34 Good reader read extensively, integrates information in the text with existing
knowledge, have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading. There are some different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing,
and recall. Reading is a purpose; reading serves a function. It means that if reader gets the opportunities like what have said, reader will read more text. They spend
their time on texts intended to improve their knowledge or their language.
c. Reading and Language Teaching
Reading involves skills that the student must learn for himself, and that the measure of the teacher’s success is how far the student learns to do without his help.
Nuttal states that there is something for the teacher to do to solve the reading problems: 1 suitable text; 2 activities that will focus the student’s attention on the
text 1994: 22. On the other hand as teacher should engage the students to develop his own skill and we must make them aware of what he is doing and interested in
doing it better. Teaching reading is not only giving text to the students but also building their consciousness of reading skill.
Nuttal states that ...it is obviously impossible for us to familiarize our students with every text
they will ever want to read. Instead we must give them techniques for approaching texts of various kinds, to be read for various purpose. ... One of
the teacher’s job is to make sure that the bridge is built between the specific and the general. And one way of helping the student to generalize his skills it
to make sure that he reads a lot and has a lot of practice in using the skills with varied materials 1994: 22
To solve the problem about teaching reading Jansen in Richards and Renandya states that there are some characteristics of teaching reading, there are 1
the teaching strategy is contextualized; 2 strategies are taught explicitly through
35 direct explanation, modeling, and feedback; 3 there is a constant recycling of
strategies over new texts and tasks; 4 strategies are taught over a long period of time 2002; 374. From the above characteristics of teaching reading, it can be said
that in reading program, a teacher should organizes his activities to enable the students not only understand what and how, but also why they use reading
strategies. Without understanding the values of reading strategies, students will not get the most benefits of strategy instruction.
Nunan states Reading is an essential skill for learners of English as a second language. For
most of these learners it is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success not only in learning English, but also in learning in any
content class where reading in English is required. With strengthened reading skills, learners will make greater progress and development in all
other areas of learning 2002: 69
Harmer states There are many reasons why getting students to read English texts is an
important part of the teacher’s job. In the first place, many of them want to be able to read texts in English either for their careers, for study purposes or
simply for pleasure. Anything we can do to make reading easier for them must be a good idea. Reading texts also provide opportunities to study:
language, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way we construct sentences, paragraphs and texts 2001: 68.
From the statements above it can be concluded that teaching reading is very crucial for the learners to improve their skill, especially in writing skill because
reading text also provide good models for English writing. When a teacher teaches the skill of writing, they will need to show students models of what they are
encouraging them to do. Lastly, good reading text can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-
rounded, fascinating lessons.
36 Teaching reading usually has at least two aspects. First, it can refer to teaching
learners who are learning to read for the very first time. A second aspect of teaching reading refers to teaching learners who already have reading skills in their first
language Nunan 2003: 68. In teaching reading, teacher should know his learners. For example if we have low –level students it is impossible for us to give them a
copy of
The Times
or
The Guardian
which are certainly authentic for native speaker. They will probably not be able to understand them at all. There will be far
too many words they have never seen before, and the grammar will be convoluted and the style will finish them off. So we should know who the students are. Besides,
we should know the capability of the students and their field. For example if they are all business people, the teacher may well want to concentrate on business text. If
they are science students, reading scientific texts may be a priority. But, if they are a mixed group with differing interest and careers, we should give more varied texts.
