| dc.description.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. | en_US |
