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2. Reading Comprehension
a Definition of Reading Comprehension.
Reading comprehension is the degree to understand the text that one reads. Retrieved from “http:wik.ed.uiuc.eduindex.phpreading comprehension” when
reader pick up the newspaper and read about the latest election results, call up a web site and read directions on installing a new light switch or grab a novel off the shelf
of the local bookstore, readers are using their reading comprehension skill to gather information from text.
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of writing Adams, Marilyn Jager, 1990: 27. Proficient reading depends on the ability to
recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which infers with
their ability to comprehend what it read. Reading comprehension is tied to listening comprehension in a basic and
intuitive way Pressley, 2006: 71. Most people perceive reading as a process of talking coded, written language and transforming it in to recoded, spoken language.
Although the details of this remain unresolved, and many experts question that the process involves so simple a translation, it is fair to say that for young children up to
second grade students, reading really is direct recoding of written text into spoken words, which are then processed as spoken language via the same mechanisms that
make listening comprehension possible. From definition above, it can be concluded that reading in English is like
reading in native language. This means that it is not always necessary to read and understand each and every word in English. Owing to the fact that reading skills in
native language and English are basically the same, that owns a final purpose “reading understanding”
b Skill in reading comprehension.
Duke and Pearson in Teele 2004: 93 state that good readers must have the following comprehension skills. They have clear goals for their reading. They also
commit to user examine the structure of the text prior to reading. Again, they make predictions about
the outcome of the text. Further, Spear 2000: xxvi states that there are eight important reading
comprehension skill that help learner to read more systematically. They are comprehension the main idea, determining the authors’ purpose, distinguishing
between the main idea and supporting details, making inference, distinguishing facts and opinion, analyzing structure, annotating, paraphrasing and summarizing.
The main concern of the research is about how to find the main idea, vocabulary, detail, and inference. There for the writer would like to discuss further on
those aspects: 1 Main idea.
Spears 2000: 17 define the main idea as the author’s main point, a sentence, or perhaps two that state what the whole thing is about. The main idea may take play
in the beginning paragraph, the end of the paragraph, combination between the beginning and the end of the paragraph, or even omitted from the entire paragraph.
2 Vocabulary. According to Schwartz and Raphael 1985: 39 vocabulary is the knowledge
of words and word meaning. Knowledge of words is critical to reading comprehension, because it supports to comprehension. Students are expected to learn
the meaning of new words. They acquire these words by reading books, magazine, newspaper or hearing them read aloud from books by other.
3 Detail. Spears 2000: 12 defines detail is a single piece of information or fact about
something. Students must get information when they read the reading. The indicator, they can find the factual information stated in a passage or retell the reading well.
This condition shows that they understand the reading. 4 Inference.
McNeil 1992: 77 defines inference as the derivation of some idea that is not directly stated. To infer, Caroll in McNeil suggests that there are three important
commit to user ways to infer. They are from subtleties of the verbal expression, reasoning, making
involvement of the reader experience to determine how the character in the text might fell.
c Elements of Reading Comprehension.
According to Snow 2002: 13 comprehension need three important elements. They are reader, text and activity.
The first important element of reading comprehension is the reader. In the purpose of comprehending the reader must have a wide range of capacity and
abilities. They include cognitive capacity include attention and various types of knowledge. The cognitive capacity include attention, memory, critical analytic,
inference, visualization ability, etc. meanwhile, motivation refer to the purpose of the reader. Finally, various type of the knowledge, linguistic and discourse knowledge
and knowledge for certain comprehension strategies. The second element of reading, the reading comprehension is the text. During
reading, the reader constructs different representations of the text that are important for comprehension. These representations include, for example, the surface code the
ex-act wording of the text, the text base idea units representation the meaning, and the representation of the mental models embedded in the text.
The last important element in reading comprehension is the activity. A reading activity involves one or more purpose, some operations to process the text at
the hand and the consequences of performing the activity. The purpose is influenced by the cluster of motivational variables, including interest and prior knowledge.
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand the text and to get the meaning from text. It involves the ability to find main ideas, find details, make
inferences, and predict word meaning from context.
