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Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................ 2
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 statement
accurately and efficiently. Reading serves as an important tool in
every field of professional service ( Abdul Halim,200!.
In "nglish foreign language teaching, reading is one of the most important
factors in assessing a learner#s linguistic competence. However, it is a
common problem for some students to complain about having trouble with
how to read efficiently. $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, 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.
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 e'tent hinders "./ students# language
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. (he habit
of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they
come across in everyday conversations ( 0rellet ,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. $o we should master some good reading
s%ills to improve our "nglish levels.
Two approches of were used in this research : uantati!e
"ethod and ua#itati!e .
Theua#itati!e approche :
2ualitative research see%s out the 3why#, not the 3how# of its topic through
the analysis of unstructured information 4 things li%e interview transcripts
and recordings, emails, notes, feedbac% forms, photos and videos.
I investigated "'tensively many of boo%s , 5ournals and webessites and
I relied on the these materials for gathering information.$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&:
2uantitative method are research techni&ues that are used to gather
&uantitative data 6 information dealing with numbers and anything that is
measurable. $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
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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 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. $o. Reading
can help us develop our interest.
8y reading a lot, one can advance their "nglish bac%ground %nowledge
and broaden his or her vision, inspire his thought, build the values, train
the creative performance and develop his intelligence.
(he psycholinguistic view 9s 0oals of teaching Reading are to train
students to form their e'pectation for a Reading activity ,to encourage
students to ta%e ris%s in guessing , in ignoring the fact that they should
always be correct , and to train students to use the minimum number of
syntactic and semantic clues to obtain the ma'imum amount of
information .
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$tudents should therefore be trained 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 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 <primary glossaries . "
Alternatively , words which are assumes=d to create difficulty through
conte't can be glossed after the passage ,and the reader9s attention is
directed to them . (>iddowson,*+-?! calls them <promoting glossaries "
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
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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 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 e'ist together. (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
operationAteaching 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 a communicative
framewor%.
(. Cista%es are not always mista%es. "mphasis should be on fluency.
F. >hat happens in the classroom must 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.
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 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 font si7e, style, or 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
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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. Eou might read the title,
subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. Fonsider reading the first sentence
of each paragraph. ( httpGHHI2e'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 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 Hor
difficult for the learners. A list of such factors is given as underG
a. -oca.u#ar,.
.. Structure of sentences.
c. Bac*+round *now#ed+e of the students.
A. Vocabulary:
I have 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:
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1uring my investigation of &uestionnaire , I also found that in addition to
difficult Jocabulary items, the comple' sentence structure also create a
problem for the proper understanding of the te't. 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 (*!
fi+ure $1& /eadin+ (ifficu#ties
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0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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Reading Difficulties
Unknown words
Background nowledge
!rgani"ational #tructure
/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 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.
0uessing 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, 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. $o ,we should master some good reading s%ills to
improve our "nglish levels.
In our country, most "nglish learner are worried about not understanding
"nglish articles, newspaper, maga7ines and so on. How to improve our
"nglish become more and more importantand to engage struggling readers
.(eachers can use a number of strategies to promote cognitive competence,
motivation and social interaction. (hey should be encouraged to construct
rich %nowledge goals and use real6world interactions to connect them with
their own e'periences. (hey should be provided with an abundance of
interesting reading materials, provided with choice, and be able to share
and discuss their reading e'periences with others.
Reading is a skill t$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
A.du# 1a#i) 2.rahi)' $2334& The Process and Problems of Reading. "asa#ah
5endidi*an .
Brown 1. (ou+#as' $2331& Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to
Language Pedagogy ( second edition ). Addison 6es#e, Lon+)an '2nc .
(a!is Co#e' Ardith' $2334& When Reading egins! The Teacher"s Role in #ecoding$
%omprehension$ and &luency. 5orts)outh: 1eine)ann.
7re##et' F. $2331&. #eveloping reading s'ills. Bei8in+: Forei+n Lan+ua+e Teachin+
and /esearch 5ress.
1asan' A.S. $199:& (ethodology of Teaching )nglish. S,ria: (a)ascus ;ni!ersit, .
Nunan' (. $19<<& *yllabus #esign. O=ford: O=ford ;ni!ersit, 5ress.
5enn, ;r. ' $1994& A course Language Teaching Practice and Theory . Ca).rid+e
: Ca).rid+e ;ni!ersit, 5ress .
Journals
Cu.u*cu' Fer,a#' $233>& An Investigation of Reading *trategies )mployed by
Trainee Teachers. 7E"A On#ine ?ourna# of Lan+ua+e Studies' > $2&.
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?ohnsen' L. @5ro.#e)A7uided /eadin+ for Co##e+e B ?ourna# of /eadin+ Apri#
$19<4&: 432A4
Websites
http:00www.nc#rc.or+0essentia#s0readin+0stratread.ht)
http:0042e=p#ore.co)0s*i).ht)
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