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7 Authentic Assessment
Authentic assessment is done periodically and continuously through some aspects to measure the students’ improvement on their performance.
6. Reading
There are 4 four skills in language learning. There are speaking, reading, listening, and writing. The following parts discuss about reading in language
learning.
a. The Nature of Reading
Reading is a receptive language process which starts with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a researcher and ends with meaning which the
reader constructs Goodman, 1975, pp. 5-16. It means that reading is an active process. Goodman 1975 stated that reading is not a passive, but rather an active,
and in fact an interactive, process has been recognized for some time in first or native language reading.
For many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language
Carrell, 1988, p. 1. If someone considers the study of English as a foreign language – the situation in which most English learners find themselves – reading
is the main reason why student learn the language.
b. Reading Process
According to Goodman 1975 as cited by Carrel 1988, there are five processes in reading p. 16. Those are:
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1. Recognition-initiation The brain must recognize a graphic display in the visual field as written
language and initiate reading. 2. Prediction
The brain is always anticipating and predicting as it seeks order and significance in sensory inputs.
3. Confirmation It monitors to confirm or disconfirm with subsequent input what it expected.
4. Correction The brain reprocesses when it finds inconsistencies or its predictions are
disconfirmed. 5. Termination
The brain terminates the reading when the reading task is completed or in it also happens when the task is non-productive, non-appropriate for learners, or
uninteresting. Meanwhile, according to Nunan 2002, there are four activities to
enhance the reading process. Those activities have the different objective or goals, such as in the following statements.
1 Language development activities needed to expand learners’ vocabularies and
help them better understand sentence structure. 2
Perceptual development activities necessary for building visual and auditory discrimination and memory.
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3 Cognitive development activities provide opportunities for growth in
knowledge about
sequencing, classifying,
comparing, interpreting,
discriminating and recognizing letters and the sounds they represent. 4
Attitudinal development activities that help in building and maintaining healthy self-concepts as well as the desire to want to learn to read.
c. Reading Skills
