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SQ3R METHOD IN TEACHING READING: HOW IT 
IMPROVES STUDENTS’ COMPREHENSION OF NARRATIVE 

TEXTS AT SMAN 2 TRENGGALEK 
 

1Wawan Prasetyo 
1STKIP PGRI Trenggalek, Trenggalek, Indonesia 

 
wawprasetyo23@gmail.com 

 

ABSTRACT 

Many students think that reading skill is really difficult and complicated. Students said that finding 

meaning is confusing. Sometimes students misinterpret the text even if they have sufficient 

vocabulary. The problem in understanding the text is likely to trigger another problem in English, 

such as giving up easily and being lazy to continue studying their English activity. Moreover, 

reading is the activity most frequently done by students. They read the lesson written by their 

teacher on the whiteboard and from the books. Meanwhile, reading narrative text is of reading 

types that are mostly discussed in senior high school. In trying to solve this problem, the writer did 

classroom action research in his school. This research was done to improve students’ reading 

comprehension in the tenth-grade students of SMAN 2 Trenggalek through the SQ3R method. The 

data of this research was gained from the interview, observation, test, questionnaire and English 

score. This research was conducted in two cycles. The result of the first cycle and second cycle 

indicated that the number of students who passed the test is increasing significantly. Based on the 

result of the study, it can be concluded that the SQ3R method can improve reading comprehension 

skills. 

Keywords: Narrative Text, Reading Comprehension, SQ3R Method 

INTRODUCTION 

The first most probable thing that new enrolled student do is read and write activity. It 
is usually used by the teachers to measure the academic competence for new students. 
Similarly, the new English student is usually considered fairly competent if they can read and 
write. It is not weird because read and write activity are one which is frequently done at 
school. However, reading is done a lot since the material given by teachers are usually 
delivered through media such as whiteboard or presentation on application or another 
printed media. At the first stages of learning, teacher will explain the material first. They also 
use books as reference and to give more explanation about the lesson. After giving lesson, 
exercise is also provided to measure the achievement of the students. And it is through 
reading will the students take the learning process. 

Reading skill is really important for teaching and learning process. Students can gain 
more information if they are good at reading. They can read and understand lots of 
information from every sources. Reading can make us find unlimited information we want. 

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We can get many knowledge, information, even create new work or product (Galuh & 
Romadhon, 2020). We can find everything from everywhere when we are good at reading. 
Nowadays, students can seek for whatever information they wish from the internet. They 
can gain what they cannot get from the classroom. In addition, the activity of reading is not 
only done for academic purpose only. Students can read for pleasure and fun activity. They 
can read newspaper, magazine, article on the internet for his leisure time. Reading fiction is 
also good for students. Reading is usually undertaken for some purpose, in a social context, 
and that social context itself contributes to a reader’s notion what it means to read, or,  as 
recent thinkers tend to put it, to be literate (Alderson, 2005). So, reading comprehension skill 
can support students to grow themselves. 

However, many students think that reading is really difficult and confusing. Many 
research showed that the Indonesian’s reading ability is low (Masruuroh, 2015). Besides 
their vocabulary problem, many students said that finding meaning of text is complicated. 
They got confused to find the meaning resides on text and often misinterpret the meaning. 
This also happens when they read fictional works. It takes many times to understand works 
written in narrative text. Narratives are read more quickly than expository text, and scores 
on recall and comprehension tests are generally higher for narrative text (Hudson, 2011).  

One of many ways in teaching reading skill is using SQ3R sequence (Brown, 2007). The 
recent studies done by some writers showed that SQ3R strategy could improve students’ 
reading comprehension. In addition, SQ3R method is applicable to most reading text and 
reading assignments which can be done in a group or individually (Dharma, Ahmad Surya. 
Abdullah, 2013). Research done by Prasutiyo (Prasutiyo, 2014) from State University of 
Yogyakarta showed that this strategy could also improve reading comprehension of student 
of junior high school 1 Jogonalan Klaten, Central Java. He focused his research in recount text. 
He did his research using collaborative classroom action research since he was not teaching 
in the subject class. He collaborated with English teacher and his research partner. His 
finding was that SQ3R method was successful in teaching English recount text. Students 
became more confident to recite or tell their experience in front of the classroom because 
they already knew in detail what should be told to class. It made students more enthusiastic 
and more motivated. 

