READING FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES
Compiled By :
Drs. Tajul Arifin, M.Ed.
SEKOLAH TINGGI KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN
(STKIP) SILIWANGI BANDUNG
STRATEGIES FOR READING COMPREHENSION
1. Identify the purpose in reading.
2. Use grpahemic rules and patterns to aid bottom-up decoding ( especially for beginning level learners ).
3. Use efficient reading for relatively rapid comprehension ( for intermediate to advance levels ).
4. Skim the text for main ideas.
5. Scan the text for specific information.
6. Use semantic mapping or clustering.
7. Guess when your aren’t certain.
8. Analyze vocabulary.
9. Distinguis between literal and implied meanings.
10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationship.
TYPES OF CLASSROOM READING PERFORMANCE
1. Oral and silent reading.
2. Intensive and extensive reading
Classroom Reading Performance
a. Extensive reading is carried out to b achieve a general understanding of a usually somewhat longer text (book, long article, or essays, etc. ). Most extensive reading is performed outside of class time. Pleasure reading is often extensive. Technical, scientific, and professional reading can, under certain special circumstances, be extensive when one is simply striving for global or general meaning from longer passages.
b. The advantage of extensive reading were discussed in the first section of the chapter. By simulating reading for enjoyment or reading where all concepts, names, dates, and other details need not be retained, students gain an appreciations for the affective and cognitive window of reading : an entres into new worlds. Extensive reading can sometimes help learners get away from their landency to overanalyze or look up words they don’t know, and read for understanding.HOW TO REMEMBER NEW WORDS
> Write the word and its definition often, just for practice.
> Say the word. Learn to pronounce it correctly by using the pronunciation clues in your dictionary.
> Try to learn the word and its meaning the first time you see it.
> Use index cards to study vocabulary. Write the word on one side of the card and its definition one the other side.
> Make up a phrase or a sentence that uses the word in a way you understand.
> Change the ending of the word : try to make it plural; try to change the tense; try to add ly.
> Use the word when you talk – in class, on the job, at home.
> Use the word whenever you can in your writing assignments.
> Say the word and its meaning over and over again in your mind.
USING A DICTIONARY
> How to spell a word or its special plural form.
> Whether or not a word is capitalized or abbreviated.
> How to break a word into syllables.
> How to pronounce a word.
> How a word fits into the English system of grammar ( what part of speech it is : verb, noun, adjective, and so forth).
> Different meanings of a word, along with aynonyms (words that have the same meaning) and antonyms (words that have opposite meanings).
> A sentence or an expression that uses a word correctly.
> The meaning of important prefixes and suffixes.
> The special uses of a word.
> The history of a word.
> Words made from a main word.
> Foreign word and phrases.
> Abbreviations.
> Addresses of colleges or government offices.
> The population of cities and countries.SKIMMING
> Make sure that you know what information you are looking for. Ask yourself a question. Look for the key word.
> Move your eyes quickly from line to line and from sentence to sentence.
> When your think you’ve found what you are looking for, stop.
> Read slowly the part of the line or sentence that tells you what you want to know.
> Think about the question you were trying to answer.
> Does the information you found answer the question? If not, quickly read the passage again to look for the information you need.
> Jot down the answer to the question you’ve asked.
FACT - FINDING
> Have a definite purpose for reading. Are your reading a page of your biology book to find out how the eye works? Are your reading a chapter of a political science text to learn the meaning of democracy? Or do you read only because an instructor made an assignment? Are you reading the newspaper out of general interest or for a specific research project?
> Learn to read for the main idea. If you recognize the main idea easily, the acts to support that idea will stand out.
> Know that all facts and details are not equal in importance. Look only for the facts that relate to the main idea.
> Look for information in groups or units. Facts often appear together in clumps.
> Look for the way the paragraph is put together. How is the information arranged? Has the writer organized the material in terms of a pattenr that is easy to see?
> Lear to keep an author’s opinions apart from the facts offered in the writing.
> Question yourself as your read. Stop to think and to let facts sink in before you rush on to other information.Ask yourself, “what does that mean?” or “what does that information tell me?” or “whay is this information here?”
> Use the five W’s when your read in order to ask yourself specific questions about the facts.
1. Ask yourself “Who?” then look for the name of someone of something.
2. Ask yourself “When?” then look for a date (a day, a month year) or a time of day or year.
3. Ask yourself “Where?” then look for words that show a location or name a place.
4. Ask yourself “What?” or “What happened?” then look for some action.
5. Ask yourself “Why?” then look for an explanation of some act or event.
> Think about the kinds of questions someone might ask you about the information you have read. Go back after you have finished to re-read quickly and review any facts you have learned. Try to summarize the important facts in your mind.
MAJOR DETAILS, MINOR DETAILS
> State the main idea in your own words.
> Look only for information that supports the main idea.
> Read quickly over the words or sentences that give information that is not important to the main idea.
> Look for signal words like most importans, first, finally,the facts are and so on.
> Underline the major details when you locate them.BUILDING INFERENCE SKILLS
> Try to read beyond the words. Fill in details and information based on the writer’s suggestions.
> Question yourself as you read “Why is this person doing. What she is doing?” you might ask as you read “What can I do infer from the scene?” supply the answer on the basis of the writer’s hints and you own experience.
