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Abstrak


Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension Through Semantic Mapping Strategy (An Action Research in the Eighth Year Students of SMPN 1 Sine in the 2009/2010 Academic Year)


Oleh :
Kamal Muhtar - S890908121 - Sekolah Pascasarjana

The objective of the research was to examine whether the use of semantic mapping strategy can improve the students’ reading comprehension. Besides, the research was also designed to study what may happen when semantic mapping strategy was implemented in the classroom practice.This research was a classroom action research. The research was carried out in the eighth year students of SMPN 1 Sine in the academic year of 2009/2010. This research was conducted in two cycles by following the procedure of action research, i.e. planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. In collecting the data, the researcher used observation, interview, questionnaire, and test. The teacher was the researcher assisted by collaborators as observers, while the researcher was implementing the research. The interview and questionnaire were given to the students before and after the implementation of semantic mapping strategy. The tests were in the form of pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative data were analyzed using Constant Comparative Method. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the research showed that semantic mapping strategy was able to improve the students’ reading comprehension. It was proved by the increase of the students’ mean score from 55.89 in the pre-test to 63.16 in Cycle 1, and 75.05 in Cycle 2. Furthermore, the class situation also improved. The class became more enjoyable and fun. The students became more active individually and in group. There were some advantages of using semantic mapping strategy in teaching-learning of reading as follows: (1) using the semantic mapping strategy in the pre-reading phase could stimulate the students’ prior knowledge (schemata); (2) using the semantic mapping strategy in the whilst-reading phase helped the students to record the information obtained from the text; and (3) using the semantic mapping strategy in the post-reading phase provided the students with an overall description about the text. Based on the result of the research, it could be concluded that the use of semantic mapping strategy has proven to be an effective way in teaching-learning of reading comprehension in the eighth year students of SMPN 1 Sine in the academic year of 2009/2010. Keyword: READING COMPREHENSION, Semantic Mapping Strategy