This thesis discusses the use of semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension in narrative text. The background of the research was based on the phenomenon of students’ difficulties in reading comprehension. This thesis is intended to answer the following research questions: (1) How is the implementation of semantic mapping strategy in improving students’ reading comprehension in narrative text? (2) How is the implementation of thinking aloud strategy in improving students’ reading comprehension in narrative text? (3) How is the improvement of students’ achievement in narrative text after being taught by using semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy? (4) How is the students’ engagement in joining English lesson by using semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy? Those research questions discussed through classroom action research in SMP Nurul Islam Semarang. The data was gotten from classroom observation, test, and documentation. The data was analyzed by using descriptive analysis.

This research shows that: (1) the implementation of semantic mapping seemed to be more interesting and amusing. In the first cycle, the teacher gave a narrative text to the students and gave them the important words based on the text. Then, students were asked to categorize the words based on their part of speech. In the next cycle, the teacher gave a narrative text to the students and asked them to categorize the information they got from the text. (2) The implementation of thinking aloud strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension in narrative text was applied after semantic mapping in every cycle. In the first cycle, after the students did semantic mapping, they were asked to answer some comprehensive questions based on the text in oral. They should give their opinion about the text. In second cycle, after students did semantic mapping, they were asked to retell the story that had been mapped. (3) The improvement of students’ achievement in narrative text after being taught by using semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy was significant. The test result indicated that the students varied in their reading comprehension achievement. After two cycles, there was a significant improvement of students’ achievement. It can be seen from the students’ score. The results of the test that students achieved during the lesson through semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy is: in preliminary research, the average of the score was 63, it was becoming 67 in the first cycle, and it was becoming 83 in the second cycle. (4) The students’ engagement in joining English lesson by using semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy was significant. The students’ were enthusiastic in joining the teaching learning process. It can be seen from the observation in every cycle. The result checklist of the first observation was 50%, the second observation was 52%, and the third observation was 80%.
The result of the research shows that the use of semantic mapping and thinking aloud strategy can improve students’ reading comprehension in narrative text.