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Table of Contents
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Reading is a receptive language process. It is the process of recognition, interpretation, and perception of written or printed materials. Reading proficiency plays a great role in understanding a written written statement accurately and efficiently. efficiently. Reading serves as an important tool in every field of professional service ( service ( Abdul Halim,200!. Halim,200! .
In "nglish foreign language teaching, reading is one of the most important factors in assessing a learner# learner #s linguistic competence. However, it is a common problem for some students to complain about having trouble with how to read efficiently. $tudents $tudents always feel confused about the main idea of the passage even if they can get a full mar% to the &uestions following the passage. In addition , some teachers also find difficulties in increasing efficiency in reading classes. $o, therefore some of approches for teaching reading that teacher has to follow them and some of reading techin&ues .
However, due to many such reasons the students fail to comprehend te'tboo%s properly. his is largely reflected in the poor performance of the
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students both in their classes, as well as in their everyday life. $o, life. $o, it is important now to point out the problems e'isting in the present reading leearning and provide some proposals for how to teach reading efficiently. efficiently.
Indeed , the teaching of reading has been an essential part of learning a language ever since foreign language began to be taught ( )elly,*++!.
iao (200-! discusses that reading teaching becomes teaching of language points %nown as grammar and vocabulary. his %ind of "nglish reading teaching to a great grea t e'tent hinders "/ students# language language proficiency. proficiency.
Reading helps in mental development and is %nown to stimulate the muscles of the eyes. Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational s%ills of the reader. It is an indulgence that enhances the %nowledge ac&uired, consistently. consistently. he habit of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations ( rellet ,200*!
1ouglas(200* ! discusses that $tudents should be trained to be fle'ible in reading by using different %inds of e'ercises such scanning , s%imming ,and critical reading.
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Reading is very important to our studying "nglish, especially reading speed, s%ills, factors and steps. $o we should master some good reading s%ills to improve our "nglish levels.
Two approches of were used in this research : uantati!e "ethod and ua#itati!e . Theua#itati!e approche :
ualitative research see%s out the 3why#, not the 3how# of its topic through the analysis of unstructured information 4 things li%e interview transcripts and recordings, emails, notes, feedbac% forms, photos and videos. I investigated "'tensively many of boo%s , 5ournals and webessites and I relied on the these materials for gathering information.$o, the the most parts of the research will involve theoretical basis such as ob5ectives of teaching reading , approaches to teaching reading ,and some of reading techni&ues .and stratigies for developing yor rading s%ills . The ua#itati!e "ethod $%uestionnaires&:
uantitative method method are research techni&ues that are used to gather &uantitative data 6 information dealing with numbers and anything that is measurable. $tatistics, $tatistics, tables and graphs, are often used to present the results of these methods. A five6point scale &uestionnaire was designed for the purpose of the study where students were presented with stated reading difficulties e.g. un%nown words ! and as%ed to grade their difficulty according to the ! 14
agreement scale ( strongly agree 4 strongly disagree !.he &uestionnaire was written in Arabic and distributed to 20 students of the same speciali7ation ( "nglish specialists !. "ighteen response were collected . his &uestionnaire was designed to yield data that would contribute to our understanding of the nature of the problems that that students encounter in
. reading class
8y the way of reading ,a learner can master these high6tech and cultural %nowledge concerning "nglish 6spea%ing countries. As reading is the only time6saved way to absorb foreign advanced technology, by reading, we can learn more and ma%e cont ributions to the construction of our motherland .In that case, reading becomes necessary and urgentbecause Reading can help absorb all %inds of information. Reading "nglish boo%s, maga7ines etc can improve reading ability step by step, speeding up cultivating and forming good reading habits. $o. Reading can help us develop our interest.
8y reading a lot, one can advance their "nglish bac%ground %nowledge and broaden his or her vision, inspire his thought, build the values, train the creative performance and develop his intelligence.
he psycholinguistic view 9s oals of teaching Reading are to to train students to form their e'pectation for a Reading activity ,to encourage students to ta%e ris%s in guessing , in ignoring the fact that they should always be correct , and to train students to use the minimum number of syntactic and semantic clues to obtain the ma'imum amount of information .
