Improving 11th Reading Comprehension by Using Making Connection Technique

ABSTRAK Reading is a comprehending process which involves complex steps. It is an important skill that every language learner needs to develop. Despite the important role of reading comprehension, many researchers indicate that the students’ reading comprehension skill is not satisfactory yet. This situationis also found in MAN 3 Malang. The students were found to have difficulty in comprehending the content of reading text because of some factors. They included lack of motivation and low ability in reading, especially in drawing on their prior knowledge and experience. In order to address the issue, the researcher implemented the Making Connection Technique in the reading lessons in collaborative with the classroom teacher. This technique has several steps which could help the students to gradually solve their problems in reading comprehension. The steps that the students can follow are text to text, text to self, and text to world.The design of this research was Classroom Action Research covering four stages; they were planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The subjects of the study were 29 students of class XI MAKBI of MAN 3 Malang. The instruments used to collect the data were students’ reading comprehension test (pre and post-test), observation checklist, and field notes. Since the researcher aimed to know whether the technique could help the students in both lower and upper group to comprehend the reading text, this research is considered successful if there was a significant improvement from their pre and post-test scores.The findings of this study revealed that by using Making Connection technique, the students’ reading comprehension scores had achieved the criteria of success. Besides, the students also showed positive attitude during and after the implementation of making connection technique. This indicated by the results of the observation checklist and field notes, and some students’ testimonial. The several procedure of using the technique that was found to be successful involved, they are (1) making text to text-connection in group, (2) making text to self-connection in group, (3) making text to world-connection in group, and (4) having a class discussion related to the results of their discussion using those three steps in making connection technique. Based on the research findings, the researcher suggestedEnglish teachers to implement the making connection technique in more interesting ways. Future researchers can investigate the use of making connection technique for other research purposes, for example, investigating the effect of prior knowledge on other English skills, such as students’ writing skill