Improving students\u27 English reading comprehension skills through Reciprocal Teaching Approach (RTA)

While reading comprehension is an integral part of English language teaching, it should aim to equip students with basic strategies to help them construct meaning from English texts. However, through my personal experiences at different levels as an English teacher and from the evidences of the reconnaissance of this study, it emerged that reading comprehension was a challenging issue among students in the context of this particular study. The study was conducted in the context of a private school in Gilgit Baltistan. The purpose of the study was to improve grade eight students\u27 English reading comprehension skills by using Reciprocal Teaching Approach (RTA). RTA is embedded in four basic strategies of reading, such as predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarising. Data for the study was collected from a sample of six participant students and the subject teacher through qualitative tools like observation, interview, pre and post-tests, reflective journals and field notes. The data of the study was analysed at three stages of the action research that is, reconnaissance, the action research and post-action research stage. Analysis of the gathered data revealed that there was a reasonable improvement in students\u27 understanding of the reading strategies. By the end of the study, they were found to be more proficient, skilful and self-reliant in reading. Thus, it revealed that the strategies of RTA were helpful in enhancing the skills of six students of grade 8 in the context of the study. The study recommends future researchers to conduct separate action research studies on each of the four strategies of RTA at different grades in different contexts. Such a study would help the future researchers to investigate how a particular strategy can be helpful in enhancing students\u27 reading skills in English. The study also recommends replicating the same study in a public school context