The Nature of Reading

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Review on Reading Comprehension

1. The Nature of Reading

Reading is a very important activity in human‟s life. This is due to the fact that people mostly get information through reading. Reading is more than simply referring to the activity of pronouncing the printed material or following each line of written page. It consists of various and mixed activities. People have their own activities to do the reading activities. They have different purposes when they read. It is also more than recognizing words within a sentence; but includes whole activity of thinking process to evaluate the information. The following are some definitions of reading proposed by some experts: According to Heilman 1981: 182, reading is a complex process in requiring not only the ability to recognize words, but also the ability to comprehend and evaluate the meaning of written text. Similarly, Petty 1980: 207 states that reading is a complex process to get information from the written text, in which the ability to pronounce and comprehend the written text is needed to interpret sign, letters, or symbol by assigning meaning in receiving ideas and intuition from the author via printed words. It means that reading is a process to get information by comprehending and evaluating the written text. Comprehending is the ability of the reader to understand and gain meaning from what has been read in written texts. Aebersold and Field 1997: 15 say that reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text. The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to begin. It is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual reading. Granted, the meaning the reader gets from the text may not be exactly the same as the meaning the writer of the text wished commit to user to convey. Likewise, the meaning that one reader gets from a text may be different from that of other readers reading the same text. William 1999: 12 defines reading as a process whereby one looks at and understand what has been written. It means that reading is a process of getting meaning from written text. The key word here is „understand‟. Only reading aloud without understanding does not count as reading. Understanding is a process in reading comprehension. Reading can often be a struggle after understanding, especially where language learners are concerned. Again, although reading has been defined as a process whereby one looks at and und erstands what has been written, the reader doesn‟t necessarily need to look at everything in a given piece of writing. The reader is not simply a passive object, faced with letters, words, and sentences, but is actively working on the text, and able to arrive at understanding without looking at every letter and words. Moreover, Grellet 1998: 7 defines reading as an active skill that constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking, and asking oneself questions. It means that a reader not only understands a printed material but also needs background knowledge on the field of the text. According to Nunan 1989: 32, reading is a process of decoding written symbol, working from smaller units individual letter to larger ones words, clauses, and sentences. In other words, it is a process of understanding the meaning of written forms. Furthermore, Nuttal 1988: 4 states that reading is a process of communication between the writer and the reader. Here, the writer encodes the message in his mind. It might be an idea, a fact, a feeling, and argument while the reader decodes the message from the text. So, reading is not only a passive process but also an active communication process because reading is a result of interaction between the perception of graphic symbols that represent language and the readers‟ language skills and knowledge of the world. Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that reading is a complex process which includes constant process of guessing, activating background knowledge on the field of the text, and decoding written symbols commit to user that involves reacting to a written text in order to get message or information from a written text.

2. The Nature of Reading Comprehension