written text, developing and interpreting meaning, and using meaning as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation”.
7
Furthermore, in Reading Instruction Competence Assessment by Wynne, Cooper defined comprehension as a strategic process by which readers construct
or assign meaning to a text by using the clues in the text and their own prior knowledge.
8
RAND Reading Study Group defined reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through
interaction and involvement with written language. They also stated three elements of comprehension: the reader who is doing the comprehending, the text
that is to be comprehended and the activity in which comprehending is a part.
9
Based on all the statements above, the writer can take a conclusion that reading comprehension is a dynamic and active process of the reader’s brain, to
connect with the text and interpreting the messages that given in the text. In order to get connection with the text, the reader uses their prior knowledge and the clues
in the text by using a reading strategy. Comprehension process is also a brain process to construct meaning from the text, in order to get the message that given
in the text. Moreover, like Lems, Miller and Soro’s statement, comprehension also the process that depends on the reader’s purpose of reading.
c. The Purposes of Reading
There have been some experts proposing the purpose of reading. Some of them have similar ideas on the purposes of reading, some do not. Some of experts
propose them specially, but some generally.
7
Susan E. Israel and Gerald G. Duffy, Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension, New York: Routledge, 2009.p. 32.
8
Sharon Wynne, Reading Instruction Competence Assessment: Teacher Certification Exam, Boston: XAMonline, Inc., 2008, p. 68.
9
RAND Reading Study Group, Reading for Understanding; Toward and RD Program in Reading Comprehension, Santa Monica: RAND, 2002, p. 11.
In general, Harmer divided purposes or reasons for reading, as receptive skill, in two general categories. They are instrumental and pleasurable
categories.
10
1. Instrumental Category It means that reading and listening as receptive skill take place because the
readers want to achieve a particular objective. For example, someone read a road sign to know where to go or read an instruction in a machine to know how to
operate it. For students, reading is useful for language acquisition, the more they read the more they get at it. It gives the students positive effect on their
vocabulary knowledge on spelling and on their writing.
11
Furthermore, Grabe and Stoller proposed some purpose of reading: to search for simple information, skim quickly, learn from texts, to get general
information, and to integrate information, write and critique texts.
12
2. Pleasurable Category Another reason why people read is for pleasure. They want to entertain
themselves by reading a novel or short story. Hence, some people read magazine or newspaper to spend their time. Others read poetry or a comic to get relaxed.
It can be concluded that the general purposes of reading are for instrumental and pleasurable categories. Some people read because they want to
get information or to learn something from the texts and some other want to entertain themselves by reading such as reading a novel, comic or newspaper.
10
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Third Edition, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001, p. 200.
11
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English New Addition, Harlow: Pearson Education, 2007, p. 99.
12
William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller, Teaching and Researching Reading, Edinburgh: Pearson Education, 2002, p. 13.
