The Effect of Teacher Attitudes on Students’ English Reading Proficiency

One of the most important language skills of a literate person is the skill to read. Reading means ‘reading and understanding’ (Ur, 1999). Students in Bangladesh go through a long process of education but still do not attain this skill proficiently; even at the secondary level of education they are unaware of the importance of reading. The English reading proficiency of students is dependent on the instruction they receive. Students do not realize that comprehension is the most important part of reading. The relationship between education and language is interdependent and failure to acquire language skills leads to failure in education. This study has focused on the attitude of teachers towards teaching English reading, how it affects their mode of instruction and how in turn this affects the reading proficiency of students. Analysis of results revealed that negative teacher attitude towards reading produces low proficiency readers of English. Research was carried out on both teachers and students. The results have shown that neither the students nor the teachers are aware of the reading strategies or sub-skills that they are required to employ while reading. Students do not know how to approach their reading materials, nor do they apply the reading strategies necessary for comprehension. The study has shown that the teachers themselves are not aware of these strategies and thus they cannot apply them to their teaching.