari budaya mereka.

4. Menerangkan (explaining): Mahasiswa mencoba menjelaskan sebaik-mungkin mengapa tokoh cerita melakukan suatu tindakan.     

                                              

5. Menghubungkan (connecting): Mahasiswa menghubungkan pengalaman mereka dengan apa yang terjadi pada tokoh cerita.

            Kegiatan lain dalam strategi ini adalah menghubungkan cerita dengan cerita lain atau film pernah dibaca atau ditonton. Kimtafsirah (2003:8) mengilustrasikan seperti contoh berikut: setelah membaca karya Charles Dicken Oliver Twist, mahasiswa dapat membandingkannya dengan film Ari Hanggara. Begitu juga dengan Oemarjati (2005) yang menyarankan guru “menanyakan kepada para siswa, apakah ada yang pernah membaca kisah yang serupa, atau menonton film atau sinetron dengan persoalan dasar serupa dengan karya sastra yang sedang  dibahas yaitu Siti Nurbaya.”

            Berdasarkan kegiatan-kegiatan dalam connecting tersebut, Penzenstadler (1999) mengingatkan bahwa  dengan segala sesuatu yang digunakan sebagai media pembelajaran, guru dapat menolong siswa menghubungkan apa yang mereka baca dengan dunia mereka(http://www.ade.org/ade/bulletin/n123/123036.htm).

6. Menafsirkan (interpreting): Siswa menggunakan reaksi, konsepsi, dan koneksi yang mereka bentuk untuk mengartikulasikan tema.

            Kegiatan interpreting melibatkan penentuan makna-makna simbolik, tema, atau peristiwa spesifik dari suatu teks. Dalam membuat penafsiran, biasanya yang didiskusikan adalah apa yang teks “ungkapkan.” Interpretasi melibatkan generalisasi, pernyataan yang dibuat bukan pernyataan yang ada di dalam teks melainkan terimplisit di dalam teks.

7. Menilai (judging): Mahasiswa memberikan pendapatnya tentang teks cerita, penulis cerita atau alur cerita.

Ke tujuh respons pembaca tersebut mengandung unsur-unsur yang dapat menajamkan kognisi (merinci, menerangkan, memahami, dan menafsirkan) dan afeksi (menyertakan, menghubungkan, dan menilai).