Teaching and learning process of test-taking strategies in answering reading comprehension section

___________________________________________________________________ The study was aimed at finding the difficulties faced by test takers in Reading Comprehension section of TOEFL and describing the teaching and learning process of test-taking strategies of Reading Comprehension section of TOEFL. This study used qualitative research design. To collect the data, the researchers used document analysis and observation as the instrument of the study. The subjects of this study were the students or test takers and a teacher or tutor in TOEFL preparation class. The study showed the range of difficulty faced by students or test takers are skill 6 (57.14%), skill 8 (50%), skill 7, 9, 10, and 11 (33.3%), skill 3 (31%), skill 4 and 12 (16.7%), skill 1 (8.3%), and skill 5 (0%). In teaching and learning strategies, the Planning Strategy was applied in skills 1, 3, 9, 6, 7, 4, 5, and 8. Monitoring Strategies was applied in in skills 1, 3, 9, 6, and 4. Comprehending strategy was used in skills 1, 3, 6, 7, 4, 10, and 11. Retrieval Strategy was applied in skills 9, 5, and 8. Socioaffective strategy was applied in skill 9. Test-wiseness strategy was applied in skills 1, 3, and 9. Based on findings, the researchers found that there is still high percentage of difficult skills faced by students or test takers and more than one strategies were applied in almost every skill of the Reading Comprehension Section of TOEFL.


INTRODUCTION
English is an important language in the world as it is used as an international language. Moreover, nowadays, English becomes a necessary need of some individual skills for every person in every country. English as a foreign language needs to be mastered, so that it can be used to get a job, to get promotion at work, to continue to the next level of education, to enter universities where English is spoken as the first language, to get scholarship, and to graduate from university. To measure one's English proficiency, TOEFL test is used with determined minimum scores. Unfortunately, because English is not the first language in Indonesia, some Indonesian people are having difficulties in taking this test, which one of the sections is the Reading Comprehension section. Farha & Rohani (2019) have stated that "Reading is the process of connecting written symbols with reader's knowledge to comprehend the content of the text."As Abboud & Hussein (2011) found that "The difficulty in time allotted for each section with percentages shows that Listening Comprehension section has 70% difficulty percentage, Structure and Written Expression section has 68% difficulty percentage, and Reading Comprehension section has 77% difficulty precentage." (pp. 110-138) From the difficulties in taking this Reading Comprehension section, the researchers is interested in investigating the difficulties and the strategies in answering the Reading Comprehension section. The researchers has formed two statements of the problem that are used to guide this research. They are (1) What are the difficulties faced by test takers in answering the Reading Comprehension? (2) How is the teaching and learning process of test-taking strategies in answering the Reading Comprehension section?
By those two statements of the problems, this research also has purposes to the readers to pay more attention to the difficulties in the Reading Comprehension section and the strategies to overcome the difficulties, so that this research will help them when they are taking the Reading Comprehension section. Furthermore, this can help tutors or teachers of TOEFL Preparation rich their knowledge in teaching in TOEFL Preparation Class.
In conducting this research, the researchers provided several previous studies related to the topic. A number of research have been performed related to the TOEFL, difficulties, and test-taking streategies in answering Reading Comprehension section of TOEFL. These studies are conducted by (Lestari & Syaifullah, 2017;Antoni, 2014;Oktarina, 2018;Samad et al., 2017;Sudrajat & Astuti, 2018;Suyatman & Rachman, 2017). Lestari & Syaifullah (2017) have showed in their research that predicting, skimming and scanning, and re-reading are the strategies employed by test takers. Moreover, in Samad et al. (2017), based on students questionnaire, skimming, background of the knowledge, translations and re-reading are the most used strategies in answering the Reading Comprehension section. Suyatman & Rachman (2017) have stated in their research about strategies in answering the vocabulary test on the Reading Section of TOEFL. The result showed that students used all the staretgies of answering the vocabulary test of the Reading Comprehension, the most strategies used by students was Looking for Contextual Clues to the meaning of unknown words, and the least strategy used by students to answer vocabulary test was Developing A New Vocabulary Study System (Suyatman & Rachman, 2017).
Related to the topic about the difficulties about the TOEFL test, Antoni (2014) has conducted this topic as his research. The result showed that most of the students have difficulty in understanding the spoken language, determining the sucject and the verb of sentences, and understanding the meaning of the written passage. Then, Oktarina (2018) has also conducted the same topic, but she focused on the Reading Comprehension section. Her research showed that Finding Main Idea, Implied Detail Question, Unstated Detail Question and Unstated Detail Question belong to four difficult skills.
Related to the topic of TOEFL preparation class, Sudrajat & Astuti (2018) conducted this topic. The result showed that after joining the TOEFL preparation class, their motivation, attitude, and their confidence have improved.
Some of the previous studies have been described on the previous paragraph. The researchers have not found the study using all of the Language Learning Strategies along with Test-wiseness Strategies in which those strategies are requiring both cognitive and non cognitive skills. Moreover, from finding out the difficult percentage ranges from hardest to least difficult, the reader can be more concern with skills being tested in the TOEFL test.
There are some similarities and differences between the previous studies and the present study. The similarities are the studies are about investigating the difficult skills in the Reading Comprehension section faced by the test takers and some of the strategies found are scanning and skimming. Then, the differences are the subjects of the research are in the TOEFL preparation class in an English course which the main program in this course is TOEFL preparation class. The strategies taught to students can be such a new knowledge to other tutors or people who are going to take a TOEFL test. The use of theory is from (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990) strategies called Language Learning Strategies in which the researchers employed all of the three classifications, besides using the Language Learning Strategies, the researchers used Test-Wiseness Strategies presented by (Cohen & Upton, 2006) and the researchers explored the test-taking strategies taught by the teacher or tutor of TOEFL preparation class in answering the Reading Comprehension section.
In using the Language Learning Strategies, the classifications that are used to analyse the strategies are Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Socioaffective. Those classification have related to the material learning while the test-wiseness strategies have not related to material learning. Metacognitive strategies, regarding to Usman et al. (2017) are categorized as self-monitoring and selfregulating activities of the students who can then focuss on both the process and the product of the reading. In cognitive strategies, regarding to Sukmawati (2016), enable test takers to use their linguistic and world knowledge to solve given tasks. In Vijaya (2012), socio-affective strategies as parts of learning strategies are applied to make a better learning. As English teachers -it is very important to know what socioaffective strategy possibly and significantly borne by students.
To facilitate the concepts of conducting this study, the researchers made a framework. This study concerns the difficult skills faced by test takers and the test-taking strategies in answering Reading Comprehension section. The researchers took a TOEFL preparation class as the subjects. The researchers focused on the Reading Comprehension section. The researchers categorized the skills of the Reading Comprehension section by adapting from Phillips (2001) and calculated the percentage to find the difficulty percentage and ranged them. In analysing the test-taking strategies, the analysis is based on Language Learning Stratetegies and Test-Wiseness Strategies.

