IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT OF GRADE 11 THROUGH DIRECTED ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TEXT (DART) METHOD AT SMAN 3 JEMBER IN THE 2008/2009 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Regarding the interview done with the eleventh grade English teacher of SMA Negeri 3 Jember, it was found that most of students were not successful in grasping idea presented in reading text. Some factors caused the failures that were they lack of motivation and concentration on reading English text. Besides, the monotonous activity made the students get bored in teaching and learning process especially in reading. Being aware the importance of the students’ reading comprehension achievement in reading comprehension, therefore, a classroom action research was conducted. This classroom action research was intended to improve the grade XI students’ reading comprehension achievement by using DART method. The students of class IPA 1 at SMA Negeri 3 Jember was chosen as the subjects due to their difficulties in comprehending the reading text. Their average score was the lowest among four existing classes that was 63. It was below the standard score that used in that school (65). This classroom action research was done in cycles in which each cycle covered the stages of planning, implementation, observation and evaluation, and reflection. Then, each cycle was conducted in two meetings. The data about the students’ reading comprehension achievement were collected through reading comprehension test done after the action in each cycle. Observation was used to monitor the process of teaching reading through DART method and the students’ participation. The percentage of the students’ reading comprehension score in Cycle I was 67.57%. Further, there were 25 students of 37 students having reading comprehension achievement score ≥ 65. It means that the targeted percentage 75% of the total students obtaining the score at least ≥ 65 could not be achieved. Besides, based on the classroom observation that was done in Cycle I, it was found that the students’ participation in teaching learning process of reading through DART method was 67.57%. So, the percentage of the students’ active participation in the process of teaching reading through DART method less than the targeted percentage that was 75%. Therefore, the actions were proceeded to the second cycle by revising the way of the students doing the activities from doing the DART activities in a time into doing the DART activities one by one before moving to the next activities to make the students more focus in doing each activity, so that they could concentrate on reading the text to get the idea of the text using DART activities. Besides, the teacher also gave clues to make them easier in doing the activities. The percentage of the students who got ≥ 65 in reading test in Cycle II was better (78.38%) than in Cycle I (67.57%). This percentage had fulfilled the targeted percentage that 75% of the students had to achieve the standard score that was ≥ 65. Besides, the students’ participation in reading comprehension teaching learning process also improved from 67.57% in Cycle I up to 81.08% in Cycle II. Thus, the percentage of students’ participation in the teaching and learning process of reading through DART method had achieved the targeted percentage ≥ 75%. This means that both the students reading comprehension test and the students’ participation in reading comprehension teaching learning process through DART method improved in Cycle II and fulfilled the target of this research. Based on the results, it could be concluded that DART method can improve the students’ reading comprehension achievement in two cycles. Then, it is suggested to the English teacher to use DART method as an alternative method in teaching reading comprehension, since it can increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement.