A Dissertation Submitted to Department of English
Bangladesh University of Business & Technology, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MA in English Language Teaching (ELT)
SUPERVISOR Md. Mohoshin Reza, Assistant Professor & Chairman, Department of English
Bangladesh University of Business & Technology, BUBT
January, 2015
Declaration
We do hereby declare that the dissertation entitled “ Teaching and Learning of Reading Skill at BUBT: A Study on the BBA (1st Semester) Students” submitted to the Department of English of BUBT, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MA in English Language Teaching,(ELT) is our original work. Neither the whole nor any part of it was submitted to any other university or institute for any other degree or diploma. Our indebtedness to other works has been duly acknowledged at the relevant places.
Sl | Name | Id | 1 | Ms. Mazeda Khanam | 12133302019 | 2 | Ms. Nurani Fatema Sormi | 12133302010 | 3 | Ms.Sinthia Tina Biawas | 12133302009 | 4 | Md. Rokon Mia | 12133302006 |
Session: 2013-2014
16th Intake
Semester-Summer-2014
Department of English Bangladesh University of Business & Technology ( BUBT)
Certificate
This is my pleasure to certify that the dissertation entitled “Teaching and Learning of Reading Skill at BUBT: A Study on the BBA (1st Semester) Students” submitted by Ms.Mazeda Khanam ( ID-12133302019), Ms. Nurani Fatema ( ID-12133302010),Ms. Sinthia Tina Biswas ( ID-12133302009), Md. Rokon Mia (ID-12133302006) to the Department of English, Bangladesh University of Business & Technology, (BUBT) for the degree of the MA in English Language Teaching, is an original piece of research done under my supervision. To the best of my knowledge, this dissertation was not previously submitted for any diploma/ degree/ fellowship to any other university/ institute. The materials obtained from other sources have been duly acknowledged in the thesis.
This dissertation is recommended and forwarded to the Department of English, Bangladesh University of Business & Technology, (BUBT) for necessary formalities leading to its acceptance in fulfillment of the requirements for the MA Degree in English Language Teaching.
Md. Mohoshin Reza , Assistant Professor & Chairman
Bangladesh University of Business & Technology,(BUBT)
Department of English &
Supervisor
Acknowledgement
At first we would like to express our gratitude to the Almighty whose mercy enabled us to complete this thesis successfully.
We are deeply indebted to Md. Mohoshin Reza, Assistant Professor & the Chairman of the Department of English, BUBT for his friendly guidance and assistance at all stages of this dissertation. We would like to acknowledge humbly that his constant guidance inspired us all through the study. Without his help and careful guidance this thesis would not have been possible. We would also like to express our sincerest gratitude to Assistant Professor Shamema Islam an inspirational teacher of the Department of English in BUBT for her every possible help during the entire period of the work. We are also very grateful to the students of BBA department (section1) for their co-operation. Our heartfelt thanks go to all those persons who assisted us in various ways from time to time to complete the work successfully.
Abstract
This study investigates an important area of English language teaching and learning. It examines the present situation of teaching reading skills of English, the problems students encounter during reading an English text and the learners’ proficiency level of reading skills when they are at the Hons 1st year (BBA) level in BUBT. It also examines the reading syllabus used at the this level. It also presents an evaluation of teaching the different sub-skills of reading. The empirical investigation examines whether the modern methods of reading pedagogy are used in teaching reading in Bangladesh. The methods for empirical investigation in the study include students’ and teachers’ questionnaire survey, students and teachers’ interview, classroom observation and administering reading tests. Reading components of the syllabus and the reading materials are also evaluated.
The thesis consists of 5 chapters:
Chapter 1 introduces and establishes the topic focus, outlines the objectives, highlights the problems in the field of study and discusses the significance of the study. It also outlines research methodology briefly, and defines the key terminology used in the study.
Chapter 2 describes theoretical development in reading pedagogy which includes the definition of reading, purposes of reading, techniques of and approaches to teaching reading in the class. It discusses in detail the sub-skills of reading and the problems students face while reading. It has also points out how to select an appropriate text for reading classes or for an appropriate purpose.
Chapter 3 briefly discusses the methods usually used in ELT research of this type, and the methods used in the present study. It discusses the instruments used for questionnaire survey, interview, classroom observation and tests of reading skills. It also presents sampling plans for each method.
Chapter 4 presents the results and analyses the data. It includes the results collected through the empirical investigation.
Chapter 5 concludes this study and present the summery of the findings and makes some recommendations for improving the reading syllabus, materials and pedagogy in Bangladesh. It includes a general conclusion.
The findings show that students’ present level of reading is not up to the mark; threadinpedagogy used is also largely backdated. At the end of the paper some functional measures are suggested.
3.4 Methods of Data Collection Adopted for the present Study 15
3.5 Instruments used for the Empirical Study 15
3.6 Students Questionnaire Survey 15
3.7 Teachers Questionnaire Survey 15
3.8 Instrument used for the Classroom Observation 16
3.9 Detailed Description of the Test of Reading Skills Administrated for the Study 16
3.10 Sample and Sampling Procedure 16
3.11 Administration of the Empirical Study 17
3.12 Conclusion 17
Chapter-4 Teaching and Learning Situation of English Reading Skill at BUBT BBA Classroom 18-24 4.1 Introduction 18
4.2 Reports of Students and teachers Questionnaire Survey 18
4.3 The reports of the classroom Observation table 20
4.4 Summery of the findings 21
4.5 Analysis of the results of the test of reading skills 21 4.6 Summary of the reports of the test of Reading Skill 22
4.7 Analyses of the points noted down during Classroom Observation 22
4.8 Comparison of the overall of the Questionnaire Survey and the Classroom Observation 22
4.9 Reasons of the Contradictions 23
4.10 Conclusion 24
Chapter-5 Findings, Recommendations and Conclusions 24-29 5.1 Introduction 24
5.2 Research Summery 24
5.3 Findings of the Research 24
5.4 Recommendation 26
5.5 Scope of Further Research 27
5.6 Conclusion 27
Bibliography 28
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Prelude Over the last part of the twentieth century, ELT (English Language Teaching) methodology has developed very rapidly and has been subject to changes and controversies. Instead of grammar-based approach, practice-based learning is considered important in recent theoretical approaches. This practice covers training of all four basic skills- listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Teaching of reading, therefore, needs special attention from the experts and professionals for a meaningful higher education in the country. English is the no. 1 library language of the world, a vast majority of world's library resources are in English, and the biggest publishing industries of the world publish books in English. Therefore, it has become quite impossible to pursue meaningful higher education without the reading skill of English. In Bangladesh, though Banglais the official language and the medium of instruction and examination in the mainstream education, library resources are still in English. So reading skills of English very important for higher education in Bangladesh. Moreover, today's world is becoming increasingly globalized; a graduate is produced today not only for the local, but forthe global market. So, graduates should have education of an international standard which is not at all possible without the reading skills of English. This is also an age of Internet,and it is the best and swifts; medium of getting information and being acquainted with the world. As the language of Internet is English, a fair level of reading skill in English is necessary to use or browse Internet. Reading is, therefore, a very important English language skill that we need in this present competitive world. Reading is also necessary to know the answers to a particular question or issue for which someone reads. To satisfy one's thirst for knowledge, reading books is necessary, and most of the books are in English This being the reality of the present world, teaching of the reading skills of English is very important for Bangladesh, and it has no alternative.
There are two sectors at the place of higher education in Bangladesh ----One is public sector and another one is private sector. Though the medium of the study of the public universities basically Bangla but the skill of English language of their students is very good whereas we don’t know about the situation of the students of Private Universities that if they are good or medium or poor at English or English reading. So it is needed to do some researches on the proficiency of the English Reading Skill of Private University students and how the teachers help the students to gain proficiency in English reading skill. So keeping these issues in our mind our research attempts to see teaching and learning of reading skill of BBA 1st semester students’ of BUBT.
We choose BUBT as our research place because it is a very well known private University and it would represent the whole private university sector of Bangladesh. It is at the 8 number among the 70 private university of Bangladesh.
1.2 Statement of the Problem Importance of the reading skills of English has reached new height in the present context of the globalized word. But the question is how far are the learners in Bangladesh prepared for it ?
Student's proficiency of reading English is very poor here. A large majority of students at the undergraduate level in our country cannot access English textbooks prescribed in their syllabus for their lack of required proficiency of reading skills in English. Therefore they depend only on bangle books and the vast resources in the libraries being in English remain unutilized. As a result in most cases higher education in this country suffer s miserably it falls far below the international standard.
Though students do some reading in school, they prefer to memorizing things words from dictionaries, sentence form various books and rules of grammar form different grammar books.
Reading component of English course in the country focus on understanding word meaning and answering specific questions which students mostly get done by themselves though an intellectual engagement analysis and interpretation of the text. Reading is not taught properly in scientific methods.
