Questões de Concurso sobre Língua Inglesa - Compreensão e Interpretação de Texto

The EFL Students’ Critical Reading Skills across Cognitive Styles

[...] Considering the importance of having critical reading skills for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, the topic of developing of the students’ critical reading always has a prominent place among the researchers and educators. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the students’ critical reading ability in English language teaching (ELT) [...].

All of the studies reveal significant roles of critical reading ability on students’ success in academic study and its powerful effect on students’ critical thinking. More specifically, a study by Sultan et al. (2017) reveals that critical literacy approach had a significant effect on the pre-service language teachers’ critical reading skills, which include interpretation, analysis, making an inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation [...].

Moreover, a study conducted by Karabay (2015) finds that, when reading texts, critical readers are always analytical; especially when they take critical notes and underline important information in the texts. Similarly, Kobayashi (2007), far before the study conducted by Karabay (2015), also indicate that critical readers substantially produce critical notes while reading expository texts, comparing to the less-critical readers who relied much on making a summary of the texts.

Critical reading is a skeptical, careful, active, reflective, and analytical activity to judge the value of the text [...]. It is true that when reading texts, critical readers do not only grasp what is explicitly stated in the text but also go far beyond it using their high order thinking skills (HOTs) to tackle and evaluate the content of reading texts.

These skeptical and analytical skills are required because of the emergence of the internet and other media [...]. This suggests that critical reading should become a part of foreign language teaching and learning. The English teachers or instructors should design appropriate teaching activities which encourage the students to develop their critical skills in reading [...]. The critical reading skills are important for the students because it affects their critical thinking abilities which are required nowadays, and in turn, helping them to be critical citizens and critical readers.

A study by Zin & Eng (2014) indicates that critical reading ability can foster the students’ critical thinking habits. This is because reading is thinking and one cannot read without thinking [...]. Nevertheless, it is still difficult for the students to acquire the critical reading ability and big efforts and time are necessary to train the students to be critical. It is because the freshmen are sometimes not ready for the college academic tasks which require their critical thinking. Research carried out by Lisa (2008) confirms that many of the freshmen at the university level are not prepared for the demands of college reading, however, their critical reading skills are developed throughout the semester [...].

Available in: https://jurnalfaktarbiyah.iainkediri.ac.id/index.php/jeels/article/view/72. Acess on: Jan. 30, 2026.

According to the article,

Even if a foreign language student is an able decoder in English, the level of effort required to read for meaning in real time academic situations can be a monumental task. Look how author Richard Rodriguez (1982) describes his own reading in English as a new language: “Most books, of course, I barely understood. While reading Plato’s Republic, I needed to keep looking at the book jacket to remind myself what the text was about”. One might ask how Rodriguez could be reading a book at such an advanced level in English but still not reading with comprehension. How could he read and yet not read? And what is it that makes reading in a new language so overwhelming? Perhaps part of the answer can be found in the less extensive listening vocabulary upon which foreign language students can draw when reading written words, they have never seen before. Part of it may result from incomplete knowledge of the syntax and grammar patterns of English. When we struggle with sentences in a new language, reading takes a great deal of cognitive energy. As a result, retaining the gist of the previous sentences in a paragraph or of previous paragraphs in working memory is hard to do as we move through a text. Even when decoding is no longer very effortful, it is still much harder to move along through a text and construct meaning from it as we read in a new language. We might describe this as a real-time “delay”, which has to do with discursive practices. When the rate of processing discursive meaning from text can’t “catch up” with the rate of our decoding, the result may be the strange phenomenon of decoding but not comprehending, as lamented by Richard Rodriguez above.

LEMS, Kristin; MILLER, Leah D.; SORO, Tenema M. Teaching Reading to English Language Learners. Insights from Linguistics. New York and London: 2010, pp. 171-2. (Adapted).

The excerpt discusses what the author calls ‘real-time delay’ in English as a foreign language students’ reading ability. After reading this passage, choose the best alternative that may define this real-time delay.

You and your whole race

Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

You and your whole race.

Look down upon the town in which you live

And be ashamed.

Look down upon white folks

And upon yourselves

And be ashamed

That such supine poverty exists there,

That such stupid ignorance breeds children there

Behind such humble shelters of despair —

That you yourselves have not the sense to care

Nor the manhood to stand up and say

I dare you to come one step nearer, evil world,

With your hands of greed seeking to touch my throat, I dare you to come one step nearer me:

When you can say that

you will be free!

Available in: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/. Acess on: Feb. 3, 2026.

Given the statements regarding plausible interpretations of poem,

I. The lyrical subject calls attention to segregation and social differences.

II. The lyrical subject believes people should not have any more children.

III. The lyrical subject appears to reject passivity and embrace resistance.

IV. “Hands of greed” can be read as a metaphor for dominant groups.

it appears that only the following are correct

Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca

[...] There are three possible interpretations of the expression “World Englishes”. Firstly, it serves as an “umbrella label” covering all varieties of English worldwide and the different approaches used to describe and analyze them. Secondly, it is used in a narrower sense to refer to the so-called new Englishes in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean (Kachru’s outer circle). [...] Thirdly, it is used to represent the pluricentric approach to the study of English associated with Kachru and his colleagues, and often referred to as the Kachruvian approach, although there is considerable overlap between this and the second interpretation of the term. The first use is also sometimes represented by other terms, including World English (i.e., in the singular), international English(es), and global English(es), while the second is in fact more commonly represented by the terms nativized, indigenized, institutionalized, and new Englishes or English as a second language. And still other terms are currently in circulation [...]. Despite the range of interpretations of the term “World Englishes” and its alternatives, the links between them are so strong, and the field now so well established, that there seems to be little confusion over the intended reference.

