ABSTRACT

Dwi Kuncoro Wibowo. 2019. A Descriptive Study On Reading Comprehension Ability In Descriptive Text Of The Eighth Grade Students SMP Swasta Muhammadiyah Kuala Kapuas Academic Year 2018/2019English Department, Faculty of Teacher  Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. The first advisor: Moh. Yamin, S.Pd,   M.Pd, the second advisor: Dini Noor Arini, M.Pd.

Keywords: Students' ability, reading comprehension ,conclusion.

This thesis was aimed to describe students' ability in reading comprehension on the descriptive text. This research takes place in SMP Swasta Muhammadiyah Kuala Kapuas. The research subject is the eighth grade students of SMP Swasta Muhammadiyah Kuala Kapuas in Academic Year of 2018/2019. The instrument used was multiple-choice form. The researcher used total sampling method. There are 46 students from class VIIIA and VIIIB as the subject.

            This research was conducted by using quantitative approach in analyzing the data. The result of this research showed that the eighth grade students' ability in reading comprehension on the descriptive text was poor. Based on standard qualification of students' score in SMP Swasta Muhammadiyah Kuala Kapuas. To be specific, the highest score was 80 for the first test and 87.5 for the second test. The lowest score was 10 for the first test and 22.5 for the second test. The average score was 32.88 for the first test and 38.69 for the second test which mean that the students' ability was in the poor level.  It could be seen by the highest percentage of the correct answer of the total subject that 35 students (76.10%) were in poor category. The highest percentage was on finding main idea and the lowest percentage was on meaning from context. The average total percentage of meaning from context was only 30.75% which was in fair category. However, the good percentages of students' scores was on finding mind idea with percentage 55.75%  which included in good category.

            Based on the result, the researcher would like to suggest that the teacher need to pay serious attention to the students and give more exercise or homework  in order to improve students' ability in finding main idea which is implied or not directly stated. The students are also suggested to study more and practice the skills in reading from English newspaper, magazine, and the internet.