Reading comprehension

Reading is one of English skill that most important in getting knowledge and
education. By reading, students can get information and able to motivate them in
teaching learning process. Without reading, students could not be able to acquire
knowledge.

There are many definition of reading comprehension accepted from some writers.
Klinger, (2007) describes reading comprehension as the process of constructing
meaning by coordinating a number of complex processes that included word
reading, word and word knowledge and fluency (p. 29). It refers to the ability in
interpreting the words, understanding the meaning and the relationships between
ideas conveyed in a text.

Meanwhile, Karen and Graham (2007) state that reading comprehension is: a multi
component and highly complex process that involves interaction between readers.
By reading, the students can get information and to improve students in reading
comprehension (p. 7). In reading comprehension, the students need to read a text
then comprehend the relation of one sentence with others within a text and also
becomes an evolving interaction between the text and the background knowledge of
the reader. Operationally, reading comprehension is the ability of the students under
study in comprehending various reading texts as suggested by the English syllabus.

Legge (2008) states that reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding

symbols for the intention of constructing or delivering meaning in reading
comprehension. It is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is
shaped by the readers, experiences, attitude and language community which is
culturally and socially situated. In other words, it is the ability to go beyond the words
to understand the ideas and the relationship between ideas conveyed in a text. By
comprehending the text, the students can get the points, messages or information.
It involves thinking skills and more complex than merely decoding specific words.
The students need to understand the whole text, because the purpose of reading is
to understand and find out the meaning of text.

According to Pang (2009), there are three reasons in learning reading: firstly,
reading can help the students in vocabulary. Secondly, reading can motivate the
students in other skills such as listening, speaking, and writing. Finally, reading can
help student in reading comprehension (p. 6). For this reason, it is important to
improve this skill with different strategies.

Component of Reading

There are two components of reading, they are vocabulary and grammar. Both are
described as follow:

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the knowledge meanings of words. According to Nunan (2005),

vocabulary is the collection of words that an individual knows (p. 121). It means
that vocabulary is provided of words including its meaning. Word is the most
important in reading because without understanding any words, the students cannot
construct meaning of the text. There is a strong correlation between vocabulary and
reading comprehension.

Meanwhile, Richards and Renandya (2002) indicate that vocabulary is a component

of language and provides much of the basis of how well learners in speaking,
listening, reading and writing (p. 204). In addition, it is one of two aspects of
comprehension instruction, the other being comprehension strategy instruction.
Vocabulary is most important role in students performance on reading activities in
classroom. Without learning vocabulary, the students will get nothing to construct
meaning of the text.
Grammar

According to Patel and Jain (2008:142), grammar is a scientific statement of the

principles of good usage which concerns with the relation of words in the sentence
(p. 142). It is important, because students can identify patterns and their meanings.

Kinds of reading

Reading is a complex process because the learners not only read the text but also
they must find out the information in a text. There are four kinds in reading, they are:
Reading Aloud; Silent Reading; Intensive Reading; and Extensive Reading. A brief
discussion of the four types of reading is presented as follow:

Reading aloud

Reading aloud is used to check the pronunciation of the students. For students,
reading aloud is an important strategy for developing print awareness, show whether
their pronunciations are correct or not. Patel and Jain (2008) state: the learners read
the text to get knowledge in form of reading text or passages and that fluency is
important because it is closely related to comprehension (p. 114). This kind of
reading improves fluency that means being able to read text accurately, quickly and
expression and expands students in new vocabulary in context. It can improve
students in reading and motivate them in pronunciation.

Brown (2004) mentions: reading aloud is involved the components in reading, such
as letters, words, punctuation, spelling and how to pronounce words .(p. 190) It is
an effective way to develop the oral language, vocabulary and listening
comprehension. By using reading aloud, the students can improve their fluency in
reading and give the students a chance to learn about grammar and punctuation.
Silent reading

Silent reading is the opposite of reading aloud. This activity is really intended to
improve the students in reading comprehension. They have to find out what is the
content of reading text. Patel and Jain (2008) found that silent reading: is the most
important type of reading. It should be introduced when the students has mastered
the basic structured, comprehends the meaning of words and recognize the
pronounce words accurately. (p. 116). In addition, studies also have shown that the
amount of time spent for reading is related the students reading comprehension and
vocabulary growth. Moreover, silent reading can help students in reading and can
motivate the students ability in reading comprehension.

