compassionate commitment ICAJE, 1993, p. 5. As a matter of fact, those three Jesuit values are integrated into Critical Reading and Writing II course; as it is
suggested that the introduction of values should be integrated in the teaching- learning process without adding the subject to learn Harianti, 2013.
a. Competence
Competence stands for the academic excellence Santa Clara University, 2014. Competence is often associated with cognitive aspect. In this case, in
Critical Reading and Writing II course, competence covers two main skills, which are reading and writing skills.
1 Reading Skills
In this section, there are two focal points to be discussed. Firstly, the Nature of Reading defines precisely the scope of reading. The Criteria of Reading
Proficiency as the second focal point determines the criteria of reading proficiency.
a Nature of Reading
In the first place, the starting point of reading is by having alphabet knowledge Cunningham and Shagoury, 2005, p. 3. In other words, the basic idea
of reading is that a person must be familiar with alphabet. Besides, a person must be literate in order to be able to read. Wiener 1996 put forward that the
mechanics of reading are including how to use the alphabet, how to say letters alone and in combinations, how to pronounce the words, and how to distill
meaning from print p. 5.
Some other experts also elaborate the nature of reading which is dealing with many different activities. Miller and Tovani as cited in Cunningham and
Shagoury 2005 also point out that reading is practically associated with some activities such as asking question while reading, making inferences, synthesizing
ideas, visualizing information, and making connections between text, the world, and students
’ lives p. 5. Besides, reading is dealing with decoding accuracy and the ability to read isolated words one word at a time McGuinness, 2005, p. 2.
Wallace 2003 defines reading as interpreting means reacting to a written text as a piece of communication p. 4. Communication requires language as the
media to communicate. From this definition, it can be inferred that reading is undoubtedly dealing with language. Generally, reading is also associated with
text. Wallace 2003 states that a text refers to any chunk of written language, which carries a whole meaning and is describable by some term such as
“warning”, “novel”, or “letter” p. 8.
b Criteria of Reading Proficiency
As a matter of fact, improving reading skill requires lots of practice Mikulecky and Jeffries, 1996, p. 6. Generally, people believe that it is
complicated to define reading proficiency. It is also difficult to define reading comprehension. Comprehension is a part of the communication process of getting
the thoughts that were in the author ’s mind into the reader’s mind Fry, 1963, p.
24. In this case, there are several experts who elaborate the criteria of reading proficiency. However, those criteria are different from one expert to other experts.
