The Effect of Word Attack Strategy towards the Students’ Comprehension in Reading Descriptive Text of Eight Grade at SMP Negeri 2 Nainggolan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find the effect of Word Attack Strategy of students' reading comprehension ability. The goal of this study is to see if the Word Attack Strategy has an impact on students' ability in reading descriptive text. This investigation was carried out using experimental quantitative research. The subject of the study was SMP Negeri 2 Nainggolan. The writer applied Word Attack Strategy in experimental class VIII-1 which consist of 15 students and the control class used conventional method VIII-2 which of 15 students. There were 30 students in this study, divided into four classes. The writer chose two classrooms as a random sample to investigate the effect of Word Attack Strategy in reading comprehension. The data was gathered by administering a descriptive test to determine whether or not the reader understood the content. Both the experimental and control classes were given two tests, they are: a pre-test and a post-test. The mean score of pre-test in the experimental class is 72 and the post-test is 82. The mean score of pre-test in the control group is 71 and the post-test is 77. The mean score of experimental class was found to be greater than the control class. The result that t-calculated > t-table as the level of significance p=0.05 (3.55> 2.048). The null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected, whereas the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. It is recommended that English teachers use the Word Attack Strategy as an effective teaching strategy to help eighth grade Junior High School students improve their reading comprehension.