dc.description.abstract | Reading has important role for the students in many aspects. Most of the
students learning activities require reading skills, such as in mastering a lot of
subjects at school, having a test, reading for pleasure and others. On the other hand,
knowing the students’ attitude in reading is beneficial. It is because the students’
attitude in reading will show the tendencies and beliefs of the students in reading
process. That is why the researcher is interested in conducting a research that deals
with this topic at SMP Plus Nurul Hikmah Pamekasan. Besides, SMP Plus Nurul
Hikmah Pamekasan is one of the schools which has strict entrance tests, and most of
those entrance test need reading skill.
This research was conducted to investigate the eighth grade students’ attitude
in reading habit and their reading comprehension ability of descriptive texts at SMP
Plus nurul Hikmah Pamekasan in the 2012/2013 academic year. The research
respondents were eighth grade class. They were determined by purposive sampling
method. The population consisted of two classes: VIII A and VIII B class. Each of
them had 33 students, so the total number of the population was 66 students. The
researcher took all of them as the sample because the total number of the population
was less than one hundred.
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The data of this research were collected through some instruments. They were
questionnaire, reading comprehension test, interview and documentation. The reading
comprehension test was aimed to measure the students’ ability in comprehending the
descriptive texts.
The result of questionnaire confirmed that 42.2% of the students (28 students)
had positive attitude, 30.3% of the students (20 students) had neutral attitude, and
27.3% of the students (18 students) had negative attitude in reading habit. Hence,
among 28 students who had positive attitude in reading habit, the student number 31
of VIII A class achieved the highest score of reading comprehension test, the score
was 83. Among the students who had negative attitude in reading habit, the student
number 29 of VIII B class got the lowest achievement in reading comprehension test,
and the score was 46. However, among the students’ who had neutral attitude, there
were also the highest and the lowest score achieved by the students. The highest score
was 73, and the lowest score was 46.
The result of reading comprehension test showed that the students
achievement in reading descriptive texts was categorized as “poor”, because 50% of
the students (33 students) achieved the score between 50 - 59. Besides, the students
words comprehension was classified in “poor” category, due to 39.4% of the students
(26 students) achieved score between 50 - 59. Meanwhile, the students sentences
comprehension was categorized as “poor”, because as many as 60.6% of the students
(40 students) gained score between 50 - 59. The students’ paragraphs comprehension
belonged to “good” category. It was proved by 37.9% of the students who got score
between 70 - 79. In addition, 34.9% of the students were categorized as “fair” in the
whole texts comprehension because they gained score between 60 - 69.
Nonetheless, it was clear that the eighth grade students’ ability at SMP Plus
Nurul Hikmah Pamekasan in comprehending descriptive texts belonged in “poor”
category. It was proved by most of the students’ achievement, 50% of the students
(33 students) achieved score between 50 – 59. It was also known that the eighth
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grade students’ had positive attitude in reading habit. Most of them as many as 28
students or 42.2% of the students had positive attitude. Although most of the students
had positive attitude in reading habit, their achievement fell in “poor” category. It can
be concluded that there is no significant relation between the students’ achievement
and the students’ attitude. | en_US |