UNDERSTANDING READING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

By: First Group

Name’s Group:

1. Audian Meria Yanti Laoli (192108013)

2. Fatiaro Daeli (192108027)
3. Parlindungan Hura. (192108061)
4. Selfi Krisna Yanti Zebua (192108080)

Class/Semester: B/VI

Lecture : Extensive Reading

Lecturer : Dra. Nursayani Maruao., M.Pd

UNIVERSITY OF NIAS
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF GUNUNGSITOLI
ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
2022
 PREFACE

Praise to God Almighty for His blessings, grace, and gifts so that the writers is given the
ability to complete this paper as well as possible and on time. In compiling this paper, the writer
received help and guidance from various parties. Therefore, the authors would like to thank the
lecturer nurturing the course for the guidance during the preparation process in this assignment who
always support and provide guidance as well as all fellow friends who helped to complete this
report.
The author also realizes that in the preparation of this paper, there are still many
shortcomings and are far from perfection. Therefore, the authors expect criticism and suggestions so
that they become a reference in the preparation of further paper. The author also apologizes if in
writing and compiling this paper there are errors both in typing, sentences, and language errors that
confuse the reader in understanding the intent and purpose of the author. Therefore, the authors
expect criticism and suggestions so that they become a reference in the preparation of further paper.
We hope this paper can be useful for all of us and increase our knowledge.

Gunugsitoli, 26Th March 2022

Author,

First Group

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

PREFACE---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

TABLE OF CONTENT------------------------------------------------------------ 2

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Problem--------------------------------------- 3

B. The Formulation of the Problem--------------------------------------- 3
C. The Purpose--------------------------------------------------------------- 4

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. The Nature of Reading ------------------------------------------------- 5

B. Reading in A Foreign Language: What Else is Important
Besides Skills and Strategies? 6
C. The Tips and Limitations of Extensive Reading--------------------- 7
D. Text-Based Approach: Extensive Reading -------------------------- 8

CHAPTER III CLOSING

A. Conclusion----------------------------------------------------------------10
B. Suggestion----------------------------------------------------------------10

REFERENCES----------------------------------------------------------------------12

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Problem

Reading is a complex, multi-faceted activity, involving a combination of both lexical and

text-progressing skills that are widely recognized as being interactive” (Loucky, 2005, p.1). This is
one reason why students are likely to be hesitant readers (Kweldju, 2000, cited in Cahyono and
Widiawati, 2006) because reading in a foreign language is not easy. Therefore, teachers need to find
an appropriate technique to encourage students’ interest and to build their self confidence in
reading.

As Field (2002) rightly pointed out, L2 students are often asked to do many reading-related
activities that may not contribute directly to the development of their reading ability. She further
points out that what students need most in a reading class is not just learning how to use reading
skills and strategies, but to actually be engaged in frequent and meaningful reading of text, where
students focus their attention on the most important thing about reading , ie, understanding and
appreciating what the author of the reading passage is trying to convey to the readers. One
technique that can be applied in teaching reading is extensive reading.

Extensive reading has emerged as a practical solution to the above problem from several
perspectives. First, extensive reading ensures that students are given easy reading material.
Teachers using the ER approach can either choose texts that match the reading competence of
individual students, or allow the students themselves to choose the texts they want to read. Second,
extensive reading differs from intensive reading in that it seeks to fulfil a number of objectives,
which include reading for pleasure, general understanding, and acquisition of information.

B. Formulation of the Problem

1. What's the nature of reading?

2. What else is important besides skills and strategies?
3. What are the tips and limitations of Extensive Reading?
4. Text-based Approach: Extensive Reading

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C. The Purpose

1. To know the nature of reading

2. To know the important of skill and strategies
3. To know the tips and limitations of Extensive Reading
4. To know Text-Based approach: Extensive Reading

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. The Nature of Reading

Reading can be defined as a process to understand the meaning of a written text (Richards
and Schmidt, 2010). Mastering reading skill requires interaction between the reader and the text.
Rivers (1981) said that, “reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a
source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending
one’s which are knowledge of the language”.