According to Kelner and Flynn 2006: 200 make what is implicit to
experienced educational drama specialists explicit for classroom teachers. A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension is designed for teachers with little to
no experience in drama. It contains information, advice, directions, steps, tips, charts,
commit to user lists, photos, and ideas for use with students in grades one through eight. Readers will
find in-depth explanations of the layers of effective educational drama experiences based on classroom texts. Kelner and Flynn devote individual chapters to each of four
drama strategies story dramatization, character interviews, tableau, and human slide shows-with a step-by-step process for integration of the drama strategy and reading
comprehension. In addition, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension includes a
comprehensive treatment of assessment in both drama and reading comprehension. Readers will find a variety of assessment guidelines, tasks, tools, and definitions of
terms. Reading is an active process to get information through written language. In
other word it can be said that reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents latter, words,
sentences and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader use knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what the meaning is. Urghart state that reading involves
processing language messages 1998: 15. Widdoson in Urguhart all so states that reading is the getting linguistic information via print. Further he states that getting
information is fairly one way process from writer or text to reader. Further Urhart states that reading is a process of receiving and interpreting information encode in
language via the medium of print 1998: 22. Ruddinle suggests four states of word analysis development:
1. The logographic state, in which children use visual context or graphic features to read words reading “Mc Donalds” by looking at the logo, for example;
2. The traditional state from logo graphic to beginning alphabetic, in which children begin to read words by shifting from visual context and specific latter
associations to use of the alphabetic principle the initial sound d in dog associated with the latter d;
3. The alphabetic stage, in which children rely on latter-sound or grapheme- phoneme relationship to read words dog is sounded out and blended using
phonological recoding process that accesses the children mental lexicon; and 4. The orthographic stage, in which children use a phonetic principle, predictable
latter pasterns, group with shared latter sequences and consistent
commit to user pronunciation that, fat, mat, hate, hate, for example, and analogy in rain to
read the new word train to read. 1994: 92 From the able statements, it can be concluded that reading is an activity which
need a process. It is impossible to read fluently without practice to read something every day. When people want to get information from written message, they should
make it as a habit for our daily activity is an individual activity. Reader can interpret what they read. And it needs process to interpret the right message from written
language. Actually studying all the subject matter is a process. Reader cannot understand the meaning from language written instantly.
Pearson and stephens in Ruddle states that reading is a complex, orchestrated, constructive process through which individuals make meaning 1994: x. It is stated
by Urguhart in reading a second language: process, product and practice that reading means dealing with language messages in written or painted from 1998: 13.
Furthermore Urguhart considers reading as a language activity involving at same time or another all the cognitive processing related to language performance. They
consider that any valid account of reading process must consider such cognitive aspect as reading, and obvious language aspects as syntax and lexical meaning. Nuttal
state that are some word that relate with the definition of reading, those are understanding, interpreting and meaning sense, decoding, deciphering, identifying,
articulating, speaking and pronouncing 1989: 2. The definition of reading reflects the ideas that reading is the process of identifying written words. Besides that in a
great many classrooms, the reading lesson is used as an opportunity to teach pronunciations, encourage fluent and expressive speaking. Reading as interpreting
means to a written text as a piece of communication. Reading is a part of daily life for those of us who live in literate communities that much of the time we hardly consider
either the purpose or the process involved. Reading is fluent process of reader combining information from a text and
their own background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension Nunan, 2003: 68. Reading is the process of understanding written
commit to user language. It begins with a flutter of patterns on the retina and ends when successful
with a definite idea about the author’s intended message. Thus reading is at once a “perceptual” and a “cognitive” process. It is a process that bridges and blurs these two
traditional distinctions Rumelhart, 1994: 864. From the statement above it can be concluded that reading is a process of getting information and message from written
language. In understanding the message from written language, the reader much has background knowledge. Hence in the process of reading the reader much combine
their background knowledge and the content of the text. Besides, they should combine their interference, memory and the strategy of reading. Urguhart states any
valid account of reading process much consider such cognitive aspect as reading strategies, inference, memory, relating text to background knowledge, or well as
decoding and obvious language aspects as syntax and lexical knowledge 1998: 18
3. Directed Reading in the Classroom
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