Critical Reading Research Articles

Relationship Between English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Use of Reading Strategies and Their Perceptions of Critical Reading Self-Efficacy

Relationship Between English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Use of Reading Strategies and Their Perceptions of Critical Reading Self-Efficacy

Producing white urban Europe? A critical and reflexive reading of academic knowledge production on urban integration of migrants in Western European cities

Abstract In this paper, I review studies of urban integration as analyzed for two groups of mobile newcomers: those designated as “migrants”, that is, mostly marginalized cross-border movers from outside Europe, and mobile EU citizens in Western European cities. This critical and reflexive reading serves to highlight how academic knowledge production on the topic has (re-)produced an image of white urban Europe. While critics of the concept of immigrant integration have suggested that cities and neighborhoods are better sites in which to study migrant integration than the nation-state, the paper demonstrates that studies of urban integration tend to suffer from similar problems, including an ethnonationalist focus and an essentializing of (ethnic) groups. The comparison foregrounds how mobile EU citizens are implicitly thought of as white; their presence in the urban territory is rarely questioned and their practices rarely problematized. In contrast, those designated as migrants are researched with reference to integration, whereby integration means moving closer to white spaces. Thus, studies of the urban integration of migrants use an ethnic framing, while studies of mobile EU citizens focus on class and nationality. The paper thus illuminates how studies of urban integration rely on and reproduce an implicit assumption of whiteness as the norm, even in diverse urban spaces.

Clay sealings from Perlis, Malaysia, and the wider world of the Bodhigarbhālaṅkāralakṣa-Dhāraṇī

Abstract Multiple copies of a particular clay sealing bearing the Buddhist Bodhigarbhālaṅkāralakṣa-dhāraṇī (mantra) inscription were discovered in Gua Berhala—a cave in Perlis, Malaysia. These sealings can be roughly assigned to the tenth century and they appear to have been stamped with an identical seal. However, critical reading of the textual rendition of the dhāraṇī had not yet been done despite several attempts to study it. Therefore, based on several fragments of these sealings, this article provides a detailed reading and translation of the dhāraṇī and considers the cultural significance of their production. The article also examines the textual structure of this Perlis dhāraṇī and compares it with similar dhāraṇīs preserved in a palm-leaf manuscript and other materials found across Asia. This includes a survey on the wider transmission of the dhāraṇī in the continent. In this comparative exercise, the physical characteristics of the Perlis sealing appear to be unique and express a distinct artistic style, while its textual tradition is slightly compressed compared with others, with no identical equivalent found elsewhere. This observation suggests that Perlis, with its proximity to the Bujang Valley, participated in the wider network of dhāraṇī culture rooted in Eastern India and was just not a passive recipient of this practice.

Genocide as Patriotic Work Ethic: A Critical Reading of Mustafa Reşat’s Memoirs

Genocide as Patriotic Work Ethic: A Critical Reading of Mustafa Reşat’s Memoirs

The Normative Space of Musical Performance: Expertise and the Symbolic Body

Abstract This article proposes a communicative, imitative, and reflective account of musical learning and expertise. It starts from an affirmative yet critical reading of Høffding and collaborators, notably their idea of a musical arch, meant to bridge distinctions between low-level procedural enactment and high-level reflective cognition. While we embrace much of their analysis, we argue that they uphold tensions between these levels. Drawing on recent enactivist thought, phenomenological and hermeneutic resources, and developmental psychology, we propose a ‘linguistic turn’ that allows us to situate the enactive body in what has been called an ‘original communication-situation’. The original communication-situation encompasses procedural proto-linguistic behaviour and a reflexive level of linguistic co-intentionality procedurally coupled with other bodies. From this perspective, musical co-creation within the normative space of the musical arch is a dialectical actualization of vertical and horizontal experience, reflecting transformative accomplishments of symbolic bodies within a linguistic field of participatory sense-making. The normative space of musical performance is the result of emergent features of music as embodied social practice.

Analisis Keefektifan Kalimat pada Teks Berita Artikel CNN Indonesia Mengenai Pemilu Edisi Februari 2024 sebagai Kelayakan Bahan Ajar Membaca Kritis Siswa Kelas IX SMP

A news text is a text that conveys news or information to the public about a factual and actual event. In the writing of news text should pay attention to the effectiveness of sentences so that the information conveyed can be accepted by readers and listeners. So, this research focuses more on analyzing the effectiveness of sentences contained in news text excerpts. The purpose of this study is to describe the effectiveness of sentences in news texts for critical reading of grade IX junior high school students. This type of research is qualitative research with descriptive method while the research data collection uses literature study techniques, namely listening and noting. The results of this study prove that sentence analysis shows the existence of effective sentences and ineffective sentences. Sentences are classified as effective if they meet several requirements, namely structural equivalence, word economy, accuracy of reasoning and logicality of language. Meanwhile, ineffective sentences are caused by the structure of the sentence not being unified, not parallel, and very wasteful or wordy. The practical benefit obtained is the ease of determining the effectiveness of sentences in news texts. The data taken in this research is in the form of effective sentences contained in CNN news articles about the February edition of the election for critical reading of grade IX junior high school students.

