IMPROVING THE READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY OF GRADE VIII B STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 GAMPING IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014 BY ACTIVATING THEIR SCHEMATA

Abstrak / Ringkasan

This research was aimed at improving the students’ comprehension ability by activating their schemata in Class VIII B of SMPN 1 Gamping in the academic year of 2013/2014.
The study was action research and was done in collaboration with the students, the English teacher, and the researcher’s colleague as collaborators. The steps of the research were reconnaissance, planning, action and observation, and reflection. The subjects of the research were 31 students of Class VIII B of SMPN 1 Gamping. The research was carried out in two cycles and the data were collected both qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative data were collected through observations and interviews by using observation checklists and interview guidelines whereas the quantitative data were collected through tests. The qualitative data were analyzed through assembling, coding, and comparing the data, building interpretations, and reporting the outcome while the quantitative data were analyzed by means of the descriptive technique to obtain the mean and standard deviation. A t-test in SPSS 20.0 was also applied to analyze the students’ scores to investigate the improvement. The validity of the qualitative data was democratic validity, outcome validity, process validity, dialogic validity whereas the quantitative data was content and face validity. The reliability of the qualitative data was obtained through time triangulation and investigator triangulation whereas the quantitative data used the Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha obtained from the results of the ITEMAN 3.00.
The results of the research showed that using students’ schemata was effective to improve their reading comprehension ability. The students’ problems in reading comprehension were solved by using strategies that could activate their schemata: establishing reading goals, building interest and attention, exploring keywords, building connections and background knowledge. Establishing reading goals gave them a clear explanation of what they could get through reading. Building interest and attention motivated them in joining the reading class. Exploring keywords prepared them with the important vocabulary to help them understand the texts. Building connections and background knowledge helped them make connections between knowledge that they had already known and the new knowledge. It was also proven by the mean score of the posttest 75.16, which was higher than that in the pretest 62.90. This achievement proved that activating the students’ schemata could improve their reading comprehension ability significantly.

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