Another study was done by Yenisa from Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University Jakarta 
(Yenisa, 2017). He used Quasi Experimental to study the effectiveness of SQ3R in student’s 
reading comprehension ability in Hortatory exposition text. The subject of the research he 
used is eleventh science grade students of SMA Annajah Bogor. He compared two group of 
students divided into experiment group and control group. He gave the treatment to 
experimental group by teaching them reading of hortatory text using SQ3R strategy which 
would be compared with control group taught by conventional strategy. His analysis showed 
that there is significant difference result of using SQ3R in teaching reading hortatory 
exposition text. In other words, he concluded that teaching reading of hortatory exposition 
text using SQ3R strategy is more effective than teaching it using conventional ones. 

Unlike the studies above, the writer focuses on reading comprehension using narrative 
text. The text given to the students comprises of orientation, complication, resolution and 

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reorientation as the generic structure. Therefore, there are more points to recites 
structurally compared with the previous studies.  

At school, reading narrative is not taught separately as it is integrated in text together 
with another skills and exercises. However, as the writer has observed previously, the skill 
of reading must be possessed by students to make the learning process goes well. Reading is 
not just the activity of transmitting symbol to a message or finding meaning inside the text 
only. We can translate text that we read too. Moreover, comprehending reading can also be 
influenced by the reader’s previous knowledge too. 

This research focused on reading narrative text. Narrative is an account of a series of 
events, facts, etc., given in order and with the establishing of connections between them. 
Elliot said that Narratives (stories) in the human sciences should be defined provisionally as 
discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a 
definite audience and thus offer insights about the world and/or people’s experiences of it 
(Elliott, 2005). Furthermore, Narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis 
or turning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution (Rohim, 2009). In Narrative 
text, we can see the sequence starting from orientation, complication, resolution and 
reorientation (Lubis, 2017) .  

From the observation made by the writer, it was found that there were some problems 
that was faced by the tenth-grade students of SMAN 2 Trenggalek. First, the students were 
less motivated to study English and their enthusiasm in learning English text was really low. 
That is why students think English is really difficult. When students do not know the answer 
of a question, he/she is likely to give up easily. In fact, good achievement in reading can boost 
motivation as well (Jannah, 2018). Second, the students did not pay much attention in the 
classroom because they gave up earlier when they know that they have to understand the 
text. Usually what happen in reading class is just answering question and find difficult word 
only. Consequently, students mostly wait for teacher’s instruction only. In other words, the 
lesson became teacher centered. As the result it is difficult to comprehend reading the text. 
Therefore, their reading achievement is low. 

To solve the problem, the writer applied a method in teaching reading. The method is 
called SQ3R which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review.” It is one effective 
series of procedures for approaching a reading text which consists of five steps.”(Brown, 
2007). SQ3R is also easy to use and applicable to another texts genres (Risdianti, 2020). And 
as explained above, the writer here did the research to higher level students from social class. 
The writer here was curious enough to do inquiry to social class, not to science classes which 
have been studied by many writers.  

METHODS 

The research design used was classroom action research taken from Kemmis and Mc 
Taggart (Latief, 2015). It has four research stages, they are planning, implementing, 
observing and reflecting. The writer collaborated with the English teacher in doing the 
research. The population of the research is the tenth-grade students of SMAN 2 Trenggalek 
in the Academic Year of 2020/2021. The writer used purposive sample because he has 
certain goal (Arikunto. S, 2010). He wanted to know the progress of the class which already 

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got a problem in reading comprehension. And the sample of this research is X IPS 4. The 
writer chose this class following the English teacher recommendation as this class have the 
lowest average English score. The class consisted of 32 students. The data were collected by 
using test and non-test instrument. To measure the reading comprehension achievement, 
pretest and posttest were used. The writer used multiple choice test, the most popular 
method of testing a reading knowledge of vocabulary and grammar (Brown, 2004). While to 
record the activity of writer, students, learning process and to complete the data, the writer 
used observation sheet and interview sheet as the non-test instrument. The observation 
done in this research was participant observation since the writer was actually teaching this 
class, but different lesson. Therefore, the writer could do structured observation as he 
already knew the variable to observe(Sugiyono, 2012). Meanwhile, the writer also used 
structured interview as he already knew information to get as well (Sugiyono, 2012). The 
data analysis is conducted in different ways, there are qualitative and quantitative data. 
Qualitative data is used to analyze data from interview, observation and fieldnote. Then, the 
quantitative data is used in order to analyze data from the students’ reading comprehension 
achievement.  

