ERC411_C6_BI

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

1/22

ERC411 READING IN SECOND LANGUAGE CONTEXTS

THE COMPETENTREADERCHAPTER

LEARNING OUTCOME

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. explain the different components of the COMPETENTmodelof reading;

2. discuss the theoretical foundation of each component of theCOMPETENTmodel; and

3. discuss the pedagogical implications of each component of theCOMPETENTmodel.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

2/22

THE COMPETENT READER CHAPTER 6

1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter seeks to provide a pedagogical framework for reading in L2 which bridges the gapbetween theory and practice. It proposes a framework referred to as the COMPETENTframework which is based on the current reading theory and seeks to bridge the gap betweentheory and practice. It provides a pedagogical tool for teachers to apply in their classroompractices. It is up to you as teachers, to try the different suggestions given and discover what

works best for your students.

6.0 THE BASIS OF THE COMPETENT FRAMEWORK

In many countries, such as Malaysia, a good ability to read not just in L1 but also in L2 isimportant for academic advancement and for professional and self-development. Therefore,designing effective reading programmes poses a challenge for curriculum planners and this is

especially so in L2.

This framework of teaching is based on the consensus of the six key features of thecontemporary view of reading (Grabe 1991, Eskey 1988, Rumelhart 1977), as discussed inprevious chapters, which are as follows:

(a) Reading is fast(b)Reading is purposeful(c) Reading is active(d) Reading is selective(e) Reading is flexible(f) Reading is interactive(g) Concerned with meaning

The above features of reading will be realised in the COMPETENT reading framework whichis specifically designed for the L2 readers.

Can you recall what are the different characteristics of

reading?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

3/22

CHAPTER 6 THE COMPETENT READER ..........................

2

6.1 THE COMPETENT READING FRAMEWORK

This reading framework is designed to emphasize on the active and interactive nature of reading.The aim of the COMPETENT reading framework is to develop COMPETENT, independentreaders. The nine components of this framework are as follows:

Each component discusses its theoretical foundation and followed by its pedagogicalimplications.

6.2 CONCENTRATION ON COMPREHENSION

One of the main aims of teaching reading is to develop students skills in comprehending texts.Students need to employ different reading strategies for different tasks, texts and purpose ofreading. The texts employed must also be made relevant, purposeful and interesting for thestudents.

Discover what your students like, ask them what they like to read, the movies that they like towatch (there is a close relationship between movies, TV shows and reading texts students findinteresting), and observe the reading materials they bring to school.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

4/22


3

When conducting reading lessons, teachers need to be aware that comprehension is bestachieved if students are allowed to read silently. Oral reading is quite different from reading.

There is a very low correlation between oral reading and comprehension.

Oral reading is more related to speaking i.e. pronunciation skills. If oral reading is employed in areading class, it needs to take place after silent reading. This is done to demonstratecomprehension (in contrast to producing comprehension,) or for the purpose of appreciation(especially in literature lessons). Therefore, if you want students to comprehend, let them readsilently first, and reading aloud may follow later.

Developing comprehension skills implies that more time should be spent on teaching anddeveloping students strategies in comprehending rather than testing reading comprehension.

Questions should be employed to help students explore meaning and comprehend the textrather than testing their knowledge about the text. There should be more oral than writtenquestions presented where students are made aware of the different strategies of interpretationsand how language is used to convey meaning.

The lesson should focus not just on the content of the text but also on how to apply theinformation read to other situations and contexts.

Teachers attitude towards students responses must also be looked into. Do not stop right after

a correct answer, and do not punish students for giving wrong responses. Explore the reasonswhy and how the students came to the answer they did, they may get the right answers for the

Reading for comprehension is most likely to occur when the students are

reading what they want to read, or at least what they see good reason to

read

(Eskey 1986:6).

Is reading best achieved silently or aloud? If you decide

to use both, how should they be carried out?

How should wrong answers be responded to?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

5/22


4

wrong reasons, and if there is a misinterpretation, discover the source of difficulty. Mistakesshould be used to help students learn, in fact, one may learn more from mistakes made thanfrom answers that are correct the first time. Have plenty of oral discussions. Such text talkpromotes active struggle with the text and it is the key to developing interpretive skills.

Probe and prompt if there are clues that are missed by the students and make sure that all thestudents are involved. It is terribly easy for an inexperienced teacher to do things the wrong way;to accept an answer without even asking for the reasons why it is acceptable, let alone exploringother answers to see why they are not appropriate (Nuttall 1996:182).

