Saturday, June 23, 2012

Ctitical Review 1


Critical Review on “Reading for Academic Purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL Teacher” by William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller

Sukardi
English Language Teaching (ELT) Department, Graduate School,
State University of Malang, Indonesia

Email: skardi70@yahoo.com


INTRODUCTION

Many have argued that in the past 15 years reading has been the most important academic language skill for second language students. Surveys on the reading for academic purposes have been conducted. In academic setting, reading is assumed to be the central means for learning new information and gaining access to alternative explanation and interpretations. In addition, reading provides for foundation for synthesis and critical evaluation skill (Grabe and Stoller: 2001).
Related to the information above which is closely related to the importance of reading for academic purposes, the reviewer would like to write a critical review on “Reading for Academic Purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL Teacher. The article is written by William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller in 2001. William Grabe is a Professor of Linguistics at English Department of Nothern Arizona University. He holds his Ph.D degree on Linguistics from University of Southern California. He has a lot of professional backgrounds and administrative positions as well as has published many books and writes
articles on journals of language teaching. While Fredricka L. Stoller is Grabe’s colleague
at Nothern Arizona University.
This article focuses on the reading theory and practice as they apply to academic context. They outline the central concepts underlying academic reading and their implications for instruction. Then, they highlight issues concerning with the development of reading curricula including the analysis of needs and choosing appropriate texts and materials. Eventually, they describe specific practices that build coherent and effective reading curricula.
However, in the discussion, it is found out that some components have not been discussed the completion of all of the presentation. Despite of this fact, to the overall, the materials coped in the discussion have met the need of the practice of reading for academic purposes. To make it more complete, the components needed for completion may be added.
To comprehend more on the contents of the article and the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the article, here is presented the critical review of this article. It is done in order to get much more information on the contents of the article. It is important to do in order to have much more information to the ESL/EFL teachers.

BODY/SUMMARY

            Grabe and Stoller start his article by presenting the purposes of reading. In the academic setting, an EAP reading curriculum must account for how students learn to read for multiple purposes which at least include reading: a) to search for information; b) for general comprehension; c) to learn new information; and 4) to synthesize and evaluate information.
            Next the writer discusses the definition of reading. The general definition of reading can be understood as taking general comprehension by drawing information from a text and combine it with information and expectations that the reader already has. However, a good way to understand reading is to consider what is required for a fluent reading.
            In the following part the writer write the general implications from research for reading instruction. The basic implications can be seen that EAP teachers can address the academic reading needs of their students by doing the followings:
  Helping students build large recognition vocabulary
  Providing explicit language instruction
  Addressing the range of skills needed for successful comprehension
  Introducing students to discourse-organizing principles
  Helping students become strategic readers
  Giving students opportunities to read
  Making extensive reading and broad exposure to L2 texts a routine practice
  Motivating students to read
  Integrating reading and writing instruction
  Developing effective content-based instruction for authentic integrated-skill task
The L2 readers and socio-cultural factors in learning to read is the next issue to
elaborate in this article. Due to the condition of L2 compared to the L1 readers there are some different facts of them, manly: a) the complexity of reading and corresponding; b) the different motivation; c) the different socio-cultural background; d) The different setting of ESL and EFL.
            There are at least six important goals that should be considered in planning any
extended  EAP reading curriculum:
  Conduct need analysis to interpret institutional goals and expectations for learning
  Plan (or fine-tune) reading curricula in the relation to specific goals, topics, texts,
and tasks
  Select appropriate text materials and supporting resource
  Diversify students’ reading experiences
  Work with texts by means of pre, during, and post-reading framework
  Recognize the complex nature of reading through meaningful instruction

CRITIQUE

            In the introduction, the writers of this article, William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller provide all aspects related to the guidelines for the ESL/EFL teacher in the reading for academic purposes. Yet, in this case the reviewer thinks that there are at least two main aspects that are not coped in this article. They are: 1) the time allocation needed for certain amount of curricula and 2) how to develop the reading comprehension in the reading for academic purposes.
This article does not present the allocation of time needed for certain amount of the curricula cope. The distribution of the time allocation should be integrated in this presentation as what Taillefer (2005:442) discusses in his report of research on reading for academic purposes. By having this component we may see and can plan what to do with our program on such issue. To make it clearer how much time is needed for a certain programs on the reading for academic purposes, it is suggested that a research is carried out.
            In addition, this article does not cope how to develop the reading comprehension on the reading for academic purposes. The ideas of the ways in developing the reading comprehension should be similar to the development of the ESL reading comprehension as Lenters (2004:334) proposed in reading instruction for young second-language learners. The steps of developing the reading comprehension of the readers in reading for academic purposes are indeed needed in order that we may get obvious steps and procedures in
developing the reading for academic purposes itself. By doing so, we hope that we can get
the best results and products in reading for academic purposes.


CONCLUSION
To sum up, by having discussion, consideration, and judgment above, the
 followings are the conclusions that can be drawn:
Content-based instruction approach is designed to meet the effective academic reading instruction. In CBA to reading, one can assume that reading multiple sources of information will be the norm and that there will be many opportunities for meaningful extensive reading Technology can support the reading development—computer-based instruction. Addressing reading assessment is an issue that cannot be ignored. Teachers need to evaluate course and teaching effectiveness in addition to assessing student progress
To the overall, though some elements of the discussion on the reading for academic
purposes have not been presented, however, all of the components to discussed in this article have met the need of the teachers’ guideline of English as a second or foreign language. Due to the facts that there have not been the discussions on the time allotment  and the ways of developing reading comprehension in reading for academic purposes, so both of the elements mentioned above had better to be included in the discussion. By doing so, we may have more complete aspects or elements needed as guidelines in reading for academic purposes for ESL/EFL teachers.
            To highlight the result of the simple discussion above, here we may say that the article presented by Grabe and Stoller (2001) have given comprehensive and adequate guidelines for the ESL/EFL teachers in relation to reading for academic purposes. The guidelines can be applied purposefully in the country of English as a second and foreign language.






REFERENCES
Grabe, W and Stoller, F.L. 2001. Reading for Academic Purposes: Guidelines for the
ESL/EFL Teacher. In Celce-Murcia, M (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or
 Foreign Language. 3rd Edition (p.p. 187-203). Boston: Heinle and Heinle
 ESL.

Lenters, K. 2004. No Half Measures: Reading Instruction for Young Second-Language
Learners. The Reading Teacher, Vol. 58 No. 4 (Dec. 2004-Jan. 2005),  p.p. 328-
336,(http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205486, accessed: 11/05/2012.

Taillefer, G. 2005. Reading for Academic Purposes: the literacy practices of British,
French and Spanish Law and Economics students as background for study abroad.
 Journal of Research in Reading, ISSN 0141-0423. Vol. 28, Issue 4, 2005, p.p. 435-
4651.

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