The most acknowledged cause of failure of the students in effective reading is the lack of vocabulary. Many students inspired by friends or guided by teachers sometimes try to read a book but soon they lose the eagerness and interest with which they start reading the text. in every paragraph or even in every sentence or every phrase they come across some new words which create a constant barrier for them to understand the meaning . Sometimes they do not understand long sentence s and they miss the link between parts of a text. As a result they lose their patience and their interest, and they give up reading. Sometimes they feel inspired to lookup the words in the dictionaries but checking the dictionary too many times proves boring and at last their enthusiasm for reading the text dies down. There are some other problems to discourage the student s to continue reading a text. Most students fail to understand the syntax, especially when the sentence structures are long. They also have problems with understanding text organization. Some ELT researches in Bangladesh found that student's proficiency in reading is very poor.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study is to see the status of reading skill of BBA 1st Semester students at BUBT.
The specific objectives of the study are – a) to evaluate the reading component of the English syllabus of BBA 1st Semester b) to assess the reading competence of the students
1.4 Justification of the Study
There have been significant developments in the theories and practices of in the word in the last three\four decades. It is important to examine those developments for insights that can help us bring about significant changes in reading pedagogy in Bangladesh .Research in this field is very significant for Bangladesh , because standard of education of the country depends on students reading proficiency in English . For meaningful education it is very important to improve the reading proficiency of learner in English. It is equally important to examine the present state of students reading skills of
Bangladesh, to identify the problems and address those to improve the overall situation in the interest of country. It is admitted that higher education of the country suffers a setback because of students poor level of reading proficiency .to improve the situation in the country. Some measures must be taken to identify the problems address them and improves the situation. S this study is an attempt to do so. A well known university Bangladesh University of business and t technology (BUBT) also a part of it.
1.5 Literature Review For the right focus in the teaching of reading, it is important to define it and closely examine what problems students face while reading something in English.
It is difficult to define reading in a word. Many thinkers have defined and analyses it in many different ways. The perspective of reading differs from person depending on the person to person depending on the person's individual attitude and aims towards printed word form language to language considering the cause of reading and the content of the text. So the definition and meaning of reading depend largely on the purpose of the reader on the text and textual content on the attitude of the readers towards the text, on the reading materials and on experience and schemata of the reader. However experts have tried to define differently in their own way of observation and thought Ransom ( 1978) define reading as a conversation between the writer and the reader. He states that like someone who is talking " the writer is trying to convey some massage to another person.
Shaw (1996:8) also states that reading is the communication of thoughts, moods, and emotions though which one receive from others their ideas and feelings.
Reading, according to purpose and utility can be basically of two categories. They are academic reading and Non-academic reading.
Academic reading is important because it prepares a reader for future and further reading in her /his individual life. It is the pre-stage of non -academic reading several approaches are recommended for academic reading. The three major approaches according to Ransom(1978)are basal, reading programme , individualized reading and management system. a) Basel reading programme: the basal reading program is a developmental programme.
The main characteristic of this programme, according to Ransom(1978:73) is that the same basic books are recommended for all the readers of a particular reading group. The programme starts with the pre reading and gradually develops towards more complex criteria of reading.
The benefits the students receive form this programme that they develop their reading process systematically. b) Individual reading: in this programme students are advised to select texts or books according to their own interest and choice. Random (1978:77) states that unlike basal reading programme this approach uses the learners personal interests as the basis for seeking, self- selecting ,and pacing the reading of books. c) Management systems
The third main approach to academic reading is management systems. These systems gear up testing and instruction to specific performance objectives. According to Ransom most management systems provide for specific individual learning activities. He has suggested two general ways though which theseactivities are performed. They are a) pace variable management systems and b) skill specific management systems. These are used for different students in different situations. Pace variable management system s all the readers are supposed to advance though the same activities though their aped may differ. On the other hand skill specific /stems are applied I so particular areas were the students seem to be weak.
Beside academic reasons there are various non-academic reason for reading. In an academic reading students are bound to read texts because of the syllabus and the thought of passing the examinations. But non academic reading students are to read texts because of the syllabus and students/readers get an opportunity to choose from a vast range of books according to their interest options for choice and opportunity to spending time. It may in return help them to develop their language because wide reading is highly effective means to extend ones command over a language (nuttal, 1996:30). King says that non-academic reading enables people to have their own feelings about it. As non academic reading offers reader an opportunity to choose according to their own taste, it is the proper stage for acquiring adequate information or getting satisfactory pleasure. Intensive reading: the aim of intensive reading according to Nuttal(1996:38) is to arrive at an understanding not only of what the text means but of how the meaning is produced. The "how" is as important as the "what" for the intensive lesson is intended primarily to train stages which the students can go on to use with other texts.
Intensive reading is reading word by word and sentence by sentences. It is much effective for the development of the reading skills of student's science most of the reading skills of students since most of the reading are trained by studying shortest texts in detail" (Nuttall, 1996:38)
Extensive reading includes reading many books to gather knowledge. Nuttall(op.cit)has pointed out two reasons for extensive reading. The first reason is that extensive reading is the easiest and most effective way of improving the reading skills of the students. The second reason is that being an education al tool extensive reading not only serves a favorite climate for the students but also provides them with enjoyment. As a result students feels interested and they acquire desired progress in developing their reading skills
Pre requisite knowledge may accompany a reader when he\ she goes to text. Having pre experience about a text enables a reader to pursue its meaning effectively. Their argument is that a good reader brings a variety of experience s and meanings to the printed symbol because the more vital experiences one has the more opportunities he has to observe and participate in the many faceted old about him the more meaning he will bring to the printed world. If the reader bring s more experience related to the textual content with him she/he can share support or oppose the information s/he obtains while reading more successfully otherwise s/he depend totally on the information the book supplies. Yet this latter attitude can add a new dimension of knowledge to the reader s existing experience or knowledge with him .according to Willimas , the elements a reader should bring with him/her are a) Knowledge of the writing system b) Knowledge of the language c) Ability to interpret d) Appropriate knowledge of the world as assumed by the writer e) A reason for reading that determines his/style.
It is to be noted that no writing or relates every detail. There are certainly some lacks of information in the writing and it is assumed that the reader will fill up those lacks with the assumptions which are shared by both the writer and the reader (decoder). The more the shared assumptions are, the more effective the reading will be. These assumptions are technically described as schemata (plural of schema). They are abstract ideas of certain experiences, and affect largely to interpret a text more precisely. Again, the knowledge people get from experiences is organized in a variety of ways depending on the individual minds. For this reason, people have different experiences of the same incident, and consequently, different interpretations of the same text.
According to Nuttall (1996: 7), the schema "is a mental structure. It is abstract because it does not relate to any particular experience, although it derives from all the particular experiences we have had. It is a structure because it is organized; it includes the relationships between its component parts."
If a reader possesses sufficient and/or similar schemata of the writer and the text can activate them properly, he/she will be able to interpret the text successfully and meaningfully. On the other hand, a reader of weak schemata cannot penetrate the thought and message of the writer and will remain in a state of darkness and spend much time grouping the meaning of the text. Nuttall (1969:7) has illustrated this by an example. The first sentence from the example is, the bus careered along and ended up in the hedge. In this text of a single sentence, bus schema can be sited to illustrate the idea. It is to be noted that there is no mention of road n the text, but the 28 reader dose not face any difficulty in understanding the elaboration that the bus was running along a road, "this means that our road schema is hovering at the back of our minds in case of need; the road schema for some readers will include components such as walls, hedges, fences which mark the limit of a road". However, if the reader's road schema does not include hedge alone the roads, s/he will be in difficulties to understand the meaning of the text, and will, perhaps, be in a puzzle where the bus actually stopped! Thus reading makes use of our existing schemata, and if necessary, modifies it (in the above example, the reader may check and learn the word, hedge, which will add knowledge to his/her existing schemata). Moreover, all the schemata should not, and need be recalled. In a responsive reader only the relevant schemata are activated. Social, cultural, historical or even mythical or religious schemata are all important to understand a text properly.
1.10 Scopes and Limitations
There are a lot of scope in this study has lot of scopes. There are many sources to get our needed information. We choose our own university as our research place so we get good environment and lots of help from teachers. Our library is enriched with good books and we have got a great computer lab in our university. So all these matter help us to conduct our study very well. But the only limitation was time. We have got only 1 semester that means 4 months to complete our research. For this reason there could be many lacking in our thesis because of our hurry.
1.11 Feasibility
This research is completely feasible Because of ----- a. Availability of data b. Helpful teachers c. Good environment d. Availability of sample
1.12 Study Area
Our study area is on the BBA 1st Semester students of BUBT.
1.13 Expected Outcome
After completion of this study we can publish this thesis paper as an article. It can also be used as a source for further research.
1.14 Conclusion Like other EFL/ESL contexts, it is very important for Bangladesh to produce graduates of an international standard in today's globalized world, it is necessary to improve students reading proficiency in English for that. Though it will take time to bring about changes in the present state of teaching and learning reading skills it is not altogether impossible. If recent pedagogical approaches are used if proper materials and tests are designed the situation will improve significantly this study therefore will prove very useful for Bangladesh university of business and technology (BUBT) as well as our country.
