Assalamu’alaikum Wr.

Wb

Comprehension and Reading

Arranged by:
Selvia Novita Sari
Tri Astuti
PBI Vc
SEKOLAH TINGGI ILMU TARBIYAH MUHAMMADIYAH
2014
Comprehension is the understanding and
interpretation of what is read.

Reading is a complex cognitive process of

decoding symbols in order to construct or
derive meaning (reading comprehension).
How do you teach reading???
a. Reading with a purpose
Efficient reading depends first of all on
having a purpose for reading, knowing why
you are reading a text. The purpose could be a
very general one like reading a novel for
pleasure, on the other hand, it could be very
specific like, looking up directory for
somebody’s number or address.
The purposes will usually determine the
appropriate type of reading and the relevant
reading skills to be used.
b. Transfer of Information
As well as helping the reader to understand a
text, this transfer of information technique
has another advantage. It gives you instant
feedback, since you can see immediately
whether the reader the reader has read
correctly.
C. Cognitive skills of comprehension
a. To anticipate both the form content
b. To identify the main idea
c. To recognize and recall specific details
d. To recognize the relationship between the main
idea and their expansion
e. To follow a sequence, e.g. events, instructions,
stages of an argument
f. To infer from the text
g. To Draw conclusions
h. To recognize the writer’s purpose attitude
Types of Reading
 Some Suggest Activities
A. Before reading activity
1. Anticipating the Content
If the text has section with headings, the
reader can be asked to read only these
headings and then say or write down what
they expect the text to be about it. However ,
not all texts are so obliging as to provide such
convenient clues.
2. Anticipating both Content and form
This anticipations work is exploiting the well-
known and obvious phenomenon that we
understand the familiar better than the
unfamiliar. With familiar material we find it
easier to predict what will occur-or is likely to
occur. This applies to form as well as content.
Such work is especially helpful in dealing with
texts that contain a high proportion of new
words.
3. Vocabulary Work
You may decide during your lesson
preparation that the meanings of these new
words can be derived from the text it self
when your learners are reading it.
Alternatively, you may consider the words as
unimportant for the reading purpose. In both
cases, you will deliberately exclude any
preliminary vocabulary work.
B. While reading activity
1. Identifying the main idea
 Read the passage in order to give a title
 Read the passage in order to select the most
appropriate title from those given.
 Identify the topics sentences.

2. Finding details the text.

The type of reading practiced here is scanning.
One useful technique to use for work is the
information-gap technique, whereby the reader has
to fill in the missing information on a work-sheet by
scanning a text which has the required information.
3. Following a Sequence
The learner who realizes that what he is
reading involves some from of sequencing is
able to understand a lot of the text. Even if
there are some unknown words.
4. Inferring From the Text
Together with identifying the main idea the
ability to infer is sometimes called a
manipulative thinking skill. Whereas reading
for literal meaning focuses on what is explicitly
stated; we want to make conjectures, to work
out what is implied in the text.
5. Recognizing the writer’s purpose and
attitude
 The writer’s purpose. It could be any of the
following or a mixture of them: to ridicule,
to amuse, to protest, to accuse, to teach, etc.
 The writer’s attitude: it will be determined
by his purpose. It could be: serious,
superficial sympathetic, angry.
6. Recognizing discourse features
A text will consist of discourse.
We can identify discourses features here as:
This, she, her as substitutes refer back to
previous statements.
 First, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, signal is a
list of some sort.
 But indicates a change or contrast relative
to some provide statement.
 So introduces a consequence or result of
previous events.
7. The teacher’s role
While your learners are busy with their silent
reading, you yourself will be very active. Not
only have you provided the texts and
suggested ways of treating them, but you will
be there in the class, ready to help both
individual learners with their particular
difficulties and whole group if a general
difficulty arises.
 After-reading activity
We would need to check that our learners
had plans that were acceptable according to the
text. However, checking on the reading activity
is only in the first step. We can exploit the
learners experience in reading by means further
activities. For instance, we may now consider it
valuable language work to deal with some of the
unknown words which we had deliberately
chosen not to consider at the pre-reading stage.
Thank’s for Your
Attention
&
Wassalam