Exploring English Reading Strategies Employed by Teachers at Secondary School Level

Abstract

Importance of English is inevitable not only in Pakistan but all over the world. English language has gained a significant place in various fields of life demanding modern people to have sufficient command of language skills to progress in academic and professional domains. Similarly, the students are also required to be adept in language skills to meet the needs of the modern era. In this context, the research was carried out to explore the English reading strategies adopted by teachers at the SSC level in district Haripur and also to find difference of male and female, urban and rural teachers’ reading strategies in term of basic components of reading; phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. A survey research design was used. Four hundred (400) secondary school teachers teaching English to grade-10 was selected through stratified random sampling technique as sample. A self-constructed questionnaire for teachers was used as research tool. The findings revealed that a very least number of teachers had shown interest in basic teaching skill while more of the focus was on syllabus completion and exam-preparation. The study provided an insight about the current situation of language teaching in terms of their focus on basic language skills particularly reading. It is hoped that the government of KP and education department would take necessary measures to improve language teaching by implementing required changes in the policies, conducting training workshops and seminars to sensitize and familiarize the teachers with modern trends of language teachings and revising curriculum with the focus on to polish the basic skills of students at large.