In conclusion, reading is a complex process of thinking. It is the
way the readers use language in daily life in order to communicate with
each other. It is a process of understanding a message through a written
text. It is not a passive activity, but it is a thinking process where readers
employ their background knowledge or past experience and theinformation sources in the reading materials to comprehend the text
From the above discussion, comprehension is the essence of the
reading act. Many reading theorists agree that there are many levels of
comprehension or understanding. Alderson (2000) suggests there are three
levels of understanding: a literal understanding of text, an understanding of
meanings that are not directly stated in text, and an understanding of the
main implications of text. Similarly, according to Gray (1960), there are
three levels of understanding: ‘reading the lines,’ reading ‘between the
lines,’ and reading ‘beyond the lines.’ The first refers to the literal meaning
of text, the second to inferred meanings, and the third to readers’ critical
evaluations of text.
The discussion of levels of understanding leads to the idea that it is
more difficult to reach a critical understanding of text than it is to infer meanings,
and that both of these are more difficult than understanding the literal
meaning. Also, these levels of understanding are ordered. Readers first
learn how to understand text literally, then to infer meaning from text, and only
later do they learn how to approach text critically, to evaluate text, and so on.