Abstract Name : Helvirra Rossa Student No. : 0906102050078 Study Program : English Education Title :Using the Authentic Material through Group Work Activity in Teaching Reading Comprehension (An Experimental Research at the Second Grade Students of SMP Negeri 7 Banda Aceh) Keyword: Reading Comprehension, Authentic Material, Group Work Activity This study focused on finding out whether the use of authentic material through group work activity can increase students’ reading comprehension or not. The sample of this study was at VIII-7 class consists of 27 students. One group pretestposttest design was undertaken in this study. For completing the data, the instrument used was test. The data was processed quantitatively by using statistical formula to measure the students’ ability before and after treatment; t -score. From the result, it was found that mean of pre-test and post-test was different. The mean of pre-test was 57.77 and the mean of post-test was 74.81. The result of the study showed that there was significant improvement on students’ reading comprehension particularly in finding main idea, detail information, reference, inference, and vocabulary after using the authentic material and group work. In addition, using the authentic material and group work activity are suggested for teachers in teaching English particularly in reading activity.