Those are activities that can be taken into account for the teacher who wants to teach reading comprehension. The teacher needs to be wise in
selecting activities for teaching reading as it can determine the success of students’ comprehension.
c. Models in Teaching Reading Comprehension
There are three models of how the comprehension process works, those are, bottom-up processing, top-down processing, and interactive
processing Nunan, 1993. In the bottom-up processing, firstly readers have to identify the
smallest units of language, which are next they would be linked together with the next highest unit. In the process of reading comprehension, first the
readers have to identify each letter in a text, and then link them together to make up words. After that, the words are joined together to form sentences;
sentences are tied together to form paragraphs; and paragraphs are connected together to form whole texts. Finally, comprehension is the last stage of this
process. In contrary, top-down processing works from the highest units of
analysis to the lowest. According to this theory, the readers make use of their background knowledge of the topic they are reading, the overall structure of
the text, and the context it contains, rather than decoding letters or words of the text.
The last model is interactive processing. Stanovich in Nunan 1993 suggests that in comprehending discourse, the readers use information from
more than one level simultaneously. It means that comprehension is not simply moving from lower to higher and vice versa, but it is an interactive
process. Accordingly, this process requires both bottom-up processing and top-down processing.
d. Teaching Reading in Junior High Schools
An important element in the English teaching and learning process at junior high schools is a curriculum. A curriculum provides guidances for the
English course and learning goals for students to reach. In SMP N 9 Yogyakarta, the curriculum that is implemented is School-Based Curriculum.
The School-Based Curriculum allows the schools to develop its operational curriculum and then implement it BSNP, 2006:5. One of the
components of the School-Based Curriculum is a syllabus. The syllabus contains standard of competence and basic competence which are useful to
develop learning materials, learning activities, learning indicators, assessments, time allocation and learning sources for the English course.
The standard of competence and basic competence of reading of the eighth grade students of junior high schools in the second semester presented
as follows.
Table 1: The Standard of Competence and the Basic Competence of Reading of Eighth Grade Students in Junior High Schools
Standard of Competence Basic Competence
Reading 11. Comprehending meanings of
simple short functional text and essay in the form of narrative and
recount in the daily life context to interact with the surroundings
11.1 Reading aloud short functional texts and simple and short essays in
the form of recount and narrative by giving appropriate
pronunciation, stress, and intonation to be able to interact in
the daily life context. 11.2 Responding to meaning of
short functionals text accurately, fluently, and appropriately in the
daily life context. 11.3 Responding to meanings and
rhetorical steps of simple and short essay writings accurately, fluently,
and appropriately in the form of narrative and recount in the daily
life context.
Based on the standard of competence and basic competence of the second semester stated above, the reading materials are in the form of
narrative and recount texts. It can be seen that students are expected to be able to comprehend the essence of those text and also to relate and implement them
in the daily life context. e.
Reading Lesson Sequences
There are sequences in teaching reading that a teacher needs to take into account to make reading activity meaningful. Brown 2001:315 proposes
three sequences in teaching reading: before reading, while reading, and after reading.
1 Before reading
In this stage, the teacher needs to spend some time to introduce a topic of a text, and let the students to understand the topic given.
The teacher can apply skimming, scanning, predicting, and activating schemata to stimulate students’ knowledge and skills.
2 While reading
In this stage, the teacher should be able to give the students a sense that they have a purpose in reading a particular text. So that, the
students will understand that they read a text not merely because the teacher orders them to do so.
3 After reading
In the final stage, the teacher can provide some activities appropriate for post-reading. Comprehension questions can be
given to check students’ understanding of the text. Additionally, activities can be in the form of vocabulary study, identifying the
author’s purpose, discussing the author’s line of reasoning, examining grammatical structures, or steering students toward a
follow-up writing exercise.
f. Strategies in Reading Comprehension
