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READING
COMPREHENSION
SKILLS
H. Suparman, S.Pd., M.A., Ph.D.
Magister Pendidikan Bhs. Inggris
Program Pascasarjana Universitas Prof. Dr. Hamka Jl.
Limau II, Kebayoran Baru Jakarta
Universitas Lampung
Email: suparman@unila.ac.id
ujang.suparman2010@gmail.com
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Reading is a construct process

of guessing, (Grellet, 1981: 7);
Reading is an active process of
deriving meaning (Goodman,
1976, Smith, 1978)
and what one brings to the text is
often more important than what
one finds in it, (see The Kingdon
of Kay Oss).

Consequently, from

the very
beginning, the students should be
taught to use what they know to
understand unknown elements,
whether these are ideas or simple
words. This is best achieved
through a global approach
(Grellet, 1981: 7) to the text.
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Global Approach to Comprehension

Why Reading?
There

are two major reasons for reading:

Reading

for pleasure
Reading for information (in order to
find out something or in order to do
something with the information you
get)
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What to read?
There

are many text types which one

usually finds in his or her daily life. Here
are the main types of them:

1. Novels, short stories, tales, other literary

texts (diaries, biographies, essays,
annecdotes)
2. Plays
3. Poems, limericks, nursery rhymes
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What to read?
4.
5.

6.

Letters, postcards, telegrams, notes

Newspapers and magazines (headlines,
articles, editorials, letters to the editor,
stop press, classified ads, weather
forecast, radio/tv, theatre programs)
Specialized articles, reports, reviews,
essays, business letters, summaries,
prcis, accounts, pamphlets (political and
other)
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What to read?
Handbooks, textbooks, guidebooks
8. Recipes
9. Advertisements, travel brochures,
catalogues
10. Puzzles, problems, rules for games
11. Instructions, directions, notices, rules and
regulations, posters, signs, forms, (e.g.
application forms), graffiti, menus, price
lists, tickets
7.

What to read?
12.
13.
14.

Statistics, diagrams, flow/pie charts,

time tables, maps, pictures
Telephone directories, dictionaries,
phrasebooks
Comic strips, cartoons and
caricatures, legends (of maps,
pictures).
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How to read?...
To understand

use?

the message, what do we

Is it the letters that give us the

meaning?
Is it the sounds of the letters?
Is it the whole word?
Is it the knowledge we bring to the
text?
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How to read?...
Now

lets examine the processes involved in

reading. Glancing (ideally for 1/10 second) at
a line of randomly seleced letters:

clxrhekyvbaduwgpimzfinegs
Four

or five of the twenty-five letters are

usually recalled.
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How to read?...
However,

if we glance in the same way at a

line of 25 letters presented in a more
familiar form,
eight again sneeze horse quiz

probably

2 or 3 words, the equivalence of

10-15 letters, are recalled. Why are we able
to recall more letters this time?
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How to read? ...

This time the letters were presented in the

form of familiar words.
We can read these single meaningful units
more efficiently because a lot of information
can be added to the visual symbols on the
page.
Through our knowledge of language and of
commonly used letters and letter
combinations we are able to guess or predict
what letters are more or less likely to occur.
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How to read? ...

Finally, if

we glance at a selection of 25
letters which are arranged in a meaningful
sequence,

School begins at eight oclock

We are

probably able to recall the whole

sentence. Why are we able to do so?
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How to read? ...

This

time the whole sentence is a single

meaningful unit
so recognition of a few words allow us to bring
a great deal more information to the print and
to predict what successive words might be.
For example, we know how words go together
in English (begins is usually followed by a
time phrase) and we know when schools
usually begins in Indonesia. Therefore, we are
able to recall the whole sentence.
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How to read? ...

The

experiment above shows, what enables

us to read, what gives the meaning,

is not only the visual information

what lies on the page (Hood et al,
1985:5)
but also non-visual information
our knowledge of the world and
language (Hood et al, 1985:5) that we
bring to the text.
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we also read different things in

different ways
Grellet

(1981:4) divides the main ways of reading into

four activities:

1.
2.
3.

4.

Skimming: quickly running ones eyes over a text to

get the gists of it.
Scanning: quickly going through a text to find a
particular piece of information.
Extensive reading: reading longer texts, usually for
ones own pleasure. This is a fluency activity,
mainly involving global understanding.
Intensive reading: reading shorter texts, to extract
specific information. This is more an accuracy
activity involving reading for detail.

