Reading Comprehension Strategies Prepared for DOCTOR OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE Program Pasundan University By Ismaul HUSNI January 2015 Bloom Taxonomy of Reading Skills Preview the Text /Chapter The SQ4R Method The Pivotal Words Vary Your Reading Words Using Your Text Book Strategic Behaviour and the DBrain The Seven Reading Strategies The Herringbone Pattern Strategy After having the class, you are expected to be able to: 1. Describe some concepts of reading skills 2. Use the concepts in reading text books 3. Analyse which concept is the most suitable for you to apply 4. Justify the concepts to use in reading for Book Report
Transcript
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Prepared for DOCTOR OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE ProgramPasundan University
By Ismaul HUSNIJanuary 2015
Bloom Taxonomy of Reading SkillsPreview the Text /Chapter
The SQ4R MethodThe Pivotal Words
Vary Your Reading WordsUsing Your Text Book
Strategic Behaviour and the DBrainThe Seven Reading Strategies
The Herringbone Pattern Strategy
After having the class, you are expected to be able to:1. Describe some concepts of reading skills2. Use the concepts in reading text books3. Analyse which concept is the most suitable for you to apply4. Justify the concepts to use in reading for Book Report5. Formulate the gist of the concepts for your own sake of studying at Doctor Degree
Remembering: can you recall or remember the information?Understanding: can you explain ideas or concepts?Applying: can you use the information in a new way?Analyzing: can you distinguish between the different parts?Evaluating: can you justify a stand or decision?Creating: can you create new product or point of view?
THE SQ4R METHODJan 2015
SQ4R method improves both comprehension and grades.
Before you read,
Surveythe chapter
The title, headings, and sub headings.Captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps.Review questions or teacher-made study guides.Introductory and concluding paragraphs.Summary.Try to get an overview of what lies ahead.
Questionwhile you are
surveying
Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions.Read questions at the end of the chapters or after each subheading.Ask yourself, "What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject when it was assigned?"Ask yourself, "What do I already know about this subject?"Example, the heading "Stages of Sleep" might lead you to ask: "Is there more than one stage of sleep?" What are they and how do they
Survey Question Read Recite Relate Review
differ?" Asking questions helps you read with a purpose.
Note: If it is helpful to you, write out these questions for consideration. This variation is called SQW4R
When you begin to
Read
Look for answers to the questions you first raised.Answer questions at the beginning or end of chapters or study guides.Reread captions under pictures, graphs, etc.Note all the underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases.Study graphic aids.Reduce your speed for difficult passages.Stop and reread parts which are not clear.Read only a section at a time and recite after each section.
Reciteafter you've
read a section:
Orally ask yourself questions about what you have just read and/or summarize, in your own words, what you read.
Take notes from the text but write the information in your own words.
Underline/highlight important points you've just read.
Use the method of recitation which best suits your particular learning
style.
Remember to look for answers as you read and to recite or take notes before moving on.
Recite key terms and concepts.
Relate It is easier to remember ideas that are personally meaningful.
When you study a chapter, try to link new facts, terms, and concepts with information you already know.
Reviewan ongoing
process.
When you’re done reading, skim back over the chapter, or read your notes. Then check your memory by reciting and quizzing yourself again.
Make frequent review a key part of your study habits.
Skilled readers use a wide range of strategies while reading. Some of these include the SQ4R technique, flow-charting, summarization, questioning and predicting. Of particular interest is the ability of learners to learn reading strategies, and how these strategies should be taught.
Bereiter and Bird (1985) conducted two studies which investigated strategy use while reading. In the first they transcribed think aloud protocols of expert readers (university students thought out loud while reading) and found four central
strategies they use when comprehension fails:
1.Restatement:
1. Rephrasing using inferred equivalents where unknown words appear1. paraphrasing in simpler terms2. inferring superordinate propositions3. paraphrasing with inserted referents4. periodic summarization
2.Backtracking
5. reread from beginning of confusing segment6. reread previously comprehended parts
3.Demanding relationships
7. Setting watchers (ie wh questions)8. Why? (cause and effect)9. What? (for what reason)10.Where? (for orientation)11.Links between topics (why, what, how, is this related)
4.Problem formulation
12.formulate comprehension failure into problem solving
These of course were only the most frequent strategies used. Many others were also used including prediction, imagery, and recall of related information.
