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Vol. (6), No. (1); 2020

ISSN : 2355-2069 (Print)
ISSN : 2656-5765 (Online)
Published by IAIN Bengkulu

THE EFFECT OF SKIMMING METHOD TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’

ABILITY IN READING COMPREHENSION ON NARRATIVE TEXT

BOBBY PRAMJIT SINGH DHILLON1, HERMAN2, SYAFRYADIN3

Universitas HKBP Nommensen1
Universitas HKBP Nommensen2
Universitas Bengkulu3
bobbydhillon2002@yahoo.com1, herman@uhn.ac.id2, syafryadin@unib.ac.id3

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.29300/ling.v6i1.2991

Received: April 2020 Accepted: May 2020 Published: July 2020

Abstract
This research aims to know the effect of using skimming method in teaching reading comprehension AT SMK
Negeri 2 Pematangsiantar on narrative text. The problem of this research are (1) what is the students’ ability in
reading without using skimming method at Grade XI students’ of SMK N.2 Pematangsiantar. (2) what is the
students’ ability in reading by using skimming method at Grade XI students’ of SMK N.2”. The purposes of this
research are to find out the students’ ability in reading without using skimming method at grade XI students in
SMK N 2 Pematangsiantar on reading narrative text and to find out the students’ ability in reading by using
skimming method to the skill of grade XI students in SMK N 2 Pematangsiantar on reading narrative text. To
answer the problems, the researchers used theories: Micklukey and Jefferies (2007), Grellet (2000), Milter
(2001), Jhon and Dara (2005), David Nunan (1991), Douglas Newton (2000), Douglas Brown (2003), Rae Pica
(2000), Roger Brown (1973), Ronald Carter (1998), Scoot Thornburry (2002), Wilga Rivers (1987), Diane
Larsen (1990), Judi Willis (2008), Jack and Theodore (1986). This study employed a quantitative research. As
an experimental research, it aims to know the effect of the technique that given and apply whether it influences
to the object or no. In this research in collecting the data the researcher has to do three steps, they are pre-test,
treatment, post-test. The researchers find out that the effect of using skimming method can increase the students’
skill in reading of narrative text. It can be proven from the test of students’ score in post-test of experimental
class which the treatment the researchers did the treatment by using skimming method. By using skimming
method, the students can increase their ability in reading of narrative text.

Keywords: Effect, narrative, reading comprehension, skimming

INTRODUCTION
Hutajulu and Herman (2019:29) stated that language is as the tool of communication
that has the essential part in making communication. Hence, language is primarily human and
non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system
of voluntarily produced symbols (Sapir, 1921:17 as cited in Herman, 2014:1). From the
definition, it is important to note that language is a means of communication purely owned by
human. Language is an important part of how humans communicate with each other. It is no
small thing! Through language, we learn how to “mean things” and how to share all of those
meanings with others. The story of how those meanings are created and shared is truly the story
of the human family. It is our distinctly human endowment.
How to cite this article: Dhillon, B., Herman, H., & Syafryadin, S. (2020). The Effect of Skimming Method to
Improve Students’ Ability in Reading Comprehension on Narrative Text.. Linguists : Journal Of Linguistics and
Language Teaching, 6(1), 77-88. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.29300/ling.v6i1.2991
77
 Bobby Pramjit Singh Dhillon, Herman, & Syafryadin
Communicating in English is one skill that the students have to master. They must know
the rules of English grammar in order to avoid making errors or mistakes. They have to master
the structure of English, so that they will be able to put their ideas, feeling, or desires into the
grammar of English to make them meaningful.
English has been used by many people from different countries. Most of non-active
speakers use English to establish relationship with other people coming from countries. In
Indonesia, English has a very important role in technological and scientific and advance;
instrument such as computer and interact use also used as a means of communication within
international tread and business. Consequently, people who want to have access to them should
master English well. In English there are four skills that should be mastered, they are listening,
speaking, reading, and writing.
Among those four skills, reading becomes very important in the education field, where
students need to be exercised and trained in order to have a good reading skill. Reading is also
central to a student’s experiences at school and in everyday life. Thus, teaching students to read
is a major taskfor reading teachers today. Since students arrive at schools at different reading
developmental stages, reading teachers, therefore, are faced with helping less capable readers
improve their reading skills by providing the best reading instruction possible. Reading is a
constantly developing skill. Like any skill, we get better at reading by practicing. Meng
(2010:501) as cited in Herman, Sibarani and Pardede (2020:86) stated that English reading has
always been regarded as one of the main aims in English teaching in colleges and universities,
because it can objectively reflect the students’abilities to acquire the language.
Conversely, if we do not practice, we will not get better and our skills may deteriorate.
Reading integrates visual and nonvisual information. During the act of reading, the visual
information found on the page combines with the nonvisual information contained in your head
to create meaning. In thatway, what’s in your head is just as important as what’s on the page
in the process of creating meaning (reading). Regrettably, the students’ reading comprehension
is still far from being satisfactory.
It can be seen from the result of National Examination in which the test is mainly in the
forms of reading texts. However, many students fail to achieve the minimum score of English
subject expected. The fact also shows that the students’ problem in comprehending texts is
their limited number of vocabulary. If students encounter some new words, they will ask the
meaning to other students around them straightforwardly or they will look up their dictionary
to get the meaning immediately. These conditions occur because the method utilized by the
teacher stresses more on product than process.

