IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING SKILL USING TALKING STICK METHOD AT THE EIGHTH GRADE OF SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 3 JETIS PONOROGO IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

There are many languages in the world, one of them is English. It is an international language that many people all over the world use. In Indonesia, English is a foreign language and it is included as the subject in the school from the junior high school till senior high school. There are four skills of English those are reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Reading is a language skill which is used to communicate indirectly. Teaching reading sometimes finds some difficulties. Based on the observation in SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Jetis Ponorogo, the problems of teaching reading are teacher’s monotonous method, students’ laziness in reading, and students’ lack vocabulary. To solve these problems, English teachers should use interesting method to improve the students’ reading skill. In this case, the researcher would apply Jumbled Paragraph as the method. This method would help students to study cooperatively in happy condition or situation, make them enjoy their learning, and they can receive the material of reading easily. The subject of this research was the students of the eighth grade class b of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Jetis Ponorogo in the 2013/2014 academic year, which consisted of 17 students. The research was started on May 26th, 2014 until June 03th, 2014. This Classroom Action Research was conducted in two cycles. The researcher used three research instruments. They are: observation check list, questionnaire, and test. By using action research methodology, the researcher applied the method for students of class eighth grade. The research was done in two cycles. The result of test in cycle 1 got average score 72.05. The score was not reached the average score yet. But, after the researcher made improvements in cycle 2, the score was increased become 88.94. The result of observation sheet showed that the students are being active in teaching and learning process. The data of questionnaire showed that the students interested in reading descriptive text by using Talking Stick Method. Finally, the researcher concluded that the result of this research showed there is improving students’ reading skill using Talking Stick method at the eighth grade of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Jetis Ponorogo. Key Words: Key Words: Teaching, Talking Stick Method, Reading Skil