According to Patel and Jain (2008): the silent reading develops the reading ability
in learning. It makes the students to be a good reader because they will understand
the content of text by focusing to comprehend each idea in text (p. 117). . In this
case, the students do not need to read and understand each word but they have to
find out what is the content of reading text.

Intensive reading

Intensive reading is used on shorter text in order to extract specific information. It is

focus on understanding and remembering important idea, number and fact. Patel
(200)8:118) refer that in intensive reading, the learner read the text to get
knowledge. It is a study technique for organizing reading that will have to be
understood and remembered about the content of reading material (p. 119).

This means that intensive reading involves the detailed reading of texts with two
goals of understanding the text and learning language features through a deliberate
focus on these items. Intensive reading is appropriate. The goal of intensive reading
is to help students obtain detailed meaning from the text to enhance vocabulary and
grammar knowledge.
Extensive reading

Extensive reading is type of reading which frequently takes place when students are
not their own. It makes the students free to play with their minds and open their
perspectives. The activity of extensive reading can improve the reader in general
knowledge. According to Brown (2004) extensive reading involves longer texts than
intensive reading. It is about global or holistic understanding of longer text. In
extensive reading, the reader wants to know about something (p. 84).

Extensive reading procedure is based upon the assumption that students will enjoy
reading text which they have chosen of topics of interest to them more than they will
enjoy reading text such as stories, articles, or dialogues. Extensive reading should
encourage the pupils to visualize what is so as to make reading of prose as living
experience. The appropriate selection of reading materials also has an important
thing in extensive reading.

The activity of extensive reading can increase the students motivation and gives
them a more positive attitude towards the target language. It may also be the only
opportunity for the students to make the process of understanding the contents of
reading text enjoyable because they are eager to see what happens next will try to
read more rapidly the more a students read extensively, the faster he learns to read.

Reading comprehension strategies

Some students have difficulty in reading comprehension. It is indicated by Pang,

(2009):

There are some problems faced by the students in reading

comprehension. Firstly, they just read a text without understanding the
 meaning of the content. Secondly, students still poor in vocabulary, so it
is very hard for them to understand the text. For this reason, strategies
can be a good choice to be applied in classroom to improve reading
comprehension and their reading abilities. Moreover, they are especially
helpful when students read a texts containing of new information (p. 8).

There are different styles of reading for different situations. The technique choose
will depend on the purpose for reading. For example, people might be reading for
enjoyment, information, or to complete a task. If students are exploring or reviewing,
they might skim a document. If students are searching for information, they might
scan for a particular word.

According to Pardo (2004)

Comprehension strategies can be defined as the mental processes that

people use to understand text. These strategies need to be explicitly taught
towards developing independent readers who engage meaningfully with
text. The process of comprehension begins before we start to read and
continues even after the reading is finished. Tteachers can design activities
that will improve students comprehension and also provide opportunities for
teachers to demonstrate strategies that readers can use at each stage
(p. 23).

The primary goal for reading is comprehension, and everything else that happens
during reading is a means to this end. Goldenberg (2011) defines comprehension
as: the ability not only to know the meanings of words, but also to understand the
ideas in a text and the relationships of those ideas (p. 111). It means that reading is
an interactive process and comprehension is a constructive process. For this reason,
strategies are important to develop this skill.
Paris et al. (2001) assert that there are six main reasons why it is important to
develop strategic readers in educational settings.

First, using strategies, students can elaborate, organize, and evaluate the
information in the text. Second, knowledge of reading strategies helps
learners to improve the cognitive strategies that are used to increase
attention, memory, and learning.
Third, strategies are individual cognitive tools that the students can control
and use selectively to aid comprehension.
Fourth, strategic reading reflects metacognition and motivation because
readers need to have both the knowledge and disposition to use strategies
Fifth, strategies can be taught directly by means of which students develop
critical reading and thinking skills.
Finally, strategic reading facilitates learning throughout the curriculum by
encouraging independent and autonomous learning (p. 91).

The reasons mentioned are very important to take in account in teaching learning
process; because, reading is an essential tool in each students stage. However,
teachers ought to know and understand the different types of reading
comprehension strategies. It can help to choose the better according to the
objective, context, level and so on.

