Improving Students' Reading Comprehension by Using CIRC Technique

Research Article 2015

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH COOPERATIVE INTEGRATED READING

COMPOSITION (CIRC)

Tira Nur Fitria

English Education Department, Islamic Education and Teacher Training Faculty, The State Islamic Institute of Surakarta

Jl. Pandawa Pucangan Kartasura Sukoharjo, Phone/Fax: (0271) 782404E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The objectives of the research were to know the use of CIRC technique could improve the students’ reading comprehension, and to know the strengths and weaknesses of CIRC implementation during the teaching and learning process. The method of the research was CAR. The subject of this research was the eighth grade students of MTsN Bendosari Sukoharjo especially VIII.D grade students in academic year 2012/2013. The researcher implemented one of technique Cooperative Learning that was CIRC in improving students’ reading comprehension. The data were collected from quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data was collected from test, and the qualitative data were collected from observation, interview, documentation and questionnare. These data were analyzed by using mean score to see the improvement of pre-test and test-cycle, and to get conclusion as the result of this research. This research was conducted in two cycles of action, each of the cycle consisted of three meetings. The result of this research showed that the students’ reading comprehension improved. The students’ mean score in pre-test was 52.3, in test-cycle 1 was 64.7, and in test-cycle 2 was 75.5. Related to the improvement of students’ reading comprehension, the students were able to determine the title or topic of the text, main idea, generic structure, purpose of the text, reference, synonym or antonym, detailed information and undetailed information. From the improvement of test result in each cycle, it showed that using CIRC made the students got better understanding or comprehending the text. During the implementation of the actions, the researcher was helped by the collaborator observed the strenghts and the weaknesses of CIRC during the teaching and learning process. It was found that the students were more active in discussing. They also felt more interested in reading, enjoyed in joining the lesson by grouping. But, some students in each group still looked shy or afraid in presenting their work in front of the class.

Keywords : Reading, Reading Comprehension, Cooperative Learning, Cooperative

Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC).

1 Tira Nur Fitria (S200140027)


A. BACKGROUND

Reading is one of important skill in English besides listening, speaking and

writing. It is the process of looking at series of letters, word, and written symbols in

written or printed text, then getting meaning from them. Linse (2005: 69) states that

“Reading is a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving meaning from the

printed word. In order to read, we must be able to decode (sound out) the printed

words and also comprehend what we read”. When the person read, he/ she use our

eyes and try to focus on the letters, written symbols such as capitalization and

punctuation.

Reading is related to comprehension. Person think and use our brain to

convert them into words, sentences, and paragraphs that convey something and

construct meaning to us (reading comprehension) to make us know and understand

what person read. It can be said that reading is an active process. While,

comprehension is the heart and goal of reading since the purpose of reading is to

gather meaning from the printed page. Person may read in order to get information or

knowledge, or in order to know the writer’s ideas or writing style. “Person may read

for pure recreation and enjoyment or he may read for study” (Deboer & Dallman,

1964: 24). In short, whatever the purpose of the reading, a person who has read has to

be able to comprehend the text being read as the requirements to reach the purpose of

reading itself.

Reading is one of important language skills which should be taught in

classroom. When reading text are very interesting and enganging, the acquisition

process will be more successful. Reading text also provide opportunities to learn

other such as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. It can introduce topics and

stimulate discussion. To become better readers, students need to become aware of

how they are reading and what they could do to improve comprehension (Aebersold

& Mary, 1997: 95).

There are some common problems in reading comprehension for languange

learning such as in decoding what they read, make connections between they read and



what they already know for example background knowledge, and about what they

read (whole content of the text includes topic, title, main idea, referring, lexical verb

such as synonym, antonym or guessing meaning. It also including chronological

sequence, previewing or predicting, explicit or implicit information (detailed and

undetailed infromation) and many others. Those problems can be caused by limited

intellegence, undesirable physical factors, word recognition (method of teaching),

insuffiecient background for reading (lack an experience background), lack of

appropriate teacher guidance, lack of interest, unsuitable materials, difficult concepts

and vocabulary cause of difficulties in comprehension.

Thus, to improve the students’ ability to comprehend the text, the teacher can

select and use a range of activities before, during and after reading. Therefore teacher

is responsible in helping the students to read in order to comprehend or understand

the what they read. The teacher also have to understand and solve the problem and

causes of difficulties in comprehension faced by the students. These must be done to

reach the end goal of reading comprehension is to enable students to read with

understanding and comprehending.

