Correlating the Performance of ESL Students in Reading Comprehension Passages with Their Reading Habits

by Dr.N.Pratheeba, Lecturer in English, Kamaraj College of Engineering and technology, Virudhunagar,Tamilnadu,India.

Abstrat

Tackling reading comprehension passages is an onerous task for any student. But reading comprehension passages are an essential part of any competitive examination, be it, IELTS, TOEFL, CAT, MAT, SAT etc. The ability of the student to solve any reading comprehension passages renders a great difference in the life of the student. For it is the deciding factor to get a seat in a coveted company or an esteemed institution.  Reading helps to widen the horizon of the knowledge of any student. Reading habits of students play a major role in enhancing the proficiency of the students in the target language. Time and again, it has been reported that the communicative competence of any student is directly proportional to the comprehensible output received by the student by means of his reading habit. Students who have a greater exposure to comprehensible input usually perform well in reading comprehension passages .To be more precise, strategies can be taught to the average student in the form of explicit instruction. This paper attempts to lay bare the fact that tackling reading comprehension passages has a direct relationship with the reading habit of the students.

KEYWORDS: reading comprehension, free voluntary reading, sustained silent reading, autonomous acquirers, free voluntary surfing, comprehensible input (more…)