THE EFFECT OF USING COOPERATIVE INTEGRATED READING AND COMPOSITION (CIRC) METHOD ON THE EIGHTH YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION AND WRITING ACHIEVEMENT AT SMPN SUKORAMBI JEMBER

Abstract

English becomes the most important language since it is still regarded as the international language. In mastering English, every learner should master its four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and its three language components (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation). As one of the four English language skills, reading keeps important role in mastering the language. As a part of four language skills, reading should not be separated from the other skills. One of them is writing. One of the teaching methods that can be applied in teaching reading and writing is Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (henceforth - CIRC) method. This research was an experimental aimed at investigating whether or not there was a significant effect of using CIRC method on both the eighth year students’ reading comprehension and student’s writing achievement at SMPN Sukorambi Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. This research was categorized as quasiexperimental research which applied nonequivalent-groups post-test only design due to the absence of subject randomization. The research area was SMPN Sukorambi Jember which was chosen purposively. The population was the eighth year students of SMPN Sukorambi Jember which consisted of five classes. The research respondents were class C and class D. The treatment was held three times on each class. The primary data of this research was collected from the reading comprehension posttest and the writing achievement posttest. The primary data collected were analyzed using independent sample t-test formula. Based on the calculation of the reading posttest, the mean score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (72.875 > 65.732). The t-test analysis was lower than 0.05 (0.004 < 0.05). The research results proved that there was a significant effect of using CIRC model on the eighth year students’ reading comprehension achievement at SMPN Sukorambi Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. Furthermore, based on the calculation of the writing posttest, the mean score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (42.00 > 35.39). The t-test analysis was also lower than 0.05 (0.010 < 0.05). The calculation proved that there was a significant effect of using CIRC model on the eighth year students’ writing achievement at SMPN Sukorambi Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. Therefore, it is suggested that the English teacher to use CIRC method as alternative teaching method in teaching reading and writing.