CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Reading Comprehension

1. Definition of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it, and

understanding its meaning. Reading comprehension is defined as the level of

understanding of a text or meaning. This understanding comes from the

interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger

knowledge outside the text or message. Westwood (2008:31) reveal that

reading comprehension can be defined as an active thinking process through

which a reader intentionally constructs meaning to form a deeper

understanding of concepts and information presented in a text.

Reading comprehension is the act of combining information in a

passage with prior knowledge in order to construct meaning. In addition,

reading comprehension can be defined as a thinking process through which

readers become aware of an idea, understand it in terms of their experiential

background, and interpret it in relation to their own needs and purposes

(Khoiriyah:2010:1).

Comprehension is the process of generating meaning from varied

sources-directly observing phenomena, reading, looking at a sign, cartoon,

painting, listening to a lecture or discussion, viewing a film (Robert:63).

Comprehension is the process of building a connection between what the

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reader knows and what he or she doesn‟t know, between the new and the old.

Comprehension is an envolving process, often beginning before a book is

opened, changing as the material is read, and continuing to change even after

the book is completed.]

Reading comprehension is very important for everyone who wants to

enlarge their knowledge and information. Sometimes some learners feel

difficult to comprehend the text that they have read, so they get nothing from

the text. So the teachers have to be more concern about the problem. Reading

comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand its

meaning. An individual’s ability to comprehend text is influenced by their

traits and skills, one of which is the ability to make inferences. If word

recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to

read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what

is read.

Furthermore, successful comprehension enables reader (or listener) to

acquire information, to experience and be aware of another words (including

fictional ones), to communicate successfully, and to achieve academic

success. ( ESRC,2016) These purposes of reading comprehension can be

achieved if the readers have good interaction with the text. It is influenced by

many factors, one of them is the background knowledge of reader about the

text that will be read, students who has known the background knowledge

about the text will be easier to understand the text. Hence, giving information

and background knowledge about the text to the students is needed, so

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students can understand the meaning of what they read and can comprehend

the text well.

Based on the statements above, it can be seen that reading

comprehension is a process of deep interaction between reader and author to

communicate successfully in gaining what the author means on the text. The

students as readers can comprehend the text based on their ability to

recognize the text. Furthermore, there are some criteria commonly used in

measuring students’ reading comprehension ability, they are:

1. Main idea (topic)

2. Expression/idioms/phrases in context

3. Inference (implied detail)

4. Grammatical features

5. Detail (scanning for specifically stated detail)

6. Excluding facts not written (unstated detail)

7. Supporting ideas

8. Vocabulary in context.

To satisfy the criteria above, there are some strategies for reading

comprehension that can be used by the teacher, they are as follows.

1. Identifying the purpose in reading

2. Using graphemic rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding

(especially for beginning level learners)

3. Using eficient silent reading technique for relatively rapid comprehension

(intermediate to advanced levels)

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 4. Skimming the text for main ideas

5. Skimming the text for specific information

6. Use semantic mapping or clustering

7. Guessing when you aren’t certain

8. Analyzing vocabulary

9. Distinguishing between literal and implied meaning

10. Capitalizing on discourse markers to process relationship.

In conclusion, the teacher is suggested to use strategy in teaching

reading comprehension. By using strategy, it is expected that students will be

better to engage interaction to the author and to communicate successfully in

gaining what the author mean on the text and achieve the goal of reading

which is to make students able comprehend the text. While, teacher also

needs to measure students’ reading comprehension ability by using criteria

commonly used in measuring students’ reading comprehension.

2. Strategies of Reading Comprehension

Dhakal (2010) defines that reading strategies are the procedures, skill

or art used in reading a text. There is not limit to the number of reading

strategies one can use to improve his/her reading comprehension ability.

Some strategy or reading effectively which you may also find for learners:

a. Extracting main idea (skimming)

Skimming is meant to go through reading material quickly in order to get the

gist of it, to know how it organized, or to get the idea of the tone or the

intention of the writer. It can also be used to find the main idea of a

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 paragraph. Therefore, skimming is an activity which requires overall view of

the texts and implies definite reading.

b. Reading for specific information (scanning)

Scanning is a reading activity to locate specific information; often we do not

even follow the linearity of the passage to do so. The reader needs not read

the whole text because his purpose is to find specific information that he/his

wants to know from passage such as places, times characters, or happenings.

When one ways to buy a particular second hand car, he/his can take a

newspaper advertisement and read quickly to find what he/his wants. This

activity is also called scanning.

c. Dealing with Unfamiliar Word

The type of strategy is looking for clues, either in the context or in the form of

the words it self. It means that the readers using strategy for find the clues

from the text. That make the reader understand what readers read.

Dealing with the ideas above, it can be said that reading is not an easy

activity. It needs learning to modify what it has the read. In other word, by

learning through reading means adding to what it has been know already. So

in reading strategy extracting main ideas (skimming), reading for specific

information (scanning), and dealing with unfamiliar words are affected by

both the reader’s background knowledge and the text characteristic that can

be used in the classroom to increase reading comprehension.

