Improving Reading Comprehension Using Snowball Throwing Technique among Students at One of Public Vocational High School in EFL Context

Queena Sehara Jeanery; Asma Alhusna; Rahma Dania

Authors

Queena Sehara Jeanery Universitas Putra Indonesia "YPTK" Padang
Asma Alhusna UPI "YPTK" Padang
Rahma Dania UPI "YPTK" Padang

Keywords:

Reading Comprehension, Snowball Throwing Technique, Vocational High School

Abstract

This research investigates the effectiveness of the Snowball Throwing Technique (STT) in improving students’ reading comprehension. The objective of this study was to determine whether there is a significant difference in students’ reading comprehension before and after being taught using the STT. A quantitative method with a pre-experimental design was employed, involving one randomly selected class of tenth-grade culinary students at one of public vocational high school in Padang. Data were collected using a pre-test and post-test. The mean score of students’ reading comprehension in the pre-test was 57.26, while the post-test score increased to 79.5. Based on the results of the paired t-test, the t-value (8.892) was higher than the t-table value (2.045), indicating a statistically significant improvement. These findings confirm that the Snowball Throwing Technique has a positive effect on enhancing students’ reading comprehension skills. This study concludes that STT can be an effective teaching method to improve students’ engagement and understanding in reading activities. This study contributes to educational research by offering empirical evidence that interactive, student-centred strategies like STT can improve reading outcomes, particularly in vocational school contexts. It supports the integration of collaborative techniques into English language teaching practices.

References

Fatimah, S. T. (2020). The Effectiveness of Snowball Throwing Technique to Improve Recount Text at the Eighth grade of SMPN 1 Babadan Ponorogo. Doctoral dissertation. Tarbiyah and Teacher Training Faculty: IAIN Ponorogo.

Gani, A. Y. (2017). The Effectiveness of Snowball Throwing Technique in Teaching Reading Comprehension. National Conference on Teachers’ Professional. 4-5.

Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2011). Teaching and researching reading (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Indrawati, I., Khuznainy, K., & Firmansyah, M. (2023). The effectiveness of snowball throwing technique in teaching reading comprehension. Journal of Modern Education, 9(2), 210–219. https://doi.org/10.56630/jme.v9i2.560

Islamiati, A. D., Dollah, S., & Sakkir, G. (2024). The use of the snowball throwing technique in teaching reading skills. Indopedia Journal of Language Education, 5(1), 33–41.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational Researcher, 38(5), 365–379. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09339057

Kusumawati.(2018). The Effectiveness of close and explicit reading instructions to enhance reading comprehension to highly and lowly motivated students. English Education Journal, 7(1), 1-2. doi: https://doi.org/10.15294/eej.v8i1.21995.

Moega, T. (2023). Applying Snowball Throwing Technique in Improving Students‟Reading Comprehension at SMP Negeri 2 Tompaso. Students Scientific Creativity Journal (SSCJ). 1(2), 51-65. doi: https://doi.org/10.55606/sscj-amik.v1i2.1078.

Ulmi, N. (2024). The Effect of Snowball Throwing Learning Strategy in Improving Reading Ability of Students' at SMP N 10 Parepare. Doctoral dissertation. Tarbiyah Faculty: IAIN Parepare

Wahidin, W. (2020). Using Snowball Throwing in Teachning Reading at the second year Students' of SMP N 8 Palopo. Doctoral dissertation. Tarbiyah and Teacher Training Faculty: IAIN Palopo

Sugiyono. (2013). Metode Penelitian Kuantitatif, Kualitatif dan R&D. Bandung: Alfabeta.

Zulkifli, Z. (2015). Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif dan Kuantitatif. In Z. Zulkifli, Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif dan Kuantitatif (p. 18). Yogyakarta: Deepublish.

Pan, C. Y., & Wu, H. Y. (2013). The cooperative learning effects on English reading comprehension and learning motivation of EFL freshmen. English Language Teaching, 6(5), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n5p13

Ulmi, N. (2024). Improving students’ reading comprehension through snowball throwing technique. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Education, 11(1), 66–78.

Wahidin, A. (2020). Snowball throwing technique and students’ reading comprehension achievement. Journal of English Teaching and Learning, 4(2), 89–97.

Zulkifli. (2015). Metodologi penelitian pendidikan. Raja Grafindo Persada.