U SI N G A U THEN TI C R EA D I N G M A T ER I A LS T O IMP R OV E THE SEV EN TH G R A D E ST U D EN TS’ A C TI V E P A R TI C I P A TI ON A N D THE I R R EA D I N G C OM P R EHEN SI ON A C HI EV E M EN T A T SM P N EGER I 2 P U GER IN THE 2 0 1 2 ⁄ 2 0 1 3 A C A D EM I C Y EA R

Abstract

This C lassro om Ac ti on R e se a rc h

wa s int e nd e d t o im pr ove

the se v e nth gr a de

students’ a c ti ve

p a rticipa ti on a nd their r e a din g

c o mpre he nsion

a c hieve me nt

b y

usin g a uthentic re a ding

mat e ri a ls a t S MP

N e g e ri

2 P uge r

in the 20 1 2/2013 a c a d e mi c

y e a r.

This re se a r c h subj e c ts we re

the students of

c lass V II G

that

wa s

de ter mi ne d

purpo sivel y ,

be c a use

th e ir

re a ding

c ompr e he nsio n

a c hiev e ment

sc o re

wa s

low

(the ir

mea n

sc or e

wa s

57.2)

wh ich

wa s

be low

the

stand a rd

maste r y

of

En g li sh

of

the

sc hool

(65) .

I t

wa s

known

fr o m

the

re sult

of

int e rvie w

with

the

Eng li sh

tea c he r

in

the

pr e li mi na r y

stud y .

B e sid e s,

the y

a lso

sti ll

fa c e d

di ff iculti e s

in

c ompr e he ndi ng

En g li sh

tex ts,

e spec iall y

in

de sc riptiv e

tex t.

The y

h a d

p roble ms

in

c ompre he ndi ng

wo rds,

se ntenc e s,

pa ra g r a phs,

a nd

the

whole

tex t.

F inall y ,

both

the

re se a rc h e r

a nd

the

Eng li sh

tea c h e r

a g r e e d

to

a ppl y

a uthentic

r e a di ng

mate ri a ls

fr om

int e r ne t

a s

the

re a din g

mate ria ls

in

tea c hing

re a din g

be c a use

the y

we r e

e x pe c ted

to

be

be ne fic ial

for

the studen ts t o ove rc ome

their

pr oblems i n re a din g c ompre he nsion .

This

r e se a r c h

wa s

c a r rie d

out

in

two

C y c les.

Ea c h

c y c le

c ove r e d

th e

sta g e s

that

include

plannin g

the

a c ti on,

im pleme nti n g

th e

a c ti on,

obs e rvin g

a nd

e va luatin g ,

a nd

re fle c ti ng

the

a c ti on .

The se

a c t ivi ti e s

we re

c onduc ted

in

e a c h

C y c l e .

The

fir st

c y c le

wa s

c ondu c ted

in

thre e

mee ti n g s

including

the

re a din g

test.

The

da t a

a bo ut

the

students’

re a din g

c ompr e he nsion

a c hieve m e nt

we re

c oll e c ted

throu g h

the

re a din g

c ompre he nsion

test.

Me a nwhile,

obser v a ti on

wa s

used

to

moni tor

the

te a c hin g

a nd

lea rnin g

proc e ss of r e a di ng

b y

usi n g

obser v a ti on

g uide in the f o rm of

c h e c kli st.

x iv

The results of the students’ reading comprehension achievement in the first cycle showed that the percentage of the students who got score 65 or more was 67.4%. In addition, the results of observation in cycle I revealed that only 63.95% of 43 students actively participated in the teaching and learning process of reading by using authentic reading materials from internet. The rest of the subjects (36.05% of 43 students) were passive in joining the lesson. They were reluctant to ask questions and answer the researcher’s oral questions. Besides, some students did not make some note about the lesson. Based on those results, it could be concluded that the action given in the first cycle was not successful yet. Therefore, the actions were continued to the second cycle by revising the lesson plans in the first cycle by considering the students’ weaknesses in the first cycle. In Cycle 2, the researcher used English and Indonesian language in the teaching and learning process. Besides, she gave clear instruction to the students to find the difficult words in the texts by writing them on the whiteboard and finding the meaning of the difficult words together with the whole class. The results of the students’ active participation in the teaching and learning process of reading by using authentic reading materials from internet improved from 63.9% in Cycle 1 to 80.2% in Cycle 2. Moreover, there was also an improvement on the percentage of the students’ reading comprehension achievement test. It improved from 67.4%, in Cycle 1 to 82.5% in Cycle 2. It means that both the students’ active participation and their reading comprehension test improved in the second cycle and achieved the successful criteria of this research. Thus, the action research was stopped. Based on the results above, it could be concluded that the use of authentic reading materials in the teaching and learning process of reading could improve the students’ active participation and their reading comprehension achievement in two cycles. Then, it is suggested to the English teacher and the students to use authentic reading materials from internet as an alternative source of reading materials in teaching reading. It is due to the fact that authentic reading materials from internet

xv c ould im pr ove

the stud e nts’ a c ti ve

pa rt icipa ti o n a nd their re a din g

c o mpre he nsion

a c hieve m e nt. At last, f or

the futur e

re se a rc he r, thi s re se a rc h c ould be

used a s re fe re nc e s to c ondu c t f ur ther

r e se a rc h d e a li n g with diff e r e nt re s e a r c h

de sig n

or

re se a rc h method to i mpr ove the qua li t y o f r e a din g a c h ieve m e nt.