THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE AND THEIR READING ALOUD ABILITY AT SMPN 3 SOLOK

Abstrak

Abstract

The type of this study was correlation and its purpose was to the determine the correlation between self-confidence and reading aloud ability. The population of this research was the second grade students of SMPN 3 Solok that comprised 216 students. They were divided into seven classes: class VIII1, class VIII2, class VIII3, class VIII4, class VIII5, class VIII6, and class VIII7. The researcher used cluster random sampling technique to choose the sample, and the sample was class VIII4, that consisted of 30 students. The data of this research were collected by using two kinds of instruments. The first is questionnaire for self-confidence, and the second is reading aloud test. Based on the result of self-confidence questionnaire, it was found that the lowest score for self-confidence questionnaire was 75 and the highest score was 104, and the result of the reading aloud test was found that the lowest score for reading aloud was 5 and the highest score was 15. The reliability index of the questionnaire was .67, and the reliability index of reading aloud test was .69. It means that the instruments were reliable. Based on the result of the data analysis, the researcher found that the value of r-calculated in this research was .48, while the value of r-table with level of significance .05 and degree of freedom (df) n-2 was .36. It means that the r-calculated was higher than r-table (.48>.36). The hypothesis stating that there was a significant correlation between students’ self-confidence and their reading aloud ability at SMPN 3 Solok was accepted. Therefore, the researcher proposed several suggestions. In order to improve their reading aloud ability the students should make effort to increase their self-confidence in reading text. In order to improve their ways to teach reading and improve student’s self-confidence in reading aloud the teachers should make some efforts. Last, the researcher suggests further researchers to carry out other researches on students’ self aspects and their achievement.

Key words: correlation, self-confidence, reading aloud ability.