The Students' Perception on Academic Reading Log for Essay Writing Literacy: Some Influential Points

doi: http://doi.org/10.21070/jees.v4i1.1948

The Students' Perception on

Academic Reading Log for Essay Writing Literacy: Some Influential Points

Henny Rahmawati*, Fitri Awaliyatush Sholihah

English Department, Universitas Islam Malang, Indonesia

Reading log or the so-called reading journal is a journal to monitor how far the students read within their own pace and time. This study aimed at investigating the students' per- ceptions of some influential points of using reading log in order to enhance the students' ability in writing academic article. The participants of this study were twenty sophomores pursuing their study at Universitas Islam Malang taking Writing IV class. They were asked to fill reading logs given after reading academic articles. They had to read one academic article each day for one week at home. A questionnaire and a brief interview were used as the instruments to collect the data which were then analyzed descriptive qualitatively.

The findings show that, according to the students, reading log is very beneficial for the students specifically when they are reading academic articles in some cases. However, there are some aspects that must be considered by both the students and the facilitator in administering reading log to escalate the students' ability in writing academic article.

Keywords: reading log, academic article, journal

INTRODUCTION

Reading,inlinewithlistening,whichisoneoutoffourlanguageskills,isconsidered asthe buildingblockforothertwootherskills—writingandspeaking. formertwoskills,theso- calledreceptiveskills,determinehowgoodthelasttwoskills,famouslyknownastheproductive skills,masteredbythestudents.Readingisbasicallyanactivityincluding,say,someprocessesto decodeinformationencodedinthewrittenmaterials(Grabe,2009). processeswhichare supposedtodefinethecomplexityofreadingarelike1)arapidandanefficientprocess—when reading,theactivitygoesrapidly andefficientlybeginningfromwordrecognition, syntactic parsing,meaningformation,criticalevaluation,and,thelastbutnottheleast,confirmationthe newinformationtothepriorknowledge;2)acomprehendingprocess;3)aninteractiveprocess betweenthereaderandthewriter;4)astrategicprocessinwhichthereadersreadbasedontheir purpose—differentpurposecallsfordifferentstrategy;5)aflexibleprocess—inthisprocess, readerkeepsinlinethereadingprocessundergonewithitspurpose;6)purposefulprocess;7)an evaluativeprocess,thereaderinsomecasesgivesresponsestothereadingmaterialstheyhave read;8)alearningprocess;and9)alinguisticprocessbetweenmorphological,phonological, syntacticandsemanticofthelanguage.

ISSN 2503 3492 (online)

* Correspondence:

Henny Rahmawati hennyrahma@unisma.ac.id Received: 19th February 2019 Accepted: 6th April 2019 Published: 21st April 2019 Citation:

Rahmawati H (2019) The Students' Perception on Academic Reading Log for Essay Writing Literacy: Some Influential Points . J. Eng. Educ. Society. 4:1.

doi:

http://doi.org/10.21070/jees.v4i1.1948

mightvaryfromtheveryformaltexts ontheir ownpace. activity,according to someexperts, tolessformalorinformalones.Basedonasurveyofeighty- canpromotepositive attitudestowardsreading activitywith twoparticipantsrangingfromfreshmentoseniorsRahmawati whichthelife-longreadersexistGrabe(2009). positiveatti- (2018),theuniversitylevelstudents’readingliteracyofUniver- tudeswhichcan,then,beassumedastheresultofthesuccessful sitasIslamMalangespeciallyinreadingacademicarticleisstill extensivereadingactivityarelike1)vocabularygrowth;2)lan- considered lowand needsto beimproved considerably. guageandliteracyskilldevelopment;3)conceptual-knowledge studentstendedtoreadthelessformaloreventheinformal growth; and 4) reasoning skill development. theory of readingmaterialslikereadingsocialmedia,newspaper,mag- extensivereadingisthepioneerofthefollowingreadingactiv- azine,etc. mostlyreadacademicarticlesforthesakeof ity,SustainedSilentReading.