RESULTS 

This part discusses the result of preliminary study and the inquiry. There are 2 cycles 
in this research, action cycle 1 and action cycle 2. Preliminary study was conducted by 
interviewing the English teacher of SMAN 2 Trenggalek. It was done to know about the 
problems and difficulties in teaching and learning of English especially reading 
comprehension. Based on the interview, the writer found that there were some problems 
faced by the students in teaching and learning process in the classroom. In addition to gain 
the raw data, the writer also interviewed several students. After doing the interview, the 
writer identified some problems. First, the students were not really interested in reading 
English text since the activity usually done in the classroom was only answering question 
from the text. Second, the students did not pay attention and were not enthusiastic when the 
teacher gave explanation. Besides the monotonous routine itself, students think that English 
is complicated and difficult. As a result, they got difficulty to comprehend reading the text. 
After interviewing the English teacher, the writer gave pre-test to measure the students’ 
reading comprehension. By giving the test, the writer knew that the students’ reading 
comprehension was still low. It was exactly the same as the English teacher had informed to 
the writer beforehand.  

In the preliminary test done by the writer, it was found that among 32 students, only 8 
students got score more than 68 and 24 students got score less than 68. The percentage of 
success is: 

8 
x 100% = 25% 

32 

From this calculation, the writer found that the students who passed the preliminary 
study of reading comprehension test were 25% or 8 students and there were 75% or 24 
students could not reach the minimum criteria. The criteria of success that had been 

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determined were 70% of the students who should pass the test and the standard value were 
68. It was based on the minimum standard score issued from school. The preliminary test 
showed that this test result could not achieve the criteria of success. Based on the result of 
the preliminary study above, the writer and the English teacher worked together to plan the 
use of SQ3R to improve the reading comprehension achievement.  

The first step was designing the lesson plan. It was used by the writer to guide the 
students to implement the strategy in teaching learning process. The lesson plan was 
consisted of identity of school, standard competence, basic competence, indicators, learning 
objectives, teaching material, teaching technique, teaching procedures, learning sources and 
assessment. The writer also made some instruments that were needed by the writer in 
implementing the strategy during the teaching learning that had been done and to get the 
data in cycle 1. The instruments used by the writer were interview guidance, observation 
sheet, reading test and questionnaire. The second step was acting. This section presented the 
description of activities during the writer in each meeting. There were two meetings 
conducted in cycle 1 including first meeting for teaching and learning process and second 
meeting for giving a test. Then, the teacher discussed about SQ3R method and its steps, that 
is: survey, question, read, recite and review. The students should understand about the SQ3R 
method, what is the meaning, what is the purpose and also about its steps. After the students 
get the point and understand about SQ3R method, the teacher asked students to practice it.  

At the first meeting, the first step is Survey, the teacher asked students to skim the 
example of narrative text that had been given. The writer gave a text entitled “Golden Eggs.” 
The second step is Question, the teacher asked students to make some question related to 
the text by themselves. Then, the third step is Read, here the students were asked to read 
whole text carefully and also to find the answer of the question that was made by the 
students. After the students find the answer, they discussed together, it has to know whether 
the answer is correct or incorrect. Next, fourth step is Recite. In this step, students were 
asked to recite the text to strengthen their memory about the content of the text. And the last 
step is Review. In this step the teacher asked the students to summarize, make a note and 
write the main points of each paragraph in the text with their own words. 

Afterwards, the second meeting was given and focused on giving a test to the students. 
In main activity, the teacher gave students worksheet contains of narrative text. Then, asked 
the students to do the worksheet by using SQ3R method. The teacher gave several times to 
finish the task. After the students finish doing the task, the teacher asked students to 
exchange their worksheet with their friends. Then, asked the students to discuss the answer 
together and also correct their friend’s worksheet. After it has already done, the teacher 
asked the students to give score to their friend’s worksheet. Then, asked the students to 
collect their worksheet.  

