DEVELOPING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS AMONG THE STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

Abstract

Reading is the basic comprehension skill to locate the intelligibility and proficiency level of a learner at a certain academic level. It is generally perceived that writing is a divine process that every learner must master to excel in his educational career but the fact is that only a good reader can write precisely. English is taught as a compulsory subject to the second language (L2) learners till their graduation level with only emphasis on writing skills but they are unable to comprehend their target language texts even at the higher-level studies in Pakistan. There is a dire need to address the issue of providing solutions to the graduates because this comprehension skill helps the learners to acquire knowledge and understanding of given texts not only throughout their educational career but also to succeed in professional vocation. It is difficult to identify the problems of reading skills (receptive skill) that learners encounter in the classrooms but still a yardstick to measure students’ compatibility of reading skills is a reading comprehension text with direct and indirect questions. Therefore, the researcher has addressed the issue faced by the students at graduation level from the Department of computer sciences (CS), Bahauddin Zakarya University. For data collection, Tizon, (2013) proposed a method of reading comprehension, so a test tool was carefully designed and administered through a pilot study before it could be applied to the target population. The test contained two questions to check the level of reading comprehension of the selected students. The reading questions were given with a time limit to the students as prescribed for each question. To check the comprehension ability of a student, the sub-genres of reading skills (skimming, scanning, inference and extensive reading) were carefully observed and calculated through written responses to the given questions. The results indicated the scarce knowledge, limited vocabulary and inadequate interpretation level of the learners in applying reading techniques to the given texts. These issues could be minimized by applying certain reading techniques (skimming, scanning, inference and extensive reading) to excel the speed of reading which is highly needed by the learners during their study occupancy.