AN ANALYSIS OF THE SECOND-GRADE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN COMPREHENDINGDESCRIPTIVE TEXTS AT SMA PGRI 1 PADANG

Abstrak

Abstract

Descriptive text is a text which describes something or someone tomake clear impression of person, place or thing. Descriptive text has two generic structure; identification and description. This research was aimed at describing students’ abilityin comprehending descriptive texts.Descriptive method was used as the design of the research. The population was second-grade students of SMA PGRI 1 Padang. The total population was 285 students, and the total sample was 55 students. The samplewere selected by using stratified cluster random sampling technique. Multiple choice reading test was used as the instrument.Based on data analysis, it was found that students’ ability in comprehending descriptive text was moderate. It was indicated that 29 students out of 55 students (53%) had moderate ability in comprehending descriptive texts, 30 students out of 55 students (54.5%) had moderate ability in comprehending identification, and 28 students out of 55 students (50.9%) had moderate ability in comprehending description.Referring to the findings, it can be concluded thatthe second-grade students’ ability at SMA PGRI 1 Padang incomprehending descriptive texts was moderate. Therefore, the researcher proposed several suggestions. First, teachers are suggested to give more exercises aboutcomprehending descriptive text to expand students’ knowledge. Second, students are expected to study harder and learn more aboutidentification and description of descriptive texts. Last, further researchers are expected to analyze the factors which cause the moderate ability that students have in comprehending descriptive texts, so their ability can be improved.

Key Words : descriptive text, comprehend, ability