Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill trough E-book on Internet

Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill trough E-book on Internet
Lecturer: Cunong N. Suraja S. Pd., M. Hum.
By:
Fajriyah Nur
6A
07211210135
English Education Program
Faculty of Teachers Training and Education
Bogor Ibn Khaldun University
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
2
Introduction
According to Eddie C. Kennedy (1997: 05) Reading is the ability of an individual to recognize a visual form associate the form with a sound or meaning acquired in the past and the basic of past experience, understand and interpret its meaning. Reading can stimulate the imagination. With reading, you select the cast, set the stage, and direct the action. Reading also develops verbal skills. Reading requires and develops verbal skills, it is inextricably linked with speech and writing. Student‟s skills in searching main idea from the narrative text almost can not be predicted, it is why I have choosen this topic. Besides reading can improve student‟s skill to wide the insight, reading also the way to add many vocabularies in our mind. Says one high school English teacher: “There is no question that your success as a student depends enormously on your vocabulary, both in what you can understand as you read and in how you reason as you write, and there is no way to build up a good vocabulary except by reading—there just is none.”
New and exciting reading materials keep appearing on the market almost daily. Many universities and teacher training institutions have developed courses to deal with the teaching of reading comprehension. In today‟s world, one of the most important ways to communicate with speakers of other languages and with members of other cultures is via reading.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
3
Theoritical Foundation
Teaching reading
The word „teaching‟ is often defined as giving an experience to the students that have not gotten before. It can also defined as helping students in doing their avtivities in classroom especially in their lesson. Teaching English as foreign language especially reading is not as easy activity as teaching English as first and second language. For teaching reading, we have to know about the rules that used in teaching reading especially to improve student‟s reading skill in the descriptive text. Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.
Most of us think of reading as a simple, passive process that involves reading words in a linear fashion and internalizing their meaning one at a time. But reading is actually a very complex process that requires a great deal of active participation on the part of the reader.
Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts. The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
4
different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level. By raising students' awareness of reading as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching reading strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language.
Eddie C. Kennedy states: “Reading is the ability of an individual to recognize a visual form associate the form with a sound or meaning acquired in the past, and the basic of past experience, understand and interpret its meaning”. (1997:05). Realizing this state, the writer hopes every teacher is supposed to be able to organize children and materials for affective instruction. Easy solution to problem or organization or satisfy the teacher who is not much concerned about differentiating instruction or meeting individual need. For example: all children in the class can be given the same reading material, and do the same assignment. Organization becomes simple and routine with this approach, but the differences among the children are ignored.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
5
Marry Spratt, Alan Purveness and Melanie Williams in the TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) Course state that, “Reading is one of the four knowledge skills: Reading, writing, listening and speaking. It is a receptive skill, like listening.”(2002: 21). This means reading involves responding the text, rather than producing it. Very simply we can say that reading involves making sense of the text.
The reader must decide what is important and remember that information if anything is to be taught (Harvey& Goudvis, 2000). A good reader is able to sift and sort through text and pull out the essential or key ideas while the struggling reader tends to pay attention to everything in the text. It has to be understood by the students if they would like to read the text. Nonfiction reading is reading to learn so therefore determining main ideas is crucial when reading informational text. Instruction in reading strategies is not an add-on, but rather an integral part of the use of reading activities in the language classroom. Instructors can help their students become effective readers by teaching them how to use strategies before, during, and after reading.
Before reading: Plan for the reading task Set a purpose or decide in advance what to read for Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
6
During and after reading: Monitor comprehension Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses Decide what is and is not important to understand Reread to check comprehension Ask for help
After reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task Modify strategies if necessary
For students to develop communicative competence in reading, classroom and homework reading activities must resemble or be real-life reading tasks that involve meaningful communication. They must therefore be authentic in three ways:
1. The reading material must be authentic: It must be the kind of material that students will need and want to be able to read when traveling, studying abroad, or using the language in other contexts outside the classroom.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
7
2. The reading purpose must be authentic: Students must be reading for reasons that make sense and have relevance to them. "Because the teacher assigned it" is not an authentic reason for reading a text.
3. The reading approach must be authentic: Students should read the text in a way that matches the reading purpose, the type of text, and the way people normally read. This means that reading aloud will take place only in situations where it would take place outside the classroom, such as reading for pleasure. The majority of students' reading should be done silently.
Descriptive text
Definition and purpose
A descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Take an example, the following is one of the text belongs to the descriptive text. For example:
Prambanan Temple
Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple compound in Central Java in Indonesia, located approximately 18 km east of Yogyakarta.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
8
The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.
It was built around 850 CE by either Rakai Pikatan, king of the second Mataram dynasty, or Balitung Maha Sambu, during the Sanjaya Dynasty. Not long after its construction, the temple was abandoned and began to deteriorate. Reconstruction of the compound began in 1918. The main building was completed in around 1953. Much of the original stonework has been stolen and reused at remote construction sites. A temple will only be rebuilt if at least 75% of the original stones are available, and therefore only the foundation walls of most of the smaller shrines are now visible and with no plans for their reconstruction.
The temple was damaged during the earthquake in Java in 2006. Early photos suggest that although the complex appears to be structurally intact, damage is significant. Large pieces of debris, including carvings, were scattered over the ground. The temple has been closed to the public until damage can be fully assessed. The head of Yogyakarta Archaeological Conservation Agency stated that: “it will take months to identify the precise damage”. However, some weeks later in 2006 the site re-opened for visitors. The immediate surroundings of the Hindu temples remain off-limits for safety reasons.
We get the purpose from the text above that description is used in all forms of reading to create a vivid impression of a person, place, object or event e.g. to: ·
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
9
Describe a special place and explain why it is special. Describe the most important person in your live. Describe the animal‟s habit in your report.
