17 excessive competition and increases the interest children have in cooperating with
one another” p.13. Furthermore, jigsaw method also gives some activities to the students to
improve their competence. In reading activity, the students will master their text by discussing it in the expert group. After mastering the text, they will teach their
teammates in the h ome group. Kessler 1992 states that “Jigsaw provides an
excellent learning environment for the acquisition of language through relevant content, the development of academic skills through carefully structured reading
and writing activities, and the exploration of relevant content through use of purposeful talk in the classroom” p.137. Providing reading activity, jigsaw
method requires the students to retell and paraphrase that can involve their reading competence.
3. Reading Competence
The researcher divides the explanation of the reading competence in four parts. They are the nature of reading, the purposes of reading, reading strategies,
and the principles of learning to reading.
a. The Nature of Reading
Reading is perception that represents language, language skill, cognitive skill, and knowledge. Nuttal 1982 says “reading as the meaningful interpretation
of the printed or written verbal symbols” as cited in Simanjuntak, 1988, p.14. Simanjuntak 1988
says that “every learner, who wants to be able to read fluently, must develop herhis reading skill over time and with a great deal of
practice” p.12. Reading skill can be improved through the practice that is given PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18 continually. Simanjuntak adds “reading is a skill which must be developed, and
can only be developed, by means of extensive and continual practice.” Here, the use of learning activity is important to support students in improving reading skill
and competence.
b. Purposes of Reading
Wallace 1992 mentions that there are some purposes of reading. The purposes are reading for survival, learning, and pleasure. Firstly, reading for
survival is to find out the information on a strictly utilitarian basis. It involves an immediate response of situation. Second, reading for learning usually happens in
the academic context in which the readers search, read, and find the information in order to learn something new from the texts. The last is reading for pleasure. It‟s
done for the readers‟ own sake. It means that the readers have their own choice to read or not.
c. Reading Strategies
Reading strategy is used to interact effectively with the text. According to Wallace 1992, “strategies involve ways of processing text which will vary with
the nature of text, the reader‟s purpose, and the context of situation” p. 59. With
reading strategies, it helps readers to relate their existing knowledge to the text they are reading.
Based on Wallace 1992, those strategies are divided into three parts. They are pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading. In the pre-reading strategy,
students will stimulate students‟ prior knowledge about a topic and make connection between their prior knowledge and what they will learn. Beers 2003
19 states that “pre-reading strategies focus on active engagement with the text help
struggling readers do what good readers do, think all throughout the reading process, not just at the conclusion” p.101. Wallace 1992 says that pre-reading
activities simply consist of questions to which the reader is required to find the answer from the text. Therefore, the students can make predictions about what
they are going to learn from the text. The second strategy is while-reading strategy. While-reading is done
during the reading process. In this process, students should be required to practice continually and applying the comprehension strategy. Wallace 1992 states
“generally the aim of while-reading activities is to encourage learners to be flexible, active, and reflective readers” p.9. The examples of while-reading
strategy are coding text, encouraging student-to-student conversation, re-reading, and story mapping.
The last strategy is post- reading. Based on Wallace 1992, “kind of post-
reading activity consisted of questions which followed a text. Multiple choice questions can be answered without the reference to the text at all-the reader need
only draw on existing schematic knowledge” p.100. By dividing instruction into pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading, teacher can design learning
activities for each stage that will improve reading competence.
d. The Principles of Learning to Reading