When reading in a foreign language, these factors are some how modified and new elements
appear:

1. The reader’s knowledge of the foreign language is not like that of the native speaker;
2. The guessing or predicting ability necessary to pick up the correct cues is hindered by the
imperfect knowledge of the language;
3. The wrong choice of cues or the uncertainty of the choice makes associations more difficult;
4. Due to unfamiliarity with the material and the lack of training, the memory span in a foreign
language in the early stages of its acquisition is usually shorter than in our native language;
recollection of previous cues then, is more difficult in a foreign than in the mother tongue;
5. At all levels, and at all times, there is interference of the native language.

There are six essential skills needed for understanding reading and tips that help students to
improve their reading skill, namely:

1. Decoding. Decoding is a vital step in the reading process.

2. Fluency.

3. Vocabulary.

4. Sentence construction and cohesion.

5. Reasoning and background knowledge.

6. Working memory and attention.

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B. Reading in A Foreign Language: What Else is Important Besides Skills and Strategies?

I should state from the outset that reading strategies are not without values, and that
judicious teaching of strategies can indeed make a difference in enhancing students' comprehension.
However, we need to be mindful of what research actually tells us about the usefulness of reading
strategies in L2 reading. Below is a brief summary of research into reading strategy instruction:

a) Strategy instruction can improve students' comprehension. In general, research has shown
that students can benefit from reading strategy instruction. Teaching students to make
predictions before reading, ask questions during reading, and summarize key points during
and after reading and monitor their comprehension, for example, has been shown to increase
students' comprehension of the text (Cotterall, 1990; Palincsar & Brown, 1984 ; Png, 2010).
b) While strategy instruction can be useful, there is no strong evidence that all reading
strategies are equally effective in helping students read with better comprehension.
Dilingham (2006/7) did a review on reading strategy instruction and concluded that only a
handful of reading strategies consistently produced positive results. Included in the list of
empirically supported reading strategies are those that enable students to check and monitor
their comprehension, and a group of strategies intended to help students connect ideas
between sentences in a text (e.g., summarizing, graphic organizers and story structure).
c) The impact of strategy instruction varies widely. In a small number of studies, the effect
size of the strategy is substantial (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), but in others (eg, Dabarera,
Renandya & Zhang, 2014), the effect size is quite negligible, that is, the improvement that
students made following strategy instruction is not that educationally meaningful.
d) Research shows that good readers differ from poor readers in terms of the number of
strategies they have and, more importantly, in terms of how effectively they use these
strategies in reading. The general conclusion is that compared to poor readers, good readers
have a larger number of strategies and can use them singly or in combination more
effectively to enhance their reading experience and improve their comprehension. However,
the relationship between strategy use and reading ability is not always straightforward. Are
good readers good because they possess a larger number of strategies and use these
effectively while poor readers are poor because they don't? While some researchers seem to
think so (see Cohen & Macaro, 2007), others have different views (e.g., Skehan, 1989).
e) Not all students can benefit from strategy instruction. There are two things to note here.
First, some students may already be using certain strategies in their reading quite efficiently,
so teaching them strategies that they are already familiar with may not be useful or may in
fact confuse them. Secondly, for L2 learners whose proficiency in the language is still at the

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 lower end of the scale, strategy instruction may not be effective. When students have not
fully developed automaticity in lower level processes (eg, word recognition and sentence
parsing), they may not be able to build a text model of comprehension, much less a situation
model of comprehension which requires higher level processes (Grabe, 2009 ).
f) Brief, rather than long and intensive, instruction on strategies. As pointed out by Willingham
(2006/7), brief instruction on reading strategies can be as effective as that which requires
more extended instruction and practice. He further pointed out that comprehension strategy
is easy to learn and use, and the only difficulty is to consistently remember to apply it" (p.
44). Thus, extended teaching and practice of strategies may not be the most productive ways
of using classroom time.

C. The Tips and Limitations of Extensive Reading

Extensive reading is a language teaching procedure where learners are supposed to read
large quantities of material or long texts for global understanding, the principal goal being obtaining
pleasure from the text (Bamford, Extensive Reading Activities 1). According to Brown (2001),
extensive reading is carried out to achieve a general understanding of a text. On the other hand,
Extensive Reading means reading some materials for pleasure to get a general understanding of a
text.

