21 JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGLISH STUDIES, Vol. 1, No.

2, August 2018, Page 21-31

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION OF

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH COLLABORATIVE MURDER
Andi Asrifan1, Nadira2, Haedar3
STKIP Muhammadiyah Rappang, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Email: andiasrifan@gmail.com

E-ISSN : 2615-3092 P-ISSN : 2615-3084

Abstract. The objectives of the research was to find out whether or not teaching of descriptive text through
collaborative “MURDER” improve students’ reading comprehension at the Eighth grade students of SMP Negeri
2 Pancarijang, and to find out whether or not the students’ attitude in teaching of descriptive text through
collaborative “MURDER” technique of reading comprehension at the Eighth students of SMP Negeri 2
Pancarijang. This research employed pre-experimental method that applied pre-test and post-test. The population
was the Eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang. Total number of population was 131 students and
one class of them were taken as sample by using cluster sampling technique, class VIII6 was sample. Total number
of sample was 20 students. The instrument used in this research were reading comprehension test and
questionnaire. The result of this research showed that the mean score of the students in the post-test (79,60) was
greater than pre-test (55,00). This showed that there was significant difference between the students who were
taught by using collaborative “MURDER” technique in descriptive text in reading comprehension. The result in
pre-test and post-test that the p-value was lower than the df (0,000<0,05). This meant that H1 was accepted. The
study concluded that teaching reading comprehension by using collaborative “MURDER” improved the students’
to read descriptive text at the Eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang.

Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Descriptive Text, Collaborative Murder

http://sastra.unifa.ac.id/journal/index.php/jes/index

minds as part of the process of language

INTRODUCTION
acquisition. Alderson (2000 : 28) states that
Reading is information between the reader reading is for many people, an enjoyable, intense,
and the writer where the reader tackles what the private activity, from which much pleasure can be
writer means. Reading comprehension is derived, and which one can become totally
important because it can help the students to find absorved.
information about the general knowledge or the Hibbard (2003 : 1) says that reading is a
subject of school. Today there were so many complex behaviour including decoding words,
books written in English. Since the students study developing fluency, and improving
at the elementary school, junior high school, they comprehension. Jhonson (2008 : 7) who states that
have been taught English. In this sense, the reading helps students become better writers.
researcher discussed about reading because it Through reading students have incidental contact
could cover the three other skills. Rahmawaty with the rules of grammar. Students develop a
cited in Taylor (1986:3) states that reading is very sense for the structure of the language and
closely allied to other language processes such as grammar and increase their vocabulary.
listening, speaking and writing. Furthermore, Wolley (2011 : 16) defines reading
Harmer (1998 : 68) states that reading is comprehension is a complex interactive set of
useful for other purposes too : any exposure to operation requiring complex cognitive functioning
English (provided the students understand at more at a number of levels simultaneously. White (2012
or less) it a good thing for language students. At : 3) states that reading comprehension is the
the very least, some of the language sticks in their process of simultaneously extracting and
 Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension – Andi Asrifan, Nadira & Haedar 22

