The Use of Authentic Material to Improve the 8th Grade Students` Active Participation and Their Reading Comprehension Achievement at Mtsn Perak Jombang

Abstract

English is used in all aspects of life including education. English is used as a medium to explore science and technology in educational field. Today English has affected many sectors in the world, ranging from social, culture, economic and science. For example, in science, most of the previous discoveries are written in English. It deals with the position of English as international language. Thus, the next scientist must be able to use English to learn about the previous discoveries and communicate with other scientists from other country to find the discoveries in the future. Therefore, the need to master English well to compete in the international sector is required. People need to study English intensively to master the English well. In Indonesia, English is taught as a compulsory subject in Junior and Senior high schools. This classroom action research was intended to increase the eight grade students’ reading comprehension achievement and active participation by using materials of descriptive text adapted from the internet at MTsN Perak Jombang. According to the English teacher’s explanation, the problem is the students not always understand the word meaning. Materials taken from the Internet were commonly used in teaching learning process. In addition, nowadays, technology is very close to our live. It can be concluded that the materials from internet especially in reading totally give much beneficial effects for the students who learn English as a foreign language. The strengths of reading materials from the internet are: accessible, variety of media, up-to-date information access, navigation, and low cost. This research was done collaboratively with the English teacher. This research was done in one cycle. The cycle was conducted in two meetings. The supporting data were from interview with the English teacher and the observation. In summary, the use of reading material adapted from the Internet was able to help the students to improve their active participation in the reading teaching learning process as well as their reading comprehension achievement.