Using authentic materials to improve the students’ reading comprehension (a classroom action research in the Second Grade Students of English Department Teacher Training and Education Faculty Nusantara PGRI Kediri University in academic year 2008/2009)

Oleh :
Agung Wicaksono - - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRACT This action research is carried out to improve the students’ reading comprehension using authentic materials and to know what happens when authentic materials are used in reading class. The problem highlighted in this research in the low reading comprehension of 2A class of Nusantara PGRI kediri University that is caused by the uninteresting text book that caused students’ low motivation. The research is conducted in two cycles from June – January 2009 in 2A class of Nusantara PGRI Kediri. The procedure of the research consists of identifying the problem, planning the action, implementing the action, observing the action, and reflecting the result of the research. In collecting the data the researcher uses observation notes, questionnaire, interview, diaries, audio recording, and test. The tests are in the form of pre-test and post-test to answer research questions. In this research, the researcher is the teacher who conducts the action in the classroom and he is assisted by two collaborators. Two kinds of data that are got that are in the form of qualitative and quantitative data. The result of the research shows that using authentic material can improve students’ reading comprehension and classroom situation. The improvement of the classroom situation was supported by data which cover the students’ participation, attendance and enthusiasm during the teaching learning process. The quantitative data are taken from the result of pre-test and post-test of cycle 1 and 2 and analyzed the data find out the mean of Pre-test is 63.01, the mean of Post-test 1 is 71.78 and the mean of Post-test 2 is 75.01. The improvement on the students’ reading comprehension reflected from the mean progress of pre-test and post-test Base on the results of the research, it is concluded that students’ reading comprehension can be improve by using authentic materials. It is suggested that the teacher should use other materials beside the text book in teaching language skills, the teacher should be more careful in selecting the material. The students are encouraged to read more to improve their ability in comprehending the text. Other researcher is encouraged to do research in using authentic materials in other area of language skills.