IMPROVING THE VIII-B GRADE STUDENTS’ STORY READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT BY USING REPEATED READING ALOUD TECHNIQUE at SMP 1 KENCONG JEMBER

Abstract

This classroom action research was meant to improve the VIII B grade students’ reading comprehension achievement through Repeated Reading Aloud technique. The term Repeated Reading Aloud was used because the technique it self, involved Reading Aloud activity. This research started by conducting preliminary study in the form of interview with the English teacher of the eight grade students at SMP 1 Kencong Jember. Based on the interview, it was known that VIII B students still had difficulties in comprehending the reading text. These difficulties were caused by limited amount of vocabularies mastered by the students’ of VIII B grade of SMP N 1 Kencong Jember. It was also supported by their reading comprehension achievement score in the first semester which showed that the mean score of VIII B was the lowest among the mean scores of the other grade in VIII classes. The mean score of the class was 68.7. Thus this class was chosen as the subject of this research. Repeated Reading was an instructional technique which was used to develop automaticity in reading while reading aloud was oral reading texts. In this research, reading aloud was the activity of reading loudly by the students to their partner in order to observe the improvement of their reading ability. The technique of repeated reading aloud was combination between repeated reading technique and reading aloud activity. This technique was useful for enhancing reading fluency because it xiii allowed the students to practice the text repeatedly until the text becomes more familiar and they could decode the text automatically, it gave the students more cognitive capacity for comprehension. The technique of repeated reading aloud indicates transfer and training and general improvement in reading comprehension This classroom action research consisted of two cycles, in which each cycle covered the stages including: planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. Then, each cycle ran in three meetings including the test. The data about the students’ reading comprehension achievement were collected through reading comprehension test. The data dealing with students’ reading aloud activity was collected by the students who worked in pair by observing the numbers of words which pronounced incorrectly. The data of reading aloud activity was collected in order to support the theory stated when reading speed increased; word recognition errors decreased the condition lead to students’ reading fluency which could be a bridge in reading comprehension. Observation was used to monitor the students’ activities and participation in class while the teaching and learning activities were conducted. Meanwhile, the reflection was based on the finding during the implementation of the action and compared to the criteria of success, including (1) 60% or more the research participant achieved the mean score requirement was 75, (2) 75% or more of the research participant could fulfill the indicators of active students stated in the checklist. The result of the action in the first cycle indicated that the students’ reading comprehension achievement test was 72, 9. In addition there was 31% (14) out of the students having reading comprehension achievement score ≥ 75. Concerning with the activeness, based on the class room observation that was done in the first cycle, it was found that the students’ participation in reading comprehension teaching and learning process using Repeated Reading was 40% (18) students. In other words, the result of the action in the first cycle did not achieve the target of this research. Therefore, the action was continued by revising the teaching technique in the first cycle. In the Second cycle the revisions from the first cycle were as follows: xiv 1. Most of the students could comprehend the information from the text. It could be seen from the result of Reading Comprehension achievement test in cycle II 2. The use of Indonesian language after English in explaining the rules of Repeated Reading Aloud activity made the students easier to understand the explanation from the teacher or the researcher, since in the previous cycle, the explanation was delivered in English. 3. The interaction between the teacher and the students in discussing difficult word session together with the class was accomplished. It means that either the students or the teacher actively participated when they knew the meaning of difficult words. 4. The repetition of difficult words modeled by the teacher made the students’ pronunciation improved, since some experts believe that a better pronunciation will lead the students to have better reading comprehension. 5. The collaboration between the researcher and the teacher of class VIII B helped the teacher in observing the class activities and assisting the students. The result of action in cycle II showed improvement. It was indicated by the mean score of reading comprehension test in cycle II was better (M=77.54) than in cycle I (M=68.79). The percentage of the students who got score ≥ 75 in cycle II were also better (61.36%) than cycle I (31.81%). Besides, the students’ participation in reading comprehension teaching learning process improved from 40.9% in the first cycle up to 81.8% in the second cycle. It means that both students’ reading test score and students’ participation in teaching and learning process of reading comprehension through Repeated Reading Technique Aloud had improved in the second cycle and fulfilled the target of this research. xv Finally the finding in both cycles lead to the conclusion that Repeated Reading Aloud Technique could improve the students’ reading comprehension achievement. Based on this research, Repeated Reading Aloud Technique could increase the students’ reading comprehension achievement as well as improving students’ participation in following teaching and learning process. Therefore, it is recommended to the English teacher to use the technique as an alternative technique in teaching reading comprehension.