Other studies indicate that sophisticated reading strategies are difficult to teach and learn. For most reading strategies prompting is required. Despite knowing them, few students will use them. One helpful way to get students to use strategies is to point out what they should look for while reading. This raises their self-awareness, a point that is central to this course, and a point that underlies teaching any cognitive strategy; raising self-awareness requires direct instruction. Direct instruction alone, however, is not sufficient, an expert model is also required.
Thinking aloud is also been shown as an effective means of teaching writing
skills, with the teacher modelling expert writing practice, and explaining the strategies that emerge.
Closely linked with researching is the core skill of reading: It is through the words of others that we are introduced to new ideas and are able to reflect on them.
Reading at university level involves a number of additional skills which are essential to critical analysis:
knowledge acquisition, comprehension and the ability to interpret a text, the acquisition of new vocabulary, argument development and validation, and information evaluation and synthesis.
When you research a topic for an essay or work on a large project such as a thesis, you need to read and critically evaluate a considerable amount of material.
The following sections discuss three areas which will enable you to undertake your reading more effectively: using reading lists, planning reading time, and adopting reading strategies.
Using reading lists effectively
Reading lists are provided to guide you to key literature on particular topics. They usually contain a breadth of material that reflects different approaches and views.
You are usually expected to read approximately three key texts per topic. It is therefore important to find which texts make required readings. It is also important to determine whether or not you need to read an entire text. You can start by reviewing
the abstracts of journal articles, the preface and introduction of books, and headings and sub-headings of article sections or book chapters.
This step will help you not only conceptualise the text, but also identify the type and amount of information you need to focus on. (Please see Adopting Effective Reading Strategies below for further information).
Planning your reading time
Reading requires concentration and time for reflection. As an important step in the learning process, you need to identify:
how much you need to read, the complexity of the text, and how you read it.
Understanding these three elements will enable you to map out the amount of reading time you need to include in your study plan.
Think about:
the purpose of your reading (whether it is to acquire facts or discuss ideas),
when you are the most alert (whether in the morning, afternoon, or evening),
whether you have a quiet space away from distractions, and how much time you have allocated to read.
You will often be given a reading guide that is directly relevant to your lecture program. Reading before the lecture/class helps you to better understand the material and participate in discussions.
This page from the Education site of Monash University provides This page from Using English for Academic Purposes offers you advice on reading skills for academic study.
Adopting effective reading strategies
How you read your material depends on what you are reading and why. Are you trying to gain an overview of a topic, understand the material in depth, or find specific information? Being clear about what you want from a text ensures you read effectively.
Depending on your purpose and the complexity of the material, you can adopt some of the following effective reading strategies:
Scanning. This is the ability to locate facts quickly and to find answers to specific questions. For example, you scan for information when you try to find a phone number in a directory. Use scanning when you want to locate a specific piece of information in a text.
Skimming. When you skim, you are reading quickly by skipping details, minor ideas, and examples. Skimming is best used when you are trying to determine if the text is relevant to your study and, if so, which sections you need to read more carefully. While skimming
o carefully read the introduction, conclusion, and abstract (if there is one),
o look at headings and sub-headings,o look at diagrams, graphs, tables, images, ando read the first and last sentences of each paragraph and
sections which present a summary or conclusion. Reading in Depth. When you have identified sections you need to
read closely, you need to not only understand the content but also ask questions such as: What aspect of the topic is this writing addressing? Does the writer have a particular point of view? How does the writer build that position?
Reflecting. Time to reflect on read material is critical especially when you are contrasting the ideas and opinions of others or when you are comparing your own with those of others.
Irrespective of what reading strategy you use, you should take notes of
what you have read. Note-taking helps you write an assignment or study for an exam since it avoids you having to re-read the original text to find the relevant information.