METHODS
This research uses the qualitative descriptive approach as the researchers analysed the data descriptively and a form of explanation of words is the way the researchers presented the result based on the tables. Lune, H. & Berg (2017) have stated that qualitative research is characterized as meanings, concepts, definitions, metaphore, symbols, and a description of things.
In conducting this study, the subjects of this study are a teacher and three students of TOEFL preparation class. The teacher's name in abbreviation is AFD and the three students' name in abbreviation are AMI, AAP, ASRA. The objects of this study are three answer sheets of those three students and a teacher and three students' utterances when being in teaching and learning process. I took a TOEFL preparation class and the observation was held at 12:40 -02:00 pm on July 31 st , 2020.
In doing the research, the researchers used document analysis and observation. The researchers analysed the three students' pre-test answer sheets focusing on the Reading Comprehension section for the first research question. To the second research question, the researchers did a video recording as the source of the data by transcribing into the written text.
In collecting the data, This study has several procedures. For the document analysis, the researchers collected three pre-test answer sheets. Then, the researchers determined the skills of each item question of the pre-test by using Phillips (2001) theory. From determining the skills of each item question, the researchers then categorized the same skills of each question into one that there are 13 skills. After that, the researchers calculated the wrong answer and calculated into percentage. For the observation, the researchers did a video recording, then it was transcribed into written text both of the teacher's utterances and the three students' utterances. After transcribing into written text, the researchers analysed and identified the utterances by using Language Learning Strategies proposed by O' Malley & Chamot (1990) and Test-Wiseness Strategies by Cohen & Upton (2006) The teachinglearning process was using Indonesian language, but, the researcher translated into English with an aim that the readers will understand.