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B. Strategies in Teaching Reading

Reading comprehension strategies are seen as comprehension

processes that enable readers to construct meaning from the printed page most

effectively. In other words, those strategies show how readers tackle a reading

task, how they interpret their reading and what they do when they do not

comprehend. When learners comprehend, they interpret, integrate, critique,

infer, analyze, connect and evaluate ideas in texts. They negotiate multiple

meanings not only in their heads but in the minds of others. When

comprehending, learners strive to process text beyond word-level to get to the

big picture. When comprehension is successful, learners are left with a sense

of satisfaction from having understood the meaning of a text according by the

NSW department of education and training (2010). There are some strategies

in teaching reading according to Vacca &Vacca (1999;53) in Nurlaili (2014)

are follows:

1. Scaffolding

A key change in the delivery of instruction that would make a

difference in the content literacy of all learners, especially students from

diverse background, is to scaffold the strategies for text. Gasong(2007) stated

that scaffolding is a lesson in which students are given some assistance during

the early stages of learning and then reducing the aid and providing

opportunities for students. Scaffolding allows teachers help diverse learner

negotiate meaning and overcome difficulties in text-related learning situation.

Scaffolding is as a process whereby a student is helped to solve a particular

other person with more ability. From definition described above it can be

concluded that scaffolding is a support, support to students of teachers that

enable the development of learning ability so that there is a higher level of

mastery of material shown by the completion of more complicated problems.

2. Think-aloud

Think Alouds is a strategy that helps students on learning activities,

Aims to recall more significant information from the texts given by the

teacher. The ability of teachers to transfer creativity Them and control the

students in completing each step of the way think alouds strategy in

understanding reading texts and teachers make their thinking explicit by

verbalizing their thoughts while reading orally.

3. Reciprocal Teaching Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching Reciprocal Teaching is a strategy that asks

students and teachers to share the role of teacher by allowing both to lead the

discussion about a given reading. Reciprocal Teaching involves four

strategies that guide the discussion: predicting, question generating,

summarizing and clarifying. Reciprocal teaching is a great way to teach

students how to determine important ideas from a reading while discussing

vocabulary, developing ideas and questions, and summarizing information. It

can be used across several content areas it works particularly well with

textbooks and nonfiction text.

4. SQ3R

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 SQ3R is a systematic reading strategy to help you organize the

reading process into manageable units. It is only one of many similar

strategies that you can use to improve comprehension. It consist five steps,

they are: Surveying, questioning, reading, reciting, and reviewing. The SQ3R

strategy involves (1) reading the headings in the chapter quickly to get its

important part, (2) turning the heading in to question, (3) reading to find the

answer to the question, (4) recall the important point (the answer to the

question) by retelling them or writing them in one‟s memory at the important

point. A more detailed description of each step is presented in the following

section.

a. Surveying Before reading the text, the readers survey the text to get the

general ideas of the text. This activity is done systematically in only a few

minutes. The readers are required to find the important ideas quickly.

Surveying a text or an article can be done in five ways:

a) Read the title. The title does not only give the readers illustration about what

they are going to read but also stimulates them to think further about the text.

b) Read every sub chapter. Subtitles give the readers about the text as a whole.

They show the details of the text.

c) Pay attention to tables

d) Read the instruction. If there is no introduction, read the first two paragraphs

very quickly to get the idea, background, tone, atmosphere, and the writers

style of writing. It will be helpful for the reader to grasp the main points of

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 the text. If the paragraphs are too long, the readers can read only the first and

second sentences.

e) Read the first sentence of the sub chapters, the first sentence often describes

the content. Otherwise, read the last sentence because if usually restates the

main idea of the paragraph.

b. Questioning

Questioning step is the second step of the SQ3R procedures. It is done

before the actual reading. The students create some questions based on what

they have surveyed. The main function of such questions is to facilitate

students in adjusting their reading purposes. In this step, the students create

some question based on the title of the text. They can also turn the

introductory sentence in paragraphs into questions such as what, who ,when

and how. c)

c. Reading

The third step of the SQ3R procedures is reading. The students are

required to read the text carefully to find the answer to the questions key have

made. In this step, the students are supposed to concentrate on the main ideas

of the text and their supporting details. They are suggested. They are

suggested to lower down their speed of reading in the important pats or in the

pats which are considered difficult to understand, and fasten up their reading

in the less important parts or in the parts that they have already known.

(1)Reading the text silently (2) Answering the prepared questions (3) The

students are asked to get the main ideas and its supporting details (4) Making

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 a note the main points of the text (5) Discussing about what has been found

during reading.

d. Reciting.

The fourth step of SQ3R procedure is reciting. This activity is done

after the students read the text. Having read the text, the students answer the

questions that have been formulated earlier without looking back at the text.

The students have to answer not only by using the information they find in

the text but also by using their own knowledge.

e. Reviewing

Reviewing is the last step of the SQ3R strategy. It is done by the

students be rereading the important part of the text.

