VOL. 01 NO.

02, DECEMBER 2019

THE TEACHING OF READING IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

Mohammad Sofyan Adi Pranata

Universitas Nurul Jadid
[email protected]

Reading English is an important skill that students need to learn. The

teaching of reading in secondary school will help student to get a
purpose for reading, focus on what they are learning, think actively as
they read, monitor their comprehension, and review content and relate
what they have learned to what they already know. In order to apply the
strategies effectively in new instructional settings, teachers must have a
clear understanding of the reading comprehension process and the
natural reading strategies that commonly applied by our students. By
knowing this, they can select and demonstrate appropriate reading
strategies that their students need in reading the text.

Key words: Teaching reading, Senior Secondary School

INTRODUCTION
The teaching of reading in old curriculum led the students to practice the language components that they
had already met through the teaching of vocabulary and structure. Reading was regarded as the medium for
representation and practicing these language components. In this practice, comprehending and sharing
information and messages contained in the text is neglected.
In this era teaching of reading depends on the teacher. Teachers are always to be the sources of ideas for
developing reading strategies. To do this, teachers should prepare students to reach a higher level of
understanding in the reading process. They should help students read and understand the texts easily. Then, the
teacher can contribute to the strategy training of their students in the three stages of reading instruction in
classes. This includes: pre-reading, while reading and post reading.
In the 1994 English curriculum and the coming Competency-Based Curriculum of English for secondary
school, the teaching of reading is treated in a proper way. It is oriented towards providing real life reading skills,
such as identifying particular information containing in a text. In this orientation, reading is not separated from
the other skills. When we read a text, for example, we sometimes share what we have read with other people by
discussing or summarizing the content of the reading. This practice leads to the possibility of integrating reading
to speaking or writing. In this context, it is very beneficial for us to develop learning and teaching strategies that
help our students possess and develop their strategic reading as well as develop integration among language
skills. In this paper, we would address this issue.

1. The teaching of reading as communication

1.1 A model of reading
The National Education Ministry, in their guidance book for the School Based Curriculum, state that
senior high school students are expected to be able to comprehend written texts either in short functional or
simple essay form in the genre of recount, narrative, procedural, descriptive, news item, spoof, report, analytical
exposition, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, and review in a daily activity context and to be able to
access knowledge (Depdiknas, 2006 A, 2006 B and 2006 C).
Reading is the process of getting information from the written text; from the writer to the reader. The
goal of all reading is the comprehension of meaning that is conveyed in the written text. According to Dean
(2013), reading is more than seeing words clearly, more than pronouncing printed words correctly and more than
recognizing the meaning of isolated words. Reading requires you to think and feel. Reading is not just looking
and pronouncing words in the text but comprehending all the components of a text. Thus, reading is the best
ways to understand all the components of a text.
Richard & Schmidt (2002: 443) defines reading in two ways; first, reading is perceiving a written text in
order to understand its contents. This can be done silently (silent reading). The understanding that results is
called reading comprehension. Second, reading is saying a written text aloud (oral reading). This can be done
with or without understanding of the contents.
In the act of reading, for example, readers sample and infer the four significant cues: graphophonic (the
relationship between letters and sounds), syntactic (word order), semantic (word and sentece meanings),

