AN ANALYSIS OF THE TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO READ DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT SMAN 4 MUKOMUKO

Abstrak

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to describe the tenth-grade students to read descriptive text at SMAN 4 Mukomuko. The design of this research was descriptive research. The samples of this research were the X IPA 1 and X IPS 1 students at SMAN 4 Mukomuko. The researcher used a stratified cluster random sampling technique in sample selection, with a total sample of 70 students. The instrument for collecting data in this research was a reading test. To make the test reliable, the researcher used the split-half method. In this research, the researcher designed an instrument with questions with item difficulty or item facility of 0.30-0.70 and an item discrimination index above 0.50. It includes satisfactory, good, and excellent categories. The researcher also calculated the reliability index of the test and found that the reliability index was 0.86. Then, the test was valid in terms of content because it covered the material that students had learned. This conclusion was supported by the fact that 29 students (41%) had high ability and 41 students (59%) had low ability. Based on the conclusions, the researcher gives some suggestions a for teachers, they are suggested to give motivation and more exercises to students to improve their ability to understand descriptive text. In general, the results of this research showed that the tenth-grade students’ ability to read descriptive text at SMAN 4 Mukomuko was low. Keywords: reading, descriptive text.