M1: Lecture 3: Academic Reading

The Connection Between Differences in among people; on the other hand, the second one
English Varieties and Text Understanding talks about the collection of words used in
academic situations, being known only to
Similar to how cultural expressions are learned or selected people engaged in specific fields of
their meanings are unlocked, getting the meaning study or work.
of words in texts being read may be mainly done
not only by consulting different sources of In addition, in some other cases, the second one
information but also through plain observation. is further subdivided into (a) general academic,
(b) discipline-specific, and (c) nominalization.
Defining Reading
According to Kenneth Goodman, reading is a With academic/ technical vocabulary being known
psycholinguistic guessing game. only to a handful of people, it may serve as a
hindrance to comprehension, especially to those
Based on this, it means that reading is both a whose exposure to it is limited; however, there
psychological or mental (psycho-) process that are ways by which such a problem may be
happens inside the head and a process that is countered so that reading in general and
tied with language (-linguistic). It is so because: understanding in particular are still possible. Once
overcome, unknown vocabularies can
1.) Reading involves interpreting or giving subsequently be personally used.
meaning to printed symbols such as letters and/
or pictures; Reading Techniques in Unlocking Unknown
2.) Reading begins with perceiving or recognizing Academic Vocabulary
symbols and ends with comprehending or Aside from the very obvious way of using
understanding the meanings of the said symbols; references such as dictionaries and thesauruses
and whenever unfamiliar academic vocabularies come
3.) Reading involves using pieces of information up, readers can use any of the following ways in
called inputs in various ways such as dividing the absence of or when there is restriction to the
them into smaller parts (i.e., analyzing), putting access of the aforementioned usual references:
them together (i.e., synthesizing), or even relating
them to other sources of information. (1) Morphemic Analysis. This is done when
a given vocabulary can be divided into
In a nutshell, reading means understanding the smaller parts called morphemes.
meanings behind various inputs that may come in Examples of morphemes are affixes (e.g.,
various printed forms, e.g., letters, words, prefixes, infixes, and suffixes) that give
sentences, and/ or graphics/ pictures. With almost hints about what a given word may mean.
everything in the world having printed inputs that
must be understood, it is a must for a person to Consider the following research abstracts
possess competence in deriving correct containing possibly unknown academic
meanings from what is presented. This is vocabularies boxed in red whose meanings can
especially true for people in the academe since a be correctly derived through morphemic analysis:
huge part of their lives is dedicated to studying/
learning from printed materials such as lectures,
books, journals, or researches.

Academic Vocabulary
The first step to better ensuring that
comprehension will be at hand is to enrich one’s
vocabulary.

Vocabulary refers to the collection of words that a

person is capable of defining, explaining, and/ or
using.
Without the help of any reference material, what
While people’s vocabulary varies from person to might the vocabulary word “interview” mean? Can
person, it can be generally divided into two the vocabulary word be broken down into smaller
categories: (1) general and (2) academic/ parts? If yes, what words will emerge from the
technical. The first one refers to words that are process of breaking it down?
used in daily or ordinary interactions between and
M1: Lecture 3: Academic Reading

Morphemic Analysis in Action: Given the prefix vocabularies boxed in red, whose meanings can
of the said vocabulary which is “inter-,“ meaning be derived through contextual analysis:
between two individuals, objects, or groups and
its root word “view,” meaning opinion or outlook,
then it, the vocabulary “interview,” may mean
getting to know about people’s opinions on a
given issue through a conversation between the
researcher and the participants.

Without the help of any reference material, what

might the vocabulary word “interview” mean? Are
there parts of the text that provide additional clues
regarding its meaning? If yes, which parts are
they?

Without the help of any reference material, what Contextual Analysis in Action: The correct
might the vocabulary words “telehealth” and meaning of the unknown vocabulary “interview” in
“posttraumatic” mean? Can the vocabulary words the abstract may be gained from the part that
be broken down into smaller parts? If yes, what says, “was also done to ask their experiences in
words will emerge from the process of breaking using the EC (electronic cigarette).” The said part
them down? provides an explanation or an example of how an
interview can be done and that is through raising
Morphemic Analyses in Action: Given the prefix questions between the researcher and the
of the first vocabulary which is “tele-,“ meaning far participants.
such as in television, telegraph, and telephone
and its root word “health,” meaning the physical
and/ or mental condition/s of a person, then it, the
vocabulary “telehealth,” may mean checking on
then providing assistance to the physical and/ or
mental conditions of a person, from afar.

For the vocabulary “posttraumatic,” it has the

prefix “post,” meaning after; and the suffix “-tic”
added to the root word “trauma,” meaning a
deeply painful mental or physical experience. It
may then mean actions that people do after they
have experienced a deeply painful mental or
physical experience.
Without the help of any reference material, what
(2) Contextual Analysis (AKA Context might the vocabulary “out-of-field teacher” mean?
Clues). This is done when the meaning of Are there parts of the text that provide additional
a given vocabulary can be derived from clues regarding its meaning? If yes, which parts
the clues found in the situation, i.e., are they?
sentence or paragraph, where it is used.
These clues can come in the forms Contextual Analysis in Action: The correct
of examples, synonyms, antonyms, meaning of the unknown vocabulary “out-of-field
definitions, or explanations also teacher” in the abstract may be gained from
provided somewhere in the text. looking at the parts where the words or phrases
“teachers who teach across their specialization”
Consider the following research abstracts and “specialization-workload mismatch” are
containing possibly unknown academic found. The said parts provide an explanation
about and/ or synonymous details with what kind
M1: Lecture 3: Academic Reading

of teachers are those who are “out-of-field,” and

they are those who teach a subject that they do
not specialize in or were not trained for.

Summary and Conclusion

Reading is a complex process that begins with
first recognizing printed symbols followed by
being able to give correct meanings to the said
symbols in order to ultimately comprehend their
message.

In academic setups where texts range from

simple lectures to complex researches, it is
inevitable to encounter words that may not
immediately be defined, let alone understood, so
it is a must to employ reading strategies such as
morphemic and contextual analyses that can
prove helpful so that comprehension may be
achieved and expansion of one’s vocabulary may
be possible.