Formulation of the Problems Objectives of the Study

10 into a whole sentence or text meaning. Brown 2007 adds that readers construct meaning by bringing information, knowledge, emotion, experience, and culture to the printed word. It is widely known as schema theory where in an attempt to comprehend a text, readers use a set of schemata or their current knowledge about the world while they are reading. Those schemata are a compilation of information, knowledge, emotion, experience, and culture that readers already have. Moreover, Johnson 2008 states that reading is the practice of using texts to create meaning. He marks the two keywords: creating and meaning. According to him, reading takes place when there is meaning being created. Reading is also a constantly developing skill as it will get better by practicing a lot. Reading in fact cannot be separated from visual and nonvisual aspects on the grounds that reading integrates visual and nonvisual information. During the act of reading, the visual information found on the page is combined with the nonvisual information contained in one’s insights to create meaning. Furthermore, Johnson 2008 gives an addition that reading is also the act of linking one idea to another because the most important part of reading is connecting ideas together to create a sensible whole. Grabe 2009 states that reading is not merely a common activity, it is rather a skill with various purposes. The purposes of reading accordingly vary. 11 Each purpose imposes different levels of demand on the readers to maintain an acceptable standard of coherence. In reference with reading, comprehension inevitably exists. Comprehension is defined as the goal of both reading and listening. Without overruling listening skill, comprehension in reading becomes a fundamental aspect in order ones can learn about something. Successful comprehension enables readers to acquire information, to experience and be aware of other worlds including fictional ones, to communicate successfully, and to achieve academic success. In conclusion, reading is not just a passively basic receptive skill. It is a complex process requiring readers’ schemata in order to comprehend a text because any type of reading aims at comprehension matter.

b. Types of Reading Comprehension

As a focus point in the study, reading comprehension deliberately is divided into four different types according to Richards and Schmidt 2002. Those are literal, inferential, critical or evaluative, and appreciative comprehension. Literal comprehension is defined as reading in order to understand, remember, or recall the information explicitly contained in a passage. Meanwhile, inferential comprehension is reading in order to find information which is not explicitly stated in the passage, using the reader’s experience and intuition, and by inferring inferencing. Critical or evaluative comprehension is described as reading in order to compare information in the