Straufter identified five answers responding to the questions about what are the definitions of reading, which are:
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1. Reading is a complex process.
2. Reading means to get information from the printed page.
3. Reading is the ability to pronounce and comprehend the printed word.
4. Reading is interpreting sounds, letter or symbols by assigning meanings to them.
5. Reading is receiving ideas and impressions from an author via printed words.
While Sandra Silberstein stated that reading is complex information processing skill in which the readers interact with text in order to recreate meaningful discourse.
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According to Lado “Reading in a foreign language consist of grasping meaning in that language though its written representation”.
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Furthermore F. Dubin explained the meaning of reading as “Reading is primarily a cognitive process, which means that the brain
does most of the work”.
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Reading is a developmental process; the first stage is learning sound symbol correspondences either directly or by reading aloud sentences and words that have been
mastered orally, and then we learn to read these some words and sentence patterns in new combinations.
Those statements above show the various definition of reading, they mean generally. But a simple conclusion may give easier understanding; reading means a complex
process of thinking in assigning meanings from printed materials which involve most of the reader’s intellectual act such as pronunciation and comprehension in order to receive ideas or
information extended by the text.
2. The Types of Reading
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Walter T. Petty and Julien M. Jesen., Developing Children’s Language Boston: Allyn and Bacon Inc, 1980, P.207
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Sandra Silberstein., Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, P. 12
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Robert Lado., Language Teaching As A Scientific Approach New York: Mc Graw Hill inc, 1964 p. 132
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F. Dubin, D.E. Eskey and W. Grabbe., Teaching Second Language Reading for Academic Purposes California: Edison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1986 P. 6
Depending on the purposes of reading it also can be classified into two types of activities, intensive and extensive reading.
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A. Intensive Reading
Intensive reading means reading shorter texts to extract specific information. This activity is likely more to emphasize the accuracy activity involving reading for detail. The process of
scanning takes a more prominent role here than skimming. Reader is trying to absorb all the information given, example: reading dosage instruction for medicine, reading business
magazines, etc.
B. Extensive Reading
Extensive reading deals with a longer text as a whole, which requires the ability to understand the component part and their contribution the overall meaning, usually for one’s
own pleasure. This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding. Example: reading newspapers, poems, article, short story, novel, Internet websites, etc.
Francoise Grellet defines two ways in reading to find out the information in the text, these are skimming and scanning. Skimming is quickly running one’s eyes over a text
to get the gist of it, while scanning is quickly going through a text to find a particular piece of information.
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So, if a person wants to get an address, phone number, a date in a book over paragraph in order to locate a special piece of information, that activities is called
“scanning” but if he reads all the passage in order to know about what it deals about his reading, that is called “skimming”.
In skimming a reader must ask himself what the text is talked about. He must move his eyes quickly over the text, looking especially at the main title, the beginning and the end,
and the first sentence of paragraph. In scanning the reader must ask himself weather or not the text contains what he is looking for and if any, he must find where is located, he moves
also his eyes more or less quickly over the text for specific items.
3. Factors Affecting Reading Comprehensions
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Jeremy Harmer., How to Teach English, England: Person, Longman Group, 2007 P. 99
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Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skills., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 P. Press, 1982 P. 4
