Fostering the teaching and learning of reading skills in efl post-beginner classes: case of the Beninese secondary schools of the littoral

Abstract

Following the EFL students’ recurrent difficulties in reading and understanding texts, this study is undertaken. It investigates EFL teachers and learners’ perceptions and attitudes towards reading skills, the effects of reading skills development on EFL post-beginners learning process as well as the difficulties related to the teaching and learning of these skills in EFL post-beginner classes in the district of Littoral in Benin Republic. To collect data to answer the research questions, this study combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. As a result,20 teachers receive and answers questionnaire; 16 EFL beginner classes are visited in 8 different secondary schools. The data collected reveal that Beninese post-beginner learners’ incapacity to read and comprehend texts stem from a variety of reasons such as the complexity of the texts utterly disconnected to learners’ social, cultural and affective needs, environmental influences, anxiety during reading comprehension, EFL students ‘lack of interest and motivation as well as their decoding or word recognition speed. In order to redress this situation and help learners develop effective reading skills, the study suggests that a particular attention be paid to their continuous training so that they could be able to implement efficiently the strategies of reading comprehension lesson based on the existing books. In addition, the study proposes that reading comprehension be taught, learnt and evaluated by taking into account EFL learners social and cultural realities.