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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
It was explained in the previous chapter, this study aims to improve the reading ability of the eighth grade students of SMP N 1 Karang Nongko by using SS.
Therefore, in this chapter, the researcher presents some theories related to reading comprehension, related to the study and the conceptual framework.
A. Review of Related Theories
1. Definition of Reading
What is the importance of reading? This kind of question may come to our mind. Harmer 2001:200 explains the reason why reading is important. It can be
divided into two categories; instrumental and pleasurable aspect. The instrumental aspects support the reader to achieve some clear aims and it covers getting
information from the written texts and comprehending the instruction what the reader is essential to do. Meanwhile, the pleasurable aspect deals with the pleasure reading.
It can be in the form of magazine or interpreting the illustration of a picture. However, the main purpose of its essence is that students acquire some information
from the reading activity and gradually they will be able to communicate with others. This study focuses on improving reading ability. It is urgent to have more
understanding about reading. There are many definitions of reading. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, reading is the skill or activity of getting
information from books. Reading is known as interaction between the readers and the
text. On that occasion, the readers relate the content of the text with their previous knowledge Alderson, 2000:3.
Furthermore, Brown 2004:189 states that reading is a process of negotiation of meaning. In this process, the readers bring their early thought to the net parts of
reading process to finally reach their understanding about the meaning of the text they read. Celce-Murcia 2001 adds that reading as an interactive process. It
involves a text, a reader, and a social context in which the reading process occurs. The transaction indicates that the
reader’s purpose for reading influenced the reader’s interpretation about the text.
According to Ediger in Celce-Murcia 2001:154 there are six general component skills and knowledge areas identified within the complex process of
reading. They are: 1
Automatic recognition skills – a virtually unconscious ability, ideally requiring little mental processing to recognize text, especially for word
identification. 2
Vocabulary and structural knowledge – a sound understanding of language structure and a large recognition vocabulary.
3 Formal discourse structure knowledge – an understanding of how texst are
organized and how information is put together into various genres of text. 4
Contentworld background knowledge – prior knowledge of text related information and a shared understanding of the cultural information
involved in text.
5 Synthesis and evaluation skillsstrategies – the ability to read and compare
information from multiple sources, to think critically about what one reads, and to decide what information is relevant or useful for one’s purpose.
6 Metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring – an awareness of one’s
mental processes and the ability to reflect on what one is doing and the strategies one is employing while reading.
From the definition above, it can be concluded that reading is basically comprehending a written text, to comprehend means to get or to understand
information from the text. The reader uses their previous knowledge of language and non-language to relate the information from the text in the process of reading.
2. Reading Comprehension
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