information, and to learn in which those should be considered to the process of mind.
7
Therefore, to understand the meaning of a text in reading activity, the reader have to use of interaction among eyes and mind to grasp the message related to what the
author is trying communicate. However, accordin
g to Peter David Fumprey in his book stated, “Reading is more than ability to understand the explicit meaning of the passage presented. It is an
essence, a constructive thinking process which includes comprehension of explicit and implicit meaning. It involves application, analysis evaluation and imagination. It
is one activity through which the child’s cognitive can further”.
8
Based on those statements above, clearly, reading is a complex process in getting meaning or in understanding the message. It is commonly what we call as
reading comprehension. It is in line with Zemelman Daniel and Hyde Samuels who stated that “the actively understanding of the message to construct the meaning
concerning the transaction between what the author trying to convey through his words and the mind of a reader is called reading comprehension”.
9
Reading is a form of communication between reader and the author. In the process of reading, a reader has to understand and catch the meaning of the text. At
the same time, the author give understanding through the words. The essence of reading activity is comprehension; it becomes a primary challenge in teaching or
learning of reading skill. In order to learn or understand the message of the author, the students are hoped to have the ability to comprehend the written textbook. As Farris
2004said that reading comprehension is the process of understanding the message that the author tries to convey.
10
In short, there is an interaction between a reader and
7
Elizabeth B. Bernhardth, Reading Development ….., p.5.
8
Peter David Fumprey, Measuring Reading Abilities: Concept, Sources, and Application, London: Hodder and Soughton Educational, 1997, p.2.
9
Zemelman Daniel and Hyde Samuels, Reading Comprehension, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, p.30.
10
Pamela J. Farris, Teaching Reading: A balanced Approach for today’s Classroom, New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2004, p.321.
an author. The result of this interaction, the reader tries to understand what the author means. While reading, a reader tries to understand the information from the text they
read. Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.
11
Therefore, there is no meaning if a reader just reads without comprehending and catching the information from it.
Jo Mc Donough quoted from Devine who said that, “Reading comprehension
is the process of using syntactic, semantic, and theoretical information found in the printed text to reconstruct in the reader mind.”
12
Comparison with the definition of Devine, William Grabe said that, “Reading comprehension is most likely a simple
multiplication of word recognition abilities and general language comprehension abilities.”
13
However, in comprehending a printed language, it is quite difficult as the reader must accomplish multiple things simultaneously in constructing the meaning
from a text. There is a construction of understanding concept. The reader have to construct their own understanding about the text they read. As Penny Ur stated ;
Our aims in real-life reading usually go beyond mere understanding. We may wish to understand something in order to learn from it in course of
study, in order to find out how to act instruction, directions, in order to express an opinion about it letter requesting advice, or for many other
purpose. Other pieces of writing, into which the writer has invested thought and care, demand a personal response from the reader to the ideas in the text,
such as interpretation, application to other contexts, criticism, or evaluation.
14
Based on these opinions, it could be summarized that reading is an activity which need a use of eyes an mind together at same time to get the information of a
11
Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skill: A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercise, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p.3.
12
Jo Mc Donough and Christoper Shaw, Materials and Methods In ELT, Sidney: The University of England, Black Well, 1993, p.101-102.
13
William Grabe, Reading Research and its Implication for Reading Assessment, Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona University, 1985,p.5.
14
Penny Ur, A course in Language Teaching; Practice and theory , New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p.150.
reading object. The comprehension is process to in getting the information. The writer concludes that the reading comprehension is a process to understand the
contents of the text which is done by the readers to get information. It is given through written language and aimed to comprehend the meaning of the text.
