Abstract:

Both globally and locally, research reveals that many universities provide access to knowledge to a diversity of students from mainly rural, poor, and disadvantaged communities. Due to these socio-political barriers, many students leave high school without reaching competency in Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), and without reaching a sufficient level of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). In higher institutions, learning English First Additional Language (FAL) without reaching strong command of CALP present challenges as it is necessary for a student to successfully accomplish cognitively-demanding academic tasks.

Current research reveals the lack of reading comprehension abilities in students of English First Additional Language. The researchers chronicle the plight of lack of reading comprehension abilities mostly in students who come from rural areas. This paper is prompted by limited reading comprehension abilities of English EFAL students, and the fact that reading skills lie at the centre of academic excellence. This paper seeks to highlight reading comprehension strategies that lecturers can inculcate to help students interact with text in a meaningful way that may translate to English FAL proficiency and adequate performance.

Keywords:

Skill, reading comprehension, comprehension strategies, academic performance, language proficiency.