Unis Oktiaismayawati CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Reading 1. Definition of Reading Reading is an activity to get meaning or information by read a text,
articles, books, etc. Reading is the main element in which is needed to master English language. Due to the crucial element in master language, many researchers developed their study on reading and make the understanding of reading more various. There are some definitions of reading based on the experts. Brown (2004: 264) stated that reading is a process interrelated with thinking and with their communication abilities listening, speaking and writing. Furthermore, Tarigan (2008: 7) also defined reading as a process carried out and used by reader to acquire message that is conveyed by a writer through words or symbols, and the meaning of the words could be soon and known by the reader so, the reader can be carried out well.
Harmer (1998: 190) defines reading as an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out of the significance of these message. Meanwhile Alfassi (in Zare et al, 2013: 187) stated that reading is a complex cognitive activity that is crucial for adequate functioning and for obtaining information in current society and requires an integration of memory and meaning construction.
From the explanations previously, it can be concluded that reading is a process in which readers interact with written or printed texts using readers‟ understanding to get the information of the text. In other word, reading is not only needed to analyze text but also understanding the context and meaning on the text.
2. The Importance of Reading Reading needs to be acquired by the students in learning English.
Ramelan (1990: 1) states that reading is very important for life. Through reading, people can explore the world, countries that have never been visited before. For the students who study English, reading is the one of the important skills, because students will explore many information and knowledge from reading activity. Besides that, it can enrich the stude nts‟ vocabularies. Meanwhile lado (2011: 1-2) states that there are four importance of reading, as follows: a. Reading can make the students smarter
Reading forces the brain cells of the students to think about the content of reading or other cases that are found in reading. Finally reading can rehearse the brain cells to always process the information smartly.
b. Reading make knowledgeable The valuable pieces of knowledge can be got easily by reading some different literatures or other resources of reading. c. Reading can improve vocabulary and language skill The knowledge of different literary style can be got by reading many literatures. Commonly, vocabulary and language skill can be developing by learning and reading different literary style.
d. Reading boosts creativity Reading saves much knowledge that can make creativity. The creativity that is gained by reading can be used in whatever area of life.
From the explanation previously, it can be concluded that reading has an important part to acquire language acquisition. Through the mastery of reading, readers can enhance various vocabularies, structures, cultures, and another English aspect. Moreover, reading can also help students to improve their ability in writing and also speaking due to the extensive knowledge they get from reading that can help them to share it either in spoken or written context.
3. The Purpose of Reading
Every reader has various aims and needs to read articles, texts, books, magazine, newspaper, etc. Readers have different interests in reading. Based on the various aims and needs to read, Tarigan (2008: 9) states that the main purpose in reading was to find or get information, including the content, understanding the meaning in the text and there are also have several crucial aims of reading, as follows: a. Reading for details or fact The students read to know the innovations that have been found and to solve the problems by the writer.
b. Reading for main ideas The students read to find out the interesting topic of the text, the problem that occur in the text, what the students can learn in the text and what happen to the characters in the text, summarize the text to get the purpose of reading, namely to find out the main idea of the text.
c. Reading for sequence or organization The students should be able to find out the sequence or organization of the text. They read to know what is happening in each part of the text to solve the climax problems of the text.
d. Reading for inference The students read to know the quality of the text that are shown to the readers to make them succeed or fail.
e. Reading to classify The students read the text to classify some information and actions of the writer in the text or paragraph.
f. Reading to evaluate The students read to find out measure the writer‟s succeed then to know whether we want to do or work like the writer in that story.
g. Reading to compare or construct The students read to compare the plot of story or content whether have similarity with him/her or even contrast.
In addition, Grabe and Stoller as cited in Ling (2011: 7) explained that there are two major purposes of reading. First, the purpose of reading is to search for key information and for general comprehension. Reading for searching key information is considered as a common reading ability, though some researchers regard it as a relatively independent cognitive process. Readers often scan the text quickly for a specific piece of information and it is used very frequently in doing reading tasks. Reading for general comprehension is a common part of many reading tasks and is also a useful skill. Second, the purpose of reading is to learn from texts. Reading to learn from texts often occurs in academic or professional contexts in which the reader needs to learn a large amount of information from texts. Grabe and Stoller as cited in Ling (2011: 7) point out that reading to learn requires abilities to remember main ideas as well as a number of details that elaborate the main and supporting ideas in the text; recognize and build rhetorical frames that organize the information in the text; link the text to readers‟ knowledge base. Reading to learn requires strong inference demands and its reading rate is slower than general reading comprehension.
In conclusion, there are different purposes of reading for every person. It depends on the information they need from a reading text. The main purpose is to get the information and knowledge while they read. Each purpose of reading makes the students master language aspect well.