The same cannot be said, by contrast, for ELF, despite Larry Smith’s visionary work on English as an international language dating way back to the 1970s and 1980s. One complication for ELF is the fact that “International English” is sometimes used as shorthand for “English as an international language”, or EIL, itself an alternative term for ELF. Used in this way, it can be misleading because it suggests that there is one clearly distinguishable, codified, and unitary variety called International English, which is certainly not the case. “International English” is used to refer to the local Englishes of those non–mother tongue countries where it has an intranational institutionalized role, although some researchers also include the mother tongue English countries (Kachru’s inner circle) in their definitions. On the other hand, “International English” is also used in another sense to refer to the use of English as a means of international communication across national and linguistic boundaries (primarily, but not exclusively, across the countries of Kachru’s expanding circle). These two meanings, as Seidlhofer (2004) observes, are therefore in “complementary distribution”. It is because of the potential for confusion of the word “international” that ELF researchers prefer the term “English as a lingua franca” to “English as an international language”, although to add to the confusion, both terms are currently in use.

There is considerable overlap between ELF (English as a Lingua franca) users and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, partly because many of those who start out thinking they are learning English as a foreign language end up using it as a lingua franca.

A further problem relates to the so-called phenomenon of “World Standard (Spoken) English” (W(S)SE). This is a hypothetical, monolithic form of English that scholars such as Crystal (e.g., 2003), Görlach (e.g., 1990), and McArthur (e.g., 1987, 1998) believe is developing of its own accord, although Crystal (2003) considers that US. English does seem likely to be the most influential in its development. This form recalls Quirk’s (1985) “single monochrome standard form”, based on the native speaker English that he advocates for nonnative speakers of English regardless of their communicative context [...].

Available in: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255669551_Current_Perspectives_on_Teaching_World_Englishes_and_English_as_a_Lingua_Franca. Acess on: Feb. 3, 2026.

The text states that

As stated by McCarthy, in An Introduction to English Morphology, “a proverb is a traditional saying, syntactically a sentence, whose conventional interpretation differs from what is suggested by the literal meaning of the words it contains”

Associate the meaning with the proverb.

PROVERBS

1. Beggars can't be choosers

2. Astitch in time saves nine

3. Every cloud has a silver lining

4. Too many cooks spoil the broth

5. Itis no use crying over spilt milk

MEANINGS

( ) If you depend on others, you can't be too picky.

( ) Even difficult situations have something positive hidden within them.

( ) Having too many people involved in a task makes it harder to complete.

( ) After an accident one should look to the future, rather than waste time wishing the accident had no happened.

( ) Anticipating a future problem and taking care to avoid it is less troublesome in the long run than responding to the problem after it has arisen.

The correct sequence of this association is:

According to the text, commercial interests of telecommunication companies have forced nations to establish strategies generally known as sovereign AI.

What are the benefits from the text-based language teaching approach?

The text establishes a relationship between Wrocław's identity and the demographic composition of the high school attended by Ukrainian refugee students. This structural choice in presenting information carries implications for understanding the institutional context.

Analyze which interpretation most accurately reflects the author's argumentative strategy regarding institutional multiculturalism.

Kamila's account of her adaptation process in Poland addresses multiple dimensions of immigrant student experience. The narrative presents her challenges and how she overcame them through various strategies.

Which statement most precisely articulates the relationship between linguistic development and social engagement as evidenced by the textual progression?

A principal diferença entre a perspectiva dos adolescentes e a do homem mais velho no cartum é que os adolescentes

Conforme descrito e exemplificado no texto, a principal característica dos clerihews é que eles são

Leia o texto a seguir.

Disponível em: https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/pablo1.png. Acesso em: 01 set. 2024.

Sobre a relação entre professores e Inteligência Artificial (IA), a citação sugere que ela é marcada pela

Considering some discourse markers present in Text 2, it is completely INCORRECT to affirm that:

The author indicates in his text that he finds it difficult to understand how the first translator could make the mistakes he made.

The excerpt "awareness has grown of the scope and scale of violence and discrimination" (first sentence of the text) means that awareness has grown from a better understanding of the scope and scale of violence and discrimination.

By stating that "cybercriminals are enlisted in state-sponsored campaigns" (last sentence of the third paragraph), the text suggests that they are officially classified as threats to national security.

According to the author of the text, every member of society is cultured, refined, and, through social experience and discovery, plays a role in shaping cultural development, both individually and collectively.

The text can be correctly understood as a criticism of the attitude of the colonizers towards knowledge originally produced or found in non-white cultures.

Although immigration is not mentioned explicitly in the text, it is reasonable to infer that the author’s description of society’s growth in the fourth sentence of the first paragraph may include cultural changes resulting from the arrival of new populations.

It is correct to infer from the text that European diplomacy, represented in the text by reference to "Geneva and Oslo" (second sentence of the second paragraph), is not paying much attention to conflicts "that have taken place the world over".