Preview the textThe first thing you should do when you open a new book is to preview the text. Look at the contents page and survey the topics covered in the text. Then ask yourself what you already know and what you think you will need to know about the topics that will be covered in the course. This process will give you a "big picture" of the course and will help you to start thinking about how the contents of the course will fit in with your educational goals.
Now draw a map or use Cornell notes to outline the course using information from the contents page and your syllabus. This process will help you to get a perspective on how the instructor's lesson plans match up with the textbook and to plan how you will schedule your reading.
If the text looks like if might be difficult for you to read, speak with your instructor. He or she may be able to recommend a supplemental text that will help you to understand course concepts at your own level.
If you lack knowledge about a course topic and/or feel that the course will be covering it on a level that is too difficult for you, go to the library and choose a book on that subject. Read up on the topics covered in the chapter to help fill in the gaps of your knowledge.
Check to see if there is a glossary of terms or other study aides in your textbook. Keep a dictionary close by to look up words that are unfamiliar.
Preview each chapter
Before you read the chapter in detail, skim the entire chapter. Read the introduction, then skim each page, spending approximately 5 seconds per page. Notice headings, illustrations, tables, etc. Then read the summary at the end of the chapter. This process will give you an overview of the chapter and help you to plan how you will break it down into "meaningful chunks" for the next steps of detailed reading and study.
Ask questions
Now that you have an overview of the chapter, ask yourself:
What do I already know about the information in this chapter? What are the main ideas of this chapter? How can I turn sub-headings into study/test questions to help me focus my reading? What questions are found in the text that might help me?
Write down your questions.
Read for details
Now read the text, looking for the answers to your questions to help you stay focused. As you read, annotate your text, highlighting important information and writing notes in the margins that will keep you actively involved in your reading and help you to better understand what you read.
As you complete each section, develop Cornell notes with main ideas in the margin and important details (explanations, examples, and applications) on the right side of the margin.
After you finish each section or unit, summarize what you have read in your Cornell notes. Write down the answers to the questions you wrote down previously. Add questions/answers as appropriate.
Recite
Develop flash cards or mnemonic devices for important terms, concepts, and information that you know you will need to memorize. Read over text annotations and the Cornell notes you developed from your reading. Summarize the information by saying it out loud into a tape recorder or by discussing the chapter with a study group. You may also "recite" the information by writing a summary or by using visual organizers to put the information into another cognitive frame.
If you marked any sections of your text for questions to ask your professor, be sure to ask them in class.
Review
Compare your notes from your textbook reading with your class lecture notes. Continue to summarize your learning. You want to keep reducing the size of your study notes, each time you review the material. The object is to be able to "clue" yourself to remember more detailed information with a single word or phrase. This process will help to keep your memory fresh and will help you to solidify or "over-learn" the material so that it becomes part of your permanent "file" of knowledge.
HERRINGBONE PATTERNRationale:Understanding the main idea or gist of a piece of text is a sophisticated reading task. Textbook chapters, articles, paragraphs, sentences, or passages all have topics, main ideas, and supporting details. The topic is the broad, general theme, message or what some call the subject. The main idea is the "core concept" being expressed. Details, major or minor, support the main idea by telling how, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many. Locating the topic, main idea, and supporting details helps readers understand the point(s) the writer is attempting to express. Comprehension is increased when a student can identify the relationship between topics, main ideas, and details.
In narrative text, characters' actions, motives, problems, and personalities all contribute to the overall theme(s) of the story. The main idea often depends on the reader; if the reader has had similar experiences to the character, the reader is more likely to enjoy a richer, more fulfilling reading experience. On the other hand, poems, which use figurative language, metaphor, and imagery, require the reader to dig deeper for meaning; it may not be what it appears to be on the surface.
Nonfiction presents its own problems; what is important may relate to a combination of interesting details and information essential to the basic understanding of the topic. Many textbooks are conceptually dense and therefore struggling readers have difficulty identifying what information is important and what information is extraneous (Lenski, Wham, & Johns, 1999). Content textbooks contain what Garner, Gillingham, & White (Lenski et al., 1999) call 'seductive details'. For example, a text may include information about Thomas Jefferson and his biracial children, these details are included to engage student interest yet they tend to pull student attention away from identifying the main idea of a passage. The ability to determine importance in text requires the use of
related comprehension strategies such as drawing inferences and summarizing information, both of which require the student to think critically about the information being read. A good reader is able to sift and sort through text and pull out the essential or key ideas while the struggling reader tends to pay attention to everything in the text. Nonfiction reading is reading to learn so therefore determining main ideas is crucial when reading informational text. The reader must decide what is important and remember that information if anything is to be learned (Harvey& Goudvis, 2000).
