Teaching Reading: a Challenge

Abstract

Among the concerns of the National Council of Educational Research and Training which have been given high priority and attention, one relates to the field of reading. The Reading Project, undertaken by the Department of Curriculum, Methods and Textbooks, aims at developing a comprehensive programme for the improvement of reading, particularly in the primary classes. The Project team, which started by making a special study of the problems involved in the teaching of reading, is at present engaged in the development of instructional materials as well as methods suited to the teaching of Hindi as the mother tongue in the primary classes. The Project also aims at promoting studies and researches in vocabulary and language development and in techniques of teaching and testing reading. The need for orienting teachers and teacher-educators to the concepts of reading became quite apparent in the early stages of the Project- An attempt was therefore made to develop an in-service programme as well. The first step in this direction was a five-week training course in reading conducted at Nainital in the summer of 1964. This monograph represents the thinking of the team which conducted it on the different facets of the central problem discussed during the course.