1

MODUL PERKULIAHAN

English For
Engineering I
Skills and Grammar Review

Abstract Kompetensi
In this unit, students will learn about In this unit, students will learn about
Topic Paragraph Besides, some Topic Paragraph Besides, some
activities related to leisure are
discussed in this chapter. activities related to leisure are
discussed in this chapter.

Fakultas Program Studi Tatap Muka Kode MK Disusun Oleh

Teknik Teknik Industri F022100001 Andary A. Munita, ST., MT

07
Science of Reading
SCIENCE OF READING

Is there such a thing like ‘Science of Reading?’ what is it? How does it work? What
are its uses? How do we go in for studying the reading behavior of an individual? Is there
any difference in the way in which an adult performs the reading act and a child pursues the
printed materials? Why do we consider reading a complex process? Is there any difference
in the way in which a fast reader and the way in which a slow reader pursues the line or
print? These questions may appear in your mind when you read this sub-chapter. You will
find the answer of your questions after reading the entire of this sub-chapter.

Facets of reading are many. Reading is a physiological process, psychological

process, a social process, a cultural process, and above all a linguistic process. It is an
educational phenomenon.

To the perception of psychologist, reading is not an isolated behavior that van be

understood adequately by itself. Depending as heavily as it does on the language skill and
on directed visual search, reading text, as a perceptuomotor activity, has certain
characteristics in common with listening to speech and with viewing scenes. The first
characteristic shared by these three activities. These behaviors do not consist of automatic
responses to the array or sequence of patterned stimulation that confronts the subject. The
reader does not merely regard a block of the text and immediately realize its message. He
must intend to read the display, must “pay attention” to its meaning, if he is to be able to
respond its contents.

The act of reading can be both skillful and rewarding provided the reader goes to it
with a receptive mind. Reading ability and good reading habits have social significance as
well as individual value. It becomes very much necessary for a reader to know what the
complex process of reading involves and how the eye works in reading.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
2 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
A. WORK OF EYE IN READING

The eye movement habits rather than mere visual efficiency determine the degree of
reading efficiency. It was Professor Javal of University of Paris who in 1879 gave us the idea
that there are decided differences between the way poor readers read and the way an
excellent reader pursues the printed page.

The eyes move in a series of jerks and stops while the person is reading. Eyes jerk,
they stop, and they jump ahead in a speedy manner and stop. This process of ‘move-stop’,
‘move-stop’ makes the reading act possible. When a person reads, his eyes have to fixate
on some point because when they are moving cannot see.

a. Fixation is the pauses which the eyes make. The amount of reading which a person
does during one fixation is known as his ‘span of recognition’. When the eye jumps from one
fixation to another, it has to make a movement. This movement which the eye jumps from
one fixation to another is known, as ‘saccadic movement’ or ‘interfixation movement’.
Sometimes it happens that when the person is not to able to get the message out of his
already made fixation or fixations, then a refixation is required.

Fixation: at each fixation, the eye sees some letters according to the span of
recognition of the reader. The duration of a fixation represents the time that the reader
requires to perceive the printed symbols, to comprehend the meaning of the symbols, and to
make certain associations before he proceeds to the next fixation.

The duration and frequency of fixations vary the difficulty level of the reading material
and the reader’s facility in word recognition, with his vocabulary level, with his familiarity with
the content, with his purpose, with his ability to assimilate ideas, and with the format of the
printed or the written page which also includes legible handwriting.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
3 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
Tinker suggests that the fixation varies from about 290 milliseconds (,22 seconds) for
easy reading material, 236 milliseconds for scientific prose, and from 270 to 324
milliseconds for reading objective test items.

b. Span of recognition is the amount of print seen during a single fixation. The
span of recognition averages 13 to 14 letter spaces (say about 3 words for
good readers) and 6 spaces (say about 1 word for poor readers). The size of
the span of recognition can be obtained by dividing the length of the average
line in the text read by the average number of fixations in a line. Span of
recognition is also known as fixation span or eye span. The wider the span of
recognition, the better it is for faster reading.

c. Interfixation movement is the movement of the eye from one fixation to

another. When the eyes move from one fixation to the other, clear vision of
the print is not possible.