constructing meaning through interactio and above, the biggest problem teacher have to
involment with written language. consider is to find right technique to get students
Reading comprehension is essential both more easy to have the students attain the highest
in the target and the native language. Students may achievements.
not find any difficulties when reading a text in the There are some methods or tecnique
source language, but what happens to the students which can be implemented to increase student’s
is the other way when they read texts in the target academic performance (Yusri et all, 2018;
language. As the result, the students tend to have Mantasiah et all, 2018; Romadloni, 2017, Qalbi,
poor reading comprehension and habits. The 2018). To improve students SMP Negeri 2
matter arises because of some factors: (1) Students Pancarijang on reading descriptive text
do not have good motivation to read because the comprehensively, the researcher proposed one
text is not interesting, the teaching technique is technique. The technique was name collaborative
boring or the text is too hard, (2) they believe that “MURDER”, which consists of 6 important
when comprehending the text, they must points, namely: mood, understand, recall, digest,
comprehend every word in the text, so they keep expand, review. In this way the students were
on looking up the words in a dictionary to find out expected to be more active and enthusiastic in
the meaning of the words, (3) they have very attending the English lessons so that learning
limited techniques and strategies in reading, (4) outcomes can be improved.
they read aloud which slows them down and “MURDER” was chosen to be applied in
which may inhibit comprehension. the classroom to improve students’ reading
In teaching reading comprehension text in comprehension. “MURDER” was a reading
SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang, there were so many technique in collaborative learning model
types of texts learned as stated in their own KTSP. developed by Hythecker et. al. cited in (Kollar,
Those were narrative, descriptive, recount, report 2006:10). Furthermore, Saenab (2012 : 6) states
and procedure. The researcher focused on that collaborative “MURDER” can encourage the
descriptive text. Descriptive text is the text which students in learning, because to develop a system
describes something, situation, etc. or write about of effective and efficient learning, then learning to
the way person, place or things appear. In this use collaborative methods “MURDER”
study, the researcher focused on descriptive text adaptation from the book by bob nelson “the
because based on the test result they got complete problem solver.” These methods
difficulties to comprehend a text consequently all involved the students in interacting with their
students get low score. That problem affects the teachers and fellow students. They could get
value of reading to the students and they have not practice in activating their knowledge in
reached the standard completeness. The minimal communication.
of mastery learning criteria or KKM is 75.00 but
PREVIOUS RELATED FINDINGS
the students only reach 65.00. Reading
comprehension is still low due to several factors. There have been some researches done
First, students still have difficulty in identifying related to this research some of them were stated
the meaning of English words. Second, students below:
can not answer the question because they less  Glenberg (2011) concluded in his research
knowledge of English words. Third students were that both physical and imagined manipulation
not able to retell what has been read. Next, lack of leads to large gains in memory and
students interests in reading, especially in reading comprehension.
a long text. The last but not least, teachers could  Yildirim (2012) concluded in his research that
not find the appropriate method or technique in silent and oral reading fluency were
presenting the material. Based on the some factors moderately related to each other and had
23 JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGLISH STUDIES, Vol. 1, No.2, August 2018, Page 21-31

significant correlations with reading much pleasure can be derived, and which one can
comprehension. become totally absorved.
 Wong et al (2008) concluded in his research Pang (1986 : 6) who states that reading is
that the correlation between referential about understanding written text. It is a complex
resolution and reading comprehension ranged activity that involves both perception and thought.
from 61% to 75% in three reading tasks. The Furthermore, Moreillon (2007 : 10) says that
more students practiced in referential reading is making meaning from print and from
resolution, the higher average score they visual information. But reading is not simple.
obtained in the reading comprehension test. Reading is an active process that requires a great
 Zare (2013) concluded in his research that deal or practice and skill.
significant differences exist between male and Reading printed words has different purposes.
female language learners in the use of reading Reader can know and satisfy within if they read
strategies. Furthermore, the use of reading the information, as they need. It means that, the
strategies had a strong positive correlation reader will have expectation of that they are going
with reading comprehension achievement. to read before them actually to do so. Nurulia cited
 Alkhasawnehi (2012) concluded in his in Grellet (1981 : 4) said that there are two main
reserach that develop a multimedia reading reasons for reading, they are reading for pleasure
comprehension text to increase students and reading for information (to find out something
ability to comprehend the reading text. or in order to do something with the information
 Leddy (2011) concluded in her research that you got). In additions, the purpose of reading to
improving reading comprehension in remedial Grabe and Stoller (2002 : 7-8), it has been
students as well as in regular education classified into four purposes they are,
students. 1) Reading to search for simple information and
 Soleimani (2013) concluded in his research reading to skim.
that while strategy training appeared to raise 2) Reading to learn from text.
students’ awareness of reading strategies and 3) Reading to integrate information, write, and
could encourage strategy use by some critique text.
students, the reading strategy instruction was 4) Reading for general comprehension.
not able to enhance the students’ reading According to Paveen (2008 : 117-124) there
performance. are four kinds of reading related to its purpose,
 Jahandar (2012) concluded in his research that there are intensive reading, extensive reading,
there is significant increases in mean score of silent reading, and aloud reading.
treatment group, confirming the positive 1) Intensive reading is related to further
effect of think-aloud method on improving progress in language learning under the
learners’ reading comprehension. teacher’s guidance. There are few
characteristics of intensive reading:
READING SKILL a) This reading helps learner to develop
Weaver (2003) states that reading is process active vocabulary.
very much determined by what the reader’s brain b) Teacher play main role in this reading.
and emotions and beliefs bring to the reading : the c) Linguistic items are developed.
knowledge/ information (or misinformation, d) This reading aims at active use of
absence of information), strategis for processing language.
text, moods, fears, and joys all of it. Alderson e) Intensive reading is reading aloud.
(2000 : 28) says that reading is for many people, f) In intensive reading speech habit are
an enjoyable, intense, private activity, from which emphasized and accent, stress,
intonation and rhythm can be corrected.
 Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension – Andi Asrifan, Nadira & Haedar 24

