Importance Of Teaching Reading

1025 Words5 Pages
Abstract
This article examines different methods of teaching reading in a foreign language with specific reference to their merits and demerits in terms of application in an EFL/ESL classroom context. The article, first, describes different methods of teaching reading to beginners with examples drawn from real-world situations and then it looks at some of the strategies of reading which intermediate learners may require to master so that they can become proficient readers in a given community. Finally, it emphasizes why readers need to be comprehensive and critical in their readings given the fact that they are called upon to make decision on a wide range of important local, national and international issues.
Key words: Reading strategies, symbols, encoding, decoding and phonological features.
Introduction
Stressing the importance of teaching reading to children, in a module entitled Teaching Reading in Primary Schools, Carter (2000, p. 3) writes that "since reading forms the basis for all other areas of learning, it is necessary to ensure that children of the primary grades attain proficiency in reading" (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001351/135162eo.pdf).This implies that reading is one of the major language skills which is expected to be mastered by learners in most EFL programs.Therefore, it has become one of the responsibilities of an EFL/ESL teacher to help learners develop their reading skills at the initial stage of learning a foreign language so that