Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 165 STRENGTHENING READING COMPREHENSION AND INTEREST THROUGH SQ3R STRATEGY USING WHATSAPP DURING PANDEMIC D. Abdul Kohar English Education Department, Univesitas Terbuka, Indonesia Email: abdoelkohar@gmail.com Andang Saehu English Literature Department, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia Email: andangsaehu@uinsgd.ac.id Lidwina Sri Ardiasih English Education Department, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia Email: lidwina@ecampus.ut.ac.id APA Citation: Kohar, D. A., Saehu, A., & Ardiasih, L. S. (2022). Strengthening reading comprehension and interest through SQ3R strategy using Whatsapp during pandemic. Indonesian EFL Journal, 8(2), 165-176. https://doi.org/10.25134/ieflj.v8i2.6440 Received: 07-03-2021 Accepted: 14-05-2022 Published: 31-07-2022 INTRODUCTION The study of Central Connecticut State University stated that Indonesian’s reading interest ranked 60th out of 61 countries, and it was below Thailand in 59th and above Botswana in 61st position (Antaranews, 2020). Indonesian people had not good English reading although they had studied English texts since elementary school (Iftanti, 2012), and their English proficiency is considered relatively low (Rinantanti, Rahman, Atmowardoyo & Bin-Taher, 2017). The average of students’ English reading mark in junior high school was about 50.23 (Kemendikbud, 2019). Furthermore, the problem of lower reading interest was faced by English teachers of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri 6 Cianjur. They said that students’ reading test in academic year 2018/2019 was unsatisfying, and some of them were not interested in reading English. Moreover, because of the effect of Corona Virus, the Indonesian government has instructed all institutions to limit their affairs including schools. They should work from the home as stated in The Circular Letter of Ministry of Empowerment of Abstract: The study employed the pre-test and post-test control group design focusing on strengthening reading comprehension and reading interest during the pandemic time using WhatsApp platform through survey, question, read, recite and review (SQ3R) strategy. The participants were the students of ninth graders of MTsN 6 Cianjur who were selected randomly to be the experimental and control classes. The instruments were the pre- post reading comprehension test and reading interest questionnaire especially on three dimensions; situational, individual and topic. The validity and reliability of both instruments were confirmed before applying them in the study. The analysis revealed that significant score (2 tailed) or (P) of post-reading comprehension test obtained by both experimental and control classes was 0%. Since it was less than 5%, the significant difference was confirmed, and the result quality of experimental class on reading comprehension was higher than control class. It decided that SQ3R strategy had strengthened reading comprehension skill. Moreover, all significant scores (2 tailed) or (P) of post-reading interest questionnaire on three dimensions obtained by both experimental and control classes were 0%. As they were less than 5%, the significant difference was confirmed, and the result quality of experimental class on reading interest was higher than control class. It exposed that SQ3R strategy had strengthened reading interest. Therefore, SQ3R strategy strengthened reading comprehension skill and reading interest using WhatsApp platform. Furthermore, SQ3R strategy was an alternative reading strategy in the pandemic time. However, the stakeholder should support it by providing free internet access and other requirements, and the study should be deepened by conducting other research especially qualitative study to enrich the scope of research. Keywords: SQ3R strategy; reading comprehension; reading interest; pandemic time; WhatsApp. D. Abdul Kohar, Andang Saehu, & Lidwina Sri Ardiasih Strengthening reading comprehension and interest through SQ3R strategy using Whatsapp during pandemic 166 State Apparatus and Bureaucracy Reforms about work system of civil servant in New Normal 58/2020. Shortly, the school has to change from the face to face class to the online class or e-learning class which refers to a learning utilizing electronically technology in interacting and conveying the material (Suciati, Wardani, Winataputra, Melati, Dina & Herry, 2016) that will be more challenging especially in teaching reading. Furthermore, reading plays an important thing to add knowledge, enhance the high level of life, and survive in this word as Bigozzi, Tarchi, Vignoli, Valente & Pinto (2017) said that reading is to achieve the goal, develop the knowledge and potential, and participate in the society. It is in line with Brown (2004) said that if reading is emphasized in the young learners’ curriculum from the very beginning of their language education, the young children will progress faster not only in learning to read, but also in understanding and speaking