Enhancing Eighth-Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension through the Two Stay Two Stray Strategy

Abstract

Reading comprehension is an essential component of English language learning because it enables learners to understand, interpret, and construct meaning from written texts. However, many EFL learners continue to experience difficulties in identifying main ideas, locating supporting details, and understanding the overall meaning of texts. These difficulties may be related to limited vocabulary, low motivation, insufficient interaction, and instructional practices that provide limited opportunities for students to actively discuss textual information. The study employed a quantitative approach with a pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design. The population consisted of 56 eighth-grade students, from whom 21 students were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through reading comprehension tests administered before and after the treatment. The test focused on students’ ability to identify main ideas and supporting or detailed information in descriptive texts. The findings indicated substantial improvement in students’ reading comprehension following the implementation of the TSTS technique. The mean score increased from 48.17 in the pre-test to 81.00 in the post-test, representing a mean gain of 32.83 points. These findings suggest that TSTS is a promising cooperative learning technique for supporting reading comprehension, particularly students’ ability to identify main ideas and supporting details in descriptive texts.