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2. Purposes and Ways of Reading
Reading without purpose will be useless. Reader must have the purpose of reading to understand the reading passage. Wallace 1996: 6-7, classifies the
purposes of reading based on the personal reasons are as follows. a. Reading for survival
Reading for survival is some kinds of reading in response to our environment. Indeed some reading is almost literally a matter of life
and death. For instance; ‘stop’ signs for motorists. For other special groups such as parents’ survival, reading might involve the ability to
read instructions on baby food and safety regulations on toys. b. Reading for learning
Reading for learning is expected to be exclusively school related. Reading is intended to support learning activity that takes place in
academic contexts. c. Reading for pleasure
Reading for pleasure is done for its own sake-readers. It is written originally to offer enjoyment.
There are some ways of reading as stated by Grellet 1981: 4, the brief explanations are as follows.
a. Skimming Skimming is quickly running one-eyes over a text to the gist of the
text. The reader skims in order to satisfy a very general curiosity about the text and not to find the answer to particular questions.
b. Scanning Scanning is quickly going through a text to find a particular piece of
information. It requires an overall view of the text. c. Extensive reading
Extensive reading is reading longer text, usually for one’s own pleasure. This is fluency activity, mainly involving global
understanding.
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d. Intensive reading Intensive reading is reading shorter texts, to extract specific
information. This is more an accuracy activity involving reading for detail.
3. The important factors affecting Reading comprehension for young
learners’
According to Burns 1984: 34, there are six important factors of reading for young learners’, namely: experiential background, language facility,
interest in reading, social and emotional development, physical development and cognitive development. The brief explanations are as follows:
a. Experiential Background Experiential background is essential for success in reading because
learners must be familiar with the concept and vocabulary they will see in written text in order to gain the meaning. Experience is the
foundation for building vocabulary. Through their experience, young learners gain an understanding of ideas and concept. Later, they will
understand more of what they read because they can relate their experiences to the symbols on the printed page.
b. Language Facility Listening and speaking skills are essential for effective
communication. Because the concept and vocabulary derived from listening and speaking are the basis for effective reading and writing.
Language facility is enhanced when teacher and parents give their complete attention to children while they read to them, look at the
picture with them or listen to the stories about pictures and activities which they have engaged.
c. Interest in Reading Reading activity requires an interest. In order to develop interest in
learning to read, young learners need to be exposed to language and literature. They need to experience the delight that comes from
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listening and responding the stories, to handle book and examine pictures and to see reasons for reading in their daily activity.
d. Social and Emotional Development Individual and group communication and participation are important
factors in social and emotional development. Communication experience should be structured so that young learners feel adequate
and secure and can develop desirable attitude toward themselves and others.
e. Physical Development Good health, good vision and good hearing are most essential for
learning to read. The young learners need to make fine visual discrimination to see likeness and differences is obvious and suggest
the usefulness of early activities involve form and shapes such as picture puzzle and later activities that involve letter recognition
words beginning and ending alike and so on. f. Cognitive Development
Young learners’ intelligent is vital in learning to read. Theory of cognitive development asserted that thought comes before language
and that language is a way of representing thought. It can be concluded that a teacher should provide a task which can be
understood by learners. Giving them social interaction with their peers to facilitate cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development is needed to
make the learners comprehend with what has been read.
4. Problems in Reading Comprehension
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