Analyzing the Utility of Activity Based Learning through Reading Skills at Primary Level

As a global medium of communication, the importance of English has increased a lot in the present social, political and commercial contexts. With the advancements of IT in various spheres of society, English has become the only language for the world citizens. Because of its international demand and recognition as a world language, English has always been a part of our education system. It has become a dire need of modern age all over the world. As a receptive skill, reading is a crucial skill to master in order to be successful in one’s academic pursuits. Due to its impact, reading is an important skill cultivated in an English language classroom at primary level. The effectiveness of methods upon the development of Second language teaching and learning is unavoidable. At the other end, the commercialization of education has resulted with a plethora of materials flooding the language development arena, each claiming to be effective in its own way. As a result, field practitioners are facing a new dilemma; identifying the ‘best’ materials for their classes. Thus, it is beneficial for practitioners to acquire the knowledge of how such materials are produced. Such knowledge would develop the teachers’ ability to evaluate the potential of a teaching method and perhaps develop oneself. This research work is an exposure of the theoretical background and the developmental process in the production of reading skills. Some primary schools in Bahawalpur have adopted ABL in their classrooms to improve students’ reading skills. ABL is even claimed to be more effective in language teaching than traditional teaching methods. As this study investigated the utility of ABL about the reading skills of primary level students, it was also designed to maximize reading comprehension skills through activities. In the hypothesis of the study, the researcher suggested that ABL would bring positive change in the students' reading comprehension skills. The study adopted pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design. Two primary schools were purposively selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups.