The Underlying Reasons for Giving Journal Assignments in Academic Reading Class
19 The researcher‘s goal is just the same as my participants‘ goal in teaching
Academic Reading Course that is to make the students able to produce critical opinion or critical response to the academic text, and to the writer‘s argument.
Usually, the teachers found that the students do not really engage in responding to everything written in the text, because the length of the text, the unfamiliar words
that appeared in every paragraph. But then, the teachers try to encourage the students to be more critical in some creative way, like fun discussion related to the
text during the classroom, or question answer that lead the students to find the writer‘s argument or idea, etc.
3. To see the way the students work with synthesizing and summarizing
Summarizing and synthesizing are the skills that required in Academic Reading Course. This is one of the reasons why the teachers want to see how the
students do synthesize and summarize the academic text, because it is important for the students to acquire those skills in order to be used in their thesis later.
Actually there are another two skills that required in the Academic Reading Syllabus, annotating and paraphrasing.
The first required skill on the syllabus is Skills assignments. The brief descriptions for this assignment is, ―These short assignments will help you to
practice skills of summarizing, paraphrasing, synthesizing, annotating, and note taking. I will then be able to provide feedback to help you improve your skills in
these areas. ‖ For me, it is crystal clear show that those skills are really important
to be acquired by the students in this course. And to make these skills done successfully, the academic text is the best choice for practicing those skills. This
The Underlying Reasons for Giving Journal Assignments in Academic Reading Class
20 also directs the students to recognize the types of various academic texts, so the
students will be familiar with those kinds of text. So, later when they face thesis, they will not shocked.
The second required skill on the syllabus is Two Synthesis Skill Homeworks. The brief descriptions for this assignment is, ―To help you prepare for the final
assignment, these homeworks will give you a chance to practice specific skills in preparation for the final paper. The homeworks will be done on the readings used
for the final assignment. This will give you a chance for feedback and practice before completing the final paper.
‖ It is also stated clearly that synthesizing is important for preparing the students for the assignment at the end of the course in
that semester. By giving homework, the teachers hope during learning process, students can apply the skills that have been taught.
These are some of the participants‘ opinion that said to see the way the students work with synthesizing and summarizing in giving assignment in the
form of journal in Academic Reading Class:
Extract 3:
Mrs. B: Kalo Academic Reading sebenarnya lebih ke skills nya, how to paraphrase, how to synthesize, but then,
in the journal it is reflected. So, in the journal, they should also show how they paraphrase someone’s
statement. They have also to quote what someone’s said in this article, so the journal will show that. At
least they know that, this is not my statement, I agree with this statement but the statement belongs to
somebody else. So, I should write it deeply because this is a quotation, not my own idea, so, it means that I
don’t want people to say that “I plagiarize”, at least they know that.
The Underlying Reasons for Giving Journal Assignments in Academic Reading Class
21 According to Mrs. B, she believed that the skills which were required to be
mastered in Academic Reading Course will be reflected in the journal assignment. The skills that she meant is, how to para
phrase someone‘s statement, how to synthesize, and how to avoid plagiarism by changing someone‘s statement into
their own words, afterwards, she is definitely sure that the students can realize these things.
Since the discussion is about the skills such as synthesizing and summarizing, there is a little bit different opinion that is uttered by Mr. C, how the students
evaluate evidence, how the students find arguments on the text. Actually, it is also skills because in the Course Objectives, in the third point, it has been written that
the students will be able to identify evaluate arguments. So, in my opinion, evaluate evidence is also a skill to be taught.
Another reason was stated similarly between Mr. D and Mrs. F. In brief, he asserted that journal is basically should be consist of paraphrase and analyze of
the reading. When the students analyze, they have to be critical because they must compare one text to the other text to be analyzed. For summarizing skill, he
emphasizes his students not just write summary from the conclusion of the text, but using their own word, their own understanding. And, the point for his
assignment is not on the students‘ understanding to the text, it is more on the students‘ skill to understand and to analyze the text. The same presented by Mrs.
F like this: Mrs. F: Because the purpose of the journal is to see how we
interact with the skills not how you deal with the skill.”
The Underlying Reasons for Giving Journal Assignments in Academic Reading Class
22
4. To check the students’ comprehension or understanding about the content of the articles