However, many students are not used to reading English material because reading as foreign
language context is not easy. Therefore, in learning process, teachers take an important role that is
to remain students’ motivation and create motivation in students gradually if there is none (Harmer,
2007, p.100). In addition, teachers’ roles in extensive reading program are “to develop students a
life-long interest in reading and its application to their daily lives” (Sachs, 2001, p.10).

Extensive reading is a topic that has been widely discussed over last decades and its benefits
have been generally approved by many researches. Bamford states that students who read more will
not only become better and more confident readers, but they will also improve their reading,
writing, listening and speaking abilities and their vocabularies will get richer (Bamford, Extensive
Reading Activities 1). Bamford praises the motivation aspect of Extensive reading, seeing its primal
benefit in developing positive attitudes toward the foreign language and increased motivation to
study this language (Bamford, Extensive Reading Activities).

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 There are several tips for extensive reading, namely:

 Read, read, and read some more

 Read easy books
 Read interesting books
 Reread books you found particularly interesting
 Read for general understanding
 Ignore unknown or difficult words. Skip them and continue reading.
 Avoid using dictionaries
 Expand your reading comfort zone
 Set reading goals and keep a reading log
 Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

A part from the aforementioned extensive reading’s tips, it has limitations. The limitation is
that the lack of reading materials which are suitable with students’ level. Not all of schools can
provide English reading materials which are suitable with students’ level, together with a variety of
reading materials on a wide range of topics. To overcome it, for the orientation of extensive
reading, teachers can provide reading materials for the students.

The number of students in a classroom can also become an obstacle in implementing extensive
reading. Most classes in Indonesia consist of more than 30 students. Therefore, it will be difficult to
handle a big number of students as every student might have a wide range of topics in their mind.
To minimize the various topics of reading materials, teachers can provide particular reading
materials to be chosen by students every week.

D. Text-Based Approach: Extensive Reading

In these approaches, students are encouraged to read the whole text for comprehension and
enjoyment, first with the help of the teachers and later, after they have become more linguistically
confident, on their own with minimal or no help from their teachers.

One approach that has gained popularity with L2 reading researchers and practitioners is
extensive reading (ER). The theory behind ER can be traced back to the work of Stephen Krashen
and his comprehensive input theory. Put simply, the comprehensive input theory states that we
learn language by understanding messages, that is, when we understand what people say to us and

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when we comprehend what we read (Krashen, 2004). The hypothesis states that the following
conditions are needed for language learning to take place:

a. The input is plentiful and regularly available

b. The input is comprehensive
c. The input contains language that is slightly above students' current level of competence.

The three conditions above are likely to be met (though not fully) when students are engaged in
ER, ie, when read large amounts of comprehensive and interesting texts regularly over a period of
time, focusing on the overall meaning of the texts (and not so much on the language elements such
as words, phrases, complex grammatical constructions etc.). Summarizing years of research on the
benefits of extensive reading (ER), Bamford & Day (2004, p.1) concluded: Good things happen to
students who read a great deal in the foreign language. Research studies show they become better
and more confident readers, they write better, their listening and speaking abilities improve, and
their vocabularies become richer. In addition, they develop positive attitudes toward and increased
motivation to study the new language.

The empirical support for ER has now been document by extensive reading scholars. New
evidence keeps emerging, including a recent meta-analysis research extensive reading by Nakanishi
(2015) which provides compelling evidence for extensive reading. Her analysis shows that
extensive reading is generally associated with substantial language learning gains, especially when
it is implemented over a longer period of time.