2) Extensive reading is material for extensive a) This reading makes students very active
reading will be selected at a lower level of and accurate.
difficulty than that for intensive reading. The b) Silent reading concentrates the attention
purpose of extensive reading will be to train of learners toward subject matter and he
the student to read directly and fluently in the learns naturally.
target language for enjoyment, without the c) It saves time because this activity is done
aid of the teacher. Few characteristics of at a time. All students participate
extensive reading are : together in this activity at a time. It is
a) It helps learner to develop to active very useful to develop the skill of
vocabulary. reading fast.
b) Extensive reading is silent reading. d) This skill plays main role to increase the
c) In extensive reading the subject matter is knowledge of students.
emphasized. According Paveen (2008 : 114-115) states that
d) In the extensive reading the learners play the process of reading may be broadly classified
main role because they have to ask for into three stages:
measures. 1) The first stage is ‘the recognition stage’.
e) In extensive reading the idea can be 2) The second stage is the ‘structuring stage’.
developed. 3) The third stage is the ‘interpretation stage’.
f) The aim of extensive reading is to enrich Pang et al (2003:6) confirm reading is about
learners’ knowledge. understanding written texts. It is a complex
g) Through extensive reading the good activity that involves both perception and thought.
reading habit can be developed. Reading consists of two related processes: word
3) Aloud reading also play important role in recognition and comprehension. Word recognition
teaching of English. Teacher should know refers to the process of perceiving how written
that the training of reading aloud must be symbols correspond to one‟s spoken language.
given at primary level because it is the base Comprehension is the process of making sense of
of words pronunciation. Advantages of aloud words, sentences and connected text. According
reading : to Brath (2012:3) true reading comprehension is
a) It enables learner to develop the skill of not just the ability to recognize words and
reading very well by speaking or articulate them but also the ability to understand
expressing ideas. the underlying concepts expressed by those words.
b) It enables learner to develop the skill of
THE NATURE OF COMPREHENSION
pronounce very well.
c) It makes reading very enjoyable while Wolley (2011 : 19) says that
teacher uses reinforcement during comprehension is, therefore, more effective when
reading. readers use what they already know about the text
d) Language learning is a kind of imitation. theme to conceptualize the gist of the present text.
When teacher says anything or read any Pang et al (2003:6) says that comprehension is the
text, the learner also tries to imitate that. process of making sense of words, sentences and
So teacher should have innovative ideas connected text. Readers typically involved
so that it can make this activity very background of knowledge, vocabulary,
affective. grammatical knowledge, experience with text and
4) Silent reading is a very important skill in other strategies to help them understand written
teaching of English. This reading should be text. From the definition of comprehension above,
employed to increase reading ability among the researcher concluded that comprehension was
learners. Advantages of silent reading :
25 JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGLISH STUDIES, Vol. 1, No.2, August 2018, Page 21-31

