6 Environmental Influences One way to help the language development is by stimulating atmosphere at
home where the children can explore and converse with parents who encourage their experiments and curiosity.
Atmosphere at the children home also influences the ability of the children to become good readers. A research found that the percentage of poor readers
coming from homes with a low socio-economic status is much higher that for the good readers. It is necessary to have a reasonable background of material
provision in order to maintain a good reading progress. Moreover, the happy relationship between children and their parents is more important because parents
are the one who provide interest, stimulation, and sympathy when difficulties arise.
7 Emotional Factors Emotional factors seem to allow a division into two types under the
headings of attitudes to read on the one hand and general personality problems on the other. Motivation is the most important factor in learning how to read. To
build motivation is not an easy thing to do; it needs a long process demanding concentration and interest over a number of years before real fluency in the
medium level is achieved.
d. The Basic Principles of Reading
According to Moyle 1972: 101-107 the basic principles of a good reading must be based and viewed firstly from the point of view of the nature of
literacy at the adult level secondly from the needs and abilities of the children at
their stage of development. There are some of the basic principles for a good reading.
1 Reading should be formed as natural unit of the children’s development as possible
The whole reading activities must be done as natural as possible so that the children ability to communicate will develop naturally. If the reading is to be an
activity which appears natural to the children then any instruction given or attainment expected should be firmly based in knowledge and understanding of
the children abilities and interests. 2 Reading as an integral part of other activities
The children must be led to an understanding that reading is useful and important. To make the children understand that reading is an integral part of
other activities, the teacher must create activities which are interesting and can build their curiosity so that the children will enjoy the class and finally they will
realize that reading is also an integral part of other activities. 3 Reading instructional should be attractive to the children
Young children love to talk and enjoy listening to the stories because for them it is interesting. One way to reduce the difficulties in learning to read is the
teacher must create an instruction which is interesting so that it can attract the children to learn to read.
4 All reading should be meaningful The children should understand what they read, because how the children
can know that what they read is meaningful if they do not even understand the
content of a reading text. The teacher task here is to provide a reading passage which has meaning.
5 Word recognition skills cannot be ignored Besides ensuring that the reading must be enjoyable, the teacher must also
ensure that the reading activities also integrate with other work, fit to the interest of the children. One thing that should be remembered is that the reading
instructions must be presented in a various ways and attractive manner so that the children curiosity will arise.
6 Instruction should lead increasingly to independence in reading The teacher must make sure that the more the children read, the more they
should be able to read without any help. One of the ways is by giving them various level of difficulty in every reading text in every meeting.
7 Every activity must be related to the whole scheme Any activity which the children do must be suitable with the aims of
reading programs as a whole and hope for the future development. 8 Progress through the reading programs must be kept under review
The teacher will find difficulty in measuring what students have achieved in reading development. There is also a problem in keeping the programs in line
with the individual strengths and weaknesses of the children. To solve the problems the teacher must administer some form of standardized test as a tool of
measurement and also reviewing.
e. The Stages in Teaching Reading
