The Nature of Reading Level of Reading Processes

a. The Nature of Reading

Formerly, reading is seen as a passive activity in which readers only receive information. However, in the learning process, reading is not a passive activity. Reading is an active process, as Vacca 1981: 12 defines reading as an active process of getting meaning in which a reader interacts with texts in order to understand the author’s message. Reading is thinking; it is an active process of identifying important ideas, comparing, evaluating, and applying them. In reading, readers build a smooth process of combining information from a text and their background knowledge to build meaning and readers should possess the ability to make sense of written symbols Nunan, 2003:68. Non-native English readers are required to have the ability to use a wide variety of reading strategies in order to accomplish the purpose of reading and to know what to do when they encounter difficulties. As Barnitz 1985: 3, in his book, Reading Development of Non-native Speakers of English, argues that readers interact with the text in a particular setting or context. Readers construct a meaningful representation of text through an interaction of their conceptual and linguistic knowledge with the written symbols in the text. This study deals with teaching reading to young learners since the participant of this study is the eleventh grade students of senior high school. According to Wallace 2003: 4, one of the difficulties which young learners, especially EFL learners, may have is the disability to understand the text. It is because they still have limited knowledge of English, especially the vocabulary mastery. Teachers should build students’ impression that reading is enjoyable from the earliest moment of instructional. Teachers have to motivate the students to gain the pleasure from reading. Teachers help students in forming attitude to read with understanding, to evaluate, and also to think creatively as the result of their reading.

b. Level of Reading Processes

According to Cohen 1990: 77, the reading processes can be divided into four levels. 1 The grammatical level It deals with the ability to analyze a text and divide words, phrases, or sentences into grammatical categories, grammatical function, or their syntactic role. It is the basic level of the reading processes and it can also be the media of learning sentence structures. 2 The informational level This level is basically related with digging out information from the text. The readers are trying to reveal the message from the text. The vocabulary analysis is needed in this level. Therefore, it can also be the media of learning vocabulary. It helps the readers not only to obtain reading skill but also to master vocabulary. 3 The discourse level In this level, readers do not deal with the appropriate connection between portions of a text, and the grammatical or cohesion lexical relationships between the different elements of a text. It deals with the relationships which link every meaning of the sentences in a text. So, there is an easy understanding text which is called logical or rational. It can develop readers’ critical thinking and problem solving since it assists the readers in finding the logical understanding of a text. 4 The writer’s intent The writer’s intent refers to the attitude and the tone. Sometimes punctuation, intensifiers, and invectives indicate the attitude and the tone of the writer. Understanding the writer’s intent is the highest level of the reading processes since it requires the grammatical mastery, the vocabulary mastery, and the logical understanding in conveying the meaning of a text. Knowing the level of reading processes is essential in order to adjust and to form the type of material which is suitable for the selected students. In this study, the researcher focuses on the informational level in selecting the material and the learning activities considering that the selected students are the eleventh grade students of elementary school which still have limited knowledge of English. After adjusting and forming the appropriate materials and activities in presenting the materials, it is important to identify the objectives of the reading. It is important since it will influence the process and the result of the learning processes. The designed materials will have some various models in the appearance.

c. Narrative Text