Brown and Reynol (2001) express:

Reading strategy instruction has two main components: direct explanation

and scaffolding. The first component requires: describe the strategies,
motivate and inform students about the benefits of using strategies,
provide students with a step-by-step explanation of how to use the
strategies through modeling, think-aloud or talk-aloud, create different
contexts to help students understand how to vary their strategy use in
accordance with changing purposes, and help students evaluate their
 strategy use. The second component of strategy instruction includes
shifting responsibility for strategy use from teachers to students. In other
words, scaffolding means assisting students to employ the strategies when
they have difficulty and at later stages gradually decreasing this support
through guidance, practice, and feedback to help students use the
strategies independently. (p. 88).

Although, direct explanation and scaffolding are the two typical components of
strategy instruction, each instructional model uses different combinations of these
components. In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques
used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately,
greater independence in the comprehension and skill that they would not be able to
achieve without assistance. For instant, scaffolding is considered an essential
element of effective teaching.

Actually, there are a widely kind of strategies in reading comprehension. They are
very useful and necessary into the learning process, but each one has its own
characteristics. For this reason, it is necessary to know every ones. It gives the
opportunity to choose the most appropriate according to the teaching objective.
Some of them are showing in the following chart.
 Reading strategies Description
Predicting Helps activate prior knowledge
Based on clues in text (pictures, subtitles,
etc.)
Connecting Connecting prior knowledge to new
information
Comparing Thinking more specifically about connections
they are making, e.g. How is this different
to....?
Inferring Taking information from a text and creating
their own interpretations beyond the literal
level.
Synthesising Piecing information together as students
read a text, to keep track of what is
happening
Creating Images Creating sensory images to assist with
overall comprehension of a text
Skimming Glancing quickly through material to gain an
overall view of text
Scanning Glancing through a text to locate specific
details , e.g. names, dates etc.
Determining Importance Prioritising most important information from
phrase, sentence, paragraph, chapter or whole
text
Summarising and Paraphrasing Reducing larger texts to focus on important
elements
Re-stating/re-writing text in own words using
key words to capture main focus
Re-Reading Creating opportunities for deeper
understanding, word identification and
developing fluency
Reading On Skipping unfamiliar word(s) and reading on to
provide sufficient context to determine
unknown word/phrase
Adjusting Reading Rate Adjusting rate where appropriate, e.g. slowing
down to comprehend new information, or
speeding up to scan for key words
Sounding Out Using knowledge of letter-sound relationship
to decode unknown words
Using Analogy Transferring what they know about familiar
words to help them identify unfamiliar words
Consulting a Reference Using a dictionary, thesaurus, reference chart
or glossary to help find word meanings
However, this investigation gives emphasis skimming and scanning as reading
comprehension strategies. For English learners, both strategies should be practiced
and encouraged with various activities because students will then realize that
reading can be a valuable and enjoyable tool to improve English. Not every word
needs to be read and fully understood, something that lower-level students often fail
to understand. For example, beginner and lower-intermediate students have a
tendency to read and translate much or all of the text, going through each word
without linking the parts to a whole.

Skimming

Skimming is one of the tools you can use to read more in less time. According to
Harmer (2012) skimming refers to

Looking only for the general or main ideas, and works best with non-fiction
(or factual) material. With skimming, your overall understanding is
reduced because you do not read everything. You read only what is
important to your purpose. It takes place while reading and allows you to
look for details in addition to the main ideas. Skimming may be used to
preview reading content to gain a general picture, or it may be used to
review text that has previously been read. Scanning allows the reader to
find specific information to confirm and support ideas (p. 202).

It means that using skimming is easier to locate the information quickly; because the
purpose is find only specific aspects of the text. Harmer (2012) expresses:

Skimming strategy, those are:

a) Read the title,
b) Read the introduction of lead paragraph,
c) Read the first paragraph completely, if there are subheadings, read each one,
looking for relationship among them,
d) Read the first sentence of each remaining paragraph,
e) Dip into the text to looking for clue words, proper noun, unusual words,
enumeration, qualifying adjective, typographical cues,
f) Read the final paragraph completely.

