IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 2 UBUD IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2023/2024 THROUGH THINK PAIR SHARE

Reading is one of the basic language learning skills that students must master. Reading is a language skill that has an important role in teaching and learning foreign languages. In everyday life, it is an active process that is important in most school subjects and is essential in learning a language, especially English. However, students faced critical problems in reading comprehension. The main aim of this research was to find out whether the reading comprehension of class VIII students at SMPN 2 Ubud for the 2023/2024 academic year could e improved through TPS. This research used a classroom action research design carried out in two cycles. The necessary data was collected using research instruments: tests and structured questionnaires. After an iterative research process, it was found that TPS was an appropriate teaching technique to improve students' reading comprehension, especially in answering questions from narrative texts. This can be seen that the results of the pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2 showed a significant increase in students' reading comprehension. This was further supported by a structured questionnaire which indicated positive response to the implementation of TPS. It can be concluded that the reading comprehension of eighth grade students at SMPN 2 Ubud in the 2023/2024 academic year can be improved by implementing TPS techniques.