Students’ Opinion towards the Use of Skimming and Scanning Techniques for TOEFL in Reading Comprehension
1Asri Mawarni*; 2Muhammad Usman
1*,2English Education Department, Universitas Serambi Mekkah, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Email: asrimawarni1234@gmail.com
Abstract
The aim of this study is to know students’ opinion in using skimming and scanning techniques in reading comprehension of TOEFL test. This research was conducted based on a quantitative descriptive research design involving 30 English department students of Serambi Mekkah University from semester 7, 9, and 11. In collecting the data, the writers used a questionnaire which consists of 12 items. The findings indicated that 93.34% of students agree that both skimming and scanning techniques eased them in answering reading comprehension questions on the TOEFL test. Furthermore, 96.67% of students claimed that using skimming and scanning were effective in answering reading comprehension questions on the TOEFL test. It can be concluded that the students’ opinion towards the use of skimming and scanning is positive.
Keywords: Reading Comprehension; Skimming; Scanning; TOEFL Test
A. Introduction
Many people in Indonesia study English intensively because it is an important foreign language in the globalization era. In studying English, students have to master four language skills of the target language; they are reading, speaking, listening and writing. Among the four skills, reading is very important in language understanding. According to Patel and Jain (2008, p. 113), “reading is an important activity in life in which one can update knowledge; reading is not only a source of information and pleasurable activity but also as a means consolidating and extending one’s knowledge of the language.” One of the skills in learning English is reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is not just reading English texts but reading with the aim of getting a deep and thorough understanding. Reading comprehension is also a part of English tests such as TOEFL.
TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language, which is used to measure students' English ability without being directly linked to the teaching and learning process. In TOEFL, there are mostly three sections that are tested: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, as well as structure and written expression. One of the most challenging parts of the TOEFL test is reading comprehension section because it is the longest section time allocation. In the reading comprehension section, the test takers are required to understand or comprehend the content of the text thoroughly. According to Tarigan (2008, p. 7), “reading comprehension is the ability to read the text, process it and understand its meaning.” Consequently, using an appropriate technique is required in dealing with this part.
There is a technique that can be used for improving students' reading comprehension in TOEFL namely the skimming and scanning technique. Skimming is a technique of reading at high speed to find important things or main ideas from reading. This reading is done by reading a passage quickly and at a glance in order to get an overall and general impression. Meanwhile, scanning is a speed-reading technique to get information. Scanning is usually used to look up phone numbers and to look up words in dictionaries.
Wallace (2004) states that readers do not need to read every word in the text to be good readers. It means that the readers only focus on the information they need without reading the whole passage in order to make
Asri Mawarni, Muhammad Usman
them able to manage their time effectively. Therefore, the readers need a technique in reading to make them interested and to manage the time effectively from long sentences. According to Susanti (2013), the skimming and scanning technique is a reading technique which is presumed to help students in overcoming difficulties in reading and improve their reading comprehension. Based on the explanation above, it is obvious that skimming and scanning are very useful techniques.
The advantages of the skimming and scanning technique are that the students can understand easily the contents of each passage, the students can figure out the main idea, save time in exams, be trained to run their eyes to information quickly, and easily get specific information in answering the questions.
Some studies have been substantiated regarding the effectiveness of using skimming and scanning in reading comprehension. The first one is a study conducted by Anjarsari (2016) entitled “students’ perception on the implementation of skimming and scanning strategies in reading class”
The results of this study showed that the use of skimming and scanning techniques was positive in reading class. To the best knowledge of the writers, there is no previous study that has been conducted on understanding students’ opinions towards the use of skimming and scanning techniques in reading comprehension for TOEFL at Serambi Mekkah University. Therefore, the writers intend to investigate students’
opinion towards the use of skimming and scanning techniques in reading comprehension for TOEFL at Serambi Mekkah University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
B. The Research Design
The research design used in this study is quantitative descriptive.
The quantitative approach is used when it aims to describe or explain some events that occur at the present time in the form of numbers.
According to Sudjana (2004) “quantitative research is research that uses the number method to describe the observation of an object or variable in which the number is part of the measurement.” According to Sugiyono (2015), “quantitative method can be interpreted as research method based on positivism philosophy, used to examine in a particular population or sample, and data collection using research instrument.”
The population of this study is English Department students of Serambi Mekkah University, Banda Aceh. The sample in this study was selected purposively. According to Sugiyono (2012), “purposive sampling is a data collection technique with certain considerations.” Only students who have already taken TOEFL preparation classes or TOEFL tests were eligible to be chosen as the sample of this study. There were 30 students participated in the study with the proportion of 10 students from semester 7, 10 students from semester 9, and 10 students from semester 11.
The writers used questionnaire as the research instrument.
