Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) Degree in English Language Studies
STRATEGIES FOR READING SHORT STORIES
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) Degree
in English Language Studies
by
DIYAH AYU RIZQIANI
Student Number: 056332011
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
STRATEGIES FOR READING SHORT STORIES
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) Degree
in English Language Studies
by
DIYAH AYU RIZQIANI
Student Number: 056332011
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to dedicate this thesis to my late father and also to my lovely daughter, Muhammada Ditia Bella Diena. They always encouraged me in everything that I did. It was their love that has kept me going this far and their love that will keep me going further.
First of all, I would like to thank Allah, the inspiration of my life, for blessing my wonderful journey. My special thanks go to my beloved mother for the invaluable support and help. For the never-ending love and support, I am indebted to my brothers, sisters, and also my cousin, Adib Abdilla. I am most grateful also to my heri who has so generously offered his love and moral support.
My sincere thanks go to my advisor, Dr. F.X. Mukarto, M.S. for his patience and fatherly guidance during the thesis writing process. I am deeply grateful to Dr. B.B Dwijatmoko, M.A and Dr. J. Bismoko who guided and supported me during my academic journey at the English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.
I would also like to acknowledge the support of the head of STBA-LIA Yogyakarta, Dr. Stefanus Djawanai. I wish to thank the English Literature lecturers, Hesti Herusatoto, Fitri Ratna Nadia, Once Helena Manurung, Nugraha Krisdiyanta, and most of all, Alwin Nazarudin, for the fruitful discussion during the data gathering process.
I would like to show my appreciation to my best and supporting friends Mbak Ista and Slash, for their support and friendship. I must express my gratitude to Pak Aldi for providing abundance chances to develop my teaching skills, and also to all friends at the English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University. Last but not least, I thank all my research participants without whom this study would not have been possible.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………… i APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………….. ii DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………………… iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ………………………………………... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………... v TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………... vi LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………. ix LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………… x LIST OF APPENDICES …………………………………………………… xi LIST OF ABBREVIATION ……………………………………………...... xii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………….. xiii ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………… xiv
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION……………………………………………
1 A. Background of the Study ………………………………………………
1 B. Problem Identification …………………………………………………
3 C. Problem Limitation …………………………………………………….
4 D. Research Question …………………………………………………….
5 E. Research Goals and Objectives ………………………………………..
5 F. Research Benefits ……………………………………………………...
6 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………
7 A. Theoretical Description ………………………………………………..
7 1. Reading …………………………………………………………….
7 a. What is Reading? ………………………………………………..
7
b. Reading Narrative Literary Texts ………………………………
9
2. Reading Strategy ……………………………………………………
11
a. Oxford’s Taxonomy ……………………………………………
12 1) Metacognitive Strategies …………………………………..
12 2) Cognitive Strategies ……………………………………….
19
b. Factors Affecting the Choice of Strategies ……………………
27 3. Short Story ………………………………………………………….
29
4. English Literature Department ………………………………………
30 B. Related Research ………………………………………………………
31 C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………..
34 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY …………………………………………
37 A. Research Design ………………………………………………………
37 B. Research Setting ………………………………………………………
39 C. Research Participants …………………………………………………
40 D. Types of Data and Data Sources ………………………………………
42 E. Data Collection ………………………………………………………..
42 F. Technique of Data Analysis ……………………………………………
48 CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS …………………………………………………
51 A. Data Presentation and Analysis …………………………......................
51 1. Data Analysis Process ……………………………………………..
51
a. Think-Aloud Protocol …………………………………………
51
b. Self-Report ……………………………………………………
53
c. Interview ………………………………………………………
55
d. Data Coding and Thematizing …………………………………
57
2. Constructing Individual Profile of Reading Strategy ………………
60 B. Findings ………………………………………………………………..
64 1. Budi’s Profile of Reading Strategy ………………………………..
64
a. Metacognitive Strategies ………………………………………
64 b. Cognitive Strategies …………………………………………..
68
2. Rachel’s Profile of Reading Strategy ………………………………
71
a. Metacognitive Strategies ………………………………………
71 b. Cognitive Strategies …………………………………………..
