CRITICAL BOOK REPORT

Arranged by :

Silvina

(2193220011)

Lecturer : JULI RACHMADANI HASIBUAN, SS., M.Hum

Subject : Intermediate Reading Comprehension

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MEDAN

2019
 PREFACE

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Praise us for the presence of Allah SWT who has given me the grace of
health and opportunity, so that I can complete the critical book report assignment
entitled “Teaching and Researching Reading” and “Reading Techniques For
College Students”. I also thank to Ma’am Juli Rachmadani Hasibuan, SS.,
M.Hum. as a lecturer in major of Intermediate Reading Comprehension, who
have entrusted me to complete this task.

This assignment was made to fulfill the critical book report of

Intermediate Reading Comprehension. The critical book report that I make of
course compiled from the source of the books that have been read. The author
realize the preparation of this critical book report is not perfect, for this reason I
expect criticism and suggestions for improving the results of the critical book
report that I will make next, this task is nothing perfect without good advice.

Medan, March 15th 2020

The Author

Page | 2
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE......................................................................................................................................2
TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................3
CHAPTER I...................................................................................................................................3
I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
1.1. Rationalization of The Importance of CBR......................................................................4
1.2. Purpose of Writing CBR...................................................................................................4
1.3. Benefits of CBR..............................................................................................................4
1.4. Identity of The Books.......................................................................................................4
CHAPTER II..................................................................................................................................5
II. DISCUSSION............................................................................................................................5
2.1 Summary of Book I (9-37)....................................................................................................6
2.2 Summary of Book II (9-37)..................................................................................................7
CHAPTER III................................................................................................................................9
III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES.........................................................................9
3.1 Advantages...........................................................................................................................10
3.2 Disadvantages......................................................................................................................10
CHAPTER IV..............................................................................................................................11
IV. CLOSING..............................................................................................................................11
4.1 Conclusions..........................................................................................................................11
4.2 Suggestion............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................12

Page | 3
 CHAPTER I

I. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationalization of The Importance of CBR

Critical Book Review (CBR) is important to college students because by
criticizing a book, college students can improve their skill to compare two books with the
same topic and knowing which book needs to be fixed and which book is good based on
the research that had been done by the writer. After criticizing some books, hopefully
college students can make a book.

1.2. Purpose of Writing CBR

a. To fulfill the tasks of Curriculum and Learning subjects

b. To make the readers know he description of the books

c. To make the readers know the advantages and disadvantages of the books

d. To give suggestions to the books’ writer

e. To know the background of the books

1.3. Benefits of CBR

a. Review the contents of a book

b. Finding and knowing the information contained in the book

c. Train yourself to think critically in finding information provided by some chapter of

the first book and the second book

d. Comparing the contents of the first book and the second book

1.4. Identity of The Books

a. Book I

Title of book : Teaching and Researching Reading

Publisher : British Library Cataloguing
Writer : William Grabe and Fredricka L.Stoller
Publicatiom year : 2002

Page | 4
ISBN : 0 582 36816 2
Thick page : 291 pages

b. Book II
Title of book : Reading Techiques For College Students
Publisher : Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Direktorat Jenderal
Pendidikan Tinggi Proyek Pengembangan Lembaga Pendidikan
Tenaga Kependidikan Jakarta
Writer : Dra. Sukirah Kustaryo
Publicatiom year : 1988
Thick page : 125 pages

Page | 5
 CHAPTER II

II. DISCUSSION

2.1 Summary of Book I (9-37)

‘Reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this
information appropriately.’ When we begin to read, we actually have a number of initial
decisions to make, and we usually make these decisions very quickly, almost
unconsciously in most cases. If the headlines cue us in the right way, we may check
quickly for the length of the article, and we may then read through a number of
paragraphs for comprehension (appropriately influenced by the newspaper-story genre, a
reporting of what, who, when, where, why and how).

Reading to search for simple information is a common reading ability, though

some researchers see it as a relatively independent cognitive process (Guthrie & Kirsch,
1987). In reading to search, we typically scan the text for a specific word, or a specific
piece of information, or a few representative phrases. It involves, in essence, a
combination of strategies for guessing where important information might be located in
the text, and then using basic reading comprehension skills on those segments of the text
until a general idea is formed. Reading to learntypically occurs in academic and
professional contexts in which a person needs to learn a considerable amount of
information from a text. It requires abilities to:

• remember main ideas

• recognise and build rhetorical frames

• link the text to the reader’s knowledge base

Reading to integrate information requires additional decisions about the relative

importance of complementary, mutually supporting or conflicting information and the
likely restructuring of a rhetorical frame to accommodate information from multiple
sources. Emptions are addressed in detail in the next two sections of this chapter. Reading
for general comprehension, when accomplished by a skilled fluent reader, requires very

Page | 6
 rapid and automatic processing of words, strong skills in forming a general meaning
representation of main ideas, and efficient coordination of many processes under very
limited time constraints.

We also construct a more elaborated interpretation of how we want to understand

text meaning. Beyond understanding and interpreting the ideas represented by the text,
we establish purposes for reading, combine reading strategies as needed make inferences
of many types, draw extensively on background knowledge, monitor comprehension,
form attitudes about the text and author, and critically evaluate the information being
read.

The most fundamental higher-level comprehension process is the coordination of

ideas from a text that represent the main points and supporting ideas to form a meaning
representation of the text (a text model of reading comprehension, not to be confused
with general models of reading, discussed later in the chapter).

Reading comprehension processes, seen in this way, highlight the miraculous

nature of reading comprehension. Reading Comprehension is an extraordinary feat of
balancing and coordinating many abilities in a very complex and rapid set of routines that
makes comprehension a seemingly effortless and enjoyable activity for fluent readers.

