ABSTRACT
This study is aimed to investigate the correlation between: (1) cohesive devices mastery and reading comprehension of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Sukoharjo in the academic year 2012/2013; (2) learning motivation and reading comprehension of the eleventh grade of the students of SMA Negeri 2 Sukorjo in the academic year 2012/2013 and (3) cohesive devices mastery and learning motivation simultaneously toward reading comprehension of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Sukoharjo in the academic year 2012/2013.
This study was carried out in November 2012 at SMA Negeri 2 Sukoharjo. The method used in this study was a correlational study. The population was all of the eleventhgrade students of SMA Negeri 2 Sukoharjo in the academic year 2012/2013 which consisted of seven classes. The total number was 253 students. The sample was 34 students taken by using cluster random sampling technique. The instruments in collecting the data were objective test and questionnaire. The test was used to collect the data of cohesive devices mastery and reading comprehension, while the questionnaire was used to collect the data of learning motivation. The technique which was used to analyze the data was Simple and Multiple Linear Regression and Correlation.
The result of the study shows that (1) there is a positive correlation between students’ cohesive devices mastery and students’ reading comprehension; (2) there is a positive correlation between students’ learning motivation and students’ reading comprehension and (3) there is a positive correlation between students’ cohesive devices mastery and students’ learning motivation simultaneously toward students’ reading comprehension. Thecorrelation within the three hypotheses is positive and significant.The result of the computation shows that the relative contribution of cohesive devices mastery toward reading comprehension is 91.565%; the relative contribution of learning motivation toward reading comprehension is 8.438; the effective contribution of cohesive devices mastery toward reading comprehension is 77.313%; the effective contribution of learning motivation toward reading comprehension is 7.125%; and the total of effective contribution are 84.438%.
Based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that both cohesive devices mastery and learning motivation have positive contribution toward reading comprehension. Therefore, students’ cohesive devices mastery and learning motivation should be considered in improving reading comprehension. They have positive contribution in improving reading comprehension although reading comprehension does not only depend on the two variables.
Keywords: cohesive devices, learning motivation, reading comprehension