Almost every paragraph in informational text has a key concept or main idea. The main idea is the most important piece of information the author wants the reader to know. Sometimes the author will state the main idea explicitly somewhere in the paragraph either at the beginning of the paragraph, in the middle, or at the end. The sentence in which the main idea is stated is the topic sentence of that paragraph. However, an author, often, will not state his/her main idea explicitly, leaving the reader to infer what the author intended. Cunningham and Moore (Hennings, 1991) termed this "invention." Invention requires readers to create rather than locate, ideas. A reader relates what is in the text to what is already known about the topic; making connections between significant details and making inferences that go beyond the details explicitly stated in the text (Hennings, 1991).
How to Use the Strategy:
The main idea of a paragraph answers the question: "What is the main point or points the author is expressing about the topic?" The stated main idea is found in one or two sentences within the paragraph. The main idea answers two important questions:
1. Who or what have I just read about? 2. What was the main point or points the author made about this
topic?
An explicit main idea may be anywhere in the paragraph, but is
typically found in these locations: first sentence, last sentence, middle of paragraph, or a combination of two sentences.
An implied main idea is a sentence that the reader composes rather than a statement found in the selection. This reader-developed sentence answers the same basic questions: Who or what did I just read about? And what was the main point or points the author made? To determine the implied main idea, readers should follow these steps:
1. Read the paragraph and ask, "Who or what did I just read about?" 2. Ask, "What are the important details from the reading?" 3. Determine the main idea by asking, "What is the single most
important point the author is making about the topic based on the details?"
4. Use the information from the paragraph that answers these questions to formulate a sentence that states the main idea.
Let’s look at how this might be done with a piece of text:
"What happens to thoroughbred race horses when they are too old to race? Essentially, there are two groups of “over-the-hill” racehorses. The first group is the unlucky ones. They are sold to slaughterhouses, where they become pet food or are killed and their meat becomes delicacies in Europe or Japan. The second group is the lucky ones who find their way to an Equine Retirement Foundation ranch. These ranches are run by people who love horses and who want to provide a final resting place for the horses that give their all as they raced. The people running the ranches understand the stress and effort that each horse went through in training and in running races. They reward the horses by letting them roam pastures, feeding them well, and letting them enjoy the companionship of other horses. And the horses are cared for by people who love and understand these gentle yet competitive animals."
1. Who or what did I just read about? I just read about thoroughbred racehorses.
2. What are the important details from the reading? The
paragraph tells you that there are two kinds of horses, the horses that are lucky and the horses that are unlucky. The lucky horses go to farms where they are able to run around and live the life of a horse. The unlucky horses are sent to slaughterhouses where they are killed.
3. What is the single most important point the author is making about the topic based on the details? The author starts the paragraph with a question so the important point the author wants to make is to answer the question, “What happens to thoroughbred race horses when they are too old race?"
4. The implied main idea for this paragraph: Thoroughbred racehorses that are too old to race are either sold for slaughter or enjoy life at an Equine Retirement Foundation ranch.
Visual organizers provide students a framework for making decisions about main ideas and important supporting details in material that they are reading. The Herringbone Pattern is used to help students identify the main idea and the related supporting ideas of a lesson, text, or concept. It contains six questions that help students organize the details of the text. The visual pattern of the herringbone creates a framework for students to take notes and sort information. When modeling, teachers should remind the student to look for and identify the answers to the six questions. After all six questions have been answered; the information can be used to create a main idea sentence. Stress that the main idea always includes specifically "Who …did what." Some of the other information may be included, but it is not necessary to create the main idea. The Herringbone can also be used in reverse as a pre-writing strategy.
