The Definition of Reading
interpreting and understanding words but also relating the idea of the text with the
reader’s knowledge. Snow 2002:11 defines reading comprehension as below
explanation. Reading comprehension is the process of extracting and constructing meaning concurrently through interaction and involvement
with written language. The words extracting and constructing are to emphasize both the importance and the insufficiency of the text as a
determinant of reading comprehension. In addition, comprehension also entails these three elements based
on Snow 2002: 12: • The reader : who is doing the comprehension process
• The text : that is to be comprehended
• The activity : in which comprehension is a part. Those three elements are main parts of reading comprehension because
they are the evidence of comprehension’s existence.
Brown 2001: 306 also has different view related to reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension is primarily a matter of developing appropriate and efficient comprehension strategies which relate to bottom-
up procedures and other enhances the top-down processes. Both information in the texts and reader’s background knowledge are crucial to
attain reading comprehension.
It can be concluded that reading comprehension is not as simple as many people think. The complexity nature of reading comprehension
shows that reading comprehension is necessary to be learned by students.
The variation of the information in the text and the reader’s background
knowledge could help students in the process of comprehending a text.