Reading is one of the basic skills that everyone must learn.

It
is a lifelong skill that is used in daily activities in the
school and throughout life. According to Anderson, Hiebert,
Scott, & Wilkinson (1985), it is a cornerstone for a child's
success in school and, indeed, throughout life. Without the
ability to read well, opportunities for personal fulfillment and
job success inevitably will be lost. Also, through reading, one
can teach writing, speaking, grammar and other language aspects.
The basic goals of reading are to enable students to gain an
understanding of the world themselves, to develop appreciation
and interests, and to find solutions to their personal and group
problems (Al-Mansour & Al-Shorman, 2011). Though reading is a
very essential skill to be learned, it is also considered a very
challenging in the education system. There are students who can
hardly comprehend reading texts because they lack the necessary
skills in understanding the materials. Nabeel (1994) claims that
most EFL students, especially school students, often unable to
comprehend a written text effectively. He also reveals that in
some English classes, the announcement of a reading assignment
elicits moans and groans from students as they envision the long
time it will require, the laborious task of looking up words’
meanings in the dictionary. Another reason why students do not
understand the reading texts include their hate in reading. They
only read the required textbook in order to be able to set for
the achievement routine exams. Students also lack motivation to
read, even if they read, they show negative attitudes. For most
of the learners, reading is an extremely difficult task that
requires integrated body of skills, which also does not get
easier with the passage of time and the accumulation of
experience. Other reasons for not comprehending well include:
confusion about the meaning of words and sentences; inability to
connect ideas in the passage; omission of, or glossing over,

Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning

detail; difficulty in distinguishing significant information
from minor details; and lack of concentration during reading.
Reading comprehension is included in most of the examinations
such as National Achievement Test, National Career Assessment
Examination, College Admission Test and some board examinations
where students are asked to find certain information within it.
The students are asked to comprehend the texts fast and
correctly to get certain information that is asked by question,
in this situation, the students who had a good reading skill
will be able to answer all questions easily. On the other hand,
students without good reading skill will get serious problem, in
this case, it is impossible for the students to read the whole
text in order to get the answer in limited time. They need
appropriate technique to find out certain information in the
texts in short time. Like other examinations, Law School
Admission Test (LSAT) of Kaplan has a reading comprehension type
of examination. LSAT test-takers’ initial comfort with reading
comprehension often leads them to ignore this section to the
detriment of their overall LSAT score. Staff from Kaplan said
that reading comprehension is the section in which many test
takers have the hardest time improving their performance. Hence,
it is observed that one factor why examinees have low scores or
they fail is the reading comprehension part in the examination.
In the study of Suprapto (2011), the students of the year 8
especially 8G from Jember University in Indonesia had difficulty
in comprehending text and they were passive in joining the
English reading class. It was identified that 8G had low score
in their English test which mainly covered by reading. The
result showed that their average score was 65. It was still
under the school standard score requirement, 70. Further, in the
Colombian context, students had difficulties when taking English
tests due to students not understanding what they have read and

Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning

understanding what one reads is vital in order to pass an
English test (Diaz & Laguado, 2013). According to Ríos &
Valcárcel (2005), in Colombia, students in public high schools
tend to have low levels of English, which makes reading
comprehension challenging. Also, many students at the State
Senior High School (Sekolah Menengah Atas:SMAN) had difficulties
in reading comprehension. They had problems in comprehending the
text and getting the main idea of the text.

To address this setback in reading, one must improve his/her

basic reading skill. Skimming and scanning are basic skills in
doing comprehension. Skimming is one of the tools you can use to
read more in less time. Skimming refers to looking only for the
general or main ideas, and works best with non-fiction (or
factual) material. According to Brown (2003), skimming is the
process of rapid coverage reading matter to determine its gist
or main idea. With skimming, your overall understanding is
reduced because you do not read everything. You read only what
is important to your purpose. Moreover, Kustaryo (1988) states
that skimming is a technique used to look for the “gist” of what
the author is saying without a lot of detail. It is a prediction
strategy used to give a reader a sense of the topic and purpose
of a text, the organization of the text, the perspective or
point of view of the writer, and its usefulness to the reader.
Unlike skimming, when scanning, you look only for a specific
fact or piece of information without reading everything. For
scanning to be successful, you need to understand how your
material is structured as well as comprehend what you read so
you can locate the specific information you need. Scanning also
allows you to find details and other information in a hurry.