The importance of reading in Bangladesh cannot be denied. To make the students fit nationally and internationally their reading skills must be of an advanced level. If reading skills are improved learners will be able to change the whole educational scenario of the country. So the present study on, Teaching of Reading skills is of great importance.
Chapter-2
Reading Pedagogy
2.1 Prelude The teaching of reading has undergone significant changes in the 20th century as a result of experiments with new approaches to education in general. In the beginning of the 20th century, the personal interest and needs in reading were ignored. Experts mused over it and during the late 1920s and 1930s and 1970s when some fruitful thesis came into light. Goodman (1977) and others posited a psycholinguistic viewed as an interactive process between language and thought.
We are now in the midst of a paradigm shifting towards an emphasis on language as communication and modern world has adopted communicative approach of teaching language where students have more participation in the classroom activities than teachers have. They are learning actively asking relevant questions, sharing knowledge and schemata among themselves. Reading approaches and reading pedagogy, being important areas of EFL and ESL, have been subjected to change in attitude, outlet, and overall teaching method.
2.2 General Problems of Reading
It has been observed that students especially ESL and EFL learners confront a verity of difficulties while reading. These difficulties comprise inadequate vocabulary, lexical inefficiency, structural complexity, language inaccessibility, poor reading skills, lack of schemata, and so on. Student's lack of interest is another major cause of their failure reading. Reading is for many of them a passive, boring activity, performed constantly in isolation and perhaps associated with skills which they feel they do not possess' Greenwood (1998:50)
The most mentionable cause of student's poor reading is the lack of vocabulary.
Long and complex structure of sentences often cause reading barrier for most of the students. They cannot understand the proper subject- verb relationship in a long and complex sentence, and it creates constant difficulties for them.
Multiple meanings is another constant threats to the students. They come across such words every now and then. Poor readers are often unable to adopt the right meaning s thus they create multifaceted problems in their reading and get bored.
Lack of concentration is another mentionable reason for students poor reading because concentration is an important factor for a good and effective reading .
Or they cannot hold their attention for a long time due to their lack of practice, the situation results in the frustration and unwillingness and prevents them to read further.
Important classroom activities are also responsible for student's poor reading. Syntactic inference; is also responsible for students poor reading because it causes confusion among the readers. For example in Bangle the simple sentence structure is sub+ complement+ verb whereas the sentence in English structure is subject* verb + complement.
The finally the teachers role in the poor reading of the students is worth considering. Many teachers of numerous colleges and educational institutes even today, stick to the traditional teaching system. As a result not only their capability but also their interest in reading is deteriorating day by day. And its consequence is that most students end their academic life without having latest skill in reading even bangle books let alone English ones.
2.3 The Sub Skills of Reading
i) Skimming
Skimming is used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text. When someone read the newspaper, he/she is probably not reading it word-by-word, instead scanning the text. Skimming is done at a speed three to four times faster than normal reading. People often skim when they have lots of material to read in a limited amount of time. Use skimming when you want to see if an article may be of interest in your research.There are many strategies that can be used when skimming. Some people read the first and last paragraphs using headings, summarizes and other organizers as they move down the page or screen. They might read the title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. Consider reading the first sentence of each paragraph. This technique is useful when you're seeking specific information rather than reading for comprehension. Skimming works well to find dates, names, and places. It might be used to review graphs, tables, and charts.
ii) Scanning
Scanning is a technique people often use when looking up a word in the telephone book or dictionary. People search for key words or ideas. In most cases, they know what they're looking for, so they're concentrating on finding a particular answer. Scanning involves moving our eyes quickly down the page seeking specific words and phrases. Scanning is also used when we first find a resource to determine whether it will answer your questions. Once you've scanned the document, you might go back and skim it.When scanning, look for the author's use of organizers such as numbers, letters, steps, or the words, first, second, or next. look for words that are bold faced, italics, or in a different font size, style, or color. Sometimes the author will put key ideas in the margin.Reading off a computer screen has become a growing concern. Research shows that people have more difficulty reading off a computer screen than off paper. Although they can read andcomprehend at the same rate as paper, skimming on the computer is much slower than on paper.
iii) Prediction
Prediction is" the faculty of or editing or guessing what is to come next making use of grammatical, lexical and cultural clue"(Grellet,1996). According to Greenall and swan (1986:30) prediction is to know about as s/he goes to read the text. iv) Inference Sometimes a text suggests some things indirectly rather states it directly. It is the responsibility of the reader to infer this information. So inference is the process of reconstructing the reader to infer this information. So internecine is the process of reconstructing the writer's unstated presuppositions, it is the process used by the reader to draw a certain conclusion from facts points in an argument etc. v) Previewing UN likes predicting, previewing is a very specific reading skill. It is a very quick technique to find out where the required information is likely to be (Grellet, 1996:17-18).it involves using the title of a text, the table of contents, the index, the appendix, the preface of the author or publisher, headings or subtitles of chaoters and paragraph information in the back cover, acknowledgement etc. it not only leads the students towards intended and specific information but also saves their valuable time. vi) Anticipation It is the process of forming an idea about the contents of a text and expecting the intended items from it before starting reading. The anticipations or expectations of a reader start in the pre-reading stage and they are modified and increased in the while reading phase.
And finally these expectations are established or corrected and modified in the post-reading stage. So anticipation is a process that continues throughout reading.
vii) Recognizing
Text Organization recognizing text organization is to know and internalize how sentences are joined together to make paragraphs how paragraphs form the passage and how this organization is signaled (Greenall et, al 1986:3).
2.4 Types of Reading
Reading might be divided into two patterns:
a)Extensive and b ) intensive reading. Extensive reading includes reading many books together knowledge or information whereas Intensive reading is reading word by word and sentence by sentence. Extensive reading builds of the readers, the readers with greater background knowledge need to give less effort for comprehending a text.
2.5 Reading Process
Reading process are divided into three categories- one is bottom up process, top down process, and interactive process
a) Bottom up Process
It implies the technique of reading form fundamental letter to words recognition letter the reader will know how this word are connected to express ameaning. This process includes letters recognition, sound recognition, recognizing grammatical patterns. This process is also being called phonic approach, because reading with the identification of phoneme.
b) Top Down Process
Comprehensive of text does not depend on the intensive reading of the te.v. It must be decoded with the background knowledge of the reading .the background knowledge includes the knowledge of language and knowledge of the word (topics, situation, content and so on) .top down model focuses of the readers background knowledge to get meaning from reading a text .the teacher can exploit the learner s background knowledge by asking them to think about the topic going to be read out and later they will read the text. This is how they are employing top down process .top down process focuses on the extensive reading and this might be called as meaning based approach.
c) Interactive Process These third combines' elements of both bottom up and top down models. This is the interaction of phonic approach providing knowledge from different sources.
2.6 Techniques of Teaching Reading Techniques are those procedures which include some task and activities to implement the principles of reading. In time of designing technique s teachers should focus on the principles. The technique might be summarized in a word-"ACTIVE" .the techniques are designed bellow.
Activate prior knowledge
The back ground knowledge of learners are activated by introducing some inference question on the topic going to be read .this technique is called pre question . There is another is another technique applied for cultivating background knowledge is making question by the students themselves. The teachers will be asked few questions to be composed on a specific topic. This pre reading questions are aimed at directing the learners to the main topic before they read it.
Cultivate vocabulary Teachers should focus on teaching the vocabulary such a way so that learner should have the knowledge of multiple words with synonyms and antonyms. In this matter teacher should choose a topic or idea and some words relative to the relative idea.
Teach for comprehension
Question patterns should be fixed to evaluate the learners understanding of the reading test. Questioning the author selecting qualitative question some of the technique applied for this.
Increase reading rate
Reading activities is one of the popular techniques of increasing reading rate. Having greater knowledge of the language should also be emphasized to increased reading rate.
Verify reading strategies The strategies and teaching applied for reading should be verified time to time. There are few questions to verifying reading strategies-
a)what are you trying to accomplish? b) What strategies are you using? c) Why did you select this strategy?
Evaluating progress of the learners
Evaluating are very important testing and issue in the language teaching. Because question should be set to judge students creativity, brilliance and also the power of memorizations to some extent. (David Nunan) 2.7 Classroom procedure for Teaching Reading Classroom activities are very important for the development of reading skills. Teachers should help and encourage the students to read effectively in the class. To perform the job teachers have to design effective activities for teaching reading in the class because a successful teaching of reading in the depend s largely on the proper planning of reading lessons. Williams (1996) has suggested that for effective teaching of reading in the classroom the lesson should be divided in to three consecutive phrases. They are pre reading, while reading , post reading. a) Pre Reading
In pre reading stage the teacher should carefully design the activities that prepare the students mentally to accept what she going to teach in the next stage. Urquhart and Weir (1998:184) have suggested some pre-reading activities. They are a) Thinking about the title b) Checking the edition and date of the publication c) Reading appendices quickly d) Reading the abstract carefully e) Reading the preface the forward and the blurb carefully
b) While Reading
In the while reading phrase students must be taught how to read and respond to books. (Greenwood 1998:59) during this phrase students should be involved in activities which enable them to respond cognitively, emotionally and imaginatively to imaginative writing.
