Teaching Comprehension and Word Identification Strategies

Good morning all,

In this opportunity, I would like to focus on “READING” theories, approaches, strategies, ideas, etc.

Why Teach Strategies?

Effective teachers have an understanding of how reading occurs and are able to plan learning experiences and instruction that support students to become more successful readers. Teachers play an important role in ensuring that all students build up a bank of knowledge that can be accessed during the reading process.

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Media Pembelajaran Kreatif

Media pembelajaran merupakan segala sesuatu yang digunakan untuk menyalurkan pesan dari pengirim kepada penerima sehingga bisa merangsang pikiran, perasaan, perhatian, dan minat pembelajaran.

Sedangkan kreatif artinya menciptakan sesuatu yang berbeda dari yang lain atau menghubungkan hal-hal yang tadinya tidak berhubungan. Kreatif artinya adalah sebuah gagasan terhadap konsep dan rencana untuk kemajuan dalam memecahkan masalah-masalah sosial yang sedang berkembang.

Sementara dalam proses belajar, media pembelajaran kreatif merupakan hal penting agar murid atau pelajar bisa lebih mudah memahami materi yang dijelaskan.

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BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

By: Ni’matuz Zahroh

Australian Bilingual Education

            Bilingual Education refers here to education in which more than one language is used as medium to teach non-language subjects. It will be discussed as three main types - “enrichment” bilingual education, whose purpose is to add on a second language; “educative” bilingual education, which uses students’ home language as medium to help them cope with their education; and “maintenance” bilingual education, which has as its purpose the maintenance of a language that students bring to school, usually a minority language.

The History of Bilingual Education in Australia

Australia in the Twenty-first Century is a nation with immigrants from many cultures. It is estimated that one in four Australians is foreign born, and one in twenty is from Asia. Linguistically, Australia is also diverse, with about 25% of the population coming from a language background other than English. Italian, Greek, Cantonese and Mandarin are the most common languages other than English spoken in the home (Miller, 2003). In addition, it is estimated that 200-250 Aboriginal languages are still spoken in Australia (Lo Bianco & Rhydwen, 2001).

In the 1970s, multiculturalism policies finally began to address the needs of linguistically diverse students in the schools. English as a Second Language (ESL) programs were offered to students, and some schools began programs in bilingual education. However, mirroring developments in the USA, Australia began to roll back support for bilingual education by the 1980s, and funding for ESL programs was cut. A discourse of mainstreaming began to guide federal policies (Miller, 2003). Though mainstreaming was championed as a way to limit the marginalization experienced by language learners, it also resulted in the loss of needed language support (Ozolins, 1993).

The implementation

In Australia, some schools teach bilingual programs which cater to children speaking languages other than English. Baldauf explains that these programs are now beginning to benefit from more government support. Bilingual education for Indigenous students, however, has only received intermittent official backing. In the Northern Territory, for example, bilingual programs for Indigenous students were begun with Federal Government support in the early 1970s but by December 1998 the Northern Territory Government had announced its decision to shift $3 million away from the 21 bilingual programs to a Territory-wide program teaching English as a second language. Within 12 months though the government had softened its position. Most bilingual programs were allowed to continue under the guise of two-way education. Then on 24 August 2005, the Minister for Employment, Education and Training announced that the government would be "revitalizing bi-lingual education" at 15 Community Education Centres: Alekerange, Angurugu, Borroloola, Gapuwiyak, Gunbalunya, Kalkaringi, Lajamanu, Maningrida, Milingimbi, Ramingining, Ngkurr, Shepherdson College, Numbulwar, Yirrkala and Yuendumu. This revitalisation is conceived as part of an effort aimed at "providing effective education from pre-school through to senior secondary at each of the Territory’s 15 Community Education Centres". As Harris & Devlin (1986) observe, “Aboriginal bilingual education in Australia represents much more than a range of education programs. It has been a measure of non-Aboriginal commitment to either assimilation or cultural pluralism”. In 2008 it again shifted with the government attempting to force the nine remaining bilingual schools to teach the first four hours of classes in English.

The bilingual programs in Australia are ran very similarly to those in the United States. The program is used from Pre-6 grades. Hones (2005) states that overall around 13 hours a week are spoken in the child's native language from grades Pre-4. Grades 5-6 use around 7.5 hours in a child's native language(p.16). To make this program successful, the teacher checks for comprehension along the way. I believe this method benefits the child in the strongest manner. They are able to become bilingual throughout their education. A teacher is able to monitor the student's comprehension levels and either use more or less of their native language until they are confortable to move to another level. In addition to learning a foreign language, the children are also becoming cultured by this process.

Why Australian Aboriginal Communities Wish to Retain Bilingual Education Programs

The three major reasons expressed by Australian Aboriginal communities over the years for why they want to retain their bilingual education programs can be summarized as follows.