From the result of interview was conducted to the English teacher and some

VIII.D grade students, from reading test and observation of the class toward of

teaching and learning process in reading lesson above, maybe there are several

possible causes of the problems faced by VIII.D grade students, they are as following:

First, based on the observation, the English teacher’s does not use appropriate

technique or method, therefore it gives impact to the students and the class condition

during teaching and learning process; second, the students has low motivation joining

teaching and learning especially in reading lesson; third, based on interview,

questionnare and test, the students’ ability in reading such as in understanding or

comprehending what they read was low, and the other causes i.e English itself,

because it does not the first language. It makes teaching and learning process become

unsuccessful and less effective.



The effective class conditions can be managed by the teacher. The teacher

should realized their roles in teaching the students well. The teacher can use

appropriate strategy,method, possible media or technique which useful, inovative,

effective, creative, fun, interesting, full of spirit, motivation and concentration, so it

can make the students active in class in answering, discussing, and sharing their own

knowledge. They are also not bored during reading lesson and interested in materials

of reading. The teacher is no longer a feared figure or an authoritarian figure, but the

teacher should be able to become a facilitator to facilitate the students to acquire

knowledge and information they need. The teaching learning process also not to be

“teacher-centered”, but how to be “students-centered” where give the opportunity to

the students to be more active during teaching and learning process.

In solving reading problems above, the researcher proposes a method that can

be choosen by teacher to teach English especially in teaching reading. One of popular

method is Cooperative Learning. It is a kind of teaching method which provides some

techniques that can be used in the classroom, for 2nd grade of elementary school until

8th grade of junior high school. CL is a teaching method in which small group uses a

variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject or material.

Each member of group is responsible for learning what is taught and for helping

others in their group and creating a good atmosphere of achievement. In cooperative

learning, students work together in small groups on a structured activities. The

students are individually responsible for their work, and the work of the group to be

assessed or presented in front of the class. The students also have a chance to share

their information, knowledge and their idea to the others and it build the

communication and interaction to the others. While in group, they can share their

knowledge, information, idea, strength also develop their weakness.

One of technique in CL is Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC).

CIRC is the newest of the Student’s Team Learning technique proposed by Stevens

and Slavin in late 1980’s. A unique aspect of CIRC technique is its focus on

cooperative team learning. It is designed to develop reading, writing and other



language skills for 2nd grade of elementary school until 8th grade of junior high

school. CIRC presents a structure that increases not only opportunities for direct

teaching but also applicability of composition writing. CIRC program have found

positive effects on students’ reading skill, including improved scored on standardized

reading. It has some procedures that can be applied in the classroom, such as the

students work in four or five member cooperative learning teams. They engaged in

series of activities and work together in reading or writing what they understand and

comprehend, then preparing for publication or presentation in front of the class.

Based on the background of the study above, the problems of the research are:

1. How does Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) technique

improve the sudent’s reading comprehension?

2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Cooperative Integrated Reading

Composition (CIRC) technique in improving student’s reading

comprehension?

In line with the problem statements above, the objectives of the research are:

1. To know the implementation of CIRC technique can improve the sudent’s

reading comprehension of the eight grade students of MTs Negeri Bendosari

Sukoharjo in 2012/2013 Academic Year.

2. To know the strengths and weaknesses of CIRC technique in improving

student’s reading comprehension of the eight grade students of MTs Negeri

Bendosari Sukoharjo in 2012/2013 Academic Year.

B. THEORETICAL REVIEW

Reading is one of important skill in English besides listening, speaking and

writing. It is the process of looking at series of letters, word, and written symbols in

written or printed text, then getting meaning from them. Miller (1981) defines that the



term reading is used to mean that process of communication of ideas from one person

to another through the medium of writing or printing. “Reading is a set of skills that

involves making sense and deriving meaning from the printed word. In order to read,

we must be able to decode (sound out) the printed words and also comprehend what

we read” (Linse, 2005: 69). When the person read, he/she use our eyes and try to

focus on the letters, written symbols such as capitalization and punctuation.

Reading is related to comprehension. Person think and use our brain to

convert them into words, sentences, and paragraphs that convey something and

construct meaning to us (reading comprehension) to make us know and understand

what person read. It has often been said that reading is an active process. While,

comprehension is the heart and goal of reading since the purpose of reading is to

gather meaning from the printed page. Fauziati (2001: 144) states that comprehension is to enable the students to get and to interpret meanings or ideas carried by the reading text, they need to be famililiarized with how sentences are functionally exploited to carry meanings in a discourse and manipulated to form a paragraph through analysis.

