The Definitions of Reading
Reading is a process or an activity jn which the reader not only tries to understand the meaning of the written text, but also tries to et some
information from it. The definition above is supported by Nuttal (in Ngadiman
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2001: 112) that we read because we want to get the message that the writer has expressed in the printed text, although we realize that to get full understanding of the text being read is almosimpossible. In addition, Hafner & Jolly (in Bums, Roe & Ross , I 984: 27) state that reading is a process of looking at written language symbols, translate them into "overt" and "covert" speech symbols and then manipulating them so that both the direct (overt) and implied (covert) ideas planned by the author can be understood.
Another definition of reading is stated by Burns, Roe & Ross (1984: 20-
21 ), reading is the understanding of the meaning of printed symbols and it involves the interaction between a reader and written language, through which the reader tries to reconstruct the writer's message. Furthermore, Grelle!( 1981:
7-8) states that reading is an active skill; it always involves guessing, predicting, checking and asking oneself questions. In addition, according to Harmer (1991:190) reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes receive messages and the brain has to get the meaning of these mes•ages.
A study done by May (in Bums, Roe ljl- Ross, 1984: 26) stresses that reading is both a communication· process and a decoding process in which a mature reader perceives reading as communication and beginning reader perceive it as decoding, where according to Webster's New World-College Dictionary (1997: 359) the meaning of decoding is "to translate (a coded message) into ordinary, understandable language."'
Another definition of reading according to Chastain ( 1976: 306 & 326) reading is the skill in which the students will have the greatest ability at the end of their language study imd the ability to read wili stay with them longer than the other skills. In addition, he also says that reading is the foundation of the improvement of other language skills and the expansion of knowledge.
In addition, Sesnan (1997: 145) states that reading involves a whole range of activity in school, from starting to know letters of the alphabet, starting to read words and sentences and finally starting to read whatever which is put in front of us. Besides, reading is a skill which everyone should learned because it is esseniial for survival in the modem world. In other word, in order to survive· in the world people should be able to read
The Purpose of Reading
Actually, in real life people read not because they feel they 'have to' but because they 'want to.' So, people who do this kind of activity must have their own purpose. Perhaps some do that activity just for pleasure, for example reading novel, comic and magazine, where the other may do it for getting some information for example reading letters or may be more formal than that, such as reports, accounts, and so on. People may need information about how to operate a hand phone or a computer, for example, so they need to be able to read the instructions carefully. As Thomas·& Robinson (in Ngadiman, 2001:
112) mention that there are twelve categories of reading pu,rpose, such as to understand main ideas. to get directly stated details, to 1,mderstand and follow direction, to understand the sequence of time, places, ideas, events or steps, to get implied meanings, to understand character (emotional reactions, motives, personal traits and setting), to sense relationship of time, place, cause and effects, events and characters, to anticipate outcome, to know the author's tone, mood and intent, to understand and draw comparison and contrast, to make conclusion or to make generalizations and the last one is to make evaluation.
Besides, Burns, Roe & Ross (1984: 202) state that all reading done by children should be purposeful because children who read with a purpose tend to comprehend what they read better than who have no purpose, and children who read with a purpose tend to remember what they read longer than those who have no purpose.
The Definitions of Reading
In teaching reading to students, there are some principles that should be kept in mind by both the teacher and the students. According to Harmer (1998: 70-
71)·there are six principles of teaching reading:
The Definitions of Reading
In other words reading is an active skill that should be learned continually.
Principle 2:Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.
In this point it means that students should be ready with the topic so that they will feel interested in it and will get more advantages from what they read. ·
Principle 3: Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language.
It is important to let the students express their feelings about the topic of the reading text.
Principle 4: Prediction is a major factor in reading.
Teacher should give the students some clues about the reading text before they begin to read because by doing that, students can start to predict what they are going to read and will get some description about the text.
Principle 5: Match the task to the topic
It means that the task and the topic should be relevant one to another in order to make the task become more interesting and exciting.
Principle 6:Good teachers use reading texts to the full.
It means that a good teacher will not only let the students to read the text but also the teacher will use the topic for further discussion.
While in a book Teaching Reading in Today 's Elementary School hich was written by Bums, Roe &Ross (1984: 21 & 23) there are other principles of reading that should be considered, they are:
Principle 1: Students shQ!!Id be taught word recognition skills that will allow them to unlock the pronunciations and meal)ings of unfamiliar words independent y.
This point suggests the teacher should teach their students techniques of understanding unfamiliar words, so they can read by themselves without a teacher, parent or friend's assistance.
Principle 2: Reading and the other language skills are closely interrelated.
It means that reading has a close relationship with other language skills such as listening, speaking, and writing. Mastering listening is important in learning to read because it involves direct sound, meaning and words. Next, the relationship between speaking and reading is that people learn to speak before they learn to read and write. So, most of the students get their reading vocabularies while they are speaking. In other words, people get vocabularies while they are speaking ancl those vocabularies can be useful for improving their reading vocabularies. Reading also has a close relationship to writing skill because it involves decoding and spelling skills.
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I Principle 3:The student needs to see why reading is important.
The teacher should tell the students the importance of reading by demonstrating it to them like, "it helps us to travel from place to place" or "it gives us information about current condition", etc.
P_rinciple 4: Enjoyment of_reading should be considered important.
It should be known that reading can be entertainil}g for us as well as pr?.viding information for us._ So teacher can help students realize it by giving them good books or material for them to read.