For students who are quiet and passive, ask questions which provide the experience of success.This would certainly help to their boost interest and motivation. Another issue is on the languagethat is used by students in their responses. Should students be allowed to use their nativelanguage in their answers? What if they get the answers correct but used the language wrong?Should oral language ability constraint the quality of answers given by the students? This hasbeen a controversial issue for many years.

The current and more acceptable view is that the use of the native language should not be totallydismissed. The purpose of the lesson is reading comprehension, which is quite different fromspeaking. If insistence on the use of the target language prohibits students from discussing orposes a constraint on the quality of the answers, then the L1 should be allowed. At the sametime, students need to be encouraged to take risks and use the L2 in their responses.

Examples of tasks and activities that can be employed to help develop comprehension are as inTable 6.1:

Table 6.1:Examples of Tasks for Developing Comprehension

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

6/22


5

Detailed explanations of each of the above activities will be furnished in the next

chapter.

6.3 ORCHESTRATE READING STRATEGIES

What are reading strategies? Oxford (1990:81) refers to language learning strategies as:

"Specific actions taken by the learners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more selfdirected, more effective, and more transferable to new situations."

Strategies are divided into two categories; direct and indirect strategies. Direct strategiescomprise of:

(a) memory strategies used for recalling and retrieving new information;(b) cognitive strategies which deal with comprehension and production of language; and(c) compensation strategies which deal with language use when there is inadequate

knowledge.

Whereas indirect strategies consist of:

(a) metacognitive;(b) affective; and(c) social strategies.

Figure 6.1:Categories of reading strategies

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

7/22


6

In reading, Brown (1980:456), defines it as "any planful control of activities that give birth tocomprehension." The planful control starts by having a purpose in reading followed by selectingand attending to the important parts of the passage. It also involves evaluating comprehension,changing inappropriate and ineffective strategies and finally, recognizing and recovering fromany obstacles.

Anderson (1999), provides a list of 24 reading strategies which he divides into three components:cognitive reading strategies, metacognitive reading strategies and compensating reading strategies.

The cognitive and compensating reading strategies will be listed in Table 6.2 and Table 6.3 andthe metacognitive reading strategies will be provided in the following section.

6.3.1 Cognitive Reading Strategies

The following is the list of cognitive reading strategies (Table 6.2).

Table 6.2: List of Cognitive Reading Strategies

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

8/22


7

The following is the list of compensating reading strategies (Table 6.3).

Table 6.3:List of Compensating Reading Strategies

ESL instruction should also seek to provide strategy training lessons in reading. This can becarried out as integrated language tasks under the Malaysian KBSM syllabus. Teachers will firstneed to identify the strategies underlying their classroom practices before deciding whatstrategies need to be taught, developed and enhanced. Then, students need to be introduced to atool kit of strategies. They need to learn when, where and how the strategies should be used.Furthermore, students need to learn to evaluate their use of strategies so that a positive andoptimum outcome of strategy use can be achieved. Readers need to learn to plan, monitor andevaluate their reading.

Students need to be aware that an important component of reading is the ability to orchestratethe use of reading strategies for comprehension to be constructed. Effective reading is gainednot only by employing a specific strategy or a set of processing strategies, but also by the abilityto use the strategies which are appropriate to the situation. This is supported by Anderson(1991:468-469):

Strategic reading is not only a matter of knowing what strategy to use, but also the reader mustknow how to use a strategy successfully and orchestrate its use with other strategies. It is notsufficient to know about strategies; a reader must also be able to apply them strategically.(Anderson, 1991:468-469).

Explain briefly the two categories of reading strategies.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

9/22


8

6.4 MONITOR COMPREHENSION

The ability to monitor one's comprehension during the process of reading reflects students'metacognitive knowledge. Metacognitive knowledge or thinking about thinking is one of the bestskills that readers can use while reading (Anderson 1991).

Previous studies have provided evidence that metacognitive awareness of reading strategiessignificantly contributes to L2 reading ability. A list of metacognitive reading strategies has beenidentified by Anderson (1999:82-83) that will be discussed in the following sections.

6.4 MONITOR COMPREHENSION

Do you think it is important to be able to pronounce words accurately in reading? If you answeryes, then you are looking at reading from the view of bottom-up model. Who proposes this

model? Gough (1972) is a significant proponent of the bottom-up model. According to thebottom-up model (refer to Figure 2.2), reading begins with the eyes identifying visualinformation from the reading text. The visual information is picked up during the process of afixation. Reading is perceived as a serial process, beginning from left to right.

