English

Zuhana Mohd Zin,Shameem Rafik-Galea,Eng Wong Bee

doi:10.17576/3l-2014-2002-04

Abstract

Critical reading is an important ability to acquire particularly among college or university students. This study investigated the level of critical reading skills among Malaysian ESL learners at the tertiary level. The motivation for conducting the study is due to the increasing number of claims by employers and educators that most graduates lack the ability to read and think critically. Among the required reading and thinking abilities necessary to read a text critically are the analytical and inference skills. Specifically, this study examined the ESL learners’ analytical and inference skills when they read two expository texts. A self-developed critical reading comprehension test (CRCT) was used to measure their analytical skills in identifying the writer’s purpose and the main ideas in the text. The findings indicated that the students lacked the required critical skills, in particular, when they are required to identify the writer’s purpose and the main idea in the text which support the observation and experience of many Malaysian educators and researchers. This has direct implications on reading development in Malaysia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2014-2002-04 Key words: critical reading; critical thinking; higher-order reading comprehension; analytical and inferential skills; Malaysian ESL tertiary level learners

Highlights

Many literacy researchers highlight the importance of critical literacy development for college adolescent readers to ensure academic success and to prepare them for their future undertakings at the workplace (Conley & Wise 2011, Ippolito, Steele & Samson 2008)
In Malaysia, critical reading or critical literacy is a relatively new area that has increasingly caught the interest of educators and researchers
The present paper presents part of a study that examined the critical reading ability of Malaysian undergraduates in identifying the writer‟s purpose and the main idea in a text in order to determine their level of underlying reasoning and inferential skills in reading

Summary

Introduction

Many literacy researchers highlight the importance of critical literacy development for college adolescent readers to ensure academic success and to prepare them for their future undertakings at the workplace (Conley & Wise 2011, Ippolito, Steele & Samson 2008). In Malaysia, critical reading or critical literacy is a relatively new area that has increasingly caught the interest of educators and researchers. This is in line with the key thrusts of the Malaysian Higher Education Action Plan of 2011-2015 (MoHE 2011) which are formulated with the aim of producing first class human capital, employable graduate and knowledgeable workers. The recent move by the Malaysian Higher Education Ministry to implement the National Education Blueprint to innovate the education system (announced in September 2012) in the hope of ensuring that graduates are employable (Aisyah Sulaiman 2012) has provided further evidence that it is crucial to develop critical literacy among the students. We will get a generation of first class human capital, which is in accord with the rising demands for knowledge workers who are

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