Two Views of Reading Comprehension: Specific skill and a Holistic process

Education English | Two Views of Reading Comprehension: Specific skill and a Holistic process |  The Specific Skills View of Reading Comprehension

Traditionally, reading comprehension has been linked with a set of identifiable and teachable skills, such as nothing important facts and details, finding the main idea, and following direction. A major advantage of identifying discrete comprehension skills is that the teacher can easily divide the very general concept of reading comprehension into smaller units that are manageable for
instruction. Consequently, the student’s attention can be directly focused on reaching specific and definable goals. The diagnosis involves determining which specific reading skills the student has already acquired and which must still be taught. Remedial instruction involves the direct teaching of those discrete comprehension skills yet to be learned.
Although reading authorities do not all agree on which comprehension skills are important and how they should be sequenced, the comprehension skills that are commonly identified are described as follows, in a sequence from the easier to the more difficult (Brown, 2001)
1. Noting clearly stated facts and important details of a selection.
This skill is considered one of the easiest comprehension skills. Most of the questions asked on reading tests and by teachers are questions of detail. For example: “what color was Jane’s new dress?”, “What is the largest city in Montana?”, “In what year was the treaty signed?” This skill requires memory; if the detail can be related to a main idea, it is easier to remember.
2. Grasping the main idea.
This skill entails the reader’s ability to get the nucleus of the idea presented or to capture the core of the information. It is much harder that findings details and many readers are unable to see through the details to get the central through of a selection. Teachers can help students develop this skill by asking them to select the best title for the selection from several alternatives, by having them make up a title for a selection, or by asking them to state in one sentence what a short selection is about.
3. Following a sequence of events or steps.
This skill is one of organizing being able to see the steps of a process or the evens in a story. Seeing such order is important to thinking, understanding language, and reading. To provide practice in this skill, the teacher can give the events in scrambled order and ask the student to sort them into the correct order. The ability to follow printed direction is closely allied to this skill, and the reader proceeds step by step to carry out a project. The Boy Scout Handbook, model plane directions, a cookbook, or direction for playing a game provide practical material for teaching this skill.
4. Drawing inferences and reaching conclusions.
This skill requires great emphasis on thoughtful reading and interpretation. Here the reader must go beyond the lines and the facts given in order to reach a conclusion. Questions such as “What does the author means? “ or “Can you predict or anticipate what will happen next?” are geared to encourage such thinking. The reader who can do this is thinking along with the author.
5. Organizing ideas.
This skill refers to the ability to see interrelationships among the ideas of a reading selection. It involves sensing cause and effect, comparing and contrasting relationships, and seeing the author’s general plan for structuring the material. Studying the table of contents, looking at topic headings and outlining are techniques to help the student see how the ideas are organized.
6. Applying what is read to solve the problems and verify statements.
If reading is to be a functional skill, the material must be adapted to new situations and integrated with previous experiences. The ability to transfer and integrate the knowledge and skill gained in reading is difficult skill for many students to acquire. Information gained through reading a story about a boy in Mexico might be applied to a lesson in social studies. Or a problem can be formulated and the answer found through reading a selection.
7. Evaluating materials for bias, relevance, and consistency
This skill is sometimes referred to as critical reading. Making judgments about the author’s bias, comparing several sources of information, detecting propaganda techniques, and determining the logic of an argument or approach are all included in this skill. Evens students who are capable readers are likely to need help with this comprehension skill. Students enjoy the critical examination of advertisements for the detection of propaganda techniques. The comparing of editorials on the same subject or of two new reports of a single event provides good material for developing this skill.

