"The Reading Comprehension in Descriptive Text of the Seventh Grade Students of Mts Negeri Gembong Pati Taught by Using CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition) Method in the Academic Year 2011/2012".

Teaching English as the first foreign language is much needed in every levels of education especially in Indonesia. The aim is to develop spoken and written communication capability which is reflected in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The four basic language skills above are equally essential for students to learn and it is emphasized on reading. They have many difficulties in reading English text due to the different English features from their mother tongue, Indonesian. CIRC method makes students more understand and be easy to comprehend reading text. It also can improve the students’ motivation and help them to try move on one step from other. The objectives of this research proposal are (i) to find out the reading comprehension in descriptive text of the seventh grade students of MTs Negeri Gembong Pati in the academic year 2011/2012 before being taught by using CIRC method, (ii) to find out the reading comprehension in descriptive text of the seventh grade students of MTs Negeri Gembong Pati in the academic year 2011/2012 after being taught by using CIRC method, (iii) to find out the significant difference between the reading comprehension in descriptive text of the seventh grade students of MTs Negeri Gembong Pati in the academic year 2011/2012 before and after being taught by using CIRC method. The writer did the research for the seventh grade students of MTs Negeri Gembong Pati in the academic year 2011/2012. This research used the one group pretest posttest design. There were 145 students. Here, the writer uses cluster random sampling technique to determine the sample. Finally, the class for the experimental group is VII B. Pre-test is given to the students in the experimental groups. Then, they are taught descriptive texts by using CIRC method and then are given a post-test The mean of post-test is 87, 67 and it is categorized as “Excellent”. It is higher than the mean of pre-test which is 72 and categorized as “Good”. Thus, the hypothesis research is accepted. The result shows that during the treatments, most of the students have good scores and they can do the task better. It is one of the advantages of using the group style in doing the reading task. Based on the research result above, it is suggested to English teacher to consider about using CIRC method in the elementary and the secondary level in teaching reading