Abstract :
This study is entitled ?A Study on the Reading Comprehension Ability of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAN 7 Kupang in the School Year 2017/2018?. The study was conducted to answer the following questions. (1) Are the Eleventh grade students of SMAN 7 Kupang in the school year 2017/2018 able to understand the text they read? (2) What is the ability level of students in comprehending a reading texts? The objectives of the study are (1) To find outand to know whether the students of SMAN 7 Kupang are able to understand the text they read or not. (2) To find out and to know the ability level of the eleventh grade students in reading. The method applied in this study was Qualitative Method. The subject of the study was group MIA 5 the eleventh grade students of SMAN 7 Kupang in the school year 2017/2018.
There were 35 students in the class. The instrument used was a 30 number narrative reading test in form of multiple choice test. The result of the study shows that (a) The eleventh grade students of SMAN 7 Kupang are able to
understand the text they read. (b) Their ability level is ?fairly good? with the total score 68.50% or 6.8 as the grade. Based on the result of the study, the writer suggests the following. (1) For the English teacher, in order to improve the students? ability in reading comprehension, the English Teacher should give the students? more explanations about narrative text, and giving more execises in form of multiple choice test. (2) For the students, the result of the students ability is fairly good thus the students should pay more attaention and do more exercises about narrative text. The practices can be done in the classroom or at home by doing homework so their level of ability can be better.