Abstract :
This research analyzed the correlation between emotional intelligence and
reading comprehension. The objectives of this research are to know if there is a
significant correlation between emotional intelligence and reading comprehension
of the eleventh grade students of SMA Sandika Banyuasin and to know whether
there is a significant influence of students? emotional intelligence on their reading
comprehension. The subject of this research was the eleventh grade students of
SMA Sandika Banyuasin and the sample were 53 students. This research used
USMEQ-i questionnaire from Yusoff (2010) to know the student?s emotional
intelligence and TOEFL Junior reading comprehension section for students?
reading comprehension. The result of all participants? USMEQ-i showed that the
eleventh grade students of SMA Sandika Banyuasin were in average (2.60).
Meanwhile, the result of TOEFL Junior reading comprehension section showed
that the reading comprehension of students were in poor category (47.60). After
that, the result of USMEQ-i and TOEFL Junior reading comprehension section
was examined through SPSS using Pearson Product Moment formula. The result
was (r= .661, p<0.05) which means that there was a positive significant
correlation between emotional intelligence and reading comprehension. Since
there was a correlation, the researcher used Regression analysis to find out the
influence of emotional intelligence on reading comprehension and the result
showed that there was 43.7 % influence of emotional intelligence on reading
comprehension.