Arts and Humanities

Elective Prelims
Reviewer
Academic Literacy
Generally, academic Literacy is the ability to:
• Know and use language to meet the demands of college education
• Use academic discourse across different fields of study
Academic Discourse
Discourse- is the ability to organize and develop ideas into meaningful texts
- It may be oral or written
- Oral discourses include debate, oration, oral presentation, reporting, etc.
- Written discourses may be a script of a dialog, an essay, a research, a letter, etc.
Importance of Academic Literacy
Education is mediated through language. Learning across levels requires knowledge and use of language.
College education requires more independent learning; hence considerable knowledge of language and its
components may help students adjust to college life.
What is Academic Literacy?
Specifically, it is the ability to:
1. Understand a range of academic vocabulary in context
2. Interpret and use metaphor and idiom, and perceive connotation, collocations, word play and
ambiguity
3. Understand relations between different parts of a text
4. Be aware of the logical development of (an academic) text, via introductions to conclusions, and
know how to use language that serves to make the different parts of a text hang together
- Being familiar with cohesive devices to link paragraphs and sentences
5. Interpret different kinds of text type (genre), and show sensitivity for the meaning that they convey,
and the audience that they are aimed at
6. Interpret, use and produce information presented in graphic or visual format
7. Make distinctions between essential and non-essential information, fact and opinion, propositions
and arguments, main ideas and supporting points; distinguish between cause and effect, classify,
categorize and handle data that make comparisons
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
8. See sequence and order, do simple numerical estimations and computations that are relevant to
academic information, that allow comparisons to be made, and can be applied for the purposes of
an argument
- Being familiar with the formula on how to compute for mean, median, and mode and the
population required in a study
9. Know what counts as evidence for an argument, extrapolate from information by making inferences,
and apply the information or its implications to other cases than the one at hand
10. Understand the communicative function of various ways of expression in academic language (such
as defining, providing examples, arguing)
- Be familiar to the language indicators of:
a. defining/definition such as means, can be defined as, known as, etc.
b. exemplification including for example, such as, including, includes, etc.

11. Make meaning (e.g. of an academic text) beyond the level of the sentence.
Academic language
- refers to the oral, written, auditory, and visual language proficiency required to learn effectively in
schools and academic programs
— i.e., it’s the language used in classroom lessons, books, tests, and assignments, and it’s the
language that students are expected to learn and achieve fluency in.
— includes a variety of formal-language skills—such as vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, syntax,
discipline-specific terminology, or rhetorical conventions—that allow students to acquire knowledge
and academic skills while also successfully navigating school policies, assignments, expectations,
and cultural norms.
— is the language needed by students to do the work in schools. It includes, for example, discipline-
specific vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, and applications of rhetorical conventions and
devices that are typical for a content area (e.g., essays, lab reports, discussions of a controversial
issue.)
Our learning objectives should focus on language as well as on content. We can and should communicate
content through means other than language, e.g., physical models, visuals, demonstrations. However, we
should also develop our students’ abilities to produce and understand oral and written texts typical in their
subject area as well as to engage in language-based tasks.
Information Literacy
- empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively
to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals.
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
- It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion in all nations.
To be truly 'information literate' requires that you simultaneously develop:
1) awareness of how you engage with the digital world
2) how you find meaning in the information you discover
3) how to articulate what kind of information you require
4) how to use information ethically
5) understand the role you can play in the communication in your
profession and
6) how you evaluate information for credibility and authority.

Vocabulary
Development
Vocabulary
o It is a bank of words that an individual possesses.
o It represents the breadth and depth of all the words we know—use, recognize, and respond to.
o Breadth corresponds to the size and scope of our vocabulary.
- It describes how extensive one’s vocabulary is
o Depth concerns our understanding of words including the word’s phonological structure or sound,
orthographic structure or spelling, meaning (denotation & connotation), origin(etymology),
grammar (form and function), and collocation
- It describes how intensive one’s vocabulary is
Denotation – is the literal or dictionary meaning
Connotation – is the acquired or implied meaning
Collocation – is the quality of a word being collocate or contiguous
with another word
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
Function words – or words that help a sentence function but not get across meaning
Content words – or words that supply content or information
Homographs – are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. They may have the same
sounds (homonyms) or different sounds (heteronyms)
Portmanteaux – are words that are formed by combining the sounds and meanings of two or more words;
also called as blends or coined words
Eponyms – are words that are derived from the name of a person.
Toponyms – are words that are named after a place.
Word Play – A fun way of manipulating words to amuse, create a certain effect, or have an impact on others
Context Clues – Clues are words used in a sentence which help the reader in understanding the specific
meaning of a new unfamiliar word.
- The special meaning of a word depends on the other words in the sentence of the surrounding
group of sentences (context).

