THE EFFECT OF LOCAL CULTURE-BASED MATERIAL TO READING ABILITY OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The objectives of this study were to identify reading ability of students who were taught through local culture-based material, reading ability of students who were not taught through local culture-based material and to find out whether or not there is the significant effect of local culture-based material in improving reading ability of the eighth grade students of junior high school. The research was conducted at State Junior High School 9 Yogyakarta. This was an experimental research. The steps were pre-test, treatment and post- test. The data were collected by using multiple choice tests in form of pre-test and post- test. Then, data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. Based on descriptive analysis, the reading ability of the studentswho were taught by using local culture-based material were in good category with the mean of the group was 81.13. It is better than the students who were not taught using local culture-based material which the mean of the group was only 71.38. In line with it, the result of inferential analysis, showed by the result of ANCOVA with the probability value 0.000, it is lower than 0.05. Thus, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. It means that local culture-based material had significant effect in improving students’ reading ability. Keywords: Effectiveness, Local Culture-Based Material, Reading skil