The last was determining the class activities. In this action, the researcher planned some interesting activities that could encourage the students to use their
abilities in comprehending the reading texts. In planning the actions, the researcher worked together with the English teacher of grade VII of SMP Negeri 1
Jetis. c.
Action and Observation In this step, the researcher did the actions that had been planned in the
previous step. The actions were done in five meetings or two research cycles three meetings for Cycle 1 and two meetings for Cycle 2.
First, the researcher conducted the Cycle 1. In this cycle, the researcher presented the topic of food recipe. In the first meeting the researcher presented
what semantic mapping is. The researcher showed semantic mapping to the students and presented how to use the chart to help them understand English texts.
In the next meeting, the researcher asked the students to work in groups of four, in pairs, and sometimes individually to use semantic mapping in order to understand
the texts they read. In the end of the cycle, the researcher evaluated the actions by
interviewing the students and the teacher about the class activities. From the reflection of Cycle 1, the researcher found some weaknesses. Then the researcher
conducted Cycle 2. In this cycle the researcher optimized the use of handouts to present the materials. The students were asked to do the tasks using semantic
mapping. In the end of Cycle 2, the researcher also evaluated the actions by interviewing the students and the teacher about the class activities. The researcher
asked whether the actions done could improve the students’ reading
comprehension or not. While the researcher did the actions, the research collaborators took notes
in the backside of the class to observe the students’ behavior during the activities. The collaborators used a checklist to observe and evaluate the events in the
classroom. It was done to find problems during the class and see how effective the actions were.
d. Reflection
In this step, the researcher evaluated the actions that were conducted. She evaluated the actions by observing the teaching and learning conducted in the
class and interviewing the students and the teacher about the class activity. The reflection was useful to show the effectiveness of the actions conducted in the
teaching and learning process. At the end of the actions, the researcher consulted the results of the actions conducted and problems occurring during the actions that
seemed ineffective to the collaborators. It was done to find out whether the actions were successful or not. The successful actions would be reapply in the next cycle,
but the successful actions would be changed or improved to the suitable one.
H. Technique for Analyzing Data
The data collected were in the form of qualitative and qualitative data. To analyze the qualitative data, the researcher referred to the steps suggested by
Burns 2010: 104-105. In the first step, assembling the data, the researcher collected all the data, reviewed the initial and looked for board patterns, ideas that
seemed to answer the question. The next step was coding the data where the researcher coded the data into more specific patterns and identified which data
could be coded qualitatively and quantitatively. The third step was comparing the data in which the researcher compared the data to see whether they said the same
thing or whether there were contradictions. The fourth step was building meanings and interpretations. To sense the data, the researcher analyzed the data several
times to pose questions, rethink the connections, and develop explanation of the situation. The last step was reporting the outcome. In this step the researcher
described the context of the research, outlined the finding, and provided data samples to support them, interpreted how the finding was related to the context
and suggested how the project could led to others areas for research. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. It was
done to compare the students’ reading comprehension before and after each cycle or the result of the pre-test and post-test. It was used to answer whether there are
significant differences between students’ reading comprehension before and after the action. Here the researcher used
paired sample t-test
of
IBM SPSS 22
software. The classroom action research would be successful if there was an
improvement of students’ reading comprehension. Besides, the students’ response and reaction to the lesson was better than before where they enjoyed and felt
comfortable in learning reading comprehension in the classroom.
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CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The aim of the research is to improve students’ reading comprehension through the use of semantic mapping technique. The result of the research
implementation is presented in Chapter four which consists of three sections; reconnaissance, reports of Cycle 1, and report of Cycle 2.
A. Reconnaissance
The research was conducted in collaboration with the English teacher of SMP Negeri 1 Jetis. The researcher was the teacher who implemented the action
research. Two collaborators, the English teacher of VII E and an English Education Department student of UNY were the observers during the research.
At the beginning of this study, the researcher had a discussion with the English teacher about the English teaching and learning process in the VII E class,
did observation of the English teaching and learning process, and conducted interviews with VII students. During the observation, she found that the class
situation of the English lesson, especially in reading was still monotonous and the class was not active. The teacher used to ask the students to read aloud together,
translate the text, and then answer the questions. The students tended to be passive during the lesson. They sometimes did not pay attention to the lesson. Moreover,
the students’ reading comprehension was still low. Besides, in the interview with
some students before the research, they said that when answering the reading comprehension questions, they could answer them merely by matching the words
and the sentences in the tasks with the words and the sentences in the text without knowing what the text told them about.
