| dc.description.abstract | This Classroom Action Research was intended to improve the eighth
grade students’ reading comprehension achievement by using Question-Answer
Relationships (QARs) strategy at SMP Negeri 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012
academic year. The research subjects were the students of class VIII E that were
determined purposively by consulting to the eighth grade English teacher. Based
on the information from the teacher, this class had the lowest reading
comprehension achievement among other six classes of grade VIII. The average
score of reading was 66.3 (fair category). It is below the mastery score level of
reading at that school that is 70.
This classroom action research was done in two cycles in which each
cycle covered four stages of activities, namely planning the action; implementing
the action; observing and evaluating; and analyzing the data and reflecting the
action. Each cycle was conducted in two meetings. The data about the students’
reading comprehension achievement were collected by administering the reading
comprehension test after the actions given. Observation was used to monitor the
process of teaching reading by using QARs strategy and the students’ active
involvement in the classroom.
In cycle I, the results of the reading test showed that the mean score of
the students’ achievement test was 68.75 (fair category). Then, there was 63.8%
of the total students could achieve the target score that was at least ≥70. In other
words, the percentage of the students who got score at least ≥70 was below 75%.
Then, based on the classroom observation it was revealed that there were only 27
of 36 students (75%) who were actively involved in the teaching learning
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activities in the first meeting and there were 31 of 36 students (86.1%) who were
actively involved in the teaching learning activities in the second meeting. It
means that the result of the observation in cycle I achieved the requirement of the
research because the result of the observation in the first meeting achieved the
requirement of the research that was at least 75% of the students. It showed that
this research result of observation had fulfilled the criteria of the success of the
action, but considering the students’ reading comprehension; the mean score of
the students reading test was still under the success criteria, it means that it was
necessary to conduct the second cycle to do some improvement.
The actions were continued to the second cycle by revising some
necessary aspects. The English teacher and the researcher collaborated in doing
the actions. The students were asked to do the reading test in cycle II and the
observation was done by the observer during the actions in cycle II. Besides, the
teacher gave more attention to the students whether or not they had understood the
materials. Moreover, the English teacher and the researcher tried to give the
students a list of unfamiliar words taken from the text being read and the
meanings, pair the students in the activity of reading exercise in order they could
share their knowledge with their partners and give prompting questions to the
students to encourage their arguments in order to answer the open-ended
questions. It was hoped that the revisions could help the students in improving
their reading comprehension achievement.
In the second cycle, the results of reading test showed improvement. The
mean score of the students’ reading comprehension test was 72.14 (good
category). It was higher than the mean score in cycle I that was 68.75. Then, there
was improvement of the students who could achieve the target score required, that
was at least 75% of the students. There were 29 students or 80.5% of the total
students got scores at least ≥70. Regarding the students’ active involvement in the
teaching learning process of reading, it also improved. Then, based on the
classroom observation it was revealed that there were 33 of 36 students (91.6%)
who were actively involved in the teaching learning activities in the first meeting
and there were 34 of 36 students (94.4%) who were actively involved in the
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teaching learning activities in the second meeting. These results indicated that this
research fulfilled the criteria of the success of this action research.
Based on the results, it could be concluded that the teaching of reading by
using QARs strategy could improve the students’ reading comprehension
achievement as well as their active performance in the process of reading teaching
learning. Then, it is suggested that the English teachers to use QARs strategy as
an alternative strategy in teaching reading to improve the students’ reading
comprehension achievement. It also showed the students that they can improve
their reading comprehension achievement by applying QARs strategy in their
reading activity as one of the alternative strategies in improving reading
comprehension and for the future researchers who have the similar problem in
teaching reading are suggested to use this research result as information and a
reference to conduct a further research for teaching reading or other skills with the
same design, such as the use of QARs strategy to improve the students’ writing
ability. | en_US |
