CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL STUDY

A. Theoretical Study
1. Reading
a. The Importance of Reading
Reading is an important skill in many different settings
especially in educational setting (Grabe, 2009: 5). Students, nowadays,
encounter the great demands of reading activity since all knowledge is
in the written form. The students should have a good reading ability to
discover the content of the text. In addition.
Harrison (2004, 3) argues that the importance of reading is not
only related to the development of knowledge but also it is related to
the people thinking capability. This capability will be the basic
development of emotional, moral and verbal intelligence. Moreover,
these developments determine what kind of person people would be. In
summary, reading is important for students both to develop their
knowledge and to develop the way they think related to the
development of their moral, emotional as well as verbal intelligence.
b. Reading process
Spratt et al (2005, 21) define reading as a process of responding
to, making sense a text being read and connecting it with readers’ prior
knowledge. In making sense of information, readers connect new
knowledge obtained from the text with the known knowledge they
know already. It is believed that relating to readers’ prior knowledge
will make readers memorize the new knowledge longer. Therefore, a
reading activity is an interaction between readers’ mind and the text.
In line with Spratt et al, the activity of interaction between the
mind and the text can be considered as an active process since it
involves background knowledge of the readers (Pang et al, 2003: 14).
The readers bring their knowledge of the world to comprehend the

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text. Their mind will dynamically move to follow the flow of ideas
presented in the text. In making sense of the ideas, there are some
processes undergoing in readers’ mind. Brown (2001, 299) stated that
there are three types of the reading process. Those types are bottom-
up, top-down, and interactive.
Gregory (2008, 109) argues that in bottom-up, the readers
recognize from the small unit to the largest one. The readers start to
process the word sound as the basis of understanding the larger part.
The recognizing process starts from the word sound as the small unit
10 of meaning to the largest one; those are the knowledge of the world
and the knowledge of language structure.
Gregory also explains that the top-down process is the inverse
of the bottom-up process. In the top-down process, the readers proceed
from the general to the particular. The readers use their knowledge of
the world and knowledge of the language structure to recognize the
individual words.
Harrison(2004, 35) states that the interactive process is a
mixture of both bottom-up and top-down processes. In this process, the
readers mostly follow the bottom-up process in which the readers
recognize the word sound first to be the basis of understanding the
larger part, but the input from the top-down process will be used if it is
necessary.
In short, the reading process is a mind process in which
readers’ mind engages to the text. In engaging their mind to the text,
the readers employ their background knowledge to make sense the
ideas presented in the text. In the way of making sense of the ideas, the
readers go through some processes. Those processes are bottomup,
top-down and interactive processes.
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c. Reading Skills
In order to be a good reader, people need to master several
reading skills. The reading skills consist of two major elements namely
micro-skills and macro-skills. Both micro- and macro-skills can be the
intention of reading comprehension assessment (Brown,2004: 187).
The micro-skills consist of :
1) Discriminating among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic
patters of English,
2) Retaining chunks of language of different lengths in short-term
memory,
3) Processing writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose,
4) Recognizing a core of words, and interpreting word order patterns
and their significance,
5) Recognizing grammatical words classes (noun, verbs, etc.),
systems (e.g. tense, agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules, and
elliptical forms,
6) Recognizing cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in
signaling the relationship between and among clauses.
The macro-skills include:
1) Recognizing the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their
significance for interpretation,
2) Recognizing the communicative function of written texts,
according to form and purpose,
3) Inferring context that is not explicit by using background
knowledge,
4) From described events, ideas, etc., inferring links and connections
events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main
idea, supporting idea, new information, generalization, and
exemplification,
5) Distinguishing between literal and implied meanings,
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6) Detecting culturally specific references and interpreting them in a

