THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE READING SKILL BY USING BARRON ’ S TOEIC STRATEGY FOR VOCATIONAL

This research aims at finding out the use of Barron’s TOEIC strategy to improve the reading skill of the eleventh grade students at SMK Negeri Tinambung academic year 2010/2011.The objectives of the research were to find out whether or not the use of Barron’s TOEIC preparation course package significantly improves the reading ability of the eleventh grade students at SMK Negeri Tinambung academic year 2010/2011.The research used quasi experimental research design. The samples consisted of 50 students which belonged to two groups; experimental group and control group. The research data were collected using the reading test which was given to the both groups. The research results indicated that the use of Barron’s TOEIC strategy did not significantly improve the reading ability of the eleventh grade students at SMK Negeri Tinambung academic year 2010/2011. The results of posttest of both groups were improved, but the use of Barron’s TOEICstrategy gave better progress than handbook of vocational school namely English in Progress Business & Management for SMK Year XI: TOEIC based Activities, By Munash F. Anwar. It was proved by the mean score of posttest of the experimental group was higher than the control group in reading (85.40 > 79.20).


INTRODUCTION
Teaching English as foreign language always needs the development.It must be relevant to the students' need.They should be formulated in the curriculum decided by the government.Beside that, the local government should generally support to the central government to improve the achievement of the students' subjects and especially to improve the achievement of students' English subject.
The need for English is increasingly felt in almost every facet of life in our country, Indonesia.Every transaction and interaction with other countries whose languages are different from Indonesia is conducted in English for it is used by most countries in the world as a language of communication.Science and technology have been progressing rapidly, spread all over the world, and followed by significant growth of industry.
Vocational education in particular should have a great role in providing industries with skilled workers.The government should realize that vocational education must be improved.It is also the time now for the government to improve the English teaching and learning at vocational schools to provide better graduates who don't merely master their department know how and vocational skills, but are also aware of English language skills.They should be ready to adapt themselves to the demand of international market, and compete to the challenge of the globalization era (Kaimuddin, 2009: 1).
The vocational schools curriculum should meet and be relevant to the industrial needs.Therefore as the science and technology progress rapidly, the vocational curriculum needs revision and refinement in accordance with the industries or work demands.Other shortcomings are: overcrowded classrooms, poor textbooks and supporting materials.One of the main factors, contributing to the failure is curriculum and syllabus is an important component of a successful language program (Brown, 1995:42).In the other aspect that should be paid attention is how the vocational students can master the language skills in general and listening and reading skills in particular.The vocational high school students have very low scores in listening and reading skills among four skills.It showed the students' achievement in reading and listening skills is only about 30% and 28 % (Hasanah, 2009: 77).
Reading skill is also important to be mastered by the students.The fundamental goal of any reading activity is to know enough scientific concepts and to know the interpretation of the language.The effective reader brings with him the ability to recognize the purpose of the text as a whole, to see how the text is to recognize and to understand the relationship between sentences (William, 1991:13).The basic goals of reading are enable the students to gain an understanding of worlds and themselves, to develop appreciations and interests, to find solutions to their personal and group problems, and to develop strategies (Tierney, 1990:12).
There are many research results indicate that most of Indonesian students still find difficulties to comprehend English textbook.They are the negative reading attitude, the lack of interest, reading knowledge, reading skill, and reading strategies (Anas, 2008:1).Realizing the problems stated, there must be efforts to improve the teaching of English at vocational schools.One thing that must be done is to develop the teaching materials, teaching methods, and teaching strategies.
Barron's TOEIC is an English teaching package that contents English teaching materials, teaching methods, and teaching strategies for preparing the learners to comprehend the listening and reading skills in general and comprehend TOEIC test in particular (Luegheed, 2000: 1).The teaching materials content two skills: listening skill and reading skill.The word choices used in this package are related to the business field.It is relevant to the vocational school of content based curriculum.These help the students of vocational school in general and help the students of business department of vocational school in particular (Lougheed, 2000: 2).
TOEIC is focused on the filed of business where the content of the materials related to the language use (Lougheed, 2000: 1).It helps the nonnative speakers in improving their English skills of business field.That is why the English teaching material of the Barron's TOEIC preparation course package is provided for the vocational school students in general and business and management department in particular.Some points that make TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS different are in the model of reading, the language use, and the English skills teaching material.The model of reading of TOEIC uses pictures that will help the learners to comprehend the speakers talk easier.Then all pictures related to the business field that available for the vocational schools students in general and business department students in particular (Lougheed, 2000: 1).
Based on the description of background above, the researcher formulated problem statement: Does Barron's TOEIC strategy significantly improve the reading ability of the eleventh grade students at SMK Negeri Tinambung?.
Relating to the problem statements mentioned above, the objectives of this research is to find out whether or not Barron's TOEIC strategy significantly improves the reading ability of the eleventh grade students at SMK Negeri Tinambung.
The results of the research are generally expected to be: 1.The source of information to develop the teaching materials, the teaching methods, and the teaching strategies to improve the students' ability in reading.2. Useful information for the English teachers who teach reading especially at vocational school, so they can make this research as one of references to develop their strategy to teach reading skill.3. Useful information to everyone who is interested in reading skill.