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 Teachers usually do not pay attention the learning process but the result of the learning.
Teachers are more concerned with the score students obtain rather than the process of making
students understand. Besides, teachers usually utilize conventional method, like Grammar
Translation Method, to teach reading. Sometimes, students read silently or loudly a reading
text, and after that the teacher translates the text for students. In other times, the teacher reads
the text, and afterwards, one or two students read the text again prior to answering the questions
provided.
To enrich their classroom procedures, teachers have to read a lot of related theories to
be employed in their classroom. However, in teaching learning process, it is often found that
teachers encounter gaps between theory and practice. Therefore, teachers are encouraged to
develop their own personal theories of education from their own class practice. Reading is also
something crucial and indispensable for the students, because the success of their study
depends on the greater part of their ability to read. If their reading skill is poor they are very
likely to fail in their study or at least they will have difficulty in making progress.
On the other hand, if they study good ability in reading, they will have a better chance
to succeed in their study. In reading, you improve your skill of reading first before you develop
skill for answering questions. Do not be put off by the fact that we are not starting with normal
comprehension questions. Do not neglect the skill of reading for meaning. After all, if you
comprehended everything perfectly (as these skills help you to do), you stand a chance of
scoring full marks later.
In contrast, no matter how exam-smart you become at answering question, you will
never get full marks if you do not understand what you are reading. Reading comprehension is
a cognitive or behavioral action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions, with the
goal of improving some aspect of comprehension. Reading comprehension refers to the ability
to go beyond the words, to understand the ideas and the relationships between ideas conveyed
in a text. The focus of this book is on the cognitive processes involved in comprehension, and
moreover, on techniques that help readers improve their abilityto comprehend text. To know
what you are reading about, we need a certain method.
You are tackling comprehension exercise; you do not have many of the guides that a
newspaper or magazine provides – photographs, captions titles or even sub-headings. It
becomes even more important; therefore, have to a method for finding meaning. The first step
in this method is skimming. Skimming means that you glance through the text quickly to
discover what the text is about in a text length of an ‘O’ level comprehension passage, the
reader should be able to achieve this within two minute. A simple way of doing this, the one
recommended in this series, is to read the first sentences or first lines of all paragraphs to find
the meaning.
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 Bobby Pramjit Singh Dhillon, Herman, & Syafryadin
Narrative is description of events especially in a novel, fables or legend, etc, or a process
of skill of feeling a story. Thus narrative tells about the event which happened in the past time.
In generally the tense that is often used in narrative is past tense form. We can see it from the
definition about past tense is a tense used to describe actions or events which took place in the
past. Based on the explanation above, the researchers are interested to conduct a research
entitled The effect of skimming method to improve students’ ability in reading comprehension
on narrative text.