75 3. Ade’s Profile of Reading Strategy ………………………………….
79
a. Metacognitive Strategies ………………………………………
79
b. Cognitive Strategies ……………………………………………
82
4. Conclusion of the Findings …………………………………………
86 C. Discussion ……………………………………………………………..
87 1. Metacognitive Strategies …………………………………………..
87 a. Planning Reading Process ……………………………………...
88 b. Monitoring Reading Process …………………………………...
91
c. Evaluating Reading Process ……………………………………
94 2. Cognitive Strategies ……………………………………………......
96
3. Overlapping Strategies …………………………………………….. 100
a. Metacognitive Strategies……………………………………… 101
b. Cognitive Strategies ………………………………………….. 103
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION …………………………………………….. 108 A. Conclusion …………………………………………………………….. 108 B. Implication …………………………………………………………….. 110 C. Recommendation ……………………………………………………… 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………...... 112 APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………… 117
LIST OF TABLES
58 Table 4.6 List of Overlapping Strategies ………………………………
79 Table 4.16 List of Ade’s Cognitive Strategies ………………………….
75 Table 4.15 List of Ade’s Metacognitive Strategies …………………......
72 Table 4.14 List of Rachel’s Cognitive Strategies ……………………….
68 Table 4.13 List of Rachel’s Metacognitive Strategies ………………......
65 Table 4.12 List of Budi’s Cognitive Strategies …………………………
63 Table 4.11 List of Budi’s Metacognitive Strategies …………………….
62 Table 4.10 Sample of Ade’s Profile of Reading Strategy ………………
61 Table 4.9 Sample of Ade’s Tentative Profile II of Reading Strategy .....
59 Table 4.8 Sample of Ade’s Tentative Profile I of Reading Strategy ......
58 Table 4.7 List of Further Data Coding ………………………………...
56 Table 4.5 List of Data Coding …………………………………………
Table 2.1 Metacognitive Strategies ……………………………………55 Table 4.4 Sample of Ade’s Interview II ……………………………….
54 Table 4.3 Sample of Ade’s Interview I …………………………….......
52 Table 4.2 Sample of Ade’s Self-Report ……………………………......
43 Table 4.1 Sample of Ade’s Think-Aloud Protocol …………………….
42 Table 3.3 Short Stories’ Distribution ………………………………......
41 Table 3.2 Types of Data and Data Sources ……………………………
35 Table 3.1 Research Participants ……………………………………......
21 Table 2.4 Research Construct Mapping ……………………………….
19 Table 2.3 Some English Formulas and Patterns ……………………….
13 Table 2.2 Cognitive Strategies …………………………………………
83 Table 4.17 Overlapping Strategies ……………………………………... 100
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Data Collection Process ………………………....................
43 Figure 3.2 Think-Aloud Procedures …………………………………...
44 Figure 3.3 Self-Report Procedures …………………………….............
45 Figure 3.4 Interview Procedures ……………………………….............
47 Figure 3.5 Data Triangulation Process ………………………………...
50 Figure 4.1 Process of Constructing Individual Profile of Reading Strategy ……………………………………………………
60 Figure 4.2 Cognitive Strategies ………………………………………..
96
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Short Story …………………………………………………… 117
1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty …………………………… 117
2. The Grave ………………………………………………….. 120 Appendix B: Blueprint of Interview I …………………………………........ 123 Appendix C: Blueprint of Interview II ……………………………………... 127
1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty …………………………… 127
a. Budi ……………………………………………………… 127
b. Rachel ……………………………………………………. 128
c. Ade ………………………………………………………. 129
2. The Grave ………………………………………………….. 131 Appendix D: Think-Aloud Protocol ………………………………………... 133 Appendix E: Self-Report …………………………………………………… 136 Appendix F: Interview I ………………………………………………......... 137
1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty …………………………… 137
a. Budi ……………………………………………………… 137
b. Rachel ……………………………………………………. 139
c. Ade ………………………………………………………. 141
2. The Grave ………………………………………………….. 143
a. Budi ……………………………………………………… 143
b. Rachel …………………………………………………… 144
c. Ade ………………………………………………………. 146 Appendix G: Interview II …………………………………………………… 148
1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty …………………………… 148
a. Budi ……………………………………………………… 148
b. Ade ……………………………………………………… 149
2. The Grave …………………………………………………. 151
a. Rachel ……………………………………………………. 151
b. Ade ……………………………………………………… 152 Appendix H: Individual Profile of Reading Strategy …………………......... 153
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CEN-PAY Centering Learning Paying Attention CEN-OVE Centering Learning Overviewing with already Known Materials.