1. It makes good educational sense for initial literacy to be taught to young children in their own first language, a language they actually understand, and for second language acquisition (in this case, English) to take place on the basis of that firm foundation. This also has important implications for the children's self-esteem and even their extended families' sense of self-worth.

2. With bilingual education programs, parents and relatives were actively involved in their children's education. Their very real fear is that English-only education will once again, like the bad old days of the Assimilation Policy, exclude families from close partnership with their children's education.

3. Many of the supporters of Indigenous bilingual education programs in Australia regard the current emphasis on a monolingual curriculum in English in Indigenous primary schools in the Northern Territory schools as a denial of the human rights of significant numbers of Aboriginal children.

The Lack of Appropriately Trained and Qualified TESOL Teachers

During the 25 years in which the Northern Territory's bilingual education programs were in place, there was a major flaw in terms of service delivery. This deficiency affected the English-only schools as much as it did the bilingual schools, and can be attributed to the service provider, the Northern Territory Government.

To this day, the lack of appropriately trained TESOL teachers affects the so-called English-only schools to the same extent that it affects students enrolled in the former bilingual schools. While these so-called English-only schools may have been officially classified as nonbilingual, they were and are in a very real sense bilingual school in that they still comprise classes of children who are multilingual and non-Standard English-speaking. In either case, the language needs of the children in those schools need to be taken into account, and that involves some level of acceptance of bilingualism, or, in some instances, multilingualism. In addition, in order to maximize their ability to effectively teach these children, if they are to be effective, TESOL teachers need to be schooled in the specifics of Indigenous Australian languages.

In 1999, after the announcement of the closure of the bilingual education programs, a government-sponsored review of Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory took place, led by Australian Federal Government Labor politician, Senator Bob Collins. The ensuing report (Northern Territory Department of Education, 1999) has become known as the Collins Review. It makes many recommendations regarding Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory. The Collins Review concedes that there is a very high level of support for bilingual education at the community level, but nevertheless fails to support the programs' continuation.

The Indigenous stakeholders affected by the closure of the bilingual education programs have stated clearly that they wish to retain these programs. Hence, the Collins Review's lack of endorsement of bilingual education shows a failure of political nerve, particularly in the context of the Northern Territory Department of Education's constant flow of rhetoric about family partnerships being fundamental to the success of Indigenous education.

To summarize, the Collins Review acknowledges that many Indigenous people feel passionate about their bilingual education programs and feel ownership of them in a way that they usually do not about English-only education. The review also accepts the body of statistically relevant evidence indicating that the majority of trained Indigenous teachers have come from bilingual schools and that academic results in many bilingual schools have been very good by comparison with the results in English-only schools. Despite this, the review fails to recommend the continuation of the bilingual education programs. Why?

Finally, there remains an unmet need for the Territory's Aboriginal schools to recruit, as a matter of policy, qualified TESOL teachers, to ensure the educational effectiveness of the instruction that Aboriginal-language-speaking children receive in English. At the time of writing, June 2001, 2 1/2 years after the axing of these special bilingual education programs, there has been neither a significant increase in the numbers of TESOL teachers employed by the education authority, nor any increase in the level of specialist language training provided to the Territory's predominantly white, monolingual teachers of Aboriginal-language-speaking children.

Instead, there is a prevailing mood of despondency and frustration among those committed to bilingual education for Aboriginal students. Those involved feel that they have no choice but to seek international support on this matter.

Reference

Northern Territory Department of Education. (1999). Learning lessons, An independent review of Indigenous education in the Northern Territory. Darwin, Australia: Government Printing Office of the Northern Territory.

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Genre Approaches and Examples of Text (for SMA/MA) Part 3

NARRATIVE

Purpose: To amuse/entertain the readers and to tell a story

Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Complication
3. Resolution
4. Reorientation

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Past Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Chronologically arranged

THE EXAMPLES OF NARRATIVE TEXT

1. Romeo and Juliet's Romantic and Tragic Story

 

In the town of Verona there lived two families, the Capulets and the Montagues. They engaged in a bitter feud. Among the Montagues was Romeo, a hot-blooded young man with an eye for the ladies. One day, Romeo attended the feast of the Capulets', a costume party where he expected to meet his love, Rosaline, a haughty beauty from a well-to-do family. Once there, however, Romeo's eyes felt upon Juliet, and he thought of Rosaline no more.

The vision of Juliet had been invading his every thought. Unable to sleep, Romeo returned late that night to the Juliet's bedroom window. There, he was surprised to find Juliet on the balcony, professing her love for him and wishing that he were not a "Montague", a name behind his own. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo was ready to deny his name and professed his love. The two agreed to meet at nine o-clock the next morning to be married.

Early the next morning, Romeo came to Friar Lawrence begging the friar to marry him to Juliet. The Friar performed the ceremony, praying that the union might someday put an end to the feud between the two families. He advised Romeo kept the marriage a secret for a time.