METHOD
Research Design
The design for this research is the quasi-experimental design. Quasi experimental
design uses experimental and control groups, but no random assignment of subjects. This
research method is used to describe variables, to examine relationships among variables
and to determine cause-and-effect interactions between variables (Burns & Grove,
2005:23). This study intended to find out the effect of skimming teaching technique to the
reading comprehension of grade XI of SMK Negeri 2 Pematangsiantar. The researchers used
quantitative research. Quantitative research deals with research methodology which focuses on
the result. In conducting the experimental research, the sample was divided two groups, namely
the experimental group (using skimming teaching technique to the reading comprehension in
a narrative text ) and control group (without using skimming teaching technique in a narrative
text).
Since there are several categories in quasi-experimental design, pre-test and post-test
group design is used in this research. The pre-test and post-test are administered to both groups
with the following formula :
Table 1. Quasi Experimental Study
Sample Pre-test Treatment Post-test
Experimental group 𝑋𝐼𝑇𝐾𝐵𝐵1 T1, T2, T3, T4 𝑋𝐼𝑇𝐾𝐵𝐵1
Control group 𝑋𝐼𝑇𝑃2 T1, T2, T3, T4 𝑋𝐼𝑇𝑃2

Where:
𝑋𝐼𝑇𝐾𝐵𝐵1 : Students’ reading skill of experimental group in pre-test
2
𝑋𝐼𝑇𝐾𝑃 : Students’ reading skill of control group in pre-test
1
𝑋𝐼𝑇𝐾𝐵𝐵 : Students’ reading skill of experimental group in post-test
𝑋𝐼𝑇𝑃 2 : Students’ reading skill of control group in post-test
T : Treatment using Skimming teaching technique

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The Population and Sample
Population
According to Arikunto (2013:173), population is defined as all members of any well-
defined class of people, events, or objects. Population is also the group of the people that you
want to find out about by doing your research.
In this research, the researchers will take grade XI students of SMKN 2 P.Siantar. There
are three classes of Grade XI with the total number of 100 students. The table as follows:
GRADE TOTAL
XI TKBB 1 20
XI TP 2 20
Sample
Arikunto (2013:174) stated that the sample is any number of things, people, or events
which are less than the total of population. Sample is a part of population that will be
investigated. The researchers take the sample freely, also based on the students’ number in a
class.
Sample is represent of population which is researched, Arikunto (2013:148). The
researchers take a sample based on the number of students at grade XI. The three classes with
100 students are selected randomly. The researchers use the random sampling with the
traditional technique in choosing the sample. One class is grade XI TKBB 1 with 20 students
is chosen to be the experimental group and the other one class is grade XI TP 2 as the control
group.

The Instrument of the Research

Arikunto (2013:192) states that instrument is a tool when the researcher using a method.
There are several kinds of instruments. By considering and situation, the researchers use the
enclosed questionnaire of multiple choice questionnaires because it can be shared
simultaneously and can be answered by the respondents according to their speed. In applying
the skimming method, the researchers sequence the class activity based on the procedures are
as follows :
1. The researchers make sure whether the students have really understood the procedure or not.
2. The students prepare themselves to begin their test.
3. The researchers give the instruction once and explains how to do the tests.

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 Bobby Pramjit Singh Dhillon, Herman, & Syafryadin
The Technique of Data Collection
A. Pre Test
Before the treatment (teaching presentation), pretest is given to both experimental and
control group. Arikunto (2013:293) states “”Using pretest may increase or decrease the
experimental subjects’ sensitivity or responsiveness to the experimental variable and thus make
the results obtained for this pretested population unrepresentative of effects of the experimental
variable on the un-pretested population from which the experimental subjects are selected”. It
aimed to find out the homogeneity of the sample about descriptive writing which will be
showed by the calculation of the mean score both of group.

B. Treatment
The experimental group and control group were taught by using the same materials but
in different instruments. The experimental group is taught with using skimming technique.
Meanwhile, the control group is taught without using skimming technique. This is applied in
the treatment only because it was be expected to procedure different of the test at post test, to
find out the effect skimming technique to the reading comprehension in a narrative text.
a. Treatments in Experimental Group
Teacher Students
The teacher will give greeting Answer the teacher
The teacher will give brainstorming to the students Response the teacher
The teacher will give commands to the students The students response the commands physically
The teacher ask the students to read the narrative The students read the narrative text
text
The teacher explain about skimming The students will give attention to the teacher
The teacher will give the example of narrative text The students give the attention to the teacher
The teacher read the narrative text Look at the teacher
Ask the students to read the narrative text using Practice it
skimming method
The teacher ask the students to find out the main Students do the command
idea after reading the narrative text
As the evaluation teacher will ask them to answer Students answer the questions
the multiple choice after reading the narrative text
one time
The teacher will evaluate the students’ work

b. Treatments in Control Group

Teacher Students
The teacher will give brainstorming about the topic Students answer the question
that will be learnt, it narrative text
The teacher will explain about skimming Students listen to the teacher explanation
The teacher will ask the students to read the text Students will read the text
using skimming method that are related to the
narrative text
The teacher will evaluate the students’ work

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 The test is taken from the text given by the researcher. It is multiple choices that consist
of 20 items and each item consists of four options. This test is prepared in order to know the
effect of using skimming teaching technique to the reading comprehension in a narrative text.

