Reading is one of the important skills in any language. Reading is a process of constructing meaning from written texts. In considering the reading process, we have to distinguish reading activities into two; Reading for meaning or silent reading and reading aloud.
Considering the reading process, expert readers deal with the four levels of meaning:
1. The literal meaning
2. The interpretive meaning
3. The critical meaning
4. The creative meaning
Literal meaning
‘Literal meaning’ means word meaning, which is directly stated in a text. Literal meaning usually can be in the form of information. Every reader can understand the information directly with little effort. That information can be facts and details, sequences of events, main ideas and generalizations, and causes and effects. The readers need not have to dig too deeply to get at it.
Interpretive meaning
Interpretive meaning is on the other hand. It is another level of meaning which can find out only through interpretation. To read at the interpretive level, readers have to read ‘between the lines, because ideas and information are not directly stated there in the text. and readers have to make inferences or assumptions about numerous factors like time relationships – the year, time of day, and season; geographical relationships; cause-and-effect relationships; the ages, feelings, and familial relationships of characters if it is not stated directly. In an interpretive text, writers do not always state facts directly, readers have to interpret in order to get meaning. Writers usually express interpretive meaning through literary allusions, idiomatic expressions, and figures of speech.