THE INFLUENCE OF USING THINK ALOUD STRATEGY TOWARDS STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ON RECOUNT TEXT AT THE FIRST SEMESTER OF THE EIGHTH GRADE OF MTs DARUL HUDA BANDAR LAMPUNG IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2016/2017

Reading is one of language skills that should be mastered by the students. In reading the text, readers can find the knowledge and get information from printed text. The students‟ reading comprehension of MTs Darul Huda Bandar Lampung is still low especially in reading recount text. It can be seen from the students‟ reading score in preliminary research. There were 59.05% of the students who got the score under 70 as the criteria of minimum mastery. To solve the problem, the researcher applied Think Aloud Strategy. Think Aloud Strategy is one strategy to help students comprehend the text because they work using their thinking. The objective of this research is to know whether there is a significant influence of using Think Aloud Strategy towards reading comprehension on recount text at first semester of the eighth grade of MTs Darul Huda Bandar Lampung in the academic year of 2016/2017. The research methodology was quasi experimental design. In this research, the population was the eighth grade of MTs Darul Huda Bandar Lampung. The sample of this research was two classes consisting of 36 students for experimental class and 34 students for control class. In the experimental class, the researcher used Think Aloud Strategy and in the control class the teacher used Lecturing Strategy. The treatments were held in 3 meetings in which 2 x 40 minutes for each class. In collecting the data, the researcher used instrument in the form of multiple choice questions which had been tried out before the treatments. The instrument was given in pre-test and post-test. Before giving the treatment, the researcher gave pre-test for both classes. Then, after conducting the treatments, the instrument was given in post-test. After giving pre-test and post-test, the researcher analyzed the data using SPSS to compute independent sample t-test. From the data analysis computed by using SPSS, it was obtained that Sig. = 0.040 and α = 0.05. It means that Ha is accepted because Sig. < α = 0.040. Therefore, there is a significant influence of using Think Aloud Strategy towards reading comprehension on recount text at the first semester of the eight grade of MTs Darul Huda Bandar Lampung. Keywords : Think Aloud Strategy, Reading Comprehension, Recount Text