The Holistic View of Reading Comprehension
A growing number of influential reading scholars conceptualize reading as a unitary, whole process, entailing cognitive and psycholinguistic behavior. Rejecting the notion of reading as discrete specific skills, the holistic approach offers a fresh a fresh insight into how readers go about understanding printed text material. This view emphasizes that all readers must be able to bridge the gap between the information presented in the written text and the knowledge in their heads in order to understand and remember what is read (Brown, 2001). There are some of the major ideas supporting the holistic view of reading comprehension as follows:
1. Specific skills do not exist in reality.
The obvious underlying assumption of the specific skill approach to reading is that specific sub skills of reading do exist and that they can be identified, classified, tested and taught. Do these specific skills of reading actually exist, or are they merely a pedagogical convenience created by reading scholars? The proponents of the holistic view of reading argue that the whole notion of a sequence or hierarchy of skills is only an artifact that appeals to our sense of logic but does not exist in reality. Research on specific skill is inconclusive. Davis (cited in Brown, 2001) stated that comprehension material could be factored into independent sub skills. Guthrie’s (cited in Brown, 2001) research revealed differences between good and poor readers in terms of processing specific skills. For goods readers, comprehension appears to be a single or unitary process, because they have learned to integrate subskills into a whole reading act. For poor readers, however, specific subskills of reading appear to exist because the poor readers have not as yet integrated subskills into a whole reading act. Samuels (cited in Brown, 2001) found that most of the successful reading programs designed for low-achieving students use the skills approach, incorporating a skills centered curriculum and specific reading objectives. Thus, answers the basic questions about the existence of specific skills are still inconclusive, although a skills approach does appear to be more effective with poor readers (Chall & Stahl cited by Brown, 2001).
2. Reading comprehension depends on what the reader brings to the written material
Reading comprehension depends on the reader’s experience, knowledge of language, recognition of syntactic structure, and the redundancy of a printed passage and the reader’s knowledge is more important for reading comprehension than the text itself (Goodman & Smith cited by Brown, 2001).
3. Reading is a language process.
Any system of teaching reading must recognize that reading is a process for obtaining meaning through language, that is, a psycholinguistic process. Consequently, Goodman (cited in Brown, 2001) recommends that reading be taught as an extension on natural language learning. This can happen if teachers
understand the language process underlying reading. During the reading process, the readers cannot complete the through until the final word or phrase. The readers cannot know the meaning of the word, or sometimes even the pronunciation, until the end of the phrase or sentence. In English, the meaning of the beginning is dependent on the end. The flow of through in English is not left to right, but in many cases circular. Although the eye goes from left to right, the mind does not. Certain ideas and words must be held until some part of the sentence permits the completion of the though. For example, “When Lee looked at the note again, she release that she should have play a sharp”. The meaning of note and Lee’s gender must be kept in abeyance until the
end of the sentence provides the clarification. In the following example, a decision about pronunciation of “tears” cannot be made until the end of the sentence: “John had tears in his shirt”.
Other clues for understanding both oral and written language are the redundancies in language. Redundancy means sending the same message in other forms. That is, information from one source supports information from another source, reinforcing and enhancing the intended message. Such cues therefore help readers construct the meaning in a written word.

Reading Comprehension

Education English | Reading Comprehension | Reading is a language related process that needs one’s ability to understand and know the information provided in the passage. Young (1982: 92) states that reading however, is a complicated process and there is much more to read that recognize printed words. The readers have to understand what words mean in a particular sentence or a paragraph because words are merely symbols or ideas. Presumably, a person who is reading must see ideas as well as words and reading with understanding requires thinking. And intelligence plays an important role, beside concentration, interest, motivation, and contribution of experiential background.
From the linguistic, reading is a recording and decoding process. Anderson (1972: 209-210) says decoding aspects is a make relation in written word with oral language meaning that involved written change become sounds’ meaning. Reading in foreign language consists of grasping meaning in that language in written representation. The further simplifies the definition by saying that reading is a the grasping of the full linguistic meaning of what is read in subjects which the common experiences of culture of the language is a central part.
Basically, reading involves two processes, in which a reader has to establish what the writer has said and follow, what the writer means. In addition, Rahim (2005: 3) says that reading is an interactive; there is a feedback (take and give information about the paragraph) both of them. The involved of reader and text depends on the context. The person who is interest to read a advantages text will be find some purposes it want to get, the text is read by someone must be easy to understand so there is interaction between reader and text. The processing of text is viewed as a flexible interaction of different information contained in
higher stages of processing can influence the analysis, as well as the other way around.
Furthermore, reading comprehension is the active process of constructing meaning from the text, it involves accessing previous knowledge, understanding vocabulary and concepts, making inferences, and linking key ideas. Reading can not be learned through role instruction, but requires a series of strategies that influence understanding of text (Vaughn, 2004: 98). Reading comprehension includes the following:
a. Applying one’s knowledge and experiences of the text.
b. Setting goals for reading and ensuring that they are aligned with the text.
c. Using strategies and skills to construct meaning during and after reading.
d. Adapting strategies that match the readers’ text and goals
e. Recognizing the author’s purpose.
f. Distinguishing between facts and opinion
g. Drawing logical conclusions.