The teacher should conduct some useful activities in this phase for the better output from the students in the next stage.
c) Post Reading
The stage is designed to evaluate what the teacher has taught in the while reading stage, in the post reading stage the teacher may ask the students to know their reaction to the text, for example the students may answer whether they have liked and enjoyed it or found it useful or not .if the text is found useful the meaning and content of it may be extended to the students known the social phenomena, personal interests and knowledge or experience.
2.8 Principles of Teaching Reading
Teaching reading is based on some principles which primarily focus on the reader's background knowledge, enhancing the vocabulary of the learners and finally making them comprehend meaning after reading a material. The principles are provided bellow:
a) Reading should focus on the background knowledge of the learners.They should be provided with multiple varieties of reading materials to build the background knowledge, the teacher should initiate some activities prior to the reading .This task can be divided into three process pre reading ;while reading and post reading.
b) Teacher should work on build a strong vocabulary base at first teacher should identify the basic vocabulary to be used for everyday purposes for exam; teachers should know which of the vocabularies learners need to know at first which vocabularies are the foundation of other kinds of words. Without proper knowledge of vocabulary learners cannot properly read right or speak too. Only reading activities can enhance the learner's knowledge of vocabulary. c) Teach for comprehension in case of Bangladesh reading activities are focus on the testing . passing in the examination is the main purpose of reading .increasing the capability of comprehension is the primary duty of language teachers .in this regards post reading activities are very important . Teachers should design question s based on reading so that learners cannot answers without comprehending, the question should be based on the themes development of ideas relating to actual life of learners there is another philosophy underline reading for comprehension is questing the author, for example, question like a) what does the writer think? b)what are the suggestion recommended by the writer and the like . d) The teachers should (work on increasing reading rate): reading rate can be increased by providing by enough knowledge of the word. A fluent reader should have the ability to understand 200 words per minutes. The teachers should check periodically whether the learners are being able to increasing their reading rate or not. Repeated reading activities Wight are useful one to increase the reading rate.
e) Teacher should carefully assess the progress the learner reading initiatives:
The questions pattern should focus on the teaching strategies and principles so that the learner can properly be evaluated. In this regards questions can be divided in to 2 patterns -a. Qualitative, b. Quantitative.
f) Teachers should work on his/her own development as a reading teacher:
Teacher can develop his/her own methodology by following reflective model of teaching (feedback, peer teaching, video recording)
2.9 Text Selection
Selecting a proper text is important for the students and also for the teacher to teach reading in the class. It is difficult to select an appropriate text fit for the readers; ye some proper steps should be practiced to ensure the right choice.
Nuttall (1996: 170-6) points out three main criteria for a good selection of the texts;
i. Suitability It is essential to ensure "that the text should interest the reader preferably enthrall and delight them" (Nuttall, 1996: 170). ii. Exploitability It is "facilitation of learning", and its importance is next to suitability.
"A text you cannot exploit is no use for teaching even if the students enjoy reading" because "the focus in the reading is neither language nor content, but the two together: how language is used in conveying content for purpose" (pp. 171-2). iii. Readability It refers to the combination of structural and lexical difficulty. As the linguistic and structural levels are not the same for all the students, "it is necessary to assess the right level for the students" (Nuttall, 1996:174) in terms of vocabulary and structure into account.
On the other hand a) the textbook should be authentic b)a text should also look attractive c) the level of a language of a text is very important. d)vocabulary plays the most important role in reading .the understanding and the speed of reading depend on the level of new vocabulary in the text. e)a text should deal with the things that are new and imploring to the students.
f)a good text want to read for themselves, g) A text also should content cultural background information that enables students to assimilate cultural assumptions, last but not the least the text must be interesting to the readers so that they can enjoy the book and concentrate their full attention on it.
2.10 Conclusion This chapter presents the definition of reading according to various experts. Purposes and types of reading are also discussed in this chapter. This chapter gives an elaborate description of higher order and lower order sub-skills of reading. It also presents pedagogical approaches to teaching reading and discusses the importance and means of selecting appropriate texts for effective reading.
Chapter-3
Research Methodology
3.1 Prelude A successful research requires both library research and empirical investigations, that is, suitable research methodology and instrument have to be used by the researcher. Empirical research is important because it helps to support or reject the hypothesis/ statement stated in the theoretical arguments of a study . The empirical research of this study focuses the problems students face during their reading, present state of the reading skills of the students at the Hons 1st year level, and teachers’ role in conducting reading activities in the class.
This chapter includes detailed description of the design and construction of the research instruments, the sampling plan of the empirical analysis, and the method of processing and analyzing the collected data. 3.2 Purpose of the Empirical Investigation
It has already been stated that this dissertation seeks to investigate the problems students face during their reading, examines the actual state of teaching and learning of reading skills at the levels in Bangladesh University of Business and Technology. The study also tries to evaluate the reading components of the English syllabus, and the test of reading skills administered at the Hons 1st year level. 3.3 Important Methods of Data Collection
a) Questionnaire Survey
It is a popular method of collecting data. In this method a questionnaire containing a set of questions or statements is sent to the respondents with a request to answer those. After answering the questions, the respondents return it to the researcher. The form of questions in a questionnaire may be either closed (i.e. ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or multiple point type questions) or open-ended (i.e. inviting free response), and they are typed out and printed.
b) Interview:
Interview method of data collection involves, according to Kothari ( 2006:97), presentation of verbal stimuli and recording of verbal responses. This method is conducted through personal or telephone interviews. In the personal interview, the interviewer collects information by asking questions to the respondent personally. He/ she goes to the spot and meets the respondents and administers the interviews. On the other hand, telephone interview involves contacting respondents over telephone. Though it is not a widely used method, it plays an important role in empirical study. Interview method has some remarkable advantage. By this method, interviewers can collect more information and that too in greater depth. He can record verbal answers and use them later. He can collect the interviewers’ personal information related to the survey. Moreover, there is greater flexibility under this method. However, this method has some weakness, too. It is not only an expensive but also a ‘ more-time-consuming’ method. Moreover, there is a probability that the interviewers, bias may affect the proper outcome of the interview.
c) Observation Method
In this method, the information is collected by the investigator’s direct observation. The main advantage of this method, according to Kothari (2006:96) is that in it subjective bias is eliminated. This method is independent of respondents ‘willingness to respond because it does not demand any active co- operation from the respondents. Moreover, it enables the researchers to obtain what is currently happening. However, It is not flawless. The first limitation of this method is that it is expensive. Secondly, information provided by this method is very limited. And thirdly, ‘unforeseen’ factors may interfere with the observational task, and it is a strong impediment for this method to collect data effectively.
3.4 Methods of Data Collection Adopted for the Present Study
The present study is basically a descriptive study. For a successful and acceptable empirical survey the nature and the purpose of the study have been closely examined, and 3 major techniques of the survey methods have been used for collecting data. They are: a) Students’ and teachers’ questionnaire survey, b) Classroom observation c) Test of reading Skills
3.5 Instruments Used for the Empirical Study
Instruments used for the empirical study have been designed according to the designed methodology of the study. The methods used in this study are- 1. Questionnaire for the students 2. Questionnaire for the teachers 3. Classroom observation Check List 4. Proficiency Test Paper
It has already been mentioned that the same questionnaire was used for questionnaire survey , one for the students and another for the teachers.
3.6 Students’ Questionnaire Survey
In the students’ instrument there are two sections. The first section features the personal details of the respondents. The personal details include’ name’, ‘ institution’, ‘class’ and’ roll’. Section II includes 2 consecutive Parts-A, Part-B. Part A I consists of 9 questions that deal with students’ ability concerning various aspects of reading strategies. Part B consists of 18 questions which are also concerned with reading ability of the students, but the only difference is that unlike Part A1, questions in part AB are related to the students’ view on and evaluation about their teachers’ attitude and activities , techniques and methodology in teaching reading in the class.
3.7 Teachers’ Questionnaire Survey
The instrument used for teachers’ questionnaire survey and interview consists of two sections. The first section is meant for collecting personal details of the respondents. It includes ‘name ‘and institution’. The second section includes 26 questions which are meant to evaluate their students’ performance concerning reading strategies according to their views and questions which are related to their own teaching techniques, experience and skills regarding various aspects of teaching reading in the class.
3.8 Instrument Used for the Classroom Observation
An observation scheme has been prepared for both classroom observations. The checklist used for the classroom observation consists of two sections. The first section is meant for collecting detailed description of the institution of the institution and of the class to be observed. It includes’ Name of the college’, ‘Name of the teacher’, ‘Name of the Class’, Total students’, ‘Students present’ and ‘ Date and time/period’.
The second section consists of 20 questions which are related to their own teaching techniques, experience and skills regarding various aspects of teaching reading in the class. The questions are also designed to observe how they teach reading in the class, what materials and instruments they use in teaching reading and how successful they are ion teaching reading in the class.
