Improving students’ reading comprehension by implementing TOEFL extensive reading activities

The competence of TOEFL has now been demanded by not only English students but also non-English students. In the University of Palangka Raya, the undergraduate English students are required to have TOEFL score of 450 to propose their thesis and to register for graduation. Surprisingly, the average TOEFL score of undergraduate English students is 429 which is below the standard. Reading seemed to be a problem for the students since they wrongly maintained the time and strategies when facing the TOEFL Reading Comprehension texts. Based on the regulation and the data, the research was conducted as an action research focusing only on reading comprehension section of TOEFL and aiming at improving 41 students’ TOEFL Reading Comprehension. The participants joined extensive reading activities on the reading comprehension texts of TOEFL for three weeks. The activities were carried out by blended-learning, combining face-to-face reading activities and online activities via a group of WhatsApp and LINE. The results of the research showed that 51% subjects (21 students) made 5 or more correct answer improvements and 32% subjects (13 students) below 5 correct answer improvements on their TOEFL Reading Comprehension post-test registered after the activities were completed. Otherwise, there were 7 (17%) subjects experiencing no improvement at all