Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1       Reading Comprehension

                  Reading a text is not only about reading the whole sentences in it, but also about getting information from it. Getting information from a reading material can be very difficult if the readers cannot comprehend what they read well. Because of this fact, comprehending the text becomes a very important thing for readers.

            Reading comprehension is an ability to understand what has been read. Grabe and Stoller (2002) state reading comprehension is the ability to understand information in a text and interpret it appropriately. Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning by coordinating a number of complex processes that include word reading, word and world knowledge, and fluency (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985). Comprehension is also called as a "construction process" because it involves all of the elements of the reading process working together as a text is read to create a representation of the text in the reader's mind.

                  Therefore, comprehending a text is an important thing to a reader because by comprehending the text, readers can get information from the text they read. Comprehension includes all the elements of reading process working together as a text to make an interpretation of the text the reader’s mind.

                  Reading comprehension involves much more than readers’ responses to text. Reading comprehension is a multi-component, highly complex process that involves interactions between readers and what they bring to the text (previous knowledge, strategy use) as well as variables related to the text itself (interest in text, understanding of text types). Irwin (1991) states that there are six components of reading comprehension, they are:

1.      Cognitive process

Five basic comprehension processes that work together simultaneously and complement one another are micro-processes, integrative processes, macro-processes, elaborative processes, and metacognitive processes. While reading about these different cognitive processes, people keep in their mind that the reader uses these different strategies fluidly, going back and then from focusing on specific pieces of text, as with micro-processing, to stepping back and reflecting about what has been read, as with metacognition.

2.      Micro-processes

Micro-processing refers to the reader’s initial chunking of idea units within individual sentences. “Chunking” involves grouping words into phrases or clusters of words that carry meaning, and requires an understanding of syntax as well as vocabulary. Selective recall is another aspect of micro-processing. The reader must decide which chunks of text or which details are important to remember. When reading only one sentence, it is relatively easy to recall details, but remembering becomes more difficult after reading a long passage. For example, the reader may or may not remember later that the roses were yellow. To some extent, whether this detail is remembered will depend upon its significance in the passage.

3.      Integrative Processes

As the reader progresses through individual sentences, he or she is processing more than the individual meaning units within sentences. He or she is also actively making connections across sentences. This process of understanding and inferring the relationships among clauses is referred to as integrative processing. Sub-skills involved in integrative processing include being able to identify and understand pronoun referents and being able to infer causation or sequence.

4.      Macro-processes

Ideas are better understood and more easily remembered when the reader is able to organize them in a coherent way. The reader does this by summarizing the key ideas read. He or she may either automatically or deliberately (i.e., subconsciously or consciously) select the most important information to remember and delete relatively less important details. The skillful reader also uses a structure or organizational pattern to help him or her organize these important ideas. More proficient readers know to use the same organizational pattern provided by the author to organize their ideas.

5.      Elaborative processes

When people read, they tap into their prior knowledge and make inferences beyond points described explicitly in the text. People make inferences that may or may not correspond with those intended by the author. When making the inferences, people may draw upon information provided earlier in the text or upon their own previous experiences. This process is called elaborative processing.

6.      Metacognitive process

Metacognition is the reader’s conscious awareness or control of cognitive processes. The metacognitive processes readers use are those involved in monitoring understanding, selecting what to remember, and regulating the strategies used when reading. The metacognitive strategies they use include rehearsing (i.e. repeating information to enhance recall), reviewing, underlining important words or sections of a passage, note taking, and checking understanding.

2.2       Teaching Reading

                  In Indonesia, English is a foreign language which is taught in schools, but does not play an essential role in national or social life. Barrow, Nakanishi, and Ishino (1999) state that there are many learners, especially those in English as a foreign language (EFL) context whose native language is not genetically related to English, are not developing their vocabulary to levels which would permit them to function in many English language contexts). According to Susser and Rob (1990), reading is a skill that is the most emphasized in a traditional foreign language teaching. Teaching reading in EFL is a bit different than the way native speakers are taught. It is going to be harder for teacher to teach EFL students than to teach the students who use English as their native language and the students who learn English as their second language, because EFL students only learn English in their school, not as the language they use to communicate in their daily life as native and ESL students do.

