Keys to Critical Reading

Since the implementation of School Based Curriculum (KTSP) in secondary school in
Indonesia, considerable attention has been paid to the Genre Based Approach (GSA) to
teaching and learning English. Several research findings have shown the effectiveness of
GSA in helping the students to learn the organizational structure as well as linguistic
features ofa certain genre (See Kim 2006, Drury 2001, and Emilia 2005, among others).
Nevertheless, Genre pedagogy (Hyland, 2007) is criticized for being static and
decontextualized based on the claim that the teacher is not able to reproduce in class the
culture and contexts by which texts are shaped.
Reflecting on the fact, this writing aims to propose several activities involving
critical reading to facilitate students' learning in GBA classes. Critical reading is assumed
to indirectly pose intriguing questions to lead the students to connect and contextualize
the reading to their life in a meaningful way. Having this, the teacher will not only have
an opportunity to assess the students' ability to recognize the organizational structure and
linguistic features of a text but also to build their ability to connect ideas from their own
context and culture to the text. The goal will be to strengthen the students' ability to read
more knowledgeably, understand more clearly, analyze more carefully, and assess more
accurately (Reichenbach, 2001).