Indonesian-german bicultural literacy comprehension: The students’ inference perspective

Abstract

To comprehend a text, one needs to understand the relationship of various elements in it. The skill that helps connect the non-textual components to the textual ones is making inferences. This research aims to reveal different types of inferences made by the students with German-language proficiency of level B1. A qualitative research approach was applied to obtain more objective, comprehensive, valid, reliable, and in-depth data. The data were analyzed with a narrative research design to describe the students' responses based on the rubric assessment. The results showed that inference within the framework of cognitive dimensions is a form of students' knowledge. They unite pieces of information, then predict, conclude, and synthesize a bicultural text's meaning. The inference types found were the superordinate goal, instantiation of noun category, causal antecedent, the emotion of the reader, referential, thematic, and character emotional reaction. The results of research on inference have a contribution to literacy comprehension and teaching. The various inferences produced by students prioritize the broadness of vocabulary in predicting reading comprehension.