ALEXANDRA YOSEFA IDIN Pengarang YANPITHERZON LIUNOKAS Dosen Pembimbing 2 Novriani R. Manafe, S.S. M.Ed Dosen Pembimbing 1 Gracia M. N. Otta Ketua Penguji

This thesis is entitled: “Using Picture Stories to Improve Reading Comprehension in Narrative Text by Second Grade Students of SMP Negri 1 Ruteng-Cancar in Academic Year 2020/2021. The problem of this research is; can the use of picture stories improve reading comprehension in narrative text of second grade students of SMPN 1 Ruteng-Cancar in academic year 2020/2021. This research is aimed to find out whether the use of picture stories can improve the reading comprehension in narrative text of second grade students of SMP Negri 1 Ruteng-Cancar in academic year 2020/2021. The method used was experimental design. This research was research was conducted in SMPN 1 Ruteng-Cancar particularly second grade students. The population of this research was 129 students of SMPN 1 Ruteng-Cancar. By using purposive sampling the writer selected 15% of the population which was 42 students as a sample. This sample was divided into two groups, such as experimental group consist of 21 students and control group consist of 21 students. The instrument used to collect data to measure the value of variables was a test that is multiple choice that consist of 30 items. In collecting the data, the researcher used pre test, treatment and post test as the data collection procedures then followed by analyzing the data by using t-test formula. The result shows that using picture stories can improve reading comprehension in narrative text of second grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Ruteng-Cancar in academic year 2020/2021, because the result of the statistical calculation indicated that the value of t-test was 2,27 and the value of df (degree of freedom) 40 at the level of significance 5% was 2,02. It can be concluded that t-test was higher than t-table where 2,27 > 2,02. Since t-test value is higher than the t-table value thus, the alternative hypothesis (H_1) is accepted and the null hypothesis (H_0) is rejected. It means that the use of picture stories can improve reading comprehension in narrative text of second grade students of SMPN 1 Ruteng-Cancar in academic year 2020/2021. Key terms: Narrative text, picture stories, reading comprehension