Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension on Descriptive Text by Using Crossword Puzzle

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to find out the improvement of students’ reading comprehension in finding general information, specific information and textual reference of the descriptive text by using crossword puzzle of VIIF of SMPN 19 Pontianak. The participants of the research were 17 male students and 15 female students. The researcher conducted classroom action research in two cycles. After implementing the crossword puzzle as the media of teaching descriptive text, the researcher found that 100% of the students could find general information, 87.5% of the students could find specific information and textual reference of the descriptive text about public building. It showed that crossword puzzle could improve students’ reading comprehension, in terms of finding general information, specific information and textual reference of descriptive text after using crossword puzzle. Further, crossword puzzle also could improve the students’ activeness in learning process, students’ spelling was also improved. The crossword puzzle gives benefits for the students. It is recommended for the future research to do the similar research by using crossword puzzle platform that can be accessed by mobile phone. Keywords: reading comprehension, descriptive text, action research