Readers first need to identify each letter, a letter at a time. The identification of letters isfollowed by the identification of sounds. Lexical items are then identified through grapheme-phoneme correspondence and placed in short-term memory (STM). Here, phrases and clausesand sentences are built based on the syntactic information available. A device called Merlin willprocess the deep structure of the sentence until the whole sentence is comprehended.

6.4.1 METACOGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES

The following Table 6.4 lists the metacognitive reading strategies:

Table 6.4:List of Metacognitive Reading Strategies

What is the meaning of metacognition?.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

10/22


9

If students are aware of the array of strategies that they can use, they can learn to select theappropriate strategies that can help them in obtaining meaning from the text they are reading.One way to create awareness of strategy use is by using the think aloud technique. Thinkingaloud makes readers more conscious of their reading processes, and improves both their

concentration and comprehension of the text.

This technique should be introduced in the classroom as it induces students to become moreaware of what they are thinking, what they understand and what they do not, and what they needto do when misunderstanding occurs. Teachers themselves may want to think aloud as they readto model COMPETENT reading so that students may learn to adopt such behaviour. Thistechnique will be explained further in the following moduleTeaching or Reading in ESL.

Other than think aloud, pair work can be carried out where students share reading problems andstrategic resources in overcoming such difficulties. Group work comprising students can also beorganized so that poor readers may learn to use some of their existing strategies more efficiently

and learn to employ new strategies from the good readers.

Other than the above, Winograd and Hare(1988) also recommended the use of Reading RoundRobin and discussion which will also be further elaborated in the following module.

6.5 PROMOTE VOCABULARY GROWTH

From the discussion of the models of reading, one realizes that accurate and automatic wordrecognition skills areprerequisites for fluent reading. Good readers are also found to be betterdecoders. Since their identification skills are automatic, they are able to concentrate better oncomprehension.

This notion is also supported by Stanovich (1980:58) who asserts that good readers are usuallydata driven, "in that it is the speed of their context-free word recognition that allows capacity tobe free for comprehension processes."

To avoid readers from reading slowly, reading letter by letter, and syllable by syllable and toavoid sounding of words vocabulary knowledge need to be developed. A sound knowledge of

vocabulary will lead to automaticity in identification skills and this is supported by (Nation1990:2) who asserted that 'giving attention to vocabulary is unavoidable' as it is central tocomprehension.

There are two types of vocabulary; they are, receptive and productive. Receptive vocabulary arevocabulary that readers recognise and have a general sense of meaning but are not confident

Can you suggest some techniques of developing

vocabulary knowledge?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

11/22


10

enough of using when they speak or write. Productive vocabulary is the vocabulary that readersknow well and use in speaking and writing. Vocabulary acquisition both receptive andproductiveis important in reading.

Figure 6.2:The role of vocabulary acquisition in reading

The question many teachers would post at this point in time is "How can vocabulary knowledgeare developed?" In the next sequel of this module, a chapter will be devoted on the developmentof vocabulary skills.

Basically, the best way to develop knowledge or words is by reading extensively. Previous studiessuch as Hafiz and Tudor (1990) have found that there is a significant increase in vocabularygained for L2 learners who read extensively than those who did not. There are also vocabularyskills that can be developed in the intensive reading class.

They are as follows:

Contextual clues Semantic mapping Morphological analysis Structural clues

Vocabulary skills can be carried out during the different stages of reading pre-reading, while

reading and post reading (Aebersold and Field 1997).

However, it is recommended for one to discuss difficult vocabulary items as a pre-readingactivity only if failure in understanding the target vocabulary impedes comprehension. Previousstudy such as Hudson (1988) has provided evidence that inducing the content schemata is amore significant pre-reading activity compared to inducing the linguistic schemata. This suggeststhat it is better to focus on the content instead of the linguistic item at the pre-reading stage.

6.6 ELICIT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

From the chapter on schema theory, we realize that research on background knowledge providesoverwhelming evidence that it plays a significant role in reading. A reading passage will be

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

12/22


11

comprehended better by readers who have more prior knowledge about it than those who donot have much prior knowledge.

This is supported by by Kobeil (1999), Pritchard (1990), Nunan (1985), Johnson (1981) andSteffensen and Joag-Dev (1979). Lack of either content or formal schemata may lead to differentdegree of non-comprehension. Content schemata refer to prior knowledge of the target culture,

the topic, the subject matter or content-domain knowledge. Formal schemata refer to knowledgeabout the language, the different types of texts, story, grammar, and discourse structures.

