general.
12
Nuttall statements supports that extensive reading is good for who wants to improve hisher reading without any cognition about linguistic
structure. So that the writer concluded that extensive reading is reading longer text than in intensive reading, but the reader reading the text pleasurably
without any kinds of reading tasks.
c. Purpose of Reading
In this era, students can read everything what they want in every time and everywhere. But, each student has different purpose of reading. Based on
Grabe and Stoller there are some purposes in reading, such as:
13
a Reading to search for simple informationIn this purpose of reading, usually the reader does scanning to get specific word or
information. b Reading to skim quickly. The reader does skimming for the text in
a short time to find out the general information of the text. c Reading to learn from text. In this purpose, the reader learns the
important information from the text and relates the information to the reader’s background knowledge.
d Reading to integrate information. This purpose allows the reader to read and decide what information they are going to pick.
e Reading to write. Like reading to integrate information, this purpose of reading requires the reader to read the text and get some
information or sources in order to develop writing. f Reading to critique text. In this purpose of reading, the readers
need to select, critique and compose the information of the text. g Reading for general information. Reading for general information
is a complex reading allows the reader to read words rapidly and
12
Thomas N. Robb, Bernard Susser, Extensive Reading vs Skills Building in EFL context, Reading in Foreign Language
, Vol.5 2, 1989, p.1.
13
William Grabe, and Fredrica L. Stoller, Teaching and Researching Reading, London: Taylor Francis Group, 2011, pp. 6-8.
build strong skills in forming general meaning in representing of mind ideas which is doing in short time.
On the other hand, Megan stated there are two main purposes of reading, they are:
14
a Reading for literary experience. The reader becomes involved in imagined events, settings, actions, consequences, characters,
atmosphere, feelings, and ideas; he or she brings an appreciation of language and knowledge of literary forms to the text. This is often
accomplished through reading fiction. b Reading to acquire and use information. The reader engages with
types of texts where she or he can understand how the world is and has been, and why things work as they do. Texts take many forms,
but one major distinction is between those organised chronologically and those organised non-chronologically. This area
is often associated with information articles and instructional texts. Furthermore, reading can have three main purposes, such as:
15
a Reading for survival is how to be aware to the environment, to find an information like street signs, advertising, or timetables.
b Reading for learning is reading purpose that occurs in the classroom activity and requires some goals.
c Reading for pleasure is something does not have to be done.
d. Definition of Reading Achievement
Reading achievement is a result from reading comprehension. So, reading achievement has similar meaning to reading comprehension.
Therefore, reading comprehension effects reading achievement because reader’s comprehension to the text will increase or decrease reader’s
14
Megan Chamberlain, An Overview of National Findings from the Second Cycle of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
, New Zealand: Ministry of Education, 2005- 2006, p.39.
15
Sacha Anthony Berardo, The Use of Authentic Materials in the Teaching of Reading, The Reading Matrix
, Vol. 6 2, 2006, p.61.
achievement in reading. Reading comprehension is when reader develops understanding while interacts with the text.
16
According to Kintsch reading comprehension is the result of process that produce while reading to make a
mental production of the situation made by the text, reffered to as a situation model.
17
Moreover, reading comprehension is a process of concluding or produce meaning from the text. The main goal of reading comprehension is to
get whole information from the text rather than to get meaning only from words or sentences.
18
So, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is the main focus on reading activity to interact or to build up understanding
with the text. Without understanding in reading, the reader will get nothing from the text.
In addition, Gray divided reading understanding or comprehension in 3 kinds. First, reading “the lines” is understanding of the text structure.
Second, reading “between the lines” is understanding about the text meaning. The last, reading “beyond the lines” is understanding about how the reader
critiques the text
19
. Reading is important skill taught in schools. Readers, especialy students, need to comprehand the reading to achive good
achievement. Comprehension requires the reader put the meanings of words in reader’s memory until the reader’s can think or interpret about the
collective meaning.
20
So that from those statements, the writer concluded that reading comprehension is the reader’s way to understand how the text, structure, or
meaning then, the reader also can conclude the reading with hisher own statement or opinion. In summary, reading comprehension is how the reader
16
Paula J. Clarke. et al., Developing Reading Comprehension, UK: John Wiley Sons, Ltd, 2014, p.2.
17
Kristi L. Santi and Deborah K. Reed ed., Improving Reading Comprehension, Literacy Studies
, Vol. 10, 2015, p.2.
18
Gary Woolley, Reading Comprhension; Assisting Children with Learning Difficulties, New York: Springer Science+Business Media, 2011, p.15.
19
J. Charles Alderson, Assessing Reading, Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p.8.
20
Collins, op. cit., p.9.
understand and interpret the meaning of the reading text. There are some steps how compehension works
21
: a Word recognition allows the reader to accsess the meaning or
multiple meaning of words in a sentence. b
As more word meanings are accumulated in the reader’s short-term memory, the reader is able to sort through multiple meanings and
select the appropriate one. c As the number of meanings held in short-term memoy increases,
the reader begins to form an expectation of the complete meaning of the sentence. This occurs as the reader assembles those
meanings and come acts them to prior knowledge. d Only when all of the meanings have been assembled can the reader
finally determine the meaning of the sentence. So, improving reading achievement through reading comprehension can
be improved by mastering a lot of vocabularies and syntactic rules. On the other hand, there are some ways to improve reading comprehension
22
: a Develop a broad background
Develop knowledge can by reading newspaper, magazines, or intrest in world events.
b Know the structure of paragraph This kind of grammar rules, so the reader can know where the
beginning, midde, or end of the paragraph, part of speech, etc. c Identify the type of reasoning
Does the author use cause and effect reasoning, hypothesis, models building, induction or deduction, system thinking?
d Anticipate and predict The smart reader can anticipate or predict what is the main idea or
topic of the text.
21
Collins, op. cit., p.16.
22
Donald Martin, How To Be a Successful Student, United States of America: Martin Press, 1991, p.7.