On the way home, Romeo chanced upon his friend Mercutio arguing with Tybalt, a member of the Capulet clan. That qurreling last caused Merquito died. Romeo was reluctant no longer. He drew his sword and slew Tybalt died. Romeo realized he had made a terrible mistake. Then Friar Lawrence advised Romeo to travel to Mantua until things cool down. He promised to inform Juliet.

In the other hand, Juliet's father had decided the time for her to marry with Paris. Juliet consulted Friar Lawrence and made a plot to take a sleeping potion for Juliet which would simulate death for three days. The plot proceeded according to the plan. Juliet was sleeping in death.

Unfortunately, The Friar's letter failed to reach Romeo. Under the cover of darkness, he broke into Juliet's tomb. Romeo kissed the lips of his Juliet one last time and drank the poison. Meanwhile, the effects of the sleeping potion wear off. Juliet woke up calling for Romeo. She found her love next to her but was lying dead, with a cup of poison in his hand. She tried to kiss the poison from his lips, but failed. Then Juliet put out his dagger and plunged it into her breast. She died

Note: Romeo and Juliet is a famous play by William Shakespeare. This example of narrative text about romantic and tragic story was written and simplified from love-story.com

Arabian Story

 

2. Queen of Arabia and Three Sheiks

Maura, who like to be thought of as the most beautiful and powerful queen of Arabia, had many suitors. One by one she discarded them, until her list was reduced to just three sheiks. The three sheiks were all equally young and handsome. They were also rich and strong. It was very hard to decide who would be the best of them.

One evening, Maura disguised herself and went to the camp of the three sheiks. As they were about to have dinner, Maura asked them for something to eat. The first gave her some left over food. The second Sheik gave her some unappetizing camel’s tail. The third sheik, who was called Hakim, offered her some of the most tender and tasty meat. After dinner, the disguised queen left the sheik’s camp.

The following day, the queen invited the three sheiks to dinner at her palace. She ordered her servant to give each one exactly what they had given her the evening before. Hakim, who received a plate of delicious meat, refused to eat it if the other two sheiks could not share it with him.

This Sheik Hakim’s act finally convinced Queen Maura that he was the man for her. “Without question, Hakim is the most generous of you” she announced her choice to the sheiks. “So it is Hakim I will marry”.

Narrative Complication in Generic Structure

The above example of narrative text tells a story which can amuse the reader. Amusing and entertaining are the power of narrative text to attract the reader. Reader will tend to follow the whole story.
As it is said many times that the heart of narrative text is the existence of the complication. It will drive the plot of the story to keep amusing. The existence of conflict inside the Queen Maura is what builds the story keep running. The psychological conflict inside Maura, which she strike against herself, is arousing the readers attention to continue reading the story. They want to know what next will happen, who will be chosen by Queen Maura, in what way she will decide who is the best. Keeping knowing them really entertaining as well increasing the moral value added.

Orientation: the text introduce the Queen Maura and three sheiks in Arabia once time.
Complication: Queen Maura find out that it was very difficult to choose one as the best among them
Resolution: finally Queen Maura has a convincing way to choose one and he is Sheik Hakim

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RECOUNT

Purpose: to retell something that happened in the past and to tell a series of past event

Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Event(s)
3. Reorientation

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Past Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Using adjectives

Narrative and recount in some ways are similar. Both are telling something in the past so narrative and recount usually apply PAST TENSE; whether Simple Past Tense, Simple Past Continuous Tense, or Past Perfect Tense. The ways narrative and recount told are in chronological order using time or place. Commonly narrative text is found in story book; myth, fable, folklore, etc while recount text is found in biography.
The thing that makes narrative and recount different is the structure in which they are constructed. Narrative uses conflicts among the participants whether natural conflict, social conflict or psychological conflict. In some ways narrative text combines all these conflicts. In the contrary, we do not find these conflicts inside recount text. Recount applies series of event as the basic structure

THE EXAMPLE OF RECOUNT TEXT

1. My Adventure at Leang-Leang Cave

On Sunday, my parents, my best fruend Novi, and I visited a cave at Maros called Leang-leang . It was my first time to visit the cave, better yet, my best friend came to visit it with me!

The cave was famous for its primitive cave wall paintings which were some hand prints and wild boar paintings. The cave and its surroundings was turned into a national park, so it was taken care of. My parents took a rest in a small hut for visitors of the park, while Novi and I adventured around the cave with a guide. We had to climb some metal stairs to get to the cave, because the cave was embedded into a small mountain. Next stop was a place where some seashells littered the ground and some were actually piled into a big mound! The guide said that these piles of seashells are called kjokkenmoddinger, or kitchen trash. The humans who lived here ate the shells and dumped the left overs in their 'kitchen'. The last place was a small museum where they have skeletons of the humans who lived in the caves. The skeletons along with some roughly made jewelry and weapons were placed inside glass cases for display. The walls of the museum were adorned with photographs taken when they did an excavation there.