Figure 6.3:Types of schemata

Readers need to have the relevant schemata for comprehension to take place. Having thenecessary background knowledge does not automatically induce comprehension. Readers alsoneed to tap into the appropriate schemata so that the new information can be matched,accommodated and/or assimilated to the prior knowledge. "Failure to activate an appropriateschema during reading results in various degrees of non-comprehension" (Carrell and Eisterhold1983:560).

Activating the appropriate network of knowledge should be carried out during the pre-readingstage and this is supported Hudson (1988) and Johnson (1981) who found that pre-reading

activities produced significantly better comprehension scores. Vocabulary input and exposure to

According to schema theory, what are the different

types of schemata?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

13/22


12

the unfamiliar words, as mentioned above, did not contribute as significantly as inducing contentschema.

Examples of pre-reading activities which teachers can use to help activate prior knowledge are asin Table 6.5:

Table 6.5:Examples of Pre-reading Activities

6.7 TRANSCENDS CURRENT READING RATE

Previous studies have provided evidence that reading rates in the second language, even for

highly advanced students is slower than L1 reading rates. As stated by Anderson (1990:183) 'tomany second language readers, reading is a suffocating slow process.' Reading rate development,despite its importance, is an area of reading instruction which is much neglected in the Malaysiansituation.

Developing a speed for reading is important because fluent reading is a rapid process and "thereader needs to maintain the flow of information at a sufficient rate to make connections andinferences vital to comprehension" (Grabe 1991:378). Rapid and accurate identification of lexicaland grammatical forms is an important foundation of reading. When readers are able to readfaster, they are also more encouraged to read, and when they read more, reading improves.

Nuttal (1996 ) explains that COMPETENT readers, read faster. And because they read faster,they will read more and are encouraged to read further. Practice in reading enhancescomprehension and increases the pleasure in reading. Because reading is enjoyable, good readers

will read more as illustrated in the virtuous cycle of a good reader.

Can you suggest some techniques to improve your

students' reading rate?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

14/22


13

On the other hand, slow readers do not enjoy reading. They will, therefore, not read much.Their limited experience in reading will lead to many difficulties in reading which usually result intheir lost of interest in reading. The consequence is, their reading rate does not improve and theyremain as slow readers in the vicious cycle of the weak reader.

There are many techniques in developing reading rate. A topic has also been developed for thispurpose in the following module. Examples of rate building activities are as in Table 6.6.

Table 6.6:Examples of Rate Building Activities

6.8 EVALUATION PROGRESS

In the topic of evaluation, many teachers tend to perceive evaluation as tests: monthly tests,midterm, final exams and national exams. These exams are only part of evaluation. Evaluation isa holistic and an ongoing process, it includes tasks done both formally in class and informally at

home, tasks that provide grades and those that do not, and it focuses on different aspects oflearning.

What is the importance of developing a speed in

reading?

Holistic evaluation is important so that students progress,

or lack of it, can be monitored.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

15/22


14

Figure 6.4:The characteristics of evaluation in reading

In many ESL classrooms, it is common for teachers to use quantitative evaluation in the form ofquizzes and exams. Anderson (1994) recommends that both quantitative and qualitativeassessments be carried out.

Quantitative assessment is in the form of quizzes, placement tests and examinations. Examplesof qualitative assessment are teacher observations, informal interviews, reading strategyquestionnaires and students' verbal reports about their reading processes during reading.

Teachers should observe on students' level of interest, motivation and their attitude towardsreading. Informal interviews and reading strategy questionnaire can also be carried out toinvestigate on students' attitude towards reading, or the difficulties that they face during reading.

Other than this, the thinking aloud sessions as discussed above can provide a lot of insights intostudents 'reading processes. The use of both quantitative and qualitative forms of evaluation,both in formal and informal contexts, provides a more holistic perspective of students readingprogress. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the students, will help teachers in theirinstruction.

Other than the above techniques of evaluation, teachers should also consider using the followingmethods when evaluating (Table 6.7):

What are the different forms of evaluation that you

make use of in your teaching?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

16/22


15

Table 6.7:Ways of Evaluating

6.9 NURTURE READING HABIT

A much quoted slogan and one that was proposed by Frank Smith (1982) and used as the heartof this section: We learn to read by reading.

Reading, just like any other language skills, can be developed only through practice. The moreone reads, the faster one reads, the more one enjoys, and the better one becomes. There is nolimit to the time that one should allocate for reading. The more time one put for reading, themore COMPETENT one becomes.