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schematic (knowledge of the world); and they predict what they believe subsequent graphophonic, syntactic,
semantic structure are going to be (May, 1990; Goodman, 1994). The use of these cues will be influnced by
proficiency level of readers. Less proficient readers, for instance, tend to use the four cues, moving from one cue
to another one which result in slow inefficient reading process.
In line with strategies employed by learners or readers, that tendency is known as bottom-up strategy.
Whereas, whey they use their background knowledge (schema), their expectation, and experience in reading a
text, then they identify the cues (when they are needed), they tend to employ top-down strategy. This is
commonly used by proficient readers.
As inferences and predictions are made in the process of reading, for example, readers test these
hypotheses against their linguistic and conceptual knowledge to see if they are meaningful. This testing leads to
confirmation or disconfirmation of the semantic and of the syntax through which meaning is being is being
constructed.
In trying to infer or predict the information or message contained in the text, readers will also employ the
two strategies known as scanning and skimming.Scanning is especially used when reeders want to located
required information without reading the whole text. Skimming, on the other hand, is employed by reader when
they want to get the main idea from the text. When a reader is asked about the topic of the passage, he/she will
probably scan key words and other relevant cues like picture to respond te he questation raised by the teacher.
In the act of reading, readers will ask questions the test their predictions, such as, “Does this sound like
language?”. “Does this make sense to me?”. Here, they probably employ scanning and skimming strategies to
find required information in testing the predictions. If the answers to these questions is “yes” and if the material
is worthwhile, reading continues. If the answer is “no”. the following strategies might be used by readers
(Goodman,1994).
The first, reread and pick up additional cues until the text makes sense. The second, Stop, consider and
rethink why what is being read doesn’t seem make sense. The third, continue reading in order to build additional
context; in so doing, generate enough understanding to decade why things don’t make sense. The forth, Stop
reading because the material is too difficult or not relevant.
We probably experience this model of reading when we read a text in our language. However, this natural
process of reading exists in our sub-conscious level of thought. Since, we never realize the we as language
teacher, do not consider applying the model as the basis of learning and teaching strategies. And the strategies
must be developed by teacher with reference to the objectives of teaching reading covered in the curriculum.
Objectives of The Teaching of Reading in Senior Secondary School (SMA)
Reading English is an important skill that students need to learn. in reality, students reading a text at
school often have difficulties to understand and comprehend its meaning. So, teachers of reading must have good
techniques to teach reading to students to help them get good results. Teaching reading is not easy because the
teachers not only have to get the students to read the text but also, they have to think how the students can
comprehend all the aspects of English in it. According to Chaudron (2004) studying English is not easy for
Indonesian students because the English language and the Indonesian language are very different in terms of
spelling, sounds, pronunciation, vocabulary and culture.
The objective of teaching reading in high school is to develop the students’ reading skills in order to read
texts effectively and efficiently. Ariwiyati (1997) asserts that the specific objectives of reading are:
a) to enable the students to develop basic comprehension skills so that they can read and understand texts
of a general nature.
b) to use reading to increase their general knowledge.
c) to decide about reading purpose.
d) to adapt their strategies of reading.
e) to develop their ability toread critically.
Based on these, a teacher must have a good technique to build the motivation of students to learn and
memorize vocabulary.
When we investigate the objectives of the teaching of reading in the 1994 English Curriculum and the
coming Competence-Based Curriculum of English for SMA, we could say that the primary purposes of reading
are reading for information or intensive reading. This can be seen in the following objectives for reading as
stated in the curriculum.
Students are able to read texts in the forms of narration, description, dialog, and other genres like time
tables, brochure, menu, diary, form, letter to:
• Get a particular information;
• Get a general information about the text;
• Identify the main idea explicitly;
• Identify the main idea implicitly;
• Get the details of information about the text;
• Identify word, phrase, and sntence meanings based on the contexts
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In order to achieve he objective, the following learning activities are suggested:
• Guess the content of the text basd the given picture;
• Guess th meaning of derivative contained in the text bsed on the related word;
• Complete the given tables ased on the information contained in the text;
• Make flow chart based on the information contained in the text;
• Follow a set of instruction given in the text;
• Summarize the main points of the text;
• Some students generate questions about the txt and others answer the questations;
• Identify words,phrases or clauses through the given references;
• Identify synonym and antonym;
• Identify a particular information contained in a text quickly;
• identify key words to infer main ideas of the given text;
• identify main idea of a text or a paragraph and supporting details;
• describe the difference between main idea and supporting details;
• identify paragraph structure, eg, whetter it is organized from general to specific or vice versa;
• determine the functions of the given text (invitation,notice,instruction,informing, so on.);
• complete the text with the given word; so on.

Based on explanation above, the teaching of reading in secondary school will help student to get a
purpose for reading, focus on what they are learning, think actively as they read, monitor their comprehension,
and review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know.

