Introduction
Getting success in modern era is not
easy. We should have many kinds of skill for maintaining our live. One of the
skills that we should have for getting success in modern era is about English
proficiency because, English is the international language that is needed in
academic environment, work environment and social environment both national and
international. Something that is used for measuring the English proficiency is
TOEFL. TOEFL (Test of English as a
Foreign Language) is a kind of English test that use international standard
which created and developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service) in New Jersey.
At this time the students who want to continue their study in the university,
get a scholarship or the people who want get a job should have a TOEFL
certificate as one of the requirements for knowing their English proficiency
and determining whether they are acceptable or not.
Most
of the participants imagine that TOEFL is difficult because it use
international standard which not everyone master it. Sometimes before the sparticipants do the
test, they feel afraid first because
they should answer many questions with relatively little time and they always
imagine that the questions will be difficult for many sections such as
listening comprehension section, structure and writen expression, and reading
comprehension section. Most of them imagine that the most difficult sections in
TOEFL is reading comprehension section because they will meed long passages
with difficult vocabularies in there so, they cann’t understand what the passages mean
and they also cann’t answer the questions correctly.
Many kinds of problem in TOEFL may affect the
participants for achieving the maximum
score, while everyone also wants to get the best score for the TOEFL. Every
participant should master many kinds of skill for understanding what the
passages mean and answering the questions correctly in order to get the best
score. In general, total score of 600 or above on TOEFL show that someone has a
good ability for oral and writen English in every context and score below 400
show that someone doesn't have the ability to use english in every context.
Actually each institution that uses TOEFL score has each standard for
determining someone is accepted or not. These standard score is different from
institution to another institution depending on the aspect that they need and
the level of study so, the acceptability of the score depends on the
requirements of the institution which someone choose.
This paper tries to share ideas
about many kinds of skill that the participants should have when they do TOEFL
test especially for reading comprehension section in order to understand what
the passages mean, answer the questions correctly as effectively as possible
time, and get the best score so, they are acceptable in the university for
studying or in the other institution for working.
A.
TOEFL
TOEFL stands for the Test of English as
a Foreign Language, which is created and developed by ETS (Educational Testing
Service) in New Jersey and used to
measure English language proficiency(Educational Testing Service Rosedale Road
Princeson, 2002). TOEFL is held by several countries that use English as a
native language or several countries that use English as a second language to
measure the English proficiency of someone. TOEFL use international standard that must be
mastered by all participants who will do the
TOEFL test. There are three sections that the participants should follow
when they do TOEFL test such as listening comprehension section, structure and
writen expression, and reading comprehension section.
TOEFL is very important because, now the
students who want to continue their study in the university, get a scholarship,
or the people who want get a job should have a TOEFL certificate as one of the
requirements for knowing their English proficiency and determining whether they
are acceptable or not in the institution.
B.
Reading
Comprehension Section
Andrew and Thomas (2006: 1) define
reading comprehension section is a section that designed to measure someone’s
ability to read and understand short passages in English that followed by each
question. The reading comprehension section contains passages with a variety of
subjects. The passages are formal, objective, and neutral. There are 80 to 70
questions in reading comprehension section, and the participants have time for
60 to 100 minutes to read the passages and answer the questions..
According to Thomas & Andrew(2006: 2)
there are two basic kinds of reading comprehension, first when the reader are
able to use the author’s words to answer a comprehension question, second
sometimes, the information is not directly stated in these passage. It is easy
when we can answer a question by using the author’s words in the passage, but
how if the information is not directly stated in these passage?. We should infer a meaning using our own
reason and logic to answer the question.
C.
Kinds
of passage in TOEFL
We will feel that it is easy when we
follow the reading comprehension section if we know some good skills to
understand what the passages mean and
answer the questions as effectively as possible time. Before we know what are
the skills that should we have for following reading comprehension section in
TOEFL, first we should have a good understanding in many kinds of passage.
According to the TOEFL Secret team in ETS(2002: 26-36) the participants of
TOEFL test should have a good understanding
in many kinds of passage such as advertisements, contemporary reading passages,
history texts, and scientific reading materials.
1.
Advertisements
Understanding advertisements is
important because the questions about advertisements also available in TOEFL
test. An easy way for us for understanding the content of the advertisements,
we should usually reading the real
advertisements in a newspaper, magazine or bulletin board.