fulfillingtheteacher’sassignment;theydonotreadthosemate-

rialsunlesstheteacheraskedthemtodoso. SustainedSilentReadingSSRorwidelyknownasFreeVol- untaryReading(FVR)isareadingactivitywithinwhichthe Inthisparticularstudy,therefore,theresearcherconcerned students can select the reading materials themselves Grabe aboutreadingacademicarticlessincereadingsuchmaterialsis (2009). isconductedafewminutesbeforetheusualclass consideredamustforuniversitylevelstudents. morethe begins.Different fromextensivereading(ERfromthispoint studentsareexposedtothereadingmaterials—inthiscaseaca- forward)activity,SSRisconductedwithinacertaintimeina demicarticles—themoretheycanwriteinsuchawayKrashen certainplacemodelledbytheteacher;thestudents,however, (1997).Writingacademicarticleforthetertiarylevelofedu- are,likeinER,allowedtochoosethemselvestheavailablemate- cationis deemedas thefirstrunner-upa rialstoread.Inthisactivity,thestudentsgetlessexposurethan accountforthefactthatthestudentsintheirlevelarerequired inER duetothefactthatthematerialsare providedbythe to compose academic written materialsin theform of final teacherthoughthosestillvaryintermsof,say,thetopics.

projectsorevenmore ‘dramatic’thanthatlikethesis.Inthis Insomestudies,it wasproventhat SSR cansuccessfully extent,itwasalsofound,basedonacasestudy,thatthestu- beapplied foruniversity levelstudents learningforeign lan- dentsofUniversitasIslamMalangmajoringatEnglisheduca- guageMason and Krashen (1997),Lee(2007)and Liu, 2007 tionalsohadlowlevelofwritinghabitespeciallyacademicarti- inKrashen(2001).Insomeothers,itwasmentionedthatsome clesRahmawati(2018). aspectsofEnglishcompetencieswhichcanbeboostedthrough Writing,asintheabove-mentioned,isregardedasoneof the implementation of SSR are writing, spelling, vocabu- theproductiveskillotherthanspeaking.Itisliterallydefined laryKrashen(2004). writing fluencyLee (2007),and gram- as theactivity of conveyinginformation via themediumof marKrashen(2004),Rodrigo(2006),andMason(2007) print. students,withintheirlearningprocess,arerequired isaguidelineto conductthesuccessfulSSR activ- to composesomeacademic outputslikearticles,essays, and ityKrashen(2011);thoseare1)readalittleeverysingleday;

otheracademicwritings. whyreadingarticleisveryben- 2) allocatethe time lessthan the studentscan handlei.e. if eficial activity for them to do in order that theyare habit- thestudents,say,canconcentratewithin

uated to readsuch articlein their daily. students, then, them ten; 3) the reading materials mightbe comics, maga- are expectedto know how a good academic article will be zines,andgradedreaders—languagestudents’books;4)allow in terms ofits structure—grammar, punctuation, capitaliza- thestudents toselect theirownreading materialsprovided;

tion, and mechanics—and its composition—authors’ name, 5)thedifficultylevelofthereadingmaterialscouldbeeither abstract,introduction,method,findingsanddiscussion,con- below—easier (i-1)orabove—moredifficult(1+1)—the stu- clusionandsuggestion,reference.Byknowinghowagoodarti- dents’difficultylevelKrashen(2005);6)SSRdoesnotworkfor cleshouldbe,itisbelievedthatthestudentscanwritesucharti- bothbeginnersandadvancedreadersKrashen(2004);7)the clelateroninanappropriateway. booksmightnotbefinishedatatimethestudentsread;8)no Inthisstudy,theresearcherfurnishesthepreviousstudy rewardsareavailable;9)provideaconduciveatmospherewhen donebyPakandWaseley(2012)withinwhichtheyfoundthat readingTreleaseandKrashen(1996),EatingandReadingin readinglogcanincreasetheirgeneralunderstandingthewhole theSchoolLibrary;and10)authenticmaterialsarethemost readingmaterials.Slightlydifferently,thisstudymoreconcerns suggestedforthereadersTrelease(2006). study,however, onthestudents’reading habit.Besidesthereading materials wasbasicallybasedtothisguidelinewhichhadbeenadapted usedinthisdefinitestudyareallaboutacademicarticleswhich, beforehandinordertofitthemethod—SSR—tothecontextin attheend,havesomebenefitstowardsthestudents’capability whichSSRwasappliedor,brieflysaying,tomakethemethod inwritingbetteracademicarticles. followingsubtopicselu- contextual. stepsofapplyingSSR,inthisstudy,arerevealed cidateaclearexplicationofsometheoriesunderpinningthis indetailin‘Method’.WhenconductingSSRactivitywithinthe

