The objectives of this research were to: (1) discover how the use of PQRST (Preview, Question, Reading, State and Test) strategy can improve the students’ reading comprehension, and (2) to discover how the use of PQRST (Preview, Question, Reading, State and Test) strategy can improve the students’ participation in English learning process. This Classroom Action Research consisted of one cycle. There are four stages in the cycle including planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. There are two kinds of data used in this research, qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected using field note, photograph, and interview, while quantitative data were collected using test.
The results of the research show that the use PQRST strategy improves the students’ reading comprehension and students’ participation in the classroom activities. Before implementing PQRST strategy, the students’ mean score was 54.76 in the pre-test. After being treated with this method in one cycle, the mean score improved to 75.60 in the post-test. The students improvement covers all indicators of reading comprehension skill including (1) Identifying the purpose of a text; (2) Identifying main idea; (3) Identifying implicit information; (4) Identifying explicit information; (5) Identifying reference; 6) Identifying word meaning and (7) identifying the structure of the text. Besides, the results showed the improvement in students’ participation during the lesson, in terms of (1) students’ attention to the lesson, (2) students’ activeness in answering questions, and (3) students’ preparation before the lesson began. Therefore, the implementation of PQRST strategy is highly recommended for teaching reading.

Keyword: PQRST, reading comprehension, participation, classroom action research