Reading as one of skills, ways and approaches to teaching reading

Reading is one of the important skills of a foreign language that is aimed to be taught to students in EFL courses. Also it is not an easy course to comprehend for the foreign language students because reading is a complex process. Reading “Reading” is the receptive skill in the written mode. It can develop independently of listening and speaking skills, but often develops along with them especially in societies with a highly-developed literary tradition. Reading can help build vocabulary that helps listening comprehension at the later stages, particularly. In other words, reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning to them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us. Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other can hear). Reading is an important way to of gaining information in language learning and it is a basic for a language learner. Therefore reading skills refer to the specific abilities that enable a person to read with independence and interact with the message. Reading is therefore a highly valuable skill and activity, and it is recommended that English learners try to read as much as possible in English. Moreover, reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude and language community which is culturally and socially situated. To sum up, reading process requires continues practice, development, refinement, creativity and critical analysis.