Why Can't/Don't My Students Read?

Abstract

The interrogative mode of the title indicates the burden and commitment of all well-meaning English language teachers at the tertiary level toward their students who are not able to read anything worthwhile in English either extensively or intensively. The study highlights the need for teachers to be reflective and proactive, rather than complaining and reactive, to the way learners acquire four macro-skills of language. One of the prominent features of the English classroom in India is that learners don’t engage in reading and the lack of reading habit results in poor acquisition of writing skills too. The present article is a research report of a small classroom research (Action Research) on the reasons for English language learners’ inherent inability to cope with reading materials prescribed or take-home reading lists suggested by teachers from time to time at the tertiary level. This observation-based action research discusses not only the causes of poor reading practices but also remedial measures for students to overcome them. The structure of the paper is based on the IMRAD (Introduction, Method, Result, and Discussion) pattern. An important finding is that poor reading skills of English language learners are not insurmountable and that teachers devise appropriate classroom strategies to facilitate learners’ reading.