Similar to Anderson, Grabe and Stoller stated that reading is taking general comprehension which requires the reader to combine information from a text and
knowledge that the reader already has.
5
They also defined reading in more general definition as they presented a single-sentence definition of reading on Teaching
and Researching Reading that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret the information appropriately.
6
Another statement comes from Smith who said that reading is not just a visual activity, because both
of visual and nonvisual information are interrelated and really important in reading to construct the meaning.
7
In reading, visual information are intended as source of information in a form of written text. It can be books, magazines,
newspapers, etc. Whereas, nonvisual information comes from the readers mind, experiences, and background knowledge. In addition, reading is important as it
provides the reader with the new ideas and experiences that will change the way they see the world.
8
From some of the definitions above, it can be concluded that reading is a process in getting the general meaning from written text which requires
collaboration between information from the text and the readers prior knowledge, so that the reader can interpret the information appropriately.
2. The Purpose of Reading
Everyone has a reason for their actions. Even something like reading is an action someone has willfully chosen. The purposes of reading are various from
one to another. According to Smith, people read to make sense of everything that they experience in the world.
9
The purpose of reading is also to help the reader
5
William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller, Reading for Academic Purposes: Guidelines for the ESLEFL Teacher, in Celce-Murcia ed. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language 3
rd
Edition, Boston: Hainle Hainle, 2001, p. 188.
6
William Grabe and Fredericka L. Stoller, Teaching and Reserching Reading, England: Pearson Education, 2002, p. 9.
7
Frank Smith, Understanding Reading —a Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning
to Read Sixth Edition, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004, p. 94.
8
Ibid., p. 47.
9
Ibid., p. 2.
achieve some clear information and also for pleasure.
10
For example, people read the instruction on a recipe book to know how to cook specific dishes. Moreover,
Harmer stated that reading can be done for some purposes such as identifying a topic, predicting and guessing, getting general understanding, getting specific
information, and interpreting the text.
11
In addition, Grabe and Stoller stated some purposes of reading which are explained as follow:
12
a. Reading to search for simple information This is the very common reason of reading a text. Reading to search for
information is a process that aimed to get specific information by scanning through the sentences and words related to the searched information without
reading every pieces of the words. b. Reading to skim quickly
This is similar to reading to search for simple information. In reading to skim, the readers guess where on the text the information they need are supposed to
be, then they read that part on the text until they get the main idea. c. Reading to learn from texts
Reading to learn from text usually occurs in academic and professional situation. The process is usually longer than reading to skim and search for
information, because it requires more complex ability to get a deeper understanding and often require repetition to remember detail information
from the text. d. Reading to integrate information, write and critique texts
Reading to write and critique text are part of reading to integrate information, in which reading process requires critical evaluation about which information
that should be integrated or not by composing, selecting and criticize the information on the text.
e. Reading for general comprehension
10
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language —Third Edition, London: Longman,
2007, p. 200.
11
Ibid., pp. 201 —202.
12
Grabe and Stoller. op. cit., pp. 13 —15.