Development of Critical Thinking in Chemistry Teaching

The critical thinking is an important part of education supported by the Czech curriculum documents, and its importance is now being discussed in the context of the development of artificial intelligence. In the teaching of (not only) chemistry, the critical thinking can be purposefully developed through appropriate activities. The article presents three comprehensive teaching tasks for chemistry education that have the potential to develop critical thinking: Genetically Modified Crops (a task using the problem-based learning and analysis of information sources), Nuclear Energy and Spent Nuclear Fuel Management (a task focused on critical reading of text, reasoning and working with artificial intelligence) and Reaction Kinetics (research-oriented laboratory work enhanced with elements of graph and data interpretation and reasoning). Building critical thinking skills in chemistry is essential for understanding abstract concepts and acquiring skills that enable students to approach chemistry topics responsibly and knowledgeably in everyday life. Full text English translation is available in the on-line version.

Discursive Patinas: Anchoring Discussions in Data Visualizations.

This paper presents discursive patinas, a technique to visualize discussions onto data visualizations, inspired by how people leave traces in the physical world. While data visualizations are widely discussed in online communities and social media, comments tend to be displayed separately from the visualization and we lack ways to relate these discussions back to the content of the visualization, e.g., to situate comments, explain visual patterns, or question assumptions. In our visualization annotation interface, users can designate areas within the visualization. Discursive patinas are made of overlaid visual marks (anchors), attached to textual comments with category labels, likes, and replies. By coloring and styling the anchors, a meta visualization emerges, showing what and where people comment and annotate the visualization. These patinas show regions of heavy discussions, recent commenting activity, and the distribution of questions, suggestions, or personal stories. We ran workshops with 90 students, domain experts, and visualization researchers to study how people use anchors to discuss visualizations and how patinas influence people's understanding of the discussion. Our results show that discursive patinas improve the ability to navigate discussions and guide people to comments that help understand, contextualize, or scrutinize the visualization. We discuss the potential of anchors and patinas to support discursive engagements, including critical readings of visualizations, design feedback, and feminist approaches to data visualization.

Metaphysical Desire

Abstract This article revisits the debate on the ‘religious and ethical readings’ of Derrida that was instigated by Martin Hägglund’s Radical Atheism. The impasse in this debate can be overcome in a new reading of Derrida’s work that combines the strong elements of the opposing interpretations. At the same time, this new and critical reading exposes an implicit metaphysical desire, a desire without desire, in Derrida’s work, the presuppositions and consequences of which are not well understood in all the other interpretations. This desire turns out to be an excessive desire, which should be balanced with a more contextual approach.

A Empirical Study on Critical Thinking Ability in College English Reading Teaching under CBI

In the context of the new liberal arts, the ordinary English teaching model is difficult to adapt to the development of college English teaching, and English reading, as a necessary part of cultivating students’ comprehensive language ability and critical thinking ability, has played an important role in college English teaching. As a text-based teaching method, Content-Based Instruction (CBI) is more in line with the learning of English reading. Based on Krashen’s input hypothesis and Swain’s output hypothesis theory, it selected 66 English major seniors from Y University as the research subjects, who subsequently are divided into control classes and experimental classes. Data was collected by survey questionnaires and reading tests. Based on the analysis and discussion of relevant data, it concludes that: firstly, the critical thinking ability of college students is at a moderate level. Secondly, the CBI teaching method is significantly positively correlated with students’ critical thinking ability. Thirdly, the CBI teaching method has a positive impact on students’ critical English reading skills.

Resistance of estrogen receptor function to BET bromodomain inhibition is mediated by transcriptional coactivator cooperativity.

The bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) family of proteins are critical chromatin readers that bind to acetylated histones through their bromodomains to activate transcription. Here, we reveal that bromodomain inhibition fails to repress oncogenic targets of estrogen receptor because of an intrinsic transcriptional mechanism. While bromodomains are necessary for the transcription of many genes, bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) binds to estrogen receptor binding sites and activates transcription of critical oncogenes such as MYC, independently of its bromodomains. BRD4 associates with the Mediator complex and disruption of Mediator reduces BRD4's enhancer occupancy. Profiling changes of the post-initiation RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-associated factors revealed that BET proteins regulate interactions between Pol II and elongation factors SPT5, SPT6 and the polymerase-associated factor 1 complex, which associate with BET proteins independently of their bromodomains and mediate their transcription elongation effect. Our findings highlight the importance of bromodomain-independent functions and interactions of BET proteins in the development of future therapeutic strategies.