The third step was observing. The observation is done during the action. It was very 
important in order to monitor the activity concerning with the implementation of SQ3R 
method in teaching reading. The writer was helped by the English teacher to be the observer 
in the classroom. The observer used observation sheet to observe the writer’s and the 
student’s activities in line with the plan or not. In this research, the observation sheets in the 
form of checklist are used to record the student and the research activity during the teaching 

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and learning process using SQ3R method. The writer used the observation sheet in 
observing. Based on the result of observation in meeting 1 and 2, the writer found some 
problems that was faced during teaching learning process. Although, the teacher did all of 
activity based on lesson plan. In addition, the teaching procedures in the classroom were also 
suitable with lesson plan. But it was found the weaknesses in teaching strategy. The teacher 
did not give enough attention for the students thoroughly. He focused only on paying some 
students who were active in the class. Besides that, the students did not pay attention when 
the teacher gave explanation and some students talked each other. The last step of the first 
cycle was reflecting.  The writer conducted reading post-test 1. The test was done to measure 
the students’ comprehension in reading narrative text. It was also to know the effectiveness 
of implementing SQ3R method in teaching reading narrative text. The writer gave 10 
questions in multiple choices form (each of right answer has score 10 and the wrong answer 
has score 0) and gave the time to finish this test was 80 minutes. The result of the test on 
cycle 1 was compared with the criteria of success.  

From posttest done, 18 students got score more than 68 and 14 students got less than 
68. The percentage of success is: 

18 
x 100% = 56.25% 

32 

Based on the reading post-test 1, the students who could pass in this cycle were 18 or 
56.25% students and 14 or 43.75% students were still failed. Meanwhile, the criteria of 
success that had been determined were 70%. So, it means that the research was not 
successful yet. The writer also analyzed the observation sheet, it also found the weaknesses 
of implementation of SQ3R method in reading teaching learning. The teacher did not give 
enough attention to the whole students. He focused only on those paying attention or who 
were active in the classroom. Besides that, the students did not pay attention when the 
teacher gave explanation and even some students talked each other. Considering the result 
of the post test that was given in the cycle 1, learning from the class criteria of success has 
not been achieved, therefore; cycle two had to be done.  

In cycle 2, the writer needed to make several improvements. It was needed to solve the 
problems that have been found in cycle 1. The action of the cycle 2 was based on the revision 
of the lesson plan in the cycle 1 by considering the students weaknesses in the action of 
teaching learning process. In cycle 2, before doing the action, the writer designed the lesson 
plan as the first start. The writer designed the lesson plan in cycle 2 with some differences. 
These changes were focused on the main activity in teaching learning process. In cycle 2, 
students were divided into group. Each group consist of 4 students. So, students would do 
the assignment in groups. In addition, after doing the assignment students should present 
their work in front of the classroom. Besides that, the writer made some instruments to 
record the process during the action done and got data on cycle 2. Next step in cycle 2 is 
acting. The application of the acting was carried out based on the lesson plan made by the 
writer before. In main activity, the teacher explained again about the narrative text. Then, 
based on the revised lesson plan, the teacher asked the students to make a group consist of 
4 students. After that, the teacher gave students worksheet contains of narrative text entitled 

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Cinderella. The teacher asked the students to do the worksheet with their groups by using 
SQ3R method. The students did survey by skimming the whole text. They skimmed and put 
their more attention to points of generic structure of narrative text. They focused on the 
orientation of the text at the first phase of reading. Afterwards they found the complication 
and the resolution of the text. After it had already done, the teacher asked the students to present 
their work in front of the class group by group. Next, in group, they tried to find questions 
from the text. Afterwards they read the whole text and recite it alternately. In the last stage 
students review the answer of the question together in group and present them in front of 
the classroom. When each group presented in front of the class, another group were paying 
attention. Then, after all off the group had a presentation in front of the class, the teacher and the 

students discussed the answer of the questions together. Next step is observing. The 
observation was done during the action. It was very important in order to monitor the 
activity concerning with the implementation of SQ3R method in teaching reading. The writer 
was again helped by the English teacher to be the observer in the classroom. Based on the 
result of observation, the teacher did all of activity based on lesson plan. The teaching 
procedures in the classroom were also suitable with lesson plan. The teacher not only 
focused with some students who active in the class, but also, he focused and supported other 
students to be active. Besides that, it was found that understanding the text in group was 
easier than individually. They could share and help each other so it made the student more active 

entirely. The next step was giving test to the students. The test was done to measure the 
students’ comprehension in reading narrative text. It was also to know the effectiveness of 
implementing SQ3R method in teaching reading narrative text. The result of the test on cycle 
2 was compared with the criteria of success.  