understands of the content and idea of that The last level of reading is critical stance.
passage. Critical stance is for fiction, the student is asked to
Wolley (2011 : 17) who says that reading critique the work of the author and/or illustrator
comprehension (understanding, gaining, meaning, regarding how well they did their job to create an
and interpreting the text) depends on a variety of effective story. For nonfiction, the student is asked
reader-related, text-related, and situational factors. to judge the quality of an information source. Here
Wolley (2011 : 15) who says that reading the student might be asked to determine if the
comprehension is the pocess of making meaning information in the book is on the desired topic, is
from text. The goal, therefore, is to goin an overall accurate, is written by a qualified author, and is
understanding of what is described in the text unbiased. Verbs used with the level, such as:
rather than to obtain meaning from isolated words evaluate, judge, rate.
or sentences. While White (2012 : 3) defines Afida cited in Dallmann (1982:165) points
reading comprehension is a complex skill : it out the factors influencing the reading
requires the successful development and comprehension as follows:
orchestration of a variety of lower-and higher level 1) External factors:
processes and skill. Another definition comes a) Difficulty of material
from Harmer (1998 : 68) states that reading b) Intelligence
comprehension is especially interesting and c) Environment
engaging, acquisition is likely to be even more d) Teacher’s method
successful. 2) Internal factors:
Hibbard (2003 : 6) selected the four levels of a) Motivation is one of the important
reading comprehension they are : initial factors of learners in reading
understanding, developing an interpretation, comprehension.
making connections and critical stance. The first b) Self-esteem has important role in
level of reading comprehension is initial developing reading comprehension. It is
understanding. Initial understanding is the student a human being personality that is active,
is asked to retell factual information from the highly confident.
fiction or nonfiction text. Verbs used with the c) Self-actualization, is one of the basic
level, such as: name, list, describe, sequence. physical needs, students have a feeling
The second level of reading comprehension to create and improve their ability in
is developing an interpretation. Developing an reading to be best.
interpretation is the student is asked to process
THE CONCEPT OF COLLABORATIVE
information from one story or a part of a
“MURDER”
nonfiction text using a higher-order level of
thinking. Verbs used with the level, such as: infer, Ardika (2014 : 3) states that there are various
predict, generalize, analyze, explain. strategies to involve and engage students in
The third level of reading comprehension is reading activities. Collaborative “MURDER” is
making connection. Making connection is the one strategy. According to Olsen et. al. (1992),
student is asked to process information from the collaborative “MURDER” technique is a
text and connect that information to his own technique using six strategis. This step can be
experience (text-to-self), the everyday world (text- implemented during the students and the teacher
to-world) and/or information from other texts read the text or story to develop their
(text-to-text) using a higher order level of comprehension about it and is motivated to
thinking. Verbs used with the level, such as: increase the learning of other.
compare, contrast, infer, predict, generalize, Realizing benefits of collaborative
analyze, explain. “MURDER” for students, this study, propose to be
 Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension – Andi Asrifan, Nadira & Haedar 26