Obviously, there are many aspects that might cause a reader to find difficulties to comprehend a text, since language is full of complexity. Those difficulties are unfamiliar words, semantic factor, chronological order of ideas, and other linguistic factors. To overcome those problems, a reader is required to relate the new thing with the prior knowledge. Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary (2005: 83) states that comprehension are ability to understand something, or exercise that trains students to understand a language for instance reading or listening. It means the processing viewed as assimilation among facts, concepts, and experiences processed by a reader. Based on this idea, reader that really expected to interact what is being read that is related to the background of his or her background.
In brief, reading can be said as an interactive communication that encompasses the background knowledge, mastery of language, and the ability to organize the overall ideas of a passage. In other world reading is a process to comprehend a written and than make to summary and the last will be evaluated by reader. A reader who wants to grasp the meaning of the text needs serious thinking. In this way, it is easier to understand a text as a whole

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Textbook and The use of Textbook in English

Education English | Textbook and The use of Textbook in English | Textbook
A textbook contains selective and systematic knowledge. Its criteria are for coherence and sequence. It is simple to be understood by the intended the learner. Not a bare statement of knowledge it uses various teaching-learning devices to fulfill the desire instructional role. In it the subject matter receives a rich dose of pedagogy including devices for practice, application, motivation and fixation of learning. Thus, a textbook is said to be “teacher in print”. It differs from ordinary book as it combines teaching-learning techniques and motives within it.
According to Encyclopedia of Educational Research (Tiwari, 2008:200) that in the modern sense and as commonly understood, the textbook is a learning instrument usually employed in schools colleges to support a program of instruction. In ordinary usage, the textbook is printed, it is non-consumable, it is hard-bound, it serves an avowed instructional purpose, and it is placed in the hands of the learners.

The  Use of textbooks in English
According to Tiwari (2008: 203) that there are some the reasons which make good textbook and indispensable part of the study and teaching English.
1. Helping the teacher
Textbooks provide useful guidelines along which a teacher can plan his/her day-to-day teaching. While actually teaching in the classroom they serve as reference books. They provide suggestions for assignments. They suggest activities to be taken up in the classroom and outside. A constant stand by of the subject teacher, text-books can be used to help the teacher in finding out the new ideas.
2. Providing logical and comprehensive material
In providing material in a systematic and comprehensive form a good text sets a standard of minimum essential to be achieved by students all of categories. Giving the beginner the grasp of new matter it provides to enthusiastic students a direction for further studies.
3. Ensuring uniformity of a good standard
Provides a highway for carrying better practices to all schools the textbooks ensures some sort of uniformity of good standard. It furnishes a common basis to master the process of reading, analyzing, outlining and summarizing. It provides a common laboratory to develop study skills.
4. Providing both confirmation and sustenance
Supposed to contain the carefully sifted and examined facts a textbook can confirm the knowledge obtained elsewhere.
5. Ensuring intellectual rapprochement of peoples
Good social studies textbook coordinating the activities and bringing about the intellectual rapprochement of people can serve as organs of national coordination.

