THE EFFECT OF USING MIND MAPPING ON THE READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY OF GRADE EIGHT STUDENTS AT SMP NEGERI 9 YOGYAKARTA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2012/2013

This study is aimed at finding out whether there is a significant difference in the reading comprehension ability between grade eight students of SMP Negeri 9 Yogyakart who are taught by using mind mapping technique and those who are taught by using a conventional technique in the academic year of 2012/2013. \nThis research was classified as a quasi-experimental study. It involved 70 students from two groups, Class VIII B (34 students) as the experimental group and Class VIII A (36 students) as the control group. The experimental group was taught by using mind mapping technique whereas the control group was taught by using a conventional technique. The data were obtained by using two Reading Comprehension tests: pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was given to both groups before the treatment and the post-test was given after the treatment. The data of the pre-test and post-test of both groups were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. After the data were tested and found to be homogeneous and normal, the hypothesis was tested using Independent-Samples T-Test. \nThe result of the research shows that there is a significant difference in the reading comprehension ability between the students who are taught by using mind mapping technique and those who are taught by using a conventional technique. It can be seen from the mean score in the post-test of the experimental class and the control class. The mean score of the experimental class is higher than that of the control class (30.61 > 27.52). Besides, it is proved by the result of the hypothesis testing through Independent-Samples T-Test. The significance value of 0.000 is less than the significance level of 0.05 (0.000 < 0.05), which means that the result of this study are considered to have a significant difference. Therefore, the hypothesis of this study is accepted. It means that the use of the mind mapping technique significantly improves the students’ reading comprehension ability in the English teaching and learning process at SMP Negeri 9 Yogyakarta.