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Another factor faced by EFL students in reading skill is their confidence. Many EFL students are lack of confidence in their skills when they read texts
other language. They are typically of insecure readers who believe that they must first comprehend every word in the text in order to understand a text
Simanjuntak, 1988, p.11. Therefore, they read really slowly, proceeding word by word when the teacher asks them to read. Their comprehension problem may
decrease their confidence in reading. Seeing those problems of EFL students in reading English texts, reading
teachers play an important role to help them to face those problems. The role of the teacher is teaching with appropriate techniques and materials. Georgeou and
Pavlou 2003 say that children are still young to recognize the usefulness of a foreign language, but they can keep learning through a creative and enjoyable
technique, such as story, drawing, games, songs, puzzles, and drama p.8. It can motivate the students to have good confidence in reading. Therefore,
understanding the criteria of teaching reading is important for reading teachers.
b. Teaching Reading
In reading class, the teacher plays some important roles to make the learning activity successful. According to Clarke and Silberstein 1987, there are
three roles for the teacher i.e. the teacher as teacher, the teacher as participant, and the teacher as facilitator as cited in Simanjuntak, 1988, p.37. The teacher as
teacher means that the teacher‟s job is to resolve a language problem. It is not a must for a reading teacher because he also has a role as the participant in the class.
Teacher is a participant in the class when the opinions of all people in the class are
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of equal weight. It happens when the teacher open a discussion about a student‟s
question to all members in the class. Another role of reading teacher is as facilitator whereas the teacher provides an environment where learning can take
place and reading texts to be read by the students. In teaching reading, there are some criteria that reading teacher should pay
attention to. According to Nation 2009, there are four principles of teaching reading p.6. Those are meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output,
language-focused output, fluency development. Meaning-focused input involves getting input through reading where the
learners‟ focus in on understanding the message Nation, 2009, p.6. The main purpose of the students in reading a text is to get information they need.
Therefore, the teacher should provide a reading passage which is easy to understand, so the students can get the information smoothly. The role of the
teacher is guiding the students in finding the information included in the reading passage.
Besides meaning-focused input, reading should cover meaning-focused output which involves the learners to produce language through speaking and
writing where the learners‟ focus is on understanding the message Nation, 2009, p.6. After getting information through reading passage, the students should be
able to develop the information by using other language skills such as writing with their own style, writing paragraph related to the information, expressing their
opinion to the information, or re-telling the information through story telling.
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The other principle of teaching reading is language-focused input Nation, 2009, p.6. It involves deliberate attention to language features of the text passage.
The students should learn the language they are using to read, so their language acquisition is developed after reading the text. They can learn grammar,
vocabulary, and text structure through reading. Another principle of teaching reading is fluency development which
involves making the best use of what is already known Nation, 2009, p.6. The teacher should help the students to acquire reading strategies such as speed
reading, repeated reading, paired reading, scanning, and skimming. The aim in fluency development is to improve the way the students reading. Therefore, the
students should enjoy reading and feel motivated to read. By reading interesting texts, the students are eased to acquire the reading strategies.
It is common sense that if an activity is enjoyable, it will be memorable; the language involved will „stick‟, and the children will have a sense of
achievement which will develop motivation for further learning. This cyclical process generates positive attitude things that primary teachers can
transmit to children. Children learn a lot more than English in their English classes: the tasks and activities stimulate and continue their all-round
development Phillips, 1993, p.6. Teaching reading should be interesting to make the students motivated to
read. Simanjuntak 1998 states, “It is true in reading that the students must have a purpose and a motivation to learn p.2
.” Shepherd 1978 affirms that a student does not get the practice heshe needs in reading skills if heshe does not read
because of lack of motivation as cited in Simanjuntak, 1998, p.2. Therefore, motivation has big role in teaching reading because it determines how interested
the students to read are.
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2. Motivation
