Critical reading is an important ability to acquire particularly among college or university students. This study investigated the level of critical reading skills among Malaysian ESL learners at the tertiary level. The motivation for conducting the study is due to the increasing number of claims by employers and educators that most graduates lack the ability to read and think critically. Among the required reading and thinking abilities necessary to read a text critically are the analytical and inference skills. Specifically, this study examined the ESL learners’ analytical and inference skills when they read two expository texts.  A self-developed critical reading comprehension test (CRCT) was used to measure their analytical skills in identifying the writer’s purpose and the main ideas in the text. The findings indicated that the students lacked the required critical skills, in particular, when they are required to identify the writer’s purpose and the main idea in the text which support the observation and experience of many Malaysian educators and researchers. This has direct implications on reading development in Malaysia.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2014-2002-04

Key words: critical reading; critical thinking; higher-order reading comprehension; analytical and inferential skills; Malaysian ESL tertiary level learners 

Afflerbach, P.P. (1990). The influence of prior knowledge on expert readers’ main idea construction strategies.Reading Research Quarterly, Vol 25, 31-46.

Alptekin, C., and Ercetin, G. (2010).The role of L1 and L2 working memory in literal and inferential comprehension in L2 reading.Journal of Research in Reading,Vol 33(2), 206-219.

Barry, S., and Lazarte, A.A. (1998). Evidence for mental model: How do prior knowledge, syntactic complexity and reading topic affect inference generation in a recall task of nonnative readers of Spanish? The Modern Language Journal,Vol 82, 176-193.

Bartu, H. (2001). Can’t I read without thinking?.Reading in a Foreign Language, Vol 13(2), 593-611.

Beck, I.L. (1989). Reading and reasoning. The Reading Teacher, Vol 42(9), 676-682.

Caccamise, D., andSynder, L. (2009).Comprehension instruction in the 21st century.Perspectives on Language and Literacy,Vol 35(2), 23-26.

Cain, K. (2009). Making sense of text: Skills that support text comprehension and its development.Perspectives on Language and Literacy, Vol35(2), 11-13.

Conley, M.W., and Wise, A. (2011).Comprehension for what?Preparing students for their meaningful future.Theory into Practice, Vol 50, 93-99.

Crismore, A. (2000). Helping ESL and EFL university students read critically: A 2000’s challenge.Opinion papers. ERIC Document Reproduction Service ED 450 592.

Day, R.R., and Park, J. (2005).Developing reading comprehension questions.Reading in a Foreign Language, Vol 17(1), 60-73.

Douglas, N.L. (2000). Enemies of critical thinking: Lessons from social psychology research. Reading Psychology, Vol 21, 129-144.

Ennis, R.H. (1985). A logical basis for measuring critical thinking skills.Educational Leadership, 44-48.

Fisher, R. (2001). Philosophy in primary schools: Fostering thinking skills and literacy. Reading Literacy and Language, 67-73.

Gee, J.P. (2007). Social linguistics and literacies (3rd Edition). London: Routledge.

Graney, J.M. (1990). Determination of fact and opinion: A critical reading problem: Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol 19(3), 147-166.

Gunning, T.G. (2008).Developing high-level literacy in all students. New York: Pearson.

Halpern, D.F. (1997). Critical thinking across the curriculum: A brief edition of thoughts and knowledge. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Halpern, D.F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domain: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring.American Psychologist, Vol 53(4), 449-455.

Hammadou, J. (1991). Interrelationships among prior knowledge, inference and language proficiency in foreign language reading.The Modern Language Journal, Vol 75(1), 27-37.

Hansen, J., and Pearson, R.D. (1983). An instructional study: Improving the inferential comprehension of good and poor fourth-grade readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 93, 103-128.

Hennings, D.G. (1999). Reading with meaning (4th edition). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Hudson, T. (2007).Teaching second language reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ippolito, J., Steele, J.L., and Samson, J.F. (2008). Introduction: Why adolescent literacy matters now. Harvard Educational Review,Vol 78(1), 1-5.

Jitendra, A.K., Chard, D., Hoppes, M.K., Renouf, K., and Gardill, M.C. (2001). An evaluation of main idea strategy instruction in four commercial reading programs: Implications for students with learning problems. Reading & Writing Quarterly, Vol 17, 53-73.

Johns, A.M. (1997). Text, role and context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kintch, W.C. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Kintsch, W.C. (1988). The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: A Construction-Integration Model. Psychological Review,Vol 95, 163-182.

