Background of The Problem

material. Another problem was about the role of the teacher. The teacher was applied the teacher-centered classroom. She controlled the whole session of the teaching and learning activities. Based on the preliminary observation at Class VIIIC of SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta, the similar problems related to the teaching of reading were identified. The teaching of reading was not yet effective. As a result, the problems related to the students‟ reading skills arose. The students still had poor vocabulary. When they read an English text, they got difficulties in understanding the meanings of the words and the content of the text. In relation to the problems above, it is essential to use particular learning activity in teaching reading. There are many kinds of learning activities which can be applied for teaching reading. The selection of learning activity is adjusted to the students‟ characteristics and needs. The learning activity should provide the students with meaningful activities combined with the variation of learning media. Realizing the facts above, the researcher believes that the problems related to the teaching of reading need to be solved. Therefore, the researcher intends to solve the problems by using classroom action research.

B. Identification of The Problem

The researcher found some information about the problems of English in teaching and learning process at SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta. Focusing on the eighth grade students; the researcher identified the existing problems and classified them into three problems related to the students‟ reading comprehension. The first problem came from the teacher. The teacher did not give attention to what the students needed in reading. She just gave the materials based on student‟s textbook or LKS Lembar Kerja Siswa and asked the students to answer the questions without guiding them to comprehend the text. The teacher also dominated the whole session and did not try to build interaction with the students. It made the students feel bored and did not enjoy the lesson. The students did not listen to the teacher‟s explanation and they were lack of motivation to read. The second problem was derived from the students. The students had poor vocabulary mastery. As a result, they got difficulty in interpreting the meanings of the difficulty words. The students also found difficulties in determining the main idea of the text. They were not able to find the detail information of a text. It was reflected by their behavior in the class. The students were passive during the English teaching and learning process and they often laid their head down on the table. When the teacher asked them to read a text, they just looked at the text and did other activities like having a chat with their friends or playing with their peers. They were very noisy in the classroom and did not pay attention toward the teacher‟s explanation. Obviously, those could be obstacles for their reading comprehension in reading activity. The last problem was the strategy used by the teacher. The strategy used by teacher was often boring and inappropriate with the situation and the condition of the students at that time. Testing students‟ competence was prior activity in that class. Reading activity given by the teacher could not make the students being more active, enthusiastic, and independent. Moreover, the use of interested learning media was limited. This limited the students in comprehending their text independently. These th ree problems were results to the students‟ ability in comprehending the text and motivation in reading activities. These are important cases that commonly happen in the EFL educational context, especially in Indonesia.

C. Delimitation of The Problem

Due to the problems happen to the eighth grade students at SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta, the researcher focused the study on the efforts to improve their comprehension in reading. The effort taken by the researcher was choosing some activities that are appropriat e with the students‟ needs and characteristics. In this case, the researcher had chosen summarizing as the activities of teaching reading.

D. Formulation of The Problem

In reference to the background, identification, and delimitation of the problems, the prob lem of this study is formulated as follows: “How could the implementation of summarizing activities improve reading comprehension tothe eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta in the academic year 20132014?”

E. Objective of The Study

With regard to the formulation of the problem above, the objective of this research is to improve reading comprehension using summarizing activities to the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Yogyakarta in the academic year of 20132014.