context of the appropriate cultural schemata,
7) Developing and use a battery of reading strategies, such as
scanning and skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the
meaning of the words from context, and activating schemata for
the interpretation of texts.
d. Reading Comprehension
Klingner, Vaughn and Broadman (2007, 8) define reading
comprehension as a complex process involving interaction of many
components. Those components are readers, their background
Knowledge, their reading strategy, the text, their interest in the topic,
and their knowledge of text types. Those components interact with one
another in comprehending a printed text. When interference appears in
those interactions, the readers find difficulties in their reading
comprehension.
In addition, Snow (2002, 11) defines reading comprehension in
slightly different ways. Snow categorizes the component which is
interacting and involving in reading comprehension into three
components. Those components are the reader, the text and the
activity. Snow includes the capacities, abilities, knowledge, and
experiences of the readers as the part of the reader components. Snow
explains the text as any printed and electronic text while for the
activity Snow includes the purpose, processes, and results of any
attitude in reading.
In conclusion, reading comprehension is a brain process
involving several components in which those components interact with
one another to draw the meaning of the text. Those components are
mainly from the reader, the text and the activity. Those aspects should
interact well with each other. If there is an interference growing
between them, there will be difficulties in reading.
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e. Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension

Snow (2002, 11) stated that the text, the reader and the activity
affect the reading comprehension. The text affects the Reading
comprehension in the matter of how the text is built by the writer. The
readers affect their reading comprehension through information they
have in their background knowledge. Every reader has different
interpretation of meaning depending on their background knowledge.
The activity of reading will affect reading comprehension in the way
of how it leads readers to construct the meaning. It involves the
purpose of reading and the reading techniques.
According to Klingner, Vaughn and Broadman (2007, 6), there
are some factors from readers’ basic skills which cause difficulties in
reading comprehension. Those factors are word reading, fluency,
vocabulary mastery, and world knowledge. When the readers have
difficulties in decoding or reading words, they feel hard to understand
the meaning of the text. If they read slowly and inaccurately, it also
becomes interference for their reading comprehension. The knowledge
of the words in varied contexts and background knowledge of the topic
discussed also affect reading comprehension. Although, the readers
have high fluency, it will be difficult to comprehend the text without
sufficient knowledge of the words in the context.
Brown (2001, 299) stated that reading comprehension is
affected by schema and background knowledge. Both schema and
background knowledge belong to the readers in w the life experience
about the world. They include knowledge of the world, culture,
subject-matter and linguistic knowledge (Pang et al, 2007: 13). Every
reader has different schema and background knowledge. Therefore, the
interpretation of the text will vary among the readers.
In brief, there are some factors affecting reading
comprehension. Those factors are the word knowledge, the world
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knowledge, and the readers’ ability. Those aspects are varied among
the readers so every reader has various stages of comprehension.
f. Strategies of Reading Comprehension
Zhang (2010, 21) states that reading comprehension is a state
which is achieved through integration and application of many
strategies and skills. Chamot and O’Malley (1994) in Bouchard (2005,
4) make groups of learning strategies into three categories. Those
strategies are cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies.
Chamot and Kupper (1989) in Zhang (2010, 21) and Bouchard
(2005, 5) state that the cognitive process is a strategy in which the
readers manipulate the text to achieve comprehension. Bouchard
(2005, 5) adds that the manipulation can be in the form of mentally
learning process and also physically learning process. The example of
the mental process to lear the main idea and specific points, translating,
inferencing,and transferring.
According to Chamot and Kupper (1989) in Zhang (2010, 22),
the metacognitive strategy is a strategy in which the readers think
about their learning process, plan their learning, monitor the task and
evaluate the state of achievement. Bouchard (2005, 4) adds the
characteristics of metacognitive strategy. The activity of thinking
about their learning process is characterized by a process of choosing
the way of thinking and including the problem-solving strategy
according to the situation. The activity of planning the learning process
is characterized by determining the purpose of reading the text.
Besides that, monitoring the learning task can be characterized through
checking comprehension through self questioning and evaluating the
achievement is through self correction if the comprehension fails.
Bouchard (2005, 5) defines socio-affective strategies as
strategies in which the readers need another parties to support them in
comprehending the text. The examples of these strategies are
cooperative learning and clarification through asking questions.
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In short, reading comprehension can be achieved with the

