The aim of this research was to improve students’ reading comprehension through group investigation technique. This research was a classroom action research. The subject of this research was the students of VIII E grade at SMP N 7 Purwokerto in academic year 2010/2011. There were 36 students in VIII E class. This research was done on May 2011.
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 observation, reading test (pre test and post test), questionnaire, and documentation. 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 significant improvement in students’ reading comprehension after implementing CAR through group Investigation technique. The average of the students’ in reading comprehension was 47.33 in pre test. The average of the students’ reading comprehension in post test 1 was 51.53 It improved 47.33% from the pre test. The average score of the students’ reading comprehension in post test 2 was 62.5 it improved 51.53% from post test 1. While the improvement of the students’ activities in reading was 8.88% in cycle 1 and 32.5% in cycle 2. The data from the questionnaire showed many students gave positive responses to the implementation of the technique of group investigation. The average percentage of all questions that chose “yes” was 78.69%. 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 comprehension from reading test. In addition, there were many students who gave positive responses related to the implementation of this technique.