2. The Objective of Reading
In daily life, people generally read something because they want to or have a desire to do so. No matter what materials we read, we read them on objective. When
we read a comic, a novel, or a magazine in our leisure time, it does not mean that our reading does not have an objective. We read to spend our time or to get rid of
boredom because we have nothing to do. Even though our reading is just for spending time or getting rid of boredom, it
is still an objective. In this case, the objective is reading for pleasure. It is different when we read a textbook, a recipe, or a timetable. We read them because we need the
information. In this case, our reading objective is to get information. There are some objective of reading which is declared by Francoise Grellet
who stated that there are two main reasons of reading ; reading for pleasure and reading for information to find out something or in order to do something whit
information you got.
15
Meanwhile Larry A. Harris figured out the purpose of reading as follows: Just as the reader must adapt his reading to meet various purposes, he must
also adjust his reading rate. The answer to a specific question concerning supporting detail will require the reader to skim for the right section and then
read the section carefully for the correct answer. Following directions calls for slow, careful reading, as does reading an account of a specific experiment.
Recreational reading and newspaper reading often call for a rapid rate, but usually not as fast as skimming.
16
15
Francoise Grellet, Developing Read ing Skills: ……, p.4.
16
Larry A. Harris, Reading Instruction; Diagnostic Teaching in the Classroom, New York: Richard C. Owen Publisher, 1980, p.51
Based on the statement above, clearly people read for many objective. Some of them read for pleasure and some read for getting information in which different
objective gain different technique used. In addition, Christian Nuttal stated “whatever your reasons for reading
excluding any reading for language learning, it is not very likely that you were interested in the pronunciation of what you read, and even less likely that you more
interested in the grammatical structure used. You read because you wanted to get something from the writing.”
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This statement also emphasize on no matter the reader’s techniques used in reading, it aims to convey the message of the text.
In general, the objective of reading mentioned above is to understand or to comprehend the reading passage from the printed text whether there is an action or
not after reading a text. It emphasizes on reading is not a general ability. Related to the objective of reading it self, it embrace a wide variety of tasks, activities, skills,
and mental process. The objective
of reading are closely connected to a reader’s motivation for reading, it will also affect the way a reading selection is read. For example, when
readers read a reading selection in a test to find certain information that is needed to answer the test items, they will likely try to pay more attention and put more focus
onto the texts, use their thinking skill or intellectual ability to absorb the information they need, and activate their background experiences or prior knowledge that they
have to gain better comprehension from the text they read. In other words, read with a specific objective in mind enables readers to focus on the relevant parts of text and to
use appropriate reading strategy. Beside the objective that had been noted previously, there is another objective
of reading, which is to practice the pronunciation ability. This objective usually done by reading aloud. This reading purpose can be very useful when someone wants to
practice his or her articulation and intonation in pronouncing the words.
17
Christine Nuttal, Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign Language, London: Mcmillan, 2005, p.3.
3. The Types of Reading Skills
There are four easily identifiable skills in reading; skimming, scanning, intensive reading, and extensive reading.
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a. Skimming
;
glancing rapidly through a text to determine its general content. e.g. quickly glancing through an article to see if it interest or not.
Being able to look over material rapidly for given purposes without reading every phrase is great asset for a reader to posses. Skimming enables people to
select content that they want to read and to discard, which is inconsequential for their purposes. Skimming permits people to gain a general idea about material
when that is their purposes rather than to read all material in detail. b. Scanning; reading to locate specific information, e.g. locating telephone number
in directory. Being able to search through material rapidly with given purpose in mind, in
order to find a specific fact or an answer to particular question plays a large role in much of a youngster’s reading. Scanning enables people to locate specific
information without reading all materials around it. c. Intensive reading. In intensive reading, the reader tries to absorb all the
information given by the author. e.g. reading dosage instruction for medicine. d. Extensive reading; the reader deals with longer text as a whole, which requires
the ability to understand the component parts and their contribution to the overall meaning. e.g. reading a newspaper article, short story, or novel.
Each kind of reading skills that has been explained above are used for certain purposes. Each also requires different approach and technique to achieve its goal. For
example, skimming and scanning techniques are usually used by readers when they read a reading selection when take a reading test. By using these techniques, they
18
Andrew Wright, Picture for Language Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p.159
