THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEMANTIC MAPPING TO TEACH READING VIEWED FROM STUDENTS’ INTELLIGENCE

The objectives of this research are finding out whether: (1) semantic mapping is more effective than lecturing to teach reading at the Eighth Graders of SMPN 12 Tasikmalaya in the Academic Year of 2011/2012; (2) the students who have high intelligence have better reading ability than those who have low intelligence at the Eighth Graders of SMPN 12 Tasikmalaya in the Academic Year of 2011/2012; and (3) there is an interaction between teaching strategies and students’ intelligence in teaching reading at the Eighth Graders of SMPN 12 Tasikmalaya in the Academic Year of 2011/2012. This research was an experimental study conducted at SMPN 12 Tasikmalaya in the Academic Year of 2011/2012. The samples were two classes: VIII C and VIII D. The researcher took the sample of this study by using cluster random sampling. Each class was divided into two groups (the students who have high and low intelligence). The research instruments consist of the students’ intelligence document and a reading test. The reading test was tried out to get valid and reliable items. Then, the data were analyzed by using multifactor analysis of variance 2 x 2 (ANOVA) and Tukey test. Based on the research results, there are research findings as follows: (1) the students who are taught using semantic mapping have better reading ability than those who are taught using lecturing; (2) the students who have high intelligence have better reading ability than those who have low intelligence; and (3) there is an interaction between teaching strategies and students’ intelligece because semantic mapping is more effective to teach reading for the students having high intelligence, and lecturing is more effective to teach reading for students having low intelligence. Finally, it can be inferred that: (1) semantic mapping is an effective strategy to teach reading at the eighth graders of SMPN 12 Tasikmalaya in the academic year of 2012/2013; (2) the effectiveness of the strategy is affected by the level of students’ intelligenc