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$tudents should therefore be trained trained to be fle'ible in reading by using different %inds of e'ercises , i.e. to obtain specific information ( scanning !, to obtain the general idea (s%imming ! , to obtain comprehensive understanding of reading ( through comprehension ! or to evaluate information (critical reading ! . $tudents should be aware of these ways of reading as aims aims so that they can determine proper strategies in reading .( Hasan' *++:!.
he pedagogical approach is organi7ed around a reading passage accompanied by comprehension &uestions .he passage is usually used as .a
vehicle to consolidate structure and vocabulary
;assages which contain syntactic structure and le'ical items beyond the learners9 competence are not easy to comprehend .he procedure to follow this case is to provide a list of the problematic words and phrases and their meanings before learners are given the opportunity to read the passage ."
.hese called
Alternatively , words which are assumes=d to create difficulty through conte't can be glossed after the passage ,and the reader9s attention is is "
directed to them . (>iddowson,*+-?! calls them
In short , the pedagogical approach , with its emphasis on simplification of language structures ,falls short of teaching reading as communication . ( Hasan' *++:!.
he communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of 14
reading in the language classroom and the types of te'ts that can be used in instruction. >hen the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level.
he communicative approach is such an approach where comprehensible input and the tas%6based learning could co uld e'ist together. o o achieve this suitable ob5ective, we have to adapt the following principles in communicative language teaching as suggested by @unan (*+??!
A. he focus of every tas% should be on the performing of some
operationteaching the learner to do something in the target language. his something is communicatively useful. B. Bse of language above the sentence level, with real language in real
situations and pay attention to both the part and the whole wor% in the conte't. C. he practice of forms should ta%e place within within a communicative
framewor%. (. Cista%es are not always always mista%es. "mphasis should be on fluency. fluency. F. >hat happens in the classroom must involve involve the learners and must be
5udged in terms of its effects on them.
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These are the two )ain s*i##s needed in de!e#opin+ ,our effecti!eness as a reader. reader.
It is a techni&ue you often use when you search for %ey words or ideas. In most cases, you %now what you9re loo%ing for, so you9re concentrating on finding f inding a particular answer. $canning involves moving your eyes &uic%ly down the page see%ing specific words and phrases. $canning is also used when you first find a resource to determine whether it will answer your &uestions. Dnce you9ve scanned the document, you might go bac% and s%im it. >hen scanning, loo% for the author9s use of organi7ers such as numbers, letters, steps, or the words, first, second, or ne't. /oo% for words that are bold faced, italics, or in a different different font si7e, style, or color. color. $ometimes the author will put %ey ideas in the margin.
It is used to &uic%ly identify the main ideas of a te't. >hen you read the newspaper, you9re probably not reading it word6by6 word, instead you9re scanning the te't. $%imming is done at a speed three 14
to four times faster than normal reading. ;eople often s%im when they have lots of material to read in a limited amount of time. Bse s%imming when you want to see if an article may be of interest in your research.
here are many strategies that can be used when s%imming. $ome people read the first and last paragraphs using headings, summari7es and other organi7ers as they move down the page or screen. scr een. Eou Eou might read the title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. Fonsider reading the first sentence of each paragraph. ( httpG2e'plore.com httpG2e'plore.com!!
I believe effective reading depends upon difficult level of the te't, the un%nown words in the te't and bac%ground %nowledge of the reader. It all contributes to the reading successfully success fully getting the message of the writer. I have tried to ma%e a point that difficult level in a reading te't should be according to the level of the reader.
I have tried to focus on all those factors which ma%e reading uneasy or difficult for the learners. A list of such factors is given as underG a. -ocau ocau#ar,. #ar,. . Structure of sentences. c. Bac*+round *now#ed+e of the students.
A.
Vocabulary:
I have minutely minutely observed during my investigation for &uestionnaire. he first and most problem I found was un%nown or difficult words. $uch vocabulary items which students thought were difficult for them proved to be a serious deterrent in the way of reading.
B. Structure of Sentences: 14
1uring my investigation investigation of &uestionnaire , I also found that in addition to to difficult Jocabulary Jocabulary items, the comple' sentence structure also create a problem for the proper understanding of the te't. Fonse&uently, Fonse&uently, a large number of students do not benefit much from such te'ts which contain difficult sentence structure.
C. Background Knowledge: Inappropriacy of these te't boo%s is more to do with the cultural features that occur in the te'ts which students and in many cases even teachers cannot e'plain to the learners. I have observed that a te't which reflects and contains difficult words, do not coordinates with bac%ground %nowledge of the students and they do not %now anything about the sub5ect under discussion, they feel it completely difficult to understand the te't. $ee figure (*!
