what they have read. It means that the reading process involves what the reader wants to know about the text by consulting questions appear in their head.
Clark and Silberstain 1987:45 state that reading as an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning.
Reading is the instantaneous recognition of various written symbols, with existing knowledge, and comprehension of the information and ideas communicated. It
means that when a reader interacts with printed-material, hisher prior knowledge combines with the visual written information resulting in hisher comprehending
the message. The ability to understand the content of the text is an essential thing in reading
activity. Dallman 1982:23 said that reading is more than knowing what each letter of alphabet stands for, reading involves more than word recognition, and
comprehension is an essential of reading. Therefore, it means that reading involves an interaction between the thought and the language. Reading is not
simply making sound of the text, but it is about comprehending the idea of the text itself. In other words, without comprehension, no reading takes place.
From the statements above, it can be inferred that reading is a process of understanding the text by categorizing questions to make the students realize the
need to consider both information in the text and information from their own background knowledge.
2.2 The Concept of Reading Comprehension
Reading and comprehension are regarded as one activity which cannot be separated, and each program is depending on the progress of activity of mind. In
other words, reading comprehension is an activity to grasp the meaning of written materials with fully understanding.
According to Doyle 2004, comprehension is a progressive skill in attaching meaning beginning at the same level and proceeding to attaching meaning to an
entire reading selection. All comprehension revolves around the reader’s ability in finding and determining main idea and topic sentence from the text.
Rubin 1993:194 states that reading comprehension is a complex intellectual process involving a number of abilities. The two major abilities involve word
meaning and verbal reasoning. Without words meaning and verbal reasoning, there could be no reading comprehension, there would be no reading. From this
statement, it can be understood that reading needs comprehension. Comprehension can be regarded as a condition where no uncertainty exists. One
comprehends when heshe has all questions answered and heshe has no doubt about alternative interpretations or decisions in hisher mind. When someone
reads, heshe is constantly asking questions, and as long as these questions are answered, and hisher uncertainty is reduced, then heshe already comprehends the
text. Loban, et al 1969: 378 express reading comprehension is indeed a very elaborate
procedure, which is involving a balance of many elements in a passage and their organization in the proper relation to each other comprehension in reading
depends upon knowing the literal meaning of words in various context. It means that the reader must be able to perceive the relation of each part to the other and
each of the wholes.
Hornby 2000 argued that comprehension is an exercise that trains students to understand a language. It means that reading comprehension is a passage
presented to the reader, which they must read either silently or loudly. Then a series of questions are presented to
test the readers’ comprehension of this passage, and they have to be able to answer the questions. Brown and Johnson
1978:65 in Helwana 2011:11 see comprehension as product and process. Process is what happens to the readers as they read and product involves
measuring, in some objective ways, the result of the process. Comprehension is not only seen as a result of reading but also seen as a way in which the readers can
get the result of reading. In other words, in this research reading comprehension is meant as an activity to extract the meaning of written materials with fully
understanding by categorizing questions to make the students realize the need to consider both information in the text and information from their own background
knowledge which is related to the text.
2.3 The Concept of Teaching Reading