After a quick lunch with Novi and my parents, we decided it was time to go back home. We really had the time of our lives!

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SPOOF

Purpose: to tell an event with a humorous twist and entertain the readers

Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Event(s)
3. Twist

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Past Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Using adverb
4. Chronologically arranged



Example of Spoof Text in Funny Story

The Zoo Job Story

One day a clown was visiting the zoo and attempted to earn some money by making a street performance. He acted and mimed perfectly some animal acts. As soon as he started to drive a crowd, a zoo keeper grabbed him and dragged him into his office. The zoo keeper explained to the clown that the zoo's most popular gorilla had died suddenly and the keeper was fear that attendance at the zoo would fall off. So he offered the clown a job to dress up as the gorilla until the zoo could get another one. The clown accepted this great opportunity.

So the next morning the clown put on the gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He felt that it was a great job. He could sleep all he wanted, played and made fun of people and he drove bigger crowds than he ever did as a clown. He pretended the gorilla successfully.

However, eventually the crowds were tired of him for just swinging on tires. He began to notice that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the next cage. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he decided to make a spectacular performance. He climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition, and dangled from the top to the lion's cage. Of course, this made the lion furious, but the crowd people loved it.

At the end of the day the zoo keeper came and gave him a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this went on for some time, he kept taunting the lion, the audience crowd grew a larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day happened. When he was dangling over the furious lion, he slipped and fell into the lion cage. The clown was really in big terrible situation. He was terrified.

Sooner the lion gathered itself and prepared to pounce. The clown was so scared. He could do nothing and he began to run round and round the cage with the lion close and closer behind. Finally, the lion could catch him. The clown started screaming and yelling, "Help me, help me!", but the lion was quick and pounces. The clown soon found himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and suddenly he heard a voice from the lion’s mouth;"Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?".

(Re-written and simplified from www.onlyfunnystories.com)

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REVIEW

Purpose: to critique or evaluate an art work or event for a public audience

Dominant Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Evaluation
3. Interpretative Recount
4. Evaluation
5. Evaluative Summation

Dominant Language features:
1. Focus on specific participants
2. Using adjectives
3. Using long and complex clauses
4. Using metaphor

EXAMPLE OF REVIEW TEXT

review film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Title                  : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Production year     : 2011
Country              : Rest of the world
Runtime             : 130 mins
Directors             : David Yates
Cast     :
- Alan Rickman
- Billy Nighy
- Daniel Radcliffe
- Emma Thompson
- Emma Watson
- Gary Oldman
- Helena Bonham Carter
- Maggie Smith
- Michael Gambon
- Ralph Fiennes
- Rupert Grint

Details: 2011, Rest of the world, Cert 12A, 130 mins, Dir: David Yates

With: Alan Rickman, Billy Nighy, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Thompson, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Grint

Summary: Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort's final horcruxes

"It all ends," says the poster slogan. A potentially grim statement of the obvious, of course, yet the Potter saga could hardly have ended on a better note. With one miraculous flourish of its wand, the franchise has restored the essential magic to the Potter legend – which had been starting to sag and drift in recent movies – zapping us all with a cracking final chapter, which looks far superior to CS Lewis's The Last Battle or JRR Tolkien's The Return of the King. It's dramatically satisfying, spectacular and terrifically exciting, easily justifying the decision to split the last book into two.

Here is where the Harry Potter series gets its groove back, with a final confrontation between Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and our young hero, and with the sensational revelation of Harry's destiny, which Dumbledore had been keeping secret from him. When stout-hearted young Neville Longbottom (a scene-stealer from Matthew Lewis) steps forward to denounce the dark lord in the final courtyard scene, I was on the edge of my seat. And when, in that final "coda", the middle-age Harry Potter gently hugs his little boy before sending him off for his first term at Hogwarts – well, what can I say? I think I must have had something in my eye.

The colossal achievement of this series really is something to wonder at. The Harry Potter movies showed us their characters growing older in real time: unlike Just William or Bart Simpson, Daniel Radcliffe's Harry was going to grow up like a normal person and never before has any film – or any book – brought home to me how terribly brief childhood is. The Potter movies weren't just an adaptation of a series of books, but a living, evolving collaborative phenomenon between page and screen. The first movie, Philosopher's Stone, came out in 2001, when JK Rowling was working on the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, and when no one – perhaps not even the author herself – knew precisely how it was going to end. The movies developed just behind the books, and it's surely impossible to read them without being influenced by the films. This is most true for Robbie Coltrane's endlessly lovable, definitive performance as Hagrid.

