Critical Reading: An Introduction

Mahshad Tasnimi, Iran

Mahshad Tasnimi is an assistant professor of TEFL at North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran. She has 15 years of teaching experience. Her main areas of research are second language acquisition, language teaching methodology and testing.

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Introduction
The role of the reader
Critical reading and reading strategies
Critical reading factors
Conclusion
References

Introduction

We read for different purposes, such as pleasure or obtaining information. Most of the time we take for granted that the information is reliable. However, looking critically at reading means analyzing and evaluating what we read; working out what is good and what is not, and why. In this regard, understanding the argument in a text is essential to critical evaluation because we cannot evaluate something we do not understand. We should seek to identify the strengths and weaknesses or the limitations in the author’s argument and evidence, and to challenge any assumptions that author might have made (Critical reading, 2011). “Critical readers thus recognize not only what a text says, but also how that text portrays the subject matter” (Kurland, 2000, p. 1).

A critical reading approach in pedagogy, emphasizes helping students understand the logic of what they read. Unfortunately, this emphasis is rare in language textbooks. Students don't grasp how words in language have used precisely or imprecisely, clearly or vaguely. Their lack of understanding of the logic of language in turn weakens their clarity of thought when reading (Paul, 1990).

Traditionally a text was only seen as sequences of sentences. However, more recently, social theories of language consider texts as social in nature. According to Wallace (2003), reading is considered as social in a sense that both readers and writers are enacting in social context. In another word, text producers, text receivers and the text itself are involved in a shifting and dynamic relationship in this social process. Wallace adds that the notion of context is quite crucial to critical reading and that the context is more than the immediate and visible situations of production and consumption. In this regard, “Implicit conditions can be understood only if we take account of the wider perspective of social power.” (p.12)

The role of the reader

Wallace (2003) attributes different roles to readers. The first role is ‘text receiver’. He pinpoints that structuralists advocated this role emphasized the autonomy of the text while leaving left the role assigned to the reader a relatively straightforward one. Later, there was a shift in emphasis from a passive reader to an active one. The reader was described as ‘extracting’ meaning from texts. In this regard Just and Carpenter (1997, as cited in Wallace, 2003) express “The main goal of a comprehender’ of course is to extract information from the prose he is listening to or reading’ (p.15)

The second role cited by Wallace is ‘the social role of the reader’ who interacts constantly with the text or writer. Bakhtin (1986, as cited in Wallace, 2003) talks of the ‘hierarchical position of the addressee’ in considering what kind of role relationship exists between writer and reader, such as son, student, parent and so on. We need to consider in what relation is the addressee to the producer of any text.

Critical reading and reading strategies

Wallace claims that current literature on the reading process emphasizes the strategies used by effective and less effective readers. It is in line with research on reading skills which has a long history. There is now a considerable amount of research, which aims to identify what kinds of thinking process readers are drawing on in the course of reading, for example applying thinking aloud or retrospective techniques. However, he maintains that we have to look beyond reading strategies.

We may want to think of critical reading as less to do with specific strategies than with an overall stance or position, an orientation to the reading task. If asked to verbalize their responses to texts, readers may reveal not just their strategies as readers at the micro level of response to individual utterances, but their stance both critically, conceptually and affectively, influenced by their personal and social histories as readers. (p. 22)

Critical reading factors

Critical readers do not simply look at the words with the intention of filling their memories. They question, interpret, synthesize, and digest what they read. They question, not only what was said, but also what was implied and suggested. In addition, they are aware of their own interpretations revising and refining them constantly. All in all, instead of simply accepting or rejecting what they read, critical readers accept what makes most sense rejecting what is distorted, and false (Paul, 1990). Therefore, a critical reader constantly asks one big question as he reads: “Am I really thinking about what I’m reading?” (Questions for critical reading, 2015, p.1) The above question can be broken apart into many other questions:

Considering the source

1. What kind of publication is this?
2. What is the author's background in this subject?
3. To whom is the author writing?

Recognizing what is said

4. Had the author really said what I think he said?

Recognizing assumptions, implications

5. Does the author make inconsistent statements?
6. What has the author assumed to be true? Which of these assumptions are stated? unstated?
7. Does a particular statement depend on context for its intended meaning?
8. What does the author imply? insinuate?

Recognizing intent, attitudes, tone, bias

9. Why is the author writing this? motive? Purpose?
10. What is the author's attitude? tone? biases?
11. Does the author mean what he says or is he making his point in a roundabout way through humor, satire, irony, or sarcasm?
12. Are the author's words to be taken exactly as they appear, or are they slang, idioms, or figures of speech?
13. Which of the author's statements are facts? opinions?

