understanding unknown element. They bring the students to comprehend the text and help them get the message of the text easier. Moreover, Westwood 2001:10 states
that in order to understand a text, a reader must be able to identify words rapidly, know the meaning of almost all of the words, and be able to combine units of
meaning into a coherent message. In conclusion, we can say that the importance of comprehending word meaning cannot be denied in the process of reading a text.
In this research, the word comprehension questions were given to measure the students’ ability in gaining the word meaning. For example, there is a statement
“
Sangkuriang was worried because he hunted no deer all day long”. The synonym of
the word “worried” of that statement is “anxious”. Based on the statement, it can be created a question like “What is the similar meaning of the underlined word?” and
the answer can be “anxious”.
2.1.2 Sentence Comprehension
After comprehending words, readers should be able to comprehend a sentence which is very important because it is needed in comprehending a paragraph. Grellet
1996:15 states that a paragraph is not made up from independent sentences or clauses, but it is built up by a number of sentences which are related one to another.
Therefore, if the readers miss a sentence only to comprehend well, he might have misunderstanding in comprehending the message or information from a whole
paragraph. In order to understand the sentence easily, the readers have to know about the
sentence structure. It is supported by Grellet 1996:15 who says that inability to infer the meaning of unknown elements of a sentence can arise when the readers do not
know the core of sentence structure. A sentence must consist of at least subject and predicate. Furthermore, Wishon G.E Burks J.M. 1980:353 classify sentences into
three different types of sentences as following. 1.
Simple sentence it consists of one clause Example: The prince met a beautiful woman at that night.
2. Compound sentence it is composed by two or more clauses of equal
importance Example: I tried to speak Spanish, and my friend tried to speak English.
3. Complex sentence it is composed of one main clause and one or more
subordinates clauses. Example: The big dog barked when he arrived.
By knowing those aspects, the reader will be able to find out the important elements of each sentence in a passage appropriately in order to understand what the sentence
tells the readers about Grellet, 1996:15. In this research, sentence comprehension questions were given to measure the
students’ ability in gaining the sentence meaning. Dealing with sentence comprehension, Mc.Whorter 1989:88 in Wibowo 2012:12 suggests to consider
questions using what, where, which, when, who and how. For example, there is a sentence
“Then, Sangkuriang shot his own dog and took the liver”. Based on that sentence, it can be created a question like “
What did Sangkuriang take from his dog?”. The answer can be “Sangkuring took the dog’s liver”.
2.1.3 Paragraph Comprehension
