Definition Of Reading

The definition of reading in this chapter is includes the definition of reading in general or in the native language, and definition of reading foreign language.

Reading is a language-based skill. As such, it requires the processing of language that is decontextualized from any ongoing event. Decontextualized language is characterized by the fact that the speaker and listener do not directly share the experience being communicated. The speaker must create the context through language, as in narration. It is not surprising, therefore, that poor readers also exhibit poor narrative skills, especially with linguistic cohesion (Norris & Bruning, 1988). The narratives of poor readers tend to be shorter and less well developed than those of better readers.

Reading is the synthesis of a complex network of perceptual and cognitive acts along a continuum from word recognition and decoding skills to comprehension and integration. Beyond the printed page, a skilled reader draws conclusions and inferences from what he or she reads. Of all the factors involved in early reading success, early exposure to reading by parents and a literate atmosphere at home seem to be most important.

Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information (Anderson et al., 1985). 

Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the reader's existing knowledge the information suggested by the text being read  and  the context of the reading situation (Wixson, Peters, Weber, & Roeber, 1987, citing the new definition of reading for Michigan). 

It is important for the students to read a new language of passage, as in the following statement by P. Gurrey (1957: 84) there must be question on the text. This is essential. The questions are to help the pupils to understand every detail in the printed words. It means the questions on the passage are to facilitate the students in understanding the content passage.

Psychologists and reading experts have been conducting extensive researches in the nature of reading and sequential development of language skills. Among the discoveries of the researches as stated by Lewis and Sisk (1963:95 – 96) are:

1. Reading is not a single skills but an interrelated process of many skills.
2. Reading is a developmental process. In other words reading skills develop sequentially as studentnature.
3. There are general developmental patterns from grade and from year to year, but wide variation in reading abilities exists among students in any grade or in any age.
4. There are no basic reading skills, which can be taught or learned once and for all, there are merely simpler or more difficult levels of reading proficiencies, which can be taught to students who are ready to learn them.

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