However, in reading for pleasure, the readers usually read texts or books they are interested in, like novels, short stories, etc. and enjoy the time doing this activity.
3. The Kinds of Reading
There are two kinds of reading according to Jeremy harmer.
7
a. Extensive Reading Extensive reading refers to a reading activity that students often do outside a
classroom. This kind of reading should provide reading for pleasure, because a teacher facilitates students to choose reading materials they want to read, to
encourage them to read a lot, and to give some opportunity to share their reading experiences in the classroom.
b. Intensive Reading Intensive reading refers to a reading activity that students often do inside a
classroom. This kind of reading usually focuses on reading text construction. It means that students are asked to understand about type of text they are reading,
find the meaning for every word details, to examine the use of vocabulary and grammar, and then to use the information they get from the text to move to
other language skills.
4. The Principles of Reading
Harmer also mentioned some reading principles on his book titled How to Teach English, such as:
8
a. Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible. Students need to be encouraged to read reading texts extensively. By reading a
lot, it can help students to improve their reading skill. b. Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.
Students need to be engaged with the topic of the text and the activity in the classroom while work out with the text. It means that the teacher should
7
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Cambridge: Pearson Education Limited, 2007, pp. 99
–100.
8
Ibid., pp. 101 –l02.
facilitate them with an active and an interesting reading activity that can help them getting as much pleasure as possible.
c. Encourage students to respond to the content of a text and explore their feeling about it, not just concentrate on its construction.
Having students respond to the message of the text is as important as having them deal with the construction of the text. Therefore, the teacher should give a
chance for students to express their feeling about the topic while the purpose is, reading for pleasure and to find out the text construction while the purpose is,
reading for study. d. Prediction is a major factor in reading.
An active process of reading is not started when we read the first sentence in the first paragraph, but when we see book cover, photograph, headline, web
page banner, etc. By seeing them, we can get the clues to predict what we are going to read. In extensive reading class, the teacher should encourage students
to see those hints to help them in selecting what they want to read and being interested in the reading texts.
e. Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts. After selecting an appropriate reading text for students, the teacher needs to
choose good reading tasks which involve the suitable type of questions, appropriate activities before during and after reading, effective study
exploitation, etc. f. Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.
A good teacher should facilitate students with interesting reading scenario, make them discuss the topic and develop the task, activate the language target
in the classroom, and bring the text to life. Moreover the teacher should give a useful feedback for students.
Based on all points above, it can be concluded that those principles are important to be used by the teacher. They can help the teacher to improve his
teaching of reading in the classroom. Moreover, by considering those principles
while teaching reading, it can help the students getting more knowledge and understanding through the texts or materials they have studied.
5. Reading Comprehension
Bernanth defined reading comprehension as the simultaneous process of interacting and involving a text in order to get and create meaning in it. These
simultaneous processes according to Bernanth are: First, the reader recognizes the words on the page and interprets them in the mind which called as decoding
process. After realizing each word, the reader relates them into separate part of ideas, and then connects these separate idea units within and across sentence.
Second process of reading comprehension is the reader connects the text with his or her prior knowledge, and then interprets what comes to his or her mind visually
related to the meaning of the text.
9
Thus, the texts cannot be really comprehended by only reading it and recognizing the words, but also need to relate the prior
knowledge related to the text in order to make a meaningful reading. Grabe and Stoller defined reading comprehension into a set of necessary
process that requires fluent reading. This set of necessary process is:
10
a. A rapid process b. An efficient process
c. An interactive process d. A strategic process
e. A flexible process f. An evaluating process
g. A purposeful process h. A comprehending process
i. A learning process j. A linguistic process
9
Joanne Schudt Caldwell, Comprehension Assessment: A Classroom Guide, New York: The Guilford Press, 2008, pp. 4
–6.
10
William Grabe, and Fredricka L. Stoller, Teaching and Researching Reading, New York: Routlegde, 2013, pp. 11
–13.
All those processes define reading comprehension, but none of those processes can define reading comprehension by itself. Together they give an exact
definition of the process that required for fluent reader. From the explanations above, it can be summarized that reading
comprehension is a complex process in comprehending a written text. The reader needs to relate the text with his or her background knowledge, past experiences,
information from the text, reading strategies, and so on which can lead to the reader to comprehend the exact meanings of the text.
B. Narrative Text
1. The Understanding of Narrative Text
Reading English texts is very important for students, because it is not only part of English curriculum in Indonesia, but it is also
useful to improve students‟ language acquisition and to provide good models for English writing.
11
There are nine types of English texts that should be learned by Senior High School students
which are descriptive, announcement, recount, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, factual report, news item, procedure, and narrative.
12
Each text types have different characteristics and difficulties to be comprehended by its readers,
including narrative text. Pardiyono defined narrative as a text type which appropriate to tell an
activity or experience in the past using problematic experience and resolution.
13
Narrative relates to human life since a long time ago. It is the oldest structure of human communication. People always tell stories for the rest of their lives, for
instance, parents use stories to teach their children good lessons, people use story to tell a folklore in one society, a greatness of someone, or even they told their
11
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, Cambridge: Pearson Education Limited, 2007, p. 99.
12
Kemendikbud, Kompetensi Inti dan Kompetensi Dasar Bahasa Inggris SMA, 2016, https:filekemendikbud.files.wordpress.com
.
13
Pardiyono, Pasti Bisa Teaching Genre-Based Writing, Yogyakarta: C.V Andi Offset, 2007, p. 94.