Ideas for Assessment:
Being able to identify the main idea is central to understanding the text. The graphic organizers presented here can form the foundation for assessing student’s ability to determine the main idea. By looking at the information students have pulled from the text, teachers can quickly
assess whether students area able to identify the central point of the reading. Teachers can informally ascertain the student’s ability to identify the main idea through discussions of the text or written responses. A checklist can be used.
Is the main idea an expression of the author's most important general point about the topic?
Does the main idea make sense by itself? Is the main idea complete?
There many other ways teachers can assess the student's ability to identify the main idea. Some include: drawing the main idea and details, writing a newspaper article, or writing a one-minute paper on the reading. .
WHO? WHAT? WHEN?
WHERE? HOW? WHY?
MAIN IDEA: Thoroughbred racehorses that are too old to race are either sold for
slaughter or enjoy life at an Equin
The Seven Reading Strategies
1 Making PredictionsJudge a book by its cover! If you are reading a poem, short story or a novel, talk about the title,the cover, the blurb and the illustrations if there are any. Learners discuss the sort of text theyare about to read, using their prior learning. When about to view a film, the same principles apply. This can be done using the cover of the the DVD, or ideally by using a short trailer. This strategy be used effectively before reading and at key points in the texts, where learners discuss what might happen next, or how the story might end. However, like all reading strategies, it should notbe overused or allowed to spoil the narrative.
Typical QuestionsWhat do you think this might be about?Does this remind you of anything you have seen, read, heard before?What kind of story do you think this might be? (this relates to an increasing awareness of thefeatures of genre)What do you think (character) will do next?How do you think this will end?
2 Asking QuestionsThis may seem like an obvious strategy, since as teachers we do it all the time, but the key ideahere is that we develop an understanding in the learner that asking questions is probably moreimportant than answering them. This is a core strategy in the development of
critical thinkers, andwe need to guide learners towards the hierarchy of questions they should be asking as they read atext.
Typical QuestionsQuestions generally fall into one of 3 categories: LITERAL, INFERENTIAL or EVALUATIVEHow many references are there to time in this story? (Literal)Where and when do you think the story is set? (Inferential)Why does (character) act in this way at this particular time? ((Inferential)What do you think is going through (character’s) mind here? (Inferential)How do you think the author wants us to feel towards this character? (Inferential)How well do you think the author has captured the feeling of happiness here? (Evaluative)
3 Making ComparisonsAs sophisticated readers, when we read a text we are constantly (and sub-consciously) makingassociations between what we are reading and our own real-life experiences. Or, to put thatanother way, we are drawing on our prior learning. In order to develop that in young readers wehave to encourage them to make the links and explore those aspects of the text which are mostlikely to elicit the comparisons. It is also important to explore the notion that while the text willoften be a shared experience, our reactions to it may be quite different, depending on theassociations we make.
Typical Questions
Does this remind me of anything I have experienced before?Does this remind me of anything I have read or seen before?How would I have behaved in that situation? Why?How does this text compare with (a previous one I/we read)?
4 Looking for PatternsBy comparing and contrasting texts they have read, the sophisticated reader begins to show adeeper understanding of genre, or of the work of a particular author (or indeed auteur). Patternsmight include elements of the plot, structure, layout, use of graphics etc. It also includes languagepatterns, the repeated use of particular words, images or symbols, and the recognition of commonthemes in a text or group of texts.
Typical QuestionsWhat kind of story is this? How do we know? (Introduce concept of genre when appropriate)Can you see anything in the text which appears more than once?What would you expect to happen in this kind of story?Do you notice any habits this writer has in the way he/she uses language?
5 Making PicturesVisualisation, or the interpretation of a text into internal images, is a natural process for trained readers, but it needs to be made explicit for a developing reader. Asking learners to draw a character or a scene from a text allows them to present their unique interpretation of the text. Using graphic organisers such as Mind-maps can be a
very effective way of making sense of a text,summarising key elements, committing to memory or sharing with others, while storyboards or comic-book software make the creation of narrative easier and more fun.
Typical Questions/ActivitiesWhat do you think this character/place would look like?If you were to make a film of this, where would you make it and who would play the leading roles?Draw a map of the area where this story takes place.Draw a mind-map showing the main elements of the story.
