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text in reading activity, the reader makes interaction among eyes and mind to gain what the author extand.
Meanwhile, Gebhard said that “Reading includes discovering meaning in print and script, within social context, through bottom-up to comprehend
written language, we rely on our ability to recognize words, phrases and sentences and top-down processing as well as on our background knowledge
related to the content of what we are reading, and use of strategies and skill.”
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Ur stated that some assumptions about the nature of reading are: we need to perceive and decode letters in order to read words, we need to
understand all the words in order to understand the meaning of a text, the more symbols letter or words there are in text, the longer it will take to read it, we
gather meaning from what we read, our understanding of a text comes from understanding the words of which it is composed.
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Based on the opinions given by the experts, the writer sums up that the reading is a complex process of human’s activity. As they are reading, they use
their eyes and brain to get the meaning of the author’s message. In addition,
reading is a kind of activities to understand a written language. It is not only how to get meaning of each words or sentences but the important one is how
the reader can get and understand what the author tries to convey through his words. It is a complex process because the readers obviously needed a great
number of skills and integrated their skills in getting meaning or in understanding the message.
2. The Objective of Reading
The are many objectives in reading activities. The objective for reading is closely connected to a person’s motivation for reading. Some of them read
for pleasure and some read for getting informations.
6
Jerry G. Gebhard, Teaching English as a foreign language or second language, Michigan: The University of Michigan press, 2006 p.194
7
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1996, p. 138
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Here some objectives of reading which are stated by some experts. According to Williams in McDonough and Shaw, the objectives of reading
are classified into: a Getting general information from text
b Getting specific information from a text; and c For pleasure or for interest.
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Therefore, the essential purpose of reading generally to get new information or for pleasure.
Meanwhile Nunan suggest that there are seven main purpose of reading:
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a. To obtain information for some purpose or because we are
curious about some topic; b.
To obtain instructions on how to perform some task for our work or daily life e.g., knowing how an appliance works;
c. To act in a play, play a game, do a puzzle;
d. To keep in touch with friends by correspondence or to
understand business letters; e.
To know when or where something will take place or what is available;
f. To know what is happening or has happened as reported in
newspapers, magazine, reports; g.
For enjoyment or excitement. The different objective of reading is also stated by Harmer. He devided
it into some areas: a.
Predictive skills The readers predict what they are going to read. The process of
understanding the text is the process of seeing how the content of the text matches up to those prediction.
b. Extracting specific information
Very often we read something because we want to extract specifict bits of information to find out a fact.
c. Getting the general picture
We often read to things bacause we want to „get general picture’. We want to have an idea of the main points of the text
–an overview- wiithout being too concerned with the details. d.
Extracting detailes information A reader often has to be able to access texts for detailed
information.
8
Jo Mc Donough and Christopher Shaw, Materials and Methods in ELT, Oxford: Black Well, 1993 p. 102
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David Nunan, Second Language ...p.251
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e. Recognizing fuction and discourse patterns
Rocognising such discourse markers is an important part of understanding how atext is constucted. We understand
paragraph structure and paragraph organisation and we recognise device for cohesion
f. Deducing meaning from context
Deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context in which they appear.
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In addition, Nuttal divided reading into three objectives. They are: a.
Practicing speaking ability by reading aloud makes reader more confident in pronunciation, even though the normal reading is
silent that focused their eye movement to the reading text, it felt so internal and private, because reading is an interaction
between the reader and the text written. But this purpose is useful for a teacher who teach in the classroom,because reading
aloud is not common outside the classroom.
b. Reading that was direcltly concerned with language learning, it
is unlikely you were interested in the pronunciation of what you read except in a tiny minority of cases, and it is even less likely
that you were interested in the grammatical stuctured used.
c. „Learn to read’ by giving material that reflect the authentic
purposes for wich people do read.
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In general, reading objectives mentioned above is to understand or to comprehend the reading passage from the printed text. A person may read in
order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writers ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to
enhance knowledge of the language being read. Read with a specific in mind enables us to focus on the relevant parts of a text and use appropiate reading
techniquse. Obviously, purposes for reading must be established before a selection is read.
The techniques of reading classified by Grellet are: skimming, scanning, extensive reading and intensive reading.
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10
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman, 1983, p.183-184
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Christine Nuttal, Teaching Reading Skills in Foreign Language.Oxford: Heinemann, 1989 5th Ed., p.2-4
12
Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skill: A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercise, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.4
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a. Skimming
Skimming is used to get general idea or in formation of a passage. According to Maxwell viewed skimming as “the ability to
process large quantities of materials very rapidly in order to read for a specific purpose, the location of main idea.”
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Skimming would be helpful when we
want to find out quickly about the writer’s point of view. We may want to find out what the writer thinks about something.
Reders skim to gain a general impression of a book, story, essay, or article and to determine whether to read it more carefully.
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for example, good readers can read a newspaper headline and the first
paragraph or two to determine what the story is about and whether they want to read the article.
b. Scanning
Scanning refers
to the
ability to
locate specific
information.
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For instance, to locate a number in the phone book or file from a list on a computer screen. In addition, according to
Maxwell, “scanning is an exelent technique for reviewing to make sure that you have mastered and understood the relevant supporting
details.”
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c. Extensive Reading
The goal of extensive reading is to improve reading skills by processing a quantity of materials that can be comprehended and
pleasurable.
17
According to Carrell and Carson 1997,pp 49-50 in Methodology in Language Teaching, edited by Richard and Renandya
stated,” extensive reading.....generally involves rapid reading of large quantities of material or longer readings e.g...whole books for
13
Martha J.Maxwell, Skimming and Scanning Improvement: Section 2 Exercises, Berkeley: McGraw-Hill Book company, p.1
14
Jerry G. Gebhard, Teaching English ...p.198
15
Jerry G. Gebhard, Teaching English ...p.199
16
Martha J.Maxwell, Skimming ...p.2
17
Jerry G. Gebhard, Teaching English ...p.203
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general understanding, with the focus generally on the meaning of what is being read than on the language.”
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d. Intensive Reading
Nuttal stated, “Intensive reading involves approaching the text under guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus
on the text. The aim is to arrive at an understanding, not only of what the text means, but of how the mea
ning is produced.”
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3. The Problems of Reading