C. Post Test
The post-test is given after the treatment has been completed. Having treatment, the
entire subject is given a post test as the pre test before. The post test is used to know the effect
of skimming teaching technique in experimental group.

The technique of Data Analysis

Data analysis is the last step in the procedure of research. In analyzing the data from
the pre-test and post test, the researcher used the statistical calculation of T-test (Paired sample)
in order to calculate the pre and post test results. The steps for data analysis technique:
1. After the researchers get all the students’ score from the pre test and post test in
experimental group and control, the researchers calculate the total score of pre test and post
test from each group the researchers calculate means of pre test and post test from each
group.
∑𝑥
The formula (mean) : X = 𝑁

The researchers find the highest and lowest score from each group. And the researchers
makes the conclusion.
2. The researchers analyze the level of ability of the students in experimental group and
control group by calculating the raw score of students in experimental group and control
group.
Analyzing the result by using statistic calculation of t-test :
𝑀𝑥−𝑀𝑦
𝑡= (Arikunto 2013:354)
∑ 𝑥2 +∑ 𝑦2 1 1
√(𝑁 +𝑁 −2)(𝑁 +𝑁 )
𝑥 𝑦 𝑥 𝑦

Where:
Mx: Mean of experimental group
My : Mean of control group
∑ 𝑥2 : Sum of square deviation of experiment class
∑ 𝑦2 : Sum of square deviation of control class
Nx : Number of students in experimental group
Ny : Number of students in control group

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 Bobby Pramjit Singh Dhillon, Herman, & Syafryadin
3. The researchers calculate the means of experimental group (Mx) and control group
(My). The researchers also calculate the standard deviation of experimental group (dx)
and the standard deviation of control group (dy).
4. Testing the T-test formula. The T-test formula is used to find out T-count.
The form :
𝑀𝑥−𝑀𝑦
t=
𝑑𝑥2 +𝑑𝑦2 1 1
√[[ ]][ + ]
|𝑁𝑥+𝑁𝑦|− 2 𝑁𝑥 𝑁𝑦

Where :
Mx : Mean of experimental group
My : Mean of control group
dx : The standard deviation of experimental group
dy : The standard deviation of control group
Nx : Total sample of experimental group
Ny : Total sample of control group
5. The last is testing hypothesis. To test the hypothesis, the data are adapted to the T-test
formula chosen. It is done to know whether the hypothesis is accepted or rejected. If
the t-count is found to be smaller than the table, it means that the null hypothesis is
accepted and the alternative one is rejected. Vice versa, if the t-count is found to be
higher than the t-table, it means that the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative
one is accepted. It can be said that 𝐻𝑜 has been rejected than 𝐻𝑎 has been successfully
accepted.
So, the effect of skimming teaching technique to the reading comprehension in a
narrative text is really accepted in this research.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After the researchers have done a research and has collected the data and then the
researcher calculated the data, the researcher got some findings from the result of data
calculation. Some findings can formulate as follow:
1. The effect of skimming method can increase the students’ ability in reading narrative
text to the ability of grade XI students of SMK N 2 Pematangsiantar. It can be looked
from the grouping of students’ scores in post test of experimental class which the
treatment the researchers did the treatment by using skimming method because it makes
the students able to answer the multiple choice from the example of a narrative text. By
using skimming method, the students can increase their ability in analyzing a story or
legend.

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 2. The effect of without skimming method is not interesting, and can not increase the
students’ ability in reading narrative text to the ability of grade XI students of SMK N
2 Pematangsiantar. In can be looked from the students’ scores in post test of control
class. The students got the low scores because they can’t answer the multiple choice .
3. The effect of skimming method to the reading comprehension is more significant than
the effect of without skiming method to the ability of grade XI students of SMK N 2
Pematangsiantar. It can be proved from the t observed value was 0,25 and the value of
t table was 2.00 at alpha 0. 05 and df 38 (n+n-2=20+20-2). “The value of t-test was
higher than the value of t-table (t-test> t-table”. Therefore, the Alternate Hypothesis
(Ha) was accepted and the Null Hypothesis (Ho) was rejected.

