Academic Writing: Reading

ACADEMIC WRITING
PURPOSES AND STRATEGIES OF

READING
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Colle
Reading is ….
• Urquhart & Weir (1988, p.22) define reading as a process of
receiving and interpreting information encoded in language
form via the medium of print.
• Reading, in broad terms, can be basically understood as an
activity involving perception of a written text to comprehend
its content (Schmidt, Rozendal, & Greenman, 2002).
• Grabe (2009, p.5) underlines reading as a part of academic life
that is expected to provide unlimited knowledge from
informational written materials, including assignments or tasks
necessary for the achievement of academic success.
• Reading comprehension involves abilities to recognize words
rapidly and efficiently, develop and use a very large
recognition vocabulary, process sentences in order to build
comprehension, engage a range of strategic processes and
underlying cognitive skills (e.g., setting goals, changing goals
flexibly, monitoring comprehension), interpret meaning in
relation to background knowledge, interpret and evaluate texts
in line with reader goals and purposes, and process texts
fluently over an extended period of time (Grabe, 2014, p.8).
Purposes of Reading
Reading for instruction/learning
•Students look for information needed for their studies or
necessary to be used as a tool to solve a problem.
•Reading for learning or instruction also involves the skills of
thinking critically. Critical thinking skills, according to Facione
(2000:61), have to do with the abilities to think reflectively on
situations in search of possible solutions. In reading, these skills
are used to evaluate, select, synthesize, and integrate information
into the knowledge the reader is already familiar with.
Reading for Information
•Students are required not only to read for information they are
expected to have in order to deal with their course of study but
also they can read other related information to enlarge their
knowledge background which is an important support to help
them understand the world around them.
•According to Grabe (2009:8), when we read for information, it
involves both the skills of skimming and scanning that allow us
to search for information efficiently. These skills can be applied
either combined or isolated in relation to each other, depending
on the demand or relevance of the reading content to the reader.
Reading Techniques and Strategies
Skimming
•Skimming is a quick reading strategy of glancing through a text
to find its general idea.
•In skim reading we quickly take the main idea of the content we
read, without absorbing or looking at every word in the text. That
is, we get the gist of what is written.
•According to Reading & Study Skills Lab, skim reading is a
more text-oriented form of surveying which involves recognizing
the parts of a text with the most important information such as
titles, subtitles, introduction, headings, subheadings, words in
special print, visuals, first and last paragraphs, conclusion, that
often provide valuable background, summarizing, or concluding
information.
Scanning
•scanning is an efficient technique used to find a particular piece
of information rather than general impression, without having the
need to understand the rest of the text.
•This technique involves looking down and around a page
quickly and efficiently searching for specific information we
need.
•It is useful for finding a specific name, date, statistical number,
fact, or detail without reading the whole text.
•during scan reading we should use peripheral vision instead of
focusing only on the logical sequence of the text.
Extensive reading
•Reading extensively means reading in quantity, principally in
works of literature.
•In societies where extensive reading is encouraged, people tend
to gain the culture of reading as much as they can for pleasure in
their first or official language in which reading materials are
accessible in large quantities with regular frequency. These
materials are novels, newspapers, and magazines.
•According to Richards (1998:8), reading research reveals that
many other terms like abundant reading, free reading, wide
reading, and supplementary reading, have been used to refer to
extensive reading, mainly in foreign language pedagogy, to mean
reading rapidly in quantity for pleasure. In this kind of reading,
the reader’s attention is more centred on the content rather than
the language of the text.
• Extensive reading as Richards, Platt & Platt (1992:133)
explain, it is a kind of reading expected to help foreign
language learners to develop a liking for reading in the target
language and consequently expand their language knowledge.
• Contrary to reading for academic purposes, it does not seem to
meet students’ needs in content areas, since the intention is not
primarily to expand the knowledge of the target language but
the knowledge of a specific area. This being so, devoting
careful attention to intensive reading would be more
significant to the research carried out in our particular context.
Intensive reading
•In academic contexts, reading intensively is the greatest
requisite for success. Richards & Schmidt (2002:194) refer to it
as a kind of reading done slowly and demanding a higher level of
understanding information.
•Bogoya González (2011:35) also says it is a language teaching
strategy to make students develop their reading comprehension
ability and the understanding of concepts. Academic intensive
reading implies recognizing, deciphering and constructing
meaning from texts so as to make students be capable of giving
descriptions, explanations and clear illustrations of concepts.
References
•Faccione, P., Faccione, N., & Giancarlo, C. (2000). The
disposition toward critical thinking: Its character, measurement,
and relationship to critical thinking skill. Informal Logic, 20(1),
61-84.
•Bogoya González, A. P. (2011). Fostering fifth graders' reading
comprehension through the use of intensive reading in physical
science. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 13(1), 39-57.
•Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a Second Language: Moving from
Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
•Grabe, W. (2014). Key issues in L2 reading development. In
Proceedings of the 4th CELC Symposium for English Language
Teachers-Selected Papers (pp. 8-18).
• Richard, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). Dictionary of
language teaching & applied linguistics. Essex: Longman.
• Richards, J.C. and R. Schmidt. 2002. Dictionary of Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics (3rd Edition). Essex:
Longman.
• Schmidt, R. J., Rozendal, M. S., & Greenman, G. G. (2002).
Reading instruction in the inclusion classroom: Research-
based practices. Remedial and Special Education, 23(3), 130-
140.
• Urquhart, S. and Weir, C. (1998). Reading in a Second
Language: Process, Product and Practice. London: Longman.

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PURPOSES AND STRATEGIES OF

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