Active Reading

Mos of us have to read a certain amount of material for one reason or other : perhaps we are taking a course, perhaps we need to read something for work, perhaps we are giving a talk on an outside interest to a group or club. All to often we approach such an assignment with the idea of reading a certain number of pages, or starting at the beginning and reading page by page until we  have completed the reading. while this approach does get the reading over with, it does not encourage you think about what you are reading to participate actively.
People who enjoy reading have learned to look for clues or key ideas as they read. They often do this without realizing it., but it is part of what makes reading fun. If you have never tried this technique  you might want to see how it works. In some way it's like taking a hope were you going in the right direction ; you would probably check a road map carefully to see the direction you want to go, the types of roads, the location of towns or others special points. it's the same with reading. If you have some idea of what is included in the material and how it is presented, you will get more out of  your reading and enjoy it more. You can do this by looking over the reading briefly i a methodical way to see the main points of the chapter or article.
First, read the opening paragraph or two. This introductory material will acquaint you with the main thought that the author will discuss. Then read the first sentences of the next few paragraphs. These sentence will probably give you a general idea of the content. Then read the final paragraph or two,which will give you a summary of the material covered. You should note anything the author has used to add emphasis :headings, bold-face-type, italics, graphs, picture and questions at the end of the chapter. This preview of your reading should be  done very quickly.
Second, re read the whole assignment more thoroughly. The speed and emphasis of this second reading will depend upon the information and direction you gained from your preview of material/. For example, you will often be able to judge the importance of a  paragraph by its first, or topic, sentence. If it seems important, read it carefully. If on the basis of your first reading, the paragraph does not seem so important, it is probably sufficient to skim it, but do not skip entirely.
You will need o adapt your approach to fit the writing style of the face author. In some books various sections have topics set in bold face type or set out in the margins. Use these as guides to the content. Questions at the end of the chapter  can give  you an idea of what is contained in that chapter.
As you read, try to relate this assignment to what you already know about the topic. Is it new material? Does it differ from your earlier thinking on the subject  ? Ask yourself these simple questions as you move along :why?what? who? when? where? how? This approach can help you to concentrate on the assignment, because as you ask questions you are taking an active role as a reader.
With such a systematic approach you will be able to direct your attention and concentration toward understanding the material more completely. The better you initial understanding of your reading the easier it will be to retain and integrate the information. You will not be wasting your time, you will making more efficient use of the time you have. You may also find that reading has become more fun than work!.

Types of Question

Education English | Types of Question | Basically, question can help the readers improve their comprehension of the text that is read. The question constructed by readers may encompass the low level and high level that require the recall of information or the reproduction of the information that has been explained. Questions that provoke conjecture, explanation, evaluation, and judgment must also be planned (Brown, 2001: 393). There are four types of comprehension question as follows:

a. Literal- what is actually stated.
The questions in this type are objective question dealing with true or false, multiple choice and fill in the blank question. Common questions are used to elicit this type of thinking are: who, what, and where.
For instance: What did little brother want to drink?
b. Interpretive- what is implied or meant, rather than what is actually stated.
The questions in this type are subjective. The types of questions are asked open-ended, thought-provoking question like why, what if and how. For instance: Why is the cook jar kept on the basement step?
c. Critical Reading
This question type required personal judgment and evaluation. For instance: Did mother do right thing in leaving the children alone?
d. Creative reading
This question type required to create the solution based on personal ideas or judgment. Usually the questions in this type use how.
For example: How would you solved this problem?.
Meanwhile, Lavies (1981: 163) only divides question into two types, namely:
a. Closed question which are restricting and those questions are asked for confirmation or denial and a specific piece of information.
b. Open question which are not restricting and those need thought provoking and challenging or question which offer a variety of possible responses.
The difficulty of materials also identifies the level of questions and provides some exercises in order to assist students in recognizing and developing students’ questioning skills.
Considering those various types of question, the conclusion generally can be simplified that those questions consist of surface and depth questions. Both types of question require students to make inference, to apply judgment, and to see the relationship of all components provided in the text. So, through questions, students’ comprehension and students’ interpretation can be enhanced.

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Level of Reading

Education English | Level of Reading | According to Hitchcock (2005: 358) reading comprehension can take place on four levels as follows:
a. The Literal level
b. The Organizational level
c. The Inferential level
d. The Critical level
The literal level of comprehension refers to the skill at the least complex level of reading comprehension. It is the ability to recognize and understand the directly stated ideas of the author. This level is sometimes referred to as “reading the lines” of print. The organizational level of comprehension requires the reader to do more than understand the stated facts. It requires the ability to see relationships within the material and to determine what is important and significant and what is supporting detail.
The inferential level refers to the kind of reading needed to grasp not only over meaning and the organization, but also the meaning that are implied. The reader must think of more than the words and symbols themselves to supply the meaning intended to interpret the passage. This level of reading has also been referred to as “reading between the lines”. The critical level of reading refers to kind of reading that required personal judgment and evaluation. In this level the readers forms generalizations, draw conclusion, compares, analyze, and applies ideas gained in reading. This level is often referred to as “reading beyond the lines”.