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Various Purposes of
Reading
In

our real life, including at a

university, our reading purposes vary.
Therefore, when preparing for
exercises, we should vary the
questions and activities according to
the type of text studied and the
purpose in reading it.
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Reading skills
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Recognizing the script of a language

Deducing the meaning and use of
unfamiliar lexical items
Understanding explicitly stated
information
Understanding information when not
explicitly stated
Understanding conceptual meaning
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Reading skills...
Understandingthe communicative value
(function) of sentences and utterances
7. Understanding relations within the
sentence
8. Understanding relations between the parts
of a text through lexical cohesion devices
9. Understanding relations between the parts
of a text through grammatical cohesion
devices
10. Interpreting text by going outside it
6.

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Reading skills...
11.
12.

13.
14.

Recognizing indicators in discourse

Identifying the main point or
important information in a piece of
discourse
Distinguishing the main idea from
supporting details
Extracting important points to
summarize (the text, an idea etc.)
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Reading skills...
Selective extraction of relevant points from a
text
16. Basic reference skills
17. Skimming
18. Scanning to locate specifically required
information
19. Transcoding information to diagrammatic
display.
15.

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How to teach reading

comprehension?
To teach

reading comprehension, we
should focus on helping the students be
able to make sense of the ideas
conveyed in a text.
To achieve this objective, we should
arrange the activities before a reading
class begins as follows:

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1. Preliminary activities:
This

involves sharing knowledge

and experience by the students in
preparation for a particular reading
task.
It might occur before the students
see the text, or it might be prompted
by parts of the text such as pictures,
headlines or photos.
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2. Brainstorming
Brainstorming

is when we provide a cue,

associated with a text, and elicit from
students any words or phrases that come to
mind.
The cues may be key words or phrases,
headlines, general topics, pictorial or other
contextual clues.
Some students may need further prompts
such as Where? When? Who? and What?
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Brainstorming activities aim:

to

make use of students own experience and

knowledge
to introduce some of the vocabulary from the
text in a meaningful way
to encourage the students to build up
associations of words and ideas
to encourage the students to think about the
context of the text, to build up their
expectations of meaning and to provide
motivation to read.
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3. Headlines and Titles,

Pictorial and Contextual Clues
These

parts of a text can help prepare

students for what they are going to read
by providing important clues to
meaning.
They allow the students to use their
experience to work out the possible
content and to formulate questions to be
answered by reading.
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For example:
BUS CRASH
Give students the headline of the news article.
b. Discuss the headline and the story that is
likely to follow.
c. Ask questions such as What happen? Where
did it happen? And write up responses on the
board. (e.g. Blue Mountains/bus fell off
mountain.)
a.

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d.

e.

Then using an accompanying photo and

the extra clues provided, elicit more
details, (e.g. bus went off near Kebon
Jeruk flyover, tow truck arrived soon
after the accident, ambulance arrived and
took the injured to the nearest hospital.)
Ask a few more questions to help
students predict the content of the
news/article.
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Example of Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Why did the bus crash?

Did a tire blow out?
Did the brakes fail?
Were the roads slippery?
Do you think many people were
injured seriously?
What sight greeted the rescuers?
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4. Skeleton Texts
These

provide just the bones or

framework of a text but none of the
substance.
The aim of such preparatory
activities is to encourage students to
draw on major contextual features,
to work at the main function of the
text and the possible content.
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Example of skeleton texts

Discuss the clues given, and the messages the texts might contain.
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5. Sequencing Pictures
Sequencing

pictures that are related

to the text can help to provide some
background knowledge and to
establish a context.
It can set expectation of meaning and
prompt discussion on certain key
concepts or cultural assumptions in
the text.
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For Example:
Separate

the illustrations from a reader.

In group or individually, students arrange
the illustrations in the order they think
they will occur, discussing and asking
questions for clarification where
necessary.
Perhaps the students could provide their
version of the story before reading the
original.
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Content Words
These

aim to prepare students by

setting up expectations of
meaning.
They involve extracting 6-10
content words from a suitable
text, then presenting these words
to students in the order in which
they occur in the text.
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Example of content words:

purse
chase

struggle
pushed

car-park
ground

Discuss

possible stories, making sure

the students understand the meaning and
uses of such words.
Some stories may be used to role-play
activities.
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Content Words...
Beside preliminary activities, we
should also introduce our students with:
the global approach to reading
skills involved in a reading process
reading strategies
a variety of exercises appropriate with
the skills

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Fig. 1. Reading program at schools

(Moris, 1984)

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THANK YOU
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