How English Reading with Comprehension is Important for Success?

Recently I had the chance to tutor a kid. He is a brilliant kid with above average intelligence — you can tell that by the way he comes up with excuses to not study.

Anyway, I had to teach the kid for his Social studies exam, and to my surprise, and contrary to what I had heard about the kid’s aptitude, he knew quite a lot. He easily understood the things explained to him and did better with understanding stories, so that’s the way I taught him, by telling stories.

The only problem I saw was that even though he knew the answers, he couldn’t say them out loud for he thought he couldn’t speak English very well. At first, I thought it was one of his many excuses, but then I realised that the kid had difficulty forming sentences in English, and even while reading he could read but not comprehend most of what he read.

I am a resident of New Delhi, India, and lately, our state government run by Aam Aadmi Party has been running this campaign where citizens are encouraged to volunteer or participate in teaching public school students how to read with comprehension. It is a great initiative.

However, I feel that it is not only public school students but Primary and Middle school students in general that should be our focus.

Also, after some time, an impact study should be conducted or a summative test format should be created to test the level of comprehension of students while reading simple and intermediate-level English.

I understand that for many schools, English is not the main medium of study, and I respect if someone chooses to teach their kid in another language, but to gain access to vast libraries of information, originally in English and those translated into English, one must have enough knowledge of the language and should be able to comfortably read it with understanding.

It’s our responsibility to enable children to be able to read stories and books and have access to a world filled with fiction, biographies, autobiographies and mysteries of the universe.

Following are a few more reasons, which I think, explain the contribution of English learning in one’s success:

1. It helps one to be able to express one’s opinion in a language that is known by 1.7 billion or a quarter of the world’s population.
2. It enable one to understand the happenings in the English speaking world, which is again a quarter of the world’s population.
3. One can gain access to vast banks of information that are available or translated in English. One can learn a different languages and still gain access to new information, but English is a common thread that connects various regions, worldwide.

‘We communicate in English, we negotiate in English, and we sing karaoke in English,’ said Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Thai politician and former Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), at TESOL 2014. It stresses the use of English in diplomacy, commerce, entertainment, media, academia and IT.

‘The economic incentive to learn English is compelling. An increasing number of companies — Nokia, SAP, Samsung and Renault amongst them–have recognised the long-term advantages to productivity and growth that adopting English as a common company language can have. In a 2012 survey by the Economist IntelligenceUnit, 70 per cent of executives said their workforce will need to master English to realise corporate expansion plans, and a quarter said more than 50 per cent of their total workforce would need English ability.’ — 2013, The English Effect, British Council.

I am not asking one to become an English-speaking rat in the race of getting a high-paying job. I am just trying to highlight that if one knows English well, one has many choices and options to choose from, personally and professionally.

They can access knowledge from various regions around the globe. It makes easy for one to travel, communicate, and participate in global activities.

Not all have to become Shakespeare, but knowing enough English to be able to read with comprehension and to express yourself to be understood is enough.