The Development of Reading Comprehension Ability through Exercises Based on 6-Step Ladder Technique for Students in Mathayomsuksa 1 of Marie Upatham Chaiyaphum School

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the ability to read for main ideas by using a reading comprehension skill exercise based on the 6-Step Ladder Technique and to compare the learning achievement in reading comprehension before and after the lesson using the reading comprehension exercise with the 6-Step Ladder Technique. The sample used in this study consisted of 38 first-year high school students (Grade 7) from the first semester of the 2023 academic year at Mary Uppatham Chaiyaphum School, Chaiyaphum Municipality, who were selected through cluster random sampling. The research tools used were: 1. Lesson plans for teaching reading comprehension using the 6-Step Ladder Technique (5 lesson plans), 2. A reading comprehension test, and 3. A learning achievement evaluation for reading comprehension. The statistical methods used in this research included basic statistics such as percentage, mean, and standard deviation, as well as hypothesis testing using a dependent t-test with a significance level of .01. The results of the research were as follows: The ability to read for main ideas using the reading comprehension skill exercise based on the 6-Step Ladder Technique for Grade 7 students was found to be at a good level or higher. The overall ability in reading comprehension was rated as very good ( = 14.21). The students' abilities in each aspect were as follows: the ability to read the text and answer 5W1H questions (Step 1) was rated as good ( = 2.14), the ability to find key words (Step 2) was rated as good ( = 2.21), the ability to eliminate unnecessary parts of the main idea (Step 3) was rated as very good ( = 2.34); the ability to insert linking words to remove unnecessary parts of the main idea (Step 4) was rated as good ( = 2.43), the ability to observe words or phrases that indicate contrast or opposition (Step 5) was rated as very good ( = 2.50) and the ability to identify the main idea in every text read (Step 6) was rated as very good ( = 2.59). The learning achievement after the lesson for students who learned using the reading comprehension exercise with the 6-Step Ladder Technique showed ( = 26.03), which was significantly higher than their pre-lesson average of ( =10.92), with a statistically significant difference at the .01 level.