PLA-ORG Planning Organizing PLA-SET Planning Setting Goals and Objectives PLA-FIN Planning Finding Out about Language Learning PLA-CHE Planning Checking Out the Framework PLA-REA Planning for Reading Process SEV-MON Evaluating Learning Monitoring Process SEV-EVA Evaluating Learning Evaluating Process PRA-REP Practicing Repeating PRA-ADJ Practicing Adjusting Reading Speed REC-GET Receiving Massages Getting the Ideas Quickly REC-REF Receiving Massages Using References ANA-REA Analyzing Reasoning Deductively ANA-TRA Analyzing Translating ANA-PAR Analyzing Paraphrasing CRE-HIG Creating Structures Highlighting CRE-TAK Creating Structures Taking Notes CRE-VIS Creating Structures Visualizing Information CRE-QUE Creating Structures Self-Questioning CRE-INT Creating Structures Interpreting Information CRE-GRA Creating Structures Integrating Information STBA-LIA Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing LIA
ABSTRACT
Diyah Ayu Rizqiani. 2008. Strategies for Reading Short Stories. Yogyakarta: The Graduate Program of English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.
The study of reading strategy grows rapidly along with the development of language teaching. The emphasis in the study of language teaching and learning has shifted from teachers and teaching into learners and learning. In line with this new shift of interest, the researchers who concern in foreign language teaching and learning focus their inquiries on how learners process new information and what kind of strategies they employ to understand, learn to remember the information. This study investigates metacognitive and cognitive strategies used in reading short stories as reflected in the English literature students’ reading process.
This study was conducted by using progressive qualitative research. The participants of this study were three undergraduate students of STBA-LIA Yogyakarta. All of them were semester IV students and majoring in English literature. Data were obtained from the participants’ think aloud protocol and self-reports when they read two different short stories. Data from the verbal reports were supported by semi-structured interviews which meant to confirm the findings in the verbal reports. Ultimately, all data were transcribed, extracted, reduced, categorized, and coded based on their themes used as the basis for the arguments in the narrative data interpretation.
The findings of this study show that the aims of reading influence the choice of reading strategies used for reading the texts. Students employed metacognitive and cognitive strategies for reading the short stories. Metacognitive strategies were used to make reading process more effective by planning, monitoring, and evaluating the reading process. Cognitive strategies, on the other hand, were used to comprehend the internal structures of the short stories such as plot, setting, conflict, character, point of view, and theme.
The results of this study are expected to be useful not only for English literature students, but also for English literature lecturers. By using the appropriate reading strategies, English literature students could control their reading process. Likewise, English literature lecturers may use the results of this study to prepare literature materials which are appropriate to the students’ reading proficiency levels and also reconsider the importance of giving reading strategy instruction to improve students’ reading skills.
ABSTRAK
Diyah Ayu Rizqiani. 2008. Strategies for Reading Short Stories. Yogyakarta: The Graduate Program of English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.
Kajian strategi membaca berkembang pesat seiring dengan perkembangan pembelajaran bahasa. Titik berat dalam penelitian pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa telah mengalami sebuah perubahan dari guru dan proses mengajar menjadi murid dan proses belajar. Seiring dengan perubahan ini, para peneliti yang bergerak dalam bidang pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa asing pun memusatkan penyelidikan mereka untuk mengetahui bagaimana seorang murid mengolah sebuah informasi dan strategi apa yang mereka gunakan untuk memahami informasi itu, serta bagaimana murid belajar untuk mengingat informasi baru tersebut. Penelitian ini menyelidiki strategi metacognitif dan cognitif yang digunakan saat membaca cerita pendek seperti tercermin dalam proses membaca mahasiswa sastra Inggris.
