92-pages-GUIDELINES-FOR-SECONDARY-SCHOOLS-All-Streams-and-Sections

Reading and writing 21
Reading and writing form a strong relationship with each other, as skills, cognitive processes, and ways of
learning. They are real tools for learning and for learners to grow autonomous and responsible citizens. They are
also means for achieving success in the job market. Learners need ample opportunities to develop a range of
reading and writing strategies, study-skills and habits. Development in reading and writing as self-contained
skills requires exposing learners to highly challenging reading texts and writing tasks. The integration of these
two skills with each other and with listening and speaking allows learners the opportunity to become good
readers, writers, listeners and speakers; hence be able to communicate effectively. The reading-writing standards
in these guidelines are statements about what learners of English in the second year Baccalaureate should know
and be able to do in order to read and write effectively. Each skill will be considered here in turn for the sake of
practicality.
Teaching reading
Reading in English gives learners access to information and further deepens their knowledge and learning
insights. It also provides learners with the opportunity to know and interact with other cultures and experiences.
Reading is essentially given a great deal of importance throughout Level Four, for instance, for the following
reasons:
• Reading is essential to learning;
• It is a problem-solving process whereby readers extract personal meanings through analysis;
interpretation and evaluation which takes place while reading;
• It is a prerequisite for critical and creative thinking;
• It requires the use of strategies and skills to uncover the writer’s message;
• It is essential for information-retrieval and, therefore, information-retrieval skills should be prioritized;
• It provides readers with the opportunity to create a real connection between their own experiences and
others’;
• It should be taught as a self-contained skill and not as a subservient skill to the other skills;
• Reading different text types boosts the learner’s vocabulary which s/he will have recourse to as part of
lifelong learning.
21 Linking reading and writing enhances the acquisition of and proficiency in the two other skills.
21
التوجيهات التربوية وبرامج تدريس مادة اللغة الإنجليزية س ت ث ت 2007