Kobayashi, K. (2007). The influence of critical reading orientation on external strategy use during expository text reading.Educational Psychology, Vol 27(3), 363-375.

Koo, Y.L. (2003). Socioculturally-oriented critical reading in the learning space: Empowering multicultural/lingual voices. In AmbigapathyPandian, GituChakravarthy&Kell, P. (Eds.).New Literacies, new practices, new times (pp 128-138). Selangor: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.

Koo, Y.L. (2008). Language, culture and literacy: Meaning-making in global contexts.Bangi, Selangor: UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia.

Koo, Y.L. (2011). Sustaining critical literacy in higher education: Ambivalence, challenges and Tensions.In AmbigapathyPandian, Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail &Toh, C.H. (Eds.).Forging unity amidst diversity: From classrooms and beyond (pp. 104-112). Penang: School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, USM.

Luke, A., and Elkins, J. (2002).Towards a critical, worldly literacy.Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol 45(6), 668-673.

McLaughlin, M., and DeVoogd, G. (2004). Critical literacy as comprehension: Expanding reader response. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol 48(1), 52-62.

Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MoHe). (2011). National Higher Education Action Plan Phase 2 (2011-2015): The higher education strategic plan beyond 2020.Putrajaya: Kuala Lumpur.

Molden, K. (2007). Critical literacy, the right answers for the reading classroom: Strategies to move beyond comprehension for reading improvement. Reading Improvement, Vol 44(1), 50-56.

Morgan, B., and Ramanathan, V. (2005). Critical literacies and language education: Global and local perspectives. Annual Review of Applied Linguistic, Vol 25, 151-169.

Nambiar, R.M.K. (2007). Enhancing academic literacy among tertiary learners: A Malaysian experience.3L Journal of Language Teaching, Linguistic and Literature, Vol 13, 77-94.

Ordonez, V., and Maclean, R. (2007).Seeking a new education paradigm for teaching and learning: Achieving education for sustainable development.In Maclean, R. (Ed.).Learning and teaching for the twenty-first century: Festschrift for Professor Philip Hughes(pp 213-232).Unevoc: International Centre for Technical & Vocational: Springer.

Pandian, A. (2008). Literacy skills in higher education: A comparative study between public and private university students. In SarjitKaur, MorshidiSirat & NorzainiAzman (Eds.), Globalisation and internationalization of higher education in Malaysia (pp. 286-302). Penang: University of Science Malaysia (USM) Press.

Ramlee M., and Abu, A. (2009). Malaysia transitions toward a knowledge-based economy. The Journal of Technology Studies, 51-60.

Rapp, D.N., van den Broek, P., McMaster, K.L., Kendeou, P., andEspin, C. (2007). Higher-order comprehension process in struggling readers: A perspective for research and intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading,Vol 11(4), 289-312.

Rubin, D. (1993). A practical approach to teaching reading (2nd Edition). Boston: Ally and Bacon.

Shor, I. (2009). What is critical literacy?. In Darder, A., Baltodano, M.P. & Torres, R.D. (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader (2nd Edition)(pp. 282-297). New York: Routledge.

Stauffer, R.G. (1969). Teaching reading as a thinking process. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.

Steven, R.J. (1988). Effects of strategy training on the identification of the main idea of expository passages.Journal of Educational Psychology,Vol 80(1), 21-26.

Stupnisky, R.H., Renaud, R.D., Daniels, L.M., Haynes, T.L., and Perry, R.P. (2008).The interrelationship of first-year college students’ critical thinking disposition, perceived academic control, and academic achievement.Research in Higher Education,Vol 49, 513-530.

Thang, S.M., andAzarina, A. (2008).Investigating readiness for autonomy: A comparison of Malaysian ESL undergraduates of three public universities.Reflections on English Language Teaching, Vol 6(1), 1-18.

Thistlewaite, L. (1990). Critical reading for at-risk students.Journal of Reading, Vol 33(8), 586-593.

Turner, T.N. (1988). Higher levels of comprehension: Inference, critical reading, and creative reading. In Alexander, E.A. (Ed.).Teaching reading (3rd Edition). Illinois: Scott, Foresman.

Wang, D. (2006). What can standardized reading tests tell us? Question-answer-relationship and students’ performance.Journal of College Reading and Learning,Vol 36, 21-37.

Wang, D. (2009). Factors affecting the comprehension of global and local main idea. Journal of College Reading and Learning,Vol 39(2), 34-52.

Worden, T.W. (1981). Critical reading: Can the skills be measured? Reading Improvement, Vol 18(4), 278-286.