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Teaching reading skills in EFL classes: Practice and procedures teachers use to help learners with low reading skills
Ermias Mulatu & Taye Regassa
To cite this article: Ermias Mulatu & Taye Regassa (2022) Teaching reading skills in EFL
classes: Practice and procedures teachers use to help learners with low reading skills, Cogent Education, 9:1, 2093493, DOI: 10.1080/2331186X.2022.2093493
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2022.2093493
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Trang 2CURRICULUM & TEACHING STUDIES | RESEARCH ARTICLE
Teaching reading skills in EFL classes: Practice and procedures teachers use to help learners with low reading skills
Ermias Mulatu1* and Taye Regassa2
Abstract: The study was conducted to investigate the practices of teaching reading
skills in grade nine of Dil-Ber Secondary School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
A descriptive case study research design was used to meet this objective Out of 347 total student population and 4 English teachers, 30% of the students i.e 104 of them and all the 4 teachers were selected using lottery and available sampling methods respectively The data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaire The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively The data from the observation, interview, and document ana-lysis were analyzed qualitatively On the other hand, the questionnaire of students was analyzed quantitatively using frequency and percentages The findings revealed that teachers didn’t teach and follow the suggested teaching techniques and procedures i.e the three phases of teaching reading: pre-while and post-reading skill phases Letting good reader students to read as a model, immediate articula-tion error correcarticula-tion of words, and translating reading passages into the students’ mother tongue were used as techniques to help learners with low reading skills Another essential point the researcher deduced from the results of the study was the absence of supplementary reading materials such as magazines, newspapers,
Ermias Mulatu
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ermias Mulatu is currently a doctoral candidate in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia He has been teaching differ-ent English language courses such as
Communicative English Skills, Basic Writing Skills, and Advanced Speech at Dire-Dawa University
He has also been working as coordinator of English Language Improvement Center His major areas of research interest are language exams, language skills, and teaching methods
Taye Regassa is an Associate Professor in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Addis University, Ethiopia He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in TEFL in 2000 He has been teaching
at this University since 1989 He has also been supervising students, conducting research, pro-viding training and consultation His research interest is mainly in language teaching, testing and reading He has published several articles related to reading comprehension and back-ground knowledge in reading
PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Reading is a vital language skill It is the foun-dation of success In other words, students’ eventual academic success or failure depends to
a large degree on their ability to read and com-prehend the textbooks and notes they receive in the different subjects they study Consequently, the teaching of this important language skill is advantageous for learners of all levels, particu-larly for those with low reading skills Therefore, its practice should be investigated The current study has tried to examine the teaching practice
of reading skills and the procedures used to help learners with low reading skills The research has identified that the actual teaching practice of reading skills doesn’t follow the expected proce-dures Moreover, the research has found five core strategies the teachers used to help learners with low reading skills: immediate articulation error correction, modeling reading, translation, advising, and reading competition
Received: 23 September 2021
Accepted: 21 June 2022
*Corresponding author: Ermias
Mulatu English language lecture,
Department of foreign languages
and literature, Dire-Dawa, Dire-Dawa
University, Dire-Dawa, Ethiopia
Reviewing editor:
Weihong Wang, School of Foreign
Languages, China University of
Geosciences, Beijing, Hubei, CHINA
Additional information is available at
the end of the article
© 2022 The Author(s) This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
Trang 3and novels Moreover, the teaching of vocabulary which is one of key practices in instructing reading skills was not given sufficient emphasis Accordingly, it is recommended that giving teachers training or seminar on teaching reading skills specifically and teaching, in general, is significant for dealing with the problem.