Cooperative Learning is a teaching arrangement that refers to small, heterogeneous

groups of students working together to achieve a common goal (Kagan, 1994).

Students work together to learn and are responsible for their teammates' learning as

well as their own. It is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams (each with

students of different levels of ability); use a variety of learning activities to improve

their understanding of a subject. It is a teaching strategy involving children’s

participation in small group learning activities that promote positive interaction. Each

member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for

helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of high achievement.

According to Slavin (2005) there are several types and techniques of Cooperative

Learning (CL). He states that Cooperative Learning method have many techniques



such as STAD(Students Teams-Achievement Divisions), TGT (Team-Game

Turnamen atau Turnamen Game Team), TAI (Team-Assisted-Individualization),

CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition), GI (Group Investigation), Co-

op Co-op, Jigsaw II, Complex Instruction, LT (Learning Together), NHT (Number

Head Together), Cooperative Review and TPS (Think Pair Share).

According Durukan’s (2011), CIRC technique is one of the learning techniques

based on cooperation, is designed to develop reading, writing and other language

skills. CIRC technique presents a structure that increases not only opportunities for

direct teaching in reading and writing but also applicability of composition writing

techniques. He adds that skill-based reading groups approach encourages

development of this technique.

While accroding to Slavin (1991: 74-75) he states that CIRC is the newest of the

Students Team Learning Methods. Slavin also added in his booklet Student-Centered

and Contructivist Approaches Instruction, CIRC is a comprehensive program for

teaching reading and writing. Students work in four-member cooperative learning

teams. They engage in a series of activities with one another, including reading to one

another, making predictions about how stories will come out, summarizing stories to

one another, writing responses to stories, and practicing spelling, decoding, and

vocabulary. They also work together to master main ideas and other comprehension

skills, then students writing and preparing for publication. Three studies of CIRC

program have found possitive effects on students’ reading skills, including imprived

scores on standardized reading and language tests.

According Durukan’s Educational Research (2010), the implementation process of

CIRC technique are: 1) Introduction by teacher: Firstly of all, teacher shares basic

information with classroom. 2) Group work: 4 or 5 student groups were established.

Worksheet and other materials prepared by teacher were handed out to group

members. Depending on the content of the work, students can collectively answer the



questions and answers can be checked by each member and conveyed to other

groups. 3) Assesment: Depending on the features of the selected technique, skills or

information learnt by students in relation to course content are assessed by students

individually or cooperatively. 4) Detection of successful groups: Individual and group

assessment of the student scores are entered on a group scoreboard and the resulting

scores are summed.

According to Slavin in his booklet Student-Centered and Contructivist

Approaches Instruction, CIRC have found positive effects on students’ reading skills

and comprehension, including improved scores on standardized reading and language

tests. Slavin (2005) argues that CIRC helps teacher to help more time in giving

feedback. He adds that reading group in CIRC aims to achieve reading

comprehension, vocabulary, implicit message and spelling. Slavin in Suyitno

(2007:25) also adds “in addition to solving the problems of management and

motivation in individualized programmed instruction, CIRC created to take adventage

of the considearable socilization potential of cooperative learning.” CIRC also has

weaknesses, such as not all of the students active in group presentattion, sometimes only a

few of students active in presentation, so the others become passive then intend to be bored

during the presentation. Not all of students also do the work well, they sometimes don’t know

or understand how to responsible with their group. CIRC spend many times when group

division, or when working together or discussing, in this situation, the students

sometimes make any noisy and they talk each other. So, the teacher have to manage

and walk around during the discussion to solve it, so the discussion can be effective.

C. METHODOLOGY

This research employed a Classroom Action Research Method (CAR). The

researcher conducted CAR, attempt to solve the problem of students’ reading

comprehension. This CAR is carried out in the research collaboratively with the

teacher. The researcher as the practitioner conducted in the action, meanwhile the



teacher is her facilitator and observer. CAR is applied by a teacher to solve

educational problem in teaching and learning process and involves multiple cycles.

On the basis of the models above the researcher propose the procedure of classroom

action research adapted from Natawidjaja (1997).

