1. False conceptions about reading

False conceptions can be at different levels:

1. Teaching methodologies used in teaching reading:

With compulsory*¹ free of charge education as it is the case of teaching in schools in Syria and the growing number of students inside classrooms, teachers tend to use the Grammar translation method in teaching English as a foreign language trying to equip the learners with as many words as they can and give the equivalent meaning in Arabic. They think of reading as an act of understanding what each and every word means without giving the learner the time to decipher or decode the text to get meaning. They use the deductive approach and write bilingual lists of words and expect the students to practice dictation in order for the students to distinguish words that might be similar and later on might add some prefixes or suffixes with certain words and the reader will later on extend the meaning of these morphemes to other words. They don't talk about the culture or bring some books or stories written about English in general.

Since, 2007 new English course books were depicted by the Ministry of Education and they are designed for Syrian students only so they only talk about our culture and our life styles and the learners should only pay attention to the grammar and vocabulary introduced systematically within them according to their grade (stage of learning).The teachers will end up encouraging their students to memorize few sets of words deprived from their context (actual use) and pointing out few structures before reading any text. The students will be required to memorize these words and structures and even some role play dialogues if available within the lesson. When the students apply these expression in later on stages, they will fail to use them in the target language community appropriately because they are not familiar with their appropriate use and the correct situations in which they should be used. Students are viewed as sponges without involving them in what really the definition of reading means. New generations of teachers are being involved each year with modern course books and modern tendencies to achieve better results on the behalf of EFL teaching but nothing is really changing about the concept of reading or the methods used for teaching this skill.

2. Student's misconception:

When the students in Syria think of reading, the first thing that comes to their mind is the correct pronunciation and fluency. They practice reading out loud focusing on their eloquence more than comprehension and that's because teachers know the difference in the phonological system of both Arabic and English. For example the sounds /p/ and /b/ in English are different while in Arabic, they are the same. We don't have three consonant clusters in Arabic but in English, it is commonly used and a lot of students used to insert a vowel in between like /sikri:n/ instead of /skri:n/. Out of their concern on such phonological differences, teachers may focus on the act of reading out loud rather than reading for comprehension to make sure that the students can adhere to the phonological system of the target language (English) and can pronounce well as they consider it is an important sign of speaking proficiency with later on stages regardless of the artificial setting or culture they are using within their course. This is mainly the definition of reading according to the students' in Syria inside classrooms.