Debashismoy Dutta, Lecturer at BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL), BRAC University, attended a workshop entitled “Teaching Reading: Orientation Session” organized by the British Council on July 14, 2016. It was conducted by Mr Mirza Beg, a facilitator of the British Council. The workshop was attended by seven faculty members of different private universities that arrange the British Council Book Reading Competition for the undergraduate students of respective universities.
At first, the facilitator greeted all the attendees and requested each of them to share the experience that they had from the book reading competition. Faculty members shared their experiences regarding how the students perceived the idea of book reading, how they received the opportunity to take part in a competition offered by the British Council and how the teachers tried to motivate the students to read books.
After that, the facilitator involved the attendees in a few activities on learner motivation, learner needs and effective reading strategies. The faculty members unanimously agreed on most of the points given in the worksheets, but differed on a few points which are usually dependent on the context, situation and students’ reading habits. Everybody agreed that it is better to follow an eclectic approach to bring out the maximum from a given set of students in a particular context.
In fact, BIL has been conducting the “British Council Book Reading Competition” programme for its Pre-University students for the last several years. Students read some graded story books, which are provided by the British Council, and later on attend a quiz on the book they have read. British Council also provides certificates to all the participating students along with prizes to the students who do well in the quiz.