The Nature of Reading Ability

adds that reading is interpreting which means reacting to a written text as a piece of communication. Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that reading is an active and communicative process. It is also an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. It is a means of communication between the reader and the writer. The process involves the reader, the text, the interaction between reader and text. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine the meaning. Hornby 1987: 2 defines “ability as 1 capacity or power to do something physical or mental; 2 cleverness; intelligence; 3 special natural power to do something well; tallent. Meanwhile, in Longman dictionary, ability is defined as the mental skill or physical power to do something” 1998: 1. He uses ability refers to a broader set of factors which - given similar motivation and opportunities – make some people better at learning than others From the explanation above, it can be concluded that ability is someone’s competence as a result of learning. Therefore, reading ability means someone’s ability to communicate or make sense of written or printed symbols and to extract information in the text by using his knowledge, skills, and strategies to achieve the purpose of reading activity itself. According to Williams 1996: 51, there are three main phases needed to be followed in reading activity, namely: a. Pre – reading : aimed to introduce and arouse learners’ interest in the topic. Giving reason to read and some questions that related to learners’ background knowledge ideas and opinion would motivate learners’ eagerness to read the whole text. b. Whilst reading : aimed to help students understanding the purpose and texts’ structure and to clarify texts’ content. Some activities like answering comprehension question, completing diagram or maps, making list and taking notes are wilst reading type work. c. Post – reading : aimed to consolidate what has been read with learners’ own knowledge, interest, or ideas.

2. Models of Reading

In looking for ways to describe the interaction between reader and text, scientist have also create models that describe what happens when people read Aebersold and Field, 1997: 17. Barnett in Aebersold and Field, 1997: 17-18 provides a thorough summary of three main models of how reading occurs. They are bottom – up theory, top – down theory, and interactive school of theorists. a. Bottom – up theory argues that the reader constructs the text from the smallest units letters to words phrases to sentences, etc. and becomes automatic that readers are not aware of how it operates. It means that reader have to understand the passage by reading word by word to reach the whole understanding. b. Top–down theory argues that readers bring a great deal of knowledge, expectation, assumption, and questions to the text and given a basic understanding of the vocabulary and check when new information appears. Reader has known about the passage so they just want to know if there is any new information in the passage. c. The interactive school of theories argue that both top-down and bottom-up processes are occuring either alternately or at the same time. It describes a process that moves both bottom-up and top-down depending on the type of the text as well as on the readers’ background knowledge, language proficiency level, motivation strategy use, and culturally shaped beliefs about reading. Reader use both model in their reading activity depend on the situation that they faced.

3. Techniques of Reading

Different readers may have their own ways and technique in reading in accordance with their favor and purpose. Some linguists have proposed many ways of reading, which the mainly used in Francoise Grellet 1998: 40 summarized as follows: