Reading Subskills The Nature of Reading
9 reading, reading subskills are skills that are components of reading skill. These
subskills are micro-skills and macro-skills of reading that students should learn gradually.
A lot of experts try to mention what should be included in reading subskills. Davis in Alderson 2000: 9-10 defines eight subskills of reading. They
are presented below: 1
Recalling word meanings 2
Drawing inferences about the meaning of a word in context 3
Finding answers to questions answered explicitly or in paraphrase 4
Weaving together ideas in the content 5
Drawing inferences from the content 6
Recognizing a writer’s purposes, attitude, tone and mood 7
Identifying a writer’s technique 8
Following the structure of a passage Meanwhile, other expert that is Brown 2004: 187-188 proposes several
subskills of reading. He divided reading subskills into micro- and macro-skills of reading. These subskills are required to become an efficient reader. The micro-
skills that are suggested by Brown include seven items which are presented as follows:
1 Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of
English. 2
Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory. 3
Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose. 4
Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
5 Recognize grammatical word classes nouns, verbs, etc, systems e.g., tense,
agreement, pluralization, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms. 6
Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
7 Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the
relationship between and among clauses. Brown 2004: 188 presents the macro-skills of reading as follows:
10 1
Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for interpretation.
2 Recognize the communicative functions of written texts, according to form and
purposes. 3
Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge. 4
From described events, ideas, etc., infer links and connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting
idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification. 5
Distinguish between literal and implied meanings. 6
Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural schemata.
7 Develop and use a battery of reading strategies, such as scanning and
skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning of words from context, and activating schemata for the interpretation of texts.
Reading subskills have crucial role for students. These subskills help the students to be able to read and comprehend a text. Thus, it is important for the
learners to acquire these subskills to master the reading skill.