Analyzing argument

14. Does the author write emotionally? using sentiment? horror? name-calling? flag waving?
15. Which of the author's statements does he support? Which does he leave unsupported?
16. What conclusions does the author reach?
17. Of the author's conclusions, which are justified? Which ones are not justified? (Questions for critical reading, 2015, pp.1-2 )

Considering the mentioned questions a critical reader is one who:

• does not believe everything he reads.
• questions everything which doesn't make sense to him.
• questions some things even though they do make sense to him.
• rereads when he thinks he may have missed something.
• considers the type of material he is reading before deciding how much weight to give to it.
• admits that the effect on him of what the author says may be caused more by the author's style of writing than by the facts presented.
• analyzes arguments.
• discounts arguments based on faulty reasoning.
• has good reasons for believing some things and disbelieving others - for agreeing with some authors and disagreeing with others. (Questions for critical reading, 2015, p. 2)

Marshal and Rowland (1988, as cited in critical reading, 2011, pp. 2-3) suggest that as you read a selection of a book or article, look for information to the following questions:

• Why has the author written the material? Are these purposes explicitly stated? Are there other implicit purposes?
• For whom is the material intended?

The author’s approach

• What theoretical perspective has the author taken? How does this perspective relate to other material in the field?
• What are the authors’s underlying assumptions? Are these explicitly stated?
• Is there any evidence of covert or overt bias in the interpretation of material or in the choice of sources and information? (Emotional language can be a clue to this.)
• Content
• Is the writer simply presenting information, or is she/he presenting an argument?
• If an argument, what is the writer’s thesis _ i.e., the statement or proposition that she/he is arguing to support?
• How does the author develop the thesis from one point to another?
• What evidence, examples or explanations are used to support the thesis?
• Are the supporting evidence, examples and explanations well researched and accurate?
• Which aspects of the topic has the author chosen to concentrate on? Which aspects has the author not included or discussed?
• Is the material comprehensive and accurate, or is the subject treated superficially?
• Are there alternative explanations for the material or data presented? Has the author addressed these alternative explanations?
• Does any graphic or quantitative material illustrate or restate the written context?
• How do the contents relate to what you know about the topic?
• Which of your questions about the subject does the author answer? Which are not answered?
• Do any items puzzle or intrigue you?

Structure

• Is a clear logical framework used to organize the material?
• How does the author introduce the argument?
• Are the main points organized, linked and balanced?
• How is the supporting material organized and developed within the framework?
• Does the author recapitulate what has been said at appropriate points?
• Style and format
• In what style has the material been written? For example, is it formal or informal, simple or complex, descriptive or critical, didactic or persuasive, narrative or analytical?
• How does the style and format influence your own reaction to material?

These questions will help you critique or evaluate a text at a quite a detailed level of analysis. Not all of them will be relevant to all your reading; you need to keep your purpose in mind. Nevertheless, reading for lectures, tutorials and essays always require some level of critical analysis. Answering the questions on the author’s approach and the questions dealing with content should provide a good understanding of what the text contributes to the topic.

In sum, critical reading is an approach which persuades readers not simply to pass their eyes over the words, but to evaluate what they read in order to find the strengths and weaknesses of the argument. Such a perspective toward reading helps readers accept only what makes sense and reject what is distorted.

Conclusion

Critical reading enables readers to go beyond understanding a text and to evaluate the arguments in the text. In critical reading approach, readers are recommended not simply accept or reject what is argued, but evaluate it critically from different perspectives seeking to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, critical readers have to be able to move beyond the printed words to interpret, analyze and synthesize what has been said. Looking through this perspective, readers learn gradually to accept what makes sense and to reject what is false or distorted.

References

Critical reading. (2011). Retrieved, May 30, 2011, from http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au /asu/download/Reading-CriticalReading-flyer.pdf

Kurland, D. J. (2000). What is critical reading. Retrieved, May 30, 2014, from http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_reading.htm

Paul, R. W. (1990). Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly

Changing World. Retrieved, May 30, 2011, from http://www.outopia.org/teach/resources/CritThink1.pdf

Questions for critical reading. (2015). Retrieved, May 30, 2015, from http://ollie.dcccd.edu/Services/StudyHelp/StudySkills/sub/rdgcri.htm

Wallace, C. (2003). Critical Reading in Language Education. Palgrave Macmillan

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