Types of context Clues

1. Definition Clues – The author gives the meaning.
2. Synonym – An idea is repeated in the sentence.
3. Appositive – It renames, explains, or identifies the word/s before it.
4. Simile – The sentence suggests meaning with the use of as and like.
5. Metaphor – The word is directly compared with something in the sentence.
6. Mood clues or summary clues
7. Inference – This is a clue drawn from reasonable conclusion based on facts in the sentence
8. Structural Analysis – This gives a direct clue based on the structure of the word (i.e. Roots, affixes,
syllables).
9. Antonym – The opposite meaning of the word is in the sentence.

Effective Listening
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
Listening – is an active process that requires one to exert effort to be able to understand, interpret, and
evaluate what s/he hears.
- mental operation involving processing sound waves, interpreting their meaning, and storing
their meaning in memory.
- Need ng concentration and comprehension
Hearing versus Listening
HEARING
– receiving sounds without focused attention.
LISTENING
– receiving sounds with focused attention
HAURIER Model (modified)
HEARING (SENSING) – physically receiving and processing the sounds
ATTENDING – mentally ready to focus on what is being said in which the listener concentrates on what the
speaker wishes to convey
UNDERSTANDING – comprehending the literal meaning of the message; the listener decodes or interprets
the sounds using background knowledge.
REMEMBERING – the listener translates the message in his own words, and stores the message in the
memory for future action
INTERPRETING – Assigning meaning to the message in relation to the contextual and nonverbal message
aspects
EVALUATING – analysing the message and applying logic in order to assess the information and judge the
credibility and intentions of the speaker/s
RESPONDING – Based on the previous steps, answering the message or providing feedback in order to
indicate listening
How to develop these processes?
1. H – Develop Hearing by Attending
• Be prepared to listen.
• Do not multi-task when listening—focus entirely on the speaker.
• Eliminate distractions
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
• Position yourself where it is easy to hear
• Postpone listening if you cannot concentrate
2. U – Increase Understanding
• Ask for clarification when vocabulary or jargon is unfamiliar
• Ask questions to clarify intentions
• Observe nonverbal cues to seek out subtle meanings
• Restate or silently paraphrase key information to ensure that you have understood
completely
• Distinguish details from the speaker’s main points
• Refrain from interrupting the person speaking
3. R – Improve Remembering
• Quickly identify good reasons to remember what you hear
• Stay calm and focused—stress interferes with memory
• Learn short and long term memory techniques
• Continuously practice to improve your memory
4. I – Interpret Accurately
• Observe and consider the speaker’s nonverbal cues
• Take the context of the communication into account
• Encourage the speaker
• Recognize and account for individual differences
5. E – Evaluate Wisely
• Listen to the entire message before responding
• Distinguish emotional from logical appeals
• Recognize the influence of your personal bias and values
• Differentiate between the ideas presented and the person speaking
6. R – Respond Appropriately
• Be aware of your unintentional nonverbal communication
• Recognize how your response influences the speaker’s decisions
• Distinguish among different types of response—including judgments, empathy, opinions,
and questions

BECOMING AN ACTIVE LISTENER:

