DEVELOPING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS IN TOEFL

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.

Kuta Beach

There are many beautiful tourism places in Bali. One of the  beautiful tourism places  is kuta beach. Kuta beach is located in Badung regency south of  Denpasar, Bali. Kuta Beach is the most famous beach in Bali. Every people who comes to Bali never forget to visits Kuta Beach. The visitors not only tourists from our country but also the tourists from the other countries. The scenery in this beach is very beautiful especially in the afternoon. People usually call Kuta Beach by sunset beach because we can see the beauty of the sunset on this beach. Many tourist come to this beach in the afternoon to see the beauty of the sunset. In Kuta Beach there are many facilities like shops, restaurants, hotel, spa and sundeck. This beach has white sand. Sometime there are many children play sand in this beach. Kuta beach also has good wave. This wave are hight and good to sports like surfing. So  Kuta Beach is a good choice to  visit when we come to Bali because we can do many activities there like seeing the the beauty of the sunset, surfing, sunbathing or just walking along the beach and enjoying the beauty of Kuta beach.

My Beautiful Days in Bali

I went to Bali when I was senior Hight School. I went there with my friends and my teachers. We spent our holiday in Bali for five days.

We started our journey from Madiun at 3 pm and arrived in Bali at 6 am. On the first day we visited Tanah Lot. In there we saw the beauty of Tanah Lot and took a nice picture together with my friends and the tourists in there. In the afternoon we visited Kuta beach and saw the sunset. On the second day we visited Tirta Ganga Park and Tirta Empul Temple. Tirta Gangga park was beautiful park. The air in there was so fresh, the place was very quiet and I could forget my problems when I was in there. We also took a nice picture in that park. In the afternoon we continued our journey to Tirta Empul Temple. We wore a scarf in Tirta Empul for entering the temple. My friends and I also took a nice picture in that place and bought many kinds of handicraft in the market of the temple. On the third day of our holiday in Bali we visited Udayana University and ISI (Indonesian Art Institude). In there we got many knowledge about university including the information about how to be a student on that university. On the fourth day. we visited Ulu Watu and Bedugul. I could enjoy the beautiful scenery of Ulu Watu because the weather was nice, but I could not enjoy the beautiful scenery of Bedugul because it was raining. The last day in Bali my friends and I spent our time to shop. We went to Krishna shopping center and Sukowati market. I spent much money for buying many kinds of thing in there. Then in the afternoon we went back to Madiun.

Spendng many time in Bali and enjoying the beauty of Bali with my friends and my teachers were so interesting. It becomes an unforgettable experience for me.

Consuming Canned Fruit is Dangerous to Our Health

Many people prefer consume instant food because it is practicial. We can find a lot of instant foods in many stores around us. One of the instant foods is canned fruit. When people consume canned fruit, they just think that it is more practicial. They do not think that canned fruit has a lot of negative effects to our health. The negative effects of consuming canned fruit are coused by many factors such as the way of processing canned fruit itself and about low attention from the people about the deadline for consuming canned fruit.

            Many reasons support that consuming canned fruit is dangerous to our health. The first reason is all canned foods contain preservatives to make the food durable in cans. The producers usually use artificial preservatives that are dangerous to the health of consumers. The artificial preservatives like Asam Benzoate and Asam Sorbate that cause cancer. The second reason is the cans that used to wrap the fruit contain Bisfenol A (BPA) that give negativee effects to human’s health. Prof John Marker, a researcher from the University of Michigan, United States said that DNA that contain hight level of BPA were damaged 10 percent. Beside that BPA also cause some diseases like cancer, liver damage, obesity and diabetes.

            The third reason is cans that used to wrap the fruit also contain PVC that decrease the production of hormones in our body. The next reason of consuming canned fruit is increase the risk of brain damage and low IQ to children. A research from University of Bristol, England showed that children who onsume more instant food before they are three years have a lower IQ five years later. The last reason is most of the canned fruit in Indonesia are imported from abroad and the packaging of canned fruit use foreign language that not everyone can understand it. Most of them only believe that the foods are save to consume.

            Consuming canned fruit give more negative effects than positive effects. So, for the readers especially the houswive is better if you prefer fresh fruit than canned fruit because fresh fruit contain no artificial preservatives and make us become healthy. For the producers should use natural preservatives in the production of canned fruit.  For the government should monitor the distribution of canned fruit and give sanction to the producers who are not responsible for the production of canned fruit. 