LITERATURE REVIEW
A. The Concept of Reading

The definition of reading
Reading is defined as an active attempt to understand a writer's message.The readers interact with, and definition of reading stated by William (1991) that reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written the key word here is understand, -merely reading aloud without understanding does not count as reading.Asking students to read aloud, if a teacher already knows that they can read is an activity of very limited value.Harmer (1991:190) stated that reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain.The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages.A reading text moves at the speed of the reader or other words it is up to the reader to decide how fast he/she wants to read the text.
Basically reading deals with ability of people in articulating a written text, and understanding the meaning that is conveyed in it.Reading does not simply spell word in a sentence.Moreover, reading is an activity to comprehend the whole ideas conveyed by the writer through written text.Reading can be defined as the skills and knowledge to understand how phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print; the ability to decode unfamiliar words; the ability to read fluently; sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension; the development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print; the development and maintenance of motivation to read.Walker (1996: 19) defines that reading is an active process in which readers shift between sources of information (what they know and text says), elaborate meaning and strategies, check their interpretation (revising when appropriate), the use context to focus their response, It means that reading activity needs a comprehension to interpret (read between the lines) message from the written text.Manzo's (1993: 77) defines reading as the act of simultaneously reading the lines, reading between the line, and reading beyond the lines.The first of their definition, the line refers to the act of decoding the words in order to construct the author's basic message.

The categories of reading
According to Burn (1984: 150), reading consists of four categories, they are as follows: a. Literal reading This is the level of getting the primary, direct literal meaning of reasoning for merely a skill of finding what the authors say.In this case, a reader must first understand what the authors say before drawing an inference or make evaluation.The students are able to recall, identify, classify, and sequence details, facts, effect, and stated main ideas from a variety of written materials, and can interpret directions.

b. Interpretive reading
It means that how to think in which readers identify ideas and meaning that are not stated explicitly in the written text.In addition, it is higher than literal reading in that reader may generalize.Determine cause and effect relationship, identify motives, and make comparison.To comprehend at the interpretative level, the reader must be able to understand an indirect message which is contained in literal words, and must infer what the author means or tries to say.

c. Applied reading
The basic concept of applied reading is evaluating written material, for instances comparing the ideas discovered in the material with known standard and drawing a conclusion about accuracy, appropriateness, and timelines.The reader must be an active reader, questioning, searching for fact, and suspending judgment until he/she considered all material.

d. Creative reading
Creative reading involves the positive response of reader about what has been read.Sometimes a response may not be evident because its intensely private.Understanding at creative level involves applying new knowledge to an existing situation, or applying existing knowledge to a new situation.It is also concerned with the production of new ideas and the solving of problems of an open-ended kind, where more than one course of action is possible.
In this research, the researcher uses Barron's TOEIC preparation course package where the category of reading it's used is literal reading, interpretive, and applied reading.

