DEVISING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES BASED ON THE TEXTBOOK FOR IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

Abstract

Speaking and listening skills are significant in any language of the world. They are oral skills and come before reading and writing. Yet unfortunately in most of the Pakistani public schools and colleges these two very essential skills are considered secondary. The focus of teachers and even of syllabus designers of government colleges in Pakistan is on reading and writing skills and little importance is given to speaking and listening skills, especially in the public schools. The situation is even worse at intermediate level, where the learners are deprived of learning English language using all four skills together, especially speaking skills. The present research explores how devising speaking activities related to core text can help students enhance their reading comprehension skills. Learning language skills in connection with each other is also supported by the integrated skills approach which suggests that all four skills of language must be taught in a combined form rather than in isolation. The purpose of this research is to observe the usefulness of devising speaking activities based on core text of English for developing language proficiency in English specially in reading comprehension skills. The research has been conducted at Federal Government College Bahawalpur and the participants were students of Intermediate level and teachers from private and Government colleges.