Models of Reading Process

16 useful perspective from top-down model. This is the integration of bottom-up and top-down model. The focus of this model is to invite readers to use the perspective of bottom-up model and combine it with the key concepts of top- down model Grabe and Stoller, 2002. They will start with word recognition, but in a fast and efficient way. However, strong background knowledge is highly needed to support the readers to understand what the text is trying to convey. In practice, readers will be given short reading passage to teach them specific reading skills and strategies. Moreover, they will also be given longer reading passage to practice their reading strategies. In short, fast words recognitions technique from bottom-up model is very beneficial but background knowledge contributes much in understanding the text, as in inferencing and predicting what will happen next in the text.

d. Accessing Reading Text

Wallace 1992, states that there are three ways to help learners relating their existing knowledge to the text that they are going to read. It is supported by Farrell 2009, by stating that the teachers’ goal is to develop strategic readers and the idea is in line with Wallace’s thought. The first activity is Pre-reading Activities. In this activity, learners are given questions from the text which requires learners to answer it. The activity also provides learners with task in order to prepare them with the linguistics, cultural or conceptual difficulties. Moreover, it also provides them with vocabulary tasks. In short, the activities in pre-reading activities functions as an entrance for them to the reading text. Farrell 2009 suggests the idea to help students building their schema about the text that 17 will be read. He proposes four activities that would be beneficial in order to activate relevant background knowledge. Those are 1 word association which determine what prior knowledge that students could bring before they read the text, 2 direct experience which focuses on engaging students in the real experience in building their background knowledge, 3 cinquain which requires students to write five lines poem that reflects the affective and cognitive concept as a response to the new concept, and 4 prediction which is linked to the strategy to activate prior knowledge. The second activity to access content is called while-reading activity. It is aimed to encourage learners to be active, flexible, and reflective readers. In this phase, a reading will be given to the learners along with a set of task to check their understanding of the text being read. Farrell 2009 suggests three activities to assist them in understanding the text being read. The first activity is prediction which aims to develop students’ ability to read critically and reflectively. The second activity is questioning which invites students to ask questions related to the text they are reading. The last activity is summarizing which is categorized as a reading strategy that is used to get the gist of the text being read McEwan, as cited in Farrell 2009. The last one is post-reading activities. It consists of activities that could function as the follow up action of the text being read. It is usually in the form of comprehension questions, while other follow up activity can be in the form of writing or a role play. The activities in post-reading activity should be motivated by the text genre, the context of learning, and also learner’s purpose. 18

2. Teaching Reading

There are four parts provided in presenting the teaching reading theories being used in the study. First, the study presents the principles of teaching reading. Second, reading comprehension strategies are presented in details. Third, it will present about Curriculum 2006 in teaching learning process. Fourth, it will describe the learning process in Curriculum 2006.

a. Principles for Teaching Reading

1 Anderson’s Principles for Teaching Reading Anderson as cited by Nunan, 2003, states that there are eight principles of teaching reading. The first principle is to exploit the reader’s background knowledge. Background knowledge includes experiences that bring readers to the text, such as life experience, and educational experience. Background knowledge gives big influence in leading readers to the text and improving readers’ reading comprehension. To enh ance readers’ reading comprehension, the teacher has to activate their background knowledge by setting goals, asking questions, making prediction, and teaching text structure. The second principle is to build a strong vocabulary base. Vocabulary is the basic need for the readers to build meaning of English words or texts. In order to understand the text, the readers need to know vocabularies related to the text. If the readers have strong vocabulary base, it will be easier for them to understand the text. The third principle will be to teach for comprehension. The main part of reading process is comprehension. According to Grabe and Stoller 2002 ”reading comprehension is the ability to understand information in a text and