Data analysis
The several steps were required to find the answer of the first and the second research questions. For the first research question, the researchers determined the skills of each item question of the pre-test by using Phillips' (2001) theory. From determining the skills of each item question, the researchers then categorized the same skills of each question into one that there are 13 skills. After that, the researchers calculated the wrong answer and calculated into percentage. Then, the researchers ranged the difficult skills from the highest to lowest percentage. Then, for the wrong answers of each skill, the percentage is calculated.
In gaining the result of the second research question, the researchers did an observation by recording the video. Then, to analyze the data to find the findings, the researchers took several steps. The first is transcribing the teaching and learning process by transcribing the utterances both from the teacher and the students. Then, the researcher read the transcription. The third step is the researchers bolding the clause or sentences which are assumed to contain the Language Learning Strategies and Test-wiseness Strategies. In order to simplify the analysis, the researchers provide coding as follows: Skill The next step is calculating the wrong answers to find the difficult skills. The calculation is presented in the following table. In order to range the difficulty from the highest percentage to the lowest percentage, the result is below. Find Pronoun Referents (skill 5) 0% We can see the table 4.1 above, that there are three skills that were not tested in the Proficiency Test, they are skills 2, 12, and 13. The most difficult skill of the Reading Comprehension section of the TOEFL Test is skill 6 with 57.14%. This skill requires the test takers to draw a conclucsion from the specific details in the passage and to let the test takers know that the answer to the question is not directly stated. From the table above, we can also see that skill 8 is the second of the most difficult skill with 50%. Furthermore, there are four skills having the same difficulty percentage as the next, they are skills 7, 9, and 11. The fourth difficult skill is skill 3, with 31%. The next same percentage of difficult skills are skills 4 and 12, with 16.7%. Skill 1 becomes the sixth difficult skill of Reading Comprehension section, as 8.3%. The last difficult skill is skill 11, as 0%. We can conclude that the most difficult skill in Reading Comprehension section of TOEFL preparation class is skill 6 and the least difficult is skill 5.
Teaching and learning process of test-taking strategies in answering the Reading Comprehension section The result for the answer of the second research is presented in Table 4. Table   4 Test- Taking  We can see the result of the strategies being applied in answering the Reading Comprehension section questions in the teaching and learning process being observed above. In Planning Strategy, the researchers found Planning Strategy in form of defining the general purpose of the questions and what to learn when we face the certain kind of questions. In monitoring strategy, this strategy appears in order to monitor or check the understanding of the students themselves. Furthermore, in comprehending strategy, this strategy is employed in purpose to answer skills 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, and 11. In Memory strategy, this strategy is not found. In Retrieval Strategy, this strategy is used to answer skills 5, 8, and 9. Sociaoffective was found when answering skill 9. Then, the test-wiseness strategies were found in skills 1, 3, and 9.

Discussion
In discussion section, the researcher would furthermore explain the findings. To gain the first research question, the researchers calculated the percentage of wrong answers to find the difficulty.
In the findings, skill 6 is the most difficult skills with 12 wrongs answers of 21 total answers with the result of 57.14% which means that more than half of the answers are wrong. The next difficult skill is skill 8 proven by calculating the 6 out of 12 answers were wrong that resulted in 50%. The third difficult skill is skills 7, 9, 10, and 11, with 33.3%. Skill 3 be the next difficult skill with 31% proven by 13 out of 42 answers were wrong. Then, there are skills 4 and 12 were found to have the same percentage of difficulty, 16.7%. Skill 1 is the tenth difficult skill with 8.3% proven by 1 out of 12 students chose the wrong answer. The easiest skill is skill 5 proven by 0 out of 3 answer is wrong.

Answer main idea questions correctly (skill 1)
Skill 1 is the first skill being learned in this teaching-learning process. In skill 1, based on Language Learning Strategies and Test-wiseness Strategies theories, the researcher found Planning, Monitoring, Comprehending, and Test-wiseness Strategies. The example of planning strategy is below.
Usually, the first question appear is the main idea, which is number 1. So, we are assigned to find the main idea of the paragraph or the topic.
The utterance above indicated that the teacher attempted to inform the students what the questions is about so that the students have the idea what and how to answer the question.
The example of Monitoring Strategy is presented below.

