Name : Zulaihatul Karomah

NIM/Class :15320116/Gk Class

Teaching Methods of Reading Comprehension Skill

Facing common problem in comprehending text makes educators try to find various
kinds of methods to solve that. Because of that, some learners may think that reading
comprehension skill is difficult to be mastered. In addition, reading comprehension skill means
the level of understanding of text or message. This understanding comes from the interaction
between words that are written in the text and how the students produce knowledge outside the
text. Occasionally, some teachers will be confused to choose one of several teaching methods
that are provided in reading skill. Surely, teachers will find several teaching methods such as
direct explanation, transactional method, interactive constructive method, etc. In the same way,
they try to find the most appropriate one to develop their student’s skill especially in reading
because It will be difficult for students to understand when they read some text if they don’t use
a proper methods. Therefore, teachers should use effective method to develop the student skill in
reading comprehension.

This essay investigates that there are at least three methods which make the teachers
easier to develop the student’s skill in reading comprehension. These are direct explanation,
direct instruction, and interactive constructive method. Every method which is mentioned has its
own benefits until it influences the development of student’s reading comprehension skill.
Generally, this essay will demonstrate what the each method is, how it can influence the reading
skill, and others which relate to improve the student reading comprehension skill.

The first effective method that teachers have to apply is direct explanation which tends to
use the teachers explanation during in the class. The teachers will explain directly how students
can comprehend the text that is provided in the class. Furthermore, teachers should use direct
explanation to develop the student skill in reading comprehension because its effectiveness.
Moreover, there are at least two benefits that this method brings. Firstly, direct explanation
makes a direct interaction between students and the teacher. Surely, when the teacher is
explaining in front of the classroom, teacher can make an interaction by asking some questions
or opinions based on text. Secondly, the teacher directly knows the feedback from the students.
On the other hand, the students will ask some questions when they did not understand of some
explanations or they will perceive well if they understand.

Although the teacher and students can receive some benefits of direct explanation, this
method needs the thoughtful component of teacher explanation. In the same way this method
also demands the teacher to do several things. Roehler, Duffy, & Warren state that “the most
important implication of our findings is what it says about the crucial role of the teacher.
Specifically, good explainers thoughtfully adapt their explanations to fit the instructional
situation. Three examples are illustrative. First, good explainers thoughtfully adapt their plans.
Second, good explainers thoughtfully adapt the modeling they provide. Finally, good explainers
thoughtfully adapt across lesson boundaries” (1998, p.34). Likewise, it is true, of course, that bad
explanations that are provided by thoughtless teachers make students into passive recipient of
information (Duffy, 2002).