                  Ward (1980), McDonough and Shaw (1994) state that reading is the most important foreign language skill to teach, especially in cases where students have to read English material for their subjects but may never actually have to speak the language. Al-Mutawa and Kailani (1996) also consider reading as a window through which EFL students could see other cultures and gain more specific knowledge. Reading knowledge of a foreign language is also important to academic studies, professional success, and personal development (Kaddoumi, 1995).

                  Based on those opinions, it can be concluded that reading is important to be taught to EFL students. The purpose of teaching reading in EFL context is to help and provide the students to habituate themselves reading English material for many benefit things they may get, such as being able to read English material for their own specialist subjects, getting knowledge of other cultures and gaining more specific knowledge which are written in English, and also for their academic studies, professional success, and also for their personal development.

2.2.1    Reading Skill

Reading is one of the skills that one must master in order to have good English. Reading skill is an ability that involves understanding the reading material and interpret it in particular ways. It is a receptive skill. According to Harmer (2001), receptive skills are the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse they see or hear. Reading is vital in language classroom, because it provides input for the readers, students in this case. Without understanding input at the right level, any reader simply cannot begin.

Broughton (1980:89) states that reading is a complex skill, that is to say that it involves a whole series of lesser skill. According to him, these lesser skills are:

1.      The ability to identify stylized shapes which are figures on a ground, curves and lines, and dots in patterned relationship. It is not only a matter of identifying the shapes as such but identifying them as same or different, and identifying that shapes which are quite different may for the purpose of reading be regarded as the same, as in case with upper and lower case letters like ‘A’ and ‘a’.

2.      The ability to correlate the black marks on the paper — the patterned shapes — with language. It is impossible to learn reading without at least the capacity to acquire language. The correlation appears to be made between elements of the pattern on the paper and formal elements of language. According to the nature of these formal linguistics elements the nature of the skill involved alters. The elements may be complex groups of sounds which might be called ‘words’ or ‘phrases’, or ‘sentences’ or even ‘paragraphs’, ‘chapters’, or ‘books’, or they might be the most basic elements, the single ‘sounds’ called phonemes. Readers who learn to relate larger groups of sounds with the patterns on the paper may be learning by ‘look and say’, those learning to relate the patterns on the paper with phonemes by a ‘phonic’ method; both kinds of skill are needed to develop efficient reading.

3.       An intellectual skill; this is the ability to correlate the black marks on the paper by way of the formal elements of language, with the meanings which those words symbolize.

                  Nuttall (2003) says reading is a process in which readers select, classify and interpret information according to experience, information and knowledge they have in their minds. Reading is a communicative activity between writer and reader in written form. She also states that readers always need to improve their reading skill. There are two reason improvement needed that is highlighted by her. First, reader reads for different purpose and in different ways. Second, readers reads for meaning. Readers need to find the writer purpose and ideas inside the writing. These two reasons show that readers need to improve their reading skill.

                  There are some different ways in reading skill. According to Hadfield (2008), there are five ways in this skill, they are: skimming, scanning, reading for gist, reading for detail, and extensive reading.

1.      Skimming

In skimming, readers will only focus to certain phrases or sentences, perhaps heading, or the first and the last sentence of a paragraph – these are where the main point and conclusion appear.

2.      Scanning

In scanning, readers will scan the text to find only a piece of information or a specific small detail they want to know.

3.      Reading for Gist

In this way, readers will read the text with a purpose in their mind, that is to answer the questions about the text. They may skip some parts that they think do not relevant with their questions, and read others more carefully.

4.      Reading for Detail

Some texts require very careful reading. Readers need to pay attention to all the sentences and to be able to follow the meaning of whole text. This might also involve a certain amount re-reading and checking words.