Strategy of reading
Becoming a good reader, we should know, understand and comprehend how the strategies of reader to read well.To get the comprehension of reading, the reader should know four strategies of reading below.

a. Skimming
Skimming is a high speed reading process and involves visually searching the sentences of a page for clues to meaning.It is mainly used when researching and getting an overall idea of the text, it can be contrasted with scanning (Lougheed, 2000: 7).
Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information, or 'gist'.Run your eyes over the text, noting important information.Use skimming to quickly get up to speed on a current business situation.It is not essential to understand each word when skimming (Lougheed, 2000: 8).
There are many strategies that can be used when skimming.We read the first and the last paragraph using headings, summarizes, and other organizers as they move down the page or screen.The reader might read title, subtitle, subheading, and illustrations.Consider reading the first sentence of each paragraph.

b. Scanning
Scanning is reading a text quickly in order to find specific information.
Scanning is used to find a particular piece of information.Run our eyes over the text looking for the specific piece of information that is needed.Use scanning on schedule, meeting plans, menu lists, etc. in order to find the specific details which are required (Lougheed, 2000: 3).
Scanning is a specific reading skill which is often used in combination with others such as skimming and intensive reading (Richard, 1985: 250).Learners need to learn different ways and understand that choosing how to read is important step in building reading skill.Its purpose is to extract certain specific information without reading through the whole texts.So the exercise of this strategy may ask the students to look for names or dates, to find a definition of essential concept, or to list a certain number of supporting details.In vocation or general English, scanning is important in dealing with general like schedules, manuals, forms, etc.

c. Intensive reading
Intensive reading is used on shorten texts in order to extract specific information.It includes very close accurate reading for detail.Use intensive reading skills to grasp the details of a specific situation.In this case, it is important to understand each word, number or fact (Lougheed, 2000: 6).
Intensive reading involves learners reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks.It includes skimming a text for specific information to answer true or false statements or filling gaps in a summary, scanning a text to match headings to paragraph, and scanning jumbled paragraphs and then reading them carefully to put them into the correct order (Lougheed, 2000: 6).

d. Extensive reading
Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject and includes reading longer text for pleasure, as well as English business books.Use extensive reading skills to improve general knowledge of business procedures.Extensive reading is carried out to active a general understanding of a usually somewhat linger text (book, long article, or essays, etc).Pleasure reading is often extensive.
Extensive reading sometimes help learners get away from their tendency to overanalyze or look up words they don't know and read for understanding.Authentic simple texts can either be devised or located in the real words by simulating reading for enjoyment or reading where all concepts, names, dates, and other details need not be retained; students gain an appreciation for the affective and cognitive window of reading.Sometimes this activity helps learners get away from their tendency to overanalyze or look up words they don't know, and read for understanding in order comprehension and avoid misunderstanding toward the reading materials the readers should know the phase in conducting reading activity (Lougheed, 2000: 6).

Phase of teaching reading a. Pre-reading
Reading is a meaning seeking process.Effective readers are active, not passive.They take sometimes before they begin to read a text to: 1. Activate prior knowledge; prior knowledge refers to all the knowledge which readers have acquired through their lives.

B. Barron's TOEIC Strategy
Barron's TOEIC preparation course material is an English teaching package that contents the teaching materials, the teaching method, and the teaching strategies for preparing the students to comprehend the listening and the reading skills in general and comprehend the TOEIC test in particular.Among TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS, TOEIC is focused on the filed of business where the content of the materials related to the language use.It helps the nonnative speakers in improving their English skills of business field.That is why the English teaching material of the Barron's TOEIC preparation course package is provided for the vocational school students in general and business and management department in particular.Some points that make TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS different are in the model of reading, the language use, and the English skills teaching material.The model of reading of TOEIC uses pictures that will help the learners to comprehend the writer's text easier.Then all pictures related to the business field that available for the vocational schools students in general and business department students in particular.
Barron's TOEIC preparation course package is used as either a selfstudy course or class course.It is an English teaching material, teaching method, and teaching strategies for preparing the learners to comprehend the listening and reading skills in general and comprehend TOEIC test in particular.In a class situation, this will provide an excellent structure for helping the students improve their English language skills especially listening and reading skills (Lougheed, 2000:vi).This also gives the teachers what they want: a scheme to help them improve the English language ability of their students.
There are two sections on the TOEIC preparation course material, the listening and reading reviews.Each part both listening and reading consist of some subpart.For further explanation of them, the following explanation.
Again, the best way for students to improve their reading is read, read, read.On the TOEIC preparation course material, even the grammar activities focus on reading.They demand the students understand the whole context of statements, not just an isolated part.That is why the structure activities are in the reading section.
As in the listening comprehension section, it is as important to know why an answer is wrong as it is to know why an answer is right.Training the students to use the strategies mentioned in this section will make them more efficient readers.

