WAEC English Language 2020 Theory — Question 2

Model answer

The Importance of Promoting Good Reading Habits in Students Reading is a language skill through which one primarily acquires knowledge. It is the way to enlightenment, the doorway to knowledge and the secret of true education. In fact, the more skilled one is in the art of reading, the easier one's quest for knowledge will be. Unfortunately in Nigeria today, the failure of students in their academics can be considerably blamed on their poor reading habits. Since habits are what one does repeatedly without awareness, reading habit denotes reading voraciously. One cultivates reading habits by regular and keen reading of various reading materials such as books, magazines, novels, newspapers, online articles and blogs. Reading habits are a flair one develops from consistently reading books, enjoying interaction with pieces of writing and seeing reading as pleasurable and funfill. Considering the poor performance that many Nigerian secondary schools have been recording for some years now, the government, school administrators, ministry of education, parents and other stakeholders in education must put all hands on deck to rescue our schools. They need to provide initiatives that will promote good reading habits in students. There is need to implement programmes that will improve reading culture. There should also be conscious effort to resuscitate our national, state and school libraries. TV shows and book festivals where novels, historical archives and scientific writings can be discussed will suffice. Book readings debates and book clubs, when revived in our schools, will equally promote good reading habits. In Nigeria, the Reading Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Book development Council and Nigerian Library Association have once initiated one intervention or the other to help develop good reading culture in students. There is need to revive these initiatives and introduce more sustainable ones in order to promote good reading culture. Promoting good reading habits is essential because it can help build vocabulary. It will by extension improve spelling, writing skills, fluency, proficiency and language generally. This will further help students attain success in their academic endeavours, expand horizons, improve their knowledge and avoid costly mistakes. Besides, promoting good reading culture will enhance students' self-confidence, moral and sense of good/value judgement, critical thinking and emotional intelligence. In fact, the more one gets glue to reading, the more exposed one is to knowledge, and consequently, the wiser one is likely to become. Lastly, the experience one gains from reading habitually makes one acquire cultural understanding, social norms, traditions, expected social behaviour and good human relations. These thus make one communicate better, relate better as well as handle conflicting matters better.