This research aims to improve English reading achievement among junior high school students using the Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) technique. Conducted over two cycles with class VIII 1 of Junior High School 15 Kendari, initial results showed low achievement, but after modifying instructional strategies, the success rate increased to 80% in the second cycle. The findings indicate that the STAD technique effectively enhances students' reading abilities in descriptive texts.

1. ABSTRACT
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH READING ACHIEVEMENT UNDER
STUDENT TEAMS ACHIEVEMENT DIVISION (STAD) TECHNIQUE
OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 15 KENDARI
BY
ARWIN
A1D2 07 103
This research is aimed to improve students’ English reading achievement under
Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) technique at class VIII 1 of Junior High
School 15 Kendari. The research question is “Can Student Teams Achievement
Division technique improve students’ English reading achievement at class VIII 1 of
Junior High School 15 Kendari?. The objective of this research is to find out whether
the Student Teams Achievement Division technique can increase students’ English
reading achievement at class VIII 1 of Junior High School 15 Kendari or not.
Design of the research was classroom action research which applied four steps.
They are planning, action, observation, and reflection. This research was conducted in
two cycles. The subject of this research was students at class VIII 1 of Junior High
School 10 Kendari who are registered in academic year 2011/2012. The total
respondent was 30 students which are divided in seven groups (five groups group
consist of four students and two groups consist of five students with different head
number). The instrument of this research was reading comprehension test, observation
sheet, and note taking. The indicator of students’ English reading achievement is
minimally 75% who got the standard score 7.0.
The result of the research shows that on diagnostic test, the percentage of
students’ score was 33.33%, it meant that students’ English reading achievement still
categorized low. During the application of STAD technique, in the first cycle it seems
that students have difficulties to get the meaning of reading text, the atmosphere of
class discussion is still noisy, and there are some students do not participate well in
group discussion. As the result, the percentage of students reading achievement only
53.33% who get the standard score. In the second cycle, the researcher teaches students
how to guess the unfamiliar words in a sentence, main idea, and give them more
explanation about the importance of group discussion. Besides that, the researcher
motivates the students to participate well in group discussion. The atmosphere of class
more quiet. The result in the second cycle is 80.00 % students get the standard score. It
means that the improvement is 26.67% compared with the first cycle. This result shows
that students at class VIII 1 of Junior High School 15 Kendari achieves the target in the
second cycle. Therefore, can be indicated that STAD technique can improve students’
English reading achievement in terms of descriptive text at class VIII 1 Junior High
School 15 Kendari.
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