ACADEMIC READING

By : Indry Widyasti Anwar, S.Pd., M.A

WEEK 2
Background?
 Think about your first reading experience. What kind of
reading/book/text you usually read?
 How is your pre-school reading different from your high school reading?
 What makes university reading difficult?
Overview
 Reading skill and vocabulary knowledge have a very
close relationship. Vocabulary knowledge is central
to fluent reading and reading is an important means
for the development of vocabulary knowledge.
 What is reading?
“Reading is a process of translating signs and symbols into meanings and incorporating the
new information into cognitive or affective structures.” (Robeck & Wallace, 1990, p 27)

“Reading is the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via
the medium of print.” (Urquhart & Weir, 1998, p 22)

Reading is:
• an active process of getting meaning from the text.
A competent reader:
• brings prior knowledge of the topic and knowledge of (words and
sounds) system to the task of reading.
Academic reading is the most essential tool for academic
learning .

(Chase et al., 1994; Grabe, 1986; Jensen, 1986; GOOD ACADEMIC

Shelyakina, 2010). READING SKILL

Chase et al. (1994) describe this reading as “the vehicle ACADEMIC SUCCESS
for gathering information and ideas”

However, learners need to gather more than a basic

understanding of a text. Reading is more than simply
understanding text; it also involves interpreting text.
 Paradigms of reading
• Bottom-up approach
• Readers construct meaning from letters, words, phrases, clauses, and sentences BY
processing the text into phonemic units that represent lexical meaning in a linear
manner.
• a series of states happening in a fixed order.
• the reader reads each word in isolation and independent of the whole text.
• Top-down approach
• Readers approach the text with conceptualizations above the textual level already in
operation and then work down to the text itself.
• the reader applies background knowledge to the text, and continually changes
hypotheses about the incoming information.
• Interactive approach
• The reader interacts with the text and uses both bottom-up and top-down strategies as
need be.
See Hudson P33-40
READING VS. CRITICAL READING
Purposes of Reading
1. To scan for specific information
2. To skim to get an overview of the text
3. To relate new content to existing knowledge
4. To write something (often depends on a
prompt)
5. To critique an argument
6. To learn something
7. For general comprehension
 Introduction to Academic Reading:
10

Academic reading is a process, a journey rather than a destination. It

can be defined as reading specifically for academic or educational
purpose. Efficient and effective academic reading will allow you to
quickly answer these questions:

 How do you tell if a document is relevant?

 How do you identify relevant sections?
 How do you quickly find the information you require?
 How do you cut short overly long articles?
Why is it difficult to read
academic material?
1. The words may be new or technical
2. The sentence structure may be complex
3. The paragraphs may be so dense that it is difficult
to decipher information
4. The poetic features may interfere with
understanding
5. The author's tone and style may be unfamiliar
How to conquer difficult reading
1. Read the material again. The first reading lays the
essential groundwork for further understanding the
second time around.
2. Read the material aloud. Imagine that you are the author
talking.
3. Look for essential words. If you are stuck on a
paragraph, mentally cross out all the adjectives and
adverbs and read the sentence without them. Find the
important words (usually verbs and nouns).
4. Stand up and walk around. Changing positions
periodically can combat fatigue.
5. Hold a mini-review by pausing briefly to summarize what you’ve read so
far, verbally or in writing. Stop at the end of the paragraph and recite in
your own words what you have just read.
6. Test your understanding of the material by trying to explain it to yourself or
someone else. We often understand more than we think we do.
7. Use another resource. Sometimes concepts are easier to understand if
they are expressed in another way or by another author. Encyclopedias
and dictionaries are useful for clarifying concepts and helpful background
information.
8. Ask your instructor for help.
 Getting to know your textbook
1. Title and author – titles and subtitles may provide you with more descriptive information.
2. Publication date – located on the back of the title page. Check for most current edition.
Some reading lists may point to older texts because they have produced an important
contribution to the subject.
3. Table of Contents –By looking at the contents pages, you can see if the book covers the
topics that you are studying and how much coverage has been given to the subject.
4. Introduction – detailed overview, possibly chapter-by-chapter summaries.
5. Glossary – alphabetical list of subject specific terms. Use this to build vocabulary, this will
help you when you are writing your essays.
6. Bibliography – alphabetical list of all sources that the author has used to write the book. Use
this to provide additional reading sources.
SKIMMING
SCANNING
 Scanning techniques:
23

 Brainstorm key words/phrases

 Seek specific words

 Keep a visual image of words in mind

 Remember numbers can be presented in numerals as well as

words
 Read highlighted, underlined, or italicised words

 Read sections around key words

 Read the questions first

 Skimming:
24

Skimming is a way to quickly understand what a text’s central points are.

