Reading 1 Definition of Reading

readers can go around the world although they just stay at home. They can broaden their knowledge of economy, science, technology, culture, or reading to get the pleasure . Not only that, the readers also get the message that the writer had expressed. It can be said that reading is a bridge which connects between the writer and the readers. Further, Mikulecky and Jeffries conveyed their theory that improving reading is by reading. 27 They suggested that upgrading the level of reading skill is by reading a lot itself. It can be done by starting chose reading for pleasure. By then, it is wished that reading for pleasure give some advantages of improving speed and vocabulary, comprehension and getting new knowledge. Leaving form the enjoyment of reading, it will bring people to a better reading skilled. In sum, reading is not only pronouncing the written text on the pages but also putting the writer’s mind to the reader’s mind of what it is about. It needs many specific skills and aspect in doing the activity even the experience of the reader has. Hence, it can be concluded that reading is one of the keys to success for everyone who wants to be an educated person. 2 Reading Comprehension There are many reasons why teachers have to teach the students to be able to read. First, it is because students want to be able to read English text with different purposes. Second, reading is an exposure to English language. Third, reading can provide good model for English writing skill. The last is reading text give opportunities to study language elements. 28 Shortly, reading is like vehicle in learning. Even reading is improving the language itself. Understanding, knowledge, and comprehension are words weoften use to describe what we want to achieve through the act of reading. Harry Maddox on his 27 Beatrice S. Mikulecky and Linda Jeffries, More Reading Power, London: Longman, 1996, p. 6. 28 Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 2001, p. 68. book stated the nature of reading. “Reading is a very complex process, as is obvious if you think of how long it takes to learn to read; a process of sensory reception, involving skilled eye movement and as a brain process, in which the meaning of the printed symbol is elaborated.” 29 In other words, being able to read is a long process. It involves some aspects to get what the text says. Reading comprehension is defined as the process of unlocking meaning from connected text. According to the society, reading becomes the fact of someone’s learning outcome. Do you still remember when you were child and started entering the school? What did people ask to you? According to the writer’s experience, they asked her to read a text. Although it is formed on the wall, it shows the importance of being able to read. Therefore, reading becomes very crucial. From long time ago, reading comprehension is still important since the source of knowledge mostly in the written form, especially for some tests or examinations. Shortly, reading comprehension plays in basic role of many students’ life. According to JoAnne Schudt Caldwell, reading comprehension is “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.” 30 It means that reading comprehension is an activity of taking out and making meaning at once through interaction written language. While, John T. Guthrie defined reading comprehension is an activity of relating the reader’s experience or knowledge about the topic of the text. 31 It means that when the readers do not have any prior knowledge, new knowledge cannot be built and reading comprehension is difficult to be reached. Similarly, F Grellet on his paper 29 Harry Maddox, How to Study, London: Pan Books, Ltd., 1963, p. 77. 30 JoAnne Schudt Caldwell, Comprehension Assessment, New York: The Guilford Press, 2008, p. 4. 31 John T. Guthrie, Engaging Adolescents in Reading, California: Corwin Press, 2007, p. 11. says reading comprehension is extracting the required information from it as efficient as possible. 32 Thorndike theory in Judy S. Richardson and friends’ book defined “reading as a thinking process, implying that comprehension is not only recognizing letters and words but also thinking about what those symbols mean.” 33 It means that reading is different with reciting. Reading means that we get the meaning or message of the writer from the text. Then, Beatrice S. Mikulecky and Linda Jeffries stated on their book that as one reads, he or she makes connection between the experience or known knowledge to what he or she reads. 34 Further reading has been defined is more than interaction between a reader and a text. In other words, it is a complex behaviour that involved of various strategies, including problem-solving strategies, to build a meaning of what the writer meant. As been known that r eading is not an acumulation of „subskills,’ but a complex and specialized form of thinking. It means that learning to read is much deeper, broader, and more complex cognitive task, from start school until college. Reading is about understanding written text that involves both perception and thought. Reading involves two processes. They are word recognition of the written words and comprehending the meaning of the text. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving the written symbols into one’s spoken language. Comprehension refers to the understanding what have been read. As has been explained in the previous when someone does reading, people automatically have a reason or purpose on doing the activity. What kind the material is about, they surely have something to be found out of the text they read. People 32 F. Grellet, Developing Reading Skill, London: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 3 – 25. 33 Judy S. Richardson, Raymon F. Morgan Charlene Fleener, Reading to Learn in the Content Area, Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2006, p. 99. 34 Mikulecky Jeffries, More Reading Power, New York: Longman, 1996, p. 16. might read to get more information of what they have known. Next is for pleasure for they who have hobby on reading. Then, it is for enhancing knowledge of the text. Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette stated in their book, “Reading is more than just assigning foreign language sounds to written words; it requires the comprehension of what is written. Students differ in their ability to read their native language and these same differences reappear in their ability to read a second language.” 35 It means that reading is not as simple as sounding the written symbols but also comprehending what it means. Students have difficulties in reading their native language as well as second language. Based on definition above, it can be said that reading and comprehension are two elements that cannot be separated each other. As the result, reading comprehension is activities to understand writer ideas through interpretation of meaning and interaction with existing knowledge. In addition, Dorothy Piercey st ates that the students’ ability to comprehend the written language depends on their ability to understand what the writer says. Reading activities in contents areas about comprehension depends on one’s ability 36 : a. To evaluate and make a judgment b. To distinguish between what an author offers a s fact and the author’s opinion about those facts. c. To recognize the difference between what is fact and what is assumed to be fact. d. To compare e. To categorize f. To grasp the explanation of a process g. To identify an author’s theme h. To know characters i. To recognize a main idea and the data that support it 35 Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette, Classroom Techniques: Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., 1977, p. 249. 36 Dorothy Piercey, Reading Activities in the Content Areas, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1982, p. 26. j. To distinguish between cause and effect Comprehending requires the reader: a. To interpret b. To solve problem c. To visualize d. To hypothesis e. To observe and report f. To gather and organize data g. To follow directions h. To draw conclusion i. To predict outcomes. From all definitions about reading comprehension above, it can be understood that reading comprehension is a process of understanding textual content, knowledge or ideas through thinking process which requires analysis, coordination and interpretation.

