The Nature of Reading Reading Material

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter discusses the related literature as the theoretical base in doing the study on the implementation of CIRC to teach reading to the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Elementary School, as it is outlines in the Chapter I. On this review of related literature, the theoretical description and the theoretical framework of the study will be discussed further.

A. Theoretical Description

In this part, the writer discusses the theories about teaching reading for the fifth grade students of Kanisius Kintelan Yogyakarta using Cooperative Integrated Reading Composition CIRC.

1. The Nature of Reading

Grabe and Stoller begin the discussion of the nature of reading by providing a definition of concept. Grabe and Stoller state that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and the ability to interpret the information from the printed page appropriately Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 9. While According to Moyle 1972: 21-25, reading is above all to do with the language, because in reading we meet all the components of the language such as vocabulary, grammar, and even pronunciation. Reading is also form of communication; it becomes the base of spoken language because reading turns the 10 collection of symbol into ‘talk’, or in the case of silent reading, into an image of speech sound. Furthermore, Wallace states that reading is a unitary process which cannot be subdivided into constituent skills Wallace, 2003: 57. Therefore, teachers must not see reading as an isolated activity as what Wallace states 2003: 62 that reading is inevitably integrated with speaking, writing, and listening. This study dealing with teaching reading to children, according to Wallace 2003: 4 one of the difficulties which young children may have is the ability to understand what they read, as they still have limited knowledge of English, especially vocabulary mastery. If we wish our children to read with understanding, the children must see a purpose in reading and gain enjoyment from reading from the earliest moment of instruction.

2. The Purpose of Reading

According to Grabe and Stoller, there are some purposes of reading; they are Grabe and Stoller, 2004: 11: a. Reading to search for simple information and reading to skim Reading to search simple information is common reading ability. It is used so often in reading tasks that it is probably seen as type of reading ability. While reading to skim is a common part of many reading tasks. It involves a combination of strategies for guessing where important information might be in the text. 11

b. Reading to learn from texts

Reading to learn typically occurs in academic and professional context in which a person needs to learn a considerable amount of information from a text.

c. Reading for general comprehension

Reading for general comprehension is the most basic purpose for reading, underlying and supporting most other purposes for reading. Reading for general comprehension is actually more complex than commonly assumed.

3. Reading Material

Reading is the most important skills in learning a language. In selecting a reading material for the elementary students, there are two factors to be considered. According to Wallace 2003: 71 the classification of the two factors in selecting reading materials can be summarized as follows. a. The text should present content which is familiar and interesting to the learners so that the students would be able to see reading as useful, pleasant, or relevant to their lives. If a suitable topic is chosen, but the language is too difficult for a particular group of students, some simplification could be made. b. The text should be appropriate to the learners’ language level. It means that reading material should be ‘not too easy nor too difficult.’ If a reading material were too easy, students would not have a good challenge to learn. While, if the reading material were too difficult, students would be frustrated. As a result, they would be discouraged rather than challenged. 12 The difficulty level of the reading material must match the students’ proficiency.

4. Reading Comprehension