3.9 Detailed Description of the Test of Reading Skills Administered for the Study
A question paper of 35 marks has been designed for the test of reading skills. It includes 35 items. There are 2 sections in the reading test question-Part-A and Part B. Part-A contains 3 question items and each item carries 5 marks. Part-B contains 3 question items as well. But, unlike Part-A the item no-1 carries 10 marks, item no-2 carries 2 marks and item no. 3 carries 8 marks in Part-B . And the names of the item numbers are given below:
Part-A: 1. Based on the information in the reading text answer each of the following questions in one complete sentence,
2. Fill in the blanks using the appropriate words,
3. Complete the table with relevant information from the text.
Part-B: 1. Multiple Choice 2. Give a title of the text 3. Write a Summery
3.10 Sample and Sampling Procedure
For students’ questionnaire survey, the students have been selected as the re4spondents and for teachers questionnaire survey, an English language teachers of our university has been selected as the respondents. The class observation is done by ourselves. And, students from BBA 1st year willingly took part in the test of reading skills administrated for this study. In conducting the test of reading skills no students was forced. Irrespective of gender and groups, only the students who were willingly to sit for the test were invited 17 students from took-part in the reading test. After their positive response, they were given given question papers and instruction for the test. After the test had finished, the answer scripts were collective from the respondents. Then the scripts were examined. The assessment of this test is based on the study of the ability and performance of the students in reading. Detailed sampling plan for the test of reading skills is presented in table.
3.11 Administration of the Empirical Study
Since the administration of the empirical study is very important and vital, maximum care has been taken in conducting it. For the sake of the best output from students and teachers, the researchers convinced them that the data they would provide would benefit the researcher, and no part of their information would be published anywhere except for the purpose of the thesis. They were confirmed that the information provided by them would be highly confidential.
3.12 Conclusion
This chapter presents detailed description o the empirical study. It presents the description and explanation of the methodology used in the empirical investigation, the detailed description of the adopted processes and of the instruments, description of the sampling plan and construction of the questionnaire for survey, interview, instruments for classroom observations and design of the reading tests. It also describes the process of the administration of the questionnaire survey, interview, classroom observations and reading tests. In addition to these , this chapter briefly discusses the process of analyzing the collected data.
Chapter-4
Teaching and Learning Situation of English Reading Skill at BUBT BBA Classroom
4.1. Prelude
This chapter presents the reports of the data analysis. It shows the present state of the students reading skill, the teachers’ activities and role in teaching reading and the learning of the student as well.
4.2. Reports of Students and Teachers Questionnaire Survey
The reports are shown by tables below: a) Reports of students questionnaire survey:
Ques. No | Question | Yes | No | Sometimes | 1 | During reading a text can you guess the meaning of unfamiliar words buy using contextual clues? | 23.52% | 5.88% | 70.58% | 2 | Can you relate/use your previous knowledge or experience while you are reading a text? | 88.23% | 5.88% | 5.88% | 3 | Can you read closely to know details of a text? | 47.05% | 0 | 52.94% | 4 | Can you read a large text quickly to get an overall idea about it? | 29.41% | 35.29% | 35.29% | 5 | Can you analyze long sentences? | 47.05% | 23.52% | 29.41% | 6 | Can you give title to a reading passage? | 58.82% | 11.76% | 29.41% | 7 | Can you find out the topic idea of a text? | 82.35% | 5.88% | 11.76% | 8 | Do you quit reading when you find the text hard? | 17.64% | 64.70% | 17.64% | 9 | Do you face difficulty in reading a English text? | 23.52% | 17.64% | 58.82% | Table-1 The above table shows that according to 58.82% students thinks they sometimes face difficulty in reading a English text whenever only 23.52% don’t face.47.05%students can analyze long sentences and 23.52% cannot.58.82% students think they can give title to a reading passage and 11.67% cannot. 64.70% says they do not quit reading when they find the reading text hard where 17.64% says they quit and 17.64% say they quit sometimes.
Question No | Question | Yes | No | Sometimes | 1 | Does your teacher divide reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities? | 58.82% | 17.64% | 23.52% | 2 | Does your teacher explain the background of the text before you start reading this? | 58.82% | 17.64% | 23.52% | 3 | Is your teacher an active partner in reading activities? | 76.47% | 0 | 23.52% | 4 | Does your teacher arrange the class in group/ pair in order to find meaning of texts through discussion? | 82.35% | 5.88% | 11.76% | 5 | Does your teacher ask you to read additional materials at home also? | 82.35% | 5.88% | 11.76% | 6 | Does your teacher read the text yourself and then explain and interpret it to you. | 64.70% | 17.64% | 17.64% | 7 | Does your teacher read out the text first and then let you to read and interpret it? | 70.58% | 23.52% | 5.88% | 8 | When you come across a new word your teacher help you by supplying the meaning? | 76.47% | 11.76% | 11.76% | 9 | Does your teacher encourage you to use dictionary? | 76.47% | 11.76% | 11.76% | 10 | Does your teacher cheeks your reading progress by asking open-ended question from a text? | 76.47% | 11.76% | 11.76% | 11 | Does your teacher cheeks your reading by asking true/false and multiple choice questions? | 70.58% | 0 | 29.41% | 12 | Does your teacher teach you how to summering? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 23.52% | 13 | .Does your teacher help you analyze long sentences? | 76.47% | 11.76% | 11.76% | 14 | .Does your teacher ask you to relate textual information to your background knowledge? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 23.52% | 15 | . Does your teacher teach you how to read a text quickly to find out a piece of information.(Scanning)? | 0 | 17.64% | 82.35% | 16 | Does the teacher teach you how to read a text in the shortest possible time to get an overall idea about it( Skimming)? | 0 | 17.64% | 82.35% | 17 | .Does your teacher teach you how to read a text closely to know the details( intensively)? | 58.82% | 0 | 41.17% | 18 | Does your teacher teach you how to read a large text in given period.(extremely) | 0 | 11.76% | 88.23% |
Table-2 From the above table ,it is shown that 58.82% students say that the teacher divides reading text into pre, while and post reading activities.76.47% students thinks the teacher is an active partner in their reading activities.70.58% students say that the teacher checks their reading process by asking true/false and multiple choice questions and 29.41% say sometimes. 64.70% student say that the teacher teaches how to summarizing and 23.52% say the teacher teaches it sometimes and 11.76% say the teacher does not teach it . About the teaching of sub- skills of reading( Scanning, Skimming, intensively and extensively) most of students thinks the teacher teaches them sometimes.
b)Reports of the teacher’s questionnaire survey:
Ques.No. | Question | Yes | No | Sometimes | 1 | .Do you divide reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities? | | | Sometimes | 2 | Are you an active partner in reading activities? | | | Sometimes | 3 | Do you arrange the class in group/ pair in order to find meaning of texts through discussion? | | | Sometimes | 4 | Do you ask your students to read additional materials at home also? | yes | | | 5 | Do you read the text yourself and then explain and interpret it to your students? | yes | | | 6 | Do your teacher read out the text first and then let you to read and interpret it? | yes | | | 7 | Do you use bottom up strategy to teach reading? | | no | | 8 | Do you use top bottom strategy to teach reading? | yes | | | 9 | Do you use interactive strategy to teach reading? | | | Sometimes | 10 | When you come across a new word your teacher help you by supplying the meaning? | yes | | | 11 | Do you encourage your students to use dictionary? | yes | | | 12 | Do you encourage your students to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words buy using contextual clues? | | | Sometimes | 13 | Do you ask your students to relate textual information to your background knowledge? | yes | | | 14 | Do you check students’ reading progress by asking open-ended question from a text? | yes | | | 15 | Do you check students’ reading by asking true/false and multiple choice question? | | | Sometimes | 16 | Do you teach your students how to summering? | yes | | | 17 | .Do you help your students analyze long sentences? | | | Sometimes | 18 | Can your students give title to a reading passage? | | | Sometimes | 19 | Can your students find out the topic idea of a text? | | | Sometimes | 20 | Do your students face difficulty in reading a English text? | | | Sometimes | 21 | .Does your teacher teaches you how to read a text closely to know the details (intensively)? | | | Sometimes | 22 | Does your teacher teach you how to read a large text in given period.(extremely) | | | Sometimes | 23 | . Does your teacher teach you how to read a text quickly to find out a piece of information.(Scanning)? | | | Sometimes | 24 | Does the teacher teach you how to read a text in the shortest possible time to get an overall idea about it( Skimming)? | | | Sometimes | 25 | Do you encourage your students read by themselves? | yes | | |
Table 3- The above table shows that the teacher thinks she apply pre, while and post reading process sometimes they teacher thinks she is a active partner in reading activities. She asks the students to read additional materials at home also. The teacher applies top bottom strategy in the classroom, she sometimes uses interaction process and does not use bottom-up strategy. About the teaching of the sub-skills of reading (Scanning, Skimming, intensively and extensively reading) the teacher thinks she teaches those sometimes. She teaches students how to summarize and helps student analyze long sentences. She thinks her students can give title to a reading passage sometimes. She also says that the students can find out the topic idea sometimes.
