ENHANCING THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXT READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT BY USING SNOWBALL THROWING TECHNIQUE AT SMPN 7 JEMBER

Abstract

This research was intended to improve the class VIII G students’ reading comprehension achievement and to improve their participation in reading classes at SMPN 7 Jember in the 2015/2016 academic year. In line with this purpose, the appropriate design was classroom action research. Based on a preliminary study conducted by observing the English teacher at SMPN 7 Jember, in learning English especially reading comprehension, it was found that the students only read the passage without knowing the meaning of the words. It’s shown from the result of reading comprehension task given by the teacher. The mean score of the Students’ final examination in the first semester was 57.3 with 23 students (52.3%) who achieved it. However, the teacher said that this mean score was very low becausethe ideal mean score was 75 and achieved by at least 70% of the total students.Nevertheless, eighth G students’ mean score was the lowest among other eighth grade classes.Besides, the students were lazy to read even when they were given a task, they just did it by cheating other students’ answer because they experience difficulties in comprehending the text. Therefore, when they were given assignments, their score could not achieve the English minimum requirement standard score of 75. Besides, the English teacher always used English to Explain the English lesson without Indonesian at all and the way how to the teacher spoke was unclear. As the results, most students did not understand about what was being explained by the teacher. When the researcher asked to the students’ about their English teacher, they said that they often felt strained to join the English class, so it could impede their language input and production. Meanwhile, the students often felt points from the target mean score. Furthermore, there were 33 students or 76.7% of 43 students who got score 75 or higher. It means that the target percentage of the students who got score 75 or higher in the reading comprehension test had been achieved.Thus, the actions in Cycle 1 were successful and the actions were stopped. Based on the results above, it can be concluded that the use of Snowball Throwing technique can improve the class VIII G students’ reading comprehension achievement and participation at SMPN 7 Jember. Then, it is suggested to the English teacher to use Cooperative learning method by using Snowball Throwing technique in teaching reading comprehension not only for Recount text, but also other genres. Besides, it can be used as an alternative technique to motivate the students to be more active in learning reading.The English teacher is also supposed to try to teach some English skills and language components by using this technique.