Debt Repayment Between the Parity Standard and the Value Standard: A Critical Reading in Light of the Resolutions of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy

Debt Repayment Between the Parity Standard and the Value Standard: A Critical Reading in Light of the Resolutions of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy

Model Pembelajaran Discovery Learning dengan Pendekatan CRT untuk Meningkatkan Kemampuan Berpikir Kritis dan Literasi Membaca

Preliminary research obtained data that there were fifth grade elementary school students who had levels of critical thinking and reading literacy in the low category. These two abilities are very important for students' academic development, so they need to be improved. The aims of this research are: 1) improve critical thinking skills; 2) improve reading literacy skills; 3) know the value of increasing critical thinking skills, and; 4) know the value of increasing reading literacy skills. The research uses the classroom action research (PTK) method with the Stringer model. The research was carried out over two cycles through 3 stages, namely look, think, and act. The number of samples in cycles I and II was 26 children. Data collection techniques were carried out using tests and non-tests, while the instruments were in the form of questions and questionnaires. The research resulted in: 1) students' critical thinking skills and reading literacy increasing; 2) Critical thinking skills in cycle I had an average of 68 or in the medium category and the average in cycle II was 75 or in the high category; 3) Reading literacy skills in cycles I and II each have an average of 70 in the medium category and 78 in the high category; 4) students' critical thinking skills reach a minimum of 54% in the high category; 4) students' reading literacy skills reach a minimum of 65% in the high category. These data have reached indicators of research success, thus confirming that the discovery learning model with the CRT approach is able to improve critical thinking skills and reading literacy.

Text and Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Poetry of Yoruba Scholars

Objectives: This paper examines Arabic poetic texts produced by modern Yoruba scholars, to study how they inter-textualize with poetic texts of classical and early modern poets in Arabic. It does a critical reading of select poems from the corpus of Isa Abu-Bakre (b.1953), and Afis Ayinde Oladosu (b.1967). Whereas the former follows the traditional system in the composition of his poems, the latter writes his collections in free verse. Methods: The paper adopts a method of historicizing the annals of intertextuality, before proceeding to exposit, closely read, and analyze intertextuality cues in the poetry of Yoruba scholars. It hinges its discussions on the works of Julia Kristeva, Roland Barthes, James Porter, Lev Vygotsky, Graham Allen, Ahmad Az-Zoubi, and Muhahammad Miftah among others. Conclusions: The study shows that Arabic poetical compositions of modern Yoruba scholars often intersect, not only with poetical texts of classical and early modern poets in Arabic, but also, they inter-textualize with texts from the primary sources of Arabic literary tradition- the Glorious Qur'an and Hadith.

A polylog: critical readings of Chinese as a third language in the Arabian Gulf

ABSTRACT In this polylog to the special issue on The rise of Chinese language education policies in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf: New players, discourses and linguistic markets, three researchers with different personal and professional connections to the three languages ‘at play’ in the region – English, Chinese, and Arabic – offer their assessments of both the current and future status of Chinese in the region. Using language and political economy as their methodological compass, they grapple with three key questions: (i) How Chinese as a third language is conceived and enacted?, (ii) How may the Chinese language shift power relations among languages in the Gulf?, and (iii) Would the Chinese language carry similar ideological, colonial and neoliberal undercurrents that are being voiced in critical applied linguistics about English? As a polyphonous text, disagreements among the contributors are allowed to stand and there is not an attempt to reach consensus. Nonetheless, they unanimously argue that moves towards introducing Chinese as a third language in the Arabian Gulf reveal much about the political, economic, and social drivers of change in the region.

As mulheres da ditadura representadas em Cova 312

This research investigates the way in which Brazilian literary journalism represent women, especially considering the issue of violence. For this, a critical reading of the book-reports in the Jabuti Award is presented. After attesting to the small number of female authors and the lack of representation of violence of this group, an analysis of Cova 312, by journalist Daniela Arbex, is developed. Despite focusing on the representation of the Brazilian military dictatorship and exposing a male protagonist, the book-report emphasizes women who belonged to that context, showing the most different possibilities of struggle and confrontation the female figure experienced in that context.