PR → FF → SP → GP → AS-1 → O1 → R-1 → RP→ …

Note: PR : Preliminary Reflection GP : General Plan R-1: Reflection one FF : Fact Finding AS-1: Action Step 1 RP : Revised Plan SP : Statements of Problems O-1 : Observation 1 … : AS-2, O2, etc.

The following is a brief description of each step in the classroom action research

procedure as following:

1. Preliminary Reflection

The research was conducted because there was problem faced by VIII.D grade

students of MTs Negeri Bendosari, that was low in their reading comprehension..

The researcher considered to solve it by using one of Cooperative Learning

method namely CIRC technique.

2. Fact Finding

Based on the researcher’s analysis or the result of the observation, the English

teacher’s does not use appropriate technique or method, therefore it gives impact

to the students and the class condition during teaching and learning process;

second, the students has low motivation joining teaching and learning especially

in reading lesson; third, based on interview, questionnare and test, the students’

ability in reading such as in understanding or comprehending what they read was

low, and the other causes i.e English itself, because it does not the first language.

It makes teaching and learning process become unsuccessful and less effective.

3. Statement of Problems

Based on the fact finding the problem of VIII.D grade students was the

students’ reading comprehension was low. From the problems above, the

researcher wanted to improve the students’ reading comprehension of the eight



grade students of MTs Negeri Bendosari and to look for the strenghts and the

weaknesses of the implementation CIRC technique in the classroom.

4. General Plan

After finding the fact that the students’ reading comprehension was low

because the teacher’s method, students’ comprehension, motivation and interest

were low, also low in score of reading comprehension s. The researcher wanted

to improve students’ reading comprehension by using CIRC technique. Before

implemented this action, the researcher prepared everything needed in doing the

action in order to improve students’ reading comprehension. The planning of

action consists of some steps as follows:

a. Preparing CIRC technique and the steps of its implementation

b. Choosing genre text of reading especially recount text.

c. Preparing materials of recount text such as definition, purpose of

communicative purpose, language features and text examples.

d. Making lesson plan, and designing the steps in doing the action.

e. Preparing tests (pre-test and test cycle / post-test).

f. Evaluating the result of tests.

5. Action Step 1

The researcher did the research in two cycles. In the first cycle conducted in

three meetings (treatments), and the second cycle also conducted in three

meetings (treatments). It was done in three meetings in order to be comparable in

getting mean. The treatments related to the teaching reading comprehension

using CIRC technique. After finishing each cycle, the researcher conducted a

post test (test cycle) to know and measure students’ improvement in reading

comprehension after the treatments in each cycle.

6. Observation 1

The researcher as a teacher, and helped the collaborator as an observer. The

researcher also observed classroom events, classroom activities, interaction in the



classroom, and the students’ responses during the teaching learning process by

using CIRC technique was carried out in the teaching and learning process. The

researcher also made notes or fieldnotes that contains all of activities and

conditions happened in the classroom.

7. Reflection 1

The researcher analyzed and made an evaluation when teaching and learning

activities had been carried out. From the observation and based on the field notes,

the researcher found out the strengths (positive result) and the weaknesses of the

teaching and learning process by using CIRC technique.

8. Revised Plan

Revising plan was needed by the researcher when the action in cycle did not

make any improvement in their score on the students’ reading comprehension. It

could be concluded that the researcher should do the next cycle. The weakness of

the first cycle will be revised in the next cycle.

There are two kinds of data collected in this research. They are qualitative

and quantitative data. The qualitative data are kinds of information related to the

implementation of diary in teaching reading recount text. They are as follows:

1. Observation

The researcher observed the classroom, especialy VIII.D class to cover the

process of implementation of CIRC technique in teaching reading especially

recount text material in the classroom. The researcher was helped by the

collaborator to observe all happened before, during, and after CIRC technique

implemented in the teaching and learning process. The observation coivered

classroom events, classroom activities, interaction in the classroom, and the

students’ responses during the teaching and learning process etc. The reseacher

also asked her collaborator to observe, evaluate and give suggestion about the

implementation the technique. The events which happened in the classroom and



the result of the observation written by using field notes. The observation was

done in the pre-research and during the teaching and learning process.

2. Interview

The researcher did interview to the English teacher and some VIII.D grade

students of MTs Negeri Bendosari to get information from the students and the

English teacher. Interview was done in the pre-research. The researcher made

interview to know the problems both from the English teacher and the students

when teaching and learning process especially in reading lesson. The kind of

interview was unstructured interview. The researcher only prepared the question in

general and asked to the respondents to answer based on their opinion freely and

the condition or situation of the respondents. The interview was recorded by using

audio recording and transcripted into written form.

