10
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The objective of this study is to develop an interactive multimedia for teaching descriptive text reading to Grade VII students of the junior high school.
In this chapter, the theories of reading including the way to teach and assess the reading skill, the material development, the interactive multimedia, the relevant
studies, and the conceptual framework will be explained.
A. Literature Review
1. Reading
a. The Nature of Reading
Reading is considered as one of the English skills which has some significant roles in the teaching and learning process. According to Maxom 2009:
139, reading is one of the four skills which need to be learned besides listening, speaking, and writing. Reading also has a considerable role in the language
teaching to strengthen the skills which are acquired by the students in listening, speaking, and writing. Richards and Schmidt 2002: 442 say that reading is
perceiving a written text in order to understand its contents. This can be done silently silent reading. The understanding of the contents is called reading
comprehension. They also add that reading is saying a written text aloud oral reading. This can be done with or without an understanding of the contents.
In a more complex definition, Johnson 1983: 17 defines reading as “a complex behaviour which involves conscious and unconscious use of various
strategies, including problem-solving strategies, to build a model of the meaning which the writer is assumed to have intended.” ɒased on this definition, reading
not only deals with getting meaning of a text but also getting the message which the writer intends to convey. The term getting meaning differs from getting
message since when someone gets the meaning of a text, there is no guarantee that he can
understand the text in terms of the writer’s intention Nuttal, 1996. It happens because every person has different prior knowledge and experiences, so it
may cause different interpretations about the text. Reading belongs to a receptive skill of English which means that it deals
with responding rather than producing a text Harmer, 2007. However, reading is seen as a complex process since it involves a great deal of the precise knowledge
and reading strategies to be equipped Spratt et al., 2005. In the previous definition, Johnson 1983 also states that reading is a complex behaviour which
involves the use of the various strategies both consciously and unconsciously used. Moreover, Plaut 2005 adds to
the complexity of reading that “reading is a complex task involving the rapid coordination of the visual, phonological,
semantic and linguistic processes.” From those arguments, reading is not seen as a
passive process. In other words, reading is an active process which needs a lot of practices.
In line with the fact that reading is an active process, Hedge 2007: 188 considers reading as an interactive activity because there is a dynamic relationship
between the texts and the readers. The readers strive to make sense of the texts. The term ‘interactive’ also refers to the interplay among various kinds of
knowledge that a reader employs in comprehending the text. Furthermore, Birch 2002: 4 considers reading as an interactive activity in three ways. They are:
1 The different processing strategies, both top and bottom, along with the knowledge base, interact with each other to accomplish the reading.
2 The readers’ mind interacts with the written text so that the reader can
understand the message. 3 The reader interacts indirectly with the writer of the texts if the text across time
and space because it is the writer who is communicating the information to the readers, but it is the reader who must grasp the information from the writer.
The reading skill deals with the written texts. Written texts are not restricted as the texts that can be found in the books, newspapers, magazines, or
websites. There are many kinds of written texts. Brown 2001 argues that the variety or genres of written texts are much larger than the spoken texts. He
mentions twenty five genres of written texts. The following texts are included in genres of written texts mentioned by Brown 2001: non-fiction e.g. reports,
editorials, articles and dictionaries, fiction e.g. novels and short stories, letters, greeting cards, diaries, journals, memos, messages, announcements, newspaper
‘kournalese’, academic writing, forms, applications, questionnaires, directions, labels, signs, recipes, bills, maps, manuals, menus, schedules, advertisements,
invitations, directories, and comic stripes or cartoons. In conclusion, Grabe 2009 states that reading is “a combination of
processes” which includes a rapid process, an efficient process, a comprehending process, an interactive process, a strategic process, a flexible process, a purposeful
Kategori