THE CORRELATION BETWEEN READING INTEREST AND READING COMPREHENSION OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMAN 1 SELAT IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/2023

The objective of this study was to find out the significant correlation between reading interest and reading comprehension of the eleventh grade students of SMAN 1 Selat in academic year 2022/2023. The design was correlational research design. The sample was 40 students. The population of the present study consisted of 193 students and 40 of them were chosen as the samples. They were determined by means random sampling technique with lottery system. The result of the questionnaire and short answer task showed that reading interest and reading comprehension was related each other. When the student had high interest in reading then their reading comprehension was good, while when the students had low interest in reading then their reading comprehension was not good. Furthermore, the research instruments were made in order to collect the data needed. The data were analysed by using SPSS 25.0 that consist of normality test, homogeneity test, Pearson product moment and ttesting. The result of the analysis data showed that the coefficient correlation 0.737. It indicates that there was a sufficient correlation between students‘ reading interest and reading comprehension. It is included the scaled of interpretation score between 0.600-0.800. With degree of significance 5% the score r-table obtained was 0.263. It means r-table calculated was high than rtable (0.737 > 0.263). The result clearly showed that there was a significant correlation between students‘ reading interest and reading comprehension. Therefore, the hypothesis in this study was significantly accepted. Hence, the present concluded that there was significant correlation between reading interest and reading comprehension of the eleventh grade students of SMAN 1 Selat 2022/2023. Keywords: Correlation, reading interest and reading comprehension.