the language. Indeed, it is a crucial thing to do because the information runs fast by developing technology. Safaeia & Bulca (2013) said that by reading and freedom of choice, the students can experience a new practice that might have a motivating impact on their language learning. Thus, reading must be a habit of life that will support the success of learning process. Based on that condition, this research was expected to be one of the solutions through examining SQ3R strategy to strengthen students’ reading comprehension and reading interest in the online class. SQ3R is a reading comprehension strategy standing for its five steps: survey, question, read, recite, and review. This strategy was introduced firstly by Francis P. Robinson, an American education philosopher in his 1946 book Effective Study. He said that SQ3R is a useful strategy for fully absorbing written information (Robinson, 1946), and it is an effective strategy to get a fuller understanding to improve subject matter mastery (Fleming, 2020). The previous research found that SQ3R is very effective for teaching reading comprehension (Anjarwati, 2012), and it can improve students’ reading ability (Sabarun, 2012). Moreover, teaching reading comprehension using SQ3R is very useful because it is a suitable strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension (Anjuni & Cahyadi, 2019; Dharma & Abdullah, 2013). Baier (2011), Kusumayanthi & Maulidi (2019) and Masruuroh (2015) recommended using SQ3R strategy in teaching reading and found that SQ3R technique is significant in teaching reading. Moreover, SQ3R strategy can help students to develop reading comprehension (Bulut, 2017; Prasutiyo 2014; Riyadi, Nuryani & Hartati, 2019; Widiawati, Nuraida & Saputri, 2020). The previous research mostly concerned with reading comprehension in the face to face class using action research, survey, and case study, and they didn’t concern with students’ reading interest. However, this present research was conducted in the online class using the quasi experimental method, and it focused on examining reading comprehension and investigating reading interest using WhatsApp platform during the pandemic time. In line with that statement, the study tried to answer the following question: (1) How different is the result quality of reading comprehension achieved by the ninth graders of MTsN 6 Cianjur who are taught through SQ3R strategy and those who are taught through conventional strategy during the pandemic time? (2) How different is the result quality of reading interest level achieved by the ninth graders of MTsN 6 Cianjur who are taught through SQ3R strategy and those who are taught through conventional strategy during the pandemic time? METHOD This study applied a quasi experimental method in which the participants of control and experiment class were non random assignment; it meant that both of them were not changed anymore. It used pre-test and post-test control group design type (Wibawa, Basuki. Mahdiyah & Afgani, 2016; Nayak, 2016) as stated in the following table. Table 1. Table of pre-test and post-test control group design Select the control class Pre-test No treatment Post-test Select the experimental class Pre-test Experimental treatment Post-test It began with the pre-treatment session using two classes, and both of them were tested as a pre-test, the second was treatment session by creating control class (the class using the conventional strategy) and experimental class (the class using the SQ3R strategy), and the last was post-treatment Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 167 session; both groups were tested as post-test to be compared each other. The populations were 278 students of ninth graders of MTsN 6 Cianjur. Selecting the sample used random sampling technique that all students of ninth grades of MTsN 6 Cianjur had a chance to be a sample of this research (Mahdiyah, 2016). The samples were 60 students including 30 students of IX H and 30 students of IX I. Furthermore, the role of the researcher was a designer of reading comprehension test and reading interest questionnaire. The researcher collaborated with an English teacher (VN) and gave him guidance especially in lesson plan, material and the schedule to match the perception. Besides that, brief meeting in every meeting was done to know the condition of teaching learning process in the online class for both experimental and control classes. Those activities were done to reduce the bias and get the reasonable result in this experiment (Mahdiyah, 2016). The teaching learning process was conducted in the online class for both control and experimental class using WhatsApp group, and both classes got six meetings, there were two meetings in a week, so the treatment finished in three weeks. Both control and experimental classes had three stages of teaching learning process (Mukminatien, Suryati, Febrianti, Furaidah, 2016), the first one is pre reading, the second one is whilst reading, and the third is post reading stage.The experimental class used SQ3R strategy and control class used conventional strategy. In addition, Both classes had same materials namely finding topic, main idea, detailed information, preference, and inference in the English text. The reading comprehension test and the reading interest questionnaire were used as the instruments. The reading comprehension test was adapted from National Exam from 2007 to 2019 including finding topic, main idea, detailed information, preference, and inference as the following table. Table 2. The Basic Competence (BC) and indicators of reading comprehension test No Basic Competency Indicators Focus The Number of Questions 1 3.7. Comparing the meaning contextually relating to the social function, text structure and language used of short and simple narrative text relating to the fairy tales. 3.7.1. Students can be able to comprehend the content of the story well (topic and main idea) Topic 4 Main idea 2 3.7.2. Students can be able to comprehend the detailed information of the story perfectly Detailed informatio n 2 3.7.3. Students can be able to identify the reference in the text of the story well Reference 3 3.7.4. Students can be able to infer the hidden information in the text easily. Inference 4 The total number of questions 15 Questions It consisted 15 questions formed in the feature of Google form with the link https://forms.gle/iwYanV7KntrJEnC3A. It was a standardized test because the test instrument had been validated by National Board of Education in Indonesia (BSNP). Thus, it indicated that it had not to be validated gain. Besides that, the National Examination (NE) was reliable because it had been standardized by National Board of Education in Indonesia (BSNP), and it was based on the curriculum for the junior high school. The standardized test means that the test had a standard, and it through National Board of Education in Indonesia (BSNP) had passed some steps as Fachrurozy & Tresnadewi (2017) and Saehu (2015) stated they are assessment preparation, writing the test, critical review, trying out, revision, and the last is final form of test . Based on that, the researcher used reading comprehension test adapted from National Examination (NE) in this study without conducting validity test and reliability test to it. The reading interest questionnaire was adapted from Eidswick (2009) including situational, individual, and topic interest. Their validity and reliability were confirmed before applying them in the study. It was written in Indonesian language and shaped in the feature of Google form in the link https://forms.gl/Ck2FQpM1doDtTjsy7. It was validated by the expert as the following table. D. Abdul Kohar, Andang Saehu, & Lidwina Sri Ardiasih Strengthening reading comprehension and interest through SQ3R strategy using Whatsapp during pandemic 168 Table 3. The blueprint of reading interest questionnaire No Dimension Indicators The Total 1 Situational interest a. Textual Coherence and comprehensibility b. Novelty c. Personal relevance 2 2 2 2 Individual interest a. A desire to acquire new information, b. A desire to find out about new objects, events, and ideas not restricted to any narrow domain 2 3 3 Topic interest a. Individual knowledge b. Individual experiences c. Individual perceived valuae of a topic 1 2 3 Total number of questionnaires 17 The validated questionnaire was tried out to 25 students that they were not the subjects of this research. The first dimensian is situational interest including 6 items. The analysis of reliability statistic of first dimension items was shown in the following table. Table 4. The reliability statistisc of situational dimension Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha 89% Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items 89% N of Items 6 It indicated that the coefficient reliability of Cronbach Alpha was 89% for the dimension of situational interest. If the Cronbach’s Alpha is higher than 60%, the item is reliable (Nurgiyantoro, Gunawan & Marzuki, 2015). Based on that, the item of situational interest was reliable because it was higher than 60%. The second dimension namely individual interest contained 5 items. The analysis reliability statistic of individual items was shown below. Table 5. The reliability statistics of individual dimension Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha 86% Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items 86% N of Items 5 It shown that the coefficient reliability of Cronbach Alpha 86% for the personal dimension. The Cronbach Alpha must be higher than 60% to get the reliable item (Nurgiyantoro et al., 2015). Based on that, the item of personal interest was reliable because it was higher than 60% (86% > 60%). Meanwhile, The third dimension namely topic interest included 5 items. The analysis reliability statistic of topic interest items was shown in the following table. Table 6. The reliability statistics of topic dimension Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha 87% Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items 