4.3. The results of the classroom observation table: Questions | Yes | No | Sometimes | 1.During reading a text can the students guess the meaning of unfamiliar words buy using contextual clues. | | No | Sometimes | 2.Can relate/use your previous knowledge or experience while you are reading a text? | | No | | 3.Can the students read closely to know details of a text? | Yes | | | 4.Can the students analyze long sentences? | Yes | | | 5.Can the students give title to a reading passage? | | No | | 6.Does the teacher divide reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities. | | No | | 7. Is the teacher an active partner in reading activities? | Yes | | | 8. Does the teacher arrange the class in group/ pair in order to find meaning of texts through discussion? | | No | | 9. Does the teacher read the text yourself and then explain and interpret it to you. | | No | | 10.When the students come across a new word the teacher help them by supplying the meaning? | Yes | | | 11.Does the teacher encourage the students to use dictionary? | Yes | | | 12. Does the teacher cheeks your reading progress by asking open-ended question from a text? | Yes | | | 13. Does the teacher checks your reading by asking true/false and multiple choice question? | Yes | | | 14. Does the teacher teach the students how to summarize? | Yes | | | 15.Does the teacher help the students analyze long sentences? | | No | | 16.Does the teacher ask the students to relate textual information to their background knowledge? | Yes | | | 17. Does the teacher teach the students how to read a text quickly to find out a piece of information.(Scanning)? | Yes | | | 18. Does the teacher teach the students how to read a text in the shortest possible time to get an overall idea about it( Skimming)? | | No | | 19.Does the teacher teach the students how to read a text closely to know the details( intensively)? | Yes | | | 20. Does the teacher teach the students how to read a large text in given period.(extremely) | | No | | 21.Does the teacher uses the 3 types of strategies(bottom up, top down or interactive)? | | | Sometimes | 22. does the teacher teaches vocabulary as part of teaching reading? | | No | | 23.Do the student face difficulty in reading a English text? | yes | | |
Table-4 The above table shows
4.4. Discussion of the findings?
The overall results in the classroom observation are not very disappointing. But the observation results show a significant difference from survey results.
It is seen that the teacher is very active in the classroom and let her student to be active too.
But the student performance regarding some major parts of the reading skill is very poor.
The results of the test have been interpreted in terms of the “grading system”. The used grading standard is presented below:
Total Marks= 35 1. A+ = (31-35) 2. A= (25-30) 3. B= (21-25) 4. C= (16-20) 5. D= (11-15) 6. F= (below 11)
Table (5) presents the results of the test reading skills in the light of the grading system:
Table-5 Grade | No Of Students | % | A+ | 0 | 0% | A | 1 | 5.88% | B | 1 | 5.88% | C | 5 | 29.41% | D | 9 | 52.94% | F | 1 | 5.88% |
The above table shows that among 17, no student got A+ and the percentage is 0. Only 1 student got “A” and the percentage is 5.88.Again only 1 student out of 17 got “B”, that is, 5.88% of the total students secured ‘B”. 5 students got “C” and the percentage is 29.41. 9 students got D and the percentage is 52.94 and the remaining 1 student got “ F” , that is, he or she has failed in the test of the reading skills.
4.6. Discussion of the Results of the Test of Reading Skill
The results show a miserable state of students reading skills. Only in a very few items their performance were good but for the majority of the sub- skill their proficiency is extremely poor.
The results also indicate that students proficiency is finding out specific information from a given passage seems to be good but their performance in guessing word meaning is very poor such as inferencing and interpreting is extremely bad.
4.7. Discussion of Classroom Observation:
Classes were not lecture oriented. The teacher let the students read first and ask them to interpret the text. Then the teacher read by herself and interprets the text to students. The students were directly involved in the task in the classroom. But the feedback/ response of the student is not good. Most of the student feels shy to interact with the teacher. Only some of them were attentive and were trying to become active in the class during the task.
4.8. Comparison of the Overall of the Questionnaire Survey, and the Classroom Observation: Table-6 Question | Students | Classroom Observation | | Yes | No | Sometimes | Yes | No | Sometimes | 1.During reading a text can the students guess the meaning of unfamiliar words buy using contextual clues. | 23.52% | 0 | 70.58% | | No | | 2.Can you relate/use your previous knowledge or experience while you are reading a text? | 88.23% | 5.88% | 5.88% | Yes | | | 3.Can you read closely to know details of a text? | 47.05% | 0 | 52.94% | Yes | | | 4.Can you analyze long sentences? | 47.05% | 23.52% | 29.41% | Yes | | | 5.Can you give title to a reading passage? | 58.82% | 11.76% | 29.41% | | No | | 6.Does your teacher divide reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities. | 100% | 0 | 0 | | No | | 7. Is your teacher an active partner in reading activities? | 76.47% | 0 | 23.52% | Yes | | | 8. Does your teacher arrange the class in group/ pair in order to find meaning of texts through discussion? | 82.35% | 5.88% | 11.76% | | No | | 9. Does your teacher read the text yourself and then explain and interpret it to you. | 64.70% | 17.64% | 17.64% | | No | | 10.When you come across a new word your teacher help you by supplying the meaning? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 11.76% | Yes | | | 11.Does your teacher encourage you to use dictionary? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 11.76% | Yes | | | 12. Does your teacher cheeks your reading progress by asking open-ended question from a text? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 11.76% | Yes | | | 13. Does your teacher cheeks your reading by asking true/false and multiple choice question? | 70.58% | 0 | 29.41% | Yes | | | 14. Does your teacher teach you how to summering? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 23.52% | Yes | | | 15.Does your teacher help you analyze long sentences? | 76.47% | 11.76% | 11.76% | | No | | 16.Does your teacher ask you to relate textual information to your background knowledge? | 64.70% | 11.76% | 23.52% | Yes | | | 17. Does your teacher teach you how to read a text quickly to find out a piece of information.(Scanning)? | 35.29% | 5.88% | 47.05% | Yes | | | 18. Does the teacher teach you how to read a text in the shortest possible time to get an overall idea about it( Skimming)? | 35.29% | 17.64% | 47.05% | | No | | 19.Does your teacher teach you how to read a text closely to know the details( intensively)? | 58.82% | 0 | 41.17% | Yes | | | 20. Does your teacher teach you how to read a large text in given period.(extensively) | 47.05% | 11.76% | 41.17% | | No | | The table shows that there are significant differences between the result of survey and observation.
4.19. Reasons of the Contradictions:
An obvious reason for the contradictions between the results of questionnaire survey and of the classroom observation and reading tests is the difference of techniques applied for obtaining information. During conducting questionnaire survey for the present study, teachers and students seem to be responding in favorable ways and they seem to have answered the questions casually though they were requested to provide authentic, sincere answers.
On the other hand, in the classroom observation and reading tests teachers and students have less opportunity to hide facts. Therefore, the results of the classroom
observation and the tests of reading skills are more valid, authentic and acceptable.
For this reason, the latter results have been taken to be the real picture of the condition of teaching reading skills in BUBT.
4.10. Conclusion
This chapter shows the results of the questionnaire survey and interview with both teachers and students. It also shows the results of the classroom observation and reading test. The results of questionnaire survey, interview and classroom observation have been presented in terms of yes/no/sometimes based question and the results of the reading test have been presented and interpreted in terms of the grading system and the percentage.
Chapter -5 Findings, Recommendations and Conclusion
5.1 Prelude
This chapter concludes this dissertation on Teaching and Learning of Reading skill at BUBT: A Study on the BBA (1st Semester) Students . So, the chapter sums up the whole thesis. The findings of the research are stated and the recommendations have been provided.
5.2 Research Summary The thesis consists of 5 chapters:
Chapter 1 introduces and establishes the topic focus, outlines the objectives, highlights the problems in the field of study and discusses the significance of the study. It also outlines research methodology briefly, and defines the key terminology used in the study.
Chapter 2 describes theoretical development in reading pedagogy which includes the definition of reading, purposes of reading, techniques of and approaches to teaching reading in the class. It discusses in detail the sub-skills of reading and the problems students face while reading. It has also points out how to select an appropriate text for reading classes or for an appropriate purpose.
Chapter 3 briefly discusses the methods usually used in ELT research of this type, and the methods used in the present study. It discusses the instruments used for questionnaire survey, interview, classroom observation and tests of reading skills. It also presents sampling plans for each method.
Chapter 4 presents the results and analyses the data. It includes the results collected through the empirical investigation.
Chapter 5 concludes this study and present the summery of the findings and makes some recommendations for improving the reading syllabus, materials and pedagogy in Bangladesh. It includes a general conclusion.
The findings show that students’ present level of reading is not up to the mark; the reading pedagogy used is also largely backdated.
5.3 Findings of the Research
Problems of Students as Found in the Study
The study shows that many-faceted problems exist with students’ reading skills. 1. The main problem is their insufficient vocabulary. New words in every sentence prove a main hurdle for them to understand texts. 2. Many students depend on dictionary meaning more than contextual meaning of words. As a result, they fail to understand the meaning words assume in the context of a text. 3. Moreover, most of the students are unable to understand and analyze long sentences in a text. 4. They also have with understanding syntax and surveying text organization.
