TEACHING EFL READING SKILLS TO 3è STUDENTS IN THE COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF BENIN LITTORAL REGION

The Study intended to explore the teaching of EFL reading skills to 3è students in the competency-based approach in the secondary schools of Benin’s Littoral region. More specifically, we explored the causes hampering and impeding students from reading fluently English as they easily do in French. This work, also, intended to hit not only the identification of the difficulties impeding successful speaking, but also the presentation as well as the analysis of those obstacles related to reading efficiently. In this line, 24 EFL teachers and 120 students of 3è classes from five secondary schools were selected at random in the Littoral region. From the results, it emerges that English is accepted as real and indispensable school subject by the majority of the student even if only one fifth of them gets good marks in this subject. If a major number of students know the importance of reading, they also recognized that they don’t usually read or don’t desire to read because English would have been very difficult. The results also pointed out the lack of materials (various sources for texts) what annoys the students. The insufficient quantity of teachers with professional degree is also noticed. To address these difficulties, it has been recommended that the syllabus emphasizes on extensive reading. The teacher supervisors as well as instructors in Teacher Training schools are expected to focus on the skills necessary to teaching reading.