Jeje materi 1

Reading Comprehension Skills

Reading is “the ability to understand information in a text and interpret it appropriately” (Grabe &
Stoller, 2002:17). Reading is also an interactive process (Alyousef, 2005). The reading process involves
interaction between a reader and a text from which the reader try to comparehend and elicit the
meaning. To understand and compregend a text, students not only need linguistic or systemic language
but also schematic knowledge. Therefore, teacher should understand the reading process so that they
can teach and assess the students’ reading ability properly.

In understanding a text, students can practice three levels of understanding: Reading the lines (literal
meaning) between the lines (iferred meanings), and beyond the lines (readers’critical evaluation of the
text (Gray, 1960). While in terms of omprehension, Yarbrough (1982) distinguish levels of
comprehension: Micro process (related to local, phrase by phrase understanding and macro process
(global understanding).

Related to components of Reading, there are some different components of reading. Gouthet.al (1992b)
divided it into two components of Reading: Decoding (Word Recognition) and Comprehension:
consisting of parsing sentences, understanding sentences in discourse, building a discourse structure,
and then integrating this understanding with one already knows. This is in line with Carver (1992b)
stating that reading should be reanalyzed into three parts of word recognition skills, reading rate or
reading fluency, and problem-solving comprehension abilities. Another theory form Grabe (1991)
proposes more detailed components of reading which consist of the six component elements in the
fluent reading process: Automatic recognition skilss, Vocabulary and structural knowledge, Formal
discourse structure knowledge, Content/world background knowledge, Synthesis snd evaluation
skilss/strategies, and Metacognitive knowledge and skills. Metacognitive knowledge includes the ability
to recognize the more important information in text; adjusting reading rate; skimming; previewing;
using context to resolve a misunderstanding; formulating questions about information; monitoring
cognition, including recognizing problems with information presented in text or an inability to
understand text.

In addition, related to reading comprehension skills, Brown (2004) identifies the skills supporting reading
comprehension skills, namely, micro and macro skills

Micro-skills for Reading Comprehension

1. Distinguish graphemes and orthographic forms of English.

2. Remembering chunks of language in various lengths immediately.
3. Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
4. Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
5. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), system (e.g., tense, agreement,
pluralisation) patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
6. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the relationship
between and among clauses.

Set standards

Teacher can set standards for reading comprehension by establishing cut-off scores on a scoring
rubric or rating scale. For example, teachers determine the range of scores from 1-6, and divide
them into three groups, whether students belong to novice, intermediate, or advanced.

Reading Portfolio

Students’ work such as reading logs reading response journals, self-assessment, peer-assessment
are kept in a document so that the students’ reading skill development can be observed.