Chapter II theoretical foundation

The Definition of Reading Comprehension

Comprehension is the ability to understand completely and be familiar with a situation, facts, etc. Comprehension is not a single unitary process. It starts from the moving of words on the page to meaning in the mind, the recognizing of individual words by using memory and knowledge of letter and sound patterns, matching the resulting pronunciations to meaning, and finally connects these words into idea units (Caldwell, 2008: 5).
Elizabeth et al. (2000:14) states that Comprehension is the process of deriving meaning from connected text. It involves word knowledge (vocabulary) as well as think and reasoning. Therefore, comprehension is not a passive process, but an active one. The reader actively engages with the text to construct the meaning. This active engagement includes making use of prior knowledge. It involves drawing inferences from the words and expressions that a writer uses to communicate information, ideas and viewpoints.
So, reading comprehension is the process of making meaning from print and from visual information (Moreillon, 2007: 10). It means that reading is an activity to understand information from what we see especially on texts. It consists of three elements: the reader, the text, and the activity or purpose for reading. Reading comprehension involves the ability in finding out main ideas, specific information, and word meaning.
While, Grabe (2001: 88) explains that “reading comprehension is the interaction of information between the readers‟ drawing information from a text and the readers‟ expectations or information about the text that already has.”
Based on those definitions above, it can be concluded that reading is an important activity used in learning process, but it becomes more useful when the readers can comprehend what they read. Overall, reading comprehension can be concluded as the ability to understand the meaning or idea in the written text completely. But reading comprehension is a long activity, but with the appropriate technique for each student/reader, it is not
possible that the long activity becomes an interesting long activity that makes the students/readers enjoy and can easily comprehend what they are.

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