study. class,theteacher,inthisstudy,distributedareadinglogtocon-

Extensivereading,asitsname,istheactivityofreadingin trol thestudents’readingactivityaswellastoknow thestu- anextensiveway;extensiveintermsofwhat,when,whereand dents’progress. followingsubtitlefiguresoutwhatreading howthestudentsread. students,inthiscase,areallowedto logisandhowitshouldbe,inbrief.

choosethemselvesthematerialstheywanttoread,thetimeto

read,theplaceatwhichtheyareeagertoread,whicharebased monitorReadinghowlogfarorthethestudentsso-calledreadreadingwithinjournaltheirownisajournalpaceandto

timePakandWaseley(2012).Accordingtothem,Suchlogwas thepurposeofbeingabetterwriterisacriticalreadingmean- formulatedtoboostthestudents’reading habitbyassigning ing that itdoes notonlycomprehend thereadingmaterials, themtoreadafewminutesperday—adaptedSSRmethod— butitismuchmorethanthat—examiningactivelyandjudg- andnotedownthereadingmaterialstheyhavereadinthelog. ingthoughtfullyandthoroughlyonthereadingmaterials.How Empirically,readinglogisalsosubstantiallyhelpfultoenhance intensive,basedonthestudents’perception, readinglogcan thestudents’comprehensiontowardstextbookreadingmate- leadthemdosuchactivities—criticallyexaminingandjudg- rials Winiharti et al.(2014a). participantsof thisstudy ingacademicarticles—inordertomakethestudents’betterin were104studentscoming fromfourdistinctdepartments— theiracademicwritingisgoingtodiscussbrieflyinthisstudy.

DepartmentofInformationSystem,DepartmentofInforma- tionTechnology,DepartmentofJapaneseLanguageandCul- ture, and Department ofEnglishLanguage and Culture—in BinaNusantaraUniversity. resultrevealedmorethanhalf

METHODS

oftheparticipantsperformedpositivelytowardsreadingtext- methodusedinthisstudyisacasestudy.Datagainedfrom bookmaterials;their comprehensionoftheassignedmateri- thefieldwasthenanalyzeddescriptivequalitatively.Aqualita- als increased significantly. Reading log,thus, is assumed to tivecasestudycallsforintensive,holisticdescriptionandanal- bebeneficialfor studentstobuildtheirreading habitand to ysisofaphenomenoninordertoinvestigatehowthesubject moregreatlyestablishtheirapprehensionaswell. former ofthe studytakesrole inthereal world Hinkel(2005).

assumption,however,stillneedsmoreempiricalstudiestocon- participantsofthisstudywerefourteensophomoresofUni- firm.Inthisstudy,therefore,theresearcherwasaimedto,say, versitasIslamMalangtakingWritingIVclassEinthefourth verifyoncemoretheuseofreadinglogtobuildthestudents’ semesteracademicyear2017/2018.[R1]Questionnaireanda readinghabittowardsacademicarticles,whichthenpresum- briefinterviewwereconductedtocompileavaliddatainwhich ablyimprovetheirabilityinwritingsuchmaterialsappropri- onemightclarifytheotherongainingatrustabledata.

