FHEL 1012

English for Academic Study

Lecture 1
Critical Reading Skills
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 Topics to be covered today:
• Barriers to Critical Thinking
• Making inferences and drawing conclusions
• Identifying themes and main ideas of texts

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 Aims of Lecture 1
• The main goal is to develop in students the skills and
the confidence to approach a piece of academic text,
read it efficiently and critically, and extract main
ideas and key details.

• But the goal of academic reading is more than just

retrieve information. It is also the development of
academic writing.

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 Assessment for EAS

Assignment 1 (Written) 20%

Assignment 2 15%
(Presentation)
Mid Term 15%

Final Exam 50%

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Barriers to Critical Thinking…

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 Barriers to Critical Thinking
(Why do people find Critical Thinking so difficult?
What prevents people from thinking critically?)

1. Egocentrism
2. Sociocentrism
3. Unwarranted Assumptions and
Stereotyping
4. Relativistic Thinking
5. Wishful Thinking
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1. Egocentrism
- inability to see other people’s viewpoint
- focus on self: I, ME, MYSELF  selfish

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Two common forms of Egocentrism are:
 Self-interested Thinking
- To accept and defend beliefs that serves your
own interest / benefit / convenience
Eg. In UTAR: car park vs. poor bus service
Critical Thinker – Objective
 Self-serving Bias
- To think you are better than others
- Overrating yourself (view yourself better than you
actually are)  show off
Eg. I can do this, I can do that…
Critical Thinker – Honest
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2. Sociocentrism
- group-centered thinking: focus on group
(family, friends, community, society)
Two common forms of sociocentrism:
 Group Bias / Ethnocentrism
- To think your own group (race, religion, culture,
country, etc.) as being inherently better than
others
- People absorb this unconsciously, usually
from childhood
 Conformism
- Tendency to follow the crowd
- The desire to be a part of the in-group
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 3. Unwarranted Assumptions and
Stereotypes
Assumption
- An assumption is something we belief to be true
without absolute proof or evidence
Eg. taking an umbrella when you go out in
the
evening  assume it may rain
Unwarranted Assumption
- An unwarranted assumption is unreasonable. Something
taken for granted without good reason
Eg. just because you are attracted to
someone, you
assume that person is likewise attracted
to you

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 Assumptions

LEADS TO
Stereotyping
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Stereotype

- assuming that all people within a group

share all the same qualities; So a
particular individual who belongs to this
group has the same qualities

Stereotypes are arrived at through the

process of generalization, i.e. drawing
conclusions about a large group from a
small sample.

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 4. Relativistic Thinking (or relativism)
- viewing truth as a matter of opinion
Two forms of relativism:-

 Subjectivism
- the view that truth is
a matter of
individual opinion;
what one thinks is true, is true for that person

 Cultural Relativism
- the view that truth is a matter of
cultural opinion; what is true for
person A is what person A’s culture or society
believes to be true.
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 Relativism in some important
domains…
Moral Subjectivism: The view that what is
morally right for person A is what person A thinks is
morally right.
Eg. abortion, pre-marital sex

Cultural Moral Relativism: The view that what a

culture thinks is morally right to do, is morally right to
do, in that culture.
Eg. drinking alcohol

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 5. Wishful Thinking
- believe in what we want to be true (despite
contradicting evidence)

“A man hears what he wants to hear

and disregards the rest.”

- Paul Simon
(American musician, singer & songwriter
of Simon & Garfunkel)
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 Other barriers to
Critical Thinking
• Lack of relevant
background • Denial
information • Short-term thinking
• Poor reading skills • Selective perception
• Superstition • Selective memory
• Peer pressure • Overpowering emotions
• Narrow-mindedness • Self-deception
• Closed-mindedness • Face-saving
• Distrust in reason • Fear of change
• Scapegoating
• Rationalisation

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Making Inferences and
Drawing Conclusions

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 Inferencing and Drawing conclusions

• An inference is a claim that can be made on the

strength of some information or evidence. To infer
means to draw a conclusion.
• The word infer means (a) to derive by reasoning (b) to
conclude (c) to guess intelligently.
• When we infer we use imagination or reasoning to
provide explanations for situations in which all the
facts are not yet determined.

