This final project is about the use of personal letter to improve students’ skill in reading comprehension text of eighth grade students of MTs Darussalam Balapulang in the academic year of 2014/2015. The background of the study in this research was based on the students’ difficulties in comprehending reading texts. Some of the reasons were the method of the English teaching process was not interesting, and there were teachers that still used conventional way. So, it will difficult for students to achieve the teaching and learning target. In order to solve this problem the teacher should have creative activity, and the using of mind mapping method can be an alternative way as a learning media that will make students enjoy and easy to comprehend a reading text.
This study is aimed at responding the following questions: (1) how the implementation of mind mapping method is improving students’ skill in reading text to the eighth grade of MTs Darussalam Balapulang in the academic year of 2014/2015, (2) how mind mapping can improve students’ skill in reading text. Then the objective of this study was to describe the improvement of students’ reading skill after being taught by using mind mapping method.
In order to achieve the objectives, a classroom action research was designed and carried out through pre-test, cycle 1, and cycle 2. The subject of this research was 31 students of VIII A class of MTs Darussalam Balapulang. Researcher used writing tests and observation sheet as the instruments for collecting the data. There were three meetings during the research, they were pre-cycle test, cycle test I and cycle test II. The researcher used written test and observation in collecting the data. The using of written test was to measure the students’ skill in reading narrative text after giving the treatment, and the using of observation was to monitor students’ activities during teaching learning process.
The results of the study showed a significant improvement of the students’ achievement. The students’ average score in pre-test was (64.4), in cycle I test was (68.5), and in post-test was (72.8). The students’ reading skill in each test improved, too. The achievement of the test showed that the treatment was successful because the result of the cycle II test was higher than the cycle I test. In line with this result, the researcher concluded that the research improved students’ skill in reading narrative text.
The result of the observation sheet showed that after learning reading narrative text using mind mapping method, the students became more attentive, active, attracted in joining the lesson, happier and more serious in reading. Based on the overall results of the research, it can be concluded that the use of mind mapping contributes to the improvement of students’ skill and the increases in their motivation in reading texts.