5.      Extensive Reading

According to Harmer (2001), extensive reading frequently takes place when readers are on their own without any help and/or intervention of the teachers. Extensive reading is mostly used by the readers when they read long texts as pleasure.

                 

2.2.2    Teaching Reading in Senior High School (SMA)

                  Teaching reading in Senior High School (SMA) is part of English teaching. In reading, senior high school students are taught about the short functional text and short simple essay in daily life context. Short functional text is a text to give information/ warning to the readers that something is important to be known; short functional text can also be mentioned as a short text containing the command, direction, something to be done which may be a ban (prohibition), invitations (invitation), greeting card, messaging (short message), shopping lists, warning (notice), announcement, and others that contain meaning and are used in everyday communication. While in short simple essay students will learn and read about some genres of text, they are descriptive, narrative, report, recount text, news item text, etc. The difference between these two kinds of text, short functional text and short simple essay, is the sentences in short simple essay are longer that the sentences in short functional text.

                    Students are demanded to read and comprehend the text they read. They are also demanded to identify the generic structures, language features, purpose, and/or text organization, get information, and respond the text. The responses can be in form of answering the questions based on the text, re-telling and/or re-writing the content of the text. These reading activities are provided by teacher when teaches for senior high school (SMA).

                    By knowing the type of reading activity, it will be easier for teacher to help the students understand their reading material and develop their reading skill. Based on explanation above, the senior high school students will have short functional text and short simple essay in their reading section.

                    Based on the syllabus of English on tenth grade of SMA, students will learn about short functional text: announcement, invitation, advertisement, and short simple essay: recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, and news item text. On second semester, students of tenth grade are taught short functional text: announcement, invitation, advertisement, and short simple essay: narrative, descriptive, and news item text. The objectives of teaching short functional text on second semester are: 1) students can read the text aloud with correct pronounciation and intonation, 2) students can identify the topic of the text they read, and 3) students can identify some particular information from the text they read. And the objectives of teaching short simple essay on second semester are: 1) students can identify the meaning of words in the text they read, 2) students can identify the meaning of sentences in the text they read, 3) students can identify the complication in narrative text, 4) students can identify the event in the text they read, 5) students can identify the characteristics of things/ people that are described, 6) students can identify the main point of news item text, 7) students can identify the source of news item text, 8) students can identify the rhetorical steps of text, and 9) students can identify the purpose of the text they read.

                   

2.3       Stages in Reading

                    Reading, as discussed above, is an important thing in teaching-learning English. Readers have not only to read the text, but also to comprehend the content of the text. Reading comprehension is very important in getting clear information from the text.

                    According to Peregoy (2005), there are three stages in reading process: pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading stages. The pre-reading stage is usually in the form of warm-up where learners make use of their prior-knowledge to make the task easier, or in the other words this stage is where a purpose for reading is established and background knowledge is developed to enhance comprehension. Meanwhile the during-reading stage is where learners exploit reading strategies to understand the task, or in the other words this stage is where students monitor their comprehension based on purpose. The last is post-reading stage during which learners “demonstrate their level of reading comprehension by completing some task”.

                    The following section is the discussion on each of the stages in reading.

2.3.1    Pre-Reading Stage

                  Activities that are done in pre-reading stage is called pre-reading activities. There are definitions of pre-reading activities given by some experts. The first definition is stated by Tudor (1989). He states that pre-reading activities can also be called as “enabling activities”, because they provide a reader with necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the material − these experiences involve understanding the purpose for reading and building knowledge base necessary for dealing with the content and the structure of the material. The second definition comes from Chastain (1988) who states that pre-reading activities are the activities that motivate the students to want to read the assignment and to prepare them to be able to read it.

                  According to Wallace (1992), pre-reading activities provide orientation to content and context. They vary with the nature of the text, the readers’ purpose and context of situation.  Students will be ready to read the text because they got some images about what they will read. It can reduce the confusion of the students while they are reading the text.

