THE USE OF K-W-L (KNOW - WANT to KNOW - LEARNED) STRATEGY TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

The objectives of this research are: (1) finding out whether and to what extent KWL (Know - Want to Know - Learned) Strategy can improve reading ability of second grade students of SMP N 4 Surakarta and (2) describing what happens to classroom situation when KWL Strategy is applied in teaching reading. The subjects of the research are twenty three students of class VIII G SMP N 4 Surakarta. The research data were obtained by using several techniques including: test, observation, interview, questionnaire, field notes and photographs.The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistic. Meanwhile, qualitative data were analyzed by using 5 stages suggested by Burns (1999: 157- 159) consisting of: assembling the data; coding the data; comparing the data; building interpretation; and reporting the outcomes. The research findings show that the use of KWL Strategy could improve students’ reading ability and classroom situation of English class. The improvement of students’ reading comprehension can be seen from the improvement of the mean score of pre-test, first post-test, and second post-test, that is 66.95; 75.43 and 80.65