Thinking and expression over reading a philosophical essay : Reading literacy and communication

Abstract

New measures are being demanded in Japan's language arts because the scores of the 2003 PISA test have declined. In reading the "texts of explanation", the following four points have become necessary. (1) Make the goals and thinking process of reading clearly connected. (2) From a meta level, evaluating and criticizing the style and contents of a text. (3) Exchange opinions and discussion. (4) Writing one's own thoughts. Using the textbook's philosophical essay, we made a learning plan which emphasizes the aforementioned points. Students performed activities corresponding to the four points rather than the standard interpretation style. Their main activities were writing each concept, discussion, and understanding each other's thoughts. By analyzing the data, we obtained the following results : (1) Students shared the aim of reading through following a model of philosophical thinking. (2) From imitating the writing style of a text, students evaluated and criticized the text on a meta level. (3) Students understood each other's thoughts through discussion. (4) Students wrote their own thoughts. We observed each student's "relevant" change through the learning activity, and the process of forming a discourse community. The learning plan corresponding to reading literacyand its four points was effective in raising the student's communicative competence.