The Nature of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the connection between what you are reading and what you already know (Mikulecky and Jeffries, 2004: 16).

Burns et al (1984: 148) state that the objective of all readers is, or should be, comprehend of what they read. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text (Pang et al, 2003: 6).

According to Grellet (1992: 3), reading comprehension means understanding a written text to extract the required information from it as efficiently as possible. Kennedy (1981: 192) states that reading comprehension is a thought process through which reader becomes aware of an idea, understands it in terms of their experiential background and interpret it in relation to their own needs and purposes.

              Anderson et al in Aebersold and Field (1997: 16) state that successful readers can comprehend the text well if they are able to:

1)        Recognize words quickly

2)        Use the text features (subheadings, transitions, etc)

3)        Use title(s) to infer what information might follow

4)        Use world knowledge

5)        Analyze unfamiliar words

6)        Identify the grammatical functions of words

7)        Read for meaning, concentrate on constructing meaning

8)        Guess about the meaning of the text

9)        Evaluate guesses and try new guesses if necessary

10)    Monitor comprehension

11)    Keep the purpose for reading the text in mind

12)    Adjust strategies to the purpose for reading

13)    Identify or infer main ideas

14)    Understand the relationships between the parts of a text

15)    Distinguish main ideas of the text

16)    Tolerate ambiguity in a text (at least temporarily)

17)    Paraphrase

18)    Use context to build meaning and aid comprehension

19)    Continue reading even when unsuccessful, at least for a while.

Redway (1988: 15) adds that good comprehension encompasses as follows:

1)   Being able to select and understand what the reader need.

2)   Retaining and recalling that information

3)   Connecting this new information to existing knowledge.

Based on the explanations above, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is the process of understanding a written text to extract informations, then recalling the informations and connecting them to the existing  knowledge in a piece of communication whether oral or written.

Burns et al (1984: 151) state that the basic comprehension units in reading are words, sentences, paragraphs, and whole selections. The idea above is supported by Bond and Wagner (1963: 201-206) which construct some basic comprehension abilities as comprehending word-meanings, comprehending thought units, comprehending sentence sense, comprehending paragraphs, and understanding total selection. The review is as follows:

1)   Comprehending Word-Meanings

Word-meaning is so essential to word-recognition and so interrelated with word-recognition. It is also true that the student comprehends the printed page only to the degree that he understands the specific meaning of essential word used by the author.

2)   Comprehending Thought Units

The crux of efficient meaningful reading is having sufficiently rapid word-recognition techniques to enable the reader to assemble words into though units, coupled with skills in locating and using those units in rapid, thoughtful reading. It should be stressed that the development of reading by thought units not only increases the speed of reading but also produces more adequate comprehension of the material read.

3)   Comprehending Sentence Sense

Sentence sense includes the student’s appreciation of the unity of a sentence. The students must be taught to sense the relationship between its parts, and to sense the parts in sentences of unusual order. The form of exercises that proves useful is to have the student locate in sentences within material he is reading those parts that tell who, did what, when, why, and so forth.

4)   Comprehending Paragraphs

The basic elements of paragraph comprehension are taught by giving specific attention to the meaning and organization of paragraphs. The student should be able to identify various types of paragraphs in material he is reading, and then he should be able to identify the topic sentences. It can help him to understand the meaning of the paragraph.

5)   Understanding Total Selection

Sensing the meaning of a total selection is a basic comprehension ability that depends upon discerning the interrelationship among the paragraphs and also the interrelationship among the various sections of the larger presentation. Detecting the difference between well-organized and poorly organized factual or narrative presentation leads understanding of the total selection.

The ideas above show that words, including their meanings, are the first units of comprehension that should be recognized before the others.