ABSTRACT

Latifah, Maulida. 2024. Correlation Between Students’ Reading Interest and Reading Comprehension in SMPN 1 Banjarmasin. Sarjana’s Thesis. English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University. Advisors: (I) Dr. Nanik Mariani, M.Pd; (II) Dr. Rina Listia, M.Pd.

Keywords: Correlation, Reading Interest, Reading Comprehension

Reading interest is one aspect to develop someone’s reading comprehension process. If the students are interested with reading activity, they will read actively without pressure. The researcher intended to find out whether there is any correlation between students’ reading interest and reading comprehension in SMPN 1 Banjarmasin.

This study was conducted by using quantitative approach with correlation study as the method. The population of this research is 8^th grade students in SMPN 1 Banjarmasin. The researcher used cluster sampling and there were 63 students as the samples for this research. The instruments used were 25 items of reading interest questionnaire and 25 items of reading comprehension test.

 The researcher used the Pearson Product Moment formula that was analysed by using SPSS. The result showed that the variables’ correlation is positive 0.350 and it is categorized as low. However, H1 was accepted and H0 was rejected, so there was correlation between students’ reading interest and their reading comprehension in 8^th grades of SMPN 1 Banjarmasin.

 It is suggested for the students to enhance their interest in reading, spend hours in reading, and pay closer attention when reading in order to improve their abilities in learn English especially reading comprehension.