applied in the classroom to improve the reading 2) Select a specific learning strategies to resolve
comprehension of students. Saenab (2012 : 6) specific problems faced learning.
states that collaborative “MURDER” can 3) Monitoring the effectiveness of learning.
encourage the students in learning, because to 4) Motivated to engage in a learning situation
develop a system of effective and efficient until the matter.
learning, then learning to use collaborative Saenab cited in Dansereau (1979), that ask
methods “MURDER” adaptation from the book students to collaborate to perform the thinking
by bob nelson “the complete problem solver.” tasks or summarizing and elaboration on reading
These methods involve the students in interacting material. The procedure for the “MURDER” is a
with their teachers and fellow students. fallow:
“MURDER” actually an acronym for each Mood
step of the process that the “MURDER” study uses The first step of “MURDER” is setting the
the acronym stands for mood, understand, recall, mood for study. Saenab cited in Hamzah (2006:
digest, expand, and review. There are six steps in 82) states that the general mood also has two
“MURDER” which started in word M (Mood), get scales as, fallows:
into positive mood. Choose a good time and place a) Optimism, the ability to maintain a positive
to study and approach the study session with an attitude is realistic, especially in the face of
upbeat attitude. U (Understand) makes a note of difficult times. In broad terms, the optimism
any information that does not understand. R is the ability to see the meaning of life and
(Recall) after studying a chapter or an assignment, maintain a positive attitude, even though we
put what being learned into own word. D (Digest), are in trouble. Optimism assumes the
go back to what did not understand and reconsider existence of hope in the way people cope with
the information. E (Expand) suggests that the life.
individual should go back and start asking and b) Happiness, namely the ability to appreciate
attempting to answer questions about the specific life, love yourself and others, and for the
topics. R (Review) goes over the material once, vibrant and passionate in conducting any
twice, or however often it takes to master it. activity.
Good teaching includes teaching students Understand
how to learn, how to remember, how to think and Understanding can be interpreted also
how to motivate themselves (Claire Weinstein and mastered certain thoughts, it means learning to
Richard Meyer) of the statement they teach how to understand the mental and philosophical meaning,
learn is a very important educational objectives intent and implications and its applications,
and main, but not a lot of educators who are able causing students to understand a situation. It is
to realize this goal. For that Norman in book very important for students to learn.
learning strategies called for in learning more Understanding requires the ability to capture the
teachers to teach how to learn. Norman thinks meaning of the concept. Then it must be stressed
groove contains in-depth understanding and that the understanding is dynamic, with this
provide a strong argument for the importance of expected to be creative. He will produce a calm
teaching strategies, Akmal (2011) mind and the imagination, but if the study subjects
For that teaching strategies are taught with truly understand the material presented by his
the aim that students are able to learn teacher, then they will be ready to give definitive
independently and monitor their own learning, answers to these questions or problems in learning
thus becoming independent learners who can do Saenab cited in (Sadirman, 1996: 42-45). In
the following four things: understanding the material, must concentrate fully
1) Carefully diagnose a particular learning on the material in a way to understand each
situation. sentence and digest the meaning of the sentence.
27 JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGLISH STUDIES, Vol. 1, No.2, August 2018, Page 21-31

Recall various factors which include individual factors,

Recall is an active effort to incorporate the factors to remember something, and
information into long term memory. This activity environmental factors.
recall can be done after obtaining such material, Collaborative “MURDER” is a collaborative
can also be done after school and recess, on learning model that can build students’ motivation
repeating this activity can be done by re-reading and to improve the reading comprehension of
material that has been given, then summarize it students. As a teacher, first and foremost step
with its own language that is easily understood, so taken is to motivate students to learn, for example,
it does not directly read memorize the material that gave the real phenomena related to the material
has been well studied. presented. Collaborative “MURDER” provides an
Digest opportunity for teachers to motivate students thus,
Success of a teaching process measuring the collaborative “MURDER” will encourage
extent to which students can master the subject students to be responsible will be learning
matter presented teachers. Contents or subject independently and groups, summarize learning
matter is a second component in the learning through understanding the main ideas of the
process, meaning that the learning process is often materials studied, so that the process of
defined as the process of delivering the material. remembering the information will be more
This can be justified when the main purpose of efficient.
learning is the mastery of learning materials
RESEARCH METHOD
(centered teach the subject). To be able to master
the subject matter students are not only based on The researcher would apply pre-experimental
one book, because basically there are many design. In a pre-experimental design contained the
sources for acquiring knowledge. following three alternative designs (Sugiyono
Expand 2008: 109). There were one-shot case study, the
Expand is the cumulative result of learning. one group pretest-posttest design, the static-group
Result of the learning process is the change in comparison. The researcher would apply pre-
student behavior. With the expand it will be more experimental method with one group pre-test and
know about things that relate to the material being post-test design. The pre-test would be given to
studied. There are three questions that can be find out the prior knowledge of students while
raised to criticize the material that is: post-test would be used to find out the effect of
a) If I could talk with the author, what questions collaborative “MURDER” of reading
would I ask or what criticism would I offer? comprehension at the Eighth students of SMP
b) How can I apply this material to what I am Negeri 2 Pancarijang
interested in? In this research, the researcher decided two
c) How can I make this information interesting variables of the research entitle, ‘’Improving
and easy to understand other students? students’ reading comprehension of descriptive
Review text through collaborative “MURDER” technique
Relearn lessons the material already learned a at the Eighth students of SMP Negeri 2
process of learning will take place effectively if Pancarijang”. The independent variable was the
the information learned can be remembered implementation of the collaborative “MURDER”
properly and avoid forgetting. Remember is the technique. The dependent variable was split into
process of receiving, storing and issuing back two, they were students’ reading comprehension
information that has been received through and the students’ attitude.
observation and then stored in the center of Population is the generalization region
consciousness after being given an interpretation. consisting of objects that have certain qualities
Process of remembering much influenced by and characteristics that have certain qualities and
 Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension – Andi Asrifan, Nadira & Haedar 28

