The Process of Reading Comprehension
17 learners reading ability, the teacher should not only focus on the linguistic
aspects of the text but also on reading subskills that make the learners become more advanced readers. Then, learners understanding upon the text is not only a
matter of communicating it to them but also to communicate it to others to make them understand. Finally, the teacher should spend time to develop learners
reading fluency during the classroom reading instruction by employing any knowledge and reading subskills that learners have mastered previously.
7. Types of Classroom Reading Comprehension
There are various types of reading performance in the class. Brown 2001 classifies classroom reading performance into two broad categories,
namely oral and silent reading. The first type of reading performance, oral reading, provides teachers with several benefits. Brown 2001 mentions three
advantages of oral reading, i.e. serving as an evaluative check concerning readers bottom-up processing skills and pronunciation as well as enhancing learners
participation if teachers want to highlight a certain short segment of a reading passage. Despite those benefits of oral reading, the apparent participation of the
learners reading text aloud might conceal the fact that they are merely reciting and do not really understand the text.
Another type of classroom reading performance is silent reading which consists of intensive reading and extensive reading. Intensive reading is usually a
classroom-oriented activity whereas the latter is usually done outside the class time. In intensive reading, learners focus on the linguistic or semantic aspects of a
text. It calls learners attention to terms such as grammatical forms, discourse
18 markers, and other surface structure details in order that they understand literal
meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like. Meanwhile, extensive reading is used to achieve general understanding
of a longer text such as books, long articles, essays, novels, etc. While the intensive reading calls the learners attention into detail information of a passage,
extensive reading develops a global understanding of a particular text. Hence, it shows that the types of reading comprehension depends more on the variety of the
text and the purpose of reading. Intensive reading is more suitable for a shorter text which needs reading in detail whereas the extensive reading can be applied
for longer texts so it won t be a time-consuming to read in detail. While the intensive reading calls the learners attention into detail
information of a passage, extensive reading develops a global understanding of a particular text. Hence, it shows that the types of reading comprehension depends
more on the variety of the text and the purpose of reading. Intensive reading is more suitable for a shorter text which needs reading in detail whereas the
extensive reading can be applied for longer texts so it won t be a time-consuming to read indetail. Using intensive reading, teachers can help learners develop their
linguistic knowledge related to the text that is needed to comprehendthe text. Finally, using intensive reading, teachers can help learners develop their reading
fluency.