Improving Reading Comprehension Achievement By Using Authentic Reading Materials From The Internet For The Year 8-C Students Of Smp Hadiwijaya Genteng

Abstract

This Classroom Action Research was intended to improve the 8-C students’ reading comprehension achievement and their active participation during the teaching and learning process by using authentic reading materials from the internet at SMP Hadi Wijaya Genteng in the 2009/2010 academic year. The research subjects of this classroom action research were the year 8 students of SMP Hadi Wijaya Genteng in the 2009/2010 academic year, specifically the students in class 8-C which were 40 students. This class was chosen because as informed by the English teacher, this class had problem with their comprehension in reading. Only 40% of students gained the standard achievement score at least 65 of reading comprehension achievement used in this school and their mean score was only 57. In addition, the students had low motivation and interest during the teaching and learning process. It was shown by the percentage of their participation during the teaching and learning process which was only 64 % where the standard percentage of the participation of the school was 75%. This research was done in two cycles, in which each cycle covered four activities namely: the planning of the action, the implementation of the action, the observation of the action, and the reflection of the actions. Then, each cycle was conducted in two meetings, in which the reading test conducted in the third meeting. In this classroom action research, the researcher and the English teacher administered the actions collaboratively as a team. The teacher or the doer in the first meeting was the researcher while the English teacher acted as the observer. In the second meeting, the teacher was the English teacher while the researcher acted as an observer. In this classroom action research, there were 11 students whose data were not analyzed in the reading comprehension test because they were absent in the first and second meeting in cycle one or cycle two. As a result, only 29 students who followed all the teaching and learning activities both in the first and second cycle. The researcher and the English teacher only analyzed the data collected in product evaluation from those 29 students to avoid the bias of the data in relation to the students’ achievement. In the process evaluation, every student’s participation in every meeting was very important. Therefore, the collected data from all of the students who were joining the teaching and learning process in the meeting 1 and meeting 2 in the cycle 1 and cycle 2 were analyzed. In cycle 1, the researcher and the English teacher used authentic reading materials adapted from the internet by using recount text type in the experience theme written by the writers from other countries such as Australia and England. From the results of classroom observation in cycle I, it was known that there were 24 students of 35 students or 69% of the students who actively participated in the first meeting and in the second meeting there were 25 students of 34 students or 74% who actively participated in the reading teaching learning process. It means that the observation... results in the first and second meeting in cycle 1 had not achieved the research success criteria set in this research that was 75% or higher. Then, the result of the students’ reading test that was done after the actions in the first cycle showed that the mean score of the students was 62 and only 59% of the students who got score at least > 65. The results showed that the students’ reading comprehension achievement in the first cycle had not achieved the research success criteria that 75% of students could gain standard score of 65 or higher and the students achieved the mean score of 65 or higher. Therefore, the actions cycle were continued to the second cycle by revising the implementation of the actions in lesson plans in cycle I. In the revised lesson plan, the researcher and the English teacher used authentic reading materials from the internet which adapted from Indonesian recount texts in the Experience theme. Further, the researcher and the English teacher explained the topic discussed not too fast and they approached the students by moving around to their desks and checked their difficulties.