READING BETWEEN THE LINES: UTILIZING FICTION TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD

Reading and literacy have always come hand in hand when being discussed, oftentimes they would also be used interchangeably. But what we assume to be literacy, may be considered different by others. While some might consider literacy as measurable and value-free—thus, being easily standardized, others might be in favor of literacy being far more complex with some underlying socioeconomic situations playing into action. This could be seen with the contrast from the BPS (Badan Pusat Statistika) survey that stated Indonesia’s current literacy rate at a whopping 98% while also seeing the PISA survey stating that Indonesia has an average lower percentage in all subcategories. This serves concerns nationwide, as many layers of the public are taking a stance on the issue. A way that the Indonesian Government handled the situation by having a mandatory 15-minute silent reading program in schools. While it indeed was a great move, UNESCO still found that Indonesia’s reading interest was still 0,001% meaning that in every 1.000 people, only one is an active reader. The Ministry of Communication and Information of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenkominfo) on its official website also released the results of research entitled World's Most Literate Nations Ranked conducted by Central Connecticut State University in March 2016, Indonesia was declared to be ranked 60th out of 61 countries regarding reading interest, just below Thailand (59) and above Botswana (61) (RRI, 2024).

A major hypothesis for this would be the idea that people have with reading is associated with learning, especially when pushed by the government itself. When people are already forced to do something, despite usually enjoying the action, they have this subconscious burden that they don’t feel pleasure in compared to doing it on their own. This phenomenon is called the overjustification effect, where—in some theories—it considers external actions are considered as a coercive force threatening ourselves. When we assume the average Indonesian high schooler who goes to school at around 6.30 in the morning, studies until around 14.00/15.00 in the afternoon, and lastly adding the hours of the extracurriculars that they attend, of course, they would feel unmotivated to use that 15 minutes of silent reading to actually read. Despite this, abolishing the silent reading program entirely isn’t a good reaction either. Because of the idea that students are fully allowed to pick whichever genre of the book they are reading, it could invite them to read for fun.

Reading is a way for people to understand the world around them without physically being there, and while schools provide the theoretical views with their textbooks, literary fiction is an amazing way to see beyond the fixed glasses. Fiction takes the role of many, some taking part in the future with their ideals or even concerns (sci-fi and dystopian fiction respectively), others might even write an alternative narrative into an already happened scenario (historical fiction). Moloi and Adegoriol have previously researched about the correlation between fiction reading and the overall reading comprehension of college-level students in South Africa, stating that fiction challenges the readers’ critical thinking by presenting imaginative and/or non-factual elements that hence require interpretation and understanding. This proves that reading fiction could not only be used as a break from learning about theoretical values taught in school but also as an alternative way to see and understand the world. 

When we focus on Indonesia, the bestsellers in the major bookstore Gramedia tend to be of the fiction genre, while varying in fiction types are fiction nonetheless (as of writing). While some might assume the bestseller section of a bookstore to be shallow, it is an insight into the reading habits of the current market. Books like “The Sea Speaks His Name” (often goes by the Indonesian title “Laut Bercerita”) by Leila S. Chudori is an amazing example of utilizing fiction as a way to open up on the more serious socio-cultural issues that have happened in Indonesia. Using a likable cast, relatable settings, and well-written subplots already hook readers into looking into the book also since the book is tagged as fiction it could reach a larger audience without thinking it's a heavy topic. 

Other examples of using fiction as a tool to critique the socio-culture of the nation would be Eka Kurniawan’s “Beauty is a Wound” (“Cantik Itu Luka”) and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s “The Earth of Mankind” (“Bumi Manusia”). “Beauty is a Wound” shows a perspective of the nation’s grim past on the rapacious offhand greed of colonialism while it takes on a more whimsical take as it takes inspiration towards local folk-tales and puppetry identical with his West Javanese roots. “The Earth of Mankind” delves into the historical colonial setting of Indonesia from the perspective of a Javanese royal studying in an elite Dutch school as he faces racial and hierarchical discrimination from his fellow classmates.

Despite so, stories like “The Rainbow Fish”, “The Giving Tree”, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and even the “Si Kancil” series are as full of views and critiques of the world around us as the books mentioned prior a while still very light and easily digestible. One shouldn’t feel that they aren’t as well-versed as their peers just because they don’t read all the popular self-help books, or completely understand the technical contents of a high-written textbook. Every type of book is an open window to how we can see and react to the world around us, whether as whimsical as it can be. 

References:

Alison David (no date) Encouraging Reading for Pleasure: A Low-Cost, High-Impact Intervention That Works! Available at: https://www.proquest.com/openview/9ad84b9f3ac759c8efa11ffa3503649d/1?cbl=296199&pq-origsite=gscholar.

Dan Pilat and Dr. Sekoul Krastev (no date) Why do we lose interest in an activity after we are rewarded for it?, The Decision Lab. Available at: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/overjustification-effect.

Gu, Y. and Lau, K. (2021) ‘Examining the effects of integrated instruction on Chinese sixth-graders’ reading comprehension, motivation, and strategy use in reading fiction books’, Reading and Writing, 34(10), pp. 2581–2602. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10161-6.

Indonesia, B.-S. (no date) Literacy Rate of Population Aged 15 Years and Over by Sex - Statistical Data. Available at: https://www.bps.go.id/en/statistics-table/2/MTQ2MCMy/literacy-rate-of-population-aged-15-years-and-over-by-sex.html.

Indrasari, Y. (no date) UNESCO Sebut Minat Baca Orang Indonesia Masih Rendah, rri.co.id - Portal berita terpercaya. Available at: https://www.rri.co.id/daerah/649261/unesco-sebut-minat-baca-orang-indonesia-masih-rendah.

Kompasiana.com (2024) UNESCO: Minat Baca di Indonesia Masih Rendah, Tantangan dan Solusi Bagi Literasi Nasional, KOMPASIANA. Available at: https://www.kompasiana.com/ahmad090104/6705d1ebc925c44ba74a5c82/unesco-minat-baca-di-indonesia-masih-rendah-tantangan-bagi-literasi-nasional.

Moloi, T. (2024) ‘Examining the Impact of Fictional Stories on Reading Comprehension: Successes and Insights’, Research in Educational Policy and Management, 6(2), pp. 281–291. Available at: https://doi.org/10.46303/repam.2024.35.

Moloi, T. and Adegoriolu, E. (2023) ‘Fictional Stories: The learning strategy to mitigates challenges of reading comprehension for university students’, Journal of Curriculum Studies Research, 5, pp. 69–85. Available at: https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.15.

Panggabean, A.D. (no date) Ini Data Statistik Penggunaan Media Sosial Masyarakat Indonesia Tahun 2024, rri.co.id - Portal berita terpercaya. Available at: https://www.rri.co.id/iptek/721570/ini-data-statistik-penggunaan-media-sosial-masyarakat-indonesia-tahun-2024.

Sari, E.K.E.K., Afifi, N. and Aini, N. (2024) ‘EXPLORATORY LEARNING OF FICTION TEXTS FOR BOOSTING READING COMPREHENSION OF TENTH GRADERS’, JEELL (Journal of English Education, Linguistics and Literature) English Departement of STKIP PGRI Jombang, 10(2), pp. 39–48. Available at: https://doi.org/10.32682/jeell.v10i2.3399.

Zulfa Sakhiyya (no date) The literacy myth, The Jakarta Post. Available at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/09/14/the-literacy-myth.html.