Utilizing Phonics Instruction for Teaching Reading to Young Learners

Proceedings International Conference on Teaching and Education (ICoTE) Volume 3 English Language Teaching Research and Practices (2022) The Impact of Production-Oriented Critical Reading Module (POCReM) on the Critical Reading Ability among Chinese EFL Non-English Major Undergraduates: A Proposal He Dongmei1’2, Asmaa AlSaqqaf 3*; Wardatul Akmam Din 3 PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) – MALAYSIA1 Lecturer at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Hunan University of Technology– CHINA2 Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) – MALAYSIA3 * DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ This article was presented orally at: 1 International Conference on English Language Teaching Research and Practices; organized by TEFLIN of West Kalimantan Chapter; 1-2 June 2022 st Abstract Literature review related to reading comprehension among English as Foreign Language (EFL) Chinese learners shows that the EFL undergraduates have serious issues in critical reading and lack training on critical reading. Limited research has been carried out as to training this high-level reading ability among Chinese EFL learners. Mastering critical reading ability of analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating the text is necessary to achieve deep comprehension among EFL undergraduates who aspire to learn and be proficient in other languages. Relevant literature suggests that production-oriented activities can provide more opportunities for learners to participate in reading. Due to the lack of relevant research on how to incorporate productionoriented task more effectively into critical reading activities, this empirical study aims to develop a Production-Oriented Critical Reading Model (POCReM) to improve the critical reading ability (CRA) among EFL non-English major Chinese undergraduates (sophomores) at a public university in China. Using an explanatory mixed method design, the study will survey the critical reading difficulties among non-English major sophomores before the start of the 12-week POCReM treatment. A pre-test and post-test will be conducted to examine whether there are any statistically significant differences in the participants’ performance results before and after the treatment. A semi-structured interview will also be carried out to elicit the participants’ perceptions towards the POCReM intervention. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be examined and analyzed accordingly. Keywords: Critical reading; Production-oriented critical reading module; EFL Chinese undergraduates. 1 INTRODUCTION Critical reading is essential to the academic success for EFL learners. It is a process of analyzing, interpreting and, sometimes, evaluating the text information. It requires a more active and complex engagement of the readers with the text (Güneş, & Güneş, 2017). Having critical reading skills allows learners to think actively to come up with their own ideas and interpretations, rather than solely relying on teachers and textbooks for answers. Otherwise, the student will be at the superficial level of understanding, who will be easily obscured by the words of others and hard to adapt themselves to this He Dongmei, Asmaa AlSaqqaf, Wardatul Akmam Din complicated language world (Desa, Howard, Gorzycki & Allen, 2020). Although critical reading is an essential part of reading, many Chinese EFL learners do not do well in this regard as readers. Some Chinese undergraduates misunderstand the purpose of reading learning (Zhuo, 2021). It is not uncommon for many Chinese EFL learners to read articles arbitrarily in order to get the correct answer in the exam (Yan, 2020). For them, the desire to get the right answer outweighs anything else, such as fully understanding the text or observing the author’s intentions. In view of this, college learners in China are not very focused on their reading. Reading is just a task for them to answer multiple choice questions. When answering e-ISSN: 2685-1407 | 17 critical reading questions, it is obvious that many Chinese learners only care about whether the answer is A, B, C, or D, rather than going deeper to understand why the answer is correct. This really worries the teachers (Yan, 2020; Zhuo, 2021). The common problem of ‘absence of Chinese learners critical thinking’ has been pointed out by many Chinese domestic scholars (e. g. Wen, 2017). They argued that language skills like reading in the past years are still at the level of ‘memorization’ and ‘literal understanding’. Few teaching contents enable learners to jump out of the framework of knowledge learning and enter a higher level of ability accumulation. Studies have shown that Chinese college learners’ lack of critical reading in EFL learning mainly stems from the way of reading instruction (Rao & Lei, 2014; Lou, 2021). Teachers habitually have the feelings of domination to control all the activities in the whole class (Lou, 2021). Whereas learners sit passively to memorize English grammar rules, recite vocabulary, and do translation from the textbooks (Rao & Lei, 2014). Teachers feel secure and comfortable by giving explicit explanation of rules and assigning drills and exercises from the textbook (Murray, Liddicoat, Zhen & Mosavian, 2020). Learners are seldom involved in actively processing information and making creative analysis. They think lessons boring, uninspiring and dull because their needs of involvement are not so much recognized by the teacher (Zhu & Shu, 2017). Learners’ academic achievement and critical reading, in this way, are severely impacted (Yuan & Stapleton, 2020), from their perception that reading is just no more than doing grammar practice or memorize words, and to understand superficial meaning (Jahangard, Moinzadeh & Karimi, 2012). Learners’ need for critical reading skills training has not been met and thus their comprehension, appreciation and evaluation of articles can be hardly improved (Brandt, Sharp & Gardner, 2021). The grammarcentered instruction has been the target of much criticism in recent years (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006), and several researchers have been endeavoring to teach this course in innovative ways. In response, this study attempts to reduce the gap identified in the relevant literature by implementing a reading module called Production-oriented critical reading module (POCReM), which incorporates leveled production tasks into reading class to inspire the reading interest so as to enhance CRA among EFL non-English major undergraduates in a public university in China. Research questions are as follows: 1) What are the difficulties in critical reading faced by Chinese EFL non-English major undergraduates at a public university in China? 2) Does the POCReM intervention improve the critical reading among Chinese EFL non-English major undergraduates at a public university in China? He Dongmei, Asmaa AlSaqqaf, Wardatul Akmam Din 3) What are the perceptions towards the POCReM intervention among Chine (...truncated)