Penelitian ini dilakukan menggunakan metode penelitian progresif kwalitatif. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah tiga orang mahasiswa Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing LIA Yogyakarta. Mereka adalah para mahasiswa semester IV dengan pengutamaan Sastra Inggris. Data dalam penelian ini didapatkan dari think-aloud protocol dan self-report para partisipan ketika mereka membaca dua buah cerita pendek. Data dari laporan lisan didukung oleh data dari wawancara semi terstruktur yang dimaksudkan untuk memperkuat hasil temuan di laporan lisan. Pada akhirnya, semua data akan dituliskan, disarikan, dikurangi, dikategorikan, dan diberi kode sesuai dengan tema masing-masing yang kemudian akan digunakan sebagai dasar uraian dalam proses menginterpretasikan data naratif.
Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa tujuan membaca mempengaruhi pilihan strategi membaca yang digunakan saat membaca teks. Para mahasiswa menggunakan strategi metakognitif dan kognitif saat membaca cerita pendek. Strategi metacoknitif digunakan agar proses membaca menjadi lebih efektif dengan merencanakan, memantau, dan mengevaluasi proses membaca. Dilain pihak, strategi kognitif digunakan untuk memahami struktur internal dalam cerita pendek seperti plot, setting, konflik, penokohan, sudut pandang, dan tema.
Hasil penelitian ini diharapkan tidak saja berguna bagi para mahasiswa sastra Inggris, tapi diharapkan berguna juga bagi para dosen mata kuliah sastra Inggris. Dengan menggunakan strategi membaca yang tepat, mahasiswa sastra Inggris akan mampu mengatur proses membaca mereka sendiri. Demikian juga, para dosen satra Inggris juga dapat menggunakan hasil penelitian ini untuk menyiapkan materi perkuliahan yang sesuai dengan tingkat kemahiran membaca para mahasiswa mereka dan mempertimbangkan pentingnya diberikan pembelajaran tentang strategi membaca untuk meningkatkan ketrampilan membaca para mahasiswa.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This introductory chapter was divided into six sections: (1) Background of the Study,
the rationales of this study, (2) Problem Identification, coverage issues in the study of reading strategies, (3) Problem Limitation, the research boundaries, (4) Problem Statements, the research questions to be answered in this study, (5) Research Goals and Objectives, the aims of this study, and also (6) Research Benefits, the contribution of this study.
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Compare to the other language skills, reading is considered as the most important skill for university students (Noora, 2006; Tercanliouglu, 2004; Wisaijorn, 2003). Reading skill may determine the students’ success in the academic setting. Since they learn new information from the printed materials, they should be able to synthesize, interpret, and evaluate texts. Reading skills become more essential for EFL students. As the students who learn English as a foreign language, they undergo two challenges. They should have sufficient reading skills since most of learning materials are printed in English. Likewise, they should be able to employ critical thinking while reading the texts (Kusumarasdyati, 2006:1).
English literature students are demanded to have sufficient reading skill for their academic success. Since studying literary texts are the significant features in the language department, they usually read literary texts for their literary and linguistic purposes (Bouvet, 2002:2). Due to the incompleteness of linguistic and cultural knowledge, English literature students in EFL setting have comprehension gaps in reading literary texts. Consequently, students need transitional stages to read the simplification of literary texts before reading their original version presented for the native readership.
Reading literary texts is different from other reading activities for learning new information ( www.sasked.gov.sk.ca ). Literary texts involve the use of language and imagination to represent human experiences. As readers read the literary texts, they focus on their first impression and association. Furthermore, they should also be able to explore the authors’ ideas and essential assumptions found in the texts. In order to sharpen the understanding, students should think, talk, and write about the literary texts after reading the texts. Therefore, teachers need to use instructional strategies to promote reflection, discussion, and critical thinking.
Wenden (1985) as cited in Griffith (2004:2) stated that equipping students with the tools may help students survive to face the challenges in the academic setting. Teaching strategies is very important to empower students manage their learning process. As students become more aware of the meaning of learning, they are responsible for their own learning process.