What is differs?
Utterance above is expressed by students to the teacher in order to make sure that he tried to understand the learning material by asking the definition of a word.
The example of comprehending strategy is presented below.
Ah, if you find the topic or main idea question, the answers can usually be found in the first sentence of the paragraph. Because the example only has one paragraph, it means that we only have to read the first sentence, then, look for the synonym whether it is a, b, c, or d.
The utterance above is expressed by a teacher as a way of teaching a strategy in answering the main idea questions. By reading the first sentence and finding the synonym to the options, the teacher show that the students are asked to comprehend the meaning of the sentences.
In test-wiseness strategy found by the researchers, this strategy is used to find strategy by not involving the cognitive strategies, but the situations. The example of test-wiseness strategy is presented below.
We read the questions first.

Answer stated detail questions correctly (skill 3)
In skill 3, the researchers found planning, monitoring, comprehending, and test-wiseness strategies.
In planning strategy, the teacher delivered the utterance in purpose to teach the students about what answer stated detail questions is about and the strategy. The example is presented below.

Answer stated detail questions correctly means that you have to answer a question written in the reading passage. Written in the reading passage means that you will exactly find the answer in the passage. Meanwhile, you will find implied question, which means that you have to look the answer by drawing the conclusion based on yourself
Utterance above is expressed by students to the teacher in order to make sure that he tried to understand the learning material by asking the definition of a word.
The example of comprehending strategy is presented below.

What is indicate?
Furthermore, in cognitive strategy, comprehend strategy is found. In order to answer the stated question, the students have to find the keywords by skimming. Then, the students have to understand the meaning of the sentence or the clause as a guide to find the right options.
Well, in the question, you have to look for the keywords, and in that question, there is Jamestown as the keywords. Then, you have to look for the word of Jamestown in the paragraph, which is in the first sentence. The last, you have to read the sentence of every multiple choice options and choose the sentence contain of the keywords.
Besides, test-wiseness strategy is also found in this strategy without involving the cognitive strategy. This is taught to use the time effectively. The example is below.
You may try for the number 2, read the question first.

Determine meanings from word parts (skill 9)
The researchers found planning, monitoring, retrieval, socioaffective, and test-wiseness strategies in skill 9. In planning strategies, the researchers found that the teacher taught about what the skill is about and how to answer it. The example is presented below.
The meaning of this skill is to find the meaning by finding the word-forming structure. There, you are assigned to read the English passages as much as you can so that you will enrich your vocabulary and the structure of English sentences.
In order to explain the monitoring strategy, the example is presented below:

So, what is the synonym of subjugation?
In utterance above, the researchers found one utterance expressed by a teacher in form of questioning. The question is delivered by the teacher in order to make sure that the students keep the track, in other words, understand the learning material.
Then, retrieval strategy is defined in answering the meaning from word parts. In planning strategy, the teacher taught the students about what the question is about and how to answer the question. In this skill, the students have to learn about prefix of English and remember the meaning. So, when the students find this skill, they only have to remember the prefix and the meaning without understanding the sentences. The example is below.

If you print a photo, you will find a vivid menu in the printer. This vivid wod means looks alive.
For the first time, a socioaffective is found in this teaching-learning process. The teacher deliver a speech meaning that he praised the students for being able to answer the questions correctly. The example is following.

Control, yes. A very smart person.
Besides socioaffective strategies, the researchers also found the test-wiseness strategy. This is about doing an alternative way to help students find the answer without cognitive skill. The example is below.
Well, we go to the question first. Read the question first. Find the keywords. It will be effective if you underline the keywords that you may erase once you finish answer the question.

