Tracing Reading Fallacies in Pakistani English Language Teaching Classroom at Undergraduate Level in universities of south Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study explores practical reading practices in classrooms focusing on how it is done and what are the output results with special attention to the fallacies emerging from these practices. Reading is an ever-present activity in every undergraduate classroom in Pakistani academic setting. It was observed and analyzed that reading skill is not given due importance in teaching learning process. In most Pakistani undergraduate classroom the reading activities are not done with taking care of the concept of reading skills and related sub-skills such as reading process, types and purposes. The routine strategy is devoid of application of reading skills. The present paper investigates analysis of reading fallacies present in Pakistani undergraduate classrooms. The most common fallacies dealt with in this article are: (i) text reading in class is just going through the texts (ii) text reading is just knowing the written words (iii) reading in class is looking at the words. The date was collected from 200 students of different study groups such as sciences, IT, arts and commerce. The data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results reached were verified by analysing each item separately as well as holistically. The suggestions and recommendations were also inferred from the obtained results. The purpose of the study was to highlight the most common fallacies and provide possible applicable solutions for minimizing and to a great extent eradicating these fallacies as they harm the teaching learning process and prove an obstacle in the achievement of SLO’s. It is aimed and hoped that this study will open new avenues of research in analyses of other language skills in the classrooms.