The effects of SQ3R technique and speed reading technique on the reading comprehension achievement of second year SMU students

Reading without disregarding the other skills, has been an interesting topic for discussion for many years. There have been many studies made for the sake of reading improvement. Realizing the importance of reading, reading skill has become the main emphasis in the teaching of English in Indonesia. The English Curriculum for SMU has put reading skill in the first priority, followed by the other three skills, listening, speaking and writing. This has been due to the fact that students in Indonesia where English is considered as a foreign language meet a great deal of difficulties in comprehending reading materials. As suggested by reading experts, one of the effective ways for reading improvement is by applying a reading technique. Studies have been undertaken about two reading techniques – SQ3R and speed reading – of which the results indicate that the two techniques are better in improving students’ reading comprehension achievement than the traditional technique of reading which emphasizes the understanding of the words in a reading passage than the comprehension of the whole passage. These findings have led the writer to further investigate which of the two techniques, SQ3R or speed reading, is a better and more effective in terms of improving students’ reading comprehension achievement. For this purpose the writer of the study formulated two research hypotheses – the Null and Alternative hypotheses. In order to carry out the study, the writer used two classes of the second year students of PETRA 3 jalan Kalianyar no. 43 Surabaya. One class received three times of treatments utilizing the SQ3R technique and the other by means of the speed reading technique. After the treatments were finished, the students’ comprehension ability was measured by using a set of testing instrument which was comprised of 20 items of multiple choice. The scores obtained were then compared by emans of t-test formula. It is finally concluded that the SQ3R technique is a better technique than the speed reading technique since the data analysis made indicated that there was a significant difference in the reading achievement between the group of students utilizing the SQ3R technique and the group utilizing the speed reading technique. By using the SQ3R technique the students were able to do an active reading, fix the important information in their mind and relate the information extracted from the reading passage with their background knowledge. Thus, they were able to comprehend the idea of the passage and then produce good result in the posttest