DISCUSSIONS
Based on the results calculation of the findings above, the result of t-test was 3,8, and
was higher than t-table (2.00). In the hypothesis testing, it was shown that the Alternate
Hypothesis was accepted ( > 2.00). It means that there is a significant effect of using skimming
method in reading narrative text to the students. It was proved from the data showing that the
score of experimental class (using skimming method) was higher than the score of control class
(without using skimming method).
Based on the explanation above, the researchers found that using skimming method is
interesting technique to be applied in classroom by the teachers and the students than without
skimming method because :
1. Teacher is not the sole provider of knowledge. Skimming every student is an expert and
every student can be a teacher for teaching each other according to what they have learned.
It means that teacher role is as counselor. Not only one provider but the teacher is helped
by the expert.
2. Efficient ways to learn, skimming is one of effective teaching method in teaching reading.
Here the students do not need read a long text, even the story is composed by long text
because in skimming every student has own piece text, so it will make the student faster
in reading.
3. Students take ownership in the work and achievement it means the students are claimed to
be responsible of their own task and they should be able to be responsible to what they
have read to the other to organize be complete task.
4. Learning revolves around interaction with peers, it means every student will be done
exchange knowledge each other. So in the end of the learning process the student will get
the complete information even they only read their own part should be responsible to do
their task.
Linguists: Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Vol. 6, No. 1, July 2020
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 Bobby Pramjit Singh Dhillon, Herman, & Syafryadin
5. Built interpersonal and active skills, skimming is a cooperating teaching method where the
students work in a group, so it will bring the student to make a relation, cooperate, and
share each other for finishing their task.
6. Without skimming method, student faced the difficulties to find the main idea from the
narrative text, and they can’t to answer the multiple choice correctly because they must
reading the narrative text again to find the right answer.
7. The students’ score of reading taught by using skimming method is better. It means that
the use of skimming method in teaching reading is quite effective. Another reason based
on the students response is because most students find that skimming method is enjoyable.
8. The problem that they faced mostly is lack of confidence and lack of vocabulary. In the
early stages of skimming method the students were uncomfortable and certain. This led to
initial lapses of silence. But soon they began helping one another to decide what to do.
Towards the end, their shyness left them and they began prompting each with ideas.

CONCLUSION
After collecting and analyzing the data presented in the previous chapter, that
conclusion earn in taking at the time of student read with the correctness and ability, because
the ideas and concepts of the reading models as to be applied. It was gaining the theory of the
reading models as the basis to design the skimming method, so the researchers got some
conclusions as follow:
1. The effect of using skimming method can increase the students’ ability in reading
narrative text to the ability of grade XI students of SMK N 2 Pematangsiantar. It can be
looked from the students’ scores in post-test of experimental class which the treatment
the researchers did the treatment by using skimming method because it makes the
students able to read text from the example of a narrative text even it is the main idea.
By using skimming method, the students can increase their ability in analyzing a
narrative text focused on lexico grammatical features, material processes, temporal
conjunctions, and tenses.
2. The effect of without using skimming method is not interesting, and can not increase
the students’ ability in reading narrative text. In can be looked from the students’ scores
in post test of control class. The students got the low scores because they can’t to find
the main idea from the narrative text.
3. The effect of using skimming method is more significant than the effect of without
using skimming method in teaching reading comprehension of grade XI students of
SMK N 2 Pematangsiantar on narrative text. It can be proved from the t observed value

86
 was 3,8 and the value of t table was 2.00 at alpha 0. 05 and df 38 (n+n-2=20+20-2).
“The value of t-test was higher than the value of t-table (t-test> t-table”. Therefore, the
Alternate Hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and the Null Hypothesis (Ho) was rejected.
4. The development of the student reading comprehension individually is also significant
improve so skimming method is very suitable to increase and punctuality students in
reading ability.
5. The mean of experimental class is 57,75 and the mean of control class is 53. The validity
of experimental class is 1,72 and the validity of control class is 0,79, and the reliability
of experiment class is 0,80 and reliability of control class is 0,88.

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