chapter ii theoretical review a. readingrepository.ump.ac.id/361/3/wahyu darmawan bab ii.pdf ·...

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Reading

1. Definition of Reading

Learning English is not something new for university students.

They often speak and write. In English, there are four skill be mastered by

students: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Reading is an activity in which readers respond to and make sense

of a text being read connected to their prior knowledge (Spratt, Pulverness,

and William: 2005: 21). The activity is done by the readers as they want to

get information and knowledge from the text. In the process of getting

information and knowledge, the readers try to connect what they read in

the form of written language to what they have already known about the

text. Making sense of a text is done by understanding meaning of words,

sentences, and even a text.

Reading can also be defined as the process in which readers learn

something from what they read and involve it in academic context as a part

of education (Grabe, 2009: 5). Learning happens when there is a change in

mind from an unknown thing to the known one. As reading is included in

learning, the readers try to grasp the texts being read by interpreting,

synthesizing, evaluating, and selecting the important information.

A Correlation Between Students’..., Wahyu Darmawan, FKIP UMP, 2016

Grabe (2009: 15) states that “Reading is the strategic process in that a

number of the skills and processes used in reading call for effort on the

part of the reader to anticipate text information, selecting key information,

organize and mentally summarize information, monitor comprehension,

repair comprehension breakdowns, and match comprehension output to the

reader goals.”

From the statements above, it can be concluded that reading is an

exercise dominate by eyes and brain to get message that is conveyed by

the writer in written symbols.

2. There are some Aims of reading.

Reading is an activity that can be done in every time and wherever

it is. There are many purposes of reading in our daily life. That purposes

are used for helping understand the content of a text. Reader use their own

ways to get their purposes in reading. Some of them read very slowly and

carefully when reading for studying or setting information such as news,

science or same line. Meanwhile, they will read either quickly or slowly

based on the way they like or feel in reading for pleasure or for pure

recreation and enjoyment.

Anderson as cited in Nunan (2003 :74) said that there are seven

aims or reading. They are as follow:

a. Reading for details and facts

Reading for details and facts are reading to get the information that is

done by figure or to solve the problems which are made by figure.


b. Reading for main ideas

Reading for main ideas is reading to get the topic, the case of the

story, something which is learned or experienced, summarize something

that has been done by the figure.

c. Reading for squence or organization

Reading for squence or organization is reading to understand the parts

of the story from the beginning until the end of the story.

d. Reading for inference

Reading for inference is reading to understand the figure do something

or the author‟s mean of the passage.

e. Reading for classifying

Reading for classifying is reading to understand something unusual, to

find something that is it fact or not.

f. Reading for evaluating

Reading for evaluating is reading to evaluate to know the figure is

success or not, whether we want to imitate what is done by the figure in

the story.

g. Reading for comparing of contrast

Reading to compare is reading to know the differences or similarities

of two things outside the text.

The various aims of reading explained previously indicated that the

every expert have own perspective about the goal of reading. Thus, it can


be concluded that the aims of reading are to know the content of the text.

In other word, comprehension is the main aim of reading.

3. There are some proccess of Reading Comprehension.

As it is mentioned above, reading comprehension is the process of

getting knowledge and information by using comprehension skills

connected with the prior knowledge of the reader. Understanding the

process of reading is closely related to the way how the readers construct

meaning from a text. The ways of constructing meaning may be vary

based on the readers‟ reference. According to Hudson (2007: 33-57) and

Brown (2001: 298-299), there are three types of reading processes, they

are as follow:

a. Bottom-up processing

Bottom-up processing views the process of reading as phonemic units.

The readers construct meanings by scanning from letters to letters. It is

continued by recognizing the words from one to another. The process is

furthered by associating among phrases, clauses, and sentences. Finally, it

is processed into phonemic units representing lexical meaning and attains

some comprehension of the text. This process mainly focuses in a linier

processing which allows the readers‟ ability in recognizing words into

mental lexicon. It concerns more in the way the readers read a text than

that of comprehend it.

b. The top-down processing


In top-down processing, the readers involve their knowledge of syntax

and semantic to create meaning of a text (Goodman cited in Hudson, 2007:

37). On the beginning of the process, the readers make some prediction of

the text. It is followed by taking samples which will be confirmed or not to

the predictions having made. These are the process in which meanings are

created by transforming the text. In the end of the process, the readers do

some correction on the predictions. The top-down processing, indeed,

takes the background knowledge of the readers as the most important thing

in reading.

c. Interactive processing

Interactive processing points the process of reading as the

interaction between the information of a text with the readers‟ prior

knowledge. This process combines the two previous processing i.e. the

bottom-up and top-down processing. As the process of reading happen, the

readers arouse what they have on their background knowledge connected

with the written information in the text. So, in interactive process, the

readers both recognize words and predict the implied information in

creating meaning.

From the discussion above, it can be concluded that there are three

types in the process of reading. Those are bottom-up processing dealing

with recognizing the words, top-down processing using the readers‟

background knowledge, and interactive processing combining words


recognition and background knowledge of the readers. Those approaches

help the readers in reading comprehension.

