ASSESSMENT OF READING SKILLS USED BY ENGLISH TEACHERS AT THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 7 DENPASAR

Abstrak

Reading skills, which is still considered a one of the fundamental skills, has a significant impact on students’capability in understanding English as a second language. This concerns to the expectation on their exams and other crucial tests that they have to take in the future. This study is conducted to find out how English teacher in SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar learn how to improve their reading skills since this public school was known for its dynamic teaching method which led to questions on how the teacher maintained the class’s progress whilst the recent-made curriculum was applied. This resonates with the mission of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia which makes reading literacy tops the 6 (six) literacy abilities that must be mastered during their formal learning. Thus, the aims of the study is to find out the method in teaching reading skills and its assessment method in which both of these aspects are linked to how students’s reading skill are trained. This study was done by employing qualitative-based method. The reading criteria was generated from self-made observation checklist consisting various way of assessing students reading skills. The results reveal that Text-Based Instruction is primarily used by the teacher to conduct the reading session including five different types of reading assessment (Reading Aloud, True or False, Direct Questioning, Summary and Reading Aloud in Simple Past). In addition, Repetition method is also often encouraged to the students who are lacking in their reading skills. Even so, it is important for the teacher to account one of the main factor that mostly contribute to their improvement depends on how the teacher create well-composed asssessment that is ideal to them.