5. Question Answer Relationship (QARs)

QARs is a reading strategy through understanding and analysis of

questions. In other words this strategy guides students to understand the

questions in order to get an information in a reading itself. So that in practice

in the classroom students only glance read the reading and to understand

further the focus of students is the questions given by the teacher about the

text reading. The teacher gave some question to the student and then the

student wore the answer in their book. This strategy was used by the teacher

to see if students really understand it with text they read. The procedure

QARs could be taught directly to students by reading teachers and could be

reinforced by content area specialists. English teachers on SMA N 1 Padang

Sago uses two strategies:

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a. Translation

Translation is an effort of finding equivalent meaning of a text into the

second language. We emphasis meaning equivalence since in translation

meaning is the object to be rendered from the source language text into the

target language text

b. Scaffolding

Scaffolding strategy were used by teachers when student got difficulties,

teachers need to provide tailored help to the needs of the students, like the

teacher doing the classroom, the teacher gave help to the students to know

how to correctly read the text. Scaffolding helped the students how to read

properly and then told the students read the text but when the student either

mentioned the words in the words in the text the teacher helped them and also

the teacher asked the students which word they did not know in the text.

Gasong (2007) stated that scaffolding is a lesson in which students are given

some assistance during the early stages of learning and then reducing the aid

and providing opportunities for students. Scaffolding allows teachers help

diverse learner negotiate meaning and overcome difficulties in text-related

learning situation. Scaffolding is as a process whereby a student is helped to

solve a particular problem beyond its developmental capacity through the

help of a teacher or other person with more ability.

C. Review of the related finding

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 Previously, in order to avoid unnecessarily replication the researcher

review some previews which have a correlation with this study. They are

useful for the reference and comparison to the researcher’s study since they

have similar topic in the term of reading.

In making a research, there must be some previous research that are

related with the research that we will done. There are several findings are

related with this research:

The first, Nurman Antoni (2010) did a research entiled Exploring EFL

Teacher’ Strategies In Teaching Reading Comprehension. The objectives of

this research is to explore EFL teacher’ strategies in teaching reading

comprehension and the students’ responses toward their teachers’ strategies in

teaching reading comprehension at one junior] high school in Riau. This

study employed a qualitative research design which is a case study using

three data collection techniques; observation, interview, and

questionnaire. ]All of the data were analyzed by using three major phrases of

analyses: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and

verification (Miles & Huberman: 2000). This study revealed that the teachers

have used teaching reading comprehension strategies in three reading stages:

pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading stage. It also revealed that in

general, the students’ responses to their teachers’ strategies were good enough

which were classified into low-level association responses and partly-formed

knowledge structure responses.

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 These finding recommend that the three teachers need to increase their

knowledge and experiences in order to understand the concepts,

implementation and the reasons in using the strategies in teaching reading

comprehension. They are also suggested to give instruction of teaching

strategies to students with low-level association responses before starting the

reading activities, and give some guidance to students with partly-formed

knowledge.

The Second, Tin Nulaulia (2014) did a research in title study on

teacher’s strategies in teaching reading comprehension in second grade of

students MTS Tarbiyatul Ulum Punggungsari. The research problems of the

research were: (1) what are the teacher’s strategies in teaching reading

comprehension in second grade of MTS Tarbiyatul Punggungsari

Punggungrejo Blitar? The purpose of the research were to: to know to what

extent that strategies can help teacher in teaching reading comprehension in

second grade of MTS Tarbiyatul Ulum Punggungsari Punggungrejo Blitar.

Research method, the researcher used descriptive qualitative research

consisting of some data in the form of word, phrase and sentences of teaching

activity. In conducting the research interviewed the English teacher at MTS

Tarbiyatul Ulum Punggungsari Panggungrejo Blitar. The result showed that

teacher’s strategies in teaching reading comprehension is use fourth strategy

they are: memorizing strategy, question answer strategy, game and discussion

strategy. With those strategies the students easily understand the text of

reading comprehension.
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 From the result of the research that has been discussed in chapter IV,

the researchher can conclude that this research shows that in teaching reading

comprehension the teachers use various teaching strategies. The teaching

strategy are: memorizing, question and answer, silent reading, game,

discussion, and reading aloud. The researcher choose these thesis because it

has some similarities such as the research question and the instrument of the

research it also have differences such as the population and the sample of the

research.

Based on the research, those strategies are effective in teaching

reading comprehension because can help students to comprehend the text.

These findings recommend that the teachers need to increase their knowledge

experience in order to understand the concept, implementation using the

strategies and the reason in using the strategies in teaching reading.

D. Conceptual Framework

In this research, the researcher tried to figure out the analysis of teacher

strategy in reading. The conceptual framework of this research can show

on the chart below:

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 Figure 2.1
Conceptual Framework

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension Strategy Teaching Reading Strategy

Teachers strategy in Teaching Reading

Scaffolding SQ3R

Think-Aloud QARs

Reciprocal
Teaching

From the conceptual framework above, the material that researcher

want to analyze strategy in teaching reading.

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