Making Omelette without Breaking Eggs: Improving the Reading Comprehension Skills of English as a Second Language Teachers in Nigeria Secondary Schools

Abstract

Reading comprehension skill is an important aspect of language acquisition that has far-reaching implications on the life of any student. Weak comprehension ability invariably affects not only students' performance in English language, but it hinders competence in other critical fields. Reading comprehension skills are not being taught in ways to promote students' acquisition of the required skills. This study reveals the extent to which teachers impart comprehension skills to students by focusing on the teachers' practices during comprehension lessons. From the study, the majority of the teachers, rather than teach during comprehension lessons, test the students; thereby, depriving the students of having basic comprehension abilities. This study reveals that for teachers who lack the knowledge of comprehension skills to facilitate the acquisition of such to students is akin to making omelette without eggs. The study shows the need for the teacher training curriculum to be reviewed as the teachers' inability is traceable to their teacher training foundation. The study further remarks that there is the need to review teacher training curriculum so that emphasis can be laid on how to teach reading comprehension skills to students.