The teachers' techniques in teaching reading comprehension to the advanced students of LEMPIN-El (Lembaga Sekolah Alkitab) in Surabaya

Reading comprehension, as one of the major skills in English Language has received the biggest portion in the Teaching-learning activities in Indonesia. A logical reason for this is because the sources of information, such as textbooks, articles, magazines, and newspapers are often written in English. In practice, a series of reading comprehension lesson is organized in three steps, they are : pre-reading activities, while-reading activities, and post or after reading activities, in which each activity contains several skills or techniques. Teachers of reading comprehension should realize that teaching reading comprehension skill is not an easy work to do. They have to take heed of their students conditions and then make use of appropriate techniques as a prompt help for the students to achieve the core objectives in reading comprehension. Having the intention to find out the teachers' tehniques in teaching reading comprehension skill, the writer did some observations. These observations are done in Lembaga Sekolah Elkitab (Lempin-el) at GPT. Kristus Gembala Jl. Johor 47 Surabaya. The writer joined the English class in Lempin-el for 12 times in which there were 4 reading comprehension lessons took place. The data of the teachers' techniques are taken by making use of table of observation. Besides, interviews were also done after the observations were taken in order to sharpen the data that has been collected. During the observation, the writers found that some teachers are still depending on translations and mechanical drills on teaching. These are done almost in all sessions of reading lessons. Moreover, the students are not trained to do a higher level of reading skills, such as making inferences of the unstated message in the reading passage, or evaluate the author's ideas. As a result, the writer finds that students feels that it is enough to know the literal meaning of words in the passage and " swallow " all information they get. One of the causes is also perhaps the materials are not yet supporting enough for the students to do it. So, as a suggestion, the writer would like to suggest the teachers to avoid using translations. It is because the students are already in advanced group, so it is better for them to practice more on using context clues. This kind of practice will let them get use to make guesses about the meanings of some words. As well, the are also advised to reduce the pronounciation drills. These drills can be more effective it they are done in speaking lesson. In addition, since students are advanced learners, teachers should begin to let them do the higher-level of reading skill with the help of suitable materials for it (which trigger them to argue and state comments). More importantly, these all has to be accompanied by teachers' creativity in teaching techniques and sensitivity in students' conditions to reach the objectives in reading lesson. After all, the writer herself admits that the content of this thesis is imperfect. However, she hopes that what she finds and writes here will at least give a contribution for the teaching of English Language, especially in reading comprehension skill