87% N of Items 6 It indicated that the coefficient reliability of Cronbach Alpha was 87% for the dimension of topic interest. If the Cronbach’s Alpha is higher than 60%, the item is reliable (Nurgiyantoro et al., 2015). Based on that, the item of topic interest was reliable because it was higher than 60%. Based on that result of analysis for all items of three dimensions, the reading interest questionnaire was reliable, and it could be used in this study. After having both validated and reliable instruments, the study was done. The process of analyzing data used SPSS 24 (Statistical package for social science), and the significance level used α: 5%. The Levene’s test was used to determine the equality of variance (homogeneity). The liliefors was used to do the test of normality of data. The normality test was aimed to check whether the obtained data was distributed normally.The t-test was used to determine the difference of both classes’ data (Nurgiyantoro et al., 2015; Mahdiyah, 2016). Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 169 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The useful finding of this study was that the SQ3R Strategy can strengthen the students’ reading comprehension and interest during the pandemic time using the Whatsapp platform. Reading comprehension It was the focus of the study. It refers to the process of constructing the meaning of written text on screen or reading on paper (Jati, 2018) using the strategy (Fachrurozy & Tresnadewi, 2017) between reader’s and author’s background and knowledge (Mukminatien et al., 2016). The result analysis of post-reading comprehension test produced by both experimental and control classes was displayed below. Table 7. The t-test result of post-reading comprehension of experimental and control classes Group Statistics Class N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Post reading comprehension test Experiment 30 8600% 960% 180% Control 30 7200% 950% 170% Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. T Df Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upp er Post reading comprehension test Equal variances assumed 14% 71% 579% 5800% 0% 1433% 247% 938% 192 9% Equal variances not assumed 579% 5799% 0% 1433% 247% 938% 192 9% The table shown that the mean score obtained by experimental class was 86, and control class got 72. It meant that the means obtained by experimental class was higher than control class. In addition, the t-value in the table was 579% and sig (2 tailed) was 0% that was less than 5%. Nurgiyantoro et al., (2015) said that if significance score (2 tailed) was less than 5%, there were significant differences between both classes. Based on that, there was the significant difference between both classes on the result quality of reading comprehension skill, and the result quality reading comprehension skill of experimental class was more improved than control class. Furthermore, it was strengthened by the experimental class’s improvement which was revealed by comparing the result of their pre- reading comprehension test score and their post- reading comprehension test score. The analysis of their pre-reading comprehension test score and their post-reading comprehension test score was displayed in the following table. Table 8. The analysis result of experimental class’s pre and post-reading comprehension test score Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 Pre test reading comprehension experimental class 5400% 30 990% 180% Post test reading comprehension experimental class 8600% 30 960% 180% Paired Samples Test Paired Differences T Df Sig. (2-Mean Std. Std. 95% Confidence D. Abdul Kohar, Andang Saehu, & Lidwina Sri Ardiasih Strengthening reading comprehension and interest through SQ3R strategy using Whatsapp during pandemic 170 Deviation Error Mean Interval of the Difference taile d) Lower Upper Pair 1 Pre test reading comprehension experimental class - Post test reading comprehension experimental class 3200% 725% 132% -3507% -2966% -2445% 2900% 0% It shown that 54 was the mean score of pre reading comprehension test obtained by experimental class, and 86 was the mean score of post reading comprehension test obtained by experimental. It decided that the mean obtained by experimental class in the post reading comprehension test was higher than mean obtained by experimental class in the pre reading comprehension test. Moreover, the t-value in the table was 2445%, and sig (2 tailed) was 0% that was less than 5% (sig (2 tailed) < 5%). It established that there were significant differences between score of pre reading comprehension test and score of post reading comprehension test obtained by experimental class as Nurgiyantoro et al., (2015) said that if significance score (2 tailed) was less than 5%, there were significant differences between both classes. In short, it proved that implementing SQ3R strategy effectively strengthened the result quality of reading comprehension skill. In essence, there was the significant difference between both classes