Improving Reading Comprehension of The EighthGrade Students of SMP Widya Sakti Denpasar in The Academic Year 2023/2024 Through LRD Strategy

Reading is one of the skills which is essential for students. Through reading, readers can increase their understanding of a text to collect their vocabulary and knowledge. In fact, most of the students in junior high school faced problems in reading skill. The objective of this study is designed to answer the research problem that has been previously formulated which is to figure out whether or not LRD strategy can improve the reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students of SMP Widya Sakti Denpasar in academic year 2023/2024. Therefore, to achieve the objective of the present study the researcher gave the students a pre-test, post-test and questionnaire. The result of the pre-test clearly showed that the subjects under study were low 64.2. Then, the researcher applied LRD strategy to increase the ability of the subjects under study. The post tests were administered at the end of each cycle. The results of the post-test in cycle I and cycle II were 71.4 and 82.2. The significant difference figured that cycle II was more effective than cycle I. Moreover, to collect the additional supporting data, the researcher administered the questionnaire at the end of cycle II. It showed that the students’ motivation and attitude changed positively after the implementation of LRD strategy. To sum up, the present classroom action research proved that reading ability of the eighth-grade students of SMP Widya Sakti Denpasar in academic year 2023/2024 could be improved through LRD strategy through classroom action research. In addition, the subjects also responded positively.