Teaching reading skills in EFL classes: Practice and procedures teachers use to help learners with low reading skills

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 analysis 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 articulation error correction 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, and 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.

Keywords

• Teaching reading
• reading skills
• secondary school EFL classes