In reading research, the reading researchers started to focus their inquiries on reading process since the late 1970’s. They focused their inquiries to figure out the ways readers make sense of what they read and also strategies employed to facilitate comprehension(Song, 1998). Since literary texts are considered have few connections with academic discourse, research on strategies for reading literary texts are not well-documented (Parera, 2006:70). Most of the existing reading research deal with strategies for reading non-literary texts (Zhang, 2001; Cabral & Tavarez, 2002; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002; and Salataci & Akyel, 2002).
The importance of literary text understanding process rose along with the development of literature curriculum. The current trend in the literature curriculum tends to focus on the interaction between texts and readers, on the development of reading skills, and on students- centered instructions rather than on the memorization of historical facts about periods, genre, and periods. By knowing the students’ reading process, the literature instructions may become more process-oriented for developing students’ literary texts understanding process (Janseen, Braaksma, and Rijlaarsdam, 2006:36).
In conclusion, doing research on strategies for reading literary texts is very important. Readers may need different strategies as they read different literary texts. As different texts have different text organizations, readers may need different strategies to understand literary texts which have different plots. Additionally, considering different authors may have different writing styles, readers may need to use different strategies to understand different writing’s styles.
B. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
The issues on the study of reading strategies may cover various aspects of inquires such as factors affecting reading strategies, the product of reading strategies, readers as the active agents, and the classification of the reading strategies itself. In the discussion of factors affecting reading strategies, Oxford & Nyikos, (1989:291) stated that some variables influence the choice of reading strategies. Researchers could take up that topic for developing research in order to reveal the way certain factors such as individual learner differences, social setting, and nature of reading influence students in determining reading strategies used in reading process.
Investigating the product of reading strategies focuses to generate patterns of reading strategies used in reading certain text types. By generating reading strategies’ patterns, researchers would find the collective, partly-shared, and unique strategies possessed by students. Furthermore, seeing the pattern of reading strategies can help researchers to figure out the way students regulate their reading process.
Based on the readers’ point of view, the study of reading strategies could examine several issues, for example, the influence of reading strategy to promote reading comprehension, the roles of reading strategy instructions in improving reading performance, understanding the essence of reading strategies, or finding the factors affecting the choice of reading strategies.
The study of reading strategies could be analyzed using the theories from the other reading strategy’s scholars such as Chamot and O’Malley (1987), Rubin (1987), Skehan (1989), and Stern (1992). Besides investigating metacognitive and cognitive strategies, researchers could also emphasize on the other strategies for example memory, affective, compensation, and social strategies.
Among the coverage issues on the study of reading strategies, investigating literary text reading process was chosen to be developed in this study. Furthermore, the inquiry would focus on revealing the way students control their reading process; the uses of metacognitive strategies to make their reading process more effective and also cognitive strategies to construct meaning from the reading texts.
C. PROBLEM LIMITATION
Among several theories on reading strategies, Oxford’s taxonomy is considered as the most comprehensive classification of reading strategies. The comprehensiveness of Oxford’s taxonomy lies on the distinction between indirect and direct strategies (Ghadessy, 1998:103). For that reason, I decided to use Oxford’s taxonomy as the basis for analyzing data in this study.
Oxford presented several strategies both in indirect and direct strategies. Direct strategies cover memory, compensation, and cognitive strategies. Indirect strategies, on the other hand, involve metacognitive, affective, and social strategies. Due to the setting of this study which was in EFL setting, I decided to focus only on metacognitive and cognitive strategies used for reading short stories. Pakhiti (2003) conducted a study on the effective strategies for L2 reading comprehension. He found that metacognitive and cognitive strategies are viewed as relevant for L2 reading performance.
In reading literary texts, readers do not only deal with cognitive strategies but also emotional strategies to build mental representation of the situation, events, and characters presented in the texts (Janseen, Braaksma, and Rijlaarsdam, 2006). As I intended to reveal the ways students control their reading process by using metacognitive and cognitive strategies, I decided not take into account the emotional strategies used during reading process.