1. Stop talking.
2. Control the surroundings.
3. Establish receptive/positive mind set.
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
4. Listen for main points.
5. Listen between the lines.
6. Judge ideas, not appearance.
7. Review what has been said.
VIEWS OF LISTENING
1. BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING VIEW – this assumes that listening is a process of decoding the sounds
that one hears in a linear fashion from the smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts.
- Meaning itself is derived as the last step in the process
- According to this view, phonemic units are decoded and linked together to form words, words
are linked together to form phrases, phrases are linked to form utterances (sentences and
paragraphs) and utterances are linked together to form complete meaningful texts.
- One sound-word-phrase-utterance at a time - sequentially done
2. TOP-DOWN STRATEGY – this suggests that the listener actively constructs or reconstructs the original
meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds as clues.
To make sense of what the listener hears, he uses:
– Background knowledge (schema theory)
– Context of Situation (this includes knowledge of the topic, the speaker, their relationship to the
situation)
– Type of text if any
– Language
TYPES OF LISTENING:
1. Appreciative – your goal is to enjoy the thoughts/experiences of others
2. Discriminative – your goal is to understand the speaker’s meaning conveyed in other ways than the
words (speaker’s pitch, rate, or gestures)
3. Comprehensive – your goal is to understand, remember and recall what has been said.
4. Empathic – your goal is to be a sounding board to help another sort through feelings.
5. Critical - your goal is to evaluate the worth of a message.
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
Five Main Barriers to Effective Listening
1. External Distractions - physical distractions or things in one’s environment that divert attention away
from the person with whom someone is communicating.
2. Speaker Distractions - any speaker peculiarities or distinctive characteristics that get in the way of
hearing the message. These may include perceptions by the listener of the speaker such as culture,
gender, age, ability, communication style, and role.
3. Message Intent/Semantics - any phrases and words that can be misinterpreted or have
different meanings
4. Emotional Language - phrases that generate emotion and, as a result, inhibit understanding such as
the use of extreme language such as “you always”, “we never”, “you must” or “we are forever”
5. Personal Perspective - perceptions, priorities, or personal “baggage” or preformed ideas or solutions
in the mind of the listeners about a topic which occupy their mind while the speaker is still talking.
COMMON BAD LISTENING HABITS
1. Being distracted by the speaker’s appearance/delivery
2. Attitude towards the speaker
3. Deciding the topic is boring
4. Faking attention
5. Looking for distractions
6. Overconcentrating on unimportant facts
7. Reacting emotionally to trigger words
Effective Listening Techniques
1. Focus on the intention of the listening task.
2. Prepare yourself for the listening activity.
3. Expect to learn.
4. Take note of important details and concepts.
5. Provide feedback and acknowledge the speaker’s comments.
6. Evaluate the speaker’s message/don’t judge the speaker.
7. Be objective (delay judgments until the speaker is finished).
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
8. Talk less; avoid distractions.
Characteristics of Effective Listening
1. Voluntary
2. Purposeful
3. Motivated
4. Cooperative
5. Critical
Advantages of Effective Listening
1. It makes one profit from other people’s experiences.
2. It makes one learn something new and different.
3. It helps one make better decisions.
4. It helps make people feel important.
5. It builds respect and loyalty.
6. It gives pleasure and comfort to people.
7. It confirms and clarifies.
8. It saves time.
Tips on taking directions and fulfilling tasks:
1. Actively listen: Try to listen intently, not just hear. When you actively listen, you can better understand
what you need to do. Here’s a trick that may help, pretend that there is going to be a quiz after the
conversation. Visually think about what's being said and maybe even repeat it in your head.
2. Take notes: Instead of trying to remember everything, write it down. There’s nothing wrong with
keeping notes; it shows that you are prepared, organized and want to do the task correctly.
3. Ask questions: If you are even slightly unsure of what you are being asked to do, don’t be afraid to
question. Make sure the other person allows you the chance to find out all the needed details to
move forward.
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
4. Respond with a good attitude: Just as the person giving directions needs to speak respectfully, it’s
important to respond respectfully. If you go into the conversation with a bad attitude, it’s likely that
performing the task will be much more challenging.
5. Before starting the task, make a checklist: Whenever there is a task that requires multiple steps, try
organizing a to-do list. Check things off as you go to make sure you don’t miss anything. Then when
you’re done, be sure to review your work.
Note-taking techniques
Listen for:
1. Main ideas and details
2. Facts and opinions
3. Sequence
4. Signal words/verbal clues (key words, ordinals, examples)
5. Terminology
6. Observe nonverbal cues/clues

