Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension Using Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (A Classroom Action Research At The Eighth Grade Students Of Smp Negeri 1 Ngadirojo In The Academic Year 2011/2012)

Oleh :
Yuanita Candra Dewi Swardiana - K2208051 - Fak. KIP

This research aims at: (1) identifying whether Directed Reading- Thinking Activity (DR-TA) improves the students’ reading comprehension, and (2) describing the students’ motivation when DR-TA is implemented in the English class of the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Ngadirojo. The method used in this research was a Classroom Action Research (CAR). The research was conducted in two cycles at the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 1 Ngadirojo from 14th April to 10th May 2012. The research data were collected by using techniques of observation, interview, questionnaires, and tests (pre-test and post-test). The qualitative data were analyzed through assembling the data, coding the data, comparing the data, building interpretations, and reporting the outcomes. Meanwhile, the qualitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistic. The research findings show that the use of DR-TA could improve students’ reading comprehension and students’ motivation of English class. The improvement of students’ reading comprehension includes: (1) students could determine the main idea of the paragraph; (2) the students could find the purpose of the text, including moral value in narrative text; (3) the students were be able to determine the detail information; (4) the students could infer and grasp meaning of words; and (5) students could determine references. The improvement of students’ motivation includes: (1) students became active during the lesson; (2) students were brave to take risk; (3) students enjoyed the challenge in doing the tasks; (4) almost all of students participated in doing the tasks; and (5) students paid attention to the teaching and learning process.