Finding the Meaning from the Text
20
because in this activity the readers receive information from the writer through the text. In reading activity, a person who is reading a text is communicating with the
writer. Similar to Communicative Approach principle stated by Celce-Murcia
2001: 8, having linguistic competence does not mean that one will be able communicate with others. In order to be able to perform communication, one must
have communicative competence beside the linguistic competence. In short, Freeman 2000: 121 states, “…-knowing when and how to say what to whom.”
From this point of view, it is clear that in communication one should not only know what to say, but also when, how, why and whom he should say something.
One should know when the proper time to say something is; one should know why and how to say something to avoid misunderstanding; and one should know
whom he talks to so that the communication goes properly. In order to be able to communicate well in the target language, one should
be fluently in using the target language skills. Considering that reading is one of language skills needed in communication, teaching-learning activities in reading
class should also be in a communicative way as well. To make the teaching of reading communicative, teachers may take the reading texts material from actual
source which must be authentic texts. According to Williams 1986: 25, “The term authentic text refers to any text that was not written specially for language
learning purposes. In other words, it is a text written to say something, to convey a message and not simplify to exemplify language.” The authentic texts usually
provide real information about a certain topic, and this authenticity builds a real world image in students’ mind through which the reading comprehension
21
activities become communicative. The authentic text must also provide students with the communicative uses of words, phrases, expression, and sentences.