English for Academic

Purposes
Unit 3: Academic reading
 Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this unit you should be able to:
• apply the stages in the reading process to textbook reading.
• apply a range of reading skills and strategies to academic reading
texts.
• use note-taking and note-making techniques for study purpose.
 WHAT IS READING?
• A cognitive process that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning
• Reading is an active process of constructing meanings of words.
• Reading with a purpose helps the reader to direct information towards a goal and
focuses their attention.
• Although the reasons for reading may vary, the primary purpose of reading is to
understand the text.
• Reading is a thinking process. It allows the reader to use what he or she may
already know, also called prior knowledge.
• During this processing of information, the reader uses strategies to understand
what they are reading, uses themes to organise ideas, and uses textual clues to find
the meanings of new words.
• Each of the three components of reading is equally important. Let's take a look at
 THE READING PROCESS
The reading process involves three stages:
The pre-reading stage: allows the reader to activate background knowledge,
preview the text, and develop a purpose for reading.
• During this stage, look at the title of the selection and list all the information that
comes to mind about the title.
The during reading stage: when the reader makes predictions as they read and then
confirms or revises the predictions.
• For example, double-entry journal enable the reader to write the text from the
reading on one side and their personal reaction on the other side.
The after reading stage: allows the reader to retell the story, discuss the elements of
a story, answer questions and/or compare it to another text.
• For example, students can create summaries, where they take a huge selection and
reduce it to its main points for more concise understanding.
 READING COMPREHENSION
• It is the ability to process a text, understand its meaning, and to integrate it
with what the reader already knows.
• The skills that are required in efficient reading comprehension are:
• Knowing meaning of words, ability to understand the meaning of a word
from discourse context, ability to follow organisation of a passage, ability to
draw inferences from a passage about its contents, ability to identify the
main thought of a passage, ability to recognize the literary devices or
propositional structures used in a passage and determine tone, to
understand the situational mood in the text, purpose, point of view,
intention, etc.
 FUNCTIONS OF A TEXT
• To narrate
• To converse
• To describe
• To define
• To classify
• To instruct
• To argue
• To inform
• To educate
 READING TECHNIQUES
Scanning: used for getting some specific points by looking at the whole text.
• To highlight important points of a book, readers can scan through the
summary/preface/the beginning and ending chapters of that book.
• for example, looking up a name from the telephone guide book.
Skimming: used for getting the gist of the whole text.
• We generally use this technique when reading a newspaper or magazine.
• With this technique, we read quickly to get the main points, and skip over the
detail.
• It is useful to get a preview of a passage before reading it in detail
• or reviving understandings of a passage after reading it in detail.
 READING TECHNIQUES
Intensive reading: involves reading in detail with specific learning aims and
tasks.
• It is to completely deconstruct a text to absorb as much meaning from it as
possible.
• This is done by taking a text, and systematically looking up every word, phrase,
or collocation that you do not understand.
Extensive reading: to simply read as much as possible without paying
attention to meaning and difficult words.
• The reader doesn’t spend so much time reading, and he/she only looks up
words when you necessary.
 SQ3R
• SQ3R is a comprehension strategy that helps students think about the text they are reading while
they're reading.
• It is also often categorised as a study strategy
• SQ3R helps students "get it" the first time they read a text by teaching them how to read and think
like an effective reader.
• This strategy includes the following five steps (Robinson, 1946):
• Survey: Students review the text to gain initial meaning from the headings, bolded text, and charts.
• Question: Students begin to generate questions about their reading from previewing it.
• Read: As students read, they need to look for answers to the questions they formulated during
their preview of the text. These questions, based on the structure of the text, help students to
focus on their reading.
• Recite: As students move through the text, they should recite or rehearse the answers to their
questions and make notes about their answer for later studying.
• Review: After reading, students should review the text to answer lingering questions and recite the
questions they previously answered.
 Reading speed
• Reading speed refers to the pace of a reader to read a text.
• The pace is determined by our reading skills, i.e better readers read
faster.
• The speed can also be determined by the motive to read, i.e studying
requires slower reading speed.
• Fast readers have an advantage of easily finishing large contents
within a short period of time.
• To become a fast reader, read often, improve vocabulary, and have
the interest to read.
 Critical thinking in reading
• Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue to form a
judgement.
• Critical thinking is an extension of critical reading.
• Thinking critically involves being open-minded – using judgement and discipline to
process what you are learning about.
• Without letting your personal bias or opinion detract from the arguments.
• Critical reading means engaging in what you read by asking yourself questions
such as, ‘what is the author trying to say?’ or ‘what is the main argument being
presented?’
• You should always examine what you are reading critically and look for limitations,
omissions, inconsistencies, oversights and arguments against what you are
reading.
• In academic circles, you will be expected to understand different viewpoints and
make your own judgements based on what you have read.
 Note taking/Note making
• One of the most effective ways to actively engage with your reading is
to make notes as you go along – linking points, pulling out key
snippets of information etc.
• By writing notes, in your own words, you will be forced to think about
the ideas that are presented in the text and how you can explain
them coherently.
• The process of note-taking will, therefore, help you retain, analyse
and ultimately remember and learn what you have read.
 Contextual meaning and contextual
clues
• A context clue is a source of information about a word that helps readers understand
the word.
• This word or phrase offers insight, either directly or indirectly, into the word’s meaning.
• Crazy can be a positive and negative word at the same time, depending on the context.
I am crazy about you. Or She is crazy to refer to a medical condition.
• Contextual clues are hints that an author gives to help define a difficult or unusual
word.
• The clue may appear within the same sentence as the word to which it refers, or it may
follow in a preceding sentence.
• Because most of one’s vocabulary is gained through reading, it is important that you be
able to recognise and take advantage of context clues.
 Cohesive devices
• Transitional words and phrases used in texts to achieve a clear, logical
flow of thought from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to
paragraph.
• Contrast
• Comparison
• Addition
• Exemplification
• Consequence
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cohesive%20devices.pdf
Task