d. Regressions; Sometimes, the eyes move backwards to get a second look at

some words which were not clearly seen. Such backward movement is called
regression. Regressive movements may be the result of many different
causes. Among very poor readers, the most common cause of regression is
failure to recognize a word, necessitating additional inspection of the word.
Some other causes of the regressions are failure to recognize the basic
meaning of a word; failure to select the correct meaning of a word in the given
context; inappropriate phrasing, spoiling meaning and making rereading
necessary; overlooking punctuation marks; confusing; inadequate perception
resulting from an eye movement which overreaches the reader’s span of
perception; and external distraction which interrupts the reader’s train of
thought.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
4 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
e. Return sweep; this is a return movement of the eyes from the end of a line to
the beginning of the next line. Return sweep movement becomes part of the
total reflex eye-movement pattern-brief, automatic and rhythmical through
more and more reading practice. A fast reader takes very fast return sweeps
involving even less than 40 milliseconds whereas a slow reader takes much
more time in ranging from 90-300 milliseconds.

B. The Significance of Eye Movements

Reading is a complex process which involves close interaction between the eye and
the mind. The sequence of fixations across a line of print connotes the directional attack
which a person uses while reading.

Inefficient reader habitually makes an excessive number of eye pauses per line,
regresses very freely and tends to regard reading as a chore-a routine, slow, and totally
mechanical activity.

C. The Significance of visual and non-visual information

Reading is something you cannot do in the dark. Reading depends on some
information getting through the eyes to the brain; we may call this information as visual
information, it is what goes away when the lights go out.

Access to visual information is necessary part of reading, but it is not sufficient. You
may not know about the vocabularies written in the target language. Moreover, knowledge of
the relevant language is essential for reading, but do not expect that it is printed on the text.
It is the information that you must have already. It can be distinguished from the visual that
comes through the eyes by being called non-visual information or “prior knowledge” or
background knowledge.

There are many others non-visual information apart from knowledge of language,
such as; knowledge of subject matter, knowledge of how to read. Non-visual information is
easily distinguished from visual information.

The distinction between visual and non-visual information may seem obvious, it is
simply stated-there is a reciprocal relationship between the two of them. The more non-
visual a reader has, the less visual information the reader needs. The less non-visual
2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
5 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
information that is available, the more visual information is required. The non-visual
information has a role to ease the reading process. Also, it will make the reader reads faster
than the one who has less non-visual information.

 Talking it over!
Discuss with your partner about the following problems.

1. Why do some children find difficulties in reading?

2. What is your opinion about teaching the children under 5 years old reading in
English?
3. How significance of visual and non-visual information in Reading English?

Passage 1

Good Friends… Dogs, Sons and others

We are all terribly alone in this life, I fear. This is part of our mortality, and there is not
really much we can do about it. The awful armor of our isolation is pierced only by those
fragile loyalties which we pray will abide-children, or a lover, or friends. All of these ask for
tenderness and care.

I am not just talking here about male friendships and female ones, but also about
friendships of a nonsexual nature between men and women. One of the dividends of the
women’s movement of this generation, perhaps, has been the enhanced freedom of
American women to choose affectionate relationships with men whom they trust outside the
2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
6 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
bedroom. Some of my own closest friends are women; I can count four whom I believe I
would go to the brink for. Two are married to men I admire, one is a widow, one is a
divorced, and they are as important to me as anything in my existence, including my male
friends, who are also only a few. I suspect a person can only have a handful of steadfast
friends, if that. Be wary of those who claim to count their friendships by the dozens, unless
they are politicians up for reelections.

Parenthetically, I must also go so far as to confess that one of my best friends is a

big black dog of acute warmth and intelligence. He and I are huckleberry friends who ride the
river together. By my personal measure, another of my finest friends is my twenty-year-old
son. We have a lived through too many moments as a twosome to be forgetful of them.
Among genuine friendships, never discount the possibility or good dogs and good sons.