Realizing objectives into the teaching of reading in classroom

In realizing the reading objectives into the process of teaching and learning requires careful planning and
thought on the part of the teacher. There are some points to be taken into her consideration in this connection.
✓ 2.3.1 At beginning level where students are retarders, an important point is to establish positive attitude
to reading. Here, we need to select texts that appeal to student and relate to their knowledge of
language.
✓ 2.3.2 At secondary school level and above, students are intellectually mature enough to deal with
comprehension, language and content, and critical awareness. A very effective way of working towards
these objectives and increasing students’ knowledge of language is by adopting themes or topic as the
basic until for the organization of the program.
✓ 2.3.3 The choice of the theme or sub-theme should be based upon students’ interest and needs and the
availability or material. The way the theme or sub-theme organized is ideally move from the more
familiar to the less familiar.
✓ 2.3.4 The selection of texts should be varied including different types or genres. Texts of
Different types could develop a variety of reading styles of strategies, and initiate reading for different purposes
and familiarize student with the features of the different text types. In the 1994 curriculum the suggested text
types cover narrative, descriptive, argumentative, dialog, various form, brochure, leaflet, personal letter, diary,
menu, ticket, timetables. With different text types, a reasonable approach to vocabulary can be developed and
consolidated throughout the topic/sub-theme unit.

The selected text can be taken from various sources, such as:
• Integrated course books that includes reading text.
• Supplementari reading comprehension and reading skills books containing text and exercies; and
• Text from’real life’ (authentic text),like leaflet, ticket, and brochure

The sources of difficullites student encountered in reading

When we look into the reading process outlined above, our student will encounter difficulties in sampling
and inferring the four cues. Based on experiences in handling reading hel teachers facilitate student and teaching
reading in the frame of communitative leanguange teaching.
✓ 2.4.1 Decoding (sample grapophonic cue). The inabilit of student to translate the marks (letter of
graphs) they see in a text into something they can say could create difficulties in the teaching of
reading skill. The failure of decode a text, for instance, can demotitave students to continually read the
text.
✓ 2.4.2 Vocabulary. The text difficulty of cocabulary. In our day-to-day classroom interaction, student
lack or have inappropriate concepts for the words could be stumbling block upon comprehending
process of a text. Some SMA (High Secondary School student say that they encounter many difficult
words in one paragraph dealing with a certain sub-theme. In this connection, it is suggested that the
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teacher should identify and determine readability of the text before they use in for teaching and learning
purposes.

✓ 2.4.3 Syntax. Third source difficulty in syntax (word order). Consider these santences:
“Alfan ate the fish” or “The fish ate Alfan”. Eord order of the two santences is different. The word order
communicateas important information, such as, which element in the santence is the doer and which is acted
upon (or object). Our experiences show that students are often fail to identify word order of the given sentences
found in a certain text.
✓ 2.4.4 Cohesion. A fourth source of difficulty is cohesion, the relationships between sentences contained
in a certain text student are often frustrated when they cannot identify the connections between
sentences found in the text.
✓ 2.4.5 Passage structure. A fifth source of difficult is passage structure. There are certain conventions in
writing text that follow us to see how larger elements of text are connected. For instance, if a text is
organized from general to specific, an early paragraphs may become more specific using such markes
as “There are three kinds of “. “The first is, the second is, and so on. Other common organizations are
narrative, cause and effect, sequence, so on. Our experiences indicate that student cannot identify the
main point or idea of the given paragraph because they do not know text or passage structure.
✓ 2.4.6 Prior knowledge (sample schematic cue). The final source is prior knowledge. Students are not
really efficient in comphehending a text because they are not familiar with the topic or sub-theme of the
given text. For example, student who live in remote areas and never see or know telephone or computer
will have difficulties in comprehending text about computer or telephone, it is the job of teachers, in
this context, to select theme/sub-theme on the basis of student’ background kowledge.