ately. studyhasconductedduringtheteachingand learn-

Readinglogisusedasatooltocontrolthestudents’read- ingprocessforabouteightmeetings.Withinthelearningpro- ing activity,as in theabove-mentioned, notas apressure,a cess,theresearcherwhowasalsothelectureratthesametime deadline,asurveillanceoranyother,say,hauntedsortofthing distributed readinglogandprovidedsomeacademic articles whichmight,attheend,demolishtheintrinsicmotivationto downloadedfromvariousaccreditedjournalslikeLinguaCul- read.Besidesinthislognocertaingoalsarerequired.Impos- tura,Litera,Teflin,andsoonwhichcoveredmiscellaneoustop- ingcertaingoalsmightresultnegativeeffectonthestudents’ icsincludinglistening,reading,writing,speaking, grammar, readinghabitespeciallytheirinherentmotivationtoreadDeci and soforth;thejournal, ofcourse, mustbeatleastaccred- etal.(1999). motivationdeterminesifoneisconsidered itedasthetopthreejournalsbyScienceandTechnologyIndex asalife-longreader;thehighertheinnatemotivationsomeone (Sinta3).Beforetheusualclassbegan,thelectureraskedthem has,themoreproficientreaderhe/shewillbeandtheotherway toreadasmanyarticlesaspossiblefor

around.Readinglogconsistsofsomecomponentslikedayand utes;thenameofthearticlesreadwerethenjotteddowninthe date,thetitleofthearticle,theauthor,theduration,newvocab- readingloggiven.Notonlyisthenamewritteninthereading ulary,andcomments(seeTable1). logbutalsotheauthorandthecommentsofthearticles.

readinglogusedbythelecturertomonitortheirdailyreading activities.

TABLE 1 | Reading Log's Components

Day Title Author Dura-

tion New

Vocabulary Com-

ments A

theywereasked towritethemselvesacademic articlesbased onthetopicsinwhichtheywereinterested. teachermon- itoredtheir activitiesfrommeetingtomeetingbyevaluating theirwritingthroughbothreadinglogsubmittedweeklyand

“ReadingtoWrite” isnotonly anactivitywhichendsin theirwritingactivity.Intheveryfirstmeeting,basedonabrief itself,butthisactivityalsoaimsatobservingthewritingstyle— interviewdonebeforeconductingthestudy,thestudentsdid or theso-called genre—of specific booksread in order that notknowatallwhatacademic articlesare andhowto write thereadercanshapeher/hisownwritingstylea such.

According to him,there are somereasonswhy reading can beawayto beabetterwritera)increasingthewriters’wis-

domwhichisveryinfluentialbelongingtoawriter;b)famil-

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

iarizingwiththeinterestingandbeautifulwrittenmaterial;c)

improvingsetofunfamiliarwords;d)knowinggoodwriting; Basedonthedatagotfromonlinequestionnaireprovidedby e)keepinglearningandupdating;e)blossomingthinkingskill Googlewhichwasdistributedtofourteenstudentsintheend andgrammarcompetenceaswell.Basedontheaboveelabora- ofthisstudy,itwasfoundthat64.3%ofthestudentsagreedthat tion,hence,itcanbedrawnthatthereadingactivitydonefor readinglogcanhelpthemtowritebetterarticles.Someother

students that was14.3% extremelyagreetotheuseofread- 1)thearticlesgiventothestudentsareconsideredasgoodarti- inglogwhenreadingacademicarticle. remainingstudents clesissuedbyaccreditedjournal;2)thearticlessuppliedbythe thosewere7.1%oronlyonestudentand14.3%ortwostudents teachersmustvaryintermsofthetopics;3)thearticlesmustbe disagreeandextremelydisagreerespectivelyoftheapplication higherthanthestudents’levelofdifficultyintermsofvocabu- ofreadinglogwhenreadingacademicarticle. resultlikein laryandstructure;4)theinstructiongivenbytheteachermust theaboveexplanationcanbepicturedintheFigure1. beasclearaspossible;5)theteachermustskimthearticlein ordertoknowitsdifficultylevel;and6)theteachermustbea modelforthestudentsatclass,readingthearticles.

