Reading skill is the basic skill which is highly related to other skill. Realizing the importance of reading it is important for us to know the definition of reading. To increase the quality of education there are many aspect that should be solved. One of them is reading skill aspect.
There are some understanding of reading from dictionaries and some others are mentioned by linguists, even though the purpose of it appears to be similar. In Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1993), as quoted by Eva Ritayani thesis (2008:7), “Reading is defined as a process of understanding the meaning and grasping the full sense of such mental formulation either with or without the vocal reproduction it is a process of communication in which symbol are used to translate ideas and information into meaning”.
Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning or constructing meaning (http://www.wikipedia.or.id). “Reading involves language and perception, reading is thoughtful, but reading is also an automated skill” (Gilled and Temple, 1994:12).
Reading and intelligence are related to each other. Due to the reason in reading process, the students need certain intellectual skills. They must perceive like and different, must be able to remember word form, and must process certain thinking skills. Furthermore, students must be able to associate what they have read
with their prior knowledge and the reality or the fact in his environment.
Gillet and Temple state that “reading comprehension is the search for meaning, actively using our knowledge of the world and of the text to understand each new thing we read”. It is obvious that reading comprehension is related to prior knowledge or what reader has already known and has experienced.
According to Dechant (1973:1) defines reading as perceptual process. Reading occurs when meaning is brought to a graphic stimuli. It is ultimately an intellectual act. It is progressive apprehension of the meaning and ideas represented by a sequence of words. It includes seeing the word, being aware of the words meaning and relating to the word to its context.
Everyone who knows how to read all kinds of material, it helps to improve their understanding of words meaning, phrases meaning and sentences meaning. He must do in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which, he exits to make him life significant and interesting.
Clark and Silberstein (1987:14) define reading as an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Reading is the instantaneous recognition of various written symbols, stimultaneous as sociation of these symbols with existing knowledge and comprehension of the information and ideas communicated.
It means that when the readers interact with print, their prior knowledge combined with and the visual (written) information results in his comprehending the message. Therefore, reading is actually a conversation of sorts between the writer and the reader. The original or exact message the author means to communicate is really only known by the author. While the reader reacts and interprets print from his own knowledge base, there is no opportunity to terrify what the author actually says or means.
According to Sahardin (1985:2) says, “Reading is a common strategy how to teach English at high school”. It means that in all aspect of English subject generally through reading. Moreover, the education system of our country uses KTSP curriculum. Most of KTSP curriculum especially in English uses reading as a main source in teaching and learning process. Than structure or other aspects is also good through using reading text because reading can help the students to understand or get information about that, as well as, it can give knowledge how occur teaching learning process.
The kinds of Reading
Reading can be divided into two skills. They are as the follow as concluded by Burmeister (1978). First of all, we call “normal reading” and the second we call it
as “speed reading”.
It called as normal reading because in this kind the readers read the text in normal speed. The readers read the text without doing skipping or neglecting anything in the passage. He or she would like to get the complete details of the containing of the text. He or she reads all the sentences of the text in order to give critic to text. Thus, he or she has to read the whole text, he needs more understanding on the whole sentences in the passage.
The second kind of reading, it is called “speed reading”. An advance reader always read a text quickly. Reading with high speed is known as speed reading. We can read a text or passage quickly by practicing technique in reading such as skimming and scanning.
According to Nuttal (1982:35) state that the average reading speed for EFL students is approximately 120-150 words per minute before training. After training it is hoped that the students may read at about 200 words per minute. Therefore, it is desirable to acquire the most efficient study and reading technique possible in order to meet the increasing demands on reading speed.
In order to reach the maximum reading speed, the students need to understand the physical factors involved in the reading process and how these factors affect the speed at which the students read.
It is said that skimming and scanning can only be used by educated people or experienced reader, who really know what they want to obtain. Otherwise, if you are uneducated one you had better not to skim or scan because if you do, you are not able to catch the main ideas of the passage.
The Techniques of Reading
As we know that there are two techniques in speed material reading, as scanning and skimming. From the both technique the more through is skimming. According to Burmeister (1978:296), “Skimming is more thorough then scanning, skimming process is the ability of glancing rapidly through a text to determine its gist (for example to get the main idea or to say briefly what a text is about).
Skimming is used to quickly identify the main idea of a text, for the students who use skimming in reading process, able to find the main idea of the text quickly and interested in reading. Skimming is used to get an overall view of the material – to summarize it, to grasp the sequence of events, to write an outline, to get the author’s point of view, to see if the topics included suggest complete coverage or card stocking and to see if we wish to read the material more thoroughly.
Scanning is another techniques of reading is also fast reading and it is intended to secure specific information. Scanning may be like reading dictionary. The reader does not read the whole page. However, he well concentrates his mind on the pages that provide to information he is looking for.
The Importance of Reading
Reading is an important activity in learning a language. Through reading we obtain a lot of meaningful information on many things. However the objective of teaching reading in a foreign language class or program is to help the students be able to read, understand and to get the important information from reading.
According to Rivers (1981:259) perceive that reading is important activity in any language class. It can be a source of information and pleasurable activity and also as a means of consolidating and extending one’s knowledge.
Every learner, who wants to be able to read fluently, must develop their reading skills over time and with a great deal of practice. Estey (1986:12) says that once reading material appropriate to the level and interests of a particular student has been identified, the more of the material that student reads, the better and the more quickly his reading skill will develop. It means that the way of doing a lot of reading, the students can develop comprehension skills, and great them.
Since English is the first foreign language is thought in Indonesia, the writer believe that among the four language skill, listening, speaking, and writing, the most important for our student is test master reading skill. This applies not only at Junior High Scholl but also at Senior High School up to university level.
The Basic of Reading
Basically, the kind of reading, are intensive reading and extensive reading. The first, intensive reading is a kind of reading that emphasizes the vocabulary selections, pronounciation, or well planed oral introduction, rhythm and detail knowledge of the passage to ensure careful reading.
Intensive reading needs the students skill of being able to find facts and information in books and other printed matter and being able to note exact information. When one is reading, to understand exactly and fully what he reads about. Intensive reading is done in the class under the supervision of the teacher. The major objective or intensive reading is to develop the ability in decoding messages by emphasizing all reading skill for recognition rather that production of language features.
Extensive reading is defined by Finocchioro (1969:150) “Is a kind of reading that emphasizes general comprehension and understanding. It is usually done silently, therefore it is called “silent reading”. The extensive reading lesson differs from the intensive reading in a number of aspect. The main difference lies in the fact that the passage is read silently by students for a specific purpose that the teacher will set”.
