The aim of this research was to improve students‟ reading competence
using herringbone technique. This research was a classroom action research. The
subject of this research was the students of VII A grade at SMP N 3 Karanglewas,
Purwokerto in academic year 2014/2015. There were 32 students in VII A class.
This research was done in December 2014.
The writer used Classroom Action Research (CAR) as the method of the
research. To do this research, the writer worked collaboratively with the English
teacher. The writer took two cycles with two actions in each cycle.
The data were collected through reading test (pre test and post test),
observation interview, documentation, and questionnaire. The qualitative data
were analyzed based on the observation result of students‟ activities in the class
and questionnaire, while the quantitative data were analyzed by using reading test
(pre test and post test).
The result of this research showed that there was a significant
improvement in students‟ reading competence after implementing CAR through
Herringbone technique. The average of the students‟ reading competence was
53,25% in pre test. The average of the students‟ reading competence in post test 1
was 58.25% and the average of students‟ participation in post test 2 was 70,75%,
so the improvement of the students‟ reading competence was 7,80% in cycle 1
and 34,39% in cycle 2 from pre-test. The data from the questionnaire showed
many students gave positive responses to the implementation of the technique of
Herringbone. The average percentage of all questions that chose “yes” was 75%.
In conclusion, the research had been called success, because there was an
improvement in students‟ reading activities from the observation result and the
students‟ reading competence from reading test. In addition, there were many
students who gave positive responses related to the implementation of this
technique.