6 SummarisingThe ability to summarise is an essential skill for the developing fluent-comprehending reader, but it is also a highly sophisticated skill which needs to be modelled repeatedly by the teacher. It canbe broken down into the following component parts, each of which can be emphasised in different contexts and can be practised through a range of activities:- Paraphrasing putting into your own words Selecting picking out the main points Combining two or more ideas or sentences into one Readers can be asked to write chapter headings, list the writer’s main ideas, provide a blurb forthe book or a trailer for the film, or write a short review, all of which are essentially a kind of summary of the text.
Typical Questions/ActivitiesProvide a suitable heading for each paragraph of the chapter or story. Write down the main events in the order in which they happen. In no more than 50 words, tell the story in your own words.
7 EvaluatingOne aspect of reading which rarely has to be encouraged, but is often the least considered or developed, is the process of evaluating or assessing the worth of a text. Readers of any age will happily tell you what they think of a text, but will often struggle to explain why, beyond the stock responses of “it was boring” or it was exciting”. When engaged in this strategy, therefore, it is the quality of the discussion and the use of open questions which will determine the quality of the outcome. It is also important that in any evaluation, the criteria for success are shared and agreed, and these will usually be related to audience and purpose. An appropriate vocabulary needs to be developed over time.
Typical Questions/ActivitiesWhat was the author’s purpose here and to what extent did he/she achieve it?What is the writer’s (as opposed to the character’s) point of view?Was the ending of the story the most appropriate ending? Why?
The Three Tensions of GlobalizationBy LAURENCE E. ROTHENBERG
What is globalization? Is it the integration of economic, political, and cultural systems across the globe? Or is it Americanization of world culture and United States dominance of world affairs? Is globalization a force for economic growth, prosperity, and democratic freedom? Or is it a force for environmental devastation,exploitation of the developing world, and suppression of human rights? In sum, is globalization "good" or "bad"? These questions would receive very different answers in Washington, Sao Paolo, Paris, Cairo, Johannesburg, Bombay, Hong Kong, and Manila. In fact, in each of those places these questions would receive very different answers from different people— business leaders, government officials, agricultural laborers, the unemployed, or human rights activists. Indeed, simple answers to these questions, answers that people in different walks of life in different countries would agree on, would be virtually impossible to reach. Most
importantly, answers to these questions vary greatly depending on how globalization is viewed in relations to values. The impact of globalization on culture, for example, depends on whether one thinks that local cultures should be protected from outside influence, or whether one thinks that new cultural creativity results from interaction and mixing of ideas from different cultures. After all, there are few cultures that are truly isolated, and cultural interaction, especially though trade relations, has occurred for thousands of years—from Phoenecian traders’ impact on ancient Greek culture, to Chinese silk used in clothes in medieval Europe, to the spread of coffee, chocolate, and tobacco around the world, and to the impact of Chinese and Japanese styles in American and European art in the nineteenth century. In today’s world, American films and film styles are popular throughout the world, and foreign films are popular in the United States. Is this globalization of culture good, bad, neutral, or simply a fact of life? Values, therefore, are key to assessing the impact of globalization on the lives of people around the world. At the same time, however, it is possible to teach about globalization in such a way as to highlight the tension between different values as they play out in certain circumstances while not taking sides as to which value is better.
Globalization is the accelerationand intensification of interaction
and integration among the people,companies, and governments of
different nations.Globalization101.org, a free website of resources for teachers and students, strives to present a balanced view of globalization and its underlying values by including voices from the United States and other countries, perspectives of officials of international organizations and national governments, and opinions of activists at non-governmental organizations around the world. The goal is not to indoctrinate students by attempting to explain events through one ideological lens using slogans and biased information. Rather, Globalization101.org tries to show how people in different countries, in varying circumstances, can look at the same set of facts and come to radically different conclusions about the process of globalization and how it affects their lives. Such an approach challenges students to think about the controversies surrounding globalization and to promote an understanding of the trade-offs and dilemmas facing policy-makers and citizens in the global age.