Subjects: Language & Linguistics; Language Teaching & Learning; General Language Reference
Keywords: Teaching reading; reading skills; secondary school EFL classes
1 Introduction
Worldwide demand for learning English has dramatically increased (Alsagoff et al., 2012) The main reason is that English is the world’s most widely used foreign or second language (L2) Moreover, it is the language of international commerce, science, education, and technology, with people from different linguistic backgrounds using English to communicate with each other
In Ethiopia, English has been taught as a subject and also used as a medium of instruction for secondary and higher education A number of courses and different teaching materials are also prepared in English In its general aspect, English is used in various fields Abebe (2012) states that English has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, electronics, telecommunications, culture, and science and technology It is not only used as a means but also
a key to accessing the latest development in science and technology Moreover, it helps learners to communicate in the classroom and in a wide variety of everyday life situations
The learning of this vital and international language needs a mastery of the four language skills Thus, the mastery of these skills requires well-designed teaching procedures As reading is one of the four language skills, its teaching needs carefully selected activities, methods, and procedures Skills in reading enable learners to benefit from educational activities and to participate fully in the social and economic activities in which they take part
Beatrice (2008) clarifies that reading skills are the cognitive processes that a reader uses in making sense of a text For fluent readers, most of the reading skills are employed unconsciously and automatically When confronted with a challenging text, fluent readers apply these skills consciously and strategically in order to comprehend Zakir (2019) added that reading means looking for roots of the tree of meaning Efficient readers focus on the core of a text They don’t need to read every word to grasp the main information They know how to avoid unnecessary text and collect the main point Therefore, in teaching reading, instructors need to take into account that the best way to improve reading is by letting learners to read different texts and by teaching them various reading strategies of efficient readers So it is necessary to expose learners to the intensive and extensive reading situation
According to Brown (2001), half a century ago, reading specialists argued that the best way to teach reading is through bottom-up methodology: teach symbols, grapheme-phoneme correspon-dences, syllables, and lexical recognition first, then comprehension would derive from the sum of the parts On the other hand, researches have shown that a combination of top-down and bottom-
up processing, or what has come to be called “interactive reading”, is almost always a primary ingredient in successful teaching methodology because both processes are important Anderson (2003) agrees that interactive model combines the elements of both bottom-up and top-down models Correspondingly, Nuttall (2005) explains that the teaching of reading has been in constant revision, especially in recent years Indeed, computers have led the general public to revise their own needs, skills, and reading strategies in their mother tongues and in foreign languages
Trang 4USAID (2017) indicated that Ethiopia has made progress to increase access to primary and secondary school education Unfortunately, the positive achievement of getting more students into schools has strained the capacity of the system and students’ learning has suffered On top of that, most teachers have little experience with modern pedagogy or research-based reading instruction
Reading skill instruction is highly beneficial for students of all levels When teachers explain and model multiple strategies, as well as provide guided and independent practice with feedback until students begin to use the strategy independently, the reading levels of middle and high school students improve (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004) Ganske and Douglas (2010) state that the ultimate goal of instruction is to develop independent learners Thus, the instructional practices that are designed to teach reading skills are expected to eventually carry over into independent reading The strength of reading lessons should enable learners to comprehend reading materials In other words, the quality of reading instructions should enable learners to acquire a variety of reading skills
Consequently, the main goal of teaching the English language is to enable the learners to use the target language and communicate their opinions and thoughts However, according to Atkins
et al (1996) many high school students are weak in their reading ability in English Language This weakness affects their studies and academic performance Atkins et al (1996) added that among the major factor affecting students reading is ineffective teaching of reading The teacher’s ability
to teach reading plays a decisive role in students’ language skills and ultimately in the success of learners Therefore, for the advantage of next-generation, it is important to improve the teaching
of reading in the Ethiopian high schools
Furthermore, reports from secondary school teachers, experts, and the larger educational com-munity suggest that too many students have a limited ability to understand reading texts Further, local research has continued to show that the reading ability of Ethiopian secondary school students is deteriorating over time (Jha, 2014)
The researcher has been teaching first-year students in higher institutions From classroom observations as an instructor and assessments he has carried out as part of his professional activities such as being a coordinator of English Language Improvement Center (ELIC) and Reading Club, he found out that the majority of the students’ reading skill result is below the standard or expected level Furthermore, informal and formal departmental discussions indicated that many first-year students are weak in their reading comprehension These students were unable to answer very simple comprehension questions On top of this, there were complaints from the students themselves that teachers did not teach reading skills properly in the high schools
Some local studies have been conducted in the area Alebel (2020) for example, examined the practice of teaching reading skills He concluded that most teachers do not properly teach the three reading stages (the pre, while and post reading stages) Abebe (2012) on the other hand prepared experimental research on teaching reading skills through interactive classroom teaching versus plasma television teaching His finding shows that teaching reading skills through an interactive classroom have a positive effect on students’ reading comprehension Mekonnen (2005) likewise carried out research to examine the cognitive levels of the reading questions and teachers’ classroom supplements to the questions He concluded that the cognitive level of the reading questions in this textbook is more of the lower-level type Moreover, teachers are found to
be aware of the case and make efforts to supplement the questions during the lesson
This research is different from the above studies since it focuses on investigating the practices of the teaching reading skills with regard to the implementation of the three phases of teaching reading and the procedures used to help learners with low reading skills Accordingly, it specifically
Trang 5tried to explore the teaching of reading skills and the procedures teachers use to help students with low reading skills Therefore, this study is believed to add its own value in the area of teaching reading skills with a prime target to fill the gap
The main purpose of this research is to investigate the practices of teaching reading skills in grade nine EFL classes Thus, the researcher formulated the following two research questions based on the research problems mentioned above
(1) How do grade 9 EFL teachers instruct reading skills in the actual classroom?
