A COMPARISON STUDY ON READING COMPREHENSION BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS AT THE ELEVENTH GRADE OF STATE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1 BANGKINANG KOTA

Based on preliminary research, the writer found some of male and female students did not achieve the target of curriculum 2013. They learned in equal condition and acquired knowledge from their teacher prevalently without segregation. However, many previous researchers have noted the evidence of a growing gender gap in educational achievement. Thus, this study aimed at finding out the difference on reading comprehension between male and female students at the eleventh grade of State Senior High School 1 Bangkinang Kota. The research design was comparative method and it used two instruments namely test and questionnaire. From 127 students of the population which consisted of 4 classes, the writer took 60 students which consisted of 30 males and 30 females that was taken by disproportional random sampling. In analyzing the data, inferential analysis namely Independent Sample T-Test technique was used in order to measure the difference of mean score on reading comprehension between male and female students. Based on the research findings, it was found the sig = 0.012 < a (0.05). Therefore, it could be concluded that Ho was rejected and Ha was acepted, it means there is a significant difference on reading comprehension between male and female students at the eleventh grade of State Senior High School 1 Bangkinang Kota. Whereas, descriptive analysis was used to know the dominant factors that influence students’ reading comprehension. Based on the results, the writer found the factors of male students were social environment (22.8% ), talent (21.2% ), background knowledge (20.6% ), vocabulary (19.6% ), and motivation (15.8% ). While the factors of female students were motivation (22.2% ), social environment (20.9% ), background knowledge (20.5% ), talent (18.6% ), and vocabulary (17.8% ). Key words : male and female students, reading comprehension, comparison