Critical reading lessons

In the following sections, I describe how I analyzed the cultural content of English textbooks and developed questions for reading those texts in order to engage students in dealing with the content critically. I drew on Cots (2006) and Wallace (1992a, 1992b, 2003), whose works were discussed in Chapter 2.

6.1.2.1 Non-systematic analysis of a text

Wallace (2003) created a framework for critical reading and conducted a critical reading course (Wallace, 2003). Her framework for textual analysis is based on Halliday’s three metafunctions of language: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual (ibid.). The ideational function represents realities outside of the writer and his or her internal world. The interpersonal function is concerned with personal interaction and relation by means of texts. The textual function makes discourse appear as text. Linguistic features corresponding to these three functions are shown below.

Ideational meanings: participants, processes, circumstances, causation

Interpersonal meanings: person, mood, modality, adverbs, adjectives and nouns indicating writer attitude

Textual: semantic structure, overall organization, theme, cohesion

(Wallace 2003: 39)

During Semester 1, I unsystematically or rather intuitively used the above framework to read the target text critically, and my interpretation of the text is presented in the quote of the journal entry (Year, Semester 1, Week 7) in Section 6.1.1.

6.1.2.2 Questions for critical reading

First, I applied Cots’ (2006) framework for creating questions for critical reading. He suggests questions based on Fairclough’s (2001) three dimensions of discourse. As I

mentioned in Chapter 2, there are several approaches to CDA, and Fairclough’s is one of these. According to his approach, discourse consists of text, processes and their social conditions. This concept is represented in Figure 6.1.2.2.

Figure 6.1.2.2: Three dimensions of discourse (Fairclough, 2001: 21)

There are three stages of analysis that correspond to these dimensions of discourse (Fairclough, 2001). Description is the stage of text analysis. Text analysis comprises four main features: vocabulary, grammar, cohesion and text structure (Fairclough, 1992b). Interpretation is the analysis of the relationship between text and interaction. Explanation is a social analysis, which involves the relationship between interaction and context. Since the relations between language functions and social elements are analyzed, this approach can be considered useful for application in English lessons, where language teaching and culture teaching can be integrated.

On the basis of the three dimensions of discourse (1989, 1992), Cots’ (2006) suggests the following questions.

Social conditions of production

Social conditions of interpretation

Context

Process of production

Process of interpretation

Interaction

(production, distribution, consumption)

1. What social identities does/do the author(s) of the text represent?

2. What is the relationship between the social identities the author(s) represent(s)?

3. What is/are the social goal(s) the author(s) has/ have with the text? 4. To what extent is the text necessary to accomplish the goal(s)?

5. In what kind of social situation is the text produced? How conventional is it? 6. Does/do the author(s) represent or appeal to particular beliefs?

7. What are/may be the social consequences of the text?

・Discourse practice

1. How conventional is the text taking into account its situation of use?

2. Does it remind us of other texts we have encountered either in its form or in its content?

3. Can we classify it as representative of a specific type?

4. Is the text more or less accessible to different kinds of readers? 5. Does it require us to ‘read between the lines’?

6. Does it presuppose anything?

7. Who are the producer(s) and intended receiver(s) of the text?

・Textual practice

1. If the text is co-operatively constructed (for example, a conversation), is it obvious in any way that one of the participants is more in control of the construction than the others?

2. How are the ideas represented by utterances, sentences, or paragraphs connected in the text?

3. Does/do the author(s) follow any rules of politeness?

4. Are there features in the text that contribute to projecting a specific image of the author(s)?

5. How does syntactic structure as well as lexical choice affect the meaning? Are there alternative?

6. Are there any relevant terms, expressions, or metaphors that contribute to characterizing the text?

Drawing on the above questions and my intuitive critical reading of the text, the following questions have been developed concerning the target unit.

・Social practice

1. Are Japanese comics popular in Japan? Are they popular in other countries? Why do you think so?

2. In your opinion, who wrote the text? A Japanese or a non-Japanese person? Try to justify your answer.

3. What do you think of Japanese comics after reading the text? Do you think comics are Japan’s goodwill ambassadors to the world?

・Discourse practice

Is it written for Japanese people or non-Japanese people?

5. What is the ‘point’ of the text? What is the author trying to tell us? What do you remember from Japanese comics after reading the text?

6. What do you know about readers of Japanese comics? Who read Japanese comics? How does the author of the text try to describe readers of Japanese comics?

・Textual practice

7. List all the nouns, adjectives and adverbs with positive meanings, and those with negative meanings. Are there more positive words than negative words? Why?

8. Look at the passive sentences. Who did/does what to whom?

9. What is written in each part? How are the four parts arranged? What effect does this arrangement have?

6.1.2.3 Revised questions for critical reading

As mentioned in Chapter 1, teachers in the ELT Study Group gave me advice regarding my lesson plans. As quoted in the reflective narrative of teaching in Section 6.1.1, “I was told to develop questions by which students can notice the important points of a text or learn how to read a text” (Year 3, Semester 1, Week 14). Consequently, I revised the

questions as follows:

1. What is not written in the text?

2. What kind of books are “really good comics”?

3. Do you think Japanese comics are goodwill ambassadors to the world?

The first question is a new one to direct students’ attentions to the underlining meanings of the text. By examining what is not written in the text, students gain greater insights into the purpose of the text. The text itself is included in Appendix 9. The second question aims to have students think about the values of comics. After answering the first question, I expected that students would notice that not all Japanese comics are good. The third question is similar to the third question given in Section 6.1.2.2. This question is important as it directs students’ attention to the position of Japanese comics, as popular cultural artifacts, in the world as well as the representation of the world.

6.1.2.4 Summary of the process of critical reading lessons and data

collections

Since my lessons and data collection were highly linked, I shall summarize the actual process of data collections together with that of my lessons. Table 6.1.2.4 shows the process of my lessons and formal data collection during Semester 1, Year 3. The parts typed in bold are the information relating to lesson-based data collection.

Table 6.1.2.4: Process of lessons and data collection in Semester 1, Year 3

Phase One: Year 3, Semester 1 (Apr. 2010 – Sep. 2010)

Week Lesson Data collection Date

1-6 Prominence English I

L7: Lefties Have Rights!

Journal writing 7-9 L8: Japan’s Goodwill Ambassadors to the

World

Text comprehension

Journal writing

10 1st mid-term test

11 Group presentations about L7 Journal writing

12 Collecting students’ initial responses to L8 Journal writing 13 Discussion about L8 (Questions in Section 4.2.1) Journal writing 14 Discussion task (Question 1 in Section 4.2.2) Journal writing Video-recording 2/July/2010 15,16 L9: Blinded by the Lights Exercises Journal writing

17 1st end-term test Journal writing

18 Discussion task about L8