(2) How do teachers help students with low reading skills?
Based on these research questions, the study focused on the following specific objectives These are:- exploring the teaching of reading skills in grade 9 EFL classes and examining the procedures teachers implement to help learners with low reading skills In short, how is the teaching of reading skills being handled? Does the actual practice of teachers teaching reading skills follow the expected procedures?
Even if it is difficult or impracticable to teach perfectly, being conscious of the common problems one could encounter while instructing reading skills can help teachers minimize these problems or
at least reflect on them
2 Review of related literature
2.1 Teaching reading
The best teacher of reading is a teacher who conveys not only the value of reading, but also the joy
of reading Reading is a competence that teachers have to actively teach since learners do not simply “pick up” reading skills There is no clear pathway for progress in learning to read unless the teacher has a plan for teaching the learners how to read Teachers need to know what is expected
of learners They need to know precisely how to help learners to achieve satisfactory reading levels, and where necessary, they should ask for extra professional support (Republic of South Africa Education Department, 2008)
According to Robinson, Farone, Hittleman, and Unruh (1990) cited in Anne (2000), instructional practices in reading comprehension have shifted over the last century
● from using oral reading to help get meaning from text to using silent reading to aid comprehension;
● from using worksheets, workbooks, and reading kits to direct student comprehension to teaching reading strategies that aid students in guiding their own comprehension;
● from asking “what” questions (e.g., those that provide practice finding the main idea) to asking
“how” and “why” questions (e.g., those that teach how to make inferences while reading);
● from teaching subs-kills (e.g., identifying a story sequence) to teaching comprehension strategies that include these sub-skills (e.g., summarizing);
● from providing little direct teaching to increasing the amount of direct teaching that is specific (e.g., strategy instruction), followed by supervised independent practice
This shift reflects an evolving view of reading that is now considered to be a strategic process through which readers construct meaning by interacting with text That is, readers use clues in the text and their own prior knowledge to assign meaning to what they read Furthermore, interac-tions among the teachers, the student, the text, the purposes for reading, and the context within which “literacy events” (activities that include reading, writing, discussions, and journal writing) occur all come into play in the construction of meaning and the acquisition of reading strategies
Trang 6Gerry et al (2012) clarified that reading is one strand of literacy The reading process is complex and multi-dimensional Effective teachers have an understanding of this complexity and are able
to use a range of teaching approaches that produce confident and independent readers Gerry
et al (2012) identified several components that need to be considered in the teaching of reading towards recognizing this complexity Among these are: the establishment of varied and rich vocabulary, development of phonological processes, the provision of a framework for teaching comprehension strategies, a need to ensure that motivation and enjoyment of reading are key aspects of the reading process, and a renewed focus on reading fluency
2.2 Phases in teaching and learning reading
Different scholars divide phases in teaching and learning reading in to three main stages They are, pre-reading, while- reading, and post-reading A good reading lesson could follow the following stages: Pre-reading stage, while-reading stage and post-reading stage (Atkins et al., 1996)
2.2.1 Pre-reading phase
According to Williams (1984), the pre-phase of reading tries to introduce and arouse interest in the topic, motivate learners by giving a reason for reading, and provide some language preparation for the text Correspondingly, Hedge (2000) explains that the pre-reading phase as one of the major responses to increasing insights about the role of schematic knowledge in reading has been the focus of current reading methodology on a pre-reading stage
Williams (1984) clarifies that in order to help prepare for pre-reading work, useful questions that the teacher can ask herself/himself are:
a) What knowledge, ideas or opinions might the learners already have on the text topic, and how can this knowledge be drawn out and used?
