CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents: (1) concept of reading, (2) process of reading, (3)

kinds of reading, (4) problem of teaching reading, (5) solution of problem in

teaching reading, (6) the roles of teachers in teaching reading, and (7) previous

related study.

2.1 Concept of Reading

Reading is a complex, purposeful, interactive, comprehending, flexible

activity that takes considerable time and resources to develop. Reading is flexible,

meaning that the reader employs a range of strategies to read efficiently (Bojovic,

2010, p.1). In addition, Patel and Jain (2008), reading is certainly an important

activity for expanding knowledge of a language. Then, reading is a process that

starts with decoding the printed and ends with constructing meaning through an

active interaction between the writer and the reader. In brief, reading is a complex

process of reconstructing the author’s ideas in order to gain meaning from the

print.

Reading is an activity with a purpose. According to (Sheeba and Ahmad,

2018), the purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to

reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to

eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information

provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer

listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the

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poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main

idea and supporting details. In brief, reading activity is activity which aims to

achieve main information.

Reading is a very complex process. It requires concentration. Reading is

visual thing. The printed words must produce meaningful thought units, not only

must the readers see and identify the symbols in front of him, but he must also

interpret what he is reading in the light of his own background, associates it with

past experience, and projects beyond this terms of ideas a judgments, application

and conclusion (Habibullah, 2012, p.223). Pointedly, reading is a complex activity

because it need in-depth comprehension.

Reading is an interactive process in which readers construct a meaningful

representation of a text using effective reading strategies. Effective reading

strategies are considered as significant skills that have received the special focus

on students’ reading comprehension proficiency (Sabouri, 2016, p.229). In short,

reading is an imginary activity to do a long with significant strategies in doing it.

2.2 Process of Reading

Process of reading is concerned with how people understand a passage.

According to Sheeba and Ahmad, (2018) state reading is an interactive process

that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text

presents letters, words, sentences and paragraphs that encode meaning. According

to Professional Development Services for Teachers (2012), the reading process is

a complex and multi-dimensional consists of three elements.

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Pre-Reading activities:

This points covers some steps as following

1. The teacher previews the material, select a key concept and choose a

phrase, pictures or word your class to initiate a discussion.

2. The teacher asks the students to brainstrom everything they know about

the topic. Brainstroming is very important, since listening to the

associations and explanations of other causes students to add to their own

knowledge and helps the teacher to determine the level of prior

knowledge that your students has about the subject. This also empowers

acaemically weak students by letting them know that they have some

knowledge about the topic to be studied.

3. The teacher creates a master lists of student ideas on the board

Whilst-Reading Activities

This point also contains some elements, namely

1. The students read the text deeply to check their prediction.

2. the teacher gives an explanation based on the global meaning of the texts

after the students read the text.

3. The students required to have a summary of the text after the teacher gave

an explation.

4. The students write the structure of text based on their summary.

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Post-Reading Activities

This part contains some aspects either:

1. The students will write an article or an essay, using the phrases learned in

the text.

2. The students will be required to express their ideas about the text.

2.3 Kinds of Reading

There are two different kinds of reading. They are extensive reading and

intensive reading (Sabouri, 2016, p.230).

a. Extensive reading is skimming and scanning activities. Extensive

reading activities can be beneficial in aiding learners to become self-

directed individuals who are searching for meaning provided that they are

based on student-selected texts that learners will be interested in what they

are reading.

b. Intensive reading is learners read a page to find the meaning and to be

familiar with the strategies of writing. Through this reading, students can

get fundamental practice in performing these strategies based on a series of

materials. These strategies can be either text-related or learner-related.

