CHAPTER II LITERATURE FRAMEWORK
C. Reading Comprehension
1. The Nature of Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a fundamental aspect of the reading process.
According to Robertson (2017), reading is the process of constructing and extracting meaning toward the text's involvement. Furthermore, reading comprehension is also a complex process of making meaning from the text to get a general understanding (Woolley, 2011). It is categorized as a receptive skill that enables learners to acquire language input such as vocabulary and syntactic patterns. Reading comprehension entails prior knowledge, text structure knowledge, and active information searching to build meaning (Kao et al., 2016). In other ways, reading comprehension is a
complex process involving a set of language understanding to gain detailed information from the text.
To assess reading comprehension requires four components involved; prior knowledge, word-level process, reading strategies, and motivation challenges (Danaei et al., 2020). The test-administers have to focus on the process of reading that turns on while students read. It is a complex instruction involving the lower and high-level process that can affect different text and reading formats (Paris & Paris, 2007 cited in Varita, 2017). So, it does not draw into the same level of cognitive areas. The lower and higher thinking order mutually incorporate and interact in a complete reading account (Kendeou et al., 2016).
2. The Importance of Reading Comprehension
Reading is particularly important for students especially reading English text.
It has been noted out by Harmer (2015), who claimed that several reasons are surfaced in the importance of reading as follow:
a. Reading gives many exposures to students’ language acquisition Students will learn new words unconsciously along with the grammar function entailed in the word meaning. While students are reading, they get many different texts which expose their language ability. This condition is repeated as students memorize the word and some language features easily.
b. Reading texts provide a good model for English
Having a good model of English text is crucial to be administered in learning- teaching English. It will help students recognize the structure of words, phrases, and sentences within the text. Furthermore, the importance of reading is connected not only to the growth of knowledge but also to the ability of individuals to think (Harrison, 2004). This skill will provide the foundation for emotional, moral, and linguistic intelligence development. It can be said that reading is not only beneficial for reading skills but also for other skills too. Last, Goodman et al. (2016) state that it is important to learn reading because it (1) helps in learning a new language, (2) improves in the development of a larger vocabulary, (3) benefits in the comprehension of written English.
From the benefits of reading listed above, individuals will gain many advantages in their lives. Students must read to improve their knowledge and the way they think, linked to the development of moral, emotional, and linguistic intelligence.
Besides, the language exposures presented in reading text will be useful for one in language acquisition. Reading text also will develop students' awareness in decoding a printed language and recalling the meaning.
3. The Components of Reading Comprehension
Understanding the reading component process is necessary to effectively and efficiently encounter reading comprehension difficulties (Kendeou et al., 2016).
Nuttall (1982) cited in Andreani et al (2021) mentioned that to comprehend the text well, students must master five components: determining the main idea, locating reference, making an inference, detailed information, and understanding vocabulary.
a. Identifying the Main Idea
The main idea is a sentence that implies the author's point on the topic.
Stevens et al. (2019) stated that the most important idea within a particular section, or paragraph, of the passage. Understanding the author’s main idea is crucial due to it can help readers not only recognizing the early paragraph but also remember the whole text and. The paragraph's main idea is typically found in the first sentence, but it can also be found in the paragraph's middle or end. As a result, a reader has to struggle to find the location of the main idea.
b. Locating Reference
Since it has been used, the referent word repeated the same word or term many times (Olvivanti, 2012). Having acknowledge in reference word as well as having the ability to recognize the reference word helps reader to comprehend the reading text. Reference words are typically n form of pronoun and it is short. Referent words, for example: he, she, it, they, her/him, this, and many others, are typically short and in pronouns. Students are expected to evaluate how pronouns are used in sentences, such as pronouns used to indicate people, places, or circumstances, while describing reference.
c. Understanding Vocabulary
In the reading text, students will come across certain words or phrases in the sentences. At this stage, students are entailed to read word by word and discover the meaning of each vocabulary in the text. Each word or phrases should not be defined.
Therefore, interpreting the meaning from context is an important skill. Context helps students making a general prediction about the meaning (Sharpe, 2005). Making predictions from the context will help students understand the meaning of a vocabulary without looking at the dictionary.
d. Making Inference
An inference is an information extracted from previous context or recollection through reading to fill in information not in the text (Elbro & Buch- Iversen, 2013). Making inference entails readers to connect the information among the sentences. In addition, to make inference, the students are expected to combine clues from the text with their background knowledge. It means that the text clues will assist students in concluding the text's statements. Even the words in a passage is unfamiliar for readers but with making inference, they still understand what the whole text means by guessing the meaning with context and words analysis.
e. Detail Information
The answer to 5W 1H questions normally includes detailed information.