Suggested teaching and learning strategies for reading as communication

Knowledge of the natural process of reading will be beneficial for language teachers, at least, for two
reasons: first, natural strategies that we know in reading can be used as the basis in designing strategies for
teaching reading skill. Second, this knowledge can be uses to the intended learning objectives for reading skills
covered in 1994 English Curriculum. The objective for reading are skills-oriented which can be attained throught
strategic reading.
The following teaching strategis are commonly applied in startegic reading which are generally
developed from the reading model we discuss in the earlier section.
3.1 P-W-P (Pre – while – Post ) Strategy
Strategic reading suggested in our curricuum is known as the three-phase-technique for teaching reading. This
strategis reading consists of three stages,namely:

Pre-reading
In pre-reading stage, teacher try to do the following:
• Brainstorming first.
• To introduce and arouse interest in the topic/sub-theme;
• To motivate learnes by giving a reason for reading to provide some language preparation for the text.
In order to help prepare for this stage, the useful questions below can be used by teachers to asks themselves:
• What knowledge, ideas or opinions might the learnesrs already have on the text topic, and how can this
kowledge be draw and used?
• Why should anyone want to read the text,and can the same, or similar, reasaons be generated in the
learners.
The answers to the question will give clues to ways of introducing the text, motivating learners, and at the same
time will incorporate language preparation.

While-reading
This stage focuses on the text rather than the learners’ ideas before reading. The aims of this stage are:
• To help understanding of writer’s purpose;
• To help understanding of the text structure of clarily text content.
The following question are as guide to while-reading stage.
• What is the function of this text?
• How is the text organized or developed? (eg. A narrative, descriptive, and dialog)
• What content or information that can to be extracted from the text?
• What can the reader infer or deduce from the text?
• What language may be learned from the text?
• What reading styles (or strategies) may be practiced.

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Post-reading
The aims of post-reading are:
• To consolidate of reflect upon what has been learned;
• To relate the text to the learner’s own knowledge, interest, or views.

Teachers could use the following question to get ideas for the stage.
• Do the learners know of a similar situation to that presented in te text?
• Does the text present a situation for recommendations?
• Does the text present a situation needs for solving?
• Does the text present views that might need to be counter-balanced?

K-W-L strategy

KWL is stand for Know-What-Learned. This involves three major cognitive steps: assessing students’
background knowledge about the topic, and evaluating what they learned about the topic. The steps used in fails
strategic reading cover the following:

• Talk with Aa about what they already know about the topic of the text. This information should be freely
volunteered and written, for example, in section 1 in the given strategy sheet.
• Ask students to categorize the information they have voluntered. This can be done through various
grouping strategies, such as, semantic webbing or word map. This can be recorded in section 2.
• Ask students to make predictions about the information the text will contain. These prediction should be
based on students’ background kowledge and on the categoris of information genered in step 2, this can be
re-corded and discussed in section 3in strategy sheet.
• Have students generate their own questations about the text this can be discussed and recorded in the “W”-
what we want to find out section.
• Have students read the text and record any answers to their question. This can be recorded in section 5 in
the strategy sheet.
• Upon competition of the text, provide Aa with an opportunity to discuss and record ( in section 6 in the
strategy sheet) the information learned and how that data relates to their prior knowledge. For example, talk
about questions posed for which no information was found in the text.

Jigsaw technique

This technique or procedure involves the following steps:

✓ 3.3.1 divide the class into groups ( the number of group depend parts of the information on a topic
given);
✓ 3.3.2 give each group a part of the information on a topic given;
✓ 3.3.3 ditribute worksheet to each member of the group, the ask them to get share the information from
the texts ( it could be a split paragraph, postcard, so on)
✓ 3.3.4 reorganize the groups to form new groups. Each new group consists of at least one member of
group, for example, one from A,B,C and so on. In this new group, each member of the group exchange
the information on the worksheet, so that they can complete the whole task given on the worksheet.

