Developing Effective Reading Skills in ESL through Blended Mode at Tertiary Level

Abstract

Education is human right. Yet due to various negative factors such as poverty, poor educational background at home, lack of trained English teachers, not attending ESL classes regularly, no motivation, war situation and other socio, political, and cultural aspects the learners fail to obtain the reading skill proficiency. The success of mastering all four language skills and grammar in the second language is very challenging. Reading skill was considered as a passive skill. It has been taught and learnt through traditional face to face mode. Even though various teaching methods and approaches were postulated from time to time, less emphasis has been given to developing reading skills. This research is to explore whether (traditional and computer assisted blended language learning) Blended Learning mode could be utilized to develop reading skills at the tertiary level. Fifty first year students from the Faculty of Arts were taken as sample for the study. Their performances in reading skills were tested before and after teaching reading skills through the Blended Learning mode. It was found that the participants' performance in reading skills improved. The research findings disclose the fact that the Blended Learning mode has a positive impact on the development in the participants' proficiency in the reading skills. The study has an implication of recommending Blended Learning mode of teaching and learning to improve effective reading skills at the tertiary level