ABSTRAK The objectives of this research are: (1) to reveal whether STAD method ismore effective than GTM method to teach reading; (2) to reveal whether studentswith high verbal intelligence have better reading skill than those with low verbalintelligence; and (3) to reveal whether there is an interaction between teachingmethods used and students’ verbal intelligence. This research involves threevariables. Two independent variables are teaching methods (STAD method andGTM) and students’ verbal intelligence. The dependent variable is reading skill. Theresearch examines the effect of the two independent variables on the dependentvariable. The research was conducted in the first semester of the eleventh gradestudents of SMAN 3 Lumajang in the academic year of 2014/2015. The samplingused was cluster random sampling. The samples were two classes which consist of 36students; class XI A2 as the experimental class and 36 students; class XI S3 as thecontrol class. The instruments used in this research cover verbal intelligence test andreading test. Before being applied, both the verbal intelligence test and the readingtest were tried out as the researcher needs to know validity of the test instruction. Theresult data obtained from the treatment were analyzed using ANOVA 2X2 and Tukeytest. The result of the research reveals that: (1) Student Teams–AchievementDivisions Method is more effective than Grammar Translation Method to teachreading; (2) the students with high verbal intelligence have better reading skill thanthose with low verbal intelligence; and (3) there is an interaction between teachingmethods and the students’ verbal intelligence to teach reading.  Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that Students Teams –Achievement Divisions Method is an effective method to teach reading to theeleventh grade students of SMAN 3 Lumajang in the academic year of 2014/2015.However, in the implementation of the methods, a teacher must consider about thestudents’ verbal intelligence. As proved in the research, verbal intelligence influencesthe students’ reading skill. By considering the students’ verbal intelligence level, ateacher can choose the method she uses properly to teach reading.Keywords: reading skill, Student Teams–Achievement Divisions Method, GrammarTranslation Method, verbal intelligence, experimental research