Reading is a vehicle for learning a second language because it "promotes language competenceand increased language competence enhances reading ability" (Devine 1988b:27). Students learnto read by reading; therefore, it is very important for students to develop the habit of reading.

This habit cannot be achieved if they are to rely on reading that is done in the classroom only.They must also be given access to reading materials outside the classroom.

Therefore, efforts need to be made to get students to read outside the classroom as there isnever enough class time to devote to reading extensively. Extensive reading will help to developreading as a habit which end result is a more knowledgeable and information rich society or whatis referred to as the e-society. Furthermore, as language competence develops, higher levelprocesses such as transferring L1 reading strategies to L2 can be encouraged.

What is extensive reading? Generally, the characteristics of extensive reading are outlined by Dayand Bamford (1998:7-8) as in Table 6.8.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

17/22


16

Table 6.8:Characteristics of Extensive Reading

For extensive reading to be implemented, students need to be provided with a variety of highinterest reading materials which are appropriate for their level. In Malaysia, extensive readingprogrammes such as the Bukti Project in Pahang Darul Makmur and the Nilam Project inSelangor have been introduced to schools. The students will choose book of their interest and oftheir ability to read at home.

Other than this programme, students must also be encouraged to borrow other books from theschool or community libraries to read at their own leisure. Extensive reading programmes needto be carried out in all schools and not just confined to the schools participating in theseprogrammes. English teachers themselves should be good role models by making reading a habit.

Malaysian students also need to be taught to read independently, where they employ their ownresources instead of asking others for help when faced with demanding tasks. In manyMalaysian secondary schools, it is typical for classes to be teacher dominant and conducted usingthe talk and chalk method. This is the situation where teachers will do most of the talking andstudents are to copy notes from the blackboard or copy down notes that are orally dictated to

them.

Students seem to be trained to become mechanical learners where they memorized what ispresented and recall it during the examinations. When students do not understand something,the teachers will do the explaining instead of working out the problems together with thestudents.

This practice may be because the teachers underestimate their students' capability and do notexpect students to be able to solve the difficulties on their own. Such low expectations may leadto the development of the passive instead of the active reader.

Extensive reading also helps to develop the independent, autonomous reader and learner.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

18/22


17

Students will learn to take responsibility and accountability on their learning, learning processand attainment.

There are numerous benefits of extensive reading. It establishes a positive attitude towardslearning the second language, its culture and its people, it develops learners' autonomy, it

increases vocabulary knowledge, reading, writing, listening and speaking, and it improves generalknowledge.

Therefore, extensive reading should be carried out in all schools to help students obtain thebenefits listed above and it starts by getting teachers committed and having texts which areinteresting and meaningful to students be made available.

6.10 TRY A VARIETY OF TEXTS

As mentioned before, one of the characteristics of COMPETENT readers is to be able toadjust reading rate and strategies for different purposes, tasks and texts. Therefore, it isimportant for readers to read a good variety of texts. Examples of reading materials that shouldbe considered are as follows:

a. Language learner literatureb. Young adult literaturec. Magazinesd. Comicse. Learners' own storiesf. Newspapersg.

Novels

Such varieties, however, do not just relate to content. It also relates to rhetorical structures,something that seem to be overlooked by many practitioners. Past studies have providedevidence that rhetorical organisations or formal schemata affects comprehension (Carrell 1985,1992, Meyer and Freedle 1984).

Hatch (1992) proposes a framework which comprises four discourse structures narrative,descriptive, procedural and argumentative. According to her, these are the four main discoursestructures that are used in English reading texts.

The best-known narrative structure is the one developed by Labov (1972). Labov's framework

was designed for the analysis of oral narrative but can be applied to written texts.

Can you suggest reading materials that your students

would be interested in reading?

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

19/22


18

According to Labov, fully developed narrative texts usually have an abstract, orientation,complication, evaluation, result and coda. The abstract provides a brief summary of the story.

The orientation provides information on the setting, time, the characters involved and their roles.This is followed by a complication where the protagonist needs to attain a goal and there areproblems which prevent him/her from attaining it. The complicating actions work towards a

crisis or a turning point.

After this is the result, which reveals the steps taken to resolve the problem. Finally, there is acoda which is a way of returning the story to the moment of telling. There is evaluation which isdistributed throughout the text. For Labov, this is the most important aspect of narrative as thisindicates the underlying reason for it "why it was told and what the narrator is getting at"(1972:366).