Answer implied detail questionss correctly (skill 6)
To find the answer of implied questions, some strategies were found. Those are planning, monitoring, and comprehending strategies. In planning strategy, the teacher' utterance indicated what the question is about and how to answee it. The example is presented below.
We go the next skill. This skill is implied detail questions correctly. Implied means conclusion. So, we are assigned to conclude the answer as the answer is implied.
The next strategy found is monitoring strategy. The teacher tried to warn the students about implied questions skill. The example is presented below: I warn you to be more careful because this skill is a little bit hard as the answer is not stated in the passage.
In the cognitive strategy, comprehending strategy was determined. In answering this skill, the students have to comprehend the sentences to be finally able to make a conclusion that the answer cannot be found in the reading passage. The example is presented below: There, you will find the keywords in the third row. The language, which means the Hawaiian words, the synonym, ends in a vowel, and two consonants never appear together. So, in the Hawai language, there will be no two consonants in row which means vowel consonant vowel consonant or two vowels in row. So, the conclusion is in the C option, because of k as the consonant and l as the consonant also as they are in row.

Answer transition questions correctly (skill 7)
Some strategies being applied to answer skill 7are found. Planning and comprehending strategies were required in answering the transition question. In planning strategy, the teacher taught the students about what transition questions is about and how to answer it. The example is in the following.
This skill will test you on how far you understand the good writing skill which requires a good transition, or the transition from one paragraph to another paragraph. The paragprah, before or after the paragraph you read, what to discuss. As this, we will learn about cohesion and coherence. When are writing a paragraph, writing a report or research, the paragraph must be cohesive and coherence. When we are writing about A, do not write about Z afterwards. We have to write B instead. So that the paragraph will be correlated. So, in the question, as the example, we find paragraph preceding. Preceding means before the paragraph being read.
In order to answer this type of question, comprehending strategy is required. The students have to comprehend the idea by skimming to find the answer. The example is presented below.
How to answer the question is based on the preceding or the following keywords in the queestion. If the question is preceding, we have to read the first sentence. If the question is following, we have to read the last sentence. Then, you read the sentence, the last, you match the answers options with the sentence.

Find "unstated" details questions correctly (skill 4)
Planning and monitoring were required to answer this question. In planning strategy, the teacher taugh about what unstated details question is about and how to answer it. The example is presented below.
Well, this kind of question, has not true, not mentioned, not discussed, and except are the characterictic features in the questions If you find some of those characteristic features, you have to chose the wrong answer. Three true answers are stated in the paragraph, the one is not, and you have to choose the not stated answer. We straightforwardly go to the example.
On the other hand, to answer unstated questions, comprehending strategy is embroiled. The students have to scan the reading passage and eliminate the answers that they need to read carefully. The example is in the following.
Please underline the gadget word, as this is the keyword. Then, find the keyword in the passage, do a scanning. Then, find the wrong answer. Or you can do another way by checking every answer option.

Find pronoun referents (skill 5)
To find the answer of pronoun referents, some strategies are applied. Those are planning and retrieval strategies. In planning strategy, the teacher taught the students about what the skill of this question is about and how to answer it. The example is below: This skill is correlated eith English grammar. Find pronoun reference means you have to find a pronoun. This skill is considered as an easy one. The answer has been stated in the passage, andlocated right before the word being questioned. The characteristic features of this question is The pronoun blablabla in line X refers to which of the following?
In pronoun referents, in order to answer this question, the test takers need to learn English grammar, especially about the pronoun. Without comprehending the sentence, the students are expected to be able to answer this question. The students only need to refer to the previous noun.

Find definitionsfrom structural clues (skill 8)
In order to answer by analyzing the structural clues, some strategies are applied. Those are planning and retrieval strategies. In planning strategy, the teacher taught the students about what the question is about, the marker of the question so the students will be able to recognize the type of the question. The example is below: For structural clues question, the characteristics is the same as the word parts and there are some additional characteristics. Those are is closest in meaning to, or could be replaced by...
In order to find the answer of skill 8, the students are allowed to eliminate their L1 language and learn the English sentence structures. The students are also allowed to memorize the lexical bundles and mark them as a hint to find the answer. The example is presented below.
Well, for structural clues question, if you cannot find the answer by classifying the word parts, you can find by this strategy. The characteristics of structural clues are the existence of punctuation, such as comma, brackets, or hypens. Then, there will be restatement, such as or, that is, in other words. It can be shown by example sentences, marked by word such as, for example, or e.g.. e.g means example. How to answer is find the keywords, find in the paragraph and the sentences being correlated with the keywords. For the example of question, we are going to discuss next meeting.