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According to Liu (2010), different types of reading are often used in the

literature:

a. Skimming is reading for gist, it is a type of rapid reading which is used

when the reader wants to get the main idea or ideas from a passage.

b. Scanning is reading selectively to achieve very specific reading goals,

e.g. finding a number, date. It is used when the reader wants to locate a

particular piece of information without necessarily understanding the rest

of a text or passage.

c. Search reading is locating information on predetermined topics. The

reader wants information to answer set questions or to provide data. Search

reading differs from scanning in that in search reading, certain key ideas

will be sought while there is no such attempt in scanning. It also differs

from skimming in that the search for information is guided by

predetermined topics so the reader does not necessarily have to get the gist

of the whole text.

d. Careful reading is the kind of reading favored by many educationists

and psychologists to the exclusion of all other types. It is associated with

reading to learn, hence with the reading of textbooks.

e. Browsing is a sort of reading where goals are not well defined, parts of a

text may be skipped fairly randomly, and there is little attempt to integrate

the information into a macrostructure.

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2.4 Problem of Teaching Reading

Reading is a means for human to be able to communicate with others in

the way of written form. Unfortunately, since many teachers have problems or

challenges in teaching reading. According to Maulida (2017) the problems that

faced by teachers in teaching reading are lack of teacher’s preparation and

student’s limited vocabulary. In addition, Solikhah (2018) concluded that the

issues are empirical problems in teaching reading context in Indonesia. The

problems consist of five cases as following:

a. The Mastery of the Basics

The basic knowledge of reading consists of the mastery of basic structural

patterns and sufficient vocabulary items. The condition of teaching reading in

Indonesian context releases problems for the students and the teacher. The class is

generally very large and with only one meeting a week. Most of the time we use

full-fledged textbooks, i.e. economics, biology, since we not able to find

simplified texts for our purposes. The teacher herself has to struggle to understand

the text, or the teacher does not have an adequate background and habit to read a

long English text. The worse, students are not motivated.

b. The Habit of Slow Reading

In Indonesian context, students try to read very slow as if they want to

understand every word of the passage. If they do not understand a word or an

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expression, they do not hesitate to look up word by word in the dictionary so that

the reading is very slow. What the readers need in reading is actually to look up

meaning of the key words and expression. To achieve this, readers can guess the

meaning of the keywords from context. So, the readers need to practice reading

speed with understanding. Speed comes from lots of practice reading interesting

and lengthy texts. The more we practice, the closer would be our approximation to

the intended message of the writer.

c. Figuring out Inferences, Implications, and Main Ideas

The mastery on these factors will provide students with accurate

inferences, determining implications of what has been read, and identifying

accurately main ideas of the text. Most students do not understand the text

properly because they could not identify the main idea, make correct inferences,

and understand accurate implication.

d. Text Selection

In the text selection, teachers are not confident to choose the teaching

materials. Teachers mostly rely upon English textbook available by which

modifications are not required. To use the textbook, the teachers follow the

contents and exercises on the book. In this regard, teachers are occupied with

teaching target that they have to elicit vocabulary items to be designed in the text,

topics of the passage that have been outline in the curriculum, and exercises that

have been designed to provide grammar exercises. As a matter of facts, text

selection appears difficult matters for the teachers.

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e. Exercises to Include

Exercises following the reading passage have been questioned as they

impose the teachers to implement teaching strategies at the artificial same ways.

The format of the exercises in the traditional comprehension is following a

passage; the writer provides some comprehension questions functioning as

guidelines for the learners to understand the text. Normally, multiple-choice

items with four options or true-false items are available below the text. The

problems on this matter involve that teachers normally do the same ways inn

discussing one passage to another so that students are boring facing the same

techniques. Modification to the exercises is hard to do since it wastes time and

energy. As a result, a good exercise that includes items that ask for facts or

information, inferences, implications, and implicit answers are not available. In

conclusion, there are some problems in teaching reading such as the mastery of

the basics, the habit of slow reading, figuring out inferences, implications, and

main ideas, text selection, and exercises to include.

In addition, according to Kasim and Raisha (2017), reading

comprehension problems have been a popular issue in EFL teaching-learning

settings for a long time. Numerous studies have shown that most EFL students

often have difficulties in comprehending English texts. Reading comprehension

problems can be categorized into linguistic and non-linguistic reading problems.