Syllabus, Materials and Tests Used by the teachers
1. The syllabus and textbook cover some of the lower order sub-skills of reading. The sub-skills covered are scanning, skimming, predicting, summarizing and reading for specific information. It also includes finding out the topic idea of a text and giving title to a reading passage.
2. Higher order skills such as distinguishing facts and opinions, recognizing bias, finding out author’s attitude, tone and mood, critical evaluation etc. are not covered in the syllabus, materials and texts.
3. Moreover, the practice opportunities of the sub-skills are not adequate.
Teachers’ Approaches Currently Used for Teaching Reading
1. Teachers’ activities in the classroom are not very disappointing.
2. Though teachers follow the prescribed student-oriented techniques but in some case they also use traditional teacher-oriented methods.
3. The teacher tries to involve students in the classroom activities but fail because some students were not interested & attentive.
4. As the class observation shows, teachers have no planned activities in teaching their lessons. They give lecture and explain the reading passages word for word in Bangla.
5. Therefore, students’ reading skills do not develop at all.
Findings about Text Selection
1.In selecting texts for students, teachers should pay careful attention since reading is mainly a text-based activity. Teachers should select texts considering students’ present linguistic and cognitive level.
2. The text book currently in use at this level presents a variety of topics, but they are becoming old.
3.Topics of the temporal interest and contemporary issues should be included in the text. Findings about Syllabus
1. The syllabus covers some of the lower and none of the higher order sub-skills. It has some limited option to practice summarizing, scanning, guessing word meaning and vocabulary building.
2. Higher order sub-skills such as inference, transition of thought or ideas, recognizing bias etc. are absent from the syllabus.
3. The syllabus should include these sub-skills for the development of students’ overall reading skills. Findings about Materials
1. The material, that is, the textbook used at the intermediate level also covers some of the lower order sub-skills of reading to practice. Like the syllabus, the textbook includes no higher order sub-skills of reading.
2. Amount of reading provided in the textbook also is not enough for this level.
3. The amount of reading activities in the textbook should be increased.
5.Opportunities to practice reading should also be increased.
6. There should be more varieties in the activities of the textbook. The paper and print quality i.e. the layout of the book should also be more inviting.
Findings about Methodology
1. Learning by doing should be the focus of teaching reading. The methodology should be based on controlled and free reading practices. As students’ reading level is poor, guided reading will prove more effective.
2. Small groups or pairs should be formed for the convenience of discussing the idea of the text, the unfamiliar words and the long sentences.
Findings about Classroom Activities
1. Activities should focus on the different sub-skills, but most of the activities have to be student centered.
2. There should be little or no lecture because lecture does not help develop reading skills.
3. The activities in the class should be task-based instead of lecture-based. 4. Moreover, extensive practice should be provided on both higher and lower order sub-skills of reading.
5.4 Recommendations
In the light of the present condition of teaching and learning of reading, this section present some recommendations with a view to improving students’ overall reading skills.
Recommendations for Syllabus 1. The present syllabus does not include the higher order sub-skills of reading. It does not emphasize on extensive reading also. 2. The reading components of the syllabus should be revised. 3. The higher order skills such as predicting , using contextual clues, guessing word meaning, interpreting texts, evaluating a text critically, recognizing the authors ’s position and bias, distinguishing between facts and opinions, understanding author’s tone, mood and attitude , surveying text organization etc. should be included in the syllabus.
Recommendations for Text Selection 1. Reading texts should be changed in the textbooks in every five years because some of the texts have become outdated. 2. Topics should be of contemporary interest. 3. Texts of all the different types of writing- descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative, literary etc. should be used. 4. Sports, culture, global issues, scenario, history etc. prove interesting for learners. So, topics that interest the young learners most should be included in the textbook.
Recommendations for Pedagogy
1. Reading is not really taught in the classroom nowadays. But students’ reading skills will never develop without their active engagement in the reading process. The more they are made to read, the better they will be able to read.
2. Students must be engaged in doing tasks on all the sub-skills of reading, and learing by doing should be encourage in the classroom.
Recommendations for Teachers
1. Teachers should set students with reading activities.
2. They should help them with hints and clues, and train them the cognitive and meta cognitive strategies to read.
3. Teachers must not lecture, and explain everything to the students. They should make the students read and find out for themselves the different layers of meanings in the texts. 4. 4.Teachers should monitor students’ activities, assist them and provide guidance and feedback.
They should do what Nuttall (1996:32-33) describes as responsibilities of the teachers: 1. Helping students to enjoy and value reading, including making sure there is an attractive extensive reading programme; 2. Finding out what the students can and cannot do, and working out a programme to develop the skills they lack; 3. Choosing suitable texts to work on; 4. Choosing or devising effective tasks and activities; 5. Preparing the students to undertake the tasks 6. Making sure that everyone works productivity and to their full potential by encouraging students, promoting text –focused discussion and providing’ scaffolding’ to enable them to interpret the text themselves, rather than having to rely o the teacher; 7. Monitoring progress to make sure that everyone in the class improves steadily according to their own capabilities.
Recommendations for Learners
1.Learners need to be engaged in the reading pricess.
2. They read individually, work in paris or groups to find out meaning of words, sentences and texts. In other word, they should be engaged in ‘ word attack’ ‘sentence attack’ and ‘text attack’ activities.
3.Students should be active organizers, not passive recipients.
5.5 Scopes of Further Research
The research selects respondents from only one university (BUBT). So, further research may be conducted to study the development of students of other universities of the country.
5.6 Conclusion
The present study refers to the needs of reading skills for the students of Bangladesh and finds out that students are weak in reading. Their speed of reading is very slow, and their efficiency in understanding the meaning of a text is very poor. At the same time the study has also proved that the teachers and teaching methods are mostly responsible for the students’ poor proficiency in reading. The problems of the students regarding reading are multifaceted. The study has tired to identify these problems and examine the nature of them in some detail. The study helps to develop insights in the modern approaches to teaching reading. The implications of the finding of this study discussed earlier in this chapter should be taken to implement the recommendations made in the preceding section of this chapter, and if implemented, the state of the teaching and learning of reading skills in the country will improve.
Bibliography
Goodman, K.S.(1977). Miscue Analysis: Application to reading instruction. Urbana: ERIC Clearing house on Reading and Communication Skills.
Greenwood, J. (1998). Class Readers. Hongkong : Oxford University Press
Grellet, F. (1996). Developing Reading Skills: A Practice guide to reading comprehension exercises: Cambridge University Press
Jo McDonough, Christopher Shaw and Hitomi Masuhara Mterials and Methods in ELT, A Teachers Guide Third Adotion
Kothari, C.R. (2006). Research Methodology: Methods and Technique. New Delhi: New Age International (p) Limited Publishers.
Nuttall , C. (1996). Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign language Oxford Heinemann
Raimes, (1983) “Tradition and revaluation in ESL teaching” Tesol Quarterly,
Ransom, G.A.(1978). Preparing to Teach Reading Boston: Little, Brown and Company
Urquhart S and Weir, C. (1998) Reading in a Second language : Process, product and practice , London: Longman.
Williams.E.(1996) Reading in the language classroom. Malaysia: Modern English Publications.
Zoltan Dornyei, Research Methodology in Applied Linguistics. Oxford University Press
Websites
http://42explor.com/skim.htm
www.wikipedia.com
Classroom Observation Check List
Name of t he Department:
Name of the Teacher:
Name of the Class:
Total Student:
Students Present:
Date and Time:
Questions: 1. Does the teacher divide reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 2. Is the teacher an active partner in reading activities?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 3. Does the teacher arrange the class in groups / pairs in order to find meaning of the text through discussion?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 4. Does the teacher read out the text first and then let the students read and explain / interpret it?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 5. Does the teacher read the text himself / herself and then explain and interpret it to the student?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 6. When a student come across a new word , does the teacher help them by supplying the meaning of the word ?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 7. Does the teacher encourage the students to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by using contextual clues?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 8. Does the teacher encourage the students to use dictionary?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 9. Does the teacher point out the problems regarding reading?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 10. Does the teacher ask the students comprehension check question after each reading?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 11. Does the teacher ask the students questions in English ? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 12. Does the teacher ask the students to relate textual information to the previous experiences on background knowledge?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 13. Does the teacher teach the student how to read a text quickly to find out a piece of information? ( Scanning)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 14. Does the teacher teach the student how to read a text in the shortest possible time to get an overall idea about it?( i. c skim through a text)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 15. Does the teacher teach the student how to read a text in a given period.( extensively)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 16. Does the teacher teach the student how to read a text closely to know the details .
( intensively )
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 17. Does the teacher teach the students how to summarize?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 18. Does the teacher help the student analyze long sentences?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 19. Does the teacher uses the three types of strategies ( Bottom up, Top down, Interactive) while teaching.
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 20. Does the teacher teaches vocabulary as part of teaching reading.