Using context clues to determine meanings (skill 10 and 11)
The skills are basically constructed by two skills. Those are skill 10 and 11. To answer these skills, comprehendin gstrategy is applied. In comprehending strategy, the students are required to comprehend the sentences to find the answers. The example is in below.
And this is the last, Using Context Clues to Determine Meanings. To identify the question is the same as the structural clues, find the keywords, then read the sentences containing the keywords, look the answer option one by one and match with the sentence containing the words.
Regarding to the reasons for choosing the topic, the researchers wanted to know about effective reading strategies being applied in answering the Reading Comprehension section. To gain the answer to it, the researchers did an interview to the tutor or the teacher of this TOEFL Preparation Class as this is used as the triangulation. The interview was held on Thursday, 21 st January, 2021. From the interview transcripts, the interviewee has been teaching for teen years in TOEFL Preparation Class. By far, the tutor or teacher, based on the interview, faced some challenges in teaching, one of the examples is the low knowledge about English of students or test takers.
Moreover, in teaching and learning process of test-taking strategies of Reading Comprehension, the tutor or teacher used some facilities to support the effective teaching and learning process. Some of them are the use of air conditioner, monitor, the chair and the table. Then, in teaching and learning of the material itself, the tutor or teacher attempted to recognize the difficulty faced by test takers or students and the tutor or teacher give a help to them in overcoming the difficulty.
To the main answer of the effective reading strategies in answering the Reading Comprehension section of TOEFL, the answer the researchers gained is followed.
I used Bahasa Indonesia to teach in this class, of course. The first thing I have to do is to teach how to identify the questions, as you have observed, every identified question is categorized as skill, has its strategies to answer. To make sure whether the students understand the material and the strategies, I give them some minutes to do the exercise as the example I gave them.
From the extract above, the main answer of the effective reading strategies is gained. The test takers or students are instructed to apply strategies based on the skill or the kind of questions. Besides the material strategies, the non-material strategies were also taught. Some of the examples are the habit of reading the question first. Then, instruction to the test takers ot students to always exercise and enrich the vocabulary everytime they find a new vocabulary.
Of all the strategies, skimming and scanning are the most used strategies in reading the passage. It is because most of the skill need skimming and scanning in the process of applying the strategies.
For the second research questions, the researchers found the test-taking strategies using O' Malley & Chamot's (1990) and Cohen & Upton's (2006) theories. In skill 1, Planning, Monitoring, Comprehending, and Test-wiseness strategies were found in this research. For the skill 2, applied Planning, Monitoring, Comprehending, and Test-wiseneses strategies. Skill 9, has five strategies, those are Planning, Monitoring, Retrieval, Socioaffective, and Test-wiseness strategies. Skill 6 had three strategies, those were Planning, Monitoring, and Comprehending Strategies. Skill 7 applied two strategies, Planning and Comprehending strategies. In skill 4, Planning, Monitoring, and Comprehending strategies were found. In skill 5, Planning and Retrieval strategies were found in this observation. Planning and Retrieval strategies were also found in skill 8. The last skill being taught and learned in this observation were skill 10 and 11, with Comprehending strategy found in this teaching-learning process of test-taking strategies.
TOEFL test has been important requirement for the future and learning and applying the strategies have been something important also to help successfully pas the TOEFL test, including Reading Comprehension section. Whoever wants to take the TOEFL test should join the TOEFL preparation class beside doing exercise. This study hopes that it can help teachers or tutors of TOEFL class to enrich their knowledge of teaching in TOEFL preparation class.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The greatest praises and gratitude are addressed to Allah SWT, for the blessing and mercy foe every single thing happened to the researchers. Shalawat and Salam is always dedicated to pour beloved prophet Muhammad SAW. I would like to dedicate my sincerest gratitude to my dearest father Ngadiono, and my super mother Ngatini, and my brother who always supports me, Indra Aji Ardianto.
I am sure that this research would never have been completed without the assistance and supports of other. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude especially for my advisor, Galuh Kirana Dwi Areni, S.S., M.Pd, for the guidance. Also, my deepest appreciation and thankfulness goes to the CEO of EduBright, Mr. Andhika Farid Abdillah for permitting me to observe the TOEFL preparation class.