characteristics defined by the researchers to be collaborative “MURDER” in descriptive text

studied and then drawn conclusions (Sugiyono, instruction has a higher score better than students
2008; Jufri, 2017; Jufri, 2007). The population of without technique. The description of the data
the research was the Eighth grade students of SMP collected through the test as explained in the
Negeri 2 Pancarijang. previous section showed that the students’
The sample is part of the number and comprehension in reading improved after the
characteristics possessed by this population. When treatment after the using collaborative
large populations, and researchers may not learn “MURDER” technique especially the mean score
all that there is in the population, for example, of post-test was greater than the mean score of pre-
because of limited funds, manpower and time, the test (79,60>55,00). It is supported by the mean
researchers could use the sample drawn from that score of the students’ test in post-test.
population, Sugiyono (2008: 118). In this This research data indicated that the applying
research, the researcher applied cluster sampling of collaborative “MURDER” in reading
technique. The researcher would choose one class comprehension descriptive text was significantly
from six classes of the Eighth grade students of improved the students’ reading comprehension.
SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang. So, VIII6 was sample. Even though both techniques (collaborative
In this research, the researcher would be used two “MURDER” in reading comprehension
kinds of instruments to collect the data, namely the descriptive and without collaborative
reading comprehension test and questionnaire. “MURDER” in reading comprehension
The researcher gave reading comprehension descriptive). The result of the research also
tests to the students. The tests were given for supported from the statements of according to
getting the objectives data of students’ Olsen et. al. (1992) said collaborative
achievement in reading comprehension by using “MURDER” technique is a technique using six
collaborative “MURDER” technique in pre- strategis. This step can be implemented during the
experimental class. The researcher would apply students and the teacher read the text or story to
two test, there were pre-test and post-test. Pre-test develop their comprehension about it and is
was given before teaching learning process and motivated to increase the learning of other.
post-test was given after teaching learning Realizing benefits of collaborative “ MURDER”
process. for students, this study, propose to be applied in
Questionnaire was used to obtain information the classroom to improve the reading
about students’ attitude toward the application of comprehension of students. Saenab (2012 : 6)
collaborative “MURDER” in reading states that collaborative “MURDER” can
comprehension of descriptive text. The encourage the students in learning, because to
questionnaire consists of 20 items, 10 items develop a system of effective and efficient
positive statements and 10 items negative learning, then learning to use collaborative
statements. The researcher gave optional there methods “MURDER” adaptation from the book
were: (1) Strongly agree, (2) Agree, (3) Netral, (4) by bob nelson “the complete problem solver.”
Disagree, (5) Strongly disagree. The questionnaire These methods involve the students in interacting
would be distributed to the students of pre- with their teachers and fellow students.
experimental class in post-test, after the treatment The researcher used paired samples t-test
was given. in inferential statistic through SPSS 21.0 program
for Windows Evaluation Version to test the
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
hypothesis. In pre-test and post-test, the researcher
Reading comprehension of students pre-test found that the p-value was lower than the df
and post-test has significant different, where (0,000<0,05). This meant that H0 was rejected and
students who were applied a technique of H1 was accepted. It meant that the use of
29 JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGLISH STUDIES, Vol. 1, No.2, August 2018, Page 21-31