Secondly, direct instruction method becomes a method that is able to improve reading
comprehension skill. Direct instruction is quite same like a direct explanation, so the teacher will
stand in front of a classroom presenting the information. In this case, the teacher leads the
students to solve the problems in comprehending the text. As the name implies, the teacher will
instruct students to do some manners to solve the problems which are faced by students while
comprehending the text. Because of its effectiveness, Winn and Mitchell (1991, p.4) “proposed
to use a direct instruction based staff development model to help teachers improve reading
instruction. This method is not only useful for normal students, but it is also effective for
disabilities students”. Kinder and associates (2005, p.3) “summarized the results of 45 studies
that used Direct Instruction materials with students with disabilities. Over 90 percent of these
studies found positive effects for the Direct Instruction programs”. There are six components of
direct instruction: 1). Setting the stage, 2). Explaining to students what to do, 3). Model for
students what to do, 4). Guided practice, 5). Independent practice, 6). Closure or assessment.
This method probably works depending on the type of students who are being taught. Wright and
DuCette (1976, p. 47) “give an example that they found students who had an internal locus of
control-felt that they had personal control over their successes and failures-achieved more in
open approaches than in direct approaches. Students who had an external locus of control-felt
that their successes and failures were due to fate, luck, or other forces outside their control-
achieved equally well in direct as in open approaches”. Therefore, we can conclude that the
effectiveness of this method depend on the personal sense of student.
However, some studies prove that direct instruction is not as effective as traditional
methods that are more flexible for students. They also argue that this method should be used in
the limited conditions, not as the primary method to improve the students reading comprehension
skill. Furthermore, this method also causes the students in gaining lower score. The following
quote is from the study of Milwaukee’s School of Education (2003). They found that Students
who received direct instruction in the first three grades scored significantly lower on overall
reading achievement than students receiving more traditional forms of instruction. They also
scored significantly lower on measures of comprehension.
The last method which is useful to develop the student’s reading comprehension skill is
interactive constructive method. Some people may be confused to define this method because
this is kind of method that it collaborates two kinds of methods. However, this method takes the
medium way to construct understanding of text while reading. Furthermore this method uses the
backgrounds of the students to construct the meaning. In this case, the backgrounds of students
which are mentioned before are knowledge, beliefs, social, experiences, culture, and so on.
According to Spence (1995, p.2) interactive constructive method “involves the interaction of
reader’s prior knowledge, beliefs, concurrent experience, and the text in a sociocultural context
to construct new meaning and understanding”. Surely, those matters will affect how students
produce and understand the meaning of text. For example, when there were two students who
have different religion in one classroom. One student was a Moslem and other was a Christian.
They will be different in constructing and understanding some meanings which relate to their
beliefs such as divinity, prophecy, observance of religious duties, etc. In addition, this method
includes several crucial teaching links. Firstly, the link is teacher’s explanation and
demonstration. This link contains of the teacher’s explanation and demonstration that are
provided at the beginning of the teaching about flexible use of several kinds of reading
comprehension strategies, including different applications of each context. The second link is the
student’s practice. This includes of the importance of teacher’s guidance to help the students
when they practiced this method. Lastly, the link is group discussion and communication. In this
link, the students will take turns by thinking aloud method to make their process of monitoring
and understanding materialized. Their activities are telling others how they connect previous
knowledge with the content and how they summarize. They also can use brainstorm in process of
discussing and communicating. Finally, the interaction between teacher and students will appear
in this process (Feng & Chen, 2006).
In other words, some teachers argue that this method is more complicated than other
methods. They opine the teacher cannot unites the student’s thought when they have some
students who have several cultures, experiences, beliefs, and so on in the same class. They think
this method cannot be success. That is also very difficult for the teacher when he or she has to
check the answers for some questions from the text which are read. Surely, the students will have
different answers based on the different aspects too. It means that the teacher will be difficult to
decide the best answer. Similarly, some parents don’t agree if they found their children are
taught using this method. Their opinion is when the teacher used this method, meaning that the
teacher omitted the purity of the student’s own culture. That will cause the parents in bothering
to return the purity of their children’s culture.
In conclusion, teachers will choose the most appropriate method to improve their
student’s reading comprehension skill. For example, they may argue that the most proper one is
direct explanation by mentioning several evidences which are given by that method. However,
others will disagree with their opinions because they have other reasons to say that the most
appropriate method is direct instruction or interactive constructive method. Although they feature
each other, these three methods are applicable because their own effectiveness. Therefore, the
teachers must be wise to choose which method will be applied by considering its advantages and
disadvantages to develop the student’s reading comprehension skill.
Word count : 1489 words

Reference List

Din, Feng J. (1998). Use direct instruction to quickly improve reading skills. Paper presented at
the Annual National Conference on creating the quality school, Arlington, VA. Retrieved from
files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED416467.pdf
Duffy, G.G. (2002). The case for direct explanation of strategies. In C. C. Block & M. Pressley
(Eds.), Comprehension instruction (pp. 28-41). New York: Guilford

Duffy, G. G. & Roehler, L.R. (1982). Direct instruction of comprehension: what does it really
mean?. Article 5, 23(1). Retrieved from http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/readinghorizons

Feng, Q. & Chen, L. (2016). A study on teaching methods of reading comprehension strategies
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comprehension. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 7(6), 1174-1180.
Doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0706.15

Louden, B. (2014). Direct Instruction and the teaching of reading. Retrieved from
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Stevens, R. J., Slavin, S. E., & Farnish, A. M. (1991). The effect of cooperative learning and
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