Descriptive Text Reading Comprehension

1 Interest motivation Student who is not interested in reading or if their motivation is low to read, shehe will get failure in comprehending. Shehe will not get any fun in reading, because herhis first impression does not like reading, so when she he reads, shehe does not have the process of thinking, which is a basic in reading. Thus the comprehension will not occur. 2 Attitudes and beliefs Attitudes and beliefs are frequently closely linked to their interest. Attitudes and beliefs usually reflect background experience. They also play important role in a comprehension. 3 Feeling Emotion is fact of life. Feeling develop early when infants find some things pleasant and other unpleasant. 18 Emotional factors like feeling or mood and concentration will influence student’s reading comprehension. To get comprehension students always have to be in a good condition. e. Reading Purpose This fifth factor also determines the comprehension ability, student could also have difficulties to understand the text if shehe reads it without particular purpose in mind. Comprehension is always directed and controlled by the needs and purposes of an individual. The purpose of reading is to get the meaning from the written symbols. One of the most important tasks of the readers to find out what the writer said. For junior high school, reading is used to understand textbook. Based on the explanation above, the researcher summarizes that there are many factors which influence reading comprehension, such as background experience, language abilities, thinking abilities, 18 Ibid., p. 210 affection interest and motivation, attitude and beliefs, and feelings, and reading purpose. They are primary determining factors which can influence students’ reading comprehension. From all factors have been mentioned above, there are three important factors in reading comprehension which are identified: thinking, feeling, and purpose for reading. 19 However, the researcher limits this research on feeling factor in the aspect of anxiety. Therefore, the writer discusses anxiety in the next topic.

B. Anxiety

1. The Understanding of Anxiet y In our daily life, when we find unexpected situation, we will feel anxious. Anxiety is a negative feeling that someone has in certain time. Anxiety is a feeling where the people are uncertain or hesitant with their ability or what they want to do. This anxiety can be described as a feeling which causes someo ne’s low self-confidence, so that heshe can’t make maximal success in hisher life. For the people who learn a foreign language, anxiety may affect their acquisition of the language. Someone with high anxiety can create a negative effect especially in their learning achievement. According to Horwitz et al. define anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system.” 20 Furthermore, anxiety arises as a response to an awful situation. Passer and Smith define anxiety as a state of tension and apprehension as a natural response to perceived threat. 21 It means that people are naturally feels anxious when they are threatened. According to Ormrod anxiety is a 19 Ibid., p. 261 20 Horwitz, et. al., Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 70, Blackwell Publishing, 1986, p.125 21 Michael W. Passer and Ronald E. Smith, Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior, Second Edition New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003, p. 546