摘要
English newspapers, which have already been widely used as supplementary readings in an input-poor Chinese EFL context, are chosen and modified as needed for the proficiency levels of the class and used with suitable activities and exercises that engage students in an active and purposeful construction of the meaning of the text in extensive reading instruction. However, critical reading of the press news, which requires readers moving beyond comprehension, is rarely involved. This article, using Fairclough＇s critical discourse analysis （henceforth, CDA） as the theoretical framework, and Halliday＇s systemic functional grammar （henceforth, SFG） as the analytical tool in the analysis of the news texts, makes a sample analysis of the critical news reading from China Daily on China＇s response to the US-led campaign against terrorism after the September 11 events, 2001. The analysis made is undertaken in three stages： （1） the Transitivity analysis of the headlines, （2） the textual meaning of the clauses in terms of Themes, and （3） the explanations made to give grounding for the preceding analysis. The paper concludes with the hypothesis that integrating critical news reading into extensive reading instruction will not only improve students＇ reading skills, but also increase their adequate comprehension to the reading materials, as well as cultivate their critical reading competence.
