The Objective of The Study
almost unlimited”,
7
but basically there are two main purposes for reading. Francois Grellet stated that:
“There are two main reasons for reading: -
Reading for pleasure -
Reading for information in order to find out something or in order to do something with the information you get”.
8
The different purposes of reading activity that also stated by Jeremy Harmer, by divided into some areas:
a.
Predictive
Reading as a tool to train a readers ability in estimating the content of the text they read, either in matching their predictions or in
developing their predictions about the others content that will change after readers get additional information from the text and interact with
the content of the text.
b. Extracting specific information
Here, reading is an activity to find a particular piece of information that readers need. Usually, the readers use scanning type of reading.
c. Getting the general picture
The purpose is not to get details information but to get the gist of the text. Here, the readers will do skim rapidly and understand the
main point of the text. d.
Inferring opinion and attitude The purpose is to know the opinion and attitude of the author about
the topic discusses that is implied in his writing.
7
John J Deboer, The Teaching of Reading, London : Holt rinehart and winstoninc, 1960, p. 34
8
Francois Grellet, Developing Reading Skills, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p.4
e. Deducing meaning from context
The readers try to find out and guess the meaning of the unknown words based on the context although they do not know the actual
meaning of the word. f.
Recognizing function and discourse patterns and markers Reading is a tool to train the reader in understanding the use of the
words, how a sentence is constructed in the correct order, the relationship between words and the connection between sentences.
9
Different purposes of reading explained by Pramila Ahuja that stated “Different occasions require us to read for different purpose. We read for
pleasure, we read for specific information, we read to locate material dealing with special problems and many a time we read aloud to share
information with others”.
10
Meanwhile John J. De Boer also describes that people read for many purposes, reading for pure recreation and enjoyment,
reading to study, reading to find the answer to a question or the solution of a problem, reading to learn main idea of a selection or some specific items
of information, reading to discover the outcome of a series of events or reading to follow directions.
11
Based on the explanation above it can be concluded that people read for many purposes. Some of them read to answer questions, to solve a
problem, to gain specific information, and to search for simple information. But commonly, there are two general reading purposes. First,
people read to get general information and comprehension, usually because they need to do. Second, people read to get pleasure, it because
people like to do, they may read either quickly or slowly based on the way they like. They also can feel enjoy and satisfied after they read them. The
9
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language,New York : Longman. 1984,p. 144-145
10
Ahuja, op. cit., p.4
11
De Boer , op. cit.,p. 24