3. Questionnaire

The researcher gave the VIII.D grade students of MTs Negeri Bendosari a

piece of questionnaire to gain more information about the students’ reading

interest, response and problems of reading reading comprehension when teaching

and learning rocess. The purpose of giving questionnaire was to find out the

students personal opinion or self expression, to know students prior

comprehension and their problems faced in reading lesson. It was given at the

pre-research. The questionnare consists of ten questions of multiple choice with

three items. The researcher adopted “Likert Scale and used closed-ended (closed-

question) questionnare”. It provides a suitable list of responses (e.g. Yes/ No). It

made the students easier in choosing the answer, become systematic and limited in

time of research.

4. Documentation



The researcher also collected documents in collecting data before did the

research or at the pre-research. It was used by the resarcher to support the data

collection from observation, interview abd questionnare. The documents that were

collected to obtain data were written documents that relates to the school, such as

teacher’s note, syllabus guidelines, lesson plan, textbook, list of students’ name. It

also includes fieldnotes of classroom activities and photograph or pictures when

teaching and learning process happened.

2. The quantitative data

The quantitative data were the students’ achievement (test) in improving their

reading comprehension. Test was done to know the students’ reading scores. In

this case, the researcher used two cycles. Each cycle consists of three meetings

(treatments). In the last of each cycle, the researcher gave a test (test cycle or post-

test). The researcher used the multiple choice form because to make easier in

evaluating, objective, efficient use of marking time, it’s quick for students to

answer the question. It also could be done in same time. The students were asked

to read and answered the questions of recount text based on certain topic and

certain time given. Therefore, it provides information about the difficulty that the

students found in doing the test. The scoring covers each element of reading

including topic or title of text and main idea, referring or reference words, function

(generic structure or pattern of organization, purpose of the text and language

features), previewing or predicting, explicit and implicit information (detailed and

undetailed information, lexical verb (synomym, antonym and guessing meaning).

The score of pre-test and each test-cycle was compared by using mean to see the

improvement of students’ reading comprehension.

To analyze the data, the researcher uses two kind of analyzing data, there are

qualitative and quantitative.

1. Qualitative Data



Miles and Huberman (1994) break down the analysis of qualitative data into three

processes, they are as follows:

• Reducing Data: The researcher selected, abstracted, and transformed

fieldnotes, interview transcriptions/ recordings, or other raw data. The

researcher reduced data of observation, and only wrote the main points from

pre-research until the end of the research.

• Displaying Data: The researcher organized and compressed assembly of

information or reducing data systematically in form of pattern, table or chart

and picture, then begin to draw justified conclusions.

• Drawing and Verifying Conclusion: The researcher decided what the data

mean, note the explanations, consequences and possible ways to conclude the

data. The result of conclusion was written in description or reflection.

2. The quantitative data

In this research, the researcher gave test (pre-test and test cycle) to know the

achievement of students’ reading comprehension. 1. The researcher and her

collaborator analyze and score each element of reading 2. After scoring each

elements, the researcher and her collaborator counts the score of each element. 3. The

results of the score of each cycle are analyzed, and compared in mean to see the

improvement.

To know whether there is an improvement of students’ reading

comprehension or not, the quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive

statistics (using mean). It done to compare the average scores of pre-test with the

average scores of test-cycle. Burns (2010: 118) states that quantitative data

analysis means presenting data in numerical form. The mean score of pre- test and

post- test can be calculated with the formula as follows:

X = ∑x Y = ∑y



N N

In which : X : mean of pre-test score Y : mean of post-test score N : number of subject ∑x : the sum of pre-test ∑y : the sum of post-test

From the calculation result using the formula above, it can be seen whether

there is improvement of the result of pre test and post test/ test cycle. From the post

test minus pre test the result post test higher then pre test and then the score of post

test same or higher with the KKM (Criteria of Minimum Score).

D. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1. Research Findings

Finding facts that support the reading comprehension score was low gotten

from the result of interview conducted to the English teacher and some VIII.D

grade students of MTsN Bendosari, result questionnare and observation of the

VIII.D class toward of teaching and learning process in reading lesson and score

of reading test. The researcher concluded that the problems came from: First, the

teacher (such as technique or method used by teacher that give impact to the

class condition). Second, from the students (such as low motivation joining

teaching and learning in English especially in reading). Third, the students’

comprehension itself in comprehending the text or what they read.

