A PERSPECTIVE IN TEACHING READING:

HELPING STUDENTS TO GAIN BETTER READING COMPREHENSION

Yanuarti Apsari

READING SKILL

Reading is ‘considered one of the

most important skills that University

students of English as a Second

Language need to acquire’ (Levine et

al,. 2000:1 ).

THE PURPOSE OF TEACHING READING

The aim of reading program, i.e “to enable students to read,

without help, unfamiliar authentic texts, at appropriate speed,

silently and with adequate understanding” (Nuttall, 1996).

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION

•Reading Material

•Reading activity

•Reading Strategy

READING MATERIAL• Affective factors also plays a significant role in

how reading helps one learn a language (Brown, 2001)

• The wide variety of different types of text means that it is easier to find something that will interest the learner and may even encourage further reading or reading for pleasure (Nuttall, 1996)

AUTHENTIC Vs PEDAGOGIC MATERIAL

Authentic Material Authentic texts is real-life texts, not written for pedagogic

processes (Wallace,1998). the main point of using authentic material in the

classroom is to expose the students to as much real language as possible.

Pedagogic Material It refers to textbooks and other texts specially designed

for learning purposes. It is designed generally based on the syllabus and provide a

systematic coverage of teaching items.

THE ADVANTAGES OF USING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL

Authentic materials have a positive effect on learner motivation. It is supported by Nuttall (1996) who says that authentic texts can be motivating because they are proof that the language is used for real-life purposes by real people.

Authentic materials have a positive effect on comprehension and learner satisfaction (Wong, Kwok, & Choi, 1995; Mcknight, 1995; Kilickaya, 2004; Berado, 2006 ). It is supported by Brown (1999) who states that learners are more eager to learn when the language is authentic or meaningful.

Therefore, in order to be meaningful the teacher should know the text type the students usually encounter and read in their lives.

The result of the previous study

A study was done by Mulyani and Siswayani (2006) found that students mostly like to read journalistic literature, correspondence and literary text.

The students say that they like to read newspaper because the news is always updated

A study was conducted Wicaksono found that the use of authentic materials could improve the students’ reading comprehension.

It must be used in accordance with students’ ability (Baird, 2004), with suitable tasks being

given (Berardo, 2006; Guariento & Morley, 2001)

What to do

Authentic materials often contain difficult language and unneeded vocabulary items, which can be unnecessary distraction for learners and teacher.In order to overcome the difficulty created by authentic material…

Advantages and Disadvantages of Pedagogic Material

Pedagogic materials are useful for teaching structure but are not very good for improving reading skills. It focuses more on the form rather than on the language it self

Providing structure and a syllabus for a program and help standardize instruction.

Providing a variety of learning resources. However, They can deskill teachers. If teachers use textbook as the primary source of their teaching, leaving the textbook and teacher’s manual to make the major instructional decision for them.

CRITERIA OF CHOOSING READING MATERIAL (Nuttal, 1996)

SuitabilityThe reading material should interest the students as well as be relevant to their needs.

Exploitability deals with the condition whether or not the text can be exploited for teaching purposes.

Readability concerns with whether the text is too easy or too hard for the students.

READING ACTVITY

A reading lesson is divided into three stages:

•Pre-Reading Stage•While Reading Stage

•Post Reading Stage

Pre-reading stage Guidance before reading may involve

providing a reason for reading, introduction of the text, breaking up the text, dealing with unfamiliar language, and asking leading questions (Nuttall,1996)

Common activities in this stage are: establishing the purpose of reading, predicting words/phrases, title/first sentences, general telling, sharing existing knowledge and raising the guiding questions.

While Reading Stage The stage will be dominated with discussions and

activities that match students’ interest in order to help the teacher gear the activities toward achieving the purpose.

The result of the study conducted by Mulyani and Siswayani (2006) that students mostly like to share the information by answering the questions or retelling it in form of speaking or completing pictures and they do not like to learn grammar or vocabulary in context and guess the new words from the context.

Common activities in this stage are: skimming, scanning, rereading, predicting, asking and answering questions, and summarizing.

Post Reading Stage The main purpose of the post-reading stage is to

further develop and clarify interpretation of the text, and to help students remember what they have individually created in their minds from the text.

Common post reading activities are: comparing what the students have read to reading a news report, identifying the author’s purpose, creating stories or end of stories, reconstructing texts, summarizing, retelling the story and discussing what the students have learned from a reading passage.

Pre- Reading

While ReadingReadRecite

Review Post Reading

SurveyQuestion

PREPARE

Make PredictionsEstablish Purpose

Activate previous knowledgeRaise Questions

READMonitor comprehension

By using reading strategysuch as skimming scanning,

etc

RESPONDReview & Reflect

Summarizing, retelling, etc

SQ3R

READING STRATEGY

Ten Reading Strategies (Brown, 2001)1. Identify the purpose in reading.2. Use graphemic rules and patterns to aid in

bottom-up decodingVce patterns (time, bite; make late). Long vowel sound in VV patterns (need, keep). Distinguishing hard ‘c’ and ‘g’ from soft ‘c’ and ‘g’ (cat vs city; game vs gem)

3. Use efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension.

- you don’t need to pronounce each word to yourself, - try to construct the meaning through the phrases, - try to infer its meaning from its context

4. Skim the text for main ideas.5. Scan the text for specific information.6. Use semantic mapping or clustering.7. Guess when you are not certain.8. Analyze vocabulary.9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.

floods of people escaped from Ruwanda in 1994. the roots of the flood are man made

10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships.- enumerative: firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally, etc- additive : in addition, moreover, furthermore, - Resultive : Therefore, thus, so, as a result,

READING PROCESS(Goodman, 1970)

1. Bottom-Up Process: the readers construct the meaning by reading word for word, letter for letter, carefully analyzing both vocabulary and syntax.

2. Top-Down is a processing in which the readers use their own intelligence and experience to understand the text (Goodman, 1970)Our knowledge and experiences of the world around us also influence how a text is read or processes, this is known as schema theory (Bartlett, 1932)

3. Interactive Processinteractive model combines elements of both bottom-up and to-down models. the top-down approach is used to predict the meaning and the bottom-up approach is to check it.

Extensive Reading The goal of extensive reading is to improve reading

skills by processing a quantity of materials that can be comprehended and pleasurable (Gebhard, 1999)

Hedge (2001) adds that involving learners in programs of extensive reading can be a highly productive step towards autonomous learning. Extensive reading offers the learners many ways of working independently. It also offers learners ‘great exposure to English and can be particularly significant where class contact time is limited’.

Green and Oxford (cited in Brown, 2001: 301) say that reading for pleasure and reading without looking up all the unknown words were both highly correlated with overall language proficiency.

Intensive Reading Intensive reading occurs when the learner is

focused on the language rather than the text. students need to read carefully to understand the meaning of the text. It involves learning new vocabulary, studying the grammar and expression in the text, translating the passage or other tasks that involve the students in looking intensively (inside) the text.

CONCLUSIONIn order to help the students to get better reading comprehension:

Teacher should provide the appropriate texts– right level linguistically, interesting & relevant to their needs

In order to make reading activity meaningful teacher should implement the three stages in a reading lesson by considering students’ preferable activity.

Reading teachers must teach productive reading strategies.

THANK YOU