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general understanding, with the focus generally on the meaning of what is being read than on the language.”
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d. Intensive Reading
Nuttal stated, “Intensive reading involves approaching the text under guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus
on the text. The aim is to arrive at an understanding, not only of what the text means, but of how the mea
ning is produced.”
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3. The Problems of Reading
There are many problems faced by a reader as reading. Nuttall classifies the problem in reading as follows:
a. It is because not familiar with the code in which it has been
expressed. So one of the prequisites for satisfactory communication is that writer and reader shouls share the same
code.
b. The difficulty depends on the amount of previous knowledge
that the reader brings to the text. c.
The difficulties lies not in the language, and not in the amount of knowledge the reader requires, but in the complexity of the
concepts expressed. d.
The vocabulary is the source of difficulty.
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The problems of reading based on Jeremy Harmer, he classified the problems of reading into some ideas:
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a. Language
Students will be more difficult to understand in reading a text with longer sentences and longer words rather than with the shorter one.
And they will have great difficulty in understanding the whole text when they face many unfamiliar words which text contains. Then, they
will have success in reading if they recognize many vocabularies
18
Jack C.Richard, and Willy A.Renandya, eds. Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 p.295
19
Christine Nuttal, Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign Language.......p.38
20
Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language.........p.5-6
21
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching: Third Edition, New York: Longman Publishing, 1991, p. 203-208.
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without consciously thinking about it. It is clear that sentence length and the percentage of unknown words are problems in comprehending
the text. b.
Topic and genre The readers feel the topic is not appropriate or they are not familiar
with the genre of the text. It caused they may be reluctant to engage fully with the activity. The lack of schematic knowledge may be a
major problem to successful in reading. c.
Comprehension tasks Comprehension is the major purpose in teaching receptive skills.
Sometimes in teaching reading, the teacher gives tasks to be testing for students rather than helping them to understand the text. Just testing
them is not appropriate way to build their comprehension and sometimes tasks or text that given for students are far too easy or far
too difficult. d.
Negative expectations The students predict that they will not understand with the passage
because they think that so difficult for them and make them frustration and de-motivating. They have no interest and bored in reading activity.
In addition, Rubin and thompson stated that reading problems for foreign language learners often encounter are:
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a. There are too many unfamiliar words
b. Read too slowly
c. The sentences are too long or don’t make sense
The writer sumps up that reading have some problems. The problems are: the readers feel difficult to recognize vocabulary, the readers
are unfamiliar with the text, the readers do not have background knowledge to relate with the text, the readers feel unconfident because
they judged that reading is difficult.
22
Joan Rubin and Irene Thompson, How to be a more succesful language learner: Toward Learner Autonomy, second edition, Boston: Heinle Heinle Publisher, 1994, p.93-97
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B. Cooperative Learning
1. The Understanding of Cooperative Learning