> If a writer describes a person, try to understand the person from how she moves, what she says, what she looks like. You can infer things about character from the way a person behaves. Try to build a picture of the person in your mind ; bae your picture on the writer’s description of action and appereance.
> If you find that you cannot easily answer a question about what you have read, remember to use inference skills. Return to the part of reading where you expect the answer. Then see if the writer suggests something that yourself have to supply in clearer terms.HOW TO FORM CONCLUSIONS AND PREDICT OUTCOMES
> Be sure you know the main idea of selection.
> Be sure you understand all the facts or details that the writer gives to support the idea.
> Check on difficult vocabulary. Did you use sentences clues to figure out that manna had something to do with food? (and food supplied as if by a miracle – like the food that came to the Jaws in the wilderness – is called manna).
> Look out for the logic of action. Did you follow the sequence? Did you put events together in the right order of time or place to help you predict what would happen?.
> Look at the way people are described. Can you tell from their personalities – from the way they think and feel – just how they might act?.
> Ask yourself after you read : what will happen as a result of these actions or events?.
> Be careful to buold your conclusion on evidence you find in what you read and not exclusively on your own opinions, like, and dislikes. Of course you need to rely on your own experience to help you figure out how things may happen. But most of your conclusions must be based on what you read in the selection.
EVALUATING IDEAS
> Does the author carefully separate objective fact from opinion?
> Does the passage present the facts completely, specifically, and accurately?
> Does the author seem reliable? Can you see what strengths or experience make the author qualified to write about a topic?
> Does the author make any claims that seem outrageous or unsupportable?
> Does the author make his or her intent or point of view clear?
> Does the author take into account other points of view on the topic?
> Does the author try to appeal more to your emotions or to your reason and common sense?
> Do your emotions get in the way of your ability to judge an author’s statements fairly?
> Does it seem that the author is slanting information in such a way as to prejudice your ideas? Is the author using propaganda?UNDERLINING
A. A Method for Underlining
> Underline only reading material that belongs to you. Do not mark up library books, borrowed books, or books belonging to your school.
> Underlining is a personal process. Your underlining may interfere with other reader’s use and enjoyment of a book.
> Mark the main ideas and the major details differently. Underline the main ideas with a double line, and the major details with a single line. Or use a different color high lighter pen for each.
> Find main idea sentences by following the suggestions in section 5b. Underline the sentences or parts of sentences that state the main idea of a paragraph. If the main idea are only implied, write your own main-idea sentence in the margin.
> Find major details by following the suggestions in section 6b. Underline these major details.
> Circle key words. Use brackets (), asterisks (*), or any other symbol to mark parts that are especially interesting or important to you.
> Write notes or comments to yourself in the margin. The margins are good places to put down your own thoughts as you read. Margin notes can help you connect ideas from different parts of the selection. They can also help you connect a passage with other material you havse read, comments your teacher has made, or your own experience.
B. A Method for Taking Notes
> Find the main ideas following the suggestions in section 5b. Write these main ideas down on notebook paper, starting at the left margin of the paper. You may copy the entire main idea sentence as it appears in the reading, shorten it, or put the idea in your own words. You can even jot down just a few key phrases from the printed text as long as they capture the main idea.
> Find the major details, following the suggestions in section 6b. List them opposite or beneath your notes on the main ideas. Again you need not copy down whole sentences. Phrases or words will do. Your own wording of the printed text will do. As long as your notes, weeks or months later.
> Use abbreviations, but make sure you will be able to understand their meanings when you return to the notes, weeks or months later.
> Add your own comments and thoughts in the margin or in a special section at the bottom of the page. These comments will help you think trough the importance of the material or highlight its relation to other reading you have done.
> You may use a similar method for taking notes during course lectures. Make sure you keep up with the lecture . Don’t get so caught up in taking notes that you stop listening to the lecture. If you find the lecturer getting too far ahead of you, stop writing and start listening. If you skip a few lines, you can always complete your notes later from memory or from a friend’s notes. During lectures, avois fussing over the spelling and ezact wording of your notes. You can always check the dictionary later.OUTLINING
To Make Successful Outlines
> List only main ideas as main headings.
> Relate all subheadings to the main heading they follow.
> Make sure all the headings in a series fit together logically.
> Make sure the headings are clearly different so that they don’t cover the same material. If there is too much overlap you should reorganize the outline.
> Make sure that whenever you break down a heading you have at least two subheadings.
> Include everything important that appears in the selection you are outlining.
> Use whole sentences, phrases, or just single words, as long as the entries convey the information and are easy to understand. If you use sentences, however, you should use sentences throughout the outline.
> Indent all items correctly.
> Put a period after each letter or number.SUMMARIZING
How to Prepare a Summary
> Read carefully the entire passage to be summarized. Make sure you understand all its vocabulary and concepts. Check a dictionary when necessary.
> Underline or list separately the main ideas and major details of the reading.
> Select the main idea of the passage as the most important idea of the summary. This will usually be the first sentence of your summary.
> Rewrite facts and ideas into sentences that show connections amon them. If you combine several facts and ideas in one sentence, make their connections clear. Be careful not to combine information without any logical connection.
> Avoid repeating unnecessary words from the original material. Leave out all but the most important details.
> Present ideas and information in an organized way that reflects the meaning of the original version. Don’t jump suddenly from one point to the next. Use connecting words like first, second, on the other hand, because, and although to show your summary statements fit together.
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