B. Reading Comprehension 1. Definition and Description of Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension can be defined as an active thinking process through which a reader intentionally constructs meaning to form a deeper understanding of concepts and information presented in a text (Westwood, 2008: 31-32). To comprehend, readers must use information they already possess to filter, interpret, organize, and reflect upon the incoming information from the page. Efficient interpretation of text involves a combination of word recognition skills, linking of new information to prior knowledge, and application of appropriate strategies such as locating the main idea, making connections, questioning, inferring and predicting. Maclellan (2002 : 21) stated that comprehension process draw on many cognitive and linguistic abilities
- – most notably, vocabulary, recalling background knowledge, sentence processing, verbal reasoning, knowledge of print conventions and working memory. Weakness in any of these abilities can impair reading comprehension and can cause a student to disengage from the task of interpreting text.
Reading comprehension is often conceptualized as functioning at different levels of sophistication and referred to, for example, as literal, inferential and critical. The most basic level (literal) is where the reader is able to understand the factual information presented in a passage of text
- – for example, he or she can tell you the name of the main character and what he
- – for example, to realize that the main character is angry from what he says or what he does. Being able to operate at the inferential level means that the reader is using information effectively to deduce cause and effect, and to anticipate what may come next. At a more demanding level (critical reading), the reader is able to appraise what he or she is reading
- – for example, detecting good writing style from the author, recognizing when some statements in the text are biased or incorr ect, appreciating the writer‟s viewpoint, comparing and contrasting information with other facts they have read elsewhere, and reflecting upon the importance or otherwise of the opinions presented. Weak readers who are still struggling with word recognition have enormous difficulty progressing beyond a literal level of comprehension because most of their cognitive effort is taken up in unlocking the print.
2. The Components of Reading Comprehension
The more important things to be considered are the components of reading. These components will support in comprehending text successfully.
There are some components of reading comprehension that should be mastered by the reader, in order to be a good reader. Leu and Kinzer (1991: 30-38) states some components of reading as follow: a. Decoding Knowledge It refers to the reader‟s knowledge. The knowledge will use to determine oral equivalent of a written word. This is more important for beginner readers who know the meanings of many words in spoken but are relatively unfamiliar in printed word.
b. Vocabulary Knowledge This knowledge is about word meanings. It used to determine the appropriate meaning for a word in a particular content.
c. Syntactic Knowledge Knowledge of sentence syntax or word order is also crucial for reading comprehension. Syntactic knowledge includes understanding word order rules that exist is a knowledge of the word order rules that determine grammatical function and often the meaning of pronunciation of words.
d. Discourse Knowledge Discourse knowledge is the knowledge of language organization of units beyond the single sentence level. It includes knowledge of structural organization of different type of writing.
e. Readiness Aspect Readiness refers to two different concepts. Traditionally, reading readiness is the ability of students to get benefit from initial reading instruction. Recently, reading readiness refers to the students‟ ability to read and understand a particular selection. The examples of particular selection are find out some specific piece of information, evaluate a character‟s action, and learn about something new.
f. Affective Aspect Affective aspects of comprehension include readers‟ attitude and interesting in reading. These increase motivation and facilitate reading comprehension. It will make readers read and read instruction as interesting and enjoyable as possible. Affective aspects are important to consider at all age and grade.
3. Teaching comprehension skills and strategies
Research in the past decades has focused attention on intervention m ethods for enhancing students‟ comprehension. Results indicate that it is certainly possible to teach students more effective ways of increasing their understanding of text. Strategies such as previewing text before reading, self- questioning, self-monitoring, rehearsing information, constructing graphic organizers to connect ideas and overtly summarizing key points, have all proved valuable. Therefore Comprehension instruction is an attempt to teach students how to think while they read.
Teaching reading comprehension strategies is not particularly easy. Strategies are notoriously difficult to teach in a way that will ensure their effective use in authentic reading situations, and in addition, teaching teachers how to implemented strategy instruction is often challenging (Williams 2005:
6). Hay et al (2005: 40) report that students with learning difficulties stand to benefit most from strategy instruction, but they take even longer than other students to master the steps and to use them independently. For this reason, the training in strategy use should not be abandoned too quickly. Weaker readers need much practice.
C. Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate (PORPE) Method 1. Definition of Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate (PORPE)
According to Simpson (1986: 394), PORPE is students Team to predict potential essay questions to guide their studying; Organize key ideas that answer those predicted questions using their own words, structure, and methods; Rehearse key ideas in the text; Practice the recall of those key ideas in self-assigned writing; and Evaluate the completeness, accuracy and appropriateness of the essays by means of a checklist. These five steps are synergistic as they build upon each other and lead learners through the cognitive and meta-cognitive processes essential to successful independent learning.