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a. Linguistic Reading Problems

The linguistic reading problems include semantic, lexical, and syntactical

reading problems. Semantic complexities include lack of vocabulary knowledge

especially about acceptable collocations. While lexical complexities involve lack

of knowledge about derivations and word classes. Then, syntactical complexities

include lack of knowledge about acceptable sentence structure and acceptable

grammar.

b. Non-linguistic Reading Problems

Non-linguistic reading problems refer to any reading problem which is

unconnected to the reader‟s linguistic abilities. They include difficulty to connect

ideas in the text, difficulty to differentiate the main and supporting points in the

text, lack of a good reading strategy, lack of cultural knowledge, the text length,

lack of background knowledge, lack of working memory and inability or never

been trained to do speed reading.

2.5 Solution of Problem in Teaching Reading

The teacher must the strategies that suitable for the students and teacher’s

problems in teaching reading. According to Dymock and Nicholson (2010) high 5

strategies is a simple and effective approach formulated to enhance the

comprehensive abilities of students. High 5 strategies consists of:

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1. Activating Background Knowledge

Activating relevant background knowledge helps readers make

connections between what they know and what they are reading. Initial

questioning by the teacher can quickly establish if students have the knowledge

base to do this. For example, if the class is reading about Santiago, Chile, and

students lack background knowledge about this area, the teacher can help them by

discussing some useful facts about Chile before reading.

2. Questioning

There are three types of questions the student can ask: right there, think

and search, and beyond the text. A right there question about the text is factual,

such as, What are the facts here? An example of a think and search question is

What does the writer want me to figure out based on the facts? A sample beyond

the text question is, What is not being said here that I should check by doing some

background research? Prior to reading, good readers also ask themselves

questions that activate background knowledge.

3. Analyzing Text Structure

Text structure is an organizational use within paragraph or longer text,

appropriate to genre and purpose. . Teachers need to teach each type of expository

text structure (e.g., cause–effect, description, problem–solution), so students can

internalize all of the structures. Knowledge of a single expository text structure,

such as sequence, does not transfer to another type of structure, such as

description.
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4. Creating Mental Image

Creating a mental image of the text being read (or being able to visualize

how texts are structured) enhances comprehension. it is helpful for students to

image the structure, that is, to visualize it while reading so that they can later

make a diagram of it. Diagrams help students make the structure concrete.

Students use different diagrams for different text structures. As students progress

in reading, some skilled readers may continue to diagram the text, while others

may visualize the structure in their minds. There are other ways of imaging the

text, such as forming a picture in your mind, but pictures fade and details get lost.

We advocate the image to be the structural image, simply because we think it is so

useful.

5. Summarizing

Summarizing is the process of retelling the important part of passage in much

shorter form. First, read the text. Second, identify the text structure the writer

has used. Third, make a diagram of the structure. Fourth, discard redundant

information so that only the key ideas remain. Fifth, circle only the critical

ideas that you need for the summary. Diagrams help readers summarize the

main idea(s) orally, visually, or in writing.

In addition, Sabouri (2016), there a lot of strategies for reading

comprehension.
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a. Activating and Using Background Knowledge

In this strategy, readers activate their background knowledge and apply it to aid

them comprehend what they are reading. This knowledge consists of

individuals’ experiences with the world together with their concepts for how

written text work, involving word recognition, print concepts, word meaning,

and how the text is formed.

b. Generating and Asking Questions

In this strategy, readers ask themselves pertinent questions in reading the text.

