Goodman 1967 pointed reading as an active psycholinguistic guessing game. In the process of reading, the readers make their further prediction about
what will happen next reflecting to what they have already read. They search for cues presented to support them in making prediction. Then, they confirm their
prediction as they read along the text Cohen, 1990: 75. Eskey stated that reading is a continual interaction of identification skills and
interpretive skills. The identification skill happens when the readers recognize the words, phrases, and grammatical signals to decode the text. Whereas, the
interpretive skill happens when the readers try to construct the information and build for meaning. Moreover, there is also an interaction occurred between the
writer and the reader in the reading process. There are two approaches involved, namely: text-based and reader-based approaches. The text-based approach
concerns with what the writer plans to write and how it is written while reader- based approach deals with what the readers bring to the text and what is got by the
readers after reading Cohen, 1990: 75-76. To sum up, the reading process begins and ends with meaning. As it is stated
by Lapp and Flood 1978, if the reader has not comprehended, he has not read Osman, 1986:1. Therefore, the comprehension is the key of the reading process.
This study also focuses on the improvement of reading comprehension mastery of the tenth grade of the private school students.
b. The Models of Reading Processes
Alderson 2000: 16 proposes four models of reading, namely: bottom-up model, top-down model, interactive model, and interactive-compensatory model.
1 Bottom-up model
In bottom-up model, reading begins from the print. The readers start from the fundamental basics of English which are letters and sounds recognition, then move
to the morpheme recognition, the word recognition, the identification of grammatical structures, sentences, and longer texts. Nunan 2003: 70 stated that
bottom-up model starts from lower-level reading processes and then it will increase to higher level. A successful reader is a reader who is able to break down the word
into smallest unit that is sounds. According to Gough, cited by Pehrsson and Robinson 1985: 6, there are some strategies occupied by the readers in bottom-up
model. They are visual look at print, auditory ascertain words, syntactic synthesize words into sentences, and semantic understand words, sentences, and
paragraphs. Bottom-up approach is supported by a phonic approach because the focus of
learning is to understand each single word. As it is said by Alderson 2000: 7, bottom-up model is associated with phonics approaches since children need to
identify letters before they are able to read words.
2 Top-down model
In top-down model, the readers start from the largest unit that is the whole text. They bring their hypothesis about the text and explore the text to confirm or
reject their hypothesis. Goodman stated reading as a process of hypothesis verification since the readers come with formed plan and they use the selected data
from the text to confirm or reject their prediction Pehrsson and Robinson, 1985: 6. In Goodman’s perception, the readers undergo some strategies in top-down model.
They are semantic predict meaning, syntactic generate anticipated language possibilities to structure anticipated meaning, and visual combines with auditory
confirm expectations. Since meaning construction becomes the major attention in top-down model,
the background knowledge of the readers holds the important role to help the readers understand the text. Furthermore, there is a belief that comprehension
comes from the readers themselves. Nunan 2003: 71 said that in order to comprehend the text, the readers do not need to understand each single word
attached. The readers may scan and search for cues to construct the meaning.
3 Interactive model
This model combines bottom-up and top-down approaches. There is an assumption that comprehension is based on the information provided from several
sources. Rumelhard Pehrsson and Robinson, 1985: 6 stated that in order to grasp the meaning of the written text, the readers might start from print or from readers’
expectation. They may use any strategies to achieve understanding. The goal of reading is comprehension. Thus, reading process should begin and end with
meaning. Eskey, cited by Simanjuntak 1988: 7, stated that the interactive model of reading is based on the readers’ cognitive structure. The process starts from the
identification of written form and the understanding of the structures and words attached. The understanding of the forms of the written text may assist the readers
to make predictions in order to interpret the meaning of the whole text and to achieve comprehension.
4 Interactive-compensatory model
The compensatory means that the weakness of one area or skill may be supported by other strength in other area. When the readers do not have adequate
skills to achieve the comprehension of the written text, their weakness may be supported by their background knowledge to help them understand it.
c. The Levels of Comprehension
