An Evaluation of Some Concepts of Reading

Abstract

The language skill 'reading' still constitutes the centre of controversies in education. Researchers in the field of reading seem to be escaping from the limitations of the concrete stage of thought and to be looking beyond the physical attributes of the reading situation. Since reading comprehension courses aim at developing students' abilities to use and read English efficiently, students need knowledge of how English is used in academic writing, namely knowledge of the grammatical structure and vocabulary of the language to enable them to make use of these features of language in the presentation of information. In short, students should learn in reading comprehension courses how language organizes information in written passages. This paper discusses some significant unsolved problems in reading comprehension. The underlying study provides an overview of a variety of opinions in the field of reading on the nature of the reading process, and a review of some of the problems involved in the development of reading. The purpose of this article is to provide a better understanding of the nature of the reading process because of its importance in education.