support of reading strategies used. The strategies can be divided into
three major groups based on its model of thinking. Those groups are
cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affecting strategies.
2. Extensive Reading
Hafiz and Tudor (1989) as cited in Eunseok (2013) defined
extensive reading (ER) as quantitative reading in the second language (L2)
for a lengthy period of time for personal pleasure without the addition of
productive tasks or follow-up language work. It is all started from graded
reading.
Meanwhile, According to Renandya & Jacobs, (2002) as cited in
Aurora (2012), Extensive Reading is being studied by most reading
experts as one alternative reading approach. According to (Day&
Bamford, 2004), Extensive reading is a technique in teaching reading
which is defined as a situation where students read a lot of materials in
their level in a new language; they read for general, for overall meaning,
and for information at one with enjoyment. Extensive Reading appears to
lead to substantial vocabulary learning and learners show their
development in spelling and vocabulary knowledge (Nation, 1997; Pigada
& Schmitt, 2006; Robb & Sussser, 1989) as cited in (Shen, Ming-
Yueh,2008). This approach will take student engagement in the classroom
also beyond classroom. The purpose is to build students‟ awareness on
reading, so it becomes their habits. According to Harris (2001) as cited as
Poosotri & Davatgari (2016), extensive reading (ER) can play an
important role in learners' language education, so it should be a practical
option for reading pedagogy in the foreign language curriculum.
3. The Nature of Extensive Reading
Extensive Reading in Foreign language is a process of acquiring
new language (not mother tongue) trough words, sentences and text by
reading numerous books and motivated to read for pleasure. It is not a big
surprise that students reading several self-selected books in a short time
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will progress in reading and will become more confident in reading

(Yildirim, 2014). Through Extensive Reading, hopefully student could
foster good reading habits and give stimulus of vocabulary and structure
for students. In the mean time, Day & Bamford (1998, p. 7-8) as cited in
Educational Resource (http://extensivereading.net/docs/ERChar.html)
show some characteristics of an Extensive Reading approach as the
following:
a. Students read as much as possible, perhaps in and definitely out of
the classroom.
b. A variety of materials on a wide range of topics is available so as to
encourage reading for different reasons and in different ways.
c. Students select what they want to read and have the freedom to stop
reading material that fails to interest them.
d. The purposes of reading are usually related to pleasure, information
and general understanding. The purposes are determined by the
nature of the material and the interests of the student.
e. Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up exercises
after reading.
f. Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence of the
students in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Dictionaries are rarely
used while reading because the constant stopping to look up words
makes fluent reading difficults.
g. Readinhng is individual and silent, at the student's own pace, and,
outside class, done when and where the student chooses.
h. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower as students read
books and other material they find easily understandable
i. Teachers orient students to the goals of the program, explain the
methodology, keep track of what each student reads, and guide
students in getting the most out of the program.
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j. The teacher is a role model of a reader for the students -- an active

member of the classroom reading community, demonstrating what it
means to be a reader and the rewards of being a reader
4. The Roles of Extensive Reading
Related to Sampson (2013), Extensive Reading not only has the
potential to improve the reading comprehension skills of the second or
foreign language learner, it can also foster favorable dispositions toward
the task of reading. The fact of promoting autonomous and self-selected
readings extensively makes this reading approach suitable for both L2 and
EFL learners. Aliponga (2013), assumes that Extensive Reading could
motivate students to read more, enabled them to understand the main idea
and important details of the reading materials of their choice, and enabled
them to think critically. Extensive reading in foreign language have a lot
of benefits which is can improve student knowledge through foreign
language. They read a lot of books to fulfill their words bank. The fact that
the students also build their vocabulary seems to be obvious as well, since
they permanently encounter new words due to the fact that they read
numerous books (Yildirim, 2014).
Research studies show the students become better and more
confident readers, they write better, their listening and speaking abilities
improve, and their vocabularies get richer and they develop positive
attitudes toward and increased motivation to study the new language (Day
& Bamford 2004, 1) as cited in (Yildirim, 2014). Extensive reading could
grow positive attitudes about reading in general. This point is related to
some research that already conducted by some experts.
One of it is by Yang (2001). He conducted a research of Extensive
Reading treatment for Fulltime career professionals in Hong Kong to read
an English Novel. The results from his research was they greatly
appreciated the in-class discussions of the mystery novels because it felt
more like authentic conversation in English to them, and they also
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commented that “answering grammar questions or making sentences in