Alderton (2010) states:

The goal of skimming is to focus on certain important sections of the text. It involves
reading a text very quickly and superficially in order to get a general idea of the
content. Skimming is useful to locate key information, eg main points, quickly and
saves time by avoiding reading unnecessary information and the steps are

Step 1
Look at the title, subheadings, pictures, diagrams and whatever else stands out on
the page.

Step 2
Read the first and last paragraphs of the chapter in full. These paragraphs introduce
and wrap up the chapter, and because of this they often contain key information that
can be important to remember.

Step 3
Read the first sentence of each paragraph. Try to restate what you read in your own
words. You can either write it down or say it out loud. This reiteration will implant the
subject material you are skimming in your head.

Step 4
Read words, sentences or phrases in bold or italic type. These words and terms
usually are important to understand and remember.
Step 5
Try to read the text quickly, but pay attention to what you pick up in the process.
Focus on the nouns and verbs. These are considered key words and will help you in
getting a general sense of what the author is discussing (p. 55).

For instance, skimming requires a process with different phase, but every ones are
necessary to realize this strategy correctly.

Scanning

Scanning is another useful tool for speeding up your reading. It is used to look only
for a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything. For scanning to
be successful, it is necessary to understand how the material is structured. Scanning
also allows you to find details and other information in a hurry. . It will prove important
to anticipate how the information has been organized, such as alphabetically,
chronologically, or numerically.

According to Harmer (2012) Scanning is Scanning is a reading skill used to locate

key or specific information quickly, eg dates, numbers, examples and definitions. It
is a technique people often use when looking up a word in the telephone book or
dictionary. Scanning involves moving the eyes quickly down the page seeking
specific words and phrases (p.59).

Strategies to increase vocabulary

Vocabulary development is the enrichment and extension of students word

knowledge and understanding. It is vital that teachers give students the tools for
acquiring their own rich vocabulary.

According to Parking (2009) The link between vocabulary knowledge and

comprehension is undeniable. While wide reading increases a students vocabulary
significantly, teachers must realize that direct and explicit instruction in vocabulary
must also occur daily in all classrooms (p. 87).

It means that it is necessary students increase their vocabulary. Some activities to

increase students vocabulary are:

Word of the week

Select word of the week and discuss. Display word on a laminated background. At
the end of the week, a new word may be displayed and the old word displayed on
the word wall.

Direct Vocabulary Instruction: Learning New Words

Students can learn new words by finding meanings of words in meaningful contexts;
using dictionaries, and using structural analysis to find the meaning of unfamiliar
words.

Vocabulary Journals

Encourage students to build their vocabulary every day and keep a vocabulary
journal. Students can write 10 words in their journals each week that they have either
heard in class or read in a textbook or novel. Have them use context clues or
structural analysis to try to figure out the meanings, and then allow them to use a
dictionary to check the definitions.

Possible Sentences

Possible sentences is a pre-reading vocabulary strategy that activates students prior

knowledge about content area vocabulary and concepts. Before reading, students
are provided a short list of vocabulary words from their reading. Students create,
based on their prediction of what the reading will be about, a meaningful sentence
for each vocabulary word or concept. After reading, students check to see if their
possible sentences were accurate or need revising.

List Group Label

List-group-label is a form of semantic mapping. The strategy encourages students

to improve their vocabulary and categorization skills and learn to organize concepts.
Categorizing listed words, through grouping and labeling, helps students organize
new concepts in relation to previously learned concepts.
Word Hunts
Word hunts are one way to focus spelling study on patterns within words. Typically
used within word study, word hunt activities engage students with texts they have
previously read. Students hunt for other words that follow the same spelling features
studied during their word or picture sort. Word hunt activities help students make the
connection between spelling words and reading words.

Word Maps

A word map is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development. Using a

graphic organizer, students think about terms or concepts in several ways. Most
word map organizers engage students in developing a definition, synonyms,
antonyms, and a picture for a given vocabulary word or concept. Enhancing
students vocabulary is important to developing their reading comprehension.

Keyword Method

The keyword method occurs before the students read a particular text. In this
method, unfamiliar words are introduced prior to reading. However, rather than
encouraging the student to remember a definition for a new word. The idea behind
the keyword method is to create an easy cognitive link to the words meaning that
the reader can access efficiently during a reading experience.