Finding detail involves reading selectively to accomplish clear reading purposes, such as locating a name, place, number, or date. When a reader needs to find a certain piece of material but doesn't grasp the rest of the text, this detailed information is used (Olvivanti, 2012). In other ways, finding the detail information is also important in comprehending the text because of most text involves the information which triggers reader to know what, who, where, why, when and how one text delivers.
4. The Process of Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a complex process. Merisuo-Storm (2007) briefly argues that while reading, someone activates their previous knowledge about the topic. According to Brown (2004), reading is the process of negotiation meaning. The readers, therefore, will put their prior knowledge to the reading text to build meaning.
It means that the comprehension of the text by the readers is the consequence of an interaction between their cognitive development and the text meaning. It is supported by Spratt et al. (2005), who describe reading as a corresponding process between readers' pre-knowledge and the process of meaning making of a text being read. In making meaning of information, readers link new information and what they already know. The process of connecting new information to readers' previous knowledge would help them remember the information better. The more background information related to the text the reader processes, the easier it is for him to understand the text.
Davies & Pearse (2002) proposed a model of the reading comprehension process. He further said some sub-skills are involved in the reading process as follows:
a. Remembering the meaning of words b. Inferring the word meaning in context c. Looking for correct answer
d. Knowing author’s idea, purpose, and tone e. Analyzing the authors’ technique
f. Arranging the passage’s structure
Reading comprehension, according to his framework, makes use of several systems. To begin, readers form preconceived notions and expectations about the materials they are about to read. The readers are then asked to identify the texts' vocabulary, syntax, and generic structure in order to aid in their comprehension.
Furthermore, the readers should activate their prior knowledge and connect it to the topic of the texts. The readers formed an assumption on what will happen next based on the already established points. The process of reading comprehension is presented in figure 2.2 as below:
Figure 2.2. The Model of Reading Comprehension Process (Davies &
Pearse, 2002)
5. The Measurements of Reading Comprehension
Reading measurement is a systematic technique for gathering information and drawing judgments about a student's ability to use a teaching reading (Richards
& Schmidt, 2002). Some reading measurements must be carried out to collect information on the students’ progression in reading comprehension. Different from speaking and writing skills, reading assessment cannot be seen physically as a product. For this reason, all reading measurements must be done based on inference.
When developing a reading evaluation, several factors must be considered, such as the many sorts of written text genres and reading comprehension components.
Some reading assessments have been listed by Brown (2004) that noted out that the assessment of reading is affected by the students reading performance. He proposed some types of assessment related to students' perspective of the text, interactive, selective, and extensive reading. Below are the types of reading measurements that are commonly used:
1. Multiple Choice
Multiple-choice questions give the vocabulary and grammatical elements and the context for assessing the students' comprehension of the text. The context is established by presenting a pair or section of a text, followed by questions to which the students must appropriately reply. The multiple-choice format includes same/different, circle the answer, true/false, choose the letter, and matching.
Reading Comprehension Recognize the vocabulary
Identify grammar and generic structure Activate
the prior knowledge,
link to the topic
Establish a guess of what will come next
2. Short Answer
Short answer questions are a type of question that can be used in exams or as part of an assessment job. They're usually open-ended inquiries that challenge pupils to come up with an answer on their own. The questions involve a concise and concentrated response that is factual and interpretative.
3. Impromptu Reading Plus Comprehension
This type of assessment is the most common technique used in which students are asked to read the text and directly answer the given question. The impromptu reading questions address the components of reading comprehension such as a main idea, expressions/idioms/words in context, inference, grammatical features, detail information, finding implicit meaning, and recognizing vocabulary in context.
6. The Factors of Reading Comprehension
According to Dennis (2008), reading comprehension is a set complex of identifying written signs and interpreting the meaning beyond the text. He states several factors affecting someone reading comprehension. It involves text complexity, motivation, and word recognition or decoding words. First, the texts' complexity indicates the readers' fluency to comprehend a text's broad meaning. As many readers heard the unknown vocabulary, it will help them to interpret the contextual meaning.
Then, the other factor is motivation and interest. As Dennis (2008) mentioned, if the readers find the monotonous text, they tend to lose concentration in comprehending. On the other hand, finding interesting material will help them understand the text easily. As a result, EFL teachers must motivate and provide an interesting topic to be read. The last factor is word recognition speed or decoding. As reading involves decoding skills, understanding the words and meaning, it influences the reading comprehension skill. A reader having enough word recognition can clarify the meaning of unfamiliar words regarding the context clues (Dennis, 2008).