It is important to improve these two skills in understanding the

reading materials. Improving your reading skills will reduce

Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning

unnecessary reading time and enable you to read in a more
focused and selective manner. You will also be able to increase
your levels of understanding and concentration.

In the study of Hutabarat and Arifin, it was found out that the
scores of the students who were taught by applying skimming
technique is higher than those who were taught without applying
skimming technique. The students who were taught by applying
skimming technique had better reading comprehension scores and
helped the students to get the main idea easily. It means that
there was an improvement on the students’ reading comprehension
by applying skimming technique. This was also observed by
Kartika (2012) during the conduct of his study to the Second
Grade Students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Bandung. One of the
objectives of his study was to know the effectiveness of using
skimming technique to improve students’ reading ability. He
concluded The skimming technique was effective to improve
students reading ability. It showed that the average of time
students’ speed reading in pretest was 26.83 minutes and in
posttest was 23.45 minutes. It meant that the speed of reading
was increased about two up to three minutes after used skimming
technique. Moreover, Suprapto (2011) conducted a study to
improve the students’ reading comprehension achievement by using
skimming and scanning techniques at the year 8G of SMP Negeri 01
Ambulu Jember. The procedures of the teaching and learning
process in the conduct of the study were as follows: at the
first time, the students did the pre-reading. In this activity,
the researchers gave them some leading questions, and then
introduced the technique of skimming and scanning technique
including the definition, the function, what kinds of text will
work on, and how the students skim and scan the text. The next
step was while reading. In this activity, the researchers asked

Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning

the students to focus on the questions first to get the key word
of the questions. Then, the students decided what techniques
that would be suitable for those questions, and finally they
skim or scan the text to find the right answers. After answering
all the questions, the English teacher and the researcher
discussed the correct answer with the students together. At this
stage, the teacher monitors the students’ active participation
during the teaching and learning process. At last, the students
had post reading. In this step, post reading activity was
intended to give follow-up activities. The activities included
giving further questions, drew the conclusion and evaluated the
students’ progress. Suprapto (2011) proved that the use of
skimming and scanning technique in teaching reading
comprehension can improve both students’ active participation in
joining the reading comprehension class and students’ reading
comprehension achievement. Further, a research was conducted by
Permadi (2008) from UPI Bandung which was aimed to find out the
effectiveness of skimming and scanning techniques in
comprehending the text. This study used a quasi-experimental
method which was conducted in SMA Laboratorium percontohan UPI
for a month. Pre test, treatment and post test served as a
research design in this study. The result shows that the use of
skimming and scanning techniques is effective in improving
students reading ability and enhances students and teacher
knowledge related to reading techniques and developing students
and teacher creativity in the teaching learning process of
reading. Another research by Sugiati (2009) from Lampung
University found that there is significant increase on students
reading comprehension after being taught through scanning and
skimming techniques. This research was conducted at the second
year students. The study investigated the use of scanning and
skimming techniques in increasing students’ reading

Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning

comprehension achievement especially in identifying specific
information such as finding certain information main ideas from
the texts and gathering the general description from the content
of the texts. The other research was made by Rosmiati (2010)
from UPI Bandung. She investigated the effectiveness of scanning
in teaching reading. The study took two group, control and
experimental group and T-test design was used. The study shows
that scanning technique is considered effective in improving
students’ reading comprehension.

With all the researchers stated above, it is very useful to use

skimming and scanning techniques to improve the reading skill of
the learners. There are many strategies that can be used when
skimming. Some people read the first paragraph using headings,
summaries and other organizers as they move down the page of the
material. You might also read the title, subtitles, subheading
and illustrations. On the other hand, when scanning, look for
the author's use of organizers such as numbers, letters, steps,
or the words, first, second, or next. Look for words that are
bold faced, italics, or in a different font size, style, or
color. Sometimes the author will put key ideas in the margin.
These skills, if once attained, can improve the comprehension
skill of the students because skimming can help the students to
comprehend the general information quickly and scanning can help
them to comprehend specific information quickly. Hence, it is
suggested that teachers should use skimming and scanning
techniques in teaching reading.

Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning

References:

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Anderson, R., Hiebert, E., Scott, J., & Wilkinson, I.

(1985).Becoming a nation of readers: The report of the
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Improving Basic Reading Skills such as Skimming and Scanning