ABSTRACT
INCREASING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH SCANNING AND SKIMMING TECHNIQUE AT GRADE VIII OF
SMP NEGERI 8 BANDARLAMPUNG, 2009
By IIS SUGIANTI
This research is conducted at the second year of SMPN 8 Bandar Lampung. One of the objectives of teaching reading to the students is that the students are able to comprehend the content of the text given. The study investigates the use of scanning and skimming technique in increasing students reading comprehension achievement especially in identifying specific information. In the process, the students do some tasks that are given such as: finding certain information and main ideas from the texts and gathering the general description from the content of the texts.
The objective of this research is to find out whether or not; scanning and skimming technique can be used to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement significantly. The study applied one group pretest posttest design. The students were given four treatments. As the instrument, the researcher used objective reading test, that is, multiple choice test that was administered in both pretest and posttest.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
Based on the results of the data analysis, the following conclusion can be drawn:
1. In teaching reading comprehension through scanning and skimmimg
technique, the students’ reading ability in identifying the specific
information increases. It is proved by the evidence on the gain score and
computation of matched t-test. The mean score of posttest is higher than
the mean score of pretest. That is, students’ mean score of the pretest is 53.00 , while the students’ mean score for posttest is 73.67. The gain score between the mean of pretest and posttest is 20.67. T-value is 16.673 which
is higher than T-table (16.673>1.699) at the level of significance .01
(α>.01; α=.000). Hence, scanning and skimming technique can be used to help the students increase their reading comprehension in identifying the
specific information significantly.
2. The use of authentic texts in this research is proved to give positive
in daily life. It can be seen from each meeting that the students were
enthusiastic in following the teaching learning process and it can be
proved by the scores of each evaluation that their score always increase
from 30 for the lowest to 85 for the highest.
3. The students in the class seems to be more active and more lively in the
process of teaching learning by using scanning technique.
B. Suggestions
Based on the conclusions above, some suggestions are proposed as follows:
1. In teaching reading through scanning and skimming technique, the teachers
should explain the types of the texts that are going to be presented especially
monolog and functional texts suitable for Junior High School students.
2. The teachers have to select the level of difficulty and the themes of the
texts. It has to be suitable for the ability and competence of Junior High
School Students.
3. In the classroom activities, the teachers should be wise and careful. The
students should be trained in the procedures of scanning and skimming
technique well and be familiar with the texts.
4. In testing the students’ reading ability in identifying the specific
information, it will be better for the next researchers to enrich the types of
students’ assessments, not only by using the multiple choices test, but also the close tests, in order to make the test more various and really measure
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Reading involves two skills, i.e. receptive and active skills. First, receptive skill
refers to the fact that readers have to infer meaning, using their knowledge of the
world. “Receptive” means that the reader receives input from a writer. The
readers rarely have the opportunity to question the author about what he or she
really had in mind when writing a text. The readers are not actually producing
anything quite in the same way as the writers. Secondly, reading as an active skill,
which the readers interact with the text and to some extent with the writer. It
means if a reader finds a reading passage interesting, his/her mind is fully engaged
in trying to understand the reading material. In short, reading includes two
process, those are receiving messages and information from the writer and
interacting with the texts by trying to understand the text.
There are some factors that influence reading; among of them are reading
materials, reading techniques, and schemata. Reading materials refer to the written
things to be read, e.g. short articles, brochure, advertisement, and schedule.
Reading techniques refer to the way we use in reading, e.g. scanning, skimming,
previously acquired knowledge to understand the reading topic (Carrel, in
Simanjuntak, 1988:4), e.g. students’ thought when they read a title of a text. The
three techniques depend on each other and affect the process in achieving
reading.
Reading always has a purpose. It is something that we do everyday, it is an integral
part of our daily lives, taken very much for granted and generally assumed to be
something that everyone can do. The reason for reading depends very much on the
purpose for reading. Such as reading an advertisement (e.g. job vacancy), we want to
know and get the information about a job. To be able to read effectively and
efficiently, readers should have particular purpose in their mind before they interact
with the texts. For that reason, they know what they have to do with the text based on
their reading purpose.
