Methods and Materials for Developing Second-language English Reading at Tertiary Level

For first-year students studying in English, which is not their mother -tongue,reading development is crucial to their success or failure (Day & Bamford, 1998).The University of the Free State in South Africa has a programme of intensive(in-class reading activities) and extensive (out -of-class) reading development forall initiates who need this support in a course of academic language development.The paper describes the methods and materials used in the course. Central toreading proficiency lies attitude towards reading and reading behaviour. Theresearcher attempted to evaluate the success of the reading programme in terms ofthese two core components by means of a small-scale experiment. The results ofdata gained by means of a questionnaire revealed a significant improvement inattitude and reading behaviour by the experimental group. It is incumbent upon thelanguage practitioner to evaluate constantly whether language interventions areproviding low-proficiency learners with the support they need to achieve success attertiary level.