The Use of Oral and Silent Techniques in Comprehending Reading Text at SMPN 5 Langsa

The aim of this research was to learn whether oral or silent technique was the predictor of reading comprehension and which variable including oral and silent techniques gave more contribution or the best predictor on students’ reading comprehension. The interest in doing this study came to the writer when the writer saw the students’ got the difficulties in understanding reading text.The school was located in Langsa and most of the students had low and middle socioeconomic level. This study used comparative study and the population consisted of 213 at second grade students in SMPN 5 Langsa. The sample consisted of 20 students was taken by using simple random sampling. The informed consent was obtained from all participants before the study began. Technique of collecting data was using observation and test. For oral and silent assessments, an appropriate text was chosen and the writer chose a narrative text. Item test consisted of 10 multiple choice questions. The data obtained from testing process was analyzed and the findings were presented in responding of research questions. The research finding shown that oral and silent techniques had a significant comparison. It could be known from students’ average scores. The students’ average scores in silent technique was bigger than the students’ average scores in oral technique. Thedata result was analyzed by using t_test and obtained the computation that was3,961. The critical value of t_table at the significant level 5% was 2,02. It means that the result of t_count was higher than its critical value. Ha hypothesis of this research was accepted and Ho was rejected.In other words, there was a significant comparison between oral and silent techniques on students’ reading comprehension. Thus, silent technique had given more contribution or the best predictor to predict students’ reading comprehension than oral technique.