result of the discussion aiming at investigating the phenomenatoanswertheresearchquestioncanbeconcisely bridged as follows. Based on the above findings, voluntary reading log can assist students in both promoting reading habit Pak and Waseley (2012) and increasing the students’

capabilityinwriting,especiallyintheacademicrealm.

two discoveries enrich what Winiharti et al. (2014b) estab- lished intheirstudy; theyfoundabout 88%ofthestudents who were assigned to write reading journal—the so-called reading login thisstudy—showedpositiveattitude in terms of thestudents’generalunderstanding towardsthe assigned reading materials. Despite its benefit, some biases possibly obstructedthereadingandwritingactivitieslikewhenthestu- dentsfocusedmoreontheunfamiliarwords,onthecompre- hensionofeachsentencewhenreading,andonthereadinglog itselfwhichasksthemtofilloutsomeaspectsi.e.unfamiliar words,comments,etc. teacher,therefore,musttakeroleto explainthembrieflythatthoseactivitiescan,intheend,hin- derthegoalofreadingactivitythatiswritingbetteracademic article. teacher mustinformtothestudentstheyshould readasmanyarticlesastheycaninagiventimeandmuststop lookingupdictionarywhensomeunfamiliarwordsemerged.

FIGURE 1 | The Students' Comments

resultshowsthatreadinglogcanroughlystimulatethe studenttoreadarticle.Basedonthedataobtainedfromques- tionnaireandabriefinterviewoffourteensophomores,there aresomebeneficialpointsfoundanditsproportionwhenben- efitingreadinglogasatoolstimulatingthestudents’appetiteto readarticledaily. pointsarethatreadinglog1)improves the students’ habit inreading academic articles(43% ofthe students);2)enhancesthestudents’vocabularymastery(50%

of the students); 3) helps to find the appropriate data and resources towriteabetteracademicarticle (14%ofthestu- dents); 4) escalates the students’comprehension of theaca- demicarticle(35.7%ofthestudents);and5)increasesthestu- dents’knowledgeofacademicarticle(14.3%).Table2ispre- sentingthementionedresult.

studentsmustknowthattheyareaskedtofigureoutthe generalmeaningofthewholetext,notthespecific meaning ofeachword,andtocriticallyexamineandjudgethearticles beforetheyareaskedtowritethemselvesacademicarticles.

CONCLUSION

TABLE 2 | Some Influential Aspects of Reading Log

Aspect Percentage

43% researcherdrewsomeconclusionrelatedtotheuseofread- ingloginhabituatingthestudentstoreadarticledailyandin improvingthestudent’sabilityinwritingacademicarticles.

influentialpointsofreadinglogusedwhenreadingacademic articleareimprovingthestudents’habitinreadingacademic articles,enhancingthestudents’vocabularymastery,helping tofindtheappropriatedataandresourcestowriteabetteraca- demic article, escalatingthe students’comprehension ofthe academic article, and increasing the students’ knowledge of academicarticle.Someconsiderationsinmakinguseofread- inglogarethearticlesgiventothestudentsareconsideredas goodarticlesissuedbyaccreditedjournal;thearticlessupplied Improvingthestudents’readinghabit