4. There are some strategies in Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension cannot be done instantly. There must be some

strategies that are used by the students to reach their comprehension in

reading. The strategy that is used by the students must be different from

one another. It depends on which strategy they fit in. Students can also use

some strategies in reading comprehension proposed by Brown (2001: 306-

310), they are as follows:

a. Identifying the purpose in reading

The purpose of reading is important in reading. The readers need to

know the aim of what they are reading before they read the passage. It is

the same as the students. Students have to know the purpose of the reading

as it can help them in comprehending the text.

b. Using grapheme rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding.

This strategy is mainly addressed to beginning learners. The learners

are introduced to some patterns of both in oral language and written

language. This will help them in understanding the text.

c. Using efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid

comprehension.


Silent reading is appropriate for intermediate and advanced students.

This strategy leads the students to try inferring meanings from context. It

is also best practices to make the students become efficient readers.

d. Skimming

Skimming is done by the students to grasp the information by reading

the text at glance. It is useful for the students as they can practice on

prediction. For example, they predict the aim of the text, the main idea,

and even supporting details.

e. Scanning

Like skimming, scanning is included in fast reading. In contrast,

scanning concerns only in finding certain information. The students find

the information they need without reading the whole text.

f. Guessing when the readers are not certain

This strategy is useful to encourage the students to be accurate

guessers. In guessing, the students try to guess the meaning of a word, a

grammatical relationship (for example pronoun references), a discourse

relationship, a cultural reference, content messages, and infer implied

meaning.

g. Analyzing vocabulary

In analyzing the vocabulary, the students have to notice the prefixes,

suffixes, roots, grammatical contexts, and semantic contexts. Prefixes give

the clues to the meaning of a word. Suffixes indicate the part of speech the


word brings. Grammatical contexts give signals of information and

semantic contexts can be clues for the topic.

h. Distinguishing between literal and implied meaning

This strategy is closely related to the top-down processing skill. The

meanings are got not only from its literal but also from the surface

structure.

i. Capitalizing on discourse markers to process relationship.

To relate among ideas, the students need to pay attention to the

discourse markers in the text. They have to notice on the phrases, clauses,

and sentences as those usually bring discourse markers.

Indeed, there are some of strategies that can be used by the students

to achieve their comprehension in reading. They can identify the purpose

of reading, use bottom-up approach, use semantic mapping, guess, do

skimming and scanning, and analyze the vocabulary. They can also pay

attention to the literal meaning, implied meaning, and discourse markers to

help them in achieving the reading comprehension.

5. There are some kinds of Reading.

Depending on the purposes of reading, Nunan (2003 :74) classified

reading into two types of activities, they are as follows:

a. Intensive Reading

Harmer (2007 :286) says that intensive reading is an activity while

teacher are encouraging students to read for general understanding,


without worrying about the meaning of every single word. The goal of

intensive reading is comprehension the text. The use of translation makes

sure that learners understand, and when the learners do some of the

translation themselves, it allows the teacher to check whether they

understand.

Here are the aspects, according to Tarigan (2008 : 12) says that

commonly there are two aspects of reading, they are as follows:

a. Mechanical skill that can be called as a lower order, this

aspect covers:

1) Letter from introduction.

2) Linguistic elements introduction.

3) Linking introduction.

4) Speed of reading to show standard.

b. Comprehension skill that can be called the higher order, this

aspect covers:

1) Knowing the simple meaning (lexical, grammatical,

rhetorical).

2) Knowing the meaning.

3) Evaluation or assesment (content, form).

4) The flexibility speed of reading.

Based on the statement above, it can be concluded that intensive

reading means reading shorter texts to extract specific information.

b. Extensive Reading


During extensive reading learners should be interested in what they

are reading and should be reading whith their attention on the meaning of

the text rather than on learning the language features of the text, Nation

(2009 :50). This explanation makes readers deal with a longer text as

whole, which requires the ability to understand the component part and

their contribution the overall meaning, usually for one‟s own pleasure.

Based on the statement above, it can be concluded that extensive

reading is a form of learning from meaning-focused input.

B. Reading Strategies

In the context of reading, reading strategies indicate how readers

conceive a task, what textual cues they attend to, how they make sense of

what they read, and what they do when they do not understand (Block,

1986). Reading strategies refer to "the mental operations involved when

readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of what they read"

(Barnett, 1988). In short, reading strategies are deliberate, conscious

techniques that readers employ to enhance their comprehension or

retention of the textual information. Specifically they have the following

characteristics: (1) deliberate, conscious plans, techniques and skills; (2)

aiming to enhance reading comprehension and overcome comprehension

failures; and (3) behavioral and mental. They are of interest for what they

reveal about the way readers manage their interaction with the written text

and how these strategies are related to text comprehension (Carrell, 1989).