b) Why should anyone want to read this text, and can the same, or similar, reasons be generated
in the learners? (p 37) Atkins et al (1996) on their part explain how to use the pre-reading phase as follows: the pre- reading stage does not need more than a few minutes For Example, ask students to list some words they expect to meet in the passage Write their words on the blackboard If students do not suggest them, add other words Pre-teach these words in context, or tell students to try to guess the difference between the words as they read the passage According to these scholars, the aims
of the pre-reading phase are: to activate prior knowledge, get students interested in the topic, and theme for the reading
In conclusion, the pre-reading stage familiarizes a reader with the basic content and organiza-tion of the text and helps to activate prior knowledge It is an important phase that prepares students for the reading text Thus, it should be properly used for every reading lesson which is carried out in the classroom
2.2.2 While-reading phase
This phase focuses on the text It allows students to integrate the knowledge and information they bring to the text with new information in the text Students read silently and try to understand the main points They also answer a number of questions designed to understand the ideas in the text There is no need of understanding every word, but they guess the meaning of new words from the context (Williams, 1984, p 38).This shows that the main thing that students should do here is to interact with the text and try to relate their prior knowledge with the text for understanding
As a rule, while -reading work should begin with a general or global understanding of the text, and then move to similar units such as paragraphs, sentences and words Williams (1984) says the
Trang 7reason for this is that the larger units provide a context for understanding the smaller units—a paragraph or sentence, for example, may help the reader to understand a word
Hedge (2000) states students’ activities at this stage These are read and match, read and label, read and complete, and read and draw By doing these activities students try to understand the given text and do the comprehension questions given by their teacher in order to check whether they understand the text or not Atkins et al (1996), for instance, state the following as activities the teacher carried out during while-reading stage These are: tell students to read the questions, and then read the passage silently to find the answer Tell them they do not need to understand every word to answer the question When they have worked out the answer, they should discuss in their group until they have agreed on one answer Finally, make students give their answers and evidences for their choice
Generally, the while-reading stage is significant for processing the text in depth Students attempt to comprehend the text by using the strategies which are used during the while- reading stage They also need to integrate their prior knowledge with what they are reading
2.2.3 Post-reading phase
This sage allows students to articulate and process their understanding of what they have read and to think critically about the validity of the text According to Atkins et al (1996), the post reading phase has the following tasks: 1) to check overall comprehension of the text 2) Questions
to get students to relate the passage to their experience 3) Relating speaking and writing activities The teacher should ask general questions on the passage to achieve the following:
● To check students’ overall comprehension of the passage
● To encourage them to evaluate the passage (Interesting? Agree? True?)
● To get them to relate the passage to their own experience (similar experience?)
● To get students to imagine themselves in the situation in the text
The aims of post-reading work are: a) To consolidate or reflect upon what has been said, b) To relate the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interest or views (Williams, 1984) and c) To integrate other skills (Atkins et al., 1996)
To sum up, in this phase it is important to set a related activity possibly involving other skills, such as completing a paragraph summary of the text, a word puzzle based on the passage, discussion about the main topic and dramatization of the passage
2.3 Teachers’ role in teaching reading skill
Atkins et al (1996) explain that for the benefit of the future generation, it is certainly extremely important to improve the teaching of reading in schools The teacher’s ability to teach reading plays a decisive role in students’ language skills and ultimately in the success of learners Among the significant factors that contribute to students’ poor reading are ineffective teaching of reading, and inadequate textbooks, containing inappropriate tasks for helping students develop reading abilities According to these scholars, the teacher plays an important role to enable students to read and understand a text by using different strategies of reading a text
Excellent reading teachers share the following critical qualities of knowledge and practice:
● They understand learner’s reading and writing development
● They can assess a learner’s individual progress and relate reading instruction to a learner’s previous experience
● They know a variety of ways to teach reading
Trang 8● They are able to use a variety of materials and texts for learners to read.
