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Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension

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Communicative language teaching (CLT) is generally regarded as an approach to language teaching (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). As such, CLT reflects a certain model or a theory. It is based on the theory that the primary function of language use is communication. Hymes (1972) alludes that its primary goal is for learners to develop communicative competence or simply communicative ability. In other words, its goal is to make use of real-life situations that necessitate communication.

Communicative competence is defined as the ability to interpret and perform appropriate social behaviours and it requires the active involvement of the learner in the production of the target language (Prabhu, 1987). Such a notion encompasses a wide range of abilities: the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, the ability to say the appropriate thing in a certain social situation, the ability to converse in a consistent and coherent manner.

As frequently misunderstood, CLT is not a method per se. That is to say, it is not in the sense by which content, a syllabus, and teaching routines are clearly identified (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). CLT uses materials and utilises methods that are appropriate to a given context of learning. As far as theories of learning and effective strategies in teaching are concerned, CLT does not adhere to one particular theory. It draws its theories about learning and teaching from a wide range of areas such as cognitive science, educational psychology, and second language acquisition (SLA). In this way, it embraces and reconciles many different approaches and points of view about language learning and teaching, which allows it to meet a wide range of proficiency-oriented goals and also accommodate different learner needs and preferences.
Littlewood (1981) asserts that, with no one particular method or theory that underlies their practical and

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