Reading is the ability to read text, process it, and understand its meaning. An individual's ability to comprehend text is influenced by their traits and skills, one of which is the ability to make inferences. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read. Reading skills include skills acquired through reading, such as comprehension, fluency and independence. Overall, these skills give students the ability to turn words on a page into a clear meaning. Teaching reading is not easy because we need to use learning approach that suitable with the condition. There are some principle in teaching reading(Harmer,2003). Those principles are:
a. Reading is not a passive skill
Reading is a very active activity. Reading means understanding what the words mean, see the picture and the words are painting, and understand the arguments. If readers do not do these things, they only come to the surface of the text that is very easy to be forgotten.
b. Students need to be engaged with what they are reading
If the students are not engaged with the reading text, it will make them uninterested in reading it. Therefore, reading material should be about the topic that they familiar with.
c. Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language
It is important to read the text in order to study the way to use the language, but it is also important to give a chance for the students to give their opinion towards the message that it contains.
d. Prediction is major in reading
Book’s cover, the headline, the words processed page are the parts of the things that can bring the “hint” for the readers to predict what is the book will be about. In teaching reading, a teacher should be able to build that kind of “hint” in order to make them able to predict what is the text will be about. By doing this, it will help the learners become a better and more engaged readers.
e. Match the task to the topic
In selecting reading material, a teacher should think about the appropriate reading task. It should be in line with the purpose of the reading activity. This is important since an inappropriate task will lead the learners to be bored.
f. Good teacher exploit reading text to the full
Good teacher should integrate reading text into interesting class sequences, using the topic for discussion and further task, using the language for study and later activation.
The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning process becomes a trend in today’s education process. It is because the use of ICT is believed to bring benefits for both the students and the teachers. However, integrating ICT in teaching and learning process should be well planned and accompanied by a proper instructional strategy in order to achieve the best result (Clarck & Mayer, 2008). Therefore, before deciding to apply ICT during the instruction, teachers need to know about how to integrate ICT in the teaching and learning process.
With particular emphasis on the reading classroom, Case and Truscott (1999) stress the importance of computers and the internet as good sources in developing reading skills. They argued that computer-based reading helps increase students’ interaction with texts, attention to individual needs, and increases independence through an ability to read texts they would not otherwise be able to read. It also helps them improve their sight word vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension which are crucial for improvement in reading. Similarly, AlKahtani (1999) comments that previous research about the use of computers for reading instruction clearly supported the idea that computer-based instruction facilitates students’reading comprehension and increases their reading speed such as studies conducted by (Kulik et al, 1983). Moreover, Pérez Correa et al (2004) provide guidelines for successful computer- reading instruction in the classroom:
1. Computer instruction in reading should focus on meaning and stress reading comprehension.
2. Computer instruction in reading should foster active involvement and stimulate thinking.
3. Computer instruction in reading should support and extend students knowledge of text structure.
4. Computer instruction in reading should make use of content from a wide range of subject areas.
5. Computer instruction in reading should link reading and writing.
E-learning is an approach to learning and development, a collection of learning methods using digital technologies, which enable, distribute and enhance learning. From those definitions, it can be understood that e-learning deals with the use of electronic media in transferring or supporting teaching and learning process. The teacher can used E-learning website to teach reading that synchronize with ICT technology.