Basically, the activity suggested by this procedure consists of two main stages:
1. READ – EXTRACT INFORMATION
2. COMMUNICATE – SHARE INFORMATION
Example of the Strategic Reading
A. The Three Stage Strategy
Suppose, you teach reading with the theme about “Shopping” to your student. The sub-theme is
“Shopping advertisements”. In teaching reading with this sub-theme, you apply the P-W-P strategy that
works as follows:

Specific aim : To train the students to read the text quickly in order to locate specific information.
Skill Involved : scanning (see object)

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Why? : When. Aa are trying to locate specific information we need not read the whole text
carefully. What they do is try to find out in which paragrah the information they are looking
for is likely to be, then read this paragraph carefully.
Suggested text type : Advertisement, Menu, leaflet and so on.
Level : First years Student of SMA.

Pre-Reading

To begin with the pre-reding, the teacher might put on the board of wall shopping ads that you take from
newspaper or magazine like.

To arouse student’s interest, you may ask the questations below:

1. What is it about?
2. What things are advertised?
3. Do yo like it?
4. What do you want to buy?
5. Now, list what you want to buy after you read the ads.
6. Ask our friend whether s(he) is intesting in buying something after s(he) is reading the ads. Use the
following questation as guide.

*Are you interested in buying things advertised here?

*If s(he) say’s ‘yes’, ask “What do you want to buy”?

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While-reading

In this stage, you provide the students with the questions that train them to apply ‘scanning’ skill. The following
are questions specifically designed to train this skill (related to the above ads)
1. You want to buy these things. Which store probably sells them?

Put a tick (V) on the given space.

Cell phone store Mall Alfamart

Shampoo .............................. .............................. ............................
Burger .............................. .............................. ............................
Handphone .............................. .............................. ............................

2. Are these statements’ true (T) or false (F)? Then, cross (X) your choice.
a. Deli stand near town square. T F
b. There is no promo special price. T F
c. Pantene is containg shampoo and conditioner T F
d. Special price Hp samsung is only 500.000 T F
e. Deli Stand has a delivery service. T F

(source:Richards,J.C.etal., 1992)

Post-reading

In this stage, you have to give the opportunity to the students to consolidate what they get from the text.
You may ask them to transfer the information they take from the text into other forms, such as ask the students to
compare what s(he) wants to buy with what her/his friends want to buy by using these questation:
- Do you want to buy things advertised here?
- What do you what to buy?
Then, ask the students to put what they compare in the give table.

What I want to buy ! What my friend wants to buy

Shampoo headphones

...

By providing this activity, the integration of one language skill to other skills can be realized with ease. This
is commonly suggested when we use this technique.

5. Conclusion

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Our knowledge of the comprehension process gained through natural strategies of reading can inform the
teaching and learning of reading comprehension. In order to apply the strategies effectively in new instructional
settings, teachers must have a clear understanding of the reading comprehension process and the natural reading
strategies that commonly applied by our students. By knowing this, they can select and demonstrate appropriate
reading strategies that their students need in reading the text.

Reference

Goodman, Watson, & Burke, 1994. Reading Strategies; Focus of Comprehension. Draft Copy. Arizona:
Arizona State University.
Grellet, F.1991. Developing Reading Skills; A pracitial guide to reading comprehension exercises.
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Garis-Garis Besar Program Pengajaran SMA/U 1994, Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.Jakarta: Depdikbud.
Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi; Kompetensi Dasar Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris SMA dan MA. Jakarta:
Pusat Kurikulum, Balitbang Depdiknas.
May, Frank B. 1994. Reading as Communication. New York: Macmillian Publishing co.
Meinbach, Federicks & Rothlein. 1993. Thematic Units. New York: HapperCollins Colledge Publisher.
Roller, Cathy M. 1983. Teaching Reading Comprehension Through Real Reading. Lowa: Course Pack.
Richards, J.C.et.al.1992. Interchange; English for international communication. Student’s Book I. Cambrige:
Cambridge University Press.
Williams, Eddie. 1984. Reading in The Language Clasroom. Hongkong: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
Sundayana, Wachyu,dkk.2003.Contextual Learning; Developing Competencies in English for SMU.
Bandung: PT.Grafindo Media Pratama.

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