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
Thank You For Your Kind Cooperation
Students’ Questionnaire Survey
Personal Details:
Name:
Class and Roll:
Department:
| This questionnaire is meant for an MA thesis in English Language Teaching your Co-operation is very important for the study. We will highly appreciate if if you kindly fill in the questionnaire at your earliest convenience. The information you provide will be strictly confidential and used only for the purpose of this study. 1. Ms.Mazeda Khanam 2. Ms.Nurani Fatema 3. Ms.Sinthia Tina Biswas 4. Md. Rokon MiaQuestions:Part-A 1. During reading a text can you guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by using contextual clues? |
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 2. Can you relate/ use your previous knowledge or experience while you are reading a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
3. Can you read closely to know details of a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 4. Can you read a large text quickly to get an overall idea about it?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
4. Can you analyze long sentences?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
5. Can you give title to a reading passage?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
6. Can you find out the topic idea of a text? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 7. Do you quit reading when you find the text hard? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 8. Do you face difficulties in reading a English text? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
Part-B
1. Does your teacher divide reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 2. Does your teacher explain the background of the text before you start reading text? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 3. Is your teacher an active partner in reading activities?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 4. Does your teacher arrange the class in groups/ pair in order to find meaning of texts through discussion?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 5. Does your teacher ask you to read additional materials (stories, novels, magazines etc written in English) at home also?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 6. Does your teacher read the text yourself and then explain and interpret it to you? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 7. Does your teacher read out the text first and then let you to read and interpret it? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 8. When you come across a new word does your teacher help you by supplying the meaning?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 9. Does your teacher encourage you to use dictionary?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 10. Does your teacher checks your reading progress by asking open-ended question from a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
11. Does your teacher checks your reading progress by asking true/ false and multiple choice question ? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 11. Does your teacher teach you how to summarize?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
13.Does your teacher help you analyze long sentences .
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
14. Does your teacher ask you to relate textual information to your background knowledge?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
15. Does your teacher teach you how to read a text quickly to find out a piece of information?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
16. Does the teacher teach you how to read a text in the shortest possible time to get an overall idea- about it? (skimming)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
17. Does your teacher teach you how to read a text closely to know the details . ( intensively )
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
18. Does your teacher teach you how to read a large text in a given period . ( extensively)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
Thank You For Your Kind Cooperation
Teacher’s Questionnaire
Personal Details:
Name:
Department:
Contact No:
| This questionnaire is meant for an MA thesis in English Language Teaching. Your Co-operation is very important for the study. We will highly appreciate if if you kindly fill in the questionnaire at your earliest convenience. The information you provide will be strictly confidential and used only for the purpose of this study.1.Ms.Mazeda Khanam2.Ms.Nurani Fatema3.Ms.Sinthia Tina Biswas4. Md. Rokon MiaQuestions: 1. Do you divide your reading text into pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities?Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 2. Are you a active partner of the students in reading activities? | Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 3. Do you arrange the class in groups/pairs in order to find meaning of texts through discussion?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 4. Do you ask students to read additional materials ( stories, novels, newspapers etc. written in English) at home also?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 5. Do you read the text yourself and then explain and interpret it to your students?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 6. Do you read out the text first and then let your students read and explain/ interpret it? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 7 .Do you use “ Bottom Up” strategy to teach reading? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
8.Do you use “ Top bottom” strategy to teach reading? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
9. Do you use “ Interactive ” strategy to teach reading? Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
10 .When a student comes across a new word do you help him/ her by supplying the meaning of the word. Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
11.Do you encourage the students to use dictionary to understand a unfamiliar words.
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
12.Do you encourage student to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by using contextual clues?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
13.Do you ask students to use their background knowledge or personal experience to understand a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
14. Do you assess students by giving open ended question from a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
15. Do you assess students by giving true/ false , multiple question and fill in the gaps from a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
16. Do you help the students how to summarize a text?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
17. Do you help students analyze long sentences?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
18. Can your student find out the topic idea of a text .
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
19. Can your student give title to a reading passage?
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
20.Are your students face so many difficulties while reading a text.
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 21. Do you teach students how to read a text closely to know the details? ( intensively)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 22. Do you teach the students how to read a large text in a given period?( Extensively)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 23. Do you teach the students how to read a text quickly to find out a place of information?
( Scanning)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes……….. 24. Do you teach the students how to read a text in a shortest possible time to get an overall idea about it?(skimming)
Yes…….. , No…………, Sometimes………..
Thank You For Your Kind Cooperation
Students Reading Proficiency Test
Total Marks-35
Part-A
Read the following passage and answer the questions 5, 6 and 7 those follow:
Nobel prize was instituted by and named after a man, Alfred Bernard Nobel, who was the inventor of the science of destruction. He was born in Stockholm on 21
October 1833. Though he was a citizen of Sweden, he was educated in Russia. He invented dynamite. This material is widely used for breaking rocks, digging petrol wells and in wars. He earned a huge sum of money from selling it. When he died at the age of 63, he left behind a fabulous sum of 90,00,000 dollars. According to his will the interest on this money is given as prizes to persons for their outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The first prize was given to Roentgen at the 5th anniversary of Nobel’s death. Obviously, the winners of this prize are treated with great respect all over the world.
1. Based on the information in the reading text answer each of the following questions in one complete sentence. 1X 5
a) Who are given the Nobel prizes?
b) What was Alfred Nobel’s valuable invention?
c) What was the will of Nobel?
d) Who was first to receive the Nobel prize?
e) What does the word ‘fabulous’ in the text mean?
2. Fill in the blanks using the appropriate words: 1X5
Alfred Nobel was a scientist. He was a (a) ______________, but he (b)
______________ his education in Russia. Dynamite was (c) ______________ by him. This (d) ______________ invention brought him worldwide fame. He also (e)
____________ a lot of money.
3. Complete the table with relevant information from the text: 5
| Birth of Alfred Nobel | 1896 | | | Used for breaking rocks , digging wells and in wars | | | | Roentgen receied Nobel | The interest on the left money | |
Part-B
Read the following passage and answer the question below it. Kuakata with its 18 kilometer wide shining sand beach and the glittering waves of the bay of Bengal is gradually becoming one of the most attractive tourist spots of
Bangladesh. The vast Sundarbans, another tourist attraction of Bangladesh, is very close to this dazzling seashore. The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world having a unique beauty of its own. Kuakata and Sundarbans offer exciting opportunities for the development of tourism in our country. Kuakata is situated at the lap of the Bay of Bengal. With serene beauty of natural landscape, it is one of the rare sea beaches in the world form where both the sunrise and sunset can be seen.
Another attraction for the tourists to come here is the Rakhain life style which is quite different from that of the modern people of the plain land. Kuakata sea beach is only seventy kilometers away from the Patuakhali district headquarter. To reach the beach area it needs nearly three hours by road. One may take river transports like launch or engine propelled trawlers to reach the spot cleaving the breast of zigzag river. The vast coconut garden along the sandy beach at Kuakata has created a wonderful scenic beauty. Some seventy years ago an image of lord Buddha with 1.5 tons of weight and seven feet height was set up at the Mulapara temple. Vikkhu
Ukhema set up that image in the temple. The temple was damaged severely and was almost wrecked during the cyclones in the early sixties. One Talukder has rebuilt it.
But unfortunately it was damaged in the cyclone and disaster of 1965 once again.
Afterwards, the image was shifted from Mulapara to Keranipara under Patuakhali district. Since then the brass-made Buddhas is there and is being considered as one of the great attractions for the tourists coming to the Kuakata sea resort. Everyday many tourists come to observe the ‘Buddha’ image and take snaps.
1. A. The passage mainly discusses 10x1=10
i) the statue of Budha at Kuakata ii) the natural disasters that damaged temples and statues of Kuakata iii) the attractions of Kuakata as a tourist spot iv) the disadvantages of going to Kuakata
B. The word dazzling is closest in meaning to
i) gloomy ii) very beautiful iii) rough iv) calm and quit
C. The word propelled is closest in meaning to
i) driven ii) thrown iii) pushed iv) left
C. The word some is closest in meaning to
i) a few ii) many iii) a good number of iv) about
D. The word brass is closest in meaning to
i) metal ii) wood iii) brick iv) wax
E. Rakhains have a _______ life style from that of the people of plain land.
i) different ii) a slightly different iii) almost similar iv) similar
F. Tourists can use _______ to reach Kuakata
i) land transports ii) river transports iii) walk iv) both land and river transports
G. The image of Buddha in Kuakata got damaged
i) once ii) twice iii) thrice iv) four times
H. The Sundarbans is unique in the sense that it is
i) a vast forest ii) it has Royal Bengal Tigers iii) it adds to the attraction of Kuakata iv) it is the largest mangrove forest in the world
I. The major attractions of Kuakata are
i) its serene natural beauty, Rakhain lifestyle and the image if Buddha ii) the Sundarbans and the Royal Bengal Tigers iii) the sunrise iv) the sunset
2. Give a title of the text. 2
3. Write a summery. 8
