WHY CAN’T/DON’T MY STUDENTS READ? (Pages 251-262) by Dr. J. John Sekar in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

The interrogative mode of the title indicates the burden and commitment of all well-meaning English language teachers at the tertiary level toward their students who are not able to read anything worthwhile in English either extensively or intensively. The study highlights the need for the teachers to be reflective and proactive, rather than complaining and reactive, to the way learners acquire reading skills. One of the indisputable realities of the English classroom in India is that learners don’t engage in reading and the lack of reading habit results in poor acquisition of writing skills, too. The present article is a research finding of an Action Research on the reasons for English language learners’ inherent inability to cope with reading materials prescribed or take-home reading lists suggested by teachers from time to time at the tertiary level. This observation-based classroom research discusses not only the causes of poor reading practices but also remedial measures for students to overcome them. An important finding is that poor reading skills of English language learners are not insurmountable and that teachers devise appropriate classroom strategies to facilitate learners’ reading. Keywords: Transgressions, Conflicts, Reconciliations, Fraudulent Enemy, Soliloquies etc.