a. The vocabulary exercise
All students want to know words and more words.Remind them that important to know how to use them.They will learn more by reading and learning words in context than they will from memorizing word lists.
They can and should create their own personal word lists.Every time they encounter an unfamiliar word, they should write it down in a notebook.They should try to use it in a sentence, or even better in a dialogue.Have the students create their own skits using the words in their own personal word lists.
If the students insist on lists, show them all the charts of words in the various sections of both the listening and reading sections.Have the students use these words to learn how to use words in context.

b. The reading exercise
The strategies emphasized in the reading review are not only for reading on TOEIC exam.They can be, and should be, applied to all reading a student might have to do.Use reading material in this review such as English news magazines, and newspapers.
To prepare for the four parts of the reading comprehension section (the vocabulary exercise, the grammar exercise, and reading exercise) we must develop certain skills below: 1) Analyzing vocabulary.Some items should be analyzed in this part as mentioned below: a.
Prefixes.A prefix is a syllable added to the beginning of the root of a word.

2)
Analyzing reading passage.Now practice the PSRA strategy with the following reading passages.Each reading passage in this TOEIC.This will give you more practice.For each reading passage, you should circle the key words; answer the questions in your head; time yourself as you read; and finally answer the questions.PSRA (Predict, Scan, Read, and Answer) is the strategy used in this TOEIC preparation.Predict (look at the introduction line; look at the question and answer options).Scan (look for the key words from the questions; look for the key words from the answer option; answer questions in your head, not on your answer sheet A newspaper article is a passage written by a journalist for a newspaper.Usually the topic is very current, but there are many kinds of newspapers: some come out daily, others weekly.Even companies may have their own internal newspapers which, because of their small size, are often called newsletters.

n.
Questions on magazine articles.Like a newspaper article, a magazine article is written by a journalist.The topic could be any subject.o.
Questions on schedules.A schedule is a printed form with lists of information: stock prices, train departure times, payment schedules, etc. p.
Questions on calendars.A calendar is a form for keeping track of future event or activities.
The calendar could be personal, like a daily diary, or professional, like a timeline for completion of a subject.

METHOD OF THE RESEARCH
This research applied a quasiexperimental design using two groups' pre-test and post-test design.The experiment involved two groups, an experimental group and a control group.The experimental group received a treatment (Barron's TOEIC preparation course package), a treatment under investigation, while the control group received a different or a usual treatment (the use of handbook of the second year students of SMKN 1 Tinambung).The control group is needed for comparison purposes to see if the new treatment is more effective than other (Gay, 2006: 254).
This research has two kinds of variables: independent and dependent variables.The independent variable of this research is Barron's TOEIC preparation course package, while the dependent variables are students' achievement on listening and reading ability.
The population of this research was the eleventh grade students at SMKN 1 Tinambung in the academic year 2010/2011.The total numbers of population were 185 students that belonged to 6 classes.The samples were selected based on the cluster sampling technique.It was sampling which groups, not individuals, were randomly selected.All members of selected groups had similar characteristics (Gay, 2006: 119).The researcher took two classes: one class as experimental group and the other as control group.Class XI1 (Akuntasnsi 1) was taken as experimental group and class XI2 (Akuntansi 2) was taken as control group.Class XI1 (Akuntansi 1) consisted of 25 students and class XI2 (Akuntansi 2) consisted of 25 students; by the reason both belonged to the business department.This research employed the reading test as instrument.
Before analyzing the data, the data was collected with instrument and then analyzed them by using the procedures as follows: a. Scoring the result of the students' test Score = ′  100 Where the correct answer was given 5 and the incorrect answer was given 0. Because the number of questions was 20, so if the students answer all questions correctly, they will get the maximum score.In this case it is 100.(Depdiknas, 2006: 5) b.Tabulating the score of the students c.Classifying the score of the students d.Calculating the mean score and the t-test between reading omprehension of experimental group and control group by using SPSS 16 program (Gay, 2006:378)

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The researcher used written tests namely listening test and reading test to collect data, pre-test and post-test.These tests aimed at collecting data of the students' listening skill and reading skill of groups, the experimental group and the control group.The experimental group was given treatment by using Barron's TOEIC preparation course material.