This strategy assists readers to combine information, recognize main ideas, and

summarize information. Asking appropriate questions permits successful

readers to concentrate on the most important information of a text

c. Making Inferences

Readers assess or draw conclusions from information in a text. In this strategy,

writers do not always provide full information about a topic, place, personality,

or happening. Instead, they provide information that readers can use to read by

making inferences that integrate information of the text with their previous

knowledge.

d. Predicting

In this strategy, readers are able to gain meaning from a text by making

educated guesses. Successful readers apply forecasting to make their existing

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knowledge to new information from a text to obtain meaning from what they

read.

e. Summarizing

Readers combine information in a text to elaborate in their own words what the

text is about. Summarizing is a significant strategy that allows readers to

remember text rapidly.

f. Visualizing

Readers can make mental picture of a text to comprehend processes they face

during reading. This skill shows that a reader perceives a text.

g. Comprehension Monitoring

In this strategy, readers have the ability to know when they comprehend what

they read, when they do not perceive, and to apply suitable strategies to make

better their understanding. Successful readers know and check their thought

processes as they read.

2.6 The Roles of Teachers in Teaching Reading

In teaching reading, teachers have some important action. According to

Habibullah (2012), a teacher has important roles of teaching reading.

a. Readers are made by readers which means that as a reading teacher,

show you are a readers by carrying books around, refer to books as you

teach, reading out brief passage that may interest your students, talking
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about what you are reading at the moment and handling books as if you

loved them.

b. The teacher is the most important element in a reading class, for her

attitude influences students and their performance. A reading skills teacher

should provide her student such as an anxiety free atmosphere so they will

feel free to experiment with a new reading style, practice so they will

master the skills (reading strategies), pressure in the froms of persuasion

and timing.

2.7 Previous Related Study

In this part, the previous related studies also described. The first previous

study was written by Shehu (2015), to find out the students opinion about

problems encountered on reading comprehension process through their experience

of working with texts. The findings showed that lack of resources was the greatest

challenge faced by early learning teachers in the teaching of reading. They also

indicated that they were not well equipped with the relevant methods of teaching

reading. The similarity of the previous’ journal article and the present’s study

were to find out the problem and solution. Meanwhile, the difference is this

research using questionnaires. The second Gündoğmuş (2018). The aim of this

research was to identify the difficulties that primary school teachers experience in

the primary reading and writing instruction, and to find out their solution offers

for eliminating these difficulties. The result this study showed that, the difficulties

are included parental indifference, unreadiness of students, teaching of cursive

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italic handwriting, lack of professional experience, student absenteeism, lack of

interest by students, and physical inadequacies; and the solution offers for

eliminating these difficulties included education of parents, carrying out activities

suitable for students, change of handwriting type, cooperation with parents,

consideration of readiness level, and improvement of physical conditions. The

similarity of the previous’ journal article and the present’s study were to find out

the problem and solution in teaching reading, meanwhile the differences are this

research will conduted vocational high school teachers at Vocational High School

Karya Andalas Palembang, while Gündoğmuş’s participants were primary school

teachers.

The third is Songbatumis (2017). The study attempted to investigate

English teaching challenges as well as the solutions taken by the English teachers

at MTsN Taliwang. The result this study show that the teachers were challenged

by their lack of training, limited mastery of teaching methods, unfamiliarity to IT,

lack of professional development, inadequate facilities and resources, and time

constraint. The solution were in the classroom were applying various teaching

methods and techniques, matching students’ proficiency level and learning

situation, managing classroom, making use of available resources, giving

motivational feedback, and doing self-reflection. The similarity of the previous’

journal article and the present’s study were to find out the problem and solution

in teaching reading, using interview and the study conducted in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the difference is this research conducted at Vocational High School

Karya Andalas Palembang, while the researcher took the MtsN Taliwang.
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The last is Marima, Kang’ethe and Runo (2016). This study to establish teachers’

orientation and challenges faced by teachers in the teaching of reading. The

findings showed that lack of resources was the greatest challenge faced by early

learning teachers in the teaching of reading. They also indicated that they were not

well equipped with the relevant methods of teaching reading. The similarity of the

previous’ journal article and the present’s study were to find out the problem and

using observation. Meanwhile, the difference is this research explained about

solution, while the Runo was not.