on the result quality of reading comprehension skill, and the experimental class’s result quality of reading comprehension skill was higher than control class. Based on that explanation, there was confirmation of significant result quality in reading comprehension achieved through SQ3R strategy comparing to conventional strategy during the pandemic time using the WhatsApp platform. Thus, SQ3R strategy strengthened the reading comprehension. It proved that SQ3R was useful strategy for fully absorbing written information (Robinson, 1946), it was very effective for teaching reading comprehension (Anjarwati, 2012). Teaching reading using SQ3R was very useful because it was a suitable strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension (Dharma & Abdullah, 2013; Anjuni & Cahyadi, 2019). Furthermore, the SQ3R strategy was recommended in teaching reading (Baier, 2011; Kusumayanthi & Maulidi, 2019), and it could help students to develop reading comprehension (Bulut, 2017; Prasutiyo, 2014; Riyadi, Nuryani & Hartati, 2019; Sabarun, 2012; Widiawati, Nuraida & Saputri , 2020). In addition, students were guided by the steps of SQ3R. The students surveyed the text by scanning or paying attention to the title, picture, and difficult words carefully, found out what the writer wanted to convey, and asked the teacher if they did not understand in the WhatsApp group or consult the online dictionary (Survey and question).They read again the text actively while keeping the previous steps in their mind (Read).They were asked to read loudly and make a summary of the text that they have read (Recite). They reviewed what they had read and paid attention to the difficult one in order to comprehend the text well (Review). Thus, they could comprehend text easily, and it was an effective strategy to get a fuller understanding to improve subject matter mastery (Fleming, 2020). Moreover, it proved that using technology such as WhatsApp could help teacher and students to get the learning objectives and meaningful learning, and the students can learn individually and collectively in that technology (Jati, 2018). Furthermore, WhatsApp was significant to be the learning tool (Yudhiantara & Saehu, 2018), and it not only improved listening skill (Nurhayati, 2020) and writing skill (Susanti & Tutmuji, 2016), but also it improved the result quality of reading comprehension skill as found in the study. Thus, the novelty of this sudy lied in strengthening reading comprehension through SQ3R strategy in the online class using WhatsApp platform in the pandemic time. Reading interest It was another focus in this study that was implemented through SQ3R strategy using WhatsApp during pandemic time. It refers to students’ fascination of something or individual’s interaction with certain object that will influence to students’ reading comprehension because learning is influenced strongly by interest (Eidswick, 2009). Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 171 The students will be more persistence, engagement, and positive affect toward tasks if they are interested in that task (Ainley, Hidi, Berndorrf, 2002). The data was obtained from the pre and post reading interest questionnaire. The result analysis of post-reading interest questionnaire on three dimensions; situational, individual and topic interest was shown below. Table 9. The t-test result of post-reading interest of experimental and control classes on situational dimension Group Statistics Class N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Post-test reading interest on situation dimension Experiment 30 9000% 565% 103% Control 30 8300% 616% 112% Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. T Df Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Post-test reading interest on Equal variances assumed 41% 53% 459% 5800% 0% 700% 153% 395% 1005% situation dimension Equal variances not assumed 459% 5758% 0% 700% 153% 395% 1005% The mean score of post-reading interest questionnaire on situational dimension obtained by experimental class was 90 and the control class was 83. The t-value in the table was 459%, and sig (2 tailed) was 0%. It meant that all scores of sig (2 tailed) were less than 5%. It established that there were significant differences of reading interest on situational dimension. The mean scores of post- reading interest questionnaire on individual dimension obtained by experimental class and control class were displayed in the following table. Table 10. The t-test result of post-reading interest of experimental and control classes on individual dimension Group Statistics Class N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Post-test reading interest on individual dimension Experiment 30 9100% 589% 108% Control 30 8500% 823% 150% Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. T Df Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference D. Abdul Kohar, Andang Saehu, & Lidwina Sri Ardiasih Strengthening reading comprehension and interest through SQ3R strategy using Whatsapp during pandemic 172 