1. Issues and concerns

a) Many teachers say that they are keen to implement ER, but they often run into difficulties as
schools often have limited resources to purchase reading materials. Lack of funding is often
cited as a key reason for the lack of suitable reading and listening materials. For the more
well-resourced schools, the administrators may not be fully informed about the salutary
benefits of ER and are therefore reluctant to allocate sufficient resources for the programme.
Of course, teachers can turn to online reading materials, which are widely and freely
available, but lack of Internet access and their busy schedules prevent them from allocating
time to compile suitable materials for ER.
b) The effect of ER is often delayed, not immediate. Students don't make noticeable
improvements in the first few months. In fact, it may take up to one year to see tangible
effects on learners' language development (Renandya, Hu & Yu, in press). Since teachers
are often under pressure to produce tangible results of their teaching (e.g., students doing

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 better on tests and examinations), many tend to avoid projects that require a big investment
of time but its effect on learning is not immediately observable. Not surprisingly, some
prefer to invest their time and effort on the more traditional approaches to teaching such as
intensive reading, which focuses more on skills and strategies and which teachers have
found to yield more immediate effects on students' reading performance on examinations.
c) ER is often implemented as an out-of-class or extracurricular activity where students are
expected to self-select their reading and listening materials and read them in their free time.
while there have been reports of successful large-scale ER projects (e.g., Davis, 1995; Elley
& Mangubhai, 1983; Robb & Kano, 2013), smaller-scale, teacher initiated ER programs are
not as successful. What often happens is that after the initial enthusiasm, teachers may
begin to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work related to the running of the programme.
As Brown (2009) notes, "The main practical concerns regarding ER are to do with cost, lack
of time, monitoring students' reading, managing the library of books, guiding students to
choose appropriate books, and getting students engaged in reading" ( p. 240).
d) To get students started on ER, teachers often use curriculum time to provide students with
opportunities to do silent reading and/or listening for a period of time. In the case of ER,
during a USSR (Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading) session in the classroom, some
teachers may feel awkward because they often view teaching as involving talking to and
interacting with students, asking questions, explaining language points, arranging students to
get students to do individual or group tasks.
e) Finally, a key concern that teachers and administrators share about ER relates to the issue of
legitimacy. Students doing independent silent reading in class with the teachers silently
observing them (or reading along with them) are often "not perceived as a class learning, let
alone being taught, both by the students themselves and the school administration" (Prowse,
2002. p144). Not surprisingly, ER is often seen optional extra, an activity that teachers use
juts to keep students busy' when they don't have other important things to do.

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 CHAPTER 3
CLOSING

A. CONCLUSION

Based on the explanation above, we can concluded that Learning a foreign language is not
easy. Instruction on carefully selected comprehension skills and strategies can be justified in L2
reading classrooms, the bulk of classroom instruction should be dedicated to providing students
with meaningful reading experiences, where they read a variety of highly interesting texts that fall
within their linguistic competence. Pleasant and successful reading experience in the classroom
may gradually lead to more independent reading outside the classroom, where students can be
expected to regularly read much larger amounts of both print and non-print texts for information
and enjoyment.

Extensive reading has the potential to help english language learners become better readers
and make improvements in other aspects of their English skills. Extensive reading is beneficial in
teaching reading. Extensive reading helped the students to build perspective that reading (English
text) is a fascinating activity. Moreover, extensive reading helped teachers to create enjoyable
atmosphere in learning. In relation to teaching reading, extensive reading helped the students in
developing a wide vocabulary and improving their reading comprehension.

B. Suggestion

The writers hope that the paper can add our knowledge about Understanding Reading in A
Foreign Language. we believe that there are still many mistakes, both in the writing procedure, and
in the content of the material. Therefore, the authors expect criticism and suggestions so that they
become a reference in the preparation of further reports.

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 References

Bernal, M., and Bernal P. 2020. Using reading to teach English as a foreign language. Maskana,
11(2), 18-26.

Ferdila, R. 2014. The Use of Extensive Reading in Teaching Reading. Journal of English and
Education. Indonesia. 2(2), 68-80.

Saengpakdeejit R. 2014. Reading Strategies in Foreign Language Academic Reading: A Qualitative

Investigation. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. Thailand. 4(12). 2599-2608.

Umam Chothibul. 2012. Extensive Reading: What, Why, and How? Jurnal Al Hikmah. Indonesia.
3(1), 39-50.

Yotio Carlos A. Some Source of Reading Problems for Foreign Language Learners. University of
Michigan. 21(1). 107-115.

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