poetry, financial document e.ge. checks, tax forms, loan applications, forms, questionnaires medical reports, immigration documents, comic strips, and
cartoons. With regard to the explanation above, there are three genres in reading.
They are academic reading, job-related reading and personal reading. They enable the readers to apply certain strategies that assist them in constructing
appropriate meanings.
d. Micro- and Macro-Skills of Reading
According to Grabe and Stoller 2011:8- 9, the term ‘skill’ represents
“linguistic processing abilities that are relatively automatic in their use and their combination.” Furthermore, Grabe and Stoller 2011 view skills as “general
learning outcomes of goal-driven tasks, acquired gradually and eventually automatized.”
As stated by Brown 2004, there are two major skills of reading: micro- skills and macro-skills. In micro-skills, the readers are required to have skills in
dealing with graphemes, orthographic patterns, and linguistic signals. Brown 2004:187-188 provides the list of skills of reading comprehension as follows:
1. Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic
patterns of English 2.
Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory 3.
Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose 4.
Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance
5. Recognize grammatical word classes nouns, verbs, etc. systems e.g.,
tense, agreement, and pluralization, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
6. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different
grammatical forms
7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in
signaling the relationship between and among clauses In macro-skills, the readers need to make use of their discourse
knowledge, communicative functions of written texts, inference skill, scanning, and skimming techniques. Brown 2004:187-188 presents the macro-skills of
reading as follows: 1.
Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for interpretation
2. Recognize the communicative functions of written texts, according to
form and purpose 3.
Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge 4.
Infer links and connections between events, ideas, etc., deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea,
new information,
given information,
generalization, and
exemplification 5.
Distinguish between literal and implied meanings 6.
Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural schemata
7. Develop and use a battery of reading strategies such as scanning and
skimming, detecting discourse makers, guessing the meaning of words from context, and activating schemata for the interpretation of text.
As stated by Grabe and Stoller 2011, those skills are acquired gradually. Thus, it is important to take into account that being a skilled readers need big
efforts.
e. Process of Teaching Reading
In conducting the reading activities, the teachers should follow the steps. The steps are involved in a broad procedure or stages of language teaching. So,
the teachers do not need to be confused with the framework of the steps. California State University Expository Reading and Writing Task Force 2008, in
Hedgecock, 2009 outlines crucial academic reading activities and strategies for
the reading in terms of what the teacher and students do before, during, and after reading. Table 1 below represents the reading steps.
Table 1: Reading Framework Adapted from California State University Expository Reading and
Writing Task Force, 2008. Pre-Reading
1 Getting ready to read
2 Surveying the text
3 Making predictions and asking questions
4 Introducing key vocabulary
During Reading
1 First reading
2 Re-reading the text
3 Looking closely at language
4 Considering the structure of the text
Post-Reading
1 Summarizing and responding
2 Thinking critically
3 Reading-writing connections
The steps or stages are conducted systematically. Activities of pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading are important to do. The explanation about the
activities while doing reading are presented as follows:
1 Pre-reading activities
Conducting pre-reading activities are crucial. This stage is preparing the students to read the text. The activities can build the
students’ interest, confidence, and motivation for reading the text. Furthermore, by having pre-
reading activities, teachers can introduce reading strategies and facilitate comprehension.