It helps to:

 Quickly review of a document for basic comprehension

 Determine the relevance of an article
 May be useful for revision
 Skim additional texts by particular authors
 Skimming techniques:
25

 Read the title

 Read the introduction and conclusion
 Read the abstract
 Read the first sentence
of each paragraph
 INTENSIVE READING
• Intensive reading: "the readers carefully and closely read a short text
with the intention of gaining an understanding of as much as detail as
possible" (Scrivener, 1994, p.188).
• To read intensively is to completely deconstruct a text, with the goal of
absorbing as much meaning from the text as possible. This is done by
systematically looking up every word, phrase, or collocation that you
do not understand in a text.
• In intensive reading, learners usually read texts that are more difficult
in terms of content and language, than those used for extensive
reading. To help learners make sense of texts that may have a
significant challenge in terms of vocabulary, grammar and/or concepts,
teachers should focus on reading skills, such as identifying main ideas
and guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words from context
(Macalister, 2011).
• When reading intensively, the readers read and focusing on
the new vocabulary, grammatical forms, the purpose of the
author and the problems of the text. These activities help in
improving reading skills, such as skimming and scanning a text
for specific information and reading for detailed information.
• The benefits of intensive reading include enhancing reading
comprehension, helping students by understanding sentence
structure and developing critical thinking.
EXTENSIVE READING
• Extensive Reading (ER) is an approach to second language
reading. When learners read extensively, they read very easy,
enjoyable books to build their reading speed and fluency.
Another way to say this is students learn to read by actually
reading rather than examining texts by studying the
vocabulary, grammar and phrases.
• Extensive Reading gives students chances to read longer
pieces of reading, which they choose, which they can read at
their own speed and at their own ability level.
• Extensive Reading builds vocabulary. When learners read a
lot, they meet thousands of words and lexical (word) patterns
that are not taught in textbooks. Extensive Reading allows the
learner to develop an awareness of collocations (common
word partnerships) and thousands of lexical phrases.
• Extensive Reading helps learners understand grammar. In
textbooks learners meet hundreds of grammar patterns.
However, textbooks do not provide enough meetings with
grammar for real acquisition to occur. Extensive Reading
provides opportunities to see grammar in context so learners
can deepen their understanding of how grammar is really
used.
• Extensive Reading helps learners to build reading speed and
reading fluency. In particular, developing reading speed is
important because it helps learners to understand language
faster and better.
• The characteristics of an extensive reading approach:
• Reading for pleasure requires a large selection of books be available for students to
choose from at their level. Here, teachers can make good use of graded readers
(books which have been written specifically for EFL/ESL students or which have been
adapted from authentic texts).
• Students choose what they want to read based on their interests. If a student finds a
book is too difficult or they don't enjoy it, they can change it for another one.
• Extensive reading is all about reading for pleasure and obtaining information
• Teachers can do a lot to help students pursue extensive reading outside of the
classroom. Having a classroom library and regularly encouraging students to borrow
books to take home are some things which can help.
• The vocabulary and grammar of the books that students read should not pose a
difficulty. The objective of an extensive reading is to encourage reading fluency, so
students should not be stopping frequently because they do not understand a
passage. However, the books should not be too easy as students might feel they are
getting nothing out of the books.
Managing Your Reading Time
 If you are assigned a 70-page chapter to read for next week’s class,
try not to wait until the night before to get started. Give yourself at
least a few days and tackle one section at a time.
 Find a comfortable place and convenient time for you to start reading
 Pick out the most important assignments and group readings by topic
beforehand. Consider putting the books and printouts into piles by
subject or theme, with the most important readings on top.
 Despite the common practice of all-night cram sessions, most academic
experts agree that students should set time limits for their academic
readings