In this final episode, Harry (Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) continue their battle to find and destroy the "horcruxes" that the sinister Voldemort needs so he can stay alive for all eternity: these are objects in which the fragments of souls are trapped and whose vital, spiritual force Voldemort, that hateful parasite, can siphon off for his own ends. Harry and his friends track down these horcruxes, but the last one is a puzzle. As the forces of good assemble at Hogwarts for the final showdown with Voldemort and his hordes, Harry knows only that the most vital horcrux is actually in the castle, very close at hand.

There are some superb set-piece scenes – and now the plot has so much more zing, these scenes have a power that comparable moments in earlier movies did not have. When Harry, Ron and Hermione insinuate themselves into Gringotts Bank to steal the sword of Gryffindor, the effect is bizarre, surreal and macabre: drawing on the influence of Lewis Carroll and Terry Gilliam. It is a great moment when Severus Snape, played with magnificently adenoidal disdain by Alan Rickman, is attacked by Voldemort's snake Nagini, and we witness this only from behind a frosted glass screen – a nice touch from director David Yates. London-dwelling Potter fans will, as before, be intrigued to see how the ornate St Pancras railway station is used to represent King's Cross, from where the Hogwarts train traditionally departs. Millions of tourists are undoubtedly convinced that this building is, in fact, King's Cross. It may be forced simply to change its name.

We get passionate, but somehow touchingly innocent screen kisses between Harry and Ginny (Bonnie Wright) and, of course, between Ron and Hermione. In the midst of the battle, Neville declares that he is going to find Luna (Evanna Lynch) for a snog: "I'm mad about her! About time I told her, since we're both probably going to be dead by dawn!" But these love stories are always subordinate to the all-important battle between good and evil.

The crucial moment of the film is where, I admit, I have a quibble: it is gripping and even moving when Harry realises what his destiny is, and sets out to fulfil it. Yet the exact rationale for his ultimate survival may be a little obscure, and perhaps even Potter-diehards may suspect that in the film there is a touch of having your cake and eating it. Well, no matter. This is such an entertaining, beguiling, charming and exciting picture. It reminded me of the thrill I felt on seeing the very first one, 10 years ago. And Radcliffe's Harry Potter has emerged as a complex, confident, vulnerable, courageous character – most likable, sadly, at the point where we must leave him for ever. Wait. I've got that darn thing in my eye again...

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

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ANECDOTE
Purpose: to share with others an account of an unusual or amusing incident

Generic Structure:
1. Abstract
2. Orientation
3. Crisis
4. Reaction
5. Coda.

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using exclamations, rhetorical question or intensifiers
2. Using material process
3. Using temporal conjunctions

How we judge stories

Posted by Shawn Callahan - 1/11/11
Filed in Anecdotes, Business storytelling.

I found myself watching parliamentary question time today on TV (OK, I was tired. I did yoga for the first time last night). There were lots of questions about when exactly did the leaders of the government and the opposition knows about Qantas CEO's, Alan Joyce, decision to ground his airline. It was a heated debate. (BTW, why can't anyone speak normally in parliament? Everything is said in staccato, like a basketball coach shouting instructions to his team mid-game). Anyway, Anthony Albanese, the transport minister, steps up to the dispatch box and tells a story about how he was at Sydney airport after the planes were grounded and how he met a distressed American couple who were unable to get home. Now, we'll have to check Hansard tomorrow morning for the exact wording but Mr. Albanese went on to say, "the woman was 43 weeks pregnant and needed to get home."

Sheenagh and I looked at each other and said, "43 weeks pregnant! What is she doing flying at 43 weeks? How is she 43 weeks pregnant? Maybe she's an elephant (OK that was too harsh)." Gales of laughter float around our house. I note on the Qantas website this policy about flights over 4 hours, "For routine pregnancies, you can travel up to the end of the 36th week for single pregnancies and the end of the 32nd week for multiple pregnancies (e.g. twins)."

Mr. Albanese's story failed the plausibility test.

Whenever we listen to a story we instinctively match the experience we're hearing with our own experience and if there's a significant mismatch the story's, and the storyteller's, credibility crumbles, no matter how true the event. 

The plausibility test occurs as the story unfolds but we have another test we unconsciously make before the story hardly gets started: the relevance test.

Especially in business settings where everyone is pressed for time (That's what people say. I'm not convinced), if we know a story is about to be told we want to know there's a good chance it'll be relevant. To help the listener judge the potential relevance of a story we often pretend a short statement suggesting, or simply stating, the point of the story. 

"The Qantas grounding was causing incredible distress for people. It was a good thing the government stepped in. I was in Sydney airport on Sunday ... [the pregnant woman story]" 

Sometime it just takes a slight slip up in facts to lose credibility with a story ... [The Anthony Albenese story of the 43-week pregnant woman]

With these two tests in mind business storytellers should be thinking of ways of conveying the relevance of their stories so they're afforded the air-time to recount their experiences. 