As students who studied in the language department, English literature students read different literary works such as prose, poem, and play for their academic purposes. In this study, I decided to focus only on understanding short story reading process. Considering the participants were the fourth semester students, they usually read the simplification of the canon narrative literary texts for their Prose I course.
D. RESEARCH QUESTION
This study mainly addressed this following question: What metacognitive and cognitive strategies did students use in reading short stories as reflected in their reading process?
E. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
There were two objectives attained by conducting this study: 1. To figure out the English literature students’ short stories reading process.
2. To understand metacognitive and cognitive strategies used for reading the short stories.
F. RESEARCH BENEFITS
The results of this study gave contributions for the development of reading skills particularly in the field of English literature. The benefits of this study were favorable for:
1. The Study of Reading Strategy.
This study gave contribution to develop the study of reading strategy. Text type and readability level of a text did not influence the choice of reading strategy. In this study, students’ motivation played important roles in determining strategies used for reading the texts. As students were highly motivated to read the texts, they used more varieties of reading strategy.
2. English Literature Students.
This study empowered students to manage their reading process. By reflecting in their own reading process, students could figure out their reading problems encountered during reading and also the effective strategies used for facilitating comprehension. As they had more awareness on their understanding process, they could control their own reading process by employing appropriate strategies to achieve their reading goals.
3. Lecturers The vivid pictures of the English literature students’ reading process helped lecturers to reconsider the importance of giving reading strategy instructions. Additionally, examining the students’ process for understanding short stories assisted lecturers to provide appropriate literature materials which were appropriate to the students’ reading proficiency levels.
4. Curriculum Designers This study described that reading was seen as a product and also process. For that reason, curriculum designers could use the results of this study as the basis to create materials for literature classrooms which involved reading as process and product as well.
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presented the review of some theories relevant to this study. I formed my
standpoint by reading, comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing the relevant theories perceived from books and journals. The formulation of my perspectives on reading strategies could be seen in this section. This chapter was divided into three parts: (1) Theoretical Description, and (2) Related Research, and (3) Theoretical framework.
A. THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION
This section reviewied some constructs used to answer research questions theoretically, namely: (1) Reading, (2) Reading Strategy, (3) Short Story, and (4) English Literature Departments.
1. Reading
Discussing reading activities is very interesting. Reading means different things to different people. Some people read a text for pleasure; however, others read texts for their academic purposes. The constructs of reading were presented in two parts: (1) What is Reading?, and (2) Reading Narrative Literary Texts.
a. What is Reading?
As in English language teaching, there is also a prominent shift in defining what reading activity is. The traditional views on reading are influenced by Goodman’s theory (1967) in Kong (2006). He defined reading as a ‘guessing game’, in which readers construct the massages which are encoded by the writer. Readers are passive since they only rely on the existing syntactic and semantic knowledge structures, rather than on the knowledge on the graphic and structures. Referring to Goodman’s theory, reading is merely a decoding process.
By using the existing syntactic and semantic knowledge structure, readers make sense of a printed text. This process shows that Goodman emphasized reading as a one way process. Readers do not bring their own expectation when they come to a reading text as they just interpret the massages which are conveyed by the writers.
Additionally, La Berge and Samuels (1974) also support the traditional view on reading. They stated that reading is a linear process. Readers focus on the aspect of automaticity on the reading function through memorization. As the previous traditional view on reading, their reading definition also emphasized reading process as the decoding process using memorization. There is no interactive process among reader, text, and context since readers’ aim in reading is mastering isolated skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.
Goodman made a breakthrough in the middle of 1970’s by proposing a new perspective on reading as described by Grabe (1991) as cited in Alyousef (2005): “…reading is the active process where the students need to be thought strategies so that they can read more efficiently…” Looking at his new reading perspective, he really emphasized that reading is the active process by involving readers in the process of constructing meaning. Unlike his traditional view on reading, readers could regulate their own reading process which helps them in making interpretation and inferences.
The new perspective on reading emphasizes reading as an active process. Yun (1993) as cited in Kong (2006) argued: “Reading is the interactive communication between reader and the text. Readers encode the massage from the texts and get the meaning from it”. The term ‘interactive communication’ indicates that readers are considered as the active agent.