the cohesion of the reading and then deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context.
From the theories above, it can be concluded that reading is an active process of communication that involves the writer and the reader interaction
through the text. It is a communication that the reader wants to understand the writer’s idea by using some strategies. The reader has to use strategies,
because in reading, there are a lot of symbols and letters that should be comprehend.
2. Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a process of reading after decoding the text. To comprehend the text, the reader needs a lot of effort because every
people have different background knowledge. There are some people would have a broader background knowledge while some others do not. It makes
people have to glide over the text. Many experts state that reading comprehension is a complex activity
and a complicated process. As Larry Lewin states that, “Accomplished readers
like most of us have become so good at it through a lifetime of practice that it’s easy to forget tough it really is, how complicated the comprehension
process is.”
6
It means that to comprehend the text, people would have a complicated process through a lifetime practice. They may use a lot of skill,
strategies, and aptitude towards constructing the meaning from the text. Moreover, Naomi Flynn and Stainthorp explain
that, “In much educational literature the term „reading comprehension’ is often used to depict
the understanding of texts to differentiate this activity from comprehension of language when listening.”
7
It means that reading comprehension is not same activity with listening comprehension.
6
Larry Lewin, Paving the Way in Reading and Writing, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003, pp. 2-3.
7
Naomi Flynn and Rhona Stainthorp, The Learning and Teaching of Reading and Writing, Chichester: John Wiley Sons Ltd., 2006, p. 51.
This is because Naomi Flynn and Stainthorp assume that on reading comprehension, the reader should encode the text, “The difference is that
when the language is coming by eye there is the additional effort required to decode the words, which takes up processing capacity leaving less available
for working out the meaning.”
8
It means that on reading comprehension, the reader should have more effort to encode the text, and there is a process of
getting the meaning. As Larry Lewin points out that the first skill of reading is decoding.
“Many of our struggling readers find themselves unable to take the first step toward reading comprehension because they lack phonetic awareness of the
language, the ability to translate the letters of a word into sounds to produce the word in one’s mouth or mind.”
9
It means that the first step of reading comprehension is decoding the text, but mostly people are not aware of their
ability to encode and have lack phonetic. It makes them have difficulty to produce the accurate sounds of words.
Many experts explain that decoding is very important on reading comprehension. Marianne Celce
Murcia argue why it is important, “The thought is that once learners are able to sound out the letters, they will be able
to read the words, and then, once they are able to read the words, they will be able to make meaning of the text.”
10
It means if the reader could read the words well, he or she will understand the meaning of the text. It starts from
knowing the sound of letters in a word. Decoding could be learned by students by learning the sound
symbols. As Larry Lewin who calls decoding as phonetic awareness, assumes that, “Phonetic awareness is developed by learning the sound-symbol
relationships of the twenty-six letters, and their various pairings, in the English alphabet.”
11
It means that the reader or students should learn the
8
Ibid.
9
Lewin, 2003, op. cit., p. 3.
10
Marriane Celce Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, Boston: Heinle Heinle Oublishers, 1991, p. 170.
11
Lewin, 2003, loc. cit.
phonetic symbols and their various sounds of English alphabet. As be known that letters in English makes many different variety of sound, so that it could
make the reader feel complicate to decode the text. Those are some statements that assume reading comprehension. In
other words, reading comprehension is a complex activity that includes many purposes such as reading to get the specific information and general idea of
the text. Moreover, the reader has to read a lot and train his ability to get the idea of the text.
3. The Strategies of Reading Comprehension