They also should be thinking how to increase the plausibility of their story. Facts matter. Details matter. Names of people and places help. But most importantly will your audience believe what you're saying. The best advice comes from the master screenwriter and director Quentin Tarantino in this scene from Reservoir Dogs, lovingly called The Commode Story. Be warned: do not click on this link if you are offended by intense cursing or your workmates in the adjoining cubicles might be offended. The Commode Story.

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Genre Approaches and Examples of Text (for SMA/MA) Part 2

EXPLANATION

Purpose: To explain the processes involved in the formation or working of natural or socio-cultural phenomena.

Generic Structure:
1. General statement
2. Explanation
3. Closing

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using action verbs
3. Using passive voice
4. Using noun phrase
5. Using adverbial phrase
6. Using technical terms
7. Using general and abstract noun
8. Using conjunction of time and cause-effect.

EXAMPLE OF EXPLANATION TEXT

How Earthquakes Happen

Earthquake is one of the most destroying natural disasters. Unluckily it often happens in several regions. Recently a horrible earthquake has shaken West Sumatra. It has brought great damages. Why did it occur? Do you know how an earthquake happens?

Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves. It make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don't just slide smoothly. The rocks are still pushing against each other, but not moving. After a while, the rocks break because of all the pressure that's built up. When the rocks break, the earthquake occurs.

During the earthquake and afterward, the plates or blocks of rock start moving, and they continue to move until they get stuck again. The spot underground where the rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake. The place right above the focus is called the epicenter of the earthquake.

Mainly taken from: www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/why.html

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DISCUSSION

Purpose: to present information and opinions about issues in more one side of an issue (‘For/Pros’ and ‘Against/Cons’)

Generic Structure:
1. Issue
2. Arguments for and against
3. Conclusion

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Use of relating verb/to be
3. Using thinking verb
4. Using general and abstract noun
5. Using conjunction/transition
6. Using modality
7. Using adverb of manner

EXAMPLE OF DICUSSION TEXT

National Exam in Pros and Cons 

National exam becomes the hot topic in most of discussions. Though the Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the go-vernment on the organization of the national exams, the controversy over whether it is necessary to maintain the national exams (UN) has continued. Some debates include the primary questions such as; does the quality of Indonesia education depend on the national exam? Will the quality of the Indonesian education system worsen without national exam?

People, who support the national exam, explain that the quality of the Indonesia education system will drop without the national exam, so they try to defend the current system.

However, there are people who disagree with the opinion. Those who against this national exam kept in our high school education say that it doesn't need the national exams because the quality of education does not just depend on the national exam. Further, the national exam only measures a small portion of students' competence in specific subjects, and does not measure students' competences throughout the semester.

In fact, the national examination can still be useful as an instrument to evaluate or detect the level of students' cognitive competence in several subjects, on a national scale.

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REPORT
Purpose: to presents information about something, as it is.

Generic Structure
1. General classification
2. Description

Dominant Language Feature
1. Introducing group or general aspect
2. Using conditional logical connection
3. Using Simple Present Tense

EXAMPLE OF REPORT TEXT

Report Text about Mangrove Trees

 

A mangrove is a tropical marine tree. Mangroves have special aerial roots and salt-filtering tap roots which enable them to thrive in brackish water. Brackish water is salty but not as salty as sea water. Mangrove trees are commonly planted and found in coastal areas. Mangroves can serve as walls of protection for natural disaster in coastal area like tsunami. According to BBC News, healthy mangrove forests had helped save lives in the Asia disaster tsunami and people tended to respect these natural barriers even more, especially after the tsunami.

There are several species of mangrove tree found all over the world. Some prefer more salinity, while others like to be very-close to a large fresh water source such as river. Some prefer areas that are sheltered from waves. Some species have their roots covered with sea water every day during high tide. Other species grow on dry land but are still part of the ecosystem. The Times of India reported that rare species of mangrove had been found and was also known as the looking-glass tree, probably because the leaves are silver-coated.

Mangroves need to keep their trunk and leave above the surface of the water. Yet they also need to be firmly attached to the ground so they are not moved by waves.

Any part of root that appears above the water flows oxygen to the plant under water surface. as the soil begin to build up, these roots procedure additional roots that become embedded in the soil.

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NEWS ITEM

Purpose: to inform readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important

Dominant Generic Structure:
1. Newsworthy event(s)
2. Background event(s)
3. Sources

Dominant Language Features:
1. Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline
2. Using action verbs
3. Using saying verbs
4. Using adverbs : time, place and manner.

EXAMPLE OF NEWS ITEM TEXT

Indonesian Migrant Worker dies in Malaysia

An Indonesian migrant worker Munti Binti Bani has died on Monday after being hospitalized for several days due to alleged torture by her employees in Selangor, Malaysia.