The result of the test was that 30 students got score more 68 and only 2 students got 
less than 68. The percentage of success was: 

30 
x 100% = 93.75% 

32 

After the implementation the action and also giving post-test, the writer made 
reflection. The reflection was done after analyzing the results of the observation and the 
reading posttest in cycle 2. The reflection evaluated the teacher and the students’ activities 
in teaching learning process.  Based on the reading post-test 2, the students who could pass 
in this cycle were 30 or 93.75% students and only 2 or 6,25 % students were failed. 
Meanwhile, the criteria of success that had been determined were 70%. So, it means that the 
research was successful. 

The writer also analyzed the observation sheet. Based on the result of observation in 
meeting 1 and 2, the teaching procedures in the classroom were also suitable with lesson 
plan. The writer not only focused with some students who active in the class partially, but he 
focused on whole students to be active. Besides, this activity is much easier done in group. They 
were able to share and completed each other so it made the student more active and enthusiastic. In 
conclusion, the action in this cycle ran successfully and the writer had stopped the cycle. 
  

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DISCUSSION 

By observing the students’ reading comprehension from preliminary study, test of 
reading comprehension both on the first and the second cycle, there was significance 
increase of the success. The percentage of success in pretest was really low at the beginning. 
The percentage was only 25%. The post test of the cycle one showed little improvement on 
the percentage. After carrying out the first cycle, the success percentage goes up to 56.25 %. 
And the success percentage rose significantly on the post test of cycle two where it reached 
93.75%. It is obvious that there is improvement of the students’ reading comprehension 
from preliminary study to post-test 1 and post-test 2. These percentages were compared 
with the criteria of success which had been set by the writer referring to the school 
curriculum. From the explanation in the previous chapter, the writer determined that the 
criteria of success in this research was 70%. On preliminary study, the students who could 
pass the cycle 1 were 8 or 25% students and the 24 or 75% students were failed. Then on 
the post-test 1, the students who could pass in cycle 2 were 18 or 56.25% students and the 
14 or 43.75% students were failed. Although it had not reached the criteria of success, but 
there was increasing of the success. On the post-test 2, the students who could pass in this 
cycle were 30 or 93.75% students and the 2 or 6.25% students were failed. It had reached 
the criteria of success and it was increasing of the success. It means that the test was 
successful. Because it was compared with the criteria of success and more than 70% students 
passed the test. 

In addition to the reading comprehension test, the data was taken from questionnaire 
sheet that was given to the students as the respondent after cycle 2 was accomplished. The 
writer gave some items in questionnaire to know the students’ response of SQ3R method. 
The writer made closed question with 2 options; “Yes” and “No” and allowing students to 
give their opinion. Then he analyzed every item by using Guttman Scale. “Yes” answer scored 
1 and “No” answer scored 0 (Riduwan, 2010). The percentage of each item is analyzed and 
compared to the criteria of interpretation score. The first question was if the students like 
reading book. 20 students or 62.5% students said that they like reading. Most of them like 
reading fictional book. They like reading book which can amuse them. In other words, they 
like reading story book more than scientific book. In here the material could meet their 
expectation. The second question was if the students like narrative text. 25 students or 
78.12% students said that they like reading narrative text. They like narrative text because 
there is story which can make them amused. Elliot said that Narratives (stories) in the human 
sciences should be defined provisionally as discourses with a clear sequential order that 
connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offer insights about the 
world and/or people’s experiences of it (Elliott, 2005). The story of the narrative text can 
give them experience and pleasure. Then, the writer asked if the students like SQ3R method. 
31 students said that they can follow this method and can enjoy the stages. In other words, 
96.87% students like this method. They also said that this method can give students more 
experience. They felt that there is a challenge in every step that they must accomplished. This 
method attracts the students to find clues in reading text. The clues can help students to 
understand the text because there is always key ideas in sentences (Djuharie, 2008).  Once 

