CC BY
73DEVELOPING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS
OF LEARNERS Yakubova S.M.1, To'khtashev A.A.2
1Yakubova Sayyora Ma 'dievna - Teacher of English, MANAGEMENT IN PRODUCTION FACULTY;
To 'khtashev Alisher Akmaljohn o 'g 'li - Student, POWER ENGINEERING FACULTY, FERGHANA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, FERGANA, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: the article under discussion discusses improving reading skills of the English language learners. The authors of the article suggest several ways to foster reading comprehension and provide more enjoyable reading experience to learners. Keywords: reading, improving, language, teaching, obtain, information, skills, skimming, classroom.
Reading is the one of the most important basic language skills as we get used to depend on the written word in our everyday life as a means of obtaining information. In recent years, language teaching methodologists have gained a greater appreciation of the nature of the reading skill. They have come to understand that reading is not a single monolithic skill. It is a behavior which is made up of a large number of component skills. These range from such foundational skill as the ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet to quite sophisticated skills such as skimming a piece of writing to gain a general idea of its content. Methodologists have also come to believe that the type of reading done is the language classroom should reflect the many uses to which reading is put in real life: you use reading not only for study purposes but also newspapers, instruction manuals and the labels on the products you buy in the supermarket.
The students will feel more motivated to read and to practice their developing reading skills on their own if the teacher can demonstrate to them that reading is not just a classroom exercise. The most convicting way to do this is to use example from a wide range of print media: announcements, labels, instructions,
timetables, maps and so on. An added advantage of such everyday materials is that they may be used for oral communication exercises as well as for the teaching of reading. It is very common to use narrative and expressive literature for teaching of extended reading [1, p.p. 67-80].
However, these types of text may be beyond the reach of the students. Frustrated by having to thumb the dictionary for every unfamiliar word, some students may simply give it up. The teacher's goal here is to provide more enjoyable reading experiences for his students. One way to motivate the students to develop their reading skills is to use texts which the students construct themselves. Because the students generate the reading selection they control the difficulty of the content. An additional bonus is that reading lesson develops naturally from oral language activities. Carol Dixon and Denise Nessel suggest several ways to improve reading comprehension of the learners:
• You and your students discuss an experience which all of them share: a class field trip or some school events. The oral discussion generates ideas and ensures that students have the vocabulary and grammar which they need for the creation of the reading material.
• After the discussion, ask your students to help you to write the story down. As they collaborate in dictating the sentences of their story, you write what they say on the blackboard.
• After the last sentence has been dictated, read the entire selection aloud to the students and have the students take turn reading aloud.
• Ask follow-up questions which assess whether the students understand the content. Do not go after small details. Look for comprehension of the main ideas and ability to follow the sequence of events.
• Make a copy of the story for later use.
As the reading ability of the students improves, they are ready for less sheltered reading experiences. Although different reading tasks require different approaches for all types of reading selections (text created by the LEA, short narratives, academic essays) the teacher can use question techniques as pre-reading and
post-reading activities. The teacher should be able to arouse students' interest, direct their attention to the main ideas, and check their comprehension of a text by asking them suitably graded questions: global and specific.
Global questions check whether the students have understood an idea which is central to the whole text. Usually students have to read most of a text to be able to answer a global question. Specific questions focus on some points of detail. Students can usually find the answer to specific questions from just one sentence purpose. Asking comprehension questions may even be disguised as a game by writing each question on a piece of card and distributing these cards among the students. When a student has finished answering the question on his piece of card, he then exchanges his card with another student. The first person to have answered all the questions is the winner.
A more thorough way of checking comprehension is to use true or false statements. The teacher gives the class a statement and the class then has to say whether the statement is true or false. It is easy to involve the entire class by asking them to put up their right hands for true and their left hands for false. In this way the teacher is able to check comprehension at a glance [2, p.p. 45-67].
References
1. Littlewood W. Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge.Cambridge University Press, 1991. P.p. 67-80.
2. Dixon C.N. and Nessel D. Language Experience Approach to reading (and writing) Alemany Press, 1993. P.p. 45-67.