Antara state news agency has reported that Munti had been treated at Tengku Ampuan Rahimah hospital since last Tuesday and died on Monday at 10 a.m, local time. Munti was found unconscious with her hands and feet were tied in a bathroom in Taman Sentosa housing complex last Tuesday. She was suffering from major wounds on her body and had apparently been beaten with iron.

Munti's body will be sent tomorrow to her hometown in Pondok Jeruk Barat village of Jombang, East Java after undergoing autopsy at the hospital. “We express our deep condolences as there is yet another worker who was tortured and passed away at the hospital,” Indonesia's Ambassador for Malaysia, Da'i Bachtiar said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. “The Embassy will arrange for all compensation, including insurance, she deserves to receive,” Da'i said.

He added that Munti's employees Vanitha and Murugan had been detained and were undergoing questioning at the local police office. “We hope the police can uphold justice and punish them should they be proven to be involved in the case,” he said

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PROCEDURE
Purpose: to help readers how to do or make something completely

Generic Structure:
1. Goal/Aim
2. Materials/Equipments
3. Steps/Methods

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using Imperatives sentence
3. Using adverb
4. Using technical terms

Procedure Text Examples :

How to charge hand phone battery

prepare your :
- hand phone
- battery charger

Steps :
1. Connect the charger to your hand phone, the flash symbol on the charger plug must face upward.
2. Wait until the battery icon appears on the screen.
3. Charge the battery approximately 5 hours or until the battery icon indicates that the battery is fully charged.
4. Remove the charger by pulling out from your hand phone. 

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Genre Approaches and Examples of Text (for SMA/MA) Part 1

ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION
Purpose: To reveal the readers that something is the important case

Generic Structure:
1. Thesis
2. Arguments
3. Reiteration/Conclusion

Dominant Language Features:
1. Using modals
2. Using action verbs
3. Using thinking verbs
4. Using adverbs
5. Using adjective
6. Using technical terms
7. Using general and abstract noun
8. Using connectives/transition

EXAMPLES OF ANALYTICAL TEXT

1. Writing for Money Online

The emergence of the internet has given internet entrepreneurs many ways to make money. Writers are one group that have benefited from their talents as a result in the rise of internet based jobs.

Blog writing is an increasingly popular way to earn money online determined by the owner of the blog. They are very popular because of Blogs are usually written on a certain subject area but can vary as its content is heir simplicity to get up and running. There are many free websites out there that will help you set up your own blog if you choose to go that route because blog plus advertisement is potential money.

Article writing is also good money to earn money online. Make sure to gear your articles to promote and advertise you own business ventures. These articles are a free way to market the products and services you offer for free. The most effective advertising with these articles comes from the dialogue box that is inserted at the end of each article. These dialogue boxes contain links to basically any website you would like to drive traffic to. For instance, you might have one link in your dialogue box to a product you are selling and one to a blog where you are promoting a discussing other products.

Writing takes some time to gain credibility through but once it’s done’ earning potential can become very powerful.

2. Laptop as Student’s Friends

Conventionally, students need book, pen, eraser, drawing book, ruler and such other stuff. Additionally, in this multimedia era, students need more to reach their progressive development. Students need mobile keyboards to record every presented subject easily. Of course it will need more cost but it will deserve for its function.

First, modern schools tend to apply fast transferring knowledge because the school needs to catch the target of curriculum. Every subject will tend to be given in demonstrative method. Consequently students need extra media cover the subject. Since there is a laptop on every student’s desk, this method will help student to get better understanding.

Secondly, finding an appropriate laptop is not difficult as it was. Recently there is an online shop which provides comprehensive information. The best is that the shop has service of online shopping. The students just need to brows that online shop, decide which computer or laptop they need, and then complete the transaction. After that the laptop will be delivered to the students’ houses. That is really easy and save time and money.

From all of that, having mobile computer is absolutely useful for students who want to catch the best result for their study. Buying laptop online is advisable because it will cut the price. This online way is recommended since online shop also provides several laptop types. Students just need to decide which type they really need.

3. Career in Translation

Functionally, translation is transferring the message or the meaning and not the word. According to Nida, such translation is called dynamic equivalence translation. It tries to bring the precise message in different language.

Many people like to watch Hollywood movie but many get trouble in understanding to the actors’ dialogue. So the way they get the understanding about the movie is reading the translating text running. If Hindi translation is provided, it will bring the better understanding for Indian moviegoer. Hollywood movie spread over other Asia countries. Therefore, Arabic translation, Indonesian translation and Farsi translation are widely needed and that is a big chance for English master in that countries.

India is likely being an English speaking country. India translation will grow better and. It seems Indonesia, Malaysia and Filipina will reach that mark too soon. Translation job will be great in amount and that is good development for translating job seekers.

4. Opportunity in the Global Financial Crisis

US financial crisis and its contagion to Europe and the rest of the world could also create new opportunity for Indonesia in term of foreign direct investment and the development of basic infrastructure.