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Read the text below. Identify facts and based on these
facts, draw some inferences

• Doctors investigating an outbreak of food poisoning

discovered that all the people who were affected had
eaten fish at the Bayside fish restaurant the day
before reporting sick. There is a legal obligation on
any establishment that may be linked to cases of
food-related sickness to close while it is being
investigated, and not to open again until it has been
given a certificate of fitness from hygiene inspectors
(Butterworth, p45)

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 Ask yourself these questions.
• Did they only eat at Bayside restaurant and no where else?.
• What does ‘all’ mean? Three, four, a large number?
• Were they people who did not report sick?
• Is there enough evidence to say ‘fish’ was the cause?
Restaurants serve other things beside fish.
• Were the people exposed to other sources like contaminated
water, lack of hygiene in the restaurant kitchen, surroundings
outside the restaurant?

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 What conclusion can you draw from the
inferences?
• 1. There is just suspicion that the Bayside
Restaurant may have caused the food
poisoning. You need other evidence.
Will you eat at the Bayside Restaurant?
Yes / No. Why?

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 Exercise
Making Inferences and
Drawing Conclusions

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 Read the passage below and draw inferences and
conclusions from the short texts.
• When the Barbie doll first appeared
in pre-feminist 1959, she had large
breasts, a tiny waist, rounded lips,
shapely legs, and her little feet were
shod in high-heeled shoes. Barbie
wore heavy make-up and her gaze
was shy and downcast. She was
available in only two options: airline
stewardess or nurse. ……………….

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1. What do you think is meant by feminist?
2. Why did Barbie doll take such a physical form?
3. Why was her gaze made to be shy and
downcast?

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• In 1960, Barbie had her own car and house. ‘A
Barbie Goes to College’ play set was also
available. In 1967, Barbie’s face was updated to
sport a more youthful, model-like appearance
with a direct and fearless gaze. ………….

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1. In what way did Barbie’s physical appearance
change?
2. What does this tell you about the social environment
of that time?

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• By the 1970s, Barbie’s career options had
expanded to include doctor and Olympic
medalist. She also got another facelift
that left her with a softer, friendlier look.
She now had a wide smile and bright
eyes. ……………….

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1. When were women allowed to take part in the
Olympics?
2. What do you think led to the change in the
physical countenance of Barbie?

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• During the 1980s and 1990s, when girls were
encouraged to grow up to be independent wage
earners, Barbie’s options increased even more to
include professions such as business executive,
aerobics instructor and firefighter. Today, Barbie has a
thicker waist, slimmer hips, and smaller breasts and
she comes in black, Asian and Latina versions.

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1. What does this passage reflect about the social and
educational environment of America in the 1990s?
2. Why was Barbie doll introduced in other coloured
versions?

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Identifying Themes and Main Ideas
of paragraphs

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 Identifying Themes and Main Ideas of
paragraphs
• In order to understand a paragraph, whether easy or
hard, a reader must be able to identify first the topic
or the central theme.

• In an easy paragraph the theme would be easily

identified. However, in a more challenging paragraph
a reader may have to analyze the paragraph to
identify the theme.

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 The theme is usually a broad idea of a paragraph.
 To figure out the theme, ask yourself this question:
What is the paragraph about?

 The main idea is the point of the paragraph. The

most important thought about the topic.
 To figure out the main idea, ask yourself this
question: What is being said about the person,
thing, or idea (the topic)?

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 Example
• Crabs may have either a hard shell or a soft shell.
The soft shell-crabs are those who shed their
shells now and then. Their skins do not have a
chance to become hard. As they grow older, some
do not shed for three to four years. Their shells
become very hard.

1. Identify the theme and main idea of the

paragraph?

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 Exercise

Refer to Worksheet for exercises

on Identifying Themes and Main
Points.

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 MAIN TEXTS
 Cooper, S & Patton, R.(2012). Writing Logically, Thinking Critically. (7th
ed.). London: Pearson.

 Basham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H. & Wallace, JM. (2008). Critical
Thinking: A Student’s Introduction. (4th ed.) New York: McGraw-
Hill.Epstein, RL.

 Cox, K. & Hill, D. (2011). EAP Now! English for Academic Purposes. (2nd
ed.). Australia: Pearson Longman.

 Jordan, R.R. (1999) Academic Writing Course: Study Skills in English. (3rd
ed.). London: Pearson Longman.

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