DEFINING GLOBALIZATIONValues can play a role in defining globalization. A definition of globalization as "Americanization" or, perhaps, the "McDonaldization," of the world presents globalization as a process driven by American consumer culture that rolls over other cultures. On the other hand, another definition of globalization would highlight its cross-cultural impact, taking into account the nature of globalization as a way cultures interact and learn from each other. Globalization101.org follows the second approach—viewing globalization as a process of interaction and integration. A focus on the spread of American ideas or products that ignores the counterbalancing impact of the access to the international arena of ideas and products formerly kept out of it,promotes an impoverished and unbalanced understanding of the process. Thus, Globalization101.org defines globalization as follows: Globalization is the acceleration and intensification of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. This process has effects on human well-being (including health and personal safety), on the environment, on culture (including ideas,religion, and political systems), and on economic development and prosperity of societies across the world. This comprehensive and balanced definition takes into account the many causes and effects of the process, and, most importantly, leaves room for debate and discussion of the values that different people from all over the world bring to the table.
THE THREE TENSIONS OFGLOBALIZATION
Three inherent tensions reveal the conflicting values at stake in the process of globalization as defined above. By examining controversies about globalization through the prism of these three tensions, teachers and students can learn how to think about the positive and negative effects of various aspects of globalization andhow to find a balance that reflects their values.
The first tension is between individual choice and societalchoice. A conflict occurs when a person, exercising her right to choose a particular lifestyle, to buy a particular product, or to think a particular thought, is at odds with what society at a whole views is most preferable for all citizens at large. For example, some people may prefer to smoke or to drive without wearing a seatbelt. Society, however, may believe that there are costs to society as a whole—in medical costs, for example—that require laws to restrict private choice. In the arena of globalization, such a tension is evident in debates over the spread of American culture. France,for example, objects to the spread of American popular culture in the form of films and television. In fact,France has laws about non-European content on French television and radio stations. France even insisted that there be a "cultural exception" to world trade rules on services agreed to in 1994 to allow the French government to limit imports of American popular culture products. Such positions, however, ignore the fact that no one forces an individual French person to watch an American film or television show or buy a CD by an American recording artist. French consumers buy those products because they choose to do so for reasons of personal preference. One may reasonably ask, then,"Why does French society have the right to override that individual’s freedom of choice?" It comes down to values. In the first place, some people and societies may value social choices above individual choices. Second, some people and societies may believe that in areas of culture, preservation of a local culture—because of history, tradition, and a desire to pass along heritage to succeeding generations—should trump short-term individual choice. The problem is how to find a way for the international system to account for this tension, in areas such as the world trade talks mentioned above. How can the process of globalization find a balance between respecting individual free choices and societal priorities at the same time?
TENSIONS OF GLOBALIZATIONA second tension is between free market and government intervention. This tension is something of an aggregate of the first, because the free market is the aggregation of lots of individual choices—Adam Smith’s famous "invisible hand"—while government intervention is the practical way that societies decide on and implement the choices they make about their values. Thus, a free market determines what goods are produced and how money is invested in order to satisfy consumer demand (that is, the sum of all the individual choices). The free market also plays the crucial role in creating an efficient response to changes in the economy, when consumer demand increases or decreases for certain products, or when factors such as a decline in investment or damage to the environment changes the supply of money or products.• Individual choice versus societal choice a Nevertheless, the free market may sometimes fail to provide crucial goods, especially at reasonable prices, necessary for overall social order. The government, for example, is often required to provide key services, such as water, electricity, sewage, and garbage pick-up (although some people believe such services could be privatized), not to mention police, fire, and defense forces. In the international arena, one of the most burning issues is the failure of the free market to provide affordable drugs to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Such drugs are available in the Europe and the United States to allow people with HIV/AIDS to have productive lives for about $10,000 per year, an affordable sum in the developed world. Such a price, however, is far beyond the ability to pay of people in Africa, where the vast majority of the population afflicted with HIV/AIDS lives. In fact, the disease is a scourge in Africa and the rest of the developing world, where whole societies are on the brink of collapse because of the social chaos and economic impact of infection rates that are as high as 25 percent in some countries.rket versus government interventionGovernments therefore, prodded by international non-governmental organizations involved in promoting public health, agreed at a meeting of the World Trade Organization in 2001 to allow poor countries to make generic copies of drugs needed for pubic health emergencies. This represented a large concession on the part of
U.S. and European companies, which value their intellectual property and whose intellectual property rights had recently become protected by a special international treaty. Since then, however, agreement on how to implement this agreement has been hard to reach. The companies are concerned that allowing too generous an exception from the international intellectual property rules would lead to a loss of so much revenue that they would not be able to recoup the costs of developing medicines in the first place and make a profit for their shareholders.
