a. Skimming: quickly running one’s eyes accross a whole text an essay, article,
or chapter to get the gist of it. The reader goes through the text extremely quickly. The purpose of skimming is simply to see what a text is about. The
reader skims in order to satisfy a very general curiosity about a text. b.
Scanning : reading quickly going to a text to find a particular piece of information. Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly
in order to find a particular point of information Williams, 1996: 100. The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information without reading
the whole text Brown, 1994: 293 c.
Extensive Reading : reading longer text usually for someone’s pleasure. This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding.
d. Intensive Reading : reading short text to extract specific information. This is
more on accuracy activity involving reading for detail. In this course, each text is read carefully and thoroughly for maximum comprehension.
4. The Definition of Reading Comprehension
Reading can’t be separated from comprehension because the purpose or the result of reading activity is to comprehend what has been read. Reading
without understanding what has been read is useless. According to Bloomfield taxonomy, there is a level of cognitive domain namely comprehension that is a
type of understanding such that the individual knows what is being communicated. Comprehension takes place while the person is reading and it
needs a set of skills that let him find information and understand it in terms of what is already known. This idea is supported by Yoakam cited in Smith 1961:
213 who state that: “Comprehending reading matters involves the correct association of meaning with word, symbols, the evaluating of meanings which are
suggested in contect, the selection of the coorrect meaning, the organization of ideas as they are read, the retention of these ideas and their use in some present or
future activity”. Comprehension is the mind act or power of understanding Hornby,
1987: 174. Therefore reading comprehension means understanding what has been read. It is an active process that depends not only on comprehension skill, but also
on the reader’s experiences and prior knowledge. In line with Hornby, Grellet 1998: 182 states that reading comprehension means understanding a written text
to extract the required information from it as efficiently as possible. Grellet emphasizes the importance of obtaining the required information in reading
Comprehension refers to an active mental process. When one reads something he actively goes along to comprehend what the writer’s intended
message by predicting, evaluating, selecting significant details, organizing, etc. In this case, a crucial factor that influences comprehension is the importance of the
reader’s background knowledge Heilman as quoted by Widdowson, 1978 According to Howell, et al. 1993:182, reading comprehension is the act
of combining information in a passage with prior knowledge in order to construct meaning. While Adam in Howel, Fox, Morehead, 1993:182 states that reading