Beginning with our discussion of purposes for reading and our extended definition
of reading comprehension, we have sought to describe current research views on reading
comprehension while also providing explanations that have real implications for
instructional contexts. We have also developed an account that focuses on individual
reader processing.

2.2 Summary of Book II (9-37)

Reading is an intrinsic part of the classroom teaching of content. To begin with
an approach to reading instruction will commence with a somewhat more practical
disscussion of what reading is. Christine Nuttal (1982) defines reading as the meaningful
interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols. Mark A. Clark and Sandra Silberstein
(1987) define reading as an active cognitive process of interacting with print and

Page | 7
monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Ronald Mackay (1979) gives the
definition that reading is an active process.

From the definitions which have been discussed, all of them offer useful insights
into reading instruction, and thus support decisions made in developing curricula and
classroom procedures. Learning into daily teaching procedures and the teacher must
guide the students daily in techniques and habits of efficient learning. Some priciples of
learning as they apply to reading are (David L. Shepherd, 1978) :

1. The students must have a purpose and a motivation to learn.

2. Leaning must have meaning for the learner.

3. A background pf experience and knowlegde is necessary for learning.

4. The learner must be active in his learning.

5. Learning requires the forming of habits.

6. Much learning is by association.

7. Learning requires practice

8. Favorable attitudes toward learning foster effective learning.

9. Students learn at different rates in different modes.

10. Learning ia more effective if the learner knows the reason for what he is learning.

From the ten applying principles of learning to reading which is given above, it
can be stated the following claims :

1. Reading requires purpose and motivation.

2. Reading requires the meaning for the learner.

3. The teacher must bring much background information to any reading task

4. Reading is an active process, it requires the learner to be active in his learning to read.

Page | 8
5. Reading skills need the forming of habits.

6. A knowledge of syntactic structure and vocabulary is important.

7. Reading requires practice - time on task

8. Favorable attitudes are important for effective reading.

9. Reading capabilities are different for each student.

10. Reason for reading is important to be an effective reader.

Word- attack skills : dealing with how a reader can tackle the unknown words that
block comprehension :

a) Morphological Information : This is the ability to understand the meanings of affixes

and roots, and the eay they used to build words.

b) Inference from Context : this is the ability to know the meaning of a word by
considering its context.

c) Learning to ignore difficults words : this is the ability to indentify the sourves of
difficulty, and to judge wheter a word is worth attending to or not. There are some kinds
of difficultt that effective readers have to be able to deal with idioms, synonym, antonym,
and using a dictionary.

Page | 9
 CHAPTER III

III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

3.1 Advantages
The advantages of the book I. Here we can look to language, the language not too
difficult and the materials not too long, the word very clearly and related each other. Next
the author has put many examples and explain it. Finally in every last part of this book
the author also give some summary it is also very help the reader get what the author
means.

The advantages the readers will get after reading book II is the knowledge and the
strategies also the principles of learning to reading that the readers can used to be success
in Reading Comprehension. Furthermore, this book is worth to read because of its
contents. This book provided with some explanation from experts.

3.2 Disadvantages
In the book I, the cover of the book is not interesting, there are also some difficult
words like the word amphasize, alert, and capturing. The book also has the weakness as:
the means of reading theory, here the writer just put mean by his/ her view or opinion, the
writer not give some expert theory to support. So we think this is fundamental weakness
of the book. At the very least the author should give a supporting theory.

In the book II, also have disadvantages, which is the explanation is to short in
every material that the author want to elaborate. It can cause the confusion to the readers
because they cannot fully get what the author means. This book using the old explanation
from experts so it is not effective.

Page | 10
Page | 11
 CHAPTER IV

IV. CLOSING
4.1 Conclusions
The conclusion of this Critical Book Report is the importance of having reading
comprehension. Reading Comprehension allows us to process and understand the
meaning of particular text. We have outlined a view of reading that is well supported by
current research in English L1 contexts and is compatible with L2 reading research of the
past 20 years. Beginning with our discussion of purposes for reading and our extended
definition of reading comprehension, we have sought to describe current research views
on reading comprehension while also providing explanations that have real implications
for instructional contexts. We have also developed an account that focuses on individual
reader processing.

This emphasis on individual processes is not intended to deny the relevance of

social factors on reading development. Rather, our intention is to highlight information
that is not well known among reading teachers, and raise awareness of issues that
curriculum planners and teachers should consider if reading instruction is to be
appropriate for student needs and institutional expectations. Our view of reading, reveals
the complex nature of reading and the many factors that must be taken into account when
assessing students’ needs and planning meaningful reading instruction.

4.2 Suggestion
We are recommend for students to studying about reading nor a teacher for
teaching subject of reading. Also we suggest that the authors should give some
supporting theory from the experts to help or to support the theory opinion, and you also
need to take the reference from the high years or not too far from your publishing,
because if you take from the far years from your publishing years, actually will look
different . As we know that era is growing (increasingly developing) so there will many
differences each time. We realize that this writing is still far from perfect, so the writer
will always accept constructive criticism and suggestions from readers to make this book

Page | 12
 critical better. Readers can also respond to the conclusions from the critical books that
have been.

REFERENCES

Kustaryo, D. S. (1988). Reading Techniques For College Students. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi Proyek Pengembangan Lembaga Pendidikan
Tenaga Kependidikan Jakarta.

Stoller, W. G. (2002). Teaching and Researching Reading. United Kingdom: British Library Cataloguing.

Page | 13