Job Discussion Forums

[AbeCross]

According to this story from today's newspaper, Arabs typically don't read much.
What are the implications for EFL teachers?




http://www.arabnews.com/news/589431

[nomad soul]

I'd asked my (non-Saudi) academic writing students why reading in English was important, and after brainstorming, they came up with the following benefits:

- expands their imagination and perspectives
- increases their ability to comprehend concepts, to think, and acquire new knowledge/information
- builds their vocabulary and improves their grammar by showing words and phrases in proper context
- improves and reinforces their writing skills since reading shows them proper sentence structure, punctuation usage, writing organization, paragraph transitions, etc.
- encourages more reading, especially for enjoyment
- their reading confidence and speed increase

[veiledsentiments]

[johnslat]

It means you can correctly assume that almost all of your students have zero to minimal reading skills, will be unable to write much more than a simple sentence (if that) and will not have a clue about "study skills."

It means you will need to begin with the basics and gradually build on them.

Of course, the problem there is that there's simply no way such students can become skilled in academic reading/writing in only a year or two.

But guess whose fault that will be.

Regards,
John