3. Theory of Reading
Considering that this study is on designing English reading instructional materials for the tenth grade students of SMA STELLA DUCE 1 Yogyakarta, the
theory of reading is essential to discuss since it supports the design of the reading materials. There are four major points to discuss. They are the nature of reading,
the models of reading processes, the level of comprehension, and the teaching of reading skill.
a. The Nature of Reading
Reading and writing are the forms of communication. Both require to our spoken language. The understanding of the total language situation and the use of
language master the understanding of the process of learning to read. It is more than just a communication art, but it is as the vehicles of our thought processes.
Gray 1937 said that the view of the nature of reading involves the recognition of the important elements of the meaning, including the accuracy and thoroughness in
comprehension. The comprehension itself means the ability to grasp the meaning in the form of reading passage Moyle, 1972: 25. The methods used in teaching
bring the different effects on the students since they have different abilities and different level of comprehension.
According to Reinking and Scheiner 1985, cited by Kustaryo 1988: 2, reading is an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring
comprehension to establish meaning. When the readers deal with the print, they recognize the symbols and then they relate these symbols with their background
information in order to build interpretation and gain comprehension of the written text. As it is highlighted by Kustaryo 1988: 2, reading is a meaningful
interpretation of written symbols.
Goodman 1967 pointed reading as an active psycholinguistic guessing game. In the process of reading, the readers make their further prediction about
what will happen next reflecting to what they have already read. They search for cues presented to support them in making prediction. Then, they confirm their
prediction as they read along the text Cohen, 1990: 75. Eskey stated that reading is a continual interaction of identification skills and
interpretive skills. The identification skill happens when the readers recognize the words, phrases, and grammatical signals to decode the text. Whereas, the
interpretive skill happens when the readers try to construct the information and build for meaning. Moreover, there is also an interaction occurred between the
writer and the reader in the reading process. There are two approaches involved, namely: text-based and reader-based approaches. The text-based approach
concerns with what the writer plans to write and how it is written while reader- based approach deals with what the readers bring to the text and what is got by the
readers after reading Cohen, 1990: 75-76. To sum up, the reading process begins and ends with meaning. As it is stated
by Lapp and Flood 1978, if the reader has not comprehended, he has not read Osman, 1986:1. Therefore, the comprehension is the key of the reading process.
This study also focuses on the improvement of reading comprehension mastery of the tenth grade of the private school students.
b. The Models of Reading Processes
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