Based on the definition previously, PORPE can be defined as a method to studying textbook materials in which you create and answer essay questions. There are 5 steps (Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate) that have to conduct in PORPE method. Each step is connected to each other. This method is easily adapted for independent studying, helps students monitor comprehension, and provides a ready-made study guide for further use.
2. The purpose of Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate (PORPE)
PORPE (Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice, and Evaluate) is a strategy developed by Simpson (1986: 394) designed to help students in: a. Actively planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning of content
b. Learning the processes involved in preparing for essay examinations
c. Using the process of writing as a means for learning content area material 3.
Description of The Procedures PORPE consist of the following five steps: 1. Predict, 2. Organize, 3.
Rehearse, 4. Practice, 5. Evaluate as cited in Simpson (1988: 149-180):
1. Predict Simpson (1988:154) describe this predict step of PORPE as involving the processes of selection because it asks the learner to pay attention to the important pieces of information in the passage. When students are asked to predict possible essay questions on the material they have read, they are involved in clarifying the purposes of their subsequent study. Students are also stimulated to process the text actively as they read to master the content and organization by posing several general order essay questions that ask for a synthesis and discussion, a comparison and contrast, or an evaluation of the key concepts from a unit of study.
The predict step, students use word such as: discuss, explain, criticize, compare, and contrast. Students also need to generate chapter summaries, chapter questions, boldface headings and the chapter organization, lecture and discussion ideas, especially when they overlap with the chapters being studied, and study guides or hints by the teacher.
2. Organize The second step of PORPE, Organize, involves students in constructing the information that will answer the self-predicted essay questions. In constructing, students build internal connections among ideas so that information becomes reorganized into a coherent structure.
Simpson (1988:157) states that when students organize the key ideas of a passage which are pertinent to a self-predicted essay question, they are involved in selecting, acquiring, and constructing, all critical encoding processes. For each predicted essay question, students organize their answers in their own words or formalize them in a map or chart.
Teachers can facilitate this process in a number of ways. Initially, teachers should share their own outlines or maps of the predicted essay questions and explain their construction. Students can then use these as models and rehearse and practice for the test. However, since it is the intent of PORPE to have students work through this process independently, teachers should quickly move them into small groups where they can generate their own organization. The results of each small group should be shared with the class and discussed.
3. Rehearse The third step of PORPE, Rehearse, engages students in the active recitation and self-testing of the key ideas recorded in their maps or charts.
In a sense, students are verbally answering their self-predicted essay questions so that the key ideas can become transferred to working memory. This active rehearsal in PORPE characterizes what effective learners, described by Baker and Brown (1984: 126), must do-monitor, self-question, and takes corrective action when necessary.
During this step of PORPE, students are to place key ideas, examples, and overall organization into their long-term memory for later recall during the essay examination. This step engages students in the active recitation and self-testing of the key ideas recorded in their maps, charts, or outlines. In a sense, students are verbally answering their self- predicted essay questions so that the key ideas can become transferred to working memory.
4. Practice Practice is the validation step of learning because students must write from recall the answers to their self-predicted essay questions in some public. They are involved in what an apply calls the “deliberate structuring of the web of meaning”. This process of writing can lead students from passive and literal-minded responses to higher levels of thinking and reasoning such as analysis and synthesis (Langer, 2000: 40).
5. Evaluate Simpson (1988:162) states that the evaluate step requires students to use their writing in order to validate whether they have created a meaningful text that demonstrates their understanding of the key ideas and to evaluate their text as another reader, such as the content area teacher, might. To facilitate this monitoring and evaluating, students are given a checklist that guides them in determining the completeness, accuracy, and appropriateness of their written product in terms of the original task, the self- predicted essay question. Hence, the students‟ essays written in step four, Practice, provide them a specific and immediate feedback and reinforcement to their own learning and understanding.
4. Advantages of Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate (PORPE) PORPE has many advantages for the student and content area teacher.
Most importantly, it is a strategy that can begin as teacher directed and initiated and then, when appropriate, be gradually phased from teacher to student control. The research conducted on PORPE suggests several other advantages for content area learning (Simpson et al, 1988: 176). These three advantages are discussed below:
a. PORPE can stimulate students to synthesize, analyze and think about key concepts. The students trained in PORPE who participated in the two research studies cited wrote essays significantly better in content, organization, and cohesion than the control group‟s essay.
b. PORPE can help students prepare for multiple-choice exams, especially when the questions ask them to draw conclusions and apply information to new contexts. In studies cited the students trained in PORPE scored significantly better on the multiple-choice questions.
c. PORPE can have a durable and long-term impact upon student learning. In studies cited the students trained in PORPE scored significantly better than the control group on the unannounced exam that occurred two weeks after the initial exam. This condition held for both the multiple-choice and essays questions-risks.
