Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension of recount texts by Using “TELLS” strategy at grade VIII A of MTs N Sungai Tonang Kampar.

Based on the problems found in the classroom, the students at grade VIII A of MTs N Sungai Tonang Kampar had problems in Comprehending recount texts. It was difficult for them to understand contents and to identify the generic structure of the recount text. They also had limited vocabulary. Therefore, the researcher decided to solve these problems by conducting TELLS (Study the title; Examine for clues; Look for Important words; Look for hard words, and identify the setting) strategy. The purposes of this research were to find out whether TELLS strategy could improve the students‟ reading comprehension of recount texts and the factors that influence the changes of the students‟ reading comprehension of recount texts. This classroom action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of four meetings; three meetings for teaching reading comprehension of recount texts and one meeting was for the test. Participants of the research are 20 students at grade VIII A of MTs N Sungai Tonang Kampar. The instruments used to collect the data were (1) observation sheets; students, teacher, and teaching steps (2) field notes (3) interview, and reading comprehension tests. The research findings showed that TELLS strategy could improve the students‟ reading comprehension of recount texts. It could be seen from the improvement of the students‟ score in reading comprehension of recount texts test. The average score of students in cycle 1 was 66 and in cycle 2 was 78. Then, the factors that influence the improvement of students‟ reading comprehension of recount texts were interesting teaching material, teacher‟s role, and students‟ willingness to do all procedures of the strategy. In conclusion, the implementation of TELLS stategy could improve the students‟ reading comprehension of recount texts at grade VIII A of MTs N Sungai Tonang Kampar. It improved both students‟ score in reading tests and their interest in reading activities.