Lower Upper Post-test reading interest on individual dimension Equal variances assumed 261% 11% 346% 5800% 0% 640% 185% 2 ,702 1010% Equal variances not assumed 346% 5251% 0% 640% 185% 269% 1011% The table shown that 9 was the mean score of post-reading interest questionnaire on individual dimension obtained by experimental class, and control class got 85. The t-value in the table was 346%, and sig (2 tailed) was 0%. It meant that all scores of sig (2 tailed) were less than 5%. It established that there were significant differences of reading interest on individual dimension. Whereas, the mean scores of post-reading interest on topic dimension obtained by experimental and control classes were displayed in the following table. Table 11. The t-test result of post-reading interest of experimental and control classes on topic dimension Group Statistics Class N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Post-test reading interest on topic dimension Experiment 30 9273% 593% 108% Control 30 7917% 639% 117% Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. T Df Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Post-test reading interest on topic dimension Equal variances assumed 6% 82% 852% 5800% 0% 1357% 159% 1038% 1675% Equal variances not assumed 852% 5768% 0% 1357% 159% 1038% 1675% It shown that the mean score of post-reading interest on topic dimension obtained by experimental class was 93 and control class was 79. It meant that the means of three dimensions obtained by experimental class were higher than control class. The t-value in the table was 852%, and sig (2 tailed) was 0%. It meant that all scores of sig (2 tailed) were less than 5%. It established that there were significant differences of reading interest on topic dimension. It meant that all scores of sig (2 tailed) of three dimensions were less than 5%. It established that there were significant differences of reading interest on three dimensions between experimental and control class as Nurgiyantoro et al., (2015) said that if significance score (2 tailed) was less than 0,05, there were significant differences between both classes. Based on that analysis means of post-reading interest and their scores of sig (2 tailed) of experimental and control class above, the reading interest of experimental class on three dimensions was more improved than the reading interest of control class. It meant that there was an expose of significant result quality in reading interest level achieved through SQ3R strategy comparing to conventional strategy using WhatsApp during the pandemic time. Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ) p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/index 173 Moreover, it was reinforced by comparing the result of pre-and post reading interest questionnaire of experimental class as the following table. Table 12. The analysis result of experimental class’s pre and post-reading interest on three dimensions scores Paired Samples Test Paired Differences T Df Sig. (2- tailed ) Mean Std. Deviatio n Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lowe r Upper Pai r 1 Experiment pre reading interest on situational - Experiment post reading interest on situational -1350% 867% 158 % - 1674 % - 1026 % - 853% 2900 % 0% Pai r 2 Experiment pre reading interest on individual - Experiment post reading interest on individual -1013% 710% 130 % - 1279 % - 748% - 781% 2900 % 0% Pai r 3 Experiment pre reading interest on topic - Experiment post reading interest on topic -2140% 980% 179 % - 2506 % - 1774 % - 1197 % 2900 % 0% It shown the mean score of pre-reading interest achieved by the experimental on three dimensions. The mean of pre reading interest on situational dimension was 77, individual dimension was 81, and topic dimension was 71. Meanwhile, the mean score of post-reading interest achieved by the experimental class was 90 on situational dimension, 91on individual dimension, and 93on topic dimension. It meant that the mean achieved by experimental class in the post-reading interest questionnaire was more improved than mean achieved by experimental class in the pre-reading interest questionnaire especially in the three dimensions. Furthermore, the t-value in the table was 853% on situational dimensions, 781% on individual dimensions, and 1197% on topic dimension. Whereas, the sig (2 tailed) was 0% for all the dimensions, it was less than 5% (sig (2 tailed) < 5%). It meant that there were significant differences between score of pre reading interest questionnaire and score of post reading interest questionnaire obtained by experimental class as Nurgiyantoro et al., (2015) said that if significance score (2 tailed) was less than 5%, there were significant differences between score of pre-reading interest questionnaire and score of post-reading interest questionnaire. At the end of experiment, the experimental class’ score of post-reading interest questionnaire was higher than score of pre-reading interest questionnaire. Thus, there was an expose of significant result quality in reading interest level achieved through SQ3R strategy comparing to conventional strategy using WhatsApp during the pandemic time. It meant that implementing SQ3R strategy effectively strengthened the reading interest. Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 Experiment pre reading interest on situational 7693% 30 1191% 218% Experiment post reading interest on situational 9043% 30 565% 103% Pair 2 Experiment pre reading interest on individual 8107% 30 1007% 184% Experiment post reading interest on individual 9120% 30 589% 108% Pair 3 Experiment pre reading interest on topic 7133% 30 691% 126% Experiment post reading interest on topic 9273% 30 593% 108% D. Abdul Kohar, Andang Saehu, & Lidwina Sri Ardiasih Strengthening reading comprehension and interest through SQ3R strategy using Whatsapp during pandemic 174 This finding proved that students’ reading interest can be influenced by implementing the suitable method in teaching reading such as SQ3R strategy that can guide them in reading comprehension process (Bulut, 2017). Whereas, reading interest is a multidimensional construct, incorporating one’s affective, cognitive and behavioral tendencies towards an object, event or tasks related to reading activity (Ardasheva, Wang, Roo, Adesope & Morrison, 2018). It could be influenced by the environment that can shape one’s personality and mindset (Ay & Bartan, 2012) such as modifying the teaching learning process with the SQ3R steps. Thus, they had the culture to read systematically that would influence the students’ interest in the learning environment (Dewi, Fahrurrozi, Hasanah, & Wahyudi, 2020). In the SQ3R strategy using WhatsApp, the students were involved in reading process, and they were provided with template fitting the steps of SQ3R. Thus, they learnt effectlvely as Klippel (1994) said that learning would be effective if they were involved in the process. Moreover, They were guided in systematic steps namely survey, question, read, recite and review. Thus, they were motivated to learn, and this motivation would encourage them and fond to read (Wheatley, Gerde, & Cabell, 2016). Based on that explanation, the novelty of this study lied in strengthening reading interest through SQ3R strategy in the online class using WhatsApp platform in the pandemic time. CONCLUSION The first result of current study decided that the experimental class’ result quality of reading comprehension was significantly improved since t- test score decided that there was significant different between experimental and control class, and the result quality of reading comprehension obtained by experimental class was higher than control class. It established that SQ3R strategy was effective to strengthend reading comprehension skill using WhatsApp platform in the pandemic time. The second result revealed that the experimental class’ result quality of reading interest was also significantly improved since t-test score decided that there was significant different between experimental and control class, and the result quality of reading interest obtained by experimental class was higher than control class. It established that SQ3R strategy was effective to strengthen reading interest level on three dimensions namely situational, individual and topic dimension using WhatsApp platform in the pandemic time. It is suggested that teaching reading should consider the implementation of SQ3R strategy to improve reading comprehension and interest. The SQ3R strategy should become the solution to teach reading in the online class especially using WhatsApp platform or other kinds of Mobile- Assisted Language Learning (MALL). Moreover, the study exposed the urgent of reading comprehension skill besides other language skills. Thus, the teacher should give more time to teach reading skill especially in the pandemic time using the SQ3R strategy. Moreover, the students should understand the SQ3R steps well that could guide them to comprehend the text easily. Thus, they can read effectively although they learn in the pandemic time. Furthermore, the institution and other stakeholders should support the implementation of SQ3R strategy in the online class by providing supporting tools that can help both teachers and students to enhance the reading comprehension skill. However, this research gave the opportunity to conduct other research on reading comprehension skills qualitatively as well as focusing on students’ reading interest that can strengthen the study and enrich the scope of the research. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to gratefully acknowledge to the supervisors and reviewers for giving feedback and suggesstion to be a better research paper. We also thank to head master of MTsN 6 Cianjur for allowing to be the research place and the teacher collaborater for implementing the teaching-learning process in this research. REFERENCES Ainley, M., Hidi, S., & Berndorff, D. (2002). Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship. 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