As the US, financial crisis has now spread to Europe, the oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Arab Emirate which have accumulated hundreds of billions of Dollars in their foreign reserve, are now reviewing their holding or investment vehicle. They are looking for more diversified investment outside the US and Europe.

Because of unfavorable political developments in Thailand and Malaysia over the past few months, Indonesia which has largely Muslim population could become one of these oil-rich countries’ favorite place for foreign direct investment. That will be true if the conditions, legal and market infrastructures are conducive for Islamic financial instruments.

The government had improved the legal framework with the recent actment of laws on sharia banking and bonds. The long term nature of Islamic bonds could make them the most suitable investment instrument for Indonesia, as these bonds grant an investor a share in an asset along with the cash flows and risks commensurate with such ownership.

The financial crisis that has gripped the globe and weakening economic growth in the rest of the world will serve to the government to accelerate the investment reform measures in order to grab the hidden opportunity in the global crisis. (Simplified from the jakartapos.com on Oct 9)

5. Is Smoking Good for Us?

Before we are going to smoke, it is better to look at the fact. About 50 thousand people die every year in Britain as direct result of smoking. This is seven times as many as die in road accidents. Nearly a quarter of smokers die because of diseases caused by smoking.

Ninety percent of lung cancers are caused by smoking. If we smoke five cigarettes a day, we are six times more likely to die of lung cancer than a non smoker. If we smoke twenty cigarettes a day, the risk is nineteen greater. Ninety five percent of people who suffer of bronchitis are people who are smoking. Smokers are two and half times more likely to die of heart disease than non smokers.

Additionally, children of smoker are more likely to develop bronchitis and pneumonia. In one hour in smoky room, non smoker breathes as much as substance causing cancer as if he had smoked fifteen cigarettes.

Smoking is really good for tobacco companies because they do make much money from smoking habit. Smoking however is not good for everybody else.

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 HORTATORY EXPOSITION

Purpose: to persuade the readers that something should or should not be the case or be done

Generic Structure:
1. Thesis
2. Arguments
3. Recommendation

Dominant Language features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using modals
3. Using action verbs
4. Using thinking verbs
5. Using adverbs
6. Using adjective
7. Using technical terms
8. Using general and abstract noun
9. Using connectives/transition

Then what is the basic difference between analytical and hortatory exposition. In simple word. Analytical is the answer of "How is/will" while hortatory is the answer of "How should". Analytical exposition will be best to describe "How will student do for his examination? The point is the important thing to do. But for the question" How should student do for his exam?" will be good to be answered with hortatory. It is to convince that the thing should be done

EXAMPLES OF HORTATORY EXPOSITION TEXT

1. USE ENGLISH!  

Many of us are dismayed about the quality of our education, which is not commensurate with the high cost spent on school fees. It is way below our expectations if we compare our graduates with those who studied overseas, especially concerning the mastery of English.

It is important to know that most of employments require competence in English, for office work and correspondence. Government officials, speakers, writers and observers use a lot of English.

Then the important thing is to use English as a medium in schools so that we can compete with graduates from abroad. All students have studied English since they are in junior high school. Even some of them had been introduced with English when they were in elementary school. However, lots of graduates have less English skills. Learning English is difficult but it is more difficult to customize us with it.

Then it will be beneficial to have TV films in English like in Singapore. It will help to increase our graduates’ competence in English.

(Adapted from: thejakartapost.com/news/2000/05/06/)

 

2. NEVER TRY SMOKING

A lot of people, especially teenagers, who do not smoke, always want to try smoking. They know it is bad for them and all, but it is just something they want to try. So they ask one of their smoker friends for a cigarette. Admittedly, they firstly can not light it on their own so they ask his friend to do it. Then they inhale that cigarette and smoke occasionally.

Apparently that makes them the born smokers. Now they do smoke fairly regularly. They can not avoid smoking and they enjoy too. They have smoker friends. Everyday they bring a pack in their pocket. For them, a pack of cigarette is as important as a wallet for their money.

Suddenly, for certain reason, they realize the fact that tobacco is the cause of a long list of nasty diseases. It is not only heart disease, stroke, and chronic lung disease but also bladder, lung, and pancreatic cancer. Even it was reported that around 400,000 Americans died each year. It was one every 80 seconds from tobacco-related illnesses.

Then they decide it is stupid to harm selves. They want to quit smoking. Unfortunately, they find that quitting smoking is so difficult. “Why can't I stop smoking? I really want to stop it”. It is hard to quit because nicotine is powerfully addictive. Cigarette is one of the most efficient drug-delivery devices ever devised. As result, when people try to quit smoking, they often experience classic nicotine withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, headache, depression, and restlessness.

Well, still want to try smoke? Think the facts before trying! If you are not smoker, you should never and never.

 

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