Abstract:
English is the first foreign language in the schools in Indonesia and even as
one of the major lessons. It has the main function to give the information by
reading something. Reading is central to the learning process, but many students
are poor in reading English. If the teacher could take an appropriate method in
teaching reading, it would help the students to read in effective way.One of the
approaches or methods that can be used in improving the students reading ability
is communicative approach. It is through understanding poems. A poem is an
arrangement of words containing meaning and musicality. A poem can be
rhyming or nonrhyming, with a regular meter or a free flow of polyrhythms. A
poem has short sentences but its sentences contain many meanings. It can help
stimulate the imagination of the students, to develop their sensitive abilities and to
increase their emotional awareness.
The objective of this research is to find out the effect of using
communicative approach through understanding poems in teaching reading
ability. In order to know the effect the writer compares the result of teaching by
using common method to the result of teaching using communicative approach
through understanding poems. This research is an experimental research which
has conducted on the eighth-grade students of SMP 33 Purworejo in the school
year 2011/2012. The population of the study consists of 218 students from 7
classes. The writer took purposively class VIII C, which consists of 32 students as
the experimental group, and VIII D, which consists of 32 students as the control
group. The test consists of 25 items. This is the multiple choices reading test.
Statistically, the writer analyzed the data by using t-test. The result of this study
shows that there is significant effect of using communicative approach through
understanding poems on the students’ reading ability, since it was found that the
result of t-value is 6.084 the degree freedom (df) 62 and the level significance of ttest
table is 5%. It shows 2.000 It is proven by the result of the t-test sample
related that the t-value is higher than t-table.
The research findings indicated that there is significant effect of using
communicative approach through understanding poems to the students toward
their English reading ability. It is suggested that communicative approach through
understanding poems can be used by the teacher in teaching reading ability in the
classroom. The students who are taught by using communicative approach
through understanding poems will get better ability rather than students who have
been taught using common method.