At the core of friendship, I feel, is fidelity. We all make fools of ourselves now and
again, and do things which cause us guilt-or worse, shame-and there are our times of
ineluctable grief and sorrow. A trusting friend can call us back to earth and remind us of the
universal failures and sufferings. Laughter is no less an ingredient of friendship than loyalty,
or charity, or forgiveness. Conversely, in the lexicon of human cruelty, I rank the betrayal of
a friend-even a friend from an earlier part of one’s life-as dastardly almost as child abuse or
manslaughter. I am reminded of the New York editor and writer who recently published a
memoir belittling old friends, ferreting out their faults in retrospect as finely as a sculptor
chiseling at a bust, all in the spirit of his own aggrandizement. Gratuitous betrayal often
exacts its own special price.

I am reminded too of a worthier example, one that remains with as vividly as the
moment I first heard of it as a boy, so that it has become a kind of symbol for me. In his
rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play Major
League baseball, faced venom wherever he traveled-fastballs at his head, spiking on the
bases, brutal epithets from the opposing dugouts and from the crowds. During one game on
a hot day in St. Louis the taunts and racial slurs seemed to reach a crescendo. In the midst
of all this, the Dodger who was Jackie Robinson’s particular friend, a Southern white named
Peewee Reese, called time out. He walked from his position at the shortstop toward
Robinson at the second base, put his arm around Robinson’s shoulder and stood there with
him for a long time. The gesture spoke more elegantly than the words. This man is my
friend.

Even across the divide of death, friendship remains, an echo forever in the heart. The
writer James Jones has been gone for more than three years, yet so alive was he for me
2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
7 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
that I have never quite admitted he is dead. He and his family lived down the road from me
on eastern Long Island, and he struggled against death in his last months to finish his
fictional trilogy and World War II. He was a connoisseur of cigars, a believer in the written
word, and an enemy of meanness and pretense. He was courageous without ever talking
much about courage; he appreciated mirth and he understood sorrow I’m not sure why we
were closer than brothers, for he was older than I and more insured of the sittings and
winnowing of this world. Yet we were. Two years ago, as I began a book which means much
to me-struggling with very first sentences with a radio somewhere in the background-the
song that came on was the theme to the movie of Jim’s big novel, From Here to Eternity.
“Keep the faith,” he might have said.

When I see an honored friend again after years of separation, it is like reassuring the
words of an old conversation which had been halted momentarily by time. Surely, as one
gets older, friendship becomes more precious to us, for it affirms the contours of our
existence. It is a reservoir of shared experience, of having lived through many things in our
brief and mutual moment on earth. To paraphrase another writer from Mississippi, it is a
prop, a pillar, to help us not merely endure, but prevail.

 RECALLING INFORMATION
Write T (for True) or F (for False) in front of the statements about Morris’s essay.
Correct the false ones to make them true.

……………………….. 1. One good result of the women’s movement is that now

American women can have real, nonsexual friendships with

him.

……………………….. 2. A person should have dozens of steadfast friends.

……………………….. 3. Two of his best friends are his twenty-year-old son and a

big black dog.

………………………. 4. Laughter is an important part of friendship.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
8 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
………………………. 5. The New York editor who wrote an article about the faults

of his old friends did nothing wrong.

………………………. 6. Sometimes a personal gesture of friendship speaks louder

than words.

……………………….. 7. Death is the only real end of friendship.

………………………... 8. Friendship becomes more precious as a person gets older.

 TALKING IT OVER
In small groups, discuss the following questions;

1. In your opinion, what is the main idea of this essay?

2. What can you infer about the author’s character from what he has written?
3. What do you feel are the important qualities of a friend?
4. Do you think a person should have many friends or just a few? Why?
5. How do friendships differ around the world?

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
9 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
Passage 5

THE WORLD OF SPORTS: THE OLYMPIC GAMES

A. Through myth and legend the Olympic Games can be traced back to religious
festivals held in tribute to gods in ancient Greeks. Three thousand years ago Olympia was
an important religious center. Here the Olympic Games began as long ago as 776 B.C. The
custom lasted for more than 1000 years but then died out after Greece had become part of
the Roman Empire. However, in the late 1800’s Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), of
France, decided to try to start the Olympics again. He succeeded, and the modern Olympic
Games began in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

B. In the modern Olympic Games, amateur athletes from all over the world can take
part. Any nation may send a team to the games if it agrees to follow the rules of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC). The games are held during the last year of each
Olympiad, which is a period of four years ending in a leap year: 1976, 1980, 1984, and
so on.

