THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ READING HABITS AND WRITING PERFORMANCE IN NARRATIVE TEXT IN THE NINTH GRADE AT THE STATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 3 OF PRINGSEWU

Abstract

Reading habits constitute an important factor in supporting students’ writing ability in English language learning. However, it has been observed that some ninth-grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Pringsewu have not yet developed consistent reading habits and continue to experience difficulties in writing narrative texts. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate whether there is a significant correlation between students’ reading habits and their narrative writing performance. This research was conducted in 2026 and involved 62 students selected through purposive sampling. A quantitative correlational research design was employed. Data were collected using a questionnaire to assess students’ reading habits and a writing test to measure their narrative writing performance. The data were analyzed using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation test after fulfilling the prerequisite assumptions of normality and linearity. The findings revealed that the correlation coefficient (r) was 0.713 with a significance value (p-value) of 0.000 (p < 0.05), indicating a positive and significant correlation between reading habits and writing performance. Accordingly, the null hypothesis (H₀) was rejected, while the alternative hypothesis (H₁) was accepted. Furthermore, the mean score of students’ reading habits was 77.4, which was categorized as Good Reader, while the mean score of narrative writing performance was 76.13, which fell into the Good category. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the better students’ reading habits are, the better their narrative writing performance tends to be. Therefore, students are encouraged to improve their reading habits, and teachers are recommended to integrate reading and writing activities more effectively into classroom instruction.