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we know key ideas on sentences, we will be able to comprehend the text easily. Next, the 
writer asked if students feel easier in comprehending the text using this method. 30 students 
said that they felt easier to comprehend the text using this method. 93.75% students said 
that this method can give them direction to do the next instruction. This method facilitates 
students to prepare and anticipate the questions. It made them ready to answer the problem, 
therefore this method can also boost the confidence of the student. Prasutiyo (2014) in his 
research said that SQ3R method is successful in encouraging students to comprehend the 
text. When students know what to do they are likely to be confident enough to take the 
challenge in reading class. Another question was if the students are more motivated in 
studying reading using this method. They said that this method can make them feel easier in 
comprehending text so the students feel more motivated. Once the level of confident rose the 
students are more eager to do more instruction. And the last question was about if the 
students like doing assignment in groups. 32 students of 100% students said that they like 
accomplishing assignment in group. They said it is much easier and lighter because they do 
the instruction together with their friends in a group. They can complete one another and 
they can help one another anytime the found difficulties. They can finish the work even faster 
in group. Therefore, they like studying in group more than done individually. Group work 
can create a learning community. By studying in a group, every student will have more space 
to learn. They are likely to have opportunity to engage themselves into learning process. So, 
students will feel welcome and have more chances to contribute to the learning in the group 
or society. In fact, human have a basic need to be part of a social community (Barkley, 2010). 
From the result above, it can be concluded that the students are interested and excited to 
follow this strategy. Consequently, their reading comprehension can be improved and 
developed. 

CONCLUSION 

The writer finds that after the implementation of the strategy, the students’ reading 
comprehension can be improved. So, it means that implementation of SQ3R can improve the 
tenth-grade students’ reading comprehension at SMAN 2 Trenggalek. It can be seen by the 
increase of the student’s reading test result from preliminary study, to cycle 1 and cycle 2. 
From the cycle 1, it is known that the number of the students who passed the reading 
comprehension test has increased. There were 56.25% or 18 out of 32 students who passed 
the reading comprehension test. But it has not met the criteria of success. So, the writer did 
the cycle 2. The writer found another increasing number of the students who passed the 
reading comprehension test on cycle 2. The result of the study on this cycle was 30 or 93.75% 
students passed the test. It was successful and it has met the criteria of success. It means that 
the students’ reading comprehension increased after the strategy had been implemented. 

Based on the students’ responses, the writer concluded that the implementation of 
SQ3R method makes easier for students to understand the material. The students also pay more 
attention on the teachers’ explanation. In other words, the successful learning using this 
method can increase the motivation in learning (Jannah, 2018). And in this research, all of 
them were so attracted to have implementation of SQ3R method. 

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Based on the conclusion above, some suggestions are offered to the students, the 
teachers and other writers in order to improve reading comprehension achievement. The 
students of SMAN 2 Trenggalek are suggested to practice and carry out this strategy when 
they have reading class. While based on the result of the research, the implementation of 
SQ3R method was successful as an alternative way that could improve the tenth-grade 
students’ reading comprehension at SMAN 2 Trenggalek. So, the writer suggested that 
English teacher at SMAN 2 Trenggalek should use SQ3R method as alternative way in 
teaching reading to improve their students’ reading comprehension. Besides that, the SQ3R 
method could make the student easier to understand the material and also could improve 
the students’ ability to identify important points and better retention or the material.  In 
addition, the writer hopes that this study will be useful for the future writer as the reference 
to make further research. It is also advisable for them to use other method in their study that 
can be used for improving the students’ reading comprehension. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The writer would like to express his gratitude to his college, STKIP PGRI Trenggalek for giving 
the writer facility to do the research. The gratitude also addressed upon the headmaster of SMAN 2 
Trenggalek for giving permission to the writer to do the research. Last but not least, the writer 
expresses his greatest gratitude to the rector of State Islamic Institute Palopo and Foster Team for 
giving opportunity to publish this article. 

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Copyright © The Author(s) 
Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2022 

e-ISSN: 2723-4126 
p-ISSN: 2776-8880 

 

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https://doi.org/10.21744/irjeis.v4i1.585 

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