collaborative “MURDER” technique in improving Rating scale 5 – 1. Sugiyono (2008: 138) said that
reading comprehension at the Eighth grade the checklist form, it will be obtained an advantage
students of SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang could in this case brief in the making, paper-saving, easy
improved after they were taught by collaborative to tabulate the data, and visually more appealing.
“MURDER” technique. Data obtained from the scale were in the form of
This research data indicated that the analyzed interval data. In students’ attitude 3 (15.0%)
by using questionnaire. Sugiyono (2008: 199) said student was classified into very positive, 15
that the questionnaire is an efficient data collection (75.0%) students were classified into positive, and
techniques if researchers know for certain 2 (10.0%) students were classified into netral.
variables to be measured and know what can be There were not any students classified into
expected from the respondents. Department of negative and very negative. The mean score of the
Education (1975) said that questionnaire is a data students’ attitude (75,50) and standard deviation
collection tool in the form of a series of questions of the students’ attitude (6,245). It meant that the
asked the respondents to get a response. Excess students who were taught by using collaborative
questionnaire was a practical method because it “MURDER” technique in descriptive text in
can be used for the data to the number of reading comprehension changing attitudes and
respondents in large numbers and in a short time motivation. The findings of the present study were
and it is a method that is economical, in terms of in line with the existing research finding that
manpower required, among others, does not revealed the improvement of the subject under
require the presence of a counselor Rahman study in mastering English reading
(2014). This research data indicated that the comprehension through “MURDER” technique.
analyzed by using Rating scale. Sugiyono (2008:
CONCLUSIONS
134-135) said that Rating scale used to measure
attitudes, opinions, and perceptions of a person or The teaching of descriptive text through
a group of social phenomenon. The research collaborative “MURDER” can improve students’
instrument that uses a Likert scale can be made reading comprehension at the Eighth grade
form or multiple choice checklist.The students of SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang. In pre-test
questionnaire was given in the last of session. and post-test, the researcher found that the p-value
Students had the opportunity to answer the was lower than the df (0,000<0,05). This meant
questionnaire individually and by the real that H0 was rejected and H1 was accepted. The
condition of motivation in teaching reading mean score of the students in the post-test (79,60)
comprehension after “MURDER” technique were was greater than pre-test (55,00). It meant that the
conducted. A questionnaire consisted of twenty use of collaborative “MURDER” technique in
questions. The questionnaire which were actually improving reading comprehension at the Eighth
intended to measure the changing learning grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Pancarijang could
behavior of the subjects under study in learning improved after they were taught by collaborative
reading comprehension through “MURDER” “MURDER” technique.
technique were administered by the end of post- The mean score of the students’ attitude
test. The subjects would be given twenty questions (81,70) and standard deviation (5,079). In
related to how “MURDER” technique motivate students’ attitude 3 (15.0%) student was classified
them and in order to avoid misunderstanding and into very positive, 15 (75.0%) students were
confusion, the questionnaire was written in bahasa classified into positive, and 2 (10.0%) students
Indonesia. The researcher constructed were classified into netral. There were not any
questionnaire in checklist in respective item of SS, students classified into negative and very
ST, RG, TS, and STS and the results of negative. It meant that the students who were
questionnaire were qualitatively scored using the taught by using collaborative “MURDER”
 Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension – Andi Asrifan, Nadira & Haedar 30

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