Eco-Feminism and Translation: A Critical Reading of Abdel Rahman Munif's Cities of Salt

The complexities of language, society, and artistic expressions make literary works like novels difficult to translate. Translators encounter several problems such as cultural subtleties, colloquial idioms, distinctive writing styles, and other poetic aspects. Literary translation is a challenging process that necessitates a profound comprehension of the cultural and contextual nuances of the source material in addition to language proficiency. The Arabic novel Cities of Salt was written by Abdelrahman Munif, and was successfully translated into several languages, including English. Peter Theroux completed the English translation that was initially released in 1987, and he is the one who paved the way for opening up Munif's writing to a wider English-speaking community. The translated version preserves the novel's exploration of the impact of the oil industry on an unnamed Arab Gulf state and its reflection on the profound social, economic, and cultural changes brought about by rapid industrialization. Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif is a rich exploration of environmental exploitation and gender dynamics in the context of the Arab Gulf region's transformation due to the oil industry. The novel offers a nuanced portrayal of the interconnected challenges faced by communities grappling with rapid industrialization and its far-reaching consequences on both the environment and societal structures, including gender roles. Moreover, this research paper reveals how the exploitation of land mirrors the exploitation of women. The destruction of the environment echoes the silencing and erasure of women's voices and agency. Through an eco-feminist lens, the paper exposes the interconnectedness between the oppression of nature and the oppression of women, both subjected to exploitation, commodification, and dispossession. Because this novel is a quintet, this paper examines excerpts from the first volume, Al-Teeh, which better fit the study’s argument.

Information preferences of patients with chronic blood cancer: A qualitative investigation.

Haematological malignancies (blood cancers) often follow chronic trajectories that can span many months or years. Management of these diseases typically involves periods of 'Watch & Wait', whereby patients are monitored by the hospital and only treated at progression, if or when this occurs, which might be never or on multiple occasions. Such remitting-relapsing pathways are unpredictable and can cause anxiety and distress. This study aimed to generate evidence about information preferences, with a view to underpinning future patient-facing resources; potentially mitigating psycho-social difficulties and promoting effective shared decision-making. A qualitative study was conducted, set within a UK population-based cohort of patients with haematological malignancies. Sampling was purposive, based on age (initially around the median age of diagnosis) and disease subtype (chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, follicular lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma and myeloma); and in-depth interviews took place with 35 patients (10 with relatives). Analysis drew on qualitative description and thematic content analysis and included critical reading and annotation of transcripts, identification of common and rare phenomena, generation of codes and coding of material, and theme development. Patients discussed their preferences and experiences at length and rich data were generated from diagnosis onwards, across diagnostic subtypes. The overarching theme identified was 'Variations in preferences' with needs seen to differ from person to person; as well as changing over time for individuals. Five sub-themes were identified: 1) To know or not to know? 2) Needs are dynamic; 3) The polarising issue of prognosis; 4) Preferred sources; and 5) Differences in content, depth and presentation. Varied, dynamic information preferences indicate that resources should be developed in a way that provides maximum choice, enabling patients to select relevant material at different time-points on their trajectory. The development of blood cancer subtype-specific "real-world clinical scenarios" could improve patient experiences and inform shared decision-making.

The Influence of the RADEC Learning Model on Critical Reading Ability of PGSD Students

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>This research was motivated by the low level of critical reading of PGSD students during direct learning activities. The aim of this research is to see the influence of the RADEC learning model on critical reading of PGSD students. The research method used is a quantitative method with a pre-experimental one group pretest posttest design with a sample size of 20 PGSD students. </span><span>The </span>research instruments used were questionnaires and observation sheets to see students' critical reading abilities.The research results showed that the critical reading scores during the pretest of 20 students were in the moderate category, totaling 8 people with a percentage of 40%, the low category totaling 10 people with a percentage of 50%, and the very low category totaling 2 people with a percentage of 10%. At the time of the posttest, 20 students experienced significant changes, namely 14 people were in the very high category with a percentage of 70%, 3 people in the high category with a percentage of 15%, and 3 people in the moderate category with a percentage of 15%. So it can be concluded that the RADEC learning model influences the critical reading of PGSD students.</p></div></div></div>

EXAMINING THE APPLICATION OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXT COMPREHENSION AMONG EFL STUDENTS

This research analyzes students' critical thinking when reading exposition texts. Conducted at the Health Department of SMKN 1 Tolitoli, this qualitative research utilized observations as the data collection method to gather data relevant for this research and thematic analysis to analyze the collected data. The observation phase analyzed students' engagement with analytical exposition texts, revealing proficiency in various aspects of critical thinking, including comprehension, analysis, and evaluation. Students demonstrated the ability to recall key facts, summarize main ideas, and critically evaluate evidence to form well-supported opinions. Students emphasized the importance of activities such as careful reading, summarization, and discussion in enhancing their understanding and critical thinking abilities. The findings suggest the need for explicit instruction and support for all stages of critical reading to foster students' holistic development of critical thinking skills. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of students' critical thinking practices and provides valuable insights for educators seeking to enhance students' critical reading abilities in the context of analytical exposition texts.