Assessing Reading Comprehension Theoretical Review
27
1 Activating or building background knowledge
Building background knowledge is very important in reading comprehension. It is done by making connection between new information in a text with
information that the readers have already had. In the process of building background knowledge, the teacher has to remind that sharing knowledge among
students is recommended. It is useful as it allows the students to make connections with their own thought.
2 Using sensory image
Sensory image is the strategy in which the students use their sense to achieve comprehension. By using this strategy, the students work on the experience that
they have and visualize it in their memories. This visualization is called as imagination. Through imagination, the students can be encouraged to use their
senses and make mental pictures of what they are reading. 3
Questioning This strategy allows the students to have practice in making questions and
answer these by themselves. The questions that should be made are those which can arouse their awareness of what they read. These will represent whether they
have understood the text or not. 4
Making predictions and inferences Predictions and inferences are two strategies which are useful for the students
in understanding a text. When the students predict, it means that they use their background knowledge and connect it with the information of the text to create
meaning. Meanwhile, through inferences, the students have to find some clues,
28
combine them with the background knowledge and experience they have, and then make illustrations in their mind to interpret meaning of a text.
5 Determining main ideas
Determining the main ideas is probably the common thing that is done in reading. This strategy gives opportunities for students to have practice in
differentiating between main ideas and supporting details. By practicing this, the students can separate which information that they need and they actually look for.
6 Using fix-up options
Fix-up option is a strategy that allows the students to keep their understanding on reading a text. This strategy can be said as a bridge for students in reading. It
can be done by the students when they are no longer making connections of what they are reading. This strategy can be used by the students to recover meaning and
figure out unknown words. The seven strategies above are only several from many strategies or techniques
that can be used by the teacher to teach reading comprehension. There are still many other strategies which can be an alternative technique in teaching reading.
One of them is Peer Assisted Learning Strategies PALS which is actually proposed in this study. The further explanation of that technique will be presented
in the following sub-chapter.