ADVANCE READING

Reading Ability

Presented by: 6th group

1. Gaitsa Nugraha
2. Nurannisa Fitri
3. Rizky Kalimato Suhu Jannah
4.Vivi Ardiyanti Husein

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF SAMARINDA
2017
INTRODUCTION

Language ability itself is identified by some as a set of language skills. A

great deal of teaching and testing materials are organized around one such proposal,
that of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and the four skills
model still remains pedagogically useful today, though it lacks support of empirical
findings. And how about reading ability in reading material? Reading ability is also
a set of reading skills and good comprehension of reading.

READING ABILITY

Reading Ability: Divisible or Not? Language ability is identified by some

as a set of language skills. A great deal of teaching and testing materials are
organized around one such proposal, that of the four skills of listening, speaking,
reading, and writing, and the four skills model still remains pedagogically useful
today, though it lacks support of empirical findings.

Reading is considered by many teachers, textbook writers and language test

constructors to be made up of different skills and components. It is often claimed
that sets of reading components provide useful frameworks on which to base course
design, teaching, and test development. A reading skill can be described as “a
cognitive ability which a person is able to use when interacting with
texts”(Urquhart & Weir, 1998). Thus, unlike comprehension, which can be viewed
as the product of reading a particular text, skills are seen as parts of the generalized
reading process.

Despite the widespread influence of a multi-divisible view of reading on

current practice, this view is greatly challenged. The idea that language ability is
essentially unitary or holistic has been discussed in language teaching and testing
circles since the 1970s. An early influential advocate of a holistic view of language
ability is John Oller (e.g. Oller, 1979). His famous Unitary Competence Hypothesis
(UCH) holds that language performance involving different skills and in different
contexts draws on the same set of sources. Language ability could consequently be
assessed as a whole, using integrative tests, such as cloze and dictation tests. In
opposition to a multi-divisible view of reading, a substantial number of studies have
found that it is not possible to differentiate between reading components, either
through empirical demonstration of the separate functioning of such components
when these are operationalized in language test items, or through the judgment of
experts on what the focus of such test items actually is.

Lunzer et al. (1979) find that there is no evidence that distinct separate skills
exist and that, instead, reading consists of one single, integrated aptitude. A recent
investigation conducted by Rost (1993) again finds strong evidence of
unidimensionality, leading Rost to warn against different skill component
interpretations for all available reading comprehension tests. In a much quoted
study (Alderson, 1990a, 1990b), Alderson investigated the reading component
question through the judgment of experts on what reading test items actually tested.
The judges could not agree on assigning particular skills and strategies to particular
test items, they could not agree on what an item was testing, and even whether an
item was testing a higher or lower level component. Though the view that reading
is multidivisible lacks empirical support, the unidimensionality which considers
reading as a unitary skill is not without its problem. The above-mentioned Unitary
Competence Hypothesis was rejected by Oller himself (Oller, 1983). Weir (1994,
cited in Alderson, 2000), after reviewing the testing literature, reanalyzes the results
of Alderson (1990a), and analyzes some test-based results of his own for EFL
reading tests, he concludes that there is clear evidence that vocabulary should be
seen as a component separate from reading comprehension in general.

Reading is an important part of learning English, but many students find it

difficult. This collection of tips will help you improve reading by using skills you
use in your own language.

Tip 1: Read for Gist (the main ideas)

 Read the text a first time. Don't stop. Read to understand the main ideas, and
don't look up new words. You'll be surprised that you can usually understand the
general idea of the story.

Tip 2: Use Context

Context refers words and situations that are around a word you don't
understand. Look at the example sentence:

I went to the shlumping to buy some chitla for dinner.

What's 'schlumping'? - it must be a store because you bought something there.

What's 'chitia'? - It must be food because you are going to eat it for dinner.

Tip 3: Use Your Own Language

One of the best tips on improving reading is to think about how you read in
your own language. Start by thinking about how you read different documents. How
do you read the newspaper? How do you read novels? How do you read train
schedules? and so on. Taking time to think about this will help give you clues on
how to read in English - even if you don't understand every single word.

Ask yourself this question: Do I read every word in your own language
when I am reading a schedule, summary, or other outlining document?

The answer is most definitely: No!

Reading in English is like reading in your native language. This means that
it is not always necessary to read and understand each and every word in English.
Remember that reading skills in your native language and English are basically the
same.

Tip 4: Understand Different Reading Skills

Here is a quick overview of the four types of reading skills used in every
language:
Skimming - used to understand the "gist" or main idea

Scanning - used to find a particular piece of information

Extensive reading - used for pleasure and general understanding

Intensive reading - accurate reading for detailed understanding

Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information, or 'gist'.

Run your eyes over the text, noting important information. Use skimming to quickly
get up to speed on a current business situation. It's not essential to understand each
word when skimming.

Examples of Skimming:

The Newspaper (quickly to get the general news of the day)

Magazines (quickly to discover which articles you would like to read in more
detail)

Business and Travel Brochures (quickly to get informed)

Scanning

Scanning is used to find a particular piece of information. Run your eyes

over the text looking for the specific piece of information you need. Use scanning
on schedules, meeting plans, etc. in order to find the specific details you require. If
you see words or phrases that you don't understand, don't worry when scanning.

Examples of Scanning

The "What's on TV" section of your newspaper.

A train / airplane schedule

A conference guide
 This lesson plan focusing on scanning reading skills can be of help in
practicing these skills on your own or in printed out for in-class use.

Extensive reading

Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject and

includes reading longer texts for pleasure, as well as business books. Use extensive
reading skills to improve your general knowledge of business procedures. Do not
worry if you understand each word.

Examples of Extensive Reading

The latest marketing strategy book

A novel you read before going to bed

Magazine articles that interest you

This lesson focusing on improving vocabulary through extensive reading

can be of help putting these skills into practice.

Intensive reading

Intensive reading is used on shorter texts in order to extract specific

information. It includes very close accurate reading for detail. Use intensive reading
skills to grasp the details of a specific situation. In this case, it is important that you
understand each word, number or fact.

Examples of Intensive Reading

A bookkeeping report

An insurance claim

A contract

Improve Other English Skills

You can use these reading skills in a number of ways to improve other areas
of English learning such as pronunciation, grammar and increasing vocabulary.
DISCUSSION SECTION

Questions:

1. Nur Annisa Aulia: How to understand a hard word in a journal?

2. Asnaini: How to understand a hard sentence in a paragraph? Because no
matter how many times I read it, I still don’t understand about it.

Answers:

1. You have to see the context and the type of that journal; educational, health,
science, etc. when you know what’s the type, you will understand what’s
the ‘meaning’ of it. Also, you have to see the previous and the next words,
sentences even paragraphs to get more comprehension. It doesn’t matter if
you only don’t know about one word, the important thing is you know
what’s the main topic of that journal. If you can search it in dictionary, then
look for it in dictionary.
2. You have to see the previous and next sentences of that sentence. Or you
can find a keyword of that sentence, then look for it in dictionary.

CONCLUSION

Language ability is identified by some as a set of language skills. Reading

ability also a set of reading skills such as scanning, skimming, intensive, extensive.
When you can know well and have good comprehension in reading skill, you have
that reading ability.