Most of junior high school students still have difficulties in comprehending texts. Many of them are classified as passive readers. They cannot
do what skilled readers supposed to do. They do not know how to extract information from the text.
The same situation also occurred in the school where the research was conducted. The reading skill of the students in SMP Negeri 1 Jetis was not as
expected. It can be seen from the result of previous test given by the English teacher, the observation held, and the interview with the English teacher.
Based on the preliminary observation on the teaching-learning activity in SMP Negeri 1 Jetis, the researcher found that there were some problems related to
students’ reading comprehension. The students encountered some difficulties in comprehending English texts. In the interview with some students, they said that
they got into difficulties in identifying the implicit and explicit information of the text. Besides, many students have low motivation in the reading class.
In the daily classroom activity, the students had difficulties in doing their reading assignment. The students frequently had to open the dictionary to find the
meaning of unfamiliar words. They also found it difficult to work using dictionaries, since a word may have two or more meanings. They took a relatively
long time to comprehend a text. The worse thing was that students sometimes could not get the intended meaning of a text, so when they were asked to answer
reading comprehension test they often got wrong answers. The condition indicated that the students had low proficiency in understanding a text.
At the time the result was conducted, SMP Negeri 1 Jetis used the School- based curriculum.
Permendiknas
no. 24, 2006 at the seventh article in point b states that teachers under
Badan Penelitian Dan Pengembangan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional
can develop the School-based curriculum innovatively. It means that teachers have the right to use a method or a technique in a teaching
process as long as the technique can facilitate to achieve instructional goals. They have to be able to make an interesting material and to use an interesting technique.
Considering the facts above, the researcher believes that some efforts are needed to solve the problem in the English teaching and learning process
especially in the teaching reading comprehension. In order to solve the problem, the researcher is motivated to conduct action research. Semantic mapping would
be used during the study as a technique to improve students’ reading
comprehension. Semantic mapping is a useful technique to facilitate the students in
comprehending texts properly. The semantic mapping strategy or Structured Overview, as it is sometimes called, is a schematic diagram of the major concepts
of a text Semantic mapping helps the students to activate their background knowledge before reading, monitor their comprehension when they are reading,
and evaluate their comprehension after reading. Also, it can be a helpful reference for students to use in clarifying confusing points as they are reading. Besides, it
can be easily applied in the classroom.
B. Identification of the Problems
From the initial observation in SMP Negeri 1 Jetis, the researcher finds some problems. The problems are related to the students and the teaching
technique. The students had low proficiency in reading comprehension. They lacked
vocabulary so that they had to struggle with it every time they try to comprehend a text. As a result of the problem mentioned, most of the students saw English as a
difficult subject. They would get demotivated when they were given an English text to read.
The other problem was related to the teaching technique in the reading comprehension. The teacher only focuses on testing the students’ ability to
translate and answer the question. She rarely taught the students to use reading strategies properly. She usually gave texts and asks the students to read and
answer questions related to them, but she never taught how to comprehend a text properly.
C. Limitation of the Problem
The researcher and the collaborators of this research agreed that the instructional reading technique, called a semantic mapping technique, has great
contributions to improve students’ reading comprehension. Therefore, the problem of this study is limited to improve the students’ reading comprehension
through semantic mapping at the seventh grade of SMP Negeri 1 Jetis which was determined in the field collaboratively.
Semantic mapping was proposed as the action to improve students’
reading comprehension since it is beneficial to facilitate the students’ in
comprehending texts properly. Semantic mapping helps the students to activate their background knowledge before reading, monitor their comprehension when
they are reading, and evaluate their comprehension after reading. Besides, semantic mapping technique can also be easily implemented in the classroom. The
students only need to complete the map to record their thinking process. Based on the observation and interviews, this action research would only
be implemented in class VII E since the students of VII E had low proficiency in reading comprehension. It was expected that the semantic mapping technique can
scaffold the students in understanding the text so that the students can improve their reading comprehension.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the identification and the limitation of the problems above, the research question is formulated. The research question is stated as “How does the
use of semantic mapping activity improve the students’ reading comprehension at SMP N 1 Jetis?”
E. Objective of the Study
This study aimed at improving the students’ reading comprehension at the
7
th
grade students of SMP N 1 Jetis through semantic mapping.
F. Significance of the Study
The researcher hopes that the findings in this study can give benefits for some parties. They are described as follows.
For the researcher, the result of this research can develop her experience related to her knowledge in research on education and English teaching, especially
for reading.
As the collaborators, the English teacher of SMP Negeri 1 Jetis and the researcher colleague can use the findings of this study as a source of information
in using semantic mapping as the media to teach reading comprehension. For the students, the result of this research is expected to give them a new
experience in English learning, especially in learning reading, so they can be more motivated to develop their abilities. The students are also trained to use the
semantic mapping technique so that they can use it anytime to help them to comprehend texts.
For teachers, the result of this research is expected to provide them with alternative media to teach reading. It is also expected to motivate the teachers to
be more creative so the students will be more enthusiastic in learning in the class. For other researchers, the result of this research is expected to be
references in conducting another similar research.