10 9 8 7 6
Unknown words
5
Background nowledge
4
!rgani"ational #tructure
3 2 1 0 Reading Difficulties
fi+ure $1& /eadin+ $1& /eadin+ (ifficu#ties 14
/anguage instructors are often frustrated by the fact that students do not automatically transfer the strategies they use when reading in their native language to reading in a language they are learning. Instead, they seem to thin% reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to loo% up every un%nown vocabulary item, until they reach the end. >hen they do this, students are ar e relying e'clusively on their linguistic %nowledge. Dne of the most important functions of the language instructor is to help students move past this idea . "ffective language instructors show students how they can ad5ust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, and reading purposes. hey help students develop a set of reading strategies and match appropriate strategies to each reading situation. < $trategies that can help students read more &uic%ly and effectively include G •
;reviewingG reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
•
;redictingG using %nowledge of the sub5ect matter to ma%e predictions about content and vocabulary and chec% comprehensionK
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using %nowledge of the te't type and purpose to ma%e predictions about discourse structure. •
uessing from conte'tG using prior %nowledge of the sub5ect and the ideas in the te't as clues to the meanings of un%nown words, instead of stopping to loo% them up
•
;araphrasingG stopping at the end of a section to chec% comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the te't (http:00www.nc#rc.or+ !
Reading is a very important s%ill that students need to master as early as possible. However, However, the process of mastering reading is actually very comple' and this is clearly shown by the large number of students who are not s%illed in reading. $o ,we should master some good reading s%ills to improve our "nglish levels. In our country, most "nglish learner are worried about not understanding "nglish articles, newspaper, maga7ines and so on. How to improve our "nglish become more and more importantand to engage struggling readers .eachers .eachers can use a number of strategies to promote cognitive competence, motivation and social interaction. hey should be encouraged to construct rich %nowledge goals and use real6world interactions to connect them with their own e'periences. hey should be provided with an abundance of interesting reading materials, provided with choice, and be able to share and discuss their reading e'periences with others. •
Reading is a skill t$at will e%&ower e'er(one w$o learns it) *$e( will +e a+le to +enefit fro% t$e store of knowledge in &rinted %aterials and, ulti%atel(, to
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contri+ute to t$at knowledge) -ood teac$ing ena+les students to learn to read and read to learn) •
8y encouraging students to tal% about what strategies they thin% will help them approach a reading assignment, and then tal%ing after reading about what strategies they actually used. his helps students develop fle'ibility in their choice of strategies.
>hen language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading e'perience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language.
Books
Adu# a#i) rahi)' $233& The Process and Problems of Reading. "asa#ah Reading. "asa#ah 5endidi*an . Brown . (ou+#as' $2331& Teaching by Principles Principles An Interactive Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Pedagogy ( second second edition ). ). Addison 6es#e, Lon+)an 'nc . (a!is Co#e' Ardith' $2334& When Reading egins! The Teacher"s Teacher"s Role in #ecoding$ %omprehension$ %omprehension$ and &luency. &luency. 5orts)outh: eine)ann. 7re##et' F. $2331&. #eveloping $2331&. #eveloping reading reading s'ills. Bei8in+: Forei+n Lan+ua+e Teachin+ and /esearch 5ress.
asan' A.S. $199& ethodology $199& ethodology of Teaching Teaching nglish. nglish. S,ria: (a)ascus ;ni!ersit, . Nunan' (. $19<<& *yllabus $19<<& *yllabus #esign #esign. O=ford: O=ford ;ni!ersit, 5ress. 5enn, ;r. ' $199& A $199& A course course Language Language Teaching Teaching Practice and Theory Theory . Ca)rid+e : Ca)rid+e Ca)rid+e ;ni!ersit, 5ress 5ress .
Journals Cuu*cu' Fer,a#' $233>& An $233>& An Investigation of of Reading *trategies *trategies mployed by Trainee Teachers. 7E"A Teachers. 7E"A On#ine ?ourna# of Lan+ua+e Studies' > $2&.
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?ohnsen' L. @5ro#e)7uided /eadin+ for Co##e+e ?ourna# ? ourna# of /eadin+ Apri# $19<4&: 32
Websites http:00www.nc#rc.or+0essentia#s0readin+0stratread.ht) http:0042e=p#ore.co)0s*i).ht)
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