Improving Students' Reading Comprehension of Short Functional Texts by Using Power Point Presentation at Grade VIII.2 of SMPN 2 Pekanbaru

Reading comprehension is one of useful skill that is taught in Junior High School. Based on the researcher’s daily observation, most of the students grade VIII.2 of SMPN 2 Pekanbaru difficult in identifying the main idea of short functional text. It was dealing with several causes. Some of them, because of the students’ limited vocabulary, the material in worksheet was not suitable with the students,’ background knowledge, the students limited attention, participation, and interaction, and the teacher’s lack of using media in teaching reading comprehension of short functional text. As the result, some of the students were difficult in comprehending general information, specific information, and word meaning of short functional text. This research was classroom action research. The purpose of this research was to explain to what extent the use of media power point presentation improve students’ reading comprehension of short functional texts. This research was conducted in two cycles. There were four meetings in each cycle. The participant of this research was the class VIII.2 of SMPN 2 Pekanbaru. The data of this research was collected through test, observation, field notes, and interview. At the end of the cycle the students were given the test. The finding of this research for the first cycle got the mean score 75.85 and the second cycle 77.7. It was described that there was an improvement of students’ reading comprehension of short functional texts by using power point presentation. This improvement was influenced by several factors; there were material, media, classroom activity, classroom management, teaching strategy, and teacher’s approach, students’ motivation, and students’ interaction.