ENHANCING ENGLISH READING SKILLS: EVIDENCE-BASED STRATEGIES FOR LISTENING

Abstract

English as a second language (ESL) reading proficiency development is a complex process that benefits from a range of teaching approaches. Although reading is usually the main focus of language learning programs, new study shows how important listening skills are for improving reading comprehension. In order to enhance general English language fluency, this article looks at research-backed methods that include listening into reading training. The cognitive relationship between reading and listening is examined through a thorough literature review, with an emphasis on the ways in which listening exercises can improve and assist vocabulary growth, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension. Four essential listening techniques that have been demonstrated to improve reading results are identified and discussed in the article: phonological awareness training, dictation and transcription exercises, listening-integrated reading tasks.

Reading proficiency requires phonological awareness, which is the ability to identify and manipulate spoken language sounds. It has been demonstrated that phonological awareness-boosting listening exercises, like rhyming and sound discrimination, improve students' word decoding skills, which in turn improves reading comprehension and fluency. Activities involving dictation and transcription are especially crucial because they motivate students to pay close attention to spoken texts, write them down, and interact with language's visual and aural components. By assisting students in internalizing the correspondence between letters and sounds, these activities enhance their reading abilities.

By fusing reading comprehension exercises with listening exercises, hearing-integrated reading assignments offer a novel approach. It has been demonstrated that listening to a paragraph before reading it helps children learn new words and place them in the context of a spoken story, both of which improve reading comprehension. Furthermore, by appealing to a variety of senses, multimodal instruction—which combines kinesthetic, visual, and auditory components—reinforces language acquisition and fosters a deeper comprehension and memory of reading content. According to the results, including listening into reading lessons provides a thorough and successful strategy for improving students' English reading abilities. Actively involving students in reading and listening exercises gives them a more comprehensive language learning experience, which enhances vocabulary development, fluency, and understanding in general. The paper ends with suggestions for additional study on the relationship between reading and listening in order to enhance teaching strategies and enhance ESL students' language learning results.