● They can tailor instruction to the individual student
● They can help students strategically (International Reading Association)
Overall, teachers should assist students to actively engage in the process of meaning and knowl-edge construction Thus, the teachers should apply the techniques and strategies of teaching reading lessons The roles of the teacher in intensive and extensive reading will be discussed below
2.3.1 The role of the teacher in intensive reading
In intensive reading students are expected to understand everything they read and be able to answer detailed vocabulary and comprehension questions (Venkateswaran, 2009) In addition, Venkateswaran (2009) explains that in extensive reading students should have a general under-standing of the text without necessarily underunder-standing every word It is done for pleasure and to obtain information for different purposes of the reader
Different scholars explain the role of the teacher in intensive reading in different ways, For Example, Harmer (2000) as cited in Solomon (2013) explains as follows: The major activity of the teacher in reading session should be creating enthusiasm and interest of reading in the students’ This can be done by using topics that arouse interest in students according to their level
The roles the teacher has to assume during a reading practice session in the classroom are:
● Organizer: As an organizer of the activities he/she needs to tell students exactly what their reading purposes are It is also necessary to notify the time given for that particular reading activity and stick
to the announced time
● Observer: When students are made to read by themselves silently they should not be interrupted even though the teacher has some information to deliver Teachers rather should observe the progress of the students reading individually or in a group This follow-up may give us whether or not we should give some more time or not It will uncover the problems students are facing during the reading so that we can look for a solution
● Feedback organizer: The teacher has the responsibility of being a feedback organizer in such a way that once the reading session is well organized and appropriately followed he/she can give feedback and organize the text actively The activity could be something like comparing answers with each other or asking for answers from the class in general or from groups and individuals in particular In asking, however, students to give answers, it will be important to ask them wherein the text they found the information for their answers This initiates students to practice a detailed study of the text which will help them the next time they come to a similar reading passage
● Parameter: This means that teachers should be responsible to quickly let students notice language features that they have not been familiar with or direct them to some other features of the language by clarifying ambiguities and confusion New language items should be clarified as well
A text that is to be largely dealt with intensively also helps to encourage students to get a general understanding first by using “pre-questions” Then what is to be done is to encourage students to pick out particular information and equally important is to encourage them not to worry at ignoring other, perhaps quite large, sections of the text which are not relevant to the task they have been given Venkateswaran (2009)
Generally, the aim of the teacher should be to help the students in overall activities of learning reading skills Then as mentioned above he/she plays organizer, observer, feedback organizer, and parameter role
2.3.2 The role of the teacher in extensive reading
Teachers are expected to arouse interest in the students so that they will make extensive reading part of their language learning ability Most students will not do extensive reading by themselves
Trang 9unless they are encouraged to do so by their teachers (Venkateswaran, 2009) According to this author, teachers should help students how to use extensive reading and encourage them to have
a habit of extensive reading is very important
Harmer (2003) as as cited in Solomon (2013), for example, states that having persuaded our students about the benefits of extensive reading, we can organize a reading program where we indicate to students how many books or short stories we expect them to read over a given period We can explain how they make their choice of what to read, making it clear that the choice is theirs, but that they can consult other students’ reviews and comments to help them make that choice Whether in intensive or extensive reading time silent reading is very important Venkateswaran (2009) enlightens us that it will be correct to say that what we read depends on why we read and how we read Silent reading is the most important skill that we should aim at when we teach prose
or a reading lesson This requires full attention for comprehension and helps in developing the speed of reading Silent reading has to be encouraged for it develops concentration Ibid also lists some points to be born in mind by the teacher
● The teacher should bear in mind that he must give a model reading of the whole or part of any material that is being read (this depends on the students’ level and length of the material)
● Pupils should have an opportunity of reading the passage to themselves before they are called on to read
2.4 Principles of teaching reading
Scholars have written principles of teaching; for example, Harmer (2008) lists six principles of teaching reading:
1 Reading is not a passive skill: reading is an active occupation Therefore, readers should understand the meanings of words, see pictures, understand the arguments and take a position
