Pre-reading strategies allow students to think about what they already know about a given topic and predict what they will read or hear.
37
Therefore, by understanding what the students want to read, it will help them to comprehend the
text better. It will affect on student‟s reading comprehension test achievement. Reading educators such as Betts and Stauffer
“They recommended a lesson structure that provides not only for comprehension-oriented activities
during reading but for pre- and post- reading discussions to integrate children‟s
prior knowledge and to help them evaluate what they have learned. ”
38
From this statement, pre-reading can giv
e benefit in recalling student‟s knowledge. This activity could help students in comprehending the text by facilitating them in pre-
reading activity. Because they have background knowledge about the text, before they face the text.
In conclusion, pre-reading activity is an activity which is held before main reading activity. This activity usually is held
in order to brainstorm students‟ knowledge which is connected with the text. This activity has function as the
media before the main reading process happens to help students comprehend the text easily.
2. Goals of Pre-Reading Activity
The pre-reading activity is established to help students make schemata or prior knowledge about the text that they want to face. This activity makes students
have background knowledge about the text.
Wilson and Chase states “
The goals of pre-reading stage are to activate or build, if necessary the students‟ knowledge of the subject, to provide any
language preparation that might be needed for coping with the passage, and, finally, to motivate the learners want to read the text.
”
39
The motivation of reading
37
Richard Nordquist, http:grammar.about.comodpqgPrereading.htm, taken on January, 2013 at 03.20.
38
Jean Osborn, Paul T Wilson, Richard C Anderson ed, Reading Education: Foundations for a Literate As: Lexington Books, 1985, p. 326.
39
Ibid.
is built before they read. The aims are to attract students‟ interest in reading text. When they are attracted to the text, the students will comprehend the text easily.
B ased on Willis, “The goals of pre-reading is to give students an overview
of the topic, book, or story to be read so they can develop mental templates upon which to pattern the new information.”
40
Therefore, pre-reading activity is needed in reading class. Giving the students such a predicting cues to warm up their
brains will give many benefits. This activities purpose is to shape background knowledge to make a base to new information.
In conclusion, pre-reading activities have beneficial goals in giving students‟ preparation before reading. There are some strategies that can be used to
make connection in the readers‟ thought. The most important one is to set reading
purposes before someone begins to read.
3. Kinds of Pre-Reading Activities
In pre-reading, there are kinds of pre-reading. Pre-reading allows teacher to create some activities in order to attract students to read. From this activity,
students are expected to comprehend the text easily. Silberstein
said that, “Pre-reading activity can be these following activities which are designed to do before the students read:
a. Class discussion anticipating content
b. Previewing: Students complete the following activities in pairs, working
back and forth between the text and paired discussion. ”
41
Those activities involve students to cooperate each other in anticipating the text. It will give advantages to low achievement students. They will be helped
by conditioning them in pair or in groups. From this explanation, it will give us information that pre-reading could be a way for students to comprehend the text.
In addition, Moreillon stated that:
40
Judy Willis, M. D., Teaching the Brain to Read: Strategies for Improving Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, 2008, p. 131.
41
Silberstein, op. cit., p. 44-45.
Cues and questions help students‟ minds begin to focus and prepare for the literacy event to come. This information is used to shape the listening or
reading experience. These introductions often help students to remember and connect with what they already know about a topic, theme, author, or
illustrator. These cues and questions, then, are linked to the background knowledge strategy.
42
Pre-reading activities helps the students to prepare their minds to be ready in reading the text. The students are invited to recall their previous knowledge
related to the text. Additional Pre-Reading Strategies:
1. Overviews: The activities in overviews are class discussions, printed
previews, photograph, outlines or films. 2.
Vocabulary Previews: Giving the students some vocabulary related to the reading topic before reading activities.
3. Structural Organizers: Previewing the structural organization of the
text before reading, to improve student‟s comprehension related to the form of the text that they will be faced.
4. A Purpose for Reading: Setting the purpose of reading to guess what
the text is which the question could be come from teacher. 5.
Author Consideration: This strategy is considering what the author tries to convey in his work through understanding his field on his
certain work. 6.
KWL: This strategy involves three metacognitive steps in reading expository text. That is: What do I Know? What do I Want to learn?
What did I Learn?
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In conclusion, there are several kinds of pre-reading. Pre-reading involves teachers‟ preparation in holding the activities before the reading class. The use of
kinds of pre-reading activities is based on the purposes of reading. It also adjusted to the students‟ needs and also teachers‟ ability to conduct pre-reading activity.
42
Moreillon, op. cit., p. 60.
43
Karla Porter,
M. Ed,
Reading: Pre-Reading
Strategies ,
2013, http:departments.weber.eduteachallreadingprereading.html date taken on October, 8 2013,
08.51 am.
4. The Steps of Pre-Reading Activity
