17 comprehension or reading for interference what is „behind‟ the words and
attitude Harmer, 2007b, p. 283. In this study, intensive reading is the type of reading taught in the class. It
refers to “the detailed focus on the construction of reading texts …” Harmer, 2007a, p. 99 which also reflects the principles of teaching reading to teach text
structures. The reading texts are taken from various sources related to the field of study for the History Department such as tourisms sites in Indonesia and any
forms of written historical data.
d. Reading Strategies
Grabe and Stoller 2002 describe strategies as “a set of anilities that readers have conscious control over but are also relatively automatic such as
skipping a word we may not know when reading” p. 15 as cited in Farrell, 2009, p. 9. It is suggested that effective reading strategies can be taught and that
the students can benefit from such instruction. Good readers, according to Papalia 1987 as cited in Farrell, 2009, p. 34 use strategies such as read things of
interest, have knowledge about other topic, predict meaning, draw inferences from the title, skip words they do not know, guess the meaning of unknown words from
context, reread to check for comprehension and ask someone what a word means. According to Farrell 2009, p. 37, lecturers should note that the goal of
reading instruction is to develop strategic readers which involves before reading, during reading, and after reading.
18 1
Before reading The teachers help the students activate their schema or background
knowledge about a text before the students read the text by doing some activities such as word association, direct experience, cinquain and prediction.
Word association The rationale of word association is to determine what prior knowledge
students bring to a new topic before they read a text. First, the students respond to a key word or phrase then written down as many words or
phrases as possible in three minutes relate to this key phrase. The emphasis at this stage is on the content, not accuracy in the language features.
Direct experience The rationale of direct experience is that students build on their
background knowledge through firsthand experiences with concepts and vocabulary important to the lesson.
Cinquain According to Shrum and Glisan 1994, a cinquain is a five-line poem that
reflects affective and cognitive responses to a concept as cited in Farrell, 2009, p. 39. The rationale behind the cinquain is that it helps students
develop prior knowledge for subsequent lessons in a poetic fashion. Prediction
Prediction is a strategy used throughout the reading process prereading, during reading, and postreading. The purpose is not to get the correct
answer but to encourage students to think about what they may read.
