THE EFFECT OF USING INSERT STRATEGY AND MOTIVATION ON THE READING COMPREHENSION OF THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 11 SIJUNJUNG WEST SUMATERA

Teaching strategy becomes one of the essential factors leading to students' low comprehension in reading. A number of studies have found that a good strategy gives a significant effect to students' ability in reading. This study aims at finding out whether INSERT (Interactive Notation System to Effective Reading and Thinking) strategy and motivation significantly affect the students' comprehension in reading descriptive texts. This is a quasi-experimental research using a factorial design. Two classes (VIII.4 and VIII.1) were taken as the sample selected through a cluster random sampling technique. Class VIII.4 was selected as the experimental group taught by using INSERT strategy, while Class VIII.1 was selected as the control group taught by using a conventional strategy (small group discussion strategy). The data were taken from both pre-test and post-test. The results of data analysis showed that the second grade students of SMP 11 Sijunjung who had high motivation and were taught by using INSERT strategy had significantly better reading comprehension on descriptive text than those taught by Small Group Discussion strategy. In addition, it was also found that there was no interaction between teaching strategies (INSERT and small group discussion) and students' motivation toward students' reading comprehension on descriptive text