                  Pre-reading activities give the introduction of the topic to the readers.

Hudson (1982) gives his opinion that one way of facilitating a readers’ interaction with a text for triggering and building background knowledge is through pre-reading activities. By pre-reading activities, readers can guess what they will learn from the text next.

                  Peregoy and Boyle (2005) explain 3 purposes of pre-reading. They are to build students’ background knowledge, motivate the reader, and also set the purpose of reading. The main purpose of pre-reading activity is to help the students comprehend the text they read easier. Teacher has to be creative in setting the pre-reading activity in order to the reach those purposes.

                  Pre-reading activities, of course, consist of some activities. Broadly speaking, the activity which is done by the teachers in reading activities, is giving the questions to the students, which are related to the topic that will be discussed from the text. Tudor (1989) gives five categories of content-related pre-reading activities, they are:

1.      Pre-questions to be answered after reading the text

2.      Pre-questions to activate the readers’ knowledge about the topic

3.      Content organizers

4.      Predictions based on the title, subheading, illustration, or skim reading of the text

5.      Integrated reading preparation.

                  In addition, Taglibier (1988) mentions about two other activity-types, using illustration to make predictions and formulating questions, to be more effective in facilitating students’ reading comprehension than vocabulary pre-teaching. Auerbach and Paxton (1997) also give their statement about activities that can be used in pre-reading activity. Those activities are:

1.      Accessing prior knowledge

2.      Writing your many into reading (writing about your experience related to the topic)

3.      Asking questions based on the title

4.      Semantic mapping

5.      Making predictions based on previewing

6.      Identifying the text structure

7.      Skimming for general idea

8.      Reading the introduction and conclusion

9.      Writing a summary of the article based on previewing

                  Another activity that can also be used as pre-reading activity is KWL chart. Sarimanah (2009) explains that KWL is a strategy to help the students knowing what they know, what they want to learn, and what they have learned. This strategy is started by students’ discussion about what they want to know from a text and/ or information list. Next, they are motivated to make prediction about what they will read. KWL is an acronym for what you know, what you want to know, and what you have learned.

2.3.2    During-reading Stage

                  During or while reading strategies help students monitor their comprehension based on the purpose they have set for reading (Leal, Crays, and Moetz, 1985). According to Peregoy and Boyle (2005), there are three purposes of during-reading phase, they are: reading based on purpose, monitoring comprehension, and engaging background knowledge.

                  Learners need to have an established purpose for reading something, so they can evaluate whether they are successful readers. The purpose of during-reading phase revolves around the teacher’s modeling of questioning techniques in order to develop the self-questioning ability of students. There are several activities that are usually done in during-reading phase, such as:

1.      Cross-check  

2.      Reread

3.      Predict and Confirm

4.       Skip, Read On, and Go Back

5.       Connect Background Knowledge to the Information in the Text

6.      Think About Explicit and Implicit Information

7.      Stop and Review

2.3.3    Post-reading Stage

                  According to Peregoy and Boyle (2005) post-reading stage is the stage where learners “demonstrate their level of reading comprehension by completing some task”. It means that in this stage, teachers can measure the students’ level of reading comprehension. The common way of the teachers to measure their students’ reading comprehension is using achievement test.

                  In post-reading stage, teachers can assess if the purpose for reading was met. Besides doing test, some activities that can be done by the students in post-reading stage are:

1.      Retell and Summarize

2.      Use a Graphic Organizer

3.      Draw Conclusions

4.      Reread

5.      Discuss and Respond

6.      Write to Support Understanding

                       

            In conclusion, there are 3 stages in reading activity. They are pre-reading activity, during-reading activity, and post-reading activity. Pre-reading activities are done to provide the students before read the reading material, to activate students’ knowledge, and to motivate the students to want to read the text. Meanwhile the during-reading activities stage is where the students can monitor their comprehension based on the purpose they have set for reading. The last one is post-reading activities in which teacher can measure the students’ reading comprehension, and the most common way is by giving test to the students.