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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
A. Theoretical Review
1. The Nature of Reading
a. Definition of Reading
Reading is one of the four major skills in mastering English. Many definitions are given to the reading skill. Spratt et al. 2005:21 claim that reading
is a receptive skill. It means when a person read a text, that person tries to respond to the text, rather than producing it. To respond to a text, a reader should make
sense of the text. The reader needs to understand the language of the text at word level, sentence level and whole-text level.
To understand the language of the text at word level, sentence level and whole-text level, readers have to develop their reading skills by practicing.
Johnson 2008:4 emphasizes that reading is a constantly developing skill. Reading practice holds important role for a reader in developing their reading
skill. Reading practice can make a reader get better at reading texts. Through reading practice, the reader can learn a lot of unfamiliar words and can be exposed
to a lot of new concepts and ideas. Gradually, they can learn and understand the language of the text at word level, sentence level and whole-text level.
The central purpose of reading is to understand a text. Consequently, Grabe 2009:14 defines reading as a comprehending process. Readers read to
comprehend what the writer intended to convey in writing. They also want try to figure out about the text and what information they can get from the text.
7 Furthermore, the efforts not only come from the readers, but also come
from the writer. The writer also tries to share a message in his mind to the reader. Heshe need to make the message clear to hisher readers. Therefore, Nuttall
1996:11 add that reading as an interactive process. It means that while a reader reads a test to comprehend the writer’s intention, the text provides information
that the writer wants the reader to understand in certain ways. Armed with these ideas, reading is a receptive skill which is aimed to
respond to the text and this skill develops gradually. To master the central goal of reading that is to comprehend a text, readers need to have reading practices of
various texts. Reading practice will help them to get better at comprehending a text.
b. Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension has essential role in reading skill. The central goal of reading is to comprehend a text. The reading comprehension skill helps a
reader to get a meaning from a text. These skills, according to Johnson 2008:110, are strategies that are used by readers to search for information and
construct meaning from a text. These thinking processes are used to comprehend a text.
To comprehend a text, a reader uses the reading comprehension skill. However, the reading comprehension is not only about how readers respond to a
text. Klinger et al. 2007: 8 suggest reading comprehension as a multi- component, highly complex process. This process involves many interactions
between readers and what they bring to the text previous knowledge, strategy
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