to agree or not If students do not do these things while reading, then they are only scratching the surface of the text, and there will a tendency of forgetting
2 Students need to be engaged with what they are doing: students should be engaged with the reading text This helps them to be actively interested in what they are doing and benefit much from it
3 Students should be encouraged to respond to the context of a reading text, not just to the language: the main purpose of practicing reading is to let students get the meaning and the message of the text Thus, we must give students a chance to respond to the meaning and message of texts
4 Prediction is a major factor in reading: books converse, photographs, contents, and titles give
us hints of what is in the book before we read a single word Our brain begins predicting what we are going to read We build expectations and the active process of reading takes place Therefore, teachers should give hints to their students so that they can predict what is going to be read
5 Match the task to the topic: once students are given a reading text to read an appropriate task should be designed The right kind of questions and other useful activities that engage students must be ready Unnecessary and inappropriate questions could make an interesting text boring and unattractive
6 Good teacher exploits reading text to the full: any reading text is full of sentences, words, ideas, descriptions, etc It does not make sense to get students to read it and then drop it to move
on to something else Good teachers integrate the reading text into interesting class sequences using the topic for discussion and further tasks, using the language for study and later activation
Trang 10To sum up, the principle of teaching reading to English language learners to increase their fluency and comprehension skills is an important step in helping them become successful readers
2.5 Teaching reading and students with low reading skills
Reading is a competence that teachers have to actively teach since learners do not simply “pick up” reading skills (Republic of South Africa Education Department, 2008) Thus, teachers are expected to teach reading implicitly and explicitly Moreover, they are expected to use different strategies to help learners with low reading skills Accordingly, the teaching reading practices and the procedures used to help learners with low reading skills have to be examined
Success in reading is essential throughout a student’s school career and into adulthood (Julia
et al., 2018) This shows that reading skill is significant for students’ academic success Therefore, investigating the teaching practice of this vital language skill has great importance to reveal how the teaching is being handled and whether or not the actual practice follows the expected procedures Consequently, this study sought to examine the practices of teaching reading skills and the procedures teachers use to help learners with low reading skills
To sum up, studying the practice of teaching reading skills and the procedures teachers use to help learners with low reading skills have importance Initially, it provides information on teachers’ actual classroom practices in teaching reading skills in secondary school education Secondly, it can also serve as a source of information concerning the strategies teachers used to develop low learners reading skills
3 Methods
3.1 Descriptive case study
In this research, descriptive case study design was used According to Gall et al (2007), the objective of descriptive research is to describe an occurrence and its features It focuses on
“what” rather than’ why’ something has happened Accordingly, observation and questionnaire are often used to gather data On the other hand, Kothari (2004) states that a “case study is essentially an intensive investigation of a particular unit under consideration (p 113).” The defini-tion shows that a case study is a rigorous exploradefini-tion of a specific and real situadefini-tion Thus, the researcher of this study took a particular unit which is investigating the practice of teaching reading skills and dealt with it in depth
Regarding the data analysis method, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed The data gathered from interview, and observation was analyzed qualitatively On the other hand, data from the questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively In short, descriptive case study research design, qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were used to investigate the practices of teaching reading skills in depth
3.2 Participants
This research was intended to investigate the practice of teaching reading skills in grade 9 government high school Therefore, the participants of the study were grade 9 EFL teachers and students at Dil-Ber secondary school
The participants of this study were grade 9 teachers and students of the sample schools Four English language teachers’ were selected through availability sampling Thus, all four Grade 9 EFL teachers participated in the study On the other hand, all the students in the observed classes were considered as participants They were selected using convenience sampling For filling the ques-tionnaire random sampling specifically the lottery method was used to select student participants Dil-ber High school during the research period had 347 grade 9 students in 14 sections (The students were classified into two groups because of COVID 19 The first group learns on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the second group learns on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Each