Levels of Reading Comprehension

              Reading comprehension has different levels. Burns et al (1984:177) divide reading comprehension into literal comprehension, interpretive comprehension, critical reading, and creative reading.

1)   Literal Comprehension

Reading for literal comprehension, which involves acquiring information that is directly stated in a selection is a prerequisite for higherlevel understanding. Recognizing stated main ideas, details, causes and effects, and sequence is the basis of literal comprehension, and thorough understanding of vocabulary, sentence meaning, and paragraph meaning is important.

2)   Interpretive Comprehension

Interpretive comprehension involves reading between the lines or making inferences. It is the process of deriving ideas that are implied rather than directly stated. Reader makes inferences based on their schemata. It is important to realize that children have less prior knowledge than adults and do not make inferences spontaneously; even they possess the necessary schemata or background knowledge.

3)   Critical Reading

Critical reading is evaluating written materials, comparing the ideas discovered in the material with standards and drawing conclusions about their accuracy, appropriateness, and timeliness. It requires the reader to have critical thinking of what they read. Critical reading depends upon literal comprehension and interpretive comprehension, and grasping implied ideas is especially important.

4)   Creative Reading

Creative reading involves going beyond the material presented by the author. It requires readers to think as they read, just critical reading does, and it also requires them to use their imaginations.

Carver in Devine (2000: 30) divides reading comprehension into four levels, they are:

1)   Decoding of words and determination of their meaning in a particular sentence

2)   Combining meanings of individual words into complete understanding of the sentence

3)   Understanding of the paragraph and its implied main idea, as well as cause and effect, hypothesis-proof, implications, unstated conclusions, and ideas associated with but rangential to the main idea of a paragraph

4)   Evaluation of ideas, including questions of logic, proof, authenticity, and value judgments.