Among the things a teacher might want them to read are magazine articles, letters, stories, menus, advertisements, reports, play extracts, recipes, instructions, poems,
and reference material. One of the teachers’ main functions when training students to read is not only
to persuade them of the advantages of skimming and scanning, but also to make them see that the way of reading is vitally important. Harmer states the principles
behind the teaching reading are: 1 Reading is not a passive skill. Reading is incredibly active occupation. To do it successfully, we have understand the words
mean, see the pictures the words are painting, understand the arguments, and work out if we agree with them; 2 Students need to be engaged with what they are
37 reading. As with everything else in lessons, students who are not engaged with the
reading text- not actively interested in what they are doing – are less likely to benefit from them; 3 Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a
reading text, not just to a language. It is especially important that they should be allowed to express their feelings about the topic; 4 Prediction is the major factor in
reading. When we read texts in our own language, we frequently have a good idea of the content before we actually read; 5 Match the task to the topic. Once a
decision has been taken about reading texts the students are going to read, we need to choose good reading tasks – the right kind of questions, engage useful puzzle,
etc.; and 6 Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full. Good teachers integrate the reading text into interesting class sequences, using the topic for discussion and
further tasks, using the language for study and later activation 2001: 70-71. Based on the sixth principle in teaching reading, teacher should understand well about their
learner. What teachers do should create some various techniques to make students feel encouraged by the teacher. Teacher should make an interesting call in teaching
reading. Besides, teacher should make learners aware about the learning process. Teacher not only gives learners text but they should create tasks which match with
the topic. Nunan states the principles for teaching reading 1 exploiting the reader’s background knowledge. A reader’s background knowledge can influence reading
comprehension. Background knowledge includes all of the experiences that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational experiences, and knowledge of how
texts can be organized. Comprehension can be enhanced if background knowledge can be activated by setting goals, asking questions, asking predictions, teaching text
38 structure, and so on. 2 Building a strong vocabulary base. Recent research
emphasizes the importance of vocabulary to successful reading. 3 Teaching for comprehension. Monitoring comprehension is essential to successful reading,
because in many reading instruction programs, more emphasize and time may be placed on testing reading comprehension than on teaching readers how to
comprehend. The readers use their cognitive and metacognitive skills. Further he states that cognitive can be defined as thinking and metacognitive can be defined as
thinking about out thinking. 2003: 74-75. Based on the three principle of Nunan it can be concluded that teaching reading is not only teaching text or answer question,
but teaching reading is exploiting the readers about their background knowledge. By so doing background knowledge is crucial to comprehend the text. Mc Cormick
states that background knowledge is more important in the case of expletory texts Urguhart, 1992: 84. In Understanding text we must know the meaning of the word,
so vocabulary is needed in understanding text. Carter and Mc Carthy state that vocabulary is at the heart of language teaching and learning 1997: i. Further they
state that vocabulary teaching should pay greater attention to the role of vocabulary in naturally-occurring text 1997: xi. There is the relationship between vocabulary
and reading. In measuring the readability of a text, vocabulary difficulty has consistently been found to be the most significant predictor of overall readability.
Besides vocabulary is crucial, other crucial one is comprehension. Teaching reading not only gives test or text to the students but also gives how to comprehend the text.
Urguhart states that comprehension is the goal of the reading process 1994: 84.
39 Further he states that the focus on skill can be seen as a development of interest in
comprehension.. Teacher should have the strategies of teaching reading. Richards and
Renandya defines reading strategies as plans for solving problems encountered in constructing meaning. They range from bottom-up vocabulary strategies, such as
looking up an unknown word in the dictionary, to more comprehensives action 2002: 287. Brown state the principle for designing interactive reading techniques
as follows: 1.
In an interactive curriculum, make sure that you don’t over look the importance of specific instruction in reading skills. Teacher likes to assume
that students will simply learn good reading by absorption. In reality, there is much to be gained by teacher’s focusing on reading skills.
2. Techniques should be intrinsically motivating. A teacher should choose
material that is relevant to student’s goals. 3.
In teaching reading simplified text is used to learners. Simple text that is authentic can either be found out there in the real world or devised.
4. Encourage the development of reading strategies
5. Include both bottom-up and top-down techniques. Sometimes teachers forget
that learners can indeed benefit from studying the fundamentals. Make sure that you give enough classroom time on focusing on the building blocks of
written language, 6.
Consider subdividing your techniques into pre-reading, during reading and after reading phases. teachers should give clearly instruction to the learners,
40 7.
Build in some evaluative aspect to your techniques Teacher should accurately assess students’ comprehension and development of
skills. Consider some of the following overt responses that indicate comprehension:
a. doing : the reader responds physically
b. choosing: the reader selects from alternative posed orally or in writing
c. transferring: the reader summarizes orally what is need
d. answering : the reader answer questions about the massage
e. condensing: the reader outlines or takes notes on a passage
f. extending: the reader provides an ending to a story
g. duplicating: the reader translates the message into the antive language or
copies it beginning level, for very short passage only h.
modeling: the reader puts together a toy, for example, after reading directions for assembly
i. conversing: the reader engages in a conversation that indicates appropriate
processing of information 1994: 298-300 It is stated by Nunan that reading is an essential skill for learners of English as
a second language. For most of these learners it is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success not only in learning English but also in learning any
content where reading in English will make greater progress and development in all other areas of learning 2003: 69.
From the above statement, it means that reading is very crucial for the learners to improve their skills although reading is a silent activity.
41
d. Strategy of Reading