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Components of reading: Word Recognition and Comprehension

Education English | Components of reading: Word Recognition and Comprehension | The process of reading can be divided into two components. They are word recognition and reading comprehension. The readers need word recognition to decode printed letters, to match letters words with sounds, and to have a means to figuring out, unlocking unknown words. Comprehension, however, allow the readers to understand the meaning of what is being read. Word recognition is a necessary prerequisite for comprehension, but if the student says the words in a passage without gathering their meaning, one would hesitate to call that as reading.

Both are needed if the student is to learn to read and function as a reader. Usually, word recognition receives more emphasis in the beginning stages and comprehension receives emphasis in the later stages of reading instruction.

Word Recognition
Word recognition abilities comprise a cluster of strategies or clues for recognizing words. Word recognition strategies include sight words, context clues, phonics, decoding and structural analysis. The readers should be encouraged to use all these strategies to figure out a word. Sight words refer to the words that are recognized instantly, without hesitation or further analysis. Context clues means recognizing a word through the context or meaning of the context or paragraph in which it appears. Readers should be strongly encouraged to use the redundancy of the language. Which gives hints about an unknown words; and they should learn to make intelligent guesses about unknown words. Phonics is the word- recognition skill in which the reader matches the sounds of a letter to specific written symbol. Many of the materials and methods of reading instruction emphasize this approach. It is, however, only one of the word-recognition skills and should be place in proper prospective. Decoding is another term used to describe making the connection between a sound and letter symbol. To “break the code”, a reader must become aware of each phoneme within a word. Liberman (cited in Brown, 2001) has found that students with reading disabilities have trouble analyzing the phonemic structures of the written word and matching it with the phonemic structure of the spoken word they already know. Structural analysis refers to the recognition of the words through the analysis of word unit.
For example, prefixes, suffixes, root words, compound words, and syllables often provide useful ways to figure out unknown words.
Although reading specialists continue to debate which of this word recognition strategies is the best (sight words, context clues, phonics, decoding, and structural analysis), actually readers need to use them in all in reading. At different times the readers need different approaches to word recognition. Most often, however, several are use together. Learning disabled students need practice in each of this word recognition strategies to achieve independence and flexibility (Brown, 2001).

Reading Comprehension
The purpose of reading, of course, is to gather meaning from the printed page. Because comprehension is the heart and purpose of reading, every reading program should provide for the development of reading comprehension abilities. Much attention and debate concerning reading methods have been directed to word-recognition problems; yet the problems related to teaching reading comprehension are far more important and difficult. The major problem for many learning-disabled students lies in reading comprehension. Recognizing this fact, the developers of Public Law 94-142 wisely wrote into law that a learning disability can be in the area of “basic reading skill” (word recognition) or “reading comprehension”.

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Definition of Reading and Purposes of Reading

