Literature

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK A. Literature Review 1. Reading and Reading Comprehension a. Definition of Reading and Reading Comprehension According to Hoover and Gough (1990) in Flynn and Stainthorp (2006: 34), reading is the product of decoding and comprehension which means that reading is a result from an ability to decode the print words and to comperhend the language. In relation to the theory above, Nunan (1999: 249) states that reading is a set of skills which is required to make sense and derive meaning from the printed words. The activity of reading also involves the ability to decode the printed words in the key in reading. The decoding activity impacts the reader making sense. Reading also requires deriving meaning, which is also stated by Anderson (1996: 3). He also adds that reading is not only pronouncing the words correctly, but also comperhending what they mean. Moreover, reading is an activity in which the read negotiates meaning, by bringing to the text schemata for understanding it, and finally the comprehension toward the text is considered as the product of the negotiation (Brown, 2004: 189). In line with Brown, Spratt, et.al. (2005: 21) define reading as a process of responding to making sense of information, readers connect new knowledge obtained from the text with the knowledge they already know. Furthermore, Snow (2002: 9) states that reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. By doing those activities,students are expected to get the content of the reading materials and achieve their purpose and expectation. On the other hand, Klingner, Vaugh, and Broadman (2007: 8) define reading comperhension as complex processing involving interaction of many components, they are readers’ background knowledge, readers’ reading strategies, the text, readers’ interest in topic, readers’ knowledge of text type. Those components interact with one another in comperhending a printed text. When interference appears in those interactions, the readers gain their reading comperhension. In conclusion, based on the explanation above, reading is a process of decoding words from the text by interacting with the contexts and involving the readers’ background knowledge to comprehend them. When they read a text, they need actively relate their prior knowledge about the contexts. For example, when they read a story with pictures, they have to look at the pictures as well. They describe the context of the text. Therefore, meaning of a text is derived from the prior knowledge of the readers that interact with words in context of the text to make sense. b. The Importance of Reading There are some reasons why reading is important to get students to read especially reading English texts. Harmer (1998: 68) states that there are some reasons why reading becomes so important. First, reading gives many exposures to students’ language acquisition. They will unconsciously learn a new word, grammar and extract meaning of the word in contexts. When they read, they get