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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter the writer discusses some theories that are relevant in designing reading materials using Contextual Teaching and Learning CTL for
the seventh grade of Pangudi Luhur I Junior High School Yogyakarta. This chapter is divided into two major parts. In the first part, the writer discusses the
theoretical description and in the second part, the writer explains the theoretical framework.
A. THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION 1. Reading
a. The Nature of Reading
Goodman 1976 and Smith 1978 as cited by Vacca 1981: 2 proposed that reading is an “active process of deriving meaning”. It means that when
reading the texts readers try to understand the author’s message by interacting with the text. A reader is a user of language whose task it is to make sense out of
what she or he reads. Another view about reading comes from Karlin 1980: 7. He says that reading is the reconstruction of the ideas of others. It shows us about
comprehensive processes in someone’s mind while heshe is reading. Heshe receives thoughts and ideas that are conveyed through written expression.
Similarly, Mitchell 1982: 1 proposes that reading is the ability to make sense of written or printed symbols. The reader uses the symbols to guide himher to find
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the writer’s message. From the definition above, the writer concludes that reading is an active thinking process of the written and printed symbol to build the
meaningful interpretation from the writer’s message.
b. Teaching Reading Skill
According to Hughes 1989 there are two sub-skills of reading comprehension. They are macro skill and micro skill. The term “macro skill”
refers to understanding the general ideas in the text e.g., information, gist, argument while “micro skill” refers to recognizing and interpreting the linguistic
features of the text e.g., referents, word meanings, discourse indicators. In this study, the writer uses micro skill to design the materials.
According to Pearson and Fielding’s generative learning quoted by Urquhart and Weir 1988:183 there are three phases that are used in teaching
reading. They are pre-reading activities, whilst reading activities, and post reading activities. Each phase will be further explained as follows:
1 Pre-reading activities
This phase is important. It is to activate student’s knowledge about the text and motivate student so they will have interest in reading. The basic principles for
pre-reading activities are: a Teaching vocabulary
New vocabulary is attending to facilitate comprehension. Sometimes students abandon reading assignments because they are too difficult in vocabulary.
Students need to know the new vocabulary related to the topic so they can understand the text. According to Anderson 1991 as cited by Nunan 2003:
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74, vocabulary should be taught in context to effectively guess the meaning of less frequently used vocabulary.
b Providing essential background information Adequate preparation for reading a piece of text includes helping students
either recall or acquire information necessary for comprehending the text. c Establishing purpose for reading
Purposes in reading will help the students focus their attention on what to look for as they read and help them to connect their knowledge with new
information. The students sometimes are not ready to establish their own reason for reading. Therefore, the teacher must try to encourage them so they
will have good reading habits. d Motivating students to be able to do the reading
The teacher must try to raise and develop interest of student to reading texts. This is important for the students. Students who have lack of motivation in
reading will not be able to achieve all that is needed in reading.
2 Whilst Reading Activities
The activities, in whilst reading, are the activities to lead the students to understand the content of the reading passage. The activities are as follows:
a Skimming It helps the students to gain general ideas of the material by reading the texts
quickly and selectively. b Scanning
It helps the students to gain specific information they wish to obtain from the text quickly.
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c Reading for explicitly stated main ideas It helps the student to find the main idea which is stated explicitly.
d Reading for implicitly stated main ideas It helps the students to find the main idea which is stated implicitly.
e Reading for details This activity asked the students to find detailed information from the text.
f Reading between lines This activity is done by reading each line of the text. It will help the students
to have better understanding on how to draw an inference. g Deducing meaning from context
This activity requires the students to discover the meaning of a great number of unfamiliar words from the texts.
3 Post Reading Activities
Questions of evaluation and personal responses are also seen as the important things in post reading activities, relating the text to the outside world.
This activity can be done in an oral or a written way.
c. Reading techniques
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