After all, the companies have to run their business in an economically efficient and profitable manner for theirowners. Meanwhile, however, poor people in Africa are dying. Again, there is a tension between two equally important values. How can the international system balance the need to promote an efficient free market system that rewards innovation and the development of new medicines, while also ensuring that the poor and needy are taken care of?
Globalization is neither good nor bad. Rather, certainaspects of the complex, and multi-faceted processof globalization have impacts that can be viewed indifferent ways depending on the values at stake.
Finally, the third tension of globalization is that between local authority and extra- or supra-local authority,that is the tension between decisions made at the level most close to individual citizens and decisions made at higher levels of authority distant from the people they may affect. As with the other tensions, we see this in our daily lives as well, but the tension takes on special characteristics in the global arena. Many Americans believe that the federal government in Washington is a distant, separate culture, unfamiliar with their daily problems and concerns and captive to special interests. Local and state governments, on the other hand, are often more trusted to deal with practical, everyday issues.
In the globalized world, many Americans and citizens in other countries feel that international organizations outside their democratic control are making decisions without any input from the people who are most affected by them. For example, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are viewed—rightly or wrongly—in much of Latin America and Asia as Washington-based cabals of bankers forcing American-style economic policy on societies that have different values than individualized capitalism. In the United States, many environmental activists were outraged in 1998 when a dispute resolution panel of the World Trade Organization declared that an American law banning the import of shrimp caught with nets that killed endangered sea turtles was in violation of world trade rules. Several Southeast Asian nations had complained that the law was a disguised way to protect the American shrimp industry from competition by their shrimpers. But the U.S. law was passed by the Congress and signed by the President, in a democratic process, for what seemed like legitimate purposes. Why, many people asked, was an unelected, undemocratic tribunal of three judges in Geneva empowered to force the United States to change the law? At the same time, the United Stateshad agreed to the world trade treaty that set out the rules and established the panel that made the decision. And the U.S. and other governments believe that such treaties are an important way of setting commonly accepted rules to manage international trade. Again, a tension arises, this time between the democratic legitimacy of domestic legislation and the need to create and enforce international rules by bodies who are not directly accountable to those whose lives and interests they affect.
TENSIONS AND TRADE-OFFSThese examples of the tensions of globalization are just a few of the cases where citizens around the world have felt threatened by the current process of interaction and integration. Thinking about globalization in terms of such tensions can help students understand that solutions to these problems and resolutions to these controversies are rarely black and white. Globalization is neither good nor bad. Rather, certain aspects of the
complex, and multi-faceted process of globalization have impacts that can be viewed in different ways depending on the values at stake.
Individual free choice is important, but so is a society’s ability to make decisions according to what is best for all of its members. The free market is important, but so is the ability of governments to deal with problems when the free market fails. Local democratic accountability is important, but so is international agreement on problems that can only be solved with cooperation far beyond the direct control of individual citizens.
Discussion of these tensions can enlighten students without forcing them to abandon their own values. In fact, an approach of explaining forthrightly the tensions and the values at stake, the facts of the cases, providing solid information, and airing a wide variety of perspectives, encourage students to think and learn more deeply about globalization than any other approach currently available for educators. Globalization101.org’s approach engages students in thinking about their lives in an international context at a very exciting time, with a vast amount of resources freely available to help them grow and learn as students and citizens.
Laurence E. Rothenberg is the producer of the www.globalization101.org websiteand director of the Globalization101 program at the Center for Strategic &
International Studies, a Washington, D.C. non-profit public policy research institute.