5. Disadvantages of Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate (PORPE) PORPE, however, is not a panacea for all tasks, texts, and students.
Middle school and secondary students need a repertoire of strategies in order to become successful independent learners (Simpson, 1988: 178). PORPE also is a study reading that is not simple and need more models in explains every steps until the students understand each step.it‟s method also time consuming in the implementation of learning process, it might be a bit difficult for the students who have not get high order thinking to follow each steps in PORPE.
6. Reading Comprehension activities using Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate (PORPE) Method
From the description of PORPE method above as the basic strategy of PORPE, PORPE method can be applied in teaching reading comprehension with some steps. The implementation of PORPE can be described as follows;
1. Predict Predict step of PORPE as involving the processes of selection because it asks the learner to pay attention to the important pieces of information in the passage (Simpson, 1988:154).
In this step, the teacher gives explanation and examples how to create essay question to the students. Teacher relates the topicor text that will be discussed by purposing some questions. Students can predict the title or the kind of text through the teacher question related to the topic or text. Then teacher gives text to the students and ask the students to activ ate students‟ thinking and open ended question to make prediction in form of essay question. Students gather with their groups to discuss their prediction.
2. Organize Simpson (1988:157) states that when students organize the key ideas of a passage which are pertinent to a self-predicted essay question, they are involved in selecting, acquiring, and constructing, all critical encoding processes. For each predicted essay question, students organize their answers in their own words or formalize them in a map or chart.
After make the prediction of essay question in the text, the students read the text. Here the students can mark the phrases in the text then make an outline by find the main idea of each paragraph to comprehend the text easier.
3. Rehearse This active rehearsal in PORPE characterizes what effective learners, described by Baker and Brown (1984: 126), must do-monitor, self-question, and takes corrective action when necessary.
In this step, the students explore their ideas to answer the questions which have been made by the students to get more information from the text by looking back to their mind mapping or marks that have been made in the previous step.
4. Practice Practice is the validation step of learning because students must write from recall the answers to their self-predicted essay questions in some public. This process of writing can lead students from passive and literal-minded responses to higher levels of thinking and reasoning such as analysis and synthesis (Langer, 2000: 40).
In this step, the students can write their answer from their question before. The teacher also gives some questions related to the text. Then the students can read aloud all of information or answer from the text that has been got before.
5. Evaluate The evaluate step requires students to use their writing in order to validate whether they have created a meaningful text that demonstrates their understanding of the key ideas and to evaluate their text as another reader, such as the content area teacher, might (Simpson,1988:162).
Here, the teacher does not give the evaluation checklist about the students writing. Because of the skill is in reading comprehension, teacher and students only evaluate the prediction, task and drawing conclusion in the text.
D.
Relevant Studies on Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate
(PORPE) MethodThere are some relevant studies on PORPE method based on the researchers. According to Simpson (1986: 397), PORPE has been tried successfully for a number of years with college developmental students. PORPE is a study strategy that can be used in any content area course that uses the essay exam to measure learning that encourages higher levels of thinking such as synthesis, application, and evaluation. Furthermore Simpson et al (1988: 149-180) conducted research validations of the strategy in which she found that students trained in using PORPE outperformed students using traditional methods on recognition and recall measures. In addition PORPE students wrote better essays in their writing. The value of writing when studying was evident in another study, Malone (2003: 274) taught her students a heuristic of multiple readings involving previewing, annotating, formulating questions and summarizing; her students passed the requisite standardized test when students re-took the test.
Based on the relevant studies about PORPE that is illustrated previously, PORPE still not used to teach reading comprehension yet but PORPE has been used in increasing writing skill and to help for their examination that require essays answer.
E. Basic Assumption
In learning reading, there are many problems that are faced by the students. The problems are the students get difficulties to understand the text because they tend to translate reading material in advance before they answered question and when they read text, they will find difficult words that make students‟ difficulty to understand the content of the text. Second, the students find the difficulty to understand the text when the text in different context, for example when they face the text in English major, they can understand but when they find the text related to other aspect or major by using English, they cannot understand easily. In teaching learning process, when teacher uses PORPE Method, it means teacher gives a chance and new ability to the students to be active in the reading process, so that the students have a role act in the group work. When they find difficulties in getting the unknown concept or vocabulary, they can discuss it with other group. Therefore PORPE method can be a good ways to gain their comprehension about text. This method also has many benefits for the students or teacher.
F. Hypothesis
Based on the explanation previously, it is hypothesized that teaching reading comprehension using PORPE method is effective.