Improving News Text Comprehension Through Educational Game-Based Interactive Media

Abstract

Reading comprehension of news texts remains a persistent problem among junior high school students, and this study was motivated by the low understanding of Grade VII students at SMP Bina Utama regarding the 5W+1H elements, text structure, and the distinction between fact and opinion in news texts, a condition caused by monotonous teaching methods that rely on worksheets, lectures, and one-way assignments. This study aims to determine whether the educational game-based interactive medium Zep Quiz can improve Grade VII students' comprehension of news texts at SMP Bina Utama. A Classroom Action Research (CAR) design based on the model of Arikunto et al. (2021) was employed, comprising two cycles of planning, action, observation, and reflection, involving 17 seventh-grade students as participants. Data were collected through tests, classroom observation, and teacher interviews, then analyzed descriptively and quantitatively using N-Gain and classical mastery formulas. The results show that the students' average score increased from 69.88 in Cycle I to 85.35 in Cycle II, the classical mastery rate rose from 52.94% to 94.11% (very high category), and the N-Gain increased from 0.44 to 0.53 (medium category). It is concluded that the Zep Quiz educational game-based interactive medium effectively improves students' comprehension of news texts. This study implies that quiz-based digital game media can be adopted by Indonesian language teachers as a contextual, low-cost alternative to conventional methods, particularly for materials that demand factual accuracy and critical reading, while also contributing procedural evidence on how such media should be implemented cyclically to sustain learning gains.