CHAPTER II THE REVIEW OF RELATED THEORIES
2. The Concept of Reading Comprehension ability
According to Carroline T.Linse reading copmprehension refer to reading for meaning, understanding an entertaiment.13Moreover, According to Jane Oakhiil defined reading comprehension is necessarily dependent on at least adequate word reading. It means that the readers cannot understand a whole text if they cannot identify the word in the text. as the process of creating meaning from text.14
Douglas Brown states that reading comprehension is primarily a matter of developing appropriate, efficient comprehension strategies. 15 it means that reading comprehension purpose is to efficiency of reading,
12 Kasihani K.E. Suyanto. English For Young Learners, (Jakarta: Bumi Aksara. 2007). P 64-66
13 Caroline. T. Linse, Op.Cit., p. 71
14Jane Oakhiil, “Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension “(new york:
Routledge. 2015). P. 1
15 H. Douglas Brown, teaching By Principles An Interactive Approach To Language Pedagogy Second Edition (San Francisco State University 2001), p. 306
furthemore, in reading activities, students should have good reading comprehension to get information from the reading text.
Then, according to Snow reading comprehension is a processs of simultaneously extracting and constructing the meaning through interaction and involvement with the text.16
Next, according to Gary Woolley Reading comprehension is the process of making meaning from text.17 Is mean that the purpose of reading comprehension was to get an understanding of the text rather than to acquire meaning from individual words or sentences.
Based on explanation above, it can be inference that reading comprehension is the activities that require the reader meticulously in order to understand the total meaning of a reading selection. In reading comprehension the learners were trained to obtain the information from the text so learners understand what they read.
b. Kinds of Reading Comprehension Ability
According to NB, Smith in Albert Josiah Harris reading comprehension were classified in four main heading, they are:
a. Literal comprehension
The skil of this level is getting pimary, it means that literal meaning.
b. Interpretation
Interpretation comprehension is probe for greater depths of meaning.
16Catherine Snow, Reading for understanding toward an R&D Program in Comprehension , (RAND EDUCATION, 2002), p. 11.
17 Gary Woolley, Reading Comprehension Assisting Children with Learning Difficulties, (Australia: Springer, 2011), p. 15.
c. Critical reading
In this level evaluate and pass personal jugment.
d. Creative reading
In creative reading starts with an inquiry and goes beyond implications derived from the text.18
In this research the researcher attention literal comprehension.
This level makes at least cognitive demand on the reader. Literal comprehension question need bo be asked because factual information in the main focus on reading material. Literal comprehension examines how well the students can identify and understand information that is directly stated in a text. So the more we read the more we get information that contributes a great advantage in our life, such as gaining success in school for student.
c. Indicators of Reading Comprehension Ability
There are some indicators of literal reading comprehension that should be followed, they are:
1) The students are able to find out the factors from the text.
2) The students are able to find out the details from the text.
3) The students are able to find out the role learning.
4) The students are able to memorize the meaning of the text.
5) The students are able to find out the main idea from the text, for example “what is the main idea of the text?”.
18Albert josiah harris, How To Increase Reading Ability, (United States Of America: The Alpine Press, 1984), p. 477-478
6) The students must have surface understanding in reading text.19 d. Strategy of Teaching Reading Comprehension Ability
There are some strategies in reading comprehension that can be used to help the readers comprehend the text. Those strategies can be explained as follows:20
1) Identifying the purpose in reading
Efficient reading consists of clearly identifying the purpose in reading something. By doing so, the readers know what they are looking for and can weed out what information would be taken of the text, the reader should determine their purpose in reading.
2) Predicting
The strategy gives students opportunities to activate prior knowledge as they consider what they know about the subject (prior knowledge), what they would like to learn (goal), and later, what they comprehend and learned.21
3) Skimimng
Skimming is moving our eyes quickly through the whole page or text to get a general sense of what it is all about. It is a very rapid reading used in identifying the main ideas of a text.22
19 Harris j Albert and Edward rsipay, How To Increase Reading Ability, (Longman: New York dan London, 1985), p. 44
20 Douglas Brown,Op. Cit, P. 306
21 Judy Willis, Teaching the Brain to READ, (Virginia USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008), p. 133.
22 Bahir Dar, “The Art Of Preview In Appropriate Teaching/Learning Material Selection”, An International Journal Of Arts And Humanities, (University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria), Vol. 3 (3), S/No 11, ISSN: 2225-8590 , 2014. P. 213-220
4) Scanning
Scanning is a device used to locate details-specific information that may be asked at the end of the assignment.23It means that scanning is reading the text quickly to find specific information without reading every word in the text.
5) Guessing meaning of unknown words using contextual clues
Sometimes students may need to guess the meaning of a word they do not know while reading a text because they have no dictionary or they are in an examination type situation.
6) Identifying topic and main ideas
Farrel reomended to identfying topics and main ideas, there are some developmental order that should be done by the reader, as follow:
a) Finding the topic from a list of words b) Recognizing the topic of a paragraph c) Identifying the main idea or a passage.
7) Analyzing vocabulary
One way for learners to make guessing pay off when they don‟t immediately recognize word is to analyze it in terms of what they know about it.
a) Look for prefixes (co-inter-etc) b) Look for suffixes (tion-ally, etc)
23 Iwan fauzi, “The Effectivenes Of Skimming And Scanning Strategies In Improving Comprehension And Reading Speed Rates For The Students Of English Study Program”, REGISTER journal, ISSN: 1979-8903; 2503-040X, Vol. 11, No 1, 2018, p. 101-120
c) Look for roots that are familiar.
d) Look for grammatical contexts that may signal information.
e) Look at the topic for clues. In order word, to understanding unknown words, the reader or the learner can use alternative way such as: analyze prefixes, suffixes, root words, grammatical context, and the topic of the text.
e. The Measurement of Reading Comprehension Ability
To know the achievement of reading comprehension ability should be measured use the assessment of reading. There are some viarieties of questions forms which can be used namely:
a) Pronominal Questions Imperatives
The questions equire learners to make a written answer which can range length from a single word to several paragraph. Ussualy for comprehension, short are required and these forms of questions are called short answer question.
b) True/false, Yes/No, Alternative Question, Multiple choice
In these question the answer is contained within the questions or intructions. Multiple choice question focus on detail and more general aspect on the text. The correct answer is not always shorter or longer than the distractor.
c) Transfer Information
To measure the students comprehension the teacher can use Incomplete information diagram in reading assessment. The learners read the text and fill in the diagram with short notes.24 f. The Scoring of Reading Comprehension Ability
To know achievement of reading comprehension should be measured by using assessment of reading. There are the measurements of reading comprehension related to Grenall and Swan, as follows;25
Table 3
The Measurement of Reading Comprehension
No Criteria Score
1 Students can identify the meaning of the ideas in the text
0-25 2 Students can identify the commucatie
purpose of the text
0-15 3 Students can identify main ideas of the
text 0-25
4 Sudents can identify information contained in the text
0-35
Total 100
3. The Concept of Synonym and Antonym Context Clues Strategy a. Definition of Synonym and Antonym Context Clues Strategy