Improving Reading Comprehension of the Eighth-grade Students of SMP Kertha Budaya Mas in the Academic Year 2023/2024 through KWL Combined with Picture

Reading is an important skill in learning English besides listening, speaking, and writing. Through reading people know what is happening in the world, add knowledge, and get information. Reading is essential in daily life to get information from every reading passage. Reading is a type of language skill in which people will obtain new information, knowledge, and experience that have never been known before. The present research objective was mainly intended to find out whether reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students of SMP Kertha Budaya Mas in the academic year 2023/2024 could be improved through KWL combined with Picture. The present study used classroom action research design that was conducted in two cycles. The required data were collected by administering research instruments, tests and a structured questionnaire. After the cyclical research processes, it was found that KWL Combined with Picture was an appropriate teaching technique to improve the subjects’ reading comprehension. It could be seen from the results of the pre-test, post-test 1 and post-test 2, which showed significant improvement in the subjects’ reading comprehension. Furthermore, it was supported by the structured questionnaire, which showed positive responses to the implementation of KWL Combined with Picture. It can be concluded that reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students of SMP Kertha Budaya Mas in the academic year 2023/2024 could be improved by implementing KWL Combined with Picture.