Reading Techniques
and Comprehension
Strategies
• Reading Techniques
- Previewing, Scanning and Skimming
• Comprehension Strategies
- Making Connections and Using Schema
- Using Context Clues
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
Reading
- Reading is the process of interpreting printed symbols.
- It begins with perception to comprehension.
- It involves analyzing, synthesizing, and connecting information.
Benefits of Reading
• Mental
• Psychological
• Social
Levels of Reading
• Literal
• Inferential
• Critical/Evaluative
A. Literal level
• Based on text
• Reading the lines
• Literal interpretation
B. Inferential level
• Reading between the lines
• Combining information in text and stock knowledge
• Guessing with basis
C. Critical/Evaluative level
• Involves judging writer, purpose of text, nature of text, etc.
Reading Strategies and Techniques
Three general reading strategies or techniques
1. Previewing – Getting the idea of a text without actually reading its main body
Examples:
• Looking at titles and names of author/s
• Reading the abstract (for researches)
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
• Reading headings and subheadings, chapter summaries, or highlighted text parts
2. Skimming - It is used to quickly identify main ideas, gist, or general content of a material.
• Going through the body of the text
• This is three to four times faster than normal reading.
• This implies that reading must be done in large chunks at a time.
Examples:
• Reading only the lead or first paragraph of an article
• Gliding your eyes through the text very quickly (but not reading each of its words)
• Knowing the pages
• Looking at graphics and captions
• Browsing through magazine and interesting article pages
3. Scanning - It is used to discover required or specific information to complete a given task.
• This is a search for something specific.
Examples:
• Finding the meaning of a word in a dictionary
• Looking for a phone number in directory
• Looking for steps, italicized words
• Looking if topics you need are available in books/references you have
• Finding dates, events, etc.

Monitoring Comprehension by Making Connections

• Reading is the process of interpreting printed symbols.
• It begins with perception to comprehension.
• It involves analyzing, synthesizing, and connecting information.
• Information gained through reading may be connected to a reader’s schema (background
knowledge).
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
• Using the schema, a reader may connect a text to other sources of information to better understand
and to apply its contents.
Three Types of Making Connections Through Reading
1. Text-to-Text - Present text is related to another text previously read.
Example:
While reading your notes, you identify some missing info based from the lecture given by your
professor.
2. Text-to-Self - Present text is related to own life, ideas, and/ or previous experiences.
Example:
While reading an article about types of fall, you remember your grandmother who had a fall
acccident.
3. Text-to-World - Present text is related to past or current events or figures in the world.
Example:
After reading the text on types of fall, you understand why there are safety precautions and
reminders in stairs, and dangerous spots in most buildings.
Monitoring Comprehension by Using Context Clues
Context Clues
• Clues are words or phrases that serve as hint, so reader can understand the meaning of highfalutin
or unknown word/s in sentences
• Hints may be derived from
- examples given
- situation or how the word is used in the sentence
- situation or how the word is used in the sentence
- contrasting ideas (differences) / antonyms
- synonym/s presented
- definition/s provided
- explanation/s provided
- Conjugation is done by adding –s or –es or –d or –ed to the base form of the verb.
Monitoring and Checking Comprehension
1. Noting Details by Asking and Answering Questions
2. Drawing Inferences and Conclusions
3. Analyzing Information
4. Synthesizing/Summarizing Information
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
5. Evaluating Information
6. Monitoring and Clarifying Understanding

Reading for Comprehension

• It involves decoding and understanding.
Tips for Comprehension
• Know your purpose in reading.
• Preview text.
• Adjust reading speed.
• Reread.
• Make connections to self, text, or world.
• Answer questions.
• Generate questions.
• Imagine or visualize
Noting Details or Reading for Information
• It involves looking for specific information from reading text.
• This may involve little understanding.
Drawing Inferences and Conclusions
• Being able to guess based on evidence
• Being able to conclude out of reading some implied—not clearly stated--information
Steps in Drawing Inferences and Conclusions
• Identify key parts of the text.
• Put together the key elements.
• Identify the main idea.
• Connect the main idea with world knowledge.
Arts and Humanities
Elective Prelims
Reviewer
Synthesizing/Summarizing
• The contents and ideas are condensed, focusing on the most important ones only.
• The meaning of the text remains.
• The person who summarizes uses a combination of the words in the text and his own words.
• The length of a summary is 1/3 of the length of the original material
Steps in Synthesizing/Summarizing
• Skim.
• Underline key terms.
• Cross out redundant ideas.
• Use your own words.