Sandra Silberstein on her book Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading
defined reading as complex processing skill, ―Reading is a complex processing skill in which the reader interacts with text in order to recreate a
meaningful discourse.‖
5
Richard Allington and Michael Strange also defined, ―Reading as decoding process with the reader processing each letter in turn,
producing the appropr iate sounds, and forming words.‖
6
Another expert, Savage and Mooney defined, ―Reading is a process of moving through printed language
to meaning.‖
7
According to Penny Ur, ―Reading means reading and understanding a foreign language learner who says, ‗I can read the words but I do not know what
they mean‘ is not, therefore, reading, in this sense. He or she is merely decoding – translating written symbols into corresponding sounds.‖
8
Based on the definitions about reading above, reading can be defined as a process that requires people to read and to understand what they read. Reading is
also a complex skill that people should do an interaction with text in order to recreate or create a meaningful discourse.
2. The Kinds of Reading
There are two kinds of reading according to Jeremy Harmer.
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a. Extensive reading
The term refers to reading which students do often but not exclusively away from the classrooms. Extensive reading should involve reading for pleasure or
5
Sandra Silberstein, Technique and Resources in Teaching Reading, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 12.
6
Richard Allington and Michael Strange, Learning Through Reading in the Content Areas, Lexington: D. C. Heath Company, 1980, p. 15.
7
John F. Savage and Jean F. Mooney, Teaching Reading to Children with Special Needs, London: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1997, p. 1.
8
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 138.
9
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, England: Pearson Education, 2007, p. 99.
a joyful reading. This is enhanced if students have a chance to choose what they are willing to read.
b. Intensive reading
It refers to the detailed focus on the construction of reading texts that takes place usually but not always in classrooms. Teachers may ask the students to
look at extracts from magazines, poems, Internet websites, novels, newspaper, plays, and wide range of other text genres. Intensive reading is usually
accompanied by study activities. While Francoise Grellet divided the kinds of reading into:
a. Skimming, it is a process of reading in which happen quickly running
one‘s eyes over a text to get the gist of it. b.
Scanning, it is a process of reading in which quickly going through a text to find a particular piece of information.
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The writer considers that if people have different purpose in reading, it will as well influence the way they read. For instance, people probably
will read some lessons or materials in the limited amount of time then people just skim the text. On the contrary, when people need to look up a
name in the address book or word in the dictionary, they should know what they are looking for so they scan it and read it word by word.
3. The Purpose of Reading
When people read, they may have some different purposes to obtain after reading the text. For instance, when people want to get information or knowledge,
they read a textbook, a newspaper, a journal, an article. When people read to get pleasure or to get entertained, they may read some kinds of magazine, comic, or
10
Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skills, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 4.
