Students' Reading Strategies in Comprehending Academic Reading at LP3I Business College in Cilegon

dra. yulia rahmadhar, m.pd; dr. santi chairani djonhar, ma; dr. tri wintolo apoko, m.pd;

This research aimed to investigate students’ reading strategy in comprehending academic reading, their reason on employing those strategies and the aspects influencing students’ comprehension. This research was a qualitative study which used case study method. This research was conducted at LP3I Business College in Cilegon-Banten. It involved 22 business administration students consisting of 13 females and 9 males. The students were categorized into three levels, such as low, moderate and high students’ level. The researcher used several instruments to support the data, such as interview, documentation and questionnaire. first, the result of this study showed that most of each student’s level employed different strategy and different reasons. Low students used imagining the title of the text and making illustration strategy in pre-reading activity. In during-reading activity the low students employed the strategies such as translating every unknown word, asking their friends when found difficulties and memorizing the main information without writing it. In post-reading activity they employed the strategy such as rereading the text and having small discussion with the peer. Besides, the moderate students frequently used skimming strategy and relating the content with previous knowledge in pre-reading activity. While in during-reading activity they used two strategies such as translating only for important words and taking note to save the main information. In post-reading activity they used same strategies as the low students did namely rereading the text and having small discussion with classmates. Nevertheless, the high achievers used some strategies in pre-reading activity, such as paying attention more on title and one first sentence, and relating it with their previous knowledge and identifying the questions of the text. In during-reading activity they frequently translate only for the most important words by looking at the grammatical clues, taking note for main information and thinking aloud then making guess. While in post-reading activity the students did the strategy like having small discussion with the peer and tried to make or answers the questions. Second, there were several aspects influencing students’ comprehension, such as motivation, linguistic competence, interest, characteristic of the page and environment role.