I. In pairs or small groups, discuss the following questions

1. What kinds of books do you like to read? Why?

2. What kinds of books do you detest reading? Why?

3. What are the ingredients of a 'best seller'?

4. How difficult do you think it would be to write a 'best seller'?

5. Describe the reading habits of most people in your country.

II. Read the texts about reading skills and do the assignments that follow.

Text 1

The notion that reading is one of the most important keys to educational success is agreed by all: newspaper critics, devoted teachers and parents. But what is happening to standards? Employers are critical: "It is a great surprise and disappointment to us to find that our young employees are so hopelessly deficient in their command of English." Many may long for the golden days, but that quotation was from those days - 1921! The complaints of today are remarkably like those of the past.

The latest panic was prompted by a very limited study by a group of educational psychologists using a dubious test. No wonder it was castigated for intellectual sloppiness. Yet there are many detailed research studies that illuminate reading problems. Recently, it was shown that the more lead, aluminum or zinc in a child's body as tested by hair or saliva tests, the lower the reading scores. Did that get widely reported?

The same fears are repeated often: "But are they being taught to read?" The worries appear to be misdirected. Yes, there are serious doubts about whether the present curriculum is helping effective reading, but it is not the early stages that are weak. Nor is it, contrary to much printed panic, because of too little teaching of phonics. It is because we stop developing reading skills except in the teaching of literature. We are extraordinarily good at teaching fiction. Reading for learning is something different but equally important. This is how we grapple with ideas, arguments and the discourse of Higher Education.