Improving Ninth-Grade Students’ Narrative Reading Comprehension through the Somebody-Wanted-But-So (SWBS) Strategy: Meningkatkan Pemahaman Membaca Naratif Siswa Kelas IX Melalui Strategi Somebody-Wanted-But-So (SWBS)

Reading comprehension in English can be challenging for lower-secondary EFL learners when they must identify central ideas, interpret narrative structure, make inferences, and locate specific textual information. This study examined the implementation of the Somebody-Wanted-But-So (SWBS) strategy to support narrative reading comprehension among 14 ninth-grade students at SMP Dhuafa Merangin during the 2025/2026 academic year. The study employed classroom action research conducted in two cycles, each involving planning, action, observation, and reflection. Data were obtained from reading comprehension tests administered before the intervention, after Cycle I, and after Cycle II, together with classroom observation sheets. Achievement was interpreted against a local learning-attainment criterion (KKTP) of 75, while indicator-level performance was examined for vocabulary, text structure, main idea, text purpose, inference, and specific information. The proportion of students meeting the criterion increased from 1 student (7.14%) in the pre-test to 6 students (42.86%) after Cycle I and 11 students (78.57%) after Cycle II. In Post-Test II, the highest mean scores were obtained for main idea and text purpose (86 each), while specific information remained the weakest indicator (69). Observation notes also indicated greater participation during Cycle II. The findings suggest that SWBS functioned as a useful scaffold for organizing global understanding of narrative texts, while detail-focused activities were still needed to support students in locating specific information. Because the study used one intact class and descriptive analysis, the findings should be interpreted as classroom-based evidence of improvement rather than as a statistically established causal effect.