Identification of the Problems

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theories that are related to the study. This chapter is divided into three subchapters which are literature review, relevant research study, and conceptual framework. Each of them is presented below.

A. Literature Review 1.

Reading a. Nature of Reading According to the School-Based Curriculum, reading is one of the four language skills that should be mastered by students of SMP. There are many studies about the importance of reading and many experts define what reading is. According to Richards and Renandya 2002: 273, reading has the important concern both in the second and foreign language teaching situations. There are two reasons why reading has to take into account in the language teaching. First, many foreign language students have a goal in reading such as reading for information and pleasure, reading for their career, and reading for study purposes. Second, good reading texts provide good models for writing and provide opportunities to introduce new topics, to stimulate discussion, and to study language features. Thus, reading is a skill which is highly valued by students and teachers alike. Additionally, Mikulecky and Jeffries 1996: 1 say that “reading is one important way to improve students’ general language skills in English. It is because reading help students learn to think English, reading can enlarge students’ vocabulary, reading help students to improve their writing, reading may be a good way to practice English if students live in a non-English speaking country, reading can help students prepare for study in an English-speaking country, and reading is a good way to find out about new ideas, facts, and experiences”. In this regard, they emphasize the essence of reading which is really useful for the students to improve not only the English proficiency mastery but also the knowledge and insight. Reading is a receptive skill which is to receive any information as the input data. Many experts have defined what reading is. According to Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams 2005: 21, reading is one of the four language skills which it is a receptive skill as same as listening. It deals with making sense of the text that encompasses understand the language of the text at word level, sentence level, and whole-text level. In addition, Johnson 2008: 3-4 defines that “reading is the practice of using text to create meaning, reading is a constantly developing skill, reading integrates visual and non visual information, and reading is the act of linking one idea to another”. From his four definitions, He explains that reading is not only just sounding out words but also catching the meaning, to be a good reader is to be more practice reading, the visual information and non visual information are related each other to create meaning, and reading also link one idea to another to make comprehension about the text. From the definitions above, it can be concluded that reading is a valuable skill in order to get information by inferring and comprehending any written works which involve a text, a reader, and a social context.