C. “The most important thing in Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the
most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not
to have conquered but to have fought well.” this statement by Baron de Coubertin is the
creed of the modern Olympic Games. The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius. These
Latin words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”.

D. The motto is often used with the five-colored rings in the Olympic symbol. These
rings symbolize the sporting friendship of the peoples of the earth. The rings also
symbolize the five continents. The five colors (black, blue, green, and red) were chosen
2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
10 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
because at least one of them appears in the flag of every nation of the world. The
Olympic flag itself has the Olympic symbol in the center of a white field. This flag was
first used in Antwerp in 1920.

E. At the opening ceremonies, an athlete from the host country takes oath on behalf of
all the athletes. The king or president of the host country then declares the Games
officially open. In a dramatic climax to this ceremony, a runner enters the stadium and
lights the Olympic Flame with a torch that has been carried by relays of runners from
Olympia, Greece. The Olympic Flame burns throughout the Games before being
extinguished in the closing ceremony.

F. The international Olympic Committee (IOC) tries hard to maintain the Olympic ideals.
But politics has often intruded into Olympic Games. For example, host countries have
tried to use the Games as a showcase for the merits of their political systems. Several
times, groups of nations have boycotted the Games. Charges have been made that
some nations’ athletes and officials have used unfair means to win medals.

G. The Summer Olympic Games include 24 sports divided into six main categories:
1. Athletic sports: track & field and cycling.
2. Combative sports: fencing, boxing, judo, wrestling, shooting, and archery.
3. Gymnastic sports: gymnastic and weight-lifting.
4. Aquatic sports: swimming, diving, rowing, water polo, and yachting.
5. Modern pentathlon: horseback riding, fencing, shooting, swimming, and cross-
country.
6. Equestrian sports.
To be eligible for official recognition in the Olympics, a sport must be played in at least
25 countries.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
11 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
H. For most events, preliminary contests may be necessary to reduce the number of
entrants. Olympic winners receive awards in the form of a diploma and a medal (a gold
medal for the first winner, a silver medal for the second, and a bronze medal for the
third). The IOC does not recognize any nation as winner of any Olympic Games. Only
winning individuals and teams are credited with victory. However, at the awards
ceremony, the national anthem of the gold medalist is played.

Taken from: English for University Students. 5 edition. th

 COMPREHENSION EXERCISES
A. Match the following headings with paragraphs A-I
1. Politics in the Olympic Games --------
2. The Modern Olympic Games --------
3. History of the Olympic Games --------
4. The Olympic Symbols --------
5. The Olympic Motto --------
6. The Olympic Awards --------
7. The Opening Ceremony of the Games --------
8. Types of Sports in the Olympic Games --------

B. Fill in the blank in each item with the word(s), phrase(s) from the passage. Use
NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
1. According to …………………… the Olympic Games may have been originated from
religious festivals.
2. ………………. Is the Frenchman who received the Olympic Games.
3. The Olympic Motto is ………………….
4. The first modern Olympic began in …………………
5. The Olympic Games is usually opens by …………………of host country.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
12 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
6. To reduce the number of entrants, the Olympic Committee conducts ………………

C. Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage
above? Circle:
T if the statement agrees with the information

F if the statement contradicts with the information

NG if there is no information on this

1. The Olympic Games are only for amateur athletes T F NG

2. The Olympic motto (Citius, Altius, Fortius) was
created by baron de Courbertin. T F NG

3. Each of the rings in the Olympic symbol has a

different color. T F NG

4. Some athletes and officials used unfair means

to win medals T F NG

5. In the Olympic Games, to get a medal is more

important than to participate. T F NG

6. Indonesia has won several medals in the Olympic Games. T F NG

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
13 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/
DaftarPustaka
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/work

http://www.ielts-mentor.com/reading-sample/academic-reading/29-ielts-academic-reading-

Whitby, Norman. 2013. Business Benchmark. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2021 English For Engineering Biro Bahan Ajar eLearning dan MKCU
14 Andary Asvaroza Munita, ST., MT. http://pbael.mercubuana.ac.id/