Utilizing a Jigsaw Method in Teaching Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Good reading comprehension allows the students to develop critical thinking and expand new knowledge which impacts on their education, careers, and daily lives. As second-language students, they have difficulties in understanding and responding to the texts they have read. The students have low reading motivation and limited vocabulary mastery. It makes them struggle to find the main idea, vocabulary meaning, reference words, and conclusion correctly. This article aims to provide information about the use of the jigsaw method as an innovative method in teaching reading comprehension. Jigsaw is a learning method that allows students to learn optimally through interaction with other students. This method requires students to learn and understand certain parts of the material for themselves and teach it to other students. So, they make deep representations of what they have read and learned. Applying the jigsaw method based on cooperative learning has great potential on the student's reading comprehension skills and it is an alternative learning method that creates a learning process that focuses on the students' center. This article discusses teaching reading, the concept of jigsaw, stages of teaching reading comprehension using the jigsaw, and the advantages of jigsaw.