Studies
have shown that reading is actually of very high rates in the West whereas in
the Middle East, the reverse results are really astonishing.The Arab thought
foundation’s Fikr has proven that children raised in an Arab country read for a
total of six minutes per year while a child brought up in a western country
reads for 12000 minutes.
It’s the fact that the Middle East has very few readers because
unfortunately reading isn’t given the needed attention. Sadly, academic
achievements are described as grand successes, reading articles are observed as
grand failures between students in the Middle East countries. According to
AbirBallan(2011), the Arab culture does not promote reading. The heartbreaking
truth is revealed as parents don’t see the importance of reading to their
children unless they are learning the alphabet. Specifically, these parents do
not see that books need to be read for gratifying the fun needed by their
children (Granados,2003).
This topic was a major
issue of a long report I was part of 2 years ago. To make a long story short,
we supported our findings with discussions and surveys until we came up with a
few solutions I'll be highlighting in the following recommendations:
1- Follow
the 4 sub skills to improve your comprehension skills as well as your
motivation towards reading.
2- As
a teacher or a parent you play an essential role when it comes to build
interest for reading to your kids or students.
3- As
a successful teacher follow the guided reading approach along with other
approaches such as shared reading, reading aloud and independent reading. They
are all indispensable approaches in literacy education.
4- Choose
the right kind of book to attract the reader’s attention.
5- Engage
children in joyful activities that are contextualized in the story’s domain.
Such as: illustrating the story or acting it.
6-
Encourage people
to apply to reading clubs.
Resources:
·
TahiraYaqoob.
(2011). Why are so few reading Arabic books? Retrieved from The National World:
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/why-are-so-few-reading-arabic-books
·
ED.Gov. (2003). Activities -- Helping Your Child
Become a Reader. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Education:
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/part5.html
Sad, but true! We see minority of people who actually read for pleasure in our middle eastern world. Even though all around the globe, reading is to be an essential skill to enhance thinking abilities and learning skills for any other domains or subjects. Hopefully, someday and with the new generation of teachers, things will start to improve and we will see more reading in schools and around.
ReplyDeleteIts right, we should as a teachers encourage students to read and to choose for them interesting books to read them and create ways to let them love reading.
ReplyDelete