class was boring,” as an alternative (2001, p. 88).
B. Relevan of The Research
1. According by Seftya Fransiska Fendiasari “THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
USING HELLO ENGLISH APPLICATION TO TEACH
VOCABULARY AT THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMAN 1
DURENAN”. The results showed that the average value of students from
the experimental class before being taught using the Hello English
application was 83.60 and the average value of students after being taught
using the Hello English application was 85.66. In the control class the
average score of students before was 83.36 to 78.17. The average value of
students in the experimental class was higher than the average value in the
control class. In addition, the results of statistical calculations used the
Independent Sample T-test with SPSS 16.0 show that the significant value
was 0,000. The means of the significant value was smaller than the
significant level (0,000).
2. According by Yuanita “THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HELLO
ENGLISH APPLICATION AS ENGLISH LEARNING MEDIA TO
TEACH SPEAKING SKILL IN TOURISM MAJOR AT THE TENTH
GRADESTUDENTS AT SMK NEGERI 1 KARANGANYAR”. The
students responses toward the implementation of the method that teacher
used was good and positive, because during the teaching learning process,
the students could enjoy and understand fluently.
3. According by, Rita Seroja Ginting Br (2019)  “THE EFFECT OF HELLO
ENGLISH APPLICATION ON THE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
MASTERY AT THE EIGHTH GRADE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (A
QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AT THE EIGHTH GRADE
STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 STM HULU IN ACADEMIC YEAR
2019/2020)”. The researcher found that the mean score of post-test in
experimental class was higher than controlled class (80.31 > 66.88). The t-
test result also presents that t0(8.984) was higher than the ttablein the
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significance level 5% (0.05) with the degree of freedom 62 is 1.699.

Therefore, the t0 result >ttable generated that H0 (null hypothesis) was
rejected and Ha (alternative hypothesis) was accepted. The calculation of
the effect size was 1.37 which in the range of effect criteria included to
strong effect. Thus, Hello English application has significant effect on the
students’ vocabulary mastery at the eighth grade of SMPN 1 STM Hulu.
C. Conceptual Framework
Klingner, Vaughn and Broadman (2007, 8) define reading
comprehension as a complex process involving interaction of many
components. Those components are readers,their background Knowledge,
their reading strategy, the text, their interest in the topic, and their knowledge
of text types. Those components interact with one another in comprehending a
printed text. When interference appears in those interactions, the readers find
difficulties in their reading comprehension.
In conclusion, reading comprehension is a brain process involving
several components in which those components interact with one another to
draw the meaning of the text. Those components are mainly from the reader,
the text and the activity. Those aspects should interact well with each other. If
there is an interference growing between them, there will be difficulties in
reading can give a positive impact for students‟ capability in developing their
foreign language.
Teaching language needs good and interesting media in the classroom.
In fact, the use of media in teaching and learning increases the motivation of
the students. Thus, the media offers the opportunity to improving the quality
of language learning and it should be effective and interesting. Therefore, by
using interesting media the students will be easy to understand about the
meaning of Reading.
Media is the tool for delivering content of materials to the students in
learning process, to reach effective teaching. One of the media to overcome
some difficulties in English language learning that can be applied in teaching
vocabulary is by using Hello English application. So it is essential in
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determining the success of the teaching and learning process in order to

achieve the maximum result.
Hello English is an application technology that can be used to support
the students in learning Reading. It is an application to make new learning
environment and increase the motivation of the students. The use of Hello
English can be practiced anytime and anywhere individually. So, the students
will be easy to remember the new word. Thus, it is important for students to
know the technology to facilitate effective learning and interesting way.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher believes that the use of
Hello English application could develop students‟ vocabulary knowledge.
Therefore, the researcher would like to do a research by using Duolingo
application in developing students‟ vocabulary.
D. Hypothesis of The Research
It refers to the basis of researcher which nable him or her to carry out
of the research. It is provosional truth determined by researcher that should be
tested and provedIn this research, the hypothesis can be stated as follow:
1. Ha: The use of Hello English Application is more effective to increasethe
students’ Reading Comprehension than non Hello English Application
2. H0: The use non Hello English Application is not effective to increase the
students’ reading comprehension than use of Hello English application.