The aim of reading in 2006 Curriculum, the students are able to understand
monologue and functional texts. Monologue text is a text that should be mastered and
known by the students of Junior High School. It can be in forms of short article,
narrative text, recount text, procedure text, descriptive text and report text while
functional text is a text used for everyday information. It is called functional because
it helps the reader function in day-to-day life, it can be in form of invitation card, TV
schedule, advertisement, a memo and a pamphlet notifying the public of grand
opening. The texts contain a lot of specific information (date, name, amount, time,
etc.). Students’ of Junior High School have to interact with types of texts while they
do not know what have to do with the texts. It is difficult for them to answer the
question from the text. It was found and observed by the researcher when she had her
This problem rises because they can not match and fit the technique with the texts.
When they want to identify the specific information in a text, they read the whole
text. Finally, they are confused to identify the information in the text.
The students (especially Junior High School) do not realize the appropriate
techniques of reading which are needed to be applied in various types of text they
interact. During reading process, they only apply the same technique for all types
of reading texts. The result is that they fully understand the main idea of their
reading text. The goals and purposes of their reading are not achieved. The Junior
High School students are still difficult to get the information in the text i.e. the
main idea or the specific information. For example, the students have to identify
the specific information in a text quickly; they always read the whole passage
words per words. It is ineffective and inefficient, since they do not know and
apply the appropriate technique for this purpose. What they have to do is fit the
technique of reading with the type of text they read. In addition, to be efficient and
effective readers, the students must realize that different texts need different
techniques.
It is stated in Yamin (2003: 24) in his previous research at SMP Muhamadiyah
Metro that the students are still confused in scanning technique process especially
for the students who had low ability in English, since the procedures in scanning
and skimming are not clearly explained in the teaching learning process. In
addition, the teachers do not use the authentic materials and only adopt the course
book. It causes the students do not realize and understand how to apply reading
Lampung says that there are still some reasons to believe that factors that caused
low comprehension are: (1) Sentence length; (2) Vocabulary; (3) Ideas and
concept of the text. A research which is used scanning technique should consider
students’ comprehension not only their reading speed.
From the problems that have been investigated by the previous studies, the
researcher tried to apply scanning and skimming technique in reading as a
technique for the Junior High School students. This technique helps student locate
information quickly. The reader must know how information is arranged in a
reading and how a text is organized as in Ghani’s study (1993: 1) that scanning is
a type of reading that involves finding a particular piece of information located in
materials that are otherwise of no interest to the reader. It is considered since
Junior High School students have monologue and functional texts as their reading
material stated in 2006 Curriculum . This research also used authentic texts as
reading materials in order to make the students familiar with the texts they will
find in their daily life. In applying the authentic texts the researcher gives and
selects some materials that are still related to 2006 Curriculum during the
treatments.
Junior High School students read various types of texts in their activities, both in
their school and in their daily life. They should be familiar with the techniques of
reading, such as scanning, skimming and mapping. When they want to identify the
specific information in a text, they should use scanning technique as their technique
in reading. The types of text that junior high school students find as their reading
include monologue/essay e.g. descriptive, recount, procedure, narrative, report texts
letters, invitation (Depdiknas, 2006). The teacher should know the reading techniques
for various types of texts appropriately in order to increase her/his students’ reading
ability.
In this case, the researcher proposed that a possible technique was considered to be
applied in various types of texts for Junior High School students’ reading. Scanning
and skimming as a technique in reading was useful to be used to identify the specific
information in various types of texts for junior high school students. Thus, the
students can apply the technique in their reading texts appropriately.
B. Formulation of the Problem
According to the background above, the writer has a question as the main problem of
the research was :
Is there significant increaseof students’ reading comprehension achievement in
identifying the specific information after being taught through scanning and
skimming technique ?
C. Objective of the Research
In relation to the problem sated previously, the writer’s objective is to find out
whether there is significant increase of students’ reading comprehension
achievement in identifying the specific information after being taught trough
D. Uses of the Research
1. Theoretically, the result of this research is expected to confirm the
previous theories of teaching reading by using scanning and skimming
technique.
2. Practically, the result gives information to the English teachers especially
in Junior High School, that Scanning and Skimming technique is needed to
increase students’ reading comprehension
F. Scope of the Research
This research is developed to increase the reading comprehension of 2nd grade
Junior High School students at SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung. The texts used
for scanning and skimming technique in this research are functional and
monologue texts because these texts are learnt by Junior High School students
based on 2006 Curriculum . Scanning and skimming technique is used for
identifying the specific information within the texts. The materials are taken from
various types of reading materials and sources e.g. English magazines, newspaper,
students’ textbooks in form of advertisement and schedule (functional texts), and
short articles (monologue/essay texts), and the test is given in form of multiple