2.
Contemporary
Reading Passages
Understanding contemporary reading
passages is important because in TOEFL test also available the passages about
contemporary issues. An easy way for us for understanding contemporary reading
passages is often read newspaper or magazine everyday in order to know changes
and developments in almost every area.
3.
History
Texts
Reading
history textbooks is very important because in TOEFL test also available
the passages about cause and effects relation, chronological sequence, and
comparison/contrast. You should find many literature that contain of cause and
effects relation, chronological sequence, and comparison/contrast of something
happened.
4.
Scientific
Reading Materials
Interpreting scientific reading
materials is also important to establish relationships between details and
facts of the passages. You should find many books that contain of scientific
reading materials in order to establish relationships between details and facts
of the passages and understand what the passages mean.
D.
Skills
for Mastering Reading Comprehension Section
After we have a good understanding in
many kinds of passage in TOEFL, we should know the skills for mastering those
passages. The skills that the participants should have when they follow the
reading comprehension section are determining the author’s purpose by finding
main ideas and supporting details, getting meaning from context, building
vocabularies through knowledge of common word elements and recognition of
synonyms, skimming for specific information, making inferences or conclution of
the passages, and knowing how to think related(the TOEFL secret team,2002:
26-36). We should develop those skills by trying and applying them in every
passage that we read everyday before we follow the TOEFL test, and when we follow the test we should use
those skills.
1.
Finding
main ideas and supporting details
The most valuable in reading comprehension
skills is the ability to determine the most important thing an author had said .
We can do by finding main idea for determining the author’s purpose write a
passage. After determine the main idea we should determine the key points that
support these main idea. Determine the key points that support the main idea of
a passage is called by determining supporting details.
2.
Getting
meaning from context
When we find difficult vocabularies in a
passage, we should not be confused because we can anticipate these difficulties
by reading a sentence that contain the difficult vocabulary. From all the
vocabularies that contained in these sentence certainly there are some
vocabularies that we know its meaning. By understanding some of the
vocabularies in a sentence, we can guess what the meaning of the sentence
without translate the difficult vocabularies.
3.
Building
vocabularies through knowledge of common word elements and recognition of
synonyms
Translating what a passage mean also can
we do by building vocabularies through knowledge of common word elements and
recognition of synonyms. It means that for getting success in translating what the
passage means, we should memorize many vocabularies and their synonyms. By applying these skill, we can minimize our
difficulties in translating a passages means.
4.
Skimming
Getting information in a passage quickly
can do by skimming. Skimming is a technique that is used to quickly identify
the main ideas of a text. Skimming is done at a speed three to four times
faster than normal reading(the TOEFL secrets team,2002: 26-36). .It is not
always necessary to read every word of a passage. Skimming through passage
involves reading very fast in order to recognize main ideas and supporting
details. Although skimming should never replace careful reading, it can save
our time in deciding what or what not to read for getting the general content
of a passage, and for finding the author’s main point without have to deal with
details We can practice our skimming
skill by reading a newspaper or magazine everyday.
5.
Making
Conclution by Using Own Word
When the information is not directly
stated in the passage, you should conclude the meaning using your own word that
reasonable and logic to answer the question. The type of understanding the
passage means by inferring a meaning using our own word is called by
inferential comprehension.
6.
Thinks
Related
After we know many kinds of skills in
reading comprehension such as determining the author’s purpose by finding main
ideas and supporting details, getting meaning from context, building
vocabularies through knowledge of common word elements and recognition of
synonyms, skimming for specific information, making inferences or conclution of
the passages, we should think relations within sentence, paragraphs and longer
passages. Thinks related is important to be able to recognize and understand
signal word or connectives, which introduces, connect, order, and relate
individual ideas to longer and often more general concepts.
In
conclution, developing reading comprehension skills to follow TOEFL test is
very important for every participant in order to master the passages, know what
the passages mean, and answer te questions correctly as effectively as possible
time, so they can get the best score in their test and they are accepted at the
institution they want.
References :
Cohen,
Andrew D & Upton, Thomas A. 2006. Strategies
in Responding to the New TOEFL Reading Tasks. New Jersey: ETS.
The
TOEFL secrets team. 2005. TOEFL Secrets.
New Jersey: MD Media.
