Developing Students’ reading Strategies Using Subject Area Reading Materials

 

 

Lies Setiasih

 

 

 

With the steady increase in information system, the importance of English as a means of global communication is also steadily increasing. The competition of university’s graduates in trying to get a job will be stronger. Without having English skills they will have difficulty in getting a job. Considering it, since 2001 English credit hours in non-English department have been increased to 4-6 credit hours that may be spread in two or three semesters. This is done, of course, with the hope that the English teaching will be more successful, meaning that it will meet the needs of the students.

 

Reading is the core of the syllabus. Only by reading can the students acquire the speed and skills they will need for practical purposes when they leave school (Bright, 1986). According to Vacca (1993), texts are important tools in the development of independent learners. Thus, by teaching reading comprehension of which texts are taken from the students’ specialist area, it is expected that the students will be able to be independent readers.

 

In this paper a model of teaching reading comprehension in a content area based on Irwin’s theory (1987) is proposed. In this theory to comprehend text, teachers must be able to present the questions covering five reading comprehension processes including micro-processes, integrative processes, macro-processes, elaborative processes, and meta-cognitive processes. If these strategies are taught properly, the teachers will really help students to develop into independent readers. It is expected that this model is able to contribute to the development of TEFL standards especially in universities.

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Setiasih, L. (2003, October). Developing students’ reading strategies using subject area reading materials. Paper presented at the 51^st TEFLIN International Conference, Bandung, Indonesia.

 

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