THE EFFECT OF WORD ATTACK STRATEGY TOWARDS THE STUDENT IN READING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Abstract

This article discusses about the effect of Word Attack strategy towards students’ reading skill in descriptive text . The problem of this research is “ Does teaching reading with Word Attack strategy significantly effect on students’ reading skill at grade eight of SMP N 1 Gunung Malela” So,the purpose of the research was to find out the effect of Word Attack strategy towards students’ reading skill in descriptive text. To solve the problem of this research, the researcher used some related theories ; Grellet (1999), Nunan (1991), Moreillon (2007) and Patel, Jain (2008), Linse (2005), Snow et al (2002), Dorn and Soffos (2005 ) and Cunningham in Bouchard (2005).This research was conducted by using quantitative research design because the researcher wanted to find out the effect of Word Attack strategy towards students’ reading in descriptive text. The population of this research was from the third year of students in SMPN 1 Gunung Malela . There were two classes as a sample. 25 students from experimental group and 25 students from control group, so the total sample was 50 students. The researcher used Cluster Purposive technique in taking the sample. The research finding showed that the mean of post-test in experimental group was higher than the mean of post-test in control group, that was (71.2 > 63.8). Then, the result of the hypothesis testing showed that Tobs was higher than Ttable, that was (3.87 > 1.67). It means that Ha was accepted and Ho was rejected. Finally, it was concluded that there was a significant effect of Word Attack strategy towards students’ reading in descriptive text. The researcher suggested the reader to use Word Attack strategy in reading descriptive text , because it proved that this strategy was helpful for students in reading descriptive text.