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discuss four levels of comprehension but only discuss two levels, literal and interpretive comprehension because the texts for SMP students covers literal and
interpretive comprehension. Based on the curriculum of SMP and level of comprehension above, the
researcher can get some indicators required to the students, they were: literal comprehension finding details information, identifying language feature,
identifying generic structure, and identifying word meaningvocabulary and interpretative comprehension identifying main ideas, identifying referents, and
identifying the author‟s purpose.
d. The Process of Reading
Reading is not a single but a complex process. Davies 1995: 58 defines the process of reading into two models. They are bottom-up model and top-down
model. 1 Bottom-up model
Eye look-identified and sound out words recognized-words allocated to grammatical class and sentence structure-sentence give meaning, meaning
leads to thinking. This model reflect certain approaches to the teaching of reading, in which the
sequence of instruction is intended to reflect the assumed sequence of processing, from letters to sounds, to words, to sentences and finally to
meaning and to thinking. 2 Top-down model
The processing sequence of top-down model is almost the reverse of the model above. This model is illustrated below:
Eye-look-thinking and prediction about meaning-sample sentences as a whole to check further look at words-if still uncertain study letters back to meaning
predictions. This model includes thinking and meaning at a very early stage, and the
processing sequence proceeds from prediction about meaning to attention of progressive smaller units.
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e. The Factors Influencing Reading Comprehension
Dallman 1982: 165 points out the factors influencing the reading comprehension, they are:
1 External Factors a Difficulty of material
Difficult material that is beyond the student‟s level is one of the major causes of lack comprehension.
b Intelligence A students ability to comprehend in reading is sometimes limited by his mental
abilty enabling him to carry. The intelligence of the reader will influence the capacity of the reader in comprehending passage.
c Environment The extent of the environment affects comprehension varies with individuals.
d Teacher‟s method
Methods of teaching that concentrate on the recognation of individual words without neglecting attention to meaning assist the students‟ quality in
comprehending the text. 2 Internal Factors
a Motivation Motivation is one of the important factors of learners in reading
comprehension. b Self-esteem
Sefl-esteem has important role in developing reading comprehension. It is a human being personality that is active, highly confident.
c Self-actualization Self-actualization is one of the basic physical needs, students have a feeling to
create and improve their ability in reading to be best.
f. The Types of Reading