According to Khotari (2004), there are two types of questionnaires; they are structured and unstructured questionnaires. In this research, the writers used a structured questionnaire to collect the data. Structured questionnaires are those questionnaires in which they are definite, concrete, and predetermined questions. The questions are presented with exactly the same wording and in the same order to all respondents. The form of the question may be either closed (i.e., of the type ‘yes’ or ‘no’) or open (i.e., inviting free response) but should be stated in advance and not constructed during questioning (Khotari, 2004). Thus, the writers gave 12 questions related to students’ opinions on learning reading comprehension through skimming and scanning. The form of the question is a list of questions in which the writers prepare the answer choice by using “Yes or No”. The questionnaire consisted of four main parts; first, it covered demographic information; second, it covered general ability about the TOEFL test; third, it covered the difficulty in answering the TOEFL test;
fourth, it asked about the advantages of skimming and scanning. Besides, the writers also provided an explanation of how to fill out the questionnaire. These questions were given to know students’ opinions on reading comprehension through skimming and scanning.
In analyzing the data from the questionnaire to get the percentage, the writers used the following formula:
% In which,
P = the percentage of the number of samples F = frequency
N = the number of samples
Asri Mawarni, Muhammad Usman
C. Research Findings
Data were obtained from questionnaires from students. It is designed to have information about students’ opinions in learning reading comprehension through skimming and scanning.
Table 1. The Questionnaire Result
Questionnaires Option Frequency Percentage
1. TOEFL
I have taken the TOEFL test before
Yes No
30 0
100%
0%
2. I have taken the TOEFL test several times
Yes No
17 13
56,67%
43,34%
3. Difficulty
I have problems when answering questions
Yes No
27 3
90%
10%
4. Learning
in your opinion, using skimming and scanning techniques can help you in understanding reading comprehension
Yes No
28 2
93,34%
6,66%
5. In your opinion, using skimming and scanning can make it easier for you to answer the reading question
Yes No
28 2
93,34%
6,66%
6. In your opinion, using skimming and scanning technique and the steps of using skimming and scanning technique in reading comprehension is very comfortable in the learning process
Yes No
28 2
93,34 % 6,66%
7. in your opinion, using skimming and scanning in reading comprehension is effective
Yes No
29 1
96,67%
3,33%
8. In your opinion, using skimming in reading comprehension is more efficient
Yes No
26 4
86,67%
13,33 %
9. In your opinion, using steps of skimming and scanning can
Yes No
20 10
66,67%
33,33%
increase their interest in
learning reading
comprehension.
10. Advantages of skimming and scanning
In your opinion, using skimming and scanning techniques can save the time
Yes No
30 0
100 % 0%
11. In your opinion, using skimming and scanning can finish reading quickly
Yes No
27 3
90%
10%
12. In your opinion, skimming and scanning techniques is very
useful in reading
comprehension
Yes No
30 0
100%
0%
The results of the perception statement above can be grouped in the following figure:
Figure 1. Students’ Perception Category
Based on the diagram above, it can be seen that in TOEFL, 100% of students answered that they have taken the TOEFL test. Then, in the diagram of the difficulty, 90% of students answered that they had a
Asri Mawarni, Muhammad Usman
problem when they answered the questions and 10% of students answered that they did not have difficulty when answering the questions.
Furthermore, in the diagram of learning, 97% of students answered that in their opinion, using skimming and scanning in reading comprehension was effective and only 3% of students said that in their opinion, using skimming and scanning was not effective in reading comprehension. The last diagram of the advantages of skimming and scanning showed that 93.34% of students answered that using skimming and scanning in reading comprehension was very useful.
D. Discussion
Based on the analysis above, the results showed that 93.34% of students answered that using skimming and scanning can help them in understanding reading comprehension, using skimming and scanning can ease them to answer the questions, and using skimming and scanning in reading comprehension is very comfortable in the learning process.
Furthermore, 96.67% of students answered in their opinion, using skimming and skimming was effective.
The results of this research indicated that there are some similarities with the previous study results conducted by Anjarsari (2016), that 86% of the students perceived that skimming and scanning helped them find clue words, typographical cues, and finding unusual words to determine the main idea of the text. Moreover, 84% of students stated that scanning is a good strategy for finding specific information.
E. Conclusions
Based on the results of the data analysis and discussion, the researcher obtained the following conclusions:
1. There were 100% of participants claimed that learning reading comprehension through skimming and scanning techniques was very useful
2. Then, more participants said that using skimming and scanning in reading comprehension is very useful because it can save time and this technique is very effective.
References
Yusuf, A. M. (2014). Metode penelitian kuantitatif, kualitatif & penelitian gabungan [Research methodology for quantitative, qualitative, and mix method]. Prenadagramedia group
Khotari. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques. New Age International (p), Ltd.
Patel, M. F., & Jain, P. M. (2008). English language teaching. Sunrise Publishers & Distributors.
Susanti, M. (2013). An analysis of students’ reading comprehension achievement by using scanning and skimming techniques for introvert and extrovert students at SMPN 29 Bandar Lampung.
Unpublished Thesis, University of Lampung - Bandar Lampung.
Sujana, N., & Ibrahim. (2004). Penelitian dan penilaian pendidikan [Research and Evaluation in Education]. Sinar Baru Algesindo.
Sugiyono, (2012). Metode penelitian kuantitatif, kualitatif, dan R&B [Research methodology for quantitative, qualitative, and R&B].
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Alfabeta
Tarigan, H. G. (2008). Membaca sebagai suatu keterampilan berbahasa [Reading as a language skill]. Angkasa.
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