Improving Reading Comprehension Skills of the Eighth Grade of SMP N 1 Karang Nongko by Using Structure Strategy in the Academic Year of 2015/2016

Abstract

The objective of this research was to improve reading comprehension skills of the eighth grade students at SMPN 1 Karang Nongko by using Structure Strategy. This research was categorized as Classroom Action Research (CAR) employing the four steps namely: planning, action, observation, and reflection. The types of data were qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were obtained through classroom observation and interviews. The quantitative data were obtained from the pre-test and post-test. The result showed that the students’ reading comprehension significantly improved through Structure Strategy. The strategy facilitated the students in understanding the whole meaning of the text by being aware of the important parts of the text. Moreover, the structure-strategy diagram made the students actively engaged in the teaching and learning process. The actions made significant improvements of the students’ reading comprehension in the aspects of vocabulary interpretation, generating main idea, identifying the detail information of the text, and also students’ participation during the reading lesson. The findings were supported by the students’ mean scores which increased from 55.76 in the pre-test to 65.00 in the post-test.