Enhancing the students’ vocabulary 50% mastery

e appropriate tool to stimulate the 14% studentstowriteacademicarticle

Escalatingthestudents’comprehension 35.7% oftheacademicarticle

Increasing the students’knowledge of 14.3% academicarticle

Intheotherpendulum,eventough,theresearcherfound bytheteachersmustvaryintermsofthetopics;thearticles someaspectsthatmustbeconsidered;inthisextent,ofcourse, mustbehigherthanthestudents’levelofdifficultyintermsof thefacilitator’screativityisneededtomaximizetheuseofread- vocabularyandstructure;theinstructiongivenbytheteacher inglogforhabituatingthestudents’reading,inthiscaseread- mustbeasclearaspossible;theteachermustskimthearticle ingacademicarticle. aretheteachermustmakesurethat inordertoknowitsdifficultylevel;andtheteachermustbea

modelforthestudentsatclass,readingthearticles. thisstudyisaccountforthem,thanksamillion.Forthereview- ersofthisarticle,thelastbutnottheleast,thankyouforthe valuablesuggestionswhich,attheend,makethisarticlebetter.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Forallmystudents,Icannotmentionthemonebyone,who specificallyhave participatedinthisstudy,Iloveyoualland

REFERENCES

Pak, S. and Waseley, A. (2012). Effect of Mandatory Reading Log on Children’s MotivationtoRead.JournalofResearchonEducation22,251–265

Rahmawati, H. (2018). English Literacy Culture of University Level EFL Learners:

HowLiterateare JournalofEnglishEducation,Linguistics,andLiterature Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., and Ryan, R. (1999). A Meta-analytic Review of Experi-

mentsExaminingtheEffectsofExtrinsicRewardsonIntrinsicMotivation.Psy- chological Bulletin 125, 627–668

Grabe, W.(2009). Reading in a Second Language . United States of America (Cam- bridge University Press)

Hinkel, E. (2005). Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Elrbaum Associates, Inc)

, 79–89

Rodrigo,V.(2006). amountofinputmatters:Incidentalacquisitionofgram- marthroughlisteningandreading. InternationalJournalofLanguageTeaching 2,10–13

Trelease,J.(2006). ReadAloudHandbook(NewYork:Penguin)

Trelease,J.andKrashen,S.(1996).EatingandReadingintheSchoolLibrary.Emer- gency Librarian 23, 27

Krashen, B. M. (1997). Extensive Reading in English as a Foreign Language. System

25,91–102 Winiharti,M.,Herawati,A.,andRahayu,E.(2014a). ReadingJournalasaWayto

Improve Students’. Comprehension Towards Textbook Reading Materials . Lingua Cultura8,101–108

Winiharti, M., Herawati, A., and Rahayu, E. (2014b). Reading Journal as a Way to ImproveStudents’ComprehensiontowardsaTextbookReadingMaterial Krashen,S.D.(2001).MoreSmokeandMirrors:ACritiqueoftheNationalReading

Panel Report on Fluency. Phi Delta Kappan 83, 119–23

Krashen, S. D. (2004). Power of Reading (Portsmouth, NH and Westport, CT:

Heinemann Publishing Company and Libraries Unlimited)

Krashen,S.D.(2005). Isin-schoolFreeReadingGoodforChildren?Whythe NationalReadingPanelReportis(still)Wrong?PhiDeltaKappan86,444–47 Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free Voluntary Reading . United States of America (Libraries

Unlimited)

Lee,S.Y.(2007).Revelationsfrom ConsecutiveStudiesonExtensiveReading.

RELC Journal 38, 150–70

Mason, B. (2007). efficiency of self-selected reading and hearing stories on adult second language acquisition. _Selected papers from the Sixteenth Interna- sional Symposium on English Teaching, English Teachers’ Assocoation-Republic of China._Taipei(CranePublishingCompany)

ConflictofInterestStatement: authordeclarethattheresearchwasconducted intheabsenceofanycommercialorfinancialrelationshipsthatcouldbeconstrued asapotentialconflictofinterest.

Copyright©2019Rahmawati. isanopen-accessarticledistributedunderthe termsoftheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense(CCBY). use,distribution orreproductioninotherforumsispermitted,providedtheoriginalauthor(s)andthe copyrightowner(s)arecreditedandthattheoriginalpublicationinthisjournaliscited, inaccordancewithacceptedacademicpractice.Nouse,distributionorreproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Mason, B. and Krashen, S. (1997). Extensive Reading in English as a Foreign Lan- guage.System25,91–102