The Effects of Using Facebook for Psychological Development of Teenagers

            The exsistence of facebook in the virtual world is attracted the public attention. Most of the public use facebook for doing many activities in the virtual world. Someone who likes using facebook very much are called “facebooker”.  Most of the facebookers are teenagers because most of them have facebook. Sometimes they also have more than one facebook account. Using facebook as a social networking gives many psychological effects for the teenagers. They are positive effects and negative effects.

            Facebook helps us to communicate with our relation easily. We can find our new friends trough facebook. This facilities can be used for maintaining a good relationship and good communication among facebookers.  This situation will increase the psychology development of teenagers because the mental of the people will develop well if they have a good relationship among others.

            Facebook help us accessing many kinds of information that we need such as information about education, culture, social, health and others. We can get that information not only through Google but also through facebook. If we have a new information about something, we can share that information through facebook too. Beside that, if we want to know about something, we also can search that information through facebook. So, we can help each others for sharing and searching informations through facebook. Finding important information through facebook is the same with learning through facebook. So, facebook is an exciting learning media for teenagers because facebook gives much easiness for sharing and searching information. The teenagers can apply the information that they get from facebook in the real world. This situation is good for psychological development of teenagers. They will feel that facebook give the easiness way to study. So they will have a new spirit to study. It helps increasing their achievement at school.

            The easiness way of finding new friends through facebook sometimes is used for doing some criminalities such as fraud and abduction by the deceivers in facebook. Many mass media often inform that there are many teenagers were lost because the abduction through facebook and most of them were killed or send abroad. This phenomena can decrease and disrupt the psychological development of teenagers if they become  the victim’s crime of facebook.

Many facilities that we can find in facebook make the facebookers feel that they have their own world. They will have feeling that they don’t need another people. This situation makes them ignoring their real world. It also also can decrease the psychology of the teenagers because they will be addicted to fcebook. They will forget their times and activities in their real world.  

            In conclusion using facebook gives many effects for us. This effects can be the positive effects or the negative effects. We as good teenagers should be able to distinguish what should we do and what should not we do when we use facebook. We should use facebook based on the functions to keep our mind healthing and avold ourselves becoming the victims of facebook abus

Wippy Still Can Fly Without His Own Wings

             Once day, on a sunny morning, in a quiet village a pair of birds was waiting for their eggs to crack. They waited their childrents happily and hoped that their childrents will be funny and perfect, but the fact was not like what they wanted. One of their childrents didn’t have wings. The male bird and the female bird were very sad about it, but they accepted it and took care it well. They named it Wippy. They loved Wippy very much like they loved their other childrents which have wings.

            Day kept changing, their childrents continued to grow including Wippy. Wippy was a kind bird. He loved his parents and his brothers very much. He also loved his friends although his friends always ridiceled him. Sometimes he shared his foods to his friends when his friends couldn’t find any foods. He also shared a haven when it rained, but his friends still ridiculed him.

            All ofthe  birds and other animals always ridiculed him except his parent and his brothers. They loved Wippy very much and they always had many ways to make Wippy happy. When Wippy’s parents or Wippy’s brothers flew, they asked Wippy to fly with them. Wippy could climb into their back then they flew together.

            One day when Wippy flew with one of his brothers, suddenly there was a hunter shot them until they fell to the ground and Wippy’s brother was injured and his wings were bloody. A few minutes after this accident, Wippy’s brother died. Before he died, he said to Wippy “Please cut my wings and save it!. You have  to be a good bird for our parents and for others!.  You should be patient although you don’t have wings and believe that one day you will find your happiness!”. Then Wippy cut his brother’s wings and saved it. He promised that he would remain what his brother had said.

            A few days later when Wippy woke up, he was surprised because there were wings in his body. This wings came from his brother which was died a few days ago. “Actually this is your brother’s wings, because of God’s help so the wings were on your body now.  Maybe this is a gift from God to you because during this time you have been a good bird” said Wippy’s mother.

Since that day Wippy had wings and he could fly everywhere he liked. He was very happy because he could fly although without his own wings. Now all of the birds and the other animals never ridiculed him again.