THE EFFECT OF APPLYING STUDENT TEAMS ACHIEVEMENT DIVISIONS (STAD) TECHNIQUE ON THE EIGHTH YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT AT MTs. NEGERI JEMBER II

Abstract

Reading is one of the language skills that should be mastered by the students in Junior High School, including the students at MTs. Negeri Jember II. Based on the preliminary study in t he form of interview wit h the English teacher of the eighth students of MTs. Negeri Jember II, the English teacher never asked the students to work in group to discuss the reading material given. The teacher helped them by listing the meaning of unfamiliar words in the text that they want to discuss. After that she asked the students some quest ions related to the reading text that would be discussed. Some students were less mot ivated, bored, and not interested in reading. It will be easier if they work in group, discuss the material given to comprehend the reading text. Therefore, applying STAD technique as one of technique in Cooperative Learning can help the students to comprehend the reading materials and mot ivate students to learn. This research was an experimental research. The purpose of this research was to know whether or not the applying of STAD technique has a significant effect on the eighth year students’ reading comprehension achievement at MTs. Negeri Jember II. The design of this research was Experimental Research. Nonequivalent-Groups Posttest-Only Design was chosen to do the research because this research design is suitable to be applied when the research subject includes classroom situation where it is hard to tight ly control the variables (McMillan, 1992:178). The location of this research was MTs. Negeri Jember II that was chosen purposively. The population of this research was the eighth year students MTs. Negeri Jember II in the 2011/2012 academic year that were divided into six classes. To determine the participants of the research, the eighth year students’ first semester score of English test in 2011/2012 was analyzed by using ANOVA. Based on the result of using ANOVA computation, the population of the research was homogenous, so that two classes were determined as the participants of the research which were determined by cluster sampling by a lottery. The total number of the participants was 71 students that consisted of 35 students of VIII C as the experimental group taught by applying STAD technique, while the control group consisted of 36 students of VIII F taught by appliyng Quest ion-Answer (Q-A) technique, the teaching technique that was used by the English teacher. The data of this research were collected from the students’ scores of reading comprehension test, interview, and documentation. The reading comprehension test was administered to make comparison between the two groups after the treatment, and the result was analyzed by using SPSS software. Based on the calculation, the mean score of the experimental group was higher than the mean score of the control group (71.86 > 61.25). The result of the t-test analysis was lower than 0.05 (0.000 < 0.05). The research results proved that there was a significant effect of applying STAD technique on the eighth year students’ reading comprehension achievement at MTs. Negeri Jember II in the 2011/2012 academic year. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teacher to apply STAD technique as an alternative technique in teaching reading.