post-test was conducted after conducting the actions on Saturday, February 21
st
2015. The result of the tests could be seen in the two tables below.
Table 6. Paired Samples Statistics
Mean N Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean Pair1 Pre_Test
58.9375 32
11.29641 1.99694
Post_Test 78.0938
32 9.84840
1.74097
Table 7. Paired Samples Test
Paired Differences
T df
Sig. 2-tailed
Mean Std.
Deviation Std. Error
Mean 95 Confidence
Interval of the Difference
Lower Upper
Pair 1 Pre_Test - Post_Test
-1.91562E1 8.62894
1.52540 -22.26732 -16.04518 -12.558 31 .000
Table 5 showed the mean value of each test. It increased around 30 from pre-test 58 to post-test 78. The standard deviation in post-test was
lower than that in pre-test. It meant that the students’ reading score was homogenous in which there were more students getting the high scores. Thus,
the description in Table 6 showed that there was an improvement of students’ reading comprehension after giving the actions.
Moreover, Table 6 showed the p-value of the tests was 0,00 0,005. It meant that the students’ reading score improved significantly after
implementing the actions. Thus, there was a significant difference between the scores of pre-test and those of post-test.
D. Discussion
The research has a purpose in improving the students’ reading comprehension using Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy VSS. Briefly, the
strategy was divided into four actions; those are building students’ interest and attention, collecting and exploring the key vocabularies found in the text,
building a connection between key vocabularies and content area of reading, and comprehending the whole text. These actions were implemented in the
teaching and learning process both in Cycle I and Cycle II. Meanwhile, the steps of teaching and learning in the class used the scientific approach since it
was required in Curriculum 2013. The steps were observing, formulating questions, collecting the data, associating, and communicating.
Some efforts were done to build the students’ interest and attention in reading the English texts. The appropriate topic related to the students’ daily
life was given so that they could be easier in comprehending the texts. The distribution of worksheet for each group facilitated them to give their
attention during doing the task since they had the materials in hands. Moreover, the students did most of the activities in groups so that they were
more confident in doing the tasks. In Cycle I, some of the students were interested in reading an English text, but the others were not. They seemed
bored during the activity. Hence, the solution was given in Cycle II in which
they were showed a video at the beginning of the activity. They enjoyed the activity especially when singing a song together following the lyrics showed
in the video. As a result, the activity engaged the students’ interest and attention to do the further activities.
Furthermore, the VSS chart was given to each group during reading the text. The chart facilitated the students in collecting the key vocabularies
found in the text. They had to collect the important or unfamiliar words and list them to the chart including the reason for selecting the words and the
meaning of those words. The meaning of the selected words could be discussed together if they did not know it yet. The action prevented the
students in skipping the unfamiliar words during reading a text. In Cycle I, there were some students being enthusiastic in collecting the words, but the
others were still not. However, they showed their improvement in Cycle II in which most of them really enthusiastic in joining the activity in particular
when they were asked to go forward to write the selected words on the board. Defining the unfamiliar words based on the context of the text became
the strategy in helping the students when they found so many difficult words in the text. The action encouraged the students to look at the clues surrounded
the words. The clues could be in the form of words or sentences. The students were asked about the Indonesian meaning related to the words they had
selected. In this activity, they read the sentence including the selected word and tried to guess the meaning. In Cycle I, there were some students who
could relate the words with the context, but the others were still not.