Education English | Definition of Reading and Purposes of Reading | 1. Definition of Reading
Reading is an active process that requires attention or a favorable attitude. Rahmin (2005: 3) states reading is an information process from the text and readers’ knowledge which is first functions in make a sentence. It may also be defined as learning to recognize the printed symbols that represent language and to respond intellectually and emotionally from the text while reading. In additions, it conveys the information that makes an  interaction between a reader and text itself.
2. Reading Purpose
Naturally, reading have firstly purpose to look for and to get information, related with the content, understand reading’s meaning. The meaning has relation with the purpose or intensive in reading activity. There are explains some important points, such as:
• Reading to find and to know found has done by figure, what have made by figure, what happen with special figure or to solve that problem has made by figure. The reading like this called reading for details of facts.
• Reading to know why is the case as a great and interest topic. This type called reading for main ideas.
• Reading to find and to know what happen in every part of story. It is called reading for sequence or organizational.
• Reading to find and to know why the figures feel like their way, what are the figures to show up for the reader. It is called reading for inference.
• Reading to find and to know about the truly of the story, about the writer and the figure. This type called reading to classify.
• Reading to find what the figure’s success. This type called reading to evaluate.
• Reading to find how the figure’s way to change, how the different life have known before, and how the readers following the writer. This reading called reading to compare or contrast. Every body has to know and understand if reading is a complex skills, that is difficult that to invite a little skills. Reading skills have three components, there are:
a. Introducing to Aksara and reads’ mark
b. Aksara correlation and reads’ mark with formal linguistic
c. Continuing relation from A and B with meaning (broughton et al, 1978: 90)
• A skill as an ability to know the design that match with the method like picture
• B skill is an ability to make relation black mark on the paper such
as picture to have pattern with language. Suitable with part of as principally formal linguistic, at skill characteristic will always get changes
• C skill include all of reading skill, as an intellectual skill it is an ability to make relation with formal language, there is as a sound, with meaning that symbolized by words (Broughton et al, 1978: 90). It has asked before reading is a complex skill to invite some skills. As a big line there are two important aspects in reading:
a. Mechanical skills, it is on lower level. This aspect consists of:
• Introducing of alphabetically
• Introducing linguistic unsure (phoneme/grapheme, words, phrase, clause, sentence etc)
• Introducing the relation or correspondence spelling pattern and
sounds’ relation (sounds’ ability not written or “to bark at print)
• Reading speed to lower level.
b. Comprehension skill, it is a higher level. This aspect consists of:
• Understanding the simple meaning (lexical, grammatical, and rhetorical)
• Understanding the significant or meaning (the aim and the purpose, culture, and reaction from the readers)
• Evaluating and scoring (content and form)
• Flexibility reading speed that is easily to match with the situation (Broughton el at, 1987: 211).
To get the purpose in mechanical skill, the suitable activity is reading aloud and oral reading. For the comprehension skill, silent reading is matching to use by the readers. Reading silently could be consisting of:
a. Extensive Reading
Extensive reading is reading extensively. Kind of object is read the text in abbreviate time. This meaning and understanding on lower order have matched for it, because it is the roles and also because of reading paper itself have many and plentifully, for example newspaper reports. The extensive reading activity’s purpose is to understand the reading content faster so that extensively can do. This case also one of tool are using by tourist wants to learn something without go to nature country by itself.

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Repeated Oral Reading

Education English | Repeated Oral Reading | Repeated reading is one of theory of automatic information processing drawn from Laberg and Samuel (1976) which stated that a fluent reader decodes text automatically, leaves attention free to be used for comprehension. As less attention is required for decoding, more attention becomes available for comprehension. Repeated reading in the same way is essential for foreign language learners or EFL students to acquire their new language (Krashen, 1982 in Catherine E. Stoicovy). This theory also said that repetition helps children to grasp the rhythm, pitch, volume, and tone of English that will help them express their mind and idea in oral activity or speaking (Samuel, 1979 in Catherine E Stoicovy). In this study, repetition is the main mode of oral practice because it has been shown that repetition has a positive effect on building fluency (Nation 1989 in Moh. Kim Tam).
According to Kim Tam (1997): “Repetition as a form of oral practice has the inherent benefit in that the learner becomes more efficient as s/he focuses specifically on more important points and eliminates redundant words and phrases in her/his speech. Secondly, repetition creates an effect of rehearsal. That is, the student overcomes the tendency to rephrase, pause and search, to correct sentence structures and the misuse of words and phrases (before the final performance.)” In general, oral reading helps everyone to become more focused on voice quality and pronunciation. Participants were grouped into threes with one student reading aloud to the other two, who had no access to the text. The pair audience gave feedback on their comprehension of the message and on mispronunciation of words. During each Oral Reading session, the following aspects were emphasized:
a. Getting the rhythm right: The teacher read to the class a text marked with stressed words; learners listened and marked those stressed words on their copy. They had to go through this once again with a partner.
b. Marking the thought-group: The class was given a copy of the text. As the teacher read, the class would mark slashes each time the teacher paused. Then they read the paragraph to their partners indicating where the slashes were placed.
c. Speeding up: The teacher read several paragraphs as quickly as she could to the class. Each paragraph read was individually timed and written on the blackboard. Using pair work, students would read to each other. When the first reader had finished, the second would quickly raise his/her hand to acknowledge completion.
d. Stressing: Learners were required to bring to class different words and phrases with which they have problems. These were reviewed either with a good pronunciation dictionary or practiced in minimal pairs with other words.

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