3. Narrative Text 1

Definition of Narrative Text Another reason that reading called a complex process is that reading needs to connect or relate one’s experience to another one. Since reading text may be contains of knowledge and experience, students have to recapture to their previous experience. 37 Narrative is considered has close relation to the human real life situation. Hence, this type of text was chosen in this study. While, Anderson stated on the book that “narrative text type tells story; It’s purpose is to present a view of the world that entertains or informs the reader or listener.” 38 37 Ibid. 38 Mark Anderson Kathy Anderson, Text Type in English, South Yarra: Macmillan Education, 2003, p. 6. Moreover, Anderson states that narrative is a piece of text tells a story and,in doing so, entertains or informs the reader or listener. 39 From the definition above, it can be concluded that narrative story is a story tellsus about something interesting that has purpose to amuse, entertain or the readers. Anderson states that a good narrative uses word to paint a picturein our mind of 40 : a. What characters look like their experience, b. Where the action is taking place the setting, c. How things are happening the action. The characteistics of nattative texts among others: a. It tells us about a story of event or events. b. The events are usually arranged in chronological order. c. The narrator has a purpose in mind in telling the story. Therefore, the details of tha narrative are carrefully selected for purpose.Narration is telling a story. And to be interesting, a good story must must have interesting content. It should tell the reader about an event which isfound enganging. Therefore, it should be detailed and clear. In making narrative, there are some parts that should be included to make it interesting. There are as follows: 41 a. It is unified, with all the action a developing central idea. b. It is interesting, it draws the writer into the action and makes them feel as if they are observing and listening to the events. c. It introduces the four was of a setting- who, what, where, and when- within the context of the action. d. It is coherent, transinsition indicates changes in time, location, and characters. e. It begins at the beginning and end of the end. That is, the narrative follows a 39 Ibid., p. 8. 40 Ibid., p. 14. 41 Ibid., p. 15. chronological order- with events happening in a time sequence. f. It builds towards a climax. This is the moment of most tension or surprise a time when the ending is revealed or the importance of events becomes clear. The language features of narrative text are: a. Specific characters b. Time words that connect to tell when they occur. c. Verbs to show the action that occur in the story. d. Descriptive words to portray the character and setting. 2 Generic Structure of Narrative Text According to Anderson, he states that the steps for constructing a narrative are 42 : a. Orientation The readers are introduced to the main characters and possibly someminor characters. Some indication is generally given of where the action islocated and when it is taking place. b. Complication The complication is pushed along by a serious of events, which usually some sort of complication or problem to arise. This complication will involve tha main characters and oven serves to temporally toward them from reaching their goal. c. Sequence of event or Climax This is where the narrator tells how the character reacts to the complication.It includes their feeling and what they do. The event can be told in chronological order or with flashback. The audiens is given the narrator’s point of view. d. Resolution In this part, the implication may be resolved for better or worse, but it is rarely left completely unresolved. 42 Ibid., p. 8. e. Coda It is an optional closure of event if there is to be moral message to be learned of the story.

B. Previous Study

There are some related previous researches that relating students’ learning style and reading comprehension. First, the research was conducted by Cendy Septianty Rizky. She conducted causal comparative study investigate whether there was significant differences of students’ English achievement based on their visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles at second grade of SMP Islam Harapan Ibu. The data analysis showed that the auditory style dominated the students’learning styles. The highest score was gotten by kinesthetic style. The data analysis used was ANOVA. The result showed that there is a significant difference among student’s English achievement. Hence, it can be stated that there is significant differences value in students’ English achievement based on their learning styles. 43 Second, the research was conducted by Sari Febrianti. It was conducted by using quantitative approach and causal comparative as the design of the study. The instruments of the study are questionnaire and documentation, the questionnaire are distributed to 8th term students of English Education Department UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta in academic year 2010-2015. The documentation was the score of reading comprehension of ETIS which was taken from the Center for Language Development UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Further, it used One Way ANOVA to analyze the data from questionnaire and ETIS reading score. Findings of the result reveal that there is no significant difference onstudents’ reading comprehension score 43 Cendy Septianty Rizky, “Students’ English Achievement based on their Learning StyleA Causal Comparative Study at Second Grade students SMP Islam Harapan Ibu ”, Skripsi Universitas Islam Negeri Jakarta, 2013, pp. 1 –26 , unpublished.