Knowing the problems of reading comprehension, the researcher implemented

CIRC in teaching reading to improve the students’ reading comprehension. The

research in the first cycle consists of three meetings and ended by test cycle 1,

and second cycle consists of three meetings and ended by test cycle 2. Every

meeting in cycle consists of opening, main activity and closing.



The first cycle was held on April 27th 2013 until May 4th 2013. Then, second

cycle was held on May 8th 2013 until May 16th 2013. The topic of the first and

second cycle was about holiday or vacation. The cycle of this research consists of

series of steps. The steps are covered of identifying the problem, planning the

action, observing or monitoring the action, and evaluating or reflecting the result

of the observation, and revising the plan.

2. Discussion

The implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) in

teaching reading improve the students’ reading comprehension and achievement of

VIII.D grade students of MTs Negeri Bendosari. The researcher gave description

about the students score improvement in detail of as follows:

Pre-test Test cycle 1 Test cycle 2

SUM 1098 1358 1586 MEAN 52.3 64.7 75.5

Table 5. The improvement of the students achievement in cycle 2

Based on the table above, the students’ mean score comparison showed the

improvement in each cycle. The students’ mean score in pre-test was 52.3, in test

cycle 1 was 64.7, and in the test cycle 2 was 75.5. The improvement of the students’

mean score from the pre-test to the test cycle 1 was 12.4, while from the test cycle 1

to the test cycle 2 was 10.8. It showed the improvement of the students’ mean score

after the students were given treatments in cycle 1 and cycle 2 by using CIRC. Below

chart to make simple in showing the significant score of improvement.



Chart 1. The Improvement of Students’ Achievement

Based on the table and chart above, the comparison of the students’ mean

score showed the improvement in each cycle, from pre-test, test cycle 1 and test cycle

2. It showed the improvement of the students’ mean score after the students were

given treatments by using CIRC technique.

Related to the improvement of students’ reading comprehension (a) the

students are able to determine the title or topic of the text (b) the students are able to

determine main idea (c) the students are able to determine the lexical verbs i.e

synonym or antonym (d) the students are able to guess the meaning from context; (e)

the students are able to determine the correct reference within the text; (f) the students

are able to find lexical verbs (synonym or antnonym); and (g) the students are able to

find the detailed and undetailed information. From the improvement of test result in

each cycle, it can be conluded that implementation of CIRC can improve the

students’ reading comprehension.

The researcher also found some strengths (positive effects) of the

implementation during teaching and learning process in the classroom, both in cycle 1

and cycle 2, they were: 1) Students looked motivated and interested in learning. 2)

CIRC taught social skills such as coperation, teamwork, and communication skill. 3)

Behavior changing from the passive students to be active students. 4) Students could

motivated the others in the group. 5) Students became more brave and confident in



presenting their work. 6) The teaching and learning process changed from teacher-

centered into student-centered. 7) The students learned how to solve problem together

in a group. 8) The class condition become enjoyable, attractive and interesting. 10)

The students’ spirit and motivation also increased. 11) By grouping, the students can

be easier in comprehending the text.

While, the weaknesses of CIRC implementation during teaching and learning

process in the classroom, both in cycle 1 and cycle 2, they were: 1) Wasting time in

several minutes because sometimes in group division, half of the students disagree

with their member even refusing to work cooperative with the others. 2) Students’

participation in discussing the text still less, not all of the group could work together

well. Sometimes the active students dominated and took over the group, while the

passive students intend to be bored with the situation. So, not everyone had an equal

voice in a group, then they do not trust the abilities of others in the group which

results in tension or refusing to cooperate. 3) Sometimes some students busy with

their activities, they did not pay attention in discussing or talked about everything

else. 4) By grouping, the classroom situation become noisy because each group were

discussing about the lesson or material. 5) Some member of groups still afraid or feel

ashamed in presenting their work in front of the class.

CONCLUSION

First, the improvement of students’ reading comprehension was supported by the

result of the test score such as pre-test, test cycle 1 and test cycle 2. The table and

chart improvement of the students’ reading comporehension score can be seen in

chapter VI. The students’ mean score in pre-test was 52.3, in test cycle 1 was 64.7

and in test cycle 2 was 75.5. Second, CIRC technique not only has strengths (positive

effetcs), but also the weaknesses in its implementation. The explanation as stated on

research findings and discussion.

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