The linguistic structures in narrative are associated with descriptive clauses, and action clausesarranged in temporal order to maintain the cohesiveness of the text. Unlike narrative texts,descriptive texts do not have a set template that can define their structure. Descriptions may

focus on the appearance, location, attributes, or function of the components (Davies 1995). Theymay include information on who, what, where, when and how. Descriptive texts are usedextensively in newspapers.

Burgess (1994:312) proposes that the elements underlying descriptive text can be presented interms of grids which represent ideas that are interrelated across two axes the axes ofphenomenon and criteria "a characteristic occurs at the point where a phenomenon meets acriterion." An example of a grid which may represent descriptive structure is shown in Table 6.9.

Table 6.9:An Example of a Grid which May Represent Descriptive Structure

Name Nationality Sex Good Habits Bad Habits

Ali Singaporean Male Reading Sleeping in

class

The information in the grid can be presented in different ways. For instance, the description maystart with Ali (the phenomenon) and his characteristics, or detail different bad habits that arerelated to different individuals.

The procedural discourse structure aims at explaining how a certain task is accomplished. Itgenerally contains an ordered sequence of processes. Each stage of the process usually has itsown goal and the accomplishment of all these goals leads to the achievement of the main goal ofthe passage (Hatch 1992).

There are generally three types of procedural texts. One is a list of instructions such as a recipeor set of directions. This text usually consists of purpose clauses to establish the goal of theprocesses and imperatives such as a list of procedures or directions arranged in temporal orderthat need to be followed to achieve the goal.

Two is a procedural text that deals with natural processes such as the rain cycle. This type of text

usually employs present tense verbs to describe a natural sequence of events. Finally, there areprocedural texts which describe human derived processes (such as harvesting rice) or

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

20/22


19

manufacturing processes (such as manufacturing rubber). The linguistic structure may consist ofpassive verbs in the present tense, if the text describes a general set of procedures or in the pasttense if it describes a specific set of procedures such as reporting a particular experiment.Burgess (1994) proposed the use of flow charts to represent a sequential chain of steps in aprocedural text. An example of a flow chart is given in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5:An example of a flow chart

Maccoun (1983) cited by Hatch (1992) discussed several possible patterns of argumentativediscourse. The possible patterns are as follow:

a) The 'zig-zag' format where the arguments are presented in the pro, con format or viceversa.

b) The problem and refutation of the opposition's view, followed by the solution. Thesolution that is proposed must be a convincing alternative.

c) The one-sided argument where the writer is biased to just one side of the issue.d) The eclectic approach where certain arguments about a specific view are rejected and/or

some others are accepted.

e) By initially giving all the opposing views before refuting them.f) The other side questioned pattern. Instead of directly refuting a certain view, the authorg) may seek to question the opposition's argument. The possible forms for argumentativeh) discourse structures include the problem/solution, causation or comparison rhetorical

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

21/22


20

i) patterns. A possible graphic organiser which represents the top-level processingof

j) argumentative discourse structure is as in Figure 6.6:

Figure 6.6:An example of a graphic organiser

An analysis of English texts employed in Malaysian secondary schools shows that most of thereading passages in the KBSM English textbooks are narrative and descriptive. Some areprocedural. There are very few argumentative texts. There needs to be a balance in the rhetoricalstructures of the texts that is employed.

For beginners' class, narrative should be used more as this is the structure which is the mostfacilitative for comprehension. As the level gets higher, more procedural and argumentative textsshould be employed, as these texts are more demanding to comprehend. Argumentative textsprovide better context for the development of high level thinking skills. It is very important forlearning materials in Malaysian classrooms to employ reading texts with a variety of structures so

that COMPETENT readers and COMPETENT learners can be effectively nurtured.

8/12/2019 ERC411_C6_BI

22/22


21

SUMMARY

This chapter moves the student from theoretical foundation of the study of reading intoapplication of the theories to the effort of improving reading for students. The coursetakes a practical turn here by introducing the objective of the writing course. Readingcourses generally aim to improve the students' ability to read, to produce better readers butoften they fail to familiarize the teachers to what a 'better reader' is. This chapter doesexactly that and it also presents the COMPETENT framework which is a practical guideto designing a reading course with the specific objective of creating better readers

GLOSSARY

Chunking

Compensation

Elicit

Sequencing

Transcend

put into lumps/chunks

coming to an agreement concerning specific point

to dig for, to ask for, to bring out.

putting in arrangement.

to go beyond.

Documents

ERC411_C6_BI