It covers three sub-categories: Global Reading Strategies, Problem-

Solving Reading Strategies and Support Reading Strategies. Global

Reading Strategies represent a set of reading strategies oriented toward a

global analysis of text. Examples include “evaluating what to read or

ignore, noting text characteristics, guessing what the material is about,

etc.” These strategies can be thought of as generalized, intentional reading

strategies aimed at setting the stage for the reading act. The second

subcategory (Problem-Solving Strategies ) that appear to be oriented

around strategies for solving problems when the test becomes difficult to

read. Examples of these strategies include re-reading for better

understanding, going back when losing concentration, pausing and

thinking about reading etc. These strategies provide readers with action

plans that allow them to navigate through the text skillfully. Such

strategies are localized, focused problem- solving or repair strategies used

when problems develop in understanding textual information. The third

subcategory (Support Reading Strategies) primarily involves use of

outside reference materials, taking notes, underlining or circling

information and other practical strategies that might be described as

functional or support strategies. These strategies provide the support

mechanisms aimed at sustaining responses to reading. Kouider Mokhtari

and Ravi Sheorey (2002)


C. Vocabulary

1. Definition of Vocabulary

Learning English is not something new for university students.

They often seak and write. In English, there are four skills that should be

mastered by students: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. One of

the ways how to master English is mastering vocabulary. However

students do not have a lot of vocabulary they have limited in four skill in

English.

“Vocabulary” is the stock of words used by people; a list or

collection of words of language. Besides that, according to Rivers in

Nunan (1991), vocabulary is essential for supporting the study of the

second language. It means that vocabulary is the key of success of

someone in learning English as a second language. Pieter A Napa (1990:5)

states that vocabulary is one of the basic components of language and that

is no language exist without words. According to Hatch and Brown

(1995:368) proposed that the term “Vocabulary” referring to a list or set of

words that individual speakers of language might use, since vocabulary is

list, we may thing that the only system involved is that of alphabetical

order.

It can be concluded that vocabulary is knowledge of words and word

meanings in both oral and print language and in productive and receptive

forms.


2. There are some types of Vocabulary

There are three types of vocabulary used in English (Richard and

Joanne Vacca, 1989 : 299), they are as follows:

a. General vocabularies, which consist of everyday words widely,

acknowledged meaning in common usage.

b. Special vocabulary, it is made up from everybody‟s general

vocabulary, which is taken on specialized meaning when adapted to

particular content area.

c. Technical vocabulary, in which consist of word that have usage and

application only in particular subject matter field.

English vocabularies are classified into:

a. Content words. The content word can be learned in small groups

around “life” situation. Content words include:

1) Nouns

example: table, student, information

2) Verbs

example: tell, choose, walk

3) Adjectives

example: happy, tall, beautiful

4) Adverb

example: slowly, carefully, often

b. Function words.

1) Preposition


example: on, in, at etc.

2) Auxiliary

example: can, must, should etc.

3) Conjunction

example: and, but, because etc.

4) Pronoun

example: me, you, him etc.

5) Articles

example: a, an, the.

6) Modifier

example: many, much, some.

This research focuses on the content vocabulary dealing with Noun,

Verb, Adjective and Adverb.

D. Previous Studies

There are some research findings related to reading strategies. The

previous studies showed positive result.

Fenfang Li (2010) in his science entitled “A Study of English Reading

Strategies

Used by Senior Middle School Students” found that were several

suggestions can be made to help teachers improve their teaching and help

the students improve their reading efficiency.


Nurazila Abdul Aziz, Suzana Ab Rahim, Etty Harniza Binti Harun,

Nor Aslah Adzmi, Hasfazilah Ahmat, Samsiah Bidin, Mohd Rizaimy

Shaharudin (2011) in their study entitled “The Reading Strategies

Awareness among English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners in

Malaysia’s University” , found that there The data also provided evidence

that they were able to practice them.

Ana Cristina Lahuerta Martínez (2008) in her study entitled “Analysis

of ESP university students’ reading strategy awareness”,found that there

was a moderate to high overall use of reading strategies and find that

students show higher reported use for problem-solving and global reading

strategies.

Humeyra Genc (2011) in his study entitled “Reading Strategies Used

by Low-Proficient EFL Learners” found that was reading is similar to

those used in paper-based reading such as “using reference materials”.

E. Basic Assumption

To a student, reading strategies are important in order to awareness

and to develop the new words and the meaning, because it is one of the

factors affecting the vocabulary competence. the mental operations

involved when readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of

what they read" (Barnett, 1988). In short, reading strategies are deliberate,

conscious techniques that readers employ to enhance their comprehension

or retention of the textual information. Specifically they have the


following characteristics: (1)deliberate, conscious plans, techniques and

skills; (2) aiming to enhance reading comprehension and overcome

comprehension failures; and (3) behavioral and mental. They are of

interest for what they reveal about the way readers manage their

interaction with the written text and how these strategies are related to text

comprehension (Carrell, 1989).

The previous studies showed positive result, it is proved that

reading strategies is the crucial thing in increasing students‟ vocabulary

competence and the students‟ reading strategies and their vocabulary

competence is important to be investigated.

F. Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this problem is based on the basic assumption that

there is a influence between student‟s reading strategies and their

vocabulary competence of third semester students of English department

of Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto academic year 2015/2016.


chapter ii theoretical review a. readingrepository.ump.ac.id/361/3/wahyu darmawan bab ii.pdf ·...

Documents