Descriptive reading or text is usually also used to help reader develop an aspect of their work, e.g. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects etc. To complete our intention to, here are the characteristics based on descriptive writing or text.
The Generic Structure of descriptive text are identification (identifying the phenomenon to be described) and description (describing the phenomenon in parts, qualities, or/and characteristics). And then the language feature of descriptive text are using attributive and identifying process, using adjective and classifiers in nominal group and using simple present tense. While in language function, descriptive reading: Aims to show rather than tell the reader what something/someone is like. Relies on precisely chosen vocabulary with carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs. Is focused and concentrates only on the aspects that add something to the main purpose of the description. Sensory description-what is heard, seen, smelt, felt, tasted. Precise use of adjectives, similes, metaphors to create images or pictures in the mind e.g. their noses were met with the acrid smell of rotting flesh.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
10
Strong development of the experience that “put the reader there” focuses on key details, powerful verbs and precise nouns.
EBook
According to Zulkifli (2010: 127) an eBook is an electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read by using a personal computer or by using an eBook reader. Users can purchase an eBook on diskette or CD, but the most popular method of getting an eBook is to purchase a downloadable file of the eBook or other reading material from an internet especially a Web site to be read from the user's computer or reading device. Generally, an eBook can be downloaded in five minutes or less.
Most of students have used eBook as their media to increase their reading skill recently. Besides that, the teachers also have used it too. Although it is not necessary to use a reader application or device in order to read an eBook (most books can be read as PDF files), they are popular because they enable options similar to those of a paper book - readers can bookmark pages, make notes, highlight passages, and save selected text. In addition to these familiar possibilities, eBook readers also include built-in dictionaries, and alterable font sizes and styles. Typically, an eBook reader hand-held device weighs from about twenty-two ounces to three or four pounds and can store from four thousand to over half a million pages of text and graphics. A popular feature is its back-lit screen (which makes reading in the dark possible). Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
11
The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is. And it all can be applied by using eBook as the media that can help the students increasing their desire to improve their reading skill.
Some eBooks can be downloaded for free or at reduced cost, however, prices for many eBooks - especially bestsellers - are similar to those of hardcover books, and are sometimes higher. Most eBooks at Barnes and Noble, for example, are comparable in price to their traditional print versions. However, the users of eBook have increased at the moment.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
12
Analysis
Descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing. Descriptive reading or text is usually also used to help reader develop an aspect of their work, e.g. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects etc. To complete our intention to, here are the characteristics based on descriptive writing or text.
Beyond the characteristics stated on, descriptive reading also consists of generic structure in range as: general statement, explanation, closing. The description text has dominant language features as follows:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using action verbs
3. Using passive voice
4. Using noun phrase
5. Using adverbial phrase
6. Using technical terms
7. Using general and abstract noun
8. Using conjunction of time and cause-effect.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
13
Finding Data
I have looked for many sources in the library, like in my college, in the center of government‟s library and also from internet that could give me the inspiration to do this paper. It needed many times to arrange this paper in order to be a specific appropriate with the sources that I found. I did it for about three weeks since my lecturer gave it to me. Many obstacles that I found when I arranged this paper and it make me confused to do it, such as the other lecturers too gave al ot of tasks that had to be submitted in the same time. However, I have to be a professionalize student in order to get the best result. My effort to arrange this paper maybe could not be compared with the knowledge that had been given by my lecturer. Finally I can do it although this paper was not perfect, I guess.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
14
Conclusion
The success of teaching reading is determined by the appropriate methods or technique. As you can see, reading involves many complex skills that have to come together in order for the reader to be successful. For example, proficient readers recognize the purpose for reading, approach the reading with that purpose in mind, use strategies that have proven successful to them in the past when reading similar texts for similar purposes, monitor their comprehension of the text in light of the purpose for reading, and if needed adjust their strategy use. Proficient readers know when unknown words will interfere with achieving their purpose for reading, and when they won't. When unknown words arise and their meaning is needed for comprehension, proficient readers have a number of word attack strategies available to them that will allow them to decipher the meaning of the words to the extent that they are needed to achieve the purpose for reading. Reading is also a complex process in that proficient readers give to the text as much as they take. They make meaning from the text by using their own prior knowledge and experiences. Proficient readers are constantly making predictions while reading. They are continuously anticipating what will come next. Their prior knowledge and experiences with texts as well as with the world around them allow them to do this. It is this continuous interaction with the text that allows readers to make sense of what they are reading.
In this course you will learn about the complexities of the reading process. Understanding the reading process is essential if you are to be an effective content area reading teacher. You will also learn ways to effectively support your
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
15
students' efforts to read and comprehend your reading assignments, as well as to become proficient independent readers outside of the classroom.
“Teaching Reading Descriptive Text to Improve Student’s Reading Skill through EBook on Internet”
By Fajriyah Nur [07211210135] at Class 6A
16
References
Barbara, M. T., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Teaching Reading: Effectives Schools, Achomplished Teachers. New Jersey: Laurence Erlbaum Publishers.
Eskey, D. (2002). Reading and Teaching of L2 Reading. TESOL Journal, 11(1), 5-9.
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers.
http://www.amazon.com.
Kennedy, E. C. (1997). Method in Teaching Development Reading. F. E. Peacock Pub. Inc.
Silberstein, S. (1994). Technique and Resources in Teaching Reading. New York: Oxford University Press.
Spratt, M. a. (2002). The TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) Course. Cambridge Gate: Cambridge University Press.
Zulkifli. (2010). Internet for Teacher. Yogyakarta: Cakrawala.