How to Teach Academic Reading More Effectively： Reading-Aloud Approach

In furtherance of their most recent research on the textbook of the course LC （language and communication） 4001 Reading Skills Development in English for Graduate Studies （2012）, the co-authors carried out a follow-up work on read-aloud approach as some students voiced a sense of dissatisfaction with regard to such means which was primarily used in the LC 4001 class taking place from August 8 to November 27, 2012. In the current study, the data were garnered from 37 students enrolling in LC 4001 from January 8 to May 7, 2013. Based on the questionnaire, the findings revealed that a large number of the English reading learners acknowledged the mounting importance of English as a linguafranca in the region of 84% and 16% at the ＂most＂ and ＂much＂ levels, respectively. Likewise, around 90% of the participants had a positive attitude toward such pedagogical method, while only 10% disliked it. Concerning the academic reading curriculum for higher English reading competence, students＇ different language learning backgrounds and personal excitement caused by reading-aloud activities should be taken on board. Any activity introduced into the classroom should be explicitly stated to the students at the beginning of the course. Using any instructional approach without clear explanations or precautions may seriously upset learners partially or even completely obstruct their effective learning

Validity Study on the Test Paper of the Academic English Reading and Writing Course

The aim of this study is to conduct the validity analysis of the test paper of the academic English reading and writing course referring to the freshmen of non-English majors in a university of Technology in Shanghai.The validity is mainly analyzed from these three aspects:the content and construct validity,the reaction process,and the internal structure of the test paper.And the principles of language assessment in the design of the test paper are given in this study.The validity study was also conducted in a class with 42 freshmen,and the scores of them were analyzed through the internal correlation coefficient from Statistic Package for Social Science(SPSS)25.0.Finally,the validity of the test paper is concluded.

Reading and Writing Practices： Case Studies at the Sergio Arboleda University of Colombia

This research project analyzes the reading and writing practices used in five first and second year undergraduate courses of different disciplines at a Colombian university. During one semester, we conducted polls, class observations, and interviews with teachers. The data collected contain information about the strategies that teachers use to guide, clarify, and evaluate the readings they assigned. It also informs about the ways in which teachers classify texts and participate in the process of composing, editing, and evaluating the students＇ writing. Finally, the data inform about the role that teachers assign to the practices of reading and writing in their courses. The results of the study prove that there is a misconception based on the idea that there is a unique way of understanding and practicing reading and writing in the academia, and that there is a set of unique strategies that are transferable to any discipline or field of study. The cases analyzed in this study suggest that it would be much more effective to incorporate intensive reading and writing strategies in disciplinary courses, than to concentrate on first year writing courses.