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that using macromedia flash 8 is an effective method to improve students’ skill in reading speed.
As far as the writer observed, the writer only finds several studies that focus on the use of macromedia flash 8 for teaching reading comprehension.
These are because macromedia flash 8 is a difficult program for mastering and most of researchers keep away from this topic.
Based on all of studies, a topic related to the use macromedia flash 8 for teaching hortatory exposition text has not been work out. It motivates the writer to
conduct the study of this particular interest.
2.2 General Concept of Reading Comprehension
2.2.1 Definition of Reading
As one of the language skills, reading demands the students to master it well to help them in understanding text in any kind of books. Many experts give
the definition of reading, Grabe and Stoller 2002:9 stated that “reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information
appropriately.” Harrison and Smith 1980:8 say that “Reading as the act of responding with appropriate meaning to be printed or written verbal symbols.” It
means that reading is the result of interaction between the graphic symbols that represent language and the reader language skill, cognitive skill and knowledge of
the world. In this process, the reader tries to recreate the meaning intended by the writer.
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In line with Harrison and Smith, Hornby in Oxford Advanced Learner’s University 1995:1053 states that reading is the process of looking at and
understanding the meaning of written or printed words or symbols. Even in the more immediately focused stage of getting the point of text actually reading
journals reader pause, think, read, and so on. As a language skill, “the skill of reading enjoys through an interactive
process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension” http:www.nclc.orgessentialsreadingreindex.htm. Lado 1964:223 defines
that “reading is a foreign language consist of grasping meaning in that language through its written representation.”
Therefore, it can be concluded that reading is a process to draw meaning intended by the writer from the text.
2.2.2 Models of Reading Process
According to Eskey, as quoted by Simanjuntak 1988:7, stated that there are three models of reading process. Those are:
1 Bottom-up Model Reading is a precise process involving exact, detailed, sequential perceptions
and identifications of letters, words, spelling patterns, and larger language units.
2 Top-down Model It deals with the general nations of reading as there construction of meaning
based on skillful sampling of the text, such specific notion as the use of
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linguistic redundancy, the crucial role of prior knowledge in prediction, and the necessity for reading at a reasonable rate in larger, more meaning full text.
3 Interactive Model It deals with a particular type of cognitive behavior, which is based on certain
kinds of knowledge which form a part of the reader’s cognitive structure.
2.2.3 Types of Reading