Improving Reading Comprehension for Algerian Middle School Pupils through the Competency-Based Approach

Abstract

Reading is one of the four language skills that should be taught to and mastered by pupils learning the English language at an Algerian middle school class. Reading is known and described as a receptive skill since the role of the reader is to decode texts, as a main task besides other ones. However, these pupils are seen not to be interested in reading for comprehending bur for just answering questions about texts. New perspectives and challenges at an upper level require a new orientation which focuses on not only encouraging readers to read and answer direct questions, but also to read critically, which is the basis for any comprehension of texts. To fulfil this objective, learners should be taught and shown how to do that, and this is going to lead teachers to think of a course design which is based merely on comprehension. To this end, the aim of this paper is to assist middle school teachers in fostering pupils’ reading comprehension based on the competency-based approach, shedding light on the competency-based approach and its implementation in the Algerian educational system.