A. Findings
The researcher found the score of pretest and posttest for both group experimental group and control group after conducting treatment.In the other hand, in control group 9 students (36%) got good category, 6 students (24%) were classified as very good, 5 students (20%) got fairly good and fairly, and no one student was classified as poor, very poor, and excellent.The data showed that the students' achievement in experimental group was increased.It was as same as control group.Moreover in control group there were still 20% students categorized as fairly good.
4. The mean score and the standard deviation of the students' pretest of reading ability The following table showed the results of students' reading ability of pretest and posttest.The researcher calculated the mean score and standard deviation in order to know whether or not there was not significant difference between the students' score in experimental group and control group.To know the significant different, the researcher used t-test formula to analyze whether or not there was statistically significant different.In this case it was analyzed at level significant .05by applying SPSS version 16.0.
Based on the statistics test in asymptotic significant (2-tailed) column, in relation to the data of pretest of reading, the .755was greater than .05.It means that there was not significant between the students' reading both experimental group and control group before the treatment.So it indicated that they had the same or relatively the same knowledge in reading.
5. The mean score and the standard deviation of students' posttest of reading ability After knowing that there was not a significant difference between the students' ability in reading of the two groups, the researcher could infer that they had the same basic ability before they were given the treatment.The result of pretest score was used to compare with the result of posttest score.
The students in both groups were given posttest after treatment to find out their reading ability by using SPSS version 16.0.The results of posttest are presented in the following table below:   10).The mean score of experimental group, 85.40 was higher than of the control group, 79.20.
Based on the t-test both pretest of experimental group and control group were not significantly different.It concluded that the ability of both groups was similar.Those experimental group and control group had the same level or relatively the same baseline knowledge in reading.
To know whether or not the experimental group was significantly more improved than the control group, the researcher used t-test by applying SPSS 16 (appendix 12).Both groups were improved but the experimental group was not significantly more improved than the control group.The researcher found out that the probability was more than .05or .051>.05 at the degree of freedom was 48.
The researcher concluded that the use of Barron's TOEIC preparation course package was not significantly improved in learning English reading than the use of handbook for vocational school namely English in Progress Business & Management for SMK Year XI: TOEIC based Activities, By Munash F. Anwar.
The data indicated that the two groups were statistically different of the students' result in English reading.Even though both of them could improve the students' reading ability, but the experimental group was not significantly improved than the control group.

A. Conclusions
Based on the findings and discussion in the previous, the researcher comes to conclusion.The achievement of students' reading ability was improved by using Barron's TOEIC preparation course package and handbook of vocational school namely English in Progress Business & Management for SMK Year XI: TOEIC based Activities, By Munash F. Anwar.They were categorized as very good and good category which was the mean score both experimental group and control group 85.40 and 79.20.It means that the experimental group was higher than the control group (85.40 > 79.20).But the data of posttest indicated that the statistical hypothesis is based on the t-test in asymptotic significant (2-tailed), the probability is more than .05or .051> .05.This means that H 1 was rejected, and of

Table 2 .
The percentage of students' posttest score of reading ability

Table 3 .
The mean score and the standard deviation of students' pretest of reading ability

Table 4 .
The mean score and the standard deviation of students' posttest of reading ability

Table 5 .
The t-test of the students' posttest on reading ability Based on the table 5 above, the researcher concluded that the probability is more than .05or .051> .05.It means that H 1 was rejected and of course, the statistical hypothesis of H 0 was accepted, it means that the use of Barron's TOEIC preparation course package was not able to give significantly the improvement of the students' reading ability than the use of handbook of SMK Negeri Tinambung namely English in Progress Business & Management for SMK Year XI: TOEIC based Activities, By Munash F. Anwar.B. Discussion The data collected through the tests as mentioned in the previous part showed that the students' ability to read improved statistically.It was supported by the mean score rate of result of the students' pretest and posttest of experimental group.The mean score of pretest and posttest of experimental group were 66.40 and 85.40.While the mean score of pretest and posttests of control group were 65.20 and 79.20.The data in previous part showed that the use of Barron's TOEIC preparation course package was more improved statistically in learning English reading than the use of handbook for vocational school namely English in Progress Business & Management for SMK Year XI: TOEIC based Activities, By Munash F. Anwar.It was supported that the mean score of posttest of the experimental group and the control group was statistically different (table